(no subject)

[skygiants]

The book I finished yesterday is a bit srs bsns, and though I will review it tomorrow, I do not feel like doing srs bsns today. So, instead I think it is time for a recent media roundup thing!

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya:

I did not expect this to be so short (when you think about it, thirteen episodes is, like, the length of a really long movie) and I wish it had been longer, which I guess is a sign that I liked it a lot! It helps that Kyon as a character is pretty much designed to appeal to me - seriously, a thoroughly and determinedly ordinary person whose main reaction at the discovery of supernatural phenomena occuring all around him is to facepalm and make sarcastic commentary? SIGN ME UP - and I really like the ensemble-ness and the genre-play and the meta of the premise. Mostly the show made me very curious to read the light novels, the first of which has been legally translated into English with the others hopefully to follow.

My biggest problem with the show is that Haruhi's treatment of Asahina makes me literally cringe in my seat. NO NO NO THAT IS NOT FUNNY OR OKAY. This also has the unfortunate blame-the-victim effect that I find it hard to like Asahina because she whimpers about it instead of punching Haruhi in the face (though older Asahina intrigues me, mostly because I read somewhere that in the books older Asahina is kind of puppetmaster-y, which makes me very curious.) I also kind of wish I had seen it in the anachronic order, but unfortunately the DVDs package it mostly chronologically, which I did not realize until I was halfway through.

HOWEVER. What I really really want, aside from more episodes/access to the novels, is a crossover of this show with The Middleman. SERIOUSLY IT WOULD BE SO AMAZING. Kyon's consistent reaction of *eyeroll, facepalm* in the face of comic book danger clearly makes him a shoo-in as a MiddleBoy candidate! And can you imagine the hijinks that would ensue as Haruhi stalked the Middleman to try and find out his secrets and the Middleman desperately tried to pretend that he was just running a temp agency, ma'am. SO MANY HIJINKS. *_*

Mouryo no Hako:

I promised my college roommate that I would watch this to talk about with her, after she made me promise to watch Code Geass and I failed in that completely. All I knew going in was that it was kind of a detective story and there were possibly ghosts. I did not know going in that the series (also thirteen episodes) was only subbed in English through episode 8, which means that I am now teetering on a cliffhanger with no promise of resolution any time soon. YOU'D THINK THAT WOULD BE THE KIND OF THING SHE WOULD MENTION. (To be fair, I suspect she was watching in either the original Japanese or with Chinese fansubs, which may not have this issue. But still!)

Anyway, Mouryou no Hako involves a series of bizarre murders with body parts showing up in boxes; two intensely BFF schoolgirls who believe that they are each other's reincarnations, one of whom has been pushed in front of a train, creepily operated on, kidnapped, and possibly dissected (it is very unclear!); a retired B-movie star; a detective with PTSD from WWII; and a whole slew of reporters, writers, psychics and frauds whom I cannot keep straight at all or figure out what their connection is to everything else. Despite all these plot threads it is actually kind of a quiet and slowly creepy series. Most of the time I have no idea what is going on even with subtitles - also I accidentally watched a few episodes out of order, which does not help - but I like the creepiness and I really like the intro and end songs! I cannot really give a comprehensive review because I still have no idea where this is going. Or if I will ever be able to finish it.

The Legend of the Four Gods:

This is a kdrama of INSANELY EPIC AWESOME that I have been watching through with rushin_doll. It is full of drama! And people throwing fire! And galloping horses! And COSTUME PORN. After babbling to genarti lengthily about the costume porn I have promised her a picspam, so, uh, that will be coming one of these days. When I have screencapping capabilities. For now, I will just list some of my favorite plot points: sisters SEPARATED IN CHILDHOOD, one raised by Good Monks to be a cheerfully hard-drinking scammer ("let me take you to this brothel, eh? The girls there are so beautiful that even I, a woman, am aroused!"), one raised by Evil Monks to be a FIRE PRIESTESS with the conflicted emo and inability to choose a side of Zuko and the manipulative badassery of Azula! Twelve-year-old boys coolly forcing their relatives into political (and literal) suicide! An adoptive father-daughter relationships unfortunately based around the central fact that someday the father is probably going to have to kill the daughter! Manly earrings of eeevil! The MYSTICAL POWERS OF THE TURTLE-SNAKE! BATTLE POLO! My favorite character is a sensible middle-aged lady blacksmith who sort of adopts one of the protagonists, also sort of adopts a troupe of mercenaries after refusing to sharpen their axes because she feels the mercs are too young to use them, and currently appears to be about to set off on a REVENGE QUEST, which I am mad excited for. Epic fantasy at its finest, guys, for serious.

That Star Trek Movie:

Okay, yes, I really enjoyed this! (Though I will say, straight from the start: not enough ladies, not enough ladies getting to do stuff, Bechdel test is a FAIL.) As is thoroughly predictable, I find myself not all that much interested in Kirk - sorry, Kirk, it is just that Heroic Rogueish Mavericks do not do much for me these days; you would be more fun as a side character, perhaps as an assistant to the awesome captain who got killed off in the first two minutes! - and adoring the rest of the ensemble pretty much to a man. Also, yes, I totally 'ship Spock/Uhura. And I was cackling at the blatant retcon.

The Coraline Musical:

I got to see this with obopolsk and her roommate (both of whom it was thoroughly lovely to meet!) and oh man, guys, it was amazing. It was basically a love letter to the book, in the best way, and it was funny and it was creepy, and it had a deliberately mixed-up casting that was jarring at first but somehow actually really worked. And the gentleman who played the cat was insanely, insanely good at playing a cat. If you have a chance - which is basically only those of you in NY, I think, but maybe more of you will have the opportunity later! - go see it.

Next up, perhaps I will go back to Western media for a while and join the classic-Trek-watching bandwagon, or watch some Xena as I have had a weird craving to recently. Or maybe I will actually watch the John Adams miniseries like I have been meaning to forever. Or maybe I will watch Full Metal Alchemist like I have also been meaning to forever. Who knows!

Comments

[skygiants]

Yeah, I love sibling stuff, and I was intrigued by the characters in Milliways, and I know it is A Classic, all of which add to my interest! It's been kind of on the back burner of my head for a few years.

[ceitfianna]

Oh yes, but then my list of things to get around to watching is rather long.

[skygiants]

Oh, mine too! But then I forget half of it at any given time and only remember when I'm in the midst of something else.

[ceitfianna]

Yes, its so much easier when someone has dvds or just vids and says, okay we're watching this. That's how Danii hooked me on SPN.

[skygiants]

It makes life much easier when other people just go ahead and do the enabling! Less decision-making that way.

[ceitfianna]

It really does, one reason I love getting to visit people, there can be lots of enabling.