skygiants

qian's question for me for the 20th was about my three favorite items of clothing and what they MEAN to me.

This is the sort of question that cannot be answered without gratuitous mirror photos, so: ( gratuitous mirror photos under the cut! )

On my way up to Boston last week I found myself rewatching one of my oldest favorite movies, Cradle Will Rock. It's basically about art and revolution and class and Communism in the 1930's (I realize that is a pretty long basically) focusing on the Federal Theater Project of the Works Progress Administration, and a pro-Union musical that was shut down by the government on opening night and (spoiler!) managed to have a performance anyway, and about Diego Rivera angrily painting a mural for Rockefeller, and a lot of artistic people of various stripes being very dramatic and artistic and very often hilarious.

Cradle Will Rock is far from a perfect movie, but it might as well have been tailor-made for me - giant ensemble cast! 1930's period costumes with bonus random eighteenth-century costume party for no reason except to add some MORE neat costumes! theater people being ridiculous except when it comes time to talk about the power of the theater and then being awesome! Orson Welles chewing every piece of scenery he can find! lots of hugs and dancing and more hugs! - so I have decided to do a picspam in honor of how happy it makes me.

( There is no particular rhyme or reason or completeness here )

So answer me this: why are all the most depressing anime also the prettiest ones?

If you follow anime news at all, you are probably aware that Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a deconstructive magical girl show that aims to stomp up and down on the genre and also the viewers with enormous spike-heeled boots. I too was aware of this, which is why I watched it, because I cut my anime-watching eyeteeth on deconstructive magical girl shows; they are my kryptonite. (Though I have now actually seen some non-deconstructive magical girl shows too! Expect a post on these at some point in the future.)

Anyway, I knew this, but I was not prepared for the ridiculous stylistic gorgeousness, which honestly is the most overpowering reason I want to rec this show. Musically and visually, it's completely arresting. ( This part is cut for images! )

The character designs are deliberately cutesified and simplified by contrast (elspeth_vimes has a good character primer post here, so I'm not going to do it!) which is for meta reasons, but also I am pretty sure it's also because the animators were just so proud of their backgrounds that they wanted people to PAY ATTENTION TO THEM. And justly! My praise for the style is one hundred percent wholehearted.

My thoughts on the story (basic plot: cute magical critter recruits girls to gain magic power and fight despair-inducing witches, subverted in half a dozen obvious ways and another half dozen less obvious ones) are a bit more conflicted ( and are going under a spoiler cut. )

I was waffling about how to deal with the polls thing over here, and then I realized that I don't yet have a paid dreamwidth account and so I can't create a poll on DW anyway. So, all voting happens on LJ, PROBLEM SOLVED.

Anyway, last episode Se Gi revealed that his relatively drab showing over the past few episodes was all saving up for . . . THE NEON FLORAL HAT.



Which quite rightly swept the polls, defeating even Woo Wan's array of dazzlingly eye-burning suits. I'm not sure anything in this episode can quite live up to that magnificence, but then, what could.

( Top five episode 13 costumes under the cut! )

To vote on the ULTIMATE MOST FABULOUS costume of episode 13, head over to the LJ version of this post, linked below!

Last week, Cha Song Joo rocked the polls with a fantastically gorgeous (and coordinated!) outfit:



That makes this her second in a row; just one more and she will be challenging Se Gi's record of three straight wins. And she is bringing some strong wardrobe contenders this week, but she is not the only one.

( Top five episode eleven costumes under the cut! )

[Poll #1711926]

I was going to start this post 'my kryptonite is . . .' but to be honest, many things are my kryptonite. But AMONG the many things that are my kryptonite are female characters who aren't nice. For whom nice is just not important becuse they are too busy getting shit done.

Which is to say, innerbrat has been making me watch Press Gang the past two weeks and it's kind of eaten my brain.

Press Gang is a nineties show written by a gentleman whose name some of you may recognize, one Mr. Stephen Moffat. It's about a bunch of tiny ace reporters who run a JUNIOR NEWSPAPER which eventually becomes an actual self-running newspaper once they all graduate and keep doing it. It is full of clever dialogue, sort of adorable in the way it tackles Serious Issues, and driven by a female character who is rapidly becoming one of my favorites of all time.

( So of course that means a character picspam under the cut! )

I'm about halfway through the show right now and just enjoying it more and more as it goes on; it's clearly growing up with the characters, and I'm excited to watch as they actually get out of high school.

I am also in the process of talking Debi into writing me the AU where Lynda is the Slayer. The best part is the paper would never ever stop being her chief priority, and destiny be damned; when the new edition was coming out the vampires would JUST HAVE TO WAIT.

So episode seven gave us another landslide victory, as Mr. Sun Woo Wan and his expert deployment of gingham swept the polls:



Which is kind of funny, because in my opinion, the gingham cannot EVEN COMPARE to the suit Woo Wan is rocking in episode eight.

( Top five episode eight costumes under the cut! )

[Poll #1670436]

Man, guys, we rewatched the end of Capital Scandal last night, and as some of you will understand, it became NECESSARY for me to post a costume poll today so that I could remember back to the wacky comedy times and STOP CRYING IN MY HEART.

. . . so, uh, anyway! Last week the ladies finally broke Se Gi's streak, with Young Ran's adorable suit taking the lead after a neck-and-neck competition:



And this week, it's all ladies, all the time! The gentlemen of the show were definitely not bringing their A game to this episode, but who needs suits when you have Cha Song Joo?

( Top five episode 6 costumes! )

[Poll #1659262]

Se Gi so far is cleaning up this competition with his wonderful suits! Episode 2's winning outfit was ALL THE PINSTRIPES.



I think I would really like to meet the person in charge of Se Gi's wardrobe. Actually I think I would like to work for the person in charge of Se Gi's wardrobe.

However we also have some pretty fabulous suits coming up next episode!

( Top five episode 3 costumes! )

[Poll #1653846]

schiarire asked me for my top five Capital Scandal outfits!

And I think I may have a problem. See, last night I gamely started screencapping, and as a beginning I offer you these gems:


( Cut for images! AND TOO MUCH GORGEOUSNESS FOR ONE SCREEN. )


Now, here is my dilemma: all of these amazing costumes came from one episode. ONE EPISODE. (Episode four, for the record.) This does not even include the completely anachronistic Marilyn Monroe takeoff, or the villainous suspenders, or the adorable thirties-style women's suits. Or the FLORAL FEDORA.

And rushin_doll and I have been slowly showing the series to innerbrat, which means I'm exposed to a new set of gorgeousness about every week, and I. I. Kind of want to do one of these for every episode now? It's just there are so many costumes! And they are all so amazing! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE.

INTERNET, HELP ME.

[Poll #1643340]