skygiants

I am back from a fabulous and productive weekend! Despite dire predictions - okay, mostly mine - we have all survived. (Look, I had reason to be worried, okay? ( LOOK AT THIS EVIDENCE )

I still say it's a miracle we made it; also that I would do it again in a heartbeat.)

In other news: all of a sudden Revolutionary Girl Utena is a thing that is all over my flist again! This pleases me, and therefore, instead of catching up on booklogging as I should, I have instead decided to present you with:

The Top Ten Revolutionary Girl Utena Crossovers That Don't Exist But Should (Unless They Do Exist And Nobody Linked Me To Them, In Which Case, Fail, World!)

10. Revolutionary Girl Utena/Harry Potter: Because I firmly believe that Dumbledore and Akio had a passionate affair back in the '50s and have been exchanging letters ever since about the challenges of running a school that is 95% focused on the character development of a special chosen one, and the aggravating necessity of having 'other students.'

9. Revolutionary Girl Utena/Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Jonathan is a prime candidate for the special Ohtori exchange program! (And Faith is a prime candidate for pulling Buffy's heartsword. if you know what I mean.)

8. Revolutionary Girl Utena/High School Musical/Glee: Speaking of special exchange programs . . . the only thing that Utena is missing is a musical episode. (Alternately, imagine one of the duel songs as performed by a cheery Disney chorus. AMMONITE!)

7. Revolutionary Girl Utena/The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: The funniest part would be that, due to the rules of the metanarrative, Haruhi would never figure out that there was anything at all out of the ordinary about this school, even while Yuki and Anthy were fighting an epic emotionless laser-glasses battle in the background.

6. Revolutionary Girl Utena/Baccano!: Basically I just think that Isaac and Miria need to cameo in everything ever. They're dangerous duellists! Yeah! Dangerous!

5. Revolutionary Girl Utena/Ugly Betty: You know you want to see Akio trying to seduce Daniel too. - okay, maybe you don't actually want to see it. But you want to see Betty's face when she finds out! ("DANIEL," she says, "YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE THAT'S BEEN.")

4. Revolutionary Girl Utena/Ouran High School Host Club: Because Tamaki and Touga's Prince Character-Off would be a thing of greater beauty than words can really express, and so would Nanami and Renge's Evil Laugh-Off.

3. Revolutionary Girl Utena/Leverage: After a phone call from a distraught Kanae about her cheating power-abusing fiance, Nate smirks, adjusts his sunglasses, and says, "Let's go steal a duel." LITTLE DOES HE KNOW.

2. Revolutionary Girl Utena/Princess Tutu: Mytho and Dios ARE THE SAME PERSON. I don't think I need to say more.

1. Revolutionary Girl Utena/What Not To Wear: Someone. Please. COME SAVE THESE POOR CHILDREN FROM THEMSELVES.

Feel free to suggest more! OR TO LINK ME if any of these actually exist. :D

I had actually just finished reading the library copy of the light novel version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya when I found a $1 copy for sale at the Housing Works Book Fair. Which I bought, because for $1 it is a book I am more than happy to own!

It is hard not to make this a compare/contrast with the anime, just because the anime so closely follows the plot of the first book. I actually can't think of any major plot differences at all. And yet, despite the fact that they were near-identical, I actually think I liked the book a little bit more! These are my reasons:

1. I really like Kyon's narration, and you get more of it in prose! I think my favorite is the part where he is faced with a situation of extreme and immediate peril and is sitting there thinking, "pictures of this need to go on our website." Because if I were in the middle of an epic alien battle, my first thought would totally be, "I need to talk about this on LJ!" I feel sure I am not alone in this. In fact, I provide a poll:

[Poll #1413865]

2. The fanservice, while definitely still there and hugely problematic, feels a little less egregious to me because instead of being visual it's centered in Kyon's head. I still don't love the fanservice aspects, but I can cope better with the male gaze when the owner of the gaze is always explicitly a teenaged boy and I-the-viewer am not necessary expected to feel like part of the appreciative audience.

3. Also, Asahina annoys me a lot less in prose, because I can read her dialogue as more competent and I don't have to hear the baby voice.

I am looking forward to the next one when it comes out in translation in - October, I think? Depending on the wait after that, I may cave and start reading online, but we'll see.

IN OTHER NEWS: there is a fire inside me that won't stop burning . . . FOR THIS VID.