another series i've caught up with: xxxholic

I stayed up way too late last night reading 11 volumes of xxxHOLIC, so I'm caught up with the bound volumes now! It's been nice reading all these series I'd fallen off reading for a while, even though I can't have the satisfaction of actually having an end waiting for me. ^^; Whoever said I didn't need to read TRC to read xxxHOLIC lied to me. I totally need to read TRC now (especially since the "climax," such as it is, seems completely wtf? but without any great emotional trauma/satisfaction without knowing what happened in TRC). Too bad not all the TRC volumes are out in English--otherwise I could read the series in the bookstore. I'd totally gotten bored of the series and just can't shell out the money for the volumes I don't own (which are many, as I only own volumes to the mid-teens) without knowing if I'd like the end. At this point I just want to know the complete picture vis-a-vis xxxHOLIC, which has always been the series I preferred.

What is puzzling me at this point (volume 17) is where the series is going now that the stuff related to TRC seems to be over. How long will CLAMP go with this? And where are they going? I'd like to think that reading TRC will give me a clue, but perhaps I'm being too optimistic (or pinning too many hopes on TRC). Not that I don't like xxxHOLIC as it is now....

I want the next volume already. :P

( more specific rambling )

Nijuu Rasen: Awesome crazy melodrama with bonus gay incest

I had a grand old time reading the latest volume of the Nijuu Rasen series by Yoshihara Rieko (5 volumes total so far: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Why? Because it's an insane soap opera with incestuous gay sex between two hot brothers thrown in. The author ratchets up the crazy with each volume, which makes me so happy. If only she'd cut out her really tedious and overlong sex scenes and her utterly ridiculous passages droning on and on about some abstract concept, this series would be perfect. But I've learned to skim the aforementioned bad parts and just get to the good parts (you know, the action that actually advances the plot or provides meaningful character development/interaction).

I ended up doing a quick summary of the entire series just so that I can cackle over the last bit of the last volume. I may have forgotten stuff because I didn't bother to refer to the books, but I think I got the important bits.

( my quick summary of the entire series, random commentary, and cackling )