it's almost friday! we need short weeks every week!

[insaneneko]

I watched the OVA of Ikoku Irokoi Romantan by Yamane Ayano against my better judgement. Wow...it wasn't very good. I was expecting bad, but...it was far worse than my lowest expectations. The production values were very low, but beyond that the pace of the story was glacial. Even the sex was oddly lethargic and lacking in passion. The best parts were when Kaoru and Ranmaru were interacting (fighting), sadly. I didn't mind the revised storyline, too bad they sucked most of the zing out of it in the process. :P

I wish she'd write a sequel to the manga, though. I'd love to read more about Ranmaru and his hot Italian Japanese-freak lover, though I suppose they might have to deal with the fact that he's in fact being unfaithful to his wife...

Speaking of Yamane Ayano, where are the new chapters of Crimson Spell and Viewfinder? It's kind of annoying how many months elapse between chapters...It's so easy to forget and then miss the posting of the new stuff while browsing the flist (I suppose I should just unjoin some comms to make things easier for me :P).

After seeing a bunch of posts reccing yuletide fics on the flist, I decided to poke around and read a bunch. Some of the ones I rather liked:

Christingle by loneraven, His Dark Materials, Will at Oxford.

La Familia by sesame_seed, Chrestomanci, Millie gets sick and the Family falls apart.

Breakaway by shrift, Whistle!, adolescent confusion.

All True-Hearted Souls by mardia, Temeraire, intriguing Granby POV.

Houses and Rain by untrue_accounts, xxxHOLIC, the zashiki-warashi does Valentine's Day.

The Longest Night by thehoyden, xxxHOLIC, Yuuko riddles as usual.

Hair of the Dog by ruffwriter, Black Lagoon, Rock likes pain.

Speaking of fics, love the PoT drabble by bookshop that puts Tezuka and Bump of Chicken together and makes it work. Sort of. Okay, not really, but Tezuka is massively weird in a LOL+sweatdrop kind of a way. ^__^

And speaking of PoT, saw a post for a doujinshi I own and haven't looked at in forever: Asymmetry Triangle. Pairings are Saeki/Ryoma, Fuji/Ryoma, and Saeki/Fuji (yes, very WTF?), everyone is massively OOC, the art is pretty, the storyline is "heartwarming," and I really feel like digging out all the doujinshi by this circle that I bought because the art (and the character OOC-ness and the "heartwarming" storylines) made me smile despite the constant undertone of WTF-ness.

Comments

[nozomi-no-da.livejournal.com]

Oh God I just finished the IIR OVA and it sucked. D:

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. How could they have made it so bad?

[rikiki-angel.livejournal.com]

I thought they posted a new chapter of VF recently? The one about Asami and Fei Long.

The 1st thing that came to my mind when I watch Ikoku is that Ranmaru doesn't look like Ayano-sensei's Ranmaru(She always draw her uke with big puppy eyes).

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up on VF!

The anime version of all the characters looked a little different from the manga, I didn't notice Ranmaru looking all that much more different...

[flyby311.livejournal.com]

Hrm. Latest viewfinder chapter is... errr... naked truth 13? I'm pretty sure. It just came out (yesterday? something like that). Need link? :X As for Crimson Spell, it came out a while ago, but I don't follow that as avidly as Viewfinder, so I'm not completely sure.

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

I found the chapter, thanks.

[ramble-corner.livejournal.com]

*points above
the latest VF Naked Truth 13 came out around a week and the scanlation on just two days ago. And apparently the next one VF14 is scheduled in Feb.
For Crimson Spell , well I don't really track that XD

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that the next VF isn't too far off...