insaneneko

I’ve been reading the series Youma na oresama to geboku na boku written by Fushino Michiru and illustrated by Yuzuki Ichi (I’m up to book 5 now, will read the other four if my MIA order comes in or I give up and reorder the damn books...) and have been enjoying them, more or less. Haven’t felt a burning need to write about the series mainly because it hasn’t been awesome or crappy (nothing like pure love or raging annoyance to motivate one to share one's feelings XD). 

It’s about a very ordinary kid named Adachi Masamichi who is trying to get into college while supporting himself on part-time work. One night he gets hit by a car and is fatally injured. Instead of dying, he is saved by a passing demon named Shino who thinks his blood is tasty (I think? I can’t find the first volume so can’t verify all details…). Shino was forced into human form back in the Heian period when he fought against an onmyouji and lost, then was stuck in a pot for a thousand or so years until the pot broke in an earthquake. He was helped out by an old couple he met after the earthquake, managing to snag himself a proper human identity by feigning amnesia. When they retired he got their business as an antique dealer. He specializes in haunted antiques because he can deal with the demons/spirits/whatever that are causing problems for the owner of the items.

Shino officially takes Masamichi as an "assistant," but Masamichi’s main role is to be Shino’s food source* and servant (thus the title of the series). Shino also wants to cultivate Masamichi’s spiritual potential as he has the same unusually-colored aura as Shino’s former master. He wants Masamichi to eventually break the spell on him put on by his long-dead master so that he can regain his full powers and form as a demon. Only a human can break a human spell.

The first several books focus on a stand-alone mystery or issue in each, but in the later books a big bad emerges against whom they must fight. Masamichi is very...ordinary. He isn’t annoying or anything, but he doesn’t really do anything for me. Shino isn’t a bad sort, but he's not human and thus can be insensitive. He does firmly believe in his role as master to provide for his servant and takes care of Masamichi, he just doesn't understand human sensibilities. It doesn't help that Masamichi falls in love with Shino, but the nice thing about this series is that Masamichi is mostly so placid and Shino rarely gets all worked up (even though he's pretty possessive) so it doesn't get angsty or melodramatic (much). It's an issue, but it's not OMG HOW CAN I GO ON WITHOUT HIS LOVE???

The art is decent, but nothing to write home about. I like the characters. There are some very sweet moments here and there. Nothing is really annoying or truly ridiculous (besides the premise, but you have to hand-wave it if you're going to read BL, right?). I enjoy reading about the supernatural world depicted. At least up to where I've read, I would recommend this. Just…not in any jump up and down way. ^^;

*First Shino feeds on Masamichi's blood but then they stumble into sex as a way for Shino to feed. Can’t for the life of me remember how it happens, but does it matter? It's BL, it was gonna happen.

It’s pretty late in the day here so it’s mostly the 2nd in most places, but oh well. I’ve been busy today, mostly eating. And looking for parking at the mall. Holy crap, there were tons of people there shopping!

Still in the obsession phase with Natsume Yuujinchou, so been poking around for more while waiting for the OVA to come out (and for someone to rip that DVD extra that Lala sent out last month). Thare a series of humorous 4-koma manga called Nyanko-sensei ga iku! on the Lala site. OMG so funny! I thought overall the second one was the strongest, but I loved them all. I’ve also been spreading the gospel to my RL friends. I hope some of them try it out (and get hooked).

What I just ordered: Natsume Isaku Fan Book

There are manga bits from Ameiro Paradox and Doushiyoumonaikeredo and Tightrope!! Plus extra pics! (at least according to the Amazon blurb). The only bad thing is that the estimated time to shipping is 7 to 21 days, and lately airmail from honto has taken many weeks. It used to take 10 days, but my last order that shipped three weeks ago still hasn’t arrived!! I want my copy of Ikasama Memory 2. ;_;

Speaking of Natsume, I’ve become completely addicted to Natsume Yuujinchou. The first two episodes really didn’t do much for me, but I kept going because the praises were so high. I’m sooo glad I did. Yes, there are gaps in logic and inconsistencies. But that’s not the point of this series. I am in season 4 and slowing down on the watching because I don’t want it to end. I am so ordering the OVA coming out next year. XD; I looked for fanfic to help with the addiction, but it seems to be a pretty sparse fandom.

I want to own the discs, but there is no Blu-Ray version for the first season in English. I’m tempted by the Japanese box set of the first two seasons.

One thing that is driving me crazy--"Natsume" sounds like a first name, so when someone (usually the Fujiwaras) calls him "Takashi" it bothers me since I think of Natsume as his first name and Natsume is a much nicer name than Takashi. :P

I've been living elsewhere for the last two months, and this month the place I'm staying at doesn't have an internet connection. Holy crap it sucks. I do have a my phone, but it doesn't make up for not being able to connect with my computer and iPad (esp since my carrier hasn't upgraded to LTE here yet). GAH. It's made keeping up with everything so much harder, but especially anime and LJ. *sighs* In any case, my anime thoughts...

I caught up with Free! this week and I gotta say...so pretty! I was surprised to find myself sorta shipping Makoto/Haruka since the Rin/Haruka thing seemed inevitable in the beginning, but I took a quick look at FF.net and saw that others saw the same thing. I look forward to the next race! The best thing about anime with competitions is just how exciting they can make whatever competition being depicted.

I am a couple of weeks behind Gin no Sagi but have grown to like it quite a bit. I realized that Hachiken's voice grates on me, which makes it hard for me to like him (he sounds waaay more whiny because of that voice), but he really tries hard. I can appreciate that. Mikage is still such a bland character. I don't dislike her, but she doesn't have anything interesting or quirky about her. Her family is 1000 times more interesting, frankly. The glimpse into animal husbandry is fascinating, as well. I am such a city slicker, I totally understood Hachiken's freak outs (even as I hated his voice). :P

Still watching Hakkenden. I'm so glad Shinobu's arc is over because it completely bored me. They really took away his quirks and made him a tiresome victim. I assume it's in the "let's make this shit up" stage since it's past the manga now, so it'll be interesting to see where they take it. I hope the end is not lame.

Majestic Prince has lost me a bit. I am surprised at where they are taking it, I'm hoping to get sucked back in for the finale.

I keep meaning to write about the BL novels I've been reading lately, but not having internet connection makes me so much less likely to crack open my laptop.

Ugh. I made some dry-rub chicken to take for lunch this week and had the most awful experience. Luckily the food turned out fine (despite some major mishaps along the way). First, I mistakenly used 1-1/2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper instead of chili powder and had to carefully scoop out most of it (I had other spices and things already in the bowl). I then sloshed the brining liquid around and spilled it all over the place, including on my iPhone which I was using to read the recipe. I don't get totally freaked out about raw chicken contamination, but I still cleaned everything that got splashed pretty well. Then I spilled a bunch of the cooked chicken juices all over the place, including on my clothing, so I got to clean greasy liquid from the floors/counters AND my clothes (as well as the dishes and utensils). The entire time I'm dying from the heat and humidity and I just want to flop over somewhere, but the only cool place is sitting on a pretty uncomfortable chair out on the balcony to catch the breeze (no AC in my house). I ate a thigh for lunch, tho, and it was good. I don't know what I would've done if I'd gone through all that and had crap food at the end. ^^;

Last night I saw Pacific Rim, which was about as fun as I thought it'd be. Giant robots battling giant monsters! Very, very anime-influenced, also very, very shallow and cliched, and with lots of stupid science. But it was fun!! The only thing I really disliked was the dynamic of the two main males and the main female. Wish she wasn't so…vulnerable. I understand that her backstory does support her being the way she is to some extent, but it was annoying. However, the Japanese spoken not only by the Japanese actress but by Idris Elba and by…er…the other main male amused me (also, why does the other guy even speak Japanese? I can understand Idris Elba's character speaking it due to his backstory). I definitely enjoyed this more than Monsters University (it wasn't bad, it just wasn't…awesome? Too cliched in a way I didn't love) and possibly as much as Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing (I liked the B&W modern updated setting, and the actress playing Beatrice was wonderful--plus Nathan Fillion was as funny as all the reviews said).

Saw the second episode of Free!, and am still confused as to what this anime is going to be like. I enjoyed the "build the club/team" thing in this episode, though. I almost always do like club/team-building (H2, Chihayafuru, Hikago, to name a few). And it continues to be pretty. We even get a female proxy ogling the half-naked men for the audience.

I saw the first episode of Free! and am very confused. It's eye-candy for fujoshi, with boys who like to swim and thus are often shirtless. Very pretty art, not much of a premise. There's a grumpy guy, an asshole guy, a pretty young guy, and a nice guy (TM) who were all on a swim team when they were young. They meet again in high school and....not sure what's going to happen. Don't dislike it, am just puzzled as to the point of it.

Also saw the new Hakkenden. Pretty!! It felt a bit disjointed, though, and they've started to change things from the manga. I don't get why they made the changes, and I hope it doesn't jump the shark since I assume they will have to make up some ending for the anime.

As for spring anime, I saw the end of Hataraku Maou-sama! and Karneval. Hataraku Maou-sama! was pretty awesome, though...( spoilerish grumble ) Karneval was a non-ending! It would be so lame if there is no second season. I have to catch up on the other anime from the spring...I'm a bunch of episodes behind on them.

I am caught up on Majestic Prince, but that one is continuing. I am a bit meh on the new character, who is one of those Jekyll and Hyde types. *sighs* Stick with the original five (and kill off the annoying big-boob girl), and I'd be overjoyed.

Wow, it's been a while. LJ feels really dead and it doesn't make me want to post much, sadly. But I figure I'll just do a mega-post on stuff I've been up to. First off, I've been watching a lot of anime. The stuff I've watched from this season:

Suisei no Gargantia: Soldier in a war with aliens ends up on a planet with much lower tech level with his amusing AI-equipped mecha, and has to learn to cope with culture shock and having the freedom to choose what to do with himself. I have really enjoyed seeing the poor soldier (who came from a society with no money or much freedom--for him, at least) learn to navigate the new world he's found himself in without tons of the shortcuts anime/sf can take in a first-contact situation, but it looks like the story will take a more serious turn now.

Valvrave the Liberator: Total crack giant mecha show which I initially called the "vampire" show. I thought it'd be more serious and more angsty than it's turned out to be. Glad the angst is missing, hope it keeps going this way. It turns the normal high school student who gets into the cockpit of the Valvrave into something beyond human, but the focus of the show is on the wider student body (and the wider political situation--which reminds me of various Gundam series) at this time. It's a ridiculous story that utterly relishes in its ridiculousness (the school declares political independence at one point), but the characters are fun to watch. Also, I mock the uniform of the hot-shot military every op and ed sequence. Pretty, but stupid-looking.

Majestic Prince: The third giant mecha show I'm watching, which I thought was going to be crack but is actually pretty serious. And charming. It's about a five-member team in a military academy who have excellent skills individually but can't put it together as a team. They are selected as pilots for five shiny new mecha and manage to win against the enemy (mysterious aliens) for the first time. They are caricatures, yes, but adorable ones. I wish the boy-crazy, big-busted girl didn't mumble, but otherwise am very happy with bunch. A nice combo of silly and serious, this show makes me smile.

Arata Kantagari: A normal boy in modern-day Japan exchanges places with a boy in a fantasyland and has to go on an adventure and conquer his personal demons (he has issues with trust and self-confidence from being badly bullied, as well as the typical normal kid needs to step up thing), from a manga by Watase Yuu. Nothing amazing about this one, but I've grown to like it. I like the main kid and his companions a lot. The angst coming from the villian(?) in the last episode made me roll my eyes, but whatever. I'm watching for the kid (and his counterpart in Japan who is a lot more happy-go-lucky) do his thing, not the big angst-fest from that aforementioned last episode. Or if I'm going to see angst, I'd rather see the main character's angst. I just care more about him.

Karneval: Hm, what to say about this? It's set in an early(?) 20th century setting but with some high tech thrown in. There's a secret group (I can't rememeber the name of) making monsters and a government group called Circus that is trying to combat the secret group. Members of Circus have access to powers which seem to be extremely advanced tech (but looks like magic), and are very...showy. They actually operate a circus, perhaps as a cover? Main character 1 is a cute-looking kid who initially irritated me a lot. He spoke haltingly, was very naive, and was very focused on finding a particular person--he kept saying the person's name at random times. GAH. He's widened his horizons a bit more, so my irritation has mostly gone away. Main character 2 has an angsty past and has tried to be cold-hearted in order to get by in the world. When he meets up with MC #1 he ends up rescuing him despite his head telling him BAD IDEA NOT WORTH IT and gets caught up with the two opposing groups. I liked him from the beginning and like him even more now. The shirt he wears under his coat baffles me, but other than that I'm all good. Dunno what's up with secret group, I just hope they don't turn out lame.

Hataraku Maou-sama!: I like this one a lot. A LOT. Demons and humans were fighting in another world, and the Demon Lord (the maou) escapes through a gate to avoid losing to the Hero. He and his general end up in modern-day Japan without their magic and their demon forms. They look like young human males. They have to make it in this world and somehow figure out a way back to their world. They rent a ratty apartment and the Demon Lord Maou (he actually takes the last name Maou) gets a job at McRonald's while his general is his nagging housewife who searches for a way to get their magic back. Maou is a nice guy and eminently likeable. The Hero shows up, having followed him to KILL HIM. She's also set up a life in Japan, and they snipe a lot. The comedy is PURE GOLD (esp the general's nagging wife routine, it never fails to be hilarious). The action is fun to watch. Trouble follows them from their world, naturally. It'll be interesting to see how things go.

I also finally watched the rest of Zetsuen no Tempest from the winter season. Holy crap, I like this series. It got really slow in the middle, so I stopped when the series took a break. But when I picked it back up I couldn't stop. It's over the top, from the battle for civilization to the frequent references to Hamlet and The Tempest, but it carries everything through to the end in a way that makes sense. Above all, though, I came to care for the characters. I didn't dislike any of them, really, but the main four characters were really fabulous. I'm happy to say the two female teenagers were awesome as well. This is one of the few series where I cherish the flashbacks the most. So, so great to see the two main guys interacting with each other and the girl who was the sister to one and girlfriend to the other. It's also beautiful to look at and with a very appropriately lush soundtrack. So, so pretty. I felt so satisfied when I got to the end, and I immediately went back and watched all of my favorite flashback sequences.


Huh. I wrote more than I thought I would. I'll leave the books and other things I've been consuming for another post.

Read Castle Mango 2 and Rivers End...Oh boy. Glad I got to do it in one fell swoop. I think I would've stopped reading it from depression if I had read it in installments, especially Castle Mango 2. ( cut for spoilers, obviously )

Also read Silver Diamond volume 27 and gaiden...I gotta say that it went on too long. There were bits I enjoyed a lot in the last volume, but these story head really sputtered out by then. The gaiden was, on first reading, not that great to me. I'll have to go back and reread at some point to see if I still feel the same.

Hakkenden volume 12 was so worth the wait. Revelations! Flashbacks! I can't wait for the next volume. The annoying thing is that I reread the series and realized that stuff in volume 12 contradict stuff that was shown before. It really felt like she hadn't thought it through at the start (at least the big things) because seeing those inconsistencies just irked me.

So. Hakkenden. I've seen the latest (ep 4) and so far am enjoying it. It's very faithful to the manga. ( Specifically… )

In the end, though, I can't help but still feel anxious. Where is this anime heading? GAH.

Unrelatedly, what a sweet wedding article. The last paragraph is so lovely. ♥

Somehow or another I ended up at rachelmanija's post on the Saikano manga. God, brings back memories of bleak and depressing. My reaction? I was delighted that the story actually followed through and didn't soften the blow of the ending. XD;

I've been watching quite a bit of anime lately.

Chihayafuru, an adaptation of a josei manga that in some ways really reminds me of Hikaru no Go but with karuta instead of go (and without any ghosts). Beautiful animation, pretty music, a card game turned into a sports manga. The whole bit where they try to assemble a karuta club at school? Made me think of Hikago and H2. Unorthodox recruiting methods which include lots of harassing until they give in! (OK, not really, but some people are…driven.)

Oreshura (Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru), a harem anime (from a manga, I think?) about a high school guy who is not interested in romance. He's blackmailed into being the pretend boyfriend of a gorgeous girl who is sick of all the attention. There's his childhood friend who likes him but is totally unable to confess, which he's waaay too dense to pick up, who gets sucked into a club with guy and fake-gf. Not sure where this is going. Who is the guy supposed to end up with? From the (really, really annoying) OP there will be four girls, I'm hoping I don't dislike the others. I haven't watched/read a harem storyline in quite a while so I'm hoping I won't hate this.

Sword Art Online (SAO)…I gotta say, the ending was meh. Worth watching for some things, but so not for others. ( the worst part )