Another week of consumption of fannish goods.

[tammaiya]

Monday of last week I watched Shukudai-kun #81, and since the last fannish post was earlier the same day, it gets to go here. I am going to restrain myself to the highlights here:

* Nino's pastel pink jeans. XD
* Sho's BRIGHT PINK T-SHIRT. I won't lie, guys, it was pretty heterosexual.
* The "umai!" competition with the food, with Aiba getting yelled at for not being enthusiastic enough and Jun putting his arm around him and being all aaaaaw, baby. Becky commented that it was kind of like "nobody yells at my boyfriend but me!" and yeah, I kind of have to agree with that. XD
* Jun showing them the PROPER way to eat this ridiculously delicious cream and chocolate dessert with your fingers while everyone else is like "WAAAH, SO COOL-LOOKING!" was pretty excellent. He did look pretty cool, I have to say. Also, the dessert looked pretty delicious. Mmm. *covets*
* They're all such CHILDREN. One of the guests had this talent at making 10 yen coins spin, and they were all like, OOH! *slap! slap! slap!* like, yay, shiny spinning thing! *laugh*
* Aiba-land game~ kind of hilarious but I definitely wouldn't want to play. Basically, Aiba split everyone else into two teams: Sho, Ohno and one of the guests, then Nino, Jun and the other guest. (Nino and Jun on the same team, ph33r.) They then proceeded to spin each member minus Ohno and Jun around on a wheelie chair and then MAKE THEM PLAY CHARADES. Oh dude, it was hilarious. They were quite gentle with the guests, but when it was Sho's turn Nino and Jun spun him around so hard I was surprised he didn't puke, and NINO-- haha, whoops. He got spun so hard he got up from the chair and pretty much went SPLAT on the ground. And yet they still got the charade solved in less than 7 seconds! It was kind of hilarious to watch him faceplant, but Becky said he gets motion sick, so as someone who suffers it myself and was thinking "ugh I would never agree to that game" I really have to feel for him. XD;

Last fannish post like this I kept stuff in fairly chronological order of consumption, but that would be pretty hard with this post anyway, since some of it was a little all over the place, so I figured I may as well just keep things grouped together. Which is why Shukudai-kun #82 comes next, despite that I only watched it last night.

This week the guest appeared in a box labelled BIJIN (beautiful person), which made everyone curious, and was opened to reveal a female doctor. (Who is, indeed, quite pretty.) Because Arashi are little shits, they immediately demand PROOF~ that she's a doctor, and Aiba is like "HI I THINK YOU SHOULD CHECK ME OUT :D :D :D" because... he's Aiba. XD; So they sit down for a mock consult, and it's kind of hilarious.

Aiba: I think I'm coming down with a cold.
Guest: Symptoms?
A: *says something I don't remember, maybe headaches, and then pushes up his sleeve* And my arm...
G: THAT'S NOT A COLD!
A: Eh, really?
G: Do you have a cough?
A: Yeah, I guess a little? *scratches head*
G: THEN WHY AREN'T YOU AT HOME RESTING?
A: Are you REALLY a doctor?
G: ... I'm going to check your breathing.
A: :D! *pulls up shirt for stethescope*
Crowd: SCREAM.

The episode continues in a similar vein of awesomeness. Jun has awesome cake-cutting SKILLZ that they all feel the need to comment upon (wow, so perfect!), Sho apparently knows the true way of eating ramen and shows them all how it's done (Guest: ... isn't the guest supposed to eat first?) and it seems Ohno is the member of Arashi best qualified to judge the quality of ramen. XD

After that, they decided to have a DRAWING SEGMENT, and they made Sho draw, and I CRIED, CRIED WITH LAUGHTER because oh my god, the total FAIL. The best bit was Aiba and Jun cacking themselves laughing on the other couch and Jun being like, "it's so nice to be able to laugh at your own failure as an artist~" after they all mocked the crap out of Sho's grasshopper. (Trying to defend his totally lame drawing! And his reaction when Nino said he had to draw a grasshopper, hee, poor Sho. "Grasshopper? GRASSHOPPER?") I swear Nino must have let Ohno see the photo before, though, because he drew it in the exact same position and everything. Ayashii!

The episode continued to be made of win, though, because after art there was ~*physical education*~ where the guest admitted she couldn't skip and JUN PROCEEDED TO SHOW HER HOW, HAHA, JUN CAN SKIP. What then followed was the guest trying and failing several times to skip, and first Nino then Aiba joining in showing her how (Aiba with this big cheesy grin and huge exaggerated movements) and then finally Jun goes again and she's like, "WAAA, SHIZEN!" (wow, you're so natural at it!) and I just couldn't stop laughing, because omg, girliest girl who ever did girl. XD

Then the guest has to learn how to dribble, and Aiba shows off his awesome basketball moves, and I have to say, I was impressed. He looked really cool. Becky and I concluded that CLEARLY, this calls for high school AU with Aiba as a jock and Jun as a cheerleader.

All in all, it was kind of fabulous. *g*

I may as well keep all the Arashi grouped together, so next is VS Arashi #4, which aired on Saturday afternoon. Arashi lost again, but for once neither Sho nor Jun were Most Dame Arashi! As it so happened, Jun totally owned the dodgeball game (he got 440 points; the guest also did well but only got 410). Nino, on the other hand, was not having a good week. Not only did he bomb out on the first game, the pole-catching game, and get a grand total of 10, he was also the one who toppled the coin tower in the last game, being pretty much the sole cause of Arashi losing. XD; They HAD been tying with the guests before that, thanks to Jun's efforts in the second game.

It was kind of hilarious at the end, though, because Nino's EXPRESSION when he's dropped into the foam pit is just a thing of beauty, and the rest of Arashi are laughing so hard at his expense. Like Jun and Ohno are leaning on each other and just grinning away, and Aiba is fully CACKING himself laughing, while Nino is all THAT WAS SCARY. Heeeeee.

Enough Arashi, though, and onto the manga/anime segment of the post, which is a fair chunk of it, because I went on a little bit of a spree this past week. The Soul Eater manga is currently being serialised in GanGan-- which means I see it advertised all the time on the Square-Enix website-- and currently running in its first season as an anime adaptation-- which means I see it on the train, too. It wasn't until beckerbell started reading it that I was finally interested enough to check it out for myself, though, and I have to say, I'm glad I did.

Considering it's a somewhat violent and occasionally dodgy boy's manga about collecting the souls of evil doers, it's actually INCREDIBLY CUTE. I totally OTP het-ship Soul and Maka, and I adore all the main characters. Maka is spunky and cute and a really great female character who has flaws but is still really easy to identify with; Black*Star is like an EVEN MORE OBNOXIOUS version of early Naruto, and yet is somehow still really lovable despite that; Tsubaki is sweet and hot, Kid's OCD is hilariously great, Shinigami kicks so much ass you wouldn't believe, and I OTP Stein/Death Scythe SO HARD, OMG.

What is hilarious is the way Stein is like a cross between Dist and Jade from ToA. For SERIOUS. He looks kind of like Dist, you know, mad scientist in a chair, and sometimes he's as much of a retard as Dist, but the rest of the time he's like this NIKONIKO sadist who is a total genius and is on the good side but is STILL A SADIST. He shows his affection for you by messing with your mind! <3

In conclusion, Stein, and in particular Stein/Death Scythe, is so much awesome that I can't even begin to describe.

The setting for the world with "technicians" and "weapons" is really interesting, and I love the interaction between the three main "technician" characters (Maka, Black*Star, Kid) and their "weapons" (Soul, Tsubaki and Liz and Patty respectively-- Kid has twin sisters who turn into dual pistols). Black*Star and Soul's completely retarded friendship is particularly awesome.

As for other characters... I've already mentioned this, but I adore Shinigami and his SHINIGAMI CHOP. He's so comic and :D :D :D looking, and then he's all >O *KARATE CHOP* and everyone is owned. Because he's AWESOME. Chrona I didn't care about at first, but I ended up really hurting for her and being touched by the connection she and Maka made, which is always the sign of a good manga-- if it can change your mind and make you like a character you were indifferent to. Blair I thought I was going to hate, stereotypical ero character, but she actually turned out kind of ridiculously cool and kitty!Blair is just adorable. Sid-sensei isn't that major a character, but I still really like him. As for Medusa... well, she's a really good villain, I'll give her that. I don't like her as much as a character as Becky does, but she's makes an excellent "bad guy" character.

The fight scenes and plots and twists are really good, too. The things that particularly stick out in my mind are the end of the "make-up lesson" plotline where Stein is all "okay, lesson over! <3" and you (and the main characters) are just like, "... um, wut? you mean... WUT?" because that was just a really good fake-out, especially when they're like, hey, maybe he's actually a nice guy after all! and moments later they're like, ... actually, no, he's still a sadist. ~_~; (Just like Jade! XD He's on our side, yes, but he's STILL A SOCIOPATH.) What else... oh yes, Kid and Black*Star's quest for Excalibur, because it was just hilarious, and the whole Kishin arc, particularly Maka going crazy and Stein's showdown with Medusa. ♥

Anyway, yay! Soul Eater! Now I just have to decide whether I'm going to try reading volumes 8 to 11 in Japanese or if I'll be lazy and keep pace with the scanlations. Hm. First I've got to read volume 7, though. I stopped where I was because it was the end of a major plot arc and probably where the first season of the anime will finish, but there's still a few more chapters scanlated.

To shift the topic slightly, though, I watched episode 4 of the Soul Eater anime before I'd read any of the manga because it was on tv the night Becky mentioned that she'd started reading it and I was curious, and at the time, unsurprisingly, it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. The plot line was just starting, but I'd missed all the setup for the world and characters and, yeah, I was kind of confused. It was still really cute, though, and it was enough to make me want to read the manga.

I read the first six volumes of the manga within the week, and then yesterday I watched the first three episodes, which I'd missed, and the fifth episode, which was screening on tv. Mostly it's been fairly faithful to the manga, and I approve of the small changes that they've made, because mostly they've made things make more sense. They showed the interaction between Soul and Black*Star during the "character prologue" eps, which was good setup; you also get to see Sid-sensei before he gets zombified in the first plot arc. They added in lead-up to Black*Star's reaction to Kid joining the Shibusen school in ep 3, and added in a mission notice board thing which is useful as a plot device for characters to find out about other missions and so forth. (I don't know if it's something that simply pops up late in the manga or if the anime made it up, but it works.) In ep 2, Black*Star's prologue, the thing about Yojinbou having a "strong soul" was removed, but I feel that was a good decision since it wasn't necessary and complicated things a little. The other change I can think of is really minor, but it stuck out to me because I was reading the manga scene not long after watching the anime scene and also I found the anime addition quite hilarious-- in ep 4 (the first ep I watched), when Shinigami comments on the fact that Maka and Soul currently have ZERO SOULS and Black*Star laughs at them, in the anime they added a bit where Shinigami goes "YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LAUGH ABOUT! >O" and Shinigami-chops Black*Star and it's great. XD

Other than that, comments on the anime... the art is good and cute and not appreciably less well-drawn than the manga, and I really like the way the animation flows-- the action scenes look really cool, and it gives life to all the crazy expressions and Shinigami-chops and other small humorous moments. Plus, the voice-acting is really well-suited to the characters and fun to listen to. Definitely giving the thumbs up to this anime, which is a pleasant change because I haven't really gotten into any new anime for the past year or so.

cienna and ontogenesis told me about Moyashimon, this cute series where the main character can see (cute!) bacteria and his (cute!) best friend crossdresses as a goth loli and hits on him. They pretty much had me at the best friend. XD; Which pretty much turned out to be true of the series, too. The microbes are totally adorable, and Sawaki (main chara) is cute and huggable with all his XO expressions and flailing, but it's Kei (best friend) that got me hooked on it. He's just really sweet and considerate and kind of just THERE most of the time-- supporting Sawaki, following him to an agricultural university in Tokyo (and it's fairly clear he did that to stay with Sawaki, even if Sawaki himself doesn't realise), being thoughtful and supportive about Sawaki's problems with his microbe-seeing ability. He's the calm one, except when it involves sake (he's a sake-maker's son), in which case he might flip out a little. Obviously you can tell I really like Kei; I in fact feel Moyashimon needs more Kei, because I inevitably feel that about my favourite characters who are not the main character, but I do appreciate the fact that even when Kei himself isn't in a couple of episodes mid-season because he's disappeared off to sort his head out, he's not totally forgotten-- several times an episode, Sawaki checks his mobile and sighs when there's still no response from Kei. (Me: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw. ♥)

I also find it interesting how the climax of S1 revolved around Kei and Sawaki. The mystery of Kei disappearing, then Sawaki losing his ability to see microbes from the shock of seeing Kei again as a goth loli and being kissed by him, and them working out their friendship and Kei coming back to school... I was kind of surprised, pleasantly so. I really do OTP ship those two. And I want Kei to be happy. <3

Meanwhile, though, I would love to know more about what's going through his head. Why he suddenly decided to disappear without telling Sawaki, why he went from hating being called feminine to being a goth loli, just all of it. I wonder if there's more of that in the manga? It seems pretty clear that his motivations have to do with how he feels about Sawaki, but I'm curious.

As for the negative side... hm. Sometimes Professor Itsuki's educational explanations about fermentation, aside from being really gross, can go on a bit. Also, while the first season didn't go there, I kind of get the feeling that canon is eventually going to steer towards Sawaki/Oikawa (first year chick), and that makes me twitch. Not just because it wrecks my OTP (although there's that, too), but because I just don't LIKE Oikawa. I've long grown out of the phase of not liking female love interests for "interfering" or whatever; it's just that she's really annoying. One of the first major things she did was follow Sawaki into the sempais' room and start spraying anti-bacterial spray around, incidentally killing the really valuable bacteria they were intending to sell. Even if someone else's house is really messy, you don't just do something like that without permission, especially not when you weren't even really invited in the first place! And she wasn't even apologetic afterwards.

She didn't do much to fix this impression I had of her, either-- in ep 10 she drags Sawaki shopping, makes him hold her stuff, then makes him wait for ages so she can clean her room and HAVE A SHOWER while he sits on the ground outside in the heat, wut. But it was her reaction to goth loli Kei kissing Sawaki that cemented my dislike; she was all oh yay, I'll cheer you on, that's so cute! to Kei about his feelings for Sawaki until he accidentally slipped up and said something that made her recognise him, and after that she goes rampaging back to the lab to freak out at Sawaki and be all "oh my GOD he's a GUY and he KISSED YOU and that's SO WRONG!!!!!" and I kind of wanted to smack her. I don't like her, and if she ends up with Sawaki in the manga/future seasons of the anime, I will be greatly displeased.

On the other hand, I love love LOVE Hasegawa. I was really not sure how I was going to feel about her at first when she was just really bossy, but towards the end I really started to like her, AND her bossiness. I really felt for her with her backstory-- as if an arranged engagement weren't bad enough, her fiance has to be this old, spineless wet fish. Anyway, she won my adoration at around the same time Oikawa won my contempt-- while Oikawa is having her crazy homophobic freakout, Hasegawa goes OH FOR GOD'S SAKE and snogs her just to make her shut up. XD THAT, my friends, is awesome.

Mutou is also awesome. She's just really hot and kind of adorable, and she wasn't in as many episodes as the other characters so there's less to say about her, but yeah. Heart! I kind of think she and Hasegawa would make a great pairing, since they've obviously got a pretty strong friendship and have both worked for the professor for a while and, well, yeah.

And, you know, the microbes are SERIOUSLY cute.

Anyway, there is a serious, TRAGIC lack of English fanfiction, you guys, I am not even joking. Granted, episodes 8 to 11 are so far only subbed in Spanish and the manga has a grand whopping two chapters scanlated, which means English-only fans have not yet reached the joy of goth loli Kei, but STILL. STILL, I TELL YOU. This must be remedied!

This is one of those times where I can kind of foresee that I'll end up doing the remedying by myself if I ever have time with all my other bunnies, le sigh.

It's been months since I've caught up on either TRC or XXXhoLic, but while I was floating around on onemanga reading Soul Eater, I noticed they had Holic and, having picked up a doujin for it recently and being in the frame of mind where I wanted to read manga, I was like, hey, why not.

The last chapter I'd read of Holic had kind of warped my head a little, because it was the one where Watanuki realises he doesn't remember eating any food or his parents' names and is going in and out of dreams and I was like OH MY GOD, IS WATANUKI NOT REAL! XO like CLAMP undoubtedly intended. That has turned out to be a fakeout, since we later discover that Watanuki simply gave his memories to Yuuko as the price for Syaoran and co to move to the "slice of time" where Fei Wang is hiding in Tsubasa, and even gave the memory of paying the price away... but I am still a little confused about the food thing? Huh? Oh well, whatever. The recent chapters of Holic have been very mind-bendy, but in the kind of way where it catches your interest and keeps you reading. Kohane is likeable as a recurring character, and lately, it's pretty much been Doumeki/Watanuki ALL OTP, ALL THE TIME. I'm serious, I totally appreciate it. Watanuki has decided to make a concentrated effort to be more grateful to Doumeki, and as a direct consequence, Doumeki keeps asking suspiciously if he's hit his head. No, seriously, HAVE YOU HIT YOUR HEAD?

Which pisses Watanuki off, because HELLO, he's trying to be NICE HERE! XD It really reminds me of why I started shipping them in the first place, aa~h. Part of me is optimistic for a happy ending where they get to be together, because the latest chapters of the manga, despite being filled with ominousness and mind-warping, also seem to be giving that indication... but then I stop and remember that this is CLAMP, and it's hard to be too optimistic about it. >>; Oh well, I guess we'll see.

Once I'd caught up on Holic, obviously the logical extension to that was to catch up on Tsubasa. Since the last time I'd read Tsubasa was after they'd arrived in Nihon-kuni but decidedly BEFORE the whole thing with the Sakura clone, the only halfway coherent response I can give to all this is MY MIND, SHE IS DEFINITELY BLOWN. Return of X characters of course makes me glee-- though when are they going to resolve the Fuuma/Kamui and Seishirou/Subaru plotlines? there doesn't seem to be terribly much manga LEFT-- and the conversation between Seishirou and Fuuma where they mock each other's uke-related pain just makes me happy in my soul, because haha, YES. Seriously, Fuuma commenting on Seishirou's tendency to mess horribly with the people he likes and THAT'S why Subaru runs away from you, and Seishirou's retort that you reap what you sow when Fuuma complains about Kamui avoiding HIM? I cried with laughter. It was beautiful. I swear I have written crack fanfiction that went like that. XD

Back to the more serious points... the whole clone plotline is making me flail a little helplessly, and also think of Tales of the Abyss a lot. One thing I am now seriously confused about is when clone Syaoran was cloned. I assumed-- as most people probably did-- that it was when he met Fujitaka for the first time, but if real!Syaoran grew up with real!Sakura up until the start of the manga and then was aged down and stuck in a tank-- well, first of all, that means he's actually half his life older again than we thought, and secondly, that he must have been cloned at around the same time as Sakura, at the beginning of the manga? But... what? HOW DOES THAT WORK? Fei Wang specifically said Syaoran's memories weren't cloned, unlike Sakura, so how do both Syaorans have memories of growing up with her?

This isn't even touching on the total mindfuck of finding out that the Sakura they've been travelling with the whole time isn't the same as the Sakura Syaoran lost in the beginning, or the utter SHRIEK OH MY GOD YOU DIDN'T! when they KILLED clone!Sakura. I'm still horrified by that. For a moment there I was thinking, hey, two Syaorans, two Sakuras, this could work out... but then they KILLED her, and apparently the original Sakura's body had been destroyed, so there's only one body and one soul between them. Which makes me sad, because the clones are obviously not interchangable. It makes me think of Tales of the Abyss, where it's a very major point that you can't just replace one person with their clone, because even if they look the same they're different people. The original Sakura isn't the Sakura that Kurogane and Fye know; she hasn't travelled with them, she can't replace "their" Sakura. It's the same way I was really sad about Sakura losing her memories of Syaoran, because even if she forged new memories, they still would have lost something precious and important and their relationship would never really be quite the same. I'm just as confused about the two Syaorans; up until what happened with clone!Sakura I'd assumed that one of them would die and the other would end up with Sakura, and that's still a possibility, but now I'm not so sure. When I did think that would happen, though, I had no idea which one I wanted to win. I guess I lean a little towards clone!Syaoran, because he's the one who was there through the whole manga (until X!world, of COURSE X has to go and bring the angst, I don't know why I didn't see that coming) and also I'm just a sucker for the whole tragic doomed Fuuma!syndrome and my heart breaks for them every time he interacts with Sakura... but I like other Syaoran, too! WAAARGH.

I'm allowing myself the tiniest modicum of hope, however, because while clone!Sakura's soul was killed and original!Sakura doesn't have a body, the way Syaoran said he was going to save BOTH Sakuras made me think that perhaps the situation is going to be repaired somehow and both Syaorans will get a Sakura and the Sakura we as the reader have grown attached to isn't dead and gone for good. Like I said above in regard to Holic, it never really does to be too optimistic when it comes to CLAMP... but on the other hand, I don't think they would have set the scene this way if they weren't going to let Syaoran succeed. They carry through on their terrible premonitions but good, as anyone who's ever read TB or X can attest to, but they also tend to carry through on stuff like this. The flash of clone!Syaoran's real personality during the showdown with his other self when Sakura got in-between, and original!Syaoran's announcement that he'll save both of them... it makes me think that there's still hope. Plus CLAMP has always had a soft spot for Sakura.

I could be proven wrong, though. Lord knows CLAMP loves to crush my soul. ~_~;

(On a random but connected sidenote, what IS the relationship between Syaoran and Watanuki? Are they brothers? Half-brothers? It's pretty obvious that Syaoran is Clow's child, but is Watanuki? And does that make Yuuko Watanuki's or both their mother? THIS IS GOING TO DRIVE ME BATSHIT UNTIL WE FIND OUT. And Watanuki's parents are obviously vital, since he was forced to give up the memory as payment! I AM GOING TO CONTINUE TO HARBOUR THIS THEORY UNTIL PROVEN WRONG, DAMMIT.)

For a total change of pace, I'm now jumping from the mind-bending soul-crushing CLAMP mangas to volume 9 of Komatta Toki ni wa Hoshi ni Kike! (in times of trouble, ask a star!) which is this completely adorable boarding school BL manga I discovered a few months ago. The scanlations are only up to the beginning of volume 9, and the only scans floating around the net past that point are in Chinese, which SADLY FOR ME, I CANNOT READ. Seriously, I can read 2 out of the 3 languages manga scans tend to be in; why's it always gotta be Chinese? ;____;

So basically when I got here and I wanted to order an English book off Amazon Japan, I immediately decided this was an EXCELLENT time to take advantage of free domestic shipping and get volumes 9 and 10 of Komatta Toki while I was at it! And waaah, so cute. I love this manga. I have a critical weakness for cute boarding school fluff, and something about the atmosphere of this manga just reminds me of HanaKimi. I don't really know why, the plots aren't at all similar aside from the boarding school aspect, but there's just something about it. Anyway, volume 9 was really sweet and satisfying inside. ♥ Plus there was more of one of the background couples I like (the main couple are Tsukasa and Fujishima, but there's a background couple involving the dorm leader, Tsukasa's older cousin), which was nice. I'd already read most of this volume in scans-- they were almost to the end of it when I last checked-- but the last chapter was good and I like having it. ♥ Knowing I have volume 10 there to read when I feel like it makes me happy, although I'm trying to concentrate on other stuff since I don't have the volumes afterwards yet and I'm trying to cut back my spending for the time being.

Anyway, last thing. I mentioned ordering an English book just above, although it was actually two books-- the first two volumes of the Dresden Files, which were recommended to me by thehoyden. So far I'm only a few chapters into the first book, maybe 50-70 pages in-- I got quite a bit read while I was waiting to get into Super Comic City on Sunday XD-- but I'm really enjoying it so far. I love the narrative voice; Harry Dresden is a likeable main character, and it's fun to read the dry wit of his POV. I was kind of already expecting it from thehoyden's awesome fics, but it's nice not to be disappointed. *g* Plus, I got up to the first meeting between Harry and Marcone, and I have to say... you guys weren't lying. That was, um. VERY HETEROSEXUAL. XDDDDDDDDD Seriously, if the author wasn't male I'd swear he was doing it on PURPOSE.

Here's to hoping that it only gets better from here! :D

And JESUS, these posts have a habit of getting long. I think this just tells me I need to read less manga, perhaps. >>; But it's not like I've just been sitting around absorbing pop culture, I've actually been really busy running all over Tokyo for various things... which of course means I have an absolutely massive life-related post to make as well, augh augh augh. But I'm not making it right now, because it's 12.30am and I have class first period. XD

(PS: I've also been writing again! Oh, how nice it is to have my writing mojo restored to me. \o/ Aside from an FFIII fic I wrote for Becky's birthday, which is of course up on insaneidiot, I am currently just over 5000 words into the next part of Boyband!X. This means the word count has now exceeded 75,000. I have mentioned this to several people now, but you guys, seriously, I may be forced to commit seppuku if when IF it reaches 100K. *headdesk*)

Comments

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

It is pretty amazing. I'm looking forward to getting further in it~ Unfortunately I haven't yet because I've been flitting around between catching up on tv shows and going to karaoke and study, but I intend to clear some time for it soon.

The part about Watanuki's memory is pretty recent, I think after the Kohane-chan stuff. But yeah, I was reassured. I was all afraid Watanuki was going to turn out to be NOT A REAL BOY. Now my theory is that he's Clow and Yuuko's son. Or something. *g*

I skimmed the manga, and I too have decided to remain hopeful. It seems Oikawa only likes older men, so it doesn't look like they're going to push her with Sawaki. *pleased*

[moonbyrd.livejournal.com]

Okay, so much for me taking a five-minute break from writing papers.

Shukudai-kun 81 was HILARIOUS. I spent the first three minutes going O_o that's the guy from Akihabara@DEEP! where is his cosplay?! And if Jun wasn't already stealing my soul in little bits and pieces, that dessert thing would have done it. I, um, totally did not go back and watch it eight or nine times.

xxxHOLiC...I haven't read the latest chapter, because I suck and wait until someone reminds me to go check out a scanlation. But! I HIGHLY approve of the second season of the anime. I was doubtful about their treatment of The Eye at first but now they've got me. D:

Also, DAMN you for giving me a bunch of things I need to add to my "Watch This Anime NAO" list. I have to survive 36 more hours of death academia before I can do any of that.

And last thing: you will delight in the Dresden Files! I'm only on book 4, myself, but things just keep getting better and every time I go up to a bookstore clerk with one of the books in my hands, I get told "...just wait!!!" and I kind of want to explode with impatience. I totally agree with you about Gentleman Marcone and, seriously, book 2 will make things even more heterosexual.

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

Haha, oh man, LJ does that to me aaaall the time. XD

Jun eating the dessert wasn't hot at ALL. Really. *shifty*

I haven't been watching the anime. I don't like the animation-- I find it really flat compared to the manga-- and the TRC anime was really boring, so I gave up. But yeah, the eye thing turned out much better than I thought it would. At first I was like, "oh, CLAMP, AGAIN with the eye thing?" which... there's still an element of that. But it works.

Heeeeee hee hee, excellent. I'm surprised that they're so widespread amonst my circle of friends and I'm only just finding out about them now!

[grey-lily.livejournal.com]

have you read the spoilers for the last chapter of TRC released in Japan? now they BLOW YOUR MIND! ... I won't give anything away, but we find out for Real-Syaoran's parents are (and who Real Sakura is) and its.... O_o the most mind breaking clamp twist imaginable...

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

........................................

WHY, CLAMP, WHY. LEAVE YOUR OTHER CANONS ALONE AND UNSULLIED BY THE CREEPILY INCESTUOUS MADNESS. D:

[sakanagi.livejournal.com]

Doumeki keeps asking suspiciously if he's hit his head. No, seriously, HAVE YOU HIT YOUR HEAD?

That almost makes me want to start shipping Doumeki/Watanuki! I wonder if that ship will get me yet.

About Tsubasa? As Grey_lily in the comment above is saying, the brain breakage only gets worse. I could take the stuff with the clones. The new stuff I really can't. If CLAMP doesn't pull this new plot twist off in an unforeseen amazing and brilliant way, then I'll pretty much wash my hands of TRC - and frankly I don't think they can do it, at this point. I'll only forgive them if they put some very good Seishirou/Subaru back in the series, because S/S is mighty and can cancel out any amount of failure...

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

I am forgiving them on probation, because they had the cunning foresight to use a Seishirou/Subaru splash on chapitre 190 to distract us all from the sheer WTF of the latest plot turn.

But I just don't get how they think it is a good idea! Especially when they just EMPHASISE the creepy-bad-wrongness by having not-really-Syaoran-but-he'll-call-himself-that-anyway think about how, oh hay, lol, she looks JUST LIKE MY MUM WHEN SHE WAS YOUNG. AND HAS THE SAME NAME. AND HER MOTHER LOOKS THE SAME. AND SO DOES HER FATHER.

Creeped out, creeped out!

But at least the Seishirou/Subaru splash is pretty... and promises that they'll be able to see each other again soon, although that's probably lies, all lies.

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

There's a drama? Ah, wow, that's nice... Minigawa-san would make a great Fujishima. ♥

[straywillowisp.livejournal.com]

Gah, I share your pain with the whole TRC mindf***. There's a recent spoiler revelation which makes it even more CONFUSING and makes the S+S relationship even more DISTURBING. T_T

[tammaiya.livejournal.com]

fsdjklfdsjlkf what the hell? T_____T I was good with the fucked-up Fuuma-Kamui turn they took, I was growing used to the clones thing, but WHY? I object to dragging CCS into the mess. I object even MORE to the creepy-bad-wrongness of how it was dragged in. WHAT THE HELL, CLAMP, WHAT THE HELL.