Mosaic Fragments

WTF?

So they decided the three-part division of season 1 wasn't good enough and decided to try to grub more money out of people? I am annoying just by the lack of symmetry.

Good thing I wasn't collecting their individual releases anyway.

(I already got screwed over once, with PLANETES.)

*waits patiently for boxset*

RightStuf licensed Junjou Romantica!

[And Antique Bakery, for those of you who might be interested.]

Now if they'd just hurry up with the release of Marimite 4. I'm actually trying to be good and not watch it until I get the DVDs, y'know. Maybe they're agonizing over what bonus to include with the preorder since they've run out of roses to make charms out of. XP

...Fanime.

When I first started composing this post in my head, I was only casually contemplating cosplaying for Fanime. I figured that this was one of the few times that I'd have a mostly free week right before a con, which made it good for making a costume on short notice.

But who to cosplay? My hair is short now, so Yankumi is out. I could do Honami from Rental Magica, but I doubt we could get my sister into Adilisia shape in a week, which defeats the point. I'm not a big fan of wigs or hair dye, so I try to stick to people with hair styles and colors approximating mine. The only person I could think of in recent shows that fit the bill was Shuri from Asura Cryin', and even if I really understood her character, I don't think she's the type I'd want to cosplay, and right now I don't even know what's up with her. (Although episode 6 helped a great deal, and she is all science-crazy.)

Anyway, as you may have guessed from the way I started this section, I did end up deciding to do a cosplay. As Xellos. I've always wanted to do it, my hair is as close to the right style as it's ever going to be (stupid anime characters always having bangs), and it's soon enough after the mini-revival of Revolution and Evolution-R that it's pseudo-current and not some dredged-up classic.

The devil is in the details, of course. In broad brush-strokes, it didn't seem that hard, but now I'm running into all sorts of issues. Should I sew or paint the border on the cloak? Should I get gloves? Where am I going to find the red jewel-y things for the brooch? And why is papier mache always harder to get in the right shape than I think it will be?

At least I've found some temporary purple hair spray that will probably show up enough against my black hair to satisfy me, and save me from having to dye my hair. (I was seriously considering it -- this is probably the last time in my life I can get away with it. Except I have a concert next Wednesday and my choir director would kill me, so I'd have to dye it black again right after anyhow.)

So, it will happen, in some form or another. Probably not as grand as I imagined, which is how most of my craft-y projects turn out, but good enough. At least I have a decent amount of experience at making cloaks -- including lined cloaks -- after Ditch Day. (Haa...)

Speaking of Fanime, though, I don't suppose any of you are coming?

...bar classes.

As I said in the comments of my last post, graduating from law school is not really an exciting moment because it means you are soon to begin bar classes, which last all summer. Then after the bar exam, you can kind of relax, and people usually go on a "bar trip" (mine will be in Japan). But you don't actually find out if you've passed the bar until November. By that time, at least in the past, you had started working, so no time for a big celebration. So... there's not really a good moment to be like, "Yay!" after law school. But between graduation and bar classes isn't even in the running, I'd say.

Like 99% of my classmates, I received a huge box of study materials from BarBri in April. I finally opened them the other day, on BarBri's advice that I skim the outlines for subjects that I hadn't taken in law school. ...which was apparently every subject on the state bar. (I've taken most of the subjects on the multistate, though I probably have a lot of relearning to do.) After looking at some of the outlines, I realized that it's not that bad, as I do know some agency law, civil procedure includes the federal rules, and hopefully I am at least vaguely familiar with corporations, partnerships, and professional responsibility. But community property, remedies, trusts, and wills will be all new.

I won't ask myself, "So what did I learn in law school?" because I was busy with IP, of course, but the bar exam is almost like the traditional chemical engineering curriculum that Caltech axed the year before mine -- the one that ended with everyone having to design a refinery and all. I thought we liked specialization and diversification.

Mm, lots of new season stuff and lots of old stuff I'm still working on...

First the new stuff, in the order sampled:

Genji Monogatari Sennenki - Okay, not new, but newly sampled. That's what the novel is about? Man. I'll give it another episode, but I'm really not seeing myself getting into "Tales of the Medieval Japanese Playboy".

Asura Cryin' - Confusing supernatural stuff starts happening to an ordinary guy. Well, he's been followed around by a schoolgirl ghost for a few years, so he's not completely caught off guard, but it's still got the flavor. Reminds me of Shakugan no Shana and Fate/Stay Night, keeping in mind how little I've seen of either. There's also this thing about his older brother pulling the strings to drag him into this strange supernatural world, and I can't decide if it reminds me more of LOVELESS or Spiral. I think saying more about the character of each of the older brothers in those series would be spoilers, so let's just say he doesn't seem quite like Public Enemy No. 1 or an evil bastard, but neither does he seem like complete puppet master, at least at this point.

Two episodes in, I still have very little idea what's going on, except there are a couple of generically hot girls and some warring religious organizations and a potentially hot guy who then again might just be a dork (in the bad sense). Oh, did I mention there's some kind of armor-mecha-thing involved? You'd think all of these things would turn me off the series but somehow I want to keep watching at this point. I guess it's fluffy enough.

Queen's Blade - This series is more properly labeled "hentai" than "ecchi". I dropped it after seeing how much nipple it showed in the first five minutes. I thought it would be a bit like Koihime Musou -- big-breasted women with cool character designs and decent fight choreography. If the breasts occasionally jiggled or received gratuitous close-ups, well, I'd put up with it. But when one girl starts out basically naked (and then shoots acid out of her breasts, what) and the other gets her clothes ripped off within two minutes of battle . . . I don't think you can call that just "fanservice" anymore.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Ehhh, so it is a remake. I don't understand why, given that there seems to have been nothing wrong with the beginning part of the original FMA, they had to start all over again. I guess it would have been weirder to branch off in the middle. (They could just declare some segment a bastard child and pretend it never existed, like Kyou Kara Maou OVA.) Right now, I'm feeling like even though I don't remember much of the original, I don't want to go through it again. At least, I'm feeling loath to watch episode three and get into the arc about the priest-dude. But maybe I shouldn't be watching either series -- it always has more gruesome things than I expect or want to see, yet I am morbidly drawn to it on screen, and then I worry I'll have nightmares. (I really didn't need to see the fake-mom again, but I couldn't look away, and the fake-baby is still burned into my brain.) I dunno. It's a good story, and a nice blend of action and comedy, but sometimes way too twisted and dark. Which starts to sound like exactly why I dropped Kuroshitsuji.

...okay, the comparison to Kuroshitsuji is not fair. I like the story and characters in FMA way more. But still. I have enough else on my plate that I'm not sure I should sit through the unpleasant parts.

Shangri-La - What's with the whole "deadly forests took over the world" theme anyway? OMG, you know what, my sci-fi story is like that, too. So, yeah, Tokyo is a big forest that people can't live in, there are a couple secret society like places doing mysterious things, and then there are the rebels who follow the carefree protagonist. ...somehow in trying to summarize, I realize I know much less than I thought I did. Oh well. Apparently I'm a sucker for motherly drag queen type characters. Especially ones that are bad-ass fighters. I think the free-spirited protagonist (Kuniko) will come to annoy me, but we'll see. Oh, and there are carbon markets which oppress the world and so far are no more than a tool for some creepy kids to control entire countries by hacking and trading assets in financial markets.

Pandora Hearts - What's with shows not revealing the basic plotline in the first few episodes? I mean, you don't have to give it away, just tell us where you're going. A conspiracy, some world destruction prophecy stuff, another dimension with creepy dolls that eat people, a girl with super powers yet limited... really? I really like the guy voiced by Ishida Akira, though, so at least I'll watch until I get bored.

So I guess the theme so far is, "I don't know what's going on, but at least it isn't boring." 9_9

Still need to sample:
07-Ghost
Eden of the East
Guin Saga
Phantom
Valkyria Chronicles

Gah, that's a lot. Good thing I'm done with classes! Since there's so many, I'll just do a follow-up anime post later.

Next the old stuff:

Tytania - I'm almost done, which is amazingly fast for me. I know the ending is going to suck (it's always a tip-off when the permanent ratings on AniDB are a full point lower than the temp. ratings), but I think I sort of saw that coming the entire time. The novel was unfinished, after all, and there's hardly an anime out there that has a better ending than the original (Hikaru no Go being a possible exception). And the speed at which things moved made it pretty clear that they weren't going to get the epic changes you'd expect. All the same, I kind of have to watch it through to the end at this point, and try to be satisfied with a "and thus they struggle on" type ending. On the bright side, one of the episodes I just watched made me not unreservedly hate Idris for the first time in fifteen episodes or so. Now I just kind of feel sorry for him and see him as a victim of circumstance. Plus, even if Jouslain is no more than a one-dimensional archetype of the Machiavellian schemer, he's still damn hot at being it.

Hetalia: Axis Powers - I didn't like it at first, but then it became more and more ROFL-inducing. Plus, it's five minutes a pop, so it's not a big loss when they're not funny.

Kyou Kara Maou 3rd Series - I feel like I'm so close to done (10 more episodes) but it's getting kind of heavy, and I hate Sara and Geneus . . . hm, I think this is the same thing I said last time.

Kuroshitsuji - After 8 episodes, I finally decided to dump it. I liked kinda like the arc with Lady Red, and that convinced me to push on for a bit, but it's just too episodic still, and not telling me more about Ciel and Sebastian, and nothing but boring super-natural mystery-solving plus Sebastian being omni.

Wagaya no Oinari-sama - Getting close to done. It's a fun, fluffy show, but not very captivating. The Byakki arc was the most confusing thing in the world. It's like they changed their mind about the script between each episode, so the previews showed scenes that never came close to actually happening (like giant tiger rampaging through Tokyo). If it was meant as a gag, it was too subtle for me, sorry.

CLANNAD ~After Story~ - This show is so good, but it also makes me cry without fail. Even in an arc that started off all innocently, and was about a character I don't really care about, I end up in tears. And I just haven't been in the mood for that kind of thing lately, so my progress has kind of stalled. And now they're heading into the place I don't want them to go -- the canon ending from the other versions -- so I don't know what to do. It's too good to drop.

Kemono no Souja Erin - Haven't watched it in a while, but I'll get back to it. I think the only thing you really need to know right now is that baby Toudas are the cutest thing ever.

The finished stuff:

Hakushaku to Yousei - Mm, it's been a while now, but I think the ending was okay for being based on ongoing novels. Here's to a sequel!

Junjou Romantica 2 - The ending kind of annoyed me because they were still hung up with Usagi's family and it was such an unsatisfying resolution. If that means they'll drop it now, though, I won't complain. I hope the manga is better.

Nijuu-Mensou no Musume - Kind of a crap ending, but I knew that was coming because the entire series was going crap, as I think I've mentioned in a previous post.

Tower of Druaga - Wow, this series went so far from what I expected back when I started watching the previous season. The ending was kind of too compressed, and the denouement kind of pat, but the little "happily ever after" shots at the end made me happy. And apparently how I feel immediately after finishing the last episode greatly affects my long-term impression of a series.

Koihime Musou - I actually liked this show. It was super-fluffy, but the fanservice never got that bad and some of the yuri jokes actually made me laugh. And it was kind of fun to see their interpretations of the Three Kingdoms characters I know so well from Dynasty Warriors. The arc with Liu Bei at the end, OMG.

Slayers Evolution-R - Discussed here.

Slayers NEXT - Wow, I'd forgotten how utterly little sense the ending makes. Almost makes me respect Evolution-R a bit more. I never realized how much Slayers is about deus ex machina. But that's not stopping me. On to TRY!

ONE

I am down to two episodes each left of Slayers NEXT and Slayers Evolution-R. Which to finish watching first? On the one hand, I really would like to see what's up with Xellos in Evolution-R. All he's done since he's shown up is play deus ex machina (in a very unpleasant, the-scriptwriters-wrote-themselves-into-a-hole kind of way) and say "sore wa himitsu desu" regarding very obviously important plot points that only he knows about that are probably going to determine the ending. Maybe NEXT was like that in a way, too. Mostly minus the deus ex machina part. Seriously. It really pissed me off when he did it the first time. It's like, "oh, we got tired of this arc, so Xellos came and mooted it, so now we can move on." Really? Was that what he was all about?

On the other hand, I could finish NEXT so I never have to think about Phibrizzo again. I think he's like the only character in all Slayers that I unreservedly hate. Even Martina I will tolerate.

TWO

Should I start watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood now, or wait until I finish the first series? As I understand it, the new series is not a sequel per se, because it follows the manga storyline, but it does not start at the beginning either. But I have no idea if I got far enough in the first series to reach the point of continuity. More importantly, I'm not sure I remember enough of the first series even to not have to rewatch that. I'm around episode 34, and I know I just got through some pretty important plot points about the Homunculi, but I didn't really get it when I watched it, and I certainly don't get it now based on what I remember.

What to do, what to do...

Oh, I didn't even realize that the series had started airing. ^^;;

The OP has all of the old villains -- Gaav, Phibrizzo, Valgaav -- which makes me wonder if they're there just for show, or what. I thought they were all pretty conclusively defeated. Then again, you would have thought that about Rezo, too. So, the jar being called Hellmaster's Jar may not bode well...

Notably, Xellos wasn't in the OP or ED, but early on in the episode, Lina says something must be up because he was involved, so he's obviously still part of the plot in some way. I hope it doesn't mean his actual appearances will be limited.

And... Nama, OMG. Wow. Did not see that coming.

( Spoilers, to the extent a first episode spoils anything. )

My desktop is dead. :( Hopefully not a very permanent dead, but it is kind of annoying. Am working off of my laptop now.

At the same time, my wrist is also dead. To the extent that dead desktop means less computering overall, it is a good thing. But to the extent that dead desktop means more computering on less ergonomic laptop, it is a bad thing.

I want a Microsoft Natural Mouse. It's the thing that looks like a ball. Very strange to hold at first, but it feels really natural and non-strained. I wish they made a non-wireless version, though.

Since I need to rest my wrists anyway, I should take this opportunity to watch more stuff. Hakushaku to Yousei has become the only thing I follow actively. Tytania I am mostly up-to-date with. Everything else is hopelessly backlogged. I've also started rewatching Marimite, to make myself feel less guilty about being suckered into buying the DVDs for the Lillian Girl's School cellphone charms. And then there is always PoT.

Also, I should rewatch LotR one of these days. Whenever I have nothing to do during holidays, I feel the urge to rejoin some community, like a mailing list or newsgroup or something. Even though I know I will fall behind the moment classes start back up. But anyways, I took a very quick trip through alt.fan.tolkien, and they were talking about how PJ screwed up every single character that had a noble and self-sacrificing nature. Not a very glowing recommendation of the movies, but it made me want to rewatch all the same. Theoden came out okay, at least, as far as I remember...

Anyway, that was a random update post for you. I'd like to reflect more on the Prosecution Clinic and the criminal justice system sometime, when my wrists are better, or at least I am restored to my ergonomic keyboard.

It's over! I can semi-retire the tag now! And not be desperately waiting for the new episode every Sunday!

( Brief spoiler-y thoughts. )

Funi decided to license Kaze no Stigma.

I guess lots of shows get licensed at random times after they aired, but for some reason this one seems particularly random. Well, I won't complain. It was an enjoyable, fluffy series that I wouldn't mind rewatching. Kazuma! ♥ Someday when I'm done reading all the billion other series I have on my plate, I'd like to read the light novels.

I wonder if they'll replace the OP with a real trailer at some point?

ETA: I wish in the future they'd be a little less cheesy:

Kazuma is a descendent of an ancient clan skilled in the magical Fire Arts. Unfortunately for him, the gift seems to have skipped a generation. Defeated by his younger, female cousin, Ayano, in a battle to become the clan's successor, Kazuma is exiled with only the smoldering burn of failure to keep him company. But now he's back, risen from the ashes and armed with a powerful new mojo that's sure to fan the flames of the family rivalry. The cooler he gets, the hotter she burns, and when Wind and Fire collide, Tokyo is caught in the eye of the storm.

Since classes start tomorrow, I'd better get my act together... yeah right. At least AniDB has been updated with the running lengths of a lot of series, lulling me into the thought that there's an end in sight.

Currently watching:

Code Geass R2 - I think I've posted enough about this series lately, don't you?

Toshokan Sensou - I was kind of lukewarm to this series early on, but the last batch I watched (7-9) actually had me laughing out loud at points. Did I mention that Shibasaki is win? I think what happened is that I stopped being interested in the series for its premise (librarians with guns, fighting the censorship forces of the government), which fell flat on its face rather quickly, and became interested because the characters are neat, and it doesn't really matter what setting they're in. I normally wouldn't like idealistic and bull-headed protagonists like Kasahara, but at least she has the presence of mind to be embarassed sometimes, and she's not all that bad. Plus, I find it very easy to adopt Komaki's perspective (Ishida Akira, squee!) and find Kasahara and Doujou just plain funny. The recent hints of Tezuka/Shibasaki make me happy, too. They make such a nice pair, and Tezuka needs to get over Kasahara, anyway. Three more to go!

Kara no Kyoukai - Oh, so that's where Kajiura Yuki disappeared off to. Strange, non-chronological series based on the novels that inspired Tsukihime. The first movie felt kind of cliché, like it could have come out of any ghost-busting anime series. I can understand they wanted to introduce the "present-day" Shiki without going too much into backstory, but it really doesn't work when you're talking about movies and not episodes. Hopefully the second one will be better.

Yakushiji Ryouko no Kaiki Jikenbo - Ah, it's just so stylish and cool. I can't say I like the creepy supernatural stuff, but I'll put up with it for now. For some reason that aspect reminds me of Speed Grapher, though it doesn't do the seedy-corrupt-future thing.

Koihime Musou - Thank god it's only going to be 12 episodes. I know this series is totally ridiculous, but I like the character designs, and the yuri jokes are actually funny, and somehow I can't pull myself away. Finding a chart with the Japanese names helped a lot -- ever since Dynasty Warriors stopped including the Japanese voice tracks, I don't know the Japanese names anymore. It took me three episodes before I read their titles on AniDB and realized we were dealing with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun.

Nijuu-mensou no Musume - This probably belongs on the "back-burner" list, but I put it here because I wanted to talk about it in more length. I miss the episodes that were about happy times with the gang and their clever heists. In hindsight, that was a really small part of the series. Now it's all weird, and you don't know who anyone really is except Chiko, and there are all these ulterior motives flying around. Also, I've realized that any time an anime series deals with things that happened during "the war", especially scientific research, things are going to be strange and I'm not going to like it. [On the other hand, I have to respect Japan for the fact that they are peaceful enough to only have one "the war", even if it wasn't entirely their own choice.] Well, we'll see where things go. I'm too invested now to give up.

Wagaya no Oinari-sama - Maybe I've just been more open to comedy lately, what with enjoying Toshokan Sensou more. It's similar with this series. All the mythological references have kind of taken a backseat to the humor, though they do add a much-appreciated twist.

Natsume Yuujinchou - As a corollary to appreciating comedy lately, this series feels a little slow for me. But I still like it a lot. It's just the right touch of soft and introspective. Unfortunately, my progress is also slow. But it's only 13 episodes.

xxxHOLiC: Kei - Not much to say. It's CLAMP, it's dark, it likes to make people miserable because they supposedly deserve it. It's less episodic than the first season, which is a good thing, I guess, but that means more bad stuff happens to Watanuki rather than the querent-of-the-day, which is not so good. Poor Watanuki. Incidentally, I watched the movie, which sucked.

Back-burner:
Kyou Kara Maou! 3rd Series (come back, DATS spin-off group... ;_;)
Nabari no Ou (what? a shounen ninja series capped at 26 episodes? does that mean it sucks?)
RD Sennou Chousahitsu
ARIA
Kaleido Star

Recently finished:

Kaiba - I'd already mentioned now original and thought-provoking this series is. Probably for that reason, it started out very confusing. But it actually all came together in the end and everything made sense. All in all, a very satisfying watch. Highly recommended.

Junjou Romantica - You've already heard me gush about this series. Several times. I love love love it. Best yaoi series ever, seriously. And there will be a sequel! And I still have seven more volumes of manga to read for the first time, and all ten to reread forever! :D :D :D

[Okay, I'm done being a giddy fangirl now. Maybe.]

Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi - Like Kaiba, a very strange series, only much much darker and overtly sexual, that nonetheless all came together in the end. Many parts of this show made me squirm, but I think I came out liking it quite a bit. One aspect I liked was how each episode jumps a generation or so, and you get to see the world's progress into the future, though there's not much emphasis on it, and it wasn't used as a vehicle to preach environmental values, as I could see a lot of shows using it. I also liked watching the relationships Rin established with the Maenos over the years. A good series if you like dark and twisted, as long as you can handle the not-so-subtle BDSM.

Vampire Knight - Not really an ending, since there will be another season. Aside from Kaname, things got ridiculously predictable at the end. I think this series is going into a spiral around Kaname's dark plans, which will make me dislike it, but hopefully I'm wrong. I like Zero too much.

ETA: Forgot to mention Slayers Revolution. It's so awesome, and it's got Xelloss, and he opened his eyes the first episode he showed up, yay! But why is it only 13 episodes?