Hi! You may know me as woodburner. Or hey, you may not. Anyway, this is a mostly open journal - subscribe/unsubscribe at will, no need to ask permission. :)

Okay look, people. I can see how one might dislike Maria. I disliked her at first! She was amazingly obnoxious! ...True, over the course of the series (especially EP4) she managed to become one of my favorite characters in the series, but I think this is just proof that Umineko is kind of amazing.

But I digress! My point is, I can totally get you if you don't like Maria!

But all the flippant little comments I keep seeing about how awesome Rosa is for beating the shit out of her, or how you'd smack your kid around too if your kid was Maria? THAT SHIT IS SO NOT ON. >:|

i swear to christ do people even HEAR the shit that comes out of their mouths i can't even

deep breath

deep breath

okay.

On to less enraging subjects:

Book of Bantorra ep20: JFC BANTORRA WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME okay wait I'm not sure this is a less enraging subject at all. :((((((

I would say it was refreshing to see a series set out to disillusion all its naive, Pollyanna characters for once - I mean, these types always win! and it is so unrealistic! and here is a show for once acknowledging that hey, you can not turn the world into pretty pink bubblegum with the power of your will and love alone! - but the way it is playing out, NO.

Y U DO DIS. There better be some cop-out fix-it at the end of this series, srsly. Nolotyyyy. ;; You and Enrique were supposed to be BFF! Why did you tell him to believe in you if you were just going to go and get yourself offed. How are you supposed to teach him how to smile if you're dead. :((((

Okay let's move on to an ACTUALLY less enraging subject...

Durarara! I just watched the first 5 episodes all at once. It is incredibly bizarre! Def. one of the more unique shows I've ever seen. I... I think I really like it, although I am not sure wtf it is actually about.

So far we have:
- one (1) badass lady on a motorcycle with a conspicuous lack of a head (?!!)
- one (1) hilariously sociopathic information broker
- one (1) enormous black Russian sushi chef (...wait, what) possessed of a bad accent, inhuman strength, a friendly personality and apparent endless patience for the ridiculous way people run from him in the street (...oh, Japan), and...
- one (1) random superhuman dude with anger issues and a penchant for throwing vending machines.

In addition to these weirdos of mythical proportions (...literally, in at least one case) running around and tripping over each other in Ikebukuro, we also have three (3) normal high school kids, one (1) creepy back-alley doctor who rooms with the headless lady, one (1) secretive gang called the Dollars who everyone claims to be a part of but probably no one who claims to be actually is, and one (1) freaky unexplained horror-movie creature that runs around slashing people with a sword, and who freaked the headless lady right the fuck out, and I do not even know how to express how hilarious that was.

I may not have any idea what is going on, but it's all so terribly stylish and entertaining! And Mikado and Masaomi are so adorable! And there is a badass lady that runs around on a motorcycle kicking ass, AND SHE HAS NO HEAD.

Sora no Woto ep 1: I feel like Sora no Woto wants to be both K-ON! and Haibane Renmei at the same time. Which, I don't even know, okay.

That aside, it looks like it could be cute, but it's too slow for my tastes. I can usually only enjoy really slow-paced stories if they're extremely eerie, like Mushishi or Kino no Tabi.

The OP song: the first few bars had me going WHAT IS THIS IT IS SO FAMILIAR OH MY GOD and then the vocals started up and I was like "...why does this sound like Kalafina." Well, I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this. I just don't know how I managed not to know about this in advance.


Book of Bantorra continues to be absolutely incomprehensible yet strangely entertaining. I can't really get into it because the narrative is so all over the place - but after every episode I still want to watch the next one. Also, the lack of a real main character is simultaneously refreshing and jarring. The moment I start getting attached to anyone they disappear for several episodes.

Speaking of getting attached to characters, are Noloty and Enrique not the most adorable little things you have ever seen. THEY SHOW THEIR AFFECTION BY BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER. No really! I do not even mean this in the usual, "they pretend to hate each other but it's really just pig-tail pulling" way! THIS IS JUST HOW THEY EXPRESS THEIR OBVIOUS OTP-NESS ETERNAL FRIENDSHIP.



Noloty: LET'S SAVE THE WORLD TOGETHER K? :D:D:D

Enrique: ......w-what

That poor boy never had a chance. (Well, his "dominant trait is stupidity", after all.)

Also, EPISODE 12. JESUS CHRIST THAT WAS THE HOTTEST THING. Fffffuck. I didn't know anyone even ever HAD casual sex in TV anime.

( spoilerific hotness )

I WAS ALREADY THIS CLOSE TO SHIPPING IT

AND THEN THE SHOW WENT AND MADE IT CANON

...IN THE PAST

GODDAMNIT SHOW THIS ISN'T FUNNY

MAKE THEM HAVE AMAZINGLY MINDBLOWINGLY HOT PSYCHOTIC FIGHT SEX AGAIN OR I SHALL BE VERY PUT OUT

The Book of Bantorra eps 1 & 2:



This is a world where people turn into "books" (slabs of stone containing their memories) when they die; these books are protected by a group of "armed librarians," fighters with various psychic powers. A strange religious cult wants to take these librarians and their organization down, and takes humans and makes them into mindless drones they call "Meat", then using them as suicide bombers.

I'm not sure what to make of this show so far. It's got an intriguing premise and some awesome female characters - and, bonus, the librarians are led by a ruthless, nigh-invincible woman voiced by Romi Paku. (Who, I might add, seems to have been directed primarily to "sound like pure sex." She was more than up for the task.) But the presentation so far has been chaotic, scenes seemingly jumbled together almost at random, and the info-dumps are abrupt and glaring. Also, am I the only one wondering what's up with that bizarrely out of place bow on Hamutz's head? Seriously, I'm gathering she likes a bit of cute to go along with her bloody massacre, but that character design is rather awkward.

Well, it's off to an uneven start, I guess, but it's certainly intriguing enough to keep watching.


Tegami Bachi eps 1 & 2:



Not sure what to make of this one either. It takes place in a world called the Amberground, which is shrouded in eternal twilight. We start off following a man who transports letters from city to city across dangerous wastelands filled with huge and deadly mechanical insects. He arrives at a village to pick up a package, only to find the village in ruins, and instead of a normal letter, there's a young boy chained to a cross with a postage label stuck to his arm.

The world is delightfully surreal and the premise has promise, but so far it's been fairly rife with cliche. Oh, Gauche has a little sister at home with crippled legs, and he's trying to make money so that he can find a cure for her; oh, Lag's mother was kidnapped by bad guys and taken away to an impenetrable city he can't get into. There's probably a fresh way to do those plots, but so far, they're playing out in bog standard fashion.

(And on a tangent, it gets on my nerves that disabled characters are almost always portrayed as young girls, usually helpless characters that exist for no other reason than to give the protagonist - usually male - a person to project his desires to protect something onto; and when they're not completely helpless, they're still young girls, and are eerie and have psychic powers. I have rarely seen disabled adults in anime, and I don't think I've ever seen a disabled man, save for a spare few with supernatural afflictions and those dying of old age. Mothers are almost as often the endangered thing to save, which is also annoying, but that's another rant.)

Nevertheless, it's damn pretty, and it's been entertaining and sweet so far, so I'm going to keep watching for now.