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. :)

SO HOW ABOUT THAT LAST FRINGE EPISODE. Ijdk, you guys. On the one hand, I could not help but get all misty-eyed and happy-faced at that last scene. On the other, yeah, I am of very mixed feelings about Olivia's decision.

( Spoiler cut! )

Anyway, regardless of all that, "They hid the universe from me. :|" is going down as one of the most epic Fringe quotes of all time, imo. XD;

So I just finished watching True Blood S4 and I'm actually KIND OF MAD, lol. Idek you guys, I was pretty fucking pissed about ( spoiler ), but at least I saw that coming from a mile away, and I could have gotten past it. (And the results of that may be... uh, interesting, to boot.) But ( spoiler ). WHAT THE FUCK. THAT WAS SO FUCKING RANDOM. WHY WOULD YOU EVEN FUCKING DO THAT. IT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE. GODDAMN.

Fuck you, True Blood writers. No srsly, fuck you. I've mostly been merely hilaritized by all your shock-factor camp writing, which is the reason I've watched the show to this point, but you've taken this shit too far. This was just completely random and pointless. Fuck.

(And I notice the characters you just ( spoiler ) Don't think I don't see what you did there.)

Idek if I want to watch the next season. I'm curious as to what happens to Lafayette, but lord knows they're just going to make him as miserable as possible, so I'm not sure there's any point.

Uh... BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, I guess? Also I'm just reposting my review, idk guys, I am dying of TOO MUCH TO DO. (Not that I have all that much to do. I just tend to discombobulate into a scattered mess at the least hint of frustration.)

Witch Eyes by Scott Tracey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3 1/2 stars. Really fun YA paranormal with a touch of romance. Follows fairly standard patterns (except for, y'know, the whole pairing being two dudes thing, which is unfortunately scarce in YA).

Although the structure and story-beats are pretty straightforward for the genre, there are some pretty distinctive and original flares, I think. I, at least, haven't seen this sort of almost abstract and impressionistic approach to magic in a paranormal before. Pacing's a bit uneven, and I think Braden suffers from excessive bouts of too-stupid-to-live seemingly just for the sake of conflict, but this is fresh and fun enough that I'd recommend it for anyone who enjoys paranormal YA.

Oh, and btw - this is clearly the start of a series, and while there is a solid conclusion to this book, it leaves a lot hanging, too. I don't see that as either a good or a bad thing, but y'know, seems like a good thing to note.

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Basically I agree with most of what Rachel said - it's nothing extrodinary except in that the central couple are gay dudes. It was, otoh, a fun read, and I look forward to the next book.

Okay guys, I have like a bajilionity book quote reviews unquote since the last time I did a book post, but I'm going to post this one separately because it deserves special attention! And by that I mean I want you all to go read it and then COME BACK AND TALK TO MEEEE omg I want to babble senselessly about this book with people so bad. :(

(It's not out in the US yet. I was so excited to get the new Oyeyemi that I ordered it from Europe on Abebooks, errrr. But if you're in the US and want to wait until late September, here it is on Amazon!)

Mr. Fox's frame story takes place in the 1930s. It's about this jerk, St John Fox, who's a writer with a propensity for killing off all his heroines in ridiculously gruesome ways. His long-absent muse, Mary Foxe, shows up to berate him for being such an asshole - he's a killer, she says, and she doesn't want him like this. He protests! He's not an asshole! It's not like he's actually killing these fine ladies! It's all just games, don't you understand, it's not like it means anything! So Mary challenges him to another game: they each take turns ensnaring each other in stories - stories that ignore the constraints of time and location and reality - where they play the main characters. Through this game Mary hopes to teach him a lesson. Eventually, Mr. Fox's wife, Daphne, gets involved, thinking he's having some kind of affair.

You guys, THIS BOOK. It's really great. It was also very familiar to me on this uncanny, semi-subconscious level - like, YES, I recognize this, these things, they're in my head too! It has been many years since a book touched me on such a personal level. I think the only book that's ever been more eerily familiar to me than this was The Etched City. (...Although I hasten to add that the two books are not particularly alike at all. I do think there's a good chance that if you like one, you'd like the other, considering they're both from the weirder side of the tracks, and they're both very good.)

Helpful note: It helps to be familiar with Bluebeard/Fitcher's Bird/Mister Fox/other fairy tales following the Bluebeard motif going into this book. Also, Reynardine.

My quote review unquote from goodreads:

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I don't know, I don't know, I don't knowwwww. The more deeply a book touches me, the less I know how to say anything about it. My reaction to this book is kind of like how I feel when I look at the moon; I'm full of all these senseless impulses, I want to eat it, I want to breathe it. It should be cool and bright in my mouth. Every word is luminous and strange and wonderful. I want everyone in the world to read it and love it like I do and talk about it so I can consume all their thoughts, too.

I know this tells you absolutely nothing about what this book was about. How am I supposed to convince people to read it? I just don't even know how to talk about it. It was a novel, and it was also a collection of short stories, and it was about a lot of things like love and creativity and muses and Bluebeard and the nastiness (and laziness) of the tradition of killing off heroines for dramatic impact. It was also wonderful, and you should all read it and talk about it so I can eat your thoughts.

Incidentally I almost wish I had waited for the US hardcover to come out and gotten that edition, because although the Picador edition is made of what looks and feels like high-quality materials, it's designed somewhat poorly so you have to almost wrestle the book open and pin it down to read it, and now there's all this wear on my copy when I'm usually really gentle on books. I don't really mind when this happens with a really cheap paperback, but this wasn't cheap. But if I had waited, I wouldn't have been able to read it for another whole two months, and that would have been TERRIBLE. What if I died tomorrow? Then I would have lived my whole life never having read this book. Horrors!

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Other things I am watching so far this season:

Dantalian no Shoka - This pretty much has no plot to speak of so far, but it's so atmospheric and the music is so pretty that it doesn't need one. I mean, I kind of don't know why they bothered with a plot at all - just random scenes of Dalian being cute and Hugh being charming and the occasional book-monster running around with pretty backgrounds and lovely music would have been fine. It sort of lulls me into this mellow, blissed out state. I get drowsy watching it not because it's boring, but because it's so soothing.

(...I suppose I should note here, lest you get the wrong idea from all my talk about it being soothing, that this is a horror/mystery show with some fairly gruesome scenes? Idek okay.)

Oh! And ep 4 had Dalian being a BL fangirl. Also ship wars. And another BL fangirl going all Misery on some poor author's ass. And Dalian deciding to write fix-it fic when her precious gay pairing had a cop-out straight ending. BL FANGIRLS. ENGAGING IN SHIP WARS SINCE THE 1930S.

Mawaru Pengindrum: Continues to be bizarre and entertaining and incredibly stylish, although I want more Himari! Ringo is interesting and all, but...


Aaaand I just discovered that Natsume Yuujinchou S3 has already started broadcasting! Somehow I missed that. Just watched the first 2 eps, and it continues to be the cute, whimsical and languid show the first 2 seasons were.

Along with No. 6, that makes FOUR ANIME SERIES worth watching this season?! UNPOSSIBLE. Oh, anime, how I've missed you. ;_____________;


Shows that I have watched which I don't really recommend:

Blood C: This is the latest installment in the Blood franchise (Blood the Last Vampire, Blood +, etc.) I've watched 4 episodes of this so far and it continues to be dead boring, and yet somehow I just keep watching more? Idk. The one good thing I can say for it thus far is that it has some really awesome and creative monster designs.


Mayo Chiki!: I only watched 5 minutes of this. Seriously, anime industry, you are pissing me the fuck off. You give me one of my greatest kinks - A LADY BUTLER, FOR GOD'S SAKE - and make her the heroine of a show, and you make the show a piece of disgusting moe crap. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.

So like. A week or two ago I watched the first few episodes of No. 6 thinking it was going to be yet another crappy excuse for slashy boys, because sometimes those are fun, right. But then it was like. WHAT. DID I JUST WATCH. THIS IS ACTUALLY LIKE. GOOD?!! Also: EVEN GAYER THAN ADVERTISED, HOLY CRAP.

No. 6 is a futuristic dystopian sci-fi (with serious BL aspirations) crossed with an episode of Fringe (also with serious BL aspirations), running in the famous noitaminA time slot. Also, why aren't you watching it right now. Seriously, what is wrong with you.

Premise: When Nezumi (Rat) and Shion are both 12, Shion loses his chance at the high life by helping Nezumi, who'd escaped from a correctional facility, evade capture. In return, when Shion later gets into seriously deep shit, Nezumi shows up to save him. (He knows Shion's in trouble on account of his ARMY OF ROBOTIC RATS THAT SPY ON THE CITY FOR HIM.) Oh yeah, and there are also creepy parasite wasps that hatch in your body and cause you to age and die in a matter of minutes as they burrow out of your neck. Idek.

Here's the opening, which is awesome.

This is Nezumi.



He's a rather violent chap who's in a CONSTANT HAM-OFF with the ENTIRE UNIVERSE (which, as moonsheen pointed out, he wins by virtue of having his VERY OWN ARMY OF ACTUAL ROBOTIC RAT SPIES), and waves his arms around so exuberantly and grandly it's a miracle he doesn't put someone's eye out. He's also a Shakespearean actor and literature nerd. I feel this explains so much about his personality.

( Mildly spoilery evidence )


This is Shion.



He's a sweet kid. He's the naive and sheltered genius type. If you can ignore the fact that he reacts COMPLETELY INAPPROPRIATELY AND FEARLESSLY to life-threatening situations, you might be tempted to think him the only sane character in this show. MISTAAAAAKE.



(There are no sane characters in this show.)

So anyway, last night I watched ep5 of this show, and I legit cannot interpret this narrative as anything other than a romance anymore. I mean.

( They are... dancing... together. At the end of the world. IS THIS THE REAL LIFE. )

This show. THIS SHOW.

Okay, when I heard Ikuhara (Utena) directing + Hoshino Lily (BL author) doing character designs + cute... little... penguins? Doing odd jobs around the house? I didn't know what to expect, but somehow this is... EXACTLY what I would have expected.

SO IS THE FIRST EPISODE TOO EARLY TO BE EXCITED ABOUT THIS

B/C SRSLY THE ENTIRE EPISODE MY FACE WAS A CROSS BETWEEN "oO" and "8DDDD!!!" AND IF YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ME THEN YOU KNOW THAT THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I LOOK FOR IN MY ENTERTAINMENT

TRYING NOT TO BE TOO EXCITED

...FAILING

OMG NEXT EPISODE WHERE

So it's time for another THINGS WHAT I HAVE READ post. I've been keeping more notes on what I'm reading since joining Goodreads. Somehow it feels more laid back there, like there's less pressure to write a "real" review. (...Oh, and if you missed my post before, here I am on Goodreads.)

I'm copying these from Goodreads - they're more glorified notes and reaction shots than proper reviews. (In some cases, not even glorified.)

Spoiler: I REALLY, REALLY LIKED MECHANIQUE, Y'ALL. LIKE, REALLY. YOU SHOULD ALL GO READ IT RIGHT. NOW. Incidentally, you should also go stalk Genevieve Valetine's blog (glvalentine), because her bad movie reviews are absolutely hysterical.

( Notes on Mechanique, Huntress, The Ogre Downstairs, The Merlin Conspiracy, Red Glove, Pay the Piper, Steam Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories (ALSO TOTALLY AWESOME BTW), Teeth: Vampire Tales, Akata Witch, and Moonshine. Any spoilers are whited out. )
 

Fringe 313: O SHI -

Bizarre dashing of soap opera tropes into my sci-fi/horror, what is this??? Aside from that, I would just like to say that in all of the freaky-ass gore this show has thrown around, nothing has squicked me as much as this episode. WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME, FRINGE, WHY, WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU.

getitoffmeeeeeeeeee

Was weird to see an episode with Altlivia as the protagonist. I mean, we had plenty of episodes with her at the center of them, but she was still an antagonist in those. It was interesting, and I wouldn't mind seeing more of them. Also, Lincoln is the most adorable thing ever, y/y?

Lastly: BUG FANGIRL. GREATEST THING EVER. OMG SHE WAS THE BESTEST.


Madoka Magica ep6: THAT CREEPY LITTLE RAT. Omg. Guys, seriously, did you seriously not realize until now that you were being manipulated? (I guess I'm being too harsh. I reckon middle schoolers are so used to being manipulated it hardly registers.)


Star Driver ep 1-18: Watched the first ep of this back when it started broadcasting and everyone was talking about it, and I was kind of ambivalent. Went ahead and marathoned up to current in a fit of boredom last week. THIS SHOW MAKES NO SENSE. NONE. It's basically an incoherent collection of fanservice, bizarre and unsettling robots, sexual metaphors, and surreal references to other surreal series. But it is pretty hysterical. I mean, with GALACTIC PRETTY BOY* here to save the day, what could possibly go wrong?

*no seriously, that is actually what the main character is called, I am not making this up




Level E 1-5: Hilarious, mindless sci-fi/comedy. Not really much to say beyond that... I recommend it if you like that sort of thing.


Yumeikui Merry 1-2: Dig the concept (a dream creature stuck in reality), but the execution is a bore. The moe is a little overwhelming too, but I could get past that if it wasn't such a snooze.


Gosick 1-5: Kind of meh about this. I like the girl, but the boy gets on my nerves. Also the mysteries are kind of... well, as Victorique says, they're boring. It's pretty, though.

- New porn_tree challenge! This time merikuru is running it. Come, leave prompts, write!

- Any recommendations on vintage hardboiled detective fiction? Preferably short stories, preferably free. So far I've read The Maltese Falcon, The Dain Curse, and part of The Big Sleep and Red Harvest, and Arson Plus, but those are all novels except for Arson Plus (well, Dain Curse and Red Harvest are only sort of novels I guess), and I want some short examples.


- Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Uh, unexpected show to watch?! So much wtf. Dark, dystopian, surreal... little magical girls. Along with prerequisite magical girl lesbian undertones! Whatever the animators are smoking, I WANT SOME. Although I somewhat fear that this series will end in horrible gruesome tragedy.



eta: apparently youtube embeds are not working on DW today??? Uh, here's the link.

BONUS! Yuki Kajiura OST.

Not so bonus: WHY WILL THE FANSUBBERS NOT RELEASE THIS IN A SIZE I CAN FUCKING PLAY WITHOUT MY COMPUTER CHOKING ON IT. I don't have much luck with anime at 720p to begin with, and this series is particularly hard on it with all that shit happening all over the screen at once.

Re: recent events in Fringe! (Wow, that was a good arc and all, but boy am I glad it's over.)

Now, don't get me wrong, I am all for focusing on Olivia at every possible juncture, but while everyone's worrying about her trauma, shouldn't someone... spare a thought for Peter? I mean, granted, the scale of trauma here is rather different, but I think what Peter's gone through is pretty darn traumatic??? What with him having been DATING AND SLEEPING WITH AN IMPOSTOR FOR LIKE WHAT, WEEKS?! MONTHS?! And yet.

Also, I am still kind of annoyed at the whole Peter never realizing it was the wrong Olivia thing. I mean, you just cannot play up a character as so smart and observant and as having such a keen understanding of people and then... have him so completely drop the ball. ( cut for brief spoilery rant )

Anyway, /tl;dr random rant about a show that is ~95% everything I could ever possibly want from TV. I HAVE A VAGENDA AND I AM NOT AFRAID TO USE IT.

- Re: Lost Girl ep 8: OMG. OMG. OMG.

( Spoilerific screecaps, NSFW. OMG!!! )

O. M. G. THANK YOU SHOW FOR LISTENING TO MY PRAYERS.

I hope it's not too long with the angst before they get back to... that.

(Incidentally, the sex scene with Dyson at the beginning renewed my curiosity as to WHAT THE HELL DON'T THEY ALLOW ON CANADIAN TV???)


- This movie. This movie, you guys. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE. (This movie had green dream doors. Universal unconscious, you are creepy and awesome.)




- Watched the first 7 eps of Undercovers, upon discovering it existed, which I only did because people were wailing about it being canceled. Woe! For it is adorable. Fluffy caper show with bickering married couple spies! And the leads are POC! WHY.


- Watched the first two episodes of this kdrama full of puppies and kittens and and all that is adorable in the world and also a perpetually drunk Jang Geun Suk giving a girl a cabbage bouquet. It is called Mary Stayed Out All Night/Marry Me Mary and I think my insides may have rotted out. You should all go look at darkeyedwolf's picspams of the first two episodes because they are hysterical.

So. True Blood. Addictive, inn't? I'm halfway through the second season and I've only been watching it for the past three days. It's almost CLAMP-like in its ability to keep you watching to find out what absolutely ridiculously fucked-up thing is about to happen next. It's like a soap opera, only with vampires and crazy ass horror elements and an actual sense of humor and, you know, all the sordid freaky trainwreck crap people actually want from soap operas but can't get because of network tv. (And it is. A trainwreck, I mean.)

You know what this show's problem is? Bill and Sookie are the least interesting characters out of the entire cast. They are pretty much only interesting because of their hysterical normality. The show itself even seems to realize this. Why are they the main characters?

I wish Lafayette and Tara were the main characters. ;; They're awesome. And - okay, uh. Am I the only one who finds Lafayette ridiculously hot? I'm just sayin', okay. I am ready for him to have an actual love interest instead of just a string of dirty old man clients. I hear this actually happens in S3. AWESOME.

I wiki'd for who was playing him (Nelsan Ellis) b/c oh my god that man can act his ass off? And incidentally discovered that in the novels, Lafayette dies at the point that the first season ends. Why am I not surprised, ugh. Black AND gay? Jfc it's a miracle he didn't implode on the page. =_=;

Anyway, in closing, Lafayette will, in fact, make you eat the AIDS BURGER.

Tip yo waitress~

*claws way out of hole, hissing at the light*

- So uh. Apparently bookcloseouts.com is having a sale. Any sff/fantastical horror recommendations, anyone? Can be children's, YA, or adult, doesn't matter, as long as it's at least marginally fantastical. Gay/lesbian content a plus. I've got $20-$25 dollars to spend and 6 books in my cart already, but I'm paranoid that there are books that I would like better than these books, can't make decisions for the life of me, etc., etc.


- Add me to the "OMG OCCULT ACADEMY IS AWESOME" bandwagon. Maya. Omg Maya.



♥_♥

To paraphrase inkstone, clearly, the reason the first 5 time agents failed to save the world was because they failed to team up with Maya. This show is stylish, ridiculously over the top, hilarious, and contains Maya, what more could you ask for?

"You're such a tsun-"

"SHUT UP! THAT WORD DIDN'T EXIST IN 1999!"

brb lolling forever


- Nurarihyon: omg, your music, why is it a blatant rip off of the Harry Potter films'?


- I uh. Kind of started a fifth k_b fic. (Anthy/Utena, vehicular.) Whyyyyy can't I finish anythingggggg.

- I finished reading The Alchemy of Stone yesterday morning and it somehow triggered a dream about an automaton. (Although a different automaton than the main character of said book.)

I don't remember much of it, but I recall that she had many masks for faces, and the one that she preferred the most was an elaborately painted, beautiful woman's face, with a stylized boar's snout in the place of a mouth and nose. There was a book cover that depicted a medallion on a long chain, and the medallion itself was this face.

- ADVENTURES IN BAD BL. Watched some more of Uraboku, despite being profoundly unimpressed by the first two episodes. (I blame Sakurai Takahiro. Stupid sexy Sakurai Takahiro.)

Well, it's still just as bad, but the action picks up and it's more in the hilaribad territory rather than the just plain bad. Also the animation quality improved somewhat.

There are bad guys in this show called mid-villains, you guys. I am not even kidding.



Well, son, I guess it's good you know your place in this narrative, but should you really look so happy about it?

(This becomes 10x funnier when you realize that the protagonist's guard dog/love interest is an "Opast", which translates to "Final Boss".)

Plus there's this guy that shows up and starts constantly wondering exactly WHY the protagonist keeps running off on his own, is he dumb as a sack of hammers, and hey, Mr. Seme, why do you keep leaving him by himself, are you ALSO dumb as a sack of hammers? SERIOUSLY WHAT IS WITH YOU PEOPLE. He's supposed to be tsundere but it's more like he's the audience's voice of reason.

Also, guys, guys. There is. A black pikachu. Named Sodom.



Sodom is. He's. The demonic seme's familiar.

I

I can't

dying, brb

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be watching from the new anime season. I er somehow I forgot most of what I was originally interested in. The only two things I've tried so far are Uraboku and House of Five Leaves.

Uraboku 1&2: Oh my god why is this so dull. Dull, dull, DULL. I watched the 2nd episode in hopes that it would pick up, but it was, if anything, duller than the first. It is so dull and dragging, not even Takahiro Sakurai can leaven it. Are we really so starved for BL-ish anime that even this will do?

It's like they pulled out the Book of BL Cliches and the Book of Fantasy Cliches and wrote everything out verbatim. "Okay, let's see... Reincarnation, kind and pure-hearted heroine hero, orphanage, scary uncontrollable powers, monsters from another dimension, dude that will protect the heroine hero at all costs, person who tries to hurt the heroine hero out of jealousy, ominous suggestion of upcoming catastrophic battle, the betrayer friend who wants to destroy the world... Do we have everything we need here?"

Guys, I have no problem with these things. (Well, okay, so I am a bit sick of "enemy of the heroine/hero who's really just jealous" thing.) I love me some fun BL and fantasy cliches. But you have to do something with them! You can not just plop them on a plate and serve them! You have to, you know, cook them in interesting ways, I don't know, PUT SOME SAUCE ON THAT SHIT, serve it with tasty sides! As it is, the characters are made of cardboard, the plot is also made of cardboard, and NOTHING IS HAPPENING. (Seriously I sat restlessly fidgeting all through ep 2 in hopes that something, ANYTHING would happen, and when something FINALLY did happen... the episode ended. What the hell.) Also, the main character irritates me like nails on a chalkboard. Yes, sweetie, we know you are so, SO ~*~sweet and good and pure~*~, now could you please tone it down a little, because I'm starting to feel the urge to punch you repeatedly in the face. Possibly this might induce you to actually show a little actual personality.

It doesn't help that even the actors' performances sound bored and listless. These are mostly actors capable of doing amazing jobs; the only explanation is that no one involved with the production actually gave a shit.

Usually in this situation ("this situation" being a BL-ish show with Takahiro Sakurai as one of the leads) I would try at least one more episode, but I'm not sure if I can bring myself to sit through another one.


House of Five Leaves 1&2: The new noitamA artsy-fartsy show, based on a manga by Ono Natsume/Basso. This seems pretty promising so far. A bit meandering for my tastes (well, Ono Natsume is generally a bit slice-of-life-y for my tastes), and the 2nd episode was a bit slow, but still interesting and different. Also, Takahiro Sakurai plays one of the leads, bonus!

Plot: Masanosuke Akitsu is a timid ronin who nobody wants to hire because his limp personality makes everyone think him unreliable. Yaichi is the leader of a group of bandits who make a living by kidnapping officials for ransom. Yaichi needs a bodyguard in name only, so he hires Akitsu; only Akitsu unexpectedly turns out to actually have skill and strength in plenty. Thereafter Yaichi sets about trying to get Akitsu to join his group.

Thing that keeps repeatedly occurring to me as I watch: "Is this really not BL? REALLY?" I just keep dot dot dotting at the screen every time one of the two of them start musing on how much he's drawn to the other. And that - that lovingly rendered scene with the knife. You know the one. DOT DOT DOT.

Well, I guess that's just the author's tendencies showing through...

ANYWAY, I'm going to have to expose myself as hopelessly pedestrian here and say that although the animation is very lovely and fresh and the art style is different and original, I'm not terribly fond of the character designs. I prefer a sleeker look, and Ono Natsume's eyes and mouths kind of freak me out a little. (The mouths! They take up the entire FACE. And the eyes. They like. HAVE NO WHITES. Augh.) So really I'm kind of caught between the satisfaction of looking at something visually different from the other 28394827394827 cookie-cutter shows out there, and being mildly put off on account of my boring need for a more conventional prettiness.

Well, it's not enough to keep me from enjoying the show, at any rate.

In less overtly enraging but still irritating news, after tearing through both S1 and S2 of Liar Game in the space of a few days, I am forced to admit that I sort of really really like it. This is galling! Because this show, it irritates me in so many ways! Most of them circling back around to the fact that it is the standard "dumb-as-a-sack-of-hammers, incompetent, yet ~pure and good~ girl who has to turn to the bad boy genius to save her" plot.

Seriously, why do you never see this situation in reverse? The dumb but sweet and pure boy who needs the big strong bad-ass lady to get his ass out of trouble? I am also irritated by the fact that the one example we get of a female genius is a stone-cold evil bitch who was always playing number two to the resident bad boy genius back before he was a bad boy.

And yet.

And yet.

SOBBB I REALLY LIKED THIS SHOW IT WAS SO MUCH FUN WHERE IS THE MOVIE OH GOD GIVE IT TO ME HOW DOES IT ENDDDDDDDDDDD



Liar Game is about a young woman, Nao, who gets unwillingly caught up in a game of deceit where players try to cheat each other out of vast sums of money; she, being hopelessly honest and trusting, gets cheated out of said vast sum of money, and ends up seeking the help of a professional con-man, Akiyama, to get it back. Akiyama reluctantly saves her ass. Only after he saves her once, she ends up needing saving again... and again... And now he can't get rid of her, because he's that sort. You know the kind. The kind that pretend to be aloof but are actually huge squishy woobies with ~feelings~.

Nao and Akiyama, man. THEY ARE ADORABLE. Even though I kept reminding myself that this set-up is a sexist cliche and it annoys the everliving shit out of me, Nao's constant ":D:D:D! LET'S ALL BE FRIENDS!" and Akiyama's constant twitchy-faced "DL:FKJS:DLKJ FLAILING WITH EXASPERATION UNDER MY STOIC MASK RIGHT NOW BRB" sort of snuck under my radar and hit me with the ship bat.

( Picspam pretty much sums up their relationship. )

Also, Akiyama is played by Matsuda Shota. Matsuda Shota is new TV boyfriend #2. His face took some getting used to for me, but his voice. It. It does... things. To me. It reminds me immensely of Takahiro Sakurai's Medicine Seller, and well, you all know how I feel about that.

(...Actually, it's a shame that this role required him to have a nigh-perpetual scowl, because he is about 200x more attractive when he smiles.)

Then there's Mushroom Head. Who stepped straight out of Scooby Doo. Constant villainous laughter and "THOSE MEDDLING KIDS!!!"-style lines included. Oh my god he is the most hilarious thing I can't even -



Yes that is seriously what he looks like. Greatest teammate/villain ever I swear to god. It's like he's Xellos, only completely without dignity.

eta: I have been informed that apparently in the original manga this character is... a crossdresser? a transwoman? generally genderqueer? After looking at a few pages from the manga, I am not clear on which, but either way, the fact that they changed him (or her) into a simply flamboyant man with a penchant for pink lipgloss in the drama is pretty... aggravating to say the least!

And then. And then. There's Kichise Michiko prancing around in a black pantsuit for the entire series. FFFFFFFFFFFFF



FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF what I wouldn't give for an entire series of just. THAT. The bodyguard stances and the little swagger and the cold, faint smile and alsdfj;alskj;al. (Why is this woman never a protagonist? Is it because of her positively evil-looking smile? BUT I LIKE PROTAGONISTS WITH EVIL SMILES COME ON.)

Basically what I am saying here is I need the movie like NOW jfc. I am highly intrigued by those shippy-looking scenes in the trailer, considering that for the whole series there have only been a few of the vaguest of implications that there might be something between Nao and Akiyama. (Although if the movie actually pairs them up I'll eat my shoe. This is the sort of series where that sort of thing is never resolved.)

WAH, didn't intend the long radio silence! Brain pudding, brb.

So anyway, there's this DRAMA. It's called Room of King. And you should all watch it! Only the last three episodes haven't been subbed, despite it having been out for two years already. SOBBB WHY

It's a very odd comedy about these nine people who get "scouted" by three bizarre real estate agents (one of whom bears an eerie resemblance to George Carlin) to share a ritzy apartment at low cost. This is part of some kind of game, and whoever "wins" the game - whatever that means - gets to keep the apartment all to him/herself and the others have to leave.

The premise didn't really sound all that much like something I'd like, but I checked it out anyway because my new tv boyfriend Mizushima Hiro plays one of the characters (Mori Jiro). But then! IT WAS BRILLIANT. It's actually really, really well written! It is bizarre and cracktastic, and also hilarious and charming, and touching in really unexpected ways. You guys, this show puts the biggest, stupidest grin on my face, for serious. It's feel-good in a really genuine, honest way, without being sappy (a propensity towards overabundance of sap being one of the things I tend not to like about Asian dramas).

The plot seems to focus the most on four of the nine roomies: ( cut for pics and descriptions )

They are all SO ADORABLE, you guys, I just want to squeeze them. ;; Seriously, WATCH THIS SHOW. Maybe if there was more interest in the damn thing it would get subbed faster. Look, if you don't watch it Moriji will cry.



SEE, HE'S GONNA CRY. HOW COULD YOU MAKE HIM CRY.

ETA: You can watch it streaming here, or you can download it at jdramas (you have to join the comm to see the posts).

Oh my gosh you guys, Cadbury owns my soul.

And now, for some books that I have read! (*) indicates 50books_poc eligible books.

*The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin (aka nojojojo):

I was a bit excited about this because it kept popping up on my f-list. I was kind of expecting a somewhat different story than the one I got, but that is not to say that I was disappointed. It was incredibly fun! A real page-turner. I tore through it in two and a half days, and this is book is a tome.

( In which we revisit why it's never a good thing to be favored by the gods. )

But anyway, overall verdict = CRAZY FUN READ, I recommend it.


Soulless, by Gail Carriger:

Another ridiculously fun read! This is a mashup of paranormal romance, steampunk, and Victorian comedy of manners. Basically it is about an acid-tongued spinster - who just so happens to lack a soul - having madcap adventures as she gets tangled up in vampire and werewolf politics (and also a bizarre scientific cult!) while attempting to navigate polite society.

( This book is *hilarious*, y'all. )

Verdict: If you like or at least do not outright hate the paranormal romance genre, and you like steampunk and irreverent hilarity, it's difficult to go very wrong here.


*Ash, by Malinda Lo:

This is the one the internet has dubbed "Lesbian Cinderella". Well, that is certainly what it is! The book's major conflict boils down to the heroine having to choose between the King's huntress and her childhood dream of being stolen away by the fairies. Kaisa, the huntress, basically represents down-to-earth, real-world happiness, while Sidhean, the fairy, represents forbidden attraction, escapism, the appeal of the dangerous and the strange, and all that jazz.

My feelings about this novel are rather mixed. ( Longwinded! And very vaguely spoilerish. )

Final verdict is, I do recommend this book - it was a very enjoyable read - but it was a little lacking in some areas.


Leviathan, by Scott Westerfeld:

You guys. You guys.



Deryn. Oh my god Deryn. ♥__________♥

So this book is set in a steampunk AU WWI and follows a teenage girl that crossdresses as a boy so that she can enter the Royal Air Force. A swashbuckling, slightly batshit nuts teenage girl. Do I really need to say more? Oh, and there's also a young mech-piloting Austrian prince, I guess.

...Okay no really, the prince was adorable and I loved him, but he was up against a crossdressing girl who throws herself off the side of airships to save people and holds royalty hostage with a pocketknife in front of enormous mechs, so I can be forgiven if I maybe didn't notice him as much. Basically what I am saying is Deryn is pretty much the greatest thing in the history of EVER.

( I do not even know what to say about this book, it's like being repeatedly punched in the face with AWESOME so many times I've been rendered insensible. )

Verdict: I have nothing particularly intelligent to say about this book because I am too busy FLAILING WITH GLEE. :DDD Why are you not reading this book right this minute.

Holy shit! Fumi Yoshinaga's Ooku won the Tiptree award this year! This is the first time a manga has ever won it, and, you guys, I srsly did not even know comics were even in the running. I don't know, okay, I never get the memo on these things.

For those unfamiliar: Ooku: The Inner Chambers depicts an alternate history medieval Japan in which a disease wiped out 3/4's of Japan's male population, and thus women ended up taking over most of the stations that men traditionally occupied, and men became carefully protected and valuable breeders. ("Ooku" refers to the harem at Edo castle; here it is populated, of course, by men.) This manga amazing and you should all go read it right now.

The Tiptree award is a well-known annual literary award that's given to SFF works that explore our understanding of gender and gender roles.

Ooku shares the top spot this year with Cloud & Ashes: Three Winter’s Tales, by Greer Gilman, which I am unfamiliar with but will have to check out. eta: Although now that I look closer, a related book of hers was recommended to me a while back.