meganbmoore | updatage type (Reply)

I love this icon, but rarely have a good excuse to use it, so I'm just using it cuz i feel like it.

Still haven't made up my mind about "Lady in the Water." Guess I'll see what others say and then decide from there.

I've been eyeing the anime wall scrolls at Waldens for a while now, but they've never had anything I actually wanted. Then i looked on a whim today and they had 4. One of the early cast of Naruto, a really, really pretty one of Kaoru and Kenshin(looked like it was based on the "Reflections" OVA) a nice Sesshomaru one and a pretty wicked looking Inu Yasha and Sesshomaru one. I only got the Naruto one for now, but will eventually have them all...I have very bare walls, currently. Partly because by the time I got unpacked, school had started and there was no time to hang my stuff up for a few months, and partly because I've been too lazy to go get myself a hammer and nails. Will have to fix that part, soon.

I also found out that the goth store in the mall has some anime stuff. I checked it out and it was extremely loud and cramped and I'd never go in there again except that, even though none of the anime stuff they had appealed to me, they did have some pretty cool fairy stuff, including what appears to be a new Brian Froud book.

Between 2 batches of comics and my reading future volumes of Naruto online(which I fully intend to buy as they're released, barring an extremely severe change in finances or future extreme suckage, neither of which seem to be in the future) there isn't an emormous lot of stuff in this update, but hey, I feel like it...

Novels:

"The Tale of Holly How" by Susan Wittig Albert (historical mystery) Even more so than in the first book, the mystery in this book is window dressing for life in the early 20th century English countryside. That said, I've enjoyed both more than the last few Robin Paige books Albert cowrites with her husband(those are still quite good, just not as good as they were) The Beatrix Potter aspect lets some things, particularly the animal society, work where they couldn't work otherwise, and actually makes it better for it. Currently debating whether I want to cave and get the 3rd book HC or not.

"The Fallen Angels" by Bernard Cornwell and Susannah Kells (historical fiction) A "sequel" to "A Crowning Mercy" this one is set considerably later, during the French Revolution. Apparently the names the CM have become family names, so I spent about a hundred or so pages adjusting to the fact that Toby and Campion are now brother and sistyer, instead of lovers. It has at least a matching, if not higher, level of quality to CM, but is much more digestible and doesn't have the difficult elements of the first. The end result is that I liked it almost as much as "Gallows Thief," which is my favorite Cornwell book. That said, as much as I enjoyed Campion and Gitan, I wish Toby and his quest for vengeance had received more attention, as opposed to being mostly just alluded to throughout the book. Still, highly recommended.

"His Majesty's Dragon" "The Jade Throne" and "The Black Powder War" by Naomi Novik (historical fantasy) First of all...yes, thanks to Elizabeth Tudor and Sir Francis Drake, not to mention numerous fiction and non-fiction books about and referrences to them, the title of the first book is eternally destined to be misremembered. Which amuses me greatly, as these books are set in a vastly different time period. The concept of this series is simple, and is largely kept good because it's kept simple. It's essentially the Napoleonic Wars with dragons, with the dragons being the sole nod to fantasy in the series, and aside from the dragons, society, manners and history are kept as intact as is possible. The first book is a look at warfare with that concept, with proper adjustments to war and strategies. The second is, as implied by the title, the first look at the rest of the world, and how different countries' mythologies about dragons, and how dragons in those countries are treated differently because of it. The "dragons are real" aspect also result in a rather interesting twist on the Mulan story. The third book, while quite good, largely rehashes the second in another country for the first part, but events towards the end more than make up for it. However, Del Rey put these 3 books out back to back, so I'm dismissing any problems with that as a first time writer with a three book deadline. Sadly, the books are assuming a more regular(read: ~1 a year) schedule after this.

Manga:

The area where the 2 batches of comics inflicted the most damage. However, there won't be another batch for at least 2 weeks, more likely 3, so the manga/tpb backlog SHOULD get whittled down a bit inbetween(though there was considerable damage done to this today when I used my Personal Shopping Day at Waldens to get the volumes of Bleach and Full Metal Alchemist that I needed)

I've also been reading at the huge(nearly 500 pages) Castle Waiting trade and am nearing the end, but I'll save it for next time.

Anyway, 3 samurai manga, all vastly different and all very good:

Otogi Zoshi Vol 1: One of my 3 most anticipated manga releases of the year(the other 2 being the long overdue returns of Vagabond and Priest) the only reason I didn't read this as soon as I got it was fear that it wouldn't live up to my (very high) expectations. Fortunately, I needn't have worried, as it actually surpassed said expectations. This takes place shortly before the start of the anime, chronicling the events leading up to it. Hikaru is considerably more girlish and less focused here, but is quickly growing up and maturing. The most important thing, however, is that we finally get to see a bit of Raikou, and why Tsuna and Hikaru are so devoted to him. Granted, even with minimal historical context, all you really need to know is that he's Tsuna's lord and Hikaru's brother, but he was almost completely absent from the anime, and it's nice to get to know the man behind the name. I also rather like the characters created for the manga, and fear their fate, as they aren't in the anime. *frets* My only complaint is that the manga is only 2 volumes...that just doesn't feel like enough.

Samurai Champloo Vol 2: The combined victim of school and my discovering Saiyuki this poor book has been lurking for quite a while(fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your interpretation, it wasn't alone...) The manga is even more irreverent than the episodes of the series I've seen, but the series had a bit of an obnoxious feel to it, which is absent from the manga. Which makes me happy(not that I don't plan to eventually see the rest of the series) Sad that it's only 2 volumes(looks at the entry above this and gives a sad sigh)

Vagabond Vol 21: Well, it took long enough(not as bad as Priest, but still...) It's Viz's own fault for continuing to put the book out monthly for months after Takehiko Inoue announced he'd be taking a break...they COULD have slowed production dowen and avoided the drought, but noooo...This volume basically picks up seemlessly from where we last saw Musashi before branching off to follow Sasaki Kojiro 6 or so volumes before the hiatus. It met expectations(which were high...I expected to be rewarded for that wait) and was fairly normal for the better Vagabond books(read: the ones that aren't the thankfully few that are just 200 page fights)

DVDs:

Dead Like Me: Season 1: This is one I've been meaning to check out for a while, and if I had realized sooner that it was from some of the same people as Wonderfalls, or had been told how similar in voice it was to that show, I would have made considerably more effort to acquire it sooner. The series description is that it's about life after death, and it doesn't get much more accurate than that, aside from maybe "the afterlife is a bureaucracy." While the main character, George, was a bit too obnoxious for me in the beginning, she grew on me pretty quickly(which, actually, is also true of Jaye in Wonderfalls) It's very clever and very funny and has an appealing cast, though what really makes it work is George's family's attempts to live without her, and her being unable to move on without them, much like the short lived Eric Close, Margaret Colin show, "Now and Again"(which I loved but most people have never heard of) Will be getting season 2 as soon as it's feasible.

Naruto: Uncut Boxed Set Vol 1: Aaah, Naruto...my latest obsession. While the dubbing isn't perfect(rimary problems are Naruko and Haku clearly being voiced by adult women) this is the first anime to tempt me to get the singles since Otogi Zoshi ended(but the singles are editted and the sets aren't, so...) it's like the manga, but brighter and prettier and with voices. Plus, being made AFTER the other Konoha ninjas have been introduced leaves more room for it to include those characters early on which is nice.

Saiyuki: Requiem: Pretty much a 95 minute episode, but a good one(despite the minimal use of Kougaiji) Similar to what they did with the Inu Yasha movies. Now I'm back in the Saiyuki mood...