more E'S: Otherwise

Up to episode 17 now and still largely of the same opinion: likable, solid, but not going to win any favorites awards, I don't think. We've had a long of new psychics introduced, but I'm not sure what I think of them. All the kids are cute, but are scarily close to having "expendable" written on their foreheads. I don't really like Sherri(as in, at all..."she" annoys me) but Kyo seems ok(then again, I'm extremely partial to anime and manga guys named Kyo...comes from Fruits Basket and Samurai Deeper Kyo being among my earliest mangas) and Maxim is a good villain. Speaking of Maxim, what is it with anime/manga characters and "there's no point in killing/fighting you as you are now...it isn't worth it. I shall wait until you are back to your true power." It seems you can't delve into the genre without tripping over that(I blame my always noticing on SDK...it only shows up at least once every volume or so...) I mean really, you want the guy dead, go ahead and do it while you can. Don't wait until it'll be harder on you...Incidentally, I hope Maria takes a more prominent role soon...I like her, but she hasn't done much yet.

Also, what is it with anime and manga and negative portrayals of religion? I don't just mean christianity. The cardinal here appears to have at least somewhat good intentions, but he's also ruthless and ambitious and has no qualms at all about using small children to reach his goals, even if it hurts them. In Saiyuki, all the religious figures are either evil, weak or corrupt(or some combination) except for Sanzo and his (dead) mentor, and Sanzo himself is rather disgusted with the whole thing. And there are countless series where the Catholic church is the evil organization behind it all, or where shrine/temple or wandering priests and priestesses are either murderous, demons, sanctimonious and hypocritical, or weak and snivelling. They seem to outnumber the cool demon vanquishing/mentor/positive figure ones about 10 to 1. And then there are things like the religious arc of Rurouni Kenshin, which I think was rather well intentioned, but rather awful in it's final form...

But back to E'S for a moment...you know, I don't really ship Kai/Asuka at all, but they are canon and incredibly cute, so here's an MV.

"KILLJOYS | Season 2 Trailer" (Watch on YouTube)

And on a final note, why is it then in real life, all you find washed up on the beach are driftwood and the occasssional shoe, but in fiction, people are always finding cute guys? I feel this raises undue expectations in the hearts of young girls.

more E'S: Otherwise

Up to episode 17 now and still largely of the same opinion: likable, solid, but not going to win any favorites awards, I don't think. We've had a long of new psychics introduced, but I'm not sure what I think of them. All the kids are cute, but are scarily close to having "expendable" written on their foreheads. I don't really like Sherri(as in, at all..."she" annoys me) but Kyo seems ok(then again, I'm extremely partial to anime and manga guys named Kyo...comes from Fruits Basket and Samurai Deeper Kyo being among my earliest mangas) and Maxim is a good villain. Speaking of Maxim, what is it with anime/manga characters and "there's no point in killing/fighting you as you are now...it isn't worth it. I shall wait until you are back to your true power." It seems you can't delve into the genre without tripping over that(I blame my always noticing on SDK...it only shows up at least once every volume or so...) I mean really, you want the guy dead, go ahead and do it while you can. Don't wait until it'll be harder on you...Incidentally, I hope Maria takes a more prominent role soon...I like her, but she hasn't done much yet.

Also, what is it with anime and manga and negative portrayals of religion? I don't just mean christianity. The cardinal here appears to have at least somewhat good intentions, but he's also ruthless and ambitious and has no qualms at all about using small children to reach his goals, even if it hurts them. In Saiyuki, all the religious figures are either evil, weak or corrupt(or some combination) except for Sanzo and his (dead) mentor, and Sanzo himself is rather disgusted with the whole thing. And there are countless series where the Catholic church is the evil organization behind it all, or where shrine/temple or wandering priests and priestesses are either murderous, demons, sanctimonious and hypocritical, or weak and snivelling. They seem to outnumber the cool demon vanquishing/mentor/positive figure ones about 10 to 1. And then there are things like the religious arc of Rurouni Kenshin, which I think was rather well intentioned, but rather awful in it's final form...

But back to E'S for a moment...you know, I don't really ship Kai/Asuka at all, but they are canon and incredibly cute, so here's an MV.

"KILLJOYS | Season 2 Trailer" (Watch on YouTube)

And on a final note, why is it then in real life, all you find washed up on the beach are driftwood and the occasssional shoe, but in fiction, people are always finding cute guys? I feel this raises undue expectations in the hearts of young girls.

Myths and Legends of Japan by F. Hadland Davis(part 1)

 I have started reading this lovely and self-explanatory non-fiction book.

In it I have found, among other things, what I believe is the birth of shonen action manga.  In Susa-no-o and the Serpent, the titular hero randomly comes across a family being terrorized by an 8 headed serpent.  It also had 8 tails and trees growing on it's back, and was the size of 8 hills and 8 valleys(I guess "bigger than an island" or something like that just didn't take long enough to relate.)  Susa-no-o filled 8 tubs with sake, and the serpent drank them all and passed out(must've been really big tubs)  Susa-no-o then "drew his ten-span sword and chopped the great monster into little pieces" and as he was hacking at a tail, his sword caght on something, and he found a sword called Murokumo-no-Tsurugi, which he decided was a divine sword.  In other words, a guy with a giant sword(well, ten-span SOUNDS really big...) was wandering and killed a giant monster while saving people and then he found an even BETTER sword(but he didn't keep it...he gave it to the gods.)

I am positive that there is a manga or anime based on this.

I have also read the section on Yoshitsune(well...at least the first one, in case there's more.)  Apparently, when Benkei went out to get wood, he came back with pine trees.  Also, when Taira Tomomori's ghost confronts Yoshitsune in legend, he was accompanied by HIS ENTIRE ARMY.  Now, as much as I treasure my ghost Abe Hiroshi, I feel I would treasure him leading a ghostly horde even more.  I feel ROBBED dorama gods, ROBBED.  Oh, and apparently Oshitsunes jumping around like a little jumping bean in battles is also part of the legend.  But apparently, the Taira's are also really evil and villainous in legend, too...I prefer the more noble version in the drama.

I'm also interested in two stories that bear a lot of resemblance to Greek mythology.

As part of Izanagi and Izanami's legend, Izanami is ill after giving birth to Kagu-Tsuchi, the Fire God, and forbids Izanagi to see her.  Izanagi objected, though, so he lit a fire(she fled to the Land of Yomi, which is perpetually dark) and was disgusted because "his once beautiful wife had become a swollen and festering creature."  Of course, she doesn't go "oh my love, now we can never be together" like someone else did, and instead got pissed and sent demons after him.  It's what you get for not listening to your wife when she's going through post-partum depression and is a goddess.

There's also Yorimasa, where a monster was tormenting the emperor at night, and the hero slew the giant monster with his awesome archery skills.  The emperor kept the skin for all time(the thing was part ape, part dragon, part tiger, part serpent and part bird) and Yorimasa got a Special Sword and got to marry the hottest chick around.

Not exactly Eros and Psyche or Jason, but I couldn't help but notice some similarities.

I am only 44 pages in.  Expect more such posts.

Myths and Legends of Japan by F. Hadland Davis(part 1)

 I have started reading this lovely and self-explanatory non-fiction book.

In it I have found, among other things, what I believe is the birth of shonen action manga.  In Susa-no-o and the Serpent, the titular hero randomly comes across a family being terrorized by an 8 headed serpent.  It also had 8 tails and trees growing on it's back, and was the size of 8 hills and 8 valleys(I guess "bigger than an island" or something like that just didn't take long enough to relate.)  Susa-no-o filled 8 tubs with sake, and the serpent drank them all and passed out(must've been really big tubs)  Susa-no-o then "drew his ten-span sword and chopped the great monster into little pieces" and as he was hacking at a tail, his sword caght on something, and he found a sword called Murokumo-no-Tsurugi, which he decided was a divine sword.  In other words, a guy with a giant sword(well, ten-span SOUNDS really big...) was wandering and killed a giant monster while saving people and then he found an even BETTER sword(but he didn't keep it...he gave it to the gods.)

I am positive that there is a manga or anime based on this.

I have also read the section on Yoshitsune(well...at least the first one, in case there's more.)  Apparently, when Benkei went out to get wood, he came back with pine trees.  Also, when Taira Tomomori's ghost confronts Yoshitsune in legend, he was accompanied by HIS ENTIRE ARMY.  Now, as much as I treasure my ghost Abe Hiroshi, I feel I would treasure him leading a ghostly horde even more.  I feel ROBBED dorama gods, ROBBED.  Oh, and apparently Oshitsunes jumping around like a little jumping bean in battles is also part of the legend.  But apparently, the Taira's are also really evil and villainous in legend, too...I prefer the more noble version in the drama.

I'm also interested in two stories that bear a lot of resemblance to Greek mythology.

As part of Izanagi and Izanami's legend, Izanami is ill after giving birth to Kagu-Tsuchi, the Fire God, and forbids Izanagi to see her.  Izanagi objected, though, so he lit a fire(she fled to the Land of Yomi, which is perpetually dark) and was disgusted because "his once beautiful wife had become a swollen and festering creature."  Of course, she doesn't go "oh my love, now we can never be together" like someone else did, and instead got pissed and sent demons after him.  It's what you get for not listening to your wife when she's going through post-partum depression and is a goddess.

There's also Yorimasa, where a monster was tormenting the emperor at night, and the hero slew the giant monster with his awesome archery skills.  The emperor kept the skin for all time(the thing was part ape, part dragon, part tiger, part serpent and part bird) and Yorimasa got a Special Sword and got to marry the hottest chick around.

Not exactly Eros and Psyche or Jason, but I couldn't help but notice some similarities.

I am only 44 pages in.  Expect more such posts.

Myths and Legends of Japan by F. Hadland Davis(part 2)

Hmm...is it unreasonable for me to be annoyed that the author insists on using "knight" instead of "samurai,"  and used "doughty knight" to describe Minamoto no Raiko(who he never bothered to identity beyond "Raiko," but i recognized the stories from Otogi Zoshi)?  Despite their being distinctly european terms and thus having no place in a book about asian history and mythology, I doubt I'd be as annoyed if the author didn't freely use "sake" and "daimyo," or drop words like "koto" and "samisen" without context.  You'd think that if they were using those freely, they'd go ahead and use "samurai" as well.

After all the gushing over Yoshitsune, the author kind of glossed over the rest of the Heroes and Warriors chapter, which was kind of disappointing, giving the stories straightup and without background or context, which Yoshitsune received.  A large part of why it was disappointing was because the hero I was most interested in reading about was Minamoto no Raiko, and he was very glossed over and his retainers barely mentioned...only Watanabe no Tsuna was mentioned, and it was almost just in passing.  Plus, Raiko was referred to as a "doughty knight."

On the other hand, there was handing out of more Special Swords, which is always a joyous event, and in My Lord Bag of Rice, the hero, Hidesato, after firing endless arrows at a giant centipede, remembered once he was down to his last arrow that HUMAN SALIVA HAS MAGICAL PROPERTIES and he stuck the arrowhead in his mouth before notching it, and the arrow struck andthe centipede fell down dead.  It helped with the "doughty knight."

Myths and Legends of Japan by F. Hadland Davis(part 2)

Hmm...is it unreasonable for me to be annoyed that the author insists on using "knight" instead of "samurai,"  and used "doughty knight" to describe Minamoto no Raiko(who he never bothered to identity beyond "Raiko," but i recognized the stories from Otogi Zoshi)?  Despite their being distinctly european terms and thus having no place in a book about asian history and mythology, I doubt I'd be as annoyed if the author didn't freely use "sake" and "daimyo," or drop words like "koto" and "samisen" without context.  You'd think that if they were using those freely, they'd go ahead and use "samurai" as well.

After all the gushing over Yoshitsune, the author kind of glossed over the rest of the Heroes and Warriors chapter, which was kind of disappointing, giving the stories straightup and without background or context, which Yoshitsune received.  A large part of why it was disappointing was because the hero I was most interested in reading about was Minamoto no Raiko, and he was very glossed over and his retainers barely mentioned...only Watanabe no Tsuna was mentioned, and it was almost just in passing.  Plus, Raiko was referred to as a "doughty knight."

On the other hand, there was handing out of more Special Swords, which is always a joyous event, and in My Lord Bag of Rice, the hero, Hidesato, after firing endless arrows at a giant centipede, remembered once he was down to his last arrow that HUMAN SALIVA HAS MAGICAL PROPERTIES and he stuck the arrowhead in his mouth before notching it, and the arrow struck andthe centipede fell down dead.  It helped with the "doughty knight."