manga: Legal Drug Vol 2-3

I really liked the second volume with more of the short stories and the hints about the boys’ pasts. Though it did make me notice a trend I hadn’t noticed before in Clamp’s works.

( spoilerish )

I was much less enchanted with the third volume. I didn’t particularly mind the “pretty guy encounters all-gay boy’s school, everyone falls for him” aspect, though it didn’t interest me, but I’m really not fond of manga’s obsession with forced crossdressing for humor and fanservice. (I mean, I love genderbenders and series where crossdressing is part of the core concept, and am fine with characters who just prefer to crossdress for whatever reason, I’ve just never enjoyed the “boy is humiliated by being forced to dress like a girl and everyone boggles at how pretty he is” thing.) And even though I realize it was one character trying to freak another character out and probably not Clamp’s view on things, Nayuki’s line about how men are horny so if there are no women around, they go for what’s available, but the same isn’t true of women made me grumpy. What, men are always sexual and women are asexual unless there’s a guy around? No matter what context it’s said in, that isn’t exactly something inclined to make e care about a character, which pretty much made that arc wasted on me.

Still, I did enjoy the series and wish there had been more, though I still prefer xxxHolic.

manga: Black Lagoon Vol 1

This is, as near as I can tell, about mercenaries, the Russian mob, and insane, violent women.

The series focuses on a group of mercenaries who operate out of a WW2 torpedo boat called Black Lagoon. At first there are only three members: Dutch, the boss, Benny, the mechanic, and Revy the gun(wo)man. They’re soon joined, however, by Rokuro-renamed ‘Rock’ by Dutch-a Japanese salaryman who helps them after being sold out by his employers. Their main (only?) employer is Balalaika, a Russian mobster operating out of Thailand.

Balalaika may join Rafaela in Claymore as being one of the only two women in manga (that I’ve read) that I can think of who has a large, disfiguring facial scar and is still portrayed as attractive, and Revy manages to wear a teeny Lara Croft-esque outfit without the outfit itself coming across as fanservice-y. Not that the mangaka completely escapes the lure of fanservice. So far, our POV character is Rock, who seems to be a proper businessman not cut out for mercenary life until the comes up with an insane scheme that no sane person would ever go along with. I’m not sure anyone here could be called insane.

Though the setting, art style, and characters are very different, the overall style and attitude is very reminiscent of Blade of the Immortal. So far, of the things used to lure me in, I have been given and insane woman with guns, a scarred female mob boss, and maid who is a walking weapon of destruction with possible war trauma. I’m still waiting on the warrior nuns, the female Gojyo, and the blade nut.

(no subject)

OK!  I have crossposting successfully figured out.

That said, most locked and all filtered (though I don't think I've ever made more than 10 of those) posts will still be at LJ only.

I'm not going to disable comments, but if you do still watch my LJ, I would like to request that you comment there, just to help keep comments in one place.

I've also noticed that new people have subscribed to my DW journal who aren't also from my LJ f-list.  Hi!  Out of curiosity, did any of you watch my LJ, but not have me friended, or did you only find me somehow here?

The Faerie Path by Frewin Jones

Five hundred years ago, Tania, the seventh daughter of Oberon and Titania, disappeared from Faerie on her sixteenth birthday. At that point, time stopped in Faerie and the people of that world have since been wandering around in a constant state of flux. Today(ish), Anita’s boyfriend, Evan, takes her boating for her sixteenth birthday, only to have something cause them to run into a wall as he’s trying to tell her something important. Fading in and out of consciousness at the hospital, Anita learns that Evan is in a coma, and then that he disappears. Eventually, she falls asleep and wakes up in Faerie, where she is, surprise surprise, told that she’s the missing princess Tania, and engaged to Gabriel, a powerful lord.

The book is stronger than its premise, though Tania herself suffers a bit from the expected traits. But I very much enjoyed her conviction that it was a dream, and her wondering why she would do something like dream up sic older sisters when she was an only child who had never wanted siblings. The back cover copy builds up a triangle between Evan, Tania, and Gabriel, but there’s barely any of that. The “right” choice (as much as either can be the right choice at this point) is fairly clear all along, and the romance takes a distant backseat to Tania’s coming to terms with her past, and getting to know her family. I concede to possibly being more interested in her sisters than in Tania herself, though I’m not thrilled with how one sister’s plotline turned out. The worldbuilding is largely strong and interesting, if a bit too fanciful at times for my taste (along with some of the dialogue), and I like how most of the traditional fae elements and fairy tale tropes were used, though I wish they’d been a bit darker.

I’m very curious about the second book, which supposedly features Tania searching for Titania, who disappeared soon after she did.

Dollhouse 1.12

So, if I could erase the miracle catch and everything after it, I would like the episode?

( spoilers are conflicted )

In short, Whedon should have had Tim Minnear involved from the start. It may have actually been a show I genuinely enjoyed (as opposed to good actors and a lot of my narrative kinks being used in the worst possible way) that way. Maybe he’ll stay attached if there’s a season 2.