a bit of anime and manga babble, a request, and a quick book rec

[meganbmoore]

Anime:

I've finally watched Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro and, while it wasn't nearly as good as other Miyazaki movies(Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke are very difficult standards to match up to...Castle in the Sky, too) it was rather fun.  It's about 2 young sister's who, along with their father, move to a new house in the countryside and discover forest spirits living in the area who only children can see.  It was cute(if odd even for Miyazaki) but rather like Kiki's Delivery Service in that while I wouldn't object to seeing it again, it's doubtful that I'll get the urge to watch it specifically again.

I've also watched the first 3 episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena.

  The manga was one of the earlier mangas I read, and I've been meaning to watch it for quite a while.  Utena interests me in that(barring underground, non-licensed stuff) it's the closest thing to straight out yuri(the f/f  alternative to yaoi) to come to the US, much less be relatively big.  It's essentially about a girl named Utena, who was fascinated by the princes in fairy tales, and decided to be one, as opposed to the princess, who always gets rescued.  She goes to the prestigious Ohtori(may have gotten that wrong) Academy, where the student council likes to hold duels with real swords, and the winner is the betrothed of Anthy, the Rose Bride.  You can guess who ends up engaged to her.  Of course, that's an absurdly simplistic description, but a proper description would require far more detail than I care to get in to.  In general, while I like high school mangas and doramas, I tend to be bored with high school animes.  There are exceptions, of course, notably Spiral and Full Metal Panic(well, the parts I like best are in high school.)  Though, I haven't seen Ouran yet, and I don't really consider Perfect Girl Evolution or Ultramaniac to be high school animes.  For the most part, though, I prefer fantasy and historical animes, and occassionally scifi.  But Utena is pretty interesting to me, and I rather like Utena herself.  So far, the only real problem I have is the same problem I had with the manga...the first is that I'm not very fond of Anthy...she's an interesting character, but I don't really care for her.  The other is that, at least in the manga, Utena(to me) really isn't romantically drawn to Anthy, just protective of her and fulfilling her role.  Of course, part of the problem with that for me in the manga was that, even though they weren't the OTP, I was shipping Utena and Touga(does that make me a hypocrite for all the times I haven't seen why people want to slash two guys who are canonically straiht, usually with at least one love interest thrown in?)  However, I'm only 3 episodes in, so there are 36 left to change my mind on both counts

Manga:

I caved to Fullmetal Alchemist scanslations and am midway through chapter 55(which I think will be around vol 13-14?)  I must say, I though Mustang was going to get to keep the "stupidest decision in this series" trophy a coule chapters ago, but dang...I think Ling is going to have it throughout the series after this.  Ran Fan will NOT approve.

Request:  

Manga-centric one.  I think forgottenpolishis the only other person on my flist who reads this title, but has anyone noticed vol 3 of Maki Fujita's Platinum Garden at Borders, Waldenbooks, etc?  It came out last month, but it hasn't shown up here yet and it doesn't show up in the computers here, and I wwwaaaaannnnntttttt it.  Can anyone look next time they're there, and maybe get me the ISBN, or see what it's listed as in the computers?  *big begging eyes*

Quick Rec:

Supernatural fans might be interested in checking out Rob Thurman's books.  Similar concept of supernatural fighting brothers, but in comparison to Cal and Nico Leandros, the Winchester brothers have had a light, fluffy angst-free life.  There are only 2 books out so far, Nightlife and Moonshine  The second(which I'm about 2/3 through) just came out.  I'll likely do a more proper rec later.

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Rob Thurman's books

Oh, INTERESTING! Do these books have some OTP going?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Nico(who is hot beyond words) has the ultra cool and collected vampiress, Promise, who is possibly the only person who kicks but with more style than he does(as Cal puts it, Nico's trenchcoat isn't a fashion statement, it's a repository for all the sharp, pointy weapons Nico loves so much) And Cal(who is almost as hot and has the angty-brooding thing down pat) has the very determined George, who he is rabidly opposed to hooking up with as he's part hellspawn(to put it mildly) and convinced he'll make her end up dead(not actually an unfounded fear) Unfortunately for him, she's a psychic which gives her more confidence and stalking abilities than he's capable of withstanding.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

I liked My Neighbour Totoro a lot, more than Kiki's Delivery Service. This particular anime reflects a bit of Miyazaki's own past, I thin, in that during the years he made that anime, his own mother had fallen terribly ill.

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know if Platinum Garden is at the stores yet but...

Da Gurlz Translations has done up to Volume 7, chapter 26. (They don't seem to have stopped the way most scanlators do for licensed manga.) http://dgt.glowie.com/
So you can always download to tide you over till you can buy it. :)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Actually I FINALLY tracked down the ISBN and we found it on the computers...it's one of those things where it's listed just wrongly enough that if you're looking for the right thing, you won't find it. What is it with me and books that don't show up on their own and have to be ordered?

I generally try to avoid scanslations *hides her Bleach, Naruto and FMA scanslations and SDK raws* but cave in at times.

[ladysaotome.livejournal.com]

I'd die without my HanaKimi scans - but I love having the hardcopies once they come out.

[gloryquest.livejournal.com]

I love Totoro and Kiki and, because they're fun and not so serious, I would and do rewatch them more than Miyazaki's other movies. :P

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I like them both, but for rewatches, I like the more complex stuff. Still, I'm fairly sure Miyazaki is incapable of making anything resembling a bad movie

[gloryquest.livejournal.com]

That's true, at least so far as I've seen.