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meganbmooreBefore I get into X, I watched the first episode of the jdorama, Teppan Shojo Akane, which I checked out solely because it stars Hirokita Maki(Kurosagi, Nobuta wa Produce) It's about Akane, a girl who runs her father's teppanyaki shop after he leaves. In danger of losing the shop, partly due to her own arrogance, she sets out to learn how her father made what's supposedly the best teppanyaki ever, and at the end of the episode, decides to set out to find him. I'm not quite sure if it's GOOD, but it was rather fun. It has the same over-the-top crackiness of Gokusen, Trick, My Boss, My Hero, etc....you know, the "I can't BELIEVE you actually managed to get someone who can do this with a straight face!" kind. It's kinda odd seeing Maki(incidentally, someone was mean to her early in the episode and I was all "wait, shouldn't that be illegal?") being so energetic and exuberant since the other roles I've seen her in have been much more reserved, but I liked her here.
Something that occurred to me while watching it(because hey, most of us can't see Maki on our screens without thinking of Kurosagi) is how DIFFERENT Tsurara in Kurosagi and Nao in Liar Game are, and how it probably affects our OTP involvement. In Kurosagi, we know that Tsurara will be OK without Kurosaki...she's a smart girl, pretty self-sufficient and generally pretty well balanced. On the flipside, we know that she's pretty much the only thing keeping Kurosaki from going off the deep end and that if she gives up on him, he'll probably spend the rest of her life in a deep dark pit of vengeance driven angst. In Liar Game, though, Nao, while incredibly sweet and cute, is about the dimmest and most gullible thing ever and we and Shinichi both know that she's a goner if left alone. For all we know, Shinichi's past is just as bad as Kurosaki's, but since his time is mostly occupied taking care of Nao, we don't dwell on it(yet). Short version is that in Kurosagi, the one we worry about is Kurosaki, who dwells in a deep pit of angst, and in Liar Game it's Nao, who keeps Shinichi too busy keeping her out of trouble for him to spend too much time dwelling on his angst. In both cases, the one in charge of the relationship is the guy, and while Shinichi, though not a nice guy, isn't about to be a monster and abandon poor Nao to the wolves, Kurosaki is somewhat likely to decide Tsurara makes him weak and feel too human and cut ties and take off, or try(harder) to alienate her. Hmm...that wasn't much shorter. This wasn't meant to be any sort of deep analysis or comparison, just something that occurred to me last night.
I'm also 8 episodes into X. What's it about? The war between heaven and earth to determine the fate of the world, angsty brooding near-stalkery boys, loveable dorks, obviously doomed love and really pretty pictures. And angst. It really likes its angst.
ETA: Just watched ep 9 and "Met" Subaru, if it were'nt for the fact that I tend to squee a bit everytime Sorata has a scene, I'd say Sorata had some competition as my fave. Subaru has that "unbelievably angsty and damaged yet too cool for words" thing going and reminds me of Aoshi from Rurouni Kenshin(odd how so many of the characters remind me of characters in other animes and mangas...even Kamui makes me think or Samurai Deeper Kyo's Kyo, if he were and angsty teen and wasn't all grabby, though I think that has more to do with Sorata reminding me of Benitora than anything else) except he doesn't have the whole "destroy everything in my quest" thing going(yet...it could still happen.
So, yeah, basically, X=angsty bishie central.
Something that occurred to me while watching it(because hey, most of us can't see Maki on our screens without thinking of Kurosagi) is how DIFFERENT Tsurara in Kurosagi and Nao in Liar Game are, and how it probably affects our OTP involvement. In Kurosagi, we know that Tsurara will be OK without Kurosaki...she's a smart girl, pretty self-sufficient and generally pretty well balanced. On the flipside, we know that she's pretty much the only thing keeping Kurosaki from going off the deep end and that if she gives up on him, he'll probably spend the rest of her life in a deep dark pit of vengeance driven angst. In Liar Game, though, Nao, while incredibly sweet and cute, is about the dimmest and most gullible thing ever and we and Shinichi both know that she's a goner if left alone. For all we know, Shinichi's past is just as bad as Kurosaki's, but since his time is mostly occupied taking care of Nao, we don't dwell on it(yet). Short version is that in Kurosagi, the one we worry about is Kurosaki, who dwells in a deep pit of angst, and in Liar Game it's Nao, who keeps Shinichi too busy keeping her out of trouble for him to spend too much time dwelling on his angst. In both cases, the one in charge of the relationship is the guy, and while Shinichi, though not a nice guy, isn't about to be a monster and abandon poor Nao to the wolves, Kurosaki is somewhat likely to decide Tsurara makes him weak and feel too human and cut ties and take off, or try(harder) to alienate her. Hmm...that wasn't much shorter. This wasn't meant to be any sort of deep analysis or comparison, just something that occurred to me last night.
I'm also 8 episodes into X. What's it about? The war between heaven and earth to determine the fate of the world, angsty brooding near-stalkery boys, loveable dorks, obviously doomed love and really pretty pictures. And angst. It really likes its angst.
This is one of those animes that likes to start full swing and let you catch up later as it explains things, but basically it's about the war between heaven and earth, with the representatives of heave, the Seven Seals, wanting to save the world and the representatives of Earth, the Seven Angels, wanting to destroy it. Between them is Kamui, who will either save the world or destroy it, depending on which side he chooses.
I rather like Kamui-he's not a nice guy and he has some anger and resentment issues, but he's not a bad guy either and he's mastered the art of angsty-brooding-stalkery-OTP lurking and staring. He mostly just wants people to give him his sword and leave him alone, but can't help reconnecting with-and in Kotori's case, taking care of- his childhood friends Fuma and Kotori. He could do with some anger management, but he's cool.
I also like Fuma, who's the "nice protective big brother" sort but is obviously headed for the dark side against his will. Kotori is a bit of a blank slate-nice girl bringing the angsty guy out of his shell, but obviously doomed to die resulting in her brother and OTP fighting each other to the death over it or some such. Her character design is also a LOT like Yoko's in Twelve Kingdoms(before she went to the other world), which means I keep expecting her to whip out a sword and take out all the bad guys. There's another girl who's name I haven't caught who I really like, too-the one with the ghost dog who's incredibly cheerful and sweet but has never had friends because no one else can see her dog, so they think she's a liar. She'll probably die, too.
Myt absolute favorite, though, is Sorata. He reminds me a lot of Benitora...the friendly, lovable dork who makes friends too quickly and easily for his own good and thinks the best way to make friends with a guy is to have a death match with him and then be BFF once they both live through it, and falls for the girl 5 seconds after meeting her and is declaring his love(though, unlike Benitora, it's the RIGHT girl) But(also like Benitora) scratch the surface and he most definately has his serious side, and "gets" responsibility and duty and is utterly loyal, even if the guy he gives his loyalty to doesn't seem to appreciate it(but really does and he knows that so it's all good) AS a child he was told that while it was his destiny to devote his life to protecting Kamui as one of the Seven Seals, it was also his destiny to give up his life to protect a woman, and he asked the priest to pray that she'd be beautiful. As soon as he met Arashi, he decided she was the one. I like Arashi a good bit, too. She's the "overly serious warrior woman" type but she and Sorata are great together.
And, like I said, it's really, really pretty, so expect many vids once I finish it and am no longer in danger of being spoiled(usually, I'm all for being spoiled, but for some reason, I don't want to here. Maybe I want to delude myself into thinking that certain characters will live through it?)
I rather like Kamui-he's not a nice guy and he has some anger and resentment issues, but he's not a bad guy either and he's mastered the art of angsty-brooding-stalkery-OTP lurking and staring. He mostly just wants people to give him his sword and leave him alone, but can't help reconnecting with-and in Kotori's case, taking care of- his childhood friends Fuma and Kotori. He could do with some anger management, but he's cool.
I also like Fuma, who's the "nice protective big brother" sort but is obviously headed for the dark side against his will. Kotori is a bit of a blank slate-nice girl bringing the angsty guy out of his shell, but obviously doomed to die resulting in her brother and OTP fighting each other to the death over it or some such. Her character design is also a LOT like Yoko's in Twelve Kingdoms(before she went to the other world), which means I keep expecting her to whip out a sword and take out all the bad guys. There's another girl who's name I haven't caught who I really like, too-the one with the ghost dog who's incredibly cheerful and sweet but has never had friends because no one else can see her dog, so they think she's a liar. She'll probably die, too.
Myt absolute favorite, though, is Sorata. He reminds me a lot of Benitora...the friendly, lovable dork who makes friends too quickly and easily for his own good and thinks the best way to make friends with a guy is to have a death match with him and then be BFF once they both live through it, and falls for the girl 5 seconds after meeting her and is declaring his love(though, unlike Benitora, it's the RIGHT girl) But(also like Benitora) scratch the surface and he most definately has his serious side, and "gets" responsibility and duty and is utterly loyal, even if the guy he gives his loyalty to doesn't seem to appreciate it(but really does and he knows that so it's all good) AS a child he was told that while it was his destiny to devote his life to protecting Kamui as one of the Seven Seals, it was also his destiny to give up his life to protect a woman, and he asked the priest to pray that she'd be beautiful. As soon as he met Arashi, he decided she was the one. I like Arashi a good bit, too. She's the "overly serious warrior woman" type but she and Sorata are great together.
And, like I said, it's really, really pretty, so expect many vids once I finish it and am no longer in danger of being spoiled(usually, I'm all for being spoiled, but for some reason, I don't want to here. Maybe I want to delude myself into thinking that certain characters will live through it?)
ETA: Just watched ep 9 and "Met" Subaru, if it were'nt for the fact that I tend to squee a bit everytime Sorata has a scene, I'd say Sorata had some competition as my fave. Subaru has that "unbelievably angsty and damaged yet too cool for words" thing going and reminds me of Aoshi from Rurouni Kenshin(odd how so many of the characters remind me of characters in other animes and mangas...even Kamui makes me think or Samurai Deeper Kyo's Kyo, if he were and angsty teen and wasn't all grabby, though I think that has more to do with Sorata reminding me of Benitora than anything else) except he doesn't have the whole "destroy everything in my quest" thing going(yet...it could still happen.
So, yeah, basically, X=angsty bishie central.
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Date: 2007-04-26 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-26 07:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-26 08:51 pm (UTC)Good comparison of Kurosagi and Liar Game. To be honest I don't really find them all that similar except for the part where both male leads are swindlers...
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Date: 2007-04-26 09:51 pm (UTC)I think that most of the similarities between Liar Game and Kurosagi are in our heads, really.
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Date: 2007-04-26 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-26 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-26 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-27 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-27 03:49 am (UTC)SDK anime is fun(and I know I've told you this a hundred times, but it's more "inspired by" than based on...must view it completely as its own entity)
I HIGHLY approve of getting the Otogi Zoshi anime. *shock*
You know, I'm not sure yet if X is really GOOD, but I am having a lot of fun with it. It's amazingly pretty(and has swords) and has an interesting setup and interesting characters, and it has tons of angst...seriously, it's angsty bishie central and you just KNOW that at least one half of any strong bond is going to be DEADDEADDEAD by the end, and it's going to be a long, dramatic, slowmo death.
Actually, I'm grateful they told us right off to expect Sorata to die(and I love that he's so accepting of it because hey, he'll die eventually anyway, and if it's to protect the woman he loves, then why complain? And have I mentioned that he's like Benitora, if he'd been smart and fallen for Mahiro right off instead of cutely crushing on Yuya for eternity? And more bishie) because otherwise I'd be all "nnnnnnoooooooooooooooooo" at the end.
But yeah, I'm having a lot of fun with it, but there's plenty of room for it to go fubar, and since it's Clamp, it probably will.
When are you watching SDK anime?