SPOILARZ!

[meganbmoore]

Bleach ch -100: telophase wasn't kidding when she was reading this this morning.  Plot development!  In Bleach!  Even by the current arc's standards!  So, Aizen's plan, with Tousen and Gin as his lieutenants, has been in motion for this long?  Am I reading this right that he's somehow responsible for the creation of the Vaizards?  Or is it his manipulating whatever Urahara is up to?  (I'm sure all this will come together much better for me when I have it all collected into one volume and in my hands.  Not that that will happen for a few years yet...)  chibi!Nanao is beyond cute, though I'm not sure about that scene with her and Shunsui.  On the one hand, it was a bit offputting to realize that Lisa(looking exactly like Nanao) used to be Shunsui's lieutenant, because it almost made Nanao seem to be something of a replacement.  Having Nanao be a little girl who looked up to Lisa, and who Shunsui knew then, makes it a little different, as it then comes across more as Nanao trying to follow in the footsteps of someone she looks up to.  I'm not sure about Shunsui's comment about making sure he always remembered the names of young girls.  I'm choosing to take it more as flattering a little kid than as anything else.  But isn't Lisa the one who reads porn?  Lisa, is that why Nanao grew up to be so disapproving all the time?

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D.Gray-Man ch 161:  MOAR CRACK!  I'm not even sure what happened here, beyond lots of running from zombies and Allen hallucinating and Kanda demanding his sword back.  But it looks like Krory is finally waking up.  And is it just me, or did they lose Lenalee between chapters?

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Tsubasa ch 191:  That was so cute I think I have cavities. chibi!real!Syaoran is so serious and earnest that I want to smother him.  chibi!real!Sakura is just lethally cute.  I want one of my own.  I think this flashback arc is designed to make us love her, since we kind of haven't met her yet at all in the main story.  And Sakura's brother whose name I never remember...does he disapprove of CCS!Syaoran, too?  And Sakura named Syaoran?  And did I read her hesitation right as Sakura isn't her real name?  What?  Also, it is a sign of what Clamp has done to my brain that I didn't really blink at chibi!real!Syaoran saying that chibi!real!Sakura looked like his mother.  (Then again, he was 7.  To a 7-year-old, I think that's the highest compliment you can give a person.)

Comments

[re-weird.livejournal.com]

Tsubasa just continues to hit my id buttons. Yes, in the original CCS, Touya (Sakura's brother) did not like Syaoran at all. Real!Syaoran saying that was bit "uh...*ignores*" but you're right. He's a young kid so it makes more sense.

The pauses are indeed OMINOUS. I wonder what both of their names are? And for that matter, what's Yuuko's real name? Isn't it implied that it's just an alias somewhere? I have a feeling this is all going to be significant in some strange way.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, to most 7-year-olds, not only is your mom the prettiest person in the world, but "you're like my mom" is the nicest thing you could ever say.

I think Yuuko's name is an alias, yes, and I suspect Watanuki's is, too. And neither Kurogane nor Fai goes by their real name. (Also, as near as I can tell, Tomoyo is the only one who knows Kurogane's real name, which may be significant.) And since the clones, technically, don't really HAVE names, as they've been using the real one's names, at least one of which is fake...

[re-weird.livejournal.com]

Clamp seems to have the same motifs throughout a lot of their books such as doubles and finding out the truth behind the facades people put up. and losing eyes Especially in TRC-clones, Fai has a twin, otherworld versions of characters, Yuuko in contrast to both Clow and Fei-Wang as well as others that I can't think of at the moment. Ooh, wait, Tomoyo-the-princess contrasts with Ashura-the-king. And the whole journey was about the companions finding out what each other were truly like (though not so much for Kurogane except for perhaps his name). In XXXholic, Yuuko hides her true self behind her role as a Space-Time Witch, Himawari reveals her bad luck, and Watanuki just found out his own truth.

Hmm, maybe I should write a meta about all this instead of teeldearing in your comments!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

And the chibi-Nanao, with Shunshui's sort-of fatherly mien towards her, makes his subsequent grab-assitiude towards her later so much more creepy.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I'm telling myself he stayed sort-of fatherly coddling to her and then she told him to stop treating her special and treat her like everyone else, so he did. it's not exactly working, but I'm telling myself that.

*people need to start making cibi!Nanao icons...*

[sora-blue.livejournal.com]

Touya is the name of Sakura's brother. How he and Chibi!R!Shao in this chapter is very much like the dynamic of CCS!Touya and CCS!Li Shaoran. (I want to hug chibiTouya and never let him go!! Damn you, CLAMP, for inspiring shouta...)

R!Shao told Sakura his name in their meeting in chap 190, but she's the one who decided to call him Syaoran instead of "Li." :)

Of course, it says Tsubasa is now taking a "short" break. Great. Did anyone else chuckle and make a bad pun when Sakura gave Shao a lei?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I was too budy dying of cute for bad puns.

(Ah, forgot he told her his name in the last chapter.)

Clamp inspires many wrong things in us.