Seimaden Vol 5

[meganbmoore]

So, Hilda was all “You just ripped my best friend in half because she had been turned into a possessed zombie and now I have to hate you for a bit even though I know you had no choice!” And Laures was all “If you must hate me, so be it!” and proceeding with the kissing-without-permission.

To which I was very “We do not approve of these things!” but paying attention anyway because there was outmaking, so I was pleased to note that Hilda was taking advantage of his Me Am Angsty Alpha Male momentto rip off his robe for the purely non-sexual motive of seeing how badly he was injured.

And then Hilda popped out that sword in her body because people as swords/giving birth to swords is totally what Gothic Shoujo Crack is all about and it possessed Roddrick when he took it, at which point, Laures revealed that the reason he took Hilda’s memories wasn’t to make love her him, but because he sensed World Destroying Danger if she stayed with Roddrick, what with the sword and all. Which, you know, is still pretty bastardy of him, but a slight improvement.

Then Zizi randomly stabbed Hilda to give Roddrick and Laures angst, at which point, Roddrick ran off with her and Laures went into the demon eyes “This…is unforgivable! I shall get my girlie back and dddeeessssttttrrrrrooooyyyy yyyyooouuuu!” Which we all know that I am not remotely susceptible to. Especially with Hilda waking up long enough to reach out and go “My love…”

OK FINE HIGURI YOU I WILL SHIP BUT I AM SLIGHTLY BITTER OVER IT BECAUSE LAURES STILL ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH FOR HILDA AND I DEMAND MUCH SUFFERING AND ANGST ON HIS PART, OK!?

Oh, and I think Zadei killed Tetius and then declared his eternal love while the castle was burning down and the dimension tree was trying to eat him. I might like those two if they ever stop being so stereotypically seme/uke. Tetius showed potential in the last volume, but it seems to have gone away.

There was also the backstory of Laures and Elis, where Elis is the daughter of Laures’s nurse and wee!Elis walks in on not-so-wee!Laures as he’s assassinating the uncle and stepbrother who were trying to assassinate him and declares her eternal loyalty, so they naturally grow up and have class forbidden love. And then the demon lord falls in love with Laures decides that Laures will make a good heir and arranges for him to be declared and outlaw and then decapitates Elis and keeps her alive and then taunts Laures with her head (A new use for cradling the decapitated head of a loved one!) so that Laures will agree to become a demon and fight him so that she’ll be free from her pain and can be reincarnated.

I feel that there must be something deeply wrong with me, as I spent this entire volume flailing.

In the afterword, Higuri You says that she gets letters saying that she should get rid of Hilda so that Laures and Tetius can be together, but that that wouldn’t work because Laures is straight. This amuses me because…err…aside from Seimaden and Cantarella, aren’t most of her works shounen-ai or yaoi? It also makes me wonder what she says to similar letters about getting rid of Lucrezia and/or Sancia in Cantarella.

My current goal is to finish this, X/1999, and Godchild by the end of the year. I’m not sure that’s a wise goal. It also depends on whether or not Rightstuf sends me vols 8-9 of Seimaden, and how long they take to get here.

PS-Am this close to waging sound war with the people in the apartment below me.

Comments

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Ah, Semaiden, that brings back memories.

BTW, have you ever read Please Save My Earth?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Heard of it, but nope.

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, if you haven't you definitely should. It's a huge classic of shoujo, and not only that, it's science fiction as well.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Isn't there a rape early on with the main pairing or something?

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

It's not early on, and it depends how you define "main pairing" (I know you hate spoilers, so it's difficult to talk about it without going into that). It's not handled in the typical shoujo way (think Shinjo Mayu, for example), though.