Of Swords and Parasols

Before 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.

Finished the Wolf's Rain rewatch.  Excellent, of course, but I'm not posting on it because there's no way to talk about ity without completely spoiling it and I'm not doing that.

Also watched Those Who Hunt Elves, about three people from our world who get transported to a fantasy world and have to strip elves to find pieces of the spell that will take them home(and-despite the description-it's almost completely non-pervy or risque) It's a very fun anime, and one that'd be good to randomly pop an episode of in(something I'm prone to do) but not one that'll stand out after a bit.

I also watched my firt episode of Inu Yasha in a long while(meant to get back to it-and some other things-back in the sumer but got sidetracked by these things called "doramas"...) It was a filler, but an entertaining one.  Downside?  It was a Shippo-centric ep. Bah.  Don't passionately hate him like some I know, but easily my least favorite of the main cast, and I prefer a fair number of the  supporting cast to him, too.  I mean, couldn't it have been a Sango/Miroku ep, or one with Sesshomaru or Koga?  Ah well.

I've had the first three seasons of Charmed in my backlog for a while and finally got started in on them(finished season 1 today)  While still quite fun, it isn't as engaging as I remembered it being back when I first discovered it and Angel on TNT a few years back...but then, before finding those 2 shows, my main exposure to urban fantasy was Jim Butcher and Mercedes Lackey, so maybe I just have different expectations for the genre now.  I AM enjoying it quite a bit and will start season 2 shortly(likely after a few more eps of Inu Yasha) but I doubt I'll get the later seasons.  If I were obsessively loving it like when I rewatched the Gargoyles, Angel, Dark Angel(will not admit to "EEEEE!!!"-ing when Michael Weatherly-aka, Logan Cale-showed up here as a warlock born to be evil who was trying to escape his destiny and be good) and Hercules episodes I'd already seen, yeah, but at just the "enjoying" level...well, I'm one of the few people who VASTLY prefer the show with Prue than with Page...not so much because of the characters themselves as the change in tome they bring with them.

But most importantly, I have a bright new shiny to fill up the Dresden Files sized hole that just opened up in my life: the jdorama, Liar Game.  Liar Game is about Nao, a sweet and VERY dim girl(and well aware of it) who receives a package with 100 million yen, a note, and a videotape informing her that she's been chosen to participate in a game where two opponents are each given 100 million yen and have to swindle the other out of theirs.  They have to give back the original money at the end, but anything over the 100 million they get to keep...anything underm though, is a debt they owe.  Nao's opponent is a favorite teacher from middle school, and she assumes he'll help her get out of the game, but instead she finds herself taken within about 5 minutes.  When she asks the police for help, she's told there's probably nothing they can do one the record, but off the record, the best way to get a swindler is with another swindler, and is told about a con artist, Shinichi, who's about to get out of jail.

Now, they BEST way to get me to check something out is to tell me it has an angsty guy with a sword, but the second best way is to promise me a GOOD romantic mystery/thriller, preferably with logical and mind games and so far, this is one.  It's being referred to(including by me when asking if anyone was checking it out) as "Kurosagi-lite," and that's pretty accurate...and is far, far from a bad thing.  Toda Erica is seriously doing her best to be the most adorable thing ever in doramas, and Matsuda Shota...well, I swear, that boy found some sort of magic pill or something between Hana Yori Dango and Hana Yori Dango 2, and he kept taking it for this. It's more about why Shinichi is doing what he's doing in his games than any actual mystery in this episode(and I like that, unlikeKurosaki in Kurosagi, Shinichi fills us in on what he's up to by telling poor lost Nao, instead of voiceovers and recaps after...which is not to say that one is better than the other, just that the different type of story makes explaining things easier)  

Shinichi and Nao are, seriously, the most squishable dorama OTP I've come across since Remote(which, come to think of it, also has an insanely cute heroine and a removed-from-the-world(though much more so) hero who tells us what he's up to by filling the poor lost girl in...bah, now I want to rewatch Remote, which ranks right beside Kurosagi for me...) I love how she was viewing him as her bright and shiny savior before she even met him(girl was getting a head start on that "blind faith" thing) and how he looks at her like this stray kitty he doesn't want to take in, but keeps checking up on, asnd then keeps, because only a big old meanie would leave a poor little kitty out there alone after it waited all night for him

But, seriously.  New shiny.  Happy Megan.