Of Swords and Parasols

A Bao

Watched the last Liao Zhai story, A Bao(mentions that it stars Rainie Yang as the heroine, as she knows several on her flist really like her)  A Bao is about a veterinarian, Zi Chu(take a guess how hard it is for me to NOT say "Zhi Shu" here, ISWAK fans...) who sees the daughter of a wealthy family, A Bao, and falls in love with her after seeing her put an arrogant suitor in his place, and later sees displays of her intelligence.  As "luck" would have it, said suitor injured her pet bird, and the bird is sent to him to get it's wing fixed.  Eventually they're able to meet at a fair when he helps her maid(who brought the bird to him) and become friends(clearly headed towards more).  The rejected suitor(who, incidentally, is too obnoxious for words and deserves a far worse fate than he received), though, is unwilling to accept defeat and has his nurse mother(nanny equivalent, I assume) who is a sorceress place a curse on A Bao so that every day, her memory is reset to the morning she met Zi Chu, and so she doesn't remember him, even the few times she's able to regain her memories, she loses them againthe next day.  So every day, Zi Chu "meets" her and they become friends, and then the next morning, she's forgotten about him.

Eventually, of course, he's able to break the spell(with help) but not only is her father not happy with the idea of his daughter marrying a poor veterinarian, but the suitor is still having rejection issues.

Liao Zhai in general

With one exception(Painted Skin) the 6 stories in this volume of Liao Zhai(there are 500 Liao Zhai stories total, I believe, but there are 2 more series-one with another 6, the other with 4-coming out soon) are romances with supernatural elements. The stories don't feel remotely repetitive or formulaic to me(though I can see that Chinese Paladin drew heavily on these stories at times) but fell into 2 categories: two young lovers meet and fall in love, and then supernatural forces intercede to separate them and they have to conquer them, or a woman of supernatural origins falls in love with a mortal man and she has to protect him from both earthly and supernatural forces, while he tries to protect her and her humanity, such as it is, and save her from other supernatural forces coming to punish her.  Not EXACTLY the stories, but close enough to give you a general feel.

But, basically, they're supernatural, "True love conquers all'(or at least, tries its best) romances with a supernatural twist.  Also?  They almost all manage to get through the piles of angst dumped on them and end HAPPILY.  Which was a pleasant surprise because I was thinking I'd get maybe one happy ending out of the lot.

Anyway, very good series, much recommended.

Liar Game

My download tried to beat me, but hardsubs saved me.  I ADORED the best yet. 

winterspel posted a picspam, including the...uhm...visual highlight of the episode *whistles* yesterday.  But really, as usual, the whole thing was squee worthy.  I had(as most did, I'm sure) guessed who the real X was, and about the teams, already, but it was handled well, as was Akiyama's exposing it.  Also?  How awesome was it when he was exposing X and doing his superior, gloating bit and when he got to the part about how they were all greedy and untrusting he stops and turns to Nao and his voice, face, body language, etc. all change and he goes "You don't count.  I already know you're a special case." then goes right back to sticking it to X(and the other contestants) once he was through taking care of the important stuff.  *flails*  (Why don't I have a flailing icon?  Sigh...)  And the S&M conversation, and his face at her naivette(and hers during the whole thing) too perfect.  *almost couldn't care less about plot at this point*

 

I have mixed feelings about the second Liao Zhai story.  On the one hand, the plot of Painted Skin was interesting and, if I'm honest, the acting and production are better than in Xiao Qian(though, to be fair, it's easier to have higher production values on an understated-visually-ghoststory than on a magic ridden romantic fantasy...same portion of funding goes a lot further)  The problem?  The short version is "no matter how it ended, the monster would have won."

Here's the basic set up.

At the beginning of the story, Chu Hui, the wife of a scholar and painter, Wang An Xu, fears that her maidservant was has been with her since they were young, is in love with her husband.  Worried the girl will try to seduce him, she frames her for theft so that it will seem she has no choice but to cast her out.  She planned to "forgive" the girl and take her back so that the girl's gratitude would keep her away from Wang, but that night, the girl drowns herself in a well out of  despair.  We soon learn, though, that Chu Hui apparently had cause to be concerned, as it seems they either were having an affair, or were about to.  Shortly after that, Wang encounters a woman who greatly resembles his deceased lover, San Niang, who he murdered while courting Chu Hui because she had his baby and wanted him to take responsibility for it.  The two become lovers, and one night when he sneaks over to visit her, he sees her painting her face to hide terrible burn scars and realizes that she's the ghost of his deceased lover who has come back for revenge.  The only other main character is Yi Ming, a relative of Chu Hui's who falls in love with sa Niang.  I'd rather like him, if it weren't for the fact that he doesn't see anything odd about selling paper made out of the skin of women(I mean, where did he GET the stuff, anyway?)


All that said, 12 episodes and 2(of 6) stories in, I'm VERY much liking this series.

I also watched ep 3 of Liar Game last night(the subs coming out so much later than the first 2 weeks was so hard and such a good reminder of why I usually wait until doramas are finished to watch)  And, well...just EEEEE!!!

I mean, come on, yeah, the thing has huge plot holes(though, I rather like the simplicity at times and the fdact that it always lays things out for us...makes the clever moves stand out more)  but how beyond adorable is the OTP, anyway?  Like when the second Nao starts to look lost, Akiyama's OTP sense starts tingling heads right over.  Oh sure, he stops himself as soon as he realizes someone else will fill her in-and stays almost exactly a foot behind her in case he's needed(staking his claim much?)  And of course, his gesturing for her to come over when she's wandering around fretting herself to death.  And I love that, even though we already KNEW, he flat out told her that the only reason he tracked down the meeting place was so he could get her out before she could get into trouble(and I dare anyone to tell me they didn't "EEEE!!!" when he said "lets get out of this mess together."-rough quote, but it was "let's get out of this together.")  And that look on his face after she told her his plan and she bolted off to get 6 more members was so "I need to just put her on a leash so I can keep her out of trouble"(though, of course, the fangirls wish he'd keep her out of that kind of trouble other ways) and then when she actually got 6 guys and he was all "how did you do that?"(they can't resist the kitty any more than you can, that's how)  Though, really, he shouldn't let the poor thing fret so much...I keep worrying she'll literally fret herself to death.  Have I mentioned lately that he's mastered the art protective hovering without invading personal space.

Side note:  The "bad chick"?  She also played the smart chick in constrast to Erica Toda's lovable(but very different) ditz in GalCir.  Of course, they ended up snarky BFF there, and I really doubt that'll happen here.

And finally, when the guy asked if Akiyama was Nao's boyfriend(see? NO ONE has any doubts about why the man is there) that girl protested WAY too much for anyone to ever believe her...if he'd been there, he would have been rolling his eyes and wondering why he didn't just cart her out of there at the start.

*scampers off to bed because she has to go to work in the morning*

*promises to try not to spam LJ so much tomorrow...err...later today*

12 X Witch Hunter Robin
16 X Blade of the Immortal
25 X Chinese Paladin
7 X Liar Game


Teasers:

   

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.

This is all "EEEEEE!!!" stuff because, hey, who cares about the plot(ok, I do) Nao/Shinichi are just too cute for words.

This post is huge-a little over 60 pages-because one of the important things about the series is that Shuri, the hero, is actually perfectly primed to turn into the villain of the series, and the only thing that keeps him from walking that path is his love for Sarasa, and  some of this volume emphasizes how carefully he's treading that line, and how close he is to crossing it.  As Yumi Tamura points out in one of her notes, if you think he's a nice guy underneath, you're naive.  As we see in this volume, he hasn't been allowed to be nice since birth.  He is, however, a good-if ruthless and ambitious-man at his core, and the bit of that that's been able to survive is what falls in love with Sarasa. I also find the relationship behind Ageha and Shido fascinating(in part because of of Ageha's later relationship with Shido's fiance, Senju) so there's a fair bit of that.

ETA: EEEE!!! Liar Game ep 2 raws are out!  *squees over preview pic and DLs in hopes the ep will also get softsubs*

To give the scanslators their due, as I'm flooding my LJ with their hard work:

15 x Basara
5 x Fruits Basket/Furuba
20 x Samurai Deeper Kyo
10 x Liar Game


Teasers:

  

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.