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wApr 5, 2009 | |
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Media Stuff Now that Funimation has the subbed version of the anime Romeo x Juliet streaming for free on their website, I might finally finish the damn thing. Today I watched episode 15 and 16. This series started off with a lot of promise, but is just....not holding good on it, for me. I want to see it through to the end to see what happens, but I don't have much hope. I mean....come on! It's Shakespeare, it's dripping with so much angst that the pages of the play are practically wet with blood. Everyone has emo, there are swords, and the anime version had added bonuses! An inversion of gender roles, giving Juliet an entirely new identity of the Red Whirlwind, a mix-up of the premise, an impoverished city, etc. Even the addition of characters from other plays (Hermione, Regan, etc.) give the writers practically unlimited ranges of angst and characters, but they just use their names and genders, and that's about it. The show devolves into low-budget animation and storylines I don't give a toss about. This seems to happen in a large number of animes for me, and it's why an interesting premise for a movie/TV show/book/whatever is never enough of a selling point for me. Because no matter how interesting it starts off, it can end in a lackluster way. Scrapped Princess was like that for me. Ditto with Darker Than Black, Witch Hunter Robin, Code Geass, Paranoia Agent. While it's certainly no Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, here are links to people talking about this week's Dollhouse: meganbmoore here and here. Matt Ruff here. The Asian Women Carnival #1 is up. Rachel Manija Brown is hosting The Incomprehensible Awards! Continued here. Funimation is going to be streaming episodes of the new Fullemtal Alchemist just 4 days after it airs in Japan!! For those unfamiliar, this new series will be more heavily based on the manga. [ie, it will be better!] But it starts at the beginning, so you needn't have seen the first series to watch this one. Labels: anime, anime: fullmetal alchemist, anime: romeo x juliet, fandom, race, tv: dollhouse scribbled mystickeeper at 11:02 PM 
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wOct 1, 2008 | |
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Multi-Pronged Update I bought another jade plant today, at the Farmer's Market. Now, I have two jade plants, English ivy, and a pink polka dot plant. Oh, and my limp lucky bamboo, which seems to be doing better with increased water quality. They are still alive, although now I need to purchase a couple more plants. Maybe I'll do it this weekend, and bring one of my sister's kids with me. Also, I'm dividing my Geek.Kon posts into lots of mini-posts so that eventually, it will all be up here. The bookmark I bought Sunday was beautiful, and based on this print. Yesterday's Katara bookmark was from this print, and the Sailor Moon was this one. I want to finish the Romeo x Juliet anime (for reals this time!), because the idea of a woman with a sword and a man with flowers is so appealing to me (See: icon). There was an inordinate amount of randomly placed sentimentalism on behalf of Romeo in about episode 13 or something, which was the point where I said, "Yeah, I'm so done with this show." BUT, I keep remembering how much I loved the show's setup, and I'd like to see it through. I WILL DO IT! Labels: anime, anime: romeo x juliet, geek.kon, plants scribbled mystickeeper at 3:07 PM
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wJul 16, 2007 | |
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Potpourri Holy crap, I have so many windows open that it has now become necessary for me to blog quickly before I try and fall asleep right away. I work bright and early tomorrow! Anyway, link-spam first. Harry Potter Firstly, I was reading some Q&A over at J.K. Rowling's website (yes, she actually answers the questions). I will link to ones that I found intriguing. Link 1. (It was said somewhere in an interview that a character who had previously displayed no magical qualities would do so in book 7. Thus, my guess is Dudley.) Link 2. (SPOILERS for book and movie #5) Link 3. (Spoilers for book 5; wasn't in movie. I hope this means that the dead Order of the Phoenix will fight the Inferi or something. It would suck a lot if they became the Inferi.) Link 4. (BUT WAS SOMEONE ELSE??) Link 5. THIS HAS BEEN KILLING ME FOR LIKE, 2 YEARS. WTF IS UP WITH PETUNIA?! I liked the write-ups two of my LiveJournal friends made about the fifth Harry Potter movie. Obviously, spoilers for movie/book 5 behind the cuts. mon_starling's thoughts, and snowystingray's thoughts. Mugglenet's list of loose ends that should be tied up in book 7. Obvious spoilers for book 6 are there. Race Another post on the Transformers movie, with a lot of conversation in the comments. I find everyone's comments very insightful. I still have no desire to see the movie, and am glad it's not my childhood that's being messed with. :P An essay: Helpful Hint for the Colorblind: BE LESS BLIND Racism on an International Scale, a post and link roundup by Oyceter. It focuses on the mentality held by people in other countries that "racism is not a problem there," and is only a huge issue in America. Oyceter points out that more often than not, the person making this claim is a member of the race in power in the country in question. Interesting thoughts, links, and comments abound. Oh yeah. Me What else has been on my mind? Oh yeah. What the heck has been up with the Romeo x Juliet anime lately? I'm through episode 11, and it has been teh lame lately. I feel like I'm forever waiting for something awesome to happen to live up to this amazing premise, and it never does. It's like watching Last Exile or something. Also, what happened to the gender-role inversion? I literally laughed when Romeo promised to protect Juliet. Like, wtf. On Thursday night, Steph came to visit me! We went out with my co-workers, talked endlessly, woke up and shopped, ate some foods, and generally had an excellent time. I've missed her a lot, and I found a birthday present for Dylan. We celebrated his 6th birthday on Sunday, when I was at home at my parents' house. Everyone seemed to have an enjoyable time. My sister's cat had been MIA for nearly 3 weeks. It had gotten out the back door, and hadn't come back. I had been mildly mortified because Olivia, my 8-year-old niece, kept saying things like, "Our cat is gone right now, but she is coming back!" and I was all, oh God, they will be traumatized. But on Saturday, someone who lives a block away from my sister's house called, and said that they had found it. So, now they brought it home, much skinnier than she had been before. Now, when I pet her, she is docile, and doesn't randomly bite my hand any more. Amelia (my four-year-old niece) sat on the couch while the cat sat on top of the head rest. "Kitty, my kitty came home," chanted Amelia, resting her head against the back of the couch. The cat stretched out a declawed paw and rested it on Mia's forehead, intermittently moving the paw back and forth, caressing the top of Mia's curly head. WTF, motherly cat love! On Saturday, my extended family and I attended a wedding for my cousin's step-daughter. It was at a country club, and was gorgeous. We stole cake before we should have, took over the dance floor, sat on the balcony and waited for Brewers results on my cousin's cell phone, laughed at inappropriate moments, stole sand dollars off the tables, and my mom and sister each stole a floral centerpiece from a dining table. Mostly, though, was that dancing thing. Really, there are so many girls in my family - from age 4 to 64 (my mom), we pwned it. It was amazing. I only wish Antoine could have been there, but it's okay. I think he's coming Up North with me in two weekends! OMF! THE LONGEST POST EVER IS ENDED. Labels: anime: romeo x juliet, family, friends, harry potter, racism scribbled mystickeeper at 10:56 PM
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wApr 29, 2007 | |
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Then, I am still and wait here in the silence... You may or may not be wondering what books I decided to mooch after seeking your advice. It turns out that I spurned you all! I went for the Star Wars manga instead. Manga is more expensive, even when used, and more difficult to find at both bookstores and libraries. As for my computer, my boyfriend Antoine told me to download the free anti-virus program avast! and I did. It took a while to do its huge scan-thing, but now my computer seems fine again. Apparently, it caught 75 corrupted files that Symantec Antivirus and Spy-Bot could not. Ridiculous. I'm still at my parents' house for the weekend, which has been very peaceful. My sister has her parents-in-law staying over, so at nights I don't even hang out there - I've just come home and worked on homework, watching anime, and reading. It's a nice break from everything before I go back to school for three more weeks of hell before summer. My purpose in coming home was to attend a family gathering at my sister's house, celebrating my niece Amelia's fourth birthday, my niece Olivia's First Communion, and my cousin Sami's Confirmation. Going to church for Olivia's First Communion was so nice. I've felt so disconnected from my faith lately, and have felt bad about it. It's part of me and I need it in my life, but I haven't yet found a way to feel okay about it at Madison yet. While I sat in the pew with my family during the mass at which Olivia made her First Communion, I looked up and saw Carrie, one of the most amazing people I've ever met and so very much a part of what my faith was in high school, and Alex, my good friend Jennifer's younger brother and a member of a youth liturgical planning group we had formed at the church when I was a freshman to create "youth masses." Sitting by them made Nativity feel like home again. I hope that this summer, when Madison is much more quiet and I have no stress of homework, I can find a parish, or find my place in a parish I've already attended. This feeling of peace and strength is part of who I am, and I can't keep losing it. My thoughts on Spring 2007 anime thus far Or, at least, what I've been able to watch. So far, I've been using anime as a reward for working on my mountains of readings or preliminary paper-writing work. So, I'm behind on most series and still haven't watched all of the ones I want to sample (not even Victorian Romance Emma, season 2!). Romeo x Juliet, ep. 3 I wrote so much about this episode that I gave it its own LiveJournal post, complete with screencaps. Enjoy! Link is here. Bokura no anime, ep. 1 This series looks pretty meh. 15 kids at a summer camp randomly walk into a cave and discover a man and his computer (which get plugged into what, boulders?) network. The man promises a "game" which needs beta testing, and each kid, minus the fourth-grader (the rest are seventh-graders) touches a metal panel to seal a contract. They then watch the creepy older man fight a mecha robot with his own mecha robot. What the mecha robots are doing is unexplained. I found the premise pretty unbelievable. Additionally, the characters seem very one-dimensional. Each one has one defining personality characteristic. After the creepy guy battled the other mecha robot, he disappeared. My prediction is that each episode will focus on one character, and come down to a will-they-won't-they-fight psychological stuff. I'll try one more episode to see if the premise gets a little more believable, but for now I'm not a huge fan. My friend Louise has a detailed post with lots of thumbnail screenshots here. It also appears as though she enjoyed the episode much more than I did, so you gain another perspective there. Claymore anime, through ep. 2 The main character is a half-demon, and her job is to slay demons, being employed by a faceless organization that "creates" Claymores, females who become half-demon and fight demons so long as they control their sanity (at which point they have to be killed). The stories in the first two episodes were pretty not-surprising nor imaginative. It seems like a pretty common fantasy story, actually. A young boy follows her from the first episode and becomes her cook. Clare tries to remain emotionless and detached from him. She kills demons in various towns. Yawn. Which is a shame, because the animation quality is pretty nice. I'll try to keep an eye on what other anime bloggers have to say about future episodes, in case it starts to look interesting, but I'll stop watching for now. Labels: anime, anime: bokura no, anime: claymore, anime: romeo x juliet, family, religion scribbled mystickeeper at 1:08 AM
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wApr 24, 2007 | |
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I feel embarassingly angsty tonight. Perhaps I should write a story! Hopefully my computer will allow to me complete a blog post! Somehow this afternoon, I contracted a very irritating virus. I've been running Spy-Bot and what-not, and hopefully it will be better tomorrow. It makes computer programs run and load at heinously low speeds, which is unfortunate. Today has been irritating in almost more ways than I can count. I wish I could vent online about people without anyone else I know ever reading it. Well, I guess sometimes I do that under-lock at my LiveJournal. Still, though. It'd be cool if you all could read it and just not know who I was talking about - if it was someone from a class, from work, a friend, whatever. But you could still enjoy the premise and the story. And, most importantly, my righteous frustration. Really, though, I feel sick of everything, and most of all sick of not knowing what I want to do with myself. There is discussion going on in a LiveJournal I read (OMG best manga/anime posts ever) about the role reversal of Romeo and Juliet in the anime Romeo x Juliet. You can find the thread here. I had picked up on some of it myself, but not all. Yay for the power of collaborative nerd glee. The more I think about Romeo x Juliet, the more I like what it's trying to do with Shakespeare's story. Judging by the end of the latest episode, things are only going to get more badass from here. Somehow, it is both too hot and too cold in my room. Why is it that when I look at my actual calves on my body, they look chunky, but when I look at them in a mirror, they look slightly toned and lean? (Self-Provided Answer, 30 minutes after the fact: Because when I look at my actual calves on my body, I'm sitting pretzel-legged and stuff looks different from that angle) Current Music: 19sai - Suga Shikao Labels: anime, anime: romeo x juliet, blogging scribbled mystickeeper at 11:35 PM
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wApr 18, 2007 | |
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Wow. How can I have been so apathetic and hateful yesterday, and so full of things to say today? I don't know. Life is weird. Virginia Tech Shootings Where do I begin? Firstly, usually when things like this happen - when people of any age, but most especially my age, commit horrific acts, or when people die or are put in situations most people don't even have nightmares about, my first instinct is to think, "If I were them, how would I have reacted? How would I feel right now?" Well, the Internet in some ways is a wonderful thing, and it's possible to witness discourse as it happens. Namely? Through Facebook. One discussion focuses on the shooter, and provides lots of commentary from students who knew Cho Seung-Hui in high school, etc. Some comments are thoughtful, but the conversation kind of dissolves into a childish fight as to whether people should blame the individual or the society that made him. Another discussion was started by a Korean-American girl who feared that due to Cho Seung-Hui's ethnicity, there might be racism against Korean-Americans. i'm really worried because i remember when 9/11 first happened and everyone was pointing fingers and discrimminating against anyone from the south or middle east. Other Korean-Americans post messages of encouragement, saying that they have to stay positive, but some others are also afraid of the same thing. Lots of white kids leave messages saying that that's an absurd idea, and no one would ever blame an entire race for the actions of one person. One thing I find really disturbing about the situation is people picking up on Cho Seung-Hui's apparent "dark and violent" writings as an pre-indicator for violence. When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. There are links to his plays here. I really don't find them that violent. Crass, WTFery, and poorly-written, yes. (Was this kid really an English major?) But violent? Not so much. Using violent fiction as an excuse, or an indicator, seems lame to me. After Columbine, the excuse was violent video games. If either of these two things were indicators of being a future school shooter, then I myself would have already done it, being an author of a number of "violent stories." And as for video games, I have sniped, pistol-whipped, and set off bombs with the best of them (or the worst, as I'm not the greatest at first-person shooters). The last thing I found interesting was eyewitness account recorded in online instant messengers. In my opinion, technology makes the world more amazing. My Life Work was good today. Also, there was a group of Mennonites (similar to Amish) who stood in the rotunda and sang beautifully. Chad and I went to go see the U.S. director of Amnesty International. I was a little disappointed, because all that he did was talk about George W. Bush and post-9/11 stuff, really. I understand that the current administration has committed a lot of heinous acts, or allows them to be committed. But still, some people make it seem like no other president has ever violated the human rights of others through his orders. I'm hard-pressed to think of a president who hasn't. I guess I went there hoping to leave feeling inspired, but that didn't happen at all. I bought groceries, which felt good. I spent some time with Antoine, Creighton, and Carolyn, which was also good even in spite of my heinous level of tiredness. I also watched the second episode of Romeo x Juliet, which was great. I didn't go in to either of the first two episodes thinking, "I should take notes," but that's what happened both times. Thoughts on episode two of Romeo x Juliet are over in the LiveJournal. Spoilers abound! Labels: anime, anime: romeo x juliet, social commentary scribbled mystickeeper at 9:08 AM
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wApr 14, 2007 | |
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A post devoid of anything that matters Holy shit, it's the weekend. THANK GOD. I need two days to procrastinate until my Shakespeare exam! Verily, I do. Let's see. I know I have things to talk about. I still haven't watched the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. I know the two major reveals that occur, and I guess I have absolutely no faith in the show in that they pulled it off well. Why can't this show be consistently good, instead of alternating between awesome and crappy? :/ On a similar vein, a discussion was started in a BSG fan community about why the genre of science fiction has such a stigma, and isn't well-respected. You can find it here. It really is a strange phenomenon, though. Most movie plots, especially say, romantic comedies, are extremely unbelievable. Why is it sci-fi and fantasy that get singled out as "too" out there? I don't know. But I do know that people who avoid it miss out on some good stories; similarly, people who restrict themselves to it miss out on good stuff, too. If you haven't seen this yet, please do so. Alanis Morissette singing "My Humps." I was too burnt-out to make it to "Heart of an Empire," which aired Thursday night as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival, but I did appreciate the people in Star Wars costumes who were all over campus. The Daily Cardinal caught a couple of amusing pictures: here and here. I find this news story extremely disturbing. A preacher's wife shot and killed her husband with a shotgun, after years of being mentally, physically, and emotionally abused by her husband. "It's just a lot of stupid stuff," she said. "I love him dearly, but gosh, he just nailed me in the ground. ... The first of our marriage, I just took it like a mouse, didn't think anything different. My mom just took it from my dad -- that stupid scenario." But Winkler said she got a job at the post office and that experience taught her to stand up for herself. "That's the problem. I have nerve now, and I have self-esteem. My ugly came out." Her ugly came out? Why is it ugly to have a self-esteem that forces you to stand up for yourself? I think it's sad that she calls it stupid that both she and her mother put up with abuse from their husbands. That's not stupid; it's sad. I don't understand how people can allow themselves to remain in relationships like this. I know that there are some who are adverse to divorce, but still - there comes a point when you need to recognize an unhealthy relationship for what it is and get out of it. Romeo x Juliet This is an anime series that just started airing in Japan. As I'm currently finishing up my second semester of two courses that basically cover Shakespeare's entire writing career (we read about 25 plays total, plus the sonnets), I was naturally intrigued. Everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet, but I found the promo pictures interesting, so I'm going to give this series a shot. Spoilers for premise of the series lie here Luckily, Gonzo (the animation studio) has decided to spice up the plot of Romeo and Juliet by adding in touches of Robin Hood and the Anastasia story (the lost last girl of the Romanov family). In the first moments of the episode, we are first introduced to the setting: Neo-Verona (lol), a floating continent surrounded by clouds. Amidst music played by horns and strings, we see swirling snow and gothic castle peaks. Pegasi are ridden by the nobility. Here, the rivalry between the Capulets and the Montagues is not a simple feud, but is actually a power struggle over who will rule Neo-Verona. Agents of the Montagues are running in the castle, killing the members of the Capulet family in what appears to be a coup d'etat. The child Juliet witnesses the murder of her father, and then escapes with another girl a bit older than herself, whose relation to her is not explained. The actual series takes place 14 years later. Spoilers for the first episode lie here Soldiers prepare to kill a girl whom they accuse of being "the surviving Capulet." This girl is saved by "The Red Whirlwind," a seeming man who arrives on the scene with a feathered hat, cape, and sword, and saves the day. Romeo is sipping tea with his friend Benvolio, and they witness the Red Whirlwind and the girl he is trying to save fleeing from soldiers. The two (Benvolio a bit reluctantly) mount their pegasi not a moment too soon, and Romeo saves the Red Whirlwind as he loses his footing on a rampart and falls. After being rescued, the Red Whirlwind stalks off. Romeo demands thanks, the Red Whirlwind says that if Romeo really wanted to be a hero, he would have saved the innocent girl from the soldiers in the first place. The Red Whirlwind returns to his abode, which appears to be in a playhouse that performs plays written by "Willy." The Red Whirlwind's friends refer to him as "Odin." In private, with only a female friend as witness, the Red Whirlwind removes his hat and reveals himself - as Juliet Capulet. Juliet and her friend go to a masked ball. Juliet's memories are stirred and she realizes that this is the castle in which her family was murdered. She recognizes some of the perpetrators. She runs outside to a fountain to catch her breath, where Romeo finds her. It appears to be love at first sight - just like the play. Although, Juliet should recognize Romeo - he's still wearing the same clothing he was earlier, when he rescued her while she was dressed as the Red Whirlwind. It's possible that this love affair could begin one-sided, but we'll have to wait until the next episode to find out. The nods to Shakespeare ...were not terribly subtle, but still cute. Posters promoting "Otello" appeared on some of the walls, and Shakespeare himself is a character at the playhouse, where actors complain that they're performing scenes for a play that isn't even finished yet. Also, Juliet's cross-dressing is actually a common theme in Shakespearean plays, although it doesn't occur in Romeo and Juliet itself. I've only sampled 3 new series, but thus far, this one is my favorite. Current Music: Not the Doctor - Alanis Morissette Labels: anime, anime: romeo x juliet, feminism, tv: battlestar galactica, wisconsin film festival scribbled mystickeeper at 12:40 PM
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