Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

As I told jubatus, this is a lot easier than actually writing stuff. Of course, I've taken a little time to correct things. . . . Still, I'm not bothering to worry about the fact that only a few of the changed titles are listed as such, and application of years is arbitrary.

- X what you've seen
- O what you've started but haven't finished
- Italicize what you haven't seen since you were in elementary school [This one may be a bit off.]
- Leave unchanged if neutral [?]

Classic Disney
[X] 101 Dalmatians (1961)
[X] Alice in Wonderland (1951)
[X] Bambi (1942)
[X] Cinderella (1950)
[X] Dumbo (1941)
[X] Fantasia (1940)
[X] The Jungle Book (1967)
[X] Lady and the Tramp (1955)
[X] Mary Poppins (1964)
[X] Peter Pan (1953)
[X] Pinocchio (1940)
[X] Sleeping Beauty (1959)
[X] Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
[?] Song of the South (1946)

Disney's Dark Age
[?] The Aristocats (1970)
[X] The Black Cauldron (1985)
[X] The Fox and the Hound (1981)
[X] The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
[?] The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
[ ] Oliver and Company (1986)
[X] Pete's Dragon (1977)
[X] The Rescuers (1977)
[X] Robin Hood (1973)
[X] The Sword in the Stone (1963)

The Disney Renaissance
[X] Aladdin (1992)
[X] Beauty and the Beast (1991)
[X] A Goofy Movie (1995)
[X] Hercules (1997)
[ ] The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
[X] The Lion King (1994)
[X] The Little Mermaid (1989)
[X] Mulan (1998)
[X] Pocahontas (1995)
[X] The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
[X] Tarzan (1999)

Disney's Modern Age
[X] Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
[X] Bolt (2008) (last week)
[ ] Brother Bear (2003)
[ ] Chicken Little (2005)
[ ] Dinosaur (2000)
[ ] The Emperor's New Groove (2000)
[ ] Fantasia 2000 (2000)
[ ] Home on the Range (2004)
[X] Lilo & Stitch (2002)
[ ] Meet the Robinsons (2007)
[ ] Treasure Planet (2002)

Pixar
[X] A Bug's Life (1998)
[ ] Cars (2006)
[ ] Finding Nemo (2003)
[X] The Incredibles (2004)
[X] Monsters Inc. (2001)
[ ] Ratatouille (2007)
[X] Toy Story (1995)
[ ] Toy Story 2 (1999)
[X] Wall-E (2008)

Don Bluth
[X] All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
[X] An American Tail (1986)
[ ] Anastasia (1997)
[X] The Land before Time (1988) (the eight million sequels don't count)
[ ] The Pebble and the Penguin (1995)
[X] Rock-a-Doodle (1991)
[X] The Secret of NIMH (1982)
[ ] Thumbelina (1994)
[X] Titan AE (2000)
[ ] A Troll in Central Park (1994)

Claymation
[ ] The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986)
[X] Chicken Run (2000)
[X] Corpse Bride (2005)
[?] James and the Giant Peach (1996)
[X] Nightmare before Christmas, The (1993)
[X] Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
[ ] Flushed Away (2006)
[ ] Coraline (2009)

CGI Glut
[X] Antz (1998)
[ ] Happy Feet (2006)
[ ] Kung Fu Panda (2008)
[ ] Madagascar (2005)
[ ] Monster House (2006)
[ ] Over the Hedge (2006)
[ ] The Polar Express
[ ] Robots
[X] Shrek (2001)
[ ] Shrek 2 (2004)
[ ] Shrek the Third

Imports
[ ] Arabian Knight (aka The Thief and the Cobbler) (1995)
[X] The Last Unicorn (1982)
[ ] Light Years
[ ] The Plague Dogs
[ ] The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
[ ] Persepolis (2007)
[ ] Waltz with Bashir (2008)
[ ] Watership Down (1978)
[ ] When the Wind Blows (1988)
[ ] Yellow Submarine (1968)

Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki
[X] Grave of the Fireflies
[ ] Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
[ ] Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
[X] Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986)
[X] Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
[ ] My Neighbors the Yamadas
[X] My Neighbor Totoro (1993)
[X] Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
[ ] Only Yesterday
[ ] Pom Poko (Tanuki War)
[X] Porco Rosso (1992)
[X] Princess Mononoke (1999)
[ ] Spirited Away (2002)
[ ] The Cat Returns
[ ] Whisper of the Heart

Satoshi Kon
[X] Millennium Actress (2001)
[ ] Paprika (2006)
[ ] Perfect Blue (1999)
[ ] Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
[ ] Memories - "Magnetic Rose" (1995)

Shinkai Makoto
[ ] She and Her Cat (1999)
[X] Voices of a Distant Star (2001) [Only the self-voiced audio track]
[ ] The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004)
[ ] 5 Centimeters per Second (2007)

Other Ănĭme Films
[X] Adolescence of Utena
[X] Akira (1989)
[ ] Appleseed
[ ] Appleseed: Ex Machina
[X] Arcadia of My Youth (U.S. Title - Vengeance of the Space Pirate)
[X] Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2003)
[X] The Dagger of Kamui (U.S. Title - Revenge of the Ninja Warrior)
[ ] Dirty Pair: Project Eden
[X] End of Evangelion
[ ] Fist of the North Star
[ ] Galaxy Express
[X] Ghost in the Shell (1996)
[ ] The Girl who Leapt through Time
[X] Lensman
[ ] Macross: Do You Remember Love (U.S. Title - Clash of the Bionoids)
[ ] Metropolis (2001)
[ ] Neo-Tokyo
[?] Ninja Scroll
[ ] Patlabor the Movie
[ ] The Professional: Golgo 13
[X] Project A-ko
[ ] Robotech: The Shadow Chronicle
[ ] Silent Mobius
[ ] Space Adventure Cobra
[ ] Steamboy (2004)
[ ] Sword of the Stranger
[ ] Unico and the Island of Magic
[ ] Urotsukidoji: The Movie
[X] Vampire Hunter D
[X] Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force

Cartoons for Grown-Ups
[ ] American Pop
[O] The Animatrix (2003)
[ ] Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon The Movie
[ ] Beavis & Butthead Do America (1996)
[ ] Cool World
[X] Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
[X] Final Fantasy: Advent Children
[ ] Fire & Ice
[ ] Fritz the Cat (1972)
[ ] Heavy Metal (1981)
[ ] Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
[ ] Hey Good Looking
[ ] Lady Death
[ ] A Scanner Darkly (2006)
[ ] South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
[ ] Street Fight (AKA - Coonskin)
[ ] Waking Life (2001)

Other Animated Movies I Can't Categorize
[X] Animal Farm
[ ] Animalympics
[ ] Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker
[X] Batman and the Mask of Phantasm
[X] The Brave Little Toaster (1988)
[ ] Bravestarr: The Movie
[?] Care Bears: The Movie
[X] Charlotte's Web (1973)
[X] Fern Gully
[ ] G.I. Joe: The Movie
[?] Gobots: Battle of the Rock Lords
[O] He-Man & She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword
[X] The Hobbit
[O] The Iron Giant (1999) (Yes, I know. Shut up)
[ ] Justice League: The New Frontier
[X] Lord of the Rings
[X] Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1992)
[?] My Little Pony: The Movie
[ ] Pink Floyd's The Wall (1982)
[ ] The Prince of Egypt (1998) [Did see a music video made from it in class, though]
[ ] Powerpuff Girls: The Movie
[ ] Quest For Camelot (1999)
[ ] Ringing Bell
[ ] The Road to El Dorado (2000)
[ ] Rock & Rule
[X] Space Jam
[ ] Starchaser: The Legend of Orin
[ ] Superman: Doomsday
[ ] The Swan Princess
[X] Transformers: The Movie (1986)
[ ] Wizards
[X] Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
[ ] Wonder Woman

What I've learned from this:

1. I've actually seen some movies he hasn't.

2. Apparently CGI is not Ănĭme. Or is it because they've had theatrical releases in places other than Japan?

3. Only two of the animated Tolkien films qualify. The other one was made for TV.

4. I still haven't bothered to watch my copy of Toki o Kakeru Shōjo. My fixer has noted Sora o~, but this part may be news to her?.

Unusually enough for me, Project Cow Level has no sex in it, as I didn't have any interest in having such content in a story about tauren and dwarves. While I'm at it, I'm considering keeping the violence to (MPAA) PG as well. That may be difficult for one of my adventure-based (type B) projects, but we'll see.

Meanwhile, as I've mentioned before, Projects Umbra and Homuncupunk are coming to have more and more sex, while Project AnthraXX is coming to have more and more story, thus blurring the gap between A and B. Consequently, AnthraXX is probably the most ready of my original projects, owing primarily to the fact that its setting is heavily based on the real world, thus preventing me from needing to create mecha designs from scratch. Of course, it's still quite controversial, but at least there's plot to thin out the sex and I don't portray YHWH in quite such a bad light. I also think that the witches' and demons' subplot doesn't overpower the main story about the protagonist and heroine, but it's still tangential enough that I haven't completely thrown out the idea of making it a separate project.

In other previews, I've thought about vague subtitles for the three story arcs of Project Homuncupunk:

Part One: The Bounty Hunter
Part Two: The Prodigal Son
Part Three: The Emissary

I chopped the first two down to one word each for better parallelism. The subtitles reflect Jūzaburō's role in the story. ("So, what's with the second one if he turns coat at the beginning?" you might ask. Now that would be telling, wouldn't it?) Riku's backstory relates mostly to the first story arc, but the second half of it has a spoiler for something in the middle of "The Hunter," so where I include that will depend on how long each volume runs. I'm also not quite sure about the wording for the third part (and can't explain without spoiling it), but there's plenty of time to think about that.

I'm thinking of also making Project AnthraXX in three parts, corresponding with the three trimesters of Ms. Brown's freshman year. These would likely be short enough that one volume of the hard copies could be devoted to each, with one extra story as an extra for each. I don't have subtitles for the trimesters, as I don't know quite where the breaks will be, but the first two extras are currently known as "Time-Gilded Paradise Lost" and "The Dark of Gomorrah"; I'm not so sure about the third, as it doesn't really seem to add anything to the series.

My readership appears to be at an all-time high (apparently at least two regulars!), but I've accumulated quite a lot of stuff during its absence, to say nothing of my sloth and the fact that I've built up a lot of new things due to year's-end-and-beginning splurging. So, I'd like to see if you have any requests or suggestions. What I've got in the works is as follows:

( Ridiculously long notes )

I'm late in reporting as usual (so much to post, so little motivation), but the gathering went off more or less without a hitch (although it was just me, blitzcon and his family, and lokodraucarn and his brother). Here are a few of the things I noticed (naturally, mostly from the one I hadn't already seen):

※Upon closer inspection, the break actually occurred while Boromir was still fighting. More significantly, it happened during the cut between Lurtz's third arrow and Boromir reacting to it hitting him in the abdomen. I suppose it's theoretically possible that the arrow was so badass that it ran through the horn (which had been flipped up slightly from the belt by the bearer's movements) with enough force to cause it to break in two.

※Grishnákh was run through the shoulder by the first spear thrown by Éomer's éored, yet still was tough enough to chase Merry and Pippin deep into Fangorn. You can see the point sticking out of his front in his last scene. It's also interesting that he seemed more concerned with eating than taking the hobbits to Mordor as in the books.

※For some reason, I was under the false impression that Gríma's name was pronounced "Grī' mə" when I played him (back when I was still a bit more masochistic), but it's actually "Grē' mə" in the movies. According to this, the old one got that wrong, too, so I suppose it's possible that I had a very deeply buried subliminal memory of that.

※Despite the depiction here of how the shields are designed to be interlocked, the Uruk-hai tortoise on the bridge to the Hornburg looked like it was just a bunch of guys holding up their shields. They couldn't even pack in enough guys to guard the sides, but at least had enough to act as meat shields for long enough.

※I still think that the placement of the conclusion to The Two Towers in The Return of the King was rather odd, pacing- and story-wise—but better than leaving it out of theaters altogether. They also added a fireball (which I don't remember being in the books), despite Jackson talking about how much he hates the like.

※The orcs in the boats with Gothmog (the latter) on the way to Osgiliath look well armored and have a bow with a pull strong enough that the arrow punches right through a tark's breastplate (which counts as heavy armour in the game). Perhaps they're Uruk-hai or Morannon Orcs.

※Also, it may have been just me, but Gothmog's Warg looks really huge, unlike his miniature's. It also looked like he was limping even before being beaten up by Éowyn, so maybe he has a club foot to go with the rest of his deformities.

※I thought that Éowyn's off-hand weapon was taken from Merry (although the 2 points of attack bonus are canceled out by the –2 from a wrong-size weapon), but it looked like she actually grabbed it out of the hand of some other Rider. LOTR is the only one of GW's front-rank games where people aren't normally ambidextrous; in both Warhammers, like in the Iron Kingdoms wargames, anyone who has two hand weapons can use them both in mêlée without penalty. Interestingly, in The Third Age, there are many enemies who dual-wield swords, and a PC who dual-wields axes.

※This guy appears to be correct. The character identified as Gorbag in promotional materials is the one who wants to return the shirt to Lugburz, in an interesting reversal of Jackson's version of the relationship between Uglúk the disciplined Uruk-hai and Grishnákh the selfish hobgoblin, yet Shagrat is still the only survivor who gets away with it (as immortalized in his miniature), and the Mouth (who was certainly themed based on his name more than I could tell from the minis) somehow ends up with it. Despite the facts that they got access to the films and promotional material before the theatrical releases so they could get the games made, GW apparently didn't know about this, as the scenario in the original ROTK game didn't switch them, despite everything else following the movies where they directly contradict one another. I was also a bit disappointed in the fact that they cut most of the dialogue (including rolling Snaga's part into Gorbag to save characters), as I liked the two captains' reminiscing as the only part of the series that portrays Evil creatures as people rather than monsters.

※When I was researching that part, I found that the reason the orc fled from Samwise the Strong was that he was intimidated by Sting and the presence that the "great Elf-warrior" got from grasping the Ring. Of course, the latter wouldn't work, because Jackson keeps a secret the fact that Sam had it in order to make more suspense later. This also means that it doesn't show that he actually put on the Ring, thus making the fact that he was able to give it back less surprising. Also, the fact that there are no goblins in Mordor in the movie means that the orc is physically larger than Sam.

※Despite the homogeneity noted in the previous section, apparently the hobbits managed to find a mob made up of the smallest hobgoblins, because they don't look too out of place.

※Even in the extended edition, Gimli didn't get any named kills, only an assist on the pitiful Gothmog (a shame to his illustrious name). I imagine Jackson reduced the Dwarf to comic relief and made the Elf badass because the latter was more of a heartthrob. Of course, in the book, Gimli decided not to join in the fight with the Dunlendings because they were too big; since Jackson took them out of the Battle for the Hornburg, he followed it in spirit by making Gimli afraid of pretty much everything.

※And, despite watching out for it, I seem to have missed the goofy mug (1 2).

Anywho, I've got much more to say about Tolkien's legendarium, including talking about DM of the Rings and The Third Age and revisiting some of the misconceptions I busted earlier. For the moment, I may as well note that I was amused to find this, and that these guys seem to have started out with what their circle name suggests. (Sure, they're cute, but the Japanese seem to prefer less hairy and pudgy guys.)

This time I had a small batch, so I'm trying to drop them all down here before I get the next one and end up being distracted again. But if I always use the same number of items for good luck, why is this one smaller than usual?

説明しよう！†

I did indeed pick 13 items in my original order. However, due to the fact that the release of one of the items kept being postponed, I had a chance to trim out some mistakes I had made: one that I had bought elsewhere (and posted kansō here‡), one that I had accidentally put in the cart twice and ordered elsewhere, and one where my suspicions were confirmed, resulting in its removal as per my policy. When I heard that Yuri Michelin (?) was pushed back again to February, I finally gave up on having it in this order, so the survivors finally shipped.

Anyway, the actual kansō:

「Comic YuriHime VOL.9」 (Anthology): I don't remember too much of these, no doubt due to the difficulty of keeping track of multiple series with multi-month gaps in-between episodes. Nonetheless, it's all good. (Actually, I haven't gotten around to reading the solid blocks of text yet. I'm somewhat curious about an entire article on the Himitsu no Kaidan series, which I found very disappointing from a yuri standpoint—but, then again, I'm a man.) I found it amusing that, unlike Ms. Kiryū, Futami saw the good side of not being blood-related to one's sibling. There's also a second one-shot from the person who did the one about the yakuza heiress earlier. Apparently she/he likes "bad girl" protagonists—and sex, although the latter is pretty ubiquitous in this mook lately.

「MY OTOME Zwei」 (Higuchi Tatsuto/Abeno Chaco): Fortunately, this one follows the chronology from the Ein animation rather than the comics (although there is an allusion to the latter), yet has just as much nudity as Yoshino/Satō's works. (Incidentally, I can't seem to find that post on one of my sources that describes exactly how much you see of which characters in Episode 3.) The chief things I like about it over the OVAs are the increased focus on the relationships between Ms. Kruger and Ms. Viola (although still not much) and Ms. Chrysant and Ms. Armitage (the latter because the author admits that she's her? favorite character), and the complete lack of appearance from Ms. Marguerite (which is better than seeing the depths to which she'd sunk in the show).

「Gakuen Utopia MANABI STRAIGHT! Massugu Go!! Amamiya Manami 3A NO.45526 SEIOH GAKUEN 1」 (ufotable/Tartan Check): The title refers to the punch visible on the cover, which is one of Ms. Amamiya's trademarks. In any case, the primary heroine is quite cheerful and provides lots of skinship, mostly with the secondary heroine; there's some hint of admiration for a character who shows up later on, as well. A standard sports lady and an assiduous tsun-dere (hmm, seem to remember one just like that from Na*na*ki!) round out the cast. I have some difficulty telling the four heroines apart visually, as they're all the same size and shape, and all have short hair other than the fourth.

「Shiharu Genesis 1」 (Kondō Rururu): There are plenty of stories about reincarnation of demons, but it's unusual to use that as a premise for a honobono girls' school life comedy. . . . Like X and Ten-Kin, this follows the 1999-based chronology, but in this case, that's only the birth of the Devil, so it's set in the near future, before her awakening (thus avoiding the continuity problem the other two had, in that they were not finished by the time 1999 passed and the world didn't end). You may notice that I said "she," which fits in with my description of the series in the first sentence. It's not clearly stated, but I assume that this follows the standard in Japanese secular sources that demons (and possibly angels) do have gender, so this would probably fall under the heading of "transexual yuri"—although in a fantastic manner, like KA・SHI・MA・SHI. [It turns out that this isn't the case; for the purposes of this series, all of the top seven demons were ladies in the first place, as was I.] Anyway, it's mostly about the friendship between the two major heroines, but there are hints that Lilith is looking for a bit more (unsurprisingly, considering that she's often described as the bride of Satan, despite the fact that she is also commonly called the first human woman). Stating the presence of any given reincarnatee is not much of a spoiler, as all are identified by their names (e.g. ルシファー → るしはあ → しはる).

Speaking of names, this work also follows the Japanese convention of "Lucifer" being the demon name of the Enemy, as compared to his Latin angel name. In Ten-Kin and DEVIL & DEVIL, his angel name was Lucifel, a fabrication using the Hebrew "el," which is found in many angel and human names. In the former, "Satan" is a title applied to his seven lieutenants (and not him), while the latter has "Satan" as the hereditary title for the ruler of hell.

Like CHRNO CRUSADE and Project AnthraXX, a running gag is that the chief demon is actually a very nice person. And like Ten-Kin, there is also an angel who is reincarnated in parallel to the fallen—although this time they reversed the missed opportunity by making them both ladies. Personally, I'm glad I wasn't actually reincarnated as a Japanese lady in 1999. I appear to be the most popular angel in Japanese media; in Earthian, DEVIL & DEVIL, and this, it looks like I'm the only one taken from Abrahamic scriptures and apocrypha. [Actually, it turns out that Raphael is actually my aide, and Lucifel, Uriel, and Gabriel appear as well.] At least in this and Ten-Kin, I get to fight, instead of being in what appears to be a purely administrative post. . . .

「Neko Mokoro 1」 (Otokasa Aki): Another one set in a magic school for ladies, although this one is in some sort of space opera setting. The heroine's feelings originate in the fact that the object was the first other person she ever saw who looked human, but she remains loyal even after meeting various other beauties. An amusing running gag is that, although the heroine spends most of the first volume only being able to see her admiree from afar, she has many fantasies about what would happen when they meet, all following the same pattern, including that what they're doing towards the end of the dream is always censored (or perhaps left to the reader's imagination, but I like the sound of the first one better). The heroine's reaction when they finally do meet face to face is also quite nice. Of course, it's hard to say they have good prospects for a relationship if they don't even know one another, but I'm confident (as is the cover to Volume 2). Incidentally, this series is also the first I've seen to portray the difficulties of mermaids living on land.

「PENGUINMUSUME 1」 (Takahashi Tetsu): On the inside pages, this is called "PENGUINGIRL 14," where the "14" means (numerically, not phonetically) the same thing as in 14; the exploitative nature and the overly developed figures of the two chief heroines are other parallels. Sadly, this one loses out in the key point, as the athletic lady and her suitor (suitress?) are Heroines #2 and #5 rather than #1 and #2, and the former doesn't seem to have a huge following of underclass fans. (I told you the "boku" was an important selling point!) Still, there are several good prospects—I think the hime-sama dakko was a nice touch. (Incidentally, that's the one point that punk Zidane wins over Squall. It might have something to do that Ms. Til Alexandros was actually a real princess, though.) Heroine #1 has been related to the term 「ミーハー」, but unlike Ms. Kuremi, she's interested in men, too. Heroine #2 also knows a hunk when she sees one, but then again, so did Meg (too lazy to look up her surname).

Other points of interest include the fact that, for some reason, the ladies' uniform has a slit skirt with a fake petticoat doohickey. Meanwhile (not much of a spoiler), like in Ruro-Ken and Iono the fanatics, the drag queen guest (hopefully)-chara feels the need to show concrete proof. (Is it a coincidence that all of these were written and drawn by men?) Also, the Japanese heiress has a head butler named "Sebastian" (contrary to most old geezer butlers I've seen, who are called "Jī" or "Jīya" by their masters), while the American? one ("Marie Chupacabra W. Whitebear" sounds quite multicultural, but since the "W." is pronounced "Double-U," English has as many points as French and Spanish put together, and we all know how English speakers love giving their kids names from other languages, as anyone who knows my family can attest) has a head maid named "Maguro." Takahashi beat me to the punch with his badass eyepatched maid, but her personality is completely different from mine's, and the world still has room for plenty of gantai moe. There's also the same misunderstanding about the term 「メイド」 as in HAYA-BLA, but this time it's because she's Chinese, not because she's had an unusual upbringing.

「Kyōkan Astro 1」 (BannoNegi): From the title, I thought this was going to be set on an educational starship or something, but apparently the "ASTRO" is just the name of the athletics wear company that the main heroine patronizes. (I haven't the foggiest idea where they got the 「艦」.) Anyway, this is something of an unusual series, as it's set in a high school, yet the main characters are the teachers. (There was a student with good taste and a name who appeared, but only for one strip. Perhaps she was hospitalized after the heroine's hug.) Still, they are mostly in their 20s, as is to be expected from a society where female sex appeal is supposed to peak in the teens or earlier and ladies are ostracized for not marrying and retiring by the age of 25.

Anyway, the chief heroine inadvertently provides a lot of good scenes, mostly with the other who fell for her on the third page, but also with the other two main heroines and several lesser characters. (The story starts out focusing on a small group of individuals, but later adds some others, likely when it was clear that the serial was going to continue. Kubo did a similar thing with BLEACH, I imagine due to the fact that he wasn't told until the last chapter that his previous series was being cut.) I believe that falls under the heading of "tennen." The other characters are disappointing, but on the whole, I think this is my favorite of the new ones.

「HAYATE CROSS BLADE DRAMA CD Vol.2」 (Hayashiya Shizuru): Since this one has audio, I haven't gotten around to listening to it yet, but I do notice that they've skipped ahead to the Gakuensai part. Obviously they don't have the demand to adapt the entire series, so they're just doing the favorites.

Conclusion: Apparently the loss of luck wasn't terribly significant, as these are all worthy of continuing to read (with the exception of the one that was only one volume).

P.S. I was going to discuss a few new vocab words from this batch, but I've already spent my computer sessions for three days typing this, so I'll follow that up later. So much to type, so little time and readership . . .

†I first remember hearing this element used by Seki Tomokazu (played by Seki Tomokazu) in Love Pheromone (half of Love-Ge), but I can only assume it's more prevalent in pop culture than I've noticed. It's also used commonly in PENGUINMUSUME.

‡I know that you can't access this if you're not a member of daily_yuri. However, if you actually care, it's no trouble to join. You don't even have to have it on your friends page. The only risk I see is that someone might see your membership on your userinfo and think you're weird. You can also join whenever you want to read a post, then immediately quit again when you're done.

[Edit (2009.08.19): Clarified some misconceptions I had before reading further in those series]

Alphabetized to avoid having to rate them even more precisely

4 Movies You Can Always Watch:
1. STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE
2. STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE
3. STAR WARS EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
4. STAR WARS EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI
I rarely rewatch movies (even the ones I watch in the first place) anymore. There's just too much else to see. However, I've listed a few classics that I wouldn't mind watching again, since I'm interested in the setting. I guess I picked EPISODE I as my fourth because it has Ms. Portman in it, and she's not making out with Hayden Christensen. Capt. Tarpals is cool too, for all the five minutes of screen time he gets. UTENA is probably complicated enough to be worth watching again, as well.

4 Bands/Singers You Can't Get Enough of:
None. Even if you take it figuratively, there aren't any of either about which I care. My favorite composer is Uematsu Nobuo, but I don't care much about him, either.

4 Books You Can Read Over and Over:
1. CODEX: DAEMONHUNTERS
2. CODEX: WITCH HUNTERS
3. INQUISITOR ANNUAL 2004: vol. 2 The EXTERMINATUS Files
4. INQUISITOR: THE BATTLE FOR THE EMPEROR'S SOUL
As you may remember, I no longer have the patience to read large blocks of prose, and I get tired of reading the same story comics repeatedly. (Even most volumes of HAYATE CROSS BLADE and Yuri Shimai I've only read about a half-dozen times.) Most of the stuff I reread is reference material, for which I don't have many big ones at the moment, now that I'm not bothering with D&D anymore.

4 Towns You've Lived In:
1. Northfield, MN
2. Norwich, Norfolk
3. Redwood City, CA
4. West Lafayette, IN
I'm counting everywhere I've stayed on a regular basis (including sabbatical and school, but not other trips).

4 Shows You're Watching:
1. BLUE DROP: Tenshi-tachi no Gikyoku
2. JEOPARDY!
3. Minami-ke
4. MYTHBUSTERS
I'm far too lazy to catch TV shows consistently, and I don't give a damn about enough shows to bother getting TiVo. I've got a couple of new ones due to this meme's occurrence at the beginning of a season.

4 Shows You Like to Watch (not necessarily current):
1. CA$H CAB
2. THE COLBERT REPORT
3. THE DAILYSHOW WITH JON STEWART
4. MAIL CALL
Since this is in the present tense, I'm listing ones that I would continue to watch, not ones that I've already seen in full and thus probably will never watch again. I've also omitted the ones from the previous item, since you already know those. The two fake news shows are about the only way I'm willing to spend time actually using my eyes to find out about news. Too bad I'm too lazy to watch them when my brother isn't here. UTENA might fit into this category, too (and I still haven't seen a couple of the filler episodes).

4 Websites You Visit Daily:
1. Allies
2. The Animal Rescue Site, etc.
3. Ecology Fund
4. PRIVATEER PRESS
Yes, I still click on all these donations for causes about which I don't give a damn, as long as they're free. The other two I only visit regularly because they don't have RSS feeds.

4 Favorite Foods:
1. Cheesecake (on principle)
2. Hawaiian bread
3. Milk chocolate
4. Rainbow sherbet
I don't have much interest in food now that I'm restricting myself so much, so these are pretty arbitrary choices. There are plenty of foods that I would enjoy eating more, but I don't count them because I don't eat them.

4 Places You'd Like to Be Now:
1. Darfur, the Sudan
2. Madison, WI
3. Nottingham, Notts
4. Tucson, AZ
I really hate Japan. Even back when I was willing to kill and eat innocents for my own enjoyment, I still had to put up with people smoking everywhere and having to be polite to men. I may post about the Darfur part later. (This seems an odd way to release that information, but whatever.)

Very generic. There's no mention of games played, or miniatures converted, or anything interesting like that.

Comic YuriHime has been successful enough to try some interesting things lately. I haven't yet posted on the last three mooks I've received, so here we go:

Comic YuriHime VOL.8: Following from the first one to have characters not from Hatsu-Koi Shimai and the first one to not have two characters, this cover is not even by Ms. Hibiki! To tell the truth, I'm not a big fan of her style or that of Ms. Zaō, but they don't bother me for the most part. In any case, everything seems to be going as usual. (They even brought back Ms. Sudō (who hasn't been seen since the previous series's VOL.5), along with her hormones (which haven't been seen since VOL.4), if only for one page.) Coincidentally, this is the first time I've heard the term "se(x)frie(nd)," and in two stories in the same issue. . . . Strawberry Shake Sweet continues to up the story, introducing a mysterious villain who looks like she might be related to Ms. Asakawa (whose origins are still unknown)—but, then again, so does one of ZLAY's members. There's also some information on Aoi Shiro, and the new serials look really pretty (including yet another series where the main character's best friend addresses her with "-chan"-zuke ". . . desu wa"). Meanwhile, the cover story is interviews with the cast of the Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu drama CDs, including our beloved Ms. Kawakami: 「GLは初体験・・・」? Perhaps the big one doesn't count because it's not "only."

YuriHime Selection: The first half of this is a compilation of many one-shots that weren't big enough to warrant their own compilations, so you can get them now even though their original mooks are out of print. This is of course less useful to someone who has the entire set, like myself. Fortunately, the other half is other one-shots and bangaihen of stuff serialized in the main mook. We also see the cover debut of Ms. Eiki, who stated way back in her first appearance that she was collaborating with Ms. Zaō because she hadn't yet achieved "the power to draw cute girls." Her partner's influence is rather evident in the illustration style. Speaking of covers, a one-shot mook is apparently cheap enough to produce that they didn't need a CM on the back, instead covering it with the reversed names of the author/illustrators.

Comic YuriHime S VOL.1: According to a guide way back when, "S" (short for "Sisters") was something of a prototype for yuri (which still has strong sisterly overtones in many cases). It bills itself as a 「PURE★コミック誌」, but it still has a fair amount of sex and violence (including a series with combat elements, which is something that hasn't been seen before in this family of mooks), so I'm not sure what is supposed to differentiate this from the other serial and justify making another one in parallel instead of just releasing issues of the main one more often. (I never was clear about target audiences. In one of Ms. Morishima's one-shots, the heroine's "non-ke" friends were mooning over guys in Shōnen Chump.) In fact, it appears that Nanami to Misuzu is serialized in both. (Fortunately, it's rather episodic anyway, so continuity shouldn't be too big of a deal.) I like a lot of the new serials, of course, including two in particular. The first one is drawn with incredible technical proficiency—and who can resist a diminutive purple-haired aristocrat who uses the copula verb "ja" (no "warawa" this time, though)?

The second one is by Ms. Iwami, whom I know from Suzunari! I had a bit of a problem with the character designs in that (not sure why—something about looking a bit flat, perhaps), but her serial here looks flawless. It's set in another of those small fictional states that are never named (see Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Roman Holiday, Iono the fanatics, etc.). Unlike the others this one is apparently in East Asia (judging by the names of their royalty, which are based on the four guardian gods of ancient China and written in Chinese characters), yet very liberal—there appears to be no problem with the fact that the crown prince is a cross-dresser, or that (not much of a spoiler, given where it's serialized) the second princess (apparently she has an elder sister around here somewhere) gets married to another princess. It also appears to be ruled by dark-skinned people with funny-shaped marks on their foreheads*, despite the fact that the commoners are white. The more boyish of the two princesses also has a bit of a 「フェミニスト」／「王子様」 thing going on.

*Does anyone know what the thing in Hinduism is called? In Japanese media, I often see it replaced by birthmarks on the foreheads of (often dark-skinned) people of both sexes.

The aforementioned combat series is somewhat unpolished in its illustration style and has a lot of "service," but looks fairly entertaining. It looks like, as often seems to happen, the main tough young lady is going to be relegated to comic relief status. There are at least two obvious couplings visible even from the introduction—and a dark-skinned, pale-haired sub-chara with a birthmark on her forehead.

Fujieda and Takagi, two of the luminaries of shōnen yuri, only have four- to five-page introductions to their serials so far (the latter continuing his usual trend of maid uniforms and three-syllable names), but I'm sure they'll be entertaining.

Excerpts from two of the mook's unrelated serials include . . .
「松平さー・・・　んっ！？」
「ナギ・・・さ　んん！！」 (can't figure out how to type a small "n")

Addendum to the voice-actor comments earlier: Ms. Mamiya is back as another young lady who talks funny. Also, the heroine has quite a feminine name, but that appears to be a holdover from a previous life, where she had a very different personality.

When my brother was home for Spring Break this year and playing Ogre Battle 64, I realized that it was yet another Japanese video game where the hero deserts the evil empire and joins the resistance. I thought that this seemed odd, considering how traditional and conformist Japanese society is (although it's starting to change). I guess that's a sign that fiction is a radical, non-mainstream element of society. Just to illustrate this, I decided to list a bunch of adventure stories I knew from modern media and see how they add up. Hopefully I wasn't too biased in which ones came to mind.

For these purposes, "establishment" is the main power in the setting, whether it's the most powerful nation, the state religion, the secret society behind the throne, the student council, the local gang, super-powerful invading aliens, God, destiny, or whatever. Where the protagonists' motives change throughout the story, I list the one that they choose in the end (as far as I've seen). Where there are multiple paths, I list the main one. Where the series has more than one separate storyline, I hope I've listed which I mean. Where I couldn't decide (for instance, in SIMOUN, where it's a war between as-far-as-I-know two equally powerful nations), I've left them out. I've also recused (?) sentai and mahō shōjo shows, as they'd almost always end up in the first one—which means, of course, that there is a bias there. Meanwhile, haven't bothered to use official capitalizations, as it's too much trouble to look them all up. And no, I'm not making links for all those. You can find them yourselves.

Protagonists for Establishment: Akira, Bleach (Shinigami Daikō-hen), Cain Series, Cattō Ninden Teyande~! [sic], Chrno Crusade, Cowboy Bebop, Godzilla, .hack//SIGN, .hack/Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu, Hellsing, Peace Maker Kurogane, R.O.D Read or Die, Rurōni Kenshin (Kyōto-hen, Jinchū-hen), Shin Seiki Evangelion/Neon Genesis Evangelion, Tenchi Muyō!, Uchū no Stellvia, Versailles no Bara, Yami no Matsuei

Protagonists against Establishment: Abenobashi Mahō Shōtengai, Biohazard Code:Veronica, Bleach (Soul Society Kyūshutsu-hen), Blue Drop, Chrono Trigger, Devil & Devil, Dystopia, Escaflowne, Et Cetera, Eternal Arcadia, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy Tactics, FLCL, Fushigi no Kuni no Miyuki-chan/Miyukichan in the Wonderland, Grandia II, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi/Fullmetal [sic] Alchemist, Himitsu no Angelis, Hōshin Engi, Kannazuki no Miko, L A S T E X I L E, Loveless, Mahō Kishi Rayearth/Magic Knight Rayearth (first series), Mononoke-Hime, My HiME, My Otome, Ogre Battle, Ogre Battle 64, R.O.D the TV, Rurōni Kenshin (Bakumatsu-hen), Samurai Champloo, Samurai 7, Seiken Densetsu II, Shichi-nin no Samurai, Shimpi no Sekai El-Hazard, Shining Force, Shining Force II, Shōjo Kakumei Utena, Slayers TRY, Super Mario Bros., Tenjho Tenge, Tenshi Kinryōku/Angel Sanctuary, Texhnolyze, Tokyo-under Ground, Top o Nerae!/Gunbuster, Top o Nerae 2!/Die Buster, Yōjimbō, Zelda no Densetsu

Last night, I had my first HAYATE CROSS BLADE dream, which also happened to be my first Shōjo Kakumei Utena dream. As you may remember, I compared the two series back when I first reviewed the former on this journal. Well, in this dream, I planned in some detail how I would make a fanart with HAYABLA characters dressed up as Utena characters. The foreground would be the heroines (Ms. Kurogane and Ms. Mudō dressed up as Ms. Tenjō and Ms. Himemiya) and the background would be the student council. I specifically remember grouping the Utena villains into twos to correspond to the pairs of shin'yū: Ms. Amachi and Ms. Miyamoto as Tōga and Saionji; Ms. Mikado and Ms. Inori as Ms. Arisugawa and Miki. (Apparently Ms. Hoshikawa and Ms. Tsukishima weren't important enough to appear in the dream.) Unfortunately, there is virtually no personality parallel between the two series, which is unsurprising considering the distinctive masculinity of the Utena student council.

Besides that, another thing I overlooked is the fact that I can't bloody draw in the first place.