Fortress of Perpetual Midnight

Continuing from my previous post about surnames, there was a new character in the summer finale whom I couldn't quite place. When I looked it up, I was surprised to find that she was one of the actresses at the center of what (from what I've heard) seems to be the biggest yuri fandom (as opposed to series having actual yuri characters) in American history. Her comment on meeting Ms. Parker: "You are cute." Too bad the actresses both appear to be extremely straight.

For some reason, it took me until this week to realize that, since I'm gaming online anyway, I may as well actually be gaming with my friends, regardless of where they are. If I could get someone like arifyn or blitzcon, I wouldn't have to worry about being alone all the time. I don't know about what's going on with all these campaigns in which I'm playing, but we could at least try a one-shot or two (which I really should move to the wiki or google Docs so you don't need a membership to look) in the meantime.

The medium would likely by MapTool (available from RPTools), with or without voice chat (likely skype) depending on people's equipment and preferences. For starters, I'd just like to see whether or not anyone would be interested.

As was the case with Spanish back when I thought I knew it, I'm planning also to publish official Japanese versions of my projects. (Of course, as I've noted here, my first one might be a bit heavy on the English even in the Japanese version.) I'm far from fluent, of course, but this way I can provide translations that are much truer to the author's intent than most. The expanded exposure this should provide would also give me a chance to come into contact with people who are fluent, which means I could have a chance to actually learn the language, and perhaps impose on someone to correct my work. (I think I'd have more trouble bothering to make the rest of the appropriate site bilingual to cater to these people.)

Another thing that I've pondered at times is that, since I'm going to have to learn to draw anyway, it would be really nifty if someday I could get one of my works published in my belovèd YuriHime S (not the main Comic YuriHime, as I don't imagine I'll ever manage to write works appropriately feminine or comedic for there—with Ms.? Natsuneko's work there, I might have hope, but it's nothing compared to Picard's, as I'll note later). If I did manage to achieve widespread popularity as noted above, they might let me do it cold turkey, but the more likely way is through the Ichijinsha Comic Taishō （「大正」ではなくて「大賞」） or other yomi-kiri (the comic equivalent of a pilot episode). The problem with that is that, as I've no doubt mentioned before, I don't think of many good one-shot ideas lately, as I'm so absorbed in crafting intricate webs of full-sized projects. (Even Project Cow Level, which was pre-planned to be a short, simple "practice" project, is expected to run to about one graphic novel's worth.)

And yet, oddly enough, I happened to think of an interesting one-shot idea yesterday. Although it relies on a lot of tropes, it has a major setting element that I haven't seen used for this before, and unlike some, the premise is distinctly yuri, not just a romance that happens to be between two ladies. (Oddly enough, the unusual setting for a yuri story may have caused me to have a dream last night about sleeping with a man (don't remember for sure). If so, at least I was the seme. . . .) Of course, as a short story, it doesn't have much to reveal without actually writing it, and I'd rather keep the good parts to myself just to avoid anyone else stealing them. (Yes, that's my delusions of grandeur talking again.)

If this somehow did come to pass, there's the problem that the format only allows 400 characters of commentary, much less than I'd normally use. I'd probably put most of it (and the official English translation) on the Web as a supplement to the published part, as Ms. Miyahara does. For the actual printed version, I'm thinking the essentials are along the lines of 「男で申し訳御座いません。いつか必ずレディーにもよろこんで頂けるまんがを描ける様になりますから、今は違った味でがまんして下さいませな。」 (although I haven't bothered to boot up Word to get a character count).

The "chigatta aji" bit overlaps with the question of how predisposed these Japanese folks will be to publishing stuff by some American git. I can't do much about that, but I might consider working in a more Japanese style than my own. For some reason, it seems to be coming out with a larger-than-usual proportion of pseudo-comical elements despite the fact that I don't have a sense of humor (perhaps to make up for the fact that romance is an alien concept to me), so it'll be an outlier in my portfolio in more ways than one (hey, more dovetailing with the post subject).

By the way, in the excessively megalomaniacal mōsō situation that I actually got to do a serial, Project AnthraXX seems at this point as if it would actually be palatable. Of course, it would be helluva Webcomic time in a quarterly mook. . . .

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 )

Apparently I've been reading too much of blitzcon's LJ, because I was working alongside Ron Paul, a guest star in Star Trek: Necropunk and some other show I don't remember.

Last night, I instead had a dream about The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, in which the female PCs had to keep casting mind-affecting spells on the men to get them to actually try to advance the quest.

I've done some cleaning up on this one.

Rules:
- Bold each of the following TV shows of which you've seen 3 or more episodes.
- Italicize a show if you're positive you've seen every episode.
- Asterisk if you have at least one full season on tape or DVD.

The Addams Family
The Adventures of Pete and Pete
Alias
America’s Next Top Model
The Andy Griffith Show
Angel
The Apprentice
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Are You Being Served?
Arrested Development
The A-Team
The Avengers
Babylon 5
Babylon 5: Crusade
Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
Baywatch
Beavis & Butthead
Beauty and the Beast
The Beverly Hillbillies
Beverly Hills 90210
The Bionic Woman
Blackadder
Bonanza
Bones
Bosom Buddies
Boston Public
Boy Meets World
The Brady Bunch
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bug Juice
Caitlin’s Way
Chappelle’s Show
Charlie’s Angels
Charmed
Cheers
Clarissa Explains It All
Columbo
Commander in Chief
The Cosby Show
Coupling
Cowboy Bebop
Crossing Jordan
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Daily Show
Dallas
Dancing with the Stars
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel
Dark Skies
Davinci’s Inquest
Dawson’s Creek
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
Dead like Me
Deadwood
The Dead Zone
Degrassi: The Next Generation
Designing Women
Desperate Housewives
Dharma & Greg
The Dick Van Dyke Show
Dinosaurs
Diff'rent Strokes
Dirty Jobs
Doctor Who (1963)
Doctor Who (2005)
Doctor Who (2006)
Dragnet
The Dresden Files
Due South
Earth 2
Emergency!
Entourage
ER
Everwood
Everybody Loves Raymond
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Facts of Life
Family Guy
Family Ties
The Famous Jet Jackson
Farscape
Father Ted
Fawlty Towers
Felicity
Firefly
Flash Forward
The Flintstones
Forever Knight
The 4400
Fraggle Rock
Frasier*
Freaks and Geeks
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Friday Night Lights
Friends
Futurama
Get Smart
Gilligan’s Island
Gilmore Girls
The Golden Girls
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
Greek
Green Wing
Grey’s Anatomy
Growing Pains
Gunsmoke
Hannah Montana
Happy Days
Hardcastle & McCormick
Heroes
Highlander
Highlander: The Raven
Hogan’s Heroes
The Honeymooners
Hill Street Blues
Home Improvement
Homicide: Life on the Street
House M.D.
Hunter
I Dream of Jeannie
I Love Lucy
Instant Star
Inuyasha
Invader Zim
Invasion
The Invisible Man
JAG
Jackass
Jeeves and Wooster
The Jeffersons
The Jetsons
Joey
John Doe
Just Shoot Me
Keen Eddie
Knight Rider
LA Law
Laverne and Shirley
Lexx
Life on Mars
Life with Derek
Little House on the Prairie
Lizzie McGuire
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Lost
Lost in Space
Love, American Style
The Love Boat
The Lucille Ball Show
The L Word
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mighty Boosh
The Monkees
The Munsters
The Muppet Show
M*A*S*H
MacGyver
Magnum PI
Malcolm in the Middle
Mama’s Family
The Man from U.N.C.L.E
Married . . . with Children
Melrose Place
MI:5
Miami Vice
Millennium
Miracles
Mission: Impossible
Monk
Mork & Mindy
Murphy Brown
My Life as a Dog
My Name Is Earl
My So-Called Life
My Super Sweet 16
Mythbusters
My Three Sons
My Two Dads
The Nanny
News Radio
NCIS
Nip/Tuck
North Shore
Numb3rs
The O.C.
The Office (UK)
The Office (US)
One Tree Hill
Oz
Perry Mason
Phil of the Future
Pokémon
Power Rangers
The Pretender
Prison Break
Profiler
Project Runway
Psych
QI
Quantum Leap
Queer As Folk (US)
Queer as Folk (UK)
The Real World
Red Dwarf
ReGenesis
Relic Hunter
Remington Steele
Rocko’s Modern Life
Rescue Me
Road Rules
Robotech
Rome
Roseanne
Roswell
Salute Your Shorts
Saved by the Bell
Scarecrow and Mrs King
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
Scrubs
Seinfeld
The Sentinel
Sex and the City
The Shield
The Simpsons
Six Feet Under
The Six Million Dollar Man
Skins
Sliders
Slings and Arrows
Smallville
The Sopranos
South Park
So Weird
Spaced
Spongebob Squarepants
Sports Night
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Enterprise
Stargate Atlantis
Stargate SG-1
The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
Superman
Supernatural
Surface
Survivor (Nope, but I have seen every episode of Born Survivor. . . .)
Taxi
Teen Titans
That 70’s Show
That’s So Raven
3rd Rock from the Sun
Third Watch
Three’s Company
Top Gear
Torchwood
The Twilight Zone
Twin Peaks
Twitch City
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty
Veronica Mars
The Vicar of Dibley
The Waltons
The West Wing
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (US)
Whose Line Is It Anyway? (UK)
Will and Grace
Wings
Wiseguy
Without a Trace
WKRP in Cincinnati
The Wonder Years
The X-Files
Xena: Warrior Princess

That was quite a variety (although perhaps a bit heavy on the Nickelodeon)—It took me back to when I didn't have anything worth doing, so I watched sitcoms. Also, my copies of the L word aren't on any such mainstream media. I don't remember precisely which ones broke the three-episode barrier, so this is only a rough approximation.

Another one on in this batch was Na*na*ki!! Vol. 1, which I chose to read early on so I could decide whether or not to buy the sequel before it goes out of print. Upon looking it up, it turns out that the illustrator started out as an assistant to the famous Ms. Minekura Kazuya, but judging by this (and the fact that she's also published another series), she's graduated fully to professional status. The heroine uses "friendship" as pretext for her glomping, but the badass upperclassman (who doesn't have a cover shot yet because she's only the heroine's third-best friend) has quite a following as well, with one groupie in particular having dropped the "k" word in an emotional moment. I am indeed looking forward to more.

Meanwhile, you may have noticed from things like Ran, Sakura no Kiwa, Shimai no Hōteishiki, and Project Homuncupunk that Japanese names often include numerals, and these are often used to denote the order of birth of siblings. However, today's comparison is a bit more specific.

You'll also notice that only one of these three actually has the numeral character in her name—In the other two cases, the seventh is the exception. Also, it's only natural that the ending character is different in the case of the Kinjō family due to the differing genders, but the -nami family all have names ending in the same character, and at least one of Ms. Mar[k]ioka's elder sisters' names also ends in the same "-ki."

Edit (2007.09.15): Ah yes, and Ms. Marika has a very affectionate elder sister, but she seems to see her as an annoyance.

Edit (2007.10.01): Upon closer inspection, the odd-numbered Makioka sisters all end in 「姫」, while the even-numbered all end in 「葉」. I can't make any judgments about the previous generation, as only one example appears so far. You might think that this wouldn't work, as the mother would have been born into a different family, but judging by the heavy X-chromosome-bias of the current demographics, I imagine they might have used this method. Also, I've updated the information on the Sasano family above, resulting in slightly less correlation—although they still have a big-ass house and at least one servant.

He didn't mention that they used the analogy again in a later film.

( ミカエル、一生の不覚 )