Saiunkoku Monogatari is a lovely way to spend the evening

EEEEE!

Ryuuki just went super-assassin on the assassins.

OMG.

And wiped them all out without blinking.

And the dying head assassin is all 'you'd make an excellent assassin' and Ryuuki is all 'if I were that kind of person, Shuurei would hate me.'

And then he found Shuurei and cut her ropes/gag off. And OMG, I love Shuurei, because she thanks him and is all 'it's so dark, you must be scared' (he has dark-places phobia) and he just swoops her into this hug and tells her that even if it's dark, as long as he knew she was there, he wasn't. AWWWW. And only then, after being rescued, and also making sure he is OK, does she let go and allow herself to faint.

And then there is various plot stuff and her recovering from the poison and hugging and amusingness and then she announces she is going home because mission accomplished: Ryuuki is all Emperor-like (I love how Seiran tries, very low-key, for her to stay. He is a good older brother). And LOL, everyone has come to say bye to her, and she is worried whether she will get her $$$ and Ryuuki is all 'she married me only for $$$, I feel so used :D' and then is about to offer her more $$$ to stay and his advisors physically cover his mouth before he blunders in. LOL.

And then...

and then...

and then...

he tells her he has something to confess before she leaves. And he leans close and tells her. 'I don't only like men. I like women too.'

AND AND AND AND HE KISSES HER.

In front of everyone. And she is sputtering. LOL. And he is all 'you'll be back.'

OMG.

Heeee.

And all the others are goggling.

How can I not ship them?

Seriously, it's humanly impossible.

ETA: LOL LOL LOL LOL Shuurei, I love you. It's apparently been a month since, and Ryuuki has been sending her love missives by the dozen and she uses the blank sides as paper for her students to practice writing. LOL. And he's apparently been sending over totally ridiculous gifts, like trees and giant blocks of ice (it's really hot). LOL. He is such a Tamaki.

( Caps and comments )

Ultimately though, eight eps in, my verdict stands. I enjoy this quite a lot, but even though it's more modern in art design being newer, I prefer Fushigi Yuugi. This doesn't have the tongue-in-cheekness, or the crazy pace, or the dramatics and the star-crossed OTP of FY. FY was, after all, a romance/perilous quest story. SM seems much more a social study/world-building/character interaction piece. There isn't enough angst and adrenaline and crazy strong emotions to make it take over FY's place in my heart. Hmmm, I really should continue with my FY rewatch.

Saiunkoku Monogatari is a lovely way to spend the evening

EEEEE!

Ryuuki just went super-assassin on the assassins.

OMG.

And wiped them all out without blinking.

And the dying head assassin is all 'you'd make an excellent assassin' and Ryuuki is all 'if I were that kind of person, Shuurei would hate me.'

And then he found Shuurei and cut her ropes/gag off. And OMG, I love Shuurei, because she thanks him and is all 'it's so dark, you must be scared' (he has dark-places phobia) and he just swoops her into this hug and tells her that even if it's dark, as long as he knew she was there, he wasn't. AWWWW. And only then, after being rescued, and also making sure he is OK, does she let go and allow herself to faint.

And then there is various plot stuff and her recovering from the poison and hugging and amusingness and then she announces she is going home because mission accomplished: Ryuuki is all Emperor-like (I love how Seiran tries, very low-key, for her to stay. He is a good older brother). And LOL, everyone has come to say bye to her, and she is worried whether she will get her $$$ and Ryuuki is all 'she married me only for $$$, I feel so used :D' and then is about to offer her more $$$ to stay and his advisors physically cover his mouth before he blunders in. LOL.

And then...

and then...

and then...

he tells her he has something to confess before she leaves. And he leans close and tells her. 'I don't only like men. I like women too.'

AND AND AND AND HE KISSES HER.

In front of everyone. And she is sputtering. LOL. And he is all 'you'll be back.'

OMG.

Heeee.

And all the others are goggling.

How can I not ship them?

Seriously, it's humanly impossible.

ETA: LOL LOL LOL LOL Shuurei, I love you. It's apparently been a month since, and Ryuuki has been sending her love missives by the dozen and she uses the blank sides as paper for her students to practice writing. LOL. And he's apparently been sending over totally ridiculous gifts, like trees and giant blocks of ice (it's really hot). LOL. He is such a Tamaki.

( Caps and comments )

Ultimately though, eight eps in, my verdict stands. I enjoy this quite a lot, but even though it's more modern in art design being newer, I prefer Fushigi Yuugi. This doesn't have the tongue-in-cheekness, or the crazy pace, or the dramatics and the star-crossed OTP of FY. FY was, after all, a romance/perilous quest story. SM seems much more a social study/world-building/character interaction piece. There isn't enough angst and adrenaline and crazy strong emotions to make it take over FY's place in my heart. Hmmm, I really should continue with my FY rewatch.

Saiunkoku Monogatari is a lovely way to spend the evening

EEEEE!

Ryuuki just went super-assassin on the assassins.

OMG.

And wiped them all out without blinking.

And the dying head assassin is all 'you'd make an excellent assassin' and Ryuuki is all 'if I were that kind of person, Shuurei would hate me.'

And then he found Shuurei and cut her ropes/gag off. And OMG, I love Shuurei, because she thanks him and is all 'it's so dark, you must be scared' (he has dark-places phobia) and he just swoops her into this hug and tells her that even if it's dark, as long as he knew she was there, he wasn't. AWWWW. And only then, after being rescued, and also making sure he is OK, does she let go and allow herself to faint.

And then there is various plot stuff and her recovering from the poison and hugging and amusingness and then she announces she is going home because mission accomplished: Ryuuki is all Emperor-like (I love how Seiran tries, very low-key, for her to stay. He is a good older brother). And LOL, everyone has come to say bye to her, and she is worried whether she will get her $$$ and Ryuuki is all 'she married me only for $$$, I feel so used :D' and then is about to offer her more $$$ to stay and his advisors physically cover his mouth before he blunders in. LOL.

And then...

and then...

and then...

he tells her he has something to confess before she leaves. And he leans close and tells her. 'I don't only like men. I like women too.'

AND AND AND AND HE KISSES HER.

In front of everyone. And she is sputtering. LOL. And he is all 'you'll be back.'

OMG.

Heeee.

And all the others are goggling.

How can I not ship them?

Seriously, it's humanly impossible.

ETA: LOL LOL LOL LOL Shuurei, I love you. It's apparently been a month since, and Ryuuki has been sending her love missives by the dozen and she uses the blank sides as paper for her students to practice writing. LOL. And he's apparently been sending over totally ridiculous gifts, like trees and giant blocks of ice (it's really hot). LOL. He is such a Tamaki.

( Caps and comments )

Ultimately though, eight eps in, my verdict stands. I enjoy this quite a lot, but even though it's more modern in art design being newer, I prefer Fushigi Yuugi. This doesn't have the tongue-in-cheekness, or the crazy pace, or the dramatics and the star-crossed OTP of FY. FY was, after all, a romance/perilous quest story. SM seems much more a social study/world-building/character interaction piece. There isn't enough angst and adrenaline and crazy strong emotions to make it take over FY's place in my heart. Hmmm, I really should continue with my FY rewatch.

Saiunkoku Monogatari: is all of this going somewhere, or is it a giant fantasy civics lesson?

Ten episodes in, and it’s official: I enjoy SM but it’s not going anywhere near my Top 10.

I have come to the realization that what I ended up watching is really an anime version of a procedural, something I don’t usually do (they exist, I just tend not to seek them out in any media). Only the ‘procedure’ here is the functioning and administration of a fantasy country. And procedurals are not something I particularly love or even have much interest in.

In a way, this is sort of a fantasy C-SPAN, and I have never been one fascinated by world-building. I might be interested to read (and have done so) a book on how the government in e.g. Ancient China or modern-day Ghana, or medieval Florence worked/works, but I don’t think I’d want a weekly show following the government officials of these places. And more importantly, I have even less interest when the world the story is analyzing is fictional. I want the fictional world to be internally coherent and consistent, but developed only to such a degree as to seem real enough. When a large chunk of the story (novel or anime) is occupied by describing the nitty-gritty of the world, I lose interest. One of many reasons I am not huge into fantasy novels.

I don’t particularly have much interest in finding out how the fictional ministry of finance works, in detail. And I really don’t care about the intricacies of governing a remote fictional province which doesn’t exist in RL.

What I want in my anime (and other media) is a tight, unitary plot and/or intense character interactions and relationship (plantonic or romantic) development, and I am forced to conclude that SM is never going to have that. It’s never going to have a Fushigi Yuugi-type fantasy quest story, or any other strongly plot-driven narrative. Most of the anime I have ever loved had a very strong narrative and strong narrative drive, and the more of it, the better (it’s pretty in character that e.g. my favorite of the three Full Metal Panic seasons is the third one, with the sole, intense arc).

( More ramblings )

Saiunkoku Monogatari: is all of this going somewhere, or is it a giant fantasy civics lesson?

Ten episodes in, and it’s official: I enjoy SM but it’s not going anywhere near my Top 10.

I have come to the realization that what I ended up watching is really an anime version of a procedural, something I don’t usually do (they exist, I just tend not to seek them out in any media). Only the ‘procedure’ here is the functioning and administration of a fantasy country. And procedurals are not something I particularly love or even have much interest in.

In a way, this is sort of a fantasy C-SPAN, and I have never been one fascinated by world-building. I might be interested to read (and have done so) a book on how the government in e.g. Ancient China or modern-day Ghana, or medieval Florence worked/works, but I don’t think I’d want a weekly show following the government officials of these places. And more importantly, I have even less interest when the world the story is analyzing is fictional. I want the fictional world to be internally coherent and consistent, but developed only to such a degree as to seem real enough. When a large chunk of the story (novel or anime) is occupied by describing the nitty-gritty of the world, I lose interest. One of many reasons I am not huge into fantasy novels.

I don’t particularly have much interest in finding out how the fictional ministry of finance works, in detail. And I really don’t care about the intricacies of governing a remote fictional province which doesn’t exist in RL.

What I want in my anime (and other media) is a tight, unitary plot and/or intense character interactions and relationship (plantonic or romantic) development, and I am forced to conclude that SM is never going to have that. It’s never going to have a Fushigi Yuugi-type fantasy quest story, or any other strongly plot-driven narrative. Most of the anime I have ever loved had a very strong narrative and strong narrative drive, and the more of it, the better (it’s pretty in character that e.g. my favorite of the three Full Metal Panic seasons is the third one, with the sole, intense arc).

( More ramblings )

Saiunkoku Monogatari: is all of this going somewhere, or is it a giant fantasy civics lesson?

Ten episodes in, and it’s official: I enjoy SM but it’s not going anywhere near my Top 10.

I have come to the realization that what I ended up watching is really an anime version of a procedural, something I don’t usually do (they exist, I just tend not to seek them out in any media). Only the ‘procedure’ here is the functioning and administration of a fantasy country. And procedurals are not something I particularly love or even have much interest in.

In a way, this is sort of a fantasy C-SPAN, and I have never been one fascinated by world-building. I might be interested to read (and have done so) a book on how the government in e.g. Ancient China or modern-day Ghana, or medieval Florence worked/works, but I don’t think I’d want a weekly show following the government officials of these places. And more importantly, I have even less interest when the world the story is analyzing is fictional. I want the fictional world to be internally coherent and consistent, but developed only to such a degree as to seem real enough. When a large chunk of the story (novel or anime) is occupied by describing the nitty-gritty of the world, I lose interest. One of many reasons I am not huge into fantasy novels.

I don’t particularly have much interest in finding out how the fictional ministry of finance works, in detail. And I really don’t care about the intricacies of governing a remote fictional province which doesn’t exist in RL.

What I want in my anime (and other media) is a tight, unitary plot and/or intense character interactions and relationship (plantonic or romantic) development, and I am forced to conclude that SM is never going to have that. It’s never going to have a Fushigi Yuugi-type fantasy quest story, or any other strongly plot-driven narrative. Most of the anime I have ever loved had a very strong narrative and strong narrative drive, and the more of it, the better (it’s pretty in character that e.g. my favorite of the three Full Metal Panic seasons is the third one, with the sole, intense arc).

( More ramblings )

Have you hugged your dying-from-bullet-in-brain kdrama hottie orphan today?

Oh, episode 2 of Sorry I love you a.k.a. MISA is even more fun and angst-filled than the first.

Mmmmm. His many shades of emo are uniformly hot. I will not make comment on the fact that if he had head surgery, his hair would be shaved and not such lovely luxuriant locks. If Vic Zhou can die of stomach cancer in Silence looking all spiffy, this is nothing.



Oh, and our heroine practiced the monologue from Romeo and Juliet about poison and dying on Romeo's corpse. Dramatic irony must have cackled.



They are currently doing this beloved of kdramas cliche of hero and heroine passing each other unknowing. In slomo. Oh kdrama, never change!

Have you hugged your dying-from-bullet-in-brain kdrama hottie orphan today?

Oh, episode 2 of Sorry I love you a.k.a. MISA is even more fun and angst-filled than the first.

Mmmmm. His many shades of emo are uniformly hot. I will not make comment on the fact that if he had head surgery, his hair would be shaved and not such lovely luxuriant locks. If Vic Zhou can die of stomach cancer in Silence looking all spiffy, this is nothing.



Oh, and our heroine practiced the monologue from Romeo and Juliet about poison and dying on Romeo's corpse. Dramatic irony must have cackled.



They are currently doing this beloved of kdramas cliche of hero and heroine passing each other unknowing. In slomo. Oh kdrama, never change!

Have you hugged your dying-from-bullet-in-brain kdrama hottie orphan today?

Oh, episode 2 of Sorry I love you a.k.a. MISA is even more fun and angst-filled than the first.

Mmmmm. His many shades of emo are uniformly hot. I will not make comment on the fact that if he had head surgery, his hair would be shaved and not such lovely luxuriant locks. If Vic Zhou can die of stomach cancer in Silence looking all spiffy, this is nothing.



Oh, and our heroine practiced the monologue from Romeo and Juliet about poison and dying on Romeo's corpse. Dramatic irony must have cackled.



They are currently doing this beloved of kdramas cliche of hero and heroine passing each other unknowing. In slomo. Oh kdrama, never change!

TV Strike talk...

I've been thinking: I see people (understandably) freaking out about the writers' strike, and I realized that I completely don't care.

I mean, I will be sad if Battlestar Galactica doesn't get to finish its story, but it's been so long since S3, that I am sort of used to being Galactica-less. And I will be sad if Moonlight doesn't get its chance to continue, because it's the first new American show I've been interested in, in years, but I will be happy with what we have, and in any event, American shows don't really have a unitary arc so I won't feel left in mid-story. And I can't think of any upcoming movies I would die not to see, except for the ones already finished and thus the strike is immaterial to them.

Now, if e.g. Korean/Japanese/Taiwanese TV industry went on strike, I think I would have a nervous breakdown. I mean, I need to know how Hong Gil Dong will go from a ne'er-do-well of flashback to the awesome rebel of the present. I need to see Kame fall in love with a nun. I must find out how Lee Da Hae and her moppet will melt Jan Hyuk's cold crook's heart (and handsome exterior). I must must MUST participate in further developments of Zhi Shu and Xiang Qin's marriage.

Not to mention that Saiunkoku Monogatari must go on. And the Hanadan movie come out. And I am dying for Cain and Abel to start.

If Bollywood went on strike...you are kidding, right? Half of these movies feel like they have no scripts anyway :D But I would totally weep if it meant further delay of Jodhaa-Akbar, or Karan's upcoming project, or Aamir's Gajini, etc etc.

Hmmm.

TV Strike talk...

I've been thinking: I see people (understandably) freaking out about the writers' strike, and I realized that I completely don't care.

I mean, I will be sad if Battlestar Galactica doesn't get to finish its story, but it's been so long since S3, that I am sort of used to being Galactica-less. And I will be sad if Moonlight doesn't get its chance to continue, because it's the first new American show I've been interested in, in years, but I will be happy with what we have, and in any event, American shows don't really have a unitary arc so I won't feel left in mid-story. And I can't think of any upcoming movies I would die not to see, except for the ones already finished and thus the strike is immaterial to them.

Now, if e.g. Korean/Japanese/Taiwanese TV industry went on strike, I think I would have a nervous breakdown. I mean, I need to know how Hong Gil Dong will go from a ne'er-do-well of flashback to the awesome rebel of the present. I need to see Kame fall in love with a nun. I must find out how Lee Da Hae and her moppet will melt Jan Hyuk's cold crook's heart (and handsome exterior). I must must MUST participate in further developments of Zhi Shu and Xiang Qin's marriage.

Not to mention that Saiunkoku Monogatari must go on. And the Hanadan movie come out. And I am dying for Cain and Abel to start.

If Bollywood went on strike...you are kidding, right? Half of these movies feel like they have no scripts anyway :D But I would totally weep if it meant further delay of Jodhaa-Akbar, or Karan's upcoming project, or Aamir's Gajini, etc etc.

Hmmm.

TV Strike talk...

I've been thinking: I see people (understandably) freaking out about the writers' strike, and I realized that I completely don't care.

I mean, I will be sad if Battlestar Galactica doesn't get to finish its story, but it's been so long since S3, that I am sort of used to being Galactica-less. And I will be sad if Moonlight doesn't get its chance to continue, because it's the first new American show I've been interested in, in years, but I will be happy with what we have, and in any event, American shows don't really have a unitary arc so I won't feel left in mid-story. And I can't think of any upcoming movies I would die not to see, except for the ones already finished and thus the strike is immaterial to them.

Now, if e.g. Korean/Japanese/Taiwanese TV industry went on strike, I think I would have a nervous breakdown. I mean, I need to know how Hong Gil Dong will go from a ne'er-do-well of flashback to the awesome rebel of the present. I need to see Kame fall in love with a nun. I must find out how Lee Da Hae and her moppet will melt Jan Hyuk's cold crook's heart (and handsome exterior). I must must MUST participate in further developments of Zhi Shu and Xiang Qin's marriage.

Not to mention that Saiunkoku Monogatari must go on. And the Hanadan movie come out. And I am dying for Cain and Abel to start.

If Bollywood went on strike...you are kidding, right? Half of these movies feel like they have no scripts anyway :D But I would totally weep if it meant further delay of Jodhaa-Akbar, or Karan's upcoming project, or Aamir's Gajini, etc etc.

Hmmm.