dangermousie | Various. With a side of really horrible fashion

I've had a dream where Logan lost all his money and was working as a clerk in a store and had a scholarship to Hearst. My brain is very very odd.

I've also been watching Saiyuki Reload, and

crumpeteer is right, it's quite good. I especially loved the ep with the cat, where Sanzo, outwardly all about sneering about it that he is, ends up liking it and taking care of it. It's totally adorable. I really think that is a good parallel to his attitude to Goku, where he won't admit it under the pain of death, but he cares for him immensely. It's rather sad that to be functioning he has to be that guarded. I also loved the ep with the demon who took their sad memories from them (Hakkai's in itself is probably enough to fill a storeroom or two). The guys are so messed up and so built on their damage, that when that is removed they become zombies. Also, Kougaiji proves he is the worst bad guy ever but the best person on the show by not taking the scroll but instead helping Goku rescue Sanzo and co, even though they are his enemies.

I have also read the first volume of Hana Kimi, and

crumpeteer is right mark 2, it's also quite good. I am having a bit of a problem keeping track of all the characters. I can recognize our heroine of course and Sano (whom I love btw) and that blond soccer captain, but I am a bit cofused by the rest. I do think it's adorable and is now number 1 on my list of manga I wish was made into an anime. It's interesting because the set-up (girl pretends to be boy to join all boys school in order to be close to her sports hero) could be problematic but the manga avoids two biggest pitfalls: she doesn't come across as a stalker because (even though her feelings later develop), her reason for doing so isn't romantic but in admiration of a fellow athlete. And also, hero worship is quickly dispensed with. Within minutes she finds out that her hero is an irritable, unsociable guy, who's soured on sports. Any liking she has for him after that is not built on a false image. I even overlook the fact that there is no way her parents wouldn't know it's an all-boy school because it's manga, so whatever (same feeling I get with Bollywood). Btw, Sano clearly knows her gender, but does he let her know (in the volumes so far) that he knows? They are adorable together.

Also, watching HYD and Ouran in close succession made me think about a particular trope. Both Ouran and HYD have the structure of a poor girl and a rich guy and this set up seems to be common in anime/manga/Asian drama, with the guy giving girl status but she is the one providing love or stability, 'rescuing' him emotionally. Also, if there are families involved, his is usually distant but hers is loving (Tsukushi's family, oddballs or not, are loving etc etc). Even something like 'Mars,' which in many ways devitates from this trope (if Kira rescues Rei from inevitably ending up in jail, ground, or madhouse, he rescues her from isolation and never being able to interact with another person, not to mention rape trauma), ends up with Rei being a rich offspring of a messed up family to which Kira brings stability.

In broad terms, this is a very general manifestation of a highly traditional 'men provide physical things while women give emotional comfort in exchange.' Normally, I'd think this was just a popular trope in shoujo and not think much of it. But then I started thinking and realized how prevalent this is: half the movies in Bollywood are based around the dichotomy of rich guy poor girl. One of the earliest BW hits, "Bobby" is a poster story for this, with the rich but neglected hero falling madly in love with the poor girl from a colorful, close family. She rescues him from being unloved, and actually ends up reuniting the family, and she gets status in return. Or take a look at something like "Kabhi Khushi kabie Gham" where SRK is the guy from the rich family which throws him out and Kajol is the daughter of a poor loving one which becomes SRK substitute family. I really wonder if that is the result of 'rich are rich, but hey, they have other problems so you don't want to be like them.'

If you look at Western lit and movies, you see the same thing. In fact, Samuel Richardson's "Pamela," one of the earliest novels in the English language has a story that could come straight out of Bollywood or manga: the virtuous servant girl Pamela wins the love of her master and his hand in marriage through virtue and purity, achieving society through goodness, while he reforms of his wicked ways under her influence and love and thus offers her marriage. There is also my favorite Dickens couple, Eugene Wrayburn and Lizzie Hexam, in "Our Mutual Friend" where he is better than he socially but she is his 'nobler angel.' Once again, woman civilizes, man endows (interestingly, this is a theme that is almost gone from modern Western stuff outside of some soapy TV shows, probably because the modern society is less class conscious). I just find it interesting that what the man contributes, that the thing the woman lacks is worldly physical things: money, societal position, even things like physical protection. What the woman brings in such a situation are the intangibles of virtues, love, family. Though I do think it's not just a traditional societal equation. After all, it's a common female fantasy: finding someone who is very high status, or finding someone who is a guy who needs to be fixed. This just combines the two.

I also browsed some more through the Hana Yori Dango jdorama (I had to time to watch it all yet) and yes, definitely a lot of compression. They seem to have cut out Doumyouji rescuing Tsukushi from bullies. Actually, they not only compressed Tsukushi's friend and Sakurako, the girl who has a thing for Doumyouji into one, they've also compressed Junpei, the guy who befriends Tsukushi in order to get his hands on Doumyouji and do him harm, into her as well. I don't mind too much because they seem to have kept my very favorite scene in the anime (and probably in my Top 10 anime scenes anywhere), where the bad guys hold a knife to Tsukushi's face and tell Doumyouji that if he tries to fight them they will cut her up so he tells Tsukushi to close her eyes and just lets them beat him and does not defend himself at all. And then she jumps in front of him. This is seriously so Bollywood. Also, it seems Kaede, Doumyouji's Mom, lives in the family house. Previously, the sole good quality of the ice bitch that is Kaede was that she lived in NYC and only came back about once a year. I guess she has no good qualities now. Interestingly, I think the jdorama ends the same way the manga does: Kaede does somewhat get her way and sends Doumyouji to NYC for four years and the OTP, though winning out on the love bit, have to deal with a separation, as opposed to a more unequivocally upbeat Meteor Garden and anime ending. I do think character development suffers a bit because of the compressed storyline. It's still fun though.

And now, I bring you the thing that REALLY caught my attention in the jdorama. Is it the angst? The characters? The comparison to the manga? No, it's the unbelievably bad fashion. Bollywood bad fashion has a rival. In fact, in some scenes, I know I was gasping in angst, but it wasn't from the plot developments but from thinking 'how could anyone let you out of the house in such an outfit in the morning?' It's not as bad as it could be as everyone but F4 wear uniforms in school (and after seeing F4 fashion, I wish they did too) but still...The horror. The horror.

Ummm, Rui. Why did a poodle die around your neck?

We start innocuously enough. Not much wrong with uniforms:

Rui. Oh Rui. You break my heart. Underneath the hideous turtleneck, the feathered and bleached within an inch of its life hair, you are actually cute. So why the self torture?

And continuing, with a lab jacket? Because I swear that's what it looks like? Hanazawa Rui, lab technician in the bad fashion laboratory:

A picture is worth a thousand words. Like 'horrible' 'blinding' 'atrocious':

Doumyouji's family has finally decided to do something about his fashion sense ~~mmmmm, bondage~~:

Soujirou is channeling Trotsky. I feel like going for an ice-pick:

OK, I don't know whether I hate the texture, the combination or both, more:

One half of me is going 'awwwwww.' The other half is going 'WTF have you got on your head? Did you put a shopping bag on top? Did a weasel die there? What?'

Is it the shirt tucked into too-tight jeans? Is it the white shoes with that ensemble? The suit jacket? So many horrible choices, so little time:

Unless it's reading glasses at the end of that chain, lose it!

Akira, the bastard, stole my Mom's shirt. From the dumpster where she threw it because it was too girly:

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this picture's fashion. I just think it's an adorable shot:

Kaede is upset about Doumyouji's feelings for a common girl. But at least she is disregarding the shirt:

Shall I start with the turtlenecks? Flower shirt patterns? White jackets? (for shame, Rui!)

F4 clearly dominate the school through the sheer power of their dreadful outfits:

This has nothing to do with anything but I like this pic of the actors who played Doumyoji and Tsukushi in the Taiwanese adaptation:

This picture is in here to illustrate that not all is bleak and to show the one Rui outfit that I actually love:

And because I am probably one of ten people who likes Rui/Shizuka, I just love this shot (and no horrble fashion either):

I don't even know where to start, so I won't:

Rui's brief moment of sanity is gone and he is back to dreadful fashion:

I love this shot. I do. But why is he wearing a 14 year old girl overcoat?

Doumyouji's secret is out. He steals women's night robes on the sly and wears them. Hey, it's still better than the alternative explanation that he actually voluntarily paid money for this thing:

This doesn't look so bad, but it's the closest I could find to the pic of the hands down worst outfit in the show. You can see the cherry vinyl jacket. What you can't see is a horrifying black vest with weird buttons and an odd shirt under it:

Here because it's cute:

"What do you mean my fur collar stinks?"

And speaking of collars. And hats. And everything else. Yup, it's Rui, committing fashion crimes against humanity (and also kissing his friend's girl):

Doumyouji should be upset over the fashion, not the hugging:

But then seeing that this is what he likes to wear, probably not:

Why is Kaede channeling Queen Victoria?

I am still contemplating what has died on his collar. Hint: she might take you more seriously if she doesn't think that your clothes indicate you want to join the circus:

Speaks for itself:

The female outfits? Fine. But why are the men wearing, respectively, a 1950s headwaiter tuxedo and some sort of a Napoleonic era uniform (a better picture of both coming up):

Closer look. I love the jacket. In a movie about 1812:

Deary, why do you have a literal rat's nest on your head? And we are not even going to get into the collar. Everyone's collars are scary here.

But in case you are thinking the jdorama violated the gorgeous clothes of the manga, I assure you, manga fashion was just as odd:

We are not even going to get into the zebra hat (all Doumyoujis in all versions seem to have a penchant for horrible headgear):