Manga, drama, and Bollywood. Just your typical Wednesday in Mousie-land

[dangermousie]

Ok, this is going to be sort of a mishmash of things.

I am reading Mr. Mousie’s awesome present, the Ayashi No Ceres manga. I adore the anime, but I love the manga more. The anime followed the first few volumes faithfully, but it seems to have skipped a lot of the middle volumes (for length reasons. Fushigi Yuugi was 51 episodes for 14 volumes. AnC is 24 eps for the same amount of volumes.) I don’t mind skipping the secondary character stuff, like more on Shuro or other C-Genomes, because I am all about the mains, but I do wish they had some of the awesome Toya/Aya stuff in the anime that they did in the manga. I am especially thinking of the scenes in volumes 6-7, where she comes to visit him in his hotel room before she leaves for Tokyo and they almost make love but then Chidori interrupts and as they are about to head out, Toya hears the assassins sent by the Progenitor (who is incredibly sexually jealous, duh), and he tells the girls to stay inside and goes completely efficiently berserk psycho on the squad, killing a whole bunch of them.

And Aya comes out to see the end of this and is horrified by the fact that Toya (who is basically covered in blood) is so unflinching and unhesitant about all the killing, that it gives him no pause. And she tells him that and slaps him and Chidori drags her away, and then I love the bit where Chidori tells Aya that, in love or not, she should forget about Toya however sexy he might be, because it is wrong that he seems to feel no emotion on all this death, that he has the knife out of his arm thing, as if he is some sort of a UFO subject, and that Yuhi is so much better for her. And then she actively proceeds to try to set the two of them up even though she sorta likes Yuhi herself. You know, the whole thing is very Buffy/Angel/Willow/Xander, you know?

GUUUUH. Toya is SO my manga boyfriend. He is all cold and messed-up and reserved but so all-consumingly in love with Aya, but he isn’t even sure what emotions mean because he can’t remember any. GUUUUH.

In other fictional boyfriend news, I am on ep 4 of Smiling Pasta and OHHHH, He Qun!!!! Seriously. He is awesome. SP is one of those rare doramas which is about nice guys finishing first. Because the heroine initially likes He Qun’s younger badboy brother, but she is really beginning to develop a thing for He Qun because he is just plain good. And the same is true for him. His ex, Rita, is a total bitch.

I just love how well-adjusted and grown-up he is. Unlike his silly younger brother who seems to be all about meaningless competitions with He Qun as if to prove his superiority, but he can’t compete with someone who doesn’t see the competition as there. Because he isn’t on Ah Zhe’s level, because he is that dorama rarity, an emotionally matured hero. Heh. I love the bit where Ah Zhe tries to do everything to drag He Qun into a race with him and He Qun is so uninterested. But he finally joins because he finds out XS would be bullied if he doesn’t. And he is running neck and neck with his brother but then he sees XS has fallen, and he knows she should not finish last or she would be mocked for another year and forced to wear a turtle costume, so he turns back and gives up the race and helps her get up and basically helps her across the finish line. And she is all ‘but why? You are going to be the slowest and have to wear the outfit’ and he just grins that then they can be turtle fiancés and ‘it’s cute.’

But the thing I love the most about it, is the fact that he isn’t doing it because he’s in love with her. (Just as he didn’t fish her shoe out for her because he was in love with her, or leave the movie screening because he thought his earlier behavior was thoughtless because he is in love with her). He likes her, true. And he is amused by her, and he loves her wacky affectionate family, so different from his own. He might even be slowly falling for her. (I love the bit where she is all ‘why did you do this and that for me’ and he comes up with random answers and then she momentarily stumps him and he comes up with something outrageous and then laughs). But he does all these things not for mad pash or anything, but because he is, ultimately, a very nice guy.

The same is true with his family issues. They aren’t OTT angst or anything. He doesn’t have a good relationship with his father, but it’s one of those ‘I want my son to have a better image’ things, and his younger brother is having a years-long tantrum, but it’s not some really weird thing.

Basically? He Qun for the win.

In final, and unrelated comment, I was watching the KwK interview with Preity and Saif yesterday, on my Saif kick, and they spent a decent chunk of it denying any affair between them, but hey, I have no idea if they did or not, but ironically, I could totally buy that they did, after that interview. It’s the chemistry. It’s not the long-term friends chemistry Kajol and SRK had on KwK (in movies it’s entirely something else, but not in interviews). It was all teasing flirtatious sexy thing. Hmmmmm.

Comments

[fivil.livejournal.com]

I should pick up Smiling Pasta again at some point. My main irk with it was the little brother, who's basically an ass - I cannot for the life of me understand why the heroine would crush him. Come on, girl. She'll come around, of course, because He Qun's a darling guy and handsome, but still.

I get what you mean about Saif-Preity. Again I bring up Salaam Namaste out takes for evidence (:D!) but seriously, veeery flirty friendship between those two. He kept trying to kiss her, though given, probably just to piss her off or something. And dirty jokes, too. I seriously love those out takes better than the movie. Shame they're not on Youtube. :/

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

SP is really cute, though not earth-shaking. It's elevanted into 'yay!' territory for me by He Qun. Who is so noramlly the best supportive friend who'd never get the girl.

Re: S/N. OK. now I really must see the outtakes.

[fivil.livejournal.com]

Yash Raj so needs to hire me as a sales rep. Now can I talk you into buying Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai on DVD? Smoldering hot Uday stars alongside Jimmy Shergill and some girl you've never heard of!

And yeah, he's a cutiepie. Speaking of supportive friends though, omg I love Da Ye in Mars. He's too ace. I want to give him a hug and a girlfriend.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

LOL. I think even your powers are not enough to get me anywhere within 10 miles of any Ewwwwday product, unless SRK or Hrithik or someone equally drool-worthy is unfortunately involved.

What is with Bips? In RL, her taste in men is much better than in movies.

As to Da Ye. *glees*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

BAH!!! Cutting Shuro down to 1 ep. was criminal. Course, I don't know how far along you are. But yeah, she rocks. Only partly because she's the most screwed up of them all(except poor Aki, and that's not his fault) but ends up always having to yell at them about their own disfunctions.

BTW, while prepping for a Basara pimp post earlier, I came across an MV that was basically a lot of Anime OTPS in lovey dovey(and angsty) scenes...Ceres and Fushigi Yugi...I immediately thought of you.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I plan to check out Basara soon.

Hmmm, need Toya icon. He really is the bishiest of all Watase bishounen (though he's clueless about it :D) *sigh*

a lot of Anime OTPS in lovey dovey(and angsty) scenes

Oooooh, where, where?

I really like Shuro. She is like a gender-reversed, much more twsted Nuriko.

I just finished Volume 7.

*is dead*

GUUUUUH.

I really did like the anime a lot, but reading the manga is a mixed blessing as it's making me gnash my teeth at all the stuff I want to see in the anime that isn't there.

I mean, Toya/Aya always was a big OTP of mine, but now they are just scary levels, and Toya has gone from hot and awesome to 'manga bf.' I love the scene where she goes looking for him, only to find him all beaten up in an alley because he got attacked by the Mikage people but wouldn't kill them because he was remembering her slapping him (I love how she makes him learn to be human, which is fitting as he isn't after all).

And she is all freaked about him being so hurt and feels so bad about what she said/did and wants to take him to a hospital but he'd rather she took him home and gave him first aid herself. So she does and OMG OMG OMG there are love confessions, and kissing, and holding each other, and both of them are beat up (and I love how he is the one held together by glue and string but he is flipping out about the bandage on her arm) and the whole thing (which is so realistic) of them not being able to really understand why the other person loves them so (for her, because he is so good-looking he could have anyone, and for him it's because she could be with so many good, normal guys) and they are all unsure and it's awesome.

And then they make love and she feels like she can't breathe. *dies* It's a good thing I was reading it with no people around because that was a heck of a lovemaking scene. Mmmm. *blushes*

I especially love the bit where she wakes up in the morning and he is still sleeping and she checks herself out in the mirror and she is all 'I don't look any different' but then she sees hickeys all over her body, going lower and lower and lower...and she is going 'he is good' when she hears his voice 'like what you see?'

EEEEE.

*dies*

Seriously, best manga sequence EVER.

EVER.

And now they won't part because he is worried she'll get hurt.

AWESOME.

GUUUUH.

I am bitter this wasn't 51 eps.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

MV is on youtube, but I plan to include it in the pimppost. That thing has a LOT of my anime/manga otps...Aya/Toya, Miaka/Tamahome, Tohru/Kyo from Fruits Basket, Rosette/Chrono from ChronoCrusade, and most importantly, Shuri/Sarasa from Basara. It also considers Sanzo/Goku to be an OTP. If you can't wait the hour or so type in "legend of basara" in the search and it'll filter out all the stuff for the Basara game.

Ceres was one of my first manga EVER, and thus, Toya was my first manga crush and Toya/Aya my first manga OTP(well, second, actually...Rin/Manji in Blade of the Immortal were my first, but that's more of a "he's going to take care of her the rest of his life period unless someone he considers worthy comes along and he'll never consider anyone good enough so he's not going to curtail her crush because he plans on keeping her anyway." thing...I hope that made sense...kinda like Ban/Himiko...it'll probably NEVER be directly addressed but everyone knows how it's going to go)

As far as gnashing your teeth goes...imagine if it was the reverse and you got a faithful adaptation of the first few books, and then a "scenes from" version of the bulk of it, and your favorite supporting character's role got reduced to her death scene(notes that she doesn't consider Yuhi, Aki or Chidori to be supporting characters)

But the anime is still one of my favorites. The amazingly beautiful opening theme and sequence alone gives it a lot of power.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, the opening sequence is beautiful. Beautiful.

I wonder why they adapted it like this. Did they think they were going to have more time and eps but then the ratings didn't work out so they curtailed it, or what? Weird. Makes me verrrrrry frustrated.

They should totally do a live-action version. It's one of the few mangas that I could totally see as a scifi/fantasy show. It has a darker Buffy vibe (They'd have to tone down the twincest angle, but whatever).

Sanzo and Goku are father-son to me, but who am I to rain on anyone else's parade?

And oh yeah, I am a Ban/Himiko shipper in exactly the way you mention.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I don't know why they adapted it that way, but it makes me sad.

I see Sanzo/Goku a little closer told annoyed older brother/annoying little brother(Sanzo's perspective) myself, but it's essentially the same thing as far as OTPing goes.

Yeah...Himiko's going to announce she has a date one day and Genji is going to bid his evening bye-bye, knowing that he's going to spend the whole night helping Ban stalk them to make sure the guy didn't have anything upo his sleeve(or whatever excuse Ban came up with) Rin's going to get a suitor one day and Manji's going to pretend not to care then hack him in half the second he makes her sniffle.

[kitsune714.livejournal.com]

He Qun's brother drove me crazy for the first half of the whole series, but either I just learned to tune him out, or he actually got less annoying. I'm not sure. One of the things that I kind of love about Taiwanese dramas (though it's kind of cheesy and lame) are the weird camera effects, with the whooshing noises and the double takes...I know, I know, it doesn't make for the slick, more subtle presentation of say, jdrama, but it's what gives twdrama that very cracky, manga-like feel that I just love.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I know, I know, it doesn't make for the slick, more subtle presentation of say, jdrama, but it's what gives twdrama that very cracky, manga-like feel that I just love.

Oh YAY. This is something I love too. It's so funny. And cute.

Re: Ah Zhe. I must have high jerk tolerance (and a good ff button) because while I don't care for him, he doesn't make me want to rip his arms out the way Shigeru does.

[calixa.livejournal.com]

You're right, He Qun IS really NICE, and well-adjusted to an extent, but has trouble expressing affection for other people. I think part of the misunderstanding between He Qun and Ah Zhe is due to that; Ah Zhe wears his heart on his sleeve and is very open about what/who he cares about, but HQ is much more reserved, so they keep rubbing each other the wrong way. I don't think AZ is trying to provoke meaningless competitions with HQ, he's trying to test him - or, rather, he's trying to FORCE HQ to demonstrate some kind of emotional response. It seems to me that AZ feels that HQ dismissed his dead gf's death and disrespected her memory by signing with the record company/singing Tears from Polaris and that's why he can't forgive him, not because HQ caused the accident.

Even later you can see it in the way HQ teases Xiao Shi mercilessly after he's fallen for her - but it's never malicious or cruel, it's the kind of teasing schoolboys do to the girls they like. Which means he has some growing up to do as well, but who doesn't?

I grew very fond of AZ starting with episode 10; once he gets over his angst he's really very sweet and supportive (to both XS and HQ).

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting and valid point, re: He Qun. I don't think he is Shin-level-disfunctional or anything, but he is more reserved than Ah Zhe. Right now (ep 4), I don't dislike Ah Zhe but I don't love him either. I'd just wish he'd get over the emo fit because he is acting like he is five. I think he's lashing out and he thinks he wants to see He Qun hurt but he is failing in his endeavor partially because He Qun doesn't seem to be the type to break down in public but also because it's not making Ah Zhe feel better.

You'd think he'd feel some sort of triumph in taking Rita away, but he doesn't. Because he doesn't see HQ all falling apart about it, because HQ 'gets' together with XS soon after.

In a way, if he saw He Qun really broken up about something, emotionally, it would be easier for him to feel he drove his point home and won. But even when things bug He Qun (him leaving the house because of dad in ep 4, Rita leaving him), he internalizes it and is not about to cause a storm. Just think of the scene where he walks out on his parents. It's probably the most well-behaved being-kicked-out scene I've ever seen. I love that about him, but I can see how it drives AZ nuts.

[calixa.livejournal.com]

It doesn't help that their father is totally insensitive and plays favourites (he constantly blames HQ for driving AZ out and laments losing the son who 'understood' him best); HQ is definitely not Shin - probably because he has a loving mother - but I think he has taken to reflecting towards others his father's stoicism towards him. The last 1/3rd of the drama focuses on XS striving to get a vocal confirmation of HQ's feelings, because he just WON'T openly say he loves her; HQ is more about action and less about words, so it makes sense that AZ finally relents on the grudge when he witnesses firsthand how much HQ cares about their father rather than succeeding in hurting HQ or wringing an apology out of him.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

His father totally doesn't make sense, as a rational person. Yeah, fine, I can see why he is annoyed at the paparazzi-attracking career track of his eldest. But Ah Zhe is way more 'bad boyish' than He Qun. Maybe it's the emotional openness that drew him? Or the fact that for all the well-behaved veneer, he Qun is a lot more unbending than Ah Zhe is? No idea. *thwaps father*

The last 1/3rd of the drama focuses on XS striving to get a vocal confirmation of HQ's feelings, because he just WON'T openly say he loves her

Neat!

And the part about AZ finally relents on the grudge when he witnesses firsthand how much HQ cares about their father rather than succeeding in hurting HQ or wringing an apology out of him. sounds awesome. Can't wait.

[calixa.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's the emotional openness that drew him? Or the fact that for all the well-behaved veneer, He Qun is a lot more unbending than Ah Zhe is? No idea.

I think so, yeah. The three most important people in He Qun's life - his brother, his dad, and Xiao Shi - are all unsatisfied with him because he's unable to let down his guard. It's obvious to the audience that he demonstrates his affection all the time, but because he's kind of aloof I suppose it's hard for the other characters to know where they stand with him.

[magalamb.livejournal.com]

Eh, I'm on ep. 11 of Smiling Pasta, and yes, He Qun for the win... I initially started watching it because it was a re-make of Full House, and I love Full House, but kept on watching because a) Nicholas Teo looks like the guy from 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant and B) he and Cyndi Wang have fabulous chemistry...

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he is awesome and the chemistry is great.

And yay, another FH fan.