Musings of the Obsessive Kind

Yup, still in tropical paradise. Had a bizarre dream in which the Winchester brothers ended up on Moya, which is probably a hint I should watch more Farscape but not before bed.

Watched the second ep of Samurai Champloo which was neat and second episode of Hana Kimi which was neater. ( Spoilers for HK ep 2 )

I have also finished the Takizawa Hideaki jdrama Boku Dake No Madonna though judicious use of ff button. TH was excellent in it (and was angsting most prettily in the shower) but the female lead drove me nuts. That is actually a big chunk of the reason I adore kdramas and twdramas but not jdramas for most part. The female leads. Most times, I fall madly for the female leads in a kdrama (usually before I fall for the hero, actually). And most times, that's true for twdramas too. But in jdramas, with a few exceptions, I want to strangle them, and here was no exception. I totally loathed her and she never changed. Still, worth watching for ( vague spoilers for BDNM )

Now I am sort of torn. I don't want to watch a jdrama, so I am probably going to finish Magicians of Love. I have a mad yen to rewatch Mars though (both of which dramas I have here). I'd actually rewatch Meteor Garden which I also have here, but HYD 2 is going to start before I finish and I don't want to be confused. Helpful hints?

I still have the bulk of S2 of Farscape to get through, and Samurai Champloo, and I started Nana the anime (very pretty) but I am thinking of doramas as well...

Yup, still in tropical paradise. Had a bizarre dream in which the Winchester brothers ended up on Moya, which is probably a hint I should watch more Farscape but not before bed.

Watched the second ep of Samurai Champloo which was neat and second episode of Hana Kimi which was neater. ( Spoilers for HK ep 2 )

I have also finished the Takizawa Hideaki jdrama Boku Dake No Madonna though judicious use of ff button. TH was excellent in it (and was angsting most prettily in the shower) but the female lead drove me nuts. That is actually a big chunk of the reason I adore kdramas and twdramas but not jdramas for most part. The female leads. Most times, I fall madly for the female leads in a kdrama (usually before I fall for the hero, actually). And most times, that's true for twdramas too. But in jdramas, with a few exceptions, I want to strangle them, and here was no exception. I totally loathed her and she never changed. Still, worth watching for ( vague spoilers for BDNM )

Now I am sort of torn. I don't want to watch a jdrama, so I am probably going to finish Magicians of Love. I have a mad yen to rewatch Mars though (both of which dramas I have here). I'd actually rewatch Meteor Garden which I also have here, but HYD 2 is going to start before I finish and I don't want to be confused. Helpful hints?

I still have the bulk of S2 of Farscape to get through, and Samurai Champloo, and I started Nana the anime (very pretty) but I am thinking of doramas as well...

So, in between swimming, and sunning myself on the beach and looking at sunsets, I countinued with my watching of 17 different things.

( Thoughts on Farscape's ep 2.01: Mind the Baby )

I also watched second episode ofBoku Dake No Madonna ( And my thoughts on it are here )

I have also started Samurai Champloo. So far, I have only seen first episode, but it is LOVE. The anime is set in the Edo period (but with deliberate anachronisms) and follows the adventures of three very different individuals: Fuu, a girl who is looking for a samurai that smells like sunflowers (for unspecified reasons) and the two fighters she got to help and protect her (making them interrupt their own fight, as a payment for saving their lives earlier): a taciturn ronin Jin (who ismy favorite) and a wild Okinawan, Mugen. I really love the artwork: which is beautiful and fluid and reminds me a bit of Peacemaker Kurogane, and I have rarely loved characters as fast as I got into Fuu, Jin, and Mugen. I love the fights which are brutal and short and gorgeously animated (and I love that Mugen and Jin have very different fighting styles). And I love the pace, which was my one worry, as this is by TPTB who did Cowboy Beebop which is good but whose pace felt too leaisurely. Can't wait to watch more.

I have also finished the Snow Drop manga and am in squee overload. And will start on biography of Teddy Roosevelt now. Or maybe continue All This and Heaven Too, a novel based on the true story of the infamous Mademoiselle D (Henriette Duplessis), a 19th century governess in the troubled household of the Duc de Praslin, a minister of Louis XVIII, with whom the Duc fell in love and as a result murdered his wife and then killed himself. There was a gorgeous, passionate movie with Charles Boyer and Bette Davis in the 1940s about it.

Oh, and last night I dreamt about watching Hana Yori Dango 2. I guess I really am impatient for it.

And I close with the following hilarious article from the BBC:

( S Koreans offered cash for no sex )

OK, Farscape and I are clearly destiny. I am in a hotel in Curacao, and Mr. Mousie turns on TV and what do we see? "Terra Firma," my very favorite Farscape episode ever.

Oh.

My.

God.

When I am getting back from dinner, it's definitely "Mind the Baby" time.

In other news, I've discovered my new favorite manga, or more specifically a Korean manhwa, Snow Drop. It was recced by the lovely klmorgan who is my newest bestest friend because of it. I've bought all 12 volumes and have taken them on the trip, and oh boy, it's so worth it. Currently, I am in the middle of volume 4, and I can't wait to continue.

What is Snow Drop? The best way I can describe it is, 'Korea's answer to Mars' And if you know my liking for that manga and mad love for that twdrama, you know how just for me SD is. SD is the star-crossed, Romeo & Juliet story of two troubled teens: So-Na and Hae-Gi. So-Na is a headstrong only child of a powerful, and rather scary congressman who blames herself for the death of her mother and who regularly relives the memory of a horrfying kidnapping when she was 12. Her biggest joy is the Snow Drop plant nursery. At least until she meets, and first clashes and eventually falls in love with Hae-Gi, a fellow troubled student at her new school, who is gorgeous but isolated and doesn't let anyone close. Unlike So-Na, who was brought up in the lap of luxury, Hae-Gi is quite poor and is the only support of his family: his somewhat wild younger (and cross-dressing) brother, and his beloved mother who has been in a vegetative state for years, ever since the death of Hae-Gi's idolized older brother. There is some sort of mystery about the death and the coma, but I have no idea what it is yet. Suffice to say, even without extra stuff which will undoubtedly come up, Hae-Gi has a lot to deal with. In fact, in order to earn enough money for his mother's surgery (the latest in the series of futile efforts Hae-Gi made to get his Mom better), Hae-Gi (who, like all manga heroes is hunky with a capital 'H') has resorted to nude modeling (!) for a rich diletante photographer who is 10% about art and 90% about 'human toys.' So here we have it. A congressman's daughter and a nude model. Equally messed up. And that is only the beginning of their troubles as, suffice it to say, their families have a very dark past together. Throw in a cross-dressing brother (who is awesome), So-Na's very platonic best guy friend (who thankfully does NOT nurse an unrequited passion for So-Na), an evil bitch girl after Hae-Gi, and a complicated plot with more than a hint of angsty doom for our poor lovers (I did check the ending so I like how it ends) and gorgeous artwork, and I am in love.



( A few more manga covers )

In other news, I started watching jdorama Boku Dake No Madonna, an adorable, funny, whimsical, romantic drama starring the amazingly hot Takizawa Hideaki. BDNM centers around Kyoichi (TH), who is an architecture student who decides to rent an apartment so as to have some privacy from his loving but too-close family (there is a hilarious scene in a montage of scenes where Kyoichi tries to sneak downstairs at night to watch an adult video and hastily shuts it down when his elder sister comes in, but she sees the cover and goes 'I want to watch toooooo.') Kyoichi is a normal, sweet, nice-tempered guy. In fact, that is Kyoichi's biggest problem. He is too nice for his own good, too quiet, too retiring. Too 'normal.' The girl he is dating ditches him for being 'boring,' his boss takes advantage of him being too polite and non-confrontational, and his neighbors always attempt to get into his business. Kyoichi doesn't just want to blend in, but he can't help it: he doesn't take risks, he is unwilling to offend. He is just too nice and too rule-bound. All of this is about to change, however. Because one night, Kyoichi (who works part-time at night) comes home to discover a beautiful girl, slightly older than him, asleep in his bed. It turns out that the girl is actually there to watch her ex-fiance who lives across the street. She is a bit strange, but she is funny, and free-spirited, and an odd but effective friendship/relationship develops between the two. On Kyoichi's part, it's rather more than friendship actually, and you can tell by how TH looks at her, how he leaves her meals in the fridge, how he has this expectancy of a puppy, almost, that Kyoichi is getting in deeper and deeper. As to the girl? You can tell that she has a lot of fun with him, and is beginning to rely on him too...she seems quite lonely and when they have their first fight, you can tell it hurts her as well.

( Thoughts on ep 1 )

( A couple of non-spoilery BDNM caps )

It's delicious and brilliant and I cannot wait to see more. And the opening credits are to die for, not just because he is shirtless.

OK, Farscape and I are clearly destiny. I am in a hotel in Curacao, and Mr. Mousie turns on TV and what do we see? "Terra Firma," my very favorite Farscape episode ever.

Oh.

My.

God.

When I am getting back from dinner, it's definitely "Mind the Baby" time.

In other news, I've discovered my new favorite manga, or more specifically a Korean manhwa, Snow Drop. It was recced by the lovely klmorgan who is my newest bestest friend because of it. I've bought all 12 volumes and have taken them on the trip, and oh boy, it's so worth it. Currently, I am in the middle of volume 4, and I can't wait to continue.

What is Snow Drop? The best way I can describe it is, 'Korea's answer to Mars' And if you know my liking for that manga and mad love for that twdrama, you know how just for me SD is. SD is the star-crossed, Romeo & Juliet story of two troubled teens: So-Na and Hae-Gi. So-Na is a headstrong only child of a powerful, and rather scary congressman who blames herself for the death of her mother and who regularly relives the memory of a horrfying kidnapping when she was 12. Her biggest joy is the Snow Drop plant nursery. At least until she meets, and first clashes and eventually falls in love with Hae-Gi, a fellow troubled student at her new school, who is gorgeous but isolated and doesn't let anyone close. Unlike So-Na, who was brought up in the lap of luxury, Hae-Gi is quite poor and is the only support of his family: his somewhat wild younger (and cross-dressing) brother, and his beloved mother who has been in a vegetative state for years, ever since the death of Hae-Gi's idolized older brother. There is some sort of mystery about the death and the coma, but I have no idea what it is yet. Suffice to say, even without extra stuff which will undoubtedly come up, Hae-Gi has a lot to deal with. In fact, in order to earn enough money for his mother's surgery (the latest in the series of futile efforts Hae-Gi made to get his Mom better), Hae-Gi (who, like all manga heroes is hunky with a capital 'H') has resorted to nude modeling (!) for a rich diletante photographer who is 10% about art and 90% about 'human toys.' So here we have it. A congressman's daughter and a nude model. Equally messed up. And that is only the beginning of their troubles as, suffice it to say, their families have a very dark past together. Throw in a cross-dressing brother (who is awesome), So-Na's very platonic best guy friend (who thankfully does NOT nurse an unrequited passion for So-Na), an evil bitch girl after Hae-Gi, and a complicated plot with more than a hint of angsty doom for our poor lovers (I did check the ending so I like how it ends) and gorgeous artwork, and I am in love.



( A few more manga covers )

In other news, I started watching jdorama Boku Dake No Madonna, an adorable, funny, whimsical, romantic drama starring the amazingly hot Takizawa Hideaki. BDNM centers around Kyoichi (TH), who is an architecture student who decides to rent an apartment so as to have some privacy from his loving but too-close family (there is a hilarious scene in a montage of scenes where Kyoichi tries to sneak downstairs at night to watch an adult video and hastily shuts it down when his elder sister comes in, but she sees the cover and goes 'I want to watch toooooo.') Kyoichi is a normal, sweet, nice-tempered guy. In fact, that is Kyoichi's biggest problem. He is too nice for his own good, too quiet, too retiring. Too 'normal.' The girl he is dating ditches him for being 'boring,' his boss takes advantage of him being too polite and non-confrontational, and his neighbors always attempt to get into his business. Kyoichi doesn't just want to blend in, but he can't help it: he doesn't take risks, he is unwilling to offend. He is just too nice and too rule-bound. All of this is about to change, however. Because one night, Kyoichi (who works part-time at night) comes home to discover a beautiful girl, slightly older than him, asleep in his bed. It turns out that the girl is actually there to watch her ex-fiance who lives across the street. She is a bit strange, but she is funny, and free-spirited, and an odd but effective friendship/relationship develops between the two. On Kyoichi's part, it's rather more than friendship actually, and you can tell by how TH looks at her, how he leaves her meals in the fridge, how he has this expectancy of a puppy, almost, that Kyoichi is getting in deeper and deeper. As to the girl? You can tell that she has a lot of fun with him, and is beginning to rely on him too...she seems quite lonely and when they have their first fight, you can tell it hurts her as well.

( Thoughts on ep 1 )

( A couple of non-spoilery BDNM caps )

It's delicious and brilliant and I cannot wait to see more. And the opening credits are to die for, not just because he is shirtless.