On the subject of me

[prillalar]

What I have been doing instead of updating:

* Watching a LOT of toku. I finished up both Kamen Rider Hibiki and Ultraman Nexus, two of my favourite series. Even though I post mostly about anime and manga, my actual consumption is primarily toku. I just don't know anybody else who's into it as much as I am, so I don't really talk about it, just burn quietly.

* Writing. Only I don't yet have anything to show for it. My hard drive is littered with WIPs and I need to buckle down and finish them. Hopefully I'll have something this weekend -- the current effort seems to be going okay.

* Reading murder mysteries and books about marketing.

* Reading Cromartie High and waiting for the next volume. It's now my default crossover canon. What if the guys from Cromartie played tennis against Seigaku? Freddy and the gorilla would beat the Golden Pair. And Mechazawa would play Ryoma and lose terribly, but it doesn't matter because he's so damn cool.

* Planning LJ posts in my head.


What I should be doing but am not, at least at the moment:

* Posting about Doctor Who. I've been keeping up with it all along, though I haven't enjoyed some of the recent eps that much. The finale I loved. But I talk about the eps offline and a little in chat and I just don't feel the need to say more. It's not like my reviews were ever insightful, just squee.

* Prince of Tennis recaps. This is because I don't like the next match: Ryoma vs the Robot. But I will get back to it soon because once I finish Jyosei, there's bowling to look forward to.

* Finding a new job. I suck.


Things that are cool:

* My collection of Ring of Fire covers.

* Sh15uya.

* Corner Gas.

* The boy on the bus who was wearing a white shirt with a pattern of small pink roses.

* Single malt scotch.


eta: Some Doctor Who S2 finale spoilers in the comments.

Comments

[happiestwhen.livejournal.com]

Planning LJ posts in my head.

ahahahahahha, yes. I do this all the time, and then promptly forget what I'd planned to say the moment I get in front of a keyboard.

[prillalar]

It's not that I forget so much that planning them satisfies me enough that I don't have to actually write them up and post them. I also compose posts and then delete them. I should maybe learn to share my thoughts more. :)

[venivincere]

Oooh. What's toku?

Mmmm. Laphroaig.

[prillalar]

Toku is short for tokusatsu, which means "special effects" and also refers the genre of live-actions shows that use a lot of effects - usually monster shows, but there are a lot of subgenres. Godzilla and that ilk are toku. The subgenres I most like are the Kamen Rider series, which is usually about mavericks who gain special powers and fight evil and/or monsters; Ultraman, an alien giant; and sentai, team shows. The Power Rangers are based on sentai.

A lot of people find toku cheesy, but not me. It's not meant to be realistic and somehow it just really works for me. Some shows are more serious than others. Ultraman Max is definitely a kids show and is often goofy and always lighthearted. Ultraman Nexus is very dark and presents a reality that's more grey than black and white.

Wikipedia has more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokusatsu

[venivincere]

It sounds pretty cool! *checks out more*

[prillalar]

If you want to give some toku a try, the best place to find subs is TV-Nihon (http://www.tvnihon.com/).

I'd recommend either Garo or Kamen Rider Hibiki as good starter shows. I talked a bit about Hibiki further down in the comments. Let me know if you want to know more!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear more of your Doctor Who comments, because I seriously lack friends to discuss the show with - and I love discussing the show. What do you think of the loss of Rose? What did you like about the season ender?

Anyway, nothing wrong with squee.

[prillalar]

Well, I'm a vast robot army kind of girl. :) And I love the Daleks beyond all reason. I'm actually pleased with the way things ended with Rose. I loved her with Nine but the dynamic she had with Ten started to get on my nerves after a while. They enabled each other too much.

What did you think of it?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is, I was never a vast robot army kind of girl before, but I think Doctor Who did something to my brain because I really loved the Cybermen. Especially when they're in verbal battle with the Daleks. I crack up every time I remember: "Exterminate!" "Delete!"

I'm actually pleased with the way things ended with Rose.

So am I. I thought it was a fitting fate, and I liked the way it happened. I don't think I can articulate my reasoning, but I didn't want her to stay with the Doctor, even though I liked their relationship - perhaps it was that it became too comfortable? Which, come to think of it, is just another way of saying what you said. It was a powerful ending, anyway, and I like the way Rose got everything she'd ever wanted except the thing she wanted most.

[oracle134.livejournal.com]

Cromartie High + Prince of Tennis crossover? =)

I think that's the one of the only animes that can outcrack PoT (although Cromartie pretty much outcracks everything).

[prillalar]

I haven't seen the anime yet but I'm thinking about picking it up in August when the series pack is released. The manga owns my soul in a way I never would have expected a gag manga to do.

I think about crossing Cromartie over with anything I read or watch. HP, BSG, Doctor Who. And they seem to fit every time. :)

[qem_chibati]

Kamen Rider is a series, I keep meaning to watch; a friend of mine is a huge fan of it, and will find a way to bring it into pretty much every conversation on MSN or aim. @.@;

[qem_chibati]

Oh and Cromartie is a hell of a lot of crack. @.@: I keep meaning to pick up the manga, but I've seen a fair bit of the manga (and the liveaction movie) which was very... um. educational would not be the word....

[prillalar]

There are a bunch of Kamen Rider series -- it's a whole subgenre. My favourite subgenre, actually. I've seen all of Blade, 555, and Hibiki. Kabuto is airing right now but I'm a bit behind with it. I've got a few eps from some older series as well.

I love them all so much!

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

...so do you know anything about Shinesman?

[prillalar]

No, sadly, I haven't seen it.

[akatonbo.livejournal.com]

It's a 2 episode OVA but also a 9 volume manga series (and the only scanlations I've seen stalled after like 2 chapters, bah). It's a parody of sentai series, and also of Japanese corporate life, and all the characters are named after voice actors, and it's WONDERFUL. So funny, the manga has plot, the characters are wonderful... I really need to pimp more people into the fandom, because I love it madly and I've never met anyone who'd seen the OVA and didn't like it, but the manga's still largely unknown. The OVA has been out on DVD forever and is available cheaply even brand new.

[florahart]

I completely thought that said "watching a lot of tofu."

Oddly, I thought that sounded particularly unentertaining.

[prillalar]

Well, I did spend a lot of time in front of the tofu section when I was grocery shopping, just staring and wondering if there was some good way to cook it that didn't involve, you know, work.

[mitethe.livejournal.com]

I'm always up for Doctor Who squee! Your occasional posts were one of the reasons I took the plunge. :) Don't think I'm capable of anything BUT squee at this point, happily wallowing in the first flush of love and all. Maybe there'll be thinky thoughts later. Or maybe just more squee. *arm-waving*

[prillalar]

Are you all caught up? Despite not liking some of this season's eps, I'm still all in love with it and I can't wait until Christmas when there's more.

I do have a mostly-done squee post about the finale, so I'll try to finish it up soon.

[mitethe.livejournal.com]

It was YAY! from the get-go so I rushed through both seasons to catch up. Right now I'm rewatching from the beginning to catch all the nuances that slipped by me the first time, especially after your comment about the nature of the Doctor/Rose relationship in Season 2. It'd be interesting to compare their dynamic Season 1 vs. Season 2 in an in-depth fashion. Christmas feels so far away! I haven't been this emotionally invested in a TV series since Babylon 5. It's a wonderful feeling. *happy*

[shikishi.livejournal.com]

I loved the finale epsiode. Absolutly amazing stuff, and I am not really a huge fan of the show.

[prillalar]

It was just so great. If I wasn't in love with Jackie before, I am now.

[dejla.livejournal.com]

I love Japanese monster movies. Even Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster, which I remember taking my baby brother too for a children's matinee years ago.

I even love the Godzilla in New York remake, since I could sit there and make New Yorker comments about the scenery. But I think my favorite is Rodan. I sit and cry when the two monsters choose to die together.

[prillalar]

There's something about those films that always gets me in a non-funny way. I'm an avid MiSTie, but I was always thought they shouldn't have MiSTed the Godzilla movies. I get ticked off that they're not being properly respectful *g*

[nuhiep.livejournal.com]

Hey Hal, I friended you recently because of Prince of Tennis. I think the first time I ever saw your name was reading your stories on an InuKai community, though I haven't really had the opportunity to interact with you since then. I was wondering if I could get your opinion on Kamen Rider Hibiki. I've been watching Kabuto and it's been my first exposure to the franchise. I like it very much for its interpersonal dynamics and each character's driving, internal conflict. Kagami and Tendou especially have a strange, subtextual fascination with each other that makes me happy. Liking Kabuto as much as I do, I downloaded and just watched the first episode of Hibiki. It's really funny, but also a little disconcerting in its . . . bizarre musical-like aspects. I checked on Wikipedia to try to get a sense of what this series was going to be like, and there was a comment on how the series was very "subtle," which I regard as a good thing. I have a lot of patience with television, but only if there's an emotional payoff in the end. I'd really like to hear what a real, live human being thinks about Hibiki, and what to expect from it in terms of character development and thematic elements.

Thanks!

[prillalar]

Hibiki was the first Kamen Rider series I watched and so I didn't realise how different it was. The don't even say "Henshin!" when they transform! Since then, I've watched all of Blade and 555, part of Kabuto (I'm behind but should catch up soon), and few eps here and there of earlier series.

I liked the show a lot, not so much as a KR show, but as something on its own. It's strongly focused on Adachi and his need to find direction and make progress as he transitions from middle school to high school. The good/evil plot is there, but backgrounded. There are lots of fights, but the actual over-arching evil plans aren't really given much emphasis.

Instead, there's a lot of personal development of the Riders and their support group. There were a lot of things that reminded me superficially of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I would highly recommend this show. I grew very attached to the characters and I'm sorry that it's over now. The theme/gimmick of the show is music (like food on Kabuto, or cards on Blade) but there are only a couple of those musical numbers and they're quite early on. (I wish there had been nmore!)

So give it a try and let me know what you think. I'd love to be able to discuss it with someone.

[nuhiep.livejournal.com]

Excellent. I will definitely give it a try. I've got the first 24 episodes downloaded now, so that will be my next project (in between waiting for Kabuto to be subbed). I'm glad I asked, since I do prefer series where the characters and their personal struggles are foregrounded. I'll get started on Hibiki and then get back to you with my thoughts. ^_^ Thanks for your input. I wish I could ask people about every series I want to watch and get thoughtful, considered evaluations.