Fandom update
27/11/10 22:25![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
invitanBefore everything else: First week back home! And already got a fever, bed-ridden for 24h = = Anyway, I really haven't done anything much, except for lazing around the house all day and reading/watching stuffs, keeping update with fandoms.
I'm figuring out something more productive to commit myself to this winter (like volunteering, or learning something new), but have quite yet to come up with any good idea. A winter of SAT does not quite sound like a bright prospect to me though.
1. [Pandora Hearts] Xerxes Break
<The picture is not quite a fair representation of his usual identity, but it's my favorite, so whatever.>
I intended to write a review for Break, but eventually decided against it. He is one of those characters whose depths are too immense for me to just suddenly come up with words to describe. The process needs some thorough reviewing of the material (which is already complex on its own accord, thank you very much).
After rereading the manga like 2 times simultaneously with the anime, I can definitely confirm that Break is my absolutely favorite Pandora Hearts character right now. And to think that he gets on my nerve the most at the beginning of the story!
A lot of people say that the reason they love him is his multi-face, his sharpness, or his tragic past. Of course, all the above aspects make him absolutely badass, not to mention his skills with his sword. A friend of mine pointed out that he's really another stereotype - fake smile with a tragic past - Fye of TRC, anyone? "Which doesn't make him less deep or less likable though" - she added. I've also put some thoughts in the matter, and come to the conclusion that there's a distinct aspect of Break that makes me love him much more than Fye (actually I cannot say much about Fye - gave up TRC long time ago) - almost the same reason why I love Kanda of DGM so much (and sadly the same reason why my love for Kanda is falling apart, but that's another story). It is his total honesty with himself and total understanding of himself as well as his standing among others.
When I say 'honesty', I don't mean that he's a plainspoken, straight-from-the-shoulder type of character, because that's the opposite of who he is (and that actually sounds a lot more like Kanda, but I'm not going to stray from the main subject). What I mean is that he understands inside out his personality, his abilities, his goals, his needs, etc. He does not pretend to be reliable, because he's not (with his body degenerating and all). He does not pretend that he has a happy past filled with love and care, but neither does he exaggerate it to be something extremely sinful or mortifying. Neither does he try to be particularly remorseful or heavily burdened with the wish to redeem himself. Instead, Break is all like 'Hello, past? How are you today? Oh, btw, thanks for teaching me a precious life lesson, now bye bye!" He totally kicks ass in his honesty, just like Kanda; but while Kanda does it with brute force, Break achieves it with grace and style.
maintaining perspective by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
metisket is my favorite Break fic (well, everything written by her is my personal favorite anyway - her characterization pwns!)
2. D.Gray-Man
So, what has gone wrong in DGM lately? Really, Hoshino-sensei should just cut to the chase and stop playing around with all the bromance tension going on, because it disappoints fangirls and chases away fanboys. Really? Kanda x Alma? CANON?! There should have been some issued warnings, even if she wants to start a whole revolution in Jump. Okay, I appreciate the fact that she does not try to pretend their relationship as mere 'friendship' or 'obsession', but has the gut to call it 'love'. There are not so many popular shounen that are half as brave, and if the budding romance between Allen & Kanda becomes canon eventually, I'm not going to be surprised. Until then, Hoshino needs to stop throwing at fans things that make us go WTF, because seriously, DGM fanbase is not that large.
In the mean time, there's something that's been bothering me:
See it 0__o? The x between Allen and Kanda??? And what can that possibly mean? I'm not reading too deep into it, aren't I 0__o?
I heard there's also a Lavi x Miranda x Lenalee. If that's true, I can ROFL my way to heaven.
3. Glee
So what's with the sudden awesomeness, Glee? The latest episodes with Kurt's storyline developing is just... heartbreaking. Poor lad, glad you've got yourself a boyfriend, not so glad you're moving away. So how do you thing Glee club would do without you, Kurt? (Aww, I love that boy to bits)
Anyway, why does Glee always turn better when Kurt is in the spotlight? It's at its worse when Will's the center of attention, but shines whenever Kurt, or even better, Burt appears. I betcha the scripwriters fell head over heel in love with Kurt, which is natural, since, seriously, who can hate him? Aww...
4. Shiki
...is really reaching its climax. Wow, the thing is freakin' EPIC. Now that everything's in the light, what's left is an all-out war between the human and shiki. The chapter when Chizuru was killed was just mind blowing. It has a similar effect with the death of Toshio's wife - same level of brutality, same gray fashion that this series seems to be fond of creating. It's like... I should feel triumphant when Chizuru's dead, but no no no, the authors have a much much better intention. They instead made me sympathize with her, just to increase the level of tragedy, and then finished her role with a blast when she was all tears and bloody terrified, and just for a tiny moment I actually wanted her to be alive.
It's really these chapters that make Shiki so special. You are not afraid of the gory image of vampire sucking blood; it's the counter-attack of the human that absolutely traumatizes you.
5. Shounen tournament
Imho, vnsharing's shounen tournament is an epic fail. It might be fun for a while as a popularity contest, but the interest diminishes over time, especially when the diversity of characters narrows down to just a few. It might be a better idea to shorten the time, maybe operating more polls in one day. I don't think it's a good idea to allow clones and fake clones and all those gibberish - it just dilutes the tournament and sucks all the fun out of it. The voting topics are boring with members simply type a line than post a bunch of random pics. Well, no clone has enough time to write something more interesting, and the post will be buried under tons of new posts in seconds anyway, so why bother?
===
That's it for now, I guess. Hope to find something better to do soon.
I'm figuring out something more productive to commit myself to this winter (like volunteering, or learning something new), but have quite yet to come up with any good idea. A winter of SAT does not quite sound like a bright prospect to me though.
1. [Pandora Hearts] Xerxes Break
<The picture is not quite a fair representation of his usual identity, but it's my favorite, so whatever.>
I intended to write a review for Break, but eventually decided against it. He is one of those characters whose depths are too immense for me to just suddenly come up with words to describe. The process needs some thorough reviewing of the material (which is already complex on its own accord, thank you very much).
After rereading the manga like 2 times simultaneously with the anime, I can definitely confirm that Break is my absolutely favorite Pandora Hearts character right now. And to think that he gets on my nerve the most at the beginning of the story!
A lot of people say that the reason they love him is his multi-face, his sharpness, or his tragic past. Of course, all the above aspects make him absolutely badass, not to mention his skills with his sword. A friend of mine pointed out that he's really another stereotype - fake smile with a tragic past - Fye of TRC, anyone? "Which doesn't make him less deep or less likable though" - she added. I've also put some thoughts in the matter, and come to the conclusion that there's a distinct aspect of Break that makes me love him much more than Fye (actually I cannot say much about Fye - gave up TRC long time ago) - almost the same reason why I love Kanda of DGM so much (and sadly the same reason why my love for Kanda is falling apart, but that's another story). It is his total honesty with himself and total understanding of himself as well as his standing among others.
When I say 'honesty', I don't mean that he's a plainspoken, straight-from-the-shoulder type of character, because that's the opposite of who he is (and that actually sounds a lot more like Kanda, but I'm not going to stray from the main subject). What I mean is that he understands inside out his personality, his abilities, his goals, his needs, etc. He does not pretend to be reliable, because he's not (with his body degenerating and all). He does not pretend that he has a happy past filled with love and care, but neither does he exaggerate it to be something extremely sinful or mortifying. Neither does he try to be particularly remorseful or heavily burdened with the wish to redeem himself. Instead, Break is all like 'Hello, past? How are you today? Oh, btw, thanks for teaching me a precious life lesson, now bye bye!" He totally kicks ass in his honesty, just like Kanda; but while Kanda does it with brute force, Break achieves it with grace and style.
maintaining perspective by
metisket is my favorite Break fic (well, everything written by her is my personal favorite anyway - her characterization pwns!)2. D.Gray-Man
So, what has gone wrong in DGM lately? Really, Hoshino-sensei should just cut to the chase and stop playing around with all the bromance tension going on, because it disappoints fangirls and chases away fanboys. Really? Kanda x Alma? CANON?! There should have been some issued warnings, even if she wants to start a whole revolution in Jump. Okay, I appreciate the fact that she does not try to pretend their relationship as mere 'friendship' or 'obsession', but has the gut to call it 'love'. There are not so many popular shounen that are half as brave, and if the budding romance between Allen & Kanda becomes canon eventually, I'm not going to be surprised. Until then, Hoshino needs to stop throwing at fans things that make us go WTF, because seriously, DGM fanbase is not that large.
In the mean time, there's something that's been bothering me:
See it 0__o? The x between Allen and Kanda??? And what can that possibly mean? I'm not reading too deep into it, aren't I 0__o?
I heard there's also a Lavi x Miranda x Lenalee. If that's true, I can ROFL my way to heaven.
3. Glee
So what's with the sudden awesomeness, Glee? The latest episodes with Kurt's storyline developing is just... heartbreaking. Poor lad, glad you've got yourself a boyfriend, not so glad you're moving away. So how do you thing Glee club would do without you, Kurt? (Aww, I love that boy to bits)
Anyway, why does Glee always turn better when Kurt is in the spotlight? It's at its worse when Will's the center of attention, but shines whenever Kurt, or even better, Burt appears. I betcha the scripwriters fell head over heel in love with Kurt, which is natural, since, seriously, who can hate him? Aww...
4. Shiki
...is really reaching its climax. Wow, the thing is freakin' EPIC. Now that everything's in the light, what's left is an all-out war between the human and shiki. The chapter when Chizuru was killed was just mind blowing. It has a similar effect with the death of Toshio's wife - same level of brutality, same gray fashion that this series seems to be fond of creating. It's like... I should feel triumphant when Chizuru's dead, but no no no, the authors have a much much better intention. They instead made me sympathize with her, just to increase the level of tragedy, and then finished her role with a blast when she was all tears and bloody terrified, and just for a tiny moment I actually wanted her to be alive.
It's really these chapters that make Shiki so special. You are not afraid of the gory image of vampire sucking blood; it's the counter-attack of the human that absolutely traumatizes you.
5. Shounen tournament
Imho, vnsharing's shounen tournament is an epic fail. It might be fun for a while as a popularity contest, but the interest diminishes over time, especially when the diversity of characters narrows down to just a few. It might be a better idea to shorten the time, maybe operating more polls in one day. I don't think it's a good idea to allow clones and fake clones and all those gibberish - it just dilutes the tournament and sucks all the fun out of it. The voting topics are boring with members simply type a line than post a bunch of random pics. Well, no clone has enough time to write something more interesting, and the post will be buried under tons of new posts in seconds anyway, so why bother?
===
That's it for now, I guess. Hope to find something better to do soon.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
27/11/10 16:26 (UTC)I'm thinking of reading Pandora Hearts, thanks to you (and your post some time earlier), but I can't afford the time right now though. Still, just to inform you :-? And seconded so hard the Shounen tournament notion :"/.
Anyway, get well soon <3
(no subject)
28/11/10 01:41 (UTC)Thanks for asking. My fever's over, but I still have that annoying headache when I move around Y_Y
Btw, I bring home your present and intend to send it... soon (depend on how lazy I can get actually T_T)
Really 0__o You're gonna read Pandora Hearts? XDDD It's really an excellent, excellent manga - I haven't read anything on the same level in quite a while. Its reviews are a mixed bag though, so I'm not sure if you're gonna like it. Most people are turned away by the first act (around the first 3 vol :-?) actually imo, but I think if you can get over it, you will more or less love it :-?
If reading PH taught me anything, it was that when you're so into something, you can make time out of nothing at all T_T I finished the whole thing (anime + manga) in like a day or so, in the middle of my exam. (It's not a long series as of yet - about 14 vols so far) Doesn't mean I tell you to do the same, though.
About the shounen tournament, I'm rooting for Doraemon right now =)
Anyway, how's school? So everything's in English now, huh :-? How many years will you take?
(no subject)
28/11/10 08:01 (UTC)Oh thanks X"DDD You don't have to rush or anything, just do it when you feel like it :D (Just at least don't wait until you're in Singapore to finally feel like sending it 8D...)
I've heard of Pandora Hearts before, and did plan to read it but never got any motivations until I knew you read it :"D. And don't I know it, I remembered finished the whole ~500 chapters of One Piece in the middle of an exam too, in less than one week or so :"/. But you really tempt me, maybe if it's not that long, maybe I can indulge myself a little....Argh no no no, forget what I just said ;_;
There are still two OP characters left standing in the Shounen Tournament, among of some of my favorite characters, so I can't quite leave it yet :"/.
Yep, as of now I officially don't study anything in Vietnamese anymore, which is made clearer by the fact that I've started taking Japanese classes again >_<". As for my university study, if I go the normal way (which is to take 4 subjects a semester) I'll finish in about 2.5 years, but since I've decided to lessen the workload and take 3 subjects/semester, it'll take about 3.5 years I think. So that's approximately the same as the normal university in Vietnam :"/. How about you? When are you finishing high school :-? ? Have you decided on what uni to apply yet?
(no subject)
28/11/10 09:51 (UTC)All my favorite characters are already out by now (which perhaps says something about my taste, but I'm not sure what :-?). There are some I like among those left standing, but I still have the feeling that the triumph of Doraemon will leave me most satisfied :-?
About the uni thing... I confess that I'm (guiltily) glad that you will take 3.5 years instead of 2.5 >__< At least that way you'll still be in uni instead of already graduate when I leave highschool (in 2 years, you see) >___<
I guess I want to go to the US, but not quite set eye on any college yet. My parents are pushing me to study SAT, which I ferociously resent since, frankly speaking, who on earth tells their daughter to study after exam T_T?
(no subject)
28/11/10 11:46 (UTC)Don't think too much about the results or what it implies about your preferences :"/. This tournament is really rigged what's with all the FCs exchanging votes or people voting against someone who beat their favorites in earlier rounds. It's interesting to see the outcome but I don't really think much of it, so.
Oh D:. Well, so that means I'll just have to remind you that much more frequently 8D.
(no subject)
28/11/10 11:48 (UTC)(no subject)
28/11/10 12:17 (UTC)Well, I'm on a 4-year scholarship that covers 2 secondary years and 2 highschool years (they stay in highschool for 2 years only here), so that means I kinda drop a grade. And the fact that schoolyear here starts later (in January) than in VN, I study 1.5 years slower than in VN, which equates 2 years if I ever gonna go to the US ~:(
Well, it's not like I'm in a hurry to finish school life anyway :-?
Yeah, I see what you mean about the tournament. I'm kinda sad because of all the Pandora Hearts hate going on. Lovely characters, not fair you blame them for having more fans :(
(no subject)
28/11/10 13:24 (UTC)(no subject)
28/11/10 13:33 (UTC)I may have to re-read DGM some time soon >_> *biased, I know, but at least it's something to pique my interest >_>"*
(no subject)
28/11/10 13:41 (UTC)http://www.mangareader.net/210-57824-9/dgray-man/chapter-199.html
Er...So, there's another woman in this >_>? Or is it a mistranslation >_>? (I don't really remember much about akumas, please be lenient ;_;). It's getting really confusing here, care to explain to this noob ;_;?
(no subject)
28/11/10 15:07 (UTC)I guess Alma doesn't want Kanda to know about his true identity so he becomes an akuma? (yes, it doesn't make sense, but I'm not all that smart you see T_T)
(no subject)
28/11/10 15:04 (UTC)Well, Alma is a boy but his previous 'life' was apparently a girl and Kanda's previous life's sweetheart, so she's deliberately ambiguous here. But yes, they hugged each other, they swear until death do us part, and they very much have said 'I love you' in their reincarnation form, so that's no doubt SA there >_<
*END SPOILER*
She's brave, but not in the way that fangirls want >__< I don't like Alma, frankly.
CLAMP is not nearly as bold as what others credit them for. I don't like the way they beat about the bush, as well as all those soulmates and platonic relationship that they keep throwing at us. It kinda cheapens the meaning of 'love' imo. If they love each other, than let them kiss, for god's sake!
Lenalee has disappeared for quite a while now (thanks to the monthly serialization, the story slows down significantly). At least I have some hope now (since Kanda is apparently bisexual - CANON!!!)
(no subject)
28/11/10 16:49 (UTC)Well maybe they're just trying to show that love can exist without physical intimacy. And with all those Hollywood movies where love is cheapened when all the protagonists need is just a kiss, I think they're actually admirable. With intimacy out of the way, it leaves room for much more meanings conveyed with love. Since it's exactly my thing, I must admit I find myself fonder and fonder of them :"/. (And who's to say they aren't making out vigorously behind the scenes?)
Still, agreed with the beating around the bush things, a prime example is xxxHolic here :-<. Oh well I'm patient, so :"/.
Oh that's good :-?...I'm not that fond of Lenalee anyway, from what I remembered she was likable at first but then slowly degrading....=___=''.
(no subject)
29/11/10 01:06 (UTC)Well, I'm not a CLAMP fan, so I /am/ biased *grin sheepishly*. I haven't read so many series of them though, so my opinion can change.
About Lenalee, the author pretty much confirmed that she is the 'heart', or something like that, so I imagine she would play the damsel in distress later on. I just hope that she don't cry - sick of her crybaby tendency = =
(no subject)
29/11/10 03:31 (UTC)Well I admit I didn't like all of (what I've read, I haven't read all of them yet) their series, but what I don't dislike, I really love. I don't think I've read that much more CLAMP works than you though, and what I drew my conclusions from are the ones you've read. And I think I'm the biased one here, since I'm a CLAMP fan.
But objectivity is overrated anyways D:Now that I think about it, I wasn't a CLAMP fan at first. It feels like I've just become one recently, like /really/ recently :"/.....
Oh wow I see D: Maybe I should wait until DGM's finished to pick it up again, so that all the frustrations will be easier to bear with, and the confusions easier to understand D:. Like with TRC and the cloney stuffs D:
(no subject)
29/11/10 06:34 (UTC)Objectivity ruins the fun of everything "D We don't claim ourselves to be professional critics, so why bother "D
The romance is not the reason I don't like CLAMP actually; it's more that their prolixly abstract storytelling is not to my liking. I find Rumiko Takahashi so much more comprehensible "P
DGM is a mess, so I don't blame you for not willing to pick it up again. It was fun for a while, but I'm considering dropping it as well until the end. It's frustrating to wait every month. (I hate monthly series T_T)
(no subject)
29/11/10 09:03 (UTC)Oh, but I can't claim to be a know-all about that kinda stuff. Ever since I find myself disagreeing with how they do it, pretty early in my life, I hardly ever watch movies anymore. Only recently did I pick up (I blame my friends ;_;) on the trends.
Hm I see, well I don't like their abstract story telling either, just so you know :-<. It's a bit (only a bit) easier to understand once it's all finished though, and when one gets used to their style it gets better :-S
Monthly series enable us to read more every sitting, but the wait is just so agonizingly long it's actually worse T_T. So seconded there T_T.