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All that hiragana is belongs to me!!!
I've finally got all of the hiragana characters and most of the katakana ones down. Good timing, really; gives me the whole rest of my life to learn kanji and the actual, y'know, Japanese. Heh.
Has anyone else ever learned an alphabet and then felt the intense desire to write in it on everything? Like, on your friends and your work desk and your computer screen? With a royal blue Sharpie? Okay, that's just me then. I pity the fools in their tummy-baring shirts this summer. Mwaha.
It'll be worse when I start on first-grade kanji, it so will. "Ma'am, that bit of skin above your elbow needs the symbol for 'mountain' on it. Can I... No? Well, wear long sleeves then! Sheesh! Temptress!" They'll be kicking me off the bus if the ride gets boring. Especially if I run out of batteries on the iPod.
Hmm, what have I been doing?
Many, many things under moon and sun, but the one I'll speak of here is watching GetBackers and FullMetal Alchemist animes.
GetBackers is a mythical love story, telling us about the passionate bond between the god of lightning and the cursed serpent. Seriously. You might think at first that it's just your standard shounen anime, albeit one with a lot of bishounen, but you'd be wronger than a thing that is wrong. It is, in fact, about how best-friendiness with the one who can light you up or understand your dreams is something worth risking everything to keep. Sure, you can read it like straight shounen, if you ignore the subplots, subtext, dialogue, flashbacks, and ending sequences. But why would you want to?
True, Ginji and his Ban-chan seem like your standard shounen best friends, at first. They quarrel loudly over every scrap of food that comes their way, and Ban-chan never loses an opportunity to tell Ginji what an idiot he is. They are surrounded by beauties, some of whom are even female. And never let you forget it, losing clothing whenever possible. They become so overwhelmed by the bikini babes at the beach that they forget to meet a client when they really need the work. Each has "friends" from the past that seem a little more than fond, and with whom they leave a lasting impression. But follow the series through steadily from beginning to end? Your slash-colored glasses may be only to make you look cool like Ban. You probably won't need them.
I'm only on episode 7 or so of FMA, and it took this long to really get to me. I only have impressions, rampant fondness for Al and the deep love between Al and Ed, amazement that the cute things in the anime actually seem cute to me, stunned shock at some of the Engrish naming, mixed horror and delight at Roy Mustang's (haha, Mustang!) character. And also some of the storylines are much darker than I expected, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Just freaky.
The fandoms that I am most into right now are the above, Star Wars Obi-Ani stories, Samurai Champloo, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and random yaoi manga. I think GetBackers is dominant, though. It's even edging out Spike and Xander. Like all things ~billy, this state is sure to change. But the SO and I worked out a plot for a GetBackers gen story (theirloveissopuregenisadequate) that the SO wrote up and I need to edit. Imagine that, me posting a completed more-than-one-page collaboration. It's bound to happen, though the effects of crack will be observed.
Have any recs in the fore-mentioned fandoms? Obsessing on GB, SC, FMA, etc. yourself and want to discuss? Or, oh-oh! Have any original manga/anime recs for stuff that's still new in English? Want me to share some manga or be more specific about yaoi recs? Let me know!
I've finally got all of the hiragana characters and most of the katakana ones down. Good timing, really; gives me the whole rest of my life to learn kanji and the actual, y'know, Japanese. Heh.
Has anyone else ever learned an alphabet and then felt the intense desire to write in it on everything? Like, on your friends and your work desk and your computer screen? With a royal blue Sharpie? Okay, that's just me then. I pity the fools in their tummy-baring shirts this summer. Mwaha.
It'll be worse when I start on first-grade kanji, it so will. "Ma'am, that bit of skin above your elbow needs the symbol for 'mountain' on it. Can I... No? Well, wear long sleeves then! Sheesh! Temptress!" They'll be kicking me off the bus if the ride gets boring. Especially if I run out of batteries on the iPod.
Hmm, what have I been doing?
Many, many things under moon and sun, but the one I'll speak of here is watching GetBackers and FullMetal Alchemist animes.
GetBackers is a mythical love story, telling us about the passionate bond between the god of lightning and the cursed serpent. Seriously. You might think at first that it's just your standard shounen anime, albeit one with a lot of bishounen, but you'd be wronger than a thing that is wrong. It is, in fact, about how best-friendiness with the one who can light you up or understand your dreams is something worth risking everything to keep. Sure, you can read it like straight shounen, if you ignore the subplots, subtext, dialogue, flashbacks, and ending sequences. But why would you want to?
True, Ginji and his Ban-chan seem like your standard shounen best friends, at first. They quarrel loudly over every scrap of food that comes their way, and Ban-chan never loses an opportunity to tell Ginji what an idiot he is. They are surrounded by beauties, some of whom are even female. And never let you forget it, losing clothing whenever possible. They become so overwhelmed by the bikini babes at the beach that they forget to meet a client when they really need the work. Each has "friends" from the past that seem a little more than fond, and with whom they leave a lasting impression. But follow the series through steadily from beginning to end? Your slash-colored glasses may be only to make you look cool like Ban. You probably won't need them.
I'm only on episode 7 or so of FMA, and it took this long to really get to me. I only have impressions, rampant fondness for Al and the deep love between Al and Ed, amazement that the cute things in the anime actually seem cute to me, stunned shock at some of the Engrish naming, mixed horror and delight at Roy Mustang's (haha, Mustang!) character. And also some of the storylines are much darker than I expected, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Just freaky.
The fandoms that I am most into right now are the above, Star Wars Obi-Ani stories, Samurai Champloo, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and random yaoi manga. I think GetBackers is dominant, though. It's even edging out Spike and Xander. Like all things ~billy, this state is sure to change. But the SO and I worked out a plot for a GetBackers gen story (theirloveissopuregenisadequate) that the SO wrote up and I need to edit. Imagine that, me posting a completed more-than-one-page collaboration. It's bound to happen, though the effects of crack will be observed.
Have any recs in the fore-mentioned fandoms? Obsessing on GB, SC, FMA, etc. yourself and want to discuss? Or, oh-oh! Have any original manga/anime recs for stuff that's still new in English? Want me to share some manga or be more specific about yaoi recs? Let me know!