撃ち方、始め！

So a friend said you could say something about a person by knowing whether which pairing permutation they ship in the Bowser-Peach-Mario-Luigi thing, if they were forced to ship something to prevent the sun from going nova (which I believe was somewhat inspired from that...musical-song-whatever meme they have going around in Nico) but refused to explain further. I fear there's nowhere else to ask.

I, uh, would ship Bowser/Peach (or maybe Peach/Bowser I haven't really thought about it) if I really need to ship anything. What does that say about me?

I have a hankering for translation.

No, I suppose to call it 'translation' would be incorrect. I just want to read Japanese prose, feel the language roll off my brain. But while I'm at it, I suppose I should not waste my time, eh? Particularly something to do with detectives. I'm in the mood for some detectives right now. Which is slightly odd, as I tend to prefer them in English. But yes. I want to blow my brains off with kanji atm.

So I tracked down and skimmed through the manga version of Toward the Terra, that's how much I liked the series. And there are a few things I'd like to say :

1) Manga!Jomy turns blind and mute after Nazca incident. That's...pretty hardcore, dude. He, however, also has this habit of hugging people who comes too close while he's sleeping, as it reminds him of mom. (Nazca was less awesome due to fewer crowning moments of heartwarming, but what can I say.)
2) Manga!OTP = Tony-->Jomy-->Blue<---Physis. Seriously. Yes, there is Artella, but let's compare the pagespan in which she was given to the amount of pages Tony spent obsessing over Jomy and gnashing teeth at Jomy's obsession with Blue. (Tony woke up earlier in the manga, somewhat. He was a really creepy kid.)
3) There was one Blue scene which was VERY shippy for those Jomy-->Blue people that I somehow wish would remain in the anime because it explains a bit, but it WOULD have ruined 17. And we can't ruin 17. Also it may be too 70's. Also the themes are a bit different. And um, I guess a certain scene implied it anyway?
4) It was almost obvious that Keith liked Shiroe. Alas, no Peter Pan, and the whole arc was a lot less harrowing due to less emotional contact with anyone but Keith.
5) NO SWENA. ;________; But Physis also seems less useless, rolewise. In fact, she gets a lot of screentime! Also Matsuka got more screentime, which probably is meant to make his sequence more meaningful for Keith and us. He also got a facelift. ALSO SAM WASN'T SPOILERBLEEPED BY THE COMPUTER. ;___;
6) Ending = As perfect a case of 'ROCKS FALL! EVERYBODY DIES!!' as there ever was. Actual rocks included.

It kind of surprised me that they postponed THAT event, but they made it really awesome, and he's kind of the image character so what the hell. Overall I like the anime better (GASP), it's more heartwrenching (except at the end, where...we get a Best End Route, believe it or not!), but the manga has some good ideas that I'd really like to see making it into the anime. Like the Terra computer. But I like the anime ending sequence and mankind's decision so much better, so.

So themes? Mostly the same, but there's this huge difference in emphasis here : Manga emphasizes bearing the dreams and burdens of those who have gone before, Anime emphasizes paving the road for those yet to come. They're both good, and valid points. It depends on which ones you like.

Also Terra was blue.

Toward the Terra, Definition Of : Your First Love Is The Greatest Tragedy.

Seriously. If I have to cram this series down in one sentence...the extent that I've watched it, anyway, which is currently Ep. 15...that would be it. Because, heteronormativity aside, THAT and THAT and THAT and what I think will also end in tragedy yes THAT are all pretty much first loves from one side or the other. Romantic loves. Yes. AND THEY CAN BE GODDAMNED TRAGIC TOO DAMMIT.

Also. Blue. Is. Epic. Gar. And epic tragic romance (???? I hesitate to call it romance but WHAT THE HELL ELSE IS IT) wtf. Even the OP agrees with me! The freaking series motto agrees with me! I, I do have this soft spot for this kind of relationship actually?? The whole 'I would totally be an awesome heroine were I a girl, but as I am not, I will settle for being your awesome support' type??

I would recommend this old 2007 series! (Late to the party, I know.) Don't let the retro look fool you, the budget spent on this is quite remarkable. Not INCREDIBLE, but you'll find nothing really jarring, it's well animated when it's supposed to, and it moves at a BREAKNECK pace unless it's trying to stamp on your heart. Also don't mind my ramblings. I am getting used to this 'being a fujoshi' thing and am trying to balance out my fangirlship as such. It's gen if you want it to be gen, honest, although certain pairings can be a bit hard to argue against...

WHY DO I LIKE SHIROE SO MUCH I'M SUPPOSED TO LIKE KEITH HERE IF MY USUAL TRENDS HOLD.

Also : I would like The Brain to decide whether it likes old people or jailbait, thank you. I swear. The degree in which I swing between ojicon and shotacon[*], it is hilarious. Oh hey, maybe that's why I like US/UK, it's an extremely old man and a really childish...*is bricked*

[*] By 'shota', I mean somewhere around 13-15 and you HAVE to be supercapable for your age. It's just a very huggable age range for anime characters. Extreme (6-10) shota does not hit my moe buttons.

I am STILL kind of blah toward Blue, which may be due to the hype, even though the last lines of the OP really get me and those were totally his and Jomy's lines. I do like Jomy, though.

I did not expect an anime based on one of those (mostly awesome) vintage SF manga that was geared toward women to have AWESOME flying scenes. Who cares if the polygons are lowres, it's the directing that counts. (It may be enhanced by me knowing that things can ALWAYS go disastrously wrong in those vintage manga, so every missile fired can result in everything going downhill. Perhaps this is why manga from that age is so frequently awesome : they seldom have Get Out Of Jail Free cards, even for their special ability-ified heroes.)

Also observation : While I usually want to head-kick western heroes in books and movies, anything from Matrix to Nightmare Before Christmas, when they're being stupid, I find myself grinning when it's from vintage SF manga. Why? Do I just have higher tolerance because I grew up with those and could relate to those forms of stupidity more? I notice western bloggers tend to be less tolerant of Whinging People In Anime in general.

Well, yes, I'm sick and cannot do things and reading hurts my eyes, what else can I do with my time?

On P3 Portable : This is getting really close to a system seller for me, with the only catch being I need like five other games I remotely want to play on the PSP before I can justify the purchase to my conscience (there's two right now : Princess Antiphona and Peace Walker, although that does not consider the PS library I have if I get a model that could be coughcough). My P3 wherever I go! On the airplane! On the bus! And Social Links with ALL your party members, that is the sole feature I believe everybody wanted out of P3. Also it seems like they took quite a few 'story mode' improvements from P4, which is cool. P4's 'story mode' improvement is completely awesome.

Still. I have some reservations. That school event where you eventually find Fuuka (IIRC), in which you get stuck walking around with Yukari? If you play a girl in here, you get stuck walking around with Akihiko, apparently. While that sounds like enormous fun because Akihiko = Hilarity, I worry if this means Aki's your primary love interest on the girl side of things. AND THAT IS SO WRONG. I mean, I know this is the option most fujoshi would welcome with open arms because Aki's the soul of fangirl bait, and Junpei's out due to Chidori (unless you have some sort of post-spoiler bleep social link initiation, but wouldn't that be a repeat of...), Sanada Akihiko as your primary love interest of sorts is just SO WRONG. And I'm not even his slash fan! Also : Do I really want to think about the possible happenings in the July Shadow event?

They also need to add friendship tracks if they don't want the girl sleeping around with everyone by default, heh, which they probably don't considering this is Japan. Wonder if Minato also gets the benefits of this. He'd enjoy it if fewer people wanted to tear his pants off, I believe. And also since IIRC you get this option regardless of the gender you pick, I wonder if you can get yuri/BL routes depending on whether you pick Elizabeth or Theo as your Velvet Room liaison?

Despite my reservations and the rumor that the girl gets a better ending than Minato RARRR, though, I still want this game. So badly. Sigh.

If you were the body----the body, I must emphasize, not the mind inhabiting the body---of a somewhat fatigued grad student who is finally freed from a rather ashkajdhkasjd work period, what would you do?

a) Get hungry. Tell the brain a feast must be getting ready, man!
b) Get sleepy. Rest. Rest SWEET RESTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.
c) Get extremely energetic. Finally time to do all those things!
d) Catch a cold.

Three guesses as to which choice ET's body made.

Your semi-regular ET service will return on Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, I am busy being horrified that I may have----horrors of horrors----finally turned into a real fujoshi. Hetalia! You have been the death of me!

(When you walk into your old fandom and 1) realize that the two mains' epic friendship which actually was extremely epic is also extremely slashy, 2) realize that in most of your new fandoms, you generally find the BL-esque relationships more interesting than the het, you get to re-evaluate your fandom preferences)

(Maybe it's just because I've ran into all variants of het under the sun. IDK. Or because I've started to identify with/like female characters less and less over the years, except for a few notable exceptions. (This is probably a symptom of my rejection of femininity and feminine sensuality, which tends to crop up in oodles.) Maybe it's just because I've turned into this slash-everything-together fujoshi. IDK. But then I still do prefer some het ships where it's interesting and makes sense...)

Bullet points because I'm lazy.

1) I read Kimi ni Todoke during breakfast and it's rotting my teeth. Curse you and your recs, Taka! Extroverted Guy/Introverted Girl has never been this cute. And it's actually pretty funny, if I skip over Sawako's monologues. Flag-Crushing = Instant Hilarity. Always. (Yes, I am easily amused, why?)

2) COME WHAT MAY, I SHALL PWN THIS EXAM AND ENSLAVE ITS BABIES. DAMMIT. DAMMIT!

Dear Me,
Subject : Your Work Habits

Can we try to not write, or come up with ideas for writing, or god forbid translate anything right now? I thought we had this conversation years ago! Why a relapse now! It's that nostalgia thing isn't it, gah, I knew that would not be good for me. And yet. And yet.

Anyway. Please to not be writing or spending time thinking of what to write. You owe about ten people this. And also your professor will probably hang your hide off the lab door.

Manage Your Time,
Me

P.S. You. Yes. You. Flist. If I somehow manage to try and come up with a fic, which is an unlikely prospect at best considering things, what sounds better? I'm thorough trying to convince myself which one is more worthy of the hair-pulling and which one is not. Or at least on a relative scale.

1) Austria/Hungary, post-battle of Mohacs in which Hungary falls under Vienna's jurisdication. There is crack, angst, and serial-murdering countesses in creepy castles who just happened to be named Elizabeth. Has been in head for a LONG time, but will take tons of research still.
2) US/UK, vaguely creepy vaguely steampunk longshot (har har) set in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition. Simply put, US gets a mystery package after which his fingers starts rotting off and UK, who may or may not know why, has disappeared. Contains London, mad scientists, fairies, Scotland+Wales+horde of OCs and also UST.
3) US/UK, FR/CA vaguely creepy Hansel-Gretel retelling AU set maybe in the Civil War or any other era where parents kick their kids out of the house due to soldiers/plague/whatever at the door that is reasonably modern. Setting's not that important here. IDK. Parents is Sweden/Norway btw. Contains creepy!France, cabinets of curiousities, dead things and morbid boys.
4) I don't know what pairing it is anymore Spy AU in which MI6's Berlin section gets pwned by a Mole, CIA sends in greenhorns-who-happen-to-have-MI6-connections to inspect the damage on their side, East Berlin ex-soldiers waffle between his different hatreds and is also drinking buddies with sekrit MI6 badasses on the side, and there is this creepy Moscow Center dude waving sunflowers in the background while the French service figures out where the scraps are.
5) Allies vs. Axis Superhero AU in which US and CA are main characters with a side dish of US/UK and FR/CA and utter hilarity on the Supervillain pairings side (Axis also contains Hungary and Austria and Gil, which makes it a bit explosive sometimes). Contain crack, Indiana Jones-esque antics, time travel, immortal people, angst and charming coming-of-age clichery. I think I talked about this somewhere before, but can't recall where.

*crickets chirp*

[EDIT] Don't ask me how 1851 became 1885.

Dear Merric AND Soren :

When I actually tear myself out of work and spare the time to play a map each day (which I might not even be able to do as your maps are starting to get bigger), it would please me greatly if you could, you know, get an actual MAG stat. Especially you, tactician sir. Merric got his MAG screwed often enough in my old Monshou game that I could sort of resign myself to the fact, but you. Do you realize how wrong it is to go ten levels with two increases in STR but zip in MAG? (Although, you could go on being hilariously sappy. I wholeheartedly approve of IS making a Mage of InstaDeath your awesome tactician/logistics officer and then your gay love interest and they should totally keep up the trend; they've got to branch out from incest sometimes. Anyone who played the English version of Fire Emblem PoR, do you know if he's supposed to sound like Ninian in there when he's in IkeMode?)

I do notice a trend in FE since the original director left, BTW. The first FE's....including FE4, with its emphasis on human nature and Tearing Saga, with its political hilarity....have fights that practically boils down to "Here's a dark dragon, go kill it." FE6-10 seems to be more about accepting differences between you and the other guy. So yes, FE8 has some dubious plot devices, but I maintain that the real villain in there is the earthquake and a sense of despair that drives men mad. That despair was....more real than the other villains, and it makes you understand a bit of why 'they' are different. The rest is icing. And if I guess correctly, you don't get away with having the Yurius look without something to do with black dragons, so I'm waiting to see what 9-10 is throwing my way.

But then I ramble. I tend to do so these days.

Oh yes. I should mention. I still don't own a Cube or a Wii. I just figured out that the dual cores in my laptop ought to be good for something----finding the Japanese version (due to my disc not A) being here B) dumpable without a real Cube/Wii) on the net was a bitch, even on Share. But then everything is a bitch on Share.

I was watching this to cure myself of manga!FMA-related blues----don't ask about my exam, I pwn this subject---and now I want a Wii. The bloody Wii is the LAST CONSOLE EVER that I'd wanted, really, Twilight Princess or no-----but but but both of them are just too cute! Especially the taisa. Taisa kawaii. Omochikaeri. Dammit they totally made this crack for fangirls didn't they. (Considering you can get a Roy/Ed version of this....but then again, everyone apparently can pimp everyone including but not limited to Armstrong...so maybe equal opportunities?)

HIROMU ARAKAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

IF THAT SWORD DOES ITS JOB THEN I SHALL START EATING BEEF.

According to this, ET's journal is apparently an ESFP. Which is rather hilarious, because I'm a pretty hardcore INTx and happens to look at those ESFP people with a certain degree of disdain! (If you happen to be one, it's not you, it's me. I happen to look down on people who live in the real world.)

Am getting everything done, I swear.

OK, US/UK flist which at this point likely consists of one person : Would you happen to have the MAD that used to be here saved? It's played to 'Old Fashioned Love Song', IIRC, and I thought I had it saved but apparently I don't. It's the one that contains a shot of Al and Arthur playing on a PS2/Xbox together and crying together and has them drinking juice when Al decides to confess, if that helps.

Oh, and it has a hilarious karaoke sequence at the beginning. Can't forget that.

Can you believe it? There was a time when she called me a 'literary genius'.

Sometimes I still wonder what happened to my inner writer. It just.....went, one day. And never really came back. Of course I was never as good as I thought I was, but at least...I could spit stuff out?

(Hi, I'm looking through my old LJ correspondence. I *have* been around longer than I appear, you know.)

Wonderful. Wonderful.

This may be the first exam in my life that I've failed. And because of the stupidest reason. The fucking most stupidest reason. All that studying, for nothing!

Dear professor : Write the TIME on the blackboard next time, eh? Or maybe I should be more careful, considering we have a bunch of screaming introductory highschool course in the room at the last minute!

And what's worse, I think, is that I can't take my mind off of this. This has never happened before. I don't know how! Failed work, sucky things, I know how to distract myself from them. Failed exams? I don't know! I don't even know where to begin! What do I think of that wouldn't remind me of it? Is there such a thing?

A non-Canada centric doujinshi in which Canada is totally the most awesome character ever? Nah, perish the thought.

NOT.

I did not know Yumeuta reprinted this. I DID NOT KNOW SHE REPRINTED THIS. Else I would have ordered it and its sequels (makes no sense to read sequels unless you've read the first, I'd say). Um, is this time to lose money again?

*looks at pile*

....perhaps not. But but but.

But let me reiterate : Canada is totally the most awesome character in that doujin. Seriously. (And no, don't ask me for details, it was a very quick read and my friend and I just embarked on a Suicide Project At Work In The Middle of Midterms, Which Is Bound To End Well.)

And once again, if you know what I'm talking about : I'm very, very terribly sorry. It's been gnawing on me. After the midterms, I promise.

In other news : I've been working in the middle of rain and fog for the past week and now appear to have caught something. Pre-20th century English farmers, I feel for you. Also there was a conference at a very awesome facility which had certain equipment that made me want to kill a wall in jealousy, but the details are kind of hush-hush on that.