(no subject)

[cuddlefish]

I took screenshots from L2, I really did, and I meant to put them up here! I REALLY DID! But then I got talking about Hitsugaya and Ed and s;dfgha;oigbb I WAS VERY BUSY. REALLY. They're all screenshots of my Dwarf doing acrobatics in Rune Township. In Arcana Robe---I WASN'T THINKING! I have two characters with subclasses now. Bounty Hunter -> Warlock and Prophet -> Silver Ranger (What was I thinking? I wanted Spellsinger)

I got Hitsugaya on a matchmaking test, but my friend got him too so now Hitsugaya is easy, and then somehow that led to Hitsugaya in a suit at a fancy event, with a girl (taller than him) hanging off of each arm.

Then I was shown Arakawa's sketch of Ed at 29.


(11:07:29 PM) Me: Finger lickin' good
(11:07:43 PM) Me: Licking everything else for that matter OOPS I MEAN
(11:08:04 PM) My Excellent Comrade: I want one of those for Christmas?
(11:08:12 PM) My Excellent Comrade: AHAHAHAHAHA
(11:08:17 PM) Me: If I touched him, I would eat my hand afterwards

(11:14:50 PM) Me: What'll his voice sound like then
(11:15:06 PM) My Excellent Comrade: Ooo, bet it would be much deeper.
(11:15:13 PM) Me: ...yeah
(11:15:18 PM) Me: Maybe...husky?
(11:15:49 PM) Me: I keep covering my face and going, OH MY VIRGIN EYES, and then looking again

(11:43:12 PM) Me: I...I collect cookbooks that have strayed from the bath of good
(11:43:14 PM) Me: PATH
(11:44:16 PM) My Excellent Comrade: lol xD
(11:44:48 PM) Me: You know, the bath of good, like when you eat a piece of cake while taking a bath

HEY WAIT THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FMA

(12:06:05 AM) Me: One of my goals in life is to deflower a Jedi >_> I KNOW HOW BAD IT IS BUT COME ON
(12:06:16 AM) Me: THEY HAVE SWORDS AND THEY'RE STRONG AND THEY HAVE A CODE OF ETHICS
(12:06:16 AM) My Excellent Comrade: ...
(12:06:18 AM) Me: THAT'S SUPER
(12:06:26 AM) Me: And those rat tails
(12:06:26 AM) My Excellent Comrade: Especially if that Jedi may be an Elric? xDDD
(12:06:30 AM) Me: Yeah, well
(12:06:32 AM) My Excellent Comrade: lol
(12:06:53 AM) Me: I want to deflower the Elrics anyway
(12:07:48 AM) My Excellent Comrade: True

(12:38:05 AM) My Excellent Comrade: Tim is totally curled up against the edge of the rooftop on his side, going "I hate stake-outs. Don't these guys know it's a school night?"
(12:38:07 AM) My Excellent Comrade: WIN.
(12:39:08 AM) Me: Awwwwww
(12:39:23 AM) Me: He's sleepy =w=
(12:39:29 AM) Me: ...be better if Ed was sleepy
(12:39:39 AM) Me: Hah Ed falls off the roof because he fell asleep
(12:40:06 AM) Me: All the criminals' heads whip around as there is a crash from the bushes and a lot of loud squawking
(12:40:48 AM) My Excellent Comrade: HAHAHAHA
(12:41:09 AM) My Excellent Comrade: Ed is not very useful on stake-outs.
(12:41:12 AM) My Excellent Comrade: He gets bored easily.
(12:41:43 AM) My Excellent Comrade: And the game of "let's try to snatch the binoculars" is only entertaining once in a - no, it's never entertaining.
(12:41:45 AM) Me: Heh
(12:41:51 AM) Me: ...not on the roof, anyway
(12:41:59 AM) My Excellent Comrade: Plus, Ed is a klutz.
(12:42:10 AM) My Excellent Comrade: He is a klutz AND a monkey.
(12:42:15 AM) Me: Ed is too into running around and destroying things
(12:42:15 AM) My Excellent Comrade: I've never quite gotten that.
(12:42:18 AM) Me: Not being sneaky
(12:42:21 AM) Me: And clomping
(12:42:35 AM) Me: And when he takes along Al, AND HE ALWAYS DOES, he can't sneak anyway
(12:42:50 AM) My Excellent Comrade: He'll fall off the roof, slam into the adjoining fire escape and manage to flip and hit the wall and land fine. Except for the, you know, SLAMMING BODILY INTO THE FIRE ESCAPE part of the thing.
(12:43:02 AM) Me: ...LMAO
(12:43:04 AM) Me: .......
(12:43:08 AM) Me: WHY IS THIS SO AMUSING
(12:43:14 AM) Me: My god, Al is quieter than Ed and he's a suit of armor
(12:43:20 AM) Me: CLOMP CLOMP CLOMP
(12:43:24 AM) My Excellent Comrade: Exactly.
(12:43:27 AM) My Excellent Comrade: Al is a ninja.
(12:43:29 AM) Me: Roy: Oh, Ed must be coming up the hall =_=
(12:43:31 AM) Me: Heh
(12:43:57 AM) Me: Stomping, red-faced, loud, dramatic...leather pants
(12:44:00 AM) My Excellent Comrade: It's really easy to spot Ed's footsteps regardless of stomping or regular walking anyway.
(12:44:03 AM) My Excellent Comrade: They don't sound right. [Note: But then...]
(12:44:04 AM) Me: Does he still wear black leather pants at 29
(12:44:14 AM) My Excellent Comrade: HAHAHA OH GOD PLEASE YES I WANT TO SEE THAT ASS
(12:44:18 AM) Me: Does the leather squeak when he walks
(12:44:56 AM) My Excellent Comrade: ....... IF I HAVE PERVY DREAMS I'M TOTALLY BLAMING YOU.

(12:47:15 AM) Me: So what do we have on Ed at 29
(12:47:18 AM) Me: He's a looker.
(12:47:26 AM) Me: He has a deeper, possibly husky voice
(12:48:05 AM) Me: He has the ass that was given to low, small mortals by the Gods to bring us hope and joy low, mean mortals by the gods to help our civilization advance
(12:48:18 AM) Me: And he maybe wears shiny black leather pants on it
(12:48:57 AM) Me: ...............
(12:49:24 AM) Me: "I like my coffee like I like my men, naked and chained up in the basement?" >3>

(1:00:12 AM) Me: ...you didn't tell me about page 15 of this sketchbook
(1:00:53 AM) My Excellent Comrade: *goes to see what's on page 15*
(1:01:01 AM) Me: Al is drying his crotch by flipping the towel between his legs and letting it hit his ass
(1:01:12 AM) Me: Ed is drinking milk and weighing himself
(1:01:30 AM) Me: Roy is clothed in a bathrobe and sitting in a vibrating chair
(1:01:35 AM) My Excellent Comrade: ...
(1:01:42 AM) My Excellent Comrade: Roy + magic fingers = OTP?
(1:01:46 AM) Me: ...
(1:02:00 AM) Me: The comment next to Roy doing a dancing pose is "Saturday Night Fever"
(1:02:09 AM) Me: Roy instead of John Travolta...OH SHIT
(1:02:24 AM) Me: And Ed chopping the top off a beer bottle like I saw in an old documentary
(1:03:03 AM) Me: Roy dancing like a sexy motherfucker
(1:03:05 AM) Me: THAT'S IT
(1:03:09 AM) Me: CRITICAL MASS
(1:03:11 AM) Me: OVERLOAD
(1:03:19 AM) Me: I HAVE BROKEN MY OWN BRAIN

Also note: Ed has his hair slicked back on page 27, and he looks like some sort of awful mafia child. This is freaky.

Yeah, that's it...I wasted time getting killed in L2 and talked with my friend for like four hours...yeah, what did you do >_>

Comments

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

Don't look at the movie summary, just look at movie screenshots and magazine art. It's what I do. There's this pic of Ed looking all scuffed up and his mouth is a little open...nom nom...and Hohenheim is not the SAME! Well, his eyes are the same...heehee =w=

This reminds me, one of the recent volumes of Hagaren also showed the Elric family when a certain infamous picture was taken, and Ed was...little...and he had that triangle mouth...and he was holding onto Hohenheim's pants leg and looking up at him OH GOD (>w<) ILU ED

(I READ RYUU NO HANAWAZURAI :DDDD)

[narugami.livejournal.com]

I saw that, it was very cute :) Actually after following the raws for a while now maybe I'll actually start buying the manga? The anime didn't really click with me but what I've read of the manga is quite good...

(Yay~ So what did you think? I want to root for Kuwan but I feel like Rushin will win. Or maybe they really will pull off an OT3 type ending? There's enough fujoshi-service for it to not be out of the question...)

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

The last time I read the manga through (to about volume 12?) I was out of it for a week. Like, depressed. I dunno. It is very good. It's convincing, but it's so strong, maybe even a little frightening. I'm always sad there aren't enough outrageous hijinks---most of them are short jokes and the faces Ed makes when he hears them.

People have also talked about how very different Ed is in the manga as compared to Ed in the anime. If you noticed that anime Ed was kind of fangirl fodder, you may like manga Ed better. He has less of that subtext with Roy, too.

Ideally it would be OT3, but yes, I think Rushin will "win." The most common pattern is for the girl to grow bored with the dreamboat she's always loved and fall for the one who "wins her over" with a lot of questionable teasing (though I am extremely sick of this). I'm worried that Kuwan will really go off and try to kill Rushin, and Shakuya will either be disgusted with Kuwan and SUPER confused or nurse Rushin back to health. =_= I am still rooting for Kuwan, though I think Shakuya has to grow up a little before that will work out.

My favorite scene is when Shakuya is schmoozing under a waterfall and she bellows (or something like that) just for kicks, and Kuwan shows up and goes, "Yes? ...oh. Excuse me."
'cuz she's naked HUR HUR. (Also memorable: right after that when he's all like, "Are you prepared for me to love you?" WHOA. //////)

[narugami.livejournal.com]

That's what I felt, that it's on another level of maturity from most manga, more like a serious book. Of course when you deal honestly with war and racism (manga where you have African characters who aren't just the butt of jokes are very rare, so Arakawa wins a LOT of points from me for that) all sorts of ugliness and violence comes out, so it doesn't really make for comforting reading... Poor Robin, too much war and not enough fluff! *hugs*

Kuwan Kuwan WOW? *snickers* I only read up to volume 1 so I don't recall that scene... But while I really like Rushin too, exactly what is wrong with being a gentleman and awesomely skilled swordsman? (er wait Rushin is also both) I feel like all of Shakuya's declarations of love for Kuwan are just the lady protesting too much. The fact her maid is in Rushin's camp is also a flag, seems to me. Oh well.

The part where Shakuya's ladies-in-waiting name the baby tigers Ru- and Ku- and then fantasize about her holding them both is what made me think the author might make a OT3 ending. Warukunai imeeji indeed ^^;;;;;;

PS: This is veering WILDLY off-topic but have you ever read Tokimeki Tonight? It's so funny and then apparently later on there's all sorts of drama with the king of the Makai and shinigami etc and I'm really terribly tempted to buy it all in the bunko rerelease right now. T_T Damn classic shoujo sagas! I want to read past volume 2~~~)

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

Mostly what FMA manga makes me understand is the maddening fragility of human life, and yes, that is because I'm afraid for Ed and Roy, but also other characters, and even the entirety of Amestris. So I'm not sure if that's serious or not. I didn't really get that from, say, Naruto. ._.

The scene I'm talking about is in volume 2, which has some important consideration of Shakuya and Kuwan's relationship in both the main story and a side story. If you're rooting for Kuwan, it's good to read. Yes, the lady doth protest too much, that's it exactly. It's at least a sign of immaturity. She needs to stop screaming her love from the rooftops and just feel what she feels for Kuwan. (Hopefully twu wub.)

I think Shakuya's maid is a fallback for Rushin! But it's more likely she'll give him a pep-talk so he goes for Shakuya instead. ...I want to see her get a boyfriend, too. T_T As for Rushin, yeah, he's a skilled swordsman, but he teases Shakuya too much for me to call him a gentleman. He wants to be her buddy as much as he wants to love her.

I think you've told me about Tokimeki Tonight. >:D Is it the one where there's a girl, and she has this prince from another world, but he's a baby or SD or something?

[narugami.livejournal.com]

That's true. Somehow I can't help but think it'll all end happily though? I know I have no evidence but I can't imagine the bad guys winning ^^; Although I'm a little worried for Al...

That sounds nice - I liked the story in the first volume where Kuwan rescued her from a box (oh Shakuya --;) Why didn't his tattoo grow from that? But I feel like in shoujo manga, it's the disadvantaged one who wins. Like the one with a short temper, or the one from the wrong side of the tracks, etc. So I feel like the cards are stacked against Kuwan (which is one reason I'm rooting for him, ahaha).

Oh yeah, her maid likes Rushin too. But I think she'll give up her chance for Shakuya...

I think that one's Merupuri actually, which I liked but felt bad liking because the prince is like six years old. Even when he magically ages into a hot guy (which happens periodically) it's still horribly awkward because he's still mentally a kid. Lovely art though, Hino Matsuri's amazing (aren't mangaka names awesome? XD) It was shoujo (Ribon or Hana to Yume) so nothing really questionable happened but it still bothered me. I stopped reading it, anyway ^^;

Tokimeki Tonight is old and really silly (the main character's name is Etou Ranze as a pun on the French étrange, f'rinstance) and you have all sorts of ridiculous hijinks. There's one point where Ranze sprouts wolf ears and a tail every time she sees a circle, and she has to do a math quiz so she writes a triangle instead of the number 0. (Then she completely flunks it and begs her teacher to at least write the character rei instead of zero XDDDD) Later on it apparently becomes much more serious and I want to see what happens! Maybe I'll be a spendthrift and order them tomorrow)

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

I worry for Roy, mostly. But according to the law of Equivalent Trade, everything should land up rainbows and sunshine for most everyone. =_= I myself will be very disappointed if I sit through all this heart-wrenching material and Arakawa doesn't show us something absolutely wonderful.

I think in a lot of manga the underdog wins. Have you read any Naruto? (Probably not, but.) When it started out, Sasuke was a better fighter than Naruto and the one Sakura had a crush on. Now Naruto is at least equal to him in both ways. ...so I guess that's a little bit of the reason I like Kuwan better, but most of the reason is that HE'S DEAD SEXY. *_*

Oh, I did have it mixed up with Merupuri...I hear about Tokimeki Tonight because it ran Ribon or Nakayoshi and they're always hawking those rereleases on their advertisement pages. I never really knew what it was about, just that it was old and superfamous. Oh god, the art reminds me of early Sailormoon =_= How...does she make the ears and tail go away? Does she have to kiss anyone? >:3

[narugami.livejournal.com]

Super long comment de gomen ne ^^;;

I figure Roy is safe because he has a girlfriend. Likewise Ed. <-weird logic Hopefully Al will be alright in the end too, I want him to become human again. ;_; AND ALSO LING DAMMIT *is still angry over that* Setting aside the writing and plot and whatnot, the mere presence of the Xing characters makes the manga inherently better than the anime. They should make an OAV or two so we can hear Ling talk :E

What, I am not afraid to read Jump, I'm uncool already so it doesn't matter. *uses Mx0 icon* I have read a bit of Naruto - up to the part where they're in the jungle for an exam and I think Orochimaru's gang attacks? I liked it - the three main characters were all affecting (I'm one of the few weirdos who liked Sakura ^^; I mean, being young and stupid isn't a cardinal sin, Sasuke was sympathetic in spite of being a twerp, and Naruto was just adorable.) I kind of stopped paying attention though and now I'm just lost.

And because he looks like Roy, right? :P

No, but she goes to the Makai and steals a magic book from the local library with the help of a prince who falls in love with her, so it's close enough. (Actually this manga has some, er, OMG moments. She can turn into whoever she bites and reverts when she sneezes. It's easier to just show you than to explain so: here is one point where she turns into an alley cat and follows him home, and then he gives kitty-Ranze a bath. ^^;;;; Here is another where she turns into him and just...that looks REALLY ODD OKAY.)

Yeah, it was Ribon. 8D I found scans of almost the complete series Thursday evening and have been in a happy fog for the past few days. ^^; It's good! In spite of the racial stereotypes that crop up every now and then. =_= That stuff isn't funny! I think it ran for twice as long as it really should've, because by the last few volumes the story pretty much falls apart. With the retcons of the setting and the fun characters from the beginning getting ignored and the messy writing... did she hand it over to her assistants or something?

But it's hardly the only manga to suffer from that. (Recently I read the Dragonball manga from the beginning and it's amazing how much more fun the story was before all the power levels ^^; And am I the only one who didn't like the last arc of Sailor Moon? It contradicts the original setting and there's NO DARIEN sorry Mamoru and too many new characters I didn't care about and I mean, what's the point?)

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

I worry about Roy's girlfriend, too. Arakawa wouldn't kill the Elrics or Winry, but maybe she would kill an adult to make Ed angst. .-. SHE HAS IN FACT ALREADY DONE SO WITH A MAN WHO WAS MARRIED. Recent chapters made me very afraid for Hawkeye.

What they really need to do is make a whole new series. There is so much story left to tell in both the anime and manga, and I know lots of people who would die to hear Ling speak.

I didn't think you were too cool to read Jump, I thought maybe you weren't into Naruto but then again everybody seems to have read a bit. :3 As for Sakura...you mean people don't like her? Real people, and not silly fangirls who either want to bang Sasuke or see Sasuke bang Naruto? D: I always liked her because she's a fellow fangirl. I, too, have stopped paying much attention to Naruto, but I still buy the tankoubon and read a bunch at once.

That's part of it, but there are plenty of anime guys who look like Roy, and I could care less about 90% of them. I like Kuwan because he talks and acts like Roy. ...it's only a little better, huh. =_=

Oh, he gives kitty-Ranze a bath, huh? Then Tokyo Mew Mew indeed has some derivative material =_= There's a scene just like that, except the main character's crush gets in the bath with her while she's a cat. (She faints and wakes up to him brushing her hair =_=)

I think it would have been better if the assistants took it over. She probably kept doing it because she felt obligated to, but she was too tired/sick/depressed to make it good. ...I hear too much about manga artists having very unpleasant lives.

Sailormoon did move into the mythology at the end, and it did move away from the things that made the early parts so fun: teamwork, the difficulty of having two lives, the intrigue as the girls discover their true selves etc. Particularly bad was the way Usagi didn't get to interact with the inner senshi much at the end. :( That was SO IMPORTANT to the series. That said, though, the story Naoko made up was interesting, and opened the door to all the fan senshi... >3>

Dragonball is mostly unlovable, except for the early stuff. Which is also funny. And, I think Goku is hot. :P

[narugami.livejournal.com]

She can do that without necessarily touching Roy or Riza, though. I figure Scar will die eventually to make up for his sins (maybe shielding Winry?) and Hohenheim might sacrifice himself at some point.

The part with Hawkeye getting stalked was scary as hell though. That's the problem with monthly serialization, all these stupid cliffhangers!

Really? I've mostly heard people bash Sakura, but then I don't talk to anime fans in real life all that much. Certainly there's an element of "get the icky girl away from my yaoi" in some streams of fandom, not just Naruto, that annoys me. Even outside of fandom - one reason I can't stand BL most of the time is that the women are all terrifying, if they exist at all. I support gender equality! :O

Jump manga is so expensive to collect though because it runs forever ^^; I'm soooo far behind on Hikaru no Go and that's an all-time favorite... Ideally I'll go to Japan and buy them all at one fell swoop at Book-Off, but I wanted to get the French editions so I can force my siblings to read it.

It's certainly an interesting mythos but it kind of bothered me because it seemed that all the people who aren't senshi are completely meaningless. I read it mostly in snippets though (took it out in French from the library) and it's been more than five years at least so I don't recall it that well.

(Yeah well Future Trunks is cuter okay)

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

Scar can do that, I'm cool with that, but if Winry decides to angst about how she ALMOST SHOT the guy who SAVED her LIFE, or get mad at him in an adorable way for trying to fix death with more death, then the deal's off. I don't think there really is any way I will be happy with that situation unless Winry either hates Scar or is very very confused. For God's sake, let the girl recover the way real people do, instead of magically resolving all her (very difficult) problems.

Shades of Gundam Wing fandom. >_> People despised Relena, and you don't have to talk to anybody to figure that out. Sometimes I hear about Sasuke x Sakura fans having bitter fights with, um, everybody, including each other. I also hear a lot about people saying Winry is stupid and weak, and people are STILL shouting over Aeris and Tifa...

Part of it is that fandom is just a big ol' can of crazy, but I would be more inclined to pair these women off with the men if they were a little less vague. I have always wished that Sakura could rock as hard as the boys, but I get the feeling that she's just The Girl. And Winry has great chemistry and history with Ed, but has such a passive role I find myself withdrawing. Hawkeye actually bores me a little, and I have a problem with the way she's portrayed in RoyEye fic...

The great part is that if these girls were any stronger, the whole fandom would froth about Mary Sues =_=

Is New York City any closer to you than Japan? :< Because there's a Book Off there. Bla, I feel like you've told me before...it isn't, is it. It's really not as cavernous as the Book Off in Tokyo but they have the cookbooks I want... >3> You could probably get them for a buck apiece in Japan (minus AIRFARE ._.)

Ohh...yeah, what do you want? Magical girl anime. I know what you mean, though. Mamoru was a pawn...and he had such weird outfits in the anime =_= I actually prefer it that way, but that may be because Sailormoon was the first anime I ever liked.

(Are you kidding? I used to blush over Future Trunks before I realized I was watching Dragonball for Goku. Trunks seems little flimsy in personality. Now I'm a yaoi fangirl and I just pair them with each other =_________________= You've seen that huge Trunks shrine, right?)

[narugami.livejournal.com]

You definitely have a point there. Generally anime writing lets characters off too easily (I love Luke in Tales of the Abyss, but man, that's just not an acceptable mistake there!)

I want to smack people who bash Aeris or Tifa. Aeris is Aeris, I find it incredible that people could dislike her, and how can anyone play through Mideel and not at least admire Tifa? Hardcore yaoi fangirls, sheesh :/

Relena kind of scared me with her eyebrows ^^; I think the only one I liked in that series was really Quatre, anyway. The stupid philosophy and Heero's annoyingness aggravated me, but the only Gundam I've ever gotten into was SEED.

It's true though that girls aren't allowed to be too awesome in manga. In Reborn you have Chrome who I really like, and who's supposed to be pretty powerful, but heaven forbid she should win a fight.

NY is nine hours away by bus, so I can go, but it costs me $100 to get there an back >_> And next time I go I'd prefer to have someplace to stay instead of day-tripping, which adds money. It's a marvelous store though and I'm definitely planning on going back sometime!

Green jackets with pink shirts? 8D

(I don't think so; it's been a long time since I checked out sites for that or Sailor Moon.)

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

It's not so much that I'm mad at Scar (though I am) as I just want them to show a little respect for Winry's feelings instead of instantly curing her and making all the bad things go away. ...uh, it's very hard to explain, but that's how I feel.

Oh, I'm not saying Gundam Wing is good. In fact, it's downright bad, but then there's that subtext, and DUO. I loff Duo. X3

Aeris is fine and Tifa is fine, but after the sordid events of the Wall Market, Cloud is my favorite >3 BACK ON TOPIC, both girls are immensely useful and they both have their moments. So I agree, they are equals. It's okay for someone to like one more than the other, but none of this endless bashing.

In fact, even in shoujo manga there's a lot of girls who are pretty much pwned by the men. And they pass this stuff off as romance for 12-year-olds. I shudder to think.

Oh, haha, that's quite a trip then ._. You're welcome to meet up with me when I go in December. I have all these awesome restaurants lined up...oh, yeah, and books, too, right...

Temple o' Trunks (http://templeotrunks.com/). I'm surprised you've never seen it, it's as old as they come.

Yeah, or green jackets with black shirts, or...some weird shirt with rolled-up sleeves, tucked into tight jeans... >_> OH THE 90s.

[narugami.livejournal.com]

Oh, that would be a lot of fun! Except I'd have to pass on the restaurants 8D

Actually in my experience the younger the target audience, the more normal the messages are. Sakura pretty much solves all her own problems, for example. Same with other magical girls. But when you start getting into Sho-Comi or josei territory then suddenly the romantic lead is an asshole and starts sexually assaulting the heroine, who can't do anything. It really bothers me. Another reason to stick to kids' stuff :O

Oh well ^^;

I started reading this old manga Cat's Eye by Hojo Tsukasa and it's SO EIGHTIES it's funny. The main characters do their secret missions in leotards, everyone has big hair and reflective sunglasses and smokes like a chimney... It's a good manga (I can see why Clamp got such a kick out of it) but, lord.

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

Actual sexual assault? D: ...come to think of it, there's this series called "Kaichou ha Maid-sama?" A very mannish young lady is school council president, and uses her powers to protect the few girls at her mostly-boys school from having to see porn or naked boys or used underwear. And then this blonde asshole blackmails her because he finds out she has a job at a maid cafe =_=

This is all important for you to know, because one day at the maid cafe the waitresses all dress up as guys. Our lead character is enchanted with the whole idea. Afterwards, in the changing room, she comments to this "romantic" lead that she wants to keep dressing up as a guy at the cafe---"People called me oniisama today...I wonder what I would be like if I was actually a guy? And if I would be...uh, what do they say again? Seme? Or a sa...sasoi uke? Oh, do you even know what that means?"

He whips off his shirt and goes, "Want me to tell you?" and proceeds to back her into a wall while demanding that she take off her clothes, too---because they're both guys, right? The girl very clearly does not like this and does not want to take off her clothes. =_= To this, this young man says, "See? You're still a girl." More like, SEE, YOU FANGIRLS ARE STILL A BUNCH OF BITCHES.

I was really offended. =_= More later when I get to the other house.

[narugami.livejournal.com]

...I've read scans of the first volume a while ago and then got aggravated with it. I don't remember that scene exactly but yeah, that's kind of precisely what I can't stand. I can't even read Hana yori Dango because the beginning, with the love interest bullying the heroine, annoyed me. Ijime is NOT SEXY OKAY =_=

My mental frame for the kind of shoujo I don't like is Hot Gimmick - I've never read it, but the summary infuriates me.

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

I also have been reading Prism Time, which is a collection of Naoko Takeuchi's one-shot stories, including her debut from like 1985 or something...girls asking the boys they like for the second button on their school jacket, permed hair, short poofy shirts and long skirts, new and fashionable milk tea ice cream, no cell phones and very few beepers?! Hysterical, but the male love interests are rather likeable compared to what you get today.

I think that scene is in the second volume. It looked fine in the store... ._. Especially what I don't like is that the main character Learns a Life Lesson from all the poor treatment. There's a short story by Tachikawa Megumi that illustrates this problem well. I don't feel like talking about it, but when I read it my only thought was, "Oh, how the mighty have fallen." (She wrote Saint Tail.) It's like soap operas always showing women falling in love with the men who raped them once...it's so backwards.

I have always avoided Hana Yori Dango because I knew it involved ijime, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Now I have a very specific reason for not bothering.

Let's see...wiki says in Hot Gimmick the love interest blackmails the main character into being his slave... :/ and he pushes the main character down a flight of stairs. It says it was unintentional. Sure, he didn't mean to, he just can't control himself like the rest of us when I gets mad! :/ Yeah, I'm going to avoid that like the plague. Thanks for the tip.

Hey...I know you've probably seen me mention it a thousand times, but Renai Catalog by Nagata Masami is a long-running, popular shoujo series, and it really doesn't have this nonsense with the love interest being horrible to the main character. ...in fact, the main character's little sister, Tane, punches the love interest's litte brother, Ryuuji, in the face, and then Ryuuji totally gets a crush on Tane. Anyway, it's over 30 volumes so you'll have to save your pennies for it, but it's one of the more soothing and good stories I've read. (I'd go as far as saying I was bored the first time I read it, but I liked it better later.)

[narugami.livejournal.com]

Haha, I never read that one. Sounds cute though! It kind of seems to me that shoujo is more explicit than it used to be? Maybe I'm just being an old codger though.

Tachikawa Megumi?! But I love her Dream Saga! ;_; (though I haven't finished collecting it and haven't even started on St Tail yet) Damn, that sucks. And I was wondering what she'd been up to after Mink o_o

Deshou?! I know the art is nice but I really don't understand why anyone would want to read something like that. I would want to reach in the book and throttle everybody after two pages XD;

I'll definitely look into it, I love it when there's a good female character to latch on to! XD If you don't mind a recommendation in return, my absolute favorite author for cute romance is Tsukuba Sakura because the atmosphere is so... pure? There's this innocence her characters have that I really love. The author even wrote in one of her books that she doesn't know how to write villains and it's kind of true ^^; but I love her stuff anyway. My favorite of her series is Mekakushi no Kuni, I need more of it :)

Oh, and Isurugi Ayuma XD; But that isn't romantic.

[moumusu.livejournal.com]

I think aggression is more visible in more things for younger kids, and since this is anime it is always mixed up with sexuality. Which is to say yes :|

I don't think she's been up to much of anything lately, though I don't keep up with the magazine where her stuff usually runs. The most recent thing of hers I read was the story I mentioned above, and it couldn't have been later than 2003. It was a one-shot published in a Christmas Nakayoshi extra volume.

I've thought long and hard about this, and yes, I am mad at everybody just after reading a summary. This is normally a feeling I only get from sitcoms and romantic comedy movies, and I avoid those. So that's that.

Oh---now I want to tag you back, but no pressure. X3 Looseleaf by Mochida Aki is really comforting. The love interest is supposed to be a troublemaker at school, but he's really sweet to the main character. Blue Ribbon, by the same author, isn't quite as soothing, but it has beautiful imagery. I love her art, too.

[narugami.livejournal.com]

That's a pity, I've really liked what I read of her works..

I don't think it's worth thinking long and hard over, it's just a bad story. --;

Hmmm. The thing is that I'm quite certain you've read more than I have! Let me get back to you on this XD