Collection of Unrelated Topics VII

[sub_divided]

1. Killua/Gon pairing manifesto at ship_manifesto. It’s a lot like reading a summary of the series XDXDXD totally Togashi’s fault for basing so much of Hunter x Hunter on their relationship. Good choice of manga scans in that post; HxH is the furthest thing from subtle but those particular scans are so incredibly blatant, they do everything but show the killer with his hand still on the knife, which is protruding from his victim’s back. They certainly include him standing over the bloody body and his confession afterward.

(odrade42 has a much better grasp on Gon’s character than me. Ahaha but I think I finally understand now? I need to write something for 30_kisses soon, it’s been four months and I’m not kicked out yet only because the community mods have better things to do.)

2. Naruto: reccing Way of the Appartment Manager by Elizabeth Culmer. It's alternate timeline (which I consider worse, much worse, than AU); main character is an OC who gets to be Naruto's substitute Mommy. And it's awesome. The cool thing about this fic is how well it fleshes out the Naruto world -- village dynamics, jutsu mechanics, stuff like that. There's not a whole lot of HOW COULD YOU NEGLECT THIS POOR ORPHAN BOY YOU MEANIES, and what there is, is tolerable.

Rec is via this post of V's. I also reccommend Family -- it's another story that sounds bad in summary but which has excellent writing and well-reasoned implications. These two aren't quite canon; that's what makes them great.

3. HanaKimi manga: gorgeous characters with the best expressions. But if I hadn’t had the whole series to read at once I probably would have died of frustration. I mean really, how many volumes can this situation last? (Answer: a lot.) I’m a bit peeved that Mizuki never did find something to be interested in/pursue outside of Sano. Also peeved that the manga didn’t do anything with Shin’s attraction to Mizuki. On the other hand I’m glad none of the over-the-top outrageousness (Inter-dorm crossdressing competitions! Randomly meeting up in Hokkaido/Berkeley! Psychic showdown! ….Modeling!) made it into the major characters' interpersonal problems. Those were real, and realistically handled.

OT: Spellchecker says “crossdressing” is not a word. OMG oppression?

The part where I’m sad to be reading scanlations is chapter 105.

Shin: Why are you here so early, older brother?
Sano: Same to you…we have to compete against Kagurazaka today, are you getting anxious?
Shin: No way! Are you implying that I’m afraid of him?! Geeze, and I respect you as my brother.
Sano: *smile* Didn’t you already address me as “older brother”?
Shin: *blushes* Shut up!
Sano: *teasing* You are not a kid anymore, and yet you are still using such a childish phrase?

…ARG. This would be “aniki” versus “oniichan”, yes? Something else? I’m also missing feminine/masculine language and all of the regional accents (some of the scanlation groups handle this better than others). I’m ALSO missing the series conclusion in a language I can understand. tarigwaemir (who is still the best ever for sending these) says she couldn’t find it, but if anyone else knows of text translations in English or French…?

3. Prince of Tennis manga: makes it soooo much harder to fangirl Ryoma. It’s bad enough that he has his own cheering section + older women constantly perving on him in the anime; the manga has this AND MORE, and doesn’t have the grace to make fun of him for it. Actually I don’t think I can like him in the manga at all, I’d just end up hating myself/Konomi. (Some of the author’s notes in the early chapters are -_-;;;. I mean really, “Be Ryoma’s classmate” contest? “Thanks for supporting Ryoma (and Prince of Tennis)” anniversary message? *cringes* Way to misunderstand your audience, sensei! I hope the character polls set you straight!!)

But thank goodness, the art improves about fifty gazillion times by volume 14. Otherwise I couldn’t have continued. :D I hear the manga does Rikkaidai characterization better but I never got there in the anime so I couldn’t say; I do know I’m glad there’s less emphasis on the skill gap between Seigaku and Rikkaidai because you cannot make those kinds of differences up in a week no I don’t CARE what your motivation is or how many bears there are.

The part where I’m sad to be reading scanlations: all of it, but especially the early chapters. I simply CAN’T TELL which comments are meant to be polite, which ones are meant to be outwardly polite but are actually antagonistic, which ones are a character trying to act cool, which are genuine arrogance, and which might as well be comments on the weather. Prince of Tennis is full of poker faces -- characters are defined by their poker faces -- and there’s very little subtlety of expression, so there’s nothing in the art to help me out. ("Of course" could be anything. "I don't want to" could be anything. Many things could be anything.)

And worldserpent, YOU LIED when you said there were no more non-tennis episodes after the bowling thing.

4.Half-blood Prince: let’s play flist connection! Assume spoilers, of course, although they are very vague.

•v_voltaire wants to know if she is the only one who saw “Ginny playing seeker against Cho" and thought, that’s hot. FLIST SAYS: no! XD this line made it into the unintentional innuendos list. (link courtesy of issen4 here)
• worldserpent mentions overuse of capslock. FLIST SAYS: the caplock is a significant indication of Snape’s character, unlike in OotP when it was just misused. (lebateleur here)
• many people want to know if anyone else realized who RAB was? FLIST SAYS: you are not alone! (many)

Speaking of agreement, opinion is divided on a few things, like whether or not the book was any good, but EVERYONE agrees that Snape is Not Evil. octopedingenue has a poll on that here and ramble_corner says she’s compiling posts about it. By the numbers: 29 of you have blogged reactions to Harry Potter, and there is 1 (one) person who thinks Snape is evil. That one person is half darkeyedwolf, who is willing to take the author’s word for now but who would not be surprised AT ALL if the situation reverses, and half lazulisong, who was convinced in comments. XD at this point I almost want to believe that Snape REALLY IS evil just because it’s so obvious that he isn’t, but that’s probably me thinking in circles (again).