subdee

Ghost Hunt is an anime (and manga!) based on a series of YA novels by Fuyumi Ono, the author of Twelve Kingdoms, but of course I can't read those. ^^; I marathonned the anime on youtube. If I had to describe the premise in one line, it would be:

"So a Catholic priest, a Shinto priestess, an ex-monk from Mount Kouya, a Chinese omyouji, a television medium, a clairvoyant and a paranormal investigator walk into a haunted house, and..."

XD. There's really nothing special here, but it's cute and kind of fun. What I really like is that the supernatural elements are (mostly) understated. Ghosts register as a 5-to-10-degree drop in temperature, exorcisms are plain and not flashy, clients who come by say things like: "We've had reports of strange noises at the site, and one guy said he saw a table move across the floor by itself this one time. Since we started construction, we've had to stop three times due to mysterious accidents, though thankfully no one was badly hurt, but could you investigate?"

In other words, clients -- and witnesses, once Shibuya Psychic Research has arrived on-scene -- all tell normal ghost stories, the kind you can actually believe might be real. From there events might escalate, or they might not, but Ghost Hunt never strays too far from the every-day. (...This would probably have been even better if I believed in ghosts. XD;)

Other bonuses: Mai, the main character, is adorable. *g* And I like the other characters too. (Except John who has NO personality...and Naru, after the first arc ends and the animators forget to keep reminding you about his horrible personality, comes across more blank and robotic than high-handed and overly impressed with himself, which are the character flaws he's supposed to have.)

Drawbacks: Generic storylines. (Haunted house, haunted school, haunted seaside resort...the draw is in the execution, not the premise.) Low budget. (They couldn't even afford animated snow for the Christmas episode!) Very low target age group. (You can see places where the anime could have been disturbing, but the darkness was reigned in so as not to scare away any seven year olds who might have been watching.) Slow, slow, slow. (Seriously, it's SLOW.)

And the final drawback is that the show ends in a way that had me going NEED FANFICTION RIGHT OH MY GOD WHERE IS THE FANFICTION, but tragically, I couldn't find decent fic! Not anywhere! ;_; My standards aren't high, (no really), so if you know of any place that has even okay stuff please leave a comment, I am desperate and I will love you forever. *_*

(I even tried reading the manga, since that has storylines beyond what was animated, but in the end I had to give up. The manga is confusing -- I couldn't tell who was saying what, or even what they were supposed to be saying, in key scenes. I guess it's not easy paneling for a series that is 90% characters standing around talking to each other, but really, the artist/script editor ought to have been able to have done a better job than that.)

Series: Mushishi
Wordcount: 784
Written for ai_ling's request "Ginko and mushishi" at drabble_trade (exchange # 7).

( Adaption )

I've had the idea for this story for the longest time. And by "this story," I don't mean the village ^^;;; I mean the letter exchange. Actually, when I was watching Mushishi as it was airing, there was a point -- before any other mushishi had shown up in episodes -- when I thought every mushishi was like Ginko, a magnet for mushi. Ergo, no two mushishi could spend too much time together, because if they were together, the mushi-attracting effect would be magnified, and before long they'd be fending off mushi with sticks.

The original form of this story was: Ginko and another mushishi, who have never met face-to-face, communicate via letters buried near a certain roadside shrine. Ginko often sleeps outdoors because large towns aren't safe -- another mushishi he isn't aware of might also be staying the night. This time he decides to sleep near this shrine. He finds a comfortable spot on the lee side of a large rock.

The next morning, Ginko wakes up, and only then notices that on the other side the rock, there's another person. This person is, of course, a mushishi -- the same mushishi with whom he'd been exchanging letters. The two of them stare at each other a moment, and then they notice that they're both covered in small, glowing, firefly-like mushi. They only have time to introduce themselves before they're forced to take off running in opposite directions.

I thought about writing this for tin's correspondence challenge, but by that point another mushishi had shown up in canon. ^^;;

I haven't had a computer for the last three weeks, but really that's only an excuse. Must resume status as a productive member of society the internet!

Re computer: The power adapter for my laptop went out and since then I've been waiting, first for a new AC/DC adapter, then for a second AC/DC adapter, then for a box to put my laptop in and send off to HQ and fix the problems caused by the first (faulty) adapter. Right now I'm waiting for my laptop to come back.

In the meantime I've been...reading? ^^; And avoiding responsibilities. I met harumi! We talked for hours and hours. ^_^v I'm meeting her in about another hour and a half so this entry might be cut short.

...And I've been playing FFXII. (Aha! The truth comes out!). Fun game, far too long. I'm at something crazy like 80 hours and still no end in sight.

( FFXII, totally disorganized )

Off to dinner! And then: swing dancing!

Another Saiunkoku ficlet, another one-line joke.

( Reishin, Kurou, Shouka )

XDXDXD

I kind of want to expand on the "Kurou hates Shouka because Shouka turns Reishin, whom Kurou admires, into a babbling idiot" theme, but I'm not sure what else to say besides "Kurou hates Shouka because Shouka etc".

Lunch!

You know what it is, I've been so paralyzed by the weight of so many missed deadlines -- for schoolwork, fanwork, even housework -- that I've just been hanging on to the things I do have, waiting for the perfect time to finish them. Or even the perfect time to post what's already finished.

Take this Kankuro thing.

Series: Naruto
Title: The one where Kankuro gets drunk in a bar
Genre: Drunken Ranting
Note: Originally for this request (oh my god, that thread is two years old).

( No time like the present? )

Doesn't it have that just-dusted-off feel? orz