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Midori Days
OK, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into this series, saw the anime and was mostly unimpressed, and then, because![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
47nite will not let impressions of mediocrity stand in the way of sharing what he likes, he sent me the series.
And ... I have to admit I kind of like it now. Or I like the manga. I don't know why the anime felt it had to cut out all of the fun characters like Nao the Emily the Strange-esque superhuman hand-girl fetishist, or amusing American stereotype Lucy, or the Kota is kind of gay subplot and leave in the Disgusting Otaku Toad Creature. I have a feeling its because the anime artists feel that they understand him/have some hate-on for their audience and so they found him the funniest. It just makes me go WAAAAAAH!!!
It does give the book more of a harem feel. I know harem anime bothers some people but I've always had an affection for how it at least allows for multiple female characters instead of one "The Girl" character and allows those multiple female characters to be crazy and funny.
It also managed to hit Bechdel's Law ... maybe not as often as it should have, but it did.
I still can't fucking stand Little!Midori, though. I mean, she wants to be the happy, stay-at-home housewife to the THE SCHOOL DELINQUENT? And I like Seiji, I really do. But sheesh Midori, do you really think Mr. Live-on-my-Parents-Money-which-I-Spend-on-DVDs-Instead-of-Food is going to be the one to get a job? Then again she's rich, so I guess she's banking on her mom's money and ... ugh.
You know, both Kimagure Orange Road and Midori Days have a getting-lost-in-the-snow-on-the-school-trip scene and now I can't remember which is which.
The ending was handled REALLY well, though, particularly the scene where Midori tells Seiji to has to leave, and then he just has a hand. And the ending with the re-meeting is cool, too.
Touch Me, I'm Sick
I was kind of disappointed by this one, and I really hate to say that, because I WANTED this book to be SO AWESOME because the first was SO AWESOME but ... well ... er.
It has a Nice Guy(TM) rant*. :( It has a Nice Guy(TM) rant compounded with comments about Alanis Morissette and Paula Cole being "castrating" (although he said Morissette is a great artist and has gotten much better in recent years). His analysis of "Drive" by Melissa Ferrick was ... well, I'm not sure if it's a symptom of the lesbians-are-for-men-to-enjoy syndrome or making fun of it. (Basically he had an essay on how he's in the room and two women are acting out the song, but his editor said it was offensive, so now any description is instead marked with big black letters saying "DELETED.") Anyway, it really put a damper on my informed-music bashing fun.
Granted, I may be making too much of this. In this book and the last one he's been willing to tongue-lash songs for being anti-women ("Run For Your Life" by The Beatles) or anti-feminist ("It Must Be Him" by Vicki Carr). So I don't feel comfortable labeling him a sexist. Plus, I'll give him this: "Feelin' Love" by Paula Cole IS really revolting**. And while he makes fun of the 90s-era female solo singers for scaring men, he also says that the latest crop of female singers who exploit their bodies for record sales while calling it "feminist" are worse. Also, to the blogger who said he was misogynist because he said Tori Amos uses a lot of butterfly imaging in her song ... come on. There's nothing sexist about saying she sings about butterflies. Especially since he also made fun of two songs by guys about butterflies.
Of course, I WANT to like this book, especially since I loved the first one so much. In many ways it IS similar, although he strays away from the standard essays and does more experimental stuff, some of which is more successful than others. Fergie's very secret diary in the "Fergalicous" review? Pretty good. The IM conversation with the "Beatls Scholar" who attributes everything bad in the group to Paul McCartney and everything good to John Lennon? Awesome. Robert Plant's irate Coverdale-Page letters? Not so much.
But I liked a lot of it. One of my favorite bits was the idea of the "Good" and "Evil" John Mayer, the evil one being the one who writes "Your Body is a Wonderland." (Because it is SO TRUE. That guy with the insipid songs punks his own audience and parodies Two Girls One Cup.) I also liked him calling the music video for "Dirrty" "like Caligula's senior prom" and his journey through necrophilia songs.
Still ... not as good as the first. I recommend it, It's still funny but get the first ... um, first. It's better.
* He says VAST's "Pretty When You Cry" reminds him of all those girls who dated mean guys and would bitch about those mean guys to him. This was really upsetting, because his description of VAST's career (and its similarity to Trent Reznor/NIN's career) at the beginning of the essay was hilarious.
** Especially about that Amazon River running between her thighs. That shit just sounds uncomfortable. :(
V for Vendetta
I didn't love it as much as some of Alan Moore's other work. A lot of David Lloyd's characters look similar and I had trouble telling everyone apart. Nevertheless, I like how Moore went through the trouble to have a SONG in the book, complete with sheet music. It sort of precludes what he did in Black Dossier.
Nevertheless, I do have to say that the work is MUCH braver than the movie adaption. 1.) It really DOES advocate anarchy, and does give the impression that at the end there's a brave new world and not "Well, I guess we can go back to our happy, liberal live-and-let-live existence" at the end 2.) V isn't as "cute," and sometimes the novel forces you to think about whether his ends really DO justify his means 3.) EVEY BECOMES V! FUCK YOU HOLLYWOOD! and 4.) The part where V outright says that a degree of safety and happiness in a corrupt world is NOT and shouldn't be acceptable. And the movie turned it into a "Gays who read the Koran are people TOO!" point. Which is great, and Stephen Fry is great ... but I do think the original with Evey's lover dying is better.
Oh, and I remember someone said that her problem with the movie was that the one "conscience of the evil regime" is ALWAYS a woman. Actually, in the book there's also a man with a conscience and an evil woman. HURRAH!
Okay, maybe I did like it a lot. The not-being-able-to-tell-people-apart thing was just annoying. Maybe I'll like it better on the second read.
I also read Interfaith Families, which I still have to mull over, and Mini-Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors, which was very cute. ("Arrow Man not Bill Cosby.")
OK, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming into this series, saw the anime and was mostly unimpressed, and then, because
47nite will not let impressions of mediocrity stand in the way of sharing what he likes, he sent me the series.And ... I have to admit I kind of like it now. Or I like the manga. I don't know why the anime felt it had to cut out all of the fun characters like Nao the Emily the Strange-esque superhuman hand-girl fetishist, or amusing American stereotype Lucy, or the Kota is kind of gay subplot and leave in the Disgusting Otaku Toad Creature. I have a feeling its because the anime artists feel that they understand him/have some hate-on for their audience and so they found him the funniest. It just makes me go WAAAAAAH!!!
It does give the book more of a harem feel. I know harem anime bothers some people but I've always had an affection for how it at least allows for multiple female characters instead of one "The Girl" character and allows those multiple female characters to be crazy and funny.
It also managed to hit Bechdel's Law ... maybe not as often as it should have, but it did.
I still can't fucking stand Little!Midori, though. I mean, she wants to be the happy, stay-at-home housewife to the THE SCHOOL DELINQUENT? And I like Seiji, I really do. But sheesh Midori, do you really think Mr. Live-on-my-Parents-Money-which-I-Spend-on-DVDs-Instead-of-Food is going to be the one to get a job? Then again she's rich, so I guess she's banking on her mom's money and ... ugh.
You know, both Kimagure Orange Road and Midori Days have a getting-lost-in-the-snow-on-the-school-trip scene and now I can't remember which is which.
The ending was handled REALLY well, though, particularly the scene where Midori tells Seiji to has to leave, and then he just has a hand. And the ending with the re-meeting is cool, too.
Touch Me, I'm Sick
I was kind of disappointed by this one, and I really hate to say that, because I WANTED this book to be SO AWESOME because the first was SO AWESOME but ... well ... er.
It has a Nice Guy(TM) rant*. :( It has a Nice Guy(TM) rant compounded with comments about Alanis Morissette and Paula Cole being "castrating" (although he said Morissette is a great artist and has gotten much better in recent years). His analysis of "Drive" by Melissa Ferrick was ... well, I'm not sure if it's a symptom of the lesbians-are-for-men-to-enjoy syndrome or making fun of it. (Basically he had an essay on how he's in the room and two women are acting out the song, but his editor said it was offensive, so now any description is instead marked with big black letters saying "DELETED.") Anyway, it really put a damper on my informed-music bashing fun.
Granted, I may be making too much of this. In this book and the last one he's been willing to tongue-lash songs for being anti-women ("Run For Your Life" by The Beatles) or anti-feminist ("It Must Be Him" by Vicki Carr). So I don't feel comfortable labeling him a sexist. Plus, I'll give him this: "Feelin' Love" by Paula Cole IS really revolting**. And while he makes fun of the 90s-era female solo singers for scaring men, he also says that the latest crop of female singers who exploit their bodies for record sales while calling it "feminist" are worse. Also, to the blogger who said he was misogynist because he said Tori Amos uses a lot of butterfly imaging in her song ... come on. There's nothing sexist about saying she sings about butterflies. Especially since he also made fun of two songs by guys about butterflies.
Of course, I WANT to like this book, especially since I loved the first one so much. In many ways it IS similar, although he strays away from the standard essays and does more experimental stuff, some of which is more successful than others. Fergie's very secret diary in the "Fergalicous" review? Pretty good. The IM conversation with the "Beatls Scholar" who attributes everything bad in the group to Paul McCartney and everything good to John Lennon? Awesome. Robert Plant's irate Coverdale-Page letters? Not so much.
But I liked a lot of it. One of my favorite bits was the idea of the "Good" and "Evil" John Mayer, the evil one being the one who writes "Your Body is a Wonderland." (Because it is SO TRUE. That guy with the insipid songs punks his own audience and parodies Two Girls One Cup.) I also liked him calling the music video for "Dirrty" "like Caligula's senior prom" and his journey through necrophilia songs.
Still ... not as good as the first. I recommend it, It's still funny but get the first ... um, first. It's better.
* He says VAST's "Pretty When You Cry" reminds him of all those girls who dated mean guys and would bitch about those mean guys to him. This was really upsetting, because his description of VAST's career (and its similarity to Trent Reznor/NIN's career) at the beginning of the essay was hilarious.
** Especially about that Amazon River running between her thighs. That shit just sounds uncomfortable. :(
V for Vendetta
I didn't love it as much as some of Alan Moore's other work. A lot of David Lloyd's characters look similar and I had trouble telling everyone apart. Nevertheless, I like how Moore went through the trouble to have a SONG in the book, complete with sheet music. It sort of precludes what he did in Black Dossier.
Nevertheless, I do have to say that the work is MUCH braver than the movie adaption. 1.) It really DOES advocate anarchy, and does give the impression that at the end there's a brave new world and not "Well, I guess we can go back to our happy, liberal live-and-let-live existence" at the end 2.) V isn't as "cute," and sometimes the novel forces you to think about whether his ends really DO justify his means 3.) EVEY BECOMES V! FUCK YOU HOLLYWOOD! and 4.) The part where V outright says that a degree of safety and happiness in a corrupt world is NOT and shouldn't be acceptable. And the movie turned it into a "Gays who read the Koran are people TOO!" point. Which is great, and Stephen Fry is great ... but I do think the original with Evey's lover dying is better.
Oh, and I remember someone said that her problem with the movie was that the one "conscience of the evil regime" is ALWAYS a woman. Actually, in the book there's also a man with a conscience and an evil woman. HURRAH!
Okay, maybe I did like it a lot. The not-being-able-to-tell-people-apart thing was just annoying. Maybe I'll like it better on the second read.
I also read Interfaith Families, which I still have to mull over, and Mini-Marvels: Rock, Paper, Scissors, which was very cute. ("Arrow Man not Bill Cosby.")
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From:
Re: "I can't belive... my own sister... KICKED ME IN THE BALLS."
Heh-heh. Yeah, the first crush stuff was fun. I liked when he went to the place they buried the bottle and there was a building there.
Midori's too romantic for her own good most of the time.