flemmings | (no subject)

Through Death Note 3 and Bleach 4. Conflicted. I don't like reading Japanese in English, though I suppose the second- third- and fourth-guessing of DN reads easier in English than Japanese. (Probably doesn't make much sense in either language, and DN's implausibilities are more staring in English- the unquestioning naivete of top FBI agents being especially wince-worthy.) But mostly it's the feeling of reading blind. What's this Chad thing? I find that his name is Sado, but google fails to inform me if the Chad reading is the mangaka's or the translator's or what. Which irks me.

If I were completely innocent, I'd be buying more DN. It rivets. It resonates. Where is this obsessive relationship going to go? The main characters may not be likable but they're unlikable in creative ways ie they don't have innocent singing girls fed to their animals to prove how magnificently Badnasty they are. Oh, and I don't get the feeling I'm *supposed* to like them, which is why DN trumps CLAMP for all time.

But I'm not completely innocent. Read the spoiler ages ago before ever I knew I was going to read the manga. I know nothing other than the bare fact but suggestions are that the bare fact was not the ultimate and inevitable culmination of the obsessive relationship- which would have been cool- and was in fact the mangaka famously following his mangaka nose yet-once-again. So. Is it worth reading past v.3? Is there good stuff yet to be found before the spoiler?

Equally Bleach signally fails to move me so far. Must I spend another $50 before the characters start getting intriguing? In other people's opinions are they already intriguing and am I just not on Bleach's wavelength? I don't care about Ichigo. I don't care about Rukia. I don't care about Orihime. I don't really care much about anyone. Maybe I should just go back to my long-haired shoujo heroes? Maybe I should put in a request to

shiny_monkey for a complete Kohri no Mamono no Monogatari?

What say all of ye?

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My problem with Bleach is that I have become far too fond of it, which makes it difficult for me to argue its merits sensibly. I apologise.

Known in the trade as Being A Fan. No apologies needed. 'Only those whom the adder has bitten can tell each other how it feels.' As for DN, well, as far as I've gotten I'm there rooting for the Heated Gaze of Justice to, y'know, effect justice. If I believed it would happen eventually I'd be there till the end.

Thank you for understanding my sorry state. (Adder knows viper, as I believe has been remarked somewhere or other.)

I think you were being too despairing over in your lj about the impossibility of sl0ring a series to the uninitiate. However one may feel one is babbling incomprehensibly away about a thing, salient details generally do emerge that either ping with the listener or don't. It may be no more than the words 'dragon' or 'ponytail' or 'guy in Chinese robes', but if the predisposition is there, there'll be a reaction. Granted there *are* people who enthuse without any concrete information at all, which gives the impression of grasping mist; but I figure they're not really recommending, they're just enthusing to the converted.

Mmm, true. And I promise that if any dragons do show up in Bleach, you will be the first that I will tell about it.

Thank you. Should you ever want to check out existentialist angsty shikigami, I recommend Ze.

So noted. Who's it by, and what is it? (Besides, well, manga.)

Shimizu Yuki, she of Love Mode. It's a manga about a family of onmyouji types who employ kotodama, the power of words to become reality, in order to bring misfortune on selected clients ('There's a lot of call for that sort of thing' one says casually.) Because using kotodama curses can or does recoil on the sender they have shikigami, in this case the classic made from paper ones, who take the hit for them and/or heal them when they're wounded. Healing takes the form of touching with a mucous membrane- OK, it's BL, deal- usually kissing except with the female onmyouji and her shikigami and we won't go there thanks very much, even if the mangaka does.

There are three onmyouji and three shikigami living in the branch house where our naive and domestically gifted half-blood hero shows up, but the oldest onmyouji and the youngest shikigami aren't paired up. The oldest guy- Waki- is the one who made the three shikigami (he's a paper master so-called) and he spends most of his time so far drinking sake and amusedly watching the world go by, except when he doesn't. The youngest shikigami has existential issues about what's he good for and why's he alive, partly the result of having no onmyouji to protect and partly because jeez, he's made of paper and can't forget it.

There are unexplained power issues and backstory going on in the family. The youngest onmyouji is supposed to be head of the house but he left home for reasons unknown so it's his older brother who runs the family (we must assume younger guy is legitimate and older guy is not) and older brother also angsts a lot and has a Kyoto-ben-I-think speaking shikigami, inherited from his grandfather, who also runs away from home for a bit. So. Like that.

That does sound intriguing. Thank you!