Helianthus

I hope everyone who celebrates it had a lovely Thanksgiving free of green vegetables. My mother always serves green beans, apparently out of a sense of duty because everyone knows that at a real Thanksgiving dinner, everything on your plate should be varying shades of brown (we don't eat cranberries in my family) and swimming in gravy. Arteries? We don't need no stinkin' arteries! I guess sweet potatoes aren't exactly brown...

EEEEE! Rakushun fanart! Youko/Rakushun fanart! And there's more! And this one too! Also this, featuring (once you scroll past the Devil May Cry stuff - or not, as you see fit) an intensely bishified Rakushun in addition to all the Youko/Rakushun stuff.

Suikoden tarot icons because I figured someone was bound to be interested, and because I rarely see Suikoden icons on communities.

Meme I snagged (and modified) from mergle

1. Comment with any pairing from a fandom that I might know something about. Or several pairings.

2. I will ramble for whatever length I feel like about any pairings you offer. Depending on your choice, this may involve cursing. Or squealing.

2a. Go with several pairings. I like rambling.

3. Put this on your LJ if you want.

Spent most of the weekend relaxing with stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with current events. A total lack of productivity is, under the circumstances, a good thing. Watched a bit of Gankutsutou - visually very striking and potentially seasick-making, though I was fine with the one episode I watched. Hard to describe; I'll take screencaps when I've watched more. I like it, though - how many Count of Monte Cristo adaptations have you seen that are set on a moon colony? A bit of Naruto. One volume of Twelve Kingdoms, which is in full-on asskick mode now.

Last night I dreamed I was wandering around the final dungeon of Final Fantasy I, only there were no random encounters and only about four rooms. After fighting one fiend, you'd be warped somewhere else. At one point I wandered off and found this secret area, where I had a tea party with Rubicant and his wife, who may or may not have been Merc. There was also something about a van covered entirely, inside and out, in shag carpet, and me sneaking around town in a really cheesy disguise, but I think that was earlier.

( Twelve Kingdoms, volume 8 - spoilers )

Also, went to see The Incredibles with family. Which I loved, as you might expect if you read the posts after I saw X-Men 2 in the theater twice, or after Spider-Man 2, or... yeah. Was nifty. And there was a Star Wars trailer, and I am George Lucas's bitch, always. He lets me down, abuses my faith, defaces my childhood, and then he does it again, creates the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater, and then OMG IMPERIAL MARCH PALPATINE WOOKIE ARMY AMIDALA WITH THE DONUT BUNS OMG I AM SO THERE. I mean, really. It's PATHETIC. I'm not even this mindlessly devoted to Squaresoft. I guess it helps to get them when they're really young. That has to be the only reason I like the hairdo Leia had in the first movie.

Wookies! Why can I not find an extended version to download?

I'm just taking a break from outrage. I'm not quitting. I'm conserving my strength.

( Twelve Kingdoms volumes 5 and 6. Spoilers. )

Other stuff...

In the first or second episode, Rokuta's shown going into a building with green pillars, looking for Shouryuu. A few episodes later, it's revealed that buildings with green pillars are always brothels. Not that you couldn't guess, since Shouryuu's sitting on a bed with a woman drinking, but I thought it was a nifty touch.

I've been screencapping the series, and because I don't want subtitles all over everything, I've been watching mostly in Japanese, with occasional changes to the dub if I want to check what's being said. I don't often need to; in the first volume, conversations usually consist of Youko wailing "I want to go HOME!", Sugimoto acting like a total nutbar, and Asano trying not to set either of them off. So I don't often change to English, especially since when I have, I've found that I really don't approve of Youko's dub voice. Most of the others are okay; it seemed like the girl who did Sugimoto is reasonably adept at sounding like she's completely out of her gourd. Asano's voiced in English by the guy who did Hige from Wolf's Rain, which is disconcerting... but not as disconcerting as what happened when I went to the dub for a scene between Rokuta and Shouryuu. Shouryuu's voiced by Crim from the .hack dub. Rokuta's voiced by the guy who did Sora. I giggled helplessly all through the conversation. I like them both, the voices fit fairly well, but it's just.... funny. (And if that didn't have enough crossover potential, the same two did Sano, from RK, and Michael from Witch Hunter Robin, respectively.)

Speaking of screencapping and such, Merc, you want a detailed summary and/or pictures from any parts of the third volume you missed? I will do just about anything to aid people in viewing this series.

There's an interview with the producer on this disc, and while he has some interesting things to say about adapting the novels into an anime, I'll post more about it later. My girl Sugimoto - okay, my batshit crazy girl - is an anime-only character. Apparently they added Asano to give the male viewers someone to identify with... odd, since he vanishes in the first five episodes and has yet to reappear except in visions and flashbacks, twenty-some episodes later.

The producer also noted that he approved of not changing the terminology in the series, and he seemed to approve the dub voices, which he felt matched pretty closely to the originals - more or less true, from what I've seen, though I haven't watched the dub for more than thirty seconds at a stretch and can't say. I just thought it was interesting - I don't often hear creator opinions on the series I like.

Past my bedtime now. I go.

( Still fascinated with Twelve Kingdoms. Some spoilers through the third volume, which is the end of the first storyline. )

Someone just emailed me to ask if I was the voice of one of my skins. Whuh?

I'm officially sick today. I feel allowed - I haven't used a sick day since I had the Cold That Would Not Die. I am so deathly ill that I had to start playing Kingdom Hearts. It needed doing - I've had the game for a year and barely touched it.