I have come back from the depths of Google Reader Hell and come back, erm, updated! No, it really wasn’t that bad. I’m pretty much caught up on all of the blogs I’m reading, though I’m sad to admit that I did use the “mark all as read” button liberally. You really have to read episodic posts as they come, i.e. within a few days of watching. (Penguindrum is a different matter entirely.) I really respect episodic bloggers who have the commitment to blog that frequently, which I obviously don’t. Right now, I’ve only got 20 posts unread right now, and they’re mostly on stuff I haven’t watched yet or on Miku.
Apparently, since August 30, 2008 I've read a total of 49,106 items on Google Reader. Wow, that's why I thought reading blogs took too much time.
Changing the subject, I have to apologize for the delay on the ACG Band Live mini2 post. I was going to wait for them to release YouTube videos of the concert (they were really quick last year), but none have showed up yet, so I guess I’ll post without them. Erm, sometime. Now, for some thoughts on this season.
Kamisama Dolls (watched up to episode 4): For a show I picked up later, it’s turning out more interesting than expected. Sure, the animation does leave something to be desired, but the cast is unfurling, and the factions that are here now make it more interesting than it seemed during ep2. Even Aki is turning out more interesting than hoped. The previews, on the other hard… are just weird as hell.
Village and city. Two sides of the same coin?
Let me focus for a sec on the opening, which I quite like. It portrays the theme of the two worlds of the village (supernatural) and the city (normal) nicely. (Admittedly, this isn’t an uncommon theme or anything like that.) The, erm, triangle things cover/uncover things, making a nice motif. Now, have some pictures:
Note that all doll users have their doll design featured prominently as a sort of "other self."
Kyouhei-Aki (here) and Kyouhei-Utao (picture before) are the most important character pairs. Probably.
Ikoku no Meiro no Croisée (up to 4): While I do continue watching this show, I can’t say I’m enjoying it as much as it seems other people are. Is it the romanticized version of 19th century Paris, or the romanticized version of a 19th century Japanese girl? Or maybe the not-terribly-interesting cast of characters? Since everybody seems to compare it to Aria, I’ve been doing the same… But unlike Aria, which was clearly stated in the future and had basis for its mystical atmosphere, Ikoku is bound by the constraints that is historical fiction. tl;dr I like Aria a lot better. Also the characters are better.
And as for the whole East meets West thing… I don’t know. I thought I would enjoy such a theme, but Ikoku is just not doing it for me. Maybe I don’t like Paris or something…
Mawaru Penguindrum (up to 3): I don’t have much to say, besides that I am really enjoying the ride. It helps that I watched Utena over the course of last (school) year as well. Other people do a much better job on analysis, so go read them.
Well, that wraps up my thoughts for now. Tomorrow is the first day of Fancy Frontier 18, the (otaku) climax of my stay here in Taiwan. It’s certainly the best doujin market here, though not the largest. See you!
~fc
How do you even manage to go through so many posts :v
By: Mushyrulez on 2011-07-29 (Friday)
at 09:33
That said, how do you see a graph of what you’ve read? I’ve never heard of that before :/
By: Mushyrulez on 2011-07-29 (Friday)
at 09:34
Erm, a lot of time. Admittedly, I read (read: skim) fast. Also I skipped over posts of shows I don’t watch, or articles that didn’t have substance. Or something.
The graph is a feature of Google Reader (All items -> Trends). I should have explained, but the light blue bar is new items, and orange is number of items read. That light blue bar is even larger because I’ve got other non-otaku RSS feeds as well.
By: fallingcirno on 2011-07-29 (Friday)
at 16:32