hounddog's Blog

Anime Relations: Hellsing

So, yesterday I stumbled upon a mind-numbingly fantastic bit of Hellsing fan art. And then another. And another. And another. And I noticed that they all had "Solid & Etc" somewhere on the image, so I figured...I have to find out what the deal is with Solid & Etc.

The deal? Is awesome.

Solid & Etc = Yukari Toshimichi, who has a site full of the most wonderful Hellsing fan art I've ever seen. Sadly most of her website is in Japanese (which makes sense, but I'm an ignorant American who expects everything to be in my language), but I imagine she's also very funny and intelligent and has insightful things to say about the series and the characters.

I'm not an AlucardxIntegra shipper by any means (I think the sexual tension is way more satisfying than any hook-up could be), but I even love her art that features AxI, like the two of them embracing or full-on making out. There's something so beautiful and soulful about her work, even the simple sketches, that I'm willing to suspend my anti-shipper-ness and just go with it.

Some of it, of course, is more problematic for me. I hate when Integra shows up in fan art as super duper feminine or completely infantilized because that strikes me as absolutely wrong wrong wrong for the character (and also...ugh...can't a female character ever just be appreciated as powerful and not be reduced to a child and/or sex object?), but there's so much else for me to look at that I can just avoid those images and stay in my happy canon world. Let the artist have her thing, whatever.

Browsing the art definitely re-upped my interest in Hellsing. I realized I haven't even finished the manga yet. I only have like 10 chapters left! Jeez! I've got to get on that. And I don't even know what's going on with Ultimate...

A few quick samples and then I'll stop gushing, promise:







I love everything, so those are just random images I pulled. Seriously, go look for yourself!

Anime Relations: Higashi no Eden, Durarara!!

So I have actually been watching a little bit of anime lately. I'll wait while that round of applause dies down.

Thanks.

Anyway, I'm sort of forced to keep up with Durarara!! because I'm blogging it for 91.8 The Fan, so that's one I watch regularly. I liked the show at the beginning, but I have to be honest: now...I kinda hate it. I even downgraded its score from a 7 to a 6 on my list because I'm so filled with dislike for it lately.

I'm sad because there are SO MANY things going for the series (a kick-ass non-human fighter chick, a huge and varied cast of characters, technology, secrets, questioning reality, an almost-villain that I love, and on and on) but it is just not handling it in a way that I find satisfactory. I feel like I signed on thinking it was one thing and now it's another thing and I want my money back.

I also recently watched Eden of The East (Higashi no Eden), which I liked until the very last episode. It had a lot more penis jokes in it than I expected, which is always good for a laugh, and like Durarara!! it has all the components to be a really exciting, complicated anime. But it slid downhill - in a way that I didn't love but could understand - and then that last episode was a total fiery explosion of stupid infuriating nonsense that soured me against the whole series.

Oh well. At least it was short.

I think one of the big problems I'm having with anime lately is directly tied to my writing in my non-anime life. The more serious I get about my writing, the less I'm willing to put up with shitty writing in anime. And let's be frank: most of it is absolute shit.

Does anyone have any suggestions for decently-written series that I haven't already seen? Any high hopes for series upcoming? I'm always looking for suggestions, especially since the last two I picked myself and they turned out to be a suckfest. :P

So...I've been away so long I feel like MAL and I might have broken up. We used to have this wild, torrid affair and then because it was all based on sex we got bored of each other and drifted apart and now we've run into each other in the grocery store and MAL's looking better than I remember and I know I'm looking hot (bitch please) so we've sort of eyeballing each other and wondering if we should hook up again and if we do if it will be another long-standing affair, maybe an actual committed relationship, or maybe just a one night stand, but maybe that's fine, maybe that's all we really want, just a little something recharge our engines because let's face it you could cut the sexual tension with a knife and GODDAMN, MAL, the things I would do to you...!

Basically just like that.

Life marches on - and on and on. School's out for the summer (thank goodness), but I'm still working independently on my thesis. About halfway through my second draft! I need to have that done by the end of the summer, so I need to get my butt in gear more than I have been.

Still working at the university, still in the finance department, which blows my freaking mind. (How the hell did I end up in finance?! Ugh!) Supposedly they're going to actually hire me (I'm still technically a temp), but I'll believe it when I see it. I'm hoping to get a raise. Also health insurance would be nice I guess.

Joe and I are still together, still ridiculously kissy-face in love. Oh, we're disgusting. It's wonderful. Even more wonderful: he's moving back to Pittsburgh and we're getting a place together. Yay! I move in a couple weeks, he'll join me in time. We'll be absolutely unbearable with our ooey gooey googly-eyed-ness. Get ready. Looking forward to moving out. Love my roommates, but...it's time!

Haven't been watching anime much lately - not at all, actually. During the semester I was just too busy and too stressed out and didn't have the time or energy. Now I've got the time, but when I get home from work I don't even want to be in the same room as a computer, much less using one. I'm going to have to restart all the series I was watching because I don't remember crap about them. Eventually I'll get back to it. I miss it. I'm sure I'm missing (or have missed) some sweet new stuff. Any recommendations??

Otherwise...meh. Been pretty depressed lately. But - la la la la - we're not talking about that.

So.
What's new?

Hi everyone. :) I'm still alive. Crazy busy, but alive.

I just started a new position, working in the university's payroll department. It's going to sound weird coming from someone as non-numbers-oriented as me, but I love it. I'm busy from start to finish my whole day. It demands just my kind of freakish, obsessive organization. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

My boss has threatened to offer me a full-time position - like, a salary and benefits. At first the thought really scared me, but the more I think about it, the more it sounds like something I want. It would mean staying in Pittsburgh longer, obviously, but I'm not convinced that's a bad thing.

School is going well. I'm starting on my thesis this semester and I just had my first meeting with my thesis board yesterday. Basically they ripped me apart and told me I needed to get my shit together. It was great. I was really hoping they'd be hard on me, force me to churn out my best work, and now I know they will.

Since I may be staying in Pittsburgh longer, my whole board wants me to wait to finish until next semester (Dec 09) instead of rushing to finish in August. Which makes sense if I want to actually had a good thesis. And I do. I haven't decided what to do about it yet, but just having the summer open (except for work) to take a break from the craziness of school already feels like a breath of fresh air.

So. We'll see. But Job + School - Joe = sad Cate. I personally (not entirely selfishly) think he's better off in Pittsburgh. I've allowed myself to have fantasies about getting a nice apartment together, moving my hound dog in, living the good life, the two of us together. Again: we'll see. But I'm campaigning hard.

Still no anime. Full time job and full time school and part time social life leaves no hours open for anime. I miss it. My housemate was playing a PS3 game today and Mona Marshall voiced one of the characters and I felt a little...homesick. At the very least I need to finish Kurozuka. It's too good to keep ignoring.

Anime Relations: Seirei no Moribito, Michiko to Hatchin, Bounen no Xamdou, Nodame Cantabile: Paris-hen, Hakushaku to Yousei, Shikabane Hime: Aka, Ga-Rei: Zero, Mouryou no Hako, Kuroshitsuji, Kurozuka

Yes, that's correct: I'm back. After months away from anime, I have finally returned. I'll wait until the trumpets die down to continue.

Ahem.

So my semester is finally over, which gives me time and energy to devote to anime again. Work or school on its own is manageable, but both of them together literally leaves me no free time that I don't want to fill with sleeping. Note to anyone considering: don't work full time and go to school full time at the same time. It's awful.

My return included some more episodes of Xam'd and Seirei no Moribito, both of which I'm still really enjoying. Moribito's timeline is a little weird, but I'm not sure if that's the show or if people have been deleting episodes off the DVR causing me to miss important things. It's one of those openings where the episode title and number aren't translated (I HATE THAT) so I can't be sure.

I've also dipped my little toesies into some new stuff. Let's discuss:

Ga Rei Zero - Started out pretty tame. Some interesting art direction, but characters and themes weren't really new. But I gotta love a show that introduces a handful of characters and then kills them all in the first episode. (MAL image looks like schoolgirls with swords, though, so I don't imagine that kind of awesomeness will last.)
Continue? Maybe.

Michiko to Hatchin - As amazing as I knew it would be. Sweet art, like the music, hot bad-ass leading lady, female child who both kicks some ass and doesn't talk in that awful high-pitched baby doll voice. I've been looking forward to this for a long time, and it didn't disappoint.
Continue? Yes.

Nodame Cantabile, Paris Chapter - Ahhh, Nodame, how I've missed you! And even a little tenderness from Chiaki in the first episode. Hopefully we'll get some more loveu-loveu than the first season, but I guess I shouldn't really expect it. On the up-side, music is still lovely (of course) AND they animated the orchestra playing, which really adds to the musical scenes. Please please please keep it up...
Continue? Yes.

Shikabane-hime Aka - Just not that interesting. I feel like I've seen this plot and these characters before...better. Nothing stands out as being particularly good or exciting.
Continue? No.

Earl and Fairy - Went into this with low expectations and they were definitely met. Or not met. Whatever. Suffice to say, pretty high on fluff (and sparkles - omfg the SPARKLING) and low on content, like most romancey series tend to be. Won't be continuing this one. I can't remember why I wanted to try it out in the first place.
Continue? No.

Mouryou no Hako - I have absolutely no idea what's going on or how it all ties together, but I'm intrigued. And vaguely creeped out.
Continue? Yes.

Kuroshitsuji - I don't much care for the smart-but-cruel-and-business-minded-child trope, but Sebastian is undeniably awesome. More Sebastian, less whatever his name is, and I'll be happy. I kind of want Sebastian to go crazy and start eating people. Plus I like the chibi ending.
Continue? Maybe.

Kurozuka - Hot chick meets dude on the run, carnage ensues. What's not to like here? I have no idea what's going on, again, but I'm looking forward to the ride.
Continue? Yes.

So...plenty to keep me busy in the upcoming weeks before my spring semester begins and I return to my anime hibernation. Sigh.

Also, an issue perhaps: my computer is rebelling against hi-def episodes. It used to work fine before my long break and now it's all skippy and the audio doesn't match the picture. I don't know what the deal is. Ideas?

In other news, I am on track to finish my MFA in August. Yay! I start working on my Big Scary Thesis next term (which is big and scary), but I'm looking forward to it. My thesis board rocks, my thesis project rocks...now I just have to rock as hard. Hm.

Joe continues to be amazing - was there any doubt? Can't remember if I've mentioned it, but we are officially In Love. Sucks that he's so far away, but...hopefully won't stay that way for long. He asked if I'd be interested in moving out there to be with him and I said yes, absolutely, so once school is finished I'll be packing up and heading out west. My parents refused to hear about it (literally, with hands over ears saying, "NOOOOOOOOOO"), but they'll get used to the idea eventually. Mom has this crazy idea that someday I'll move back home which is, as previously mentioned, crazy.

We have a new addition in our house: a Puggle puppy! He's so fucking cute and has tons of loose wrinkly skin which is just the sweetest thing ever. He just came today and he sleeps a lot, looks cute a lot, pees a little, and is just generally a joy to have around. The cats aren't so sure about him. One keeps her distance and the other watches his every move like a hawk, but gets very upset if the puppy tries to interact with him. They'll get over it in time. Hopefully before the pup grows up and becomes bigger than them. Need that pecking order established early!

To add insult to injury, we outfitted the cats with collars with bells on them. So now they jingle-jingle-jingle all over the house and look very embarrassed. Probably good for the puppy that they're wearing the bells, though. This way he can't get ambushed. (Seriously, they stalked him from either side like fluffy striped raptors.) He did manage to sneak up behind Cosby and sniff his butt, which sent the cat about ten feet in the air. It was hilarious.

I'll probably be clawed to death in my sleep. Ah well. At least I got a little anime in before that, right?

Hello kids. :) Miss me? Of course you did!

Life continues on as usual - work, school, alcohol. Just got back from my much-anticipated trip to Portland to visit the boy. It was amazing. Portland's nice, too. We had a Talk About Feelings (I dropped the l-bomb), ate good food, strolled along the Pacific coast soaked to our knees in frigid ocean water holding hands and were all-in-all so sickeningly adorable it would make your head spin. Also we saw elk. Real live wild elk, just chilling on the side of the road, eating bushes. I about wet myself I was so excited.

Joe may come out to see me very, very soon, so...fingers crossed. Getting harder and harder to be apart. But, OK, too much mush.

Work is dull as crap. I spend most of my day browsing the internets, reading blogs, reading the news, checking my email, checking my email again. There's this rumor that soon I'll have actual work to do, but I'm not optimistic. I am an office drone, a cube monkey, and I hate my pathetic 9-to-5 existence.

On the school side, I'm actually making plans to finish my degree. The plan is to finish in August, so we'll see how it all plays out. I'm in the process of forming a thesis board and have 2 out of 3 board members set and confirmed. Basically over the next two semesters they'll read my work, tell me everything that's wrong with me, and finally decide if I've unsucked enough to get my degree. No pressure.

At home, plans are rolling for the Halloween Party. Exciting stuff. We have coordinating costumes again, but I'm not allowed to tell anyone what the costumes are. Seriously, even people who don't know us. Very tight-lipped. It's all so silly. But whatever.

Tomorrow I'm pulling myself out of bed before the asscrack of dawn to go up to the farm that was donated to my school (which is, btw, gorgeous) and take some pictures. Looking forward to it, even the getting up early part. It's been so long since I got my camera out.

Haven't been watching much (ok, anything) lately either. I think the last thing I did was finish Geese2 and Now and Then, Here and There. Have I written about these? Can't remember. Geese was a lame-fest. NaT,HaT ended better than I expected it to. As in, it didn't try to make everything happy for everyone but it didn't end as soul-crushingly sad as it could have. Definitely not the sort of move I expected from this series.

I just found out that the new Nodame series has started and I'm missing it. Cue tears of anguish from my tired, girly eyes. Maybe this weekend between photoging and homework I'll be able to watch something. Maybe my love affair with anime is over entirely.

Heh. Nah.