Haha I'm also terrible at getting back, clearly! Where do you think you might end up in the fall? Any prospects?
What did you think of the rest of Monogatari? I always enjoy it but I feel like the arcs are pretty uneven. Say Richard Armitage? You sure can. The man who can make even dwarves hot.
Looking at any of the summer shows yet? I've got my eye on quite a few!
I am serious! We are probably moving in August haha. But the crazy winter certainly helped us make up our minds. I still really want to come up and see you in the Great White North at some point. Should I wait until you leave London?
I think the hard-hat/sock-tan look could really work for you, actually ;) I'm sure it will be very fetching.
Have you watched any of the new spring anime? I saw you were powering through Mushishi ^^
Yay! We're finally getting a little spring in New York too for the first time in forever! I hope it lasts through the weekend.
That tour sounds like a ton of fun, it's awesome that you had the time to go! Good luck with the job search stuff, I hope you find something good. I'm probably going to be looking for a new job soon as well, but I honestly have no idea what I'll be doing...we want to go out to the west coast but there's not a lot of publishing out there, so we'll see.
Hmm the last book I read was Brandon Sanderson's new one, Words of Radiance. It's serious, epic, and very long fantasy. I've also gotten into Scott Lynch and Pat Rothfuss lately. Oh, and I read a very good SF called Ancillary Justice, which might be up your alley a bit.
Yes DRRR!! S2 is a real thing! Amazing, isn't it? Brain's Base isn't doing it though; it's a new studio with a lot of the same main staff. Horimiya is so effing cute. I LOVE the art in it. I watched the first OVA and it was kind of like Horimiya highlights - it was sweet but just little chunks of it. It's also based on the original web one, not the serialized one with nice art. Still, nice to hear the characters and see them moving around, and I think it was perfectly cast. Also I saw this from the second OVA this week and about died on the spot: http://yoshi-x2.tumblr.com/post/81298949877/yoshitsugu-matsuoka-as-a-cat-version-of-miyamura
Wow that sounds like so much fun!! Where else in Turkey did you go?
Holy moly I didn't realize you were off while there was snow! Are you still getting paid at all? What do you think you're going to look for next? Aiming for a bigger city, or heading back into the wilds?
Are you watching Mushishi in time for the new season? :) Winter was pretty shit, so you didn't miss much. I enjoyed Noragami quite a bit and Hoozuki no Reitetsu, otherwise meh. For spring I'm excited about Captain Earth, Haikyuu!!, Ping Pong, Mushishi of course, and cautiously Knights of Sidonia (even though it's CG). A bunch of interesting things were just announced for summer too!
Vienna was beautiful but cold! We hung out there for a week and went to the ballet and saw the Vienna boys choir, and ate EVERYTHING. Then we went to a smaller lake town and chilled out and read novels. It was really nice! Reading for fun is such a luxury these days. Have you read anything good lately?
What grass looks like? PLEASE I am wearing my down jacket today and it is 35 degrees here. I haven't seen green grass is months. Probably not has bad as up north though! Kenny and I are talking very seriously about moving to California this summer...
Megs!! It's so great to hear from you. I realized I am a beast and never responded to your email in January - I'm so sorry! I'm apparently truly awful when it comes to email :( I can't believe you went to Shake Shack in Istanbul, that's amazing^^ I gotta say, they opened one in Istanbul and still haven't opened the one a few blocks from my apartment in Brooklyn - for shame!! How as Istanbul? What kind of work were you doing there?
I've been good, just busy with work! Tell me more about your life, I miss you terribly and I promise I won't drop off the grid again ;) Watching any anime lately?
What sort of work does it involve? Wait... does this mean you're no longer an Indiana Jones archaeologist?
I'm working for the NHS in (the other) London which is keeping me insanely busy at the moment. I just freaked myself out by looking at Canada London on Google Maps - it's all straight lines and 90 degree angles. Where are the curves? Where is the disorder!? :P
Haha glad to be of use. Yeah, MJP was kind of a bust, even if you don’t count the disappeared Hirai noses. I’ll give it three but I am skeptical. Gargantia is beautiful, so a win there, even if it does only have one cour :( I really like Attack on Titan: it is certainly living up to the hype so far. I don’t really have a problem with the visuals; I like the style, and if they are using stills now so they can have great action later on I will be happy enough.
After having seen everything, the only other two you might want to check out are Hataraku Maou-sama, which turned out to be very funny and really charming, and Valvrave, which is already shaping up to be a glorious Sunrise trainwreck.
I put off F/Z forever because I thought I was going to finish Fate/stay but then…I didn’t, because it was terrible. F/Z is great so far though: great action, fun characters, Urobuchi despair. The works. I’ll let you know how it turns out^^.
Our new kitty plan has basically totally succeeded – they still wreak quite a bit of havoc but they wear each other out and take more naps haha. Re: OAV, I’m going up to Oxford next Friday to see everyone, so I will tell them you say hi! It will be very nostalgic, I’m sure. I wish you could come with!
I assume you’re in the process of moving right now, so let me know how your new place is! I’ll have to come up and visit sometime when you’re all settled.
Megs! How are you?? I will bestow all of my opinions if you like haha. These are the ones I think are worth a look (in order of worthiness):
Attack on Titan (duh)
Suisei no Gargantia – writer from Madoka/Psycho-Pass, ProIG, scifi/mecha, and the mech is voiced by Sugita so it can’t possibly be bad
Valvrave the Liberator – more mecha (this one is Sunrise), probably 2-cour, like Gundam but with Hoshino Katsura designs. Writer worked on Code Geass, so it could be good or it could just be a fabulous trainwreck, either way probably watchable.
Majestic Prince – EVEN MORE scifi/mecha, horrible character designer but the director from Katanagatari and a good studio handling the 3DCG for the robots
Devil Survivor 2 – based on a popular game, director/writer team is competent at the very least, seiyuu cast is A-list
Arata Kangatari – shoujo fantasy adventure by the author of Fushigi Yuugi, could be a ton of fun or a total flop. Either way it has a great cast.
Karneval – Looks like fun and colorful fujoshit. I’ve heard that the manga’s not the best but that’s not going to stop me.
Hataraku Maou-sama – this has a boring/generic premise but I’m still somehow holding out hope because I like White Fox.
Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru – typical LN crap that I will only give an episode because it’s Brains Base
Aku no Hana – sounds creepy as hell and might look really weird because apparently they’ve rotoscoped a lot of the animation and no one has seen what it looks like. Still, it has enough hype that I’ll probably check out an ep just to see what the fuss is about.
Red Data Girl – this one from PA Works had potential, but it’s already preaired and I’ve only heard that it’s boring, so it probably is boring.
Life is treating me pretty well :) Dyed eggs for Easter this weekend and I’ve been promoted at work, so hopefully I can start to acquire books soon! Kenny and I have been busy doing wedding stuff, but we’re starting to have a lot of the big things wrapped up, which is a relief. And we got a new kitten :D Also did I tell you I am going to the UK at the end of April to see my brother? I think I’m going to crash an OAV session while I’m there ;)
You’re an archaeologist?! That’s so awesome, congrats! I’m so happy for you^^ Do you know where you’re moving to yet or do you have to find a place? When do you start your new job?
I AM happy to know about the maple syrup. Yum. Now I’m craving maple candy!
Yaaaay I’m so glad it made it to the Great White North^^ Let me tell you about the agony of picking save the dates…weddings are frickin hard.
Isn’t Tooth and Claw bizarre? It’s really one of the most unique books I’ve read in a long time. Actually Kenny read it recently, and since he liked it, I convinced him to read Pride and Prejudice. Score one for Jane Austen.
Toys & Games? That sounds so fun! What do you get to play with…I mean, handle carefully and with all due respect…besides tiddly winks? ;) Do you know what you’re going to work on after this? Also, I’ve asked my brother why he has not joined the tiddly winks team yet – knowing this, how could you attend Cambridge and NOT do it.
Tamako Market is adorbs. I thought the bird was a really strange addition to the cast at first, but now I’m totally into him. Also Mochizou makes me just hnnnng and I want to know when KyoAni is going to make me a show about cute boys doing cute things. They have truly mastered the art of male moe.
HOW could anyone watch Kamisama and not squeal over Tomoe’s ears?! I don’t want to live in a world where that is even possible. I finally talked Logan and my other anime friend into watch Kaichou with me. They don’t know that they will love Usui yet, but they WILL. Also re live action shows: 3D =/= 2D. Vetoed.
God I love Chihayafuru, even when it makes me wait all month long for the end of the tournament. The problem is that all the episodes feel about 10 minutes long. I’m surprised you’re watching Hakkenden – all I’ve heard about it is that it’s kind of homo. Is it good then?
The season’s been pretty decent for what we had to work with haha, and thank goodness so many shows carried over from last season. I’m really looking forward to spring though, so many things look good! Have you looked at any of the charts yet?
I did have a nice (but busy!) Xmas :) "Exhibit designer" sounds very fancy! What are you working on for it?
Hmm final thoughts. Favorites were R;N, Psycho-Pass, Chuu2, Tonari, and Kamisama obviously.
Out of all the shoujo romance, Kamisama was undoubtedly the best as a whole package. I loved Tonari but I totally agree about the anticlimax of the ending - it seems like it's really the kind of show that could have used another cour to develop their relationship. I mean, Kamisama was dealing with the same problem but they manged to make the ending really satisfying.
P-P definitely has it's flaws but ep 11 really did hook me in for good^^ Bring on the flashbacks and suffering, I say! R;N has also gotten good, so I hope the buildup pays off in the 2nd cour.
Let's see, what else was there? C:B was pretty bad but since I was mostly watching for Subaru, et al I didn't really care :P SAO's ending was predictably silly. I ended up hating Sukitte Ii na yo to an unreasonable degree. K ended up pulling it together in the end but was still a bit short of what it could have been (though new they have a 2nd season to work with so we'll see).
Ah, he wrote Shadow of the Wind, right? My mom was bugging me to read that for ages. I just started Way of Kings; it’s a bazillion-page epic fantasy novel that Logan really likes and also that we published, so I feel like I need to check it out.
Admin’s not so bad, as long as you’re an organized person, which you are. But designing an exhibit would be really rad! Let me know what you end up with. Sounds like you have lots of options^^
Yes! We got our Christmas tree last weekend and the cat has yet to knock it over, so I think that can be considered an all-around success so far. We’re heading home to CA for the week of Xmas, which will be nice, although my schedule is going to be full of wedding planning stuff, ugh. You staying up in the far north with your fam I presume? I can’t believe you’re skiing already! It’s actually gotten warmer here since December started, which just seems wrong. We’re all going to be drowned by global warming soon.
Chihaya Chihaya Chihaya! I’m excited. Especially excited to hear more of Hosoya’s delicious Fukui-ben ;) I figure it’ll be a backlog season for me as well, and I also have some manga to catch up on. I’ve been meaning to catch up to Kuroshit and VK for months, and I still haven’t finished The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer. AND I’m obviously going to have to read Kamisama once it’s over so I don’t have Tomoe withdrawals, and Tonari probably too :D Although I heard vague mutterings about something that happens later in the manga that fans didn’t like.
You should join long-distance animesoc! We’re watching Chobits (as you can probably tell from MAL updates). It’s not too late to hop in!
All Comments (121) Comments
What did you think of the rest of Monogatari? I always enjoy it but I feel like the arcs are pretty uneven. Say Richard Armitage? You sure can. The man who can make even dwarves hot.
Looking at any of the summer shows yet? I've got my eye on quite a few!
I think the hard-hat/sock-tan look could really work for you, actually ;) I'm sure it will be very fetching.
Have you watched any of the new spring anime? I saw you were powering through Mushishi ^^
That tour sounds like a ton of fun, it's awesome that you had the time to go! Good luck with the job search stuff, I hope you find something good. I'm probably going to be looking for a new job soon as well, but I honestly have no idea what I'll be doing...we want to go out to the west coast but there's not a lot of publishing out there, so we'll see.
Hmm the last book I read was Brandon Sanderson's new one, Words of Radiance. It's serious, epic, and very long fantasy. I've also gotten into Scott Lynch and Pat Rothfuss lately. Oh, and I read a very good SF called Ancillary Justice, which might be up your alley a bit.
Yes DRRR!! S2 is a real thing! Amazing, isn't it? Brain's Base isn't doing it though; it's a new studio with a lot of the same main staff. Horimiya is so effing cute. I LOVE the art in it. I watched the first OVA and it was kind of like Horimiya highlights - it was sweet but just little chunks of it. It's also based on the original web one, not the serialized one with nice art. Still, nice to hear the characters and see them moving around, and I think it was perfectly cast. Also I saw this from the second OVA this week and about died on the spot: http://yoshi-x2.tumblr.com/post/81298949877/yoshitsugu-matsuoka-as-a-cat-version-of-miyamura
Holy moly I didn't realize you were off while there was snow! Are you still getting paid at all? What do you think you're going to look for next? Aiming for a bigger city, or heading back into the wilds?
Are you watching Mushishi in time for the new season? :) Winter was pretty shit, so you didn't miss much. I enjoyed Noragami quite a bit and Hoozuki no Reitetsu, otherwise meh. For spring I'm excited about Captain Earth, Haikyuu!!, Ping Pong, Mushishi of course, and cautiously Knights of Sidonia (even though it's CG). A bunch of interesting things were just announced for summer too!
Vienna was beautiful but cold! We hung out there for a week and went to the ballet and saw the Vienna boys choir, and ate EVERYTHING. Then we went to a smaller lake town and chilled out and read novels. It was really nice! Reading for fun is such a luxury these days. Have you read anything good lately?
What grass looks like? PLEASE I am wearing my down jacket today and it is 35 degrees here. I haven't seen green grass is months. Probably not has bad as up north though! Kenny and I are talking very seriously about moving to California this summer...
I've been good, just busy with work! Tell me more about your life, I miss you terribly and I promise I won't drop off the grid again ;) Watching any anime lately?
... whoops.
Have you found any ancient Indian burial sites?
I generally think that Canada is like looking into the distant past. Although not quite as distant as Scotland.
I do SCIENCE for the NHS. Radiotherapy SCIENCE :D
What sort of work does it involve? Wait... does this mean you're no longer an Indiana Jones archaeologist?
I'm working for the NHS in (the other) London which is keeping me insanely busy at the moment. I just freaked myself out by looking at Canada London on Google Maps - it's all straight lines and 90 degree angles. Where are the curves? Where is the disorder!? :P
After having seen everything, the only other two you might want to check out are Hataraku Maou-sama, which turned out to be very funny and really charming, and Valvrave, which is already shaping up to be a glorious Sunrise trainwreck.
I put off F/Z forever because I thought I was going to finish Fate/stay but then…I didn’t, because it was terrible. F/Z is great so far though: great action, fun characters, Urobuchi despair. The works. I’ll let you know how it turns out^^.
Our new kitty plan has basically totally succeeded – they still wreak quite a bit of havoc but they wear each other out and take more naps haha. Re: OAV, I’m going up to Oxford next Friday to see everyone, so I will tell them you say hi! It will be very nostalgic, I’m sure. I wish you could come with!
I assume you’re in the process of moving right now, so let me know how your new place is! I’ll have to come up and visit sometime when you’re all settled.
I don't know what anime it's from, the context or the accuracy of the translation :P
How's life?
Attack on Titan (duh)
Suisei no Gargantia – writer from Madoka/Psycho-Pass, ProIG, scifi/mecha, and the mech is voiced by Sugita so it can’t possibly be bad
Valvrave the Liberator – more mecha (this one is Sunrise), probably 2-cour, like Gundam but with Hoshino Katsura designs. Writer worked on Code Geass, so it could be good or it could just be a fabulous trainwreck, either way probably watchable.
Majestic Prince – EVEN MORE scifi/mecha, horrible character designer but the director from Katanagatari and a good studio handling the 3DCG for the robots
Devil Survivor 2 – based on a popular game, director/writer team is competent at the very least, seiyuu cast is A-list
Arata Kangatari – shoujo fantasy adventure by the author of Fushigi Yuugi, could be a ton of fun or a total flop. Either way it has a great cast.
Karneval – Looks like fun and colorful fujoshit. I’ve heard that the manga’s not the best but that’s not going to stop me.
Hataraku Maou-sama – this has a boring/generic premise but I’m still somehow holding out hope because I like White Fox.
Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru – typical LN crap that I will only give an episode because it’s Brains Base
Aku no Hana – sounds creepy as hell and might look really weird because apparently they’ve rotoscoped a lot of the animation and no one has seen what it looks like. Still, it has enough hype that I’ll probably check out an ep just to see what the fuss is about.
Red Data Girl – this one from PA Works had potential, but it’s already preaired and I’ve only heard that it’s boring, so it probably is boring.
Life is treating me pretty well :) Dyed eggs for Easter this weekend and I’ve been promoted at work, so hopefully I can start to acquire books soon! Kenny and I have been busy doing wedding stuff, but we’re starting to have a lot of the big things wrapped up, which is a relief. And we got a new kitten :D Also did I tell you I am going to the UK at the end of April to see my brother? I think I’m going to crash an OAV session while I’m there ;)
You’re an archaeologist?! That’s so awesome, congrats! I’m so happy for you^^ Do you know where you’re moving to yet or do you have to find a place? When do you start your new job?
I AM happy to know about the maple syrup. Yum. Now I’m craving maple candy!
Isn’t Tooth and Claw bizarre? It’s really one of the most unique books I’ve read in a long time. Actually Kenny read it recently, and since he liked it, I convinced him to read Pride and Prejudice. Score one for Jane Austen.
Toys & Games? That sounds so fun! What do you get to play with…I mean, handle carefully and with all due respect…besides tiddly winks? ;) Do you know what you’re going to work on after this? Also, I’ve asked my brother why he has not joined the tiddly winks team yet – knowing this, how could you attend Cambridge and NOT do it.
Tamako Market is adorbs. I thought the bird was a really strange addition to the cast at first, but now I’m totally into him. Also Mochizou makes me just hnnnng and I want to know when KyoAni is going to make me a show about cute boys doing cute things. They have truly mastered the art of male moe.
HOW could anyone watch Kamisama and not squeal over Tomoe’s ears?! I don’t want to live in a world where that is even possible. I finally talked Logan and my other anime friend into watch Kaichou with me. They don’t know that they will love Usui yet, but they WILL. Also re live action shows: 3D =/= 2D. Vetoed.
God I love Chihayafuru, even when it makes me wait all month long for the end of the tournament. The problem is that all the episodes feel about 10 minutes long. I’m surprised you’re watching Hakkenden – all I’ve heard about it is that it’s kind of homo. Is it good then?
The season’s been pretty decent for what we had to work with haha, and thank goodness so many shows carried over from last season. I’m really looking forward to spring though, so many things look good! Have you looked at any of the charts yet?
Hmm final thoughts. Favorites were R;N, Psycho-Pass, Chuu2, Tonari, and Kamisama obviously.
Out of all the shoujo romance, Kamisama was undoubtedly the best as a whole package. I loved Tonari but I totally agree about the anticlimax of the ending - it seems like it's really the kind of show that could have used another cour to develop their relationship. I mean, Kamisama was dealing with the same problem but they manged to make the ending really satisfying.
P-P definitely has it's flaws but ep 11 really did hook me in for good^^ Bring on the flashbacks and suffering, I say! R;N has also gotten good, so I hope the buildup pays off in the 2nd cour.
Let's see, what else was there? C:B was pretty bad but since I was mostly watching for Subaru, et al I didn't really care :P SAO's ending was predictably silly. I ended up hating Sukitte Ii na yo to an unreasonable degree. K ended up pulling it together in the end but was still a bit short of what it could have been (though new they have a 2nd season to work with so we'll see).
Sampled any of the new season yet?
Admin’s not so bad, as long as you’re an organized person, which you are. But designing an exhibit would be really rad! Let me know what you end up with. Sounds like you have lots of options^^
Yes! We got our Christmas tree last weekend and the cat has yet to knock it over, so I think that can be considered an all-around success so far. We’re heading home to CA for the week of Xmas, which will be nice, although my schedule is going to be full of wedding planning stuff, ugh. You staying up in the far north with your fam I presume? I can’t believe you’re skiing already! It’s actually gotten warmer here since December started, which just seems wrong. We’re all going to be drowned by global warming soon.
Chihaya Chihaya Chihaya! I’m excited. Especially excited to hear more of Hosoya’s delicious Fukui-ben ;) I figure it’ll be a backlog season for me as well, and I also have some manga to catch up on. I’ve been meaning to catch up to Kuroshit and VK for months, and I still haven’t finished The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer. AND I’m obviously going to have to read Kamisama once it’s over so I don’t have Tomoe withdrawals, and Tonari probably too :D Although I heard vague mutterings about something that happens later in the manga that fans didn’t like.
You should join long-distance animesoc! We’re watching Chobits (as you can probably tell from MAL updates). It’s not too late to hop in!