After a huge year of anime last year, I think my interest petered out again. I'm not sure why that is -- I'm just not that interested in a lot of series, and it doesn't help that anime companies in Japan tend to focus on shounen more than shoujo. I also tend to be uninterested in anime adaptations of manga I've read; more often than not, the pacing is worse and the art is less detailed.

No spoilers below for any of the series.

Series that I am not really fond of but don't actually dislike

( Romeo x Juliet )

Series I am fond of

( Gundam Wing )

( Mushishi )

( Nana )

Favorite series of the year

( Haibane Renmei )

( Honey and Clover )

Not that I was gone long...

I finally went to my library knitting group on Friday, whereupon I learned that Saturday was Worldwide Knit in Public Day. (I am guessing that like so many worldwide and international things, this one is largely "worldwide" in America? Have not seen many knitting blog posts to the contrary.) And I actually went and knit in public with a local yarn store group (ok, largely because it meant I got a discount at said yarn store, and possibly that means I have increased my stash again, but I will not admit that).

And I ventured out to the farmer's market! The peaches are getting sweeter, so I bought some, and I got cherries and peas and white corn (!! finally out!) and blueberries, which are sadly nearing the end of their season. This farmer's market is smaller than my usual one, but it was still nice.

Then I headed up to visit sophia_helix, watched many, many episodes of Honey and Clover, knit a lot, and admired her many socks. And now, I think I shall collapse like Nomiya because my eyes hurt from the TV watching and from concentrating on the road.

Also, apparently I missed another fannish kerfuffle, but I am ok with that.

1. Some spoilers for PotC3 in the first two links!
   
   Pam Noles and Angry Asian Man perfectly articulate why I will not be watching Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, particularly after the welcoming and inclusive comments from fandom the last time around.
   
   (Dude, I so just broke Vee's Law! 'Elp, 'elp, I'm being oppressed!)



2. For anyone interested, I've been updating my Wiscon reports with additional links to other write ups and transcripts when I can find them. I think I am also done writing up panels; there are one or two more that I went to, but I didn't take notes and don't have much to say about them.



3. Also, here's more on Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan. My bad; I had it down as Genghis Khan. Note also how there is an Asian actor in the film, but only as a sidekick.



4. In more fannish news, kate_nepveu has started watching Princess Tutu! Well, that and some others, but I am most excited about my dancing duck. Spoil her and die!



5. And! sophia_helix has started to watch Honey & Clover!!!! I think my squeeing last night may have woken some people up! Some day I may be less excited when people watch H&C, but apparently today is not the day.

Hi! I spam you all with completely content-less posts lately because uhhh... yeah, that thing I mentioned before about not doing anything except rewatch Honey and Clover? Still true (though I made it to swing dancing).

• hecatehatesthat on racism and Friday Night Lights (I can't really comment on the issues raised, as I have yet to see the show, but I figured the people here who are watching might be interested!)



• cupidsbow has a fascinating essay on feminism and fanfic, as informed by Joanna Russ' How to Suppress Women's Writing.
  ETA: with an interesting follow-up post by ellen_fremedon on authorship and fanfic



• Finally (and you thought you had escaped!), rilina has a spoiler-free pimping post on why she loves Honey and Clover and vonnie_k supplies gorgeous screencaps from the series.

• shewhohashope posted on beauty standards and skin color in relation to a new school video made on the old Brown vs. Board "pick the doll that is the nicest (etc.)" experiment. There's a link to the video from her post as well. I have to say, I am getting more and more annoyed with romance novels waxing on and on about how fair and pale and luminous the heroine's skin is. Probably accurate by historical standards, but I particularly want to smack the contemporaries and fantasies that do this.



• And now for the less serious! heresluck has been watching Heroes (whoo!) and posts on race and class in the show, among other things. (vague spoilers through 1x18)



• And saving the most squeeful for last... vonnie_k HAS BEEN WATCHING HONEY & CLOVER! She likes it! She really, really likes it! *dies from squee* I now repimp the series and direct you all to the torrents because it is quite possibly my absolute mostest favorite anime series and possibly even TV series ever, I love it that much! Also, maybe I will rewatch some episodes tonight, lalala.

I think about two people will be even tempted to use any of these, given the number of people who have watched this, but that is ok. I love this show so much that I icon it anyway!

Also, it's just so pretty and watercolor-y and going through all the screencaps reminded me of the show again and made me feel all happy and warm and fuzzy inside.

1. 2. 3. ( More icons )

Feel free to take! Credit is highly appreciated, and I don't mind if you modify the bases or if you want me to put custom text on for you. All icons are for sharing, unless I custom-make something for you.

Anonymous rose-sender! Thank you! That cheered me up immensely.

(also, I typed "anonymouse" and didn't notice for a good hour. Rats on brain, please pardon.)

I completely forgot to mention that I got..... Honey and Clover stuff! How in the world did that slip through the cracks in my mind? But yes, I got vols. 1-3 of the manga and DVDs 1-2 (eps. 1-4, the stingy bastards), both in Chinese. I figured Honey and Clover was worth it, and I don't want to wait till the licensed ones come out, though of course I will buy those too. Knowing me, I'll end up with the Chinese, English and Japanese versions of the manga. And whatever assorted merchandise there is.

I also rewatched most of H&C II on the airplane, thanks to my trusty iPod, and I found myself nearly crying at quite a few intervals. Thankfully, I didn't, but I snuffled a bit to myself and probably grossed out the guy sitting next to me.

On the other hand, he threw up in his barf bag while the plane was descending, so he wins the gross out game.

Waaaaaaaaah! It's over =(. I didn't cry, but I have a giant grin on my face, just because oh, that was so lovely. And now I want to go back and rewatch the entire thing, just to recapture the feeling of peacefulness and joy and creating things and learning and living.

( Spoilers for whole series )

I just... oh. I wish more people had seen this. It's such a comfort show, not because it's happy, but because it feels so real, and yet has such compassion and understanding for its characters. I watch it and feel better because it's about change and friendships and growing apart and coming together and trying to figure out what you want, trying to be the person you want to be and do the things you want to do. And it understands that the last two are even more important and earth-shaking than almost anything else.

I was actually going to try to finish watching tonight, except homework took longer than expected =(. I'm not even done yet! Oh well, will try to do more on Thursday.

And oh... I want to draw this out, because there are only three more episodes left, and they keep getting better.

( Spoilers galore )

I also rewatched episode 3, which is still excellent. I am, in fact, planning on rewatching episode 3 tomorrow after I finish my homework as a reward (homework! I have homework! How weird!).

Eeeeeeee! My love of the series is growing exponentially in season 2, which is saying something, given how much I loved this after only five episodes of the first season.

( Spoilers )

I've rather amazed myself by not watching 18 episodes in a day, like I usually do when I'm hooked on something. But I always want to draw out Honey and Clover, and I'm glad I did. I had a bit of a down day today (ah work, why are you so cruel to me?), and I felt glum and tired and weary. And now, I am glad; not bouncy-happy, but just a quiet, calm, satisfied happy. Oh show, I love you so much!

I also watched the specials (I like F more than L, largely because it has Miwako antics), but am not blogging about them because I am overwhelmed by love of Honey and Clover II.

Also, I actually squealed out loud somewhere in episode 3: "EEEEEE Best Episode Ever!"

( Spoilers for all three eps. )

Oh, it's over =(. Well, not really, because I still have the two specials and all twelve episodes of season 2 to go, but I spent all of the last episode holding my breath, desperately wanting it not to end.

I luxuriate when watching episodes of H&C; something about it is so soothing. It's the gorgeous watercolors in the animation, the gentle voiceovers, the quiet realizations that are so close to ones that I've experienced. It makes me feel at peace with myself, even when I don't know where I'm going or what I'm doing, because that's how the characters feel as well.

( Spoilers for both eps. )

Ohhhh, how does this show keep hitting that exact note, a mix of melancholy, wistfulness, and joy?

( Spoilers for all 7 eps. )

I think if I had watched this two or three years ago, just as I was graduating and job hunting, I would have cried and cried and cried. I still might, but there's this lovely thread of calm and joy underneath the doubt and frustration, and that's what really breaks my heart right now, even as it makes me smile.

For those of you not watching this series, it is a series on five art students and what they do in life, how they fall in and out of love, find jobs, try to figure out a purpose and all those other things you do when you're graduating from college. I love it so much; I fell in love with it around episode 4 or 5, and the more I watch, the more I love it.

It's a comfort watch for me; it's so quiet and still, despite its silly moments.

( Spoilers for all 8 eps. )

I watched A LOT of anime this year. I largely blame credit rilina and umadoshi for this, although octopedingenue and rachelmanija also deserve incriminating glares praise for their enthusiasm.

It seems a little lopsided to have 5 out of the 10 series I watched in the "favorite series" section, but I watched a lot of good anime this year. Also, it helped that I was getting the cream of the crop; rilina was doing a lot of the screening for me by watching a whole lot of series and then pimping her favorites to me. I also finally watched some oft-praised series which I've had on the to-watch list for a few years (namely, Princess Tutu and FMA).

This was actually a great way to watch anime, since I got the fun experience of the FMA and Princess Tutu pile up, and I got to squee to other people most of the time.

Unsurprisingly, I watched a whole lot of shoujo. Again, unsurprisingly, most of my favorite series were shoujo.

No spoilers below for any of the series. I'm also including pimping information for my favorite series, since I naturally want people to watch them. If you want more information on the other series, I'd suggest checking out rilina's giant 2006: the Year in Anime post, since she includes helpful links and info for all the series she watched, which overlap all of my series, with the exception of Gunslinger Girl. Or you can check out the series-specific tags below, or my Memories in the sidebar.

Series that I am not really fond of but don't actually dislike

( Bleach )

( Last Exile )

( Yami no Matsuei )

Series I am fond of

( Gunslinger Girl )

( Saiunkoku Monogatari )

Favorite series of the year

( Honey and Clover )

( Ouran High School Host Club )

( Princess Tutu )

( Samurai Champloo )

And my very favorite series of the year was easy to pick this time:

( Fullmetal Alchemist )

I am now officially in love with this series. I still can't keep some of the characters straight in my head, but there's something about the quietness of this show that really moves me.

It reminds me most, strangely enough, of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Not the giant robots, obviously, but the moments in which characters sit on a train, reduced to silhouettes because of the brilliant sunset, and watch the telephone poles whiz by. All you hear is the sound of cicadas humming and the clanging of the train.

Honey and Clover doesn't have the train scenes, but there are so many tiny moments that I love, that are done so carefully, that it would have been hard not to fall in love with it.

A small girl sits by herself on the floor, feeling alone and lonely. After a few moments pass, she slowly reaches out to her sketchbook, and we know she'll be all right. The pavement is speckled by a few drops of rain, then suddenly, the entire area darkens as you hear the downpour. A man stands on the balcony smoking, the light coming through the curtain illuminating him.

I feel these episode write-ups are going to be particularly vague, just because it's really a series driven by moments and not by general plot. The six people live and go to school and fall in love and have their heart broken and worry about money and create art, and it sounds so boring, but because the writers and animators have such a delicate, sure touch, it's fascinating to watch. The series knows about the peace found in small moments.

I will say that I am gritting my teeth at the romantic triangle, even though it's handled fairly well and not sporkily. But I wish the two women on the show had more moments than they currently do -- I wish there would be more on Yamada aside from her brashness and her crush on Mayama, and while I very much adore Hagu and her eccentricities, I want more of her as a subject, not as an object of affection.

I now want to show this to everyone because it is so lovely and so quiet and sad and still and happy.

I was going to sic this on my sister, but my TV card did something wonky, so we couldn't watch it on my TV. Also, I was having a difficult time watching from the sofa, as the palette of the show is very light and I had to really concentrate to catch the subtitles.

Possibly I will try and watch more this week while working on non-cabley knitting, so I can fully concentrate on the subtitles.

As with pretty much everything I've been watching lately, I started this after rilina sicced it on me and after she had heard about it from umadoshi.

The first two episodes -- not much happens. I'm not sure how to describe it. There are moments of crazy chibiness, but then, there are the beautiful backgrounds, all golden light and ramshackle buildings. The characters worry about making it to class. One person buys another a pair of shoes. There are memories, introduced by the whirring spin of a bicycle wheel.

It's not like anything I've seen before. It feels like sunsets in summer, lazy and quiet, the humid air sticking to your skin and the faint buzz of cicadas in the distance.

And it has the most bizarre opening credits that I've ever seen.

I don't remember much of it, just flashes of images and the general feeling of it, but it's enough to keep watching.