ah_chan

Hrm hrm hrm.  Fallen into the trap of not posting for so long, I don't post even longer because after so long I feel I must post something of substance.  Out I climb of the trap.

....Needless to say, this is not a post of substance.  No, there is no fanfiction or translations here for you (johokufu is looking pretty dead anyway, and I know the translations done haven't all been scanlated, I just don't recall up to what point); uni is currently killing my brainz of anything remotely creative/constructive other than uni.  I have used up a brand-new highlighter in two weeks because of the volume of my readings @_@.

But when I am brain-dead, I actually watch things as opposed to look for things to read! I think I've watched more things in the last few months than I have in the few years before that.

Hotaru no Hikari:
I think this has shot up to be my most favourite drama ever, :D.  私もヒモの女です〜　Although I wish some of the fidgetting build up of the relationship that will fail had been compressed - some episodes did drag a little - I really enjoyed that the relationship didn't work out just because of incompatibility, not because either person was horrible ^^;.  And I enjoyed that while she did change and grow, she didn't lose most of her bad habits!  Without being punished by the storyline either!  And I enjoyed that the storyline almost keeps you guessing for which romantic interest will win!  (Almost, but not quite.)

Skip Beat Anime:
The drawing style is average, and the colour palette just... awful (Sho in particular often has cringe-worthy colour saturation and combinations - partisan colourist taking KYOKO'S REVENGE to the meta-level?) and a particular scene is PGed down for TV to Kyoko giving Ren a thumbs down rather than flicking him the bird, which loses much of the scene's impact, BUT-

It is all worth it for the "Rabu me!" vocals behind the twirling Love Me logo that's sometimes used to transition between scenes.  Pure Skip Beat goodness :DDDD.  The vocals in general are pretty good, although Sho's music sounds rather bland from what little one has heard of it - it's difficult to believe this is top-of-the-charts catchy pop here. 

The Kyoko/Ren shippiness is played up even more than the manga, which is hardly surprising, but a bit annoying as the anime seems to suggest that Kyoko is head-over-heels in romantic love with Ren already, if only she can get past her anger/fear; vs the manga I'd say it's still more strong senpai admiration with maybe a tinge of romanticism there; but her anger over Sho and fear of love are much much stronger.  More of a nuance on the relationship, but there.

I persist in watching because Skip Beat, in whatever form, makes me laugh like a lunatic, and the vocals do make many scenes that much more alive.  The anime drawing-style chosen really can't compare with the manga though, which is more and more evident, as we progress into the Dark Moon arc, with all of Mio's glory!

However, the fandom seems to be attracting more fanfiction since the anime started airing. <3!

Avatar:
I ended up marathoning the series, and it's just cute, squishy fun, with the asian background generally done fairly well.  (Although it's inte--resting that the obviously chinese names were given to "bad guys".  And the way that japanese names were dropped in randomly amongst the different nations - huh?) Having watched it though, I am even more irritated by the casting of the movie, even with the switch of Zuko's casting, which is better than a white guy with a tan, but still problematic in many ways.  I think I will avoid the Avatar and DragonBall movies like the plague.

Kuroshitsuji:
I actually didn't mind the filler episodes, but I am disliking how they're inserting filler characters into story arcs from the manga (I'm up to episode 14 so far.).  It makes me think they are gearing up for some kind of final boss, and thus I suspect that the series may not get more than one season ;_:.  At least I may console myself with the manga.

I actually do want to write fanfic pretty bad, but my brainz are so dead for any actual writing of it.  The ideas still pop up in my head though, to my despair. 

Let's BIBLE!

See, I thought after Angel Sanctuary, Chrno Crusade and Na mo Naki Tori no Tobu Yoake I'd gotten used to the totally random way Christianity is featured in manga.  But they all just lacked one thing for the shock factor - genderswitched! Jesus!  With fanservice!  Getting groped!

(I suppose Na mo Naki Tori no Tobu Yoake had parrot! Jesus with tragically in love Judas, but fanservice! Jesus beats that hands down.)

.......This and Obata Takeshi's Blue Dragon - what's with all this prettily drawn manga where the hero gropes women for a power-up? D<

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH IT ENDED IN A SEMI-COP OUT WAY

Admittedly, I kind of speed-read through the japanese, so I probably missed bits but

HAHAHAHAHAHAA, I am reminded why I actually translate things - it's the only way I don't get impatient and therefore skip over gems like a random student in the Demian Syndrome dorms commenting: [ なんか東亭主関白みてえよ]

Reading without strictly translating, I would say, hmm, it says 'Somehow Azuma seems like' UNKNOWN KANJI COMBO lets skip that unimportant bubble! He 's probably just commenting that Azuma looks angry or whatever.  But I'm translating it, so out comes the dictionary, and I find to my surprise:

亭主関白 【ていしゅかんぱく】 (n) (1) husband who rules the roost; domineering husband; (2) the hectoring of the husband; ED

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Azuma would be (wait....is?) a rather domineering husband - poor Jyou!

That little gem aside, I have translated some of Libertine Life, thanks to the providing of scans from lufjad     and versine    . It's pretty random and short though (still don't even know the characters names! But it looks like it's being designed to be that sort of story...), but Mamiya Oki's art ♥♥♥♥♥! ....Could probably make scanlations quite easily, but had better ask
lufjad     first.

( Libertine Life: HUG 1-2 )
Argh, LJ is playing merry havoc with my formatting again.


......Er, also, my first fannish post of 2008!

Blood, from Koori no Mamono no Mongatari. 

( Gaudy ice effects! )

Can you guess that I might like drawing hair?

The translation sequence up is: Japanese -> German -> English -> Revised Natural English-> Checked against the Japanese, re-translating as needed. Thanks to inga_b and versine ’s hard work!

German -> English translations.

Translation picks up from where Storm in Heaven's releases left off; post-chapter 11a.

Page numbers according to the japanese editions.
________________________________________

( pp44-68 ) Posted later than expected because of capped internet, and then 'post is too large' issues, how dastardly~

Title: Outside Interference
Part: 3/5+
Pairing: Kiyomine/Takara 
Warnings: Spoilers for the entire 26-volumes.
Summary: Some creepy bastard had drugged him, tied him up and kidnapped him to an over done frilly girl's room, Kiyomine was never going to let him forget it, and there was a photograph of his mother on the wall (note the creepy bastard thing.) 
Part 1 | Part 2

HAR HAR to Yuu Watase drawing a BL series! (sakura_gari ) It feels inevitable really. 

Seems like she's going for a 'dark' type of story; the tone of it  is reminiscent of Ayashi no Ceres.  Art is pretty, but somehow not as polished looking as the stuff she does for Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden; probably less time and/or assistance lavished on it.


Setting is really nice - I enjoyed the opening chapter of FY:GK's setting very much, and I think Sakura Gari is set in pretty much the same time period (I'm away from my manga at the moment, so I can't check presently).  Gorgeous mixture of kimono (Masataka wears hakama and gi!) and old-fashioned suits on Souma.

Delightfully formal/humble language is employed in it (or I've been studying for far too long XD) and thankfully there's furigana, as there's a lot of kanji used, even for things that are more usually put in hiragana ("dou" "nasai" "tameni" etc.) - I think it's to sort of contribute to the formal feeling?  It does to me anyway.

I am slightly wary of Yuu Watase series, as while I tend to enjoy their introductions, later on, the characters give me the shits.  But I am interested in keeping  up with this series!

Finally finished *weeps* 61 pages, 3221 words, and I don't know why I can't post longer entries - it's nowhere near LJ's limit?  Tried looking up my MTU but resetting it looks scary, and looks like I'd need to research things more thoroughly.

......Now I feel sorry for Katagiri again.  いい男だな----

New layout! Code grabbed from thefulcrum , popped in my own header image, and tweaked some of the positioning slightly. Hopefully everything is still working properly.

Header image edited to hell in PS from the volume one cover art of Silver Diamond by Shiho Sugiura.

If this works well, I might try putting in a different version for the makoto_tateno community, because the current layout is a bit stuffed for a lot of people apparently D:.

Damn you amsdia  !

Well, I wanted to post the next two chapters together, which I've been sitting on for a while, waiting for time to edit properly, but it has been a shamefully long time ^^;. So, um, fairly rough editing here, point out any GLARING PLOT HOLES/ERRORS OF ALL KIND if you please.  .....Haha, I remember there was a stage where I wrote a chapter a week of fic, how did I have that much time? 

Title: Outside Interference
Part: 2/5
Pairing: Kiyomine/Takara 
Warnings: Spoilers for the entire 26-volumes, some intimacy.
Summary: Some creepy bastard had drugged him, tied him up and kidnapped him to an over done frilly girl's room, Kiyomine was never going to let him forget it, and there was a photograph of his mother on the wall (note the creepy bastard thing.) 
Previous chapter here.


To be continued! (And I'm sorry for not resolving that cliffhanger in chapter 1, that's why I wanted to post the next two chapters together ^^; but essays! They hate me so.)

Also, I would feel shameless if I did not credit shinju_yuri for the idea of writing through SMS messages - the idea has been shamelessly taken from one of her excellent stories published in BBShousetsu.