(no subject)

[louiselux]

I had a great weekend and visit from daegaer and toscas_kiss. On Saturday we picked up some romance novels (don't ask) from a jumble sale-- it's hard to comprehend that people can still willingly write dialogue like 'You treacherous little vixen!' but they do. Or, 'kiss me before I die of loving you.' *heaves* OR 'When the teacup began to sway they simply smiled and attributed it to the magic of their love.' Their love is teacup-shaking! And:

'She met him thrust for hungry thrust, soaring through the primeval jungle of desire that took them to the beginning of time and slung them back into the future.'

Anyway, moving somewhat dizzily on, I have much love for xxxHolic by CLAMP. Okay, I'm going to change my stance on CLAMP art yet again because I love the art in this. The story is very cute, reminiscent of Legal Drug but with a much better plot so far. The black and white, tone free art is very pretty.

I finally watched episodes 18-26 of Samurai Champloo. For the first few I was wondering where the plot had gone and what had happened to the art, but then the last three turned out to be very good indeed and wow Jin walking up from the sea in his torn kimono and long hair... And young Jin! So cute. I was so scared they were all going to die and when they didn't-- relief! Because fic can be written without misery. I very much liked the ending, with them all going their separate ways, but happy about it instead of sad because they love each other and they all sort of, kinda said so. How long will they stay apart, really? With my slash goggles I can plainly see the Jin/Mugen and definitely Jin/Fuu/Mugen-- because why should she have to choose between them. Carefully removing the slash goggles, I can see it's just as squeeful that Jin knows he's found the thing he's looking for in Mugen and tells him so. And Mugen says 'I feel strange. I don't want to kill you anymore.' It made me so happy.

Comments

[wildelamassu.livejournal.com]

I love the Art Nouveau look of xxxHolic. Manga as drawn by Aubrey Beardsley!

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Hee! It is. I wonder if it's deliberate. The style of decorative swirls and flower patterns is so very similar, and also the elongated heads and bodies.

[norah.livejournal.com]

Hee. The last time I saw cranberryink and thefourthvine we did the same thing. I'd picked up a Harlequin "medical romance" and a Harlequin "Blaze" at the flea market, and we read aloud to each other and just howled.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I couldn't believe some of the stuff - it was so badly written. Weirdly written, too, with odd sorts of similies and metaphors that were just disturbing and really made you wonder if the writer had ever had sex of any kind. And the euphemisms for genitals!

[jamjar.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad someone else has seen the end of Samurai Champloo. It's been painful, keeping the spoilers to myself. The ending was just... I was so worried that they'd all die, and they didn't, and it established that even as they go their separate ways, they're still a threesome.

I actually have a great fondness for the first episode of the new batch. Literacy! The drive-in opening! Jin's non-explanation of every thing that happened before! The baseball one pleases me because they actually got Americans for the American characters. I was listening to it and thinking, "those people sound suspiciously like they're actually speaking English," and I checked the credits and I was right.

They had to move to a different channel, which is why the art went down.

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I like the same ones you liked - the Mugen and writing one was lovely and had that great leaping in front of the moon with a bucket of paint scene. I also liked the ones with Sara the spy because that plotline really showed how their various feelings for each other were developing and of course there was Jin looking pretty with his hair down. Also, Sara's music was gorgeous. In fact, most of Jin's backstory was great too. *scratches head* I can't remember the bits I didn't like now!

The ending-- oh my god, I was so gripped, covering my eyes and everything. The closing credits gave me such a fuzzy glow.

[ninhursag.livejournal.com]

Samurai Champloo is far more fun than it has any right to be. I wish more people watched it.

I've never been into Clamp because the storylines of the better known ones like X and Tokoyo Babylon can't keep my attention. The covers of xxxHolic just look so neat though, I'm almost tempted. Are they worth it for more than the pretty pictures?

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

I'm so in love with Samurai Champloo now. It makes me want to write fic, yet at the same time seems a very hard thing to write fic for.

I do recommend xxxHolic. It's pretty, yes, but the storylines are actually quite gripping, far far better than the other CLAMP stuff I've read (Legal Drug and RG Veda). It's fairly light hearted, but there are some intriguing hints of things getting darker and the yaoi side of things is nicely done too (mostly hints), with deliberate fun made of boy-love conventions.