It's my world (an I'll bitch if I want to)

Arthurian Legend... has interpreted by a short Japanese man

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 09:05:28 GMT

So I have decided to go back to giving my opinions on various things I have read, watched and played, since that was at one point the initial reason for this journal until it morphed into a way to release tension that couldn't quite go into my normal journal.

So the subject of today will be the anime Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.

So Code Geass starts off the with interesting premise of Great Britain known here as Brittania, perhaps in a lovely ajoinder to the encyclopedia series, has essentially conquered the world, including Japan and renamed Japan area eleven and the people are elevens. An it follows a Brittainian named Lelouch of the perfectly coifed messy hair and characteristic purple eyes and long limbs that practically screams typical shojo CLAMP male lead. Which is should since they did all the character designs. An of course there is the typical troop of highschool friends, old childhood friends and needy little siblings.

Lelouch hates Brittania and everything they stand for, not because they are an evil enslaving and conquering empire but because the King of Brittania who just so happens to be daddy dearest let Lelouch's dearest mummy die and the typically angelic and hairy sister be injured. So of course he wants revenge on everything and is perfectly willing to use the Japanese rebels to achieve it. Of course in doing so in the first episode he ends up seeing his childhood friend shot and saving a green haired girl who gives him the power to give commands to people that they can't resist and must do. Of course this can be only done once to a person, but there is evidently no end as is shown when he orders some poor girl to constantly put a mark on a wall every day. However he can only use this power on a person once and then they become immune to the affects of his Geas

So what does Lelouch do with his great and amazing new power? Why he decides to use it to get his revenge by becoming the masked rebel Zero and helping, see taking over, the Japanese rebellion groups that are fighting Brittania. An of course there are the usual high jinks and some really rather shameless plugging of Pizza Hut throughout it. Like most masked men of mystery there is of course the conflict between the two, made worse by the fact that the best childhood buddy Suzaku is a Brittanian soldier now and is in fact the person in the special mech that Zro always manages to end up fighting or causing an otherwise perfect plan to get derailed right before victory like the cliches insist must happen.

Perhaps one of the most unique things about Code Geass is the truly great character development it shows throughout the entire shouw and the fact that it has done what I had previous thought was completely impossible. There is not a single female character in here that I do not like. Even the schoolgirl with the hopeless crush on the rather oblivious Lelouch is likable and sympathetic. Even the princess is not a bad female character because she somehow manages to both fall and not fall into the anime princess stereotypes. Of course I'm not saying I liked all the female characters all the time because in all honesty Cece did start to grate on the nerves after awhile, but it took over half the show time to get there, which is a miracle since usually at least one female character in a show will have foaming at the mouth and thinking of inventive ways to eviserate them by episode two.

But what Code Geass really is in fact a reinterpretation of the Arthurian legends as seen by the Japanese. Now the Japanese of late have been reinterpreting some classic western literature and legends, see the eye bleedingly pretty Gankutsuou and the rather interesting RomeoxJuliet for a couple of examples of this, and it's always kind of out there. An I think only the Japanese could get away with this because... well they're Japanese and they don't have some preconceived notion of these things being perfect and set in stone so that they must stay almost exactly as is.

So Code Geass is the Legend of King Arthur with Lelouch filling the roll of Arthur, Cece as the Lady of the Lake, and the Geas she gives him becoming the sword Excalibur which will help him claim his throne, Suzaku as Lancelot, and about.... three to four girls playing the roll of Guinevere and I'm sure there are more small side characters that fill in other equally minor rolls from the legends but I'm not that familiar with Arthurian legends and really don't have the where with all to go and bother to look it up. Guinevere seems to be shared in equal parts by Euphie, Shirley and Karen, though if I had to say any one character most corresponding to Guinevere it would be Euphie. Euphie with her cute and ultimately tragic love with Suzaku and the fact that she gets almost completely shafted in the end by Lelouch. If you know you have a power that gives commands and it's suddenly on the fritz, one should really really not start giving examples that would involve genocide, just a general rule to keep in mind.

What makes this really unique in that about half-way through and definitely by the last five episodes, it hits you that Lelouch is not the good guy. He is not the nice hero out to save the world or bring stability. He's actually creating more instability and distress, which they show when he finds out he killed one of his classmates father on one of his planned attacks. Which is in fact rather inventive avenue to take, since you expect the main character to traditionally be the good guy and then you find out that he isn't.

Overall the show is actually really, really good. As I mentioned, the characters are very well developed and definitely evolve over the time of the story, in both good and bad ways. The story, though containing some cliche elements manages to put it all together in a new and very inventive way that leaves you with an original story. The animation is very beautiful as are the character designs but then what else could be expected from CLAMP. The music in the show is great, especially the opening and ending themes. An the overall pacing of the story was nice, since the show never really slows down or looses too much momentum. Like most long shows the first half builds a lot of the relationships, but Code Geass manages to do that and build the overall story as well, so there is always a feeling of progression. It also shows a lot of the consequences of giant mech battles in people and property damage and showing it to you and making the characters deal with those after affects.

The biggest complaint about the show though has got to be the ending. Code Geass has the worst non-ending of any anime I have ever watched. You are left with a giant cliffhanger after the big reveal and then after the credits what do we get? A glimpse into who lived and who died? A tell all of what happens afterwards? No! We just get a soliloquy from Cece on happiness and what it means to be happy and what people do for happiness. Fuck happiness, you don't just leave me hanging like a crack addict who's got a pipe but no dope and then not deliver the crack. An I know there's supposed to be some sort of second season or that, but I've not heard very much and it's way too long a time to leave us waiting with our hands on asses and giant blue balls wondering who lived and who died. It's one thing for a cheesy soap opera, or even a tele novela to leave us with that kind of cliffhanger because we only have to wait a day to see who died, you're expecting us to patiently wait for months and I frankly don't have that kind of patience thank you.

On the subject of dishes

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 04:53:46 GMT

Look, I understand you can't bear to pull yourself away from your computer and whichever boy you have by the balls to stroke your ego, even thought you have a laptop and can take it into the kitchen with you. An yes I'm also aware that webcams are not very mobile and heaven forbid you have to be without that as well and be so completely cut off from everything.

But I am not you fucking dish slave. I am not here to do dishes so that you don't have to leave your room or your computer. I absolutely hate that the kitchen is always a disgusting mess because you cannot bear to leave your computer and your boy toys to actually do anything for once. An thank you so much for not even bothering to try and do them when we had no dishes left.

Yet more Code Geass

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:52:33 GMT

Ok so I have one character I find vaguely annoying. That being the mousy little lesbian, just because they way she acts grates on my nerves. An it didn't help that she was given one of the oddest and least sexy female masturbation scenes in existence. Watching it you're never quite sure of what she's doing, plus it's all in like shadow silhouette which just makes it weirder and again, totally not sexy.

Thus far the show has been great, but the past episodes have felt a bit like the story has gotten sidetracked. It's not a long show, but it's gone off on some sort of weird side-story I'm sure is there for character development and back story purposes, but it still feels side-tracked and it's hard to figure how exactly all of this is going to work back in to the main story. Now I'm not saying the side-story thing isn't good, cause it is as great as the rest of the series. Maybe it will all play back in farther along and I just haven't seen it yet.

An I think I would be more annoyed about half the main females developing crushes on the main character if I didn't totally know that he and his horrendously cute friend are so totally gay for each other. I can smell the yaoi fics from here.

An yeah, I really need to stop watching interesting shows when I should be studying for tests.

Code Geass

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:48:17 GMT

So I just started watching Code Geass the other day. I'd seen the first episode before, but like a lot of shows this is one that really only hits its stride with the second episode and just takes off from there. So with the second episode being amazing I've been watching more.

Damn you CLAMP, damn you. Why must you make incredibly cute boys and put them out there for me to see? I swear to god every time Suzaku comes on the scream the first thing out of my mouth is that he's so damn cute. An it's not even a girly cute, which is a nice surprise, but he's just so cute it's killing me. I actually think he's cuter and better than LeLouch himself, even if there whole interaction is a bit cliched, contrived and expected. It's a classic plot point and it's one that works perfectly.

An the girls... not only are they pretty but thus far I have not found a single one annoying, not one. Not the girl crushing on the hero, ~~(who can't admit he's gay for his friend)~~ to the overly cute sister to the amazon fighter girl and the princess with the mounds of pink hair, not a one so annoying I'd wish they die. In fact I rather like them to be honest, which is just weird.

An this show is so going to be bad from my GPA, I can tell.

Nice People

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 04:14:18 GMT

I wonder what it would be like to live with nice people. I really really do wonder about this because I don't live with nice people. I live with interesting people, articulate people even, they're just not nice. In fact one of them tends to be extremely self-centered to the point of being rather difficult to live with. None of which helps me maintain a happy happy atmosphere for myself since I tend to be influenced by those I'm around. An I'm surrounded by bitchy not nice people who are in turn making my not nice.

An I don't really like that. Because I used to consider myself a nice person and I'd really like to get back to thinking of myself that way. Instead of a bitch on the verge of killing all those around her.

Datte Ai Ja Ne.

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 06:16:35 GMT

Well, this is my first entry in my review journal. It took me awhile to think of what to do it on, but then I came across one that just seemed to be writing itself, so I decided I should just run with it. So here it is. The review will be kept under an lj-cut, both for length and to prevent the chance of unintentional spoilage.

Manga: Datte Ai Ja Ne
Mangaka: Ebihara Yuri
Scanlation Group: Dangerous Pleasures
Grade: C

When I first started reading this, the first few pages grabbed me right away. Our main character Keisuke is borrowing money from a yakuza loan shark to pay off some medical bills of a friend. The friend who turns out not to be injured and skips out on him once he has the money. So of course Keisuke has to find some new way to pay back the loan, since his friend isn't around to help. Of course since he can't pay, he tries all sorts of things to get the money to pay, ending with a really bad attempt at male prostitution. Already the stupidity of the uke scares me. He is of course, saved by Suganuma-san, the loan shark and seme. And is told, to my never-ending surprise, that he can pay back his loan with *gasp* sexual favors!

Thus sets a president that it is followed for the next four chapters. In each chapter, Keisuke tries to find a quick way to repay his loan, first trying a debt consultant who actually doubles his debt before drugging him and attempting to rape him, only to be saved by Suganuma and then there is sex. Then there's a lawyer that comes and tries to rape him with and put him in a gay porno, with of course the promise of money to pay off his loans. Keisuke is of course magically saved by. An then there is of course, the obligatory run in with the brother who tries to rape, or do naked sushi on him then rape him, only to again be saved by Suganuma. An of course each rescue must be followed by sex. Lots of sex. An there's still one chapter to go.

How can Suganuma always know when Keisuke is going to get raped? The guy must have have tracker sperm or something. But then he is yakuza, so it could work. Of course parts of this are in fact incredibly formulaic and right on the note for what is to be expected of a yaoi manga, including the emotional constipation of the seme and uke. So I'm not too surprised, it's just that Keisuke's willfull stupidity almost hurts at points. Seriously, he knows when he's being set up by these people for sex, and he goes and does it anyway! He's told they expect sex from him, and he still goes with it and then gets upset when he hears they want sex.

But finally we come to chapter 5 and the friend from chapter 1 shows up! I'm all set for the confrontation, hoping vainly that there will be some sort of good showdown between these two, something to have made all the stupidity worth it. However instead of acting like a human, as I'd been hoping, Keisuke acts like a cliche manga character. He forgives his friend, though his hand wavers right before, but I think it's more due to excessive sex than anything else. The friend of course had to borrow money cause daddy's business went bankrupt, and instead of selling his own ass, he decided to sell his friend's ass. Ah friendship. However he does give Keisuke the money to pay back the loan, claiming he's won the lottery. If all it takes to win the lottery is betraying a good friend, then I need to get started on some backstabbing. Maybe if I backstab enough people I'll win Powerball.

Oh, but he hasn't really won the lottery, no no, he just borrowed the money from the slimy brother shown in chapter 4. Because he saw Keisuke and Suganuma having sex and was struck with guilt over what his friend had been forced to do because of it. I'm glad because it at least shows some character development and a bit of reality to it all. Though I have to wonder how this friend thought Keisuke would pay back the money. Of course since Keisuke is noble and all that, he goes to return the money so that his friend won't be in debt and forced to do the naked sushi rape thing. An the trade of course involves letting evil brother have sex with him once, which of course Suganuma comes in to try and stop. This all leads to a bizarre three-way after which Keisuke manages to clear his debts and finally hooks up with Suganuma.

Datte Ai Ja Ne is alright, and the premise is certainly interestin, and the sex in some of it is pretty hot, but it's almost too formulaic in some ways. I can anticipate a lot of what happens, which can be good and bad, but what really makes it hard to read is Keisuke. Or Keisuke's great stupidity passed off as innocent naivete. It should be cute, but to me it just ends up being painful, incredibly painful.

Then there is the short story Boku no Ojisama, which I enjoyed a lot more than the main story. Kou-sensei is a kindergarden teacher with an ojisan fetish who is starting to lust after one of his students father. The story is much better written than the main story, with a lot less stupidity. Kou-sensei and Fuji-san and enjoyable characters and their antics, which of course involve some sex, are rather amusing. AN the entire ojisan fetish is a nice twist.

The extra story brings back Keisuke and Suganuma, who are now going to be living together. So of course their is a brief misunderstanding which involves the brother and the guy from chapter two who was doing debt consolidation. Both of which are perverts and trying to listen in on the sex at the end, cause their perverts

Overall I give the shebang a C, because most of it is executed well, and the art is nice. But the stupidity in the main story is just a bit too painful, and everything is just a touch formulaic. Howeverit can be an amusing read if one wants to give it a good ole college try.