Paper Moon

Summer is the time when I always try to catch up on all of the shows/books/movies that I don't have time to consume during the rest of the year, and this summer I decided to buckle down and marathon the one show that nearly every single person that I know IRL already watches: Game of Thrones.



Now I have to admit, before I even started my marathon of all four seasons back-to-back, I wasn't exactly coming into this experience as an unspoiled virgin. Like I said, nearly all of my friends watch this show, and I already knew quite a bit about it from simple social and pop cultural osmosis. I knew that I was going to have to brace myself for a lot of rape and incest; I was already spoiled for the Red Wedding before I even started watching the first episode; and I knew more about author George R.R. Martin's astoundingly tin-eared, sexist defenses of, well, the rampant sexism and misogyny in the books than I ever cared to know simply from reading about the internet wank that resulted every time he opened his mouth. In fact, I even tried to read A Game of Thrones once, waaaay back in 1996 when it first came out, but I quit halfway through the book because it was too much of a sweaty neckbeard fantasy even for 13-year-old me to tolerate, and that's really saying something because 13-year-old me uncritically devoured a LOT of terrible fantasy books without really picking up on any racist or sexist content that was in any of them.

But yes, despite not liking the first book when I tried to read it many years ago, I was still tired of being left out of This Supposedly Awesome TV Show that most of my friends were absorbed in, so I did it: I watched every single episode of Game of Thrones.

And I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Even though it was kind of terrible. And when it was bad, wow did it get bad. But when it was good... WOW was it good.

( A very, very long review under the cut - with the obligatory warning for spoilers, of course. )

Elementary
So this is officially the best version of Sherlock anything that I've ever seen, ever. Not hyberbole. It's that awesome. And that's not just because it has probably the best Watson of all time, either. I love this Sherlock, I love the complex relationship he has with his Watson, I love the mysteries, and I love everything about this show.

Hannibal
Damn, what can I say about this show that hasn't been said already? The casting is fucking amazing, the horror elements are incredibly disturbing and incredibly well-executed, the characters and their interactions are deliciously complex and complicated, and the atmosphere and cinematography oh my god. I don't care how many times I've seen it every episode, that shot of the swiftly-moving grey clouds on top of EVERY BUILDING that the characters ever step foot in never gets old. What I'm actually torn about, however, is whether this show is treating its viewers like they're smart... or like they're really, really stupid. Honestly, I think the answer is that it does both. On the one hand, it's a show that very deliberately broadcasts the fact that it wants its audience to feel like they're smarter than the average television viewer. Between the subtle acting, the dense visual symbolism, the refusal to neatly tie up subplots or character arcs in single episodes and let them simply percolate in the background until they show up again several episodes later, and the constant references to classical music and food porn (admit it, you've Googled some of those episode titles because you didn't know what they were, I know you have), it's a show that's meant to make you think as you watch it, and it's meant to make you feel clever and sophisticated if you really appreciate all of its layers, its nuances, its refusals to conform to the usual storytelling rules of serial television. BUT, on the other hand... It really is a show that you have to turn off part of your brain to enjoy. Half of this show wants you the viewer to know that it thinks you're smart and you should feel smart for watching it, but the other half of the show is also trying desperately not to reveal the fact that it also thinks that you, the viewer, are very stupid. Stupid enough to believe that Hannibal Lecter can teleport himself from Maryland to Minnesota faster than a speeding airplane (HOW????), stupid enough to believe that a teenage girl can sneak out of a mental hospital in Maryland and dig up a body in Minnesota and then be back in said mental hospital in Maryland in one night (again, HOW?????), and just in general stupid enough to believe that Hannibal Lecter can get away with his crimes for so long despite the fact that the show is set in contemporary times and that we constantly see the FBI applying modern forensic science to the murders. There's a LOT of suspension of disbelief required to really enjoy this show. And that's kind of disappointing considering that the show seems so invested in making you feel like you're a clever, smart, sophisticated television viewer when you watch it.

The Wind in the Keyhole
It's been a long, long time since I sat down with a Stephen King novel that was anywhere near as engrossing as this one. I know that Stephen King loves his high fantasy, but so rarely does he actually pull it off as beautifully as he does in this book. Plus there's actually a lot of interesting gender and sexuality things woven into the subplots of both of the meta-stories, and thankfully these themes are approached with a lot more maturity and sophistication than King usually exhibits, even despite the medieval setting. But really this is my favorite thing that King has written in a while just because it's everything that makes the best of King's writing great: great characters, creepy buildups, epic payoffs, and of course, interwoven stories that echo and mirror each other in very, very intriguing ways. I'd easily rank this one up there with Hearts in Atlantis as my favorite of King's novels, with the happy caveat that Keyhole is actually far better in the way that it handles sexism in its setting than Atlantis is.

Ava's Demon
I started reading this because friends were raving about it, and I love it. The artwork is gorgeous, the characters are intriguing, and the setting is pretty interesting so far, even if not terribly coherent. Yes, some of the writing is amateurish and some of the info-dumps are awkward. But I really do feel like the writing is showing signs of improving already. So this one is definitely a series that I'll be keeping up with.

Gunnerkrigg Court
Just to put things in perspective, this is a comic in which a non-sequitor gag about an octopus jumping off a cliff is presented as a visual metaphor for one of the two main characters finally becoming comfortable with embracing her homosexuality, and it's STILL by far and away the best comic that I'm reading right now, hands-down.

Steven Universe
YES YES CARTOON NETWORK THIS IS GREAT MORE OF THIS PLEASE PLEASE PLEAAAAAAAASE

Aku no Hana/The Flowers of Evil
I'm sticking with exactly four shows from the spring anime season: Attack on Titan, Hataraki Maou-sama, Precure, and Aku no Hana. Of the four, Aku no Hana is by far and away the best of the lot, even accounting for the difficulty of comparing apples to oranges. It's not just good. It's fucking great. I already wrote out my opinions about the animation style, the sexual politics, and the overall themes of the show on tumblr and I don't feel like repeating myself here, but I will say that the animation gets more and more gorgeous (and the actual message of the series harder and harder to ignore) with every episode.

Soul Eater
So we are now two chapters from the end and DAMN, this month's chapter is fucking finally doing what a big series-finale climatic battle chapter SHOULD be doing. Main character gets a badass powerup, supporting characters get their chance to shine with individual Crowning Moments of Awesome (even Gopher!!!), there's significantly less dumbass screaming about order and chaos than we've had to suffer through in previous chapters (man Ohkubo you actually used to be interesting in your treatment of those themes what happened?!), and wow some of those panels of Maka building up toward her finishing move are just fucking spectacular. My threshold requirements for What Would Make a Great Soul Eater Finale were basically "Maka should be awesome" and "it shouldn't drag on forever to the point where it gets boring," which are admittedly low expectations given how great Soul Eater was at its peak a few years ago, but hey so far the finale is delivering so I'm happy.

So obviously I'm not going to be recapping these chapters anymore - not for lack of interest, but lack of time, especially now that Attack on Titan has exploded all over the internet and I can barely keep up with that one fandom. I WOULD like to say that I really want to take time to recap the final chapter in August, but to be honest that's not terribly likely to happen considering that August 12th will be right smack in the middle of my last few vacation days of the year and I'm already making plans to spend that week visiting friends out-of-state. Plus I think that maybe like five people have actually been reading my recaps for the past few months, and although I appreciate the support, let's be honest, writing a recap post is a LOT of effort for little reward, and frankly I'm having more fun spending free time that I would previously have devoted to recapping Soul Eater to catching up my summer reading pile and to-watch list. So for those of you who enjoyed the recaps, thanks for sticking with me for all these years, and I'm sorry that I don't have time to see it through to the end!

But by far the most important thing here is that the Soul Eater ending is actually REALLY FUCKING AWESOME so far, so here's hoping for two more months of this level of FUCK YEAH from Ohkubo.

A month after the fact, I finally got around to watching the conclusion of Eureka Seven AO.

And... wow.

There are two types of bad sequels: Sequels that are just bad (for any reason - bad writing, nonsensical plot, just plain not living up to the original), and then there are the bad sequels that aren't just bad but that take that badness a step farther by actively shitting all over the spirit of the original. To wit: Alien 3. Aquarion EVOL. The Star Wars prequels. And now you can add both the Eureka Seven theatrical film and the AO TV series to that list.

And of course I'm sitting here full of bitter fangirl disappointment that Eureka Seven spawned not just one but two completely awful sequels, because, well, I fucking LOVE the original.

Eureka Seven is Bones at their creative and artistic peak. It takes the high-minded science fiction concept of Solaris and blends it seamlessly with a story of two immature teenagers growing up and growing together, and honestly, when you really think about it, has their ever been a more perfect metaphor for contact with an incomprehensible alien intelligence than the exhilarating yet horrifying awkwardness of two teenagers falling in love for the first time? Eureka Seven takes three basic storylines and mixes them in nearly perfect harmony: One, humanity's continued failure to communicate with the deadly Scub Coral; two, Eureka and Renton growing the fuck up and realizing that life is not at all what either of them understood it to be; and three, Eureka and Renton coming to trust, understand, and eventually love each other. It's a story about communicating and understanding on every possible level, whether it's between two awkward teenagers, two cynical adults, two estranged brothers, two former enemies, or between two alien races that are literally destroying each other with their inability to communicate and their increasingly desperate attempts to do so. It's a story about overcoming loss, about found families and unlikely friends, about children who don't understand war and about adults who don't understand children, about standing by your morals, about rejecting what you know is wrong even when you still don't know what should be right, and about how the human ability to listen to each other can literally move mountains, save an entire species, and save an entire planet. Plus, you know, this is an anime with fucking awesome giant robots and fucking terrifying alien monsters and gorgeous character and scenery designs and awesome music and amazing characters and just aaaaaaaah! it's SO GOOD. There are very, very few stories in any media that can successfully pull off BOTH the "it was Earth all along!" plot twist and the "twu wuv saves the human race!" ending without descending into total ridiculousness and stupidity. But Eureka Seven successfully pulls off both of these tropes, and does it BRILLIANTLY.

I'm not even going to waste space writing about how the Eureka Seven film and then AO managed to completely fuck up all of the above on every level. I'd rather sit here enjoying my memories of how great the original series is, thank you very much.

Here, have an awesome ten-minute AMV tribute to the original series, courtesy of Studio Bones themselves:

The Anime/Manga/Manwha/Manhua Drabblefest is still going on! Come drabble with us!

The 2012 Not Prime Time Fic Festival is open for signups.

The Female Character Trope Fest is open for fills, too!

There is also a Transfic Mini Fest, a Podfic Meme, and a Reverse Remix Meme for all of your ficcing needs.

Filed under "Awesome Websites that Time Forgot": The Redwall Kitchen is still online. And there is a recipe for real honest-to-goodness homemade dandelion wine in there. Awesome.

Meanwhile, Atsushi Ohkubo.

Also, your Soul Eater Moment of Zen: Here is the entire Soul Eater cast made of pipe cleaners. Along with many other anime characters.

Anne McCaffrey passed away yesterday.

I remember spending my sixth grade summer gorging myself on all of the Pern books that I could find, begging my mom to drive me to a library inconveniently located downtown and one city over because our local library didn't have a copy of Dragondrums, and writing F'nor/Brekke fanfiction in a notebook before I even knew what fanfic was. As a kid I didn't know anything about Hugo or Nebula awards or why it was so groundbreaking that McCaffrey was the first woman to win either, or why it was such a big deal that she was the first author ever to get a science-fiction novel on the New York Times Bestseller List. But I do know that Pern will always have a special place in my heart.

ETA: A beautiful tribute poem by Yonmei.

Thing the First: Brigid Alverson on (one of the reasons) why Minx failed:

Ah, Minx, DC’s attempt to make comics for teenage girls. The failure of the whole enterprise lies in that very statement. Teen girls don’t like things made specifically for them. They don’t even think of themselves as “teen girls.” Catering to them is very, very tricky, because you can’t appear to be catering to them. Worse, adults who write and review books for teenagers have a hard time letting the characters do anything truly bad, but that’s exactly what teenagers want—and need—to read. If you give them an after school special, they’ll dump it and read something by Chuck Palahniuk instead.

Yeah, that pretty much describes my reading habits when I was a teenager, too. I didn't discover Palahniuk until I was 19 (and now that I think I'm older and wiser I really don't care for his shallow nihilism anymore), but I definitely spent my middle and high school years gorging myself on Stephen King and tons of horror/sci-fi/fantasy that wasn't supposed to be *~for~* teen girls. Then I discovered Sailor Moon and manga, but even then I was drawn to the epic fantasy elements of Sailor Moon and later Magic Knight Rayearth, which were the first shoujo that I cut my teeth on. I wasn't drawn to those manga just because they were supposed to be *~for~* me.

Thing the Second: Super Punch re-designs the X-Men: First Class movie posters.

Any of those would have been better than the official design. Any of them.

Thing the Third: The following Youtube video, which is real and not a fake, and might possibly cause you to question the existence of a just and merciful God.

HYPERDEFENSIVE LIT NERD: "Henry Miller was a true poet, the James Joyce of obscenity and smut, and those of us who write both owe him a debt of gratitude for bringing the wild and woolly and truly passionate side of sex out into the open."

MULTIPLE COMMENTATORS ON MULTIPLE POSTS: "No, James Joyce is the James Joyce of obscenity and smut."

PREACH IT.

And no, that's not just because of his filthy letters to Nora Barnacle. Have y'all ever read Finnegans Wake?! We're talking about a 600-page book that averages at least twenty sex puns per page.

(Although for the record I think my absolute favorite thing about Joyce's letters to Nora Barnacle is that the smuttiness was never one-sided. Nora's side of the correspondence is probably lost forever, but we know from reading Joyce's letters that at least on one occasion she wrote him detailed instructions as to how he was to masturbate himself while reading her letter. And he followed her instructions faithfully. OMGtheirloveissoscatological.)

Clearly this is an excuse to post some Ewan McGregor as James Joyce:

REPRESENT.

ASDFGHJKL;ASDFGHJKL;

More coherent post coming later. But some initial reactions:

1. FUCK YEAH.

2. The cover says "Grant Morrison's 18 Days." Mukesh Singh's name is nowhere on the cover. Yeah, uh, I'm just going to come out and say this: Among the small target audience actually interested in this book, I don't think that any of us are buying it because of Grant Morrison's involvement. Mukesh Singh's artwork is the real selling point on this book and I wish that Liquid had capitalized more on that.

3. Oh my god, the actual screenplay part of the book is kind of deliciously terrible.

4. In the very back of the book there is some written commentary by Mukesh Singh about some of the paintings. It's very telling Singh's few short paragraphs of writing are much more insightful, interesting, and true to the Mahabharata than all of Grant Morrison's 100 pages of brain droppings combined. For example, Singh describing a painting of Krishna: "Krishna is not Rama. He wears his godliness on his sleeve yet is more of an idea man than an idealistic one."

5. Now that I have the entire book and can tell who all of the characters are, I'm completely in love with Singh's character designs. He has awesome designs for all of the Pandava brothers, and when he draws Karna with his armor off it is so tragically apparent that Karna is related to the Pandavas that it's heartbreaking. I will say, however, that I am not terribly fond of Singh's decision to give Krishna pointy ears and long white hair, because now he just looks like an elf.

Probably a longer post coming later.

Long overdue post is long overdue. It's time for another post full of pretty, pretty things!

( Behind the cut: Alice in Wonderland, Redjuice, Yotsuba, Bakemonogatari, Panty and Stocking, and Soul Eater. )

At Newsarama.

Oh thank God for that interview. At least Grant Morrison sounds like he knows what he's talking about this time.

Also, yaaaay cover reveal! Arjuna and Karna are front and center on the cover of the book.

Uh, wow. Arjuna has a lot of hair.