Embryo of Philosophy

My commentary on Count Cain continues. As usual, there will be spoilers for the entire series, up to the end of Godchild. All quotes are from the Viz version unless otherwise noted. I apologize for any typos. I can never manage to catch them all.

Volume One
Volume Two (part one)
Volume Two (part two)
Volume Three
Volume Four

( The Seal of the Red Ram, Part Two )

Volume one of Godchild coming... someday.

I originally started reading Black Butler (I'm not sure if fandom convention is to use the Japanese or English title) because the plot summary reminded me of Count Cain. Young, tortured Earls and the obsessively devoted butlers that serve them! However, while the plots have a somewhat similar feel, aside from superficialities, the characters are quite different. Ciel and Sebastian are definitely not Cain and Riff. However, that's really a good thing, as it allows me to enjoy Black Butler on its own terms.

I was initially confused about the time period. At first, I thought it was supposed to be the Victorian era, but then I saw cell phones, so I assumed present time. But, uh, no. It's the Victorian era, just... with cell phones. I'll admit, my mind kind of has to gloss over that one. Mostly, I don't care about anachronisms. You won't see me whining over the sorry excuse for period dress in Count Cain. (Kaori Yuki wanted to draw Gothic Lolita, so she did. Good for her.) Nor do I pitch a fit over the tomatoes and potatoes that show up in Merlin. However, cell phones are a little much for me. But the story's fun, and I like the characters, so oh well.

I really want to see further into Ciel and Sebastian's deeply twisted relationship. How does the power really balance out? How does Sebastian truly feel for Ciel? Inquiring minds want to know.

I also, uh, sort of ship them in a dirty, guilty way. (Ciel is twelve.) But the manga encourages me! There's a scene where the reader is intentionally lead to believe that Ciel and Sebastian are having sex. As it turns out, Sebastian is simply shoving Ciel into a corset. (...That doesn't make it seem any less dirty, does it? It makes sense in context, trust me.)

So, I liked the story and the characters, but I wasn't really hooked. But you know what? It just got really fucking awesome.

( Spoilers for up to chapter 33 )

Also, uh, wow. I am very dizzy. I think it's exhaustion. The weird thing is that I don't feel very tired. But, uh, yeah, to bed.

I really hope that this entry doesn't post itself three times.

More of my commentary on the Count Cain/Godchild manga. This time we'll be looking at volume four: The Seal of the Red Ram, Part One.

As usual, there will be spoilers for the entire series. All quotes are from the Viz version unless otherwise noted.

( The Seal of the Red Ram, Part One )

Title: Ghost, God, Man
Fandom: Count Cain/Godchild
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Incest
Word count: 743
Summary: Jezebel is just foolish enough to lie to himself, and just wise enough to know that he's lying.
A/N: Written for the Spring Kink prompt: "Alexis/Jizabel: punisher/nurturer games - He'll wrap you in his arms, tell you that you been a good boy / He'll rekindle all those dreams it took you a lifetime to destroy." Despite copious use of song lyrics in my header and lj cut, this is not in fact a song fic. Contains spoilers for Mark of the Red Ram.

( You're one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan... )

And I continue my commentary on the Count Cain/Godchild manga. This time it's The Cain Saga volume three: Kafka.

As usual, there will be spoiler for the entire series. All quotes are from the Viz version unless otherwise noted.

( Volume Three: Kafka )

Ok, here we go with the remaining stories in Count Cain volume two. (Once again, lots and lots of spoilers for the whole series.)

( The Sound of a Boy Hatching )

As you may or may not recall, I'm doing a volume by volume commentary on the Count Cain series. Today, we'll be looking at volume two of what Viz calls the "Cain Saga."

I'll be doing a something a little different this time. I've unearthed my Sakura Crisis scanlations, and I'll be comparing them with the Viz release. Unless noted, however, quotes will be from the Viz edition.

Warning: There will be spoilers for the entire series in these commentaries. Massive ones.

Man, I was originally going to do the whole volume, but this has gotten long ,and it's getting late, so this is just the first two chapters.

( Volume Two: The Sound of a Boy Hatching )

How about some fandom stuff? (If you don't care about politics or fandom... well then boy howdy, I don't what to tell you.)

I've been meaning to a big Count Cain/Godchild post, but I haven't gotten around to it. Well, instead of doing one big post, I'm going to go through the volumes one by one and note my reaction and thoughts.

It's probably kind of a wasted effort, seeing as how I think one person on my flist knows this manga, but oh well.

Oh, though I'll be doing the volumes one by one, there will be spoilers for the entire series. Seriously, I give away one of the biggest spoilers when talking about the second chapter of the first volume.

( Volume One: Forgotten Juliet )

I have gotten no sleep whatsoever. It's not my fault this time! I didn't do it on purpose! Ok, it is my fault for staying up until 6:30 am reading manga (all eight volumes of Godchild, provided by the most wonderful keelieinblack). But I tried to go to sleep after that, and I just can't. And I have work today.

So, I'm playing Phoenix Wright, having finally gotten the darn thing to work.

I'll have to make a coherent post on Godchild soon, but right now it has turned my brain to mush.

A couple of weeks back, I decided on a whim to get Count Cain volume two (released over here as Cain Saga volume 2). I wasn't crazy about the first volume, but I had hope that it would get better.

I read the story that shows how Cain and Riff met.

I was so hooked.

I recently went out and bought the rest, and it has taken some self control not to grab all of the Godchild volumes as well.

( Spoilers for The Cain Saga volumes (one through four part two/five) )

Today, I finally, finally got my hands on Saiyuki Reload volume eight. It was awesome, of course.

( Spoilers )

And now, for something completely different a meme.

Name a character from one of my fandoms, and I will tell you in at least 100 words what that character loves best about another character from the same fandom. You can name more than one character if you want. Give me something to do.

I've got to get back to writing. I'm all depressed and in a funk due to losing my notebook, but I have Spring Kink stories to write, and besides, I have ideas brewing in my head.

Yesterday the CU anime club had its end of semester marathon (we stop before finals week). We finished up Claymore and Trigun (which I brought, and for me for being halfway useful), and watched individual episodes of a lot of shows. I kind of slept through some, but the ones I saw were mostly good. I'm in love with Baccano! even though I had no clue what the hell was going on when I watched it. I also really liked Ray: The Animation. (Ninja nurses! A doctor with a peg leg and an eye patch who beats people up! Another doctor with X-ray vision! This show is awesome.) I'm downloading both of those while I type. I also liked Wolf and Spice. Wagaya no Oinari-sama won me over my having an ancient character who can shape shift, and can't remember if s/he was originally a man or woman. S/he explains that as you get older, you forget these things. For a long time I've had a "Squadron of Useless Superheroes" in my head. The basic idea is that it's a bunch of people with super powers, but these super powers all happen to be pretty much worthless, such as the girl who can inject anything with caffeine. Nice if you want to stay up late, but not much good otherwise. One of the characters can change zir gender. As it turns out, all documentation such as a birth certificate ended up destroyed (not part of a villain conspiracy or anything--just bad luck), so said character doesn't remember if ze was originally male or female. Said character doesn't particularly care, either. Anyway, my point (and I do have one) is that it was amusing to see the same idea in an actual work of fiction.

Speaking of anime, can anyone recommend me some shoujo-ai/yuri/girls' love/whatever featuring adult women? Aside from Eriko Tadeno's Works (which is excellent, and everyone should pick it up), all I can think of features teenagers, usually school girls. I think I know why there's so much of that kind, but it still frustrates me. You don't have this problem with yaoi. Not that I read yaoi. Most of it is either stupid or offensive, so I prefer shoujo manga with homoerotic elements.

Shoujo-ai that I'm currently watching/reading include Tetragrammaton Labyrinth, which has one 17 (or is it sixteen?) year old and one ancient immortal that looks twelve; Venus Versus Virus, which just had a male love interest show up; and Strawberry Panic, which is the most promising. the main problems are that I can't understand why everyone is so in love with Nagisa, the main character. She's not particularly interesting, intelligent, or beautiful. In fact, she falls firmly into the "incompetent but cute" shoujo trope, which annoys me at the best of times. Even Ahiru from the brilliant Princess Tutu (please don't judge it by the name) irritated me until her character expanded. Plus, in the manga at least (I've only read the first volume and seen the first anime episode) Shizuma and Nagisa's relationship is starting to take on scary possessive vibes. (No, forbidding the person you love to be friendly with anyone else isn't romantic. It's abusive. I'm hoping that Shizuma gets over it.)

All that being said, I am enjoying the manga and looking forward to getting my hands on the second volume, and I'm willing to keep going on the anime. The two plots seem pretty different. In the anime, Shizuma is less a womanizer than she is depressed and listless. I can't decide whether anime Nagisa's tendency to faint, or at least come close to fainting, whenever Shizuma is about to kiss her is amusing or annoying though.

I have lots of homework!

So, over spring break, I had this plan to write a drabble a day. The plan utterly, completely, and in all other ways, totally failed. But I did get two drabbles out of it.


Title: From One Who Truly Loves You
Fandom: Yami no Matsuei
Pairing: Eileen/Tsubaki
Spoilers: King of Swords Arc

( Eileen creeps into the doctor's room, silent as death... )


Title: Dangerous
Fandom: Yami no Matsuei
Threesome: Ukyou/Muraki/Oriya
Author's Notes: Written for drabble_a_trois.

( Ukyou knows that the men she loves are dangerous... )

And a meme!

a. Post a list of 10 fandoms.
b. Have your friends list guess your favorite character from each one.
c. When guessed, bold the line, include the character name, and write a sentence about why you like that character

1. Revolutionary Girl Utena
2. Yami no Matsuei
3. Saiyuki
4. Firefly
5. Angel Sanctuary
6. Fullmetal Alchemist
7. Sailor Moon
8. Loveless
9. Gravitation (Manga)
10. GetBackers

(For some of these, I have more than one favorite. That makes it easier to win!)

EDIT: Because it made me giggle.