April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers

Novels/prose books:
Bierce, Ambrose: Fantastic Fables
(hmm. Lots to be said. Aesop's Fables, as written by a sophisticated late 19th century cynic; cynicism palls really, really fast. It's interesting, but at least from my perspective, not entertaining).


Romance:
Heyer, Georgette: The Talisman Ring
(I liked it! As I generally do with Heyer. She's very good, you know).

Sutherland, Peg: Queen of the Dixie Drive-In
(When telophase shipped this to me lo those many months ago, I meant to do an in-depth snarky review of it in lieu of payment. But I never got around to it, and then school happened. I think it was mostly okay? The prose didn't send me screaming and it wasn't hugely misogynistic or anything).


YA:
Jones, Diana Wynne:
The Game (way too short, but a good read. Loved the bit with the pork chop, and also how well the reveal worked with the prior characterizations; Jones always does that kind of thing well. There's a little part of me that keeps waiting for her to do some kind of truly pan-mythic story, but maybe that's not fair, especially at this point; she's a basically Western Civ gal, and I know that. And she does pretty good stuff with Greco-Roman/Western European/British Isles mythology; it's not as if she's stagnated with it).
The Spellcoats (reread),
Conrad's Fate (reread),
House of Many Ways (reread),
--totally meant to go on in more detail about all these rereads, but, as I said, school happened.


Light novels:
Ono Fuyumi:
The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow
(I wanted to love this, and Yoko, as much as bookelfe did, but I didn't. I felt better about that after I went back and reread her post on it, and her comments about why she identified so strongly with Yoko--identifying with a character is always YMMV, and I'm not that person. But I totally get the bit about it subverting fantasy tropes. It's fascinating for that, and the more I go back and look at it, the more I like the structure and plot. The prose of the translation is unimpressive, but the story is good).

The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Wind
(awww baby kirin. And, while reading this book, I found myself suddenly hugely in love with the entire universe--reading the second book made me love the first more, and made me desperately want more of the entire world, and all the characters. I begin to get used to Ono's mind, and I like it).


Graphic novels:
Foglio, Phil and Kaja: Girl Genius book four: Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus of Dreams (holds up well on a reread).

Warren, Adam: Empowered vol. 5 (awwwwww fuckity.
But I'm relieved. I expected to cry a hell of a lot more than I did. I am simply grateful that I didn't cry more than I did. I think this series will eventually rip my beating heart from my chest and set it on fire, because that's what Adam Warren does to your heart. And you then say, "thank you sir, may I have another? Because I adore your clever writing, even though you obviously want to hurt me.")


Manga:

Akino Matsuri:
Genju no Seiza vols. 6-7 (was that another PSOH ref with the kirin? Say it's so, Akino!).
Petshop of Horrors: Tokyo vol. 5

Mori Kaoru: Emma vols. 8-9 (oh shit the Meredith bedroom scene was so hot! There is no sex, although there is sexiness, but the intimacy--emotional and physical--is so pure and tangible I kept having to put the book down and go oof).

Ninomiya Tomoko: Nodame Cantabile vols. 15-16.

Otsuka Eiji, writer, Yamazaki Housui, artist: Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service vol. 9

Takaya Natsuki: Fruits Basket vol. 22

Umino Chica: Honey & Clover vol. 4.

Urasawa Naoki: Pluto vol. 5 (and here I'd just boasted to my LCS guy that I knew everything that was gonna happen because I didn't see Urasawa deviating from the basic structure of the plot as outlined in Tezuka's The Greatest Robot on Earth. So far, he hasn't, but this is fucking Urasawa, man. He's a master of suspense. He will surprise you, and he will make you hang. And he'll do it well. It's why he's awesome and we love him.

Urasawa Naoki: 20th Century Boys vol. 4

Watanabe Taeko;
Kaze Hikaru vol. 11

I'm really going to need to see this: a live action version of Tezuka's MW, starring my adored, the talented and charismatic Hiroshi Tamaki (aka, the swoonworthy Chiaki from the live-action Nodame Cantabile. Hiroshi charmed equally with sex appeal and by his willingness to make the most ridiculous and undignified faces known to man when his character goofed around with the titular Nodame, played by the equally charming Ueno Juri). I think it very likely that Hiroshi will be just as deliciously watchable as a charming, murderous sociopath as he was as a grumpy conducting student haunted by an uncouth piano student. And he'll be wearing sexy glasses and a nice suit! It's Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow all over again, folks--I'm a lost cause.

Which reminds me, one of these days, I need to get my hands on the Nodame Cantabile live action DVDs, preferably with English subtitles and in a format my DVD player can handle. That series was incomparably fun, and good enough to rewatch.

Finished:

Sola:

It ain't AIR. Not much is. But at least it was coherent, and unlike Kanon, it was short. Bonus: Mai Nakahara and Ai Shimizu, alive and together at last. Girly bonding is what they do best.

Nodame Cantabile:

T'was good. T'was fun. The undoing of this anime was that it lacked Tamaki Hiroshi and Juri Ueno and had the misfortune to be made after the live action drama, which owns my heart forevermore. The saving grace was that it played the entire first movement of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto, liek, omg whoa. Chiaki's so hot. But live action Tamaki Hiroshi's Chiaki was hotter, and that's all there is to it.


Dropped:

Bokurano: The op theme is awesome, the manga art that the look is based on is great, and ever since Fantastic Children, I've been deeply in love with Junko Minagawa's voice. Nevertheless, the nicest thing you can say about the aesthetic of Bokurano is that it's pedophiliac, the worst thing you can say about the aesthetic is that manga-ka Kitoh might be a pedophile with a rape complex, and I don't think I want anything to do with him. Dropped this like a hot potato when a would-be rapist was leveled against a teacher who distributes internet videos of his sexual liason with a middle-school student. Rape v.s. statutory rape? I can't contain my excitement. And now, I go to bathe the stink from my skin.


Still watching:

Kamichama Karin: Sure, it's got way more cute than plot. But I'll take tiny blonde chibis and Mai Nakahara yelling, "I AM GOD" over pedophilia and rape-as-love any day.

Lucky Star: The amazing thing about Lucky Star is that I'm not watching it solely for the Lucky Channel segments at the end. Sometimes, I get through almost the entire episode without remembering Lucky Channel. Nevertheless, whenever I get to the end, I remember that no matter how cute and Azumanga Daioh-esque Lucky Star is, it's all for naught without Lucky Channel's snarky satiric endcap.

Maria-sama ga Miteru season 3: I love this as I imagine I might love my own children someday. Need I explain? Well, just in case I do: Maria-sama ga Miteru came out during one of the worst years of my life, it's one of my few genuinely good memories from that period. It also has a very attractive sort of grey/pastel color palette, and muted lesbian overtones. It's all very tasteful, all very pseudo-Catholic, and in OVA 3, Sachiko is able to identify, at a distance, Yumi as dressed in a giant panda suit. It's quite romantic. If you don't believe me, watch it yourself.


Picked up:

Terra E:

omwtfbbq manga. Manga is beautiful. Manga is lovely. I love the manga. I am watching this because I can't bear to just put the manga on the shelf without some kind of farewell, and because Takemiya's stunningly beautiful portraits overlaid onto a sea of stars deserve to be animated in a thousand color palette. I pray this will not be fucked up. Bonus: Sanae Kobayashi (aka Akira from Hikaru no Go, and Akira from Mai-HiME) as Physis. Dude.