What have you been watching/reading/playing lately?

[sinnatious]

I was going to make some sort of post about all the rl stuff going on, and will still make that post, but this is not that post.

Instead, I want to talk about manga and anime and video games!

I've been catching up somewhat on my anime and manga. Finally watched Attack on Titan!  It was excellent, to no great surprise given how many people had recommended it to me. Ahhh, but now I'm stuck between waiting for a second season of the anime or catching up with the manga!

Also kinda of detoured on my way there to watching Skip Beat! and reading that manga.  Attack on Titan being good was no shock, but I was genuinely surprised by how good Skip Beat was! Or maybe there'd been a massive deficiency of shoujo in my fiction diet. In any case, it took the most stereotypical of eye-rolling fantasy-fulfilling pop idol shoujo tropes and turned it completely on its head. Kyoko is such a great protagonist, although admittedly in the later volumes of the manga they pushed the wilful naivete factor a little too hard... even if they have justified it quite well in Kyoko's vehement, self-preserving denial.  And perhaps it resonates a little with me too because people so vastly underestimate the motivational power of spite.  :D

In any case, though it has a slightly slow start, once it gets rolling - awesome. All of the acting arcs are surprisingly kick-ass and for all the occasional silliness it has some great depth to it. The greatest thing about it, though, is that I can think of no other manga that better exemplifies the adage that 'the very best revenge is living well'. I kind of want more fanfic of it, this WIP stole my heart because high school reunions.

Also read all that's available of xXxholic Rei. Yes, there is more xXxholic! I was surprised too! I was even more surprised when I started reading it and it appeared to be a massive ret-con of the entire ending of xXxholic.  I can't figure out what's going on! Are these just side stories taking place earlier in the timeline? Yet even that doesn't seem to match up very well, since Doumeki has the egg yet they haven't swapped eyes by now. And there is the occasional panel, the occasional hint that something isn't quite right... is this all some massive delusion that Watanuki is trapped in? A part of me wants to be angry about it but I trust that CLAMP had something cool planned so will bide my time. If it is just more standalones, I'm okay with that too, since xXxholic's standalones were awesome. I should probably also get around to finishing reading Tsubasa Chronicles sometime to get the full story on that end.

ALSO, ALSO, KAGEROU DAYS. Oh man, I heard about the manga and anime for this, and have been following Jin's Kagerou Project (You may be familiar with this song) on and off for a while now, but went on a bender earlier this week when I discovered that Jin had been busy and there were a bunch of new songs! It's all so very cryptic but deliciously tragic, especially once you start putting together all the puzzle pieces. Can't wait for the anime, but here's the manga for anyone interested and a playlist of the subbed songs.

That's about it for anime/manga... as for video games, have settled nicely into Animal Crossing, though I have since also acquired Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers and Fire Emblem: Awakening so it's likely only a matter of weeks before the balance tilts into abandoning it in an new game's favour. Seriously though that game is like Tamagotchi meets the Sims, I get wracked with inexplicable guilt whenever I fail to tend to the town properly. Finally filled up my HHA Showcase though, some of the houses were really cool! Some are astoundingly thorough in their interior design, one neat house had set itself up like an arcade and a nightclub, another like a fully-realised Japanese onsen... then there was one house, completely paid off with full-sized rooms and modified exterior... entirely filled with cyclomattus stags. And nothing but cyclomattus stags. In Every. Single. Room.

If they wanted to creep visitors out, they succeeded.

So that's my pop-culture intake of late. Anyone else want to fangirl/discuss any of these things?!  I am tragically short of people to flail over some of this with lately.

Oh, yes!  One more thing. If you haven't seen it, everyone ought to go see Gravity.  It's a supremely well-made film, and if you're concerned about the horror based on the trailer, it's actually more of an action/suspense flick. It has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, do you know how crazy that is?! It needs to be seen on the big screen. A space movie that isn't sci-fi! Kessler Syndrome, guys, a totally real thing. Reminded me fondly of Planetes.

Comments

[thesundaywriter.livejournal.com]

Skip Beat is lots of fun, though I haven't read it for the past year I was really hooked to it when it first started~

Shingeki no Kyojin is good but does not really do it for me.

On the other hand I've been plesantly surprised by Free! I thought it was just going to be some shallow pretty boy otome game kind of series but it actually has decent characters and plot, and normally high school + slice of life together is a double negative for me! Another surprisingly entertaining on is Servant x Service, about a bunch of folks working in the health and welfare sector~

I also completed Karneval but was quite boring, only the visuals were shiny, and was rather disappointed as I read the first volume of the manga. I guess it wasn't translated over well.

Currently watching Mirage of Blaze and Psycho Pass =P

Lastly~ watch Chihayafuru~~ *forever plugging it everywhere~~*

[caterfree10.livejournal.com]

Catch up on the manga with usssssss. 'tis wonderful and possibly even MORE heartbreaking than the anime! 8D //brick'd

And I hadn't realized there was more xxxHolic, is it worth looking for it? I mean, I probably will at some point anyway because CLAMP fangirl, buuuuuut need to know priority order, hehe. x3

Then again, reading much of anything's been taking kind of a backseat since pokemon X and Y came out. I was even in the middle of a Fifth Act reread (new experience! reading on fanfiction app on my iPhone! //brick'd) and... have basically stumbled into my longest time for it, ahahaha. |D;;; goes back to love on her pokemon anyway

[killiara.livejournal.com]

Soul Hackers... I have the game, but it's a bit further down on my playlist. I want to finish Devil Survivor: Overclocked first, as it's by the same company and roughly in the same multiverse. And then Devil Survivor 2, SMT 4, I eventually need to go back and finish Strange Journey, Fire Emblem... oh yes and Persona 3 Portable... too much Atlus?

And I am right there with you on Animal Crossing.

Though what is currently eating my head is POKEMON X because oh my god I've seen pokemon from every generation, and I'm not even up to my second badge yet.

[peangallery.livejournal.com]

I remember reading Skip Beat up until the arc where Kyoto(?) was cosplaying as an American as Rei(?)'s sister, so they can be in-character for the movie, then I stopped. How far is the story now?

Though game-wise I just bought Guild Wars 2 last Sunday, it's a really neat MMO, though I suck at it. And I kind of knew I would suck at it when I bought it, but couldn't resist after watching this YouTube video about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax-_06Acj8Y

[dokuganria.livejournal.com]

Did you actually enjoy the Titans thing? So many people have, seriously, what did I miss? I couldn't get into it no matter what I tried - and I swear I tried. Hard. Kept forcing myself to watch until the uneven pace and the over-drama I couldn't bring myself to care about and the overloaded characters became too much for me.

...I think that was around episode eleven? Hahah.

I've had Skip beat on the backburner for a while - ever since I mistook it for Sket dance. Good to know it's worth watching =D

[tenshinoakuma.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed Titans! I find the anime to be more enjoyable than the manga (which only updates once a month). There were a few tweaks in the anime vs the manga but I think the tweaks improved the pacing quite a lot. I just want to flail a lot about Attack on Titan but the problem is figuring out where to start.

Seconding the swimming anime Free! recommendation. I went into it fully expecting lots and lots of fanservice, but it's actually a pretty good anime and makes me want to go swimming again. A couple of things make me go facepalm but it's otherwise a really enjoyable anime, and helped me through a hard time. It's after about the first three episodes that it really starts buckling down on plot, though it still has its ridiculous moments. I think it's best to watch it when you want something silly and cheerful otherwise you won't enjoy it (kind of like how, if you wanted to watch something upbeat, it would be hard to enjoy Attack on Titan).

I think there was mention of Psycho Pass? I did a quick review of it when I finished, but tl;dr, it's a pretty good anime in terms of animation, concept, plot, and characterisation (for certain characters), but because of certain triggering (for me) content, I found parts of it hard to stomach. If you can stomach content along the likes of uhhh NCIS or Criminal Minds (though I don't know if you watch these), then I would recommend Psycho Pass.

[ratzels.livejournal.com]

I have been completely and utterly sucked into the weird and wonderful world that is Welcome to Night Vale (http://commonplacebooks.com/welcome-to-night-vale/). (Transcripts available here (http://cecilspeaks.tumblr.com/tagged/wtnv-transcript/chrono), among other places.) It's funny because it's true. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=061MpC5q1NM)

I did have the chance to finally play Journey the other day, though, so that's awesome and I now fully appreciate your cosplay. XD

[ladyazurith.livejournal.com]

I've been kind of interested in Attack on Titan mostly because I see it *everywhere* I don't have much time to get into new things though. Especially right at the moment as my three year old decided to jump down the stairs and break her foot :).

The only thing new I've been doing is reading the Cold Fire Trilogy, and I would recommend it even though I'm only half way through it. Its a great read if you haven't done so already.

[swifty-chan.livejournal.com]

I used to watch SnK, but the pacing seemed to have gotten so slow that I stopped somewhere in the middle of the female Titan's appearance. >.>'' Considering that the season has ended, I guess I can just marathon it now~

Oh yes, Skip Beat! is awesome!

Huh, didn't know there's more xxxHolic. Might give it a try. I quite like that manga, but it became so... so... angsty. D:'

I FEEL YOU ABOUT ANIMAL CROSSING. If you don't want your flowers to wither and die, you could easy set up the Beautiful town ordinance. You won't have to water the plants! I have friends who usually come onto ACNL for about 15 minutes to check on their villagers and make sure none of them are moving before switching to other games. Oh yeah, wacky house designs. I once saw a house with Pokemon design... Though the main theme of the house is the rival Hugh from Pokemon BW2. One room actually contains 3 beds side-by-side with Hugh's sprite on it, and the wallpaper is also nothing but Hugh. It was kinda freaky. o_o'

FE:A is a good game. You won't disappoint~ *eagers to come up with FE:A prompts during Christmas prompts*

Soul Hackers is pretty decent, though I stopped halfway for ACNL and SMT4. I highly recommend SMT4 if you haven't got it already, but I also recommend finishing Soul Hackers before coz it'd be really hard going back to the game after SMT4. 'xD


I've recently completed Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies. The final case culprit is pretty unexpected, and of all the final cases in PW series, never have I felt FEARFUL when it was revealed. Especially when a certain person delivered that Wham Line on the person's identity. ZOMG! Dx

Been playing Pokemon Y, but this has slowed due to my assignments. I'm surprised, though. I was worried the game would changed too drastically, and that it would be so darn hard to move and adjust camera angle, but nope! It's just like any old Pokemon game, the camera view is pretty much fixed and will auto-adjust at some areas. The Pokemon battle animations are amazing, and Pokemon Amie is probably every Pokemon fans' dream come true. XD

Anime-wise, I've been watching Log Horizon. Everyone's been saying how it looks like SAO or .hack due to the premise, but the story is more than that. After all, what sort of anime would have the hero play tactician/support role? XDD It also seems to focus more on the guild politics and socioeconomics side of the game. I read the light novel and it has great potential! I highly recommend it~

Uh. Sorry for the long read. I guess I needed to fangirl too, wahaha... /o/