Kris' Ramblings

Ahhh... Last week was a good one in fangirl land.

First, last week's Inuyasha manga chapter (465, "Light") was amazing. Sad, sniffle-inducing and amazing. I was expecting it to happen. Just not so soon, with so many things still left to tie up. But, Takahashi certainly hasn't lost her touch. She even managed to swing me back around to being sympathetic toward a character who had mostly lost my sympathy over the last year or two's worth of manga. And... well, it was a beautiful chapter. And, it made me do fanart. That I'm still working on. But, here's a portion of it. Maybe it will speak better than I can as to how the chapter got to me. --Potential spoiler but nothing obvious.

( One Cut Spoiler )

And then, on Thursday, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Great movie. I can't, like seekersks, say that it was the best movie I've seen all year... since it was the only movie I've seen all year. In the theater anyways. But, it was wholly entertaining, never slow or dull like so many reviews have claimed and easy to understand even though I only saw the first movie once the year it came out. And, I just couldn't resist leaning over to Seek in the middle of the last big fight sequence (on land, with the water wheel and all) and asking, "Hey, I thought we weren't watching "One Piece" tonight?"

Okay, just one more piece of fangirlish prattle and I'm off: Yesterday, ryokometal_75 sent me a link to a video of the Inuyasha live action play. It's in three parts (you have to view the poster's listing to find the other two parts), not subtitled and not complete, but it's still fun to watch. I was pleasantly surprised. And, contrary to what I had heard, it's not a musical. Unless the random rock music that starts blaring during fight scenes constitutes "musical". It is entertaining though. Live Action!Miroku is a little disturbing, but Kagome seems to have him under control with a few well-placed slaps and a kick or two. Live Action!Inuyasha's wig doesn't quite convince me, but his acting is perfect. I didn't realize how much I missed the surly(er) Inuyasha from the early days when his "I don't care" attitude wasn't quite so transparent. (Not that I don't love the person he's evolved into as well.) I especially love how he sits on the sidelines and munches on Kagome's potato chips (or some similar snack) as she and Miroku fight for their lives.

Edit - 8/24/06: The video link no longer works as it has been removed from YouTube for the time being. However, here's a newer link. Sadly, presented in a sped-up form to avoid copyright flagging, but I find that slowing the playback speed to 0.5 helps.

Mrr.. It's after 1:00 PM, and I'm still trying to wake up. Still recovering from last night, I think. First, seekersks came over for dinner and brought his DDR pad and insisted I play. (Fear the horror that is me trying to play DDR.) Then, we watched anime until midnight, mostly a new one (for me) Seek brought called Heat Guy J. Then, I got online and found a wonderful little Author Alert in my mailbox letting me know that one of my favorite authors, Vathara, had written a new fanfic... with Inuyasha involved this time! How could I not stay up to 3:00 AM reading and re-reading it? So, yeah.

And, now... The movie meme I snatched from ash_the_woof.

( Read more... )

Website Updates: Working away on the update for the SWAT Kats Fan Art Archive. I've been noticing a trend in a lot of the recent submissions by new artists. They keep asking, "Can I join your site?" Eh???? I thought the rules were pretty clear - "Have SWAT Kat art rated no higher than PG-13, and you're good to go." Or is this question the result of sites like the ones I see so often in the Inuyasha fandom where art and fanfiction archives are "invitation only" or where you have to pass a review of some kind to get in? Yipes, there's too few of us Katsfans around to be that kinda picky!

Happy Chatter: Things are looking much better this week. My grandmother is home from the hospital, I have a new bike so I can take a stab at getting some exercise (now on a bike with tires that aren't dry-rotted - it rides so smooth!) and I'm slowly chipping away at my e-mail backlog.

The Fangirl Squealing I Promised: Yes... Mwahahaaaa! But, I'll put my prattle on the fourth Inuyasha movie behind a cut for the sake of sparing those who could care less... and in case I utter any spoilers.

( Read more... )

Okay, now I believe I have some things I promised to read and beta for both ryokometal_75 and a_chan007. And, since I have nothing to do here at the office... ::slinks off to get to work::

Aiy, I think I'll probably be the last person I know (who is interested in it at all) to see Star Wars: Episode III. But, oh well. I hope to get to see it some time next week. In the meantime, I'll try not to drive Sage crazy with my Star Wars fixation.

And, at least last night I got to see two other awesome movies courtesy of Seeker, who brought them over.

First, Appleseed. Awesome movie. The computer animation was incredible... and I say that even though I'm not generally a fan of the look of computer animation used in animated movies (ie: where it's intended to look animated rather than the computer effects that live action films use). But, the cel-shaded characters helped... and looked quite nice most of the time. And, the storyline sucked me right in, so it was far from another "cool action/nice effects, don't study the plotline too closely" movie.

And, then the Naruto movie. I like the Naruto series, but wasn't sure what to think of the movie premise given most of the other movies I've seen based on anime series were kinda hit or miss. I was pleasantly surprised. The story was good - not blow you away good, but good. Easily, "I would enjoy seeing it again," good. And, after many episodes (except the most recent) featuring other characters in the series, it was nice that the movie truly was Naruto's movie... Well, nice for me as he's my favorite character in the series ;) So, yay!

Just saw "National Treasure" last night. Wow... Just wow. The movie was awesome. I don't know what I can say about it without giving something crucial away, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were memorable (and quotable!) lines, good characters (I loved Riley), lots of action, suspense... It's one I'm already determined to buy as soon as it's out in stores. But, first, I have to kidnap Mom and take her to see it too.

Some favorite quotes (mostly geared toward people who have seen the movie):

::upon examining a stolen Declaration of Inpendence on the father of the star, Ben's, dining room table::
[Father] That looks like animal hide... How old is it?
[Ben] About 200 years...
[Father] Are you sure?
[Ben] Pretty darn.

::upon finding the treasure room... everyone gawks at its size and incredible contents, except one::
[Abigail] Riley, are you crying?
[Riley] ::eyes fixed on the long, rickety staircase leading out of the cavern they thought they'd be trapped in with the treasure:: Stairs..... ::tearfully:: (Now, there's a practical man.)

Hmm... And, since I forgot to mention it the other week, "The Incredibles" was awesome too. I'm not sure what I was expecting there... something funny to be sure, but it was sooo much more.

And, with that... back to work.