Wednesday, Official Bleach Holiday
Feb. 26th, 2014 09:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseNew Bleach chapters come out on Wednesdays (when Kubo-sensei is not on hiatus, at any rate,) and so I've decided that, for the most part, I'm going to give into my fannish squee one day a week and mostly just spend the day being a fan.
Chapter 570 was good, in case you were wondering.
Rukia's bankai was revealed. Probably the most interesting part of that was how much her outfit looked like the personification of her zanpakutō in the Zanpakutō Rebellion arc, which was supposedly "filler." As predicted from the name we got in the previous chapter, it seems to be a kind of mist form that is instant death. For me, the humorous part of the chapter was that Byakuya, who'd supposedly left Rukia to fight on her own, clearly only stepped a few paces away and came back with an admonishment to thaw slowly. So... Byakuya. I'm proud of you, but you know, if you fuck up, I'm only just here. Be free little snow bird, but I'm just over here to catch you! Oh! and be careful!
Kubo managed to make me briefly sad for As Nodt, who is otherwise one of the creepiest, most dislikable characters he's created. Apparently, the hole Ywach filled for him was, no surprise, fear, but watching him die of it was still kind of sad.
Then we switched to Yachiru and Lieutenant Isane (as opposed to her sister of the same name, the Third Seat), who were gathering medical and other supplies by stealing them from the enemy. A new baddie "V" appeared and started taking them down. His(?) power seems to be to make his/her opponent forget they're fighting while remaining ninja-invisible. I told![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
empty_mirrors this morning that I figure Kenpachi Zaraki is going to show up to save the day, because he's never not thinking of a fight, so forgetting won't be a problem. He's kind of like the Hulk. ALWAYS mad (though in Ken-chan's case, always fighting.) She and I discussed that we'd really like to see the ladies kick a little butt first, but neither of us is particularly holding out hope (witness Hisagi's non-starter.) In particuar, I'd be interested to see a) Yachiru (2)'s kido power manifest more, and/or b) Isane's shikai in action. We saw her call it once, but Ichigo was in God Mode so he disarmed her with his bare hands.
So once again, the biggest strength of this chapter was making me look forward to the NEXT chapter.
Speaking of manga and chapters, last night, at work, I picked up Volume 5 of Ōoku: The Inner Chambers.naomikritzer bought volume one of this series for me as a Solstice/Christmas gift this last year because the premise sounds right up my alley (and it sort of is.) The manga is an alternate history where sometime during the Edo period, the men of Japan are all afflicted with a disease that wipes out a huge percentage of the male population. Women rise to power and men become, well, breeders, really. Many are sold off to brothels, etc. The main plot, however, revolves around the men in the "Inner Chamber," the shogun's own harem/concubines. So there is political intrigue and lots and lots of men being "debased" for the shogun's pleasure.
YET, despite that fabulous premise, this manga could be a lot hotter than it is, honestly. Despite the warning of "explicit content" there's only a little hint of m/m and most of the sex is a pan to the left and IMPLIED.
The other problem with the story, IMHO, is that there are a lot of time jumps. Like, right now, I'm not actually sure where I am in the timeline. It started when the female shogun was well established, but then jumped to tell a story of the first "Swain" (the concubine in charge of taking the Emperor's maidenhead and then falling on his sword) and then jumped again to tell of the rise of the first female shogun. I THINK we've been moving slowly back to the "now" from that second story-in-a-story, but I'm honestly not sure.
Unfortunately, this is a two part problem, one that falls squarely on my shoulders, and the other I will blame on the mangaka (a woman named Fumi Yoshinaga).
The problem that's mine is that Japanese names don't stick very quickly in my head. I have to be hammered with a Japanese name for several issues before I remember it (even when the characters are wildly different looking, like in Bleach--thank fate for the Bleach Wiki and the fact that Byakuya kept saying "Renji" over and over and people introduced themselves at each fight...) and... the second problem is that the mangaka seems to have one image in her head of "hot guy" and so the guys that catch the shogun's eye (even different shoguns) are all kind of the same TYPE. Worse, everyone is sporting the same hairstyle, purposely copying the Hot Guy. So, I've had a hell of a time figuring out if I'm following the first Hot Guy or a new Hot Guy.
BUT, despite this criticism, I'm still reading. I even picked up the last two volumes 6 & 7, with the thought that I'll see this through. The universe is interesting enough to keep me reading and the titillation is titillating. (I've got a good imagination, after all.)
Plus, as Naomi well knows, this sort of set-up is a big guilty pleasure of mine. I really enjoyed (far too much) Catherine Aasaro's LAST HAWK, because it's this same thing, only in that case the Hot Guy is a crash-landed fighter pilot captured and thrust into the harem of a matriarch on a matrilineal planet. Similarly, I pushed through Wen Spenser's A BROTHER'S PRICE because it was a future where there was another plague that affected only men, and... yada, yada harems and brothels full of desperate men. Similar-but-different, I really adored ABSOLUTE BOYFRIEND a six-volume shojo manga about a girl who mail-orders the perfect android boyfriend (from the future, but that's kind of a side story.)
Clearly, I love this set-up. It's like some kind of gender-swap Slave Girls of Gor and I'm really not sure what it says about me.... and I'm not sure I want to know.
Chapter 570 was good, in case you were wondering.
Rukia's bankai was revealed. Probably the most interesting part of that was how much her outfit looked like the personification of her zanpakutō in the Zanpakutō Rebellion arc, which was supposedly "filler." As predicted from the name we got in the previous chapter, it seems to be a kind of mist form that is instant death. For me, the humorous part of the chapter was that Byakuya, who'd supposedly left Rukia to fight on her own, clearly only stepped a few paces away and came back with an admonishment to thaw slowly. So... Byakuya. I'm proud of you, but you know, if you fuck up, I'm only just here. Be free little snow bird, but I'm just over here to catch you! Oh! and be careful!
Kubo managed to make me briefly sad for As Nodt, who is otherwise one of the creepiest, most dislikable characters he's created. Apparently, the hole Ywach filled for him was, no surprise, fear, but watching him die of it was still kind of sad.
Then we switched to Yachiru and Lieutenant Isane (as opposed to her sister of the same name, the Third Seat), who were gathering medical and other supplies by stealing them from the enemy. A new baddie "V" appeared and started taking them down. His(?) power seems to be to make his/her opponent forget they're fighting while remaining ninja-invisible. I told
empty_mirrors this morning that I figure Kenpachi Zaraki is going to show up to save the day, because he's never not thinking of a fight, so forgetting won't be a problem. He's kind of like the Hulk. ALWAYS mad (though in Ken-chan's case, always fighting.) She and I discussed that we'd really like to see the ladies kick a little butt first, but neither of us is particularly holding out hope (witness Hisagi's non-starter.) In particuar, I'd be interested to see a) Yachiru (2)'s kido power manifest more, and/or b) Isane's shikai in action. We saw her call it once, but Ichigo was in God Mode so he disarmed her with his bare hands.So once again, the biggest strength of this chapter was making me look forward to the NEXT chapter.
Speaking of manga and chapters, last night, at work, I picked up Volume 5 of Ōoku: The Inner Chambers.
naomikritzer bought volume one of this series for me as a Solstice/Christmas gift this last year because the premise sounds right up my alley (and it sort of is.) The manga is an alternate history where sometime during the Edo period, the men of Japan are all afflicted with a disease that wipes out a huge percentage of the male population. Women rise to power and men become, well, breeders, really. Many are sold off to brothels, etc. The main plot, however, revolves around the men in the "Inner Chamber," the shogun's own harem/concubines. So there is political intrigue and lots and lots of men being "debased" for the shogun's pleasure.YET, despite that fabulous premise, this manga could be a lot hotter than it is, honestly. Despite the warning of "explicit content" there's only a little hint of m/m and most of the sex is a pan to the left and IMPLIED.
The other problem with the story, IMHO, is that there are a lot of time jumps. Like, right now, I'm not actually sure where I am in the timeline. It started when the female shogun was well established, but then jumped to tell a story of the first "Swain" (the concubine in charge of taking the Emperor's maidenhead and then falling on his sword) and then jumped again to tell of the rise of the first female shogun. I THINK we've been moving slowly back to the "now" from that second story-in-a-story, but I'm honestly not sure.
Unfortunately, this is a two part problem, one that falls squarely on my shoulders, and the other I will blame on the mangaka (a woman named Fumi Yoshinaga).
The problem that's mine is that Japanese names don't stick very quickly in my head. I have to be hammered with a Japanese name for several issues before I remember it (even when the characters are wildly different looking, like in Bleach--thank fate for the Bleach Wiki and the fact that Byakuya kept saying "Renji" over and over and people introduced themselves at each fight...) and... the second problem is that the mangaka seems to have one image in her head of "hot guy" and so the guys that catch the shogun's eye (even different shoguns) are all kind of the same TYPE. Worse, everyone is sporting the same hairstyle, purposely copying the Hot Guy. So, I've had a hell of a time figuring out if I'm following the first Hot Guy or a new Hot Guy.
BUT, despite this criticism, I'm still reading. I even picked up the last two volumes 6 & 7, with the thought that I'll see this through. The universe is interesting enough to keep me reading and the titillation is titillating. (I've got a good imagination, after all.)
Plus, as Naomi well knows, this sort of set-up is a big guilty pleasure of mine. I really enjoyed (far too much) Catherine Aasaro's LAST HAWK, because it's this same thing, only in that case the Hot Guy is a crash-landed fighter pilot captured and thrust into the harem of a matriarch on a matrilineal planet. Similarly, I pushed through Wen Spenser's A BROTHER'S PRICE because it was a future where there was another plague that affected only men, and... yada, yada harems and brothels full of desperate men. Similar-but-different, I really adored ABSOLUTE BOYFRIEND a six-volume shojo manga about a girl who mail-orders the perfect android boyfriend (from the future, but that's kind of a side story.)
Clearly, I love this set-up. It's like some kind of gender-swap Slave Girls of Gor and I'm really not sure what it says about me.... and I'm not sure I want to know.