Kate Daniels (Ilona Andrews)

I've started reading the Kate Daniels series (Magic Bites, etc.) by Ilona Andrews and am now firmly ensconced in the third book Magic Strikes. This has quickly developed into an obsession. Finally: a strong female character who isn't fan service or pure romance heroine. Kate is a hard ass who can be a real bitch with a heart of gold. She's perfect, and damn entertaining.

I've always been a bit iffy on the urban fantasy genre because it always seemed so cheesy to me. I mean, look at Twilight. That represents all the traps, pitfalls, and cliches of urban fantasy. "A hot-mysterious-guy-with-a-big-secret-who-tries-to-be-all tough-but-has-a-soft side who falls hopelessly in love with our normal-but-slightly-special-gal-next-door? And his secret is of a slight supernatural tint and her slight specialness plays right into it? Oh em gee, they are sooo made for each other! Aren't they perfect? Squee, squee, shriek and squeal." I mean, who hasn't seen this trope before? They're just tarting it up with borrowed (or in this case, made from wholecloth) mythos. It's kinda like Neon Genesis Evangelion: a standard mecha with random Christian symbolism that tries to pass itself off as deep because there's something different being done here. Except not.

Anyway, the above rant was supposed to illustrate that urban fantasy makes me raise my eyebrow and turn my nose up some. But when it's done right it is some of the best literature I've laid hands and eyes on. Mike Carey is a really good example of this. He writes this really underappreciated book series about an exorcist named Felix Castor. Felix (or "Fix" as he's called by his friends) is this perpetual cynic who's just trying to eke out a decent existence admist all his screw-ups in an increasingly unstable world that is becoming overpopulated by the dead, whether it be their souls or their corpses. He's an exorcist by trade as it's what he knows how to do, and he kinda tries to do right in the world as long as it doesn't cost him too much. He's a genuinely good person who life beats up on constantly and a running gag is he's always physically damaged somehow in the books. (Read: getting the shit kicked out of him.) There is some really great world building (just like in the Ilona Andrews books) that really fleshes out the melding of modern era with fantasy ideas/tropes. It's fun and yet no one in the States reads it. It took two years to get book four here from Britain. It's not like people had to translate this stuff, so what the hell? Anyway, it's great literature like this that could really validate the genre and pull in more mainstream readers that gets passed over for tripe like Twilight. America? We need to talk. Now.

Whoa

Whoa, I haven't touched this in a while. Real life has sucked me dry on things to do in my free time. I hate pretending to be a responsible adult.

Good news: Dragon Age II is coming out soon. Bad news: it's not soon enough. Sometime in May.

Rockband 3 is now available along with the spiffy peripherals (keyboard, Pro Guitar, actual guitar, Pro Drums, etc) and currently screwing with my head. I can't wait for my friends and I to be done with the tour mode yet because being forced to play the "random" songs that keep popping up at the gig we're at is making my eye twitch out of my socket. I DON'T WANT TO SING SLIPKNOT. They suck. Harmonix is re-releasing previous songs with keyboard added to it--for money. Why would I want to pay again!? Thanks Harmonix, you just went from awesome to kinda retarded. If they had released twenty-to-thirty songs for free they'd have generated a ton of goodwill that they could've gotten away with murder next. Right now they just stand at "suck".

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow was good. Kind of a Prince of Persia 4 meets Devil May Cry love child but it worked its stuff well. Until that ending. I mean, it was a great ending but kind of WTF!?!

*sigh* I really want a game where the protagonist is female and a strong character and not just fanservice. Like a female version of the Prince from the Sands of Time trilogy. That'd be really fun and new. Down to earth, friendly, kind of a brat at times, but doing the best she can because she feels she ought to. Absolutely no one fits this description unless you count the female versions of the Bioware RPG heros. Frankly it's a little disturbing to think on that.

I'm tired and need sleep. Will try to update more thoroughly in the near future. And yes, I realize I never reviewed Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for you guys (it's on DVD this week). Sorry.

Dragon Age 2

For fans of Bioware, Dragon Age, RPGs, or any combination thereof, there is the new CGI trailer just released by Bioware for Dragon Age 2.

Have a link for viewing pleasure.

Some of what I know: You're not a Grey Warden. You play as Hawke, a human who is either male or female. The story follows you throughout your life (i.e. decades) in Fereldan, starting with the end of the Blight in the last game. You have a conversation wheel a la Mass Effect, and the art style will be stylized. The fangirl in me is totally squealing like piglet on crack. Or something. That's about all I know for right now. Feel free to comment and tell me how wrong or insane I am.

Review Soon

I'll be reviewing the Scott Pilgrim movie soon. Haven't had time to do it since because of real life, but that'll change soon. It will be full of spoilers for the graphic novels and the movie, though, so fairly warned be ye, says I. Yargh.

Also got Toradora! volume 1 so I'll be posting about that soon as well. Please look forward to it!

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World opens today! I pre-ordered the soundtrack on iTunes and got the bonus music video of Clash at the Demonhead (Metric) "Black Sheep". The soundtrack rules, by the way. Beck is Sex Bob-Omb, Metric is Clash at the Demonhead, and I have no idea who does Crash and the Boys but they're really great. Anyway, it's a really fun soundtrack. I also really want to go see it tonight, but have to wait for tomorrow to go see with friends.

Go see it!

Daria Boxset

Hey, there's a great deal at Best Buy for the MTV series Daria on box set. It's five seasons, two movies, and extras all for fifty bucks. It came out a few months ago, but I totally forgot until I saw it three weeks ago and had to buy it. And yes, it's still as funny as I remembered, possibly even more so now that I'm out of high school. It's actually aged pretty well which I was surprised about. Don't be scared when you realize there's less music, though. They couldn't afford to license the songs so they replaced it with generic background music. The theme still rocks, though. *nods*

Also, MTV is bringing back Beavis and Butthead. Unnecessary? Why yes, it is.

Ouran Chapter 81!

Oh my God! For those who are fans of the Ouran High School Host Club a translation for chapter 81 was just posted on One Manga...unfortunately the site will be going down shortly. After years of storing scanalations they decided to to adhere to the publishers' wishes and will be taking down the site. Boo! Also chapter 81 isn't the last chapter, either.

Anyway, for those who don't want to be spoiled quit reading....here.

Spoilers

OH MY GOD! Haruhi and Tamaki admitted their love for each other! And it was hilarious! Perfect, perfect, perfect. Haruhi admits it when a plane flies overhead so Tamaki can't hear her, but he guesses correctly and tries to get her to confess again and then tries to confess himself by saying "Me too!" making it sound like he loves himself like in Haruhi's dream. That was a major run-on I just typed. Then he tries to plan their first date! It's so cute I couldn't help laughing. And the kissing. There's kissing! Soooooooooooooooo cute, I squealed. Can't wait for the translated manga. Anyone know if this is going to be onmibussed?

New Ranma?

Okay, it's not actually new. Shounen Jump had it's 50th anniversary in 2008 and to celebrate Takahashi Rumiko made some OVAs of her most popular series' that had debuted in the magazine. These were for Urusei Yatsura, InuYasha, and my favorite: Ranma 1/2. There was a cute little intro and then the episodes themselves. I don't know if anyone got to see them, but Angela Jewell created a decent sub (though not always correct) to go for the Ranma one and posted it on YouTube. You can find part one here with links to two and three on the same page. The story is one of my favorites from the manga with the Incense of Terror. ^_^ It's really neat to see Ranma 1/2 animated really well with the computer coloring. It just pops from the screen! It also makes me wish they'd do more OVAs, or animate the last arc from the manga...*sigh* Hope you enjoy it if you haven't already seen it!

Marvel Anime?

Yesterday at San Diego Comic Con Jeph Loeb announced on G4 the arrival of Marvel anime (exclusive to G4, of course). Not sure how to feel about this. It's produced by Mad House, so there's a credible animation studio behind it. The fact they made four series at once makes me wince though because it means that in terms of quality vs. quantity quality always takes the crucial hits.

Don't believe me? Here's some trailers:

Marvel at Logan's mullet for the Wolverine trailer.

Thrill as Tony Stark controls the skies in the Iron Man trailer.

I don't remember what the the other two series were and I couldn't find trailers. Feel free to comment and tell me what they are.

Anyway, it's an idea that has taken root in my brain and forced me to like it. I'm a huge fan of the Animatrix and Gotham Knight works, so of course I'm willing to give this a chance. There is a difference between a collection of short animated features and an entire series, though. Jury is still out until more is available.

And Who Could Forget...

Forgot to mention: Portal 2! Oh my Lord, does it look amazing. I didn't think that they could pull it off. I thought after the end of the first one that there could be nothing to top it, but Valve seems to want to prove me wrong. The new gameplay mechanics look amazing, and the humor is completely unchanged. This is a recipe for greatness.

For those who missed it here's part one of the demo from E3. Enjoy! ^_^

Girls and Fantasy: A Rant on How I Really Don't Understand the Twilight Saga

Everyone and their dog has ranted on the whole Twilight saga either for or against. I'm adding my unasked-for comments here.

Sooooooooooo, yeah. Being a huge nerd and all, I love fantasy works. And being a female on top of that I adore when romance is combined in a favorable way. Fantastic Romance is one of my favorite sub genres, and if done correctly it can be outstanding. Epic love stories with correct staging is great. It probably evokes that whole dynamic that my obssession with The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet has going for it: love is more powerful than the other ties that bind us. It's just another layer added on top of that. When you have immortal creatures and mere mortals falling in love the conflicts that evolve are all the more poignant. Different species works well too (human/alien, mermaid/human, etc.). So I can understand why Twilight seems appealing to women of all ages, but upon reading/watching any of it I don't understand why other people are so sucked into this crap.

First things first: I haven't read any of the books. I have tried, though. Numerous people have recommended them to me as a lover of vampire lore/fantasy/fiction/super natural, etc. So I tried. I read excerpts and almost the whole first chapter before I gave myself a headache from rolling my eyes so hard and too often. So while I'm not talking from having read the source material in question, I did see the first film (which I'll get into later) and read the entire summary on Wikipedia and related links. The eye rolling still persisted upon reading the summary for the entire series. Maybe it's a condition I need looked at?

Okay, so series creator Stephanie Meyer got the idea in a dream. That's cool, actually. Her subconscious mind came up with a scene and she ran with it. Kudos to her. Where she fails utterly is in her lack of research on any vampire/werewolf lore (which she's proud of), her lack of character development and her prose. The two main characters are in love because the vampire thinks she smells delicious. Not because he thinks that she's smart, or pretty, or insightful, or interesting in any way, but because her blood smells super-yummy to him. That's it. This is what their attraction is based on. He's pretty and she smells tasty. And you know what? It never really develops beyond that. Bella likes Edward because he's into her. That's pretty much it. Oh, and he's broody, or something. Girls like the broody boys, right? It's an unwritten rule somewhere, I'm sure.

The same conflict happens over and over again in the story which is this: Edward is attracted to Bella, Bella is attracted to Edward, Edward says they can't be together, Bella gets depressed, someone tries to kill Bella (or she tries to kill herself), Edward comes back, they end up together. That's the central conflict in all the stories. The both of them cock block themselves for arbitrary reasons and somehow death is involved. Oh, and somewhere in there is Jacob and his love-at-first-sight for an infant, which is a whole can of pedophilia that I really don't want to touch right now.

During the first movie Tony and I couldn't help but repeatedly make fun of what was going on. For half an hour in the film NOTHING HAPPENS. I'm assuming this is based on the book where Bella is whining about how boring and normal her life is with her estranged father. The following quotes ensued:

• Tony: There's something strange about that Edward Cullen fellow but I can't quite put my finger on it...
• Jill: "Hey Bella. I came over here to tell you to stay away from me. I'll see you later, okay? Oh, and you look hot in that shirt."
• Tony: Hey, don't you think there's something going on with that Edward kid? I think there's something there. I'm sure of it.
• Jill: Wow, poor Bella. Having her face paralyzed at such an early age that all she can do is look pensive...she's actually really happy right now, but we can't tell because of the paralysis. It's just so sad!
• Tony: No sweetie, it's not paralysis. See the sawdust?
• Jill: Because she's wooden?
• Tony: *nods*

Also my favorite scene, the vampire baseball scene:

• Tony: I get that the thunder masks the bat cracking sound, but wouldn't the bat break?
• Jill: Nope. It's a vampire bat.

(Yes, I made that awful pun. It was so awful it has become legendary.)

What I truly object to besides the flat, one-dimensional characters and simple plot is the portrayal of the supernatural. Vampires rule because they are a substantial mix of demigod and demon. Vampires are immortal. Vampires have to hurt humans to feed (and possibly kill them). There are always some kind of super powers involved on top of that. Not needing to breathe means that vampires don't need breath to run or move quickly, and thus super speed is born. Some vampires are really strong. Some can fly, some can hypnotize their prey, some have serious upgrades in their sensory equipment (better vision, hearing, what-have-you), etc. This makes vampires superior to humans in that they have better hardware and longer life spans. This would lead to a different morality system for vampires than that of humans. Humans become food, or at best, a pet. Living for centuries would ensure that a vampire would see humans come and go and eventually begin to stop caring about humans as individuals. Ennui would then settle in. For a human to stand out to a vampire would require one hell of a personality. Something which would appeal to dual nature of a vampire: their forgotten human side and their demonic creature-of-the-night-I -am-a-superior-being side. That's why the human/vampire relationship can work. It's the duality of the nature of the vampire and which side the human inspires more. Also what the vampire inspires in the human, but that's to a lesser extent.

This is why I don't understand how Twilight is so popular. Bella is more boring than dry toast. Edward is a goody-two shoes who sparkles. There's no real conflict. Nothing. Why do people care? Did Stephanie Meyer sell her soul to the devil? And if so, why didn't she write about that!? That's a great story! A take on Faust...hmmmm...a modern day Faust...now that has potential...

Avatar update

So apparently Nickelodeon announced a new Avatar series at Comicon today. Not sure how I feel about that. If the same amount of writing/thought/time goes into this one than I'm all for it. One of the things I loved about Avatar: The Last Airbender was the character development. Not only were the characters cool and relateable, but they went through actual development arcs that contributed to the plot of the story. It was really great writing/acting. Of course none of this was expressed in the live action film, apparently. *sigh*

The new series is supposed to focus on the new Avatar after Aang. I hope it's a girl!

Actually not dead...Really...

So, yeah. I kinda gave up on this blog 'cause I got busy at work and then I thought no one would miss me ranting on random stuff on the Internet, but then I was told I was wrong! (Also that's a huge run-on sentence I just typed.) Apparently someone actually missed my blog. Color me surprised.

So, lots of news I totally haven't updated on. Quick rundown on what's currently taking up my free time as of right now:

• Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. After swearing I was done after that godawful movie Conqueror of Shambala (honestly, Nazi!Hughes?) Tony managed to pique my interest in what I thought was an unnecessary remake by telling me it was actually following the manga this time and then proceeded to spoil the manga for me because I thought I was done with it. Anyways, it's totally awesome and Arakawa is a friggin' genius, and anyone who thought they were done with the Elric brothers should give it another chance. Also the dub is pretty sweet if you hate subs. There's more I can fangirl on this, but I'll have to do it later as I really need to get to bed soon.
• Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour or just the whole Scott Pilgrim series in general. The last (sixth) book finally came out and the wait was totally worth it. This comic series is a genius blend of real life ennui, geekdom and video game obsession rolled into a truly hilarious ball of fun and craziness. Honestly, if you like parody, comics, hilarity, video games, love, music, etc. this is for you. Check it out. Also, bonus movie directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) coming out in August that I'm really looking forward to.
• Ouran High School Host Club is almost done in manga form! It's wrapping up pretty fast, so I think there's only one (at most two) chapters left. Those who love Haruhi and Tamaki will squeal like crazy.
• Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins had hijacked my life. I'm replaying the former for the bizillionth time as I finally broke down and paid for DLC. I had to download Kasumi when I saw part of her loyalty mission on YouTube. Worth it. I love her. Also, for the record Bioware officially owns my soul. When I saw The Old Republic trailer I was hyperventilating until I remembered it's an MMORPG and I hate playing with others because they ruin my fantasy/happy place/escapism. MAKE KOTORIII DAMMIT!!
• Inception was brilliant. If you haven't seen it, close down your browser window and head to your nearest theater to see it right now. It's so refreshing to see a competent, well-made movie with real actors and practical effects and solid writing. Also great directing.
• Still haven't played new PoP. Also wishing they hadn't abandoned the Elika/Nolan North one. I loved that one, really wanted to see where they were taking that. Though the combat sucked, they could've fixed it easy. Why did Ubisoft listen to the twelve irritating fanboys of the last franchise and abondon the new one!? IT WAS GOING PLACES! There were characters I friggin' cared about! GAAAAAAAAAAAH . (Also dragged poor Tony to see that stupid movie. Words can't describe how much fail that movie had. But also shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal, so I can forgive some of it.)
• Kick Ass was great. Loved every moment, even if it was different than the comics. Sometimes you need to stray from the source material because of the medium it's currently in.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll sit down for real in the very near future to torture all two of you who read this thing with my incessant fangirl squeals about something previously mentioned or something I haven't had the chance to gush on yet. So...fear me?

Oh! True Blood! Totally awesome. Really the only thing I'm watching consistently on TV right now. They are totally making shit up, but I don't care because it is amazing. Mostly. Sick of Sam's deadbeat family and Jason's obsession with Crystal. To be fair, I hate Jason and Crystal in the books too.