Gantz is crazy.

CRAZY. If I could only say one thing about this manga, it would be that the plot twists are excellent. The build-up to each twist is always great and it never feels contrived. Almost everything that happens seems plausible within the world of the story. There is one plot device that is sort of a cop-out for the mangaka, but they hang a lampshade on it pretty early on and in a way that criticizes the use of it. So even that plot device doesn't feel overly-convenient anymore.

I also like how the plot actually gets places within a reasonable amount of time. The main reason why I could never watch the entirety of a magical girl anime is because of their stringently episodic structure; it just gets too repetitive. Though Gantz is obviously not shoujo, considering how the story is divided into missions, it could have easily ended up being just as repetitive. But the mangaka is constantly throwing new elements into the plot to keep things fresh and interesting. I never found myself thinking when am I going to get to the good part of the series? Because the good part started right from chapter one.

My biggest complaint is the mangaka's obsession with drawing nude women! I'm fairly desensitized at this point, but even I think it's excessive! It's not so much the nudity that occurs in-story that bugs me so much as it is the chapter cover illustrations, which maybe 80% of the time feature a nude woman in some ultra-sexual pose. There are times when I see one of these cover illustrations and it actually takes me out of the story because of how random and hentai-esque they are.

Boys. =__=;;

As a side note, if you haven't done so already, please click on Heiwajima Shizuko, the first and likely last adoptable I will ever adopt! Even if the site is broken, maybe the click will go through anyway. *adamant* >_>;;

New layout.

Though I promise I'll bring back Gunji when the Togainu no Chi anime comes out. Whenever that is!

For those interested in ganking, here's the original image the banner was made from. Made it while listening to Airplanes on repeat. :P

Neglected to mention this in my last post, but I got a new retainer yesterday since I lost my old one several months ago. Unfortunately, my teeth have moved around since then, so I had to get a really hardcore retainer that covers the roof of my mouth. So I now have a lisp. A goddamn lisp!! It's not that bad, but still. A lithp. :(((

Also, I started reading Gantz just now. It is fucked up.

Things I only noticed the second time around.

(Some minor spoilers for the movie Brokeback Mountain below.)

Rewatched Brokeback Mountain yesterday. I first watched the movie when it came out in theatres, and though I did like it the first time, I appreciate the movie even more after this rewatch. The first time around, I think I was in shock in regards to how much the movie expanded upon the short story the movie is based off of. Literally about half the movie is either entirely fabricated or extracted from tiny, tiny implications in the original text. The best example of this is Jack's wife, who can hardly be called a character in the original story. The only description of her is when Ennis narrates, "No doubt about it, she was polite but the little voice was as cold as snow." That's it. And from that alone, the script writers created a fleshed-out character with maybe fifteen minutes of screen time, a character that stayed true to the description of being "cold as snow" while giving those words a lot more depth and explanation.

Rewatching this movie also helped me better appreciate the subtleties of the script and the acting in certain scenes. One thing that I missed the first time around was a snatch of dialogue related to the implication that Jack was having an affair with the foreman (the husband of the chatty woman Jack danced with). During one conversation Jack had with Ennis, he mentioned having "something on the side with the foreman's wife." Because of course, in Ennis's mind, it's perfectly okay for Jack to be doing whatever with whomever if it's with women. But with other men? That's a big no-no and Jack knew that without it being said.

Then there are all of the implications regarding Jack's wife, Lureen. As I mentioned previously, this is a character that was barely even mentioned in the short story, but man did the movie make her into a subtle, interesting character. Her last scene over the phone with Ennis is particularly notable. When Ennis states that Brokeback Mountain, a place so important to Jack, was where him and Jack herded sheep one summer, she pauses and begins tearing up. That alone is enough for the audience to infer that, at that moment, Lureen finally realized that there was indeed another person who Jack loved more than her, and that this Ennis person was it.

A lot of people criticize the movie for being "slow," but I ate up every minute of it. The characterization is so complex and so subtle, and great characterization is the biggest deciding factor in determining whether I like a story or not. There's so much depth and so much to catch if you really pay attention; it really does feel as if the characters were living, breathing people and that's something I hardly say in regards to movie characters.

Here's one of the few remaining links that contains the Brokeback Mountain short story in its entirety, below the pictures of Jake Gyllenhaal. :P

Screw you too, Sony USA.

So there's a good chance I'll be pre-ordering Birth By Sleep's PSP bundle pack. The Japanese got their own cool-as-hell version of the PSP (above) when BBS was released there, and so I NATURALLY ASSUMED that we'd be getting the same version.

But then I learned that Americans don't do that. There's a pretty high chance that BBS will follow suit and that we're just going to get some boring plain silver PSP instead of one with crowns and hearts and all that other cool shit on it. I mean, seriously? Why the HELL can't they just give us an actual limited edition PSP?? Can't it at least have the Kingdom Hearts logo on it somewhere?? THEY COULD STICK SOME ART OF SEA SALT ICE CREAM ON THE BACK. I DON'T CARE! Hell, even a picture of Mickey Mouse giving me the finger will do! I'LL TAKE ANYTHING AT THIS POINT. JUST DON'T GIVE ME PLAIN SILVER, SONY! Or I swear I'll go terrorist on your asses.

Here's an exceedingly short trailer. Xehanort's voice is hilarious. xD

Question for people who are watching Durarara!!

If Izaya was asked, "What is the most important thing in your life?", how do you think he would respond? Assume that he would answer truthfully. Serious responses, please. :3