What's really bizarre about this week's xkcd?

I just went to tvtropes this evening. Five tabs, one webcomic and counting.

gacked from lalita_b :

In your opinion, which is the anime/manga you know that...

( There's Blood In The Gutter )

So, you know Yankee-kun To Menage-chan? In which the badass tough guy

a.) is totally at the whim of the female lead

b.) desperately wants to impress said female lead

and is

c.) regularly out-badassed by female lead (yeah, that's right, she rescues him)

That manga? Is published in Shonen Jump, the home of such lovely gender!fail examples of shonen as Naruto and Bleach.

Do you think it's there to just satisfy the feminists? (It's published in Japan, trust me, it's not.) No, it's published because clearly, the target audience (all those adolescent boys who are supposed to read it, all the adolescent girls who actually do) likes Yankee-kun To Menage-chan.

I swear, the next time someone pulls that lame ass 'shonen is made for boys, it MUST be sexist by default' crap, I'm going to shove the first volume down their throat.

(This lovely fact and rant has been brought to you by onerottenpeach . She provided the facts, I provided the 'suck it, motherfuckers!' attitude.)

ETA: Okay, never mind, apparently I got the magazine's mixed up. Megane-chan airs in a different shonene manga magazine.

Midnight showing of Watchmen.

So fucking good.

Better than the book, imho.

Need To Finish:

Soul Eater (catch up on the anime, read the manga)
Last Exile (watch a few more episodes and decide if it goes on the abandoned pile).
Hana Yori Dango
Supernatural
Gilmore Girls Season One
Claymore
Blood +

Start/Try:

Skip Beat
Black Lagoon
Fruits Basket
D-Gray Man
Xxxholic
X/1990 (psst, enderxenocide , can you hook me up with the first volume?)

Abandoned:

Black Cat
Bleach
Blade Of The Immortal
FMA (I keep hearing how good it is, yet I got bored and stopped right after the Ishbal flashbacks.)

(Bonus points: all of the above series where dropped for the exact. same. reason.)

I feel like there were more series I'd dropped.

Need to reread:

Fall of the Ile-Rien
The Lioness Quartet
Sabriel

Also, if you've recced something  and I said "interesting" and it's not on any lists or are wondering about something, et cetera, feel free to comment. Or comment just because. You know me and how much I hate talking will all you annoying people on my flist.*

*this is a joke, fyi.

Secret #103

Fucking word.

(Not about Molly, though, because I actually like her, and she's refreshingly non-angsty for that crowd. And also the only one who doesn't have some crazy romance thing going on.)

Okay, I have no desire to finish this series, like, ever.
( spoilers )

So, I'm currently down in south, visiting pzb (who had no idea I was coming) for her birthday.

It's great - it's actually summer down here, although I'm pissed because apparently back home there is fantastic rainstorms and thundershowers going on.

I hate how the weather gets interesting as soon as I leave.

I took the train down, which was nice - I didn't have to be awake, so it didn't matter that I had about three hours of sleep the night before, and I got to catch up on writing, reading, and watch some naruto episodes.


But before watching Naruto, I read volumes 5 and 6 of Runaways:


And then I moved on to Death Note, which... Well, you know how when you've been traveling for six hours already, it's kind of good that you're reading something you don't like, because that way you're not ruining anything you actually really like by reading it when you're hot and tired and hungry?

So, I was in the Rhody Parade today, which was a lot of fun. The theme was 'happily ever after' so I curled my hair and had wings and a tiara (I forgot the sparkles, though). It was great - I got a lot of compliments on my dress, which is this gorgeous burgandy vintage 1940s dress. I totally feel like a starlet when I wear it.

It was amazing how many people cheered when the library float went by - our public library has the highest circulation per capita in Washington State, despite how the funding keeps getting cut. (Because our library is just that awesome.)

It was weird - I haven't seen or been in the parade in about three years, and it was amazing to see how few kids where diving for the candy we were throwing. When I was young, if candy was thrown, you scrambled for it.

My mother noticed that the parade was much shorter than it used to be - it used to last a full two hours, but this time it was only one (which I appreciated - it was hot, and by the time we were done, I was so ready to cool off.)

Before and after the parade, me and hireadd hung out talking about manga and fandom, and she hooked me up with the last couple volumes of Death Note (I'd like to finish that one just so I can cross it off my list), the latest volumes of Godchild, and the first six volumes of Naruto.

So I spent most of the afternoon on the couch reading and answering emails.

Speaking of, I owe hireadd some links:

Unhealthy Relationships and Sakura and Gaara being cute together.

Preliminary thoughts on Naruto 1-4:

gacked from penknife:

The Hypothetical AU Meme: Take any one of the fandoms you know I write AND give me a type of AU (space opera AU, pirate AU, superhero AU, What-If-X-Happened etc.). I will then explain what story from that fandom I would write for that AU.

Also, what volume is it that Samurai Deeper Kyo supposedly gets goods? Because right now I'm enjoying it, but I want Bounty Hunter Girl to freaking do something and rather dislike non-Demon Eyes Kyo.

Nowhere Girl by Justine Shaw

Great look a young women's coming-out. I admire this for the way they use color - this is actually a pretty comic, which I really appreciate, and I adore how despite how emo and angst and mopey this girl is, she has some decent reasons, and when she gets the chance to change her life, she grabs it with both hands.

Spiders by Patrick Farely.

I can't tell if this is horrifying or hopeful - it looks at what war in the Middle East would look like if America played to it's strengths i.e. telecommunications. Additionally, can't help but love the gun-toting, burqa-clad female rebels and the black leader of an all-female commando squad is awesome.

Can someone tell me what fandom #59 and #62 in secret post 423 is from? (I think it's the same fandom.)

And also, re: 66 - Hell, yes.

Plus # 15 references "Understanding Comics"

ETA: secret post #420: #49, broke my heart, and I don't even ship Gojyo x Hakkai. But I don't think anyone is too broken to have that relationship. (Come, oh, those two characters are like humpty-dumpty with five gallons of superglue each.)

I think I have a new ship.

Okay, twice in recent memory I'm come across discussion of which is a superheroe's "real self" - the superhero identity or the alter ego. And while it's interesting to play with the the differences between how someone behaves in 'real life' versus 'crime fighting' I find it problematic that so many people seem to assume that it's some kind of dichotomy - that one of those identities is the real one, and the other one is 'just' a mask.
Specifically, Bill of Kill Bill argues that Superman was and is always Superman, and that Clark Kent is the disguise, while someone else (in one of the posts regarding Entertainment Weekly horrific choices for awesome couples) posited that Batman is Batman, since he spent the formative years of his life training to be that person, and that Bruce Wayne is the mask he keeps around for appearances.

I've always believed that both the alter ego and the superhero identity are two sides of the same coin, and that trying to split them apart reduces the whole.

Your thoughts?

Does anyone else look at their old posts, where all the userpics and comments icons are your default because since then so many userpics have been shifted out and get depressed?

~~~

Black Hole, by Charles Burns, goes on the list of goddamned media that is only good if I were on an acid trip, and why the fuck am I wasting my time with it? Seriously, had it actually been written in the 1960s or 1970s I could forgive it, but now? I just want to smack the author and tell him to do is nostalgic, druggie drawing on his own time, and fyi characters, use a fucking condom. The end.

~~~
psst, enderxenocide, I was poking around on fandomsecrets, and 39 made me think of you. and I'd love it if someone could explain 63 and 37, I'd appreciate it.

[eta: I was talking about secret post 400, and secret 49 made me think of enderxendocide. Oops. That will teach me to post at midnight. *blushes*]

Whoo-Hoo!

I am finished with Watchmen!

From now on my life-long goal will be to never read anything else by Alan Moore ever!

And scrub this comic from the depths of my brain.