Chihayafuru

I haven't mentioned this before, because I am aware that I already seem like such a dork that I probably shouldn't push the envelope, but I like anime. Granted, I'm no diehard fan, but my freshman year of college was spent watching quite a number of anime. Ouran High School Host Club, Fruits Basket, Itazura na Kiss, Junjou Romantica, Inuyasha, Kimi ni Todoke, Zero no Tsukaima, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Loveless, Shugo Chara, Gakuen Alice, Card Captor Sakura, Skip Beat, Clannad, Vampire Knight, La Corda D'oro, Kaichou Wa Maid Sama, Full Moon wo Sagashite, and Full Metal Panic. That's a lot of anime to watch in a year at college.

In case you couldn't tell by that list, I'm kind of into the girly animes. I know they have a technical name (shoujou, maybe?) but I just call them girly. Even Inuyasha was too battle-y for me and I ended up fast-forwarding through the fighting parts and mainly just watching anything with Kouga in it. I would classify Chihayafuru as a girly anime, so if that's not your thing then steer clear.

Without giving away any spoilers, Chiahayafuru is the story of three childhood friends who grew up and grew apart, and are now trying to find their way. What brought them together was a card game called karuta, and that is what will hopefully reunite them. The protagonist and character who is mainly pushing for the reunion is Chiahaya, whose love for karuta has remained even while her friends have moved on to other hobbies.

NOW There Are Spoilers

Okay, there are several things I really liked about Chihayafuru. First of all, I never imagined that watching a show about a card game could be so intense! The creators do a really good job of making sure you understand how the game is played so you can follow along in suspense rather than be confused about the rules. They really got me invested in who was going to win and what mistakes Chihaya was making and how she could improve and omygodpleaseletherwin

The players' movement is a big part of what makes the show so suspenseful. The objective of karuta is to listen to the first part of a poem being read, and to touch the second part on the board in front of you before your opponent does. That is obviously a very simplified version, but you get the gist. The players move with sharp, sweeping motions that utilize their whole bodies, which helps to make karuta much more interesting than if they were playing, say, rummy, which would get old around episode 2.

The show made me want to learn how to play karuta, which is saying something. Of course, I won't. I have no time to play, no money to buy cards, and no friends to play with. That is discounting the biggest obstacle: I wouldn't understand the japanese poems.

Another aspect of Chihayafuru that I really enjoyed was the art. I am unable to watch an anime, no matter how good the plot may be, if I don't like it visually. It just doesn't work for me. Chiahayfuru was beautiful. The characters were very detailed--I especially noticed that Chihaya is drawn with lips. Isn't that kind of unusual for an anime? Maybe not but it felt unusual. Or maybe unique would be a better word. Taichi was my favorite character visually because, well...you know. I got the inappropriate feelings towards an animated character. Just look at him!

Who wouldn't get squiggles in their stomach after looking at that?

The characters were another thing I really enjoyed about the plot. They were all likable, but had flaws that were realistic and are each dealing with their own personal struggles within the major karuta-reauniting conflict. Chihaya is too oblivious to anything other than karuta (including Taichi's feelings, damn her) and has to deal with the unfair amount of attention which is placed on her sister. Taichi is pressured by his family to be perfect, a little spoiled and used to getting things his own way, and has to deal with his feelings for Arata both as a rival for Chihaya's love and as a friend. Arata's grandfather tragically passed away while Arata was playing a karuta tournament, plunging him into depression and guilt. And that's only the main characters! All in all, I would say that they are very well-developed.

My only real complaint would be that there is a lot of recap in the show before you move on to the new plot devices. Which is fine, you can always use a refresher on how the characters are doing in their matches, but it does get a little annoying sometimes. Just sayin'.

But what I like most about Chihayafuru is that there is going to be a season two! 

Hey, that just rhymed! 

Don't judge me.

Brave

I'm so happy that I got to see Brave this weekend! I usually am nannying and babysitting so I get to have an excuse to see all the new Disney movies (the four-year-old was so confused about why I was balling in Toy Story 3) but since I'm in Virginia with grown ups for the summer I was worried I would have no one to go with. Fortunately, I went to visit a friend of mine who goes to the Naval Academy this weekend and roped him into seeing it with me. He was a pretty good sport about it.

Be Warned, there are SPOILERS!!

Brave tells the story of Merida, a Scottish princess who isn't ready for the marriage and strict rules that being a princess entails. She would rather roam free on adventures and settle down when she finds true love. This creates a rift between Merida and her mother, the queen. Fueled by anger, Merida searches for a way to change her mother (interestingly she doesn't even consider changing herself) so that she can live the life she wants. Merida follows the Will-O'-the-Wisps (blue floating light fairy things) to an old witch who gives her a cake that will change Merida's mother and thus her fate. Merida gives her mother the cake only to find that rather than making her change her mind about marriage, it turns the queen into a bear! Merida and her mother have two days to reverse the spell by "mending the bond" before the queen will be a bear forever!

First of all, let me just say that I didn't get any of that from the trailer. From the trailers I thought Merida was going to have to fight off a huge bear to prove her bravery or something. There wasn't even a hint of the whole mom-turns-into-an-animal plot. That isn't to say I didn't like it, but it did take me by surprise.

What I enjoyed most about Brave is how different it is from what Disney and Pixar normally do. There is no romance to speak of. Merida has no prince or true love's kiss. While the idea of a princess wanting to break free isn't new *cough*Jasmine*cough* the fact that there is no marriage or kiss or hero to speak of is definitely unique. The part of me that loves Happily-Ever-Afters was sad that Merida didn't get her prince, but having a heroine who is strong and brave enough not to need a prince is a happily ever after in its own way. 

Another difference was the distinct lack of animal-sidekick in Brave. Sure, the horse (Angus--brilliant name) was present, but he wasn't nearly as influential a character as, say, Maximus in Tangled. Brave is also Pixar's first female protagonist and their first fairy-tale, which I thought was interesting.

This movie was HILARIOUS! I cracked up throughout the whole thing, but especially right when the queen is turned into a bear. Normally human-in-animal-body comedy doesn't work for me, but for some reason watching the bear mime these prissy, feminine actions really tickled my funny bone. The triplets were also great--three little red-headed devils who can get away with anything.

As for the music, the only thing I can really say is that I don't remember it. True to a Pixar film, this isn't a musical-style movie, so all the music just kind of stayed in the background for me. My friend who saw it with me assured me the music was kick-ass though. I'll have to pay better attention next time I see it--and yes, there will be a next time.

The animation was, of course, lovely. Pixar and Disney are like a Super Team--they make magic. Incredible magic. I fell in love with Merida's hair. I watched the Tangled commentary on the DVD (because, you know, I'm a dork who has no life) where they mentioned that hair was one of the hardest things to animate. You can see why this would be a challenge for Tangled. I feel like in Brave Disney and Pixar were taking everything they'd learned about hair and showing it off--in a good way. Merida's hair was lifelike and vibrant as hell and simply beautiful.

Overall, if you haven't seen Brave yet, go kidnap a four-year-old and watch it RIGHT NOW!

The Lost Gate

I was at a library book sale when I happened upon this book. I'd read Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game and the sequel Speaker for the Dead last year and loved them both, so I decided to give this one a try. Hey, it's only a dollar, right?

Don't pay more than a dollar for this. Maybe it's just because I loved Ender's Game so much, but The Lost Gate did not meet my expectations. 

Fair warning, this review has SPOILERS

The book is about Danny North, a thirteen-year-old boy who is--you guessed it--different, special, unique. He is a member of the North family, one of several families on Earth that originated from a magical-alien-god race from another planet called Westil. Long ago, the people of Westil came through gates (kind of like portals) created by the rare gatemages and frolicked among us. You probably know them better as every god you've ever heard of, such as Zeus etc. 

The idea of the gods of long ago still being around today isn't exactly unique nowadays. Off the top of my head I can think of American Gods by Neil Gaiman (which blows this shit out of the water) and the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan. In fact, the whole book is very un-unique if you ask me. The beginning especially reminded me of a YA book called Graceling by Kristen Cashore. In that book there are also people who have special powers or talents, made distinguishable by the fact that they have different colored eyes. The protagonist of the book is thought to have a killing Grace and is despised (much like Danny is despised for being drekka) but in the end it turns out she had a survival Grace, which is a supremely awesome thing. Read The Lost Gate and you will find very similar ideas.

Anyway, as long as the magical-alien-gods in The Lost Gate had a way back to Westil, they remained powerful. But a gatemage, Loki, mysteriously closed off all the gates leading back to Westil, stranding everyone and weakening their powers over time. Ever since then, the families have promised to kill any gatemages they come across to prevent further disaster.

Danny is a smart, precocious, and seemingly useless boy. He is the only son of the two leaders of the North family, but rather than being a great mage like his parents, he isn't even able to make a clant. (You are probably wondering what a clant is. To answer your question, as far as I can tell it is a golem. If you are wondering what a golem is, you should google it.) Everyone looks down on him because they assume he is a drekka (someone without mage capabilities), but oh-so-conveniently forget that one of the signs of a gatemage is that they are unable to produce a clant. They also show a great affinity for languages (which Danny has demonstrated by showing off in school) and like to play pranks (again, Danny has made this obvious). So I don't really understand why it comes as such a surprise that Danny is a gatemage, but whatevs.

Anyway, Danny flees, and the book basically tells the story of how he comes to learn about and control his gatemagery while on the run from his apparently brutal family. He meets friends and enemies, but mostly friends. Actually, one of my main problems with the book is the marked lack of trouble for Danny. Sure, he keeps thinking about the constant threat of his family finding and killing him, but they never do. Not even close. Years pass and he has no encounters with his family. Plenty of other people find him, sure, but they miraculously don't want to kill him. They followed him to help him. I think my English teacher would call this a lack of stakes.

The book as a whole feels rushed. The layout is odd, in that we pass so much time with Danny, actual time, like years, that aren't covered in scene in the book. Maybe it's just me, but because so much of Danny's life was in summary, I didn't get to see him interact enough with people. Or at least I wanted more interactions, because that's where I really learn about the characters. Instead we just get a sentence like: "Danny trained with the Silverman's for three years without getting anywhere." And then the Silverman duo go from contemplating whether or not to kill him to getting teary-eyed when he calls them "mom" and "dad." That was just one example of where the passage of time was too much of a leap for me. Was that a pun? Almost, right? hahaha I'm so punny.

I didn't much care for the protagonist, Danny North/Silverman/Stone. Most of the time his jokes and smart-mouth came off as obnoxious (which Card does point out, so I guess I can't really blame him for) instead of funny. Like that kid in the back of the class you is always cracking jokes when you just want to punch him so he'll shut up and let the teacher talk already. I would say he is funny about 20% of the time. But when I did find him funny, I cracked up, man. Lemme tell ya. My favorite line in the book was probably:

"I don't want to go to high school for the classes, I want to go to high school because that's where they keep the girls."

In fact, the whole concept of Danny wanting to go to high school was one of the most interesting aspects of the book for me, and I wish it was explored more. It could have taken up its own book in this series, rather than all the awkward time jumps happening--but whatever. I found it especially charming that Danny prepared for high school by ready YA fantasy lit. I did not like how Danny handled high school. He promises himself he is going to keep his head down and just get a normal, high school experience, and then creates a gate his very first day that heals people's acne and bullshit like that. Not exactly subtle, Dan.

I admire and enjoy reading about uber-intelligent and analytical characters, such as Andrew "Ender" Wiggen and Lisbeth Salander. But Danny's intelligence combined with his sense of superiority and obnoxious sense of humor that often ignored people's feelings was the opposite of endearing.

This was so frustrating because I know that Card can write. Ender's Game was fantastic, and the protagonist, Ender, was a precocious, intelligent, analytical child just like Danny, except he was actually likeable. I don't know here Card went wrong with this one, because I know he can do better.

The ending is a great example of how Card could have done better. In the last chapter, after Danny has managed to create a Great Gate and defeat the Gate Thief, there is a reunion between Danny and the North family, where we see his parents for the first time. I think Card should have left this encounter to a later book. Well, what he really should have done is introduce us to the parents before Danny ran away so we can actually form an unbiased opinion of them and see how dangerous they are instead of just hearing it secondhand. Then he should have given us a confrontation earlier in the book where Danny had to escape from the North family scouts that finally caught up with him, and the final encounter should have been saved for a sequel.

I think one of the main problems that doesn't work for the book is how powerful Danny is. He has this superpower so that if he ever needs to escape someone he just pops somewhere else and locks the gate so nobody can follow. He has a natural affinity for languages so he can understand ancient texts and speak to everybody in their native tongue. He can heal himself every time he goes through a gate. He is extraordinarily intelligent. And, for some unexplained reason, he is the most powerful gatemage ever heard of. He can create so many more gates than normal people, and without breaking a sweat. Why is he so powerful when the magical-alien-god race is supposed to be weakening? Who knows.

The Lost Gate was also predictable. I guessed that the Greek Girl (Hermia) was good and powerful from the moment we saw her. I guessed who Wad was. All in all, not many surprises to be had.

I would not recommend this book. If I find the sequel at another booksale for a dollar, I'll probably buy it, but not before trying to haggle the price down to 50 cents.

Harry Potter vs Twilight

My roommate Whitney is reading Harry Potter for the first time. I know! I don't know how she's lasted this long either. She apparently read the first chapter of the first book in 7th grade and decided she hated it. Grrr.

This has actually been a point of contention between the two of us for a while now. I normally love Whitney, but when it comes to books I want to strangle her. Seriously. If we judged the human race on their taste in literature, killing everyone with bad taste, Whitney would (unfortunately) be one of the first ones to go. She loves Nicholas Sparks....yeah. And has never read anything outside of the YA novel genre except for school. But what really got my goat was how she kept saying that Twilight is better than Harry Potter! She literally said:

"Okay, so Harry Potter might be better written, but you have to admit that Twilight's plot is sooo much better!"

I think I actually screamed. I haven't let her live it down. She's recently started seeing a boy (they're in the 'talking' phase if that means anything to you) who is a Harry Potter fan. We were all together talking about Whitney anecdotes, which, because she has no verbal filter, there are quite a few of. I brought up the aforementioned Harry Potter quote. The boyfriend was appropriately disgusted, and NOW she's promised to read the books. Nevermind that I've been asking her to read them for years, but whatever.

What all this Harry Potter/Twilight business made me think of is the Great Debate of which one is the best. It's been around since the original Twilight came out and is still plaguing the YA book world today. But I would say that this is a question wrongly asked. If you asked me which series I prefer, which I think gives a better message, which has better writing, I would answer Harry Potter hands down. But at the same time, are these books even in the same category? Are they even comparable? Or is it more like apples and oranges? Both books, but otherwise completely different? To get my thoughts out there, here is what I think about the Harry Potter vs. Twilight Debate!

The way I'm going to do this is by focusing on Twilight, what I think is good about it, what is bad, and what is ambiguous, and then how Harry Potter compares in each of these categories. 

Twilight: The Good

• Appealing/Phenomena:

• Even if you hate it, you've probably still read all the books. There's just something about them--don't ask me what--that draws you in. I hated myself he whole time I read Breaking Dawn. With every page I turned I muttered 'Why the hell am I reading this? I hate myself, I hate myself, I hate myself' but I still kept reading and I finished it in less than a day. As awful as they are, the sheer enormity of the (mostly female) fanbase speaks for itself. There is something appealing about these books that is undeniable.
• And as much as we don't want it to be, Twilight is a phenomena. It is one of the things that will mark our generation and go down in histories of pop culture. It's huge.
• I would say that Harry Potter is just as appealing, but in different ways. This is where we get into the 'a question wrongly asked' side of the argument. These books are aimed at different audiences, were written for different purposes, to get across different messages, they're completely different. But, if you do want to compare the two, I would say Harry Potter beats Twilight in both appealing and phenomena. 
• Harry Potter is appealing to a wider audience than Twilight. Because of the hot guys, the teenage girl narrator, and romance in Twilight, it is appealing mostly to women. Harry Potter, on the other hand, is appealing to any age and gender.
• Harry Potter is also a bigger phenomena. There has been more fanfiction written about Harry Potter than Twilight, and Harry Potter has its own genre of music called wizardrock. They also have a theme park and an annual conference. Beat that, Twihards. Ahem.

Twilight: The Bad

• The Actors:

• Kristen Stewart. Ugh, right? I don't like that she has absolutely no expression on her face EVER and I just don't like her personality in general. Here is a photo comparing Kristen Stewart and Emma Watson's facial expressions:

I think this pretty much says it all.

• Robert Pattinson. He's my favorite actor of the bunch...but that's probably because he was in HP first. I do think his acting is the least painful.
• Taylor Lautner. HOT. I will admit that he is one sexy beast, but anyone who's seen Abduction would agree with me that he can't act worth a damn. He is literally just a pretty face--you know what? Not even a pretty face. A pretty chest. Pretty abs. Pretty arms. His acting is, IMO, the worst in the films.
• As you can probably already tell, I like Harry Potter's actors much better. They aren't the best actors in the world (except for Emma Watson--she is) but they're a heck of a lot better than Twilight. And I would rather marry Tom Felton over Taylor Lautner any day.

• The Characters:
• I hate the characters. Bella Swan is an awful female role model. There are so many kick-ass girls/women in literature, and then you have Bella Swan, a winy little bitch. She makes me physically angry. The main issue I have with her is that the book portray her as needing a man in her life, of being incapable of 'saving herself' as it were. The men aren't...bad. Edward and Jacob fulfill their purpose very nicely, which is to be two cardboard-esque characters that you can easily fall in love with. Alice is a fucking moron.
• The characters aren't well-developed, and that's that. Without a well-developed character, the story's bound to suck ass.
• Harry Potter has very well-developed characters that have strengths, weaknesses, hopes, dreams, character flaws, secrets, shames, etc. Even the background characters are done beautifully, showing how much effort J.K. Rowling put into the work. And her characters aren't just 'bad guys' and 'good guys', but are morally ambiguous just as people are in real life.
• Nobody Dies:
• Most people might not put the fact that nobody dies under the bad section, but I sure as hell do. Because there is (supposed to be) a gigantic battle at the end of the 4th book, and because there is fighting throughout the series, it would be more realistic if somebody from the good side died. Personally, I recommend Alice.
• J.K. Rowling isn't afraid to kill her darlings. *SPOILERS* Fred dies, Dobby dies, Dumbledore dies, Sirius dies, Remus dies, Tonks dies, Colin Creevey dies, Cedric dies, Harry kinda dies--there's lots of death *END SPOILERS* all this death makes the books seem more realistic, it makes us respect Rowling more, it adds actual suspense because you know that she isn't afraid of killing people you like, so no one is safe, and it just makes the books deeper, if that makes sense.
• The Movies:
• The movies suck. I saw Breaking Dawn (at midnight with Whitney, Jesus) and I have to say my favorite part was the wolf scene. It was ridiculous.
• I actually have quite a few issues with the Harry Potter movies, but they're better than Twilight's at any rate.
• The Message:
• Twilight is all about 'Will Edward and Bella get together? Will they kiss? Who will she choose? Are they going to have sex??' I don't like this.
• Harry Potter is also about love as well, but a much less physical love--there are many types, you realize. There is familial love, love between friends, love for humanity (i.e. charity and good will), unrequited love, and romantic love all within Harry Potter. Harry Potter is about standing up for what's right, having courage in all it's forms, and about the power of the underdog. Harry Potter is, quite simply, about magic...and Twilight's about sex.

Twilight: The Ambiguous

• The Writing: 

• The writing is one of the most criticized aspects of the Twilight Saga--and rightfully so. It is the author's job to make the characters believable and well-developed, the plot engaging, to get the overarching meaning across etc. And it is true that Stephanie Meyer fails to do a lot of this...but it's not all her fault. A lot of what is wrong with Twilight should have been fixed by an editor. That's what they're there for. For instance, in my earlier version of Twilight the word 'college' is spelled 'collage'...Seriously? An editor couldn't catch that? So yes, the writing isn't very good, but I mostly blame the editor. As a book-editor-wannabe myself, I want to find and punch Megan Tingley in the face.
• I found this, which is a great example of how Twilight should have been edited. Enjoy.
• I also wanted to put the writing in the ambiguous category because Twilight was Meyer's first book. She admittedly didn't improve (the books all went downhill, if you ask me. Breaking Dawn was a piece of shit), but she wasn't an author by trade when she submitted the manuscript. She had a story, a story that teenage girls and middle-aged women everywhere would fall in love with, and gave it a shot. The fact that an idea for a story came to her in a dream and she took the time and put in the effort to actually make a book about it and then get it published is really quite inspirational.
• No question, here. J.K. Rowling is a fantastic writer. I don't think I need to elaborate.

• The Plot:

• This is another one of those things most people would put under 'bad'. And they'd be right; the plot sucks. But let's take it a bit further and look one book at a time. 
• Twilight: As I've already mentioned, this one is the best of the worst. Edward and Bella meet, there is a bit of mystery and intrigue (or at least there would be if we didnt' know he was a vampire from reading the back cover already), there is a complication (James), real danger/suspense (or at least there would be if it weren't written in first person, so we know Bella lives), and a resolution (Bella lives!). It might not be the most intricate plot, but it's got something. Personally, I think the books should have stopped here. It was a good resolution and I didn't hate the characters with such a burning passion as I would grow to upon reading the others.
• New Moon: This book isn't as badly plotted as later books, but it isn't good either. The main effect of this book is that it shows us exactly how much of an effing pansy Bella is and how irrational and overdramatic Edward can be. Still, there is danger and a resolution, and the plot is pretty easy to follow.
• Eclipse: I'm going to be honest, I don't remember this book at all. But that probably says enough about the plot.
• Breaking Dawn: WORST book by far! I don't like the book all around, but my main pet peeve is the nonexistent battle scene at the end. The entire book they're hyping us up that the Volturi are coming and they've got to get prepared to protect Renesmee and blah blah blah. But then...nothing happens. Some random half-vampire who we've never seen before  swoops in and the Volturi's all 'Ohhh, okay, there's two of them? Well, shoot, that's fine then! We'll just head on home--look for our Christmas card!' I mean, what is that? There is so much that is wrong with this book that it needs a blog post of its own, but just suffice to say that the plot sucks.
• So now that I've spent all that time bashing the plot, why did I put it in the ambiguous column? I put it here because as much as the plot sucks, the story still draws us in. That's gotta count for something. As much as it pains me.
• Do we even need to do this? Harry Potter has a beautifully crafted and intricate plot that Twilight can only dream of comparing to.

• The Fans:
• I judge Twilight fans a little bit. They are in the ambiguous column because I automatically think they're stupid for being a Twilight fan (bad) but their sheer numbers, dedication, and size (good) mean they're not entirely bad. They sure are invested fans, I'll give them that.
• Harry Potter has a very special fanbase. There aren't really words to describe it...it's just so many cool, awesome, intelligent, dreamer-people working together to love Harry Potter and spread that love. In what other fandom can you find something like wizardrock? The fanfiction (good and bad)? A Very Potter Musical and Sequel? Harry Potter fans are just awesome all around.

So, there you have it. If you try and compare the two, Twilight obviously comes out the loser. But on its own, without comparison, Twilight is an entertaining, engaging, romance-driven YA series with a devoted fanbase and extremely popular movies. Does that sound so bad?

Btw...I'm going to Harry Potter World for the first time in less than two weeks :)