Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

So MeTV is doing another round of their silly MeTV Madness this year, where MeTV shows are paired up and voted on by the viewers who use the Internet. I'm really not sure what the point of the thing is. I originally figured it was to determine what was popular so they'd have some idea what to keep/what to toss/what to bring back, but the MeTV Madness results really don't seem to have any bearing on that, so I'm not sure what the point is. Maybe it's just silly fun. Sometimes I wonder, though, if the voting is really completely what the users are saying or if MeTV makes the end result be something they want. I can never forget when 4Kids did that voting thing to get viewers to pick which new show they wanted to see a special preview of, and Tokyo Mew Mew was ahead for most of the voting time, yet suddenly when it was time, they announced that F-Zero had somehow won. Considering it had the least votes all the way along, that was more than a little suspicious.

And I was thinking about politicians being immature and flinging stupid insults back and forth at each other and that got me thinking about that Patty Duke Show episode where Patty and Cathy are running for student body president and start doing the same thing. The students get so sick of it that they end up overwhelmingly voting for the one candidate who wasn't insulting everybody else. But she also didn't have much of a voting pitch; she'd always get up and flatly say, "Vote for me." LOL. But according to Patty, she actually started doing a good job once she was voted in.

Then I started thinking how strange it is that while I remember the series fondly, there are many, many episodes that I either don't like or find tedious to watch. Episodes that I truly, genuinely liked all the way through are actually less in number than the other kind, I believe. So that made me wonder why I bought the first two seasons on DVD years ago. I think it was because I wanted the episodes with that recurring character actor who looked like Autor, Jeff Siggins. Then season 3 changed production areas and the supporting cast was dropped, including him, and season 3 changed the show in other ways and overall I didn't like it as much. But I still recorded the ones I liked best.

The other great thing about The Patty Duke Show is William Schallert. I became very fond of him while watching him in all those episodes. He reached the tier right below the actors I actually crush on, which is for other actors I am very enthusiastic about and can go out of my way to see and get very excited to see when stumbling on them by chance. I don't know if I would have come to like him as much as I do if not for seeing him every night as part of that main cast.

I also think off and on how Cathy is usually remembered for being so demure and sweet, and yet she can actually be pretty nasty too, like in the voting episode and several others. Sometimes I think she can actually be more nasty than Patty, because Patty usually just says things off the top of her head without thinking about it, whereas Cathy seems more likely to plan out at least some of what she says. Sometimes she behaves on impulse too, though, like in the Cleopatra episode. And I suppose she has to behave badly sometimes so she'll be a well-rounded character. But I have to say, it's always painful to see her like that and I don't think I like any of the episodes where it happens. Regardless, though, I do prefer her to Patty, as Patty Duke herself does. But both girls are pretty well-rounded and have good and bad points, which is nice.

That sort of thing is necessary, but while flaws are important, I honestly have trouble writing characters actually acting out/deliberately being vicious and petty and mean. Even if they're prone to such behavior in canon, I just cannot get into that mindset if I'm trying to write them as a protagonist. It's easy if they're an antagonist, but if I want them to be the one the readers are rooting for, I just ... can't seem to make myself do it, which is why canon jerk or villain characters in my hands usually end up not being anywhere as bad as canon portrays (although generally there's an explanation of trying to turn over a new leaf instead of it coming out of the blue, like it did with Hook on Once Upon a Time). It's just not my nature and I can't get into their heads and don't feel comfortable trying if I don't try to soften them/humanize them a bit to make them relatable to me. Some of them I still can't really relate to regardless of my efforts, since of course I have to try to stick to canon information and sometimes that means the character will end up darker than I'm comfortable with no matter what I do. (Usually that means I eventually drop the character, as in the cases of Gin and Vodka and some certain others in other fandoms.) But anyway, yeah, I usually have to fall back on other types of flaws for protagonists than acting out.

Then I started reading one of my locally-written mystery books. I was slightly concerned when I saw the main character described on the back as "quirky", as usually that seems to mean an absent-minded weirdo or someone who can't be serious if their life depends on it. Both character types are fine for people who like them, but they can grate on my nerves very quickly, especially since the latter category often leads to practical jokers and that's a sub-character type I don't care for either. (Which is why I've honestly never been that excited about the Weasley twins from Harry Potter.... Not that I'm that excited about Harry Potter in general, honestly. But despite my feelings, I still felt it was sacrilege to kill off one of the brothers. Gah.) There's a character in the latter category who's in a fairly popular locally-written book and movie adaptation. She says she's an intellectual, but she honestly never acts like it. She pretty much spends the whole book/movie acting like a silly, mischievous, slightly naughty goof and being rather outrageous at times. Although technically, she does get serious when her life depends on it. She dies and the thing ends up heartbreaking after starting so screwy and silly.

But to my relief when I started reading the mystery book, the lead character is a serious, capable person and her quirkiness mostly stems from OCD. I can totally deal with that. And it's rather nice to see an OCD character written seriously; as much as I had fun watching Monk, it always did bother me that he and the other OCD characters who popped up were portrayed as acting so childishly due to their phobias. We're really not all that way!

So several months ago Kaze told me about an upcoming magical girl/superhero show called Miraculous Ladybug. Naturally she thought of me, since ladybugs are my mascots, and she thought I'd be interested.

I definitely was, and I've been waiting for it to come out. I was hoping it would stream on CrunchyRoll. But things have been so hectic around here (and I was so occupied re-watching Carmen) that I didn't get around to checking on the show's status until yesterday. CrunchyRoll doesn't have it, I don't think, and the U.S. dub doesn't begin for about a week and a half, so I'm not late for that, yay. Yesterday, when I thought to look, I found a few fan-subbed episodes on YouTube. If I'd been more on the ball, I could have watched each episode as it came, sigh. We have 13 now, I believe. There will be 26 for the first season and I hope they'll get renewed for more.

I've watched all the ones I can, which is about six. A seventh has the subs falling off the video, so I decided I'd better just wait for the English dub of that one. I plan to watch all the episodes in English as they come out (provided I can get Nickelodeon's website to cooperate; I assume they'll show each new episode there). I just hope the dub is good.

The show is so cute! There's a definite innocence and sweetness about it. While it uses many magical girl cliches, it also feels fresh and new.

Things I especially like:

- The characters all seem to dress very modestly. It's so nice not to see all the girls running around in midriff shirts like on Winx Club! They act more like kids instead of trying to grow up too soon and wearing revealing clothing.

- Instead of destroying the evil spirits possessing the characters and making them act out, Ladybug catches them and purifies them. They're little butterflies corrupted by the Big Bad, which then in turn corrupt the chosen victim of the day. It's really nice to see the butterflies caught and helped instead of being destroyed for possessing the people.

- Ladybug in her civilian identity has a really sweet friendship with another girl. Yay, friendship squee! And her friend is awesome; I totally love her.

- It rather amuses me that the main boy, who turns into Black Cat, oddly resembles Schrodinger from Hellsing in his wild blond hairstyle and cat ears headband. I don't really care much for the character now that Hellsing is out in full, but I am still amused.

(Truthfully, I never really liked Schrodinger that much.... I tried to like him because of being told that in some ways he was like an OC of mine, but the parallels were pretty slim overall. Then when more of the series came out and I didn't like how he was turning out, I felt too awkward to say I didn't really like him anymore after all. I think I was worried that my friend wouldn't like my reason, especially since she did like what they were doing with the character. Maybe she wouldn't have liked my reason for not liking him or maybe on the other hand I was worrying unnecessarily, but eh. I can definitely relate to that Steven Universe episode where he feels too shy/worried/awkward to tell Connie that he really likes how a book series turned out when Connie didn't like it and was ranting about it.)

- As much as I love Japanese culture, I kind of find it exciting to get a Western culture magical girl show, since I can understand and relate to that better. This one is set in Paris. The only other Western culture magical girl shows I can think of are Winx Club (which takes place on other planets for the most part, so it doesn't really feel like it counts) and W.I.T.C.H. (which I've never tried). Of course, Princess Tutu takes place in Germany, despite being made in Japan. And if we think about the superhero genre, then there's Wonder Woman and others. Amusing how I've never really thought of them as magical girls before, but technically, Wonder Woman was probably the beginning of the entire genre.

The Big Bad seems rather cartoonish, but since this is a magical girl show, I do sort of wonder if he'll get some depth later on.

I feel a little bad to be so enthusiastic about the series, though, as for months I've been trying to watch an anime that another friend recommended and over the past few months, I've advanced as far in it as I did in this show in less than 24 hours. I'm not quite sure what that says about the anime and/or me. But she did say the plot picks up right around where I am, so maybe I'll get more interested in it too.

I wonder if the problem is partially that while the anime is at a fillery spot, it's short and is supposed to have an intense overarching plot and I'm anxious to get going with unraveling the mysteries of that and not have the filler. But Miraculous Ladybug probably just is self-contained with each episode, so I don't expect anything more than that from it. They don't even have an "origin" episode as the first one, so things so far don't need to be watched in order. As much as I love arcs, I do kind of like being able to jump in anywhere with this show.

(I should note that I still love Sailor Moon filler episodes, though. I wonder if it's that I'm more invested in those characters than I am in this other anime, even though I like them.... With Sailor Moon, I guess I feel like it's similar with Miraculous Ladybug in that I expect filler from it. Plus there's a ton of episodes and somehow that makes filler seem more bearable than if it's a short anime, if that makes any sense.)

Or maybe it's just that Miraculous Ladybug is more the type of show I need right now: something light and cute without a darker plot looming somewhere, and something I can relate to better since it's the present-day. I really love this cute show and I'm so glad Kaze found out about it. I don't know if I would have learned about it otherwise.

I wonder if what I should do about Zecora is to plan to get her (or Shining Armor; they're the same price) with my next coupon or gift card and then get something like Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo to bring the price up to $40 for free shipping. That certainly seems a lot more sensible than participating in the sale and thus needing to get a character I don't like so much along with Zecora. I'd rather get two I really want instead of one I want and one I'm not so enthusiastic about. Plus, it makes me wince that it would be double the cost of a large size Care Bear. We'll see if I feel any different on Monday.

In any case, it doesn't seem like Build-a-Bear is likely to have any July Pony releases, since there hasn't been any news of any yet. I suppose that could change, but usually we hear about releases months in advance. So if there aren't any immediate releases, I definitely could focus on finally getting Zecora or Shining Armor, whether through the sale or not.

Also, I was watching Sailor Moon Crystal in the afternoon and one of the ads was this bizarre, silly thing I've seen advertised the last several times I've watched it. It looked to be a parody of magical girl shows, and there were weirdly bizarre things like a really scary vegetable monster. I think that scared me more than any of the monsters on Sailor Moon. LOL.

It also looked like it was a magical boys show, which is rather hilarious. That's not something I've seen or heard of before. I've wondered what it was since the first time I saw it. Finally this week I managed to catch enough of the title that I was able to look it up. (Things don't play entirely right for me on Crunchyroll, but it's better than Hulu.) I was right that it was boys, and it's definitely a parody of magical girl shows. But while Madoka Magica took a dark and serious route to overturn the genre, this show apparently is full of crack. **snerk.** There was a clip with their magical animal (what I thought was a pig, but it's a wombat) telling them not to call out random attack names. LOLOLOL.

I don't know if I'll actually check it out, as one review I read said that there's lots of sexual innuendo in it. Also, looking over the episode guide, one episode involves one of my most-hated tropes, the characters being turned into kids. But whether I watch it or not, I'm going to be amused by it regardless.

Now I'm not sure I remember the title well enough to write it out. It was something like Cute High Earth Defense Team LOVE! Heh.

Found this on Tumblr. I like to answer all the questions at once like a Livejournal quiz.


1. My first anime: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.
2. My favorite anime: The same.
3. The first anime character I was obsessed with: Yami Bakura and Ryou Bakura concurrently.
4. My anime OTP: Seto Kaiba/Tea Gardner.
5. An anime I can’t stand: Ultimate Muscle. Ugh, Mr. Cheeks.... I can hardly believe they got away with airing that on broadcast television, for kids.
6. An anime I want to watch: Can't think of one offhand.
7. An anime I never finished: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (still need to see the latter half of SuperS and most of StarS).
8. The most recent anime I finished: Puella Magi Madoka Magica.
9. An anime I never thought of watching but fell in love with: If I never thought of watching it, how did I end up doing so?
10. My favorite genre of Anime: Don't think I have one. I watch stuff from many genres. I like magical girl shows a lot, though.
11. Shonen or Shojo: Depends on the anime.
12. My favorite anime character of all time: Just one?! ... Marik Ishtar, maybe. (YGO)
13. An anime that I introduced to a friend: Princess Tutu.
14. The anime that I am currently watching: None.
15. An anime that never gets old no matter how many times I watch it: Any anime I love.
16. If I own any anime merchandise: Yes! A whole lot, too much to possibly list, especially for YGO. Figures, shirts, DVDs, custom-made plushies.... Also some Sailor Moon dolls. And DVDs of other series I like.
17. Yaoi or Yuri: Neither.
18. If I’ve ever been to an anime convention: No.
19. Who is my favorite anime voice actor: George Newbern.
20. Sub or Dub? It depends on the anime, honestly. For YGO, I can never stop preferring the dub, despite how they removed scenes and changed up some of the dialogue. But for Sailor Moon, the dub makes me cringe and I must watch in Japanese.
21. If I could have any anime character’s hair style, who would it be: I don't know; I like my own hair.
22. Manga or Anime? Anime. Manga moves too fast and is often unnecessarily dark and grotesque and graphic.
25. If any of my friends or family watches anime: Lots of friends do. One of my sisters was trying Sailor Moon, but I don't know how that went. One of my brothers watches and likes YGO. Or he did, anyway. I don't know if he still watches reruns or went on to watch all the spin-offs.
26. If I listen to any anime music: I haven't for a while, but I love anime music.
27. If I’m following any ongoing anime series: I am not.
28. If I’ve ever been to an anime club: No.
29. If I’ve ever cried over an anime: Heck yes.
30. What my last anime wallpaper was: Probably one with the bikers from YGO. Or Siegfried von Schroider. It's been years since I've had an anime wallpaper.

Gah, every time I try to work on the theme set for June, I wear out. I wrote several sentences and now I feel restless and bushed. As much as I wanted to use all of these themes, I wonder if I'll be able to. I may have to just pick a few over the month and keep all the others to just use whenever I feel up to it. Maybe it's just too much to try to do the themes every day for two straight months, in addition to all my other projects. I have The Denying Detective Perry mystery, I revived a YGO mystery, I'm expanding one of my ficlets for posting on FF.net, I have my One Minute to Zero fic that I finally got off the ground, and I'm doing my blogging and my freelance article writing.

It also doesn't help that this time I was writing May's themes almost right up to the wire, as opposed to when I did the set in February and managed to get them all done by about the middle of the month. I had more time for a breather. March would have probably been a good time to jump into another theme set, after the respite I had, rather than trying to immediately jump into this one now for June.

EDIT: ... Or I wonder if it could be a combination of that weariness and the actual plot of the theme set draining me. It is a rather depressing plot. Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if I took the plot of this particular blurb and wrote it as not being part of this takeover thing. Maybe I'll try that and see if I still feel the same exhaustion. I wrote a bit of my ficlet expansion and that didn't wear me down at all.

And out of utter curiosity, I read a short Hetalia fic tonight when it wandered onto my Friend's list via a community. I know the series is extremely popular, but I've always been baffled by how you can personify nation-states. Those feelings were not alleviated after reading the fic. If anything, I scratched my head and wondered all the more how it's done. It makes no sense at all to me. How can a nation-state be a person and have a house?

The only way I can logically interpret things is if the Hetalia characters are basically the "spirits" of the nation-states rather than the physical lands themselves. And maybe that is what's intended; I don't know. But it still felt very surreal.

... I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm feeling really uneasy about the chapter I just put up. I can't tell if I'm having second thoughts about the intended plot (although I still have time to alter that, if I so choose) or if I'm concerned the Perry and Hamilton scene just did not come out the way I wanted it. I can hopefully fix that too, if that's the problem.

There, I altered it. I feel better now.

This entry is really meant, however, to talk about the short anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I finally got around to seeing it! (Thank you, yamsteapot, for your long-ago recommendation! I never forgot it.)

Since this is a recent series and there will be some spoilers, the rest is ( under this cut )

Overall, I completely recommend this series, particularly to anyone who loves character relations and friendships! Even those who don't like shoujo series! yamsteapot is certainly no fan of the mahou shoujo genre, but she enjoyed this one and passed along the news of its awesomeness. I'm so glad I finally had the chance to see it!

I should not have wasted time taking this. But it was interesting. One selects five TV shows and then answers the questions.


1. Princess Tutu
2. Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters
3. The Patty Duke Show
4. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
5. The Monkees

Who’s your favorite character in 2?
In YGO ... I'm not sure. The first one who popped into my head was Alister, and he's certainly still one of my favorites. He's serious, blunt, and is really good at disguises. And he's devoted to his younger brother. I think Seto is right; deep down Alister blamed himself for Miruko's death, but it hurt too much so he shifted the blame to Gozaburo Kaiba. He's a fascinating character to pick apart.

Who’s your least favorite character in 1?
In Princess Tutu ... Lilie, of course. I'll never like her, but I have started to wonder if her denseness is an act. There's a scene in Akt 11 where she's exclaiming about Ahiru being sad and Pike flatly says, "You seem happy." Lilie blushes and holds a hand to her mouth like "Oh my" and says "No way!" She looks and sounds like she knows she's been caught in the act. I would actually find her marginally interesting if she knows she has a problem, rather than for her to be empty-headed as she comes across.

What’s your favorite season of 5?
In The Monkees ... season 1, hands-down. The characterization was a thousand times better than season 2. So often in season 2, I want to slap Micky. This makes me sad, since in season 1 he's my favorite character. In season 1 he's intelligent, hilarious, sarcastic, and brave. In season 2 he's been degraded to a whiny, hysterical, random coward most of the time.

What’s your favorite ship in 3?
In The Patty Duke Show ... I think George Tutwiler/Cathy Lane would be an adorable couple if the problems concerning Cousin Betsy were resolved. If I remember right, they seemed to be studying together when Betsy stumbled upon them, so they might have a love of learning in common. And George is a sweet, innocent boy; he just had a very thoughtless moment when Betsy charmed him. But he could change; Patty's boyfriend Richard has certainly had moments of weakness too.

Ted Browning/Cathy Lane is a more canon couple and a lovely one. Ted seems intelligent and level-headed, and he's crazy about Cathy. She thinks highly of him also. Their personalities mesh very well.

Who is your anti-ship in 2?
In YGO ... I'm not sure. Seto/Serenity, perhaps. I understand the basis for it, but it seems too syrupy sweet and cliche. I also don't like Alister/Valon. If they're going to interact and come to like each other more, I'd prefer seeing them as friends/surrogate brothers.

How long have you watched 1?
Princess Tutu ... since June of 2006.

How did you become interested in 3?
The Patty Duke Show.... It's on late-night/early morning on THIS TV network. Mom watches the oldies block and I started seeing it with her sometimes. The Patty Duke Show attracted me because it's more of a domestic comedy than a sitcom and the characters are amazing and well-rounded. And most episodes have a moral point, but it's not annoyingly drilled into you. It's got so much more meat to it than say, Mr. Ed (which is also on the block). Mr. Ed is just a silly sitcom, but that's a rant for another time.

Who’s your favorite actor in 4?
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon ... is an anime. I'm not sure who my favorite voice actor is. Maybe Emi Shinohara, who plays Makoto Kino/Sailor Jupiter. She is incredible and her singing is powerful. When Jupiter isn't being boy-crazy, she's really a superb character. She's strong and determined and justice-driven, and always puts boys aside to fight for the greater good. She also has a wonderful relationship with a childhood friend and fiercely believes in Sailor Moon. Emi Shinohara portrays all of Jupiter's emotions flawlessly. Jupiter has really become one of my favorite characters. Even her English dub actress, Susan Roman, is really good. I think Jupiter had just about the best voice in the dub.

Which show do you prefer: 1, 2, or 5?
Princess Tutu, YGO, or The Monkees.... Well, as much as I love them all, I still think YGO will always hold the #1 spot for favorite show. I shared adventures with the characters for so many years and I learned so much about writing while doing stories about them and I met so many people I likely never would have otherwise. I think YGO has had the greatest and most long-lasting impact on me of any show I've ever watched. I really think of the characters as friends (albeit I feel the same about the characters on any show I love).

Which show have you seen more episodes of: 1 or 3?
Princess Tutu or The Patty Duke Show.... Well, Tutu only has 26 episodes while Patty has 104. There's only a handful of Patty episodes I haven't seen now.

If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?
I don't want to be anyone from any show. I like my life.

Give a random quote from 1.
Princess Tutu....

Autor: You're late.
Fakir: What are you talking about?
Autor: It took you eighteen days, seven hours, and twenty-four minutes from the time you started researching your power to when you noticed me.

Would a 3/4 crossover work?
The Patty Duke Show and Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon.... Um, I don't think so. However, if the girls just all met and could hang out without all the magic and bad guys, I think that would work. Ami and Cathy would get along well with their love of studying, and Patty could introduce Minako and Makoto to all the cute guys in school.

Pair two characters in 1 that would make an unlikely, but strangely okay couple.
Princess Tutu.... Autor and Ahiru. There's not much canon evidence in their interaction to support it, it's true. Well, other than Autor's friendly behavior in the follow-up, which may or may not be canon. (But it's squeeful in any case.) It's in their personalities that the evidence comes. Autor is a kind person underneath the arrogant facade and Ahiru is someone who accepts and cares about anyone shown to be good. I think if they got to know each other more, they could become very close. And from there, who knows?

Has 5 inspired you in any way?
The Monkees.... I'm not sure what kind of context "inspired" is being used in, but offhand I don't think that it has. Unless it was that I think the little teddy bears cosplaying The Monkees were my first "big" purchase and I had to work really hard to earn the money to buy them. And the show certainly gave me lots of laughs. It's a joy to watch.

Overall, which show has a better cast: 2 or 4?
YGO or Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon.... Oh gosh. Well, one problem with Sailor Moon is that a lot of the good guys are better in the manga, but the villains are better in the anime. In YGO, the characters are pretty much all awesome in the anime. They only made a couple of slip-ups (Duke's intro ... ugh), but overall I prefer YGO characterization in the anime to the manga. So YGO would probably get my vote.

Which has better theme music: 3 or 5?
The Patty Duke Show or The Monkees.... I love them both. I was originally going to say The Monkees, since it's so catchy and I've loved it for a longer period of time, but I also really love The Patty Duke Show theme. All the horns are awesome and the vocals are great. The lyrics of both amuse me. Patty is more my obsession at the moment. In the end, for me, it might be a draw.

Though I suppose nothing could really top the utter silliness of the antics in The Monkees' theme.

Ever since I was introduced to the song by Aubrie, Life is Like a Boat has been one of my most favorite songs ever. I used it as a character theme for Alister for a long time and even made a very amateur wallpaper with him and some of the lyrics.

It also had the effect of singlehandedly *almost* getting me into Bleach. Because of that song, and my intrigue with the character it pertains to, I did actually get to where I got a manga down from the shelf to look at in Barnes and Noble. But I took a look at the story with Orihime and her brother and promptly decided, Um okay. This is really too depressing for me. Thus was the end of my attempted foray into Bleach.

Fast-forward to now. I still love the song, and Rukia, and I dug out the song after deciding I wanted it as the song in an AMV I've commissioned from nuitsongeur. (And I'm very excited to see how it turns out, even moreso after hearing what she's doing with it!) I ended up deciding again maybe I'd try Bleach, after my past curiosity resurfaced from listening to the song on Repeat and mushroomed into me having a really crazy dream in which my aunt gave me one of those season boxsets. **headdesk.** I thought my interest would fade, like it usually does after I'm awake and getting back into my normal routine, but it didn't.

So finally I broke down and had a look at the first episode. I liked it. And I liked the English dub, but that's no big surprise. (It honestly still surprises me that I detested the Princess Tutu dub, even moreso since I'd *never* heard it in Japanese before. I think that's the only time that's happened, other than when I saw Inuyasha playing at Media Play and didn't like the English dub of it, either.) Rukia was awesome. And random, but I totally cracked up when she very calmly drew a mustache on Ichigo after he insulted her drawing. LOL. I'd been expecting the cliche anime girl freakout, and her blase reaction was absolutely priceless.

I kind of rolled my eyes at the stuff with Ichigo and his father. That guy is *weird.* But it didn't deter me. It was stupid, but stupid in a way that for me is like "This is so stupid it's silly and amusing."

Anyway, so then I decided that maybe I'd go ahead and buy a Bleach manga with a coupon I had. The next day I went and looked through it, reading most of the Orihime and her brother one. Yes, still depressing, but not so much to me now that it would be a barrier. However ...

I got tempted with the YGO manga where Shadi first appears and challenges Yugi. I've wanted those for years. I remember standing in Smith's and reading the rooftop encounter when they printed it in Shounen Jump. And after much deliberation and worrying over taking far too long ...

I ended up with YGO #3.

Though, if I'd had the money, I probably would have gotten Bleach too. And I probably will, once I have that money.

And once I'm able to get YGO #2 as well, because I want the whole Shadi arc! It's been far too long that I've loved it and haven't owned it.

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Twelve, huh? I think I'd be shocked and stunned at myself. When I was twelve, I think my only knowledge of anime were the movies offered by Columbia House that carried warnings, hence freaking me out and making me think that all anime was profanity- and violence-ridden and adults-only. And oh yeah, I'm pretty sure when I was twelve I refused to give characters in stories and RPs injuries that resulted in blood. Pretty much the only things they got were really bad knocks on the head. Sometimes I still miss the more simple version of hurt/comfort, and now and then I'll write/RP a good old knock-out.

I had a long list of injuries I wouldn't ever give a character, LOL. Eventually as I got older the only things remaining on the list were burns and broken bones. I broke those rules too. Though the only bones I broke were wing bones. XD; I still refuse to break regular limbs or anything else in fics or RPs. The most I'll do is crack some ribs.

The reason for my extreme aversion to broken bones is because of the time on Sesame Street that Telly Monster broke his arm. I watched all those episodes on one of the marathons PBS did and came away with a firm vow that I would never break a character's bones in my fics/pics/etc. The whole "cast" concept is the main thing that turned me off, I think.

And yes, I know it probably looks illogical, considering what I am willing to do. As JP put it, paraphrasing, "So a broken bone isn't okay but them nearly dying is." XD;

There are some weapons I've refused to injure a character with, including the axe, but I'm about to break that rule if I go through with a creepy blurb/fic I've been musing on. Though in my defense, it's probably the only time I'll do it, and it'll not be as real as it'll look at first.

And oh yeah, when I was twelve I did not like angst. Some things are still too discouraging for me to really appreciate, but I think it's safe to say that if I saw a lot of what I write now, my mouth would drop open in shock. However, I think I'd also be proud of how much I've improved in my writing style.

The fact that I draw people almost exclusively would also be a shock; back then I drew animals exclusively and berated not being able to draw people well. Anime opened the door for me to be able to draw people in some fashion.

Also when I was twelve, I pretty much only listened to Disney music and other animated shows' music. LOL. Though I was still twelve when I discovered oldies music, which I'd casually liked before, and then next year I found Christmas music 24/7 on the radio after my oldies show went off the air, and I liked the radio personality, so I listened after Christmas and I think that's how I found that I liked a lot of recent music. So I'd probably be surprised by my current music choices, ranging from gothic rock to anime music to classical. Though I was raised on classical, I didn't actively seek it out that much.

As for how I at my current age would react to this younger me, I think I would be amused and call myself Kiddo. And say something like, "Just wait, once you get to my age these things will make sense to you. You've got a lot to look forward to." And after my twelve-year-old self got over the shock, I think I would be looking forward to unraveling the mysteries about me. Overall, between happy or disappointed, I honestly don't know what I'd think. LOL.

**squees!** The Princess Tutu boxset came last night! And it's just as addictive as it ever was; I marathoned 10 out of 26 episodes already, including while trying to revive a passed-out computer. It's just almost impossible to put down, especially when it starts getting so intense with episode 6. I love the series so much. And Mytho is just too adorable. ( Minor series spoilers )

And I am amused that even though no one in the show is even Japanese, I'm listening to the Japanese track. Of course, no one would be speaking English, either, but eh. The first time I saw it, I think I only saw one episode (or even just part of one) in English. The dub cast just didn't strike me. XD; I do plan to try it again in English, though. But I really really loved when Takahiro Sakurai (Cloud's Japanese VA) spoke/read a few lines of German in episode 8. X3 It sounded so good in his voice.

Speaking of Ryou Bakura, I have a fanfic dilemma. I have a blurby thing done for a prompt at 30_quests, if I could just find out if they even accept platonic couples as well as romantic ones. But now I'm wondering if instead of posting the blurb, I should just write the fic, and if I'm allowed, post each chapter there instead of blurbs. I've decided the thing in the blurb is going to be a major plot point in the fic.

Basically, Bakura, Yami Bakura, Yami Marik, and Bakura's father have landed in a fantasy world ruled by a dictator. Somehow Yami Marik ends up working for him as the head torturer and executioner. And through a horrifying series of events, Bakura's father ends up killed (along with an entire rebel village) and Bakura, like Quatre on Gundam Wing, completely loses it. ;___; So a large part of the fic deals with trying to save him from his hatred and madness so he won't follow Yami Bakura on the path he took three thousand years ago.

So. Should I post the blurb, or should I wait and start writing out the full fic instead?