Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

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 love this Schrödinger icon Aubrie made for me. X3 So pretty! I am very pleased with his OVA animation design! One of these days, I *need* to finish that fic I started. Not to mention the Hellsing/Mayberry crossover. XD

And Lisa found out a way around FF.net's upload problem. People have been able to export their old stories and chapters, then copy and paste the contents of the new stories and chapters, and from there, get them posted normally. So I tried that and it finally worked!

I'm finally working on chapter 6 of T&D again, too. Now I'm doing a scene about Kadaj and Loz preaching about Jenova, as witnessed through the eyes of the town's mayor. XD It will probably end with him being brainwashed to follow their movement.

I need to work on chapter 7 of the KH fic too. Plus, start work on the follow-up to Reflections. And ... finish that S&M blurb. XD;

And write another blurb that was an angsty role-play, involving Yami Marik and KH Seph battling, and Yami M has put up Cloud and Zack as the stakes. Cloud is Seph's shield and Zack is Yami M's. So to win and get out of the mess, Zack has to be attacked, probably fatally. ;__; Zack encourages it, of course, wanting Seph and Cloud to go free. But Seph can't stand being forced to attack him. And of course, Cloud hates Seph for it.

**cuddles the FF7 and KH plushies at Setsuna's website.** X3

On Saturday night I was able to receive my daily fright due to someone's colorbar. **laugh.** It read as follows: "Herr Siegfried is a pink-haired, German sex machine." Errr ... okay. Nice to see you have your mind in the gutter, madam. XD; Siegfried's little fun with throwing his rose to the audience in episode #186 makes me think he's not above flirting at times, but that's a far cry from being a "sex machine." .__.; Seriously, he's probably a virgin. He's too busy obsessing over making his company better than KaibaCorp to bother with jumping in bed with people.

I loved the YGO episode! =3 I know the dub altered some things here and there, but I couldn't see as how they changed too much, and it really didn't bother me anyway. And it sounded like Ted Lewis is still doing Bakura and Yami B, even though it didn't sound like him in that preview I saw before. Yay for Ted Lewis! ^^ Aubrie put up the Japanese raw version, both in a downloadable size by itself and also in three segments, but I'm having trouble getting MegaUpload to cooperate with me. It keeps freezing during the 45 second wait. And if it does get through it, it sticks an ad over the button I need to click, and there's no way to get rid of it. -__-; (Yes, I've looked for something to use to close out the ad window.) I'm afraid all that leaves me with a bad impression of the site.

http://www.setsunakou.com has a whole bunch of YGO dolls now! It's so awesome. XD I wish they weren't so expensive, but maybe for custom-made dolls, they're actually a decent price. I wouldn't know, as I don't often go shopping for custom-made dolls. ^^; They have some strange pairings, including BakuraXRebecca and the dreaded SetoXSerenity, but I just try to ignore them and concentrate on how awesome the dolls look. ^^ Hey, they even have a doll of Rishid! They have most of the main characters right now, except for Yami B, Yami M, Solomon, Cecelia, and some more of the anime-only characters (Doom bikers, Dartz, and the von Schroiders). And they've made Marik, Tristan, Miho, Yugi, Vivian, Mokuba, and Pegasus dolls, but the links aren't up for them yet. ^^; But go see the ones they do have! Pretty much whoever I didn't mention here they have working links for.

I wrote a bit more for my story with Seras and Schrodinger (whoops, started typing Schroider there), and had Alucard come and talk to Seras. Now I must figure out how to resolve a plot problem that I've been musing over for several weeks. How on earth am I going to get Schrodinger into the Hellsing Institute? XD; Alucard and Integral aren't going to want him in there, and Seras won't want to go against them, but she also doesn't want to just leave Schrodinger bleeding on the battlefield. ^^;

Oh yeah, and thanks to a lady I saw at church, I now know how to draw Alister with realistic hair! LOL. Since Side7's not working right now, I'll put it here: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/Marik4Me/alister_realistichair.jpg Now I need to figure out how to do the same with Valon. I want to keep the star-shaped formation while giving it a more real look. Is that even possible? XD;

EDIT: I need to figure out where SchroiderCorp is located. What's a large German city that has mountainous areas nearby? I doubt Siegfried would want to travel too far to get to the company building.

And I have Eyes on repeat. It really reminds me of him, for some reason. XD; Maybe because he and Leonhard appear in the final ending sequence, when they're playing Eyes in the background? I was surprised when I read the translation and found that it only added to me associating it with him, after the events of the Grand Prix.

I do believe I'm starting to cramp. I figured it would be happening around this time, but I had really hoped it could hold off for a bit. I hate it when it happens on the weekend. Then it means I'm in agony on Saturday morning. I suppose I can be grateful that the worst of it will be over by Monday.

I did finally type something for Alister again. XD; I don't want his journal to die. It's fun, writing a journal for one of the most underappreciated yet fascinating, complex, and wonderful characters on YGO.

That Doom poster is on eBay right now, and for a good price, too. I think I just may have to snap one up. wwwanimestuffstorecom has a really awesome selection of anime products. I've bought CDs from her about three times now, I think. The prices are always reasonable.

Media Play sold that Alucard wallscroll. XD Not that I would have considered getting it. I was just curious. Now they have some cool T-shirts of Cowboy Bebop and Rurouni Kenshin. I may consider getting one.

I honestly have not known much of anything to ask for for my birthday. Most of what I want is online, and Dad doesn't do much online shopping. But it wouldn't be practical to ask for books, because I already have so many around that I need to read once I get my school done. Most DVDs I prefer buying myself. And most of the music I like is foreign. XD; I did think of a few things to ask for that can be found around locally, but eh. ^^;

Blah, I wish there'd be more cool YGO merchandise released. There hasn't been much around for a while. There are those interesting figure sets each with Yami Yugi, Seto, or Marik, accompanied by their respective God monster, but I already have the Marik figure, and my versions of the Yami Y and Seto figures are better than the ones that come with the God monsters. XD;

Blaaah. First the phone rang, then Dad didn't want to stop doing what he was doing on the Internet on the other computer. We need to figure out how to both be on at the same time. All in all, I was offline for fifteen minutes short of two hours.

At least I was able to write more of chapter 9 of LATT. I'm doing a scene with the Von Schraiders right now, and I like how it's coming out. Then I'm going to do a scene with Vivalene, and then I'll switch to the bikers. ^^

Trigun is one of the strangest animes I have ever seen. XD; I got a DVD from the library last week because I decided what the heck, I'd try it out. The first episode was one of the stupidest things I've ever watched. **laughs.** But I liked the second episode. Vash is amusing. ^^ I like Meryl, too, but Milly is such an airhead. I just hope there aren't a lot of cheesy character designs like the green mohawk guy from the first episode. That reminds me a little too much of One Piece. Not that One Piece isn't great, but seriously, you know some of their character designs are outrageously cheesy. You know it!

I'm pretty sure we're going out tomorrow. . . . I need to pick up the Hellsing anime DVD that I finally ordered from the library. **smirks.** I've just become so very fond of the manga, but I want to see the anime too. **just hopes Dad won't see the anime cover and have a conniption because of all the sharp teeth.** XD; I hope it won't take too long for us to get the OVAs in America after they start being released. I wonder how much stuff one 35 minute episode will be able to cover. Two manga episodes, maybe, if they're taken directly from the manga without adding in filler? **is rather anxious to see the Millennium stuff animated, and well, Schrodinger, of course.** It's cool that they're starting over from the beginning, though. ^^ Maybe some of the episodes will be done better than they were done originally.

I think I like German rock. XD **pets the song that she's again got on repeat.** I'm already starting to pick up the phrases to sing along.

I showed the lyrics to Darcy earlier and she had fun translating them. ^^ Then I asked her about the pronounciation of "Leonhard" and she said it's probably like you'd pronounce "Leonard", but then she said that it's probably not that "Len-ard" pronounciation and instead is "Le-on-ard" or even "Lé-on-ard," with the first syllable being pronounced like the first syllable of Téa's name. She said the last pronounciation is the most likely. ^^ I hope that's correct, because that sounds so pretty. I always hated the "Len-ard" pronounciation, but I love the others. Ten to one the dub uses "Len-ard," though.

I worked a bit more on my Hellsing/Mayberry crossover. I like the conversation I wrote in between Alucard and Seras as they arrive. XD And now I've switched to a scene where Integral is pondering over the strange case and wondering if Iscariot is going to get involved. Mayberry will never be the same!

This week seemed to go by pretty quickly. ^^ I'm glad of that. Now Saturday is finally almost here! Fox's new season starts this weekend, and of course we get two new YGOs. X3

I don't think I'll be here on Saturday evening, unless I come on after, perhaps, ten my time. Dad has some free tickets to a classical music concert and I'll be going with him to that. I'd tell whose music they're playing, but I can't remember how to spell their names. XD;

EDIT: I finished reading volume 3 of Hellsing and now I'm almost done with volume 4. Schuldinger's kinda a cute little guy. XD; Those kitty ears look so soft and velvety. . . . That seemed kinda mean for them to shoot him in that one part. o.o He wasn't doing anything, and he's just a kid. Or at least, he physical looks like one. ^^; **figures looks are no guarantee of age.** What happens to him in later volumes, I wonder. . . .

http://4kids.tv/shows/videoplayer.php?preview=backtoduel Look what Stacey found! A preview for Pharaoh's Memories! X3 It looks so AWESOME! ... But I think Bakura and Yami B have a new VA. o.o Listen for yourselves and tell me what you think.

I am so psyched up for YGO, as always. Pharaoh's Memories arc is going to be great! And this Saturday we get two new episodes and Joey starts his next duel in the second one. I am highly anxious for that, because of his opponent! **smiles.**

Oh yeah, and http://www.yu-jyo.net now has the summary for #186 up, along with several screengrabs of what was cut out of the English version. XD I have to admit, I rather enjoyed them. **smirk.** And if anyone goes to look, notice the maid's expression in the one pic. Does she look irritated or what? **wonders if she doesn't like Siegfried.**

I went curiously looking for Hellsing figures on eBay. When I saw what the packaging looks like, I suddenly realized that I've seen those in Media Play before. XD I distinctly remember going, "Hellsing? What the heck is that? Why is the packaging shaped like a coffin?!"

I had to go to the library to take back the Monk DVDs. 11 other people have them on hold. I just barely was able to finish watching the last episode on disc 2 before we had to go. I ordered the second half of season 1, so hopefully that will come in soon.

I also went uptown looking for some accessories that would be useful for my proposed Alucard costume (and possibly a good black choker just because I like them). Claire's is now closed, apparently. It used to be in the mall across the street from the one we were in, then it moved to Crossroads, and now it's closed again. **wonders if it moved back where it was originally.** Oy.

There's a Hot Topic on the second floor of the mall. I actually wasn't too impressed with it. I dunno if all the branches are like this, but this one was blaring heavy metal music in my ear, there weren't any chokers, and it seemed to be a punk store. XD And there weren't as many anime shirts as I'd hoped for, though there were some cool Rurouni Kenshin and Cowboy Bebop ones. Didn't see any Hellsing ones. I'd kinda like to get the Hellsing shirt with the red silhouette of Alucard. That one looks awesome. (It's probably the only one I could get away with, anyway. I'm pretty sure Dad wouldn't take kindly to a shirt with Alucard smirking insanely and clearly displaying his vampyre fangs. **laughs.** He'd probably have a conniption if he saw that wallscroll that Media Play has.)

I found one red tie that's a possibility, but actually, I'd rather get a long red scarf and tie it in a bow to get that nice, drooping effect. There weren't any red scarfs there either, except one with black lace, and while it was cool, that wouldn't do for Alucard.

And it seems to be a slow night. I had wanted to continue the RP with Aubrie before late night, but it looks like that's not going to happen, since she's still not back from wherever she went. Lizzie has been the only one on, and we talked for a bit about how Otakon went. I also tried to talk about my Alucard costume, but I don't think she got what I was trying to say. XD; She must have been really tired.

Blah. Well, I need to go have a shower. And why do I have the nagging feeling that I'm forgetting to write about something. . . .

Chances are, I'll remember what it was as soon as I post this or log off. -.-; I did finally post chapter eight of POTT (which turned out to be mostly Aubrie's writings), and chapter six of LATT. Duke made an appearance in his Orichalcos-possessed state. And Alexander is appearing in chapter seven, in a dream Alister has. I also have to work out more of the Hellsing/The Andy Griffith Show crossover. I was telling Mom some ideas for it the other day. The fact that Alucard can walk around in the daylight will definitely help matters. I wonder if he's the only one who can do that.

... UGH! The phone keeps ringing! I am getting so annoyed with this. Why oh why can't my Internet be hooked up to the second line that hardly anyone calls on?

Aubrie recommended the show Monk to me, so I put the first episodes on hold. That's what we picked up on Friday, instead of Twelve Kingdoms like I thought. Earlier I watched the first mystery, which seemed to consist of two episodes. Wow, it was great. XD I just love it. I think I even prefer it over Diagnosis Murder, and that's saying something. It just feels really fresh and new and different.

Also, I'm terribly amused over an idea I got late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, when I really stopped to notice my long black wig again. I really doubt that I could ever find what I need to pull this off, but I just have the strongest, scariest urge to attempt an Alucard cosplay. XD I think I have the explanation, though (other than the fact that he's just simply cool and so're his clothes). I think the idea appeals to me because he's my polar opposite and because dressing up as him would probably disturb a lot of people. ^^; I kinda like to show that I dare to be different. And I like teasing people too. Muwahaha. Plus, now that I have the idea, I'd kinda like to see if there's any way I could possibly pull it off. This is how I got two years ago when I first decided I'd like to try cosplaying as Marik.

XD; I really had a giggle fit an hour or so ago. I read detailed summaries of the Hellsing episodes and a couple of uncompleted fanfics with the AlucardXIntegra pairing, and then Aubrie and I talked about it for a bit. Eventually we wandered into the randomness of Alucard at a business meeting and Seto coming in as Alucard was drinking people's blood. Then Aubrie mentioned that she might have dreams of Seto and Alucard having business meetings, and that really set me off. XD; Good thing I didn't wake anyone up. ^^; I really must go to bed, though. I know I need to when I start laughing at everything.

I had really wanted to finish the blurb I was writing, though, so I calmed down and worked on it. I started it a week or so ago, but hadn't done anything more, and since the urge came on me now, I decided I should grab the opportunity. I really like how this came out, but it's so sad. **sniffle.**


( Losing a father )


We might be going out later. I need to pick up what's on hold at the county library (which is probably one of the Twelve Kingdoms volumes I ordered). ^^;