Holiday eating

I ended up rushing to Target and buying a tree on Friday afternoon, go me! It'll only be up for a week or so, but it was nice.

( Christmas Eve )

( Christmas Day )

( The day after )

Today, I am at work and feeling incredibly lazy. But there is yhlee-meeting tonight and a movie tomorrow, and then possibly ballroom dancing and Asian Art Museum visiting on the weekend. And then it will be 2007 and I will write up my year in books after I moan over all the books and manga that I haven't written up.

Possibly I will also write up my year in TV, anime and manga, but only so I can pimp the things I loved. And manga has taken over so much of my reading this year that it really should have its own entry.

Saiunkoku Monogatari, ep. 01-14

This is currently being fansubbed; I found out about it via umadoshi's pimping and started watching on rilina's rec (as with so many things...).

Kou Shuurei has been longing to take examinations that qualify people to become court officials all her life, but the country of Saiunkoku (technically it's "Saiun," since "koku" means "country," but whatever) doesn't allow women to take examinations.

The emperor is an apparent playboy who cares nothing about governing; to deal with this, advisor Shou Taishi offers Shuurei 500 gold pieces to become the emperor's consort and somehow get him to care about politics and his country. Since Shuurei's family is noble but poor, this seems to be a godsend.

I'm not quite sure how to describe this series. There's some court intrigue, but most of it is light-hearted and not dangerous. There are tons of bishounen, but really not that much shounen ai hints. There's the potential to be a crazy romantic comedy in which everyone falls in love with Shuurei, but that doesn't happen either. Instead, it's a rather light series about the day-to-day of running a country and dealing with things like taxes and finances.

The first episode is very uncharacteristic of the rest; Shuurei isn't the giggling, chibi-prone girl that she's portrayed as in the beginning. She's actually fairly level-headed and not at all prone to crushes on the assorted bishounen. Much of the intrigue isn't cloak-and-dagger; instead, it's on if a certain bill-type-legislation will pass with the emperor's advisors.

The series does turn a little dark at the end of the first arc (around ep. 6-7), but it doesn't stay there.

It's really pleasant to watch without being mindcandy; the plot has so far avoided veering toward the very obvious plot points (although some revelations are horribly unrevelatory). I'd generally recommed that anyone interested watch up to the resolution of the first arc, since it's only 6-7 episodes, because the plot really changes in a way that I hadn't expected.

The setting is very much based on Tang Dynasty China, from the clothing to the layout of the capital city. And while there are bishounen galore and comic relief, none of it takes over the series.

I'm not head-over-heels fannish about it, but it's really fun and unexpectedly smart, and I'm very much enjoying the lack of romantic angst.

Links:
rilina's Memories and tags

Honey and Clover, ep. 01-02

I was going to sic this on my sister, but my TV card did something wonky, so we couldn't watch it on my TV. Also, I was having a difficult time watching from the sofa, as the palette of the show is very light and I had to really concentrate to catch the subtitles.

Possibly I will try and watch more this week while working on non-cabley knitting, so I can fully concentrate on the subtitles.

As with pretty much everything I've been watching lately, I started this after rilina sicced it on me and after she had heard about it from umadoshi.

The first two episodes -- not much happens. I'm not sure how to describe it. There are moments of crazy chibiness, but then, there are the beautiful backgrounds, all golden light and ramshackle buildings. The characters worry about making it to class. One person buys another a pair of shoes. There are memories, introduced by the whirring spin of a bicycle wheel.

It's not like anything I've seen before. It feels like sunsets in summer, lazy and quiet, the humid air sticking to your skin and the faint buzz of cicadas in the distance.

And it has the most bizarre opening credits that I've ever seen.

I don't remember much of it, just flashes of images and the general feeling of it, but it's enough to keep watching.