CLAMP - Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, vol. 02-12 (Eng. trans.)

Er, I read vols. 2-5 nearly two years ago, and only recently picked it up again, so this will be very short on those volumes. Thankfully, I did reread vol. 5.

Syaoran and Sakura continue to be absolutely adorable, and by the time vol. 5 rolls around, the Syaoran-Sakura-Fai-Kurogane-Mokona team have fallen into a rhythm, in which Syaoran is earnest and angsty, Sakura is earnest and adorable, Fai is earnest and somewhat ditzy, Kurogane is gruff but secretly earnest and angsty, and Mokona is just cute and bouncy.

I didn't pick up on most of the xxxHolic references, largely because they're just little blips in the xxxHolic-verse that I didn't much pay attention to.

Tsubasa mostly settles into plot-coupon-esque adventures; Our Brave Heroes fall into a new world, courtesy of Mokona, they look for the feather, they have to defeat someone to win the feather, and then they go on to the next world. There's some villain behind the scenes who also wants the feathers, but not much about him has been revealed yet.

I don't think this will be something that I buy, but it's fun to read and it doesn't tax my brain. I feel like I should be more annoyed by the plot-coupon adventures, but I'm so busy petting the art and looking at the gorgeous linework that I just don't care. Also, did I mention how cute Syaoran and Sakura are?

CLAMP's style has gotten even better over the years, which is something that I didn't even think was possible. I really adore the art in this; it's different from the beautiful black-and-white Art Deco style of xxxHolic, but there's something about the elongated figures with big hands and big feet, the swoops and the curves and the energy of it that I love.

Also, I am a total sucker for the Ashura story (tragic doomed reincarnated love story!), and even though I know having random older CLAMP characters appearing is total fan service, I don't care. I nearly squealed out loud when Syaoran's old teacher appeared.

Dead Like Me 1x01-1x06

I actually started watching this because of campfuckudie's toiletseat_girl. CFUD is a multi-fandom RPG, and while I started reading it for the Saiyuki characters, I found I really like George's usually sarcastic attitude that hid a squishy marshmallow heart.

Anyway, Georgia Lass is 18, dropped out of college, has a filing job she hates and a family life she's not much interested in. Actually, she's not much interested in anything in her life. Even so, she's pretty pissed off when a flaming toilet seat falls from the sky and kills her. But instead of dying properly, George gets the chance to be a Grim Reaper.

Unfortunately, the job's not much more glamourous than her old one. She doesn't even get paid. Instead, she squats in apartments, gets a day job to pay the rent, and in general tries to weasel out of having to take people's souls before they die. Her local Grim Reaper crew consists of Rube, the boss; Mason, a skeezy guy who seems to hit on anything that moves; Roxy, a no-nonsense woman who also doles out parking tickets; and Betty, a fun chaser.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, George's mother Joy is having some of her own troubles. George's younger sister Reggie has taken to stealing toilet seats and generally not being well-adjusted.

The first few episodes have been setting up the universe and the rules George operates under. I was arguing quite a bit with the show at first -- why aren't the Reapers paid? Shouldn't they have some sort of magical hand-wavy thing? How do they get jobs when they are fake people? Do they have fake social security numbers? And if someone could set that up, why not just give them an income?

After a lot of the worldbuilding episodes end, things got better, and I just pretended that the rules made sense.

One of the problems that I first had with the show was how sarcastic it was. You can tell the writers were trying to avoid the saccharine and the sentimental; people die by slipping on banana peels and having pianos dropped on them, and George goes through life with a perpetually raised eyebrow and sneer. But thankfully, the characters soon start to get a little heart, and I started sympathizing with them more, particularly with George. She stops being "I don't care" girl; or, well, she stops thinking that she really is and starts realizing that her attitude was more of a defense than anything else. And Rube just rocks.

On the other hand, I keep wanting to strangle George's mom. I know she feels guilty about George, but it drives me crazy watching her trying to reach out to Reggie, because she's doing everything wrong. That's the point, of course, but it is still crazy-making.

I wasn't sure if I was going to keep watching after the first two or three episodes, but by the time it hit the fifth episode ("Reaping Havoc"), I found that I really liked George, Rube, Reggie and Roxy, though I still want to slap Mason and Joy on the side of their heads for being stupid.