Arakawa Hiromu - Fullmetal Alchemist, vol. 13-16 + ch. 67-68

I really do love how many more awesome women the manga has.

( Spoilers for so far in the manga and all of the anime )

Rose of Versailles, ep. 01-05

This is the anime adaptation of Ikeda Riyoko's classic shoujo manga Rose of Versailles. I roughly know the plotline because a) I know Marie Antoinette was beheaded, b) I read some articles on the manga for my thesis way back when, and c) did I mention that whole thing with the French Revolution and history?

Oscar Francois de Jarjayes is the sixth daughter (maybe seventh) of General Jarjayes. Frustrated by all the girls, the general decides to name Oscar "Oscar" and to raise her as a boy. She learns to fence with her childhood friend Andre, despite their class differences (he's the grandson of her nurse). Eventually, Oscar becomes the captain of the guard for Marie Antoinette.

So far, a lot of the story is actually focusing on Marie Antoinette and her integration into the French court at Versailles. There have been quite a few episodes (ok, three) on her social battle with Louis XV's mistress Madame du Barry, in which Marie Antoinette refuses to talk to her. As far as I can tell, all this is historical fact, albeit with the fictional addition of Oscar and company.

The anime was made in the late seventies and early eighties, and it shows. The music is horribly outdated, the animation sucks, and whoever was directing decided that the best way to showcase dramatic moments was to have the background and characters turn interesting shades of paisley while having lightning flashes symbolize the conflict.

Alas, I kid you not.

Most of voicework also annoys me, particularly Marie Antoinette and Madame du Barry's. I also wish they didn't have Madame du Barry as an out-and-out eeeevvvilll woman set to seduce the king and have everything her way, as exemplified by the not-too-subtle scenes of her throwing things at mirrors or knocking statues over when angry.

I should also mention that I'm watching the DVDs with Chinese subtitles, which is really difficult because of the complicated court stuff.

Why am I still watching, if it sounds so awful, you ask. Oscar is awesome. Whoever's doing her voice is excellent, and I love Oscar's rigid and rather idealistic notion of nobility, how she acts on it to try to make her world a fairer place. She detests the court and its frippery, sometimes including the young queen-to-be, but she finds that she's forced into political maneuvering. Also, in the first episode, she has a cool fencing match with Andre and punches him several times.

And Marie Antoinette is an interesting character, half sympathetic and half not.

Plus, the show and manga's reputation is such that I feel like I should see this, and there have been numerous assurances that the lightning flashes and paisley eventually disappear, even as the plot gets more complex and gender-bendy.

Worlds colliding!

There are knitbloggers in my area! Wow!

I found out at my library knitting circle (also, someone asked me if I blogged and said she may have found my entry last week. If so, hi!). But yes! Local knitbloggers!

I mean, having knitting groups is awesome, but it is extra awesome to have a knitblogging group because I have been obsessively lurking in the knitblog universe for quite some time now, and it's a habit that is somewhat difficult to explain to my non-blogging, non-internet-addicted knitting circles.

Also, I so want Sundara cherry blossom yarn because of the whole sakura of DOOM thing. I mean... I could knit sakura socks of DOOM! How awesome is that? And I worked some extra hours this week. Hrm....

Of course, then I would be breaking my yarn diet.

I am currently on a book diet and a yarn diet but surviving ok, given the size of my stash (both yarn and books), though I am not counting manga series I am currently into for my book diet. Ergo, still keeping an eye out for Emma 3.

I am still a little boggled by the wonderfulness of a knitting circle at the library because, well: books! yarn! books and yarn! books and yarn and books and yarn! Now if they only had swing dancing there after hours, it would be a giant combination of all my current hobbies!