A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

Beware massive spoilers for the entire show. Much musing on symbolic drownings, symbolic strippings, and symbolic glasses.

( All good things... )

Why yes, I am getting a little obsessed.

Thank you so much, kate_nepveu, for warning me that the two episodes preceding the final three are utter crack and do not advance the plot. Without that warning I would have been alarmed and upset at the notion that the creative team had suddenly gone insane and was going to pull a Neon Genesis Evangelion ending on me. As it was, I was annoyed, because unlike some of the previous anachronistic episodes, like the graffiti one or the marijuana field one, I did not find either of these two terribly funny, nor was their deeper meaning, if any, a deeper meaning that I was particularly interested in.

That being said, the preceding episode, "Elegy of Entrapment Part II," was lovely.

( Here Be Massive Spoilers for Disc Six )

Here be spoilers. For a road trip story, this has a surprising amount of plot.

If you haven't seen this yet, I note that if you liked Cowboy Bebop, this has some similar virtues: unusual, carefully thought-out, and witty worldbuilding, pretty animation, and well-chosen music; if you didn't like Cowboy Bebop (and I am one of about three people in the world who didn't), this has characters who are likable and not annoying, and the plot and world are much more appealing to me.

( Massive spoilers for everything up to and including disc 5 )

I am madly in love with Jin.

I wanted a picture of him passed out in a bar or failing at an unagi-eating contest, since I wouldn't love him half as much if he wasn't so adorably dorky beneath that cool exterior, but I couldn't find the appropriate shots. Nor, shockingly, does anyone appear to have posted screencaps from the episode where he gets hit on by a man while in an outdoor hot tub, or from any of the other episodes where he appears partially naked. Let me know if you have them.

ETA: Oh, Kate, you are so good to me. Heh, he turns red when he's drunk. That's so cute. I remember a long, sake-fueled conversation I had once over whether that was an Asian thing or an individual variation thing. We ended up voting for "Asian thing" when all the Asians at the table ended up flushed and none of the white or Middle-Easterners did.

ETA II: Comments say other pale people do that too; also, comments provide more pretty pretty pictures and a couple of cracked-out ones, such as Magical Schoolgirl Sailor Suit Jin!

I also kind of fell for Mugen in the episode where he gets so obsessed with beating the guy who kills samurai with a qi technique that he resorts to traditional training and stands under a waterfall. I am pretty sure that Mugen's "mixed" style is largely inspired by capoeira-- the only other style I've ever heard of where you stand on your hands and kick with your feet.

And Fuu is adorable. She has so much zest for life. The moment which sums her up to me is when she's lagging behind and Jin suggests that they all take a rest because she's obviously done in, and Mugen says, "But the ocean's right up ahead." Whereupon Fuu perks up, runs out to look, and immediately starts jumping around in the surf, squealing, "Oooo! Look at all the little waves!"

Fuu reminds me a bit of oyceter.

Since you cannot trust in anime that the main characters will make it out alive, I am a little worried about Mugen, who does not seem to have much of an instinct for self-preservation (or he'd run for the hills every time a woman hit on him, since that always ends badly) although it's compensated for with the Devil's own luck, and more worried about Jin because like Genji, he is too beautiful to be long for this world he seems to have a self-destructive, or at least fatalistic streak, and also other attributes of the tragic hero which would be spoilery to discuss without a cut tag. But Fuu? Fuu's clearly a survivor. I am sure she'll come out of it all OK.

Indeed, I am charmed. Thank you telophase, and yes, based on episodes 2-4, Jin is indeed my favorite. The period (and out-of-period) details are very well done, and the animation is pretty. It's like an animated Lone Wolf and Cub, only with snark and hiphop.

So what happened in episode 1? It wouldn't play on the CD I have, and I am afraid to look online for fear of spoilers. Specifically, why are Mugen and Jin traveling with Fuu, and is there anything about any of them that is revealed in episode 1 that I should know? Also, do we know who "the samurai who smells like sunflowers" is and why Fuu is looking for him?

I got all these at a thrift shop for six dollars total. Comment if you've read them/heard of them/hate them.

Laurie Colwin, A Big Storm Knocked it Over. I like her nonfiction food writing enough to overcome my reservations about buying an adult mainstream novel about "marriage, friendship, motherhood, and careers as experienced by a cast of endearingly eccentric Manhattanites,"-- a genre which I usually loathe.

Mollie Hunter, The Kelpie's Pearls. Obviously out of print kid's book with an appealing title. I think I've heard of the author, but can't recall the context.

Eloisa James, Kiss Me, Annabel. The sequel to Much Ado About You.

Tove Jansson, Moominland Midwinter. I wish I'd read these when I was a kid, but I still like them. They are very odd and Scandinavian.

Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking. I remember adoring this, but who knows if I still will.

David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas. coffeeandink convinced me to give it a try.

L. M. Montgomery, Mistress Pat, which is the sequel to a book I have but haven't read yet, and Magic for Marigold.

Haruki Murakami, A Wild Sheep Chase. Because I keep meaning to read his novels.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder, And Condors Danced. Looks like a realistic YA novel about a lonely girl and her dog. The dog better not die.

Erik Weihenmayer, Touch the Top of the World. A memoir by a blind man who climbed Everest. I have recently become obsessed with climbing and in the last week, I re-read Into Thin Air and watched Touching the Void, even though I wouldn't personally want to do any of that sort of mountain climbing, which combines three things I detest: cold, high altitudes, and serious danger.

Jay Williams, Danny Dunn and the Fossil Cave. Oops, I already have a copy of this. Anyone want this one?