X, episode 5-6

[timepiececlock]

So, it seems this is becoming a series where I like it more with each episode. I'm still lost on most of the character names, but some of the characters are becoming more interesting. And the plot is growing.

I can't decide if it's better or worse that I watched the movie first, from a canonical point of view. Of course, I wish I'd never watched the movie at all because it was one of the top 5 worst films I've ever seen, live action included. But from a canonical sense, I feel like I have an extra insight knowing the possible future of the characters... and on the other hand I feel somewhat like the ending has been spoiled for me. Certainly the stuff regarding the brother guy (Soma?) and his role has been spoiled by the movie.

On other topics, the pocky thing in episode 5 was funny. Yes, pocky is good and weirdly addictive (weirdly, because there's nothing magical about it--- it's a biscuit stick with chocolate--- but at the same time it's addictive, in a weird way), and offering it to the psycho-emo bitch with the temper problem and hermit mindset might actually help the situation.

For episode 6, my main reaction was: Aawww fuck, they had to make me go and love Sorata and Arashi, didn't they? And they're probably going to die. Just what I need: loving the characters that are going to die.

Anyway, I'll watch more of X and Monster tonight, I think. But I have to do some reading too.

Comments

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

The X movie probably won't spoil much else for you--even the few things that're similar between it and the tv series are handled so differently that it might as well be coincidental. (At that, Fuuma's character is also pretty different, although that's much more true in the manga. As usual, the manga is far more detailed and layered than either animated version, although [as you may well know] it's been lying unfinished for three years now, while CLAMP looks for a new publisher for it.)

Sorata and Arashi are by far the best part of the series, IMO, but I'm in the minority with that opinion. ^_^

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Fuuma, that's his name. I didn't realize the manga was unfinished. Hm.

Glad to know I'm not spoiled too much then. I like surprises.


Sorata and Arashi are not popular with fandom? I'd think they would be-- Sorata reminds me a lot of Miroku.

I didn't really care for him in the first two episodes (he annoyed me), but the annoyance factor has lessened as his dialogue has gone from screetching to merely boisterious. And deep in my heart I like gregarious people, always have. So it's probably not a surprise he's growing on me.

What has surprised me is that episode 6 actually made me like Arashi, a little. I was very "blegh" about her in the first episodes because stoic dark brooding warriors (male or female) don't really interest me as characters. I find them dull most of the time. But her reactions to Sorata in episode 6 endeared her to me a little, and it made her seem like she's not stoic and brooding so much as the consumate professional. And professionalism I can get behind.

I admit, I like the anime cliche reversal here: instead of the silent brooding type being the guy and the outgoing cheerful one being the girl, Sorata and Arashi are the opposite. And that's a nice change.

[umadoshi.livejournal.com]

It's stalled at 18 volumes and . . . four or five chapters. :/ With TWO cliffhangers. So if you're not ok with that, starting it is probably bad . . . but everything else about it--well, except for the first couple of volumes being a bit hard to follow because CLAMP was still pretty new at the manga game back then--really is *so* much better than the anime. For one thing, the characters get more than one change of clothes each.

I think Sorata's pretty well liked, and it's not so much that people have issues with them . . . they're just rather ignored compared to Kamui, Fuuma, and two characters that I don't remember if you've met by ep. 6. X fandom seems to be all about the brooding. And the crack. >.>

Sorata's seiyuu (haven't heard the dub) gets on my nerves, but I love the character enough to tune him out. ^^ They brought Suyama Akio (Haru in FB) in to play him in the Tsubasa anime, but that goodness was overshadowed by the fact that they completely lobotomized Arashi in that (Sora and Arashi are in Tsubasa briefly, and it's really nice to see them in the manga version).

*laughs* "Professional" works for her. ^^ The person I have most of my X-talk with and I both feel kind of sorry for her--her expectations about the other Seals were probably high, and she gets Sora, His Brooding Majesty, and a bouncy 14-year-old. No wonder she looks like she's got a constant stress headache. And yet the dynamic is awfully fun (again, much more so in the manga--the characters are given a *lot* more time to breathe and develop).