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My favorite Yuletide fics so far

Sixty Years in a Water Tower, Animaniacs fandom.
Why? This is the first Animaniacs fic I've ever read, and I declare it the BEST ANIMANIACS FIC EVER. It's a series of glimpses into what the Warner Bros. (and the Warner Sister Dot) did while locked in the studio's watertower. Very clever, like the show, and it has fun tracking the decades through showbiz.

"I hear ya, kiddo," Slappy said. "We'd spring ya if we could, but they're watchin' us like Betty Grable watches her dye job. Anything I can get for ya?"
"A hacksaw?" Dot suggested.
"Nice try, but no," Slappy said with a chuckle.
"I'd like an atlas," Wakko said. "I'm trying to get all the state capitals down."
"What good would that possibly do ya?" Slappy said with a shrug. "You really want to visit Juneau?"
"You never know," he said. "It could come in handy some day."


The Failure of Einstein's Universe, The Big Bang Theory fandom.
Why? irrel got me into this show, which had a dull pilot ep but has turned into an entertaining little charmer. This story ships the highly implausible--but ridiculously entertaining--ship of Sheldon/Penny; it's sweet, heartfelt, funny, and manages to get some angst in too. Even now, various bribes are being prepared for the author once he/she is revealed, in the hopes of seducing a sequel.

"I've hypothesized that sexual frustration is the primary cause of your fixation on online multiplayer gaming, and that by satisfying this frustration, I could minimize any continuing interest you might have in becoming a level 50 warrior princess. Though, as you know, I do not enjoy physical contact, at this point I'm willing to do anything conceivable to prevent you from being in my bedroom. Penny, people can't be in my bedroom."


I think you'll manage better this time, Enchanted movie fandom.
Why? Because it's sweet and genuine, and because Nancy deserves some love too for being "the girl in the way of the love story" who gets her own happy ending. And because this ficcer's version of Edward is hilarious and sweet and awkward.

Nancy twisted her mouth and let the letter fall onto the pile again. "I just wanted to change something," she said, unhappily. "But they don't even know most of the time what I'm talking about."



I should really try to do yuletide next year, I think. Side note: On a road trip a friend and I tried to memorize the lyrics to Yakko's World, but we only got as far as And French Guiana, Barbados, and Guam, which is only the end of the first verse.

I wrote an essay about power, gender, and relationships for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

I had too many thoughts, and I wanted to get them out--and if you guys are game--discuss them. The anime plays with power roles fairly creatively and I find the possibilities of the show fascinating. Who loves whom, what form their love takes, and what powers the characters exert over themselves, each other, and the situation at large have all sorts of neat little facets that I just have to talk about, especially with a feminist bent. I would love it if you joined me.

Power, Worship, and Love: Haruhi, Kyon, and the SOS Brigade

I rewatched this episode in the dub because I had originally seen it subtitled. I liked it in both-- some of the parody works better in the japanese because I think Kyon's dub voice doesn't get the quite right narrational tone for this... it's not as good as his normal narration because it's bad, and it's supposed to be bad... it just works better in the subbed. On the other hand, the acting of the other characters (Itsuki, Mikiru, Yuki, etc) is way funnier in English, because now I can tell that they're acting is bad. In English they can ennunciate and do "bad acting" voices, which is a distinction that goes totally over my head with the Japanese cast.

"I undertand that he--no in this scene it's me, so I--I am a kind of key. And a key by itself does not have any power whatsoever. And a key is nothing a but a tool with which you can open the door. And when that door is finally opened, something is going to change. And I know that what will change is... ... ...That's about all I understand, Yuki. But right now I don't have the right to make that decision."

You know, I only just now got the fourth level of meta in this scene. There's at least four levels of "meaning" to this scene, and only two of them are recognizable the first time you see it. At least one more becomes clear after episode 6/14, and even then I didn't really *get* it until just now.

( Here, I'll try to make a list. Of the meta. Spoilers abound. )

See this reference list of the order of episodes I was watching, from the DVD, not the original broadcast order:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Melancholy_of_Haruhi_Suzumiya_episodes


My viewing experience of this show benefits a lot from having seen Fooly Cooly (FLCL) before hand. The two series have strong similarities, and at moments this feels like a sequel to that series in spirit. It has many of the same elements, and reaches similar conclusions. I don't want to get into a long discussion which one is better (FLCL), but rather appreciate both for being smart satires on the tropes of anime/manga, using space aliens, magic, and absurdity as metaphors for adolescence. A direct character to character comparison wouldn't be appropriate, since both Haruhi and Kyon, separately, embody different elements of Naota and different elements of Haruko. Haruhi is both Naota (creating wrinkles) and Haruka (smoothing out the wrinkles). Kyon is both Naota (dealing with an insane new life) and Haruko (being the adult to Haruhi.) Although Melancholy is slower and smoother than FLCL, I think it's better to see FLCL first, and experience the insanity of that for the wonderful experience it is, thent to watch this show, which takes the same idea of meta but uses it in a slower, more mundane way. The kids are older so their reactions to events (and the problems Haruhi creates) are of a different nature than the 12 year old boy in FLCL.

Basically, I loved this show and I want a second season. I liked the dialogue best-- it seems anime series based on novels always excel in certain ways, and I feel like the anime writers lifted whole speeches and extended discussions straight from a book, because most anime doesn't give this much time and attention to regular discussion. The conversations are smooth and sound natural; I also have to applaud the dub writers/translators for that as well. I have to say, I feel like this show (again, like FLCL) is one that makes a lot more sense and is a lot funnier if you're already used to anime, if you know the cliches and the narrative conventions. I wouldn't recommend this to a newbie; I'd go for something like Trigun or Cowboy Bebop or FMA.

I wouldn't say this show is perfect or flawless: the Mikiru stuff was never funny and I could have done without that entirely, or at least with half as much, since exploitation was never a part of my anime fan experience like it apparently is for most fanboys. And if you wanted you could probably pick apart all the ways the pacing or plot go belly-up or break out of structure. All that being said, I completely understand why it's so popular, and I'm not at all immune to the appeal. I love meta, it's why I adored FLCL and Princess Tutu, and it's why I loved this series too.


( detailed thoughts, spoilers )

It's a good thing someone on my flist warned me strongly about the first episode, because it is very bad. Incredibly offensive and fairly stupid. But, once you realize the joke of what you're really watching, and WHY it is so bad, there is a kind of demented humor in it. ( Read more... )