Beast Master: Gotta Have 'Em All

I know, right? Some of the names . . . oh well, part of it is likely translation. Beast Master is an earlier work by a mangaku I like, Kyousuke Motomi (author of Dengeki Daisy). Since I originally wrote this post, Beast Master moved up from from "Has a Certain Appeal" to "Gotta Have 'Em All." Fortunately, with just two volumes, it's not one of those mangas that will break the bank.

I was, in fact, so caught up with Dengeki Daisy, that I bought these sight unseen and I don't regret it. It's not perfect, but it has a key ingredient frequently found among my "gotta have 'em all" mangas: charm. Leo, our male protagonist is the polar opposite of the smooth sophisticated shojo male staple. True, I like the latter, but I can't help but be won over with Leo's earnest simplicity that, in no way, resembles stupidity.

Anime? No Volumes of manga: 2 Status: Complete

My rating: Gotta have 'em all

Age range/taboos: Our hero here, spent much of his life "in the wild" and will go on a violent berserk rampage if put at risk and/or bloodied (or, apparently, if his girlfriend is). So, yeah, bloody violence happens but no corpses except for a leopard. Except for a bit of violence, it's pure as the driven snow. Don't let the chains fool you - no BDSM here.

Premise: Girl who loves animals but sends them running with her smothery ways befriends a boy who comes off as scary while being exceptionally good with animals. When she talks to him, she finds out, he's not scary at all, but sweet, innocent, almost child-like. Turns out, he's lived in the wild most of his life so his social skills aren't at their peak. She also discovers quickly that he will go berserk to protect himself, but that she can get him to calm down when no one else can.

What works: Both protagonists are appealing, "Leo" (the "wild boy") is unaffected and unstintingly affectionate with his own backward charm that I like. If the circumstances around them are convoluted and contrived, his character is earnest, stalwart and true. He is more than he seems on the surface and yet, if you're really looking, he's exactly what he seems on the surface. His moments where he lashes out are so perfectly justified and such a contrast to a sweet and harmless soul, that's it's very powerful. Yet, the justification is also so extreme, it's perfectly natural. And he is the one who suffers most when he falls to the beast within. Ironically, even that violent beast is a contrast to the threats that draw him out - he works only to protect himself and her. That makes Leo something more than the most urbane villain he struggles against. The character is drawn boldly and broadly, but comes off so natural that it's easy to get sucked in.

Yuiko, as Motomi's female protagonists frequently are, is strong without being masculine. She is selfless and strong, without being overpowering or nasty. She was quick to see past appearances and see the real Leo when no one else even tried. If she's a little slow to catch on to Leo's devotion to her, that's hardly anything new in manga. I like that she refuses to treat him like an animal and that both of them are focused on the well-being of the other. This manga could have been longer and still appealing, but it shortness kept it from bogging down, so that's nice, too. Tidy.

I like the emphasis on animals (the girl's father is a veterinarian) and find Leo's gentleness (when not in berserk mode) completely in character. I like his unfamiliarity with modern technology and processed foods fun, too. The artwork is less refined than the author's later works, and I think it's something of an acquired taste. Sometimes, it's just plain ugly. But, when it's beautiful, it's very compelling and emotive. Powerful. Frequently hilarious. The drama is powerful without ever being weighty or cumbersome. I also have to admit I liked both of the short mini-manga stories included with the books.

Favorite Character: I like 'em both. I do, but I gotta go with Leo. There's something about his child-like enthusiasm and lack of self-consciousness that appeals to me. And, under that is a quiet wisdom and rock solid practicality that doesn't have any problems with setting the right priorities. Yuiko could do herself a few favors, for all her worldliness, listening to his advice once in a while. He doesn't give it frequently, but it's always worth listening to. Despite my almost guilty love for sneaky sarcastic types, I very much appreciate honesty. Leo is honesty incarnate. I don't think Leo can lie. Even if he could, I know he wouldn't, not when it mattered.
Quotes:

Leo: He looks a lot more manly when he's not beat up!

Leo: You can't protect two things at once. You have to make a choice or you'll lose them both. My dad taught me that. He'll understand.
Yuiko: But you said it was the most precious thing next to your life.
Leo: That's true. But you mean more to me than my life.

Yuiko: Well, thanks, but I have to go stop Leo. He's very kind-hearted. If I don't stop him, he'll regret this later.

Leo: Anybody'd be scared of me. I'm even scared of myself. That lady was right. I am a freak. You've been really good to me, Yuiko, but...
Yuiko: You're not the only one. I have a beast inside me, too. When that woman said those things about you, I was furious. If I'd had fangs, I would have killed her. We're all the same, Leo. We keep a ferocious beast within ourselves in order to protect the things we hold dear.

Leo: Funny...how seeing you cry makes me so happy.

Yuiko's attacker: Hmph. So you wanna fight, eh? People say your face is the only scary thing about you?
Yuiko: That's not quite true. He's fought a leopard before and killed it.
Leo: Yuiko, if it looks like I'm going to kill him, will you stop me?
Yuiko's attacker - dogeza (a bow of deepest apology involving kneeling and putting your whole upper body on the floor)

What I didn't like: Side characters pretty much sucked (except for Banchou, the friendly neighborhood thug, who was cool). Either they were shallow and uninteresting, or too whacked to take seriously. Bad guys are painlessly rehabilitated.

The back story behind Leo's unconventional upbringing was also pretty weak, even by manga standards with a ridiculous fortune and a ruthless band of relatives desperate to steal it. Fortunately, it wasn't really key except toward the end.

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Hana Kimi Ending Rant (Spoilers Galore)

If you've ever been slightly interested in reading the Hana-Kimi and hate to have the ending ruined, stop reading now. 'Cause I am about to ruin it.

Actually, I feel like it was ruined for me. Despite a few irritations, I really loved this series. It was fun. It was romantic. It was about a growing relationship and the interactions among all these interesting people, even if the female protagonist was a little frustrating and the pace had slowed to a crawl.

So, why did the ending piss me off? For more than a hundred chapters and 20 volumes, the goal was consistently to allow our protagonist to stand at the side and support her idol/love interest. Now, that's probably a pretty weak goal, but, from the beginning, she claims she was willing to fight to do so. Not to mention lie and manipulate nearly everyone to do so.

Our hero, said idol, caught on to the situation from nearly the first moment and discovered almost at once that he loved her and wanted the same thing. Now I'm not going to criticize falling in love with her; falling in love isn't a logical thing. Nor do I object to someone who loves another wanting to have the situation so that they can spend the maximum amount of time together possible, even if doing so involves considerable sacrifice.

Our hero does exactly that, wanting to be with her so much so that he not only kept her secret, but actively worked to protect her secret (despite her own boneheaded actions) and protect her from the dangers of being a girl in a sea of guys. To do so, he also had to put a curb on his own baser instincts for more than a year and a half while living in close quarters.

Given that, during that time, she crawled into bed with him half a dozen times, slammed naked into him in a hot spring, hugged him, snuggled him, cried all over him, danced around him dressed as both a girl and a boy, got attacked and nearly stripped at least twice, nearly was revealed at least twice more in a near naked state and, of course, tripped and fell or fainted or nearly got run/trampled over times beyond counting where our hero caught her, carried her, protected her, or treated her. All during this time, he kept himself enough in hand that she was clueless that he knew she was a girl or that he was in love with her. Because he wanted her to be with him no matter what it took.

He also swallowed a great deal of jealousy (and no little pride) as people (male and female) declared their love for his roommate and she wandered blithely into friendly relationships with everyone she came across, including his own brother and his estranged father.

When, as inevitably happened, the truth came out (and, of course, these events piled up all at the same time) right after he finally confessed his love (but didn't admit to knowing her gender yet), he continued to stand beside her, putting his academic scholarship, high school career, and, presumably, his high jumping career at risk since admitting he knew she was a girl could likely get him expelled along with her.

Side note: What kind of idiot, working to hide her gender at an all-boy school, changes her clothing standing in front of an open window and flashing her breasts to the world? Sorry. Digression.

She, of course, got it all revealed and admitted it. The school at least her large pool of friends and the Resident Advisors for the dorm all rallied behind her, willing to support her and manipulate things so she could stay the last year of high school (wherein the roommate issue becomes moot since third years get their own rooms).

Instead, for no discernible reason, after she sees how everyone will support her, protect her, wants her to stay, she willingly withdraws from school and goes back to the US without warning. Say what?

OK, maybe it's just some kind of Japanese thinking.

I thought the whole intent of this exercise was to spend time with Sano Izumi because she loved him. Certainly, everyone else was working for that. She's about to move into her own room. She's been covered so they can't kick her out, but say she has to leave the school. There's a sister all-girl's school in the area (where a friend already attends) she could transfer to. Not to mention that there were probably any number of other Japanese high schools handy. Hell, her big goal in life is to be a dog trainer. It's not like she'll need to get into a top university for that.

Instead, she's just going to evaporate, putting those that supported her at risk for repercussions, including the school doctor who knew from the beginning (and who she doesn't even say goodbye to). What were all the sacrifices for? What was the point of making all these relationships just so she could abandon them? What was the point of teasing our poor hero to death for a year and a half which he accepts without complaint as long as she'll stay with him, only to have her drop him like a hot potato?

And, I have to say, though I'm not a huge advocate for promoting sex between teenagers, what is with crawling into bed with the boy you love on your last night (and he knows it's the last night) and expecting him to cuddle but not touch you? Talk about cruel and unusual punishment (and, besides, who would want that?) I did respect how many other characters made a point of ensuring any sexual relationship they might have would be safe. Still, there's a disconnect in my mind with someone so forward that they'll fake being a boy and contacting boys right and left for two years being so shy that she'll barely kiss her boyfriend (twice) before disappearing forever. Again, though, I digress.

And all the unanswered issues: Did Nakatsu and Nakao recover from their unrequited loves and find new ones? Did Nakatsu make J-list (only question answered in bonus episode). Did our hero, Sano, make Nationals? The Olympics? Anything (given that it was to be part of his career that brought this whole story forward in the first place)? What about Sano's brother, did he ever beat Sano's rival? What about his promise to our heroine? What about Sano's relationship with his family what with him going to the US? What about Nanba, who we discover becomes a model, but never find out if he finds a lasting love? What about the doctor and his unrequited first love? Or his relationship with the erstwhile photographer who stalks him for like a year and needs to fill a void in his own life?

We never find out.

This 23 volume love story then ends with the abandoned hero "visiting" her a year later on the last page (and getting a hug for his trouble). And that's it. There is an "extra" session that touched on our characters (indicating that our hero is going to college near our heroine, but doesn't intend to ask her to marry him until he graduates) and explains what's happening to them to an extent, but leaves most questions unanswered. And even this unsatisfactory episode isn't included for those poor souls who invested in the entire series in books. Ouch.

I can't speak for the world at large, but I felt like the promise of this manga was left unfulfilled and that's a pretty miserable state of affairs after reading through so much for so long and becoming so fond of characters that are treated so very badly and left unresolved.

Damn it, I'm going to have to move this series into just "okay."

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Hana-Kimi: Okay [Updated]

In the interest of adding something I didn't have before, I will be mixing some new reviews and commentary with the transplants, starting with this one for Hana-Kimi. Note that, for the reviews on this blog, I won't be addressing individual volumes but whole series. I just don't think a volume review gives the whole picture. And, besides, I'm a completist.



Hana-Kimi (aka Hanazakari no Kimitachi e) by Hisayo Nakajo should have been a "gotta have 'em all." There were a number of delightful main and side characters, some beautiful drawing and a story I could like even if the premise wasn't the best. I even have the whole set. Unfortunately, the manga that had me reading it to all hours of the night ended entirely unsatisfactorily. I, in fact, hated the ending so much I dread reading the last few volumes. It flavors how I feel about this otherwise charming manga so much that it affects how I view the main protagonist and may even have me bump this down at some point to just "Okay." [Updated - had to do it]

Part of the problem is that I liked aspects of the manga so much that I'm offended at the wasted potential, which is the real pity. I liked it from the very start and it still makes me sad that this isn't one of my favorites.

Anime? No (but drama CDs and live action drama exist in Japan and Taiwan) Volumes of manga: 23 Status: Complete

My rating: Okay

Age range: It's listed for older teen and probably should be, but I wouldn't have the slightest hesitation giving this to my high schooler and probably not my middle schooler. I'm a bit progressive. The rating is probably for some near nudity and some pretty suggestive scenes (mostly between males). Still violence is a minimum and our main characters are impossibly pure as the driven snow.

Taboos and "warnings": Open about homosexuality and comfortable talking (non-graphically) about sex. Male on male kissing for those who are bothered by that (I'm not). Some nudity without seeing anything (male and female) and some pretty suggestive images.

Premise: American ditz (Japanese parents) becomes obsessed with a Japanese high jumper from watching him jump, convinces her parents to let her go - alone - to high school in Japan in the same school with him so she can meet him and see him jump in person. She manages not only to talk her parents into this but to hide the fact it's an all-boy, and boarding, high school from them, so she has to pretend to be male. As if that stream of unlikely events wasn't enough, fortune smiles on her by making the object of her obsession her roommate. I almost didn't even bother trying to read this manga because I thought the premise was so stupid.

What works: Overtly beautiful almost entirely male cast with beaucoup the personality. Hisayo Nakajo has, in my opinion, a real gift for drawing beautiful men and boys and making them likable.

Of all the aspects of this mangaka's art, I think she did outdid herself in making the men a joy to look at, pinup quality, in fact. How often do you say that about pen and ink drawings? Bodies are in nice proportion and our men wear their clothing as if they just stepped off the runway. Given the high school stresses academics, arts, and sports, we needn't worry about any pot bellies or unsightly forms here. And she arranges her story to maximize the opportunities to see them at their best, including having them hired as models. High jumping, naturally a significant part of the story, is shown beautifully and quite realistically (as far as this amateur could tell).

In addition to making these many male characters physically appealing, the artist did a fine job with making faces wonderfully expressive, which is good because her dialog was largely unremarkable. The body language and facial expressions were spot on and very effective in expressing a fair gamut of emotion and a pretty varied set of personalities especially noting that many of the faces were built on the same lines.

What's more, the personalities of these characters themselves were equally diverse, behaved in ways that felt believable and were, almost across the board, delightful. Whether they were of the highly beautiful set (Nanba, Sano and his brother Shin, Dr. Umeda and his father and Akiha, notably, though Sano's archrival wasn't bad either), or one of the many other boys at this private school, nearly every character had an individual charm. In fact, with only a few deliberate counterexamples, they all came across as natural and just plain nice people, even wonderful people. Nakatsu, who just missed being on the beautiful people list, was a real sweetheart as was his psychic roommate in a completely different way. It was a pleasure to interact with them.

Favorite character: In a rare instance, my favorite character was a side character. Dr. Umeda, the moody gay sarcastic doctor for the high school is second to discover our heroine's secret and inexplicably becomes her accomplice and confidente. He manages to be degenerate, shameless, lazy and violent while maintaining his dedication, beauty and sharp-tongued charm. He is, undoubtedly, the worst role model possible in his position and I just loved him.

I loved Sano, too, but he was almost too good to be true, too patient and tolerant in many ways. He gets a great deal of pity from me given how much he has to put up with from our heroine, but then, he let her get away with it so I guess it's his own fault. There were, in fact, a plethora of likeable characters here. Sadly, almost all of them were male. The girls, in general, left me bored or cold, with Ebi as an exception.

Quotes:

Dialog, in general, wasn't memorable to me. Nothing came to mind when I was trying to remember favorite quotes.


What I didn't like: Ashiya Mizuki. Aside from being an unabashed stalker (aided and abetted by her absent parents), she is quickly established as a clueless airhead with no judgement, intelligence, foresight, prudence or, oddly enough, womanly charm. Within days, her gender is discovered by no less than the school doctor and the object of her obsession, who then spend the rest of 23 volumes protecting her from herself and her thoughtless imprudent actions, usually fruitlessly since she never follows any of the good advice she receives. The doctor she knows knows her secret. Her roommate's insight, though painfully obvious to nearly everyone else in on her secret, she never notes for a year and a half and 22 volumes.

Although overtly dedicated to Sano (her idol), friendly and compassionate, she is hot-tempered and doesn't hesitate to intrude in things that don't concern her. Her reckless disregard for self-preservation drag her protectors (those that do and don't know her secret) into all kinds of trouble and inconvenience. Her artless friendliness and unwillingness to be mean make things uncomfortable for at least two classmates, causing considerable discomfort for her roommate in the know and considerable soul-searching and conflict for another classmate who isn't in the know. She goes blithely on even though she has ample reason to know better. Mizuki's strongest asset is her helplessness so overt that everyone is driven to protect her, not the kind of thing this reader looks for in a female protagonist.

Fortunately, the preponderance of likeable other characters and side stories meant that we could mostly overlook Mizuki and just roll our eyes at her idiotic antics, much like our male protagonists. Still, what a waste.

In addition to the unappealing female protagonist, there are also far too many contrived situations to convince boys to cross-dress at this school. Ironically, those boys considered "cute" and most girl-like (and Mizuki herself) have nowhere near the physical beauty or compelling presence of the overtly male counterparts. They are all also stupid, including Mizuki, which is insulting to women in general. The few other women in the manga tend to either be hard in a bad way, nonentities, or catty.

There were a number of inconsistencies/incompatibilities in the manga like Sano at first offering to let Mizuki spend the summer at his house and yet later on making it clear he didn't get along with his family at all. Osaka High is also the weirdest school I've ever read about with nothing making a damn bit of sense, really, from the weird RA council and the whacked dorm arrangements to the really strange festival traditions.

Toward the end of the series particularly, the pacing became painfully slow with more than three volumes dedicated a single ten day track meet (with no consequences or significance, other than mending Sano's family situation without really changing anything). And the drawing style, particularly for our main characters, changed in the last few volumes. Not, in my opinion, for the better.

However, I would have tolerated ALL of that, with no complaint because of how much I liked what I liked if the ending hadn't sucked big time. I hated the ending so badly I'm going to have to make it its own post.

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How I Became an Unlikely Otaku

For the longest time, one of my all time most treasured show memories has been of a show I watched when I was in middle school, Star Blazers. It was science fictiony and fantasy-ish and made no logical sense at all. It was also effectively a soap opera. And I loved it, ate it up, all but wept when they changed the schedule so it came on after I was in school.

I can watch it now, rent it, but it isn't the same. My tastes are more jaundiced, I'm more cynical and less forgiving of things like bad animation and repetitive plots. And, since I now watch animé with my somewhat of an animé aficionado husband, I couldn't help but compare it unfavorably with others I've seen since. But I will always remember it fondly.

Once Star Blazers fell off my horizon (going back to my youth), I managed to avoid watching animé for years. And, throughout my school years and a decade or so of working as a rocket scientist I'd never read any manga (or anything else vaguely comic-book like). Those manga that made it to our US market (that I was exposed to) were not the kind to appeal to me, repetitive fighting using magic, cards, droids or swords.

And then I had a child of my own who, at the age of five, became enamored with Pokémon. I not only bought her all the shows on tape, but spent a fortune (I could ill afford) getting Pokémon cards that she gave blithely away to friends. And strangers. The show was cute without really capturing my interest. The movies were better than many of the cartoon movies being produced at the time, but hardly earth shattering. As my daughter got older, she became a hardcore fan of animé and manga (and it should be noted that getting her started on manga went a long way to getting her interested in reading - she now devours books of every sort). But I was still detached. My husband, though not interested in manga, was very interested in animé of several different types, mostly the shonen (or male-oriented types with robots and stuff).

(For those of you gasping at the notion of a five year old watching Pokémon, we're pretty progressive at my house. And Steph's always had a taste for the macabre. This was a pleasant change from the scary movies she often wanted to drag me to.)

I saw a few animé I didn't mind much that my daughter and/or my husband liked, but I was mostly untouched.

And then I discovered Fruits Basket (the animé). My daughter had rented it from Netflix. The story's nonsensical. The characters are over the top. And I was completely sucked in, wrung out, enamored. I laughed. I cried. I had to own them all (and I do. I bought a set for my daughter, but she kept hiding them in her pit of a room so I have a set for myself too).

Then I tried the manga, the first manga I had really read. It was a new world for me, in many ways. Manga don't read like a regular comic book and it takes some getting used to, but I managed it. I loved them, loved this odd little world that was invented with its quirky (sometimes contradictory) rules and the complex interactions of people, particularly the main character, a self-effacing over-apologetic, self-sacrificing not-desperately-bright girl who was also uncorruptible, stubborn as a mule, and completely true. Everybody was flawed and had strengths and was complex and multi-faceted. Everyone had depths and charm of a particular flavor. The rules and nonsense didn't matter. The characters had pulled me in completely.

Then I got caught by a short-lived manga by the same author (Tsubasa: Those with Wings) where my husband laughed out at me from the pages of the manga. (I actually spot my husband a lot of places in animé and manga, which either means I'm besotted, or he's very Japanese in his thinking. Maybe both.)

Then my daughter got me hooked on another shoujo manga (those aimed at teenage girls, go figure) on a ridiculous premise that shouldn't hold anyone's interest but a few minutes. But the people there, rich, multifaceted, true at the core, caught me again, the manga just as much. It kills me that all the Ouran High School Host Club manga is not all available in English yet, though the Japanese side has made it to a satisfactory close. And, yeah, I own them all, too, at least those available.

I got caught by another manga (Black Bird) a few months ago, bought them all (all eight) and have probably read them 20 times so far. And then my husband and I have watched 100% of an animé we both fell in love with, Vandread. We both cried on the same episode. Guess what I got for Christmas.

So, you're probably wondering, have been wondering for some time as I've gushed, what is my point?

I haven't seen a manga or an animé that hasn't been full of holes or didn't have a ridiculous plot and over the top characters. But I love them. Millions of people love them and eat them up like I do.

What I want to know (and am hoping to figure out in these blog posts) is why? Why can something that's so silly and/or warped in many ways be so compelling? I write novels, as noted over at Rockets and Dragons, and I want to know what makes this so compelling in case there are lessons there for my own writing. I don't want my plots to be nonsense (though I don't really want them too convoluted either). But I want my characters to be real.

But I want what I write to speak to a reader, the right kind of receptive reader, like the mangas speak to me.

And that's my point.

BTW, animés that I love enough to own: Fruits Basket, Read or Die, Howl's Moving Castle, Ouran High School Host Club, Vandread, Sorcerer Hunters, Kaze No Stigma, Maid-Sama, Vampire Knight, Skip Beat! and Special A.

I have a running tally of mangas I like/dislike on the sidebar that will be expanded as I go forward. Some have reviews already done currently on Rockets and Dragons that will eventually move over here and be augmented with more reviews on new series I encounter. I'm already behind since I don't include Skip Beat! or Tokyo Crazy Paradise or High School Debut and more.

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And Some More Explanation

I'm making a change in this blog, partially because no one seems excited about asking me questions and partially because the blog itself hasn't been interesting to me for some time. So, I'm shutting down the "Ask Me Anything" portion of this; however, for those with burning questions, feel free to ask at Rocket Scientist which will remain as a blog for anything that isn't writing (Rockets and Dragons) or manga/anime related (this blog).

For those of you wondering about the new name, an otaku is a "Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime, manga, or video games" according to Wikipedia (those of you who are otaku likely didn't need that explanation). It's kind of odd that I'm one given that I didn't grow up on this, am not the target demographic (I read/watch almost exclusively shoujo manga/anime) of a teenage girl. And, of course, I'm both a novelist and a rocket scientist, neither of which I think most people associate with otaku-ness. Though I could be wrong. I don't know any other otaku personally.

Those who've known me for some time will attest that I do get caught up in obsessive interests from time to time. Some are just research projects (which is why I'm exhaustively expert in this and that and completely ignorant in many other things). Some are a fascinations with something that I need at the time, much like one deficient in a nutrient will crave foods that contain it.

Why am I doing this? Well, for one thing, I've developed a real passion for manga and anime over the last year or so and I wanted some place to talk about it. I, in fact, wrote a long series of manga and/or anime related posts on Rockets and Dragons, but it distracts from the novel writing discussions. I'll be moving those, over time, to here and adding more. I'll also dupe the manga list I had over here over here and update it as items transfer. If you click on any of the links to begin with, you'll find yourself at my other blog. Eventually, that will change.

I will also be adding new reviews of manga I've checked out, items of interest in general (like the irksome dissolution of Tokyopop in the middle of two of my gotta-have-'em-all series) and some monologues on what I've learned from manga/anime. Because I feel I do learn, have learned, many things my prose was missing. Knowing me, I'll want to pick apart why I'm so very very interested. I suspect my obsession will only start to fade when I've sucked out all I can from the genre, but I'm obviously not there yet.

I have no planned order so it might be a mix of old and new. Perhaps whimsically random. Or my sense of order might take control. Don't know yet. It's still a work in progress (as the header - this is a place holder). More on a plan if one ever materializes.

For those of you rolling your eyes and rushing to remove this from your blogrolls (go ahead - no sense making yourself miserable on topics that don't interest you), be grateful. My last two inexplicable obsessions were Brendan Fraser and Nelson Eddy.

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Upheaval in Progress

Things are about to change here, at Ask Me Anything as I move from responding to questions to writing about my current obsession, manga and anime.

Since I'm obsessed, expect the changeover will go slow. I have a placeholder header at the moment, but I hope to come up with something more clever...eventually.

Stay tuned.

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