Week 3
Revisiting:
Generation Kill:
This has been, what, the third time I watched Gen Kill? Probably. I just got the bluray and mostly watched it while working out, so I didn't pay the closest attention ever to it. Still, I'm always incredibly impressed with this series. Story-wise, there's not really anything new I took from it. I keep forgetting how young Walt looks, though, that always throws me for some reason. His actor is probably not even the youngest in the cast, but there's just something about his face, IDK. As always it's hard to believe that Wright actually went to the very front of the front lines (in the leading vehicle, no less) and stayed with the platoon for all of it. Like, why would command even agree to that, you know? I should read his book again for the back story of that assignment.
Now that I got to watch the special features, I'm even more amazed at just how good everything looks, how well the dialogue works, everything. But what really struck me was Rudy. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for him (and the other Marines who worked on this show), acting out things that really happened in your life, with other people playing the parts of your friends/comrades...how weird is that?
The next time I want to watch all the episodes with the audio commentary, but that'll probably be a while. For now, I have like twenty tabs of Brad/Nate fic to read through. Good times.
New stuff:
Orange Is the New Black:
I haven't had time for the second season yet, but I'll probably watch it in the next few days. As for the first season: I think I like it? I mean, I watched all of it, so that must mean I do, right? Honestly, I'm not sure what I think about this show. It's definitely good and I really like some of the characters and plots, don't get me wrong. The cause of my confusion is probably the main character, Piper. It took me a long time to warm up to her, and even now I still think that some of the other woman on the show are just much more interesting and should be the focus. Maybe it's because Piper is very much a character that's supposed to have these faults that I find grating and I'm having trouble coming to terms with that. Who knows?
Anyway, my favourite characters were probably Sophia, Red, Miss Claudette and Nicky (because she's snarky). Poussey seems like a really cool character, too, but there hasn't been enough of her in the first season, so I'm glad I get to watch her back story soon. I hate Larry. Larry is a dick. Also Pornstache, fuck that guy. All in all I didn't care all that much about the staff and skipped quite a few of their scenes in the later episodes.
Something I find really interest about OItNB is the prison setting. See, I watch a lot of documentaries and have come across a lot of them that are about US prisons. Don't ask me why this is such a common topic, I have no idea. They're very interesting and ~shocking~, though, so I supposed that's part of it. The point is, whenever I see one of those I think about the lone documentary on German prisons I watched forever ago, which stuck in my head because of how very much not like the (American) TV shows and movies it was. Everyone had their own rooms with proper doors, lots of furniture and personal items, their own TVs, clothes that weren't uniforms...it looked very reasonable, really, especially when compared to the footage I've seen of US prisons. Of course, that might just be for less dangerous criminals, but then I've also seen pictures and lay outs of the cells they held the main RAF members in, and those didn't seem as bad, either. (RAF in this case stands for the Rote Armee Fraktion, a German terrorist group and another documentary topic that i find incredibly fascinating.)
I should read up on prison systems sometimes, there's some interesting stuff out there. Like, somewhere in Scandinavia they let groups of inmates live in houses and make their own food and stuff to better prepare them for reintegration. And here in Germany incarceration rates have gone down so drastically that prisons are closing all over the place, getting sold and turned into apartment buildings and event spots and clubs! ...That last bit is very apropos of nothing, sorry. It's just one of my favourite things I learned recently, so I like mentioning it.
Kuragehime:
I caught up to the most recent chapter, but I honestly don't think I'll be keeping up with it. The reasons why I wanted to read the manga in the first place were 1) finding out more about the other Amars members and 2) development of a Kuranosuke/Tsukimi relationship. Neither of those things really happened so far, and the story shifted into a direction I don't find all that interesting. The art is pretty cute though, so I guess that's something.
Kuroshitsuji - OVAs:
I didn't know there were so many OVAs! :O My usual anime site doesn't have them for some reason, so I only found out about them when I saw them mentioned on tvtropes. The Behind The Scenes one was hilarious, I loved that one. And the Shinigami one was my favourite, as you might guess. Because Grell and Will. <3 <3 <3
Ongoing:
Sailor Moon Crystal:
I'm veeeeery sloooowly warming up to the art style. Probably because the other characters are getting introduced now and I find their character designs more pleasing than Usagi's? Oh well. Still hate the transformation sequence, that looked way prettier in the old anime.
The second episode introduced Ami, who was always my favourite of the main senshi. Aside from that I can't say I remember all that much about the original anime, though, so I'm looking forward to the story and everyone's introductions.
Generation Kill:
This has been, what, the third time I watched Gen Kill? Probably. I just got the bluray and mostly watched it while working out, so I didn't pay the closest attention ever to it. Still, I'm always incredibly impressed with this series. Story-wise, there's not really anything new I took from it. I keep forgetting how young Walt looks, though, that always throws me for some reason. His actor is probably not even the youngest in the cast, but there's just something about his face, IDK. As always it's hard to believe that Wright actually went to the very front of the front lines (in the leading vehicle, no less) and stayed with the platoon for all of it. Like, why would command even agree to that, you know? I should read his book again for the back story of that assignment.
Now that I got to watch the special features, I'm even more amazed at just how good everything looks, how well the dialogue works, everything. But what really struck me was Rudy. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for him (and the other Marines who worked on this show), acting out things that really happened in your life, with other people playing the parts of your friends/comrades...how weird is that?
The next time I want to watch all the episodes with the audio commentary, but that'll probably be a while. For now, I have like twenty tabs of Brad/Nate fic to read through. Good times.
New stuff:
Orange Is the New Black:
I haven't had time for the second season yet, but I'll probably watch it in the next few days. As for the first season: I think I like it? I mean, I watched all of it, so that must mean I do, right? Honestly, I'm not sure what I think about this show. It's definitely good and I really like some of the characters and plots, don't get me wrong. The cause of my confusion is probably the main character, Piper. It took me a long time to warm up to her, and even now I still think that some of the other woman on the show are just much more interesting and should be the focus. Maybe it's because Piper is very much a character that's supposed to have these faults that I find grating and I'm having trouble coming to terms with that. Who knows?
Anyway, my favourite characters were probably Sophia, Red, Miss Claudette and Nicky (because she's snarky). Poussey seems like a really cool character, too, but there hasn't been enough of her in the first season, so I'm glad I get to watch her back story soon. I hate Larry. Larry is a dick. Also Pornstache, fuck that guy. All in all I didn't care all that much about the staff and skipped quite a few of their scenes in the later episodes.
Something I find really interest about OItNB is the prison setting. See, I watch a lot of documentaries and have come across a lot of them that are about US prisons. Don't ask me why this is such a common topic, I have no idea. They're very interesting and ~shocking~, though, so I supposed that's part of it. The point is, whenever I see one of those I think about the lone documentary on German prisons I watched forever ago, which stuck in my head because of how very much not like the (American) TV shows and movies it was. Everyone had their own rooms with proper doors, lots of furniture and personal items, their own TVs, clothes that weren't uniforms...it looked very reasonable, really, especially when compared to the footage I've seen of US prisons. Of course, that might just be for less dangerous criminals, but then I've also seen pictures and lay outs of the cells they held the main RAF members in, and those didn't seem as bad, either. (RAF in this case stands for the Rote Armee Fraktion, a German terrorist group and another documentary topic that i find incredibly fascinating.)
I should read up on prison systems sometimes, there's some interesting stuff out there. Like, somewhere in Scandinavia they let groups of inmates live in houses and make their own food and stuff to better prepare them for reintegration. And here in Germany incarceration rates have gone down so drastically that prisons are closing all over the place, getting sold and turned into apartment buildings and event spots and clubs! ...That last bit is very apropos of nothing, sorry. It's just one of my favourite things I learned recently, so I like mentioning it.
Kuragehime:
I caught up to the most recent chapter, but I honestly don't think I'll be keeping up with it. The reasons why I wanted to read the manga in the first place were 1) finding out more about the other Amars members and 2) development of a Kuranosuke/Tsukimi relationship. Neither of those things really happened so far, and the story shifted into a direction I don't find all that interesting. The art is pretty cute though, so I guess that's something.
Kuroshitsuji - OVAs:
I didn't know there were so many OVAs! :O My usual anime site doesn't have them for some reason, so I only found out about them when I saw them mentioned on tvtropes. The Behind The Scenes one was hilarious, I loved that one. And the Shinigami one was my favourite, as you might guess. Because Grell and Will. <3 <3 <3
Ongoing:
Sailor Moon Crystal:
I'm veeeeery sloooowly warming up to the art style. Probably because the other characters are getting introduced now and I find their character designs more pleasing than Usagi's? Oh well. Still hate the transformation sequence, that looked way prettier in the old anime.
The second episode introduced Ami, who was always my favourite of the main senshi. Aside from that I can't say I remember all that much about the original anime, though, so I'm looking forward to the story and everyone's introductions.