Surprising

I didn't think I knew that much about the series.
( No, I'm not referring to Firefly. )

This was by no means my first exposure to anime like it was for a lot of people, either...I blame it all on John Biles, who got me interested in the series by way of his fanfic Children of Fire, which I stumbled over while looking for new Ranma 1/2 fanfic.

Surprising

I didn't think I knew that much about the series.
( No, I'm not referring to Firefly. )

This was by no means my first exposure to anime like it was for a lot of people, either...I blame it all on John Biles, who got me interested in the series by way of his fanfic Children of Fire, which I stumbled over while looking for new Ranma 1/2 fanfic.

Wargame detritus, eBay, and a world next door

( Dull and boring daily routine stuff follows. )

I also wanted to mention Ben Katchor in connection with James Lileks' Long Gone collection of the Minneapolis that was in pictures, the Hirschoff Collection down at the Hennepin History Museum (also see Down & Out, and Room at the Bottom) , not apropos of anything in particular, but it occasionally strikes me as I'm riding through the older and scruffier parts of town - what if? What if some people had gotten their way and things downtown stayed pretty much the way they were in the 1950s, without the massive urban renewal? What if the changes had come more slowly, so that instead of the questionable profitability and glitziness of Block E we still had all the old bars and the "other" Shinder's down where the Borders is now? Developers spend millions trying to create "authenticity" and "urban flavor", but that's the sort of thing you can't really build from scratch.

Someday, server space and 3-D graphics software will be cheap enough so that the Gateway District's Skid Row will come back to life, after a fashion, and you'll be able to walk the streets and see the old buildings as they were, but it won't be the same.

Wargame detritus, eBay, and a world next door

( Dull and boring daily routine stuff follows. )

I also wanted to mention Ben Katchor in connection with James Lileks' Long Gone collection of the Minneapolis that was in pictures, the Hirschoff Collection down at the Hennepin History Museum (also see Down & Out, and Room at the Bottom) , not apropos of anything in particular, but it occasionally strikes me as I'm riding through the older and scruffier parts of town - what if? What if some people had gotten their way and things downtown stayed pretty much the way they were in the 1950s, without the massive urban renewal? What if the changes had come more slowly, so that instead of the questionable profitability and glitziness of Block E we still had all the old bars and the "other" Shinder's down where the Borders is now? Developers spend millions trying to create "authenticity" and "urban flavor", but that's the sort of thing you can't really build from scratch.

Someday, server space and 3-D graphics software will be cheap enough so that the Gateway District's Skid Row will come back to life, after a fashion, and you'll be able to walk the streets and see the old buildings as they were, but it won't be the same.

Cheap, exotic and filling

So I picked up El-Hazard: The Wanderers at The Right Stuf, since it was on sale for $40 at the time, and since I'd seen some of it before this seemed like a good way to find out how the rest of it goes.

Now, I knew going into it that some people thought the TV version of the story just sucked rocks, but since I hadn't seen the entire first OVA I wasn't inclined to be quite that critical, and after finally wrapping it up last night I can cheerfully say that it wasn't all that bad. There are enough changes from the OVA to make it more than just a family-friendly remake, and while there are tinges of harem comedy to it, it's not obnoxious. I'd recommend it to anyone, especially since Right Stuf just knocked another five bucks off the price.

Cheap, exotic and filling

So I picked up El-Hazard: The Wanderers at The Right Stuf, since it was on sale for $40 at the time, and since I'd seen some of it before this seemed like a good way to find out how the rest of it goes.

Now, I knew going into it that some people thought the TV version of the story just sucked rocks, but since I hadn't seen the entire first OVA I wasn't inclined to be quite that critical, and after finally wrapping it up last night I can cheerfully say that it wasn't all that bad. There are enough changes from the OVA to make it more than just a family-friendly remake, and while there are tinges of harem comedy to it, it's not obnoxious. I'd recommend it to anyone, especially since Right Stuf just knocked another five bucks off the price.