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...or a close approximation thereof. See, I'm aware that I was able to function successfully, for long periods of time, without access to the Internet at home. I've just forgotten what that was like.
At any rate, I'm now ensconced in my new apartment with the Internet and television hooked up (although I managed to miss the last two weeks of FMA).
I saw the longform trailer for Howl's Moving Castle at the theater last week, and it looks pretty durn cool. Sophie is just as I imagined her, although Howl is a little two feminine-looking for my taste. (This is one of my top ten favorite books, so I've got more than the usual amount of opinions on How Things Should Be. But anyway...)
There was a brief moment of weirdness when I realised My god, they're going to be speaking Japanese, aren't they? and then a longer moment of horror when I realised that SMAP's own Kimura Takuya is going to be voicing Howl. Who knows, he may do a good job of it, but it would be nice to live in this country without the very air I breathe being saturated by Aging Boy Band. Oh well.
Calcifer looked really cool. I wonder if we're going to hear any of his Saucepan Song, and if so, how it will sound in Japanese. I like the fact that it was just alluded to in the book, so that I could hear it in the back of my mind, but if anyone can write a cute little children's bedtime rhyme tune, it's the Japanese.
So yes, excitement abounds.
これで以上です。
At any rate, I'm now ensconced in my new apartment with the Internet and television hooked up (although I managed to miss the last two weeks of FMA).
I saw the longform trailer for Howl's Moving Castle at the theater last week, and it looks pretty durn cool. Sophie is just as I imagined her, although Howl is a little two feminine-looking for my taste. (This is one of my top ten favorite books, so I've got more than the usual amount of opinions on How Things Should Be. But anyway...)
There was a brief moment of weirdness when I realised My god, they're going to be speaking Japanese, aren't they? and then a longer moment of horror when I realised that SMAP's own Kimura Takuya is going to be voicing Howl. Who knows, he may do a good job of it, but it would be nice to live in this country without the very air I breathe being saturated by Aging Boy Band. Oh well.
Calcifer looked really cool. I wonder if we're going to hear any of his Saucepan Song, and if so, how it will sound in Japanese. I like the fact that it was just alluded to in the book, so that I could hear it in the back of my mind, but if anyone can write a cute little children's bedtime rhyme tune, it's the Japanese.
So yes, excitement abounds.
これで以上です。
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From:
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There was a brief moment of weirdness when I realised My god, they're going to be speaking Japanese, aren't they?
One of the reasons why I've had a yen to lay paws on the translation some day to see how that was done. This book uses a onslaught of plot-related English puns, phrases and terms that use the word "h---t" and also Donne's "Song."
"Ki" terms maybe? Been really curious about it.
(Anyway, I do hope DWJ's books get an even higher profile as a result of this. She so deserves it.)
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Good point! I'm reasonably sure the book's been translated into Japanese; I might just pop down to the bookstore and take a peek. The Japanese have a word for h---t that can be used in the metaphoric sense, but there's another word for the physical thing itself. If the movie was subtitled out of English, I could see the translator using the kanji for the first and glossing it with the hiragana for the second, but the language track is in Japanese, so that's a moot point anyway.
(Anyway, I do hope DWJ's books get an even higher profile as a result of this.
I love Howl's, its sequel, and Dogsbody. But DWJ has been a mixed bag for me. It took me over six years of owning the Chrestomanci chronicles before I could get past the first fifty pages, and Dark Lord left me strangely cold. However, her books that I love, I really love. It'll be interesting to see what the 'I only read the book because it was a movie first!!11!' crowd makes of her stuff.
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So useful that English makes no distinction at all. I didn't notice any of them the first time through that book. Second time through I saw her clue-dropping, word-play nightmare for what it was. :D The shoe's on the other foot for a change -- I mean, it's usually Japanese puns that don't translate well.
But DWJ has been a mixed bag for me.
Yeah, I'm the same. I loved the first books, Charmed Life and Howl's, but I've got series blah issues. (I've had zero success plowing through those Dalemark books. And I think the Dark Lord books read like they were written expressly to illustrate an argument. Which they were, in a way.) I go back to her earlier one-shots most often: Eight Days of Luke, Homeward Bounders, Archer's Goon, Dogsbody, Fire and Hemlock.
She's very clever, but sometimes a bit too much -- her endings can get so convoluted that I can't untangle what's happened. But scenery along the way is usually very readable, so I don't mind very much. :D
And there will be DWJ doujinshi now, somewhere out there... ;_;
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Oddly enough, I figured Calcifer out about midway through the book during my first read. I can see how the storyline could survive without those double entendre, but what I'm interested in is how the language/culture-specific humour will come through. How does one get 'blackening Howl's name to the King' into Japanese? Or Howl's one liners, which really did make me laugh until my stomach hurt. And if you change them into Japanese-specific lines, is it really the same story?
And I think the Dark Lord books read like they were written expressly to illustrate an argument. Which they were, in a way.)
The thing with the Dark Lord books is that they started out like a high octane parody of the RPG/fantasy genre, and then changed gears midway through, and became quite serious. I had a problem with the books because it seemed as if they had major identity isssues.
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Ooo, you're good. I knew about removing and storing you-know-whats in other locations as it's such a common theme in the fairy tales she's sending up. I just didn't apply it to *this* situation. Must lay paws on that translation . . .
I do have her Tough Guide book, which (um, I think) came before the Dark Lord series. But I've never gotten through the thing; I'm thinking you have to be a lot better read in this genre than I am to appreciate it. I'd agree that the first book couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to be. I'm usually difficult to squick, but the followup had, uh, all sorts of implied (and careless) interspecies sex issues that make my brain ache.
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Not good so much as overly analytical about the storytelling process, perhaps. Midway through the book I started to wonder why specific words were making recurring appearances, and then you have Calcifer, and I put two and two together.
I'm usually difficult to squick, but the followup had, uh, all sorts of implied (and careless) interspecies sex issues that make my brain ache.
Hmm. Thanks for the warning. Now, do you think they were there intentionally, as a sort of failed funneh, or did she just miss them? I seem to remember one time travel movie in which the lead character ended up fathering his mother on his own grandmother...I don't think it was intentional so much as the scriptwriters just never considered the implications.
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As for the other, I'm not really certain what she intended.
In the first book, it's established that the "family" griffins in this series were created from human DNA/cells (equivalent). They're regarded as siblings/children.
In the second book (Year of the Griffin), the youngest griffin-daughter is enrolled in the (human) school, where she develops a huge crush on one of the (human) teachers. *Real* griffins also are after a little noncon with the other griffin-daughter.
The underlying which-way-*do*-they-swing? implications made me dizzy. Perhaps I'm just incredibly perverted. O_o
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Is it broadband or dialup? Because when I say you really have to see the last two episodes of FMA, I am sooooo not kidding. @_@ Let me know and I'll stick them up on the yareyare.ftp for you.
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And if you do manage to get them up, you can have a few free shares of my soul, or whatever you like. ;)
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Incidentally, where can I go dl them? Feel free to email the link to me if you don't want to post it publicly.
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So..let's see...4 weeks back. That would make episode 38 the last one you saw (the episode where Winry and Cheska (spell?) meet Sloth while they're tapping the Fuhrer's phone , right?)
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Just a ping
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....
-_-
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