The Kawaii Menace

From episode one of Sola.

Here’s the view from my front porch this week:

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

(If the rain doesn’t stop soon, my hair is going to be green with moss and algae. This is supposed to be Kansas.)

As I expected, the story has gotten darker as it nears the climax, but Shingu is still a great deal of fun.

German cameras.¹ So they still shoot film in 2070?

Embarrassing music

Boy or girl?

Bonus link: Ubu on what didn’t happen.

1. There are two different brands alluded to here, Contax, obviously, but also the M-series Leica (though the latter were rangefinder cameras, not SLRs like Futaba’s camera). [↩]

Baseball as a martial art

Armed and dangerous little sisters

Dancing aliens in tuxes

*****

Sometimes I have got to know What Happens Next. This was the case with Patricia McKillip’s Riddlemaster trilogy, which I read in one (long) sitting, and with Misaki Chronicles, which I watched in one evening. Other times, I want to go slowly and savor every little bit. I spent a week on John Crowley’s Little, Big, and not because it was a thick book. I’ve got two discs left of Shingu left, and I’m not going to rush through them. I’m enjoying the series too much. There are still surprises in every episode, even though I’m past the half-way point and the characters are old friends now.

Earlier this year I wondered if I’ve seen all the first-rate anime that’s available. This month I watched Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles and I’m in the middle of Shingu. Denno Coil also has been excellent so far. My interest in anime will eventually diminish, but it won’t happen as soon as I expected.

While there is still first-rate anime to be found, anime criticism remains a scandalously inept guide. Reviews of the Misaki saga range from limp to stupid, and there are virtually no reviews of Shingu at all. If Steven hadn’t written about them, I would never have bothered with either.

Duck

Old-fashioned seifuku

Nebula