SPOILER ALERT: This blog discusses my reaction to anime stories, which means I discuss spoilers.
Buffynicity #1: Last Tuesday I ordered a 1 quart saucepan on Amazon so I could make ramen noodles while I watch anime. I was looking up “most loved anime characters” because I really want to get on the emotional wavelength of the culture. I found several lists that had characters from Naruto on them. I’ve been curious about Naruto because it’s one of the “big three” core anime that set the standard for everything that came after – One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach. Then I was looking for “anime like Black Clover” and Naruto came up again. So I decided to go ahead and start it, and in the first episode Iruka offers to have ramen with Naruto twice. I take that as a sign.
I was very pleased that Naruto is much faster paced than Black Clover, which required some patience to get through the first few episodes (although it was well worth it). I’m wondering if I’ll get the same feelings about the cast as I have about Black Clover.
Buffynicity #2:
I went to work out and I was watching this video on my phone. I was thinking all about Steve Martin and then I looked up and saw this commercial on the overhead screens:
So it’s a definite Buffynicity. Does it matter that I’m embedding the videos?
Buffynicity #3: I went somewhere I usually go, but I wasn’t sure if anyone knew who I was. Two people called me by my name for the first time.
That was Friday. Saturday was Free Comic Book day. I drove to my usual comic store but I took a wrong turn. I actually programmed my GPS for the mall but I “accidentally” entered the name wrong, it autofilled a different location that “just happened” to be on the way to a toy store I used to go to that I haven’t visited in years. The owner welcomed me by name when I came in. So that’s another addition to Friday’s Buffynicity.
This morning I was talking to a friend about Jungian Alchemy and I’m going to send them an outline for my fantasy heptalogy based on the Book of Lambspring.
I restarted with my Black Clover blog more than two weeks ago, thinking about one night in particular that I had been talking to a friend by the lake. That friend just called me for the first time in months and they are coming over tomorrow to watch Farscape. I’ve been watching Farscape with them, and only them for years. We’re only on season three. Months or even years have passed between episodes for us, but we’re still at it.
So my friend came over and we had a great time.
Buffynicity #4 My friend hasn’t been to my place since I created my current light show, with the whirling lights and LED displays that make my bedroom look like an aquarium. So when he came over I said several times “I can’t wait for you to see my light show.” Then as we watched S3E6 of Farscape, the villain took a shot at Crichton with some kind of plasma beam and Crichton mocked his “light show”. Furthermore, after the episode we took a walk up the lakeside into Evanston, and they had installed blue streetlights all along the road, giving the lake and the cemetery opposite it an eerily beautiful astral glow that seemed to extend the light show even further.
We’re having a donation day at work so I cleaned out my closet but I have to do twice as much laundry.
I watched S1E9 of Freezing tonight. Satelli believes that Kazuya only likes her because she has his sister’s stigmata. It’s horrifying! I thought about running right into the next episode, just to resolve the crisis, because as a side note there are also four Novas invading with new attacks that have decimated East Genetics. But what I love about this anime is that that is totally secondary to Satelli’s heartbreak, a suffering so intense that she dropped her cheeseburgers – that is a moment I will remember forever.
I feel for Satelli, even though I know it’s only a show. But I am reminded of how it was too painful to think about all the layers of feeling I had about Song One, so that I went ahead and plunged into an episode of Black Clover. I still remember that moment, though, and maybe if I watch Black Clover it will also preserve this moment for me.
I think it worked. Going from immersion in one anime world to another only increased the sense of vastness and sensuality of it all. But what about that moment of agony that Satellizer is in? Or was in 15 years ago when the anime was released? Of course I’ve seen episodes of season two (“Vibration”), so I’m not worried about what happens, but I’m still caught in the moment. And I think being caught in that moment (hopefully I’ll figure out how that works as I go on) only enhanced my enjoyment of Black Clover, as the excellent writing continues, satirizing class conflicts and introducing an interesting subtlety to Klaus’s character as he is embarrassed by Yuno’s courage.
Should I write SPOILER ALERT here? Because I’m talking about the story. Am I really intending for anyone to read this? I have to confront the question. The answer is more than 50 percent “no”, but still it would be rude not to, in case anyone did bother to read this.
The question remains. How much should I be “enjoying” the emotional distress of Satellizer? What is going on in my subconscious as I experience this “moment” from different angles?
Buffynicity #5: I’m doing laundry to donate at work and Yuno was competing with Asta to give more money to the folks back home.
I love that Orfai is always crying with sentimentality, so the writers aren’t just being bitter about classism, they’re taking a balanced approach to all the characters (except Sister Lily, of course).
I went ahead and put SPOILER ALERT at the top of this entry.
Regnum Somniorum 