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After watching the first 21 eps of Yawara! I have to say I don't care for the series.

Yawara! stars Yawara Inokuma, a normal girl who is unusually strong at Judo. The series is about her journey to becoming a famous Judo Idol and discovering love. My issue with this show is that Yawara just wants to be a normal girl, wear pretty dresses, and fall in love and it doesn't let her do that. She doesn't have any agency, all the people making decisions for her, claiming that they know better are male. Her grandfather is determined that she's going to win the Olympic gold medal in Judo despite the fact that due to a childhood issue, Yawara doesn't want to compete in Judo. She's forced to fight due to the actions of a newspaper reporter and the sleazy coach uses the fact that she has a crush on him to get her to do stuff.

There are pieces that kept me going for a while until the urge to hit the guys got too great. Yawara teaching the Judo club and caring about what was happening to them was great. That was something she did because she wanted to and was challenged by it. Sayaka was great at the very beginning but then went all crazy over the coach guy which didn't make any sense for her character.

Animation is gorgeous and the characters are interesting but it is a very frustrating watch.
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Fire fighter Nanase isn't my usual fare but it's one I'm going to keep following. It is a fairly dark series simply because of the subject matter of fire arson investigation. Nanase's parents were killed by an arson fire when she was a child and so she is determined to become an arson investigator. The problem that she has is that she has an major arsonist as a devoted stalker. For some reason he seems to be training her about fires and it is creepy. The art is strong and really reflects the dangers of her job. This isn't a series that I would recommend mainlining all at one time. Just the two volumes I read tonight were enough to creep me out.
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Go West Vol 1&2

This was an interesting story and I really like Naomi but the research for it was definitely superficial. It did at least acknowledge the fact that the Indians existed and that they had good reason to hate the white man.

The series is definitely cracky which can be expected as it's written and drawn by the guy who wrote Those who hunt for elves. I think I'm going to follow it for right now for Naomi. ^_^
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The Changelings
by YAMAUCHI Naomi / HIMURO Saeko
Chps 1-10
Scanslated by Wingtipcafe

This is the story of a brother and sister who crossdress. The sister because she acted like a boy and the brother because his mother believed that he would die if brought up as a boy. Life goes on for them until female Kira runs away because her father doesn't want her to have a boys coming of age ceremony. Then she gets called to court and of course everyone loves her. Stuff happens and her brother Kira comes to court as a female to be the companion of the crown prince.

The plot of this isn't that strong and the character's aren't the greatest. The best part of this series is how matter of factly they treat the fact that more than one wife was expected and the little details on how their lives worked. I have no idea how accurately those details were, but they are what made me keep reading the series. The art (technical skills) isn't that strong but it did a good job of expressing the story.
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Ashita no Ousama
Mangaka/Author: Yachi Emiko
Japanese Josei manga
scanslated by Wingtipcafe
Chpter downloads at website or you can find it on OneManga
http://wingtipcafe.com/en/?page_id=55

The Story:
Yuu a very plain girl from the country gets dragged along to see a play by a classmate. She ends up falling in love with the theater and is determined to become an actress. After getting accepted by a theater troupe as an odd-job girl she starts learning about the theater. The story continues with Yuu learning about what she wants from the theater and there is a romance blooming between Yuu and the actor that inspired her to join the theater.

The characterizations of the various characters are good and it is so nice to see a mature cast instead of teenagers. I enjoyed how it showed Yuu fantasizing about a relationship and knowing that is is fantasy. The bit about unrequited love was also spot on. ^_^

Artwise it uses a lot more backgrounds then I see in shojo today. I gulped this series down so fast that I didn't really notice much about the detail in the art but what I did notice was good.
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Broken Reaper's Princess (Auto Shojo Generator)
Skip Beat!
Kyoko/Kanae

When Sho broke Kyoko's heart wide open, it freed all the demons that she had captured. Luckily for Kyoko, her demons had grown fond of her and were furious at Sho for how he treated their host. They decided to help Kyoko in her goal to beat Sho at his own game. Eventually they realized they were going to need help so they decided to recruit someone. They had considered Ren, but only his smile was just too deadly. Kanae, they quickly realized was their best bet. She had a weakness to Kyoko that they knew they could exploit perfectly.
rosesinbloom: (cheer)
Yay! The really crappy first draft of my Kyoko/Ren/Ogata thing is done. Of course I ended up backing off of having any romance happen and it could practically take the place of the chp. that was originally in the manga which could be good or bad. Bad because it wasn't what I really wanted to attempt to right and good because it means I didn't mangle the characters too badly. *hopefully*
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Figured out how to get Kyoko drunk! It's all for acting, because it's helpful for actors to know what the different types of Alcohol taste like and the different impressions they leave. A character who likes expensive brandy is probably going to be different than a character who likes cheap beer and knowing the assumptions behind those choices will help her characterizations! ^_^

This is going to really need to be fleshed out later, because I think I'm relaying a lot on people knowing the series and seeing the characters the same way I do.

Tomorrow my goal is to write Kyoko getting drunk, show that Ren and Ogata are drunk, and possibly even get them onto that bed. It's so sad that I'm happy to have written 300 words today.
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Heh, I'm still slowly plugging away at my Ogata/Ren/Kyoko attempt and yeah, I'm not nearly as far along as I thought I was. This thing is going to need so! much editing before it is even close to being somewhat presentable. I do have the ending (sort of) though and I like the way it causes the story just to be this one big circle.
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I think I've finished about 2/3rds or maybe 3/4th(if I'm lucky) of the Ogata/Ren/Kyoko thing I'm writing. The main problem with it being that there's no porn what's so ever in it so far and I know I'm just going to fade to black instead of putting any in. Oh well. I'm not even writing it in first person ^_^ Of course it's all in rough draft so far and I'm not letting myself go back and edit it because I'm still writing the rough draft.

Finished the first season/box set of Detective Conan and I think I'm definitely going to have to watch the next season/box set before I do anything for the series. The first season is more character build up than plot driven as all the eps were pretty much stand alone. Characterization seem pretty solid and consistent.
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I've been rereading Skip Beat in between watching Detective Conan Season 1 and really want Ren/Kyoko/Ogata threesome. The pornier the better too. ^_^

You have Ogata wanting to do something for Ren in exchange for freeing him from his father's shadow. Ren struggling with finding his Katsuki and Kyoko who is standing right in front of him cheering him on. Really the main problem with this scenario is Kyoko and her issues regarding men thanks to Sho. It might work if it was a fantasy of Ogata's on how to solve Ren's problem with Katsuki. I really wish I could write porn, I may end up trying to even though it would be horrible.

I can't wait to see the translations for the latest chp. The spoilers I've read for it sound like the next couple of chapters are going to be awesome!
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http://porn-tree.dreamwidth.org/1517.html?thread=57325#t57325

Skip Beat Comment Fic

Ruriko/Kyoko unrequited love Gen

I'm never going to become a better writer without actually writing. ^_^