Spring is here and I have officially run out of excuses for not cleaning. I have gained all of my original weight back, and that means that I have entered DEFCON 3 and I now have to keep the sugar away through any means necessary. Since I can't go to the gym three days out of the week (two days because I donate plasma for that sweet, sweet book money) I will need to turn days that I get milked for my blood water into cleaning days.
Just... I can't possibly get those scorch marks out of the carpet where that cast iron got dropped from that fire. Rugs? Gah.
I got my record player set up in the bedroom, and listening to records while writing in bed is actually a pretty great joy. Listening to that "Encounter with Monolith" song from 2001: A Space Odyssey on vinyl is an atmospheric, haunting experience.
I will have to start cleaning soon, but before I go about doing just that -
Kamisama Kiss, Vol. 1
Filled with a lot of that Shojo googly-eyed softened close-ups of character's faces as they come to realizations about other people's feelings, most of this is pretty uninteresting and has been done previously already, HOWEVER - the manga managed to surprise me about, oh, four times or so, with a few laughs to be had, surprisingly enough. You look at the cover, you know where this story is going to go. The protagonist is all knees and elbows, literally and figuratively knocking into everything like a seven year old, the guy is all aloof towards her and has adorable fox ears. The story is all Fruits Basket with its homeless pretty girl with no family and all of these mystical male characters telling her that she's actually super pretty *gasp* and super special somehow.
HOWEVER - this story is apparently contingent on the protagonist becoming powerful as she learns her own powers and grows to Believe in Herself(tm) and I have a soft spot for this type of trope. Also, I like how in spite of her weakness, she has some real balls and doesn't back down when she gets her mind to it.
I will give this manga one more volume to prove its worth to me, for I do have a sometimes longing for Shojo as long as its lower on the trashy spectrum.
Goddamn shojo,
Intense close-ups of the girl characters with their hair fluttering in the wind and a "I just saw a man naked for the first time" look on their faces for a good 1/5 of the manga - laziness, lack of artist ability or ART? You decide!
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