GETTING AROUND TO IT

: "absolutely cuckoo." magnetic fields.

so now that we've got a DVD player at our disposal, i do believe that more anime might make it back into the regular diet over at La Casa de Diesel (& co.). there are several reasons for this, most of which should be pretty apparent if you know me at all. so i won't beat you over the head with them. nyah. will forever long for the days when LDs were lovely and plentiful, but there's no going backward, y'know? ;.;

anyrate, we rented and watched the first four layers of Serial Experiments Lain last night. without spoilers, some impressions:

1) i really wanted to like this. after hearing people talk about it, and reading about it, and especially seeing all of the artwork from it---i really wanted to like it. so i went into watching it with that predisposition.

2) while i'm getting rather tired of the opening theme (probably due to overexposure more than anything), i also really don't care for the ending theme. however, i'm digging the supremely minimalist and downright creepy score in general. hrrm.

3) the first two episodes layers, neither Spaz nor i was quite sure what to make of it. didn't get much out of them. this changed as we got into the third, and things turned around. i really do want to see more of this, and Spaz seemed amenable as well...once things started moving. generally, i like to try to give TV series four episodes in which to capture my interest, as far as anime goes. usually, this isn't a bad rule of thumb.*

4) after watching the first four layers and coming to the above conclusions, i mused that had i been watching this on TV, one episode per week...i probably wouldn't have gotten far enough to become interested. which is kind of sad, as i know i'm not viewing it quite as it was meant to be viewed, it being a TV series and all. but. the saving grace of viewing chunks of things, i s'pose.

will have more to say on it as i get to watch more. this DVD thing has opened up a whole new world, though. a new and dangerous world. good thing i'm pretty broke---it'd be a whole lot more dangerous if i wasn't. XD

* = HUGE case-in-point being Nurse Angel Ririka, SOS. at least, for me. back in the days before i had a full-time job and was still living with my mom, i had a whole lot more time to waste watch anime. so at one point, i struggled through about twelve episodes of this show before finally giving up. i just could not get into it. for the record, i also don't care for Hana Yori Dango, in terms of uber-shoujo-ness. oddly enough, Oniisama E... entertains me greatly, but i think that's more because of the SUPREMELY over-the-top melodrama and angst. still have yet to see (or read) Versailles no Bara, though, so i wouldn't really call me an Ikeda fangirl or anything. should i turn in my shoujo fangirl card yet...?

another thought occurred to me the other day, while listening to the same song i'm listening to now: don't a lot of Magnetic Fields songs sound a bit like they could be christmas music? don't they evoke similar feelings in the way they're constructed? don't the sounds play on your ears in the same way as when christmas songs were new to you and you hadn't had the unpleasant experience of hearing the ruddy Ukranian Bell Carol so many times you'd gotten completely sick of it?

of course, the lyrics aren't taken into consideration. that isn't the point. but what i think we ought to do is form the only carolling group i'd really ever want to be part of: one which goes and performs nicely arranged acappella versions of select Magnetic Fields songs, door-to-door, as is carolling custom.

it would be absolutely lovely, thinking about it---people listening would be very smiley and happy, and then would catch a particularly twisted lyric here or there, and that vague confusion would begin to dawn...

no, i haven't had any caffeine today. why do you ask?