eBay hated me tonight

[taotrooper]

I mentioned this on Twitter, but repeating it here: This site has a load of subtitles for series to download. Pretty handy if you, say, want to watch British TV shows and there are too many unfamiliar accents for you to follow.

More of the alphabet meme because I'm bored and lazy. Finishing it later.

One Piece
This is the only Shounen Jump series I really follow (although I do buy Gintama sometimes). I actually LIKE that it doesn't end up in OMG SERIOUS FIGHT SERIOUS BUSINESS like all other typical shounen out there. Because yeah, One Piece does have dark themes and angst and nasty stuff, believe it or not, but it doesn't overwhelm you. There's a lot of hope in it, mind you. Luffy probably saved as many lives as Kamina in fandom!secrets (just kidding! maybe) And also, it never loses the humor. Sure, it looks like silly pirate adventures, and that they are, but Oda keeps improving as a fiction writer with every arc (I keep saying that Alabasta and Skypiea are two of the most lovely stories I've read in manga, with or without pirates beating crap around). It's never repetitive as, say, Bleach or Dragonball. Every island is a world. Every character has a certain charm. Not giving it a chance because of the art is like ignoring Osamu Tezuka's seinen manga because of his Disney-like art. People should give it a chance until finished Arlong Park to see if they're into it.

Traveling pairings
Last time I ranted about Slayers, I mentioned that they might be the reason I'm into pairings who have no established home and, for some reason or none whatsoever, wander around forever. There was Lina and Gourry, then Schmendrick and Molly, then Chunhyang and Mong Ryong (goddammit, CLAMP), recently Isaac and Miria if I liked LOTR better, Legolas and Gimli?!?. There's something strangely romantic about it.
Traveling fiction
But shipping aside, and now for something completely different, it's no secret I adore the traveler genre in anime (I'd like it in other media if it were more common). It's a quirky little genre in which usually the stories are one shots all revolving the same protagonist, who happens to be a traveler who can't stay in the same place. It's not quite slice of life, but they normally give this interesting outlook on human kind. Kino no Tabi in particular reminds me of the chapters of The Little Prince in which he visited several planets/asteroids before landing on Earth. That's more or less the traveler genre. Mushishi is also focused on nature and humans co-existing with other kinds of beings. Mononoke is on a supernatural/horror vein, with Japanese mythology going on, but the aesops are on the humans to blame on the grudges. However, they all have in common the external point of view, the mystery of these travelers, and the artistic beauty of the ephemeral.

Verdad (truth)
I'm not sure what you meant by this. Like, truth as an abstract concept? Or my personal truths? Or truth in fiction/fandoms? Well, I think truth in general is a scary thing. I'm not saying lies or keeping secrets is better, but it's still scary because normally it ain't pretty. And really, do I need to know if aliens truly abduct us or if there's life beyond death or if a politic is building the worst nuclear weapon? I like to be able to sleep at night! Even if in fiction I find the quest for truth appealing, I can't say I strive for it in real life because I'm damn sure I wouldn't be able to handle one larger than myself. But in fiction, what a marvelous yet terrible thing! I think you gotta have balls as a character to WANT to know it and fight to get it. Science, magic, religion, conspiracies, politics, crimes, whatever the area is. I can't help but respect those characters, especially if they're smart enough to figure it out without being entirely told.
And this is why, glimmer and "shallowness" aside, that I grew attached to Klavier Gavin in GS4.