I am a lady from Mars

I don't have much to talk about right now, as I'm currently fighting the good fight with iTunes (last night it wouldn't work, and today is crashed my computer), so here's a book survey taken from saffronlie!

( future librarian ramble ahead )

Sometimes, when I don't post on LJ as often, I forget how to use the site-specific coding. Oops.

Reply to this post and I'll name 5 fandoms so you can respond with your favorite character/person from each!

From suspicious:

1. Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei OF COURSE, this one is a toss up between Nozomu and Kafuka, who are also my favorite couple. I like the both of them because (like the entire cast) you don't see characters like them in most anime/manga, and because they are just delightfully bizarre. They play off each other so well and turn reality on it's head. Point being, I like crazy shit, and they are awfully crazy.

2. Teen Titans When I still kept websites, I had a Raven shrine, so, obviously, Raven. I like sarcastic characters (as will become clear), and Raven had a mouth on her. I really liked all the characters on that show, and generally had no qualms with it in general, but Raven really stood out in the cast. Characters like her were getting really popular about the time Teen Titans came out, but I really though she was a very well done version of the character. And I love her comic book version too, though I do have problems with the de-aging thing, but that's a different rant for another day.

3. Daria Sarcastic Girl No. 2. I love sarcasm in anyone ($10 says if there's a sarcastic character in it, they're my favorite... probably), and Daria taught me that being sarcastic and speaking your mind was just fine. I was much younger when the show originally came out, so I kind of took pride in the fact that there was a well-known character out there that I looked and acted so much like in elementary/middle school.

4. Kuragehime Tsukimi! I love all of the sisterhood, but Tsukimi was the most amazing, adorable lady nerd I'd encountered in media in a while. You don't see "onna otaku" in entertainment much, and Kuragehime was like a godsend. I was just attracted to Tsukimi's adorable obsessiveness. She just couldn't be cuter.

5. Panty and Stocking As I watched the show, my favorite was definitely Stocking, who would have made sarcastic girl no. 3. But when we got to the TROLL ENDING, I wasn't so sure anymore. ): So if I had to decide now, I would say Brief. He was just adorable and hilarious throughout the series, and I actually look forward to him playing a bigger part in the second season, and I thought he was cute even before we got to see his face. X3

❝WHICH HOGWARTS HOUSE DO I BELONG IN?❞

Please? :3

Okay, so, I came across this a few months ago, but apparently the story just was just picked up by the mainstream media, so it seems it's true. (I didn't know if it was at the time I originally read the first article, and it was the only one I could find.) This is a a very important post if you are a woman and might need to go to a hospital which many of us probably will at some point.

Article 1, from ABC: Students Perform Pelvic Exams Without Consent

Article 2, the one I originally read from a Canadian new site: Time to End Pelvic Exams Without Consent

Article 3, a really helpful Q&A: Medical Student Won't Perform Pelvic Exams on Anesthetized Patients

Like I said, THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. Yes, medical students may perform pelvic exams on you when you are knocked out in a hospital after any sort of surgery. They are ALLOWED and ENCOURAGED to do this. This really makes me mad, as not only is it a horrible invasion of privacy, but it's just WRONG: If you don't give your consent for this, they shouldn't be allowed to do it, but they don't ask; they just do it anyway. Having your genitals messed with when you're unconscious? Does that scream "date rape" to anyone else?

If you're worried about the articles being triggering (because they kind of are), the suggestion of one med student was if you have to go in for surgery, write on your bikini line that you do not give your consent for a pelvic exam while you are unconscious. If they don't stop when they see that, well, you have a serious reason to sue then, don't you?

And it all comes down to money. This practice apparently takes place because hospitals are too cheap/lazy to hire volunteers and don't want to have to pay said volunteers, so they just do it on unconscious women cuz I guess that's cool or something? I don't even fucking know.

I love all of you on my flist and I think you all deserve to know this. Even you dudes; tell the ladies in your life! Everyone should know about this, and if they find it questionable, they should QUESTION it!

This has been a PSA.

Best Anime Villain



Ozu is not quite a villain. There isn't exactly a villain or even an antagonist in Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei/The Tatami Galaxy, because with every episode the characters are met and seen from different perspectives. But Ozu is the primary antagonist throughout the series. Even though he's the main character's best friend, he often manages to ruin the "rose colored campus life" the main character seeks and also often ends up in a dress for some reason.

It's not so much that Ozu even means to make the character's life terrible. He just does it because him having a nice life conflicts directly with the main character having one. As it's said in the first episode, it's either the main characters or Ozu who will end up happy, and Ozu seems to win out until the main character (who, yes, does not have a name), gets his shit together and takes control of his own life.

Ozu, though an actual character, and not necessarily a villain, is a metaphor for all the unfortunate stuff that happens to us in life and keeps us down; the thing that always gets in the way from achieving what we really want. And many people have an Ozu. I think he makes for a wonderful villain because EVERYONE technically comes up against him at some point in their lives. Perhaps not in the form of an often dressing wearing co-ed, but somehow, somewhere, they do. He's the antagonist we all know and deal with on a regular basis.

Though I admit, Ozu often comes off as more likable than the main character a lot of time, so that also could be the reason I enjoy his "villainy" so much. While you're screaming at the main character to make better choices in his life already, you're watching Ozu scheme and get his life together in ways that just happen to screw with the main character's. That the main character can't see this can be a little frustrating, but at least the rehashing is fresh every episode and we don't have to sit through another Endless Eight disaster.

Man, I talk a lot. Did anyone besides me even watch this show?

Most Intriguing Anime Artwork



Red Garden is a very intriguing terror anime all on it's own, but I think the art is what makes it really special. A lot of people are actually turned off by it. I've seen a lot of comments about the "weird noses" and that the characters look like they're wearing "white face," but I think that's just people being used to their big eyed, tiny nosed animu characters. First of all, the characters are supposed to be European and not Asian. The production team also took a trip to New York to study the surroundings and people (though it's pretty clear they didn't both with the language). The characters might look a lot different, but there's definitely a good reason.

As I mentioned, the show is a terror/horror series, and I think the characters look a little "grotesque" really helps that. The characters look like people, but if necessary, their features can be easily tweaked to make them look monstrous. The odder the features, the more mysterious the character. A lot of viewers expressed being AFRAID of the character Lula, because she had a very large mouth. And she was supposed to be a weird, scary character and not necessarily understood. Hello Kitty has big eyes, a tiny nose and no mouth because people find that cute and relatable; Lula has small eyes and a big nose and mouth because she's off-putting and somewhat upsetting. And she's supposed to be.

So I think the character designer knew exactly what they were doing when they designed the characters to have exaggerated facial features. They wanted to creep you out.

Best Yandere Character



Yandere pretty much come from two places: Higurashi and everywhere else. I never planned on watching Higurashi and I never really saw yanderes "anywhere else" in anything else I had watched. I thought it was creepy how much the fans got off on loli bitches killing each other, but Erik talked me into watching Higurashi. So I watch the first season. He got bored rewatching it halfway through, so I finished it myself.

I didn't really get it at first. I knew there were arcs, but how come they overlapped? Why did the main character suddenly start remembering them later on all of a sudden? It seemed very cop out-ish. But then Rena went nuts.

And how! While in the other arcs the characters went crazy, no one went AS crazy as Rena eventually does. The maggots, the alien invasion theory, the fight on the roof. If you're going to be crazy, you might as well go all out. And Rena certainly did. Where Satoko and Rika just didn't go crazy enough and Mion and Shion pulled all the twin/family drama bullshit, Rena just threw up her hands and went "Nah, Imma just go CRAZY being CRAZY." And then she did.

But I also like her when she's sane. She's got that whole detective thing going on and isn't the helpless derp she comes off as. She's smart, she's skilled and she's persistent. And until she inevitably goes crazy, she's a pretty amazing character. And then she goes crazy and she's even more awesome.

Tl;dr, I totally get why loli bitches going crazy is awesome and I will watch the second season and OVA eventually. 8Db