dreaming on

I accidentally thought about D. Gray-Man. 36 hours later all I've been able to think about is some of the things I loved about this series, so here I am again. Much to my surprise, it hasn't been abandoned, it's still currently ongoing. So I'll liveblog it and in the future I'll have one more thing to read and remember how good it was.


Currently: Caught up to 251 and confused

Sorry to have vanished -- I've actually started using Facebook on a regular basis, so if you want to be my freyund there, that'd be fine. It's like Plurk, only the content is on average more interesting and less buttpatting.

But more importantly

D. GRAY-MAN

D. GRAY-MAN D. GRAY-MAN D. GRAY-MAN D. GRAY-MAN

D
GRAY
MAN

There is so much pretty artwork on Hoshino's Instagram account. I want to color all of it. Suddenly social media seems like an amazing thing! Someone had better scan that new chapter the second it comes out. I'll translate it myself okay, someone just needs to get it to me!!!

AHHHHH A THING HAPPENED

Everyone I know spoiled themselves days ago, but I get to be excited now, so y'all can go screw yourselves!

( Page-by-page ramblings... )

It's out at this random place!! But I'm going to have to edit this when I read the Mangastream version for clarity. ETA: And at Mangastream.

( Page-by-page commentary of flailingness. )

I've spent the last 48 hours refreshing Mangastream every ten minutes waiting for the new chapter to be out. FINALLY, IT HAPPENED. Mutter. And very shortly after I woke up from a nightmare at 7AM, checked to see if it was out, and then went back to sleep.

Here are my thoughts:

( lksjfdlskdjglkj AWESOME UNDER HERE )


tl;dr loved this chapter ahhh I love this manga.

......... *adds Link/Allen officially to list of ships on profile*

Now caught up on the entire D. Gray-man anime, apparently for no reason. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, perhaps because I skipped approximately 30 episodes of filler. It was beautiful: there is a vast, tangential difference the moment you go from "Lenalee and Allen are investigating a nonsensical hospital drama situation for what amounts to no reason" and "Crowley goes on his first mission to a town where everyone wants to hold hands with their local akuma" to "OH MY GOD SUMAN DARK AHHHH ALLEN'S ARM HOLY CRAP".

The filler was very annoying, not least because it didn't seem to know where it was going. Like, at least three episodes of the filler were about Allen telling his backstory to everyone who would stand still long enough to listen. They actually had to make up a second traumatic backstory for him to tell Lenalee about, and it was perfectly redundant to the previous traumatic backstory he had told her about.

(I say this like I resent it, but I am not really resentful of the anime giving Allen a first boyfriend in India. I am taking that to heart, yes sir.)

I was starting to get annoyed by the signs of them cramming Allen/Lenalee implications down my throat. I think they're adorable -- as presented in the manga. That means Allen occasionally finds her flusteringly cute and she's oblivious, and they fall asleep on each other's shoulders, and not that Lenalee gets jealous and bitchy whenever Allen finds someone else pretty. And I like that despite finding her flusteringly cute, Allen doesn't seem to care one way or another about Bak stalking Lenalee, except when he can use it as blackmail material.

Anyway, I think it's really adorable, but I don't really like it as a pairing. Of course, I'm rapidly growing to have a complete disinterest in Main Male/Main Female pairings, so when I like it you know it's because it's good or sweet in a sincere way and not just because That's How It's Supposed To Happen... But I have legitimate reasons for my reservations about this particular pairing.

( Here are my reservations about Allen/Lenalee. )

I spent all morning talking about Ichigo/Orihime, and then I go and post a Chad/Orihime fic at bleach_het. Some might say that I am doing it wrong. I think that I'm one of the few people doing it right.

"Come Back" by Echo Image reminds me of Lavi and Allen's fight. I have not dorked out this much over a slash pairing in quite a while; I almost exclusively ship het in Bleach, and there are definitely some slash pairings in Tales of the Abyss that catch my attention, but I can't talk because I made Asch into a girl, orz.

But Lavi/Allen has just the right amount of "We're really close friends who touch and hug and watch out for and desperately need each other" mixed with "There are ticking timebomb issues that mean that someday our relationship is going to explode." A+