Finally finished all of Death Note!
My feelings on Light Yagami aren't much of a secret - he's a complete and utter tool, and I was very happy to see him finally get what he deserved. I couldn't really understand why Misa and Kiyomi threw themselves at him so utterly - actually, I can. Misa's a silly girl and Kiyomi has all the personality of a plant, making them both easy bait for smarmy megalomaniacs.
Aside from that, the largest point of contention for me was the death of L. L managed to secure himself a spot on my "ten favourite fictional characters of all time" list, to the point where I actually own an L plushie. Naturally, after he died I pretty much had a, "screw you guys, I'm going home!" moment... for about three weeks. General curiosity and interest in how the whole time skip thing would work had me go back. And, I will say, I didn't hate his replacements.
Mello, I liked instantly, because while Near seemed to be just a carbon copy of L with ezChange stamped on his head, Mello was actually different - as well as quite interesting, because there was more to him than just being a vessel for his omg!vast intellect. I didn't really warm up to Near until I read that were it not for him being chosen as L's successor and having his future guaranteed, he probably would have starved to death by now. The whole thing about his inability to function by himself redeemed him a bit, because it didn't seem like Near had any faults before that - he was just L without actually being L, which seemed more of an insult than anything. Still, it was much better than it could have been, considering my favourite character got killed off halfway and I was able to watch to the end, and not utterly hate his replacements*.
What was actually a bigger issue was that the Kira taskforce was made up of people who were almost completely interchangeable. Aside from Matsuda and Yagami Sr., I had a tendency to forget what the men on the taskforce looked like seconds after they were out of the shot, something I thought would ever only happen to the actor who played Jason on Gilmore Girls before he grew the beard**. One thing I liked, though, was how badly they all aged... with the exception of Matsuda, who was far prettier than any idiot detective should be. Even after finishing the series, I only know the names of Matsuda and Aizawa, and the latter is due to having rocked the 'fro earlier on.
Also, maybe this is just me, but all the female characters were so... boring. Well, no, that's not true. Misa certainly wasn't boring but honey, if you're living together as a couple but sleeping in separate rooms? There's something very wrong. Kiyomi, as I previously said, had all the personality of a particularly decorative piece of wallpaper and was rather odd looking beside. If you're going to draw attention to a girl having a womanly build, maybe don't try to convince people that she's 5'4" and one-hundred and ten pounds. Also, having her lipstick match her hair colour was entirely unnecessary. BUT I DIGRESS. I guess the thing that made me actually sit up and take notice was Rem. All the other Shinigami were interesting and fun to watch, which of course I mean, all the other male Shinigami were interesting and fun to watch. Rem was, well, boring. I'm trying to not draw a parallel being gender and likability, but it seems the show itself is determined to draw it for me.
Maybe if I pretend Mello was a girl! I can live with that***.
Another thing that popped out at me! I've seen a lot of people compare Light Yagami with Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass, but I always thought that Ryuk and C.C. (well, C.C. sans character development... or whatever the hell happened to her - seriously, Sunrise, WTF?) were more similar. They were both observers who existed for the purely technical reason of not having the protagonist talk to himself about his plans all the time, and they both facilitated many unpleasant events because they could. The fascinating difference comes from C.C.'s appearance - "she looks like a cute girl, so she could never be a monster!" Snorfle. (I do realise that there's a lot more to C.C. than just having the same role in the story as Ryuk, but that should be reserved for the CG entry... if I even do one.)
On the whole, I give it a 8/10. If only just for the hilarity. Yes, Light, you eat that potato chip. EAT IT, YOU ANOREXIC.
*At Anime North, I spent a bit of time with someone who was clearly an L fangirl, and who fervently insisted that she hated both Mello and Near just because they replaced L. (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
devlinnreiko knows who I'm talking about!) I expected I'd go the same way... but I also expected I'd end up 'shipping Zuko/Katara before I actually sat down and watched Avatar, and, well... HAHAHA NO. So, clearly I shouldn't even try to anticipate my own reactions.
**Even though he's neither tall nor particularly skinny, he would be the perfect Moist von Lipwig. I try to picture his beardless face in my head and I just can't. It takes talent to be that forgettable - hell, I can't even remember the dude's name! ...Chris Eigeman, I think.
***More like, I will force myself to live with that. I don't know if I would like Mello less if dude was a chick, but I'm not eager to find out. In fact, I've been kind of worried that my tendency to vastly prefer male characters in fiction and fascination with victimising Chidori in my writing means I am very, very misogynistic. Unfortunately, it's not something I can deal with just by saying, "You're a chick, you can't a misogynist." I do, however, have a burning hatred of Twilight for romanticising an abusive relationship, which I like to think counts for something.
Aside from that, have starting playing Kingdom Hearts again. Got through Agrabah, finally. Jafar was amusingly easily. Went on to Monstro, left too soon, didn't finish the entire thing. Now at the near end of Atlantica. I'll admit, I figured Atlantica would just be incredibly frustrating musical mini-games with Ariel and her twenty-eight and a half sisters. I didn't expect Ursula to try and eat Sora. I got close to beating her in a second try of fighting her head, but I guess I stopped paying attention to Sora's life gauge, because she said something like, "I'll show you blah," and then Sora was basically the Kingdom Hearts equivalent of fried fish. I was flabbergasted, and that's when I decided to quit for the day.
Now I'm sleepy. Again.
♥ to anyone who read through my blather.
My feelings on Light Yagami aren't much of a secret - he's a complete and utter tool, and I was very happy to see him finally get what he deserved. I couldn't really understand why Misa and Kiyomi threw themselves at him so utterly - actually, I can. Misa's a silly girl and Kiyomi has all the personality of a plant, making them both easy bait for smarmy megalomaniacs.
Aside from that, the largest point of contention for me was the death of L. L managed to secure himself a spot on my "ten favourite fictional characters of all time" list, to the point where I actually own an L plushie. Naturally, after he died I pretty much had a, "screw you guys, I'm going home!" moment... for about three weeks. General curiosity and interest in how the whole time skip thing would work had me go back. And, I will say, I didn't hate his replacements.
Mello, I liked instantly, because while Near seemed to be just a carbon copy of L with ezChange stamped on his head, Mello was actually different - as well as quite interesting, because there was more to him than just being a vessel for his omg!vast intellect. I didn't really warm up to Near until I read that were it not for him being chosen as L's successor and having his future guaranteed, he probably would have starved to death by now. The whole thing about his inability to function by himself redeemed him a bit, because it didn't seem like Near had any faults before that - he was just L without actually being L, which seemed more of an insult than anything. Still, it was much better than it could have been, considering my favourite character got killed off halfway and I was able to watch to the end, and not utterly hate his replacements*.
What was actually a bigger issue was that the Kira taskforce was made up of people who were almost completely interchangeable. Aside from Matsuda and Yagami Sr., I had a tendency to forget what the men on the taskforce looked like seconds after they were out of the shot, something I thought would ever only happen to the actor who played Jason on Gilmore Girls before he grew the beard**. One thing I liked, though, was how badly they all aged... with the exception of Matsuda, who was far prettier than any idiot detective should be. Even after finishing the series, I only know the names of Matsuda and Aizawa, and the latter is due to having rocked the 'fro earlier on.
Also, maybe this is just me, but all the female characters were so... boring. Well, no, that's not true. Misa certainly wasn't boring but honey, if you're living together as a couple but sleeping in separate rooms? There's something very wrong. Kiyomi, as I previously said, had all the personality of a particularly decorative piece of wallpaper and was rather odd looking beside. If you're going to draw attention to a girl having a womanly build, maybe don't try to convince people that she's 5'4" and one-hundred and ten pounds. Also, having her lipstick match her hair colour was entirely unnecessary. BUT I DIGRESS. I guess the thing that made me actually sit up and take notice was Rem. All the other Shinigami were interesting and fun to watch, which of course I mean, all the other male Shinigami were interesting and fun to watch. Rem was, well, boring. I'm trying to not draw a parallel being gender and likability, but it seems the show itself is determined to draw it for me.
Maybe if I pretend Mello was a girl! I can live with that***.
Another thing that popped out at me! I've seen a lot of people compare Light Yagami with Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass, but I always thought that Ryuk and C.C. (well, C.C. sans character development... or whatever the hell happened to her - seriously, Sunrise, WTF?) were more similar. They were both observers who existed for the purely technical reason of not having the protagonist talk to himself about his plans all the time, and they both facilitated many unpleasant events because they could. The fascinating difference comes from C.C.'s appearance - "she looks like a cute girl, so she could never be a monster!" Snorfle. (I do realise that there's a lot more to C.C. than just having the same role in the story as Ryuk, but that should be reserved for the CG entry... if I even do one.)
On the whole, I give it a 8/10. If only just for the hilarity. Yes, Light, you eat that potato chip. EAT IT, YOU ANOREXIC.
*At Anime North, I spent a bit of time with someone who was clearly an L fangirl, and who fervently insisted that she hated both Mello and Near just because they replaced L. (
devlinnreiko knows who I'm talking about!) I expected I'd go the same way... but I also expected I'd end up 'shipping Zuko/Katara before I actually sat down and watched Avatar, and, well... HAHAHA NO. So, clearly I shouldn't even try to anticipate my own reactions.**Even though he's neither tall nor particularly skinny, he would be the perfect Moist von Lipwig. I try to picture his beardless face in my head and I just can't. It takes talent to be that forgettable - hell, I can't even remember the dude's name! ...Chris Eigeman, I think.
***More like, I will force myself to live with that. I don't know if I would like Mello less if dude was a chick, but I'm not eager to find out. In fact, I've been kind of worried that my tendency to vastly prefer male characters in fiction and fascination with victimising Chidori in my writing means I am very, very misogynistic. Unfortunately, it's not something I can deal with just by saying, "You're a chick, you can't a misogynist." I do, however, have a burning hatred of Twilight for romanticising an abusive relationship, which I like to think counts for something.
Aside from that, have starting playing Kingdom Hearts again. Got through Agrabah, finally. Jafar was amusingly easily. Went on to Monstro, left too soon, didn't finish the entire thing. Now at the near end of Atlantica. I'll admit, I figured Atlantica would just be incredibly frustrating musical mini-games with Ariel and her twenty-eight and a half sisters. I didn't expect Ursula to try and eat Sora. I got close to beating her in a second try of fighting her head, but I guess I stopped paying attention to Sora's life gauge, because she said something like, "I'll show you blah," and then Sora was basically the Kingdom Hearts equivalent of fried fish. I was flabbergasted, and that's when I decided to quit for the day.
Now I'm sleepy. Again.
♥ to anyone who read through my blather.
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