The Plot Glut

Steve DenBeste was talking about how, once you boil it all down, a lot of the harem animes are the same. Worse yet, you need to be a CPM to really differentiate between some of the shows. And their greatest sin? They flunk the refrigerator test, even before you finish the show.

Does this tie into the glut of remakes? Let's see, Disturbia is a remake of one of the great classics (Rear Window), the swarm of TV shows being remade into movies (the person that does an A-Team remake will go on the same list at Uwe Boll as "people I'll feed into wood chipper, feet first"), and such.

Why? Quite frankly, we're running out of plots. It hasn't all been done before, but I'd say about 70-80% of it's all been done before. What's left is getting pretty esoteric, and pretty weird-and something off-the-wall and strange.

Some of the things that could be done...here's an idea. Try taking a trope, and subervting it.

I've been banging around this idea for a manga/anime seires. Take the Fushigi Yugi plot and mess around with it...

Our main character is accidentally summoned from our world to a Asian magical fantasy world to fulfill a prophesy. The Princess of Roses will marry the Dragon Prince, and will lead that world through it's next thousand years of what it becomes. As the time comes closer, the sixteen Dragon Princes (and Princesses) start appearing, eight bright and eight dark. Once the Dragons kill each other off, one will be left to marry the Princess. If a bright prince marries the Princess, "good" things happen. If a dark prince marries the Princess, "bad" things happen. Both for a given value of good and bad.

So, the "good" and "bad" guys are gathering up the Princes and Princesses to await the summoning of the Princess of Roses...

And this time, the summoned one is a guy. That has all the characteristics and rules of the marks the Princess of Roses should be. Whom is most certainly not a retiring and reticent type. He can make gunpowder and can do blacksmithing, and is a military and engineering otaku. He knows history. A few episodes along, he organizes a village into a small Roman legion with longbows for ranged weapons. He exists as a major change in the world...and there are people that don't want change.

Hilarity, death, romance, and comedy ensue from there.

Concealed Carry For California?

I need some help here.

According to this, there is a pretty set procedure for getting a proposition on the ballot.

After what happened today at Virgina Tech, I think it's time.

Hell, I think it's way past time.

Only one.

That's all that had to have been there. Only one with a gun. Only one that was willing to stand up and fight.

Highly Depressing...

Everybody has heard the news about the attacks on the Virgina Tech campus.

What makes it worse is that there was a major legislative proposal to allow concealed carry on campus. That it died on committee is something that people will be regretting.

My fears? I go to college, in the evenings. And, as you know God made little green apples, somebody is going to try and do better-and survive.

If it happens when I'm around...I live in California. Where the "right people" think we shouldn't be able to defend ourselves. Because if I could, I'd be carrying. Not because of this...because I believe I should be able to defend myself. And others. A state of affairs that somebody at work would have liked-she got robbed in San Francisco, in broad daylight, by a free-lance socialist. Shooting him a few times would have been a good thing, in my opinion...

Grr. I'm tired and long days...and the idiot count has gone up...

Saw "300" Again...

...and, damn if that isn't a powerful film.

It's the sort of film Hollywood should be making. The bad guys are bad guys, the good guys are good guys, the villains are nasty, and the moral is one that should be told, over and over and over again.

Hollywood won't make this kind of film, because it means they have to acknowledge that there is good and evil. Not just "a few points of view".

The bad guys commit horrible atrocities in the name of their god-king. Oh, did I mention that they consider civilians a "valid target"?

I wonder why Hollyweird wouldn't want to make heroes that fight this kind of evil...

First Test Drive Completed!

I got to watch Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, all thirteen episodes. God bless fansubs.

It's a fun, occasionally light, occasionally deep series. Fight choreography is much different, it does flow togeter a lot better. I did especially love the magic system...spells more as programs than arcane formulas. Interesting concept, I must think about it more...

I really wish the characters were older, Episode 5 left me feeling a bit icky, and Fate Testarossa was pushing about 1.2-1.3 reis (clone of the original girl and despised by her "mother", and used only to gather the Jewel Seeds needed to resurrect the original). It was a good story, tho the next series seems to be aiming at the whole shojo/blowing up Tokyo power levels. Not sure how that'll be...but we'll see.

Opinion? Worth watching if you're a big fan of the "magical girl" genre. The character youth should be carefully considered, but it's a good show.