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I was pretty crazy with work until a couple of weeks ago, at which point I finished some stuff I've been behind on for a year, and since then things have been fantastic. How about you, back to classes yet? I still have a little more summer, thanks to the quarter system.

Oh, geez, you actually want to hear about the math/science ed stuff? Normally that scares people off, hehe. Neat!

So, for example, in undergraduate-level physics, there is a well-documented issue where even students who do very well in a class, A's all down the line, can give textbook-perfect answers to questions about Newtonian mechanics (forces and motion stuff)... if they're phrased just like a homework problem. The same students will be completely incapable of answering a similar question if it's phrased to test their conceptual understanding of the same laws, and will instead give answers indicating that the naive ideas they held about the subject upon entering the class are basically unchanged.

There are similar issues in a number of other fields of science--the way it's currently taught, most students learn physics (and etc.) as a collection of rote facts to be memorized and then forgotten, rather than a coherent framework that can better explain the universe. Mathematics has a related set of troubles, but the research there has been more focused on K-12 than university level, so I'm less familiar with it.

There are better ways to teach all of this material, but for a variety of reasons it's not a popular subject of research, and even when the work is done its results are generally ignored by the broader teaching community. (If you've ever tried to tell a professor that their PhD in physics doesn't actually mean they know the best way to teach the subject, well, calling it a tough sell would be polite.)

That's bad enough, but it's not just a general education issue, it's also an equity issue--the way science is currently taught is not good for most students, but it's disproportionately bad for students from underrepresented groups, meaning women and minorities. That's a whole separate and thorny topic, so I'll just note that the social relevance is part of what keeps me coming back to the subject.

Anyway, I tried to tread the line between too much and too little detail, dunno if it worked. The short version is that what you said about you as a student is far from unique, and in many cases it's a structural problem with the class rather than with you (or most of the other students) not having plenty of capacity to learn math.

Ranting over... you can do a lot worse with your life than public service while you sort things out, so good on you. I hope it's a smooth final year--any big capstone projects to do, or is it just a question of finishing classes?

Nothin' wrong with the PS2, mine still works great. It was also my entry system to gaming (my folks never let us have a Nintendo when I was a kid, sadness), via Deus Ex. As for FF, the other one I tried and didn't like was X--I spent the first several hours running from cut-scene to cut-scene with not much happening, and lost interest. I've kind of gathered from talking to several of my gaming friends that nostalgia is part of the draw, and I can definitely sympathize with that. It wasn't a formative gaming experience for me, but I know it was for a lot of people.

So with X, my main problem was that there wasn't enough active gameplay. With XII, I just found a lot of things about the interface awkward, like the sometimes huge distance between save points or the way you could easily wander into a fight that would demolish you, with no real warning. In both of them, I enjoyed the art but wasn't so keen on the writing, which seemed bland. I'm usually focused on gameplay first, but any time a game wants me to spend a lot of time sitting and watching prerecorded scenes, I get judgmental, hehe.

Shadow Hearts does look interesting, and I'll throw it on the pile. We got Gamefly a couple of months ago, so I'm now much more likely to try things I'm not sure about (or would have trouble finding, for older games). And I haven't gotten to P4 yet, but it's only a matter of time--possibly after I try Heavy Rain, which is next on the list (it's by the people who did Indigo Prophecy, if you ever played that--good example of a cutscene-heavy game that I really liked).

I loved Mass Effect. Looooved. The gameplay was in the sweet spot for me, with lots of action but not an unbroken string of it, and no strategy guide required to build a solid character. Fun dialog options, supporting cast I mostly liked, the works.

I've also gotten good mileage out of the Grand Theft Auto games, although to be honest I kind of struggle with the misogyny there.

Could I bother you to tell me about Vagrant Story? I heard it was awesomesauce from my husband, and am debating whether to check it out now that it's available again (presumably cheapish) via PS3 online.

Sorry, this has gotten way long, so I'll cut off. Oh! One last thing while I'm pestering you for your opinion, what are your thoughts on Selected Pandemonium? I saw it on your reading list, and I've been holding off on trying to start it because it's not finished. But I've really enjoyed some of the author's other stuff, so I keep being tempted.

Hope classes are going well if you've started them, and if not enjoy manga reading until then. :)

Hooray, I'm really glad you liked YKK so much. I still have trouble articulating why it means so much to me, but I'd snap it up in a heartbeat if it was ever licensed in English. For a long time it was my only manga 10--it just makes me happy to read.

Math-wise, yep, I'm interested in college level material. I know most people hate it, which is too bad, because there's a lot of really cool stuff in differential equations and Fourier series and whatnot, but most people are turned off long before then. And I could go on at really tiresome length about math and science education and its problems, so I should probably stop there, heh.

Mind if I ask... uh, "what are you going to do with your life?" sounds so judgmental, hehe. I'm never sure how to phrase that. But I know you're in college, and I'm always a little curious about the "day job" fields of the people I talk anime with.

I saw the 2003 series of FMA, and I've heard that I should watch Brotherhood also. Fidelity to the manga isn't always a big deal to me, especially if I see the anime first so I have no expectations, but I'm always up for watching another interpretation of the same story. And one of the things I really liked about the show was the characterization, both for the brothers and the supporting cast, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what the author does at manga length.

Ohh, video games. I do play, albeit slowly--it takes me so long to work through any given video game that I'm usually a year or more behind. The current vacuum on my spare time (and part of the reason I'm slow responding to messages, sorry about that) is Dragon Age. I've loved every Bioware RPG I've played, most recently finally getting through Mass Effect. God knows I've been waiting long enough to play a female lead character in a video game.

I also gave up on Final Fantasy XII not long ago. It makes me sad, because every other gamer I know loves the franchise, but I've tried two of them now and just not been enthralled. But in the last couple of years I've played and loved Persona 3, Okami, Katamari Damacy (well, I was re-buying that one), and a couple of Guitar Hero games. That's probably a fair sampling of what I play--from looking again at your profile, seems like we have some overlap there too. Any particular system preference, or are you as (over-)invested as me in consoles?

No problem at all, I noticed you hadn't been around for a while and figured you were busy, home for the summer, or the like. I did happen to look the other day and saw your avatar change and YKK in your favorites list--I take it that once you got around to reading further, you enjoyed it? I also liked Walking Man, and I've been told (but not yet verified) that Aqua/Aria are nice reads for people who liked YKK. (And for some reason I'm having database trouble seeing people's lists, so I can't check if that or anything else recommended below is already known for you.)

I'm in an applied mathematics program, which can mean various things depending on which department you're in around the country, but in my case means I do fluid dynamics with a mathematical emphasis. Thanks for the good wishes! I'll need, them, although I think the end is in sight now (in another year or so, I hope). How was your internship, aside from busy?

To Kill a Mockingbird is excellent stuff, and also agreed about Gregory Peck. If you're looking for a Paul Newman movie to try (not that you actually asked, hehe), you might give Cool Hand Luke a look. It's not the happiest story in the world, but very well done.

In the LGBT department, definitely the best I've seen recently is Gods and Monsters, which is mostly about the friendship between a (gay) aging movie director and his (straight) gardener. Ian McKellan and Brendan Fraser both give great performances. Prior to that the last things that stick out in my mind are Prick Up Your Ears (with the always watchable Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina being crazy together) and Wilde (starring Stephen Fry as Oscar Wilde). I feel like I'm forgetting something else, but it's not coming to me right now--all of those are good, I think, with Gods and Monsters at the top of the list.

Ah, actually, one more which kinda-sorta counts, and I'd have forgotten if not for Alfred Molina. Frida is about Frida Kahlo, who was bisexual, and that comes up intermittently although it's not really a dominant theme of the movie. From our conversations I think you might enjoy it if you haven't seen it, and I'd be curious to know what you think. It's about a woman with a pretty troubled life, but not about how she was broken by her troubles, if that makes sense.

I'm glad to hear that FMA is good, since it's been in my sights for a while but it'll take me a while longer yet to get around to it, and it's always nice to have something to look forward to. I'm normally a little wary about long shounen series, but I do make exceptions, and I really enjoyed the anime (aside from the ending, which I found kind of so-so in that WTF anime way). Was there anything in particular about it that grabbed you, or just all-around good?

The best thing I've read recently was Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms, which is a pair of stories about living in post-Hiroshima Japan. Basically peaceful but still hard to read, very emotional stuff.

Hmm, for some reason I can't load anyone's completed manga list right now, so I can't tell if you've already read that one, or remind myself of other high-rated things that I've finished recently. Oh! One more is Fruits Basket, which has some great family drama in it if you don't mind a bit of shoujo melodrama (I certainly don't).

I may think of others later when I can access my list again, but hopefully that'll do for a start. Welcome back, and enjoy your month of relaxation and reading. :)

Its taken from one of the short storys from this Manga: http://myanimelist.net/manga.php?id=2914 :)

Not rude at all--I'm in grad school, so class me as a student with pretensions of being an educator someday. :)

I have the Lady Snowblood movie in the queue, though I don't remember where... checking... oh, 46, near the the top. Well, I'll have an opinion on it eventually, but you probably don't want to wait on me.

I'm always looking for badass women, but it's kind of hard. Here's what I can remember:

Battle Angel Alita (along with what I've read so far of the sequel series, Last Order) is one of my favorites. In addition to Alita being tough as nails in a fight, she's also stubborn, not the sharpest pencil in the box, and does a lot of growing up over the series--in other words, a fairly well-rounded character.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is great for this, with two of the main characters being very strong action women. (And if you're a Miyazaki fan at all, you should check it out anyway.)

Claymore is about an order of all-female fighters, so there's a large cast of women with big swords. The main character is a little wooden in the first volume (and is always reserved), but things flesh out nicely from there, at least up through what I've read.

Shin Angyo Onshi is... a little gray in this area. One of the main characters is an absolute terror in a fight, but she doesn't have a strongly developed personality (for reasons that are eventually somewhat explained) and goes around in a very "gosh I wonder if the artist is a horny guy" costume.

Ghost in the Shell has the Major, who's a pretty badass cyborg if you don't mind the sometimes boobtastic art.

Tokyo Crazy Paradise has sorta rough art and a fair bit of ridiculousness in its storyline, but one of the things that made me like it anyway was that Tsukasa is consistently a badass and generally gets to save her employer (/"he's not my boyfriend, I hate that guy, honest") instead of the other way around.

I could probably dig up a few more, but that's what I found from filtering the top end of my list. I feel like I'm forgetting something, but hopefully it'll come to me later.

Back to Lady Snowblood... yeah, you're right that it managed to stay intense despite the camp, which isn't easy. I remember thinking at the end that she'd walked into the sea, because all of her business in life was finished, and that was pretty satisfying for me. Then I looked it up and realized that she survived for a sequel series, so I guess the author wasn't as bleak as me.

I've thought about Lone Wolf and Cub, hadn't added it yet because of... actually, I don't remember why. I think I was worried that without a female protagonist, it would be too much bleak samurai guy stuff to interest me? I know it's a manga classic, though, so I should probably give it a chance.

Bette Davis is an interesting one--she was in mostly lightweight romantic comedies when she was younger, but as she got older played a number of very strong-willed characters, both in sympathetic and malicious story roles. I mention that because probably my favorite black and white movie is one of hers, All About Eve, which has an absolutely brilliant script and a number of really strong performances. It narrowly beats out The Seven Samurai and Dr. Strangelove for my top spot (and another of hers, The Little Foxes, isn't far behind). What about you?

Oh, I'm really glad you enjoyed Planetes. If you ever get back into watching much, the anime is also great, with enough differences to be well worth seeing both. I also agree that the hard science could have been a problem--I've read too much SF that was basically engineering fanfic with no serious characterization--but Planetes didn't make that mistake. Also, the cat is classy, hehe. I think it'll be staying for a while as an avatar.

Finally, lots of nice stuff in bluefooted's gallery, so thanks for passing that along. And once you've had a little more time to recover from finals and get back to reading, I'd like to hear about your latest finds too.

If you want give me your mail and I'll send you the books.
Well, there are some of the panels we've already seen in manga, but there are more of the original pieces, like the characters in modern clothing, or just some sketches Inoue made, playing with colors. However two books have some parts that are the same in both of them.
I live in Israel, it's rare to see a store that sales manga, so forget about finding an artbook anywhere around.
I checked ebay, and they had them.

Any thing is better than nothing ^_^ Good or bad. I know not everybody can elaborate as much as i do and thats fine, just some sort of effort is appreciated but you don't have to do anything. K0k0 is a good friend of mine and she's did my profile just fine. Funny thing is, she's reviewed my things in the profile, character, 10/10 anime, and all the other "rate the person above" thread so i cant use her anymore haha.

I did say "oh well move on" so we can go ahead an just move on. Just a short fused rage for a small amount of time, I'm sane again so... cheers!

Hey! I'm good but busy, which is all right. Glad you're through with finals, and sorry they were a hassle. I have another few weeks left in the academic year, myself (boo quarters).

Hah, it sounds like you enjoyed Lady Snowblood for the same reasons I did--the main character kicks ass. The first time or two I ran across its description, I moved on, because it seemed like the sort of setup that I'm wary of from guy writers. I finally gave it a look because it was well rated and I heard it was part of the inspiration for Kill Bill, and now I'm glad that I did.

I agree that the lesbian scenes were kind of... uninspiring. I'd guess that they were put in to show that the character really was indifferent to things like that, and women as well as men were just stepping stones, like you said. But they were kind of odd. For me, the biggest "..." moment was when one of the volumes (I think?) ended on a cliffhanger showing the shadow of some guy's giant dong.

So... obviously the series was a little over the top sometimes, but for me it didn't go too far and so its quirks stayed lovable rather than obnoxious. I also liked that the female cast was a little more varied than the usual stereotypes--Oyuki's mother consciously engineered her pregnancy rather than the more cliched "raped woman seeks revenge" setup, the old woman from prison who helped Oyuki... lots of little things added up, and what could have been a really terrible story turned out to be really enjoyable for me, so I couldn't help but rate it highly.

Anyway, enough of me rambling about that. I'm glad you liked it, too. :)

I'll give Ran a look soonish--I think it's in my queue already, but I can move it up soon. It'll be good to break up the stream of Bette Davis movies near the top (speaking of unrepentant hell-bitches). Something I forgot to say earlier is that if you haven't seen Red Beard in particular, you might enjoy it; my recollection is that it's excellent in a less grim way than a lot of Kurosawa's other movies.

(I paused typing there to confirm my memory of Red Beard with my husband, since it's been years since I saw it. At that point I discovered that he didn't think of Kurosawa's moves as grim, so we argued about that for a few minutes, and ended up deciding that he couldn't really say one way or the other about Red Beard, since his impressions were obviously a bit different from mine. Well, I'll let the recommendation stand since I know it has fewer samurai screaming than many Kurosawa films, hehe.)

Hmm, checking my last month, Planetes and Emma were highlights, but you already have those... oh! It kind of depends on your sense of humor, but High School Girls was (for me) an unusually funny comedy manga about a set of friends at an all-girls school. It's kind of raunchy, and there were more panty shots than I normally like in a series, but if you don't mind those it's well worth a look.

I've also started Fruits Basket, whose anime was one of my early positive experiences, so I'm hoping that the manga will be similarly good. If the anime was an accurate adaptation, the story is one part romance and two parts family drama, and it might be up your alley.

Whew, there's the end of another over-long rambling from me. I mean to ask, where's your new profile picture from? It's very nice.

Sorry i spent well over 60 minutes writing this post.
Can you at least give me the courtesy of writing a half-baked "review' of what i have? I'll even take something as silly as this.
Thank you very much for your time.
"oh wells" was kinda rude but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

Cheers~

> Speaking of the artwork, do you happen to own the two artbooks, one in colour and the other B&W?

I don't own, I downloaded them just to see what was in them, but I really don't mind buying them, If only I knew where from =)

>And is Real good? If so, is it on par with Slam Dunk? I'd appreciate your opinion :)

REAL is amazing, it's about basketball as well, but mostly about basketball in wheelchair and how you deal with your inability to function as healthy human being. It is on par with Slam Dunk, it's just that Slam Dunk has more funny moments, while REAL deals with very complicated issues and more down to earth maybe. I believe you're going to love it as much as any other Inoue's work. It's really good.

> Vagabond is indeed the only manga where every frame can potentially be used as wallpaper.

That is so true, I was actually thinking about turning to one of those companies that make big wall pictures from the picture you send them. I thought sending them couple of manga frames, just imagining those pieces of art on my wall got me so excited. But it costs a lot. So maybe sometime in the future =)

Well, of course my favorite arc is Kojiro's, it was really interesting and intriguing following that father-son dynamic, just as you said, the behavior of a little boy was implemented with great precision and then seeing what came out of it, such a magnificent grown up :)
And Yoshioka arc, where Sasaki meets Musashi again.

>Do you reckon Inoue-sensei will be able to complete the series within the year as announced?

Yeah, I've read about it. I was a bit disappointed, thinking that it might end in couple of months, too bad. But still, that's a story with a determined ending, too much of dragging can ruin it too. Though I don't mind Inoue moving on to REAL, which is another of his masterpieces that I really like.

Inoue Takehiko is genius. Firstly, for his art skills, his drawings, landscapes, control of different styles, it's a pleasure just to look at his pictures. Secondly, his ability of creating such a strong bond between readers and the characters, which are so well developed, they have so much to offer that you can just read about them for the rest of your life and never get bored.
I adore every character Inoue created, they all heroes for me. The reason I picked Sasaki to be my one and only standing a bit ahead of others is, oh I can't even express it in words. When I look at him it's like I'm seeing Perfection. He's so beautiful, alive, naive, skillful. I'm really glad Inoue chose to make him deaf, it adds so much beauty and uniqueness to his existence.
I'm sure it sounds weird, but I really feel my heart aching when I look at Sasaki. It's like watching some kind of miracle happening, you're amazed, speechless and just want to cry because the beauty of it all is just too much for you.

When I started reading Vagabond, I didn't know the original story and how it's supposed to end. Found out about it not so long ago, and I don't know what to expect.

Hi =)
Since the first time I got it in my hands.

Woof, White Clouds packs a punch. I've only read the title story (and it looks like only some of the others have been translated, alas), but it was incredibly sweet in a sad way. I'm frequently entertained by manga but rarely moved, so definitely thanks for the pointer to that one.

I recently also read Four Shojo Stories, which I would've sworn you recommended to me, but I now can't find on either your list or in our comments. I must've added it because I was looking for more Hagio Moto after The Heart of Thomas and Hanshin, so now I get to recommend it to you. With the things I've been reading lately because of you, I'm starting to really think I've been missing something with the old-school shoujo. :)

Ah, it's true there was a mood shift from the early volumes of Kare Kano--it was good for me, since I liked the serious drama more, but I know gear changes are offputting.

About Ranma 1/2, as of when I stopped reading the manga (I think about 3/4 of the way through?), there was no more progress on the Ranma/Akane front than the first two volumes/half dozen episodes showed. It seems to be Rumiko Takahashi's tactic in her romantic comedies to keep things in basically the same state for as long as possible, and that's what eventually wore me out, along with the growing conviction that Ranma was a dick and Akane should ditch his ass. If you enjoy the pattern of: new fiancee shows up, Ranma and Akane are indignant, new fiancee joins the growing cloud of them orbiting in the area... well, then, you're set, because the manga is about a dozen repetitions of that.

More recently I finished reading Maison Ikkoku, which is about a (mostly) more grown-up cast and reaches an ending in a span within my endurance. There's still a fair bit of status quo situation comedy, but enough distinctively sweet or funny moments to be worth the trip for me (as well as a real ending), so you might think about trying that if you ever want to go back to Takahashi.

Hah, no need to be ashamed of Haou Airen (although after reading the synopsis, I cringe a bit that it has such an above-average rating), I got my start in non-manga comics reading fairly silly Avengers material. That is a lot of shoujo romance in your early readings--I like it a lot, myself, but these days I seem to need occasional infusions of action, so I'm happiest when I can get both (which can be a frustrating hunt).

Mars probably belongs in my favorites list, since it's one of relatively few manga that I'm absolutely certain I'll be rereading someday, probably more than once. Agreed that it's pretty much the best of the lot in that genre. The only downside of starting there, I've found, is that many other series were a little disappointing in comparison until I learned not to hold my expectations so high.

I can understand being a little repulsed by some of the River's Edge cast. I really liked the rawness of it, and I tend to rate things highly that affect me strongly, so it's still one of my top picks. My high school wasn't like that, but it was closer to that than to an "everyone's friendly and happy" environment like, say, Hana Kimi.

Heh, I guess the short explanation is that I sorta like dark shit, really. I've actually seen about half of Grave of the Fireflies, at an anime club showing way back in undergrad. My now-husband and I were both having bad days, so about half an hour in we decided that this might be a great movie, but it definitely wasn't good for us that night. I keep meaning to go back and watch the whole thing, but I've put it off because I know it'll be depressing.

Ooh, Kurosawa. I've seen... checking Netflix... Dreams, Red Beard, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Throne of Blood, Rashomon, and The Seven Samurai. That's actually more than I thought! I might've seen Kagemusha in the period before I really appreciated him, since the plot synopsis sounds familiar but I can't remember details. Anyway, Seven Samurai and Rashomon are probably my top, although I remember really really liking Red Beard so I probably need to rewatch it. I sometimes have to psych myself up to watch his movies, since with the exception of Dreams they're often depressing period dramas, but it's always worth it in the end. In the case of both Rashomon and Seven Samurai, I liked them okay at the time, but as years passed and I realized how influential they were, my appreciation grew a lot.

I know that Ran is basically King Lear, but I'm only passingly familiar with the plot even so. What made it your favorite?

I'll give White Clouds a look sometime soon, and thanks. Good luck with finals! When you get back, I'd be curious to hear what you thought of Lady Snowblood, since I see you just finished it.