SD_Dalek, Inc

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Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown peri_brown

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Ten'ou Haruka/Sailoruranus kaze_ni_naru
Illyana Rasputin/Magik darkchylde

( cut for spoilers if you haven't seen the news today )

My darling and I have been watching through lots of Sailormoon lately. The intent is to watch all of it, from beginning to end, classic through Stars. Over the weekend, we finished with Super, and are now starting on SuperS.

This evening, on a random trip to the drugstore to buy some candy, we ran across the S movie for $5.98. Needless to say, it is now ours.

This brings the grand total of missing Sailormoon video that was available in the US to just one: the SuperS movie. Everything else that's been licensed, we own (well, technically I own, but we share everything). And technically, we do own the SuperS movie, but on subtitled VHS rather than on DVD. The only other VHS that we have is the VKLL fansub of SailorStars, for the anime.

Anyway, Sailormoon S: the movie is actually a very tightly-plotted story, since it's based on a story from the manga involving Luna turning into a human to help an ill man, and an entity dubbed "Princess Snow Kaguya" attempting to freeze the earth and add it to her collection of pretties. The animation is very high-quality, which is always nice. Every senshi gets full henshin and attack animation as well. Even the outer senshi (minus Saturn). I highly recommend the movie if you can find it. Check your local Rite-Aid.

There are a few anime conventions in the coming months that my friends and I are planning to attend. As such, we are plotting our costumes!

To keep the theme of our current obsession, a group of us are doing costumes based on the live action Sailor Moon musicals, or SeraMyu. I'm going to do two costumes, both for Kaiou Michiru/Sailor Neptune. Not the actual seifuku, yet. That's a project for a little farther down the road. Instead, our group is doing school fuku (Azabu Juuban High School). So, Michiru gets her navy pleated skirt and sailor blouse.

There's a formal ball at one of the conventions we're going to as well, so some of us are trying for more formal wear. Normally, this would mean princess dresses, but the girl doing Haruka and I have decided to do the concert outfits from Sailor Stars Kaiteban (Haruka's sparkly vest and Michiru's green and black dress). If these get done in time, I'll be very happy.

I've always wanted to cosplay Michiru properly. I did her Mugen Gakuen school fuku a few years ago, but it didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it too in terms of the plaid. Mugen plaid doesn't exist in real life, so we essentially drew it on with fabric marker before we began sewing (we being my Haruka and I). A redo of the costume is in the cards for the future, but with ribbon or bias tape for the plaid as opposed to drawing. No bleeding lines that way.

If I can get both costumes completed in time for the convention season, I will put some of the images up here, because I like showing off my sewing skills.^^

I've talked before about my love of SeraMyu, the live Sailormoon musicals that ran in Japan from 1993 through 2005. In the fandom, I belong to the SeraMyu Antics community. It's a really awesome bunch of people who love to talk Myu, Moon, and lots of other things. (http://seramyuantics.takaginaosama.com/)

Antics has decided that today, August 11, is officially SeraMyu Day, in honor of the first-ever performance of the first-ever musicsal, Gaiden! Dark Kingdom Fukkatsu Hen. The first musical starred Ooyama Anza as Sailormoon (although she now goes by just ANZA), but there were three other actresses to play Sailormoon after her: Hara Fumina, Kanbe Miyuki (who died recently), and Kuroki Marina. Every major storyline from the anime and manga (save for Luna's romance with Kakeru and the Makaiju) was represented during the SeraMyu, and there were even original story lines as well.

In honor of Myu day, I've used my very meager PSP skills to make a few banners. Please feel free to take and use them if you too are a fan of the Myu. All the images come from Sailormoon Antics.

( On to the banners! )

I'm also spending the day listening to SeraMyu mp3s on my laptop. I've got 10.3 hours worth of Myu songs, and I'm just over halfway done listening. It's amazing.

Tonight, I'm watching the very first Myu, which I have on VHS, courtesy of Ken Yuen at Cruel Angel Productions (http://zap.to/cruelangel).

So. Last night on Sci-Fi was the series four finale. Last proper episode for Russell T. Davies as executive producer and head writer. And good grief, did he make sure every single plot thread he'd left dangling got some notice.

( spoilers for Journey's End )

And now there's nothing new till the Christmas special. Hopefully the Sci-Fi channel will be smart and buy up the rights early enough to show it around Christmas this year. Without a proper season of Doctor Who for at least the next year and a half, I think they should show the specials relatively near in time to the UK airings. Keep the property in the spotlight and all.

Overall verdict on the finale: fun and amazing for most of it, then horribly sad at the end. Emotional roller-coaster, at least for me.

Oh. My. God.

That about sums up the overall reaction to last night's episode. I didn't move from in front of the television during the episode, and muttered to myself during the commercials, trying to sort it all out. My mother, whom I was visiting, thought it was rather funny. But she's never gotten my obsession with a "silly TV show". Which, btw, she enjoys as well. And you should see her during ACC basketball season. She puts me to shame.

( cut for SPOILERS!!! )

Overall impression of the episode? OMGWTFOMGWTFOMGWTFFANGIRLSQUEEOMGWTF

Yeah. That about sums it up.^^

This was a very interesting episode that was on last night. According to the Yawho list, there were a few edits, which, reading through, seem like they took away a little from the episode. Still, OMG!!!!!

( Spoilers for Turn Left )

I can't wait for next week! Yes, I can. I'm still spoiler-free, and I LOVE it. Anticipation is so good. Two more to go, and then the waiting really sets in.

It's getting near the end of series 4 on the Sci-Fi Channel. Last Friday's episode, "Midnight," was, what 4 from the end? Basic summary: The Doctor and Donna are enjoying a holiday on the planet Midnight. The Doctor wants to go visit this waterfall made of diamonds, so he takes one of those tourist-bus/shuttle things, along with a few other passengers, out to see it. And then, of course, things go wrong, because it's Doctor Who.

( cut for spoilers )

This week is "Turn Left," which will see the return of someone interesting. I'm really curious as to how they're gonna do it, but I'm a patient person. It'll be on in two days, after all.

The Gunfighters was an early Doctor Who episode. It starred William Hartnell, Peter Purves, and Jackie Lane. It is one of the many First Doctor stories I don't have a tape or DVD for, so I can only experience it through the novelization. Thankfully, Donald Cotton's writing is far, far better than Eric Saward's on The Twin Dilemma.

( The Gunfighters, by Donald Cotton )

So, if you've never seen The Gunfighters, I'd say give this book a read. It's very fun and enjoyable. If you have seen it, try reading it anyway, and you might be surprised at what a good story it actually is.

Joss Whedon. How delighted I was to find that you were going to write X-Men comics. Your fun, quirky take on things, your lack of fear in tackling big plots and changing characters forever. You brought Colossus back from the dead. You did odd things to Scott that I'm still not sure what exactly happened. You made Wolverine funny. You made Emma Frost believable as an X-Man.

And then, you did the unthinkable.

( spoilers for Unstoppable )

I bought a copy of this book last summer around this time, at the Green Valley Book Fair near Harrisonburg, VA. At the GVBF, you can obtain copies of relatively recent works and classical works for up to 90% off of the cover price. The copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell I purchased was a hard cover copy, with black dust jacket, originally retailing for over $30. I think I paid less than $5 for it.

The book came home, and I had every intention of reading it, but time slipped away from me. Work got busy. Over the Christmas holidays, I said to myself, I would read it. But, the holidays are a busy time, and the book is very large, and every time I thought of picking it up, other, more pressing needs called my attention. Then of course it was back to work, no more holidays, and the opportunity to really read slipped away. Easter holidays, I told myself, would be the opportune time to read it. But, as usual, Easter holidays, being shorter than Christmas holidays, are also hectic, especially when there is travel involved. I barely had time to think about reading the book before I was back at work.

So, I thought to myself, summer would be it. Months at a stretch when I wouldn't have to do anything. And, last week, the opportunity for dedicated reading time presented itself, and I was able to take advantage of the time. And so, I have now finished reading the marvellous book. Because it is marvellous.

( Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susannah Clarke )

I cannot sing the praises of this book enough. If you've not read it, go out and find it now! Just make sure you can dedicate some quality time to it when you sit down. You won't want to get up again for a while.

Having finished Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, I decided to read something a little less weighty, something that would be fun and fluff, that wouldn't require me to think. I settled on Eric Saward's novelization of the very first Colin Baker story, The Twin Dilemma. I've never seen this particular episode on TV, VHS, or DVD, so the novel, like so many novelizations, is right now all I have to go on for judging the merits of the episode.

( This is not very promising )

There should be Doctor Who on tomorrow night, since it's Friday, but because it's the Fourth of July, the Sci-Fi Channel is doing its annual Twilight Zone Marathon. So, no new Who for me. This makes me very sad.

Usually, what I do on the Fourth of July is to watch a bunch of Who on VHS or DVD. Either last year or the year before, the new series box set came out just in time for the Fourth, so I watched that. This year, we're having company, so my tradition is sadly side-lined in favor of being social.^^ I don't do fireworks, though, so if company and my dearest decide to go out in search of them, I've got something in mind. Weirdly enough, I have a VHS of "The Face of Evil" that's still in shrink-wrap. How I haven't watched a *VHS* yet, I'm not sure. So, it's either that, or "Keeper of Traken," because despite buying it a year ago, I still haven't had the dedicated time to watch the "New Beginnings" box set. It and "The Invasion" are still all wrapped up in shrink wrap as well. I think there's another DVD that needs watching, but I can't for the life of me think of what it is.

I need to make a catalogue of all my Who again. This time, I'll put it in this journal, so I don't lose it and can edit it more easily. I have this unfortunate habit of writing it down in notebooks or on loose paper, and I always misplace it, and have to change too much by the time I find it again, since I'm one of those weird people who has to have it written in order chronologically, and mention if its VHS or DVD or whatnot.

In non-Who related musings, I've been reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke. So far, it's very good. She writes in a Victorian-esque style, which I love. I'll write a full review as soon as I've finished it. But on the 3/4 I have read, I'd highly recommend it to anyone who likes either Victorian or Fantasy literature.

All I can say above a cut is, WOW. That was officially the scariest episode of Doctor Who I have ever seen. Steven Moffatt is a genius.

( cut for spoilers )

I'm mad that Sci-Fi's not showing "Midnight" for two weeks. I get it, Fourth of July holiday and all, but come on! England's just gotten episode 11 (won't spoil it above a cut), so they'll be on the last one when we're on 9. Five weeks difference means harder to avoid the spoilers. Ah well, at least it's only five weeks this year. The wait time between the UK and the USA has gotten smaller each season, so perhaps by the time fifth season rolls back around in 2010 we'll have it like we did with Torchwood, only two weeks difference, or better.

Just before I found out about Kanbe Miyuki's passing, I found myself getting back into SeraMyu. For those who don't know, SeraMyu were the live Sailormoon musical theatre performances given in Japan from the early 90s through 2005.

I've been a fan of them since about 1999, when I accidentally downloaded some of the songs from the Sailor Stars musical, while hunting for image songs on FTP servers. Pre-Napster 1.0 and all that. And then I found pictures of actresses in Sailor fuku that was very different to the fuku seen in the manga/anime, and I knew I had to find out more. One of my 'net friends, Naru, had some of these musicals on VHS, unsubtitled, and was kind enough to make me a few copies. And thus I fell in love with them. They're cheezy, earnest, well-acted, and amazing.

I've been collecting soundtracks to them for the last five or six years, but my collection is far from complete. The dealer who'd been my supplier at anime conventions stopped selling most soundtrack CDs in favor of J-rock about two years ago. Which is sad, because I don't mind paying the $30+ for the imported CDs. It was my one big purchase at conventions (well, aside from the one con where I bought the Utena promo posters, but those were gorgeous, and each one was reasonably priced; it was only the volume of posters that made it pricey).

If anyone is looking to try SeraMyu and see what it's all about, I'd recommend starting with 1998's Eien Densetsu Final First Stage. The plot is actually pretty easy to follow, the cast is amazing, and it's got ANZA as Sailormoon. Yes, it's her last musical, but that's okay. It's probably the best of first stage. If you're familiar with the anime/manga, it'll make the most sense to you.

Has anyone else seen these musicals? What're your opinions on them?

One of my fandoms, which I don't post about very often, is Sailormoon. I became a fan of the show way back in the late 90s, when it was badly dubbed on Cartoon Network, and have fallen in love with the universe and all its wonders since. One of these wonders is a phenomenon that in Japan is known as SeraMyu. SeraMyu are live-action musicals based on Sailormoon. They started back in the early 90s, about a year or so after the show began, and continued through 2005, when they went on "hiatus" for an undetermined period of time. Over the years, there have been many stories told in this musical theatre format, and many actors and actresses associated with the shows.

Miyuki Kanbe was the 3rd actress to play Sailormoon in the SeraMyu musicals. She took over the role in 2000 from Fumina Hara, and stared in 3 unique stories, which are described as the "vampire arc," Last Dracul, Transylvania no Mori (and it's revision), and Super Death Vulcan Review. She was a very talented actress, and brought a lot of spirit to the portrayal of Usagi and her alter ego. She was a very strong singer, and had some amazing solo numbers. During Miyuki's time as Sailormoon, the senshi were all given "image songs," theme songs for their characters. "The Last Change" was Sailormoon's and it was gorgeous. She passed the role on to Marina Kuroki in late 2001, and started to branch out into other roles. She had a part in the movie "Battle Royale II" (and her character actually survived the film), and was rehearsing to take a lead part in "Les Miserables".

She died over the weekend of heart failure at age 24.

I was shocked when I heard this. I've not been as gung-ho in Sailormoon or SeraMyu fandom in the past few years as I used to be, and didn't realize that she was in poor health. It's always sad when someone young dies, because you know there was such potential there that won't be fulfilled. Miyuki's career was just starting to take off when it was discovered that her health was deteriorating. She was known to be an amazing actress, singer, and dancer by a niche crowd, but would have soon been recognized by a much wider audience for those same talents.

Rest in peace, Miyuki-san. You will be missed.

I don't know if other people have had the same problem as I have, but a good comic shop is getting harder and harder to find. To be fair, I do have an amazing shop that I go to for my comics and special orders, but I can't resist popping into other shops whenever I find one.

One thing I've noticed is that very few comic shops are primarily sellers of comics anymore. They sell comics and manga. And RPGs. And trading cards. And rent anime. And have gaming nights five nights a week. And sells lots of snacks and drinks to go with the gaming nights. Why is this? Just to keep in business? Are there really so few people out there buying comics that a shop feels it has to cater to so many different niches that it does none of them well?

Which brings me to my next problem. There aren't a lot of shop owners or workers that I've met recently who know what's going on in regards to various books that are out now. I can forgive a comic shop guy (or girl) for not remembering something from a comic book that's 10, 15, 20+ years old. But there are some people who don't know what's up with the books they carry in stock, or are their featured books of the week. Is it that hard to do a little reading? Beyond not knowing what's in the books, there are shop owners/workers who don't remember what they have in stock, or who don't remember to put your comics aside for you as promised.

This is my personal experience talking. Technically, I have two comic shops that I frequent, A and B. A is about 25 miles away, and is the closest shop to me, since I live in the middle of nowhere. It's relatively new, and carries just about anything you could want - anime, comics, manga, RPGs, board games, card games, figurine games - in limited quantities. B is about 60 miles away, in the opposite direction, and focuses 95% of their business on comics (individual issues, graphic novels, TPBs), with a few RPG books and a few figure games (related to DC or Marvel), and a few toys based on comic books. I've had a box at B for years, and until this week, they've never missed anything I ordered (I'll get to that story in a moment). I got a box at A last year because they were new and I wanted to support "local" business, and because they were closer, and hey, less gas = more money for comics.

I had a 6 issue limited series in my box at A. The book came out every other month. Issue 4 never made it into my box. It took them a few months to track it down, but they did eventually find it for me. I then put a 4 issue limited series in that box, to keep it active. Not bad, but again, one of the issues wasn't in there during first shipment. Luckily, I happened to stop in on the street date, so they pulled one off the shelves and sold it to me.

At B, I've never had a problem with my box, until this past weekend. I special-ordered a TPB back in March, but I've only been back there twice since then, last month, when this book wasn't there, I didn't think much of it. Stuff gets delayed all the time in comics. Also, one other awesome thing about B. They'll hold your box for 3-4 months if you don't live in the immediate area, because they value you as a customer. At A, it's "check back every month or it's gone." Anyway, the guys who work at B laid out the stuff from my box, as they always do, and let me double-check before they rang me up. They'd accidentally put a magazine in my box that I'd picked up last month (special issue), which I mentioned I'd already gotten. No problem, back on the shelf it went. The TPB still wasn't there, so I asked when it was due in. The guy ringing me out said it should already be in.

This guy is great. He went through the boxes again, just to make sure it didn't get mis-filed, checked the large-item holding area, then checked the Previews mag to make sure the order had been noted. He went online to cross-reference the order with the invoice from when that shipment arrived. Discovered that an entire page was missing from the initial order, apologized profusely, and said he'd reorder it on Tuesday (they're closed Mondays, and the distro place was closed Saturdays, when I went to the store). It would be in in about two weeks. No big deal. He also, as a courtesy, double-checked the other TPB I had on special order, which didn't have a shipping date last time I'd been in, and told me it'd be in in Wednesday this week.

So, next time I'm down near B for business or visiting family, or whatever, my things will be waiting for me.

Why can't more shops be like B? Are more shops like B? B is the best shop I've found since high school, when I went to J every Wednesday for my comics fix. But more on the nostalgia later. I've got some Captain Britain and MI-13 to read.

I'm skipping a review of The Poison Sky, since it's been a couple of weeks since I've seen it, and it's no longer fresh in my mind. I did get to see the Doctor's Daughter on Friday, however, and it was...interesting.

( cut for spoilers )

Because we're going out of town next weekend, I'm going to miss The Unicorn and the Wasp. I really wish Sci-Fi did reruns of the current season, like they did with Sarah Jane each week. I'll have to wait until they start running on BBCAmerica to see it now, or until Sci-Fi decides to marathon it. Maybe for the 4th of July they'll do a current season marathon, and I can catch it. It's supposed to have Agatha Christie, which sounds really interesting.

I've put in an application at an X-Men game for the first time in a while. I'm still waiting to see whether or not I get accepted. It would be nice to play in an X-Men game again. I'm applying for a character I haven't played before, but whose background is something I am pretty well-versed in, considering I teach it every day.

Here's hoping. The game looks good, so if all goes well, I'll get to play in something fun again.

Open the Rift is going well. Peri gets to start work tomorrow, and is helping a girl in an alleyway as of Friday night. Now that she's starting her job, I'll be able to have her interact more with other characters, which is very good.