The laughs never stop when you don't understand!!!

So, in an effort to entertain myself while studying Japanese, I have been forcing el esposo to rent me videos from Tsutaya. "Why not rent them yourself?" you might ask. WELL, that would be because back a few months, Tsutaya decided that one card was for one person, even if they're from the same family. They apparently know I am not a man, which, I suppose I can forgive them for. However, this means I have to apply for my own card, which is just a pain. Mada-mada.

ANYWAY. Inuyasha. For our readers at home who are confused, it's about this girl who timeslips back to the Warring States period in Japan and begins to have these adventures with this half man, half dog demon thing. Less evil than it sounds, but ohhh so much more confusing!! Started the manga, and really, it is kind of difficult (vocabulary issues, you see?? always talking about the Sengoku Jidai hrmph), but I rented the first tape to see about backing up what I'd read and BA-DAAA!! it's a breeze to understand the second time around, hearing it. Plus!!! I can rewind, and have denchi-jisho-san onhand to QUICKQUICK look up words I hear well enough to look up.

But... I find that the anime is far more interesting than slaving through the manga, so I have been watching numerous episodes per sitting. There is only one tiiiiiny thing. I don't understand everything. This anime (and the manga) are so serial that normally, I'd be tearing my eyes out from boredom, screaming for it to stop. The characters are typical, the monsters unimaginative and the plot, well, relatively nonexistent. Go. Fight. Get next shard of the magical broken jewel thing. But because I am trying to use this for both entertainment and EDUCATIONAL value... I am loving this!! And let me tell YOU! It's fast paced, you get to see Inuyasha getting the crap beat out of him in EVERY episode (only to have him beat up the bad guy in the end) and you get to see people fall down!! Every time I understand a sentence completely, or even better, catch a joke!!-- I am crowing with laughter. Physical humor has NEVER been so rewarding. I rewind the really sweet bits to catch every word(Inuyasha, fully human for a night, injured in the heroine's arms, murmuring, "You smell nice." Uaaahh!!), and I giggle hysterically and am moved close to tears by the sweet, sappy romance. Inuyasha is a sympathetic villain/hero with an incredibly deep and moving backstory!!!

...This is because I don't understand it. Every piece of anything I understand is a triumph, and I shall enjoy it to its fullest. "Oh no! Inuyasha is gonna die!! (again) WHAT WILL HE DOOOO?!?" I am only halfway through the first season, so, to fill up some more time, I watched the first movie, which by my guess takes place at the end of the first season. It is, essentially, a long, long episode, with an animation style that was closer to the manga (which I didn't really like--something about humongous candy eyeballs). And... it's utterly incomprehensible! What is happening? Who are these people? Why is Kagome necessary to the plot? (Ever, really, I still don't get that.) Who cares about the bloody broken jewel thing anyway? Was the Warring States period really full of demonic creatures attempting to conquer EVERYTHING?!?

I can't wait to see how this works out!!! But please, never make me watch it, heaven forbid, with dubs, or with subtitles. I may be acquiring a taste for this that might permit me to ignore how mundane and stupid it will become, but I doubt it. My imagination is making this the BEST. ANIME. EVER. ...I think I might be able to do a passable Kagome imitation, with a little practice. Just scream (imagining that oh,no, maybe he's died... again.): "INUYASHA!!!" Pretty good, huh?? Shippo is next: "Uwaaahhhh!!"

Needless to say, I have quit reading the Inuyasha manga. Maybe one day I will pick it up again, but it isn't likely. On a friend's recommendation, I have begun reading Bleach. (It shows up in the weekly Shonen Jump comics, but I prefer to try and go at it bookly, instead of trying to focus on a ten page weekly installment.) But so far, so good. I'm on page 5. Ohhh, yeah. Studystudystudy!!!

Wife. Out.