here's a how-de-do

[incandescens]

I have been introducing some of my coworkers to Tom Lehrer. They all like "that song about the pigeons".

Also got my hands on the first volume of Read or Die in English translation today. I can't say that I'm desperately impressed. The artwork isn't as good as some, the plot is . . . well, it's less coherent and has more weird set pieces than I'd been expecting. (Expectations formed from the anime, admittedly.) I also wasn't that impressed by the translation. Mm. I'll see how the second one looks when it comes out, but this may not be one of the ones I keep.

It possibly suffered in comparison to Full Metal Alchemist volume 6, which was coherent and well-translated, and which I also picked up and read today. That's always a difficulty, reading something average next to something good. The average one looks that much worse by way of comparison.

Due to various swapping around of months, I've ended up providing the quotes for May on 31_days. I look forward to seeing how they work out, while crossing my fingers.

Ahh, it's so comforting and enjoyable to sit back and listen to the Mikado. Here's a how-de-do . . .

---

"The best tank terrain is that without anti-tank weapons." -- Russian Military Doctrine

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I knew Tom Lehrer in college. (I was already a fan.) He was a professor of math and music, so I could never take any classes from him, but got to know him through a series of chance encounters and for one wonderful quarter, I had coffee and a toasted bagel with him every Tuesday and Thursday morning, because our respective classes were at 8:00 am near that coffeeshop.

[incandescens]

Wow. That's marvellous.

[semioticity.livejournal.com]

I'm saddened to hear about the mediocrity of the ROD manga. The OVA is possibly my favorite anime, and I'm a fan of the TV series as well. From what I've seen, I like the style of the anime more than the manga, and it sounds like it may be a case of ROD being better than the sum of its parts, or at least being better conceptually rather than actually.

FMA, on the other hand, although very good at bring the pain to its characters, always seemed to make slightly substandard choices in terms of plot twists and character interactions. Still, it was quite good, and I've only seen the TV series.

[incandescens]

From what I've heard (I only watched the first few episodes -- it never quite clicked with me) the FMA anime and manga take rather different directions, and the manga gets rather darker and more complex, so I'm hoping in that case that the manga will have more to offer than the anime does.

With ROD, however, I believe that it was a case where they really did take the best elements of the manga to produce the OVA and then the series, and that the ROD anime is superior to the manga. (And yes, this is not my normal position, but every once in a while it happens.)

[avalonjones.livejournal.com]

Tom Lehrer is a god!

[incandescens]

He is!