Rewatching Babylon 5 from the beginning is like rereading a great old book that you've left just long enough to not remember all the plot details. This show looks dated because of the older effects and tech, but man, it's still as good now as it was then.

Fun stuff from the DVD commentaries:

-Centauri hair crests were an accident. Peter Jurasik came out of makeup with that huge hair, intending it to be a joke. He walked up to JMS and said "what do you think?! This works, doesn't it?" JMS thought it was pretty ridiculous, but generally was willing to go with what actors preferred, so he pretty much said "oh, absolutely." Thus, Peter Jurasik thought he really did like it, and went back to makeup saying JMS wanted the hair, and so the hair stayed, even though neither of them actually wanted it that way.

-In Severed Dreams, when Delenn shows up with the fleet and delivers that line, JMS says, "coming up is a bit that most fans call their favourite moment... I really love it too. I'll just sit here and watch it with you." I had mixed feeling about a commentary over that line, but there was no need to worry!

( No boom today... boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. )

Best Picard song EVER. Best music video EVER.

Recently I got some One Piece stuff that I really love. I found a lovely little gashapon diorama right from one of the Colour Walk books, a model of the Thousand Sunny, and the extremely delectable Shanks. Those things were all purchases I made myself--I also got an unexpected package in the mail from a friend of the family, a guy who used to be a Japanese homestay student at our house. He went and got me a couple of One Piece puzzles!

( Pictures of my loot, not dailup friendly! )

Oldschool love of mine: Star Trek. I respect TOS, though I was never a true fan, I grew up on TNG. I enjoyed most of DS9, and parts of Voyager (though I always loved Seven of Nine). I still have to see about half of Enterprise. Found some vids of varying genres that I enjoyed.

This is an epic, gorgeous tribute to the entire Star Trek franchise. It's what I love about it in a nutshell. And beautiful music as well. It's also a repost in my LJ, but hey :P it's that awesome.



( some more of the funnier, and non-repost, genre behind the cut )

So I watched ALL of the episodes in one go yesterday (only thirteen, sadly, I need moooooore) and the dub was so enjoyable I forgot I was WATCHING a dub.

( Dub appreciation ahead )

So there's a Legally Blonde musical, I sort of knew about that, but I didn't know anything about it till I stumbled over this vid of one particular song. Pretty catchy :D

Tamaki: Gay or European?

Alright, a poll! Related to preferred pairings in some of the series I enjoy.

( what've we got in common? )

This is a pretty neat one for Sanji and Zoro fans--the description calls it yaoi but it's all images from the anime so it's mostly a look at their interactions and a lot of eye candy, lol. It's a slideshow more than a vid, but the images flip quite fast and are fun to look at (a bunch are still-frame versions of scenes)

( Embedded over this way... )

I do love me some awesome anime merchandise. One Piece especially. My POP figures are dear to my heart, and my capsule/box figure sets too. Plus Japan is known for making loads of merch, some of it kind of strange-seeming (Totoro washcloth! Dragonball eyedrops!) but this piece of US-made One Piece merchandise really surprised me:

(Warning, may break layouts due to big-ass pics)

( crappy pictures this way )

And I need to find a good Sogoking icon... Or better yet, an icon of him sans mask when he's screaming at Luffy at the end of Enies Lobby. WTF was I doing not being fandom for like a year and a half. ::headdesk:: x10000

Never mind. Time to wallow a bit in the awesome!

( Usopp! )

Okay, well, there are certainly a million vids out there putting One Piece clips to the Pirates of the Caribbean trailers or music. Here's the opposite. LOL.

( Vids! )

"I'm Too Sexy" is surely one of those overused AMV songs. But, honestly, it is just so right for Franky. SUUUUPER!!!

(slight yaoi-ish implications in here)



Sadly, no images of nekkid Frankie-bum used in the "tush" verse but it's still prety funny.

Ah, fuxxor, I've gone and read ALL of the manga up till now. ::froths slightly:: Though it is nice to be up to date.

Thoughts:

-Brooke is love. I actually cried a bit at his backstory. I did not expect that at first, let me tell you.

-LUFFY FFS GO RESCUE YOUR GODDAMN BROTHER. Though if Luffy thinks he'll be alright... he'll be alright. Right? Maybe Smoker will do it instead.

-Hacchan!! LOL! I wonder if he'll get to fight. He has to be stronger if he's on the Grand Line.

In conclusion, MOAR PLZ. Holy... I'm gonna be in withdrawal after this. How did I get from the end of Skypeia to here in five days?

Time to read more fic.

Google takes me to fun places.

I found an Italian One Piece fanart archive. Here it is Some really nice stuff. I don't know if it's by the maintainer and his/her buddies, or collected from around the net, but there's some nice stuff in a variety of styles. Here are the Strawhats as a rock band.

Neat! :D

Ace is made of win and awesome. And hot, literally and figuratively. Found a spiffy vid:




Been wondering, though, If Monkey D Luffy is the son of Monkey D Dragon and the grandson of Monkey D Garp... Who is Portgas D Ace's father? (And who is their mother?!)

Very cute animation short with a reporter interviewing the Strawhats on their meals, pre-Sanji.



Heeee XD

...Luffy just declared war against the World Government.

HAH. Words cannot convey the awesome. Oda-sensei spins a good story.

Must get home... continue the story...

ETA: Read more during lunch. Kaku is a giraffe. ::snerk:: In other news, Nami is awesome and Chopper is scary.

The end of Skypeia was pretty damn awesome. Calgara and Norland ftw. <3 I honestly got teary watching their story in the flashback eps (such a tragic friendship... sigh) and then again at the finale. Ringing bells are always kind of stirring, but that was just lovely. And the mop-up and departure was adorable and funny.

The Navarone arc was hilarious. Kudos to the filler people. I didn't even realize it WAS filler till the octopus came back. Big ol' reset button there to fit everything back to where they'd started, mode-of-transportation-wise, but it was quite organically inserted. Because of Mekao and his chat with Usopp about the ghostly repairman, I thought it was actual canon until the end, and I enjoyed all Jonathan and Jessica and everyone. Non-evil antagonists can be entertaining and they pulled it off just right for me.

( More blather through the end of Davy Back )

The German version of One Piece is complete with German version of the original songs, except for the first one, which is... this sorta poppy thing.

First Opening (it uses the same opening animation as the original, but not the song):


2nd Opening:


( more under here! )

Having amazon deliver to my office is so awesome. Really makes the day better.

Today's haul:

-Charade (the movie with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn). I'm not a huge classic movie buff, but I love this one. Gonna show it off at our next movie night, just need to find something to pair it with. Possibly Star Trek 2 or Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
-Pikachu's Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon. Nonfiction volume about the Pokemon phenomenon. I'm looking forward to seeing it from all the points of view of the articles and essays in there.
-Without Reservations. Possibly (probably?) cheesy m/m romance novel. The spine says "gay erotic paranormal romance." What more could one ask for, really? It's about a Native American guy who's a vet, and also a werewolf. Meets another werewolf who's a white guy. Here's hoping it's not too fetish-y with the racial stuff. And that, you know, it doesn't suck. (At first glance, I was like "I've read this AU." LOL, Stargate fandom, you've ruined me.)
-Three yaoi manga volumes by the awesome Fumi Yoshinaga: Gerard et Jacques #1 and 2, and Lovers in the Night. <3333 Fumi Yoshinaga.

AND

-One Piece: The Desert Princess and the Pirates. I don't care if that's the Alabasta arc crammed into a movie-length time spans, it's my FIRST EVER VOLUME of my most adored anime of all time, LICENSED!!!! I dearly hope it does well, because I want all the rest too. I've listened to some dub clips and they're pretty good for the most part, but I'm mostly happy I can get it legal and proper at long last. Thank you Funimation!