"Fakir" is now the magic word

[sara_tanaquil]

First off, a very happy birthday to collarnojutsu!! I suck at presents and cards and things, but at least I can do the birthday wishes thing.

A word of explanation. CNJ always complains that we never listen to her recommendations the first time. A while ago, wednesday_10_00 discovered Glee by way of a YouTube video from the the justly famous Single Ladies episode. This was after months of CNJ squeeing about Glee on her journal. So, by way of a mea culpa, wednesday_10_00 said that in future, if she proved resistant to a recommendation, the magic word was "Psst, D*****! SINGLE LADIES!"

CNJ has been trying to get me to watch Princess Tutu for over a year. (I meant to, really! But, the backlog!) I was a little uncertain about magical girl show + ballet, but the strong recommendation definitely carried weight. We watched a few episodes at the beach this year, and I was definitely intrigued (enough to order the DVD post haste), but then One Piece happened. (Still on episode 152 and volume 25, BTW.) She finally gave me incentive to finish the series in the form of an AMV and an ultimatum. ^_~

Now, it had taken approximately ten minutes of watching the anime (+ knowing that w_10_00 and cnj both love him) to know that I was going to love Fakir. But it is only now that I grasp that every detail of his character was insidiously crafted by the makers of the anime to inspire in me the perfect storm of redeemed seme moe, with the clear intention of ruining me for any other anime hero in the future.

So, people. In future, if I fail to heed your wise recommendations with appropriate speed, the phrase is "Psst, Sara. FAKIR!" I promise to drop everything and take your recommendation up on the spot. (Though I cannot promise to love anyone as much as Fakir. Even if he does have funny hair.)

We had seen episodes 1-5 at the beach, which was just enough to be thoroughly intrigued and confused. (In part because I couldn't see how such a seemingly simple magical girl story was going to turn into the epic story everyone says it is, AND IT IS.) I marathoned the rest this weekend. When I realized that I was watching nearly all of -- was it episode 7? 8? -- with my jaw quite literally hanging open, I started taking notes so I would be able to remember a little of my thought processes later. Which are really funny to read now, I wish I'd started taking notes sooner. (Among other things, I correctly predicted that *spoiler* and Mytho were going to end up together, though perhaps that doesn't take that much in the way of insight.)

The funniest part was when I got to episode 13, and things all of a sudden start speeding up and resolving all over the place. And, no joke, I was literally sitting there going "... but it's not over, right? The box said there were 26 episodes, right?" And I'm checking the box to see if there are more DVDs in it. (Rest assured, there are in fact 26 episodes.)

Then it got kind of dull and formulaic again for a few episodes (which is to say, it was charming and funny, but nothing major was happening and it felt an awful lot like the monster-of-the-week episodes on Sailor Moon after *spoiler* joined Queen Beryl and turned evil). Before, of course, taking the real epic turn, which is... kind of hard to describe even when you HAVE seen it, never mind being spoilery as hell. (But hey, pile on in the comments!)

I don't even know which moe point to squee over first without collapsing into a puddle of goo. episode 12 BLUSHY FAKIR OMG OMG

So I will just conclude: the closing vignette-scene of the anime may very possibly be my new favorite thing ever. <3 <3

mangaroo WHY ARE YOU NOT WATCHING THIS THERE ARE DUCKS

AND UZURA (zura)