Welcome to Kuchen . . .

[ellenkushner]

. . . just don't get any crumbs in the sheets.

About a year ago, a friend introduced me to a newish obscurish anime series. I'm not that huge into anime - though maybe I would be if it were easier for me to find and watch (and that's "easy" as in "takes no effort whatsoever," for those of you about to give me good advice on where/how to exert myself to find & download it) - but this is one I liked a lot (once she made me watch it all by coming to visit, and sticking it on my laptop every night). Here is a pretty thorough description of it, surely enjoyable for p_zeitgeist's writing alone. As for Meine Leibe - you'll either like it or you won't; but I think some of you might, and I've been meaning to offer it to you as a little holiday gift for lo these many months. Happy New Year.

Dream well.

Comments

[p-zeitgeist.livejournal.com]

Why thank you, kind patroness o' the arts.

I think I told 1crowdedhour, but not you (possibly because you were immersed in performances at the time), that I had a sudden stroke of revelation about that Kuchen business. Which is, I'm almost certain that they must have meant Cockaigne. Traditional, but not overused, name for that mythical island kingdom somewhere to the west of Europe, that anyone might find if they were researching European folklore in an effort to find a good name for an island kingdom that wasn't overused the way Atlantis now is. And there's a reason for the names to sound vaguely alike: if Wikipedia can be trusted on the point, "Cockaigne" is derived from an Old French word for a certain sweet cake sold at medieval fairs.

So one can easily see a scenario where the ML people looked for an appropriate name for their kingdom, found one, learned that the name meant "cake," shook their heads over the oddity of European culture, and duly called the place "Kuchen." The similarities are such that it makes at least as much sense as would pure coincidence.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Very ingenious, m'dear. But don't they all have names like "Marquis of Marzipan" and such? I just figured chalk it up to the oddity of Japanese aesthetics. . . . .

[feuervogel]

Great, now I want to watch ML and MLW again. And piffle to my friends who say it's trashy nonsense just because it's based on a dating sim. (You play the girl, who then gets to try to date one of the guys.)

Watching with slash goggles makes everything so much better.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

"You play the girl, who then gets to try to date one of the guys."

I cannot imagine.

[feuervogel]

Me either. Now, if your mission were to hook up 2 of the guys...

(Though it does explain why the female students, all like 2 that you meet for more than a millisecond, are so incredibly generic and bland.)

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for the recommendation. I'm having trouble finding new animes to watch and this one looks like I'm bound to love it :)

[aurenfaie.livejournal.com]

Well, if you ever do get curious, http://www.crunchyroll.com and http://www.haru.tv/category/anime offer anime for watch... no downloading required (except for maybe an updated player)! ;)

Also... this is completely unrelated, but a while ago you recommended M.T. Anderson's "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party," and ever since I read it, I've been wondering if there is going to be any additional volumes? I've checked around and I can find no mention of a volume 2. I was just wondering if you might have a clue?

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I'm excited that you liked "Octavian Nothing"!! I just checked with Kelly Who Knows Everything Link, who tells us, "the sequel comes out either this year or next year. in the meantime, i love all of his other books from The Game of Sunken Places to Feed to Thirsty."

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

Nothing like the crack that is the young men of Rosenstolz, and the best anime hair on the planet.

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

I - I couldn't watch Meine Liebe. The art was pretty, the voice actors were sexy, the high-society setting with the froofy clothes and the posturing were delightful, but it just - eeeeeh. The cheeseball shoujo glee that usually makes me so happy-happy just somehow didn't do it for me here.

I didn't know you watched anime at all, though! I bet you would like Mononoke (http://irohanihoheto.typepad.com/mononoke/) (a TV series, not Mononoke Hime). Art like animated ukiyo-e prints, a set of psychedelic horror/mystery stories based around monsters from folklore, and a sort of noh/kabuki storytelling aesthetic (not to mention a male main character in a fancy kimono and face paint). But alas! I cannot stick it on your laptop to make you watch it. How I cry.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I cry with you. But perhaps some compassionate friend or Minion will make it appear on my laptop. Sounds awesome.

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

I hope so! It deals a lot with women's issues too, in a subtle, intelligent, and non-preachy way. (I'm rather hopelessly evangelical about the series, can you tell? ;D)

[swimtech.livejournal.com]

I'll do it, if you'll compassionately copy the Meine Liebe Weider onto a DVD for me (it's no longer downloadable).

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I don't actually know how to copy DVD's. I'll check with Phoebe Z, though!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

I now have a copy of MLW on disc for you! When shall we meet again?

Yay for discs! Thanks!

[swimtech.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll be in your neighborhood on Sunday, or I'll probably be at the NYRSF reading on Tuesday.

(Want a disc of xxxHOLiC? It's much pretty....)

Re: Yay for discs! Thanks!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Drat - neither of those rendezvous works for me. KGB on the 20th? And I will most gratefully and gladly take anythng you want to throw at me at this point. Your credit is good with me.

Re: Yay for discs! Thanks!

[swimtech.livejournal.com]

Sure, KGB on the 20th. Not to worry.

Mononoke - yes!!

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Ah, Woodburner! Swimtech did indeed give me a copy of "Mononoke," and it is just about the greatest thing since sliced bread - especially on a large screen, where its stunning visuals can be well appreciated. Baby, baby, baby . . . thank you so much for suggesting it! Delia tends to be put off by gore, but this is so stylized she, ah, laps it up. I cannot wait to show it to my Japanese Art Historian friends.

Re: Mononoke - yes!!

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Oh, yay! I'm so pleased! It's definately my favorite animated series. (Followed closely by Mushishi, which you'd probably also like; very quiet and lyrical and folktale-ish.)

Since you like Mononoke, you should probably try to get ahold of Ayakashi, too. Mononoke is actually a spin-off of it. Ayakashi is a short anthology of three horror stories - one of which is a retelling of the classic Yotsuya Kaidan, and one of which is called Bakeneko, which introduces the Medicine Seller. The Medicine Seller was so popular they decided to make an entire series about him. Ayakashi-Bakeneko wasn't quite as good as Mononoke in terms of art direction and storytelling, but it's still full of eye-exploding awesome and not to be missed.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

::dies:: Oh goodness, yes! I discovered ML and MLW last year (by way of the soundtracks, interestingly enough, as they were terribly pretty and I was curious to see where they came from) and rosamund and I had so much fun dissecting the slashy goodness.

[minami-neko.livejournal.com]

That looks very interesting! I may just lift my unofficial anime-ban to watch it (I overdosed in high school on bad anime...)

Oh, and I hope you haven't seen this, and it's a bit twisted but it made me think of certain of your works...

http://www.pantherhouse.com/newshelton/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/cobra-snake-tee-shirt-img_4435.jpg

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Egad! If it weren't for the "Genocide," which pushes it right over the edge into Social Consciousness, I would be buying & wearing that so fast....!

(Hey, minions! Anyone want to custom me a good one?)

Where did you find this?

[minami-neko.livejournal.com]

I found it on this page of strange t-shirts:

http://www.pantherhouse.com/newshelton/in-addition-to-the-message/

cafe press

[minami-neko.livejournal.com]

And thanks to Cafepress, one can now buy them!

http://www.cafepress.com/minaminekoki

I put up a man's shirt and a woman's shirt. I didn't mark up the price so I won't be getting any money off of these. Cafe press is a bit over priced but it's what I know what to do. If anyone knows a cheaper method, feel free to use my image.

I didn't use "genocide", but didn't know what to use instead. There aren't many "cides". "Regicide" doesn't really work, and "aristrocicide" isn't a real word. Maybe it should be.

Re: cafe press

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Ooooh! Ahhh!! Divinely wonderful!

But of course "Regicide" works perfectly - check out THE FALL OF THE KINGS!

Plus, the Rule of Three says it's funnier that way.

Re: cafe press

[ewein2412]

I vote for "regicide" and spell Riverside correctly. I love it.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Wow - those are priceless! And I bow in awe and wonder at your tracking abilities.

Also at your skill with CafePress. I hope I wasn't rude to suggest a possible alteration of your copy. (It's what I do for a living - alter copy, that is, not be rude; that would be someone else around here....) See, I'm still trying to decide what makes the original T-shirt so ripping. Does it have to be 3 things and then the punchline? Does it have to be spelled "Rivercide"? Would you mind very much if I put the question to the LJ Hive Mind? Do say if you would, and I'll still happily link to the cool Tshirts, with thanks!

[minami-neko.livejournal.com]

I have no problem with any of that. I really did think it needed three things, I just didn't know what the third should be. I was reluctant about Regicide because the spirit of the books hasn't been against the kings, but for them... And it was the aristocrats that killed the King. But I can change it very easily.

Changing the cafepress shirt is actually quite easy, so if you put it to the hive mind, I will do what ever is determined.

I personally prefer "Riverside" because it's not that much of a change, but I defer to your opinion.

And I just found that tshirt site because it was linked by reddit.com

[whimsicaloxlin.livejournal.com]

My vote is for more t-shirts with other Riverside related things on them. A Tremontaine one perhaps? Though I belong to my school's math team which lets us put whatever we wish on the back of our team shirts. I put Tremontaine and I'm waiting for someone to notice and say they've read TPOTS too. Sadly, no one has yet...

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

That is hilarious.

When I was at WGBH, they gave us jackets - like, y'know, those team jackets in heavy wool that zip up the front - and I had them stitch "Anthony Trollope" as the name on the front in that cool little script.

I figured that way, if anyone asked, I could tell them it was my boyfriend's jacket.

[ladyuranus.livejournal.com]

OMG. Count Cain? Kaori Yuki! So there.

...Btw, I often find myself thinking of Count Cain as I read the Riverside books.

(Just finished Thomas the Rhymer, next is The Fall of the Kings, what will I do next? Probably weep.)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Why, you will write to Delia & me to tell us how much you liked it, of course!