Progress

I just finished reading Haruki Murakami's The Wind-up Bird Chronicle. It's not a book that I can claim to have understood totally, nor does it lend itself to easy explanations. In addition to that, it's quite a different book than what I expected, though in retrospect it's very Murakami. (The only others I've read are Kafka on the Shore and After Dark.) What I expected was some sort of validation of my jazz-listening, whiskey-drinking, resigned existence. That's exactly what I got, actually, but with a whole bunch of other madness tossed in that brought it to a completely different plane. I feel relieved, somehow, and strengthened in my resignation. As ironic as that sounds. In any case, I will have to ruminate further on this subject -- with Murakami novels, the rumination never ends.

On other fronts, I voted in Saimoe for the first time in my life. Thanks to a number of sources, some outdated, I cast votes for Ayano and Asou. Only Asou won, which is fine. Ayano isn't that great; Shinra is too much of a repackaged Haruhi; the darned StrikerS and Sky Girls crap needs to go away; and I haven't watched true tears yet, so I have nothing to say on that matter. I think I will stay away from Saimoe until there is someone truly worth voting for. Like, today has Kaga from Zetsubou, but she's never going to win against Shana. Plus I bet if I watch/read Shana, I'll be quite a willing Shana fanboy.

On the anime side of things, I am feeling rather fatigued. Geass R2 is the only thing I've really kept up with, and it's sapped my energy for following anything else. This is because R2 has been FAIL for quite some time now. Yes, 21 was mostly fail too. They may as well have brought on the LCL -- in stunning 3D. Geh. I'll forgive Sunrise if they crank out a whang-biz ending, but I'm not holding my breath. They've already thrown away so much promising material in the pursuit of empty expediency.

Manga's always great, though. I'm going through MangaScreener's back catalog.