Friday, February 01, 2008

The Other Fish

Now, to take away some of the edge off the previous post I will talk a bit about some worthy (though fictional) men. Haha I mean, my past and current pleasant cartoon distractions.

Geek alert. Do not proceed if you are allergic to fandom.

----o0o----

This is Kenshin, ex-assassin turned housemaid. He looks like a girl, but he can kill you in flash. The story of his conversion, from killer to cook, is what Rurouni Kenshin's all about. Aside from the compelling lead character, RK is also great because of how well it blended fiction with historical fact. A pseudo-historical romance, this manga/anime actually helped me answer one of the items in one of the STS exams (the mandatory subject all UP students hate). What's not to love? If you want to talk some more about Ken-san, I would happily smother you with all the information I have. And the geek steps fully out of the closet. Not that I was ever really in the closet...

this graphic was taken from www.romantation.com --- it's actually fan comic illustration (doujinshi), Spark! But it's remarkably similar to the (later) canon drawings.

Now below is my newest idol, Prince Zuko.



Zuko is a surprising, sexy, study in contradiction (yeah, go alliteration!). The caricature bad-guy in Season 1 of Avatar the Last Airbender, Zuko is slowly revealed to be a complicated character. Branded and banished by his own father, a lesser man would have succumbed to cynicism or cruelty or despair. But even in his darkest moments, Zuko found the kindness in his heart to teach a poor boy how to defend himself, and risk discovery in enemy territory to light candles for a girl. He's strong, brave, angry, and conflicted. But he's also sweet, in an awkward, boyish sort of way. Finally in Season 3 he sees the light and defects from his father to join the Avatar's group in their fight to end the war. And with that, you know that the very tenacity with which Zuko hunted the Avatar in the first season is the very thing that would make a damn loyal friend. That's mah-boy Zuko. (Zuko is voiced by Fil-Am actor Dante Basco.)

Okay fangirl drooling over.

----o0o----

Geek alert out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good taste in anime characters. Both are some of my favorite characters (I love characters who did bad things that redeem themselves... kinda a sucker for it honestly). But I saw they were alluding to the fact that Zuko wasn't all evil even in season 1 and I was so cheering from early on for them to have him change for good (they did a good job though of keeping me questioning if he would follow his "bad" side or his "good" side).

Amarie said...

Hi! I must confess I don't know much about Kenshin, I never watched much of the series, and from what I've watched my fav was the one with the bandages in the arms, legs and torso. (I always tend to have a thing for secondary characters, instead of the main one).
The point being is that I'm a big Zuko fangirl too (and a bit of geek too, I guess) and I just the loved the way you described Zuko because that's exactly how I'd describe him. =D
So, I think I'm going to stroll around your blog a litte now... ^^

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