are wa yume? soretomo maboroshi?

[arisha]

There is a weekly Escaflowne rewatch/discussion thinger going on at escafans, and I vote you all join in. xD AS IF I NEED AN EXCUSE TO REWATCH ESCAFLOWNE. I just watched the first two episodes and wrote a rather ridiculous and long comment on the entry for episode two. FUN FACT: I don't remember if I've ever admitted this before or not, but the tail end of the second episode was the very first bit of Escaflowne I ever saw (when I was thirteen! almost EIGHT YEARS AGO OH MY GOD), and the reasons I continued to watch the series are thus: 1) the choral music reminded me of the Hunchback of Notre Dame music, which is awesome; 2) the episode ends on a shot of a city burning to the ground, and even then I was a Trojan War fangirl. So. xD

When I watch Escaflowne now I watch it without subtitles, and I wish I could say this proudly and be all "I watch it without subtitles because I am fluent in Japanese!" but lawl, no, the reason I watch it without subtitles is more because I feel I have watched it too many times now to justify watching it with subtitles. I don't know if this will make any sense to anyone else but that is how I feel about the matter. :P

So anyway SPEAKING OF MY TROJAN WAR FANGIRLISM, which I'm sure we were, over the past month two people have turned to me and said, "Sarah - you read, right?," and I have replied with an indignant "yes" as if to imply how dare they even doubt it - I read Tolstoy for breakfast and James Joyce for lunch! But in order to give some weight to my indignant "yes," I have instead decided to reread Hilary Bailey's Cassandra, Princess of Troy, which I first read around the same time that I was first watching Escaflowne. Apparently ninth grade was the pinnacle of my media intake or, uh, something? I am a little disheartened right now because this book is not half as good as I remembered it being (there is a chapter randomly from the point of view of Calchas who is blind and yet he keeps describing all of these purely visual things, what the heck), but the war hasn't even started yet so there's still some time to win me over. ALSO IT INCLUDES LINES LIKE THIS:

There were cries behind us, and rattling, and, looking round, we saw Paris, our brother, standing up in his chariot behind two matched black horses, charging up at a fantastic pace, with people dropping away from the road on to the fields, as fast as they could, to keep out of his way. No one minded; everyone smiled; I think he could have knocked a child or an old woman flying and still received everyone's blessing.

HAHAHAHA PARIS WILL RUN YOU OVER AND YOU WILL LIKE IT!!

And on a slightly more serious note, I must also admit I love lines like this:

'... As for Helen, while present she's almost like the image of a goddess. Her beauty is so startling you scarcely notice the woman underneath. Who she really is, none of us knows. I think even Paris doesn't know.'

Apparently I am a fan of Helen the Mystery Woman, because this bit reminds me of a line in The Shattered Horse, where Astyanax realizes Helen probably never told Paris she loved him, and I think that is awesome, too. Well I like this view of their relationship a ton better than the view Hollywood takes of it, and I think I have ranted about that enough previously that I don't have to do so here. xD;

Also also!! Helen in this novel is three years older than Paris which is TOTAL WIN only because of that extended Troy scene, HAHAHA! "WE'RE THE SAME AGE WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!!" XDDDD!!!

I also love this book for the simple fact that Helenus is a main character. But I shall save my rambling about that because I don't remember whether this book includes his betrayal or not. I am looking forward to finding out. xD

Comments

[athena-crikey.livejournal.com]

I have to interrupt my lunch of perogies to reply to this/your re-watching Esca post. Re: episode two, my first (and predominant) thoughts on this episode is, man this is the episode done by the horrible artists! There's another couple later on (I forget which), but this one stands out as the pinnacle in my mind. Also, re: your post saying you thought it was by different groups but weren't sure, I totally remember you telling me so authoritatively that it was so at one point! So, either you used to know and forgot, or you're an usotsuki!

uso da!!!

[arisha.livejournal.com]

Episodes fourteen and twenty-four make me think they're done by the same animators as episode two, which SUCKS because those two episodes are AWESOME but simultaneously so, so UGLY. I like the style of episode five, I think that's my favourite.

I tried to look up the animators or whatnot but couldn't find what I was looking for, so on Saturday I guess I shall pay attention to the credits of episode three and see if it mentions anything about who animated it. Considering I probably told you that like six years ago, I vote that I knew it at one point and forgot it. But hahaha WHO KNOWS. x)

[frauleinfrog.livejournal.com]

Geez, that first section had TOO MANY COMMAS. Holy frick. Comma-splatter. >.>

[arisha.livejournal.com]

I ... was hoping no one would notice that. ^^; I only noticed when I was typing it up, and then I was like WHAT THE HECK WITH THESE COMMAS.

(How was your Victoria visit? I feel we have been having some funky weather as of late!)

[frauleinfrog.livejournal.com]

Lol. It's true. I'm kind of sensitive to punctuation, though. >.>

(It was nice- quite relaxing. It was cold as frick when I was waiting for the bus, though. q.q)