I really really REALLY need to stop getting sucked into the TV Tropes website. I just visit it occasionally, but whenever I do... link follows link follows link.... it's like the Pringles of websites!

On the bright side, following a link on there has once again affirmed that some anime really does get ridiculously over-the-top, even when it's "serious" (as opposed to something MEANT to be over-the-top like Excel Saga).

DAMNIT! Apparently Geneon is going to be shutting down, or no longer producing anime, or something along those lines. See, for example, here for a quick blurb on it (assuming you click the link not too very long after I post it - a month from now or whatever I'm sure the news will have gone off the front page. :p )

This is not good. Damnit, they put out Kyo Kara Maoh, which is the current series that I'm most into and the only one that I'm picking up as it comes out, pre-ordering each one from Amazon. Damnit damnit! So now I can only hope that the license will be picked up by another (good) company to finish it up... ARGH!

This also sucks because they put out various things that I've been meaning at some point to finish picking up (like Saiyuki Reload and such), but now it's going to make it harder probably to complete my collections further down the road when I get to it. Grarh! *gnash teeth*

So who made the rule that anything that turns out intriguing, and well, or even remotely so, must by the end of a series have its quality go down faster than Monica Lewinsky at the Democratic Convention? And I'm not even talking about the inevitable decline in quality as things drag on and on and on just because they don't have the balls to end things while they've still got some magic left. I mean things that apparently have a set ending in sight from the get-go, but yet just lose their momentum during the journey to actually *get* there.

I'm musing on this as I'm struggling with the continuation of two things that I at least used to be intersted in.

Just the other day I received the third DVD of Saiyuki: Reload from Amazon.com. Now while the original series was... okay, maybe it wasn't the epitome of Deep Anime, but it had cute guys, cool action, a good dose of humor... generally good stuff. But with reload? The animation quality to me seems "off," and lowering the more I watch it. For the most part the enemies seem unoriginal, and uninspiring, and the plots are barely more than rehashes of the first series at times. Oh, and the ending theme is, well, tolerable, while the opening theme... isn't. But of course, I'm left with either just dropping it totally and not getting to see how the story ends, or continuing on knowing at this point that it'll never recapture the magic of the first season, and not knowing if I'll even really get to see anything "new" that really catches my eye.

I'm also thinking about this because I finally managed last night to finish my re-read of Lord of Chaos, as I try to slog my way back through the Wheel of Time series in preparation for the eleventh (ugh) book which is apparently due out in October. At least that's what Amazon says, feel free to insert the usual platitudes about trusting the bookstore people, lack thereof. And of course that is if I were for some reason to decide to pick up the hardcover. About the only way I figure that's going to happen is a) an impulse purchase if I see it relatively cheap at the bookstore, or b) if people whose taste I know and trust start commenting how it's, if not the best thing since sliced bread, at least a very marked improvement over the last few books.

I can tell more and more than around between books five and six is where things really started to fall apart for Jordan, because that's pretty much where my reading progress went from a nice galloping revisit to old friends, who I'd frankly forgotten were as good as they were thanks to the latter books, and straight into a slog-fest where I have to practically force myself to read a bit every few nights just to get through. Well, HOPEFULLY at least this time I can manage at the end of the readthrough to finish off Crossroads of Twilight - which I have honestly not yet at this point actually managed to do. I'm also noticing that I'm going from "now why did this character annoy me? They seem human and naturally to me" straight into "oh. THAT'S why I couldn't stand that character. Yeah, they need to die now."

(And for the record, the more I re-read, the more I'm thiking that Taim might be Demandred after all - Jordan's had a few other instances sprinkled throughout the books where someone didn't recognize someone else due to the need for Dramatic Tension or what have you, even when they should have. And there are really really FAR too many incidents that point to that outcome, more than any red herring should ever be freaking allowed to have.)

Which reminds me: I really need to find a new newsfeed, or try to get in on the paid part of my old one. *grumble*

Anyhow, in the same vein as the topic, see also: Fushigi Yugi, and, much as I hate to admit it, probably Rurouni Kenshin. Although that latter is more the dragging-on-longer-than-it-should syndrome, rather than the "end clearly in sight but getting lost along the way" one. Seems like there was something else I wanted to mention along these lines as well, possibly a manga or two, but can't think of it right now.

I was going to say that I feel somewhat guilty posting positive stuff without at least lip service to other events... but hell with it. I don't. Life goes on, and I'm too relieved right now to wring hands.

As might be guessed, the first part of my root canal is now over and done with. The worst part by far was the fact that lying in that position for that long is absolute hell on my already-bad sinuses. The only pain was the brief bit from getting the shot to numb the area, just in case. Otherwise, no problems.

Of course, now I have to go back in just under two weeks (and ten in the morning, *sob*) to get things finished up, in an appointment that could take as much as two hours. Ugh. That's going to be annoying, but it's no drilling/filing/anything like that, just stuffing up part of the tooth, putting a post in, taking impressions, adding a temporary crown, etc etc. In other words, a lot of little things that need to be done over the course of the appointment. Still, not looking forward to it. But as I said, too relieved to be done with today to be angsty over it at the moment.

Also on the positive side, I got the second DVD of Kyo Kara Maoh yesterday. Whee! Already watched it last night, all five lovely episodes. I so love this series already. <3 Bishounen. Humor. More bishounen. A little touch of the "absurd" here and there, which I'm not a fan of in general, but it's such a light touch here that it doesn't distract. Mmmm.

Now I also have the next DVD of Saiyuki: Reload to watch at some point...

Yummy goodness.