~ I Should Have Known

...That I'd get completely suckered in and see my day disappear faster than...something really fast. I can't even really remember how I got from Checking Emails this morning to Frantically Clicking Through Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden several hours later. Sigh. 

It's almost as great a guilty pleasure as the original Fushigi Yuugi anime was (I haven't read the manga. At 100+ chapters, I'd better not start now either.)  I find the darkness of Ayashi No Ceres, and its greater complexity in themes as well as characters, a lot more interesting. (and certainly classic enough for me to re-watch or re-read unlike Fushigi Yuugi which is sometimes just too agonising to go through all over again)

But Yuu Watase's style has matured somewhat and her characters are no longer as gratingly shallow as they used to be. It's nice to re-visit the Universe of the Four Gods without having to live through the painful Miaka-Yui-Tamahome Hormonefest Saga (where everyone seemed to be raping someone/been raped/intended to rape/unhealthily obssessed with virginity, always hung up about unrequited love/lust ). Genbu Kaiden has a lot less of that soap-opera dynamic and spends more time on the actual quest/plot/character development instead of perpetual fights/wangst abut who loves who and why and when, stupid, stupid miunderstandings and loads of crap in between. 

It's not finished yet and apparently on hiatus until next year. Whch blows a bit. But not really. Since that means there won't be any distraction from that quarter for some months. Just have to resist re-watching Ayashi no Ceres in the meantime. GAH.  

EDIT: And I realise I blogged about Absolute Boyfriend some time back also. Damn, the hours this mangaka steals from me. Mutter grumble. I've probably read more of her works than any other mangaka. Is disturbing. Especially since I adore Kazuya Minekura and CLAMP's art much, much more. BL mangaka don't count since they don't do Epic manga serials/anime/ova Empires >8D