This is how they train TV gambling gods

shoujo dream girl
CLUELESS BREAKER OF HEARTS

UNO! HEART ATTACK! Oh sorry, wrong game….

I guess after graduating from shounen go..go…ghost stories, to seinen shogi murder mysteries, to moe ecchi epic mahjong tile-slamming with the fury of Zeus, we’re left with shoujo card playing with a romance sub-plot. Well I say…bring on the hot blood non-UV competition, fellows.

I probably put the first episode of Chihayafuru as the best first episode of the fall season, trumping the incredibly saccharine Tamayura ~Hitotose~, if only because it wasn’t so relentless one-track and had no moe blobs (probably a discussion for another time.) The execution was pitch perfect and it did everything it had to do well, giving a bit of naunce to each character as needed when they’re introduced and focused upon. The art direction and animation are pretty stellar, and Asaka Morio (director of such works as the original Gunslinger Girl and NANA) is a very safe pair of hands for this kind of project.

Of course, it still remains to be seen if the show falls into the common shoujo trap of having Chihaya turn into an oh-so-perfect quirky girl that’s only moderately pretty at best, fighting against gender norms and being utterly irresistible to any sapien sapiens with three legs. Considering there’s only 2 members in the bishounen harem so far, things seems to be under control for now. Not being too familiar with the source material, I’m not sure where the balance between the competitive elements and relationship moping is, but judging from the OP visuals, I think it won’t degenerate too far into the latter direction.

Now, let’s hope Gonzo’s return to their Last Exile franchise is favorable. PLEASE.

ONLY LORDS GET TO SCORE

Lord Kinnaird with DAT PANTS AND DAT BEARD

I chanced upon this historical wiki after reading the MBM report of the Scotland qualifying game yesterday. Talk about awesome face fungus and trousers. I DEMAND every boring as hell football match be played by people with similar mug rugs and rib-cinching pants.

Never mention the word REBOOT in polite company

Selina and Wayne doing the nasty bizness

If there ever was a time the shark jumped in this doomed experiment of Dan DiDio and Geoff Johns, this moment is it.

So what happened to all that hard work trying to erase the bad 90s for the character? Where effort was put in make Selina Kyle more than just wholly defined by the tragedy of her doomed love between the Cat and the Bat? I guess the editors thought so much damage had already been done by the execrable Heart of Hush, they might as well finish the job.

Seriously, in the first issues of a company-wide revamp that was supposedly meant to attract new readers, you would have thought impressions would matter. Unless Guillem March plans to turn the comic into Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose, you’re simply not going to get any readers that dug the kind of material on offer in Catwoman #01 to keep reading, because no one can keep up this kind of riveting plot flow without destroying the character completely. I might add that the Big 2 already have enough problems with comics having an image issue and the perception it’s a niche market catering to subterranean nerds. March attracted a lot of criticism for over-sexualizing with his art for Gotham City Sirens, but I always thought that the writing and visuals did achieve a fine line between sensuality and self-respect. Here, any illusions of restraint is pretty much non-existent.

DC is already have a lot of issues with ill-thought continuity as well as the elephant in the room, THE Barbara problem. The less said about that one, the better. Even just flipping through Birds of Prey #01 and seeing her ALTERED and interacting with Dinah is eyerolling-inducing. The last thing DC needs is self-created minefields like with Catwoman (and to a lesser extent, Starfire, but that’s another complaint in itself).