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Mar. 17th, 2005 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenygalAs ways to spend St. Patrick's Day go? Attending your father's birthday dinner in a cozy Moroccan restaurant--while people are standing in line in the cold trying to get into the Irish bar next door--is actually pretty good. The fact that this restaurant featured belly-dancing and that I got to watch Dad dancing with her and doing really well? Even better. (If I'd known, I would've brought a camera. Ah, missed opportunities...) And the woman she pulled in after that who danced to her in ways that had my brain going "Real life femslash! Mmmm."--hey, icing. (It was just good dancing, I know. But it was still lots of fun to watch.) And the food was good too. Excuse me while I purr contentedly for a bit.
***
In more fannish thought, I just picked up volume II of the manga UNTIL THE FULL MOON. The primary attraction of this--it's on the cover and everything--is that it's by the creator of FAKE. As you might expect from that, it's really pretty, and has m/m content--sort of. Unfortunately it's nowhere near as good. The premise of the story is that Marlo is the son of a vampire and a werewolf, and somehow the result of this is that he's a mostly-normal guy who turns into a woman at the full moon. ...yeah, it's that kind of story. His parents consult a family friend who's a doctor and a vampire--nobody is normal in this story--and he can't help, so he decides the best thing to do would be to marry Marlo to his son David, also a vampire, who was Marlo's childhood friend. David thinks this is a terrific idea. Romance ensues. It's all long on soulful looks and flowing hair and jealous ex-lovers and very, very short on anything else--FAKE at least pretended to have plots. Here's what an episode of FULL MOON is like:
MARLO: Ack! I’m ten years old!
DAVID: Huh.
MARLO’S PARENTS: What did you do to him?!
DAVID: Not remotely my fault.
[Deeply contrived explanation involving magical wine]
MARLO: There’s no way to turn me back! Now we can’t get married!
ME: That's absolutely your only concern? Of course it is.
DAVID: Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
MARLO: Really? ...not that I care.
DAVID: Hey, let’s sleep together!
MARLO: Sick, sick, sick!
DAVID: I would never take advantage of a child.
ME: ...kind of patronizing, aren’t you?
[Only slightly less contrived discovery of more magical wine]
DAVID: So I have a cure but I won’t tell you. Instead I’ll drink it and then sweep you up and kiss you without explaining so you can get it that way. Aren’t I romantic?
ME: Let me get back to you on that. Although you are pretty hot.
MARLO: I’m cured!
DAVID: Yes. Although I would have waited forever for you. But let’s have sex now.
MARLO: No. And now I’m going to arbitrarily put the wedding off for a year. Because. But don’t worry, I’ll wait for you too.
DAVID: ...
That last is a direct quote, incidentally. Hard to blame him; Ryo may be giving off mixed signals in FAKE, but believe me, he’s got nothing on Marlo.
What I find frustrating about FULL MOON, aside from some irritating relationship dynamics, is that I think it's got a fascinating premise--well, I could take or leave the vampire stuff, but it does help to ground the story in a setting where weird things happen and we can just get on with dealing with them--and it's mostly ignored in favor of all the romance-novel stuff, particularly in the second book. Surely a guy who regularly turns into a woman and is marrying another guy who loves him but is primarily straight has at least a year's subscription worth of issues to work out, and I would've loved a little more of that and a little less of David's old lovers trying to make their boyfriend jealous. Am I asking for way too much of a book that's mostly premised on being hot and sweet? Oh, probably. But I'm still a little wistful about the possibilities.
***
In more fannish thought, I just picked up volume II of the manga UNTIL THE FULL MOON. The primary attraction of this--it's on the cover and everything--is that it's by the creator of FAKE. As you might expect from that, it's really pretty, and has m/m content--sort of. Unfortunately it's nowhere near as good. The premise of the story is that Marlo is the son of a vampire and a werewolf, and somehow the result of this is that he's a mostly-normal guy who turns into a woman at the full moon. ...yeah, it's that kind of story. His parents consult a family friend who's a doctor and a vampire--nobody is normal in this story--and he can't help, so he decides the best thing to do would be to marry Marlo to his son David, also a vampire, who was Marlo's childhood friend. David thinks this is a terrific idea. Romance ensues. It's all long on soulful looks and flowing hair and jealous ex-lovers and very, very short on anything else--FAKE at least pretended to have plots. Here's what an episode of FULL MOON is like:
MARLO: Ack! I’m ten years old!
DAVID: Huh.
MARLO’S PARENTS: What did you do to him?!
DAVID: Not remotely my fault.
[Deeply contrived explanation involving magical wine]
MARLO: There’s no way to turn me back! Now we can’t get married!
ME: That's absolutely your only concern? Of course it is.
DAVID: Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
MARLO: Really? ...not that I care.
DAVID: Hey, let’s sleep together!
MARLO: Sick, sick, sick!
DAVID: I would never take advantage of a child.
ME: ...kind of patronizing, aren’t you?
[Only slightly less contrived discovery of more magical wine]
DAVID: So I have a cure but I won’t tell you. Instead I’ll drink it and then sweep you up and kiss you without explaining so you can get it that way. Aren’t I romantic?
ME: Let me get back to you on that. Although you are pretty hot.
MARLO: I’m cured!
DAVID: Yes. Although I would have waited forever for you. But let’s have sex now.
MARLO: No. And now I’m going to arbitrarily put the wedding off for a year. Because. But don’t worry, I’ll wait for you too.
DAVID: ...
That last is a direct quote, incidentally. Hard to blame him; Ryo may be giving off mixed signals in FAKE, but believe me, he’s got nothing on Marlo.
What I find frustrating about FULL MOON, aside from some irritating relationship dynamics, is that I think it's got a fascinating premise--well, I could take or leave the vampire stuff, but it does help to ground the story in a setting where weird things happen and we can just get on with dealing with them--and it's mostly ignored in favor of all the romance-novel stuff, particularly in the second book. Surely a guy who regularly turns into a woman and is marrying another guy who loves him but is primarily straight has at least a year's subscription worth of issues to work out, and I would've loved a little more of that and a little less of David's old lovers trying to make their boyfriend jealous. Am I asking for way too much of a book that's mostly premised on being hot and sweet? Oh, probably. But I'm still a little wistful about the possibilities.
