Angstorama

[telophase]

This is from a comment I made in a locked post (the Project Blue Rose in-progress filter, WHICH YOU ARE NOT ON! *evillaughter*), but I figured it deserved to see the light of day.

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I took a break and ran by the bookstore, where I ended up getting book 2 of Monster and book 1 of something that promises to be schlocktastic called X-Kai- (yes, the final dash is part of the title).

The thing that tipped me over the edge into getting it was that I flipped trhough it to check out the art, and the toning looked simple in the way I wanted to do PBR.

The cover has a tall, angsty, dark-haired bishounen with a poet's shirt and also with what is either an enormous longhaired-fur collar or dramatic feather boa draped around his neck, or some sort of animal that is trying to eat his head. And flowers in the background, and black floaty feathers. The blurb reads:

By day, Kaito is a florist, but at night, he is a ruthless assassin who is brought orders to kill by a mysterious woman.* But Kaito is an assassin with a conscience--and his life is made difficult when he has to take care of his sick brother...

Part hardboiled romance of solitude, part meditation on the meaning of life and death, the long-awaited manga series is filled with love, blood, murder, and plenty of white lilies.

It gets better: the picture on the first page when you open the cover is the guy, with the shirt ripped up, a tie askew, and a tattoo of a cross with a rose wound around it.

THE ANGST IS DRIPPING OFF THE PAGE.

ETA: rachelmanija? The main character tends to wear glasses:







* This is the point at which I was "Wait! I saw this anime! Only there were four florist-assassins!

Comments

[telophase.livejournal.com]

What year did Weiss come out, actually? This was originally published in Japan in 1998.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Either 97 or 98, from what I see.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

So it's not so much a matter of X-Kai- following in the footsteps of Weiss, but that at least two producers/publishers thought it was a good idea at the same time.

Which is really more frightening.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Or the one just jumped on the bandwagon pretty quickly - WK was one of those sudden fads when it first came out. (Probably due to the fact that the merchandising folks knew to do lots of fanservice and didn't always keep it PG-13.)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

About fifteen years ago, and all more-or-less simultaneously...

Two movies came out about volcanoes erupting in America, Volcano and Dante's Peak.

Two movies came out about talking pigs, Babe and Gordy.

Three movies came out about boys in men's body's, Big, Vice Versa, and one whose name I forget.

As far as I know these were all coincidental rather than rip-offs of each other. Sometimes ideas are just in the air.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

FLORIST ASSASSINS! :) At any rate, I've now read it, and except for one bit of interesting moral quandary near the end, it's more-or-less forgettable, and not eve really bad enough to be entertaining. The main character does masquerade as a male prostitute at one point, though.

VIVA MEXICO!!!!