You Higuri's "Gorgeous Carat Galaxy" (manga), #79

Synopsis: Florian takes Ray and Lila to a distant relative's estate/castle known for its unique garden with sculptures of monsters. Jacques, who now oversees the estate, is forced to sell some of its treasures for upkeep and to take care of his cousin, Eleonora. Things are complicated by a blizzard and the arrival of Jacque's fiancee, Charlotte, who abhors Eleonora. A mysterious figure starts to attack guests, and Eleonora kidnaps Florian, who she sees as a symbol of the time in her childhood when she was still innocent. While searching for Florian, Ray and the others discover a complex series of secret paths.

Review: It's You Higuri, of course I loved it. This was a re-read for me, I just felt like visiting Ray and Florian and Lila and Solomon again... It's a stand-alone volume set after the "Gorgeous Carat" series and once again, Florian is the damsel in distress, hehe. Also, I love this sort of gay stuff - the possible relationship between Ray and Florian is only hinted at, there's no sex, it's all plot and character stuff.

I have to admit though that I saw some scanlations of Higuri's "Gorgeous Carat L'Esperanza" work and... Higuri's style is not as beautiful anymore as it used to be. Some artists' style matures, hers regressed. And it's a shame because the gorgeous drawings were what drew me to her manga. The latest ones though... All the characters look like kids, the long lines, lean figures, detailed features, it's all gone. I will of course buy it, I need more Florian and Ray but it's still a disappointment :(

Quote of the day!

This is an amazing quote:

"There are 6 admonishments in the Bible concerning homosexual activity and our enemies are always throwing them up to us, usually in a vicious way and very much out of context. What they don't want us to remember is that there are 362 admonishments in the Bible concerning heterosexual activity. I don't mean to imply by this that God doesn't love straight people, only that they seem to require a great deal more supervision." ~ Lynn Lavner

Sakura Kinoshita's "Tactics 2" (manga), #80

Synposis: The ghost-busting adventures continue as Haruka's uncertainty about his past grows--and he still doesn't recall anything about the time before he was sealed...

Review: This manga is so good. I mean, I watched the anime so I basically know what will happen, but still, there are so many scenes/adventures that never happened in the anime. What I adore about this manga is that one moment, it's all fun and roses, and then Kantaro makes such a sad face and you realize how incredibly lonely he is, that for him, Haruka is the only family he has, the only friend.

Leverage 1x06+1x07

1x06, The Miracle Job: First the shallow part - Chris Kane looked gorgeous in this one *nods* The whole episode was hilarious, one of my favorite eps of S1. Especially the "kids" were great together, shooting Santa etc. And D.B. Sweeney - I loved the commentary, when the writers and producers talked about how much he and Timothy Hutton enjoyed working together!

1x07, The Two-Horse Job: Jaime Ray Newman! (I loved her as Cadman in SGA!) And Mark Sheppard! Though basically, the best scene in this ep was Chris Kane on a horse *swoons* I really need a Chris icon!

Hey, talking about Mark Sheppard, I really loved him in the first season of Special Ops Force aka Soldiers of Fortune, Inc. He played C.J., a kinda crazy bomb expert. He had a great chemistry with Réal Andrews' character Chance. I mean, those two were slashy! Like when Chance crashed their plane and C.J. refused to let him die, building a crash cart out of the plane's battery to save him. And at the beginning of S2 we learned that they left together and went to Hawaii! Like for real! Awesome ;P Too bad that this show isn't on DVD :(