The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Erin C.:

Leah at 258:

"Still, to this day I have trouble sitting down at a table without an explicit invitation, inviting someone to lunch, or tagging along with a group activity. A lot of the time I muscle through it, but my default assumption in any social situation is that I'm annoying and intrusive."

I empathize to an almost painful degree -- I have the same baggage due to my own experience being bullied in junior high. I recently started attending a local anime club at age 30, and the thought of asking the other members if I could join them at the post-meeting dinner literally gives me stomach cramps. My rational brain tells me that it's almost certainly open to all attendees, and in any case I've chatted amiably with the other folks there on a number of occasions, but the rest of me is screaming not to do it on pain of flat rejection and mockery.

Despite having ruminated over past bullying more than is healthy, it wasn't until reading this thread that I realized why I get the cold shakes over something that's so easy for what sometimes seems like practically everyone else.

So glad to see the comments about the Vampire Hunter D novels. I was a big fan of the movies... and then the novels made it to the U.S. I was so disillusioned. Although actually, they make for pretty good reading when I'm feeling blue -- the breakneck pace and absurd worldbuilding combine with the frequently silly action sequences to make them a good subject for do-it-yourself MST3K.

Here's a quote from the second novel, Raiser of Gales:

"If I were to go out now, my body temperature would drop nearly four degrees," D said, watching the [rain] droplets smashing against his outstretched hand. "My running speed would fall by thirty percent, you see, as my whole metabolism slowed down."

D must be a LARP character, because he apparently has stats.

There's a scene involving a little girl that left me with nightmares after it. (And my stepbrother stopped watching the series at that point.)

I believe I know which one you mean -- a punch to the gut, that was. I'm grateful I was able to hash it over the next day with a friend who'd also seen it and could sympathize. Even so, I'm not sure I'd be able to watch that particular episode a second time.

I reiterate the recommendation -- FMA is a great show. Equivalent to quality YA literature, in my mind, with layered characters and heavy themes handled well, as well as rigorous attention to detail when it comes to the rules it sets for itself. And yes, the dubbing is remarkably good (and I say that as someone who likes a fair percentage of the more recent English dub jobs).

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