Hi everyone.
I have some more stuff for the party. First, here's the video of "Heavy in Your Arms" that my friend Lia did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=en ... tsZ_Y&NR=1
And for more Bella and Edward romance, there's
this--it's about the most romantic yet non-fan servicey thing I could find.
Now, a little rant/point of discussion for me. You all know that I'm a fan of the manga/anime series Bio-Booster Armor Guyver. However, I'm far from being a manga/anime expert--you'd have to ask my brothers about a lot of that stuff. However, Guyver sticks out to me, in part because I was exposed to it when I was really young (I was 9-10 when Manga Entertainment first distributed the OVA cartoons on VHS), and it does have an interesting story line. Of course, Guyver isn't easy to follow as far as being a fan in North America or Europe unless you visit a good message board or have a subscription to Guyver Advocacy, a fan-sub group that translates the Japanese manga into English (and picks up where Viz left off about 15 years ago). However, because of so many Guyver websites that are out there now, I've been able to do my research.
Of course, the most shocking thing about Bio-Booster Armor Guyver is it's many similarities to, of all things, the Twilight Saga! I know that I've talked about a lot of them before, but with this being Valentine's Day, I'll stick to the romantic ones and do pretty deep into them as far as why that goes hand and hand with Twilight.
First of all, we all know about Bella and Edward from Twilight. Well, Guyver has it's own Bella and Edward romance, in the form of Sho and Mizuki. And that's not the only similarity, as the males in both relationships have a secret that they don't want the one they love to know, and the angst involved with that. And once said secret is out, the males in these relationships then do everything in their power to protect their girlfriends. Edward vows to protect Bella, though she does her fair share of savin' his butt, too. And Sho uses the power of his Guyver armor to protect his friends and loved ones, with Mizuki coming in at #1 on that list, and she's his main reason for fighting to end the evil that he's fighting. Of course, there's been a few times, IMO, that Mizuki has saved Sho's hide (or even his allies), too. Such as when she's or someone else is in danger and she screams Sho's name, and she's been one of the few people who has been shown to have the power to deactivate Guyver I's(as Sho's Guyver form is known) self-defense mode, again by calling out his name.
And then, like Bella and Edward, their relationship moves from infatuation to genuine love, and even into the physical realm. And yes, I've seen a scene in a recent chapter of manga with Sho and Mizuki, and all I'm gonna say is that it wouldn't look out of place if it was Bella and Edward instead, and that it's more fan servicey than how B&E's scenes were depicted in the novels, and that it would for sure give the BD film scenes a run for their money at the least. So, yes, like Bella and Edward, Sho and Mizuki are lovers, and Guyver for sure has that romance as an important plot element. However, in Guyver, the romance is more for the "awww, that's cute" element rather than it taking center stage like in Twilight, though both deal with pretty mature thematic elements regarding romance, which, after all, aside from aiming at different genders, Twilight and Guvyer heavily target the teen/YA audience.
And of course, there's Shizu and Agito/Guyver III, who were childhood friends like Sho and Mizuki are/were, and it's speculated that Shizu and Agito are for sure at least something like a BG/GF pairing, if not a husband/wife pairing. Shizu is obviously a huge admirer of Agito and is sweet on him for sure, and though he's not as overtly enthusiast, he does return the favor with those feelings, especially in a recent chapter of Guyver.
However, I fail to see why in Guyver, men see the romance as being "awwwww, that's cute and nice", while in Twilight, it's ridiculed and poked fun at. I mean, there's plenty of fodder in Guyver to be probed for humor, and the same can be said of Twilight. But in the end, there's more in common between the stories than I think that a lot of people--especially Guyver fans, most of whom are male--will let on. I find the romance in Guyver to be every bit a gushy as it is in Twilight. I don't see too much difference in one having a super-powerful vampire as a BF and getting entangled in that supernatural world and wanting to help him see his inner humanity, and a girl who ends up having one of her best friends become an unwilling armor-plated superhero who battles evil ailens, and said girl falls head over heels for him because he helps protect her and she wants to help him any way she can. Not a lot of difference there, IMO.
I know that the romance angles are handled a bit differently, but they're there in force in Guyver, and for sure, Twilight, and they accomplish the same things. Guyver has a pretty gush romance--Sho's and Mizuki's being every bit as much as Bella's and Edward's, IMO--but guys seem to turn away from that (the "that's cute" angle) because of Guyver's violence and action. Well, a lot of that violence and action comes about because of the gushy romance between the two leads, and what action happens in Twilight is a product of the two leads' romance. Again, if one knows where to look, you can find similarities in two different things, and I find that to be kinda cool, especially with the romance element, which I'll be playing up heavily in my fan fic.
Now that I ranted about that, I can expand if anyone wants me to, but I think that I covered the bases with the basics on romance between the two series. And besides, the romance in Twilight is a breath of fresh air (as is it in the depiction of vampires), and and I don't think that Guyver would be quite right without some romance in the air, there.
As for me, since I'm single and don't really have a GF or anything like that, my personal romance quotient isn't that high today. I got up, went to work, got some cereal, cooking oil, and a pizza, and went home and hopped on here. Valentines day wasn't even really mentioned at work--and 95% of the people I work with are women! If you'd think that Valentines day would be brought up, it would be at a place were almost all the staff are women. At least here's a lot busier than at work on that front.
I'll be having to get off of here at about 7:30 or so--my brother has an online NASCAR race to do. And the first actual NASCAR race this year will be Saturday night, too. Might watch if I get bored, but I'll probably find something else to do instead, like work on my fan fic, which will have a little bit of romance between Lia and Camel to close out chapter 6.
I hope that everyone had a nice Valentine's day. I'll probably hop on after my brother is done with his race, then I'll probably sleep in tonight--I can sleep in since I don't have to go into work until 1:00, but I'll still have to leave at about 12:00 to get my paycheck, cash it, pay car insurance, and then get to work. And then I'll be there until 5:00, so it'll be almost dark when I get off work, which at my job will be a first.
I'll be back later