I was saving up some things to post about. But now I don't really want to post about them any more, because I've got something I want to talk about much more. But lets get them out of the way first.

1. I made sushi with Deborah at the weekend, and watched myself a bit of Howl's Moving Castle. The movie is as unsatisfying, plotwise, as I remember it. But who wants to watch it for the plot anyway? I have also come to the conclusion that Howl comes across as being oh so charming, because of some brilliant but subtle direction, and I'm not making it up I swear. Studio Ghibli films are always such a pleasure to watch.

2. The next day I watched Sweeney Todd. It's very singy. And quite gory. Don't watch it if you don't like blood, I'm telling you. I quite enjoy a bit of on-screen violence normally, but I was having to watch half of this from behind my fingers. The good news is that because of the singing, you don't really notice that Johnny Depp has just reused his Jack Sparrow English accent. Also, he doesn't look as old as I was worried he would look, and actually works the whole waistcoat thing quite well. Bonus points for the appearance of Sasha Baron-Cohen.

3. More Gundam00, yadda yadda, Patrick fails again, blah blah, half of the episode is a recap, yeah whatever, and one of the new characters is sporting the male hotpant look? Has that ever not been ridiculous?

RIGHT!

What I have been burning to talk about is that I have just, in the past few days, binged on all of the manga DOGS by Miwa Shirow. I suddenly felt like I had to read it because a) all the cool kids seem to be reading it, and b) I saw this picture of one of the main characters, Badou, with SOUBI. I know.

So, lets review. The good thing about DOGS is that the art is ridiculously good. Ridiculously. It makes me a little giddy. The other good thing is that the plot is like that of a really good action movie. I mean that in the sense that the story is not good per se, but there is so much cool gun-toting, sword-wielding action, that you still leave the cinema feeling like you got your money's worth. (I would compare it to a Tarantino movie, but I won't, for fear of looking like some kind of heathen who doesn't know what she's talking about.) And all of the characters seem like they've been pulled out of the big bag of characters that you have to have in an action movie. You have:

- The blind priest who is secretly badass, with a sword in his cane, just like Zatoichi.
- The cold sword-maiden who is out for revenge.
- The happy-go-lucky, chain-smoking loser, who becomes a lot less happy-go-lucky, and a lot more trigger-happy, when he runs out of nicotine.
- The retired old assassin, who always seems to run into trouble, because he's not looking for it anymore.
- The half-crazy guy who is almost as likely to rip your lips off with his teeth, as he is to shoot you.
- The cute twin girls, who are also deadly. And insane.
+ Many more gansters, prostitutes, evil scientists, and people in double-breasted suits.

Then they go and (in the words of the business) fuck shit up.

I think I have to agree with the world and his aunt, when I say that Badou is my favourite character. But that's neither here nor there.

What I want. What I really want is a cool Tarantino-style soundtrack to go with this manga. It needs a soundtrack. It's calling out for one. There are so many songs that would work brilliantly, including, it seems, half the music on my computer hard-drive. I've had a quick look for fan soundtracks, and only managed to find one, which, to my disappointment, contained Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and other whiny guitar bands (the staple of most fan soundtracks it seems, and the bane of my life). This series calls out for better!
I would make a fan soundtrack myself, but I don't have the patience to do it right. Maybe I'll just compile a list of the songs that I have that work, and leave it at that.

At the top of the list would be Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) by Nancy Sinatra, from the Kill Bill soundtrack. Hands down. Or maybe the Audio Bullys remix for extra hardcore.

Completely unrelated to DOGS, but I came to a realisation today:
Strict Machine by Goldfrapp is a perfect song for Tieria. OMG why didn't I see it before?