palate-cleansing usb stick

[eruthros]

I made a usb stick full of palate-cleansing media to keep around for watching after I watch Doctor Who (because I can't seem to stop watching it, but it makes me sad and angry). So I pulled things based on all your recs and on things that were findable in time - it's all things that are funny or beautiful or delightful or well-written or full of amazing complex women and people of color who talk to each other or all of the above, so it has things for most kinds of bummed out tv-watching. It's not perfect media or anything, but it's all (theoretically) restorative in all different ways. And because some of y'all might also have this problem with some shows or movies sometimes, I thought I'd report what's on it:

• Ranma 1/2 (for the nostalgic-for-the-nineties value, and for the laughter)


• Princess Tutu (the first couple eps - I've never seen it but lots of people have recced it)


• Princess Mononoke (pretty!)


• The Middleman (art crawl! \o/)


• Bringing Up Baby (because Katherine Hepburn is amazing, and Cary Grant makes a great straight man, and there's a leopard)


• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (we could learn an important lesson about friendship and working together and trusting each other. And we could sing along with Winter Wake-Up, too, as necessary.)

And stuff I'll be adding:

• Dark Angel (the first couple episodes - I've actually only seen a couple of eps of it out of order back when it was airing)


• Xena (misc stuff like "A Day in the Life" and the time loop one)


• Sailor Moon (I haven't seen it since I saw it on tv in the nineties, dubbed and scrubbed of "offensive" content)


• Toshokan Sensō (never seen it, it comes recced and, come on, alternate history library wars!)


• Gokusen (not scifi-y, but on the other hand, inspirational teaching!)

I would've put Avatar: The Last Airbender on there, but seriously, I have used it for this purpose so many times in the last year that I need a break. Or Legend of Korra. Or both. And eventually I will find a way to watch Revolutionary Girl Utena with subtitles. Yeesh, the internet.

As I watch stuff off the stick I'll probably replace it with later eps from the same serieses, depending on what I find interesting. More recs always welcome! The bigger the bummed-out-by-tv collection, the better, because this media selection still doesn't seem big enough to cover all the contingencies. (What if I want angry activist palate-cleansing?)

Comments

[kate_nepveu]

Via network--I love _Princess Tutu_ but I don't know if its full palate-cleansing properties will be apparent from the first couple of episodes; I didn't fall head-over-heels for it until the last couple of episodes, though it kept growing on me the whole time.

[eruthros]

Ah, check. Well, if it doesn't work for me right away, I might try it in a different context, then.

[some_stars]

oh man, Dark Angel is BRILLIANT for this, the whole first season. I love S2 just as much, actually, but it's different, and S1 is just...joy. It brings me JOY. That's not actually a rec I guess, since you already have it, just fervent agreement.

[eruthros]

Joy is so important, though! I've seen a couple eps of it that I enjoyed, and some vids (yours and Big City Life), so I look forward to discovering the rest of the it.

[sasha_feather]

+1 :D

Contains: Ranma squee

[terajk]

RANMA! Ranma 1/2 is my major happy-making canon at the moment. Although I am biased, because I have an impairment very similar to Ryoga's and I'd never seen it portrayed in fiction at all, let alone as accurately as Rumiko Takahashi does. And Ryoga is such a well-rounded character who you don't always like (he's guileless, but that doesn't make him any less of a jerk than anyone else). Although, Mousse's portrayal disability-wise gives me the skeevies--but "too stupid to wear his glassses" is easy enough to retcon as "knows his glasses are his assistive device to use however he wants," were I inclined to write him. (Which I am; I love Mousse). PLUS Ranma's complicated relationship with gender--he'll tell you he's a guy, vehemently, but will be a girl at almost any opportunity.

AND all the badass ladies! I mean, Shampoo! Her skill and cunning! (She and Ranma should team up to scam Ryoga people more often!) Cologne! Ukyo! AKANE! Although she has less martial arts skill than Ranma and company, she was the best martial artist in town before Ranma showed up and is very good at reading people's attacks. Also Akari, who I think only appears in the manga but she's as shy around Ryoga as he is around her (because she is in LOVE) and tries to accommodate his disability without making a big deal out of it and she raises sumo-wrestling pigs and RIDES the most awesome one.

I love EVERYONE. My favorite parts were when they would all assemble to fight some larger threat. I want more of that--and I want Akari to be invited. (cf. she RIDES SUMO-WRESTLING PIGS!)

/Ranma squee

Re: Contains: Ranma squee

[eruthros]

Oh man, this makes me so nostalgic! I watched and read a bunch of Ranma 1/2 like fifteen years ago, but at some point I took a too-long break (because I couldn't get the volumes/episodes) and sort of lost track of the plots and characters and couldn't get back into it (because I didn't have any money so I borrowed all the volumes/eps and couldn't get them again easily). So I'm eager to watch it again! This time I will remember who is currently fighting who. I don't really remember Mousse very well, but agree re: Ryoga being interesting and comlpex and kind of a jerk :)

And AGREE re: fighting some larger threat.

[thefourthvine]

I adore Princess Tutu, but if BB hadn't told me not to judge until I'd seen at least the first four, I probably wouldn't have finished the series. It's more like a novel than like a TV show, if that makes sense.

Oh, and my rec: Hikaru no Go. THE best palate-cleansing anime. I mean, perfect? No. But I love it, and it is adorable and wonderful and surprisingly intense. And it's gripping, but in a safe way.

[inkstone]

Dark Angel! ORIGINAL CINDY!!! \o/

And Princess Mononoke is my favorite Miyazaki film. :D

[eruthros]

I feel like I missed so much by only watching Dark Angel sporadically! But I am resolved to fix that.

[inkstone]

Oh! You might want to try Pretty Little Liars? It's not SFF in any way but it's that rare show in which the main characters are all female? It's not for everyone and the plotting can be kinda "Let's see what ridiculous development we toss out next!" (though the original books were like that too), but the main female characters are great.

[eruthros]

I will keep it in mind! At the moment I miss sff and want to find more of it that won't make me want to facepalm all over everything, but I do sometimes watch other genres :)

[chagrined]

I'm gonna disagree with those who said they didn't love Princess Tutu until later in the series. (Well obvsly not about whether they did or didn't, but about whether I think the early ones will still work as a palette cleanser for you.) I mean. If what you're in it for is the meta plot and stuff, yeah, that becomes more apparent later. But the adorability and gr8 animation and gr8 music and Princess Tutu solving problems by dancing with people and talking with them about their FEELINGS is there from the very start. And from the beginning it also lovingly embraces as well as lovingly reworks/reverses many magical girl tropes. I feel like that is ttly palette cleansing.

Good call on MLP! ♥ ♥ It would definitely be in any palette-cleanser toolkit of mine, heh.

I will talk to you about Utena & subs on IM.

[such_heights]

Ponies! :D That is unfortunately the only one of those that I've seen; clearly I need to rectify this. Middleman in particular is high on my list.

[eruthros]

Ooooh I think you would really, really love Middleman. I'm sad that it had such a short run ... but on the other hand, it had a short run, so it's a kind of low-commitment tv? That's how I watched it last year, when I realized there were only ten episodes and I wanted some cheering-up TV.

[gloss]

eventually I will find a way to watch Revolutionary Girl Utena with subtitles
If you need help acquiring such a thing, let me know. I am head over heels for the show right now. ♥

[eruthros]

... so I am way behind on answering comments, obviously, and I just got to this one, and I totally would love a way to acquire Revolutionary Girl Utena with subtitles!

[anenko]

Gokusen! ♥ Did you decide to go with the manga or the drama? Either way, I am excited. My little fandom has a potential new fan! (Some of my favourite mangapages.)

There's a small fandom primarily based on ff.net, if you end up itching for fic.

[eruthros]

I think I put both on the stick! Though since I made this post I have been so busy that I haven't watched/read anything on the stick at all, really, which is kind of depressing. But it is there fore me when I have more brain/time/spoons :)

[themadfish]

Uh, so, I was reading SGA fic and somehow got to your journal (I'm not sure how) and came across this post. We don't know each other at all, but I immediately flailed around because I wanted to share some awesome shows that are full of great women or brings on the happy in general.

First is Dae Jang Geum or Jewel in the palace:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/jewel-in-the-palace
Which is about a woman who is trying to become the 1st Kitchen Lady of the palace in Korea's Joseon Dynasty. Using her wits, she eventually becomes the physician for the king. She's very loosely based (because there's not much info on her) on the first and only female physician of the king of Korea. You should only watch on a full stomach because there's ridiculous amount of delicious looking food scenes. Also, the romance here is slow building -not the focus of the story, though becomes an integral part - and ridiculously cute.

Another historical Korean drama is The Great Queen Seondeok:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/the-great-queen-seondeok (also on hulu)
Great female lead, side characters and villains. It's based on the first queen in Korea, who's actions eventually lead to the unification the three countries in Korea at the time. The vast majority of the show is first her struggling to become queen while being against Misil, a woman who's plotting has secured her as the most powerful person in the government, but who's station stops her just short of becoming queen or having complete control. It's really really good. I adore both the main character and antagonists. The first three episodes are a bit slow, but really picks up at the 4th episode. Best part? There are scenes in the first few episodes that seem really plot dubious, but get brought up again 30ish episodes into the show and what was previously weird, becomes meaningful.

It's really interesting watching this with Dae Jang Geum, because Seondeok happens much earlier, and the political system is very different between them. Women actually have more power in Seondeok than in Dae Jang Geum and one of the things that's brought up is how women in Dae Jang Geum's time are in a restrictive society and they can't always follow their ambition.

12 Kingdoms (Juuni Kokki)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Kingdoms
This is such a good anime! It starts out kinda slow, and you'd probably want to smack the main character. But you see her slowly grow into pure awesome. The only problem is that this anime is based on a series of novels that the author never finished. So one of the later plot lines never get concluded by the time the series end. It's still well worth watching though.

GTO (live action version):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Teacher_Onizuka
If you like Gokusen, you might like this. Gokusen has better female leads though. It's still very feel-good though.

Sailor Moon live action:
Omg if you can get your hands on this this is SO AWESOME. This show makes me so happy.

Movie:
Shall We Dance?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shall_We_Dance%3F_(1996_film)
About a Japanese man who gets into western ballroom dance during a time when western ballroom dance is still somewhat of a taboo. It's adorable and funny. I really love this movie and hope you'll be able to find a copy.

Waterboys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboys_(film)
Male synchronized swimming. That's all you really need to know, except it's very cute and silly. If you can't find this, I think I have a copy of the file that I could upload.

[eruthros]

Thanks for these recs! I enjoyed Damo but haven't seen many other historical K-dramas - I will check those out!