Camille Elliot's Blog, page 92

Beyond the Boundary - "Never Be the Same"

Yes, anime again. :) I’ve been watching a lot of anime lately, although this one I saw a while ago. It’s called Kyoukai no Kanata or Beyond the Boundary. I loved it so much that I bought it on iTunes. It’s a supernatural humorous romance adventure, which really just hit me in all the right places.

Each character has some type of hangup, including some weird perverted ones which the show makes fun of, but which are a bit weird for my American-cultured background. But aside from that, the action and adventure is really entertaining. And the heroine’s sense of being alone, mirrored in the hero in a different way, really resonates with me because I’ve felt that way.

I found this AMV video on YouTube, and it just really expresses the tragic/humorous romance of the two characters, Mirai and Akihito. It may not make sense if you haven’t seen the anime show, but it’s still a great AMV.

Meet Joslyn, the heroine from GONE MISSING

I’m over at the Suspense Sisters blog talking a bit more about my heroine, Joslyn, from her introduction as a minor character in Treacherous Intent to her love story in Gone Missing .

GONE MISSING and the TV show Supernatural

Some of you guys are Supernatural fans, right? It actually had an influence on my latest romantic suspense, Gone Missing! I’m blogging at Suspense Sisters about it.

Interview at Suspense Sisters

To celebrate the release of my latest romantic suspense, Gone Missing , I’m giving an interview over at the Suspense Sisters blog. You might learn something weird about me. :)

Prayer at ChristiansRead

Photo credit: lalalime.blogspot.com
I was over at ChristiansRead.com today talking about the chapter on prayer that I read for my Bible study group on Friday. It’s made me more hopeful about improving my prayer life, and I’m taking prayer requests, too!

How can I pray for you?

Giveaway of GONE MISSING

My latest romantic suspense, Gone Missing , releases this month! Some of you may have already seen the book in your local stores.

I'm super excited about this book, and to celebrate its release, I'm giving away 3 copies to 3 lucky winners (US only, sorry) at the Suspense Sisters blog.

The Blacklist - my prediction

I admit I’m on the fence about the TV show, The Blacklist. On one hand, I absolutely LOVE James Spader. He has such a presence on screen that’s really exciting to watch.

On the other hand, the writers have a lot of little things that bother me, some “too stupid to live” moments. Every so often I’ll get so disgusted that I threaten to Captain Caffeine that I’m going to stop watching it … and then the show has some neat twist and I want to keep watching. So like an idiot, I keep watching.

There was a prediction I made at the end of Season 1, but Captain Caffeine said I should blog about it and put it out there. So here goes.

The man everyone thinks is Red Reddington is not Red Reddington. Let’s call him Mr. X. He’s Lizzie’s father.

The story about the real Red Reddington was that he was an officer who suddenly disappeared one day, then turned up 4 years later as a criminal.

The real Red Reddington died or was killed. Mr. X assumed Red’s identity and resurfaced 4 years after the disappearance, pursuing his criminal activities. There was a man in the Blacklist who could alter DNA—he did that for Mr. X to give him Red’s DNA. There was also a plastic surgeon in an episode that the fake Red mentioned he’d used, but he didn’t mention anything else about him—the surgeon gave Mr. X Red Reddington’s face.

Mr. X was at Lizzie’s house during the fire, but he was the man on the floor, her father.

In a season finale, Lizzie asked him if he was her father, and he said no. It was partially true—he is now Red Reddington, who is not her father.

So there’s my prediction. Mr. X is Lizzie’s father. What do you think?

Psycho-Pass

I watched this Japanese anime show on Netflix called Psycho-Pass, and I have to say, I think it’s my favorite one so far. The story premise is a futuristic, isolated Japan which is ruled by the Sybil system, which is a massive computer that can scan and calculate a person’s potential to commit crimes. People who have a high criminal potential become second-class citizens because of their psychological imbalance, called “latent criminals.”

But some latent criminals with a good aptitude become secondary detectives in the police force. Their sociopathy comes in handy when apprehending other criminals in society who have already committed crimes. It enables their inspector superiors to keep their criminal potential lower since the latent criminals are the ones who do most of the violent work in capturing or eliminating the criminals.

The Sybil system has created a utopian society that has not been exposed to much violence or crime, but this lack of moderate stress in their lives makes them especially sensitive when crime does occur. Often victims in a crime will have their psychological criminal potential rise until they themselves become latent criminals. It’s a paradoxical system.

I guess I really like it because of the psychological issues raised in the storylines and also the socio-political themes that run throughout the show. It’s more than just a commentary on society or on psychology. Like typical Japanese shows, the ending isn’t quite as pat and final as American movies—there’s ambiguity and a socio-political question raised that doesn’t seem to be intended to be fully answered by the show, but to be pondered over by the viewers.

The show can be incredibly violent, but it doesn’t have the sexual overtones (called “fan service” by anime viewers) that a lot of other anime shows have. On a tangential note, I’ve stopped watching several anime shows because of the fan service, because I find it degrading to women. I also think that it indicates the mindset of how women are viewed and objectified in Japanese society, in a different way than in American society.

Anyway, Psycho-Pass doesn’t have that kind of fan service, which is a relief because it would have just detracted from the excellent writing and characterization. The heroine was a bit weak in the first episode or two, but I really saw her growth as the show progressed until I was incredibly impressed by her by the middle of the season. The changes in the other characters was also very well done.

I enjoyed Psycho-Pass so much that I bought season 1 (extended edition) and also season 2 on iTunes—they have the original Japanese version with subtitles, which I prefer. I enjoyed season 2 as much as, if not a tiny bit more, than season 1, even though the main male character in season 1, Kogami, is mostly absent from season 2. I think it’s because I really enjoy the main female lead, who is deceptively small and feminine but with a strong psychological core that makes her sympathetic, and the parts where Kogami appears are really quite good.

I think I want to read the book, The Minority Report , because it has a similar story premise, just to compare it. I already saw the movie but now I’m interested in the book the movie was based on.

Did any of you read The Minority Report? What did you think of it? I haven’t read anything from Phillip K. Dick.

How can I pray for you?

I asked God to make me a prayer warrior, and I realized I was missing out on the chance to pray for all of you, my online friends! So how can I pray for you? I will try to remember to post this at least once a month so I can pray for you.

Prayer requests can sometimes be private things, so to keep your privacy, I’ve made a form you can fill out that will keep your requests just between you and me. Also please be sure to fill out the form again to update me if you sent me a prayer request in the past. I’d love to hear how you’re doing.

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Too Stupid To Live heroines

I'm now blogging at the Suspense Sisters blog! In case you missed it, I was blogging about "Too Stupid To Live" heroines (don't you just love them?! Not) and my Regency romance, The Spinster’s Christmas , which I'm revising right now.