As my birthday treat to myself I picked up volume 2 of Wolf's Rain, and volume 3 of Last Exile. Managed to sit down and watch the wolfy one this afternoon while the cubs were out with their father.
Not that I didn't enjoy these eps but I don't think I liked them much as the first lot, (though we got to see more of Darcia and he's an absolute honey...). The animation is still t'riffic but the little niggling things that bugged me at the beginning are still there. One thing in particular I noticed this time 'round was the 'freezing' of characters onscreen. Ye-e-e-s, it could be a way of representing the stillness of the wolves but I can't help thinking it's just another method of filling in screen time cheaply. Maybe I'm too cynical.
And the story seemed to waffle on a bit, I felt like I was waiting for something to happen a lot of the time.
Still, the worldframe is interesting, the characterisations are believable and the closing credits theme is lovely. (... and I still think Toboe is the cutest little uke I've ever seen. : ) I'll get the next volume when it's released.

My cub's sore toe is healing up nicely - he doesn't yelp quite so loudly when you poke it. <smirk> Mean mummy...

Yay! Joules has written the merboiz ficlet! It's gorgeous, and once again she's managed to conjure an entire world in 3 paragraphs. <envyenvy>
Look for it soonish in The Vault, the non-passworded area of the Wavewrights site. Details on the Updates Blog when the author has a moment...