inkstained

Like everybody else, it seems, I am reccing the amazing anime Free! Iwatobi Swim Club. :)

In it, four young friends (Makoto, Nagisa, Rin, and Haruka) win a trophy for swimming a relay together, but everything seems to fall apart when Rin leaves for Australia to join a prestigious swim club there. When he returns in high school, the boys work to put together a new school swimming team with the help of Rin’s sister, Gou (or is it Kou?), and Rei, a new calculations-obsessed member, but find Rin to be a very different person.

It’s really the humor and the relationships that steal the show here, that and the level of fanservice: the use of subversive female-gaze camera shots to display gorgeous half-naked male bodies with water sparkling or dripping off of them. And the fact that the guys all bond by being boys with girly names.

The delicious rivalry between Haruka and Rin, the mystery of what happened between them to change their personalities, the way they all take care of each other, the reason Haruka only swims freestyle, and generally the strong (and supremely slashy!) friendships make this a very entertaining anime even if you have no interest in swimming.

This is only four episodes in, and I absolutely adore it already.

(And now thanks to the amazing reapersun’s gorgeous art on tumblr, I desperately want a Sherlock crossover...Mmm, Sherlock in a swimsuit. Mmm, Mycroft in a speedo.)

Thanks to meiface for squeeing over the relationship between Makoto and Haruka and getting me interested in this anime!

As always, my masterlist of anime recs is here, though I won’t add this one until it’s finished airing. :)

Look at the pretty art I received yesterday! As I have very little artistic talent on my own, I'm so amazed by artistic people, and to have a Harry/Draco picture created for me makes me so happy! *dances* Made by the gorgeous appleling, it was actually for my birthday on March 15th, but since today is her birthday, I like the irony of posting it today for everyone to share. :)




*squeeing, flailing* It is so adorable! Harry is carrying a snoozing Draco! And look at Draco's little hairbow! And their adorable little scarves! And their little mittens and shoes! And their pink cheeks! And Harry's expression, like "I'm a bit tired here, Draco love, but I'll keep carrying you as long as I can."

In other words, best birthday present ever!!! Thank you so much, appleling! Happy Birthday! *glomps you*

There has now been enough intereating-looking fic posted in the 2011 round of hd_holidays as to keep me pleased for the entire year, and I absolutely cannot wait to read it all. But since the holidays have been insanely busy, in the meantime have an art rec!

I was talking about how Harry and Draco look in our heads with appleling when I came to the conclusion that my head!Draco and head!Harry change depending on what fic I'm reading, but generally tend to look more...hand-drawn and anime-style than like real people. Yeah, I know I'm weird, but that's honestly how I usually see them in my head.

My ideal Harry/Draco looks like how star_sailor13 generally draws them, i.e. here or here (or see her gallery here).

And today something was posted in hd_hols that made me literally go, "OMG, HEADCANON!"

Snakewater for mizbean, who is so lucky.

The snakeskin! The water droplets! The Dark Mark! How gorgeously protective Harry is while they lie in the rain! When I imagine H/D, that's what I see. I can't wait for this mystery artist to de-anon so I can stalk his/her art. :D

EDIT: The artist is misterwalnut, so go forth and spread the love!