I'm so very behind...

I seem to have some kind of reader's block at the moment, and I also haven't been getting through TV series as quickly. Somehow, this hasn't stopped me from building up a nice list of things I've finished and need to review. Here's what you can (hopefully) expect me to be publishing full posts about soon.

• Hiiro no Kakera (anime TV series) - An ordinary high school girl learns that she's not so ordinary after all - she's actually the Tamayori princess. Also, she has five gorgeous guardians. Of course. Too bad they suck at their jobs. This series took me ages to get through, and not just because Crunchyroll is still having buffering issues. Even so, it's still better than, say, Hakuoki or Brave 10. The series' otome game origins are incredibly obvious if you watch past the closing credits of each of the episodes. Now I kind of wish I could play the game.
• Hogfather (live action TV mini-series) - This is based on the book by Terry Pratchett. It has several of my favorite things: Susan, the Assassin's Guild, and Death. This adaptation was, as far as I could tell, PSA-free. After experiencing Going Postal's heavy-handed anti-smoking message, I was thankful of this. However, for some reason Hogfather didn't grab me as much as Going Postal did.
• Bunny Drop (anime TV series) - I watched this via Crunchyroll and, once again, cursed their buffering issues - what kind of business lets a tech support problem go on for 2+ months? Anyway, this series is about a single, 30-year-old man named Daikichi who goes to his grandfather's funeral and learns that his grandfather left behind a 6-year-old love child. No one in the family wants to take her in, so Daikichi says he'll do it. During the course of the series, Daikichi gradually adjusts his life so that he can be a better caretaker for Rin. He gets her signed up for school, tries to help her with her grief and fears about death, takes care of her when she's sick, etc. He also tries to find out more about Rin's mother and begins to fall for the divorced mother of one of Rin's friends. It's a wonderful series, and I highly recommend it to fans of sweet and relaxing slice-of-life stories. Unfortunately, the spoilers I've read of the end of the manga tainted my viewing experience. Thank goodness the anime ends before the manga does.
• Boys Over Flowers (live action TV series) - I watched the first episode via Crunchyroll, couldn't stand the buffering issues anymore, and switched to Netflix for the rest. I spent a lot of this series yelling at the characters, and I do not think Jan Di ended up with the best guy. Yi Jung and Ga Eul's romance alternately made me squee and want to punch Yi Jung. And there were so many musical montages, omg. I've seen this show recommended over and over again whenever anyone asks for K-drama contemporary-set romance reccs. It did have some really great moments, but, overall, I still prefer Coffee Prince.
• Tribes (e-book) by Carmen Webster Buxton - Carmen Webster Buxton looks to be a good go-to author for me when I need a "complex and interesting sci fi culture" fix. This book takes place on a planet where the tribe you're born into is everything, and your tribe is determined by the tribe of whichever of your parents is the same sex as you. Those who have no tribe become someone's slave. The story is composed of two main threads. One follows Hob, a sex slave who has run away. He's taken in by Jahnsi and her family, who try to protect him. The other follows LuAnne Mingo, whose goal is to find the long-lost nephew of a very powerful client of hers. I loved the cultural stuff, and I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what would happen when the characters in the two story threads finally crossed paths. The ending and the romantic aspects didn't make me quite as happy, though. More details when I finally write a full post.