Coherency pass on Foreign Ghosts. It looks like it might not be as broken as I feared it was–making a list of all the stuff that’s currently missing, but the basic plot is starting to be reasonably leak-free. At chapter 16 out of 25.

Going to watch a few episodes of Chevalier D’Eon now, a decidedly odd anime set in France during the reign of Louis XV. Gorgeous backdrops, but obviously done by someone who had very little idea of the history of Paris–for instance, the obelisk of La Concorde was brought back by Napoleon, about 50 years after Louis XV; the big, large airy streets are Haussman, about 150 years later… But it’s still fun, in a very Japanese way (brother-sister uncomfortably close relationship? check. Creepy magic that takes more out of you than it gives you? check).

I do love the fact that religion is so omnipresent, though, and that D’Eon’s faith is so important (major pet peeve of mine: having religion thought of as weird, nonsensical, or as a science, in an era where Cartesian thought was either not developed or in its infancy, and where belief was widespread).

The Thousand Hand Guanyin (Qian Shou Guan Yin): it would be impressive for any kind of dancers, but consider that all 21 performers of this are all deaf-mute deaf… Just imagining the sheer  amount of rehearshals involved boggles the mind.

(on other videos, you can see that they have white-dressed coordinators standing to the side, and they can of course refer to each other for the moves, but still… that remains one of the most impressive feats of coordinations I’ve seen. )

(from Mary Robinette Kowal)