01.08.10
Posted in Anime, Cartoons, Live Action, Manga, Ongoing Investigations Tags: 5 Deadly Venoms, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, so bad it's good, The Princess and the Frog, Town of Evening Calm Country of Cherry Blossoms, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, ひぐらしのなく頃に, ファイブディーズ, 夕凪の街 桜の国, 遊☆戯☆王5D's at 11:00 am by reversethieves
I had trouble putting into words how I felt about Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms. It was powerful yet quiet; whimsical yet jarring. This story involves people who lived through the atomic bombings of WWII and the generations that come after them. But instead of being about the bombings proper, it’s really about their lasting meaning and effects. These are personal anecdotes the first of which is a poignant and sad, while the second is about understanding and the future which is a nice way of contrasting them. It would almost seem patronizing to see the first story play out happily. However much these bombings bring a string of emotions to the surface, the stories are kept even by the drawing style which is charming. A beautiful and just a little thought provoking read.
I picked up Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms entirely on a whim while entering a raffle for a trip to Japan at Kinokuniya. This is definitely a prestige release that will win awards and praise from critics but will be avoid by mainstream readers. The manga is about two interconnected stories about how two generations deal with the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A powerful story that deals not only with how the Japanese people had to rebuild but the stigma of the bombing as well. The first story is very melancholy while the second story is lighter but does not break the mood. Both stories go quickly. It only took me about half my train ride to finish the whole book. It was a solid mature story that looks at an important but ugly time in modern history without being preachy or depressing. This is first and foremost the story of the charters whose lives are touched by the bombing more than the bombing itself. But this is the best way to talk about such events. The art is very light and vibrant which helps keep the story refreshing despite the weighty material. A great read for anyone who wants something with a deeper message than your average manga.
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11.06.09
Posted in Anime, Live Action, Ongoing Investigations, Video Games Tags: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Fate/Tiger Colosseum, Fate/Unlimited Codes, Hausu, Kimi ni Todoke, Professor Layton, Type-Moon, クライシス コア -ファイナルファンタジーVII-, タイプムーン, フェイト/タイガーころしあむ, レイトン教授と悪魔の箱, 君に届け at 8:08 am by reversethieves
Recently I had the good fortune to buy a rather inexpensive PSP opening a whole new avenue of portable gaming. The seller also threw in a copy of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII which I had been meaning to try out. Crisis Core takes place before Final Fantasy VII and stars Zack Fair who was a minor but important character in Final Fantasy VII. We get to see how exactly Zack became a Solider 1st Class as he deals with defectors from the Shinra Electric Power Company aka the most militant electric company ever. We also learn how Zack met certain flower girls, beloved blond men, and silver haired yaoi bait. Zack is pretty likable so I am sure that Narutaki would give this game his seal of approval on that front. It is action RPG based although the level up system is based on a slot machine which is odd to say the least. The most interesting is the fact that they seem to be taking time to make Sephiroth more human. I wonder how much does this have to do with them wanting to flesh him out as more and how much this has to do with his enormous popularity? It reminded me of why I liked Final Fantasy VII even though the game has sort of become the mark of a poser.
I went to see the Japanese horror movie House (also known as Hausu) during Halloween. I say horror movie but what I really mean is 1970’s b-movie hilariously badly wonderful horror movie. Oh, did I mention the director let his 11-year-old daughter write the story? As you can imagine, things for the most part aren’t very scary at all. The basic premise is about 7 high school girls (are you ready for these names? Gorgeous, Fantasy, Melody, Sweet, Mac, Professor, and Kung-Fu) who visit a house in the country, but the house is evil! And one by one the house eats them up. There is also an evil cat(s?), a crazy aunt who is only randomly disabled, and a most spectacular array of bad special effects. As a person who doesn’t like horror movies, I highly recommend this one. It will leave you laughing!
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10.23.09
Posted in Anime, Live Action, Manhwa, Ongoing Investigations Tags: Bakemonogatari, Color of Heaven, GA 芸術科アートデザインクラス, GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, Giant Robo, Otomen, オトメン (乙男), ジャイアント・ロボ - 地球が静止する日, 化物語 at 9:32 am by reversethieves
And so ends Kim Dong Hwa’s Color series with the Color of Heaven. The series proves itself to be a classic Shakespearean Comedy despite the fact that it is not an Elizabethan play. That means that it ends on a positive note with a wedding of a couple that has been separated. We begin with Duksam having to leave the village after the events in the last book. Now Ehwa must, like her mother, wait patiently for the man she loves to return to her. It is also her mother’s turn to support her daughter. But all is well that ends well. Ehwa resolves any lingering feelings she has for past loves before her wedding and we end with a consummation scene that is mostly symbolic but does not shy away from being tastefully graphic. Overall the series has been consistently solid. The Color trilogy has maintained its highbrow feel while still having a graceful humanity. With its relatively short but substantial length and its more mature narrative the Color series is a manhwa to show to people who might not necessarily give your standard manga a chance.
The beginning of The Color of Heaven starts very somberly as Ehwa is separated from Duksam and knows not when he will return. The first two book build up to this point of falling truly in love, so the third has a lot of quiet moments of introspection and realization. Also about half of the book involves waiting and waiting. However, that isn’t to say it is boring, much to the credit of the author, the growth between mother and daughter is subtle and beautiful. Ehwa’s mother is a woman who knows through maturity the power of longing and waiting and she imparts many important lessons on Ehwa in this final volume. In fact, much of this concluding story seems to be as much about her mother as it is about Ehwa. But perhaps even more telling is Ehwa’s ability to understand these lessons while still maintaining a hint of her naivete when it comes to the relationships between man and woman unlike her moments in the first two book. What becomes increasingly obvious through various conversations with her friend and mother is Ehwa’s ability to emotionally understand herself and her love but not to physically understand the relationships between the sexes. The finally moments of the book play out between Ehwa and Duksam while being interspersed with her mother and the picture man and also a set of neighbors. And you feel her education while not complete has finally gotten to a new plateau. The Color series has been both artistically unique and calmly enthralling and as such is a series that needs to be read and experienced.
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08.28.09
Posted in Anime, Fandom, Live Action, Ongoing Investigations Tags: Detroit Metal City, Dogs: Bullets and Carnage OVA, fan art, Patlabor, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, デトロイト・メタル・シティ, 宮崎 駿, 崖の上のポニョ, 機動警察パトレイバー at 7:02 am by reversethieves
A bunch of us finally caught (no pun intended) Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea over the weekend. It starts with the basic premise of Ponyo, a little goldfish, who escapes her father’s ship and rides to the surface out of curiosity but she is foiled by a bottle she gets stuck in. Once a young boy named Sousuke rescues and carries around the stranded Ponyo for a day, she is hooked and decides to become human. Sousuke and Ponyo’s relationship is very sweet and innocent as one could imagine. There are some very magical moments as Ponyo, along with her father who wishes to purify the oceans, and her mother all possess powerful abilities and when they are used they create some of the most beautiful parts of the film. An unsurprising fact is that this film has some very visually striking moments, but surprisingly the animation quality for many parts of the movie seemed less than Ghibli-esque. My biggest concern with the film was Miyazaki’s decision to essentially throw out some of the narrative and conflict on a whim and then to tie it up with a less than satisfactory climax to the story. In fact, I can’t really discern any climax at all. About two-thirds of the way through any amount of suspense starts to dissipate and the rest of the film is rather meandering and boring. Ponyo loses its momentum and refuses to deliver on the build-up it created for a good portion of the film. While I found some of the visuals quite appealing, the story was rather lack luster and in the end that matters much more.
As has been said many times, Miyazaki needed someone to stand up to him and keep him in check. This could have gone from an okay film to a Ghibli master work had someone had the bravery and power to make this film go through one or two more retoolings to tie everything together. The ending was extremely anticlimactic causing one to wonder if Miyazaki tired of the story and decided to just end it as soon as he could much like a Neal Stephenson novel. They made such a big deal that Ponyo’s parents wanted to test Sousuke and Ponyo’s love but in the end it comes down to a simple: Do you like Ponyo? Check yes, no, or maybe. The test did not need to be hard or dangerous, it just need to be one Sousuke could fail because that makes things not only dramatic but cathartic when they are overcome. Ponyo’s mother could have made duplicate Ponyo’s and see it Sousuke could tell the real one apart. Or maybe Sousuke could have to make some sort or moral judgment due to a test set up by Ponyo’s parents but was unaware he was being tested. Overall the movie looks great and is really fun at many points, like when the typhoon comes, but it does not work as a cohesive narrative film. The characters had a lot of potential that was partially realized but never truly developed. It’s worth a rent to take in the visuals but not worth buying. Hopefully if Miyazaki makes another film he will let people help him cut out what is extraneous and focus on what is important.
I am very excited to present the latest piece of art we had commissioned at AnimeNEXT! It is by syun rii who does many different styles for her fanart. I really wanted something chibi so I think she was the perfect choice! You can check out her gallery, too.
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