Opinion Prone

Goodbye, Blogger -- Hello, WordPress!

2009-06-21T19:01:00.003-04:00

That's right. Blogger was nice for a while. It's integration into Google makes it handy for a lot of things, but it's still severely lacking in customization features and I figure it's the sooner the better for WordPress because the longer I stay here, the more posts I'd have to straighten out when I do inevitably move to WordPress. :P Besides, it's just so much nicer to host your own sites. Much more dependable!

So yes. Opinion Prone has moved over here!

Please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds! (Unless you're on my Feedburner feed, in which case, you should have already swapped over.)

For the sake of not breaking anyone's links, I'll still keep all my old posts here, but all new content shall be over at the new site. I hope you continue reading~. :3

(PS. There is no "rest of this entry." That is just one of many roundabout hacks I had to install onto this Blogger because there's no native feature for cuts.)

Nostalgia and Timelessness

2009-06-18T18:04:00.007-04:00

So I started rewatching Gundam Wing dub last night. It's a special series for me since, like many others, it was my catapult into the Gundam franchise on the whole. It was one of my first major fandoms, and I'd seen it in its entirety two or three times back in glory days of Toonami, but it's been a good seven or eight years or so since I'd seen it last (and it feels much longer than that). Like some things I've revisited from the past, I was half-expecting it to be terrible, and to some extent, it was. The characters are hilariously unobservant and brash in ways that don't even begin to make sense. The dubbing also offers some choice lines in amazingly awkward voices. There are many logic and realism gaps. I laughed a lot.

And yet, even with all the lulz, it's still so epic when it counts. I'm still enjoying this way too much. Treize takes over the world in seven episodes in one of the most awesome coup de'tats ever. There are so many political things I'm noticing and understanding now that I didn't even notice the first time around, and it's just a lot fun to revisit something while simultaneously gaining a whole new experience. Nostalgia and sentimentality is undoubtedly what's allowing me to forgive all of the more blatant flaws -- I'd never accept such huge logic and realism gaps in a recent show, as evidenced by my dislike of Gundam 00, but for Wing, it's all right.

But I never feel as if the nostalgia factor blinds me. Forgiving the flaws isn't the same as denying they're there, and besides, most good things have their flaws. It's just your perspective that determines whether the good outweighs the bad, or if the bad outweighs the good. I'm only seven episodes into the rewatch, but right now, I honestly still think this is a great show. Wing's storyline is strong and clear, and has many interesting concepts. Its characters are varied and relatively engaging. I still think the music is amazing. I still think the mecha designs in this series are some of the best in the franchise. These are the things that won't change with time, no matter how many years pass. Good stories are good stories. Good art is good art.

The art and animation are a bit aged now, yes, but they still suit the story. That compatibility is much more important than the fact that it's not as shiny by today's standards. Of course it isn't as shiny; Gundam Wing debuted fourteen years ago. But that doesn't matter, just like it doesn't matter that Nosferatu is a black and white, silent, German film. The medium still fits the story, and the story is still good. In that sense, I think that most productions, whether movies or television shows or anime or manga, can be considered "timeless." It doesn't matter when it was made; if it had a good story and the medium suited it, then it can remain accessible to any subsequent generation.

But then, what about the things that don't hold up? Does that imply that they were never good stories in the first place, if the stories aren't as good now as supposedly used to be?

Actually, I can't think of many examples of (once) good stories that don't hold up against the test of time. Most of the stories I loved as a kid I either still love now or still appreciate as something aimed towards kids. Some stories with overt social or political commentary or controversy might be more popular in one century than another, but if there's enough story to go along with the opinion, I don't think it'd have trouble remaining accessible. Just look at The Sound of Music or the Watchmen comic or books like Number the Stars.

Stories grounded in a certain time period also aren't at a particular disadvantage either. As long as people have an understanding of the surrounding history and perspective, it isn't really a problem. Shakespeare remains timeless despite the fact that his plays are centuries old and in a dialect that died somewhere along the way. The language might turn some people off, but the core of the quality of the stories are unaffected by neither time nor anything else. Can the stories still appeal to people if the language was updated to something more modern? Probably. It's the same as when a popular novel is translated into several different languages, isn't it? The story is the same. The story is still good. Everything else is secondary.

It's kind of interesting to note also that there are a lot more things that I like more the second or third time around than things that I dislike the second or third time around. Second and third experiences allow for better understanding of the story involved, and understanding is essential to many experiences.

Many of the best anime and manga I've encountered are neither socially or politically charged or grounded in a specific time period, which will probably help them a lot. Some of them depend heavily on cultural quirks and current fandom (Ouran High School Host Club), and some of them are concentrated on ideas in technology that may well change in the future (Planetes, Ghost in the Shell), but as long as the people in the year 2500 take the time to understand where these stories are coming from, they can enjoy them just as we have. I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up still liking Gundam Wing a lot this time around, and if that's the case, I don't think that will change in another decade or two, or three, or four. Similarly, I probably still won't like Gundam 00 in however many years.

Final conclusion? All good stories are timeless.

Review: Gundam 00 (second season)

2009-06-17T21:33:00.004-04:00

Three months after this series finished, and I've finally finished the review for it. Finally.

I had such a hard time writing this. It's hard to find a reasonable voice when all you can remember is everything that sucked. It isn't an objectivity issue since you obviously can't be objective writing something that's completely opinion, but it's still hard to fashion your opinion in a way that doesn't make you seem like some fanraging idiot. After all, reviews are also supposed to be subtly persuasive, and it's hard to be persuasive if you sound offended or butthurt about how terrible something is. It's the same reason people tend to take the opinions of fanboys with a grain of salt. Don't be overzealous. Write intelligently. Well, I tried.

Honestly, when this series first ended, I wanted to write a long, raging rant about how much I hated the ending and how terribly disappointing the entire thing was on a variety of different levels. But then I put it off and eventually didn't feel like it anymore. I got the urge again as I was writing the review, and subsequently, the review spiraled into a bunch of sarcastic remarks. Some of them got edited out. Some of them didn't. I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it.

I do this for fun! This is fun, see? Fun!

On Learning Japanese & My Japanese Coach for DS

2009-06-13T18:44:00.001-04:00

I wonder if anyone's actually polled the percentage of otaku that have at some point tried to learn Japanese. I wonder what a follow-up of such a poll would reveal about the percentage that actually attain some level of fluency. Anyone who watches subs on a regular or even semi-regular basis will be able to pick up a wide variety of everyday phrases and a decent slice of vocabulary. The observant ones might even be able to pick up some simple sentence structuring, verbs, and grammar. It's a pretty awesome thing when you first realize that, hey, you know a bit of another language.

Undoubtedly, that's why a lot of younger fans will insert bits and pieces of what they know into their speech or text online. It's like a secret language, something esoteric to share between friends, and everybody likes thinking they're special. Like Pig Latin though, the language is actually not so secret, or at the very least, the popular tidbits of the language that young fans like to parrot are not so secret, and they tend to annoy everybody over a certain age. Ostracized and mocked by the rest of the community, the young fans reach a point where they stop tacking -chan and -kun after all their friends' names. There is a brief "maturing" period. And then they decide that they're going to knuckle down and learn Japanese... for real this time.

I imagine that most people will take a few shots at memorizing their kana and then give up. They'll retain all the romaji vocabulary and phrases they know, and maybe they'll still use it now and again in a mocking or less-than-serious manner, but that's about it. Some will succeed in memorizing their kana and master some grammar, but kanji stops them dead in their tracks. The last handful plow right on through, kick the JLPT's ass, and then run off to Japan to teach English because that's your stereotypical otaku dream. I wonder, are there any fans that listen to the language on a regular basis, but who have never had any interest whatsoever in learning it? Or is it just innate to want to understand something you find yourself so submerged in? The latter makes sense to me, but it'd be interesting to hear the answers to the contrary.

Being Chinese, I've always felt this persistent guilt for wanting to learn Japanese more than I wanted to re-learn Mandarin and Cantonese since I pretty much lost my fluency in both by the time I was eight. That guilt, for the most part, has kept me from seriously pursuing Japanese fluency. Now, it seems that I have a good chance of being able to go to Japan for two weeks in December as part of a college trip. I guess that's as good an excuse as any to get a move on, right?

So I got my hands on My Japanese Coach for the Nintendo DS because it was easy and convenient. It's far from the most sophisticated learning device in the world, but hey, I still don't know how serious I want to be about this. The game opens with a placement test, which aims to start you off in the right chapter based on your existing knowledge. I found that to be kind of iffy though. Since all the questions are multiple choice, lucky guesses will end up opting you out of lessons you might need. Yeah, I know a bunch of pronouns and the colors, but I didn't know any of the days of the week and I got out of that chapter with some lucky guesses. Not cool. I need to learn this stuff, man. (Still, you can go back and do the skipped lessons, so it's not a huge deal.)

Playing through it, the set-up of the game leaves a lot to be desired. Each lesson is fairly short and will either cover one new concept, like months, days of the week, colors, or a certain verb, or two sets of kana (I'm not that far in the game yet, but undoubtedly, later chapters will expand to include sets of five to ten kanji per lesson). The game won't let you progress to the next lesson until you've "mastered" all the new vocabulary or kana introduced in that lesson. You gain mastery points by playing through games. It sounds decent enough, but I found most of the games to be absurdly easy, thus making it way, way too easy to "master" things.

You can unlock new games as you progress through various lessons, but seriously, out of the seven or eight games I have so far, I only really like one of them, and that's the one that gives you a word or kana and makes you write it. It's useful for forcing you to memorize your kana, but it's pretty annoying for writing actual words (in kana) since you have to write each character one at a time. Longish words like げつようび (getsuyoubi, Monday) or じゅいちがつ (juichigatsu, November) really make me wish the kanji lessons would come up faster. The game also isn't all that great at recognizing mistakes in your characters. As long as you have the right number of strokes and the shape is kinda right, it'll count it correct. It bothers me immensely that it doesn't take stroke order into consideration even though it does mention its importance at some point. The other games are okay as far as drilling in meaning associations, but among other things, having to play the whack-a-mole game makes me feel like an idiot.

Currently, I'm just about done "mastering" hiragana, but honestly, I still don't feel very confident in it. Kanji, in all its apparent complication, makes a helluva lot more sense to me because of my Chinese background, but hiragana doesn't seem to follow any discernable pattern as far as I can tell. I mean, き(ki) and さ(sa) are completely different sounds, but their characters are so similar. ら(ra), ろ(ro), and る(ru) make slightly more sense. Kind of, except that れ(re) and り(ri) don't follow. Incidentally, Mandarin has a pronunciation aid system similar to furigana, but I never learned it, only pinying, which is comparable to romaji. My father says that both hiragana and katakana characters are based off kanji words that start with the sound they represent, but that doesn't really help me if I don't know those kanji words.

My Japanese Coach is an okay aid. It's easy enough to pick up on a daily basis, but you have to play back through old lessons pretty frequently to actually memorize things since you can "master" them so quickly. It's just as well though -- after all, you have to work at any language to learn it. No tool is going to just hand the knowledge to you. I might come back and write about the game some more when I've progressed further into it. At present, I don't plan on getting much else in the way of language learning tools because I'm poor and don't have a lot of time anyway. I would love to learn Japanese, but it's still not a real, hardcore serious goal yet. I really think I need to reattain some level of fluency in Chinese before that can happen.

In the meantime, it's back to the hiragana charts!

First Impressions: Tommy Heanvely6's I Kill My Heart

2009-06-05T16:36:00.001-04:00

I Kill My Heart
Tommy Heavenly6's 3rd album
29th April 2009

Tommy heavenly6 is my favorite of Tomoko Kawase's projects, followed by the brilliant green. I'm not all that fond of Tommy february6, though it kind of reminds me a bit of Nana Kitade. Sadly, all of Tomoko's projects were recently dropped by Sony, along with a few other artists like Sowelu. Doesn't make any sense to me considering the popularity of her numerous anime tie-ins ("Pray" for Gintama, "Paper Moon" for SOUL EATER, "Unlimited Sky" for Gundam 00), but whatever... business is business? Sowelu just signed with Avex, but no word on Tomoko yet as far as I know. I don't really doubt that she has a lot of options though. Regardless, this album was the latest and last released by Sony in late April. I only just got my hands on it, but here we go~.

TRACK 01: Wait For Me There (YouTube it)
Distorted, kinda dark sorta intro. Vocals start plainly, but it picks up nicely -- has a good beat. Some pretty awkward sounding Engrish, but Tomoko's voice is confident and smooth. Sometimes I like to just pretend that she isn't butchering a language she doesn't know that well. The words become less important than the sound and the emotion, and this song has a very relaxed, feel-good mood to be. Did she just say, "Let's have some tea"? Some interesting vocal overlaps in the bridge, though I don't think this is her best example of harmony. Song ends as smoothly and plainly as it starts. All around not a bad go, but not all that interesting either.

TRACK 02: Leaving You
Generic opening. Quiet, contemplative vocal intro. Feels very thoughtful. Percussion picks up nicely, if a bit simply -- really diggin' the melody here. Ohh... not too fond of the sounds in the chorus. The pitch on the high notes feel awkward and almost unintentional. Thankfully, the chorus is pretty short. Second verse has the same innocent, thoughtful mood as the first, but it's pretty short too. Back to the chorus... and a third verse? The mood the vocals make me visualize Tomoko strolling through a park or something. Bridge is really nice -- nothing amazing, but nice. Next chorus sounds quite a bit less awkward. There's minimal Engrish in this song; definitely feel like that's a plus. Smooth outro, fading distortion.

TRACK 03: Do You Know My Heart
Can an intro be calm and upbeat at the same time? Feels like another "stroll through the park" song to me. Vocals are very cheerful, maybe relaxing. Kind of like... the first day of summer feeling. Chorus has weird Engrish... most of it is pretty decipherable, and there are no "don't scary"'s at the very least. Mood doesn't really seem to fluctuate as we go though, and I'm starting to get tired of the carefree cheerfulness. Second chorus is just as awkward as the first. I have a hard time describing Tomoko's Engrish as anything other than "awkward," huh? Awkward Engrish leads into outro and it ends pretty quickly after that.

TRACK 04: Sad End To A Fairy Tale
A more sad kind of intro. Good. More of the thoughtfulness from "Leaving You." I think the guitar in this. Like the bridge from the first verse to the chorus too, though the chorus itself was kind of short and plain. Hm, as nice and calm as the music is so far, I'm really getting bored quickly -- there doesn't seem to be very much in the way of real energy -- just a lot of cuteness and coyness? Where is the forcefulness? Where is the spark? Bridge has more of the nice guitar and some pretty sustained notes. Bridge repeats the same kind of mood and lackluster energy; what I can understand of the lyrics are pretty uninspiring too. Slow outro, buzz out to end.

TRACK 05: Shut Up
More energetic energy... some more serious sounding vocals. Less cute anyway. Melody is catchy, but somewhat repetitive. Chorus brings back the happy j-poppy feeling. Second verse returns to the lower register, but it doesn't last long. Does "lower" mean "more serious"? Not necessarily, but all of her higher notes and melodies are starting to blur here. The best thing about this song is probably it's repetitive drill, which might get annoying after a while, but it's at least memorable. This is a really short song though -- only 2:36. Ends suddenly.

TRACK 06: Flower Crown
Neat bass intro. Another, kind-of-the-same-thoughtful vocal intro. Bass continues to be awesome. Vocals, melody, and mood, not so much. Well, okay, the mood is definitely darker than before. Makes me think we're sneaking up on someone. Chorus has some awkward hooks in the tune, like the pitch is off again. Some of the Engrish leading into the bridge is kind of lulzy. Man, this tempo is putting me to sleep. I want need some of the much more energetic stuff, c'mon...

TRACK 07: Surely
Upbeat, but not upbeat enough! Vocals are soft again, happy and contemplative. God, I just want some variation. T_T These vocals are really cute though... chorus loses it, but the melody is calming. More strolling in a park music. Perhaps playing frisbee. Really, this song could be an insert to any cheesy, happy montage in a movie or series. It's very charming in that way. I kind of wish it wasn't so late in the album -- I kind of think I'd be more happy with it if I weren't so worn with this mood already. The bridge is really sweet. Reintroduction of the vocals don't seem to fit that well, but gaw, Tomoko's voice is so cute. D: I don't even think she's trying to be. Ending is kind of awkward and sudden...

TRACK 08: Gonna Change My Way Of Life (YouTube it)
Generic kind of opening, though it does have some interesting buzzing. Chorus has a lot of Engrish -- automatically awkward sounding, though not too terrible, I guess. This song has a much more forceful melody, especially at the end. Nothing else to really say though...

TRACK 09: Playground (YouTube it)
Hm, immediate vocal intro. Much more energetic! The vocals still seem a bit on the tame side, but the emotion feels clearer. I like the tempo here a lot, and the lyrics string together very well! The Engrish is the best I've heard on the entire album, and for once, they aren't awkward! They actually work pretty well and integrate neatly with the Japanese. Some nice guitar and sustained vocals leading into the bridge -- bridge has a good guitar solo. Vocals ease back in nicely. Once again, the Engrish here is pretty decent. :O I think this is my favorite song on the album so far. Very well done. Sudden ending though.

TRACK 10: Things I Can Do
Seems like we're keeping the more upbeat tempo -- nice intro. Vocals come in rather energetically; tone is still quite upbeat and thoughtful, but she seems much more into it. The melody is pretty nice; Engrish goes back to being a little awkward, but there isn't that much of it. Really enjoying how the rest of the lyrics string together -- keeps a good beat. Verses meld into choruses really well too. Tomoko definitely seems more into this song than many of the others. Final chorus stands out nicely after the bridge; the energy remains steady... ending is again sudden though.

TRACK 11: You Should Live In The Sunny Light (YouTube it)
Dark, slow intro. Vocals seem haunting. Never really picks up though. Very steady and kind of boring. Feels like we're at a funeral service. Damn, it's been half a song already? Nothing ever seems to change, and the guitar is kind of boring too. On another day, I might like this a lot better -- it does have a very distinct mood, after all, and Tomoko's vocals seem sincere at least -- but after an entire album of less-than-stellar songs, I just kinda want it to be over. There's very little in the way of landmarks in this song. I'm not sure where the verses are, where the choruses are -- it's especially hard since I don't have lyrics in front of me. It ends like it begins, and I feel nothing.

OVERALL: This was a pretty disappointing album... I only really liked tracks #9 and #10, but even they're nothing super outstanding. The rest of I Kill My Heart just seems like the same thing over and over again, and none of the songs seem to have the drive and energy that attracted me to Tommy heavenly6 in the first place. I'm also not sure why "Unlimited Sky" didn't make it on this album. Instead, it was released with Tommy heavenly6's compilation album that released in February. I suppose it's a decent strategy to release new stuff on a compilation album to get more people to buy it, but at the same time, it kind of contradicts the definition of "compilation" album.

Then again, "Unlimited Sky"'s mood would have clashed a lot with this album since it actually has the energy I'm looking for. Tommy heavenly6's first, self-titled album is still my favorite. I'm not sure how well this album did on the Oricon charts, but if its performance reflects my opinion of it, then I guess that's at least a reason for Sony to let go. Disappointing.

Pronunciations and Transliterations of Names

2009-06-04T17:31:00.003-04:00

So in Code Geass, Emperor Charles zi Britannia is obviously British because Britannia is a glorified, alternate-universe Britain. Thus he has an English name. Makes sense. Since it's a Japanese show though, they have to transliterate the English name into Japanese, and Charles becomes シャルル (Sharuru). This has always bothered me. I just don't see the connection between "Charles" and "Sharuru." Of course I understand that many foreign words translated into Japanese sound strange because of their limited phonetic alphabet, and most of the time, I'd say they do pretty okay. But in this case, I'm thoroughly convinced that they could have picked a better transliteration with the sounds that they have. チャルズ (Charuzu), for example -- not worlds different, but different enough to be closer, right?

Further, "Sharuru" seems to be some kind of universally accepted Japanese version of "Charles" because Code Geass was not the only series where I heard the transliteration. Who decided that "Charles" should be "Sharuru"? If someone else decided that they wanted to transliterate it as "Charuzu," would they be wrong? Are there multiple ways to import a name into another language?

For the reverse case, Japanese names into English, the answer seems to be yes. For FUNimatioin's recent license, Spice and Wolf, they've decided to transliterate ホロ as "Holo" rather than the fan-preferred "Horo." Since the Japanese use the same sound where Westerners distinguish between L's and R's, either version can technically be correct. Nevertheless, the らりるれろ sounds are more often seen as R sounds (ra, ri, ru, re, ro) than L sounds (la, li, lu, le, lo). And for Horo's case in particular, I can't shake the idea that "Holo" will invoke "holographic" first and "awesome wolf deity" second. Meanwhile, "Horo" is kindasorta similar to "Horus" an Egyptian falcon god.

And then there is the fun thing they do when they have English names transliterated into Japanese only to be transliterated back into English. Except that the two English versions don't match. The best example of this is probably Simon from Gurren Lagann. The Japanese have no character for "si," only し/シ ("shi"), and so, Simon was pronounced シモン ("Shimon"). When Gurren Lagann was dubbed by Bandai, they kept that pronunciation, presumably because of perceived fan pressure. The same can be said for Viral, which retained the "vee-rall" pronunciation instead of "fixing" it back to "vhai-rul."

In Horo's case, fan preference may be more legitimate since the name isn't English to begin with, but in Simon and Viral's cases, should Bandai have given in? Would it really have been that weird to hear the names pronounced "correctly"? I don't really think so. And if they were going to play it the Japanese way, why didn't they go all the way with Viral and leave it as "V/Biraru"? That'd be pushing it too far with the lip movements, I guess? It can be debated whether or not Simon and Viral were intended to be English names to begin with -- even though they're obviously not Japanese, it's possible that they could be fantasy names instead. But they seem kind of plain for fantasy names, don't you think? After all, Japanese fantasy has come up with names such as Zelgadis Greywords, Filia Ul Copt, and Yozak Gurrier, and even those are Western-based. I wonder if there really is a "right" or "wrong" way to pronounce Simon and Viral since it's been passed through languages the way it has. I'm sure fanboys will swear to "Shimon" and "Vee-rall," but are they just subscribing to the Japanese's limited phonetics?

Still, as far as natively Japanese names go, I'm glad for the shift towards preservation of pronunciation. The Sakura in Card Captor Sakura was dubbed as "Sa-kuur-ah" with a long "u" sound. The more recent Sakura of Naruto has been dubbed more correctly as "Sah-kuu-rah" with a short "u." And yet, Akira was dubbed years ago correctly (with a soft "i" sound), and most people I know still pronounce it with a hard "i"?

One last thing... who the hell decided that they could name their child "Light" -- an obviously English word -- and then assign it the kanji for "moon"? (月 "tsuki") How does that even work?? Obviously, no one will intrinsically understand that "tsuki" should be read as "Light" (or ライト"Raito" since they can't actually pronounce "Light") because Misa didn't know offhand. So did Light just spend his life '"correcting" teachers saying, "No, ma'am, you're wrong, it's not 'tsuki' like it is in the dictionary, it's 'Raito'!"? Says who?? Your crazy parents?

Why do they get to decide that "Light" can be represented by 月 "tsuki"? Why didn't they just use 光 "hikari" which actually means "light"? Because Hikari is actually a legitimate name? (A female name, but a name nonetheless!) I guess they didn't want Light to go through life being mistaken as a girl during rolecall, so instead, they made him special by giving him the wrong character for the translation? Maybe that's why he turned into such a megalomaniac.

The mystery of Light Yagami, solved!

Then again, the forcing of kanji for an English word has happened for things other than names.

Review: Star Trek (2009)

2009-05-31T20:01:00.005-04:00

My friends are always shocked and appalled at just how much modern pop culture I seem to have missed out on. Music, movies, and a few decades worth of references and jokes all go over my head. Before this, I had never seen a Star Trek movie. It wasn't avoidance; it was just a matter of no one ever sitting me down in front of a TV and saying, "Hey! Watch this movie!" I had seen an episode or two of Next Generation once while wasting time in my roommate's room, but that was about it. I liked that episode or two (because Patrick Stewert is kind of awesome), but it wasn't enough to make me go out of my way to see more of it, especially since I don't have a TV myself.

The aforementioned roommate is actually a closet Trekkie, but I guess "closet" negates any evangelical aspect. Still, roomie's [also Trekkie] parents were in town last weekend and offered to treat, so why the hell not? Let's go see a movie. Who cares if it's finals weekend?

(this review contains no spoilers!)

Star Trek

STORY & PACING - The story starts off hard and fast, but it's straightforward and easy to follow. The introduction builds up rather quickly, advancing through several years and characters in a short span of time, but despite me literally not knowing anything about this extensive franchise before walking into the theatre, I was never lost or confused. Everything that happens is intriguing, and the fast pace keeps you continually entertained -- there is never, ever a dull moment and everything connects together wonderfully. Star Trek takes itself seriously, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of hilarious shenanigans either. The kind of hook the movie has is impressive in itself, but I was mostly happy with the fact that I could follow it perfectly so well without any prior knowledge -- something that I always worry about for movies with established fanbases.

Of course, I couldn't personally catch all of the bones they were tossing the existing fans, but the others I saw it with definitely could and spent the car ride back from the theatre raving about it. So not only was the movie completely accessible to a new fan, but older fans had the pleasure of catching tons of references and seeing their favorite characters on a shiny new screen full of shiny new effects.

As the story goes along, a few plot holes inevitably come up because of the nature of the story, but the excellent pacing disguises those holes well enough that you don't really think about them until well after the fact. That makes the story solid enough on its own, especially since it's a very character-driven narrative. What actually happens to the characters is secondary to their personal development and emotional pull you get from them, and those are always my favorite kinds of stories.

CHARACTER & ACTING - My friends tell me that the casting job for this movie was amazing. They had the previous versions of the characters to consider, but even without knowing those, I could tell that the casting job here was amazing. As far as physical appearances go, I could kind-of recall what the original actors for Spock and Sulu looked like and found their new actors to be incredibly impressive, fitting, updated versions of their previous incarnations. I didn't bother doing post-movie comparisons of the others since I seriously had no knowledge of what the others looked like (yes, including Shatner's Captain Kirk because I lived under a really, really big rock). Appearance isn't as important as personality anyway, right?

My friends tell me that the acting was pretty spot on as well. My roommate mentioned Bones being a particularly well done portrayal, and numerous others cite Spock. For me, I just enjoyed the characters and acting for what they were. All of the actors portraying characters aboard the Enterprise succeeded in making their roles engaging and interesting. I would have liked to know more about Kirk's childhood, but his development from late teens and onward was very well done, especially considering how little of it we actually see. Spock is probably the most interesting character in the movie though -- we see more of his childhood and consequently, his conflicts and personality are easier to understand and relate to. (Halfling characters are also supremely sympathetic by nature.) Nevertheless, Spock and Kirk mature and grow equally as characters, and their interacting is probably what makes the movie's finale as awesome as it was.

The only character that I had issues with was Captain Nero, who contributed most of the plot holes in the movie thanks to the huge gaps in his logic. He was too much of a stereotypical villain -- the awkward timeframe made the beginning of the movie more forgiving than the end in terms of motivation, but it was just all around pretty plain. Still, with so much of the movie focused on the development of Kirk and Spock, the fact that they had quite the lacking antagonist wasn't that important.

The rest of the supporting cast was a lot of fun. Having an Asian, a black woman, a Scot, and a Russian on board was hilarious in its own right, especially since the former two had outrageous accents. It's a cast that's reminiscent of the time the franchise was conceived, but the humor that comes with such a cast is one that has successfully transcended time. All the stereotypes were positive and tongue-in-cheek stereotypes, making all the characters positively endearing. Good times.

ART & ANIMATION - This is a beautiful movie. Most of the special effects looked amazing without being so over-the-top and extravagant that it distracted you from the issues at hand. The ships all looked great; the lasers, the warping -- seriously, everything looked gorgeous. The only two things I can think to nitpick are 1) lens flare made a huge comeback in this movie. But if you wanna technical, sunlight would be a helluva lot more prominent in space, so it makes sense there?? Sorta kinda maybe? And 2) the Romulan ship looked similar to many casual 3d renders I've seen people make -- it's mostly just shininess with very little comprehensible structure. The zoomed in views of the ship looked markedly better, but it still didn't make a lot of structural sense to me. Oh well. Aliens, right?

The aliens themselves were all well integrated into the cast. Whether or not they were important characters, none of them seemed too out of place or particularly ridiculous. Like many other things, I understand that a lot of the aliens were probably cameos, thrown out as treats to the established fans, but for a newcomer, these things weren't distracting at all. Star Trek took itself seriously, but that didn't hurt it one bit. Yeah, most of the important races are just humans with funny ears, but believability was never an issue. It looked great.

MUSIC - Excellent. Star Trek has one hell of an epic soundtrack. For movies with lots of action, it isn't unusual for me to be so engrossed in what's going on that I completely forget to take note of the music, but the soundtrack here was impossible to ignore. It was very strong and almost overpowering for some scenes, making everything that much more amazing to watch and look at. The music for the less adrenaline-pumped sequences is a little less memorable, but such is the nature of the beast... not that there were all that many scenes that weren't action anyway.

OVERALL - Going into it, I already knew that the general consensus amongst fans was that this movie was fantastic, which would likely translate well for a newcomer. Despite that though, it's always weird walking into a movie blind -- I don't know what I was expecting. Suffice to say that I was blown away. I wanted to see the movie again as soon as the credits started rolling. The positives far outweighed the negatives here, and I would recommend this to anyone.

Dropped: Shangri-La

2009-05-26T17:24:00.005-04:00

Took me long enough, right? Seriously, who else is still actually watching this crap?

I really hope this doesn't become some kind of annoying trend. Aside from this season's two big remakes (FMA and DBK), Shangri-La was the only series I picked up. And like last season's Kurokami, it's now getting its lame ass dropped for pretty much all the same reasons.

When I read over all the summaries of the series set to debut for spring, Shangri-La was the only thing that really caught my eye. It's premise sounded really interesting, and you can't say the idea of using a country's carbon emissions as a currency isn't awesome. Unfortunately, that's this series one and only merit. The premise doesn't even translate into a plot because I watched seven, long and arduous episodes, and I still don't know what the plot is. That's the only reason I stuck with it so long -- I really, really wanted to know what the plot was, but I guess if I can't find it in seven episodes, then the whole thing's just a waste of time.

Since there's no actual plot, each episode is just a string of events about uninteresting characters that the audience is unfortunate enough to be following. This was especially painful for me since I much, much prefer character-driven stories over plot-driven stories, but I didn't give a damn about a vast majority of the ensemble cast, and the few that do seem kindasorta interesting don't have very many scenes. I could not sympathize with Kuniko, especially since she seemed so purposeless while also being popular for no reason. It didn't make sense to me, and all her subsequent struggles were just incredibly boring.

Her supporting cast was similarly unsympathetic, especially since we're given no background on how the current government system has been mistreating the populous. Nobody's motivation was clear. The grandmother's secrecy and decision not to tell Kuniko anything was a frustrating and probably pointless excuse to delay the plot. Ryoko was more of a poorly done evil caricature than an actual character. It really annoyed me that they created another character named Major Kusanagi. Momoko's antics seemed too forceful to be humorous.

The only character that interested me was the lolipop girl; unsurprisingly, that was because she was the only one that seemed to be involved with the plot, whatever it is. Naturally, she only ever shows up briefly and is cryptic with a lot of things she says. Like Kurokami, the main problem with Shangri-La is that it's difficult to relate to or sympathize with any of the characters. What makes Shangri-La worse than Kurokami is the fact that we don't even know most of the characters' motivations. Why are they doing what they're doing? What are they trying to accomplish? Why should we care?

You can maybe infer that Metal-Age is trying to expose whatever government conspiracy took place however long ago, and you can also maybe say that Kuniko wants to find a way for everyone to "live happily," but the former is too much of a given, and the latter is too general to be interesting.

I guess GONZO really is ready to kick the bucket then. Maybe I should have known it would be bad when we get really bad fanservice in the very first scene of the first episode? What a disappointment. Crunchyroll's subs were good, too, and even though the character designs were kind of shoddy (Japan, please stop trying to pass twelve year-olds off as legal), the animation was pretty nice, and the music was decent too. But we all know that those things don't hold up a show.

Review: HYDE's HYDE

2009-05-19T02:24:00.002-04:00

HYDE

HYDE's 1st compilation album
18th March, 2009

Usually my album reviews are labeled "first impressions" instead of "reviews" because I think it's an interesting angle to compile my first thoughts on an album during my initial hearing of it; impressions of music are more prone to changing over time and a tenth hearing may very well be different from a second hearing. But that theme doesn't really apply here as its a compilation album! HYDE's first solo compilation album, uninspiredly entitled HYDE, contains all of his singles, as well as a few popular tracks from his four existing albums.

So that portion of his discography isn't really isn't something I listen to often. There are a few songs I like, sure, but the majority is kind of just "eh." Still, compilation albums are a good way to revisit things, right? I figure, what the hell.

TRACK 01: Made in Heaven
As Faith is my least favorite HYDE album, I don't remember this song very well at all. There's a nice guitar opening; intro vocals are pretty typical of HYDE's solo work, though a bit rough and forceful. This is in Engrish, but I can't understand much beyond a word here and there. I kinda feel bad because it sounds like he's trying so hard. The chorus doesn't stand out much and sounds pretty awkward with the poor Engrish. It leads into the second verse with little pause; meanwhile, the music in the background isn't very interesting as it isn't changing up much. Most of this song blurs together for me, including the end.

TRACK 02: It's Sad
Another song from Faith. Really neat guitar opening... opening vocals are again forced and rough, not my favorite style for HYDE, but the guitars remain interesting, uptight, and suspenseful. Chorus is a more typical sound, but I'm much more interested in the guitars at the moment. Vocals lighten up a bit in the second verse; the Engrish feels more casual and confident, but I still can't understand most of it without a lyrics sheet. Bridge includes a female vocal mixed in with some speaking parts from HYDE and then another chorus. I find it more jarring than anything else though; HYDE's goal with Faith was to stir some deep, soul-felt emotions, but I'm too caught up in the technicalities here. This is not HYDE's best vocal work, and the guitars don't really save it in the end.

TRACK 03: Evergreen [Dist.]
"Evergreen" from ROENTGEN is actually a solo song I like! And the Engrish version from ROENTGEN.english is actually mostly understandable. This rock version is also in Engrish and was first released as a B-side on the "Countdown" single. All the guitar distortion masks over the vocals though, making it harder to hear. Not sure if I like that, but it does give the guitars a solid limelight. The chorus guitars seem to be a little off from the vocals. ...It really bothers me that HYDE doesn't pronounce the "m" in memory... it's kind of an important sound. There are some drawn-out sounds in the bridge and it fades into a nice guitar solo and then end. Ehh, neat, but not my favorite version of Evergreen. I'll stick with the original.

TRACK 04: Jesus Christ (YouTube it)
Another one from Faith. I've always remembered this one as my least favorite from the album. The Engrish is also pretty understandable in this one, but that makes me uncomfortable to some extent since I'm not too fond of the subject matter. The vocals don't seem to match up well with the music and there doesn't seem to be much of a melody. The falsetto in the chorus is beautiful, but there's still no melody. There's a lenghty solo between the first chorus and the second verse, and then they add a nice piano tune. Unfortunately, the piano really just adds to the chaos of other sounds and still, nothing sounds particularly cohesive. Still... as we move into the second chorus and that lovely falsetto, the emotional power of the song starts to really seep through. HYDE is really into it and that shows. I'm not into religious music, but I guess it is somewhat moving to hear someone else invest so much energy into it.

TRACK 05: Countdown (YouTube it)
Next song on Faith. Geez, way too much of this album is stuff from Faith! D: This is the first song with Japanese in it though, so hurray for that. I much prefer HYDE's vocals in Japanese because they sound infinitely more natural and therefore not distracting. That isn't to say there isn't still Engrish here, but it isn't overwhelming... and because there is Japanese, we can pretend that his Engrish is still Japanese and not try to decipher his words. Vocals are pretty typical here and don't change much as the song progresses. I'm not too fond of the music here; it's like the previous song in its mish-mash of sounds without a distinct melody. Outro has some spoken parts that are out of place, then buzz out to end. I'm remembering why Faith is my least favorite album.

TRACK 06: The Other Side
Hey, I have no idea where this song is from! Hard guitar intro, though it still sounds muddied. Strong vocal intro, but the energy fades quickly. Melody is a bit clearer now though, and the first verse sounds pretty nice. Guitar and vocals match up nicely; lyrics are in Engrish, but fairly understandable (not quite up to Evergreen's level though). Chorus is forceful and energetic, but I don't like the music there until the vocals end and it's a solo to the second verse. Vocals and Engrish are very clear at the second verse; I really like the rhytmn guitar here, but the lead is distracting. Second chorus is slightly less conflicting than the first as the music in the background matches up a bit better. Buzz out to end. Wish I knew where this song was from?

TRACK 07: Shining Over You (YouTube it)
Finally! A song from 666, my favorite HYDE solo album! (Is it too ironic that my favorite and least favorite HYDE albums should be titled as they are?) Awesome violin intro and sweet vocals full of falsetto. There's a nice countermelody in the background music to match the main melody of the vocals. Verse is Japanese to counter the Engrish in the chorus, which is actually what the song starts off with, and there are some pretty awesome parts where HYDE is harmonizing with himself. Again, I enjoy the Japanese a lot more than the Engrish, and the Engrish goes back and forth a lot in this song -- sometimes it's pretty clear, and sometimes I have no idea what he's saying. There are some neat bass lines in the verses too though. Bridge is kind of drawn out; slow outro and then fade out. Oh, hey, this thing is six minutes long, but I didn't notice at all.

TRACK 08: Horizon
Another one from 666. Nice and calm intro with relaxed guitars and a strong voice; lyrics are in Japanese. I like the forcefulness of HYDE's voice here -- in songs like "It's Sad," I feel like he's trying too hard, but here, he just sounds really, really into it. Verses have some gorgeous falsetto, and I really like the beginning of the chorus. Love, love, love the guitars in the bridge; the drums there are pretty fun too. The verse after the bridge is probably the best part of the song. There's some vocal distortion and canon leading into the final chorus that's pretty badass too. Not too fond of the repeating lyrics in the outro, but ah well.

TRACK 09: Season's Call
Back to Faith. This is the fifth song from Faith and we're only on track nine. Oh well. "Season's Call" has a nice, soft guitar opening that leads into some more energetic riffs. Opening vocals are also good, energetic in that reserved kind of way. HYDE's voice is really beautiful here; lyrics are in Japanese. Falsetto seems kind of random though, and I'm not too fond of the melody as we get halfway through the verse. It just sounds kind of awkward. Kind of blah chorus, but once we get to the second verse, everything's spiffy again... until about halfway through! Oh, weird, random Engrish after the second chorus as we get into the bridge... the sounds in the background are getting chaotic again. It's creates an uncomfortable, kind of itchy-scratchy feeling. Ugh, not fond of the continued Engrish. Kind of just want the song to end now... why is this five and a half minutes long.

TRACK 10: Sweet Vanilla
Back to 666. Rock guitars are rockin' out. Oh, man, I love how the vocals in this open. It's Engrish, but wonderfully understandable, and then it moves back to Japanese. The difference in sound between this and the previous are so obvious, and it's the difference between the two albums. The chorus goes back to Engrish, but again, it's understandable, and the lyrics are really sweet in that cute sort of way, which is particularly amusing since the Japanese portions of the verses are really badass sounding. The vocals in this song are pretty much everything I love most about HYDE's voice. Everything sounds genuine. The "believe me, believe me," are probably the best part. The guitar melody in the bridge isn't really that interesting, but it's fun and works well for the mood of the song. Final chorus ends on kind of a forceful note and the song ends soon after that, but I definitely remember this being a great opening track for 666. I still like it a lot.

TRACK 11: HELLO (YouTube it)
This is the second track on 666 and thus correct follows the previous song. Annnd... "Hello" is my favorite HYDE song overall. I love the energetic guitar intro and the mood it creates -- it's very nostalgic feeling. HYDE's opening vocals really pick up that mood well; it's forceful in bursts, but eases into more relaxed notes in between. The lyrics are in Japanese and just feel good. I love the way it moves into the chorus here~. <3 The melody in the chorus is also very memorable. The verses here really show off HYDE's lower registers, so it's a nice break from his falsettos. Second verse leads into a bit of distortion and some typical synth stuff, but it's a nice intermission before we get to the build up to the final chorus which contains a bit of Engrish. The final chorus feels a little less energetic than those before it, but the sincerity of the voice doesn't fade. Wind down, wind down. Ends with the name of the song.

TRACK 12: Hideaway
This is the closing track for 666, now we're even with five and five for both Faith and 666. This opens with a really homely sound. Japanese and Engrish interchanged frequently; love the energy, liveliness, and sincerity here. Guitars are simple but effective. Some steady drums into the second verse. The Engrish is only understandable in bursts, but it isn't very distracting. The overall feel of this song is very American punk rock to me. It has the same kind of challenge the world mood to it somehow, and honestly, the lyrics don't make it seem that far off. Really enjoyable song overall.

TRACK 13: Prayer
Sixth song from 666 now, oh snap! Kind of an awkward opening: heavy guitar in between long silences. Then, consistent heavy guitars and a vocal intro you don't really notice until several seconds in. Serious business kind of sound... at least until the next punctuated silence, then it just sounds kind of normal? Still lovin' the vocal quality here, though the Engrish lyrics aren't as nice as far as understanding go. Subject matter-wise, this song probably wouldn't do too terribly on Faith, but the sound is much more classic HYDE than the rest of the stuff on Faith. The melody is solid and cohesive, though the guitars aren't all that interesting. Really... even though HYDE's vocals are pretty nice here, the rest of the song really bores me.

TRACK 14: Midnight Celebration
Seventh song from 666! As much as I do like 666, this is kind of silly since 666 is only a ten-track album! I've always found "Midnight Celebration" to be kind of a hilarious song because it's just so stereotypically... vampiric. Still, it's a fun and energetic song with a strong opening and very understandable Engrish lyrics. The chorus is my favorite part; it's great 'cause HYDE sounds so darn serious, but the vampiric overtones of the entire song just make me laugh. Bridge is pretty typical, but the guitars are nice to listen to regardless. The energy throughout the last round of choruses wraps things up nice and neat at the end too.

TRACK 15: Unexpected [Dist.]
Rock version of the original song on ROENTGEN; similar to the version of "Evergreen" above, this version was released as a B-side on the "Season's Call" single. Kind of a boring intro that leads into some awkward, distorted vocals. Vocals remain distorted and music remains boring -- it's really hard to even tell if the lyrics are in Japanese or Engrish, but I know them to be Engrish. Finally get to something resembling a chorus about halfway through the song; vocals become undistorted, but the Engrish is still difficult to understand. The vocals do have some nice energy here, but the music isn't really helping. It slows down significantly again and almost seems to end, but then it leads on into the bridge, which sounds kind of odd because it actually has a decent melody. HYDE's vocals echo through it, but the longer the bridge goes on for, the more boring it gets? Kind of just want it to end now, but it's another five minute song. Argh. Outro takes forever to fade out too.

TRACK 16: The Cape of Storms
Third song from ROENTGEN, but not a later released rock version. Intro has a very classic feel to it. Lyrics are in Engrish and pretty hard to decipher except for a word here or there. Melody and vocal quality are pretty nice here, though I also find the melody to be kind of plain and uninteresting. Tempo slows significantly as we get into the first verse; mood gets very mysterious and suspenseful. There's some interesting use of different instruments here as well, like harmonica and something that sounds kind of like a marimba? Chorus returns with the uninteresting melody; HYDE's vocals are emotional and feel sincere enough, but it's bordering on that "trying too hard" kind of feeling. Second verse is slow and I'm really getting bored. Five minute and forty-five second song is so long~. D;

TRACK 17: glamorous sky [English version] (YouTube it)
This is probably the song I was most excited about when I glanced over the track list. I love "glamorous sky." I love Mika Nakashima's vocals on it, but hearing HYDE sing the song was really interesting too. I didn't know there was an English version of it though?? Excitement here! Intro is odd and disorienting for all of a moment, and then the vocals start. The sound is very, very different here -- the music is much more rockish, the tempo's faster, and HYDE's vocals are weird! The lyrics are strange and I can't understand anything that wasn't already Engrish in the original. Well, I guess "ano" in the choruses turned into "I know" something, but beyond that is beyond me. The difference in the guitars in the back is really, really throwing me off -- it sounds a lot more like a DDR song because the melody is so much more forceful. I have mixed feelings about the vocals; the quality really isn't HYDE's best and the lyrics continue to sound strange.

Haha, "nemurenai yo" turned into "I won't be sleeping." I guess that works out?? It's always interesting to see how much of the original meaning carries over since they're usually more concerned about preserving syllables than translation. The bridge sounds really weird this sped up; the lyrics get a little more understandable, but ... not really. The parts that match up well with the original translation are the parts I pick up more easily. The last round of choruses are all right; the slightly slowed tempo doesn't particularly help the awkwardness of both the lyrics and the guitars though. What a weird way to end this album. What I really want to hear now is Mika Nakashima singing this version of the song though... and perhaps we can wrestle some kind of duet out of them. That would be hot.

OVERALL: Really, I don't know what the point of releasing this compilation album was... HYDE only has three albums to his solo name! This compilation was unnecessarily long and contains more than half of both 666 and Faith. Really, you might as well pick up those original two albums! It doesn't have nearly as much as ROENTGEN, which might be legitimately harder to find, except that two of three included tracks were re-released rock versions, so that's kind of a moot point? The only real point of interest was the last track, which would have probably done just as well released as a special single or as a B-side to another single. The timing of this release also feels weird -- I mean, HYDE just got together with K.A.Z to make VAMPS and they're touring, so why's he reminding fans of old stuff instead of pushing his new stuff? (Oh, man, VAMPS cover of "glamorous sky," why is this so awesome.)

Oh, well. It's not a bad album if you're looking to hear a decent cross section of HYDE's solo work, but if you're already familiar with his solo work, then there isn't really a long enough history to reminisce over here.

Review: Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Menace

2009-05-17T15:15:00.003-04:00

Bucky O'Hare was one of those awesome cartoons from the 90's that almost no one seems to remember nowadays. Bucky was the underdog beating up toads in space while the Ninja Turtles beat up foot soldiers in Manhattan. I have many fond memories of it, though I don't think I actually ever saw the entirety of the thirteen-episode series back in the day. Still, the fondness stayed with me, and I was excited when I found out that the TV show was based on a comic series.

The comic was written by Larry Hama and penciled by Michael Golden. Hama is a third-generation Japanese-American, but that doesn't really explain why I've always thought Bucky O'Hare had a very anime/manga feel to it. The original comic ran in the late 80's and only had one plotline; more were written to coincide with the TV series when it debuted in 1990. The original comic along with two of the later, additional issues were collected together in a manga-like graphic novel released by Vanguard in 2007. I have no idea why they didn't include the rest of the additional issues, but it doesn't really matter. I ordered my copy of Vanguard's release of Bucky O'Hare when I ordered my copy of Viz's releaseof DOGS vol. 0, and I gotta say: Bucky's comic is very disappointing.

(this review contains no spoilers!)

Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars

STORY - Bucky O'Hare presents an intriguing story. In an alternate universe populated by various anthropomorphic animals, the toads have developed their own Skynet named KOMPLEX which then proceeds to enslave not only their race, but uses them them to begin enslaving the rest of the universe. The mammals are bound together by a haphazard political system that refuses to recognize the severity of the toads' threat; thus, they are only willing to fund one defense ship: Bucky's ship, The Righteous Indignation. Of course, there's also lots of other weird stuff, including your human that's transported from our world for one reason or another, but hey, it was the 80's!

For the most part, the first two or three episodes of the TV series followed the comic's original plotline, which is very engaging and fun. The comic's conclusion for the arc differs greatly, however, and honestly, I found the comic's ending to be pretty weak, far-fetched and anticlimatic, but that could just be my bias towards the TV show. The two additional issues that are also included in the volume follow various things that were introduced in the TV show, but they don't connect very well to where the original story left off, so I really wonder why they bothered? Especially since they didn't include the other ten issues that were produced and it doesn't really seem like they have plans to.

The things that struck me most about the story though, was just how it was told in the comic. The "chapters" within the original arc seem to mimic episodes of a television series in that they had recaps at the beginning of every chapter that repeated the same half dozen panels of the previous chapter. This threw me off so much when I read the chapters back to back and saw the repeated panels, which were often reframed so that they were cropped or zoomed in differently. Even if the comic was published in separate issues originally, I find the practice of reframing panels really strange -- Western comics don't do that. You either bought the previous issue or you didn't! Maybe you'll have a quick textual recap on the opening credits page, but not the exact panels from the last issue! What kind of lazy filler crap is that??

There were also really, really awkward two-page spreads. Awkward as in, you had to turn the book around sideways because they were giant, vertical panels. It is so incredibly jarring to be reading through and suddenly there's a huge spread's sideways. Who's bright idea was this?

CHARACTER - Most of the characters don't really get a chance to develop in the original arc. In fact, I found it woefully ironic that Bucky was probably the least interesting of the lot. He's the captain of the ship! And... that's about it. There's very little character beyond that -- he takes information offered by his crew and makes predictable decisions, failing to demonstrate any higher thinking or commanding abilities that have him earn our respect. Thinking back, the show's version of Bucky wasn't that much different to begin with, but he developed a lot more as the series progressed -- should I hold it against the original that it wasn't long enough to work that out?

Willy faced a similar problem and felt like a huge Gary Stu character admist the animals. Blinky seemed like more of a gimmicky mascot than a character. The Air Marshall and most of the toads were also rather flat, and the creepy mouse was just creepy and unexplainable. The most interesting characters in the comic were Deadeye and Jenny, who actually exhibited personality. They had an interesting dynamic between them that suggested backstory, and in Jenny's case, she got further backstory via her "witch powers," which begged many questions and therefore made her interesting. If the duck and the cat could get that kind of thought and treatment, then why not everyone else? Further irony? Deadeye and Jenny are the least developed characters in the handful of episodes of the TV series that mirror the comic.

Vanguard's release inserted short character files in between some of the chapters that included characters' full name, rank, and weapon of choice, as well as a completely stupid, pointless, and superfluous "biography."

ART - Michael Golden's style is a strange blend of Western and Eastern, which is pretty peculiar considering Bucky's age. That style conflict is something we talk about frequently now, but back in the 80's? Most of the animal characters have gigantic eyes and outrageous expressions and the backgrounds, props, and environments are exhaustively detailed. The graphic novel is in plain black and white; the inking job is very Eastern. With minimal spot blacks in most panels, it really seems like it'd be suited for tones. For the most part, the art is enjoyable, but many of the zoomed out long shots are confusing because of the detail.

Here's the thing that disappointed me the most with the comic though: in addition to the aforementioned repeated panels at the beginning and end of chapters, and in addition the sprawling, awkward vertical spreads, several panels are recycled throughout the volume. These panels were not reused to rehash events in the last chapter. They were flat out reused because the artist was too damn lazy to draw the same or similar expression again. The first time it happened, I did a double take. It was a, "Wait, didn't I see this exact panel several pages earlier...? Holy shit, I did!" moment. And I would flip back and forth, confirming that it was indeed the same panel, just flipped over, as if that would make it less obvious. And the worst of it? Sometimes panels were repeated not only once, but twice, and for this one shot of Jenny, it was repeated THREE TIMES after its initial debut. Are you freakin' kidding me??

Not only is this just ridiculous, but it also emphasizes that Golden really didn't have too many ways to draw the same kind of expression -- even when he did actually draw a new panel, many of them were remarkably reminiscent of others previous. It's like watching a one-trick pony. He'll perform the trick multiple times and usually there will be slight variations, but you know, at the end of the day, it's still the same damn trick. Super, super disappointing.

The two issues in the back by a different team of artists don't suffer this problem and they mimic Golden's style all right; still, the inks are noticably thicker and there are far less details.

OVERALL - The Bucky O'Hare comic has become one of those things that I'm glad I personally bought and read, but that I would never recommend to others. I was curious and now my curiosity is satisfied; I do vaguely wonder about those other ten issues that were adapted from the TV series, but it's not a burning curiosity. The best thing that the comic had going for it was undoubtedly its premise and concept, which was successfully adapted into a wonderful TV series, so that's what everyone should check out. The story in the television show is much better thought out because there was more room; similarly, the show's characters were more three-dimensional and well thought out. The comic's art is impressive in its detail and style, but I don't think I can forgive Golden for his lazy, recycled panels. The cartoon's art is much simpler and decidedly not impressive to any degree, but it wasn't terrible, so whatever, eh?

Picking Favorites

2009-05-15T20:46:00.005-04:00

So I have this problem with the listed favorites in my MAL profile (the anime moreso than the manga). I feel like the list is out of date because I haven't really updated it since I joined the site last June, and I've seen at least a dozen very good series since then. So many series could easily move into that empty fifth slot, and so many other series seem like they're viable contenders for the titles that are already there. How do you go about choosing? Which factors are more relevant than others? And for a public listing, how much are you going to invest in using your declared favorites to brand yourself?

As far as the branding goes, my favorites list kind of makes me laugh. The only real point of unity is mecha, which I didn't realize was something I cared for as much as I do until I compiled the list in the first place. What kind of person do I come across with such a list? Gurren Lagann is almost a cop out because there are very few people that don't care for it; perhaps having it there makes me ordinary. Code Geass is something that might start some polarizing debates on the aniblogosphere, but the first season is almost universally accepted to be more worthy than the second. So maybe that makes me oridinary also. Gundam SEED seems to be hated on a grand scale and many Gundam fans seem to associate liking it with being ignorant. Stand Alone Complex is another title that faces little criticism, but a few dislike it for its rampant politics. So maybe having it there makes me look smart.

So, what does this list say about me on the whole? I am mostly an ordinary mecha fan that enjoys both testosterone-filled gar and intelligent political drama, but is ignorant towards the Gundam franchise. Not really sure if that's the exact branding I would choose for myself, but I wouldn't say the description is wildly inaccurate either.

Self-branding is an interesting thing, particularly when it's of a social consequence and not a commercial one. Sites like MAL allow for the traditional judging that used to take place when you took a look at the books on someone's shelf or what they're reading on the bus. It might be bad to judge based on negative stereotypes, but the judging that takes place when you glance over someone's favorites list is something that I'd consider to be nearly always useful. Whether comparing lists comes up with more similarities or differences is largely irrelevant as long as you aren't derisively writing someone off completely for holding whatever series in high regard (that would be negatively stereotyping). There's a difference between thinking, "Oh, this person likes mostly sappy shoujo titles, I guess we don't have much in common," and thinking, "lol, this idiot only likes mainstream shounen, what a useless newb."

If there are only differences, well, no loss, and you've saved everyone time by not pursuing a conversation that would have likely led no where. If there are only similarities, then perhaps you've found a fangasm buddy with which you can merrily spout fanboyish or fangirlish nonsense with. The best list comparisons come up with both similarities and differences; they are the things that prompt conversations like, "I see you like such and such also, but also that you enjoyed so and so -- what was it about so and so that you liked? I didn't find it very satisfying." And lovely discussions (or interesting debates) ensue and friendship, rivalry, and comraderie spreads across the Internet! Hurray! Judging is built into our social structure for a reason; it'd be a shame to cast it off completely.

It does make the self-conscious even more self-conscious though. Even online, you have an appearance. Picking the series that go on your favorites list is like picking a fashion to wear. And you have to find something that both satisfy you and your desire to be presentable to the public. Luckily, I've never been too bothered by the latter, so I'm fine with people thinking I'm an ignorant Gundam fan for having SEED as my favorite. When I commented on his aforementioned related post, ghostlightning mentioned that all the titles on my list are fairly recent, which might indicate that I'm a newer fan. I'm not, really, but oddly enough, the nostalgia factor hasn't been that big for me. My old favorites include Gundam Wing, Yu Yu Hakusho, BECK, Dragonball Z, Cowboy Bebop (you know, the Toonami golden days!), and My Neighbor Totoro, but I can see that my love for them is mostly because of nostalgia and not because they're actually better series than what's on the list now. It might be unconventional to consider the new better on all aspects than the old, so maybe I'll seem even more like an ignorant newbie, but hey, whatever, man.

My only problem is deciding what my "real" favorites are and correctly representing them on this damned list.

Back to my dilemma, huh? That favorites list needs updating. Who gets the empty fifth slot? And is there anyone already on the list that needs to be ousted? Here are the new contenders: Ouran High School Host Club, Nodame Cantabile, Mushishi, Planetes, and maybe even Lovely Complex. Score-wise, all of those series I've reviewed and scored with a 9 overall, except Love*Com, which has an 8. All of the series currently on the list are also 9's, except for TTGL, which is the only anime I've scored with a 10. Sometimes I wonder about that 10, but if anything else, TTGL is the only series thus far mentioned that I watched three times consecutively in a month. I guess it still deserves that top spot.

Since Love*Com is the lone 8 here, maybe it should be dropped from consideration (especially since there are a lot of other series I've scored with 9's that aren't up for consideration here), but even though both its technical merits and story/character merits are lower than the competition, it's a series that I've been rewatching random episodes from a lot lately -- what does that count for? Perhaps it's just a weird mood I've been in; after all, I don't usually take so readily to standard shoujo. Should a favorites list represent a more stable subset of favorites, or should it be more flexible? Should Love*Com be represented above the others just because I've really taken to it lately? Should it change and drop off as soon as I get out of this phase? That begs the question of, just how often should a favorites list be updated? Is there really anyone e-stalkerish enough to check that often? Or is it more for your own satisfaction?

Personally, I think I prefer the more stable route. It's too much trouble to constantly update something based on recent whims. Besides, the list is a better branding tool if it has series that stand up to the test of time, right? So Love*Com, as much as I love it, is out. That leaves four other series. What's the next factor to consider? Mushishi and Ouran probably have the highest rewatch value out of those four. Both series are fairly episodic and allow for better casual watching. Planetes and Nodame are both wonderful, but even though Nodame is largely slice of life, it does have a linear story, which hurts its rewatch potential to some extent since it's harder to jump in the middle. Planetes's first dozen episodes are also pretty episodic, but the latter half gets very character-involved and plot-heavy. How important do I want rewatch value to be?

It must be important if it's one of the reasons TTGL has the top spot, and even though it's not the second season that's on the list, Code Geass R2 is the only series I've followed as it aired that I watched three times per episode... one for every sub release (Chihiro/Nightspeed, gg, and Eclipse) because I was just that much of a fantard. And dammit if each rewatch wasn't still fun. I've also seen the second half of Gundam SEED an obscene number of times... SAC I like to catch sometimes when it reruns, but since I stopped watching TV altogether, that doesn't happen much anymore. Maybe SAC is the candidate for removal then...? If I swap out SAC, then I could add both Mushishi and Ouran, but there's gotta be other factors, right? And even if I do do that, which of the new listees should be ranked higher?

I always gravitate towards character-driven series, so maybe series with characters I like better should have preference. All the series on the current list have strong characters that I love, though it might be worth noting that there are no TTGL characters on my top ten favorite characters list (then again, I also have problems with the items on that list; that can be another discussion altogether, though it would probably be very redundant). Mushishi would be out if it's a question of character, not because Ginko is a weak character, but just because he's very simple and doesn't go through a lot of changes. It's a hard fight between Ouran, Planetes, and Nodame, but I'd probably also drop Ouran there. Great, so the series with the greater rewatch value are exactly opposite those with the stronger characters. Woe!

This entry has gone on long enough; I'll spare you the rest of my inner debate. But you understand my problem, right? I obviously haven't updated my favorites list yet. I really don't know when I'll be able to figure it out. Picking favorites really sucks; I love all of these series! But I can't very well not have any, can I? What would you think of me then??

5 Webcomics I Feel Like Recommending

2009-05-10T13:26:00.001-04:00

There are a ton of webcomics on the Internet. Most of them suck. Most of them never update when they're supposed to. Most of them get dropped whether officially or unofficially because their creators either decide that they don't have time anymore or life decides that they don't have time anymore for them. The latter bugs me the most, as I seem to have a knack for finding great webcomics that go on mysterious hiatuses as soon as I pick them up, but really, all three of those ailments are very annoying.

So here are five webcomics that 1) don't suck, 2) almost always update when they're supposed to, and 3) are currently running. There are also four runner-ups that occasionally fail to meet one of those requirements, usually the updating thing, but they're far from being dead.

5. Anime News Nina by Robin Sevakis

This is the Anime News Network's official webcomic and ventures to mock and satirize various aspects of otaku culture, usually in a good-natured way; after all, otaku are undoubtedly its intended audience. Occasionally, I do see things that some people might get upset over, but I doubt Sevakis ever intends the comic to be insulting towards the reasonable members of society. Each strip is can be standalone, but many strips also tie together in short story arcs.

The art is in full color and pretty simple, but Sevakis doesn't shy away from grand exaggerations of expression and action, which always results in chaos and hilarity. She also mimics styles from specific series to emphasize punch lines involving art. Good times. ANN updates every Wednesday with few exceptions.

Content: 4/5
Artwork: 4/5
Updates: 4/5

4. Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell

Gunnerkrigg Court, with little exception, will probably remind you initially of Harry Potter. This is thanks mostly to its British-style boarding school setting and magical inclinations, but that's really where the similarities end. As a continuing story, it starts off fairly whimsically and builds steadily towards a more involved, overarching plot that draws inspiration from an impressive number and range of world myths. The end of many chapters also include silly gag pages or informative explanations, and Siddell's one-liners that accompany every page are always amusing.

The full color art is unimpressive to begin with, but evolves significantly during the course of its run. Siddell ventures back and forth from very detailed scenes and very simple characters, but the style is unique and really grows on you after a couple of chapters. Gunnerkrigg Court updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and has never missed an update in the time I've been following it; in fact, Siddell reportedly works two or three months ahead of the current pages to ensure that he is never late even if he ends up sick or otherwise incapacitated for a few weeks. That's dedication, man.

Content: 4/5
Artwork: 4/5
Updates: 5/5

3. Today Nothing Happened by Shazzbaa

This is probably the least known comic on the entire list, including runner-ups. Shazzbaa is a friend of mine and will be graduating with her ~~Sequential Art~~ FUNNY BOOKS degree in three weeks. Today Nothing Happened is her journal comic, and as such, all events told are true and real and absolutely hilarious. You certainly don't need to know her to enjoy it, though you will find yourself knowing her better and better as you read through. Journal comics seem to be a big thing in the department as one of the professors loves and encourages them hardcore, but of all the ones I've read, TNH is my favorite, no contest. The life of an art kid! You know you want to read about it.

Shazz's art for TNH is black and white (with occasional color) and endearingly cartoony while maintaining wonderful likenesses of the real people she's depicting. If you read her comic before you meet her, you will be able to recognize her at your first meeting based on her caricatures alone. It's pretty awesome. TNH updates every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and Shazz takes great pains to ensure that this is the case. Even if she isn't quite done with a comic at midnight, she will upload and post the unfinished page as filler until the final is done. Pretty impressive. What makes it even more impressive though, is that every update also comes with a new voting incentive for Top Webcomics, so you are, effectively, getting two comics per update, three times a week. Rock on.

Content: 4/5
Artwork: 4.5/5
Updates: 5/5

2. Sinfest by Tatsuya Ishida
Sinfest just might be the longest running webcomic strips on the Internet. It is a daily strip and updates every, single, freakin' day. In the past, there have been a few stretches where he fails to update, but this hasn't happened again since I started reading it. Each strip is standalone, but Ishida often has week-long series or repeatative themes, very much like traditional newspaper strips, though its unlikely that Sinfest will ever grace the pages of a family newspaper. Sinfest is sacreligious and hilarious, but does not stop only to poke fun at Christianity. Devil worship and all manner of other beliefs and customs are also satirized every day. God is an asshole, but Jesus is a pretty nice guy. And since the 2008 election, Sinfest has also touched on various political subjects, but always in a humorous manner. Honestly, no matter what your religious and political beliefs, if you're open-minded to any degree, you can enjoy this comic.

Ishida's style is simple, clean, and very effective. Daily strips are black and white with the occasional tones; Sunday strips are huge and in color. Honestly, there's not much to say, but for a comedic strip, expressions are wildly important, and Ishida always makes them perfect.

Content: 4.5/5
Artwork: 4.5/5
Updates: 5/5

1. xkcd by Randall Munroe

This is my favorite webcomic. Period. As the site describes, xkcd is a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. That's a pretty wide range of nerdy topics, and thus, xkcd has covered everything from 4chan to raptors to nuclear physics to flying kites. The comic also consequently covers a lot of esoteric subjects, but the ex-computer science major in me is always happy when there programming and science-related things that I still understand and find hilarious. And they are always hilarious. If it isn't hilarious, then it's because you don't understand enough dammit. Each strip also features a tooltip caption (hover over the image for it); occasionally, this accompanying caption is more hilarious than the comic itself. The comics are generally standalone, but do feature a handful of reoccurring characters and the occasional multi-strip storyline.

I've gotten into a debate about this before, but I will stand by my opinion that Mr. Munroe draws the best damned stick figures I've ever seen. All the circle heads close and are nicely rounded and limbs are generally of reasonable sizes and proportions. The accessories he gives certain characters to tell them apart are consistent and easy to recognize. Everything is effective and has just enough detail that they are unquestionably what they are. Computers and TVs do not look identical. There are occasionally backgrounds. Mr. Munroe draws some damn sweet diagrams and maps too. The man can draw; he just chooses simplicity.

xkcd updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with occasional weeks where there's an update every weekday in a continuous story (like this past week). It has also never missed an update as long as I've followed it.

Content: 5/5
Artwork: 5/5
Updates: 5/5

Runner Up: A Softer World by Joey Comeau and Emily Horne
Content: 4/5
Artwork: 3.5/5
Updates: 5/5

Runner Up: Sin Titulo by Cameron Stewart
Content: 5/5
Artwork: 5/5
Updates: 3.5/5

Runner Up: Lackadaisy by Tracy Butler
Content: 5/5
Artwork: 5/5
Updates: 3/5

Runner Up: Evil Diva by Team Diva
Content: 4/5
Artwork: 4.5/5
Updates: 4.5/5

Viz Original Comics: A Question of Style

2009-05-09T12:33:00.006-04:00

Editors' Day is a small, annual event the Sequential Art department at SCAD puts on. Editors from various comic publishers came to discuss various topics and answer questions at a panel on Thursday, and then spent all day Friday reviewing portfolios from students. Discluding Dark Horse and Oni Press who were supposed to come but have rescheduled, this year we had representatives from Marvel, DC (and Vertigo), Slave Labor Graphics, Nickelodeon Magazine, and... Viz Media.
I was surprised that Viz ended coming after all. A few months back, a professor mentioned that Viz had canceled for Editors' Day, which was kind of expected considering the whole VP of Original Publishing leaving the company thing in February despite various announcements about Viz's upcoming original comics line last summer. The whole idea seemed like it was going to collapse, though I wouldn't really blame Viz for it, especially after all the controversy and criticism TOKYOPOP got the same summer for screwing over many of their original creators. The OEL bubble had always seemed like a precarious thing, but everyone agrees that the economy isn't helping.

But Viz showed up after all, represented by Eric Searleman, the senior editor that was working with Marc Weidenbaum (the aforementioned VP) on the original publishing line. So it seems that the venture hasn't quite died yet. It's worth noting though, that while Viz's website declares that they aren't accepting unsolicited submissions, they don't say that the original comics program is dead or on any kind of hiatus. It's also worth noting that several days after the announcement that Weidenbaum had left Viz, there was a post on Viz's official blog directed towards original creators, suggesting that they still had plans to accept submissions eventually, even if things might be significantly delayed with Weidenbaum's departure.

The panel discussion covered some pretty general topics, mostly aimed towards artists and writers trying to break into the industry. Mr. Searleman was relatively quiet compared to the rest of the lot, but seemed much more optimistic on subjects like the economy and pitching projects to companies. Some worthy tidbits include his mentioning that any project pitched to Viz should expect to go through heavy editorial input and that women seemed to represent a majority of those attracted to manga. The entire panel was supposedly recorded and should be featured on Monday's scheduled podcast at SEQALAB, if anyone's interested.

What interested me the most about the entire panel though was, and the belatedly-introduced, actual topic of this post is, a question someone asked at the end of the panel, in conjunction with something else Mr. Searleman said earlier. Is Viz specifically looking for projects in the "manga style"? Like some, I would would prefer "manga" to be a word synonymous with "comics," but the general population does not treat it as such, so it isn't so. But both the person who asked the question and Mr. Searleman seemed to agree that it doesn't really matter what style something is in as long as it can tell a good story, and Viz is out to "publish good stories." Presumably, this translates to, "No, Viz is not only specifically looking for manga-styled pitches," but I have to wonder if that's a good or bad thing, marketing-wise.

I have always disagreed with those who have labeled American artists drawing in a perceived anime/manga style to be wannabes or rip-offs. The only weakness comes when artists take no interest in studying reality and base all of their stylistic choices off of pre-existing ones. But that isn't an exclusively American (or otherwise non-Japanese) weakness. Young Japanese artists who surround themselves with manga undoubtedly go through the same steps -- they mimic what's around them. American artists who surround themselves with the same manga are really no different. Similarly, artists of whatever origin who surround themselves with Western comics will mimic the styles that they see and read and admire. If you label one set of them wannabes or rip-offs, you'll have to label all of them wannabes and rip-offs, but without them, there would never be a new generation of artists.

Nevertheless, most non-Japanese fans of manga still end up drawing quite a bit differently from Japanese natives, probably because it's impossible to ignore all of the other cultural influences around them, no matter how much they delve into the foreign media. So their styles don't get be to called straight up "manga," only "manga-styled" or "manga-influenced." I have mixed feelings about that since I don't consider "manga-styled" to be a very specific term. Astro Boy and Akira are both "manga-styled," but you'd never mistake one for the other. I guess the most significant thing though, is that you'd never mistake either for a non-Japanese-related comic. Everyone expects something when they hear "manga" or "manga-styled" or "OEL."

Or "Viz."

Viz publishes manga. If Viz is to finally venture into original comics, everyone will expect that they end up publishing "manga-styled" original comics.

Mr. Searleman said so himself, but as previously stated, he also mentioned being interested in any good story. I wonder what would happen if Viz actually published an original comic that was vastly, vastly different from what people would expect from "manga"? What if Viz published something that looked really American indie? Or even American superhero? It's easy to say that people will want to read anything that has a good story, but it's hard to deny that for comics -- art is a huge factor and always serves as the first impression. I would like to think that most people are drawn to manga for the stories more than the art, but it is always interesting to see just how big the divide sometimes is between manga fans and Western comic fans. If the stories are equally good, why the hate? Each side stereotypes the other. The stories on the other side aren't better, they say. The former only see the repetitive and continuously retconned superheros and the latter only see the androgynous gay boys and lolicon. Or something.

Viz is a powerful brand within the community; would people be confused or put off to see a Jack Kirby or even Adam Hughes-esque cover on something with Viz's label on the spine? Would they be shocked and appalled if Viz published a superhero story? A good superhero story, perhaps, but a superhero story all the same? Breaking down the barrier! Bridging and crossing the divide! Say it ain't so! Then again, Dark Horse publishes a good amount of both already, and almost all Western comic book publishers at this point have tapped into the "manga-style" in some way. Those announcements all seem to be met with derision and scorn, but I don't know a damn thing about the sales on say, the shounen Wolverine or freaky shoujo X-Men manga. Do these things actually work? Are people actually buying these titles because the art drew them to it? Or are all these companies' various marketing departments retarded?

If these adaptations are actually selling, would the reverse work? Would seeing an Western-style comic published by a manga publisher attract fans from the other side? Or would such a venture attract the same kind of derision and scorn?

Or is it all a moot point because no one that draws in such a Western style would approach Viz in the first place? Students had to sign up beforehand to meet with their editor of choice on Friday. Reading over the list, every name that I recognized was someone that had a decidedly "manga" style, myself included. Professors seem to like to say that the top reason project pitches are rejected is because the style of the pitch does not match the style of the company it's being pitched to. They tell us that Marvel would not look to hire someone with an indie style and that DC would not look to hire someone with a manga style. Those mantras may or may not be true (was all the X-Men manga pitched by an outside newbie?), but it might be enough to keep students away from companies that don't traditionally publish things in their style. The barriers have been breaking down, but it might not really matter when you're just breaking in.

It's Official! Pokémon Gold/Silver Remakes for DS!

2009-05-07T22:17:00.007-04:00

Finally~~!

Naturally, the Pokémon community exploded today with this much, much anticipated announcement. It's something that pretty much everyone knew was coming, but I guess I was always one of those cautiously optimistic ones. I don't like putting too much faith into things until they're official, and even then, sometimes announcements don't follow through. I probably should have known better though. After all, Pokémon is never going to die! So no worries! HeartGold and SoulSilver are now official! And it will have a lot of new/updated features and other awesome things that will make people want to buy it more than they already do!

It's like the anticipation for the original Gold/Silver all over again. The glorious nostalgia returns! I think keeping up hardcore with the news back then for G/S is one of the reasons I consider G/S my favorite generation and one of the reasons I have the fondest memories of my Silver game. Even though all the rumors didn't follow through in the end (no male/female choice for instance), there was just such a huge upgrade between the second generation and the first generation that it was hard to be disappointed.

I don't expect that things will be quite as drastic this time around, but consider this: the original G/S (and Crystal) were the only games that featured the lands of the previous generation. Can you imagine how amazing it would be if the remake featured all four major islands? Kanto, Jhoto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh, and probably a few extra feature islands too? I think all Pokéfans everywhere would just shit themselves with head-exploding happiness if that happened. Man, oh man. It's highly unlikely considering the complex map shenanigans they'd have to pull, but we can dream, right?

As of yet, we don't seem to have a projected release date or any hints towards what the newly added features might be, but I don't doubt it'll be fun following this news for the next however long it takes.

I absolutely cannot wait to have Totodile as my starter again, holy crap. You don't even know!

Another Live Action Death Note

2009-05-01T18:18:00.004-04:00

I was really hoping that this would be some kind of joke, but it apparently isn't.

There's already been a live action adaptation of Death Note. Two of them, in fact, since the story isn't easily told in one. I might be in the few as far as thinking that they were both fantastic movies and worked wonderfully as adaptations (I swear I'll get around to reviewing them both), but the fact remains that it's already been done, not to mention that L spinoff movie, which I've yet to see. All three of those movies have been licensed and released Stateside, so why do we need Hollywood to make another one?

Of course, Hollywood re-making Japanese (and other Asian) films is nothing new, and there are many instances where those re-makes are wildly popular and subsequently profitable. The Ring comes to mind, but I've seen neither that nor Ringu, from which it was based. Even so, there's at least one adaptation that I found to be successful (The Departed, based on a Hong Kong film). But Death Note is not a J-horror and Death Note is not an action drama. And from what I can understand, Warner Brothers will not be basing their movie off of the existing movies, so Death Note isn't even a movie.

Death Note is a superntural, psychological, suspense thriller manga, and I have little faith that a Hollywood adaptation will 1) make any money, 2) treat the source material right, 3) be a decent movie on any kind of level. Well, at least it isn't Fox, right?

There are just so many potential problems with this that I can't imagine enough of them being conquered for this to work. I might draw up a full list later if I feel like putting forth the energy to rant about it (if you want though, Gia's already got at least five ways they can fuck it up), but for now, here is the biggest issues I see:

Audience Appeal

As fans, we have become jaded. It's hard to ignore and forget this kind of abomination, as much as we'd all like to try. Some people say that fans are too critical and can never be pleased, and that might be true to a certain extent, but I like to think that there are actually a lot of people that are willing to give things a chance if given a reason to be positive. After all, I have hope in the upcoming Cowboy Bebop adaptation, and I'm also cautiously hopeful about that Akira adaptation. And it isn't just the live action medium since, as I've mentioned, I love both already existing live action adaptations for Death Note. I was also kind of fond of the Speed Racer movie, if only because it refused to take itself seriously -- that works for Speed Racer. It would never work for Death Note.

This might be a more minor thing, but it might be worth mentioning that some fans, while still fans, have gotten sick of the title's supreme oversaturation across all markets. I mean, the manga finished in 2006. In the three short years since then, there has already been two live action movies, one spinoff, and an anime. Now there's going to be yet another movie? Geez.

As far as the general audience goes though, is Death Note even the sort of story that would fly in the States? I think the supernatural element would be a huge turn-off both because straight-up monster-looking things aren't that popular in [serious] American movies and because CG becomes an issue. Ryuk's design and translation into CG was already an issue for the Japanese adaptations, but if it's anything less than amazing this time around, people won't go for it because they will compare it to stuff like Pirates of the Caribbean and I doubt Death Note will have the budget to compete with that.

I wonder if the whole capital punishment theme would cause a stir at all, and if so, would it be positive or negative as far as ticket sales go? Consider that so many schools took issue when Death Note-like notebooks made rounds in middle schools with kids' "enemies'" names scrawled in the pages -- would they be afraid of more stuff like that happening as a result of a domestic movie's release? It's also worth noting that The Boondock Saints was a movie that had a similar theme: it had a limited release and poor reviews, but has garnered a cult following since. Death Note already has a cult following, but the cult is hypercritical. Would WB's Death Note create a new sublegion of fans? People that knew nothing of Death Note before seeing that version?

Warner Bros. must realize how big of a gamble this is. Speed Racer tanked. Dragonball Evolution tanked phenomenally. If they can't help but do more manga/anime adaptations for some explicable reason, I have to wonder why someone doesn't pick up a few shoujo titles and have at some chick flicks -- why all these crazy shounen and supernatural stuff? Shoujo is, by nature, much, much more suitable for live action. The Japanese understand this -- there are tons of dramas and movies based off shoujo. But none by Hollywood.

Review: Kanpai!

2009-05-01T01:50:00.003-04:00

A month or two ago, BookCloseouts was having a $0.99 TOKYOPOP sale. Browsing through, there were a bunch of old, random titles I cared little about... along with Planetes vol. 1 and both volumes of Kanpai! The former was more of an impulse, but the latter was something I'd kindasorta wanted to check out for a while, but never wanted to put down the money for since I was half-certain that it would suck. I guess it's kind of sad that as much as I love Gravitation, I never had too much respect for Maki Murakami. Maybe it's because of her doujinshi. Maybe it's because of Gravitation EX. But yeah -- even though I liked the one-shot off which Kanpai! is based, I wasn't too inclined towards the title.

But come on, for ninety-nine cents? The whole order plus shipping cost less than a normally-priced TP manga. So here is a review.

I actually finished reading Kanpai! a few weeks ago but never got around to writing a review. I had to sit down and force myself to just do it tonight though since I'm bringing the two volumes with me to a departmental garage sale thing tomorrow -- if I'm lucky, I might actually profit a little from them, hahaha. Maybe I'll also be able to get rid of this copy of Catcher in the Rye.

Semi-Review: DOGS vol. 0 (Viz release)

2009-04-24T13:48:00.003-04:00

Finally! The announcement of the license came in July of last year, but DOGS finally officially released middle of last week (though a few people have reported seeing them in stores before then). I had had my preorder through HeavyInk, which has only served me well in the past, but I'm beginning to think that their strength is only in subscriptions and US trades, rather than licensed manga -- typical of a comic store, I guess. They seem to have had various complications/delays with my order, so I finally just canceled it and ordered through Amazon. It arrived within three days. Because they only included bubble packaging on one side, my cover was a little warped, but other than that: it's beautiful~.

I've updated my MAL review for DOGS to include some commentary about Viz's release, but I'm going to do an in-depth semi-review here because I feel like it.

PACKAGING & APPEARANCE -- Since I don't buy a lot of manga, this is actually the first Viz release that I've picked up since my old, old Gundam Wing manga -- all my others have been TOKYOPOP releases -- though I still plan to eventually pick up all of Death Note. The volume was actually shrink-wrapped and marked with explicit content, which surprised me until I opened it. The fold-out poster is this illustration on one side and this picture of Naoto on the other side. I forgot about all the nudity that's in this manga, apparently, probably because none of it ever feels gratitious. The manga itself feels very slick -- the DOGS logos and titles on the front and back covers, as well as the spine, are all shiny silver, and the graphic design on all sides is very clean and nice looking. The exception is the text that reads "Stray dogs howling through the dark" on the back; the font used is ill-fitting and kind of ugly, but that's pretty minor.

The print size is a bit larger than most tankoban, and I noticed the paper quality is a little lesser. The pages aren't as heavy and sturdy as I'm used to, and the volume itself is very flexible. I don't mind the larger format at all, but I'm confused as to why the paper quality changed. It can't be just a Viz thing since I've at least flipped through other Viz releases and never noticed a quality difference. I'm hesitant to call it a cost issue since this volume of DOGS is already quite a bit more expensive ($12.99) than other Viz releases ($7.99), so it isn't like they couldn't have offset printing costs on the larger size. It's not that big a deal really, but it was a noticable thing.

EDITNG & TRANSLATION -- As someone who doesn't speak the language, I can really only judge a translation by how natural it feels and much it makes sense. Having read scanlations is a decent basis for meaning, especially since the scanlator always made a point to make notes on the portions she wasn't sure of, but in the end, it's really just about whether the story comes across in a way that isn't confusing or choppy. I was, for the most part, really happy and impressed by Viz's translation. There were a lot of things that were actually made much clearer through this translation. The slang and dialogue localization was less extreme than what TOKYOPOP usually does (though story setting may have something to do with this), so the inevitable shift in character tones wasn't too jarring.

I was kind of confused about some of their choices in diction. For example, Badou once referred to cigarettes as "fags." It's all well and good meaning-wise, but fag in that usage is British slang, not American slang, and I don't imagine that too many people even know that. There was also a part where Badou declares "U. B. DESTROYED!" which was kind of awkward since I think "you be" would have fit in the bubble just fine? Badou also says "Oh shi--" at some point, but that's just awesome.

All of the sound effects in this release are edited and translated, which surprised me since I thought that sort of editing went out when everyone decided perserving the right-to-left reading format was the way to go. Still, compared to Viz's older works, the translated sound effects are much improved. They've gotten more creative with the onomatopoeias ("twip" and "zsh" in addition to your standard "bang" and "whap"), and most of the sound effects actually seem to make sense. The chosen fonts are kind of plain and uninspired at times, but they fit in okay, and I think I'm just biased because I find katakana to be infinitely more interesting to look at even though the "sound" effect part will be lost to me until I sit my ass down and memorize that alphabet.

The font and copy choices for the normal dalogue were pretty standard, though the font size changed a lot to accomodate the bubbles -- this always annoys me, but what can ya do. I always enjoy the out-of-bubble dialogue though (all those tiny comments made by chibi and background characters), and the translations for those were especially fun.

Last note here: Heine's name is offically Heine because that's a real German name. Some fans have been whining about this, and I understand that the change seems trivially annoying because the scanlations use "Haine," but seriously, come on. The romaji has always been transliterated to "Haine" because that's how it'd be pronounced in Japanese. For the transliteration to be "Heine," the katakana would need to be ヘイネ, which the Japanese would pronounce "Hay-nay" or "Heh-ee-nay" instead.

FINAL THOUGHTS -- I'm really happy with Viz's treatment of DOGS for the most part and really look forward to the release of Bullets&Carnage vol. 1 in August (and vol. 2 in December!) It's great to finally be able to hold one of Miwa's works in my hands, though I've come to notice a lot more anatomical mistakes in his art because of it, lol. (Check out Heine's left leg on the cover, serious!)

Review: Lovely Complex

2009-04-21T18:45:00.007-04:00

I still need to write reviews for Soul Eater and Gundam 00 S2, but I still don't feel like writing either. So instead, here is a review for the Lovely Complex anime, which I finished last night because it is adorable. Sickeningly adorable. The premise is exceedingly simple, the characters somewhat predictable, and the animation is all over the place, but damned if it isn't an extremely well done series despite all that. I really want to check out the manga and the live action movie now.

Baww, shoujo. Damn the genre for being so appropriate for adaptation into live action because there are so many series I want to check out now (still need to hunt down the Nodame Cantabile dramas). If the first NANA movie is any indication of how awesome these adaptations can be (granted, I haven't seen the anime nor read the manga in that case), then I'm pretty sure the Nodame and Love★Com are at least worth checking out.

I discovered whilst looking up some information for the review that most of the characters in Love★Com speak in a Kansai/Osaka dialect. What followed was a gigantic "no wonder!" kind of epiphany. I am simultaneously proud of and endlessly amused at the fact that I noticed something was off about the way they were speaking -- sure, it would be LOL OBVIOUS to someone with better knowledge of the language, but for a weeaboo, I'd say just noticing at all isn't bad. :P The easiest indications were the replacement of "aho" for "baka," which I also noticed in BECK way back when, and "na" for "ne." The second easiest was the substituion of "chau" for "chigau" because the dialect apparently likes to contract the hell out of everything (which makes a lot more sense than whatever the hell Shanghainese does to Mandarin!).

Purusing through this list, I spotted a good number of other things that I noticed, including "denna" for "desu ne" though I believe Seiko and a few others still used "desu ne." Actually, I also noticed that a lot of things on that list didn't actually show up. Otani definitely never used "wai" in place of "ore," and Risa never used "wate" in place of "watashi" or "atashi." I really love first person pronouns in Japanese (they're so much fun and can say so much about certain characters!), so I'd have probably noticed much faster if those had been swapped out. Also unmentioned on the list is "-chi" as an affectionate suffix, though I don't know that much about it either way -- why did they only use it for Nakao? And why did both Risa and Nobuko use it?

Fun times, Japanese. I should just get off my ass and learn it some day. I might be going there in December. Maybe that can be some motivation.

Photoshoot: Domo-kun VS Your Car

2009-04-15T16:54:00.003-04:00

Last week, various friends and I found ourselves at the local Target store for some explicable reason. There, amongst their shelves of Easter candy and cheap plushies, we found Domo-kun. Dressed with bunny ears or a chick outfit. Of course, Domo-kun had been licensed States-side for a while now; Nickelodeon has aired the shorts, and Target had a bunch of Domo-related merchandise around Halloween as well. I knew this, but since I apparently didn't hang out at Target in October, I didn't really see any of them out until now. So we crowded around the Domo-kuns and debated buying some for a bit. Three of us took one. They were all retardedly adorable.

But then, later on, while bumming through the toy aisles like the college students we are, we came across bigger Domo-kuns. Posable ones. Exactly three of them. And we all got one of those, in addition to the smaller ones we already had. Great.

Between my roommate and I, we had four Domos, and we brought them to our Environments class on Tuesday. A few of our classmates had 1:18 scale diecast model cars with them since we were using them for reference on our assignment, and in the twenty minutes or so before class actually started... this photoshoot commenced.

You only wished your car was this shiny, red Corvette.

I wish we could have used the white projector screen for a background, but it was too high up. :\

Bunny!Domo-kun wants first dibs.

After a few hours of harassing sports cars, the Domo-kuns hit up the Japanese restaurant three blocks down for some lunch.

The best iced tea in town. Domo-kuns approve!

And some delicious beef teriyaki too. いただきます！

On the way home, we found some interesting graffiti. (Okay, so it's actually been there a while, but I never got around to getting a picture.) Not sure why it's yellow. Someone pointed out that yellow and black were our school colors, to which I replied, "Oh. ... Oh yeah."

But wait! I got a package from a buddy this weekend. They contained some glasses. Leafeon contends that he's more gar than Domo-kun. What do you think?

俺を誰だと思ってやがる？？

Review: Dragonball Evolution

2009-04-12T22:18:00.002-04:00

You know, I almost didn't want to write this review because it meant I had to keep thinking about this movie, and all I want to do is forget that it exists. My immediate thoughts after viewing Dragonball Evolution were: "LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED." Sentiments haven't changed much since then, but I'm pleased to hear that it's bombing at the box office. I ~~hope~~ pray this means that they'll put to rest their undoubtedly terrible sequel/trilogy plans. Anyway... this review. It's obviously not going to be pretty, but I'm going to at least try and shelf some of the fan rage in favor of a coherent analysis. Try.

(this review contains no spoilers for neither the anime, manga nor movie... not that the latter has anything to do with the former two)

Dragonball Evolution

STORY & PACING - Honestly, I don't even know where to start. This movie is about a kid who has to fulfill some (lame) prophecy and save the world from an evil alien before the next solar eclipse. That already sounds pretty recycled and uninspired, but the worst of it all is that nothing is ever explained. Ever. Our main character Goku is a high school kid teased by his classmates for being different, but we never see how or why he's different. He just is. Why is this alien Piccolo here? Why is he hellbent on destroying the earth? How did he escape his previous imprisonment? Why is the deadline to stop him the solar eclipse? Beats me. Who is this henchwoman of his and why is she obeying him? No idea. It makes for a troublesome movie when your villains have absolutely no motivation to speak of.

And the protagonists' motivation? Goku wants revenge. Bulma wants fame. Yamcha wants money. Predictable, but it's kind of funny that those three "good guys" should have three of the most popular villain motives, and they act just as one-sided as stereotypical villains. Master Roshi and his saving the world bit seems wonderfully secondary to the others' primary motivations. Way to teach values to the kids, right? Except that there are those awful, inspirational one-liners repeated throughout the movie -- you know, the generic "believe in yourself" stuff, which might have been fine if they could deliever them convincingly, which they couldn't.

The pacing in this movie is also astonishingly bad, which makes it even more obvious just how absurdly weak the story is. I mean, I expected the movie to be bad, but I never expected it to be this bad. We jump from scene to scene with little or no transition; everything seems rushed and cobbled together. There's never a comfortable lull in the action where the viewer's allowed to gather his thoughts, so my impression is that they didn't want the viewer to stop and think too much; having time to think would make it too easy to tell that everything on screen is complete and utter trash. Because of the constant push for mindless action, I couldn't get a good sense of time. Has it been an hour or a day since the last scene? They mention early on that the solar eclipse is in x number of days, which gives a frame of reference for the film on the whole, but that still doesn't help the scene-to-scene pacing.

At times, I wasn't even sure how seriously I was supposed to be taking the movie. Some scenes could have been funny if you knew that they were just making fun of themselves, but the fact that you couldn't tell made it even more confusing. Some scenes were just so over-the-top and ridiculous that you'd think, "This has to be on purpose!" But that feeling of uncertainty remains and kills the humor completely. Some scenes reminded me of the 90's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: they were campy, but didn't seem intentionally so, and just all around reminiscent of silly, children's action shows with gimmicky fights, familiar plot devices, and hilarious costuming. The sad part is, of course, that Power Rangers was superior.

Even before you start trying to compare it to the source material, there is nothing attractive about the story in this movie. Once you start the comparisons though, the disaster becomes markedly worse. There are very, very few similarities between DBE and Dragonball. Those that are there are mostly superficial things -- characters' names, the word "Dragonball," a trademark costume, and some portions of the character designs. The story is not recognizable. If you take away those names and Goku's bright orange gi, it could be billed as something completely different and no one would be wiser. The things they included for the fans' sake were pointless, really. Yeah, everyone made a fuss when initial photos of Piccolo showed him as not being green, but really? I would have much preferred they put some more effort into making the story not a piece of shit than bother with a fancier make-up job. Bulma had a few strands of blue hair and mentioned Capsule Corp in passing. Great. How about making her less generic of a character?

I think the main problem with Dragonball Evolution's story is that Fox didn't know who to aim the movie to, so they tried for everyone at once. All the generic plots were to tempt the mainstream audience, but it was way too much and the story just started looking like every laughable B-movie ever. Halfway through, they realized they were pissing off every existing Dragonball fan on the face of the planet and tried to tease in some actual references to their source material. By then though, it was too late and the story had been twisted so far out of recognition that the forced references to things like Namek, Oozaru, and Roshi's pervertedness just seemed out of place and stupid. And thus, DBE was born! And we even get a dumb reference to the name of the film in the crappy dialogue of the movie!

CHARACTER & ACTING - My kid brother could probably write a deeper, more rounded, and more relateable characters than any that appear in this film. They single out Goku as being "different" somehow, but how is anyone supposed to relate if they don't know what makes him different in the first place? Is it because he has no parents? Because he lives in the middle of no where? Because his name is weird? (Well, Chi Chi's is too, but she's popular!) Goku is adorably eighteen, but he faces bullies in school. Seriously? Where does this grade school bullying come from? Who in high school really faces these kinds of stereotypical bullies? All he wants is to be left alone and to get the girl! Once again, I can't imagine a further departure from Dragonball's Goku, but even without that comparison, there's nothing redeeming about the movie's character.

In some half-assed, roundabout way, I suppose the movie was trying to have a "coming of age" theme. As such, Goku would need to learn to accept and believe in himself before he could save the world. Dandy. But as much as the movie tried, I remained unconvinced that he had serious self-esteem issues to begin with. He was able to stand up to his bullies fine, and his progress with Chi Chi was only a matter of time. Where's the struggle here? As soon as he realized that Chi Chi was a "fighter" also and knew what ki was, there was very little self-doubt left, which made the climax of the movie very anticlimatic.

Goku also had a few endearing, manga-like traits sneak into the movie, such as his unquestioning devotion to his grandfather ("He said he'd tell me what happened to my parents when I turned eighteen!") and silly daydreaming, but those qualities clashed so much with his otherwise modern-day, typical high school student character that I kind of wish they'd just left them out completely, especially since Justin Chatwin completely failed to capture the child-like innocence and ignorance of Toriyama's Goku. Toriyama's Goku was cute stupid. DBE's Goku is just retarded stupid.

Goku was a flat character, but the rest of the cast was worse. Bulma, Chi Chi, and Mai were all gimmicky fillers for character archetypes. The techy ally, the girlfriend, the evil henchwoman. Yamcha was a completely useless character that served absolutely no purpose beyond becoming Bulma's five minute love interest. Master Roshi got to recite a prophecy, turn a monestary into a bed n' breakfast, and train Goku to paladin level in all of a week. All of these people were (bad) plot devices more than characters. Not to mention Piccolo, who has all of a dozen lines in the entire movie, no motivation, and no purpose beyond giving Goku an obstacle to overcome (except not really). All of the acting was sub par as well, though it might have been because all of the actors were so bewildered at the monstrosity they've signed on to play that they had no idea what to do.

It also bothers me immensely that the best derogatorive name that the bullies could come up with for Goku was "Geeko." /facepalm

MUSIC - I was too shocked and offended at how terrible the story and acting both were to really pay attention to the music, but I suppose it was about average. There were no lyrical inserts in the film, and if Ayumi Hamasaki's "Rule" played in the credits somewhere, I didn't stick around to hear it. As I said all along anyway, Ayu can't save a shitty movie all by herself. (And I feel sorry for her for having her music attached to such an abomination.)

ANIMATION & EFFECTS - I've seen better effects in Disney Channel and Sci-fi original movies. I'm not kidding. The dragonballs and ki blasts were shiny, but poorly integrated into every scene that featured them. They felt out of place and exceedingly silly. More and more, you just feel like the transition from manga and anime to live action was something that should have never been attempted in the first place. Even if the story wasn't terrible and the characters weren't uninteresting, things that work in other mediums don't always work with live action. Dragonball Evolution didn't work visually either. The Kamehameha can suddenly be used to light (and douse) candles and to bring back the dead, but it wasn't much to look at.

Matrix-style slow motion for fights just looked stupid and overdramatic. Bulma's Capsule Corp. vehicles were kind of interesting, but never focused on long enough to be relevant. Piccolo still looks like he walked onto the set for the wrong movie, but decided to stick around for shits and giggles. And he had a giant, floating can opener building with no explanation. Oozaru looked like he came out of a crappy 70's werewolf movie. Shenlong was a hilariously Western-looking dragon. That's just insulting.

OVERALL - Dragonball Evolution was the worst movie I'd seen in a long, long time (arguably the worst I've ever seen, but I can't be sure since I habitually block out all memory of other shitty movies I've seen), and I'm confident that I could make that claim even if I knew nothing about Toriyama's Dragonball. Fox's first mistake was deciding that Dragonball could be adapted in live action at all. Being a weird fusion of myth, sci-fi, and campy humor was fine for a comic and a cartoon, but live action as a format destroys many of the illusions we come to accept in the previous incarnations of the franchise. Ki blasts and green aliens just don't translate well.

Still, the fact that it was doomed from the beginning doesn't excuse Fox from the terrible product that just debuted at #8 in the States. It doesn't excuse the amateur writing, the poorly developed characters, or the horrendous special effects. (I am running out of synonyms for "terrible.") I just hope that a lesson is learned in all this. Some things just weren't meant to be adapted. Dragonball was one of them.

Zac Bertschy of ANN, in all his snarky glory, probably summed it up the best: "[T]his movie appeals to nobody. It was made for no one. People who aren't familiar with the Dragon Ball story at all will be so flabbergasted by what's happening that they will likely tell everyone they know that it's one of the worst movies they've ever seen. Fans who do know what the general story is will be furious at just how unbelievably badly they screwed this entire thing up. Kids are used to better writing than this in their weekday afternoon cartoons. It's a clunky, tiresome, badly executed, horribly written pile of shame that deserves no quarter."

Now. Let's just pretend this never happened.

FUNimations Puts Everything Everywhere

2009-04-11T18:37:00.007-04:00

Apparently, FUNimation announced at Sakura-Con that they'll begin streaming some of their videos on ANN. Earlier this month, they added a bunch of stuff to Veoh. There was also the recent announcement that they'd be adding a bunch of old TOEI properties to the their own video site and that they'd be adding a bunch of shows from their rival, Viz, to their broadcasting station. And of course, they already have a YouTube channel and Hulu channel with a ton of stuff on both. Oh, and their Playstation Store is now up too, the latest of their various Download-to-Own platforms (the others being their own site, Xbox Live, iTunes, and Amazon Unbox). I might have missed some. Is it just me or is this a bit much?

On one hand, I'm always happy to see FUNimation take the initive and find new ways to get their products to their fans and their customers. On the other hand, it's starting to feel kind of disorganized. Many of the titles are available across most of the streaming sources -- YouTube, Hulu, FUNimation Video, and now ANN -- but there still seem to be a number of series that are only available in one place or another; I think the FUNi video site has the most titles, which makes sense, but then I kind of wonder why they bother with everything else? Most video sites are pretty much the same to me; Hulu might have the best quality of the aforementioned, but I find myself using the FUNi site more than anything else because I perceive it to be more beneficial to them.

But they're obviously finding all of these partnerships worthwhile if they keep on adding more. It's curious to note then, that they're still absent from the Crunchyroll chaos. For the DTO stuff, it makes sense that they should spread out as not everyone has Xbox or Playstation or iTunes or use Amazon and all of them use DRM (correct me if I'm wrong; I don't use any of them). The DRM thing is another debate entirely, but as long as people have far, far too many options for DTO products, FUNimation doesn't have much of a choice but to go where their customers go, even if they have their own site for it (also DRM'd? Not sure). Is it the same for streaming video?

Some sites work better for some people, and some sites are available to people in different countries. There are dozens of quirks that set each site apart from the others, but the question remains... why? If we can assume that the FUNimation video site works for everyone in their intended audience, why would spread everything out? (And if we can't assume that, then FUNi should obviously be working to fix that.) Is their primary goal exposure or ad revenue from people bumming around the video sites? If the concern is exposure, why not place trailer videos on the other sites, directing everyone back to their own video site? If the concern is revenue, wouldn't they make more money when they don't need to deal with a contract and a middle man? Is that why they've avoided Crunchyroll?

Me, I'm obsessive-compulsive and want everything to be orderly. That's probably the main reason it's starting to bother me that FUNimation's putting everything everywhere, but hey, if this is what's most beneficial to them, then I guess that's that. On the whole, I hope that eventually this Internet streaming thing starts to simmer down and settle into the status quo and then maybe slowly, everything will become more organized.

Still Not Sure About This Fullmetal Reboot

2009-04-10T02:52:00.002-04:00

Finally saw the first episode of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood tonight. As I've mentioned, I wasn't that eager to see it, but then my RSS feeds started getting cluttered with other bloggers posting about it and I spent the week feeling a little impatient. It's always annoying having to avoid reading things 'cause you're not up-to-date, but I guess that's something I'll just have to deal with since I'm going to be adamant about supporting FUNimation's stream on this one. I'm actually pretty disappointed that so many people seem to have downloaded fansubs anyway since I think a vast majority of anibloggers reside in countries that are getting a simulcast in one form or another. (Sorry, Europe!)

That said, I was surprised to find that I had ton of issues getting the video to work right for the stream. I'd previously seen all of Ouran Host Club and some of Mushishi on FUNi's video site and never had any issues, so I'm not sure what was up -- the video wouldn't load at all in Firefox, so after several attempts, I took it into Chrome. There, it loaded... but very slowly. Like, absurdly slowly. It kept stopping to buffer, so I decided to just let it sit to load the whole thing before playing. It took like two hours to load the whole episode. Unbelievable. I'm sure there was a lot more traffic on the site than usual today, but still... I sure hope it isn't like this every week. :|

The video quality was great once it did load though. The subtitling is consistent with the other subs FUNi offers, and that's pretty damn good, I'd say. I would have liked to see a translation to the opening and ending themes, but that's not a huge deal. It did bug me a little that they used "sneaked" instead of "snuck" twice in the episode; even though the former is actually more correct than the latter, "snuck" has become so much more common these days. Oh, well. All words are created equal, but some are more equal than others!

Anyway, on to the actual content of the episode...

Honestly, I don't know what to make of it. I mean, I still haven't read any of the manga, so I still have nothing to be purist about and can't make constant comparisons between this new series and the source material. Still, this first episode felt... very choppy. It was entirely too obvious that the whole thing was set up to introduce a multitude of characters, concepts, and plots, and even without having read the manga, it felt very fillery and forced. I'd be curious to know if someone new to the franchise would have understood any of what was happening. Ed, Al, Mustang, Hughes, Armstrong, Hawkeye, and Bradley were all introduced in this episode, with last minute appearances by Lust and Gluttony, and it was a bit overwhelming. I'm sure there could have been a much better way to kick things off.

The episode plot was exceedingly predictable, and the Isaac character wasn't very interesting at all. I did like most of the other characterizations though. The great dynamic between Ed and Al seemed much more obvious in this version -- I was really happy to see Al help out a lot more in the fights, and the brothers' relationship felt well established even before they went into that obligatory flashback. The height joke felt a little out of place though, especially in an otherwise serious episode: they just did it one too many times, I guess.

Mustang isn't nearly as big an asshole to Ed in this reindition. His presence just seems more comical all around. The same could be said of both Hughes and Armstrong, really. Sure, they're more easygoing characters to begin with, but since they had been introduced separately in the previous anime, it was more obvious from the get-go that each had a more serious side to their character. I don't doubt that all three of them will eventually get the attention they deserve, and they were certainly all quite endearing in this episode, but it was still a little disappointing to see most of the military start off so gimmicky.

It's my understanding that the original anime kept up with the manga pretty well until about halfway through the series. If that's the case and I'm to assume that the story will be pretty much the same for the first half of FMA:B, then I guess the long-term plot setup for this episode was all right? We know that Ed and Al fucked up with alchemy and lost their bodies, and we know they're looking for the Philosopher's Stone. We know that the military did some shady stuff during the Isbalan War that the brothers are unaware of. We know that there are some characters hiding in the shadows pulling puppet strings of one sort or another. That's all the basics, right? What I didn't get was an impression of how this story is going to play out. The preview for the next episode seems to be entirely flashback, so I don't know what to expect next as far as the "current" timeline goes. Hohenheim being in the opening theme seems oddly suggestive, and considering how late he appeared in the previous series, I wonder if I should expect anything different this time.

Speaking of the opening theme though: it was awesome! YUI has a great voice and the song was very eerie. The tempo and general tone of the song felt very different as far as FMA goes, but I can see it fitting wonderfully if they keep a more serious mood for the series. The animation was great as well, and it worked at getting me more excited about the episode, however brief that feeling was. And the ending theme was pretty much the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Seriously. WHY SO CUTE. The style reminded me a lot of piggyhoho's work for her Chibi SEED Town project. The song was pretty awesome for the ending as well. :3

I've only seen one or two episode of the original series in Japanese -- not nearly enough to get a decent impression of the original voice cast -- so I can't really comment on the new voices either. Mustang sounded pretty good to me though, as did the brothers, Hughes, Armstrong, and everyone else. The animation quality for the episode itself seemed to go back and forth a lot; one thing that really stood out was the lighter outline they used on Ed's hair, which didn't look that great. It makes him look too blonde, which is kind of jarring. They also added in a few thought bubbles, likely to make the series more reminiscent of the manga, but it really felt unnecessary. I want to say that the animation in the original was better, but that might be an unfair assessment based on one episode. Plus, the fact that I watched the original series off a television broadcast and not an online stream is probably significant.

Overall, I feel incredibly neutral about this series thus far. I wasn't disappointed with the episode, but it failed to impress me. Even if it does get better though, I don't think much can be done to sway me from my skepticism about what lies beyond the point at which the manga stops.

Third Look at the Art of the DOGS OAV

2009-04-07T00:23:00.002-04:00

Okay. You know, now I'm just kind of confused.

We had our first look at the art of the DOGS OAV back in December. It was questionable, particularly for Badou and Haine's designs, but I decided to be optimistic. This optimism seemed to have paid off, as the short trailer that surfaced last month looked brilliant. There actually aren't many shots of Haine in the trailer, but Badou, at least, looked terrific. (Camoflague print is still missing from jacket, but I'll live.)

Now, some character sketches seem to have surfaced, and it looks like we took three steps forward just to take ten steps back?

Now, Mihai still looks great. His facial expressions and angles are great, and his outfit is pretty spot on as well. Naoto's turnarounds look fine, and her facial studies aren't half bad either, albeit a little generic-feeling. At first glance, Haine doesn't look terrible either: I love the boots in his turnarounds, and the top row of faces on his facial studies looks pretty good. What gets me are his eyes on second row -- especially on the left-most face. Also, that guy needs more forehead, man. The more I stare at it, the more I want to get into art kid super critique mode.

And Badou. God, look at Badou's face! He doesn't even look consistent from face to face on that design sheet! What is this freaky-eyed, long-faced monstrosity?

AHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

....

All kidding aside though, it's really weird to see these sheets, honestly. I've always known character design sheets for anime to be pretty spot-on with their animated counterparts, and these just throw me for a loop because I just rewatched the footage from the trailer and Badou still looks great! What's up with this nonsense? I almost feel like we're being trolled. In the end, I guess it doesn't really matter how shitty these sheets look as the actual animation remains as awesome as it was in the trailer. I find these character sheets kind of insulting to Miwa Shirow's art in general, but it isn't like we haven't seen huge style shifts from manga to anime before. It usually turns out okay, even if it's a little different.

I'm just kind of fearful of some random cheap crap showing up in the backgrounds:

That's what I immediately thought of when I saw that Badou. Do not want.

Updated for the Century: Dragonball Kai

2009-04-06T22:44:00.005-04:00

I just finished watching the first episode of Dragonball Kai with my roommate. It was very... strange. It was nostalgic in many ways, but somehow, it also felt like a completely new experience. Dragonball Z, along with Sailor Moon, was one of the first series that really propelled me into anime on the whole. It wasn't the first anime I'd seen or the first I'd loved (those would be My Neighbor Totoro and Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh), but I'm sure that I'm not the only one to have ever-sweet memories of coming home from school every day with Toonami to look forward to. I haven't rewatched DBZ since it ended its initial run on the block years and years ago, and I never did dig up the Japanese original to take a gander at either.

In reality, it really hasn't been that many years. DBZ's original dub run ended in April 2003. Six years. That's not that long... right?

Though I've never seen the Japanese version of DBZ, I have heard its opening theme, and it really struck me just how similar in style and mood the new opening is to the original. I think it's pretty amazing that they were able to do something like that -- the nostalgia factor is definitely there, but it's still a new song set to new animation, allowing for a new experience for everyone. The music is very energetic in that sweet, innocent kind of way: fun, but not that deep. The updates in animation are mostly apparent in the increased levels of shininess all around. It's a great improvement while still maintaining all the charm of the older animation style -- at the very least, no one is going to mistake this as a new series. It's a remastering for sure.

The first episode contains a fair bit of recap and flashback since it's only DBZ that's being remastered and not Dragon Ball. It's a good refresher though, especially since the beginnings of DBZ/K involve so many of the minor characters that don't really make it to the second half of the series. Hearing the original voice cast for the first time was kind of shocking, honestly. Bardock sounds like his balls never dropped, and Goku is similarly afflicted (among other reasons, perhaps this is why everyone is so shocked to find out that Goku has a kid? :P). For the former, that's just hilarious; for the latter, it's humorously appropriate. Of course, both characters are voiced by women (the same one, in fact), and women voicing men in anime isn't exactly a new or strange phenomenon, but considering how manly both characters are supposed to be, it's kind of jarring?

Everyone else sounds pretty awesome though. Bulma doesn't sound nearly as annoying in Japanese, and Gohan is actually kind of cute? (All of Toriyama's silly name puns are also five times more obvious now, haha.) I am kind of excited to know that there will be no dealing with Cartoon Network's censors this time around, so Roshi is free to be as perverted as he wants! The episode goes on to introduce both Raditz and Piccolo. Raditz feels so much more badass here -- his voice is much, much more manlier than his father and brother's, anyway. Meanwhile, Piccolo has been deemed weak and useless already, and I can already imagine the Internet's resounding cheers when we finally get to the "over 9000" part.

I don't remember how the first couple of episodes of the original DBZ went exactly, but the tempo of the series does feel much quicker. They'll be shrinking a 291-episode series into ~100 episodes; even with all the filler axed out, this is going to be some amazing compression job. Nothing in this first episode felt rushed though; on the contrary, it was a pretty relaxing and well-paced episode.

Overall, it was a pretty good time. I'm still kind of surprised at DBK's existence though. It's one thing to just remaster it digitally, but this is really more like an super upgrade than any simple remastering job though. DBK is renamed and re-airing in a different aspect ratio; it's in HD. The series itself is being re-cut to better fit Toriyama's manga, and it's getting new opening and end themes to boot. Compare that to a simple renewed edition like the Blu-ray of Akira or a freaky remake like whatever's happening to Fullmetal Alchemist (haven't watch it yet; holding out for FUNimation's official stream). I find it pretty interesting, too, that DBK feature's DBZ's original voice cast, but FMA doesn't. This is going to be a pretty fun run, but I'm glad DBZ/K is getting the treatment it's getting. I owe this series a lot, after all. I wonder if there's any US-made cartoon that's revered as much to even think about getting something like this.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to sitting down every week with my roommate to watch this, especially considering we first met seven or eight years ago, on the Internet, on a DBZ forum. ;D Oh, the memories!

FMA: Brotherhood to be Simulcast

2009-04-03T03:15:00.005-04:00

I probably shouldn't be as surprised as I am considering how much amazing progress this digital streaming and simulcast thing has seen in the last few months alone, but I am seriously applauding FUNimation for this move. Four days lag time between the Japanese broadcast and an official English sub (presumably) isn't quite simultaneous, but it's good enough for me. That's about how long I generally waited to watch my weekly Soul Eater anyway, so it's great to see FUNi stepping up like this and beating the fansubbers to the chase since they do already have the series licensed.

I'm really curious to see how many fansub groups this official stream deters. Since the stream is only available for those in the US and France, there will likely still be foreign language sub efforts. It's probably presumptious of me, but I feel at least a little confident in guessing that a significant portion of fansubbers and leechers reside in the US. I don't usually keep up with these things, so I'm not sure if any major fansub groups have already announced FMA:Brotherhood as a project, but if there have been, I wonder if any will drop it out right following this announcement.

Dattebayo dropping Naruto when Viz started its simulcast was a big deal. It's exciting to see FUNimation starting to do something similar with a new series -- especially FMA, which is already wildly popular in the States.

As for this series... I'm still kind of pessimistic about it; its very existence right now annoys me. Even though I'm a little relieved that it isn't a sequel after all, the fact that it's a remake doesn't help that much either. The bottom line I have to repeat is that the manga still isn't finished; why are you remaking the series now? If you're going to remake a series so it's more faithful to its source, why don't you wait until the source is actually complete so you aren't inevitably forced to start making stuff up like you did the first time? What's going to change in this remake? Seriously, what's going to change?

Haha, honestly, I think I'm now more excited about FUNimation's stream of the series than the series itself. There's been a lot of experimentating with the digital streaming, and it's been confusing because most companies will have a site stream in addition to a YouTube and Hulu channel. I actually really like FUNi's video site though, so I definitely look forward to having a completely legitmate way of watching this series as it airs. I almost wish FUNi had more ads on its video site -- I do want to support them, and if I can do it without actually buying anything (hey, we're all struggling, y'know?), then all the better. These are still experiments -- they are undoubtedly still messing around and seeing what works -- but I want them to succeed.