Now here's what happens when I am bored. I watch anime. Then I have always wanted to write little blurb reviews about the series and my thoughts in question. All of these are found on my Facebook- and since I do know a few people that might get a kick out of reviewer mode- and more importantly are not friends via FB. . . I thought that they should see what happens when I "take a break" from story writing. (Note: I won't fill this post with pictures to appease the people who like not reading a wall of text. Not everything can be pictures and short descriptions. These were originally FB posts. I never put pics on my FB. Unless I am feeling really bored.)
And I plan to finish this large list of series (possibly another blog post for said list.) by 2015 thereabouts- or 2016 and beyond with how new series are jumping onto my list like hotcakes.
The first contender was Paprika!
Thoughts on Paprika! Or a short description of what anime stuff I've finished off my LIST!!!!!
So I made this little list of mine and I've always heard from the anime message boards that Satoshi Kon (before his untimely death) was actually a good anime movie director. And so I plan to watch all his movies like how I want to watch all of Miyazaki's works. So I just watched Paprika! and it was. . .different to say the least. I mean- I liked it but sometimes- Japan you can be one crazy place. I never thought I would see Inception in an anime form. I think Christopher Nolan really liked it cause the thing was like Inception on acid. Or something. I dunno how to describe it but. . .maybe I might watch something less mental. To all those anime fans out there this might be the trippiest movie I've seen in a while. Like some next level stuff. Now I'm nervicited for Satoshi Kon's other works. Pokemon Origins is next. I need to cool my jets with normal stuff.
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That was just a week ago. I would have given a more detailed review and- as you see later in my anime posts- an actual score out of ten to give people reasons to either go watch the new experience or go away. The next post is a reply to a FB friend that told me to watch Ghost in the Shell. I rewatched it. And still liked it. I have issues with this review because of awful Facebook comment auto formatting awfulness.
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Finally finished the movie- I mean I had already seen it but that was a few months ago so if I had even attempted to explain what I enjoyed about it; it would be just a quick thought and I would have got it mostly wrong. Would have finished this sooner if my internet wasn't having problems because of the weather when I was originally attempting to watch it. So I did like the soundtrack (for what their was in the movie) and the animation was actually really good for a film that is nearly as old as I am. (I know they released an updated version- 2.0 in 2008 which uses better graphics but is just the original spruced up so I personally don't care for it. Though I do understand why they did update the graphics/ sound.) It terms of the original though- I like the movie. I mainly got into the film a few months back because people said that it "influenced" The Matrix Trilogy and I can see hints of it. But the whole setting is different- in Ghost it is the real world while in the Matrix, it is a created world because of the machines. Personally I enjoyed the first 8 and a half minutes the most because opening credit sequence is just pretty and the repeated musical "theme" I just like. I also like the rest of the movie- but the first minutes just always stand out. Now I could say that the increased computerization of the 90's could have influnced the general technology where the characters just "jack in" to the computer systems and the Puppetmaster is just Skynet given a body. (Though I would be remiss if I didn't see that his use of humans that had cybernetics and wiping them just creating a "shell" of themselves and using them as pawns because he couldn't get into the real world, was reminiscent of Agent Smith and how he multiplied in the Matrix.) And surprisingly enough I had a small hint of Paprika! with how in a scene a wiped human was having issues distinguishing between reality and an implanted lie. Now of course it was less insane than said movie. . . And the whole thought of cyborgs don't have rights and the whole elevator scene where the Major discussed if she was truly human is a really good scene because of the second half when the Puppetmaster goes on his "What is a human but a program of DNA." And the whole idea that because of the increased cybernetics that the Section that they work for in the government owns their bodies. And while the bible quote kinda came off weird, I can see what they were going for at the end. The end was a little fast for my taste (though understandable since the manga was unfinished at the time the movie was realeased in Japan.) TL;DR: Seen it before really good movie. It had a slow start but it was pretty decent over all storywise. Doesn't always stand up in it's graphics (see the use of green in the brain scans and just it bothered me for some reason. but for a mid nineties film, it does still hold up. Rating 8.5/10. Or about as high as I can safely rate something without seeming biased. This a good "review" for you?
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While long winded and winding it did get to a point- the point that I liked the movie enough to watch again. And finalized any review I would do later.
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In between this and the next serious post- I did watch Pokemon Origins and I liked it a lot that so I didn't touch it, Didn't rate it and just enjoyed it. (Looking back- I would rate it a 7.7/10, good- not fantastic. Nice for the fans of the series. Except they touched some parts of the story and quickly finished other parts quickly. But a 4 episode series can only do so much. Better than a series that continually does the same things over and over.
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Probably gonna watch Trigun very soon. Very quick thoughts over both Cowboy Bebop and Colorful. Bebop- amazing soundtrack, good characters, anime version of Firefly that ended with a full run. What I didn't like- the ending was just okay. Sorry- my opinion- but it was no episode 5. I loved episode 5 "maybe it was just the backing vocals" cause In the Rain was fantastic. Oh and my absolute favorite character walks off to somewhere at the end of episode 24. I am miffed that Ed was just gone. She was my favorite one of the crew. Still a 9/10 from me. Even though there were certain episodes that just screamed filler. (Episodes 4 and 12 hit me the hardest on this front) Thankfully they were mainly in the first half. The characters were good, the music was killer, the plot was decent. Besides the episodes that were leaning more towards, there were no real "recap" episodes.
Now Colorful- It was actually pretty good. Slow start and at times I wanted to wreck the main character for being an absolute tool to his family. And we have yet another anime series/ movie that revolves around the Japanese school system and the pressure to get into a good school. It really seems as if, in Japan, that once you graduate high school you die. Oh and the entire premise was "kid commits suicide, soul goes into body and tries to fix the kid's life and figure out what caused him to do it." Yeah that was a dark premise for what we got and at times I was just like. . .okay so this movie is trying to make a point but what's with the title? Comes back in the end to wrap it up nicely. (I was golf clapping for the ending. . . what? I finished it at like 12:30. Give me a bone here.) Rating- 7.5/10. Probably wouldn't watch again. At least it looked nice. So ehh?
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I thought that would be the worst rated anime thing I would rate. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I watched an anime series a few days later that I hated quite a bit more. But I watched Summer Wars first.
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Watched Summer Wars. Now I actually remember watching Digimon the Movie when it came out in 2000 or so. Which now I'm starting to feel old. I mean I know that I'm gonna be 20 in nine days but wow where does the time go?
Ahem. Onto the review. Before I got all nostalgic I was saying that this movie has a very similar idea to Digimon the Movie. Now that is a definite connection because the director of SW has worked on Digimon the Movie (the section in question- America wise- is the middle of the Digimon movie that was released theatrically in 2000. . .which of course was an amalgamation of THREE separate movies that are barely connected to one another and just strung together in the American release- though my distaste for movies like that is just personal preference.
So with that in mind- the middle of the Digimon movie is very similar to Summer Wars. Of course the overall beauty of SW is better than Digimon the movie but that may be more to the fact that different studios animated the two films and that ten years had passed between Digimovie and Summer Wars. Yet through quick searches- people have commented how very similar the plots are. And compared screencaps nearly shot for shot. So does that mean that he was a lazy director? Maybe- though I am more of the camp that maybe he just had more to say- just without Digimon- and I can't blame him. Sometimes DtM seemed lackluster at points and I do enjoy the Matrix- so I'm always up for technology animes and movies. Heck I love giant robot shows which are pretty much giant computers that walk around and fight stuff.
Major differences are also that in Summer Wars- while the characters look similar to Digimon- they are actually avatars carefully chosen by the player. Also the world is different- Summer Wars is much more interconnected in scope. Since the creation of "Oz"- the Facebook/Twitter/Workspace/Marketplace/ etc. of their world everybody has an avatar. And because of their interconnected lifestyle with computers and such, the hijacking of an avatar actually gives hackers real world power. But Oz is supposed to be 100% secure because of the difficulty of breaking into the controls. So that totally happens because an AI breaks in.
Of course there is a reason, but I would feel awful if I gave that away.
So characters. I can see why people could complain about character development in this. I mean the movie has probably 40 characters (ish) and nearly 95% of them are related. And besides the main male character who is amazingly good at math, the love interest who drags him to her family reunion, and her grandma- there wasn't much in character development. Sure there is a black sheep of the family and a younger boy who is well known in Oz. . .but in terms of character staying power- I don't rate it highly.
And yet it isn't about 40 characters in a way. You could condense the other characters into one "character". The familial unit. And this is where it shined. The story is both about the rogue AI that wants to destroy the world because it deems it as fun and the family who is surprisingly well known throughout the world. And both plots combine together in the end because of how large the family is. And in the end, the movie is about the sheer insanity of family- from the multiple aunts, the uncles, the children. the black sheep, and the boyfriends and girlfriends that try to get in on the action.
Lesson? That even though you may dislike your family- because of reasons- they are still your family and should not be given up on. Now of course, in reality, the moral could be bent or broken depending on situation but it still stands.
Overall rating- Because of the better presentation than Digimon the Movie, (and without that weird beginning that plagued them because of Fox Kids' stupidity.), the weird card game that I have no idea how to play because it is Japanese and sounds completely bonkers, and the stupid name of the AI- I would give Summer Wars a 8.2/10. And I would totally watch again.
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Then I got hit by the anime. The anime of a Fire Emblem series- which if done well would have brought the entire franchise to the U.S. almost six years earlier than the Smash Bros series did. It didn't? I wonder the heck why. . . oh yeah- production abruptly ended so only two episodes were EVER made. (But my fanatic appreciation and knowledge over Fire Emblem is something for another day.
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Finished the Fire Emblem anime. Now you might think that it wouldn't take me less than an hour to finish it. In this case you would be dead wrong.
Because it is only 2 episodes.
Clap, clap, clap. Now there are some issues with it besides it being two episodes and ending when they reached their objective. With nothing completed and finished. It ended right when it was going to start getting good. The last line killed me with how it set up another episode. . .and it ended- without resolution and where the party of characters got mostly collected. The reasoning I found was that, for some unknown reason, the people that were making the show just stopped production. And that is just sad because if it was completed it would have actually been decent and I would have enjoyed it immensely. Without this, it just is a cool thing that fans of the Fire Emblem series would appreciate.
The only things that got me was that since this was released to no recognition in 1997 on VHS!- to no acclaim, and it was the first Fire Emblem related product in America- five-six years before an actual full game of Fire Emblem- that there was no official translation of Prince Marth's name. So they named him Mars Lowell- which goes against the games since he never had a last name.
Oh and Spike Spencer voiced him. So there was a moment where I had to stop the episode for a moment and check. Yeah- the guy who voices Shinji Ikari in Neon Genesis Evangelion voiced Marth in the English dub of this series.
Now I could go on and on, about how the original six games, before 2003's Fire Emblem (FE7) was released in America, that the fantastic series was just not exported. And without the inclusion of Marth in the Smash Bros series- that it probably never would have been released.
No Fire Emblem 7, Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Awakening, none of those would have made it (and Fire Emblem might have died out as a series without Western gamers.)
I really wished it was a completed series (for even though it was made in 1996- the animation holds up - even though for such a game that includes war and death as giant plot points and takes it to a continental scale with lives hanging in the balance- there was surprisingly almost no blood. (I could count the drops of blood on one hand.) Small nitpick- but a noticeable one.
And sadly this was a anime that follows the third game (which along with the games 2,4,5, and 6. . .have never actually been released outside of Japan. The remake of the original game did- then the remake of the third stayed in Japan. So yay?
Sad because Marth is my favorite swordman in Super Smash Brothers.
Rating of the unfinished anime is a 6.5/10- not because it was bad per se (because I always had this kind of vision for how a Fire Emblem game would look (for 10 years- sadly I lost my attempt at a fanfic of FE7 that I started writing when I was eight, maybe Awakening will get me write something in this fandom. . . ) if you were actually a part of it. And it looked similar to that.) but because, outside of actual fans who know what's going on, the anime's appeal is very low. And even then it gets your hopes up for more and doesn't deliver- if I love the endings of series. They can save a series. This had no enjoyable ending, with how it just ended. — feeling meh.
So now besides the blogs on Space Dandy that I'll put up later tonight, and a blog over Attack on Titan that I need to write cause I just finished it. You are going to see more pictures in those blogs and more blogs. New stuff is now coming. (mainly cause they'll be over one show so choosing at least one pic won't be difficult.) So if blogs just start appearing regularly. That's why.
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