|
Post by UncleJager on May 14, 2008 20:24:07 GMT -5
Gungrave Based on the cult hit PS game of the same name Gungrave is a very highly rated series on Imbd and Netflix. I, however found it painfully slow and unsatisfying. Created by Yasuhiro Nightow who is also associated with Trigun, Gungrave shamelessly stole plot development style, story telling and musical themes from both Trigun and Cowboy Bebop. To this is added the fact that all three series share several voice actors and the seemingly random existence of the walking beasts from Trigun in Gungrave as racing beasts (yet the rest of the world is all terrestrial). Gungrave blatantly uses the same monotone voice over of Trigun to tell inner thoughts and get the story moving, especially during the end of episode previews. The soundtrack is a mix of the acoustic guitar arrangements from Trigun and the sad saxophone from Bebop. The theme from the two parter Jupiter Blues is especially recognizable. Most of the story focuses on how Grave became who he is now/in the games and takes place from Grave/Brandon's mid-teens to his mid twenties. This part of the story is marred by one of my pet peeves when characters keep calling others by their full name, or first their first name which is immediately followed by their full name (usually shouted). Added to this is the large number of ridiculous names, my favorite being Big-Daddy. And U guessed it, he is the head of the mob, and yes they call him Big Daddy the entire series. Grave's full name is Beyond the Grave and his old name is Brandon Heat, their is also a chronic eater who's last name is Poundmax. Yeah pretty bad... Even the gunplay is stale with the usual leaping through the air and two gunning in both Jesus pose and with arms crossed. The series tires to paint a sad picture of betrayal and greed as well as later on grief for lovers lost but none come through in the least leaving the viewer feeling like they are watching from the outside never getting engulfed in the story. Unless u really like the games and wonder how things got the way they did skip the anime.
|
|
|
Post by UncleJager on May 19, 2008 9:44:48 GMT -5
Paprika directed by Satoshi Kon, who also brought us Paranoia Agent, Perfect Blue and Millenium actress. Paprika is a tale is dream manipulation and draws a lot on the feel of both Paranoia Agent and Perfect blue and of course also pays homage to Ghost In the Shell . The less I explain the plot the better, cause I don't know how not to reaveal vital information and still explain the plot. Lets just say it's another tale asking "what is reality". In some ways, I feel, Paprika draws a little too much from Paranoia Agent, there are a lot of the same character architypes and some scenes are very reminicant of each other, not to mention the very similar endings. However, Paprika still has a lot to offer and was quite enjoyable, if not mind blowingly good. I know Blockbuster around here carries it, so go out end rent it.
|
|
|
Post by UncleJager on Jun 7, 2008 16:37:35 GMT -5
Le Portrait de Petite Cossette Something that looked better in trailers than in actuality. It is a story of a quite artistic kid who falls in love with a girl who's soul is trapped in a crystal glass. She ensnares him into taking in the soul of her killer that need to be avenged upon so that she may go free. Apperantly during her murder her 'precious objects" aka, some crystal glasses and a grandfather clock, took upon themselves avenging spirits when witnessing Cossette's murder. After taking on the murderer's spirit the boy's heart is ripped out in painful illusions from his body equal to the number of objects. Sounds somewhat interesting. The presentation however ruins it, the entire thing plays out like a 2 hour J-rock Lolita video with sideways/upside down shots all over the place, super fast edits and disconnected images of eyes and mouthes. Leaving the story without much of a center and at least me totally confused on who is who and what they are doing. The animation would be a lolita/dolphie enthusiasts heaven, all the women end up looking like dolphies, especially their sparkling dead eyes, and Cossette spend the entire film in giant frilly hoop-skirts and outfits covered in fringe barf.
|
|
|
Post by UncleJager on Jun 19, 2008 17:33:32 GMT -5
Trinity Blood An interesting series but not my fave. Towards the end I wanted to know what was going to happen but my overall experiance was not as intimate as with some other shows. The ending was a little unexpected, I was thinking it was going to end with the usual epic battle, I'm not saying I was not pleased with the ending but there was still that moment of "WTF!" Like many other series I wish the makers had more time to develop the story, the whole origin of the Crusnicks was a bit hurried. But I guess that's what the manga is for.
|
|
|
Post by Sucosa on Jun 20, 2008 7:32:02 GMT -5
I really liked Trinity Blood- really did seem rushed there in the end. I think they were leaving things open for a second season but just didn't happen in this case.
xxxHolic- If you read the manga, the show is only the manga animated. I thought it was pretty cute- Although some of the dubbing doesn't sound quite right to me- like the voices don't match the characters a bit.
|
|
|
Post by UncleJager on Jun 22, 2008 23:39:13 GMT -5
I forgot this in my original post about Trinity Blood. Early on in the series in the episode where Abel meets Ester, he travels to the border country of Istvan which is acctually Hungary, Istvan is Hungarian for Ivan, it's also an old worldly tital of nobility of some level. That's not the point. As Abel is traveling through the capital city I noticed that several key landmarks where actually correctly recreated from the real capital BudaPest. Not that it's really relavent here but Budapest used to be two seperate cities of Buda and Pest that were on opposite sides of the Danue. I was quite amazed that designers from Japan actually took the time to recreate actual city element from a city that is so much less world famous than most of the other cities featured in the show, Interestingly enough outside of Londinium and parts of Venice and Rome, Budapest was the most faithfull receated. I caught glimpses of Buda Castle, The Parlament building, Fishermen's Bastian and the home of the ruling Count resembled that of the Esterhazi mansion but that is neither in Budapest nor wholely Hungarian Though landmarks were recreated in detail the more ordinary parts of the city were of a generic 'euro-german' architecture. Geting back to the count it makes sense that his name is of a Romanian family, since that is where mythological vampires originate but the cultural and political impliications of the fact that a Romanian is the ruler of what ascentialy is Hungary is far more interesting and perhapse far more complex than the creators of the series may have known. Hungarians are...let's just say not the best of friends with Romania as a whole. Mostly steming from the fact that much of what was once Hungaria was carved up and given to Romania and to a lesser extent the sourounding Slavic nations. Unfortunatly alot of these regions contained alot of Hungaries natural resources. The worst part is that the area today known as Transilvania was part of Hungary for a long period of time and may have never been part of Romaina, however Romanians claim that it has always been theirs and we had only stolen it from them. Eventhough their is a much larger Hungarian ethnic population there than there was Romainan. Before I get too deep into this attested cultural issue let me just sum up in saying that the Romainian athorities tried to squash any remenance of Hungarian ethnicity in the region after they gained it. And made a region that was once rich and prosperous (probably more so than any other region in Romania), poor and desolate by shiping all resources out of the region and trying to squash the people who were already there so that they could not make a living, and infact where driven to a state lower than those of the other regions of Romania. So you can see that implication that a potention person of Romanian descent is now the rular of a fictional Hungary is kinda a hot botton subject.
|
|
|
Post by T. Miller on Jul 5, 2008 19:23:49 GMT -5
So you can see that implication that a potention person of Romanian descent is now the rular of a fictional Hungary is kinda a hot botton subject. That's pretty rough there, Jager....
|
|
|
Post by UncleJager on Jul 7, 2008 10:14:29 GMT -5
So you can see that implication that a potention person of Romanian descent is now the rular of a fictional Hungary is kinda a hot botton subject. That's pretty rough there, Jager.... It's true! A lot of Hungarians get fired up about the whole Romania sittuation. But, I don't think the people making Trinity Blood knew that.
|
|
|
Post by UncleJager on Jul 8, 2008 15:32:39 GMT -5
Boogiepop Phantom Much like Serial Experiment Lain or Perfect Blue/Paranoia Agent, this series deals with what is real. Much like Lain it focuses on troubled High School students, but has almost no enthasis on the internet. I was very impressed with the sound design of this show, but English and japanase audio tracks and deep, layered with sound, and the dialogue is ment to add to the confusion of the characters. As you all know I am not a fan of electronic music but this series does a very good job using snippets of electronica, static and distortion to deepen the plot and highten the senses. There is also and interesting but much more suttle trick in the visuals, as the series starts the footage is very muted and visibly grainy and their is a darkness blocking out the edges of the screen. It gives u a distant, tunnel vision feel, but as more and more is revealed the world become brighter and by the end the tunnel is gone. But you will hardly notice it, it's so suttle and slow. I do not want to give away too much of the plot because it is very complex and needs to be experianced with the sound and visuals. Basicly.. there is a misterious beem of light that somehow leads to strange developments in humans and what appear to be murders. This light is also said to be the sign of Boogiepop the angel of death. The series is made up of what appear to be random snipets of the lives of these students, that occure in no significant sequential order. This is somewhat confusing at first and you may he trouble keeping up with what is what and who is who. This is also partialy because the manga from which this anime is adopted has a much larger side story that is only partialy refered to here. Also in the last two episodes a lot is revealed and explained. Though the end is sudden and many things are left untied the ending does not feel as rushed, but more like a snippet in a larger story that is the manga. I recommend that after watching the anime read the production and character notes, to help explain some loose ends. Having scene the series now i'm very interested to read the manga because the suplot sound really nice.
|
|
|
Post by UncleJager on Jul 12, 2008 21:42:25 GMT -5
Azumanga Daioh is about a group of high school girls. The story follows them through the 3 years of high school. The story lines are quite simplistic but chuck full of randomness and waky animation and characters. Reading on wikipedia I learned that Azumanga hollows a style of manga which is only usually only one vertical row long, thus the anime series is full of numerous short stories that are tied together into episodes and longer story lines. You have all seen parts of this show in many AMVs, but to really understand the show you got to watch the episodes. Though I watched this series online cause I just couldn't justify renting it it was still loads of fun and a good way to spend time at work when I was not busy. Much like many other series there are entertainment downfalls in this series as well but there are always little gems to keep you watching. I think there was maybe two or three episodes all together that were not entertaining. A good silly series.
|
|
|
Post by Sucosa on Aug 17, 2008 16:09:28 GMT -5
That's pretty rough there, Jager.... It's true! A lot of Hungarians get fired up about the whole Romania sittuation. But, I don't think the people making Trinity Blood knew that. I didn't know that either. Good to know though:)
|
|
|
Post by Sucosa on Aug 17, 2008 16:18:15 GMT -5
xxxHolic- the anime series, I wasn't horribly impressed with the animation or the dubbing (Yes, forgive me - I watched it in english) but it does follow the manga pretty closely. For those of you who don't know much about xxxHolic here is a synapsis (courtsey of Wilkapedia!) :
Kimihiro Watanuki is a high school student plagued by yōkai, spirits with a strong attraction to him. The spirits are invisible to others and encounters with them are extremely troublesome. When he stumbles into a shop that grants wishes, however, events in his life promise to become more unusual.
The shop is owned by Yūko Ichihara, a mysterious and beautiful witch of many names and esoteric renown. For a price, she offers to grant Watanuki's wish to be rid of the spirits. The price, according to Yūko, must be of equal value and so, as payment, he temporarily becomes Yūko's part-time employee.
Watanuki's job consists of small errands dealing with the supernatural and household chores. His love interest, Himawari Kunogi, and "rival," Shizuka Dōmeki, occasionally join him in his work as per Yūko's request. The three become increasingly close despite Watanuki's annoyances with Dōmeki.
|
|