Good Music, Good Times

Oh, man. So being the super nostalgic loser that I am, I totally spazzed when my brother shared this amazing find with me. I love oldschool Sonic like whoa. All those hours I put on the Sega Genesis? Probably 75% of it was for Sonic. I've never really known about this apparently awesome music arrangement community, but it really makes me feel good to know that there are people out there that still remember these old tunes and are actively remixing them and re-arranging them for the times.


The site, Overclocked Remixes, among other video game titles like Super Metroid and Chrono Trigger, features three Sonic-centric remix albums. They are albums for music from Sonic 3 & Knuckles (best game ever), Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and... an entire 18-track project album dedicated to the music from the Ice Cap Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, lol. All the tracks also stream for free on last.fm. It's all very awesome.

A ton of really talented people have contributed to these albums, and I really love the variety, especially on the S3&K album. My favorite tracks right now, I think, are "Dead Batteries," which is remixed from the Flying Battery Zone, and "Scrambled Eggman," which is remixed from the boss music. Some of these remix titles are really hilarious too, lol, like "Caution: Echidnas May Eat Your Brain" for Knuckles' theme, since he was a bad guy for much of the game. :P Really freakin' love this remix for Lava Reef Zone too ("Lava Passion"), though there's a slightly more awesome remix of it by someone else that wasn't included on the project.

The sheer number of tracks on the ReCapitated Ice Cap Zone remix album is really impressive. The music for the zone is nice, certainly, but I personally never liked it as much as Lava Reef or even Hydrocity. Still, I might change my mind after I make it through all eighteen tracks!

I'd really love to see similar remix projects for Sonic CD and Sonic 3D Blast. The former was a really underappreciated game in my opinion, since not very many people bothered with the Sega CD platform and the PC version wasn't nearly as awesome. It had great music all around; after all, it was where the "Sonic Boom" theme debuted. And really, as far as the Japanese/American soundtracks go (they are completely different), I prefer the American version. The main reason is because of the boss music. Sorry, guys. Sonic CD's boss music was just 100% better in our release. ;3 Sonic 3D Blast wasn't really nearly as a great a game, but it still had some pretty awesome music (more awesome boss music!). Besides, all its isometric goodness was a first forray into the 3D realm, and I still remember the commercials on TV raving about that, haha. There's no official project for either game, but individual tracks can be found on the site. Check them out~! Read the rest of this entry...

Marvel in Japan. Again.

I can't help but laugh a little (and maybe cringe a little too) at the idea that Marvel is teaming up with Madhouse to create an Iron Man anime. Or, it seems that Iron Man might be sharing the the same anime as Wolverine? There will apparently be four series in total, but other characters involved have yet to be announced. It all seems rather jumbled to me right now, though whatever it is, the first series is due out in 2010, following/coinciding with the releases of the Wolverine movie and the Iron Man sequel.

Madhouse apparently has the creative license to "re-imagine" whatever the heck they want using Marvel's properties. This phrasing does not bode well with me. ...Has anyone seen the Spidey live action show Japan created? I've seen an episode. It is the most hilarious crack ever and is definitely one of those things that makes you go, "OH, JAPAN! OH, YOU! ...WHY?!" It makes you wanna laugh and cry simultaneously. It's so very stereotypical of Japan to "re-imagine" Spidey in a parallel universe where he not only has special, radioactive spider powers, but he pilots a giant robot! Yes! That is totally what Japan is all about. Giant robots. With everything. (Because everyone knows that mecha makes everything better.) In a similar vein... has anyone seen the Japanese Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "re-imagining"? Japanese Spider-Man was more laughing than crying. Japanese TMNT was more crying than laughing.

I'm not as big a fan of Iron Man and Wolverine as I am of Spidey and the Turtles, but I sure hope they get treated better. I do have some confidence in the Marvel/Madhouse team though. After all, the Spidey and TMNT adaptations are years old now and the industry has changed a lot since then. I don't think Batman: Gotham Knight really counts as an example since they weren't "re-imagining" it and it had a specific story role to fill between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, but it still shows that more recent partnerships between US and Japanese companies have been more successful. I haven't actually seen Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z, but honestly, I think PPG was rather suited for the magical girl nonsense.

What I'm really curious about though, is whether or not the Japanese audience really wants American properties to be "re-imagined" for their sake. Case in point: American fans are generally pretty damn livid when companies do any editing on existing shows. 4Kids has a place down in the deepest level hell with along with Judas and Brutus in the eyes of most overseas fans, and even FUNimation, back in the hay day of DBZ, was not immune from rampant criticism. Can you imagine what would happen if an American company tried to "re-imagine" a Japanese property? If Viacom tried to remake Akira with "American cultural references"? There would be rioting in the streets.

Sure, American moviemakers have developed a gradual interest in making live action adaptations of Japanese works -- Akira, Evangelion, Battle Angel, and so on, but for the most part, the people involved have said that they will try to stay as true to the source material as possible. They aren't re-imagining much, if anything at all. Overseas fans don't want their Japanese cartoons and comics filtered through a cultural lens. They are perfectly willing and able to digest foreign culture. They want to. They're sick of their own culture; that's why they gravitated to Japan in the first place.

So why is Japan different? They love US movies, which usually release in theatres subtitled. I'm not sure how big the audience is for US and other foreign comics, but we know that Japan loves Disney. And Harry Potter. So do superheros really need to be adapted for them? Did Spider-Man really need to become a mecha pilot for Japanese kids to be able to identify with them? (That's a... really, really hilarious thought.) For Iron Man, I imagine his suit streamlined like whoa. It will be sleek and beautiful and have a billion new functions and be oh so very Japanesey. And Tony Stark will be flaming bishounen. But other than that, what would be changed? Billionaires and self-absorbed assholes exist in Japan too. And Wolverine? He should fit right in. He's a mutant. Japan freakin' loves mutants and monsters and aliens and that junk.

It is puzzling to me. But oh well. I guess we'll find out in two years. If anything, I'm sure it'll be a darn pretty anime if Madhouse is doing it. And Stan Lee's other Japanese projects should be interesting too. Read the rest of this entry...

Review: Oresama

Recently, I've been listening to a lot of 雅 -miyavi-. This led me to suddenly realize that I haven't seen Oresama, which I found kind of strange until I went hunting for the movie. Subbed versions of this movie are, apparently, near impossible to find. There is no official subbed DVD version either, so I couldn't even go and buy the damn thing. Subs on both YouTube and Veoh, in addition to be of poor quality, are all incomplete. (I found an amateur subbed version where seriously, half the subs read "I have no idea what he's saying here.") I could find subs in French and freakin' Malaysian though. I shit you not. I could find Malaysian subs, but not English subs. Poor miyavi. He's apparently not popular enough around here to get a finished sub. What gets me the most is the fact that this film's only about an hour long. Come on. How hard could it be?

(this review contains no spoilers; honestly, there's not much to spoil)

After about an hour of rampaging around the Internet and finding nothing, I decided to watch it raw. A weeaboo's knowledge of the language gained from a decade or two of watching anime, however advanced, doesn't get one very far, sadly. I could pick out greetings, some numbers, some exclamations, some questions and answers, but little more than that. Nevertheless...

Oresama

STORY & PACING - Oresama is kind of a strange story. It's a semi-autobiography in which miyavi plays himself as he magically travels back in time to inspire some kids to play rock and punk and to meet himself as a kid, when he was an aspiring soccer player. It was kind of difficult for me to pinpoint without understanding everything that was being said, but it seemed like the purpose of the journey was to bring miyavi back down to earth a little. That idea would fit with the title of the movie, as "oresama" is the most arrogant Japanese first-person pronoun. (Black Star from SOUL EATER always refers to himself as "oresama.")

Honestly, I wasn't impressed with the storytelling at all. The time travel bit was conveniently glossed over with no explanation -- I suppose it's an unimportant detail considering the short, one hour runtime, but it still bugged me. I would have liked it better if it had been a dream; the same issues could have been addressed, and we wouldn't have had to deal with horrible, corny, flashy-light effects. There were also some really cheap situations that were just far too convenient, such as the speed at which he gained the trust of his sudden roommate. Those things aside, the scenes often felt choppy and uncoordinated. It was difficult to tell how much time had passed between scene to scene even when miyavi promised to be in certain places "tomorrow" -- night and day did not seem to follow one after the other. It was kind of like slice of life. Except. Not.

Like I said, the central theme and point of the movie was difficult for me to pick out because I didn't understand a majority of the things being said, but I also think some of the lack of clarity came from the vagueness of the visual storytelling. It was hard to decipher miyavi's emotions in many of the scenes involving other characters, particularly with his sudden roommate and the band. I got that he was inspiring them, but that said more about the other characters than miyavi himself, which kind of leads to the next point.

CHARACTER & ACTING - Considering the name of the movie, the only character really worth talking about is, of course, miyavi. As he plays himself, I find it hard to judge his merits as an actor, especially since he has such an energetic and spastic public personality already. Still, the miyavi in Oresama shows a lot more of the man's "serious" and introspective side. The beginning of the movie depicts him as arrogant: he is comfortable in his fame, sticks his feet up on tables, and makes fun of other people's fashion. Suddenly in the past, as he quickly realizes that his fame is nil and his personal fashion questionable, he humbles himself a little. This is particularly evident when his roommate's conservative-seeming girl/friend comes to visit, and miyavi is incredibly awkward. Regardless of that though, his passion for music remains, and he is not afraid to show that, to demonstrate his brand of punk and rock.

It's a shift, sure, but I felt it was too easy, too reasonable and too simple. There seemed to be little internal struggle, and miyavi adapted very quickly to his new environment, so quickly that the entire idea of the movie didn't feel all that poignant anymore. Then we have the young version of miyavi, also known as Ryu. Ryu appears to be a pretty typical Japanese kid with his short shorts, bowl haircut, and pinky-swear promises. He likes soccer. miyavi likes soccer. They play together. I suppose playing around with his younger self (though he doesn't realize this for a while) got him to re-realize his once-ambitions and re-apply that to his current ambitions. I'm grabbing at straws here, but I like to think that the "present day" miyavi of the movie was arrogant and too-comfortable in his position, thus lacking ambition anymore. And seeing his younger self reawakened that. But I could very well be making this up completely. It's really not that exciting either way though.

What might be more interesting than analyzing movie!miyavi by himself though, is contrasting him with real!miyavi, and trying to figure out how much he really plays himself. The real miyavi might come off as incredibly arrogant -- he has 我 tattooed to his left shoulder blade, which is pretty much the universal kanji for self-referencing words such as "I," "me," and "myself," among other self-referencing symbols and quotes including "I'm the one and only. In heaven and on Earth" and "Close your heart to every love, but hold no one in your arms but me." The "I" kanji is also emblazoned upon many of his guitars. These details seem to contrast with his presented personality though, which, like I said, very often seems care-free and endearingly spastic (though it's also worth noting that he's very fond of repeating "miyavi desu!"/"I'm miyavi!" several times at the beginning of virtually every interview and video address). One has to wonder how arrogant he actually is and whether all the references to himself have another meaning entirely, maybe something spiritual (references to buddism also appear in some of his tattoos). I'm also fairly certain he uses "boku" to refer to himself rather than "ore" or "oresama."

Movie!miyavi is very similar. Of course all the tattoos remain, and he has his "I" stamped guitar makes an appearance as well. I wonder if Oresama was miyavi's way of revealing more of his serious side to the world, since he rarely gets to show it otherwise. Japanese celebrities are notoriously secretive, with many of them performing under aliases, hiding their real birthdays, and so on. It's rare that any of them would think to do an autobiography, or even a "semi-autobiography," as he calls Oresama. I'm not sure if there's any real way to identify how much of the "real" miyavi we see in the movie, but it's interesting to think about all the same. PS - miyavi's official domain is o-re-sa-ma.com. :3

MUSIC - Well, I'm obviously a fan of miyavi's music, but I don't really feel as if it was used very well in this movie. In particular, the performance he does with the band seemed like a very poorly-made music video. He obviously had to be lip syncing, but it was really, really bad lip syncing. Mouth and music were clearly off and the acoustics weren't very convincing. After the performances given in NANA and NANA 2, it was hard to accept this kind of haphazardness. It was also a little disappointing for me to see that "Coo quack cluck ku.ku.ru." did not appear until the closing credits because that song probably fits the themes of the movie better than the other songs used. Oh well.

The insert and theme songs aside though, miyavi's various demonstrations of his musical prowess throughout the movie were amazing. He is a masterful guitar player, and it's very easy to become entranced when he picks up that instrument. Before he was a singer, he was a guitarist, and that's obviously where his most of his skill is. If anything, watching his performances in this movie will encourage you to seek out some of his other live performances, especially solo acts. (I recommend his one-man band show for "Are you ready to rock?")

ANIMATION & EFFECTS - Should have them out. Seriously. I had no desire to see miyavi burst into a bunch of cheaply animated feathers.

OVERALL - miyavi is an entertaining character with a ton of personality quirks -- he's very endearing to watch, whether he's attacking his guitar, arm wrestling while drunk, or miming in an alleyway trying to be invisible. Unfortunately, Oresama fails to present an engaging story, and that failure comes to overshadow the rest of miyavi's entertainment value. If you're a hardcore fan, it might be worth it try and analyze his character in it, but if you just want to watch miyavi be miyavi, be amazed, or get a laugh, just go watch a live performance or some of his weird interviews. Don't bother with this.

Maybe it isn't so surprising that no one felt like subbing Oresama after all... Read the rest of this entry...

Review: NANA 2 (live action)

I was actually going to sit down and watch some more Spice and Wolf, but for one reason or another, my mouse went and clicked on this instead. So what the hell, here's the sequel to NANA and what will probably be my last dose of shoujo slice-of-life for a while.

(this review contains spoilers)

NANA 2

STORY & PACING - Well, the general consensus seems to be correct after all. Compared to the first movie, NANA 2 is pretty disappointing. As I said before, I have a love/hate relationship with slice-of-life in general, but this movie was really pushing it. A majority of it was in flashback, which made the timeline rather confusing because it didn't specify how much time had passed since the first movie. The flashback was "three months ago," but takes place entirely after the events of the first movie. Additionally, time within the flashback was confusing, with weeks running into each other and just a lot of general disorganization. Near the end, Nana Komatsu remarks that they were only roommates for about six months, which, I suppose, implies that the beginning of the flashback coincides with the end of the original NANA, but that statement comes way too late to save anyone from confusion.

As predicted, NANA 2 focuses more on Nana Komatsu, though it does also explore Nana Osaki's feelings and relationship with her roommate. (Honestly, this would make a great shoujo-ai series; the relationship between the girls is so much richer than any of their relationships with their various boyfriends.) At first, it was surprisingly easy to identify with Komatsu -- all of her friends seemed to have goals and aspirations, seemed to be going somewhere in life. With no real aspirations of her own, she felt unwanted and unneeded in the grand scheme of things and incredibly lonely. Naturally, this leads to bad things. Unfortunately, things get stereotypically dramatic after that. Maybe it's just my lack of tolerance for these soap opera storylines, but all my sympathy seemed to evaporate the minute we find out she's pregnant. Seriously, can we think of other, more interesting problems than getting knocked up at age twenty? Even if I were to accept that sadly, teen/early/unwanted pregnancies are just a fact of life, the involvement with a member of a popular band made it all the more contrived and cheap. We get these kind of storylines too often, and I really don't care anymore.

Additionally, the bits of Nana Osaki's life we do see fall steadily into the same trap. I still feel as if the "conclusion" to the first movie was rushed, and any kind of real development or resolution is still missing from this second movie. I wasn't impressed by the mysterious and conveniently timed scandal. I wasn't impressed by her band's quiet rise to power. Everything just seemed like a cheapened version of the first movie, and I just wasn't interested anymore.

And I disliked this ending more than I disliked the ending to the first movie, and that's enhanced even more by the fact that I know there's no sequel this time. Komatsu's acceptance of her life can be taken in multiple ways. Perhaps she should be heralded as being responsible in accepting the consequences of her actions and mistakes. Perhaps she should be berated for making those mistakes in the first place and not taking others' advice while she still could. Perhaps the most annoying thing of all is the lack of clarity in what this movie is trying to say. What is the message here? Teen/unwanted pregnancy is a contentious issue. You can't really present it and not have a message to go with it, and given that much of NANA's audience is of the same age, I would image that there's almost a moral obligation to present some kind of "good" message, or at least give people something to think about, something to debate about.

I suppose to some extent, lack of a real message or point is also a fallacy of slice-of-life, but I felt as if the first NANA had a point, so why did this have to fail so hard?

CHARACTER & ACTING - We had a few role shifts in this sequel, most notably Yui Ichikawa replacing Aoi Miyazaki as Nana Komatsu, and I have a hard time deciding whether it was the script's fault or the actress's fault that Komatsu's character wasn't nearly as convincing as she was in the first film. Komatsu's perky, cheerful, bubbly side was very subdued in this movie, appearing much less frequently. When she does appear, it seems to be an obvious front. This might actually be a good thing, considering Komatsu's inner loneliness and lack of confidence throughout the entire movie, but Ichikawa's portrayal of her sad side isn't very convincing either. It is a stereotypical portrayal, and there didn't seem to be as much genuine feeling or passion behind it. Komatsu's scene with Nobu on the docks stands out in particular for me because I wasn't moved at all, and I felt that I was supposed to be.

Mika Nakashima did reprise her role as Nana Osaki, but I found the encore rather disappointing. I think it was partially because she was no longer the focus of the story, but her character seemed to lose a lot of depth, even as she explored her relationship with Nana Komatsu. It was touching to see her struggle to cope with her friend's downward spiral, but I didn't necessarily find her coping methods believable based on what I had previously gathered about her character. Osaki is very indepedent, so I found it strange that she would call people to meet her in the middle of the night so she would have someone to talk and vent to. Maybe I was supposed to take it as a development to her once-stony and isolated character, but it seemed too big a jump. Nevertheless, Osaki's conflict with Komatsu is probably the most interesting part of this entire movie.

MUSIC - Nakashima's new single for the movie, "Hitoiro" is quite excellent, though I'm still more partial to "glamorous sky." Yuna Ito's "Truth" was about up to par with her previous "Endless Story," though the video inserted into the movie felt more obligitory than meaningful or necessary. Nakashima's performance of "Hitoiro" was still a powerful and meaningful one, and the lyrics were once again written by Yazawa Ai (composed by Takuro of GLAY this time though). It was probably the only perk to an otherwise disappointing ending.

There seemed to be peculiar absence of any background music throughout the entire rest of the movie though. There were a ridiculous number of awkward silences, particularly over the phone. I would be pissed as hell if I consistently had phone calls in which the other person was apparently mute. Some of it was understandable, but often it was just overdramatic in an unnecessary way. Sometimes it felt like there was more monologue than dialogue, and that's not really a good thing. Monologue in slice-of-life, when used too much, comes off as a cheap way to highlight what the story's themes are. Except NANA 2's themes were confusing anyway, so the monologue didn't even benefit that.

OVERALL - I don't think I was really expecting much from NANA 2, but I don't think I was expecting it to be that disappointing either. I actually almost stopped watching it halfway through. As I still haven't read the manga (don't think I ever will, really), I can't say whether this failure of a storyline was entirely the movie's fault or if some of it was rooted in the source material, but the bottom line is still that this was a pretty blah movie. Other than Nana Osaki and Nana Komatsu's rocky relationship throughout this movie (complete with in-your-face, corny symbolism), there really isn't much to see here. Just go find the music and you'll have gotten all there is to get from NANA 2. Read the rest of this entry...

Gold Farming for that Bear Cavalry

Off-topic time.

I'm not really a big gamer, at least, not anymore. The console I've spent the most time on was the Sega Genesis. Handheld was the Gameboy Color. My family skipped a generation and the next console we bought was the Gamecube. They bought the Wii after I moved out. I wanted and got my DS for the sole purpose of playing Pokemon D/P (almost a year later, it's still the only game I own). So it's not very surprising that I've never played an MMO (and probably never will until someone else realizes that a Pokemon MMO is a brilliant, brilliant idea). But my brother is a big gamer, and I have plenty of friends that are big gamers, so I'm exposed to a lot of random video game discussions by association, and I've come to this.

Why don't they make gold farming legal?

There is such a huge market out there for it, bridging the gap between lazy people who have too much money and poor people that have too much time. Both sides are just perfect for one another, neither is going to disappear any time soon, and there are apparently more than $500 million in underground transactions every year. Half a billion. That is a ton of untapped, potential revenue.

Yeah, yeah, the most obvious answer is: unfair! People who can't afford to pay other people to level up for them are going to get demolished by those that do, but honestly, this is already such a big problem anyway that I don't think it matters much. There will always be hardcore gamers and casual gamers. The former will log 60+ hours a week on WoW while the latter will quit after two months because assholes keep raping them for minimal gold and the lulz. This divide is not going to go away. People are not created equal. Some people have more resources than others, whether it's time or money. Does it really matter if a person actually accumulates all the power themselves or if they paid someone else to do it? End result is the same. That night elf is going to skewer you and then prance away on its limited edition, flying, rainbow unicorn. Just to rub it in.

Just divy up the newbs and the lv. 70's like in a real RPG.

Instead of trying to limit gold transactions so people won't be inclined to make real-life profits, why not facilitate it? And grab a percentage of said profits? Throw up an in-game auction service, charge a small fee, take in a bit of that $500 million. Having a legitimate place to do the trades should also cut down on the number of scammers floating around.

Games like Second Life are, unfortunately, only doing this half-way. You can buy lindens with real money, but you can't trade back. Of course, their logic is that it keeps the money in the game, thereby benefiting the company, but it isn't as if linden-for-cash trades aren't happening anyway. Once again, install a legitimate service. Take out a percentage of transaction if you're so inclined so the trade-back isn't 100% -- most people use Paypal and that takes a fee anyway. Why not take that fee and make it your own?

Of course, Second Life isn't exactly an MMORPG, but if its cash-for-in-game-stuff model isn't considered unfair, why should cash-for-gold be? In a roundabout way, maybe it'll get more kids out of the house for a job so they can buy more crap in the game. ...Maybe.

Mine isn't really an informed argument, I guess. Like I said, I don't play MMO's, but making gold farming legal just makes so much sense to me. Read the rest of this entry...

Code Geass: Everything's Not Fabulous?

It's rare that I notice fansub group drama (there's apparently a lot of it), but for one reason or another, Code Geass R2 is the first series for which I've regularly watched multiple sub releases for (what a loser, right). As such, when gg declared, rather obnoxiously, you might say, that they were dropping the series, I noticed. Their flaming Internet ragequit led to some interesting discoveries and discussions though, and it came to my attention that apparently, R2 hasn't exactly gone as planned.

The first season of Code Geass aired in a late-night slot in Japan. Thanks to its unexpected popularity though, R2 was upgraded to a prime-time slot. Drama ensues. You can read the details of it yourself, but it basically boils down to Taniguchi having to change, alter, or rewrite completely parts of the story because he had to deal with a new audience in a new timeslot. New elements were added in -- /a/'s theory about Rolo has gained widespread acceptance in the few hours since it was formulated -- and other elements were taken out, notably Kallen's backstory and Suzaku's funky connection with geass as seen in S1 episode 22.

Without knowing what we're missing, it's hard to decide whether those things were just supplemental storylines or if they were really supposed to be important, but honestly, considering the unfortunate mess of executive meddling, I think R2 has turned out pretty decent so far. I'll save the long opinion for when the series finishes in five weeks, but yeah. Even though plenty of people have been ragging on it since it started, and even though I also subscribe to the near-universal belief that the first season was better, my general opinion of R2 is still positive. After all, the general themes seemed to have been preserved pretty well enough. There are a lot of parallels with the first season, such as the Shirley-centric episodes 12-14, followed by geass-centric episode 15, but those feel pretty natural too. And even though I would have loved for R2 to have picked up the second S1 left off, I think the flashback thing worked out okay. I mean, it isn't horrible, anyway.

I also can't decide if R2 has been more crack-filled than R1, and if it is, if that's a consequence of this apparent not-as-planned-ness. Hmmm. Code Geass always did walk a thin line though.

I think Taniguchi has done a great job considering the circumstances, but I also think it'd be great if we could find out exactly what he had had planned originally. DVD extra? Magazine interview? Long letter to the fans? It'd definitely give greater insight into the inner workings of the series to see what was deemed critical enough to stay and what was tossed or changed. Code Geass is a complicated series as it is, but stuff like this makes for an even better discussion. I guess we'll see what happens.

As for gg's cancellation, I'm not really sure how much of it was based on this revelation. A lot of people are calling it a hoax already. I've always liked Eclipse's release a bit better, but if anything, I'll definitely miss their "Everything is FABULOUS~!" in the second OP.

Addendum: Oh, look. It was a joke after all. Figures.
Read the rest of this entry...

Fullmetal Sequel: Are You Kidding Me?

I was pretty annoyed a month ago when that alleged Bones document was leaked. I haven't seen Darker than Black, but I definitely knew that I didn't want a Fullmetal Alchemist sequel. The ever on-going status of the manga is irrelevant because the anime veered away from it a long time ago. FMA is done. It had a shitty-as-hell ending, but it was an ending, and I was done mourning the fact that such a wonderful series should have such a crappy conclusion (one that was further supplemented with crap via the movie). So I breathed a sigh of relief when Bones came in to trump the rampant rumors... only come back now and say, "lol, jk, it's true after all!" Seriously, what the hell? Why would you do this to us? Why??



I have yet to see an originally unplanned sequel that is not complete trash. Storylines that are tacked on later just because the original was popular just don't work. Look at Gundam SEED Destiny. Look at Dragonball GT. It has been four years since FMA finished airing, three years since Conquerer of Shambala. It can't be more obvious they're just milking this.

(The rest of this entry contains spoilers for the FMA anime.)

I haven't read the manga, so I have no idea how different it actually is, but I really, really don't see how they plan on continuing the anime, especially if they plan to pick up where the first series and movie left off. All the homunculus are dead. Or something. Lust, Greed, Sloth, and Pride are dead. Envy is a giant snake. Wrath and poor Gluttony are trapped in the Gate. The brothers are completely isolated in post-WWI Germany. They cannot perform alchemy. Al has already been restored to his body. At this point, I seriously doubt Ed gives a damn whether or not he needs to give with false limbs for the rest of his life, so what's their goal anymore? To go back home? It might work, but I can't shake the skepticism.

My main problem with a sequel to FMA is probably my abhorrence of FMA's ending. The backdrop of 1923 Germany in a sequel, especially if significant time has passed, seems like it would be much more influential than I would like. That isn't to say I don't think alchemy and a historic setting can work; indeed, Baccano! is proof enough that it can, but FMA was never supposed to be a historic anime. I don't want to watch the Elric brothers struggle in Germany while the Nazi Party is on the rise. I don't want this series to turn into Fullmetal Alchemist: Number the Stars or Fullmetal Alchemist: The Diary of the Elric Brothers. Just think, 20-year old Edward and 19-year old Alphonse are helping to shuttle poor Jews out of the country while trying to unearth underground cults that have the power to send them home! ...No.

Some people have been guessing that perhaps they'll just get some new protagonists and a new story. Oh, hell, no. Then it'd be a spin-off, not a sequel. Besides, the characters made up half the milk cow, no way they'd get rid of the Elrics. I think, if anything, I want them to retcon the original ending and continue from before they decided that lol, the Gate is a dimensional portal to EARTH, what a twist! It's doubtful that will happen though. When have they ever retconned anything in anime?

I guess I'm done venting. After all the facepalms and headdesks and screaming "why" towards the sky, there isn't much else we can do but wait and see. Thus far, the sequel has only been said to be in production. We don't have a premiere date. Maybe there's still hoping that it'll be canceled before ever seeing the light of day (fat chance). Read the rest of this entry...

Cease and Desist

It used to be that fansubbers would drop a project when it became licensed. They were happy to share and were content to stop when they knew that the titles they cared about were getting the attention they felt they deserved. But then the licenses started to come faster, and faster, and then at breakneck speeds, with companies snatching them up long before the series was even finished airing in Japan. In those circumstances, many groups would continue their releases anyway, though sites like AnimeSuki would respectfully stop linking them. When Toriyama's World stopped subbing Death Note in the light of Viz's licensing announcement, three other groups stepped up to take its place. Still, if a cease and desist order came, many sub groups would comply.

So what happens when the cease and desist order comes from a proxy company that doesn't actually own the license, but apparently has entered an agreement to try and enforce cease and desist orders? So far, it looks like there most groups are still respectful and complying with FUNimation and its proxy fight for d-rights and Enoki Films. When international copyright law is so hard to enforce, and when the production of fansubs enable pirates both domestically and abroad, what the Japanese companies are doing, or trying to do, is perfectly logical. Logical, but is it going to work? While it may seem so for now, I'm still skeptical. After all, if Death Note prevailed, I don't see why Katekyou Hitman Reborn! won't.

There are subs slipping through the cracks even for C&D's sent out for series actually owned by the company, so why should it be any different for anything else? There are just too many people out there willing to take the places of sub groups that fall or give into legal demands, and the companies chasing them just don't have the resources to come down on them all. The Otakon panel featuring a few fansubbers and industry professionals was definitely an interesting one (not that I was there), and it's good to see that the two groups are talking and considering the other's position, but I don't really think anything new was gleened from the panel. Will fansubbers stop if asked? Once again, the answer is a resounding "maybe." The reasons fansubbers do what they do has never been a huge mystery.

Still, even while FUNi is sending out those C&D's, the manga industry seems to be taking the lead in figuring out how to combat all this rampant pirating. Though the scanlation was up as soon as the chapter was available, the first chapter of Bakuman is now available online -- officially -- in four languages. They'll be down by August 31st, but if they continue to do that with new chapters and put them on a site with a subscription service, scanlators, in large part, will be out of a job! Then again... whatever American company that had been planning to snatch the rights to Bakuman just might be as well. After all, once the Japanese finally figure out that they're perfectly capable of releasing directly to an overseas audience online, Viz and TOKYOPOP may be in big trouble. Especially if consumer focus continues to shift online.

Crunchyroll's already doing something similar with anime, but I think manga will be more successful because 1) it's cheaper, and 2) quality is easier to retain. Additionally, a collection of online manga is easier to access from multiple locations because the sizes of files are smaller. A collection of online, streaming anime, is useless to you when you go on vacation to your grandmother's house where they still have a 56k hamster on a wheel. All the same, Crunchyroll's model, I think, is definitely more effective in the long run than getting FUNimation to send C&D's to sub groups. It's hard to stop something when you don't provide an alternative, no matter what the law says.

Yoshitoshi ABe's self-published doujinshi via iTunes in several different languages is absolutely ingenious and once again side-steps the need for an American in-between, which is the most time-consuming hurdle in getting a series to the North American audience. Right now, it's still pretty limited as it's only available via the Apps store and thus the iPhone and iPod Touch. Nevertheless, it's a really encouraging step forward, and its current exclusiveness to the iPhone may be a moot point if the damned device ends up like the iPod. I don't own an iPod (I'm the only person I know that doesn't, lol), nor do I own an iPhone. I don't plan to get either ever, really, but announcements like these make me happy all the same.

I guess we'll see what happens. Read the rest of this entry...

Why Don't More Musicians Promote Shows?

This is something I've always been kind of curious about. Dozens of j-pop and j-rock stars are catapulted into successful careers because of songs they provided for various anime (as well as video games and live-action adaptations for anime). Gundam SEED propelled Nami Tamaki into international stardom, and she was one of the first Japanese artists to attend a convention in the US, along with T.M. Revolution, at the Pacific Media Expo in 2004. Similarly, SEED Destiny debuted Hitomi Takahashi. Fullmetal Alchemist certainly did not hurt Nana Kitade, and NANA pushed Mika Nakashima to the top of the Oricon charts along with Yuna Ito. Even well established artists benefit greatly from contributing to anime. I'm sure many people went and looked up Nightmare and Maximum the Hormone for the first time after their respective stints for Death Note, and artists like L'Arc~en~Ciel continue headline anime theme songs even after being around for more than fifteen years.



It's obviously a mutually beneficial relationship. An opening theme by a popular artist can draw people in that might not otherwise be interested, as loosely related as the themes sometimes are. Honestly, despite being a Gundam fan, I was initially drawn to Gundam 00 because L'Arc~en~Ciel's single for it, "daybreak's bell" is absolutely gorgeous. And SOUL EATER drew me in from the very beginning thanks in part to the sheer awesomeness of it's opening theme, "resonance," by T.M. Revolution. In turn, flocks of loving fans pick up the corresponding singles, often rushing them to the top of various charts. As well, many people are introduced to artists for the first time and subsequently hunt down other songs by them. For an emerging artist, that kind of attention is invaluable.

Really, how else are people exposed to new music? Word of mouth? The radio? I don't know about you, but I don't spend much time in cars anymore. A majority of my commute to work is by train. At school, my primary mode of transportation is either walking or the bus. Though gas prices have slumped in recent weeks, I imagine that many people are still spending less times in their cars. Besides, even when I am in a car, I'm usually listening to music I already know is good. Visual advertisements are less potent for music because they obviously can't share the actual song with you. I don't watch music channels. Tools like Pandora and last.fm are nice, but I don't know how many people actively search for new music. Most of the time, I think it's something that just happens. I'm too lazy to bother, in any case, and thus, my primary source of new music, aside from anime, is word of mouth -- recommendations via friends.

This doesn't bode well for my collection of English-language music, or even worse, for my American music. For some reason, most of the songs I have in English are of Canadian or British origin. Or even of Korean and Japanese origin, though I put Engrish music in its own special category. I do not own any American CDs. As soundtracks don't really count, the only English-language CD I own is "Gravity" by Our Lady Peace, a Canadian band. How hilariously unpatriotic! Though some might argue that the States just don't have very many good artists, I'm inclined to think that there are plenty, but most of them are just too indie to be noticed. So.

Question: why don't more American artists provide music for television shows, whether cartoon or otherwise? Why don't more producers of shows encourage them to?

Most daytime television shows have gimmicky theme songs. Sometimes they're memorable. Sometimes not. Sometimes they change by season. Sometimes not. Usually though, they're pretty cheap sounding. I find most cartoon themes to be somewhat better -- things like the Powerpuff Girls are hard to forget, and I really like the theme for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Invader ZIM was good too. But why not use commercial artists? Even just for insert songs and promotion. They Might Be Giants recorded a song about Courage the Cowardly Dog and another for Dexter's Laboratory for Cartoon Network, and there used to be random commercials/promos on CN that were basically music videos with rehashed footage from various cartoons. I really loved those things and would have liked to look up more music by many of them, especially as many of them weren't mainstream artists. (In particular, I wish I could have found more music by Soul Coughing, who contributed music for a video involving the Flintstones, but those were the days before p2p and it was exceedingly difficult to find anything by nobodies in stores.)

Why don't they do this anymore? Those kinds of promotional shorts have long since disappeared, and even though Puffy provided the music for Teen Titans and their own (horrible) show, Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi, I've yet to see an American artist do this sort of thing. The only reason I can think of for this is cost 'cause, sure, maybe expecting Linkin Park to do a theme song for Avatar: The Last Airbender is a little farfetched, but why not the offstream, indie artists? Like I said, it's a mutually beneficial relationship. If a video promo or a theme song isn't doable, then why not an insert song? It really puzzles me.

Another thing I don't get is why there aren't more songs in movies that are actually written for the movie. Insert songs in films are generally picked from existing titles and only contribute to the general mood -- the lyrics don't fit. Even songs that end up on tribute albums, such as "Music from and Inspired by Spider-Man," for the most part, fail to really connect to the movie itself. They're just random pop and rock songs slapped on an album with Spider-Man's picture. T.M. Revolution also wrote a tribute to Spider-Man, "Web of Night" -- why do those lyrics seem so much more relevant to the film than, say, the lyrics to Stone Sour's "Bother," which appears on the aforementioned album?

Though some anime and game themes will have been taken from existing tracks (lol, "Fly me to the Moon"), and many of them don't directly relate to the series (try connecting Utada Hikaru's "Simple and Clean" to Kingdom Hearts. TRY IT. I DARE YOU), most theme songs are singles that don't release until after their debut on the show, and there are a significant number of songs that were indeed written for the show. T.M. Revolution in particular is very good about this (I know, I've mentioned him like a dozen times already, right?), and artists like Maximum the Hormone (if you listen to the entirety of the second Death Note ending, "Zetsubou Billy," they specifically mention Kira, etc) and Mika Nakashima (even if she didn't write the lyrics) are worth mentioning as well.

So yeah. I don't get it. Do you? Read the rest of this entry...

Digital Distribution of Manga

Okay. So we all know that digital distribution is the way to go for anime and that almost all companies are experimenting with various platforms, but digital manga...? I have mixed feelings about how well this will work out. Unlike anime, the format of reading a book doesn't translate as neatly as the format of watching a show on a screen. Manga sales haven't lagged as much as DVD sales partially because many people still prefer holding a physical book in their hands as opposed to reading on a computer screen (the other reason might be because they're cheaper). It's a strain on the eyes too, especially on computers with lower resolutions. This is the main argument against the idea of digitalized manga distribution, and I think it's a very valid one.

But there actually seem arguments in favor of the idea now that I think about it. After all, people never thought e-books would ever catch on, but they're now rather widespread with many people carrying digital books with them everywhere on the Amazon's Kindle, iPhones, other smart phones, and even their iPods. Manga for cellphones has been available in Japan for years, though of course, their cellphone technology and usage is quite a step up from the US. Besides, plenty of manga fans read their weekly dose of new, scanlated chapters on the computer, and quite a few of them will read through the entirety of some series online, including titles that have already been released domestically. "Strain on the eyes" is no match for the free and convenient. Manga sales have been declining, if all the TOKYOPOP restructuring hubbub was any indication.

I'm not sure if scanlations have as much an impact on manga sales as fansubs do on DVD sales though. Various experiments conducted by both fiction and nonfiction authors suggest that the availability of an e-book actually boosts real book sales. None of them were manga so I guess their target audiences are very different, but they're interesting studies all the same. Still, even if scanlations aren't robbing distributors of real book sales, there are plenty of incentives for putting manga online legally. For one, it's a new avenue of business that has tried potential, so why leave it unexplored? Any new customers they might gain from the venture would help, especially considering it wouldn't take much investment. Marvel has already experimented with the digital comic subscription, and as far as I know, it's doing pretty well.

The pricing model Digital Manga is using is kind of interesting. It's cheaper than buying the physical thing by more than 50%. The experiment I mentioned above had the people release their e-books free, which spurred their real book sales. TOKYOPOP already hosts chapters online for some of their manga, and some other companies like Broccoli are starting to do it as well. But if they're going to charge for digital manga, it seems unlikely that that will translate into any increase in book sales since customers would have to pay for it twice. But for the digital copy to be worth the money, it will likely need to step up on quality. Testimonials here describe various bugs and things needed for improvement -- I wonder if they'll follow up on those? If I won't have the manga in my hands and I'm paying for it, then I want sharp digital images, an easy way to adjust size, the option to view pages one at a time or two at a time, etc. Mimic the oldschool reading experience as much as possible.

I wonder if anyone will try to release digital manga by chapter shortly after release in Japan though. For long-running shounen series like Bleach and Naruto, it seems like it would be much easier than any attempt to release anime concurrently (though Crunchyroll and partners seem to be doing reasonably well). Viz already has the license. It doesn't take nearly as long to translate a chapter. It would be gold. Just figure out how to price a chapter. A dollar? Fifty cents? Seems like a good model to me. Four chapters a month. Two to four dollars a month per customer. Multiply by the number of rampant Narutards. Gold! I think the main reason scanlations have little effect on manga sales is because those that read scanlations are often those that keep up with current manga in Japan, which is often volumes ahead of the current domestic releases, especially for series like Naruto. If you could get even a percentage of those people to buy something, wouldn't that be great? Think of the revenue!

The only issue would be that a chapter of manga is much easier to find online than an episode of anime, or at least, they're easier to access. No having to deal with torrents. You don't even have to download anything! Just pop over to Mangashare or Onemanga and you're set. Then again, if Viz did create a legal way for readers to have timely access to Japan's newest manga, I feel that many scanlators would hang up their work hats in good faith.

(PS - meanwhile, anime movies on the Japanese DS. Think we'll see any of that Stateside?)
(PPS - Whoa. Now this is groundbreaking!) Read the rest of this entry...

Harry Potter Delayed?

Okay, non-anime topic time. Hey, Japan loves the four-eyed wizard boy too.

Now and again, I like to keep up with news in the Potterverse. I could get into a detailed ramble thousands of words long about exactly what I think of the series, but I'll spare us both the trouble. Suffice to say that I'm a fan of the books. Despite my best efforts, I'm rather purist about it all and so most of the movies don't sit well with me, but I've really come to love to hating them. (Oh, man, making fun of the Order of the Phoenix movie was great.) As such, I was kind of looking forward to the 6th movie's release in November and was very surprised to find today, quite by accident, that it's been pushed back eight months to July 2009. And why? Not because they're not finished with it. They're done. It's just...they want a summer blockbuster instead of a winter-release film. ...Wait, What? :|

Seriously, where's the logic in this? The summer season is one of the hardest environments to succeed in, even for a big blockbuster like Harry Potter. Three of the previous movies (the first, the second, and the fourth) have released in November and almost all of them had great opening and a fantastic box office life. November isn't a big competition month. Really, aside from maybe the Madagascar sequel, what movie coming out November 2008 could possibly wrestle with Harry Potter? Especially the Harry Potter in which ***** kills **********?? Meanwhile, in June/July 2009, the movie will have to fight with both Transformers 2 and a new Ice Age movie. And any other movies that get announced between now and then. I get the feeling that the new Transformers will definitely give Potter a good fight.

Really, I'm more puzzled about this decision than anything else. I know I'm going to tear the movie apart no matter when it releases, so I guess it doesn't really matter to me, but I'm sure scores of other Potterheads are royally pissed about this. The only reason you can give for pushing a finished movie back eight months is that you want it to be a summer release instead of a winter release? Come on.

Edit, later: CNBC elaborates (on the news, no online link for this) that the Writers' Strike left WB with a gaping hole in next year's summer line-up and concludes that the company probably pushed the movie back so that they would have a better chance of meeting next year's earnings estimates. This year's earnings don't really need the boost since The Dark Knight continues to do supremely well in the box office a month after its release and is well on track to overtaking Star Wars as the movie with the second highest domestic gross ever. This makes a lot more sense, I guess, but the Potterheads will still be pissed.

On another note, I just found out that they've decided to split the final book into two movies. This is particularly interesting to me because page-wise, Deathly Hallows is much shorter than the two books before it. I suppose it makes sense that all the loose ends are better wrapped up in five hours rather than two and a half, but I don't necessarily think the seventh book has more material than any of its predecessors. Considering we've actually managed to retain a director for the last three books' movies, I'm kind of surprised a two-part movie hasn't occured already. But the Order of the Phoenix movie was horrible -- I hated it more than I hated the movie for the Prisoner of Azkaban, which suffered the most in my purist ways since that book was my favorite. How good the Half-Blood Prince is won't be known for almost another year, so what can be expected from these final installments?

How and where are they going to make the split? I'm all for two-part movies, but the divide needs to make sense. The first of the two movies still needs to have a logical and definite conclusion. Is there really such a half-way point in the final book? After they discover what the Deathly Hallows are perhaps? I'm skeptical. Despite the fact that I would have loved to see a two-part Harry Potter movie earlier, I have plenty of doubts as to whether or not it can be done right. I guess we'll see. Tentative date for the first Deathly Hallows movie is November 2010. Read the rest of this entry...

Review: NANA (live action)

I've had this movie sitting around for a while, but I finally decided to watch it yesterday to distract myself from the epic tragedyfest that was episode 18 of Code Geass R2. I'm not usually much for shoujo, but I think this was a pretty decent choice of distraction.

(this review contains no spoilers!)

NANA

STORY & PACING - You know, I've always had this love/hate sort of relationship with slice-of-life. On one hand, I think it's great to explore the lives of more ordinary people and how they interact with each other; I often find normal people to be just as fascinating, if not moreso, than the superheros and child prodigies we often see both anime and other media. On the other hand, I love my centralized plots and storylines; I like structure and definitive beginnings, middles, and ends. This leaves me at odds with such films as Lost in Translation, where most of the meaning is defined in not the overarching story (there isn't really one) but in the individual moments and the relationships between the characters. The main thing is just that slice-of-life often leaves you wanting more, but there isn't any more because it's just that -- a just slice of life, not the whole pie.

NANA was very much a slice-of-life film. The girls have goals and dreams (well, one more than the other), sure, but the movie itself has no clear structure. Things just happen. Time passes. Time rewinds. I actually found the pacing to be pretty good up until the very end. The flashbacks felt natural, not intrusive or confusing, and the swapping of narrations between the two title characters allowed for varied perspective. There was never really a boring moment. There weren't that many characters, so relationships were easy to keep track of, even as we traversed through time. I liked the way their pasts worked up towards their present, though I would have liked to have seen more into Nana Komatsu's past. Though we did touch on the relationship with her boyfriend, Komatsu's personal story seemed largely eclipsed by Nana Osaki's, especially since music naturally demands more attention than... well, nothing -- Komatsu was more ordinary than Osaki, who was commanding, comparatively, a more traditional, linear storyline, rather than pure and simple slice-of-life.

Given enough time and the right storytelling, I think everyone's story can evolve from slice-of-life to linear story. Komatsu is probably no exception; we just didn't get to explore it much. Given the duality theme of the series though, it's likely that this slight lack of balance between the two Nanas is addressed in the sequel, NANA 2. By the by, I've not read NANA the manga (unless half a chapter counts), so I'm watching these movies with a fresh opinion and no prior knowledge of what happens. But anyway, the movie ends at some point, but only because it hit a two hour mark, not because it really had an ending. While this end can be considered an acceptable stopping point, the events leading up to it felt a little rushed. We get opinions on Nana Osaki's situation from her friends, but we never really hear it from Osaki herself, so I feel a little cheated there. She seemed to have given in so easily and too hastily. Perhaps it's only foreshadowing?

CHARACTER & ACTING - I'm always amazed when popular musicians double as excellent actors. Mika Nakashima totally floored me. Not only was she ridiculously hot (albeit a bit anorexic looking), even without having read the manga, I feel like her portrayal of Nana Osaki was spot on and perfect. Osaki appears to be a very cautious and secretive character who would much rather hear about others than talk about herself; she fronts a "cool," devil may care attitude that can be called apathetic or stoic. Nakashima nailed it. Her facial expressions, her harsh and boyish voice, the way she walked and moved -- everything seemed to contribute accurately to the character of Osaki. Her pensive expressions were my favorite though; they seemed to give insight into the more guarded depths of Osaki, especially near the end of the film or when she had to be supportive of her friend and roommate. It made her character feel very real. Finally, as a singer playing a singer, Nakashima's energy when Osaki performs is clear.

I also found Aoi Miyazaki to be quite impressive in her portrayal of Nana Komatsu. Komatsu serves as a direct foil to Osaki; she is bright, perky, cheerful, and seems endlessly optimistic at times. Miyazaki gets this character across very well with a bubbly voice, a bouncy demeanor, and a series of very innocuous faces (seriously, the Japanese are masters at the cute face; it's ridiculous). But once again, the real talent shows when she has to portrayal the less stereotypical side of the character. Komatsu's vulnerability and lack of self-direction is evident from the very beginning and presented in a way that's very easy to relate to. Thus, when her situation changes later on in the movie and that vulnerability becomes more exposed, it doesn't come as a huge shock. It's a smooth transition and completely believable.

The rest of the cast seems good enough, average perhaps, though it's always harder to judge when their characters aren't explored in depth. Ren seemed a bit too emotionless to me, but it's hard to say if that's a perception caused by Nana Osaki's point of view. The rest of the band -- Nobu, Shinichi, and Takumi -- was ordinary seeming also, though I think I'd like to know more of each of their pasts and upbringings. The same can be said of Nana Komatsu's friends. I guess that sort of stuff is hard to fit in when the movie's title characters have such a dominating presence though, even if much of their stories revolve around their relationships with the other characters. If we're only to have insight into what Nana and Nana think and feel, then it makes sense that the specific details of everyone else aren't thought about that often, even if they technically know about them.

MUSIC - I've liked Mika Nakashima since I heard her perform Gundam SEED's third ending, "Find the Way." And as a huge fan of HYDE, I heard the three-way collaboration (Ai Yazawa, NANA's creator, wrote the lyrics; HYDE composed the music; Mika Nakashima sings it) of NANA's highlight song, "glamorous sky," long, long before I ever saw this movie. I loved it then, and I continued to love it here. It's a beautiful, beautiful, and energetic song, and the lyrics very obviously reflect the themes of the movie and the hopes and dreams of both characters. Nakashima's initial performance in the movie -- done while standing on a homemade kitchen table with impromptu, nonsensical lyrics -- was particularly moving. I think it's that kind of unbridled artistic spirit that makes these sorts of movies accessible and meaningful to many people in the audience. Her later performance -- done on an actual stage with actual lyrics -- was a great landmark in the movie storywise, and it reminded me a lot of other indie music-themed series like BECK and to some extent, Gravitation.

NANA was also notable for launching Yuna Ito, who portrayed Reira, the vocalist of fictional band Trapnest, into the Oricon charts. I'd also heard Ito's music prior to seeing this movie, but her style was less memorable to me than Nakashima's. Her song in the movie, "ENDLESS STORY" was very pretty, though I wasn't much fond of her stage presence. It was of that gaudy and pretentious sort, but I wasn't sure if that was the movie's way of contrasting her with Nana Osaki or not. The song itself was a good enough contrast in any case -- a more mellow piece to "glamorous sky"'s rambunctious attitude -- so I think overall, it fit rather well.

The rest of the soundtrack was normal: not particularly noteworthy in either a positive or negative way.

OVERALL - I liked NANA, though I think it was more because of Nakashima and Miyazaki's stellar performances and the richness of their characters than the story itself -- as I said, it's hard to define "story" within a slice-of-life structure, even when one of the characters wants to be a rockstar. That isn't to say that any of the material was really poorly presented, but it may a little unsatisfying if you're used to a more linear storyline and want things to have a concrete ending. I'm definitely interested enough to watch NANA 2 though, even if reviews of the sequel have been generally poor.

Read the rest of this entry...

It's Not a Death Note, is it?

Why so serious? It's not a Death Note, is it?!

For some reason, even though it was announced a few days ago, it completely slipped my mind that Ohba and Obata's new project was coming out very, very soon. And by very, very soon I mean the first chapter started leaking across the Internets starting Friday while I was busy watching the Olympic opening ceremonies in high def. But last night, I finally sat down and read through it, and holy shit.

Team Death Note -- you win again! The first chapter of Bakuman is 58 pages long. In those 58 pages, it went from feeling eerily relate-able to downright depressing to LOLWHUT to oh, man, I want more~! I was seriously laughing out loud for more than a few pages near the end; it was fantastic. Really, despite the fact that I love crazy metafiction and self-referencing nonsense, I wouldn't have thought that a manga about manga could be all that interesting. But I guess if Mr. Obha can make crazed, operatic choruses appropriate music for writing in a notebook because it's apparently such an orgasmic experience, then he can do anything. Bakuman's themes will hit very close to home to many artists, including myself, so it's good to know that such material will be treated well. It'll be a fun ride (will this be epic? I feel like it's gonna be epic).

I love the fact that Bakuman references Death Note, not once, but twice! I always think it's great with artists and writers work in clever cameos and references from their other works. For images, it's just a fun hunt for that one random character in the background of a crowd; for actual writing/verbal references, it's just delightful, lol. I wonder if there'll be more of it or if it was just a first chapter thing.

Oh. Mr. Obata's work is as amazing as ever. For some reason, Moritaka reminds me a bit of Death the Kid from Soul Eater, but Akito is like a teenage cross between Near and Matt. It's interesting for me to see new work from Obata since I've never read Prince of Tennis, and I definitely look forward to what will no doubt promise to be over-dramatic portrayals of the act of... drawing! Step up from writing?

I guess that's really all I have to say short of a page-by-page review. I'd definitely recommend people check this out though. No direct links to sources, but it takes like two seconds to find the scanlations (it's on Onemanga). ;3 Enjoy!

Afterthought: I wonder how long it will take Viz to license this?
Read the rest of this entry...

Stuff. And Review: Seed Supernova

I haven't written a review in what seems like ages. I guess this is what I get for writing like four reviews a day for the first week or two. I went through almost all of the anime I think I remember well enough to give a proper opinion. So I scribbled out a super short review for a super short series of shorts. It's kind of a useless thing, I guess. I seem to have paused in my watching of Spice and Wolf and Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, along with Yami no Matsuei, which I started for no reason that I can identify. I just haven't had as much time as I'd like to chill and watch cartoons lately. Very sad. Doesn't help that some of my time is eaten up by rewatching Code Geass and Gurren Lagann dubbed (gotta keep those TV ratings up, yo). I don't want to review Code Geass R2 until the series is finished. Same with Soul Eater. I will most likely revise both my CG and Gurren Lagann reviews when I'm finished with their respective dubs and purge some of the fantarding currently present though.

I wonder how one goes about becoming a professional critic. I don't think there's any other way I'll ever find time to watch everything I want to watch. Oh, woe.

This has been a relatively slow news week (lack of a con?), which probably means I should have taken advantage of it and written about any number of news items that came up during AX and SDCC. It's always harder to write about something days or weeks later though. This weekend is Otakon and there will undoubtedly be another onslaught of press releases*. Joy! Is Otakon the official end of the summer con season? I'm not going to Kinokuniya tomorrow after all. I just have too much other stuff to do (read: I have to keep drawing lots of stuff for AWA). I will most likely also be skipping Kinokuniya's Cosplay Day later this month for the same reasons. I'm lame, I guess.

* Damnit, as I write this, the first round of Otakon news is already out. Goddamnit.

Well, in other kinds of news, crude oil is at a three-month record low today ($116/barrel), which is a far cry from it's all-time record high ($147/barrel) just a few weeks ago. The dollar is up against both the yen and the euro as the rest of the world slumps (and as the US runs out of bad news that surprises anyone anymore). I wonder how healthy of a holiday spending season we'll have if oil continues to drop and as people get used to this tighter economy? I also wonder about the statistics of spending at anime conventions and things and how our niche economy is handling itself beyond the straight-up DVD sales, etc. I don't think anyone really keeps tabs on this stuff though. Then again, last year's Otakon gave an estimated $21 million dollar boost to Baltimore's economy via hotel, food, and travel expenses. See, weeaboos are useful to society after all!

Oh yeah, and the Olympics started today. Read the rest of this entry...

Pay More for Less

Studio Pierrot's president will apparently be at Kinokuniya this Saturday. That's about a five minute walk from where I work, except, of course, I don't work on Saturday. I can't decide if it'd be worth it to go; after all, I don't pretend to be a real journalist, and am not sure exactly how interesting I would find Mr. Nunokawa's speech. Undoubtedly, more professional bloggers than myself will provide all the in-depth coverage I could want. Besides, most of the time, going to Kinokuniya ends in me having bought something I didn't need. They're giving away passes to New York Anime Fest, which would be a fantastic incentive, except that I won't be in the state when the con occurs. Oh, woe.

In other news though, there's been some discussion about Xam'd on the PS3 and Gurren Lagann's dub release on iTunes. Aside from the fact that Xam'd is exclusive to the most expensive console out there, many people have clamored that its price is outrageous. Now the same's being said about Gurren Lagann. $51 for a 27 episode series amounts to about $1.88 an episode. That's really only marginally better than the $1.99/ep you'd be paying without the "season pass," which would add up to, gasp, $54 total instead. That's pretty comparable to the Cowboy Bebop regular edition DVD boxset, which retails for about $50 (not counting your awesome Amazon discount). Except that an iTunes download is not a DVD. An iTunes download does not provide both the dub and sub tracks; it provides no extras and no pretty packaging. So, yeah, I think I'll be in the camp with the people saying this is pretty ridiculous.

Oh, yeah, and Xam'd? That bitch is just a single-vocal track rental. And it costs more than Gurren Lagann to buy. Awesome! Now, just about everyone is a proponent of digital distribution, especially recently with the global economic slowdown. (Oh, crude oil hit a three-month low today; that's good to hear, right?) That combined with the ever prevailant force of fansubs have more or less forced anime companies to take this route, but come on... should that make things cheaper, not more expensive? You're ditching the fancy box and extra features and just putting the thing up for download -- why does that cost the consumer more than buying something physical? Just doesn't make sense.

It kind of reminds me of all the stuff airlines are trying to do now to break even, except backwards. Instead of charging you now for things they've given away free in the past, they're not giving you the extras at all and making you pay more anyway! I don't get it, do you? Sometimes I feel bad about not taking advantage of the legal digital downloads that are currently available -- after all, companies need to be reassured that this is indeed what their consumers want -- but aside from the fact that I own neither use iTunes nor own a PS3, there's no way I'd ever pay that much for so little. I'm a cheapskate and rarely even buy DVDs, why would I take less and pay more?

Maybe I really should go see Mr. Nunokawa after all. Maybe he could answer some of these questions. Except his company isn't among the ones pulling these weird stunts. D'oh. Read the rest of this entry...

/a/ling Rush!

This morning, I woke to see that a Code Geass character popularity poll by BANDAI had closed and that the results reflected the collective efforts of /a/. The #3-5 slots would have probably been the real crowning victors of the poll, but due to the Zergling rush, #2 belonged to Rivalz, an incredibly minor and arguably irrelevant character, and #1 belonged to Clovis who (spoiler!?) is dead by episode three. It amused me greatly, but I'm usually amused by the poll-sabotaging antics of /a/. Earlier last month, a similar Japanese poll for Code Geass containing many more characters (since it spanned both seasons), was also "influenced" by /a/ -- the poll came right on the heels of a five second scene in episode 13 of R2 that became an insta-meme by everyone who saw it (seriously, even if you've never seen Code Geass before, if you watched this one episode, you would know which moment it was or maybe not... the entire episode is full of crack and insta-memes). As such, the meme's central character was rushed to the top. As far as I know, the results of this poll haven't been released yet, but the /a/ rush might be why...

But even though these instances are always highly amusing and full of lulz, and even though I usually participate myself, I kind of wonder about the effects of it all. Poll-sabotaging seems innocent enough, especially when compared to the sometimes very questionable activities of neighboring /b/, but polls are usually highly informative. There's always a general public interest in the popularity rankings of characters, but I also can't help but think that the companies that put out these polls intend to use their results for something. The BANDAI poll, for example, I wonder if they had wanted to use the results to decide what sort of merchandise to put out? Or what kind of character-centric extras to include with DVD releases? The Japanese poll could have had similar goals, though theirs might also expand to include possible characters to have in future voice actor radio shows and drama CD releases.

Do we really want merchandise with Clovis on it? Or of "NANI, MAI HANI" Miya? (That's largely a rhetorical question.) Of course, I don't think the companies behind the polls are stupid enough to think that Clovis or Miya are actually the most popular Code Geass characters -- a quick glance around the Internet can easily pick out the real winners -- but what's the point of polling at all if all their attempts are thwarted by /a/tards' quest for the lulz? There are still magazine polls, I guess, and it'd be much harder to coordinate a sabotage of those since they require much more effort to respond to. (That said, I wouldn't be all that surprised if it happened.)

We've clearly demonstrated the power of the swarm. We've done it over and over again. /b/ organizes DDOS attacks. /a/ breaks anime polls. We've gotten plenty of lulz. The series themselves provide us with plenty of lulz. Now what?

I dunno. I don't really think I'm against the poll-sabotage (like I said, I often participate myself), but I guess sometimes, I'm actually really curious about real poll results, at least for the real rankings of characters that don't make up the top five. Read the rest of this entry...