Results tagged “animation”

And We Say Goodbye to Another Season of Fox's Dominating Animation Block

By Angela Moseley on May 26, 2010 3:59 PM

Sunday night marked the end of another successful year of Fox's Animation Domination comedy block. Unlike the myriad of network TV shows either being cancelled or simply ending (see Numb3rs, Law and Order, 24, Lost, etc.), Fox's Animation Domination is still going strong-- albeit without King of the Hill. Although I've fallen out of the loop with watching The Simpsons I'm still following Seth MacFarlane's various comedies. This year Family Guy ended its eighth season, American Dad successfully finished a fifth season, and the first season of The Cleveland Show made waves. While I'm convinced that Family Guy gets a little worse with each season since its revival, The Cleveland Show was a pleasant surprise and American Dad continues to be strangely awesome.

The Cleveland Show successfully made it through the year, everyone should be celebrating.

Upon learning about The Cleveland Show spin off I was apprehensive. Out all the characters on Family Guy I found Cleveland Brown to be the least interesting. To me he was just the token black guy. Being a longtime fan of Seth MacFarlane's work (all the way back to his days at Hanna Barbera), I decided to give the series a try. I was happy to discover how logical the premise of the show was and how much continuity it actually shared with Family Guy. Cleveland never got much air time because of Peter Griffin's over-the-top shenanigans. Cleveland is finally fed up and forced to leave Quahog after losing his house to his ex-wife in their divorce settlement. He and his son eventually end up in his hometown of Stoolbend, Virginia. There he marries his old high school sweetheart Donna, and moves in with her two children. Between his son, Cleveland Jr. and Donna's children, Roberta and Rallo the pieces for a typical sitcom neatly fell into place.

The first few episodes of the first season lacked some of the wacky humor found in both Family Guy and American Dad but the show was solidly amusing. From the start, the show established that it would not take itself seriously, even including a funny in-show TV promo about white people who attempt to make shows for black people in the second episode. In fact, the writers always seemed aware of potential skepticism and broke the forth wall as much as possible. Halfway through the season the show began to use more of the signature humor that marks Family Guy, while adding a unique twist. The continuity between The Cleveland Show and Family Guy also aided the show greatly, as opposed to completely ignoring the seven seasons of Cleveland's history with Peter and friends. Unfortunately there was a bit of history rewriting and odd moments in the show that didn't quite match up with the said history. Cleveland Jr. is one such example. He first appeared on the early seasons of Family Guy as a thin, hyper, young boy with a clear cut case of attention deficit disorder. Suddenly he's back, calmer, smarter, several years older (while no one else has aged), and considerably fatter. No official explanation for his radical change is ever offered. Also, Cleveland claims Stoolbend as his hometown but episodes of Family Guy clearly have him spending his teenage years in Quahog as Peter's best friend. Again, no explanation is offered. Considering the show's continuity these questions are worth asking and do present an annoying lack of detail.

Cleveland rants on about why he's leaving and asks for a special favor from Lois and Bonnie. I'll file this one under les yay.

Still, the overall continuity works well. Like the show it was spun off from, this show makes liberal use of cutaways and the writers seem to enjoy poking fun at celebrities, especially black celebrities. Unlike Family Guy, Cleveland is refreshingly less of a jerk and the show captures much of the lighthearted nature that was lost with its parent show years ago. In fact, The Cleveland Show is closest fans will ever get to Family Guy returning to its pre-cancellation roots. In short, I'm glad I gave this newest series a chance and I'm looking forward to season two.

Season eight of Family Guy kicked off with the said continuity related to Cleveland's departure. At first it was a little strange not to have Cleveland around, but after the first few episodes it felt normal. His absence could either be due to the relatively minor role he's come to play in recent years, or that his spin off show fills the gap nicely. But in a nice surprise one of the last episodes of season eight did feature Peter and friends taking a trip to Stoolbend and inviting Cleveland along on a wacky adventure. Cleveland or not, Family has been something of a mixed bag in recent years and season eight continues the trend. Which is a shame considering how funny season started off with episodes like "Road to the Multiverse" and "Jerome is the New Black." Longtime fans of the series will note the pre-cancellation episodes of Family Guy have a very different vibe from the post-cancellation episodes. Once the series was revived it noticeably took a more mean spirited approach and seemed to dare the executives at Fox to cancel it for a third time.

It went from being a lowbrow comedy with weird but amusing situations to an outright offensive series at times. Just about every character has taken a turn for the worst and Peter who was once a likable dumb-ass is just an outright jackass. Even the family itself became more dysfunctional as everyone's personality simply devolved. The lighthearted humor and lessons learned from said sitcom situations from the first three seasons are long gone. Additionally, the show has taken more of a political position in recent years. At times Family Guy feels less like a comedy and more like a super liberal, decidedly anti-religious platform for the writers. Those particular episodes (especially when they're devoid of any real humor) can be almost painful to watch. Still the overall entertainment value can occasionally trend toward "so wrong but kinda funny," depending on your personal tastes.

"Something, Something, Something, Dark Side" is actually a pretty entertaining episode and a solid Star Wars parody, imagine that!

Despite my complaints and the complaints of many other fans, Family Guy manages to remain a solid series for more forgiving fans. Unlike The Simpsons, the show is in a downward spiral but the series has not yet crashed and burned. Sure, much of the magic left when Seth MacFarlane stopped doing much of the writing himself, but this series still has quite a bit of admittedly offensive humor left. Going back to series' hit or miss syndrome, I found myself completely unimpressed with the 150th episode simply titled "Brian and Stewie." Watching Brian and Stewie for nearly an hour trapped in a bank vault with an episode that consisted entirely of dialogue was not a particularly interesting fit for Family Guy. It was definitely a case of your mileage may vary. Still, the hour long season finale "Something Something, Something Dark Side" a parody of Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was actually pretty decent and made up for "Brian and Stewie" many times over. While the episode was more of a movie than anything else, it reminded me of how much I still enjoy Family Guy when the series hits its mark. That said I wouldn't be surprised if the upcoming season nine continued the downward slide of the series.

My favorite Seth MacFarlane show in recent years is American Dad. I relate it to what Matt Groening did with Futurama and how it became more interesting than The Simpsons. I've enjoyed American Dad more than I've enjoyed Family Guy in recent years. When I think about it, I initially hated the first half of season one but the series became likable when the writers ditched the overly offensive political and social humor. The series started out as biting satirical response to the George W. Bush presidency and the Far Right but tried way too hard to offend everyone. Despite being from the same studio as Family Guy, it didn't bother with any of the signature cutaways or clever lowbrow humor that marks MacFarlane's work. Instead it relied heavily on smart political humor and to fully enjoy the show viewers had to be aware of recent politics. At the end of season one, it became clear that taking a very different approach to comedy than Family Guy was the right decision. The show took a turn for the ridiculous, and has not strayed from that territory since. Amazingly, the show is all the better for it.

I totally forgot the set up for this episode, but crack AND guns are easily the solution to life's drug gang problems.

In subsequent seasons American Dad has become more of a strange family adventure sitcom, with the occasional nod to politics. Instead of lowbrow humor, the writers have opted for something more subtle and off-the-wall. The show isn't immune to mean spirited humor, but such humor is often well placed and not done for the sake of simply being mean. Surprisingly, the characters have also grown into their own over the last five seasons. Even Stan Smith, who unlike Peter Griffin has become (slightly) less of a jerk as the seasons stretch on. Nevertheless, this show is at its best when it goes for outright weird and over-the-top situations.

Stan appearing in the episode "Rapture's Delight" after being left behind. Getting your wife back while battling demons with Jesus is both weird and kind of awesome.

Thankfully, season five was no exception. Between Steve becoming a Vietnam War reenactment veteran to Stan being left behind during the rapture (and Stan becoming a badass bounty hunter as a result) to Roger's attempt to kill the entire family after a being insulted on his birthday, this newest season was a blast. The only thing that dampened season five was the actual airing schedule, unlike Family Guy and The Cleveland Show, American Dad went long stretches without being aired on Fox at all, including reruns. Scheduling gripes aimed at Fox aside, I'm ready for season six.

Images courtesy of the Los Angeles Times and TV @ Spreadit.org.

Akikan! -- Would You Like Something To Drink?

By Joseph Daniels on April 1, 2010 8:03 AM

At this point, I'm not sure what kind of anime this is trying to be. It's like a mashup of many anime genres at once. At first, it starts out like it's going to be an ecchi, then it turns into a battle anime, then it goes back to being an ecchi before it suddenly veers towards being a (lame attempt at a) comedy. The last two episodes turn into an action anime, and it's at that point that I began to wonder if the writers were trying to write the next Excel Saga, considering the Excel Saga anime also ended with a sequence of action episodes.

Akikan! starts out with a sixteen year old failure in life who happens to collect empty drink cans. I guess he thinks they'll be worth something someday. They're probably worth more than his worthless life, right now. Anyway, he buys a soda can on his way home from school and before drinking it, he goes to take a shower. As soon as he's out, he strikes a dramatic pose, bemoans his fate as a sixteen year old male who has never been on a date, and brings the can to his lips. All while wearing nothing but a towel. Next thing he knows, he's kissing a girl instead of drinking a soda, and it's apparently a dream come true. If your dream is to meet a pretty girl while nearly naked, who thinks of you as her owner.

Kakeru's first kiss

After being beat up many times by the suddenly human soda can, Kakeru (the sixteen year old failure) gets a visit from a mysterious man who seems a little too fond of him. There's a pointless scene where he shows interest in the can and then for no real reason, he and his assistant vacate the premises and Kakeru is once again alone with his can.

I wish I could say the anime gets better. Fortunately, my wish is granted... for a little while. Despite the rampant sexual antics of Kakeru in the first episode, his behaviour is toned down somewhat in the next few episodes, which focus on an on-going plot arc where Melon (Kakeru's unimaginatively named soda can girl) is supposed to fight other cans whom happen to be made of a different material in order to prove which is better, aluminum cans or steel cans. This is the idea behind the Akikan Elect, to see which of the two is the best for holding drinks in, based on the battle prowess of the girls. Although the plot advances quickly in the first half of the series and at one point you're certain there'll be an epic battle which will determine once and for all which type of can is the better one, the three main soda can girls are suddenly forced into an uneasy truce and the plot finds itself derailed and completely forgotten by episode seven. The episode brings back Kakeru's obsession with sex and features a scene where he is called upon by the teacher (who just happens to be the assistant to the man who visited him in the first episode) to solve a trigonometry problem. Instead of solving the problem, he takes over the classroom and proceeds to sexually harass the teacher making lewd comment after lewd comment with the full support of his classmates until class is over. The next few episodes also fail to advance the plot, and it gets to the point where two of the cans become somewhat civil to each other and spy on their owners.

Billie Jean is not my lover
She's just a girl who claims that I am the one

Then, just when you think the series is going to end on a low note, the writers seemed to realize that they had a plot going and so they bring in an enemy for the cans to fight. All three of the main cans work together to defeat the newcomer and it makes you wonder why the Akikan Elect subplot even existed in the first place, since the writers abandoned it as soon as they could, then tried to weakly tie it into the newcomer's story.

Fortunately for the last couple episodes, the animation improved quite a bit compared to what was presented earlier in the series, and it was clear that they were trying to end on a high note. But there's a cheesy scene in the final episode where the power of love saves the three can girls from the evil can girl, who was absorbing all the cans she could find. Then the three girls choose to fight together even though they'd not done so at all in the series, and proceed to invent a Triple Tech that manages to defeat the evil can girl, despite having already said to her that mixing drinks makes them undrinkable. Apparently it's drinkable if you're a protagonist drink.

There is a lot of potential to Akikan!. It could be a magical girl anime if they let it be one. Melon would have to come up with more varied attacks, though. Her cry of "Melo-Melo-Melon!" would get annoying if you had to hear it week after week after week. Budoko seems to have many powers, although most of them aren't very effective and can easily be blocked or deflected. And Yell's Isometric Sword seems to be all she needs, for it has many varied usages. It can slice open enemies just as easily as it slices vegetables and clips stamps from snack bags. And when the evil can girl reveals her collection of powers, she shows that she has dozens of cans and their powers in her possession. There is the potential for a much wider cast with more varied powers if the show gets renewed for another series.

This is the only truly comedic moment in the series.

I can't tell whether the series is trying to poke fun at anything or not. Najimi, for instance, gets drunk from soda. At first glance, she seems like a victim of the Frothy Mugs Of Water trope until it's realized that she's drunk from soda in the original Japanese version. Either this is a character quirk that only the Japanese could come up with, or they're poking fun at the censorship that many anime shows and video games were subjected to in order to make them family friendly.

Another thing the show does is remix the ending theme with each episode. I don't know if this is done for comedic effect or not.

This show has polarized anime fans in the same way that Final Fantasy XIII polarized video gamers. You'll either like Akikan! a lot or you'll hate it with a vengeance. Thing is, it's not a bad series. It's not a very good one either, though I can't say it's the definite worst. I can't really recommend this to anyone unless you're willing to lose a few brain cells while watching it. Even then, watch the first six episodes, then skip ahead to the last two. There's a reason that many fan subbing teams dropped the show after episode seven was aired and refused to work on the rest.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel -- Relax, Who's Going To Beat Singing Chipmunks?

By Joseph Daniels on December 24, 2009 11:04 PM

I've found that entertaining movies make me eat popcorn very quickly. Although 2012 was chock full of problems, I consumed a decent sized bag of popcorn during the first 3/5 of the movie. I had fun making fun of the movie. A similar thing happened with The Princess and the Frog, I consumed a lot of popcorn while enjoying a refreshingly new Disney movie. But it's the truly entertaining movies that make me set the popcorn aside, and by the time I was finished watching Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, including the secret post-credits end scene,* I still had some popcorn left. The Squeakquel is much shorter than 2012 was, yes, but I also bought a much smaller bag of popcorn, one that I should've been able to burn through rather quickly. I also barely touched the drink I purchased. But be warned: although I found it to be entertaining, I can see how this movie can also suck.

This movie is pretty much a high school musical. Er, a musical set in a high school. There, that sounds better. It even has a plot that could've been rewritten slightly to accommodate a completely human cast and retitled High School Musical 4. A series of events occur which cause a famous boy band to start going to a local school, and then they learn that the school's music department is a victim of budget cuts, and they'll have to enter a battle of the bands competition between various schools where the winning school gets some of their funding back. Not only that, but there's a competition within the school itself between the boy band and an aspiring all-girl band who both want to compete at the event. In the end, it's a standard happy ending for all, where all the bad guys of the movie get their just desserts and all the good guys live happily ever after (at least until they announce a third movie).**

By now, it's very clear to me that this and the previous movie represent a complete reboot in the Chipmunks continuity, just like what Star Trek, Casino Royale and Batman Begins did to their respective continuities; not just an updated remake like The Italian Job, Ocean's Eleven and The Thomas Crown Affair. And yet this movie felt like an extended episode of the 80's series, whereas the 2007 movie felt more like a veiled criticism of the music industry disguised as a Chipmunks movie.

Those who have seen the original series (or maybe just the first movie) know how ridiculous some of the stories could be. The 80's series had its moments, but the first movie set the precedent: would you really expect a bunch of kids, especially famous ones like the Chipmunks and the Chipettes, to be able to take care of themselves while they're on their way around the world piloting a pair of hot air balloons? Hot Air Henry had all sorts of problems during his short, accidental flight. Not to mention that it would be all over the entertainment news if they did.***

Even on their albums, the Chipmunks demonstrated a capability to do ridiculous and amazing things. They never showed much interest in school, so when the roof was being fixed for some reason that wasn't specified, the boys sang "I Love A Rainy Night" and somehow summoned a thunderstorm that was so severe, it caused probably the worst flooding their hometown had ever seen, all within the span of a couple minutes. They even swiped a rocket*^ and managed to launch it without anyone able to stop them and sang "Rocket Man" when Dave wanted them to return it. And while singing "Ho Ho Ho", they seemed to demonstrate a psychic ability to simultaneously come up with the same improvised lyrics (either that, or they secretly rewrote the lyrics while Dave wasn't looking) and sing them perfectly in three part harmony.

For the 2007 movie, a more down to earth story was written, although you still had to stretch logic in order to make it work, and you had to try your best to ignore the way Ian made all music producers look bad. Whoever wrote the movie must've been fired or something, because like I said before, the writing for the Squeakquel resembles some of the old 80's material while remaining set within the new, updated Chipmunks universe.

Case in point, the Squeakquel opens at a Chipmunks charity concert, where Alvin's over the top antics cause a Bret Michaels moment for poor Dave Seville: a stage prop drops down and whacks him on the head, putting him out of commission for the majority of the movie (I wonder if Jason Lee had a prior engagement, but was still available to film five or six scenes for the movie, three of which included the Dave Seville trademark "Aaaaaaalviiiin!"). Then, right before the boys are to go with their Aunt Jackie (although I would say she's more of a great aunt, if she's Dave's aunt), she takes a tumble, backwards, down a flight of airport stairs in her wheelchair. By now, with both responsible people in the hospital through no fault of their own, the irresponsible Toby Seville (Dave's cousin) is all that's left to take care of the Chipmunks, but he can't be bothered because all he'd rather do is sit around all day playing DS, Wii and Xbox 360 games.^ Simon's supposedly in charge, but although he's much more mature now, he's hardly shown being in charge of anything. There are maybe one or two scenes where he shows that he's trying - including one scene where he makes a disparaging comment about one of Toby's food habits, but given that the Chipmunks did a similar thing with waffles in the 2007 movie, it makes him seem slightly hypocritical - but for the majority of the movie, he just gets into conflicts with Alvin over how he chooses to use his time.

Speaking of video games: just like in the 2007 movie, the Squeakquel contains obvious product placement. At one point, the camera pans across a room, and in the background are various gaming paraphernalia, including an issue of a magazine that clearly states that there's an article on Fallout 3 inside of it, and the camera waits until the audience has had enough time to notice and read it before changing focus. Also, Alvin and Toby play Wii Bowling in a scene that closely resembles every Wii gamer's worst nightmare.^* And everyone seems to have iPhones this time around.

I felt the character of Toby seemed to be just a rehash of Dave from the first movie. Toby was awkward with love just like Dave, except even more so. At one point, his clumsiness caused him to break a drum and then flee the room. Then, at the end, he managed to get the girl anyway. Also, his sudden appearance during a concert helps to save the day for the Chipmunks (although during very different circumstances, of course; Dave merely had to show up to the concert in the 2007 movie, Toby actually went up on stage from where he was behind it). Dave shows up suddenly as well during the same scene, which makes it a double Seville whammy. Toby manages to get through the movie without changing much, though. I have no doubt that after the events of the Squeakquel, he'll probably fall back to his old gaming ways.

I mentioned that Simon's much more mature now. In fact, all three Chipmunks act more mature in the Squeakquel. They've definitely grown up a lot since the 2007 movie, where Simon stated that they're just kids. Despite how much the boys get on Dave's nerves, he's obviously been a good influence on them. At least Dave doesn't have to worry about being reminded of the size of Theodore's butt anymore.

He might have to worry about Ian Hawke, though. In the 2007 movie, Ian seemed modeled after former boy-band manager Lou Pearlman. Since 2007, Pearlman has been convicted and jailed for various offenses related to one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in American history. Ian, however, seems to have had better luck, for he's merely homeless. Apparently, when you get caught lip syncing, public backlash is random. No one cared that Boney M did it, since the practice was common at the time it was discovered. When Milli Vanilli did it, it was suddenly an unforgivable crime, even though the same guy was behind both Milli Vanilli and Boney M. When the Chipmunks let the cat out of the bag at the end of the 2007 movie, it apparently hasn't hurt their music career, but Ian Hawke has ended up practically bankrupt, for he eats out of Dumpsters while living in the basement of Jett Records, and surreptitiously brushes his teeth when he thinks no one is watching. Somehow, though, he can gain access to video recording equipment and a computer with an Internet connection long enough to upload videos to YouTube.

But this brings up a good point: the universe that the Chipmunks exist in is full of holes if you think about it. Everyone is willing to accept singing chipmunks, except when it's convenient to the plot that you don't accept singing chipmunks. Singing chipmunks have freakish upper body strength, even more so than certain mathematics nerds. There are other intelligent animals other than chipmunks, but they're few and far between. Music becomes popular very, very quickly, and if you upload something to any kind of public network, you can get everyone's attention with minimal effort (...okay, I'm willing to concede this point in light of evidence supporting the statement). Fans of the Chipmunks act just like fans of any other group, to the point where some fans obviously have romantic interests towards them. This may seem taboo in our society, but if they're intelligent creatures, would this still count as bestiality? It might not even count as pedophilia, since animals tend to mature at a much faster rate than humans. For all we know, the Chipmunks and the Chipettes are technically of age even though they're still going to high school.

That is not to say that these are critical problems within the old series or the new continuity. A universe with singing chipmunks must've gone through significant societal changes since the original debut of the band, and what is taboo to us might not be taboo to them. It's not unusual in a universe like this to go on a race around the world through potentially treacherous conditions (old continuity), or to threaten other sentient creatures with consumption (new continuity; the more I think about that, the more angry and horrible I feel at what the Chipettes were threatened with). You can get away with almost stepping on your fellow classmates and it's okay because they're short enough that it's a hazard of living.

Keeping pedophilia in mind, it's a good thing they updated the designs of both the Chipmunks and the Chipettes. Just like when the Chipmunks were introduced in the 2007 movie, the Chipettes are completely naked (with fur, of course) when they're first shown, and later given clothing to wear in order to fit in. In their original design, the Chipettes looked more like little girls than chipmunks, and naked little girls would've been hard to get past any kind of sensor. Plus, I prefer how they look now as fully chipmunk girls rather than the weird mostly-human designs from the 80's. Just like with their 80's designs, they were able to keep each Chipette distinctive. You can easily tell Brittany from her sisters, Jeanette and Eleanor. It could've been because I was really young at the time, or it could've been because the Chipettes weren't seen as often as the Chipmunks, but I could never remember the names of the Chipettes until the Squeakquel was announced. It helped that the individual names of the Chipmunks were mentioned in the theme song to their cartoon, and so every week their names were re-enforced in my mind, but no such luck with the Chipettes.

At least this movie did something that the 2007 movie didn't: instead of handwaving such a detail as unimportant, it explained how three chipmunks could escape from a locked cage. It also did what the other two movies didn't do, and put the focus on cover versions of popular songs rather than new music. The Chipmunks may have gotten their start singing original material, but it's become the trademark of both the Chipmunks and the Chipettes to cover other artists, and both the original Adventure and the 2007 movie contained very few cover songs. I mean, seriously. Wooly Bully?! That's the best they could do in 1987? Even the 2008 album contained a lot of original material, including a new Christmas song that's as good or possibly better than their original Christmas song. The majority of the music you hear in the Squeakquel are cover songs, but it's as if someone picked up the Billboard top 40 list for a random week during the summer of 2009 and chose a bunch of songs from it, then picked a few of the most overdone songs ever to round out the list (if you're wondering, it's an automatic half a point off for the presence of We Are Family), and wrote a couple original songs so that they could pretend they put a little effort into it (although the plot didn't really call for new music anyway). Not only that, but the soundtrack contains a bonus track that they obviously couldn't find a way to fit it into a movie already stuffed with music.^**

Despite the problems I can see within the movie and the franchise in general, it was very entertaining and full of laughs. I think an enjoyable time was had by everyone who saw the movie, despite everyone trying to leave during the credits. Myself, I'm hoping there's a third movie, but at the same time I hope they only do one if there's a good idea behind it, something much like this movie was, one that acted like it belonged with the old material while remaining firmly within the new canon. One that was fun and funny to watch, with enjoyable characters (although Toby should probably go) and (mostly) decent music.

So there you go: this is not the kind of movie you go to if you're looking for something intelligent. It's eye candy, pure and simple. Entertainment only. My recommendation is a conditional one: if you don't mind watching a cartoon script filmed in live action, then go ahead and watch the movie. By all means, if you're babysitting the kids, take them and they'll enjoy it immensely. If you're a hardcore Chipmunks fan and own all their albums, even the hard to find ones, you might like the Squeakquel if you liked the 2007 movie. For everyone else... at least there's The Chipmunk Adventure.

*I am probably the only person in Revelstoke, other than the theatre employees, who has seen the final scene to this movie. Honestly, would it kill everyone to wait until the credits are over to see if there's anything afterward? Has everyone's houses burst into flame at exactly the same time, somehow timed to the second to start when the end credits roll? True story: after the rest of my family finally saw Iron Man, on freaking DVD for crying out loud!, I asked them what they thought of Samuel L Jackson in the final scene and they said, "Huh? What Samuel L Jackson scene?"

**If they do, I wonder if they're going to cast someone as Mrs. Miller, the lady who became the guardian for the Chipettes in the original continuity when it became clear that the Boys of Rock and Roll couldn't stand living with the Girls of Rock and Roll. It'd probably be hard to replace Dody Goodman's portrayal, though.

***Hey, I think I figured out where Richard Heene and Mayumi Iizuka got their idea from.

*^ To me, it would make more sense if they had stolen one of the four (at the time) space shuttles that NASA was using, although given what happened to Columbia, I would rather they swiped one of the other ones. However, I do not know enough about rockets to know for sure what I am talking about, and the song speaks of rockets anyway, so maybe it's Elton John and Bernie Taupin who don't know what they're talking about? If you go further back, the song was inspired by a story by Ray Bradbury, so maybe he didn't know what he was talking about at the time? Early science fiction certainly had that problem.

^ Possibly PS3, PSP, and PS2 games as well, but I guess Sony didn't pay for any product placement; I could see nothing PlayStation brand in the movie.

^* Considering Emerson's outrage at a scene in Heroes where Claire Bennett ruined her hand in one of their disposal units, I'm surprised Nintendo doesn't sue the movie for showing that their product can break a plasma TV if you don't wear the wrist strap. Also, being Americans, I'm surprised the Chipmunks didn't sue Nintendo during the movie for not making controllers that are chipmunk-sized. As The Chipmunk Adventure showed, playing any kind of video games can be a full body sport when you're a chipmunk.

^** The bonus track sucks. I never thought I'd say this about a Chipmunks song, but there are a lot of songs that have been made in the last few years that wouldn't work as Chipmunks songs. As an aside, I honestly think that the Chipettes could do better than sing Katy Perry, but they managed to improve Hot N Cold, so I'm happy. I can even make out some of the lyrics that I can't in the original, oddly enough.

The Princess And The Frog -- Going Green in the 1920s

By Joseph Daniels on December 16, 2009 9:32 PM

Everything I know about life I learned from Disney movies.

-When you're a princess, you always have your head in the clouds. That's all you need, for your prince will always come for you, you don't need to lift a finger and go to them.

-As long as such characters aren't evil, everyone always gets along with the secondary characters, and it's all sunshine and happiness.

-Princes are daring, handsome, and will fall for you at first sight. They've always been bored with other women; all it took was to find the right one.

-Snakes are always evil, no exceptions.

-No protagonist, not even a supporting protagonist, will die. If a protagonist must die, no protagonist will die if they survive the first half of the movie.

-The main villain in any modern plot will always be rail thin and sinister, with few exceptions.

-And whenever you wish upon a star, your wish will always, always magically come true.

I don't know about you, but I think it's time for a new lesson. Keep in mind, there are spoilers ahead, so here's the spoiler-free, tl;dr version: I liked this movie a lot, found that it was sufficiently different from past material that Disney has put out, and feel that they're going in the right direction by throwing out the usual formula and shaking things up a lot. Anyway, spoilers, you have been warned.

You know, Disney was promoting Tiana as the first African American princess, but she spent about half the movie as a frog and not as a person. It's hard to claim that you've made a main character black, when she's green for a substantial part of the story. Still, I doubt that the prince could've made the kinds of leaps in character that he did as a person, so it's acceptable. And you don't have to be black to be African American anyway.

Tiana is not your ordinary Disney princess. Instead of being born into royalty, like Ariel or Jasmine or Snow White, she's more like Cinderella (and Snow White) in that she's a hard-working girl. Unlike Cinderella (or Snow White), Tiana has a goal she's working towards, and is very down to earth. She knows better than to rely solely on magic to get what she wants. Instead, she relies on her hard earned savings to help her achieve her dreams. She works two jobs, has been saving all her tips, and has grand dreams that are still realistic enough to come true. She is pretty overworked, but is so full of energy that it makes me wonder whether or not she's sneaking a Red Bull in between scenes. For someone who is graceful on her feet and moves around the restaurant with ease, it makes me wonder why she says she can't dance. Probably just shy.

Right when Tiana is about to achieve her dreams, her African American background bites her in the ass. It's still early in the movie, so she should've known it wouldn't be quite so easy. It's actually pretty daring of Disney, after making movies for years and pretending racism didn't exist (which is pretty easy when you tend to draw nothing but white characters and change the subject whenever Song of the South is brought up), to see them openly acknowledging that during the time of the movie's setting, black people were at a disadvantage because of their skin colour. I suspect that Tiana's father didn't have a choice when it came to serving in the Great War, but we never see enough of him to judge if he did want to serve the country in such a way or not.

Prince Naveen comes to town near the beginning of the movie, and he is definitely not Prince Charming, Prince Phillip, or even Prince Eric. Naveen has an eye for the ladies and openly flirts with anyone that does not have a Y chromosome. Even after becoming a frog, he seems to look upon other females with a favourable eye, as he did during one musical number, where he was surrounded by a redhead, brunette and some blondes, and mentioned so in the lyrics. He's more willing to play around all day than to do any sort of actual work, which is part of what causes him to be drawn in by the villain in the first place and changed into a frog. This doesn't change his personality at all, since all that seems to be on his mind are kisses, for he is far too happy to take advantage of old fairy tales if it means he gets attention from the ladies. He might've been a cliche if not for the fact that this is the 49th full length theatrical animated feature from Disney, but only their first to include a prince who only cares that the ladies are breathing and have a steady heartbeat. If I recall, it's usually characters like Gaston who possess such a character flaw (and even Gaston favoured one lady above the rest). Modern princes like Simba and Aladdin have only ever had their eyes on one girl. In creating such a character as Prince Naveen, Disney shows a willingness to throw out their playbook and change the rules.

Depending on the movie, Disney protagonists tend to be very durable. Mufasa was able to endure a stampede of wildebeest in The Lion King, and he probably would've survived being flung from the cliff as well if not for being trampled to death by the very same herd of wildebeest. Exactly zero characters died in prison in Robin Hood, even though food was scarcely provided and the cells didn't look too clean. In fact, no characters died at all during that movie, despite at least one madcap fight scene, and the scene at the end where the villains ran crazily into the burning castle). And Captain John Smith's musket wound in Pocahontas wasn't even animated (also, he didn't die from it, and the fight scene that was imminent late in the movie was averted). Likewise, Prince Naveen survives being whacked by two books, and Mama Odie herself has lived 197 years. She is rough with her snake, who seems not to mind such treatment and endures it well. Tiana's father does die off screen fighting in the Great War, but his durability was never shown on screen and so it's not known how much effort it took to kill him. He was also a supporting protagonist, and as the movie 2012 recently indicated, extreme peril will kill exactly one secondary character per scene. This rule isn't followed in The Princess and the Frog, but Disney does one up every single animated film they've done to date by first alluding to the father's death early on in the movie, and then showing the villain murder one of the main characters late in the movie. Because of the Walt Disney Company's past attitude towards character death, when said character was dying, all I could think was, "If you don't want the ending to completely suck, this character had better stay dead." The character was well written and extremely likable, and I wouldn't have minded if he survived the movie, but the moment he was mortally wounded, I felt that a death bed miracle would've weakened the movie and shown that Disney was still a company full of cowards. I think that's just sad.

The villain... okay, so Dr. Facilier is the most rail thin villain (physically, I mean) Disney ever came up with, so he still fits the stereotype that's existed since Jafar from Aladdin. When Jafar came along, it was clear that Disney had tossed their overweight villains away. Somehow. They probably needed Hercules's help. But anyway, Disney had tossed their overweight villains away and chose to use a new breed of slender, anorexic villains. Ratcliffe was a heavy exception, but still, most modern Disney villains look like they could desperately use a sandwich. I think the best villain they've had to date has been Gaston. Handsome, muscular, popular, and if not for his nasty jealous streak and pompous attitude, he could've easily been a prince. Dr. Facilier, though, isn't that strong a villain. He's more of a tempter than a true villain, kind of like Satan in the Bible, and is very limited in his power. If anything, Prince Naveen's valet, Lawrence, could've been the main villain, but his purpose in the movie was to illustrate that there are consequences when you take a title you didn't earn, consequences that Aladdin never faced when he used similar means to become Prince Ali.

I'm not sure that a stronger villain was needed, though. The Princess and the Frog is a down to earth movie, one which presents a main character who doesn't rely on magic or wishes or other people to help her meet her goal. She is strongly independent, and so when other characters are blindly wishing on a star and waiting for their princes to come, Naveen works hard, and even when she's a frog, she still works towards her goals and doesn't let something as silly as an amphibious transformation get in the way. Apparently it is easy being green after all.

I really liked that Tiana was taught at an early age that wishing isn't enough. A few years ago, Rhonda Byrne wrote a book called The Secret, and a movie was made to further promote the ideas within the book. When I watched it, it seemed to me like they were promoting the idea that if you just sat around and thought happy thoughts, those thoughts would magically come true, and if they didn't, it was entirely your fault for not believing hard enough. The Secret is nothing more than a modern day When You Wish Upon A Star, and helps to show how shallow those early Disney movies truly are. Cinderella thought real hard about her dreams as she scrubbed the floor and her fairy godmother suddenly appeared one day. Snow White thought real hard about the prince that would some day come and as she lay in a kind of magical death, her prince did come. Although Princess Aurora was asleep for a good portion of Sleeping Beauty, I bet she dreamed about her prince during her long sleep. In contrast, The Princess and the Frog shows that wishing is only the first step. After wishing comes doing, although a little bit of stargazing never hurt anyone.

A few things I'm just going to touch upon: the supporting cast was wonderful, since it consisted of characters that weren't one-dimensional or just thrown in to advance the plot. The music was decent enough to work, and the songs seemed like they were intended to be a celebration of early 20th century jazz rather than an attempt to be the next Be My Guest or Under The Sea. Plus, although Disney chose a popular R&B singer to perform their end song, they did not choose one of their Radio Disney stars like they did for The Lion King 1 1/2 and for that I am truly grateful. None of the cast members chewed the scenery, not even John Goodman. Keith David did a great job as the villain, a role he seems well suited for and has been indulging in a lot lately (he was not exactly a protagonist in the Numb3rs episode he guest starred in, and he lent his voice to the final boss of Dissidia: Final Fantasy, among other projects he's done). Somehow, the animation quality was even better in this movie than it was in Brother Bear, which leads me to believe that there are still places that Disney can take hand-drawn art. And the payoff at the end of the movie was kinda predictable, but for the target audience it was perfect. When I watched it, many people in the audience at the theatre were surprised when it happened, whereas I could see it coming from a mile away. It wasn't predictable in a cliche way, though. It felt more like the feeling of figuring out a mystery novel and then reading the end and being satisfied that I was right.

Lastly, this movie features a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) references to Disney's past animated movies. One scene looked like it was lifted from Sleeping Beauty, right down to the camera angle, and I couldn't help but wish that the dress in the scene started changing colours. In the same scene, you could see a mermaid costume, and in another scene, one of the jazz musicians was wearing a lion costume. There are many other interesting touches and references that can be picked up by ardent Disney fans, but aren't obvious enough to ruin the movie for casual fans.

In the end, The Princess and the Frog did nearly everything right and was a very enjoyable film to watch. I would definitely watch it again in the theatre. Disney showed that they're willing to do things they'd been too afraid to do in an animated feature, and if this continues, they may enjoy another golden age like they had in the early 90's. They might even be able to re-release The Black Cauldron in a few years, possibly with its deleted scenes restored to the film, but I suppose that's idle wishing.

I wonder if Tiana's Palace survived Katrina.

This article/review was previously posted to the animation site Keyframe Online, and more of my reviews can be read here.

Halo Legends: The Babysitter Impressions

By Geoffrey Barnes on November 9, 2009 11:54 PM

First off, I hope that anyone who wanted their first glimpse at next year's release of Halo Legends saw the incredibly limited premier of The Babysitter, animated by Studio 4°C, on Xbox Live via Halo Waypoint Saturday. It was free for only that day! If you missed it, I'm sure you'll be able to see it somehow in the future.

Ambivalent expectations are abound for how Halo Legends will turn out. The Animatrix was a mostly pretty good rendition of the Matrix world in anime form, and the series' premise made the transition perfectly considering aspects of it were inspired by Ghost in the Shell. We, logically, expected similar results with Batman: Gotham Knight, but it turned out to be mostly wasted potential. Judging the package solely by the quality of The Babysitter would be silly, but I was surprised at how good it turned out to be.

The Babysitter details the story of three Orbital Shock Drop Troopers (aka ODST; possibly in relation to some game) soldiers tasked with the mission of assassinating a Prophet. The mission isn't that big of a deal, if the soldiers' mannerisms are to be believed. But the real problem here is that they're being assisted by a Spartan, soldiers seen as the elite of the group -- but not the Elites, don't you know. Can the soldiers and the Spartan possibly work together? This is the question The Babysitter seeks to answer. And it does! But it's not like I'm going to answer that question here.

It only had 20 minutes to tell its tale, but The Babysitter did that fine. Note the use of the word "fine," as things admittedly played out rather expectantly. Still though, it did its job of being entertaining, which is, you know, fine.

Due credit should be given to the animation, which looks absolutely spectacular in high definition. At times, you'll wish the short took a little longer to pan around the environments so you could take them in entirely. The music is also great, even if they're mainly remixes of existing music from all of the Halo games. It's been said that the franchise's musical score is on par with a number of theatrical films, so it all feels right in place here.

I really hope The Babysitter is, at least, a sign of things to come for the entirety of the Halo Legends package. If you want to see any of the future installments, make sure you look at the official Halo website to see when they're on. Don't miss them! Well, unless you're planning on buying the whole package on DVD or Blu-Ray in February.

BLEACH The Movie 2: The DiamondDust Rebellion - The Real Double Dragons

By Angela Moseley on September 10, 2009 9:45 AM

Two years ago I found myself excited to see BLEACH The Movie: Memories of Nobody, but after watching the film several times over I found myself underwhelmed by the story. Since then I've come to expect very little from BLEACH movies and shonen anime movie adaptations in general. I found myself so uninterested that it took exactly a year to actually watch BLEACH: The DiamondDust Rebellion after I downloaded the fan subs. It wasn't until the current domestic release of The DiamondDust Rebellion on DVD that I found the motivation to watch the movie. I wouldn't call it a great movie but compared to Memories of Nobody the plot, characters and in some cases, the animation, are an excellent improvement. Now I find myself rather disappointed that I didn't take the time to see and perhaps review it a year ago, because the second BLEACH movie is quite good despite some shortcomings.

In the overall BLEACH anime storyline The DiamondDust Rebellion takes place between seasons seven and nine. In the World of the Living members of the Soul Society's royal family are transporting an important artifact known as the King's Seal. Tenth Squad captain Toushiro Hitsugaya, along with his lieutenant, Rangiku Matsumoto, and various squad members are charged with making sure the procession arrives at its destination safely. Unfortunately, the procession never arrives with the King's Seal as they are attacked and nearly wiped out by two female arrancar. Hitsugaya personally takes part in the fight against the powerful women until he's stabbed by another foe wearing a Hollow mask. He clashes swords with the masked man and manages to get a glimpse of his face before the fight ends. Suddenly, the 10th Squad captain goes silent and turns to give Matsumoto a pained look of sadness before pursuing the masked man and the stolen King's Seal.

This line turned out to be so true given this film's liberal use of flashbacks. And now for a shameless plug-- visit our BLEACH the Movie 2 gallery here.

The next day Ichigo Kurosaki happens upon the scene of the massacre and artifact theft while out making his rounds as a Substitute Soul Reaper. He meets up with the captain of the 2nd Squad, Soi Fong, who begrudgingly fills him in on some of the details. After the 2nd Squad leaves Ichigo is joined by his Quincy rival and friend, Uryuu Ishida. As Ichigo tells Uryuu of what he learned an injured and barely conscious Hitsugaya stumbles in front of them and collapses. Meanwhile in the Soul Society, the 10th Squad is put under house arrest as their captain did not return after the fight and has gone missing. Matsumoto feels as if Hitsugaya had some kind of connection with the masked man and implores Renji Abarai, and Rukia Kuchiki to look into the matter for her.

Meanwhile, an unconscious Hitsugaya dreams about his past when he was still a student learning to become a Soul Reaper. There he meets and becomes fast friends with a slightly older boy. The dream ends on a disturbing note as the boy is executed by the Soul Society right in front of his eyes. In the World of the Living, Hitsugaya regains consciousness in Ichigo's room. Without saying much to Ichigo, Hitsugaya returns to sleep and sneaks out the next morning, leaving his captain's haori behind.

Yeah, Hitsugaya is just a jerk like that... Then again, it isn't hard to make Ichigo angry.

Ichigo isn't easily fooled and attempts to stop Hitsugaya from leaving. It's then that Ichigo utters the name "Kusaka," and demands to know if it has any connection to the stolen King's Seal. Hitsugaya then attacks Ichigo without warning and sends the Substitute Soul Reaper reeling. (At this point the name "Kusuka" was never actually mentioned by anyone. How did Ichigo learn of it? The audience is simply left to assume Hitsugaya uttered it while unconscious. This is a minor plot hole but it is an annoying one.) Before Ichigo can recover he's attacked by the same two arrancar women responsible for stealing the King's Seal. During the attack he blacks out and when he wakes up Hitsugaya is gone. Instead he finds Renji and Rukia, and they inform him of the situation with the now rogue 10th Squad captain. Ichigo mentions the name Kusaka and returns Hitsugaya's discarded haori to Renji and Rukia. Renji then returns to the Soul Society to find out about Kusaka.

In the World of the Living Hitsugaya continues to wander the streets alone, even as Ichigo and friends search for him. In the Soul Society, Renji passes on the name Kusaka, and with help begins to research the name. A few Soul Reapers discover the importance of Kusaka's name when all information pertaining to him is altered or missing. In the meantime, a group of Soul Reapers track down Hitsugaya and order him to return to the Soul Society. Instead the boy captain resists and attacks the squad, escaping with further injuries in the process. This act labels him a traitor and a swift order for his execution is given. At the same time Ichigo figures out why Hitsugaya has gone rogue and vows to find him before he's killed by the Soul Society.

Talk about overkill. Someone's going to come home and find their house buried under all that purple ice.

All in all, The DiamondDust Rebellion is satisfying to watch. The plot is much more enjoyable and less predictable than Memories of Nobody. With that said, I did have a number of objections with the story largely centered on unresolved plot points. The biggest part of the story was poorly explained, or just outright unexplained. When Hitsugaya and Kusaka originally formed their zanpaktou (or swords) from their souls, they both ended up wielding Hyourinmaru. Was it implied their friendship was so close they ended up with the same powers? Was it just an amazing coincidence? Or a little bit of both? Did Hyourinmaru serve as one entity for two Soul Reapers or was he born twice from Hitsugaya and Kusaka's souls? Furthermore, why is such a thing frowned upon in the Soul Society? There was never any real evidence to suggest that two Soul Reapers having the same exact abilities was a problem. Since these little facts are a major driving force behind the movie I would have expected them to be better explained. Instead everything is largely left to audience speculation.

The rest of the movie is handled well, as battles are fast-paced and always fun to watch. A majority of the Soul Reaper cast makes an appearance in this film. Just like the first movie much of it is fan service, but because the story is better developed having multiple characters around no longer feels like simple pandering. Some fans may be disappointed by how slowly the first half of the movie unfolds versus the action-packed second half. I had no problems with the slower dialogue focused pacing, but your enjoyment may vary.

We all know what captain Kyoraku is thinking here. He's really going to miss his favorite flowery kimono.

Character development was limited in this movie but at the very least everyone was in character. In a movie based on a popular action series it's rare to see any kind of character development at all. The movie did a nice job of exploring some of Hitsugaya's past while simultaneously revealing the lengths the young Soul Reaper will go in order to pursue his beliefs. At the same time Ichigo's received some development as he found himself most able to understand and relate to a forlorn Hitsugaya.

We all know who's about to get owned. Sometimes the best way to talk to a friend is with your fist. (At least it is in anime.)

For the most part the animation was fluid and generally looked better than the anime series. Some scenes looked a bit strange with an animation quality on par with the regular series. Generally the animation started off very strong and then became weaker toward the end of the movie before regaining its quality. It wasn't a huge issue, but at times I found myself wondering if I'd really just sat through a movie that originally had a theatrical release. Shiro Sagisu returned to work on The DiamondDust Rebellion's musical score and as expected the instrumental songs are excellent. Orchestrated violin pieces help set the movie's more somber moods while action-themed guitar pieces highlighted the movie's numerous battle scenes. Of the music, the orchestrated violin score remained unique to the film. The rest of The DiamondDust Rebellion's score was incorporated into the anime starting with episode 168.

Because this review only covers the subtitled version of the movie I'm not able to comment on the dub-- as I was unable to a year ago with Memories of Nobody. All of the dub's voice actors reprise their roles for this film. So if you enjoy hearing the BLEACH anime in English the DiamondDust Rebellion is more of the same. If you dislike the dub, then you'll want to stick to the subtitled version of this film.

Who knew a film that focused on Soul Society's most sulky character wandering around half-dead could be so interesting?

Film adaptations of popular anime series are rarely epic, and are often little more than an interesting side story or adventure. The DiamondDust Rebellion is certainly a little better than the average Shonen anime movie adaption, but it's far from being a masterpiece. If you hated the fairly predictable plot of Memories of Nobody the second BLEACH movie is a refreshing change of pace that occasionally keeps you guessing. The story and character development aren't completely focused on Toushiro Hitsugaya, making it a decent watch for anyone who's not a huge fan of the silver-haired Soul Reaper boy. But if you absolutely hate Hitsugaya as a character this movie may not be for you. For anyone else who follows BLEACH in some form on a regular or moderate basis The DiamondDust Rebellion is worth watching at least once. A major plot issue aside, this film rises beyond the typically low expectations of a Shonen anime film.

Clannad -- The Family From Key

By Joseph Daniels on July 20, 2009 11:58 PM

It is easier for me to criticize something than for me to praise it. I think I prefer watching something with flaws and playing something with glitches or obviously poor choices in design, because at the end of my experience, I can rip it a new one, even if I intend to play it again. Granted, some things I don't ever want to see again, but others are good enough despite their flaws.

I find myself in a difficult position, then. I wish to write a credible review for this series, but I think I had only one observation about the show that I can make any kind of comment about. In fact, I thought that it was one of the best shows ever made in Japan, and I wish more anime could be like this.

Yatta!

Sometimes I like to start with telling what didn't work, then go into what did work when I'm writing about video games. But Clannad had so many good things going for it that I don't think I'd have enough room to mention it all.

The one thing I noticed that seemed to happen in Clannad more often than in other anime was that the characters would get emotional and cry a lot. It happened with such frequency that you could practically set your watch to it. It's something I've hardly seen in an anime show, but most of the anime I've seen involves battles and/or wolf girls. I suppose this might happen more often in drama shows.

The characters probably cried a lot because they could break the fourth wall and read the script. And for someone like me, I have a small list of things I watch when I need a good cry. The Lion King. The second season finale of Numb3rs. And this series. Never before have I seen a show where the music swells so emotionally and the characters go through such a rough time that you can't help but feel for them. Sure, I shed a single tear or two when watching other shows, but Clannad has almost had me fully crying on more than one occasion. The second series is where they really turn on the pathos, but this series certainly has enough of it to go around.

STARFISH! LOVE ME! LOVE ME!

The first series is made up of a few major arcs relating to the main characters of the show (the ones that appear in the opening credits), and my favourite out of all of them was the very first one, Fuko's story arc. It wasn't until she started disappearing from everyone's hearts that I realized that the series had supernatural elements, but from the realization came a greater respect for the writers of the show, because the various supernatural elements didn't overwhelm the story, nor did they take over. And the best thing about them was that they were introduced as a way to bring about the conclusion of the second series without rushing things or adding a hasty explanation at the end.

Throughout it all, various scenes occur in a Hidden World, one that was hinted at in various points of the story, but never fully explained, owing to the fact that a second series was planned. In my Spice And Wolf review, I complained that writing a Japanese series this way might not work out, but I think in Clannad's case, since it was very popular, they didn't have to worry. Plus, the story found its natural breaking point at the end of the first series, so if there wasn't a second, then it wouldn't have mattered whether everyone understood the nature of the Hidden World or not. And if they did find out that they weren't going to do a second series, then they could just as easily have done an OVA to explain it all, afterward.

The theme of the series is family, of course. The female lead, Nagisa, is fond of the Dango Daikazoku (the Big Dango Family) and the anime itself is named after a Gaelic word which has its own interesting origin. The music group of the same name had to come up with a name for themselves on the fly, and so they came up with "the family from Dore", or "Clann As Dobhar" in Gaelic, which they abbreviated to Clannad. Since then, the name Clannad has adopted a more general meaning of "family", rather than being the name of a family from a certain place. It is this general meaning that the creators of Clannad had in mind when they first came up with it.

The original form of Clannad was a visual novel developed by Japanese video game company Key, and was arranged in two parts, School Life (which would become the first anime series) and After Story (which would become the second anime series). Depending on how you play and what choices you made, you would either find yourself confronted with a bad ending, or if you've collected what you're supposed to collect, you can receive the good ending.

Rated Mature for random acts of violins!

The first series of the anime, as it focuses on School Life, only tangentially explores the overarching concepts that the second series would focus on, that of the hidden world and of the destiny of Nagisa and the main character, Tomoya. All the while, little seeds were planted, seeds that would fully mature in the second series and serve as a means to bring about the conclusion.

Throughout the series, and with all the tribulations and triumphs of the group, it's amazing to watch how the characters grow and change, becoming closer to each other. Especially Tomoya, who started out as a loner and delinquent, and Nagisa, who started out weak and shy. You never know where life will take you, and certainly, if Tomoya and Nagisa hadn't met that day, under such a silly circumstance (she suddenly stopped walking and declared "Sweet bean bread!" and it would've been so easy for Tomoya to just shrug such an event off and continue on his own merry way), things might've turned out very different for everyone.

I have but gently touched upon the music and not even mentioned the visuals for the series, both of which are top notch; instead I've spent quite a bit of time just talking about the series in general. I haven't even mentioned the humour, or the charming ending song, or the way poor Sunohara gets treated (kinda like the omega wolf in a pack). I guess the previous thousand words I've wasted amount to one long way of saying, watch the show if you like drama, it's one of the best I've ever seen. I imagine I'll have more substantial things to say in my After Story review.

To be continued...

Spice And Wolf -- I'm A Little Wolf Inside A Cart

By Joseph Daniels on July 8, 2009 11:59 PM

It is a staple of modern fantasy to focus on the warrior caste. People can't get enough of strong adventurers who arm themselves with swords and staves and go out on a sacred quest to slay dragons, rescue top-heavy princesses, and get nagged incessantly until you agree to take them with you before you go off to explore new lands. Or something like that. But how does a world such as that turn? Who handles all the comings and goings of people and their property? How does any nation survive in these worlds, other than by conquering other nations and defending their own borders?

Spice and Wolf chooses to explore the economics of a fantasy world, while telling an entertaining story about a wolf goddess who lives near a small town. Her worshipers suddenly decide to convert to a new religion and no longer need her, and so the goddess, Horo the Wise, gets homesick and chooses to travel with a merchant named Lawrence, on the one condition that he takes her to her homeland in the north. All the while, she is eager to see how the world has changed since last she traveled.

Horo is quite the sexy, yet somehow cute character, especially with the way she handles her tail. As a wolf goddess, she keeps her ears and tail, even in human form. And unlike some characters who sport animal features, Horo's ears and tail aren't treated as a couple extra lines to draw. The best animal girls in anime are the ones that actually move their body naturally, and that includes their extra appendages. Horo flicks and swivels her ears in reaction to her environment, and her tail often betrays her mood.

Lawrence is quite a clever merchant, and the two of them make for an interesting odd couple, with Horo's haughty nature clashing with Lawrence's maturity and calm, rational manner (except with things go bad, which happens rather often). Then again, if both characters were cut from the same cloth, it would weaken the story. The story itself consists of two arcs, with Horo meeting Lawrence acting as the beginning of the first arc. There is also an OVA episode that takes place between the two arcs, available only on DVD.

No one suspected the dog of poisoning their food. No one ever suspects the dog...

One of my favourite things about the series is that, despite Horo being a goddess, she still used proper crop science to fulfill her agricultural duties for the small town she lived at. She understood how to keep the land fertile, even if the village didn't.

The anime may be a little too complicated for some, because Lawrence's dealings can get quite intricate at times, to the point where you'd have to rewatch the anime to try to see all the ins and outs of his more involved schemes. And I found the second half to be weaker than the first half, due to a side plot involving wolves that seemed to come out of nowhere, then return to that nowhere once they were defeated. It's clear that there's something antagonistic going on between Horo and the other wolves, but it wasn't explored as well as it could've in the series.

It's for this reason that I'm glad there's a second series. The thing about Japanese shows, especially anime, is that a series generally only gets one season, so when writing the story, everything needs to fall into place at the end, all dangling plot threads should be handled, and a suitable ending found. Whether this ending is final or not is up to the writers, but sometimes, just riding off into the sunset is a good enough ending, because there's a possibility of more adventure. After all, if a series gets to continue for a second season, the writers can then come up with a new story. There have been some exceptions (most notably, Clannad got a second series so that they could finish the story they started, and nearly everything that Shonen Jump has started literally has no end), but if an anime ends in the middle of a story, that's usually it, there isn't any more, and any opportunity to explain what's happening is gone forever.

Air!

It will be interesting to see what Funimation will do with the series when it finally brings it over to North American audiences in December. It will also be interesting to see how closely the anime resembles the novels when they start being published in English at around the same time, with the manga being translated and then published the April after the first novel debuts. It may explain why the wolves appeared during the second anime arc, if they appeared in some of the novels.

The new anime series makes its debut very, very, very soon (it might've aired by now, depending on what time it is in Japan right now), and an OVA has already been released as sort of a reintroduction to the characters and as a way to lead into the new series. Horo is as cute and spicy as ever and I, for one, can't wait.

Geek News Roundup for 05/24/09 - The bit of geek news before E3

By Angela Moseley on June 1, 2009 11:42 PM

Remember in a previous Geek News Roundup when I mentioned that FUNimation would be streaming the newest episodes of One Piece within an hour of the Japanese broadcast on May 30th? For the time being the deal between FUNimation and Toei Animation is effectively dead, unfortunately. A flaw was discovered on FUNimation's servers that allowed a person to access and leak the episode via bittorrent a full day before it was set to air on Japanese TV. As a result FUNimation has indefinitely suspended its plans for a One Piece simulcast, and has also removed its One Piece portals from Hulu and Joost. Additionally, the company has pulled its stream of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood from its official page, although the episodes can still be found on Hulu and Youtube.

While it can be assumed that Toei Animation most likely had a hand in One Piece's simulcast removal, FMA was probably removed for security reasons. In other words, it is doubtful at the moment that OP will be simulcasted any time soon, as having the episodes leaked before they even aired on Japanese TV was a disaster for FUNimation. At the same time FMA's removal could be simply related to security upgrades. FUNimation isn't completely faultless, as its security was effectively non-existent. However, there is no doubt that due to the actions of one impatient person anime simulcasts may have taken a step backward. The ramifications beyond having the OP simulcast suspended (or canceled) will become eventually become clear.

In other (less aggravating) animation news, Disney Pixar's Up is out, and NPR has an extensive interview with the film's director and co-writer, Pete Docter. The interview reveals much of the creative process at Disney Pixar, and why such films appeal to both children and adults. In short, it is a must listen for any animation buff. Unsurprisingly, the movie is doing quite well at the box office.

While animation fans are focusing on Disney Pixar's newest work, gamers are gearing up for E3 which starts tomorrow. While Sony may be on the minds of many gamers (PSP Go anyone?), Microsoft has quite a few announcements planned. The software giant confirmed the existence of the Zune HD and the supplanting of the Xbox Live video marketplace with the Zune marketplace. Also, EGM rose from its grave when Steve Harris, the founder of the magazine (re)acquired the publishing and printing rights from Ziff Davis. It is unclear if any of the former EGM staff will return to the magazine. And I'm certain no one doubted for a moment the new Lunar remake would find its way to North America. The only question was would Ubisoft pick up the title, as they did with Lunar: Dragon Song. Thankfully that awful reality will never come to pass. Xseed Games announced it has acquired the rights to translate and release Lunar: Silver Star Harmony in North America, as well as a handful of other games.

In a move that should have been made years ago, Time Warner is ready to completely separate from AOL. This may sound rude but, TW should have taken AOL behind the corporate office and put it out of ~~our~~ its misery shortly after the dot-com bust. And GM has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today. If all goes as planned GM will emerge from bankruptcy as a smaller and more profitable company. As it stands today the company is anything but profitable, as its value on the stock market has fallen to about 74 cents a share. Ouch.

Gundam Unicorn looks interesting

By Geoffrey Barnes on May 12, 2009 11:11 PM

I usually don't pay too much attention to anime news that much, since I don't watch it on a regular basis anymore. So I'm using that as the reason why I haven't said anything about Gundam Unicorn here, which was announced for an anime adaptation a few weeks ago. Had I known, I definitely would have made a post.

That's because I'm actually a big fan of the U.C. Gundam series like the original, 0083, 08th MS Team, etc. And that's not to say I don't like non-U.C. series either. For instance, G Gundam is a perfectly enjoyable homage to a bygone era where mecha series didn't take themselves seriously. Heck, the fact that it even exists is ironic, given how the anime most responsible for starting the flock of serious mecha shows was the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The fact that a series exists for the sole purpose of going against the conventions established by its predecessor is respectable on principle, though it's also good that the series is a quality work.

But enough about that; the surprises here are that (1) Gundam Unicorn is actually a series instead of a previously speculated movie, and (2) it's a U.C. series, which a lot of people understandably thought were long gone. The fact that people thought a new U.C. series would never come about (unless it was some short OAV series with around six episodes, or one that would just stay a light novel series like Unicorn) is quite reasonable, given the success of both Gundam SEED series and Gundam 00. Not that those series are bad by any means (though Gundam SEED Destiny comes close), but they don't exude the same feeling of seriousness and turmoil that the U.C. editions have. Also, the stories of numerous characters in the same universe told from varying perspectives is an intriguing concept that no one who's a fan of the older Gundam franchises wants to see die.

And these are the very same people who just happen to love nostalgia, and the creators of this series realize that completely. The character designs from the picture above are very reminiscent of many older anime from the late 70s and early 80s. The creators seemingly have every intention of aiming this at the older fans who regard the aforementioned era as the height of anime's quality (the truth of which is completely subjective). And just in time too, since Gundam has its 30th anniversary this year.

This is the first time in a while that I'm looking forward to an anime series, so I'm hoping this one isn't a let down. But I'm optimistic about its chances of being a quality work, given the promise it has and the team that's working on it. The fact that it's planned for a simultaneous worldwide release is a bonus.

When it's good to be wrong

By Angela Moseley on May 9, 2009 11:43 PM

Earlier this week I wrote that Moribitio: Guardian of the Spirit was most likely dead on Adult Swim. After all, the series was nowhere to be found in the newly revised on air schedule and only the first ten episodes were actually aired. Fortunately, today's anime news has proven me wrong. Moribito will return to Adult Swim this summer, although the network's official schedule has yet to be updated. Normally, I'd write about how glad I am to be wrong, but it looks as if what I originally surmised back in March wasn't too off base. At the very least this series should be an interesting companion to Mobile Suit Gundam 00.

Image Courtesy of Anime Screenshots.

Gundam 00 - Sooner than expected

By Angela Moseley on May 4, 2009 4:13 AM

I never directly mentioned it on this blog, but I honestly didn't think the Sci Fi Channel would air season 2 of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 until August or September. At the time I felt it didn't matter if the English actors reprised their roles or not, the dubbing process would still be long and slow. Why? Because that's the way it has always been. This time I'm glad to say that my assumptions were wrong. The Sci Fi Channel just recently announced it would begin airing season two of Gundam 00 on June 29th. Considering Gundam 00 just ended in Japan on March 29th a stateside release in June is very reasonable. Even if the dubbing process isn't complete I'm certain it'll be finished without causing any broadcast delays.

If you have yet to watch the first season of this series Bandai Entertainment has you covered. It currently has the entire English dub of the first season up on its Youtube channel. Subtitled episodes are available, but only up to episode 8. If Crunchyroll.com is more your flavor Bandai also has an official channel there.

On a quick note: Adult Swim has begun airing Code Geass R2 again, as promised. The original reason for the delay was the lack of dubbed episodes. It seems as if Adult Swim is attempting to make amends by airing two new episodes of Code Geass starting on May 9th. According to the current schedule the series will end its run on June 6th, and reruns of Blood+ will take over that time slot. There does not seem to be a new series slated to replace Code Geass, instead two new episodes of BLEACH will be shown each week starting in June. At this point it really does look like Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit is dead in the water.

Blood+ - Vampire Lore Slightly Re-imagined

By Angela Moseley on April 30, 2009 4:13 PM

A few years ago I watched a neat a little movie on DVD called Blood: The Last Vampire. I watched Blood and thought to myself, 'Wow, they ought to make this into a TV series!' Then less than a year later it was announced Blood+, a 50 episode adaptation of Blood, would be aired on Adult Swim. Somewhere in the announcement was the fact that Hans Zimmer had also composed the series' musical score. I knew then Blood+ wasn't a series to be missed. Thankfully the show lived up to my high expectations.

Saya Otonashi is a teenager who lives in Okinawa with her adopted father, George and two foster brothers, Kai and Riku. Other than the curious fact that she has no memories of her life beyond the last year, Saya is a happy and normal teenager. One evening she returns to school to fetch her forgotten track shoes and is attacked by a bat-like monster. The large monster, known as a chiropteran is intent on killing her. (In Blood+ chiropterans are immortal vampire-like beings that have the ability to disguise themselves as humans.)

She suddenly runs into a mysterious and handsome man who knows her name. In a brief flashback Saya recognizes him but the memory is still hazy. He utters the words, "Saya, you must fight now," as he places a katana in her hands. Before Saya has a chance to inquirer about her situation he slits his palm, drinks some of his blood, and kisses her forcing the blood down her throat. The bloody kiss causes a strange reaction in Saya as her brown eyes turn blood red. She then cuts her own thumb, causing blood to flow into a small channel built into the sword's design.

Extracurricular school activities may include slaying monsters in the bloodiest way possible.

With a mighty swing Saya slices the monster in half and her blood causes it to crystallize. (The end result is more like being turned into stone than crystal.) Saya then returns to normal as she faints from seeing herself covered in the monster's blood. The man named Hagi (pronounced "Haji"), carries her to safety before disappearing. Two days later, the incident at school has been completely covered up by the U.S. military. At home Saya overhears George talking to another man named David. Later the man reveals himself to be a member of an organization known as the Red Shield.

The Red Shield's sole purpose is to hunt down and kill chiropterans, but to complete that goal they need Saya. Her blood alone has the ability to completely destroy the chiropterans via crystallization. Shortly after their talk, George is attacked by former friend of his who has transformed into a chiropteran, and George is hospitalized. Saya's father is then kidnapped by the U.S. military under contract from the powerful pharmaceutical company known as Cinq Flèches. Saya along with back up from members of the Red Shield infiltrate the hospital hoping to rescue George. Unfortunately, he was given an injection that will transform him into a chiropteran. He pleads with his daughter to kill him before that can happen--which she does. Initially Saya is hesitant to fight, but joins the Red Shield in order to prevent the further proliferation of chiropterans.

Hagi and Saya. Not to point out the obvious, but normal people don't have have 5-inch claws...

As far as plot goes Blood+ seems simple enough on the surface. An evil organization, Cinq Flèches, is interested in creating monsters for power and profit. Meanwhile, an opposing organization, the Red Shield wishes to destroy the monsters and make the world safe for humanity, and Saya is their secret weapon. Thankfully the series has a lot more depth and creativity to it under the surface.

The real story takes place 100 years in the past with the discovery of a mummified chiropteran corpse by two scientists. Within the womb of the corpse two cocoons containing living twin baby girls are found. One girl would be raised as a normal human child, and is named Saya. The other girl, Saya's little sister, would be raised in complete isolation as a test subject and later be named Diva. It is eventually learned that both girls are chiropteran queens and their blood has the power to turn ordinary people into chiropterans. From this past the present day strife between the Red Shield (those who support Saya) and Cinq Flèches (those supporting Diva) organizations is created.

Diva to Saya: "You were a shitty big sister, so could you please die already?"

As far as character development goes much of it is very complex but I prefer to focus on Saya and her foil, Diva. Saya has to struggle with the knowledge that not only is she a chiropteran, but that she's the only one who can easily kill them. While it gives the series a typical kill-your-own-kind feel, Saya is not without fears or doubts and feels badly for the suffering caused by her kind. Diva is Saya's twin, but she has a completely different outlook on life. She enjoys inflicting pain and suffering upon others, and has no problem with being or turning people into chiropterans. Ultimately, Blood+ has a deep nature-versus-nurture theme and it's important to remember Saya's and Diva's situations could have easily been reversed.

A sample of some of Blood+'s excellent soundtrack. Hans Zimmer is the man.

The animation and music in Blood+ are of top notch quality, as expected from a show produced by Production I.G. A lot of work was put into creating the series and it really shows. All fifty episodes of Blood+ feature gorgeous, high-quality animation. The only thing that manages to top the series' animation values is the musical score. As I mentioned this series features a soundtrack composed by Hans Zimmer and performed by Mark Mancina. In addition to the wonderful compositions, the openings and closings are performed by Japanese pop and rock singers such as HYDE, Jinn, UVERworld and Angela Aki. What results musically is a fusion of a big Hollywood movie score and some of the best J-pop and rock around. I have yet to come across another anime series with a soundtrack on par with Blood+.

The series dubbed version is decent, but far from great. Having only seen the dubbed version on Adult Swim I can't compare the actors to their Japanese counterparts. Kari Wahlgren does a fairly good job in the lead role of Saya and as someone who's desperately trying to learn about her past. Wahlgren also gives a pretty spirited performance as the spoiled and cheerfully evil Diva.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about Crispin Freeman and his role as Hagi. Freeman is one of my favorite voice actors, but he didn't seem to fit the soft-spoken role of Hagi. His monotone performance bordered on frustrating at times. It makes me question how of it was Hagi's reserved personality (who despite this is a likable character), and how much of it was a mismatched role for Freeman. I had a few issues with lackluster performances from supporting actors, but fortunately they were only supporting roles. I'd recommend watching this one subbed, unless you absolutely prefer dubs.

Chiropterans in Blood+ give new meaning to the term "ugly as sin."

As a fan of Blood: The Last Vampire, I found Blood+ to be disappointing on some levels. Saya isn't the kickass vampire queen she was in the short movie, and the plot of Blood+ felt really clichéd at times. Despite my minor complaints the series is still a solid and refreshing take on vampire lore. The orchestrated score is more fitting for a Hollywood movie than an anime series, making it a welcome rarity. Fans of Hans Zimmer and or Mark Mancina may want to watch this series just for the music alone. If you love vampires, horror, and a touch of history and science then Blood+ is probably already on your to see list. Even if you're not a fan of vampire themed series Blood+ is still worth your time.

Images lovingly pilfered from Anime Stocks.

My picks from the spring 2009 anime lineup

By Angela Moseley on April 11, 2009 11:07 PM

Spring is here and I find myself participating in the newest spring 2009 anime premiers. In the past I wouldn't have been able to do so because of school, but having graduated nearly a year ago I find the lack of homework to be refreshing. What better way to spend my free time than to enjoy watching the newest series airing in Japan? It beats waiting nearly a year for them to be released domestically, if at all. So far four shows have caught my eye, although Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was an automatic given since it was announced last August. So without further ramble I give you four shows from this season's anime lineup that I plan to follow until completion.

At Damage Control we like to push the envelope a bit. Or that's what I'd like all of you now turned off male viewers to believe.

Eden of the East:
Saki Morimi is visiting Washington D.C. while on a trip with her college class and decides to visit the White House. Once Saki reaches her destination she is disappointed by how far away from the White House the tourist gate is. She tosses a few coins over the gate causing nearby police officers to question her. Before the officers can reach her a naked man- holding only a gun and a cell phone- asks if she needs help. The officers turn their attention to him but he disappears when a passing truck obscures their view of him. They proceed to chase after him leaving the scene but hid really hid behind a bush. The naked man then approaches Saki and horrified she recoils a little, before giving him her coat, scarf and hat to wear. They then go separate ways until Saki forgets she left her passport and wallet in her coat pocket. The man, however has no memory of who is he, why he's in D.C. and, why he's naked.

I'll admit right now that I only watched the show is because a preview on Random Curiosity. To specify, I saw a naked guy and decided to read more about the series. I then saw the opening intro and the fact that Production I.G. did the animation, it was enough to get me to watch an entire episode. I believe my initial reason wanting to see the show is simple, it's because I'm an open-minded person and the animation was gorgeous. Ahem.

All and all, I liked the first episode of the show. The fact that Akira (the guy's alias) purposely had his memory erased but seems to have ties to a major organization, whether it be military or terroristic in nature is pretty intriguing. Given how he a Japanese guy, was dumped naked in Washington D.C. near the White House of all places can't bode well. As for Saki she's just caught up in the middle of everything, but I'd like to see how she fits into the plot. And yes, there was quite a bit of humor surrounding Akira's nudity. I just hope that this 11-episode series will end on a satisfying note.

Where's Roy Mustang when you really need him to melt ice? Probably slacking off somewhere, as usual.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood:
Given that this series a is redo of the original anime and aims to follow the manga closely it'll be hard not to make comparisons between the two. I personally have only read some of the manga, albeit out of order. So I was a bit surprised to see the series starting off in Central. Ed and Al are chasing after a rouge alchemist known as the Freezing Alchemist (or Ice Alchemist depending on the translation). On orders from Roy Mustang, Ed and Al must apprehend Issac McDougall, who proves to be adept at escaping the authorities. The Ice Alchemist's ultimate plan is to take revenge on Führer Bradley for all of the atrocities he was forced to commit during the Ishbalian War as a solider.

Because I've watched the original FMA to completion I am completely unable to watch Brotherhood with a fresh outlook. I suspect that for much of the early parts of the show nothing will come as a huge surprise or revelation to me, except for where the manga and original anime series drastically diverge. As one who experienced FMA only in its anime form I already know who's who, so now the question is how different is everything going to be in this faithful manga adaption. To a certain degree I'm a little envious of those who will be watching FMA for the first time. Still, this new FMA feels just like watching another season of the original and it is definitely worth any fan's time. My only gripe with this new series would be the lack of inspiring music this time around, but then again it's only the first episode.

Elite knights or not, it's best not to take on an angry man wearing a leopard head. As if leopards by themselves weren't fearsome enough.

Guin Saga:
One day the Kingdom of Palo is invaded by the Mongohlian army, and the king and queen are slain. The two twin heirs to the Palo Kingdom, Linda and Lemus are spirited away to safety before they are cut down by the Mongohls. While escaping with the use of magic they are accidentally sent to the Forest of Lude in Mongohl. There they are once again pursued by Mongohlian Black Knights until a mysterious man wearing a leopard mask (an entire head actually), intervenes. The man manages to kill the entire squad with his bare hands before crying out in anguish and collapsing. Lemus wants to take the opportunity to escape but Linda refuses to leave the man's side. When he comes to the twins discover that his name is Guin, he doesn't know why he's wearing a leopard mask he can't remove, and he only remembers the word "Aura."

It could be due to the fact that the music is composed by Nobuo Uematsu, the high quality of the animation, or the fact that the plot is already wrapped up in so much mystery, but Guin Saga has an epic feel to it. If I had to compare it to another anime it reminds me of Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit or even Princess Mononoke, sans the strong female leads, although Linda is pretty brave. I know some reviewers like to compare the source materials (124 light novels- not manga) to Lord of the Rings, but since I haven't watched the movies or read the books I'm not going to make that comparison. Right now the questions about who or what Guin is, why Palo was invaded and why the twins are so important are swirling around. In many ways I'm glad this anime was adapted from a series of light novels instead of the usual manga, it breaks the typical anime mode quite nicely. Other than FMA I'm looking forward to following this series the most.

Because real ladies carry a big gun and speak softly. Though not in Alicia's case...

Valkyria Chronicles:
The citizens of the small country of Gallia are being evacuated from the town of Bruhl as they prepare for an attack by the Empire. Alicia Melchiott is a member of the town patrol and is overseeing the evacuation efforts. All is going well until she receives the news that a spy has been spotted near the edge of town. With two young members of the patrol on hand as backup, she finds the man accused of being a spy and arrests him. Although the man insists that he was only drawing trout Alicia refuses to believe him. When he gives her his name, Welkin Gunther, she becomes all the more suspicious. She states that Gunther was a war hero and that Welkin can't possibly be his son before locking him up in a barn. She then attends an emergency meeting with the rest of the town patrol only to learn that Empire soldiers are on their way to Bruhl and the main Federation Army won't reach the town in time.

Valkyria Chronicles is based on a PlayStation 3 strategy RPG of the same title. Unable to afford a PS3 for myself (I went with a 360 instead), but still having an interest in the game I decided to try this anime as a poor man's substitute. I'm not a big fan of the texture used for the shadows, but otherwise I love the animation and the vivid colors. As far as the story goes an anime set in alternative World War II Europe should be an interesting change of pace. I find myself intrigued by just who Welkin really is and why he doesn't seem to want to fight despite his military knowledge. There's also the larger of picture of what the Empire is and for that matter, the Federation as well. Everything said, this promises to be an interesting video game-to-anime adaption, I just hope it doesn't fall apart like Star Ocean EX did.

Images courtesy of Random Curiosity, save the Guin Saga image. I'd like to thank VideoLAN for that one.

Strait Jacket - Sorcery can't save this title from its own lameness

By Angela Moseley on April 5, 2009 6:45 PM

Every so often I'll try out an unknown anime movie on TV. Not because I'm particularly excited about the movie but because it's more or less free to watch. Occasionally I'll see an anime movie worth buying and watching over again. But more often that not I'll watch the movie once, find myself glad I didn't pay for it, and never watch it again. Unfortunately Strait Jacket (a three episode OVA spliced into a movie) fell into the latter category, and except for the purpose of this review I'd like to forget I ever watched it. It isn't because Strait Jacket had a bad story or ideas, those elements were just badly executed and underdeveloped.

In an alternate universe sorcery was discovered in the year 1899. As society modernized science and sorcery were able to coexist, and sorcery is used in many aspects of everyday life. From the medical world to the military, sorcery is restricted and regulated by the government. While magic has generally made people's lives better it also has the potential to curse the user, eventually turning him or her into a grotesque man-eating demon. The military arm of sorcery management, known as the Sorcery Management Bureau, is tasked with hunting down these demons and destroying them with magic. Specialized warriors known as tactical sorcerists wear special armored suits called modes. The modes have two main purposes; to protect the user during battle and to prevent the user from becoming a demon themselves. In other words, the mode prevents the user from becoming the very thing they must destroy. For this reason mode users are also known as strait jackets.

No offense, but if there was a chance I'd mutate into something like that while using sorcery I'd pass. Seriously, no thanks.

Strait Jacket's plot revolves around Leiot Steinberg, an unlicensed (i.e. illegal) lone operative tactical sorcerist and Isaac Hammond a sorcerist within the government. Steinberg is well-known for using highly destructive methods and illegal spells in order to dispatch of demons. The Sorcery Management Bureau is forced to call on Steinberg for help when the actions of the Ottoman Organization, a terrorist group, drastically increases the number of demon attacks on the city of Tristan, leaving the government short-handed. Steinberg reluctantly agrees to help, but refuses to officially join the government. Meanwhile, Hammond a tactical sorcerist who does everything by the book disagrees with the choice to let Steinberg do as he pleases. When the two occasionally cross paths during battle the animosity between them is palpable.

Strait Jacket starts off strong but ultimately fails in terms of plot and character development. The entire conflict with the Ottoman Organization being in league with the Sorcery Management Bureau to orchestrate demon attacks in Tristan is made clear early on. It could have been a major source of interest given how Steinberg works outside of the system and the antagonists clearly want him dead. Instead, the entire Ottoman Organization/Sorcery Management Bureau ties only serve to bring misery and misfortune to Hammond, which further fuels his contempt for Steinberg. When the antagonists are finally called out and punished for their misdeeds the resulting struggle is so anti-climatic that it borders on boring.

Because magic and metal never looked so good together. Except for when the armor breaks in battle, then everyone is screwed.

The eventual showdown between Steinberg and Hammond is marginally more interesting, but only from a philosophical point of view. Their differing life experiences (an anti-hero who wants atone for his sins and a hero who failed to protect what was important to him), manifests itself in the form of a physical confrontation. This plotline while good to a degree, came at the expense of the terrorist organization one. In short, Strait Jacket really suffers because 76 minutes simply isn't enough time to pursue both plotlines to their fullest potential.

Character development was also stifled because of the lack of time. Steinberg is the main character of the series but he more or less remains an enigma. Other than discovering his reason for fighting so recklessly and why he wishes to die (thus finding atonement), the ambiguity surrounding him is never lifted. By the end of Strait Jacket all of his potential (like the plot) is wasted in a frustrating way. Hammond and his little sister Rachel, are interesting characters but only because a tragic sense of foreboding hangs over them for the entire series. All of the other characters were easily forgettable.

Leiot Steinberg: "Sorry ladies, I'm not available. I'm too busy being emo when I'm not making a wise-crack. Thanks for looking though!"

The quality of the animation was fairly good and got the whole horror/steampunk theme across well. The animators at Feel were going for a gritty, horrific setting and they pulled it off. Still, there was nothing to really get excited about. If the animation was good then the music can be considered unremarkable. It didn't clash with the horror/steampunk/sorcery genre, but none of the songs are worth remembering.

The voice acting on the dub was mediocre at best. It wasn't a horrible dub but it wasn't a good one either. Steven Blum as Steinberg is by far the most spirited actor of the group, but his role may not have been a good fit. Considering Steinberg's heavy emotional burdens, Blum's wise-cracking nature may have been an attempt at a character who makes light of his situation. Or they could have been out of place entirely, I couldn't really tell. Because I don't have access to the subtitled version I can't make a fair comparison. Crispin Freeman delivers a solid enough performance as Hammond, but I've heard him perform better. All of the other actors were lackluster, yet I can't fault them considering how lackluster Strait Jacket is overall.

Kapelteta Fernandez is Steinberg's partner in crime, so to speak. Too bad she doesn't get much development either.

When everything is said and done Strait Jacket suffers from being way too short for its own good. Had it been a few episodes longer, or an actual movie (instead of being spliced into one) it may have been much better. The plot held lots of promise but failed to deliver, and many of the characters were uninteresting. If you're looking for a series that blends science and sorcery you could do much better with a title like Fullmetal Alchemist. If you're dying to watch a horror movie with a magical angle to it Strait Jacket may be worth renting, or watching on late-night TV. Otherwise, I'd recommend giving this disappointment a wide berth at the video store.

Images courtesy of MyReviewer.

It's official and it's about time

By Angela Moseley on April 3, 2009 2:49 PM

Today it became official, FUNimation has acquired the rights to Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. FUNimation's acquisition should come as no surprise given how much they paid for the right to distribute the original FMA series. More importantly, FUNimation has also acquired the rights to stream free subtitled episodes of FMA: Brotherhood on its official website just days after the Japanese broadcast. The episodes will air in Japan on Sundays and will be shown on FUNimation's website on Thursdays. The Japanese premier is April 5th and the official sub will be shown on April 9th starting at 10am.

With this latest announcement it appears that anime distributors are making good on their promises to quickly stream popular anime series. Still, it is likely that some versions of unofficial fansubs will still appear on the internet. But in many respects fans are getting exactly what they've demanded from the industry over the years. Hopefully more anime distributors will follow the model put forward by FUNimation and Viz.

Geek News Roundup for 03/15/09 - An Evolution That Not Even Darwin Could Love

By Angela Moseley on March 23, 2009 2:16 PM

Dragonball Evolution was released in several Asian countries last week and is doing quite well in terms of box office sales. The first reviews of the movie are also out and it appears DB Evolution won't get the title of "so bad it's good." It's just bad, really bad. I should probably see the movie when it hits U.S. theaters on April 8th, but viewing the released trailers and clips makes me cringe at the thought. So far Hollywood and live-action anime films may be a bust, but thankfully there are alternative ways to spend your time. Reading is always good and according to the New York Times Manga Best Seller list, Viz Media titles took all of the Top 10 spots. Unsurprisingly, Naruto grabbed no less than six spots but Black Cat and even The Gentleman's Alliance managed to make the list.

The Sci Fi Channel original series, Battlestar Galactica ended its five-year run last week. The series finales of most TV shows are marked by heavy advertising and lots of fan buzz. However, fans of Battlestar Galactica working at the United Nations had a different approach in mind. The show's cast and producers were invited to the U.N. building for a two-hour panel discussion attended by 500 people. Strike one for positive politics, unlike that entire mess on Capitol Hill with AIG.

On the web Microsoft hopes to make Internet Explorer a bit more competitive (i.e., less crappy), with the release of Internet Explorer 8. I doubt it will win back though who defected to Mozilla, Google, Opera or Apple, but at least IE holdouts will have something to look forward to. Meanwhile, Facebook hopes to be a little more like Twitter with recent privacy and homepage changes. This is definitely an improvement over trying to mimic Myspace last year, that's for sure.

Other than loss of market share with Internet Explorer, Microsoft may have other problems. The Xbox 360 "E74" error could be the new Red Ring of Death. While the problem doesn't seem to be as widespread or as devastating as RRODing consoles it does raise new concerns about recently manufactured 360s and the New Xbox Experience. Unfortunately, this issue isn't covered by Microsoft's extended warranty. Ouch.

Image courtesy of Wallpaperez.

Geek News Roundup for 03/08/09 - Obama-mania isn't dead yet

By Angela Moseley on March 16, 2009 4:00 PM

If you thought the obsession with President Obama was over you've either been too optimistic or too pessimistic, depending on how you look at it. The likeness of Obama appeared in a one-shot erotic manga, along with the Prime Minster of Japan. I wonder what the going price of something like this would be on eBay. Barbie's 50th birthday gift, a pink Volkswagen Beetle is just as eccentric. Forget any self-respecting guy taking a ride in this, how about the mechanic tasked with working on it? Still, I'd take a ride in it happily being female and all.

The future of Futurama might possibly be a bright one. After the release of four direct-to-DVD movies the idea of another TV series isn't entirely off the table. If this rumor is actually reality one can only hope that the show doesn't end up on the Fox chopping block again. Speaking of DVDs, Sony has officially stated that Blu-ray will not be removed from future versions of the PS3. Considering that PS3 games are essentially Blu-ray disc it's hard to believe such a rumor got started inthe first place.

Last Sunday Circuit City offically closed its doors for good. Overall, the stores won't be missed, but seeing so many people out of work is always a tragic event even in good times.

Geek Babble: A Sparse Lineup for Anime on TV This Spring

By Angela Moseley on March 11, 2009 2:10 PM

In recent weeks I've rediscovered the occasional joy of TV all thanks to DVR. Without DVR I wouldn't have had the option of watching a show as many times as I wanted to without having to download it. Sure I could have taped them but nowadays VCRs and VHS tapes are a relic compared to digital recording. Unfortunately anime on TV for adults is rather sparse compared to what used be available. I'm starting to see why Brian Hanson ended his column, "The Click" on the Anime News Network last November. Between anime being aired on Adult Swim and the Sci Fi Channel once a week, and the International Film Channel's odd schedule, there is a serious dearth of interesting anime to watch. At the very least there are some good chances to try out a few series you may have missed the first time around.

Next Monday the Sci Fi Channel will rebroadcast Gurren Lagann and Rave Master. I actually missed watching Gurren Lagann and Rave Master during their first runs on the Sci Channel and Cartoon Network, respectively. While Rave Master will be a completely new experience for me Gurren Lagann will not. I was constantly nagged by friends online and offline to see this series and ended up dragging my feet. By the time I was interested in the show it ended its run on the Sci Fi Channel and I ended up watching Mobile Suit Gundam 00 instead. Thankfully I was able to watch the first nine or ten episodes on DVD at Katsucon '09. This highly stylized series comes from the twisted minds behind FLCL and combines outrageous humor with action and quite a bit of drama. If you haven't already tried Gurren Lagann you may be missing one of the best anime series of 2008.

Next on Cartoon Network we have both Code Geass R2 and BLEACH. At 105 episodes you're probably already into BLEACH or have decided to pass on it. The same can be said with the newest episodes in Japan which are up to 210 now. In about two weeks the current Bount filler arc will end and some of the best episodes of BLEACH since the Soul Society arc will air. As a bonus the high quality of the animation will alone be worth watching. Unfortunately, the series does eventually get back into fillers and a much lower quality of animation. For now, if you're sticking with BLEACH only on Adult Swim the best is yet to come.

I've only been watching Code Geass on Adult Swim, but it has yet to disappoint me. While season two is a bit more predictable than season one, it is still a great show to watch. In fact, it is one of the more interesting shows that AS has aired recently. Sadly, with only ten weeks of Code Geass left I'm not sure what AS will show in its place. I personally wouldn't be surprised if they aired Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit since no new anime acquisitions have been announced. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if AS let anime die a slow and painful death only to justify putting on more of their original programing and syndicated Fox shows.

Given how little anime is being shown on TV, there is always fan subbed anime to stream or download online. One show that promises to be a major hit this April is a remake of a show that aired on Adult Swim. The Fullmetal Alchemist anime was originally based on a loose adaptation of the manga. It changed around a lot of events, some of the characters (did you know Sloth is male in the manga?) and focused primarily on several locations, leaving out the expansive world of the manga. Considering that many manga-to-anime adaptations aren't that great, FMA was pretty sucessful. Now the new series promises to be a faithful adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa's work. The show sounds exciting and fans of the manga are stoked, but where does this leave the original anime? Will it be demoted to the status of being an alternative take on the manga story, while the new anime is elevated as canon? Will the new anime make any mention of the original FMA? Does this mean the manga is completed or nearing its completion? Only time will tell regarding the reworked FMA. I have no doubt that this anime will be brought over, the only question is if FUNimation will pick it up again and if Adult Swim will still be airing anime at that time. I wouldn't be shocked if Adult Swim picked this one up in about a year from now because of FMA's overall popularity.

At least I'll have a decent amount of anime to TV to keep my DVR box full until season two of Gundam 00 finally airs on the Sci Fi Channel.

Gundam 00 Season 1 - Mecha Action For Political Junkies

By Angela Moseley on March 5, 2009 12:48 PM

In recent years I've almost completely given up on the Mobile Suit Gundam series. I don't dislike mecha series but I also don't consider myself a big fan of them. However, I try to keep an open mind given that I've found gems like Escaflowne, Rahxephon, Full Metal Panic! and Code Geass over the years. Still, I find the Gundam series was more often than a miss than a hit with me. Out all of the series I watched on U.S. TV (in some cases heavily edited), I enjoyed The 08th MS Team the most followed by Gundam Wing. In the case of Gundam SEED, I couldn't even finish it. When I decided to watch Gundam 00 (pronounced "Double O") my expectations were quite low.

Within a few episodes all of my doubts about the newest Gundam series were completely crushed. Gundam 00 is quickly replacing The 08th MS Team as being my favorite in the series. It may even overtake both seasons of Code Geass as one of the most intellectually compelling mecha anime series I've seen in recent years. Much of 00's appeal comes from its take on a futuristic, but plausible reality in a post 9/11 political world. The series is cleverly set roughly 300 years in the future (2307AD) and manages to mirror the political landscape of today. In short, this is a series for intellectual and political junkies as well as Gundam fans.

The Gundams Dynames and Kyrios on a mission near the Middle East. Civil war, terrorism and political strife are still very common in this region.

The 24th century is still as tumultuous as it was in the 21st century. Wars in the Middle East, South Asia and Europe have been ongoing for centuries. Meanwhile the superpowers of the world have grouped themselves together by region into three major power blocs. The Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations or the Union, led by the United States and consisting of the Americas and Japan, the Advanced European Union or AEU consisting of Europe, and the Human Reform League made up of China, India and Russia are all vying for power even as they play a zero sum game with their military might. Each of these power blocs controls an orbital elevator which supplies solar energy in the place of depleted fossil fuels. Weaker countries ally themselves with the stronger nations for energy and military protection, while countries outside of the power blocs unfairly find themselves struggling to survive, locked in constant war.

Most of the core group of Celestial Being, including all of the Gundam Meisters. And no, Tieria Erde isn't a woman, stop asking already.

It is in this setting that Celestial Being, a privately owned military group challenges the current world order. After out performing current mobile suit technology on Earth owned by the World's militaries and terrorist groups alike with Gundam mobile suits, the group makes itself known. Celestial Being's goal is the total eradication of war through forceful armed interventions. The group will uphold the ideals a peaceful and united humanity advocated by the scientist Aeolia Schenberg over two hundred years ago- through violent means. Savor that obvious contradiction. Shortly after the declaration is made the four Gundam Meisters (i.e. pilots), Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism and Tieria Erde, with their mobile suits Exia, Dynames, Kyrios and Virtue, set out on a series of armed interventions that result in an uneasy reduction of worldwide conflict.

The three major superpowers ultimately join together in a bid to capture the Gundams in a strategy that pits the superior mobile suits against thousands of inferior ones. The plan almost works until Celestial Being seemingly uses their final ace. Three new Gundams with even more destructive powers than the original four are deployed. The new Meisters, a trio of siblings calling themselves Team Trinity take over the intervention missions with ruthless, sadistic force as even civilians and innocent bystanders are slaughtered. Their actions ultimately turn public opinion against Celestial Being and strengthen the resolve of the superpowers to stop the Gundams. Suddenly, the tide of battle turns when a mysterious man business man named Lagna Harvey (working for a more powerful organization) offers the three power blocs 30 GN drives. The drives are the secret power source behind the superior Gundam mobile suits.

The GN-X models are as powerful as Gundams and the pilots are out for revenge. Now that is a real Military-industrial complex.

The new machines, called GN-X's (pronounced "jinxes"), are easily able to fight on par with the Gundams and the superpowers set out to destroy Celestial Being. The group is further crippled by traitors within their organization who spring traps with the arrival of Team Trinity. As the world ultimately does change (for the worst), the four Gundam Meisters and the core Celestial Being members find themselves on the losing end of a malevolent plan. The plan was set into motion not long after Aeolia Schenberg advocated his original ideals two centuries ago.

Early character development in season one is curtailed in favor of plot and story elements. In fact, much of the first few episodes are spent getting us acquainted with the political landscape of the series. Season one mainly serves as a starting point to better set up characters for season two. The characters that were partially fleshed out and managed to survive will most likely be further developed in the second season.

To hell with team spirit and harmony, at times Setsuna and Tieria (totally not a woman) would rather settle their differences with bullets.

The four Gundam Meisters all hail from various parts of the world and are products of the various wars. Setsuna is the child solider from the Kurdis Republic, a Middle Eastern nation that was annexed in past war. As a child solider who was brainwashed into committing horrible crimes he personally knows how war is nothing short of Hell on Earth. Lockon is from Ireland and lost most of his family due to the Energy Wars. Where Setsuna seeks to become the embodiment of a Gundam, Lockon is motivated by revenge. In comparison Allelujah and Tieria are enigmas. Allelujah is from the Human Reform League's space colony and has a sadistic split personality. Tieria is a seemingly heartless man who would think nothing of shooting a fellow Meister down for the sake of keeping the secrets of the Gundams. Yet he is emotionally unstable at his worst and has a hard time seeing himself as human. All of the Meisters grow as characters, but I suspect they'll grow quite a bit more in season two.

"I want it now!" Because Louise is that kind of girlfriend. Poor Saji... At times their placement in the series seems odd, but it makes sense later.

On the civilian side Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy are ordinary college students in Japan who always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even as they get out of life threatening situations mostly through luck, their lives are tragically changed through acts of violence. In the end, their purpose in season one is to give a face to the everyday lives that war can destroy.

Most of the military fighters are portrayed in such a sympathetic light that it is occasionally easier to cheer them on instead of the sometimes terroristic Gundam Meisters. The real villains of the story at first seem to be Ali Al Saachez and Team Trinity. Ali Al Saachez is a Middle Eastern warmonger who immensely enjoys war and harbors a hatred of Celestial Being for obvious reasons. Team Trinity ascribes to Celestial Being's ideals but feels extreme violence is the only way to achieve anything, regardless of public outcry. Unknown to them they are simply disposable pawns in a more sinister scheme. In reality one man is pulling the strings behind the scenes in order to manipulate Aeolia Schenberg's dream of a united humanity into something fitting his own image. He wishes to change the world too and uses the momentum of Celestial Being (derailing the group in the process), Team Trinity and Ali Al to bring the world to a turning a point- the creation of the Earth Sphere Federation.

"Team Trinity here. We're such sadists that we take pleasure in killing civilians along with soldiers. And our sister, Nena maybe the cruelest of all."

Gundam 00's animation remains superb throughout the series, as expected from Sunrise. Viewers who are fortunate enough to own HDTVs will notice that the show is broadcasted in high-definition and widescreen. I have no issues with the character design or the detailed mecha designs. The music always fits the mood, but outside of the openings and endings none of it is memorable. On a side note, like Adult Swim the Sci Fi Channel has a nasty habit of butchering ending sequences, ruining the overall experience. Still, "Daybreak's Bell" and "Ash Like Snow" were pretty good as far as opening songs go.

If Ali Al Saachez's apperance suggests anything other than villian you may need your eyes checked. At the very least he can claim the series' "badass" title.

I haven't watched any of Gundam 00 subtitled, but Ocean Studios did a decent job with the dub. I would have preferred that Bandai went with Animaze, but Ocean Studios always seems to work on the Mobile Suit Gundam dubs. As I said it is a decent dub, not a great one. Brad Swaile in his role as Setsuna felt subdued, but he eventually becomes more talkative. Richard Ian Cox as Allelujah is a bit hard to bear at times. Not because Cox is a terrible actor but years of hearing him as Inuyasha leaves a less than stellar impression on his other roles. Still, he captures Allelujah's split personality nicely, even if I think "Tetsusaiga!" every time he utters an excited word. Another prominent voice from Inuyasha is Paul Dobson (previously Naraku), who plays Graham Aker. Paul Dobson is one of my favorite voice actors but his performance as Aker wasn't one of his best. One actor's performance was head and shoulders above the rest. Scott McNeil as Ali Al Saachez had the best performance. His deep, suave and surly voice captured the evil essence of Ali Al quite well. With that said, if you're not a fan of dubs Gundam 00 certainly won't change your mind.

Setsuna's Exia versus Team Trinity's Gundam Thrones. Surely even the main character can overcome a three-against-one fight?

Season one of Gundam 00 begins slow on action, light on character development and heavy on politics. But ultimately the series takes a grand scale approach by setting itself up to run over two distinct seasons instead of a continuous 50 episodes. In many ways Gundam 00 breaks from previous Gundam series while still managing to pay homage to its predecessors. At the same time Gundam 00 isn't that radically different from previous series by ultimately forming the Earth (Sphere) Federation and an opposing group. It manages to keep the Gundam tradition alive whilst giving the series a realistic, present day spin. Either way, if you've written off the Gundam series for whatever reason, 00 is still worth any sci-fi addict's time. With an explosive first season and an upcoming second season (Stateside) that promises to be even better, this series is off to a great start.

A review of Gundam 00's second season can be found here.

Images courtesty of Random Curiosity.

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Angela Moseley: Thanks for the comment. I actually know about Allelujah after read more
Texas Hogan: Allelujah's name is given to him by Marie Parfacy. A read more
Angela Moseley: As I said only Lockon's is explained, in season one read more
Geoffrey Barnes: Ah, so the names actually have actual meanings? Aww, this read more
Angela Moseley: Thankfully, those are just code names. Actually the meaning behind read more
Geoffrey Barnes: Honestly, I don't know if Allelujah Haptism is the best read more

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