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Nov. 25th, 2005

01:26 pm - Reminder: Anime Convention this Saturday (chibi.au.summer05)

Come tomorrow!! chibi.au.summer05!

A one day, mini-convention showcasing Japanese Pop-Culture and the latest Anime titles from Japan.

Where:
Manning Clarke Centre (MCC),
ANU Campus, Acton
Canberra, ACT

When:
Saturday, 26th November 2005 (this Saturday - tomorrow!)
11am to 4pm

Cost:
Only $5!!! (Unlocks access to all events and includes a free softdrink!)
Don’t forget to bring along some loose change for a yummy Japanese lunch! =)

Want more information? Go to: http://chibi.animeau.org

Event Proudly Sponsored By:
Impact Comics (http://www.impactcomics.com.au)
Madman Entertainment (http://www.madman.com.au)
Yorokonde - Anime Anytime (http://www.animeanytime.com.au)
CBIT Pty Ltd (http://www.cbit.com.au)

Nov. 18th, 2005

12:52 pm - Anime Convention (chibi.au.summer05)

Hey all, thought you might be interested in this upcoming event:

The people who brought you anime.au.05 and chibi.au.august05 are proud to host an exciting new event in the nation’s capital - chibi.au.summer05!

A one day, mini-convention showcasing Japanese Pop-Culture and the latest Anime titles from Japan.

Come dressed as your favourite character to participate in the Cosplay Tea Party, or enter a piece in the Art Competition to win great prizes. Your trash is someone else's treasure! Bring along your unwanted secondhand merchandise to sell at the AniBay, or simply search amongst the vendor’s to find that special item.

After something a bit more active? Play DDR, Karaoke or Para-Para at our Big Screen Video Gaming Arena or test your fighting skills with Tekken 5 and other fighting games running throughout the day. Virtual fighting doesn’t appeal? Watch Pai-Lum Kung Fu martial artists demonstrate their exceptional skills!

If you just want to chill-out, rock up, sit back and enjoy the wide range of Live Action Drama and Anime Screenings shown throughout the day. We’ll have a great selection of delicious Japanese food and beverages available on the day, so come along to try something new and tasty.

Where:
Manning Clarke Centre (MCC),
ANU Campus, Acton
Canberra, ACT

When:
Saturday, 26th November 2005 (Saturday week)
11am to 4pm

Cost:
Only $5!!! (Unlocks access to all events and includes a free softdrink!)
Don’t forget to bring along some loose change for a yummy japanese lunch! =)

Want more information? Go to: http://chibi.animeau.org

Current Mood: excited excited

Sep. 24th, 2004

Sep. 21st, 2004

12:35 pm - Naruto (fan sub)

Naruto is a action focused TV series with some comedic, and drama moments mixed in. Naruto is a show about a young ninja in training. The series is basically his training and events that happen to the village that he resides. I’m not going to reveal any of the plot but if you like Dragonballz, then you’ll probably like this series.

The series has some solid character development. You see Naruto slow develop from a prankster with weak ninja skills to an increasingly stronger and more powerful ninja. Granted Naruto is still a bumbling idiot thru out the series but at least he is growing. There is also a myriad number of character that interact with Naruto, such as his team members Sakura and Sasuke, but they don’t seem to have as much growth as Naruto.

The action in this series can’t help but be compared to Dragonballs. Let’s not get anything confused the plot is just an excuse to get from one fight scene to the next, and there are plenty. From small one on one skirmishes, to large Hokage ( Number one village Ninjas) battles with demon snakes, frogs, slugs, and cloned warrior.

This series does have its faults. Every battle scene is drawn out to at least 2 episodes, with all the standard trash talk. There is an excessive use of flashback scenes, and every episode starts off with the first 5-10 minutes of the last episode. New characters are a double edge sword. Everyone one of them is going to get into some fight sooner or later and they always drop the background story of that character right in the middle of the fight scene.

If you catch this on fan sub for free it’s a decent series, but if this is ever licensed I would definitely not buy it.

Mar. 4th, 2004

04:00 pm - Anime Review: Perfect Blue

I've struggled writing a review for this for some quite time due to having mixed feelings about it. Its gotten such big raps and I'm starting to wonder for what reasons. This isn't an anime for the lighthearted - its disturbingly shocking and violent. Its in your face and explores the extreme outcome of fan obsession. When I first watched it I liked it - when it came to writing a review I re-watched to get a fresh perspective on it again. To my shock I found it quit poor, so I left it and went back to it again a few months down the track - but again with little joy for it.

There are certain criteria that I use to rate an anime - one of them being animation, as its the very basic's of the media that we are endeared to, I rate this very highly. I agree that story line, character development etc etc all play pivotal roles themselves, but in a feature film I expect top notch animation. Now what’s top notch animation to me might not necessarily be top notch to you - and visa versa. Therefore these views are highly based on personal taste in the end. I found the animation to be sub standard - backgrounds were nicely done but nothing out of the ordinary for a feature film. Character designs were very bad in my opinion and very lazily drawn - one might call them art house, but I call them crap. This attitude I have towards animation perplexes me somewhat in that I wonder how I'll view Studio Ghibli's My Neighbors the Yamadas, with its unique and basic animation? I think I need to open my mind more maybe?

I think its worth a least one viewing - the story line does hold up, even though its something you could also find on a Hollywood produced film. It does have some suspense that will keep you guessing as to who's who and what’s what. There are some shocking visuals, such as rape scenes and violence - although the violence is nothing out of the ordinary for anime.

So if you happen to be able to get your hands on it - I think its worth a viewing - I would love to hear other people's opinions. But its something that will not grace my DVD rack.

03:59 pm - Anime Review: Ayashi no Ceres

Ayashi no ceres is the story of Aya Mikage and her twin brother Aki, driven apart by the forces of fate. On their sixteenth birthday, Aya and Aki are called to the family home to be given a special present. What they thought was a birthday party, however, was really a test--one which Aya failed. She was found to possess the reincarnated spirit of an ageless tennyo, one bent on the recovery of her hagoromo and the destruction of the Mikage family. Aya quickly found herself separated from her beloved brother, and hunted by her own family.

The first thing that came to my mind when I starting watching this series was CLAMP - its reminiscent of the studio, partially in animation but largely in story concept - but alas it isn't a CLAMP production. This series has had to put up with endless comparisons to Fushigi Yugi, and in many regards they are similar - but that’s another lj entry ;)

The story - well this has a underlying theme that only the Japanese can do and seem to get away with it - or should I say, a theme that would be more acceptable by a Japanese audience. Embedded within the main story line is a strong love story - it just happens that the love story is between brother and sister - not your usual situation. Some people might find this uneasy. That aside the main story line is engaging but if somewhat not original, like I said its very reminiscent of other concepts.

The animation, while not the best is still pleasing to the eye - but then my fansubs were a little dodgy and so this could be obscuring a true perception. I feel the characters weren't all too endearing to leave an impression on me, and this is something that I rate high in my anime's. The progression of the story does tend to lag in a few spots and can test someone's attention span. I know it took me longer than usual to finish this series as I found myself letting it go and coming back to it often.

Definitely not the best around but still entertaining - I couldn't see myself buying this on DVD though.

03:49 pm - .hack//SIGN

The .hack project is the brainchild of Bandai and it centre's around the Playstation games - included in this are animes (two TV series and four OVA's). The first series .hack//SIGN was the introduction to the whole world before the games hit the shelfs.

.hack//SIGN centre's around an online multi-player game known as "The World" and our main character, Tsukasa's, inability to log out of the game and abilities within the game.

AnimeNFO - In the year 2005, a computer virus called 'Pluto Kiss' completely shuts down and restricts the global internet network of the world. In 2007, after extensive rescinding of the network, they create and release an online Network Game (MMORPG) called 'The World'.

The anime focuses mainly around Tsukasa who obtains the power that damages the player in the real world. He suddenly awakens to find himself in 'The World', being able to feel, smell, touch, see and hear everything as if he was really there. He attempts to logout but fails to do so. Being unable to remember what has happened before he awoke, he wanders around aimlessly to find answers. While doing so, system moderators, the Scarlet Knights, suspect that he has been working with hackers, because of the tweaked character he was with. Tsukasa finds a magical item, that grants him the power to use this fearful 'Guardian' that will protect him from harm.

The anime has gained praise and criticism and the side you place yourself on depends on your expectations of anime. If your expecting action, then this is not an anime for you - its dialogue heavy. Personally I love these types of anime's.

Animation is very good - the background artwork is very impressive with the vibrant water colour effect works very well - reminiscant of Noir. The characters are not of great detail but still very well drawn and blend in well with the backgrounds. I must make special note of the soundtrack, its exceptional and one of my favourites.

Characters are well developed with snippets into their offline persona's, enough to have you speculating. There's alot to soak in from this whole .hack project and draw parallels to our own online existance - of what is and what could possibly become. The Japanese have always fascinated me with their take on cyber culture, long before idea's such as the Matrix were created.

My only criticism of the series is that I thought it was too long for 26 episodes and it would have been best suited to a 13 episode screening - I think heavy dialogue anime's pull it off much better with this sort of time frame, unless their is the inclusion of action sequences as fillers - but I think the inclusion of action would have drawn away from its purpose. I think they learnt this leason and subsequently shortened the length of the second series to 12.

03:48 pm - Rurouni Kenshin - TV series

Ten years after the start of the Meiji Era, a Rurouni wanders into Tokyo to find a new life with his new friends. Vowing never to kill, he tries to escape his fate as the greatest killer of the Edo dynasty.

An old menace threatens the new Meiji Era, the villian is Shishio Makoto, the successor to the Hitokiri Battousai who left mysteriously near the end of the Edo Dynasty on a trek of reflection. Shishio and his Juppon Gatana are ready to start a new revolution to correct the wrong doings of the Western influence.

Kenshin is one of my favourite anime's for many reasons and one of them being that its an experience I share with Mason (of course he does get the edited version that I make for him on video) - he's obessesed with it hehe.

One of the biggest appeals to me is the time its set in and the exacting detail of dress, manner and surroundings - its an era of Japan that fascinates me. I first fell in love with Kenshin through the orignal manga by Watsuki Nobuhiro and the TV series follows the manga for the first two arcs, with filler episodes. I've collected up until Volume 19 in DVD's but I could have easily stopped at Vol 14 if it wasn't for feeding Mason's obsession *lol* Vol 14 is the end of the Kyoto Arc and it was at this stage that the anime had caught up to the manga - rather than wait for Watsuki to write more of the manga they went ahead and created their own stories - and they suck! But enough politics...

The animation style remains true to Watsuki, although I did notice a little change during the Kyoto arc that might suggest a change of artists during the series. Its bright, colourful and extremely well animated for its time. The Japanese vocal cast is pretty good, though I was a little disapointed in Kenshin's VA - they chose a female VA to emphasise his fragile looking appearance and to get this to work they chose someone with a deep voice for a female but would come of as meek on a male. The only problem with this is that I find her voice rather annoying and lacking emotion.

Now I know I said I let Mason watch this, but I pre-view the DVD 's and prepare an edited version for him - make no mistake its not an anime for children in its original form. It can be quite violent, especially during the Kyoto arc and then use of blood is quite liberal. The characters and villans are very well developed and the viewer would gain extra insight into their development if they had read the manga - Watsuki gives thorough descriptions on their development. There are many historical facts and places that feature in the anime, and a few characters are based on actual Japanese historical figures.

In the end I highly recommend this to any anime fan - its a classic and will always remain a classic. If you're in the US and are currently watching the edited version on Cartoon Network, then you are missing out - but thats typical for anything that CN touches.

The only let down in this anime is the final arc "Tales of the Meji" where I would have prefered the animated version of the "Jinchuu Arc" - anyone having read the manga and seen the series would know what I was on about. There is a petition at the momment for them to animate the final arc, but I think pigs might fly before that happens

^_^

03:46 pm - 3 X 3 Eyes

Well once in awhile you come across something that touches you and moves you like no other - 3 x 3 Eyes is such for me. It consists of two sets of OVA's - a 4 eps OVA and a 3 eps OVA - based off the 5 part manga by Yuzo Takada.

From AnimeNfo...

Pai is the last of the Sanjiyan -- a magical race of 3-eyed creatures, and she comes in search of Tokyo high-school student Yakumo with news of his father's death and hopes of becoming human. After a fatal accident, Pai is forced to absorb Yakumo's soul to keep him from dying, making him an undead creature bound to her. Their journey to make Pai human becomes complicated with dark forces seeking to stop them, especially when Pai's crueller nature emerges...

This is an old style anime, considering that the first 4 OVA's are from 1992 and the last 3 from 1996. Regardless of age, the animation is gorgeous and reflectant of the detail that normally goes into an OVA as opposed to a TV series. The characters are very pleasing to the eyes and Pai is simply kawaiiii!!!.

Its the story that makes 3 x 3 Eyes shine - its mystical, magical, emotional and violent - a myriad of senses will be used throughout the series. Our two main protagonist are very endearing to the viewer and developed cleverly in such a short time frame. They aren't all revealing but there is enough information for the viewer to understand the character. Unfortunately I haven't read the manga myself so I'm not too sure how true the anime is to it - but this doesn't seem to be a series that's been bastardised.

The story is dark and violent, that I make no exaggeration about - I do feel at time that the use of blood borders on the side of ridiculous - but its nothing to bothersome. There is some comical relief in amongst the bloodshed and serious moments, but they are short moments. The music tends to fit the series very well and helps build the relevant scenes. I enjoyed the VA's in this series and they all felt like they did justice to their respective characters.

It has a good beginning that builds as the series progresses with little twists in its plot along the way - the end of the first set of OVA's leaves you hanging for a sequel! The next set of OVA's continues the story four years later and climaxes in a sensational ending.

This is definitely an anime for adults and I wouldn't recommend for kids - I couldn't construct an edited version for Mason without totally cutting the story to pieces ala Card Captor Sakura style. So if you get a chance to see it - do so! Highly recommended