Yet Another Nerd Out Moment

I just got back from a special theatre screening of my favourite anime, Bleach. The show created a film in 2006 called Bleach: Memories of Nobody, for two nights at select theatres they premiered the English-dubbed version of the film. The screening was just like a midnight showing of a film or attending Sundance; you're surrounding my people just as obsessed as you. It's quite refreshing after the months of torment from roommates and friends about my abnormal interest in this Japanese phenomena. Before the film started, there were several previews of selected anime TV shows and it was great to here people cheering them on-this cheering would continue throughout the movie when familiar faces appeared for big battles.

There were no previews for films before the movie, but there was a 15-minutish piece on the Via Media, the American distributor of Bleach, on the process of converting the Japanese manga for an English-speaking audience, and converting the anime for an English-speaking audience as well. The video actually began with a good five-minute clip of the Bleach creator sketching the main character. It reminded me about how I used to be able to draw but somehow forgot...oh well. Anyways, the video was rather interesting and it included interviews from voice actors and the editing team at Via Media. There are more than 170 episodes in the show's history and I'm almost caught, thus it was rather interesting to see the faces of the voice actors and learn about what's going with the Japanese creators and the American team. P.S. the creator is gonna be at ComiCon in San Diego this July, and I'm totally gonna go here him speak.

The film was about what I expected. It had nothing to do with the main story arch of the show, which is incredibly in depth, but did it's own thing with new villians and a new character it could kill off at the end. It was still cool to see the fight scenes of memorable characters and watch something with crisper animation-the music still sucks. It was a pretty cool experience and, as usual, I love going to the movies. The End.

Thanksgiving and Anime

So my Thanksgiving break is coming to an end. I've been in Florida since last Wednesday hanging with my family. I come back to SoCal tomorrow and literally have to go straight to work from the airport. Thanksgiving is always fun because turkey, stuffing, and mashies are my favourite foods. Most of the holidays with my parents are spent hanging around doing nothing. We did even less this holiday because we didn't even leave the house that much since we had so many leftovers from Thursday-thus we only ate out twice the entire week. So we chilled and watched a punch of movies: Beowulf, Lord of War, Battlestar Galactica: Razor (it was pretty sweet and tied into the show rather well), Wild Hogs, and whatever else was on. It's always fun to do nothing and talk with my parents and pet the dogs, Shaq and Falkor, and cat, Thor (I know, our animal names are inspired by sports figures, an '80s fantasy film, and Greek mythology). I was able to be a little productive during the week. I began working on my movie "Top 10s" for the years 1999-2007. I also finished my review on the Beowulf for my job.

I did something else of interest as well. As I've said before, I've been getting into anime and I have a new favourite, and I've been watching it every night after my parents fall asleep. It's called Bleach. The concept is simple enough:
A high schooler named Ichigo, who can see spirits, comes in contact with Rukia, a Soul Reaper from the Soul Society. She is insured when fighting a Hollow, souls become demons terrorizing the real world. She temporarily gives her Soul Reaper powers to Ichigo to fight the Hollow but his spirit energy absorbs most of her powers. She is then stuck in the real world and Ichigo becomes a substitute Soul Reaper. The storyline becomes more complex with the addition of around 30 characters. Rukia is eventually arrested for doing this and will be executed in the Soul Society, thus Ichigo and his several of his classmates, who have received spiritual powers because of their invovlement with Rukia and Ichigo, go to the Soul Society to break her out. What follows are crazy fantasy battles, rather enjoyable characters, and very odd Japanese humour. I'm very hooked on this show as I've seen 80 episodes and there are still 70 more to go. I love ninjas and fantasy, and this show has it all. Right now, Ichigo and the gang are fighting these creatures called Bountou, which are basically vampires-hell fucking yes! In conclusion, post-colleged nerdom reigns supreme and I'm very okay with that.

My Journey into Anime

As the years go by in my life I have come to terms with a lot of things about myself. I will have back hair in the future. I am sarcastic and can only hope that it will not scare off people or offend people to the point of tears. And my personalty will make some people think I'm okay. But I have found that I am okay with how nerdy I am. Thanks to my friend Casey, I came to terms with my love for sci fi, as we sat through the entire series of Firefly and Battlestar Galactica's three seasons. The latest installment of my nerd power comes in the form of anime. This comes as the natural progression of my enjoyment of the films by Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. His films are not anime, though they are often placed in that category. I was also introduced to anime through a cartoon my roommate got me into called Avatar. These are not anime but considered as such simply because they are Japanese fantasy cartoons. Alas, watching these masterpieces gave me the in to a lot of other things. I began watching everything I had heard of in the past or seen at Hollywood Video: Ghost in the Shell (1 & 2), Akira, and Appleseed (me and Garret watched Appleseed and were rather disappointed). But none of these did it for me, so I gave up...until my roommates found some new stuff. Another roommate started bringing in other things like the TV series of The Ghost in the Shell (which was much better).

But two others have stuck out: Samari Champloo and Karas: The Prophecy. Champloo is a one season series about to samurai masters traveling with a 15-year old girl in search of the samurai who smells of sunflowers. It's a samurai show with good action scenes and great wit. Even though it's a period piece, it remains incredibly funny and modern. The soundtrack is completely hip hop and scenes change to the sound of a record scratch. There are several jokes about weed, sex, and whatever else. It's so good. Karas: The Prophecy is a rather confusing film about the spiritual and real world's coexistence. Awesome fight scenes and animation and, once you understand it, a very intriguing story. Karas is the protector of Tokyo. He flies around in the shape of a crow and when he finds trouble becomes the ultimate ninja warrior I have ever scene. He has this contraption that allows him to morph from a ninja warrior into fight ship that shoots at whatever he's chasing...and at random moments his crow wings come out. It's all visual beautiful and intellectually jarring.

I've seen bits of the shows Naruto and Bleach and very much want to get into those too (even though they cost about $70 to buy each season). Hopefully, getting an online renting account will make this latest obsession a little less financially injuring.

Bugmaster (Sundance Film Review)

Bugmaster was the most difficult film to understand at Sundance. This film is one of director Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s (Akira and Steamboy) few live action features. It is a period piece set in a mystical Japan where people called “Bugmasters” travel and use their special herbs, potions, and powers to calm bugs that cause pain to humans. The film features two driving stories, one in the past and other in the present. The two stories are connected by the lead character. Unlike Ôtomo’s normal dose of anime, the special effects of this film are subtle. But like most anime, the storyline is thick. Many compared this film to those of Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke), this comparison is only made by people that do not know enough about Japanese cinema. The only commonality between the Bugmaster and Miyazaki’s films is the purity of nature. Bugmaster looks at the spiritual realm of creation and discusses a growing spirit that exists deep in the forest. Unfortunately, this film becomes hard to follow at this point and ends rather abruptly, thus to say more would require a second viewing.