日常生活

So I ran across a list of ecchi anime over at Wikipedia and I instantly thought - "I should try watch all of it"... o_o;

I've watched a few of them already (or at least a few episodes) - Agent Aika, Amaenaideyo!!, Colorful, Ebichu, Futari Ecchi, Girls Bravo, Golden Boy, Ichigo 100%, Koi Koi Seven, Love Love, Mouse, Please Twins, Popotan, Strike Witches and Tonagura....... -gasp- That was a quite a few. What a pervert! :o

Some of these were really good (not necessarily because of nudity) while others, not so much (again, not necessarily because of nudity)... I'll try and watch them all. \o/

I figured I didn't watch enough anime and decided to change that by watching the 50 episode-long serie, Eureka Seven. I didn't have a whole lot else to do the last few days, so I more or less watched the entire show over the last four five days...

Someone wrote that it's Evangelion, but for kids, and I suppose that's partially true, being the nature of the show - half-adventure, half-action, half-mecha, half-romance...yada yada. But I enjoyed Eureka Seven a billion times more than I did Eva, mostly because this one didn't spin a hundred miles around my head..

It's a rather typhical story I suppose; boy meets girl (or girl crashes into boy, rather), boy and girl go on a world-spanning adventure, end up with a life-changing decision and the finale is heartwarming, sad but beautiful. And so incredible unfair. It's always so bloody unfair! Makes me wanna cry every time, it's depressing really... :-]

Aren't you a lucky guy, Renton? I wish I were you...

Ten years ago, a bizarre phenomenon appeared in Tokyo. Three days later, two types of humans with supernatural abilities appeared: emotionless 'dolls' that only do what they're 'programmed' to and wield the ability of surveillance, and powerful 'contractors', feared and hated by the humans that know of their existence. Rationally self-preserving and without the feeling of guilt, it's not long before contractors are used as ideal assassins and weapons of war.

Unable to analyze the phenomenon that created these beings safely, it's decided that a huge wall be built around it, called "Hell's Gate." PANDORA, an international research group, protects this wall and analyzes what little they can, while the government struggles to suppress dangerous contractors and the publics' knowledge of them.

In all the police force's efforts and doll-assisted surveillance of the city, one contractor continues to evade them. 'BK201', as the police force knows him, stands out as an exceptional killer, while those in the syndicate who know him as 'Hei' see him as a powerful, yet strangely irrational contractor...

- Shamelessly copied from anidb.com.

For the longest, the mask that Hei is wearing put me off wanting to see this serie. Dunno why, but it looked kind of.......silly, I guess. In the end I gave in to the plot though, and I'm glad I did - DtB is an awesome show, and I had heaps of fun watching it.

DtB is devided up into two-episode blocks, putting the focus on one of the characters in each block. The last three episodes plus an OVA is the exception, where they try to wrap it all up and (halfarsedly) tie up the loose ends.

- I'll add more here, I just had to get this written or I'd stall forever. -

Tales from Earthsea is loosely based on a series of novels about the world Earthsea; hundreds of islands surrounded by a vast, uncharted ocean.

I can't think of a good way to sum up the plot of this movie, one'd almost have to know about the Earthsea universe to fully understand -- a few things that happen seems to be taken out of context. The story feels really short, almost to the point where I wonder why they even bothered making this movie.

The king is murdered. The killer - none other than the kings own son, prince Arren - flees the palace by horse, bringing his fathers sword along. Shortly thereafter Arren find himself surrounded by a pack of wolves. Trying to defend himself, Arren realise he can not unsheathe the sword, and thus prepares to die. Instead he's suddenly resqued by a magician; Sparrowhawk. Accompanying Sparrowhawk, they set of towards the city of Hort where Arren runs into Therru, a girl chased by slavers. Arren fends the slavers of, but Therru runs away without saying a word. Later that night, the slavers return in greater number and capture Arren.

Yeah, I'll stop with the plot there. I could tell more, but it'd basically be giving away the entire movie, the plot is pretty...thin, to say the least.

Animationwise however, Tales of Earthsea is really beautiful, everything seems to be alive and every movement is really smooth. I especially like the architecture of Hort, a magnificent looking city, even though it's really run down. The voice acting is also pretty good, no complaints there. There's a song somewhere halfway through, sung by Therru, that's pretty nice.

If you're a fan of Studio Ghibli movies, I suppose this one's a must see (not really), but if you're just looking for a movie to waste some time on, I'd suggest one that ain't so bland. I'm sorry. This movie was bland, and you'd really be -wasting- your time..

If the title of this movie had been any much longer, I would have been in trouble.

I'm quite a fan of Tim Burton. I've fallen in love with Corpse Bride, been frightened (albeit not overly) by Sleepy Hollow and touched by Edward Scissorhands (maybe scarred would have been a better word, hehe).

Teaming up for their sixth movie together (which reminds me I have yet to see Ed Wood), Burton brings us Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street with Johhny Depp in the lead as the barber, Sweeney.

Based on a musical by Stephen Sondheim, it tells the story of Benjamin Barker, a barber falsely charged and sentenced to a life of hard labour in Australia by the corrupt Judge Turpin, who lusts after Barker's wife Lucy. Fifteen years later, under the assumed name "Sweeney Todd", Barker escapes the penal colony by sea. Upon arrival in London, Todd returns to his old flat above Mrs. Lovett's pie shop on Fleet Street. There Lovett tells him that his wife took poison after being raped by Turpin, who then adopted Todd's daughter Johanna as his ward. Todd vows revenge and reopens his barber shop in his upstairs flat, with ill intent in mind.

I loved it! While I'm not a huge fan of musicals, this one was really well made. The sceneries in this movie are breathtaking, portraying London in the 1800's as a dark yet very much alive city, shrouded by mystery and romance. When I first heard that Johhny Depp would be singing I had my doubts, but he's doing a really good job, his voice and tone really fits the character.

It's a bloody tale, but one that enchants. So how's it gonna be? How about a shave?

Kazuki and Yuuji were childhood friends, but Yuuji had to leave for 10 years. When Kazuki finds out he is coming back, she is anticipating what kind of man he has become. Despite her illusions, he turns out to be a dirty pervert who is trying to win her love (or body?). In spite of her disappointment, she begins to realize that despite Yuuji's lewd ways, he values their long friendship and Kazuki's kind older sister, Hatsune, tries to help their relationship along. Meanwhile, Yuuji’s little sister, Marie, punishes his lustful outbursts by shooting him with a painful, but non-lethal, automatic air rifle.

It's not great, but it's absolutely not bad; Tona-Gura gets stuck somewhere in the middle. I liked it and it left me with a smile, wishing the serie had gone on for longer as it had potential. The story is pretty bland and never really kicks off, but still, I enjoyed watching it.

The Melancholy is a story about the every day life of Haruhi Suzumiya, a young and very active high school girl. It's narrated from the point of view of one of her classmates, Kyon. It's clear from the first day that there's something odd about Miharu, when during her introduction she explains that she has no interrest in ordinary humans, but would rather like to meet with timetravelers, aliens or espers.

This was a crazy fun show to watch, even though I got to watch the episodes "out of order". The episodes were aired in a nonlinear order, and I decided to watch them as such (aligning them in their chronological order would require some thinking, and my head hurts, boo hoo).

If you're a fan of paranormal comedies, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya will rock your socks. :-]

After a massive land subsidence, most of the world are covered in water. Aika Sumeragi is a salvager working for a small company. Together with the company president's daughter, Rion, she embarks on a mission to retrieve an artifact called Lagu. They're not the only ones looking for the Lagu though, and before long they are captured.......by a guy who's housing an army of a harem, or something to that extent. The entire army is made up of girls in short skirts...

This serie was a lot of fun to watch, even though there were no heavy character developments. On the other hand, there's tons and tons of panties. Yes, panties! Short skirts means panties! There's a pantyshot about once every 20 seconds all throughout the serie. Boiiiing! :-]

I'm a big fan of adventure movies, treasure hunts in particular. We saw National Treasure 2 today and it wasn't as bad as I've been told.

Nicholas Cage reprises his role as the treasure hunter Ben Gates, this time trying to clear the name of an ancestor accused of having taken part in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Like I said, I like a good adventure movie, and Book of Secrets were no exception. I find it a bit 'iffy' that the clues always seems to point in the right direction, or that they always seem to be able to decipher them (they're practically led by the hand), but on the other hand, a movie where they're stuck at square one, all the time, would suck. Simply put..

Rent it, kick back and enjoy the ride. :-]

Sometime in the distant future, Humanity has managed to survive, but only in isolated cities and through the use of cloning and robotic servants called AutoReivs. Life in the cities are strictly controlled by management dedicated to preserving their 'utopian' way of life.

But something is causing the AutoReivs to become independent and is driving them to seek to escape the city. Re-l Mayer, an inspector from the Citizen Information Bureau, learns that the awakenings of the ‘autoraves’ is caused by an encounter with something called a Proxy. In seeking to learn more, Re-l stumbles into a secret that management is desperately trying to hide and will go to any lengths to keep suppressed...

This show is awesome in almost every way possible. Beautiful animations blended with a deep story and strong, interresting and growing characters. I wanted to see more and more and often found myself watching 5-6 episodes in a row, until reluctantly, earlier today, I finished the serie, effectively leaving me with a void -- partially so because all questions aren't answered, but I always end up feeling a little empty once I've finished with a serie.

This is one I'll get back to eventually though. The philosophic nature of Ergo Proxy is on a level I haven't seen before, and it has been an interresting experience.