Random Musings – Kannazuki no Miko Redux Edition
Random Musings – Nodame All-Stars Edition
A few news items and updates – which you may or may not have already heard about – on this first day of December.
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Random Musings – Five Centimeters Per Second Edition
Have you ever seen something so pretty and so touching that it made you want to cry? I don’t usually label myself as the sentimental type, but the trailer for Byousoku 5 Centimeter (5 Centimeters Per Second) (mirror) evoked those emotions so easily. I think it’s a combination of the amazing art and a fantastic piano piece. A very similar piece (if not a different part of the same song) is also played in the teaser trailer, which is equally beautiful. I’ve got it playing in the background right now because it’s such a serene, almost sad song. If you haven’t yet seen these trailers, you must go download them right now.
For those of you unfamiliar with this film, it is acclaimed director Shinkai Makoto‘s latest work that features three short stories titled Oukashou, Cosmonaut, and Byousoku 5 Centimeter. They all revolve around a boy named Toono Takaki (voiced by Mizuhashi Kenji) and take place from the early 1990s to the present day. The first and third stories, Oukashou and Byousoku 5 Centimeter, will have two different voice actresses (Kondou Yoshimi and Onoue Ayaka) playing the part of a girl named Shinohara Akari. It seems that Takaki and Akari got separated at the same time they graduated from elementary school, and the Oukashou part is about his reunion with her. The second story Cosmonaut is about Takaki after that reunion told from the point of view of a classmate named Sumita Kanae (voiced by Hanamura Satomi) who has feelings for him. The third and final Byousoku 5 Centimeter is the title work that depicts the wandering of their souls once they’ve grown up. The movie’s theme song is going to be Yamazaki Masayoshi‘s One more time, One more chance from his 1997 single by the same name (Watch a live version on Youtube).
Byousoku 5 Centimeter, which has a running time of approximately an hour, will premiere in early spring of next year at the Shibuya Cinema Rise.
Random Musings – The Shotgun Approach
Alright, since there have been some complaints, here is a brief explanation of my beginning-of-season methodology:
I take the shotgun approach, which means that I will try to watch and put up initial impressions of as many series as I can. Some of you may ask, well why don’t you write up do a full write-up for Series X? The answer is that it’s very hard to tell what will be good and what won’t be without watching an episode and seeing what others have to say about it. That’s why I try to do as much as I can early on, so that I don’t miss something good. The shows I write full entries for during the first week are either shows that I can summarize quickly or shows that I know for sure will be popular. As for what I will continue to follow through the rest of the season, I take into consideration 1) what series fit my schedule 2) what series I enjoyed and 3) what series seem the most popular – in that order of importance. That’s why comments are so crucial, because I use them as one of the gauges of popularity, and I keep track throughout a season.
Random Musings – Incoming
Just got back from school (11PM EST). One of my prototypes broke and I had to rebuilt it from scratch. *grumble grumble* Anyway, Lovely Idol, Pumpkin Scissors, and/or Tokimeki Memorial coming very soon.
Edit: Well I got two of the three. If I had gotten home six hours earlier like I had planned, then I probably would have been able to write up Tokimeki and Pumpkin Scissors. Unfortunately, it’s now 4AM and I’m dead tired, so that’s not going to happen. And given that this week is all new shows, it’s looks unlikely that I’ll ever get a chance to cover Pumpkin Scissors unless Lovely Idol and Tokimeki both are complete crap in their second episodes and I decide to pick PS up.
2nd Edit: Ok I lied. I decided to watch Pumpkin Scissors and liked it enough to post some pics. Remember, if you want me to blog a certain series, leave a comment under that first episode entry so that I don’t assume that people have no interest in whatever show because it’s got few or no comments. And now I really am going to bed b/c it’s 5AM…and I have to get up in 3 hours…
Random Musings – Finale Reflections
| You know that empty and depressed feeling you get when you finish a really good series or come out of a really good movie? I get that feeling maybe once or twice every few months, usually for a great show. In the spring, it was when Mai-Otome ended, and in the summer, it was when Fate-stay night ended. More recently, I got that feeling after I finished playing Xenosaga III during that one week break I took. But if you asked me which finale gave me that feeling this past week, the answer might surprise you. It wasn’t Blood+ or Ouran High School Host Club or ZEGAPAIN. It was Strawberry Panic. Why? I’m not really sure myself. I ended up watching the end of Strawberry Panic a couple dozen times (not exaggerating), beating out by far how much I enjoyed the endings to all the other series. Even though I consider Blood+, Ouran, and ZEGAPAIN to be overall great shows with great endings, I loved even more how Strawberry Panic ended, despite it being fairly predictable and despite the show as a whole being not the best. Maybe it was because my expectations for it were low, or maybe it was because I loved the music in that final episode. But for whatever reason, Strawberry Panic’s finale gets my vote as the best one of this past week (see Poll at right). And now I’m going to stop writing before I start talking about the magical effect of yuri or something. 🙂 |
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Random Musings – Cause Evangelion Re-Creations Are Sexy…
News has been circulating around about the new Evangelion films that Anime News Service has a translation for:
The title for the new film series is “Evangelion Shin Gekijou Ban”, it will consist of 4 parts with the first part arriving in Japanese theaters in early summer, 2007. Staff include General Supervisor: Hideaki Anno, Director: Tsurumaki Kazuya , Character Design: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Mecha Design: Ikuto Yamashita, Animation Production: Khara (Color) Studio. The scenario of the 1st part will be written by Hideaki Anno with storyboard by Shinji Higuchi. Key points of a supposed interview which may or may not appear in the forthcoming edition of Newtype attributed to Toshimichi Ohtsuki of King Records have also been circulating. According to that information:
-The content is quite different though the time base of the story is the same as the original TV series.
– It will be a remake, however, it is not a re-creation but a “new work”.
– The approach will be different than what Tomino-san did with the Gundam Z New Translation films, there will apparantly be a large amount of new material.
– Even if the TV series has not be seen, the viewer will be able to enjoy it. Though the content becomes easy, it is not redundant to those already familiar with the series.
– The technique that purposely scatters difficult words and phrases will not be used any longer.
– As an antithesis to current animation industry segments. It is an attitude on the production side to pull the act in the age that started from Eva.
There are some sketchy pictures floating around, but I dug up some decent scans (courtesy of an uploader at ranobe.com):
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What do I think? Well I wasn’t ever a huge fan of the Evangelion series, though it is one of the very first animes I’ve seen. It’ll be interesting to see what they decide to change in terms of the overall story and if the ending is radically different.
One more to blow your mind
Will Satou-kun ever escape the conspiracy? Was Kyon really left with no choice but to kiss Haruhi? Will Hagu become left-handed? These questions intrigue me because I believe they are what make an anime memorable. You know what I’m talking about. It’s that huge sigh you let out at the end of Kaleido Star, satisfied that the ending did the show every bit of justice it deserved. It’s the chill you got when Kaede goes seed-mode for the first time in SHUFFLE! It can even be the look of morbid disgust on your face when watching some “spirited” fans do the Haruhi ED dance on Youtube. Regardless of how anime affects you, one cannot deny the essence of a great anime – an animated reality that draws us in and takes us on an emotional rollercoaster ride as we laugh, love, fight, and cry with characters that remain fondly tucked away in our memories forever.
I’ll be starting a new feature on Random Curiosity – FreezeFrame. I’ll be bringing to you memorable scenes from recent episodes, along with some thoughts and analysis in an attempt to spark discussion, whether it be in the comments section here or amongst your anime buddies at school. Watching an anime is only half the fun – to truly experience it, we must reflect. I love anime because of its wonderful depth and ability to stir the soul – I want to share this love with everybody.
Will you help me? I can initiate the discussion, but it is up to you all to continue it. I’m also open to any suggestions on topics – email me at jaalin AT gmail DOT com.
Yoroshiku!
-jaalin
Random Musings – Brand New Morning Edition
| A few random news bits/things I have to say: -With the release of the KamiKazo DVDs, I’m finally able to listen to the full Kamisama Kazoku OP and ED (creditless OP/ED sequences are nice too). Given that I haven’t liked a lot of the past season’s theme songs, I’m glad that I can now put on repeat some songs I really do enjoy. -This week has been a bit frustrating in the sense that it seems like every post has someone asking about the episodes I skipped last week. For the final time: I will not be making up the episodes that aired during my break. I realize some of you folks aren’t happy with the jump in continuity, but you have to realize how much time it takes to blog everything – time which I just don’t have. The only exceptions are the series that are now being covered by the other writers. –NANA is getting a new OP next week, another Reira/OLIVIA song called Wish. -Newsweek is running a story about the popularity of YouTube in Japan. Of particular note is the fact that it mentions The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya as an example in the final paragraph. That’s the first time I’ve seen something like that mentioned in print media. -There are A LOT of series coming next season, so I’m starting planning early (especially since I won’t be able to take on nearly as many series this time as I normally do). Series I’ve got marked right now include (in no particular order) Sumomomo Momomo, Yoake Mae Yori Ruriiro na Crescent Love, Kanon, Ayakashi Ayashi, and Death Note. That’s only a small fraction of the total number of shows, and it’s even still a bit early since some shows don’t have airdates yet. As usual, I won’t be making final decisions on what to follow until well into the next season, and I’ll likely watch the first episode of pretty much everything. Hopefully I’ll be able to write a fall preview sometime soon (I love my spreadsheets) -Oh yea, I almost forgot (very old news): Bleach is moving to Wednesday nights come October. |
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Well, I suppose it is time for my introduction…
Well, since some of the other new contributors for this blog have posted their introductions, I guess it is time for me to post mine. For the moment I will be in charge of providing summaries of the series School Rumble Ni Gakki for all of you out in the blogosphere. I likely won’t have very detailed descriptions on the air dates of them, as I sort of can parse through raw anime episodes, and have a general sense of what is going on, but not exactly specifics. Might as well provide a slight bit of background information about myself, just so you can tell where I am coming from, currently a college student, much like our lead Omni here, and in a degree for Computer Systems Engineering. My 3 loves in the world are Computers, Linux, and Anime. Yes, I am very much a Linux geek, though I have no problem at all watching the episodes, actually my environment is a bit more uniform than Windows is, but I won’t open up that can of worms. I can be very opinionated in things that I am passionate about, but also for the most part am neutral about most things. A bit about my viewing habits, my favorite genres are comedy and romance, so I may pick series that coincide with my viewing preferences. Likely what I will be doing, at least for school rumble, is the following:
– Will be putting out a sort of general summary from a raw that I can get a hold of, likely not many specifics, but I will do my best to make sense of it.
– After a subtitled version comes out, update the summary to be more specific in the happenings of the episode
I will be known as Judge on this blog, it is one of my nicknames, though the name that I use for most things online is the handle JDGBOLT, partially because it is what I started with, and partially out of necessity, as Judge would likely be a common handle, and I dislike having numbers in my name. My primary email address is jdgbolt@*nospam*gmail.com, and I can also be reached that way with google talk, though should it become too much of a hassle, I may go offline, but I am usually online for the most part. So feel free to contact me if you have any questions of comments, or just feel like chatting. Hope to get along with all of you individuals and that you will at least accept what I have to say. Well, here is hoping to a great time blogging about anime!
Judge