Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo is an action packed animated series that has a ton of kick ass fight scenes and never takes itself too seriously.  The characters are fun and interesting and are developed very well throughout the twenty six episode show. Aside from the action and story, Samurai Champloo has a very recognizable soundtrack that is a mashup of hip-hop and electronic which gives the setting of feudal Japan a very fresh, if not somewhat out of place, feeling to it.

 The story revolves around Fuu,  a waitress who enlists in the help of two samurai to hunt down the man that killed her father, referred to as the "man who smells of sunflowers". Mugen, a rude and unorthodox swordsman, Jin, a calm and emotionless samurai, and Fuu travel from town to town, embarking in one adventure after the other. Every episode, apart from a few two parters, focus on new environments and side characters which keeps the show fresh and entertaining. From accidentally thwarting a national revolution to entering eating contests and playing intense games of baseball, first time watchers will never expect what will happen next.

Fans of Cowboy Bebop, the animated space-western series, will find plenty to love in Samurai Champloo as they share the same creator and a lot of the same aesthetics. Although the space and samurai themes could not be anymore different, they are similar in other ways. The group of loners and rejects, the dramatic and cinematic styles, and a heavy influence of music are shared amongst both while still keeping their own individual and unique charm. Fans of either series should absolutely watch both shows.          

Overall, I would recommend Samurai Champloo to people who are trying to get into animated Japanese shows or action cartoons in general as it really is considered a classic. 

   

Storytelling in Sword Art Online

My tastes in entertainment have changed a lot in the past year. There was a time in my life (a rough, rough time) when my preference in television was sitcoms like Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. My interests have definitely broadened since then, and I’ve recently begun to take an interest in Anime. 

Since I began watching anime last semester, the most recent one I binged on has been my clear favorite. That show is Sword Art Online, a 25 episode show based off of a novel series written by Reki Kawahara. Sword Art Online is the story of two MMORPG players named Kirito and Asuna. Set in the year 2022, the show takes place in a virtual reality world in which players put on “nerve gear” that literally puts them into the game. The creator of this MMO ends up trapping the players in the game, and they have to play it to completion in order to escape back into the real world. Kirito and Asuna are two of the game’s strongest and best players, and they fight through the 100 levels to challenge the creator of the game, who is the final boss and the ticket back into the real world. In the two and a half or so years that they spend stuck in the game, Kirito and Asuna fall in love, and decide to fight to the end so that they can be together in the real world. When they finally do complete the game however, one of the creators of the nerve gear keeps Asuna trapped in the state of virtual reality and brings her into a new game that he has created. Kirito then must play this new game to defeat the deranged creator of Alfheim Online. It is an exciting, fast-moving story that kept me enthralled the entire time.

I watched this entire series in two days (roughly 30 hours). Having grown up a fan of Harry Potter, Runescape, Eragon, and other fantasy-fiction books/games, Sword Art Online was right up my alley. I couldn’t get enough of it, and I think that is due to quality of storytelling. Now I’ve never seen myself as much of a writer, whether it be for television/movies, short stories, or anything else. This is because my storytelling skills are lacking; I can have an interest idea, but I really suck at expressing it in an entertaining way. I liked this series so much because the story was so relatable to my childhood interests. It had the right balance of action, character development, and general humor/entertainment to keep me hungry for more the entire way through. I know that as I try out my talents in writing this summer (which I think will be fun, hopefully it doesn’t turn out a mess),I will look to Sword Art Online as a guide for developing the plot and characters in an interesting way.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Gurren Lagann is the kind of animated television series that lets you relive all the fun you had watching saturday morning cartoons as a kid every time you see it. The story gets so insane that near the end, giant fighting robots are throwing planets at each other! The characters are well developed and definitely give a good performance in the midst of an intense action sequence. Gurren Lagann is considered a classic in the animation world and it only gets better every time you watch it.

The story centers around two boys from Jeeha Village, a city that resides underneath the surface of the Earth. Kamina and Simon desperately want to reach the surface to see what lies outside the city walls. In a moment of terror, a giant beast falls through from below into their city and they are forced to fight for their lives. They battle with a small robot they found while digging and they pilot to defeat the beast, eventually leading to their escape to the surface. From here on out, Kamina and Simon fight along with other humans to take back control of the surface from the oppressive Spiral King with the help of their mechanical friends. The plot escalates far beyond this however, and they eventually travel into deep space, constantly gaining more and more powers. Each episode gets more and more ridiculous as the series goes on and it's a ton of fun.

The series gets a lot of praise for emulating the feeling of a over the top Saturday morning cartoon. Not only did it produce awesome battle scenes and finishing moves, but it did a lot to redefine what giant fighting robot shows could potentially do. There are twists and turns all throughout the series and there are somethings you could have never expected to happen. The whole tone of the show could do a one-eighty in an instant and it really keeps the audience engaged in what is happening. The first time I watched the series, I watched the last twelve episodes in a row because I was so invested.

Overall, Gurren Lagann is one of my favorite animated shows because it balances over the top action with a serious plot very well and at the same time, it's so much fun to watch.

5 Centimeters Per Second

5 Centimeters Per Second received a lot of attention when it was first released in Japan. People loved the breath taking animation and the mature story that was told. It was recommended to me by a friend who agreed that critical acclaim was rightly deserved. I watched the whole thing over the weekend and while I did appreciate the illustration, the story and characters didn't seem very realistic to me.

The story takes place in the 1990's and centers around Takaki Tono and Akari Shinohara, two elementary school students who form a strong bond between each other. Over the course of the film, the story follows them as they try to maintain a long distance relationship as Akari's family moves away. It follows them throughout their high school and early adult years and highlights the hardships and the crippling truths that arise from trying to maintain their relationship.

The film does do a good job of showing how realistic long distance relationships can be, especially in the early 90s when instant messaging and texting wasn't really around. However, I feel like the main characters, especially Takaki, wouldn't let a childhood relationship inevitably ruin there lives. In the third part of the film when they are both young adults, it shows how they are still heavily invested in a relationship that ended years before. The entire movie is only about an hour long and I feel like they really could have made the film a lot more impactful if they had added another half an hour of content. The characters would feel much more fleshed out and the time skips wouldn't have felt so rushed. The breathtaking animation is definitely worth sticking around for though, even if you find yourself less than invested in what is actually happening in the story.

Overall, I don't think I would really recommend this movie to anyone other than people who appreciate really nice artwork and animation. The story and characters fall short in my opinion, but it is only an hour long film so maybe I was expecting.          

Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance

     This week, I was finally able to sit down and watch the second movie in the Evangelion movie trilogy, Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. In comparison to the first movie, it has better action, better animation, and drastically deviates from the original storyline in more ways than one. Overall, it was a complete upgrade from the first movie and a fantastic addition to the Evangelion franchise.

     The story picks up right after the events of the first movie. Shinji Akari and Rei Ayanami have worked together thus far to stop the advancing angels that have come to Earth to completely annihilate the entire planet. In the middle of another angel fight, a new and powerful evangelion emerges (piloted by a girl named Asuka Soryu) and defeats the angel single handily. Shinji and Rei begin to work with Asuka to strengthen their forces but they are far from the perfect team. Asuka acts very stubbornly and rude and Rei remains quiet and conserved while Shinji struggles internally with the weight of the human race on his shoulders as well as a crippling sense of loneliness. Through many hardships and struggles, the three pilots must defeat seemingly stronger enemies one after the other as humanity's last line of defense in preserving the lives of millions.

     While the first movie set up a good foundation and was a nice way of revamping the series as a whole, it was missing a lot that was looking forward to seeing in the second movie, namely the addition of Asuka as the third Evangelion. Although she can be very off-putting to most of the characters in the movie, she is a very complex character that was illustrated very well in the original series. With that being said, halfway through the movie, something involving Asuka happens that caught me completely off guard. The deviations between the movie and the original series suddenly changed from minor things to completely rewriting the plot. It definitely led to some fantastic fight sequences and emotional moments, but I won't know if it was the right decision to make until I see the third and final movie. At this point, they have completely changed the outcome of the series and I am excited to see what they do with it.

     Overall, the second movie is definitely my favorite out of the two and I'm hoping that they take it to the next level in the final installment of the movie adaptations.      

Spirited Away

     One of my favorite animated movies ever made, Spirited Away, has made tremendous strides in the animation industry while captivating audience with a fantastic plot and characters. Personally, the most amazing thing about this film is the amount of creativity that flows throughout it and makes an everlasting impact on the audience. This film was directed Hayao Miyazaki, a man who has made many masterpieces and in my opinion, his best one to date. Spirited Away has won an Oscar as well as many other notable awards and has been recognized as a masterpiece of animated cinema.

     The story focuses on a young girl named Chihiro and her struggle to survive in a strange new world where creatures and witches live and where humans are turned into beasts. The movie begins with Chihiro and her family driving cross country to their new house in a new town. On the way, they stop near an abandoned park to explore the desolate, but beautiful landscape. Along the way, as the sun gets closer to setting, spirits start to appear and Chihiro's parents are transformed into pigs. Scared and alone in an unknown place, Chihiro runs away and encounters Haku, a mysterious boy who is willing to help her return home. Throughout the rest of the movie, Chihiro encounters strange creatures and circumstances that she must overcome to save her parents and return to the peaceful life she was once bored with. On top of the fantastic animation, the character development is amazing and you learn to sympathize with the protagonist in more ways than one.

Overall, Spirited Away is a must see film that can be enjoyed by any age and produces heartfelt moments that are the most memorable and gripping than any other film I've seen.

 

Why Anime Shows Can't be Live Action Films (at least in the U.S)

Reading an earlier blog post about books turning into movies inspired me to write about anime shows turning into live action films, and why they just don't work.  

I mean, c'mon. When was the last time you went to the movies to see a live action film based off of an anime show and it was actually really good? Probably never. And this idea of turning anime into live action films will never, never work because the film industry in the U.S just completely fails when doing so. 

Fail Number One: Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Last Airbender (2010)

That character interpretation tho

Avatar: The Last Airbender was no doubt one of the best shows Nickelodeon came out with. However, the movie adaptation, The Last Airbender (directed by M. Knight), was completely horrible. I mean, the film won Worst Picture in 2010, and was universally attacked by critiques about the plots being inconsistent with the show, and let's not even begin on the acting or the pronunciation of character names. (Is it Eroh or Iroh?) The film's budget was $150,000,000 but only grossed in $131,564,731 in the U.S. Surpringly though, it ranked second in the box office behind The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. (Ironic?)
The anime show is Asian-influenced especially when it comes to the characters and cultures (meditation relating to Buddhism, etc.) HOWEVER, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon were critiqued for casting Caucasians in the film, and even being racist by having Prince Zuko played by Dev Patal, the only 'colored' actor in the film. The Asian community was so upset by this action that the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans urged for a boycott of the film. Even though anime characters are all up for interpretation, the industry could at least try to make it close enough to how the anime character looks. I mean, the artists literally drew them out for you.
Besides the terrible casting, the visual effects were sad to see and the dialogue was just painful to listen to. The film is narrated by Katara, but every character is so repetitive with their lines and even explain themselves so much, that there really isn't a need for the poorly written narration. The film was HEAVILY scripted as well, with way too much talk and not enough visual effects. It seems like the director told the kids to just wave their arms around and it's 'bending'. Bending is an actual form, but thank you very much for taking the time to consider that. (Sarcasm for those of you who don't understand it). The movie Avatar came out around the same time, so obviously special effects could have been pulled off in the film. The bending looked so computer generated (I'll give them credit though, it's tough to make fire look natural but controlled at the same time). But there's a scene where you can see Aang petting Momo the Lemur, but his hand is hovering over at least a couple inches above. The movie received 6% on the Tomatometer and 4.4 stars out of 10 on Internet Movie Database. If there's one thing the movie did do great, it was that it lived up to the title. It definitely is the last live action avatar movie we'll see.

Fail Number Two: Dragon Ball & Dragon Ball Evolution (2009)

Do I even need to really explain why this movie failed? The movie is "supposedly" based off the first series of Dragon Ball (Dragon Ball Z & GT have the same characters but are just about different periods of times in their lives, for those of you who don't know your Dragon Ball facts). The plot in the anime is that a monkey tailed boy named Goku befriends a girl named Bulma, who goes on an adventure with him to find the seven Dragon Balls which will summon the dragon Shenlong who will then grant the user one wish. I don't even know the plot for Dragon Ball Evolution; it's just somewhere along Goku's life. For starters, the film did a terrible job explaining the plot elements. Everything just sort of happens in the film without an explanation, and a lot of the original content from the anime was completely ignored. For example, Picollo (the bad guy) gets released from his seal and Goku gets appointed as the savior of the world. But there's no answers to the how's and why's, especially when all the characters just pop up out of nowhere to Goku's assistance. 

Eh, close enough

And the special effects are sooooo cheesy, and lack the visual elements that the anime provided. For those of you who are die-hard Dragon Ball fans, you know you were super excited to see Goku transform into "Oozaru", his monkey form. But wait for it...Surprise! It's nothing more than 30 seconds of really bad special effects and disappointment. The dialogue is also over dramatic and yet so uninspiring. And once again, people complained about the cast; we see that a Caucasian (Justin Chatwin) plays the role for an Asian influenced character. It's no surprise that the film received 2.8 stars out of 10 on Internet Movie Database, and 14% on the Tomatometer. The film is definitely entertaining if you're an 11 year old boy.

Fail Number Three: Speed Racer & Speed Racer (2008)

So far, it seems like movies based on anime shows fail to use special effects to their advantage. However, Speed Racer just used TOO much special effects, and not surprisingly, didn't develop a coherent story line. But that's according to the finest critiques. Everyone else actually loves Speed Racer.  The "too much special effects" isn't a bothersome to audiences but instead, enjoyable. People love getting sucked into a new world full of colors that remind them of a classic arcade game. And although there's been complaints about the actor's acting in the film, others have argued that it's supposed to add to the cartoon-ish feel of the film. I mean, the film does have it's cheesy moments, but it is suppose to appeal to a younger audience as well. But besides the film being visually accepted and enjoyable and cheesy acting, the story line is still neglected form the original anime. You can have a film be full of colors and cheesyness (which is exactly the point of the film), but can't neglect the narrative coherence of the film. The film has been listed as one of the most underrated films, and an unsung masterpiece for it's time. Speed Racer is literally a film that is so bad, that it's so good; an argumentative film that only you can either love or hate. However, the film didn't even surpass it's budget of $120,000,000. Instead, it only grossed in about $44,000,000. But based on the two previous films listed above, Speed Racer did much better in ratings with 6.2 stars out of 10 on Internet Movie Database, as well as 39% on the Tomatometer. Then again, it could have gotten better ratings than the other two since the The Wachowski Brothers took advantage of writing a movie based off an unknown Japanese manga/anime series. 

Pokémon: A Love Story

In class on Wednesday, I jokingly said I'd blog about Pokémon after I heard Arturo call it "nothing." At first the idea of blogging about it seemed silly, but I thought about it for a while and decided to just go for it.

Pokémon came to the great United States in 1998 via the Nintendo Gameboy. Released as two versions of the same game the handheld RPG swept the nation. Almost everybody — kindergartners to college students — were captivated by the Japanese wonder that was Pokémon. Nothing could be greater than exploring a world full of 150 unique creatures that you can raise as your own. I mean, who wouldn't want to be a ten-year old boy that gets to travel the world fighting with these awesome animal sidekicks? I'm as sure as Squirtle going to want to do that.

The following year, in 1999, an animated Pokémon television series made its way to the States. This too, captured the imaginations of people everywhere. The viewers followed Ash Ketchum as he attempted to become a Pokémon master. His adventures were humorous, and he makes friends along the way, finding them in both fellow trainers and in his Pokémon. Ash even made his way onto the big screen, with multiple movies. And to think this all started as a Japanese handheld game.

My personal story with Pokémon started with the TV show, then to the video game. I followed Ash's journey every Saturday morning when I was a child. I would struggle and cry as I had to leave for a soccer game before I found out whether or not he was able to get away from the evil Team Rocket. I would also cry when my Gameboy ran out of batteries and I couldn't play Pokémon Red any more. Car rides were so boring without my team of Charizard, Kadabra, Gyarados, Pidgeot, Nidoking, and Snorlax.

Childhood, so tough.

So what am I trying to get at here? I'm not trying to glorify a children's cartoon, and I'm not simply complaining that a professor thought my favorite game is silly.

Pokémon is a simple idea: a world is inhabited by "animals" that you can capture and raise as your own. We, as people, cling to this because it is both familiar and unfamiliar. We marvel at how absurd some of these creatures are, wishing we could have them as our own. We also see some of them as things we have here in our world: as birds, as fish, as plants, etc. Each of us take the Pokémon and give it a personality, allowing us to be a part of that world.

Something else I find amazing about Pokémon is its cultural impact. Starting 15 years ago in Japan, it has since morphed into Nintendo's second most popular franchise, only behind Mario. There are 16 seasons of the TV series, 14 films, dozens of video games, and a card game. The fanbase must be in the billions. Everything stemmed from the original video game. That's crazy. And I am glad I could be a part in the beginning of something so huge. I love it.

The Boondocks

I’m usually not a big fan of anime shows with their explicit scenes of violence and fighting. However, there is one show that is considered in the anime category that I can’t stop watching. This show is called The Boondocks. The show began in 2005 on Adult Swim and continued to make 3 seasons. Currently, season 4 is in the making.

This show consists of two 8 year old’s name Huey and Riley who are polar opposites of each other politically and morally.  Huey is the voice of reason, extremely liberal socially and underestimated by his family and ridiculed for having such radical views and having goals higher then from which he came. He is a strong believer for “Afrocentrism” and is wiser then most 8 year olds. Riley is completely opposite, interested in gangster related activities and committing crimes; he's into modern mainstream hip-hop and living the life of rappers on TV. They are both raised by their Grandad, who is very outspoken and moved his grandchildren to a suburban neighborhood called Woodcrest to have a better life. 

The first thing I love about this show is the social issues that they cover. Because they are one of the only African American families in Woodcrest, the show deals with such issues as African American vs. White Culture (exaggerates each races culture in order to juxtapose them), racial struggle with law enforcement, racism, and current events and pop culture. Obviously because of these issues the show is deemed as controversial. They push the limits with the heavy use of the word “ni***” and was voted as 5th most controversial cartoon of all time in Time Magazine. 

Other then it’s controversial topics, the show is known for it’s music. A lot of the extensive fight scenes in the show are played with hip-hop music over it. These occur in almost every episode and the it is usually underground rap. This music plays a large role in the show and the songs usually have a political theme and were written for the show specifically. There are also many celebrities that voice the characters.

I highly recommend this show to anyone who loves animated shows that push the limits of what is acceptable on TV. You do not need to have watched past episodes to understand what is going on in the show, so you can start by watching Season 4 this year when it comes out!