When East Meets West...

I love when anime does western literature adaptations. It's just so cool. It's neat to see how things get interpreted or re-imagined and I just freakin' adore it.



Series such as Gankutsuo and Romeo x Juliet are just too damn fun for me to watch because I'm such a literary nut and adore the original works. Romeo and Juliet is my second favorite Shakespearre play (Cymbeline is the first...that'd make a fantastic anime, actually...hmmm...) and seeing them in anime form...the color scheme is classic (Montagues blue, Capulets red), the character designs are simple yet effective, and the setting takes on a life and character of its own. Studio Gonzo created both series, though I think they did more justice to Gankutsuo (remake of The Count of Monte Cristo, the title is the Japanese translation meaning "King of Caves"). Oh well. I'm always hoping for more. Imagine Tartuffe in anime form! Japanese concepts of Christianity are already hilarious enough...*sigh* It'd be damn cool.



It'd be fun to see the reverse as well. When I'd heard about the live-action Hollywood adaptation of Neon Genesis Evangelion I was suitably frightened. Evangelion isn't really one of my favorite series, or even one that I really like since Shinji is pretty hard to sympathize with, but it'd be pure entertainment to see them even try and market this film or even make it. Wow, that was a bad run-on...



Apparently a live-action Akira is actually in the works, being spearheaded by none other than Leonardo DiCaprio. Random, huh? Don't believe me? Check it out: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1134795/

World gets smaller every day, huh?

Overlooked Medium

Animation is almost always an overlooked medium for story-telling, at least in the United States. In the U.S., animation is reserved for children and the adults that either accompany them or those who purchase a ticket for nostalgia's sake.

What drew me (and others like me) to anime was in fact our love of the medium itself. The simulacrum, art imitating life, character designs, the coloring, the fluidity, how everything animated was done with a specific purpose in mind, etc. The stories you can tell with animation are completely limitless. Japanese animators really took that and ran with it, animating movies and series exclusively to an older audience. Complex stories with difficult effects are almost child's play when animated. The animation itself becomes a part of the story as well as the "camera" because the camera can be placed anywhere. Characters will always have the reactions the directors want to convey, and absolutely nothing about the story is left to chance.

The beauty of the medium often makes me want to discuss it for hours. And the one studio here in the United States that can rival any anime studio is Disney, who notoriously shut down their 2-D studio. Why!? It was beautiful! I know it's coming back, but wouldn't it be great if someone with Disney's animation could tell a story like Cowboy Bebop? Or something as whacky as Serial Experiments Lain? Or hell, a great horror/action story like Blood + would be beyond awesome.

If only...

I don't know where this rant was going. I was reading an essay on the themes in Lain and got caught up in my own thoughts. I'll try again at some other point.

Updated just 'cause...

So I'm in the middle of Boogiepop Phantom...and I guess this is for the people who thought Serial Experiments Lain's pacing was juuuuuust right but the story was way too linear. I'm not saying that BP is a bad anime--it's definitely got a good story with some great metaphors and interesting characters. But it definitely has it's flaws.

Boogiepop Phantom hails from the era of "more realistic anime is better". Instead of interesting character designs, I feel like I'm watching the same three people do creepy things even though they died in the last episode or something. It really is that difficult to tell who's whom. I still don't know who any of the "main" characters are except for Karima. She's the brunette with the longest hair. Also, she doesn't wear a school uniform. That's the only way I know her. For all that he's the titular character of the novel (and in particular this anime) series , Boogiepop doesn't show up that often. It's kind of an event if Boogipop's even mentioned, much less shows up. It's seriously a let down. Who is Boogiepop? What does he/she have to do with these kids? And what was up with that column of light? What exactly happened five years ago? WHO'S THE DAMN SERIAL KILLER!?

The pacing is almost non-existent, and the timeline jumps around so much that we're often told before each scene when it's supposed to take place. Each episode revolves around a different character with stories that do overlap with other characters, so we're often treated to the same scene that takes on new life with a different viewpoint. (Though the animation will often cheat by just re-using the same scene again and again.) The animation itself is dark and oppressive, which really fills out the atmosphere. Unfortunately, it hasn't held up especially well over the years. Watching it now often leaves me with the feeling that a lot of scenes are dark so that they didn't have to design a background for their characters to live in. But I'm just nitpicking now.

I still have to watch the second half of the series. I'm hoping some of my questions will get answered. Here's hoping that I've completely jumped the gun on some of this...

Alone in the Dark comes out tomorrow. It's Tony's birthday present (Tony is the boyfriend). I'm hoping that I won't get nightmares or bored of the gameplay. It looks seriously awesome, so I'm praying that the gamemakers didn't overreach in their goals. Also, I hope there's some girl in there to keep my interest. I'm a sucker for damsels and hopes for a romance budding under dire circumstances. Or something. Okay, pipe down. I know it's not gonna happen, but a girl can dream, right? Or kill zombies. Or zombie-esque things. Whatever. We get to light stuff on fire. That is pretty awesome right there.

Anime Trade

So, I work at a medical office and one of our patients is also a rabid anime fan. Every time he's in ('cause heaven forbid that there should be a female interested in these things, old or young) we trade "Have you seen x, y, or zed?" and then trade DVDs we think the other will like. This is kinda new, but I love it. He's just lent me Mermaid Forrest, a somewhat unknown Takahashi series that's not comedic in any way and is in fact rather creepy. I've heard of it, just not seen it. I also borrowed Boogie Pop Phantom, both the series and a live action version, so this'll be fun. I'll comment on them when I've watched.





I'll be lending him The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and probably Gankutsuo later on. The latter is an adaptation of Dumas' famous tale of revenge: The Count of Monte Cristo. What's great about the anime is that it's an experiment in visual artforms as well as telling a fantastic story full of great characters. The anime employs the use of textures that don't move. Let's see if I can find a good picture...
You can at least see the textures I'm talking about. Now, the character moves, but the patterns in their hair and clothes don't. It's disconcerting at first, but it becomes very lovely and really adds to the atmosphere of the story.

And yes, that girl wears a dress that makes her almost naked. So there's a smidge of fan-pandering.

^_^

Anyone else fed up with females doing voice acting for adult male characters? I have to listen to Rurouni Kenshin on the dub due to this. I know we're not supposed to take Kenshin seriously, but it makes the romantic tension with him and Kaoru unbearable. There is only one exception to this rule and that's Fullmetal Alchemist. I had to check Anime News Network to find out that Ed's seiyuu was a woman. She's scary-deep. But in a good way.

I figured out why I like create-a-character options so much. It's the grown-up way to play with dolls. Dolls that kill things. It's the epitome of awesome.

Enough babbling. I'll think of relevent stuff later.

First Post!

My name is Jill, and this idea came to me as I was trying to start a blog for my Dad's bariatric practice. I own a PS2, but I bought my boyfriend an XBox 360 with the idea that I would play it as well. Our friends have a Wii, and I'm trying to convince somebody else to buy a PS3 so I won't have to, and then that way we'll have our nextgen bases covered. I'm turining 23 in August, and trying to start a real adult life with middling success.



Ever know what it's like to be the minority of even your own social group? I'm a self-proclaimed nerd/geek/dork/what-have-you, interested in comics/manga, videogames, and animation (Japanese animation as well as American). One thing that makes me different from the majority is that I'm female. Though I have nothing but major amounts of love for comics, videogames and anime, it seems like they do nothing but pander to the stereotypical geek male. Even in fantastic games like Bioware's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic where you can choose the sex of your player character, the female storyline is still the weaker of the two. And while, yes, the title of the blog says I'm the only woman, nothing could be farther from the truth. But that's what it feels like most days.



I'm not going to start preaching about the "manocentric ideals" or whatever. I enjoy staring at big breasted characters in games, comics, and anime. Honestly, most of these things don't hold my interest without at least one curvy beauty thrown in the mix. I'm not gay, I just enjoy seeing beautiful women. And having one in there normally leads some sort of romantic tension, which I'm always a sucker for, so really...but it would be nice to see lead characters being kick ass females. Females comfortable enough with their sexuality so that any remarks can be met with teasing or flirting, and then back to the ass kicking where appropriate.



Anyway, semi-rambling rants aside, I'm going to update latest obssessions:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV. I've never been a big fan of the series, but this one is too much fun to put down. The physics engine makes sandboxing around waaaaay too much fun. My favorite is jumping out from a helicopter onto building ledges, sniping targets, and then falling to my doom. Watching Niko uselessly shield himself from a 300 ft. drop is sadistically hysterical.

2. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This is an older obssession, but I still love everything I can find on it. Season two is currently being animated and I'm still stupidly trying to hold my breath waiting for it to come out. This series is brilliant on too many levels, and Aya Hirano's voice acting deserves some kind of Oscar equivalent. The animation is goregeous, from one of my favorite aspiring studios Kyoto Animation.

3. Darker Than Black. A rather riveting tale about human nature complete with dystopian future and explosions. It honestly doesn't get any better. Beautifully animated by Bones the simplistic character designs are brought to life as we explore the life of BK201 and all the questions he poses on the nature of the beast.

4. Soul Calibur 4. I'm still obsessively playing through #3 to get all the character creation parts. I seriously can't wait for #4 and the beautiful graphics.

5. Too Human. From the people who brought us Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem with a new twist on Viking mythology. Futuristic Viking mythos and sexy Crispin Freeman voicing Baldur (main character player) in an intensive western RPG--where the hell do I sign up!? Seriously, major props to Silicone Knights for hiring Crispin. He's one of my favorite actors of all time. The man has an extensive knowledge on many European mythologies. He fits this project like a glove. Also, pretty pretty graphics!



That's it for now because I have to go back to work. More later. ^_^