18 posts tagged “anime” (page 2)
Rather than going to bed immediately after work yesterday morning, I spent some time on the couch watching some anime. On my DVR list of recorded programs, I had three episodes of Bleach and two episodes of Eureka 7 as viewing options. I decided to start with Bleach and move on to Eureka afterwards if I did not get too tired.
Now having seen some more of Bleach, I have to admit that it is starting to grow on me. Then again I probably should not have jumped to a conclusion about a series that has over a hundred episodes after seeing merely two of them. Yes, there are long fight sequences in Bleach, but there does seem to more story and characterization than what I saw in the other two episodes.
Lately I have been contemplating canceling my Netflix subscription. I like the service and the new unlimited streaming option is nice, but at the same time, I have to realize that I can watch a large quantity of anime online for free. Anime makes up a third of my viewing queue. The other two thirds are foreign films and documentaries. So with that in mind, I start to ask myself are foreign films and documentaries enough to keep the subscription? Maybe I am coming at it from the wrong angle.
February has gotten off to a great start on the exercise front and I want that trend to continue for the remainder of the month.
The Killers are still in heavy rotation for me and I think to myself why I always seem to be a few years behind the wave of what is good when it comes to music. I guess that that is another sign of me getting old. Plus I no longer feel the need to buy as music as I did when I was in my twenties. What I also find interesting is that when I look at the music portion of my Amazon wish list, half of what is there is classical music. With a mere two years of piano lessons twenty years ago, I can not say that I fully understand music, but I find the lure of classical music to be more than soothing.
Lately all that I seem to do is complain about time or my lack of it. Weekends rush by and I never seem to get done what I want to get done. Then I try to find time to relax when I am not stressing out over trying to get things done. The phrase vicious cycle might apply.
Since Tuesday I managed to do the following:
During an hour of quiet time, I made some more progress on the novel The Amber Spyglass. After for what for me seemed like too long of an absence, Iorek king of the bears has surfaced again in the story. He was missed by me and I am eager to see him take a larger role as he joins Will in the search for Lyra. Some more interaction with the icy Miss Coulter would also be nice and with four hundred pages left in the book, I have no doubt that that will happen at some time.
I watched eight episodes of the anime series Coyote Ragtime Show only to discover that Netflix does not have the third disc that has episodes nine through twelve on it. Sigh. Maybe I should have done more preliminary reading before I rented the series and was left hanging. It was not the best series that I have ever seen, but not being able to see the end did anger me slightly. I can see why there were some comparisons to Cowboy Bebop, but at the same time, I liked the characters in Cowboy Bebop more than any of the cast of Coyote Ragtime.
Well over a month since Christmas ended, I finally took the tree down this Wednesday. The tree itself was very dry, but didn’t create that big of a mess as I lowered it over the deck to the ground below. Then in the midst of a winter whiteout, I walked the tree across the street into the woods in the hope that no one saw me do said act. As far as I know where I left the tree is property where no one lives so an abandoned tree should not cause any problems. Plus I am hoping that it stays buried until spring and then as everything around it starts to turn green it will slowly decay and rot back into the ground. My primary reason for disposing of the tree in such a way is that from what I understand there is no tree pickup service where I live and I was not about to stuff a tree with loose needles into the trunk of my car to be carried elsewhere.
The five part series How Art Made the World filled my head with a variety of theories that almost overwhelmed me. It was the most information that has been sent my way in a long time. Where else would I encounter Gilgamesh, Trajan’s Column and Aboriginal paintings in the same conversation? Yes, there was a theme tying those three elements together, but it was connection that I never would have made on my own. All three of those things are forms of storytelling to an illiterate audience and in a way a true precursor to modern film making.
I agree with other reviews that said that the three episodes on disc one were more compelling than the two on the second disc, but overall I really liked the series and was amazed at all of ways that art shapes society. Episode one started with paintings found inside the caves at Altamira and ended with hilltop sanctuary in Turkey called Göbekli Tepe. The cave paintings were known to me, but the site in Turkey was a Middle Eastern version of Stonehenge so to speak, but without any astronomical connection as far as I understand. I could be wrong on that last point though.
Having almost reached the end of the mutant crossover event The Messiah Complex, I am ready to abandon every title involved. I like Mike Carey and adore the art of Chris Bachalo, but the two of them can not keep me reading X-Men. Plus from what I have seen online, Bachalo is leaving soon. Besides if I need some Carey writing in my life, I can always dive into his Vertigo book Crossing Midnight. Then over in X-Factor, Peter David has made me care about his cast of characters, but they are getting lost in the bigger picture that Marvel is shoving down the throats of their audience. I find it to be very off-putting, which is not their intention I suspect.
I sampled the first two albums by The Killers and am amazed that such good music came from an American band. Yes, I like The Shins, but their sound is so mild compared to the force and impact of The Killers. The songs Smile Like You Mean It and Read My Mind are both in heavy rotation for me.
I think that my web access has returned to some form of stability again. I have no idea why it was failing and getting a busy signal when I called the 1-800 number for tech support was not encouraging. Watching my cable modem seemingly reboot itself was the definition of frustration for more than a few days. I am hoping that that is behind me now.
I watched another episode of the anime series Bleach and I am not sure if I want to see more of it or not. I am sensing a trend of one fight after another. There may have been fighting in Full Metal Alchemist, but I cared more about what happened to Ed and Al than seeing them fight someone. The two of them grew as people and came to understand their father better. I need character development otherwise I feel as though I am wasting my time.
For the first time in fifteen years, I played chess last night. Actually I played two different games against different people at the same time. I lost one match, but the other was a draw. Both of them taught me something about the game and I might start to play on more of a regular basis.
With the month almost over, I am not impressed with my workout record.
Ten days out of a possible thirty is not a good ratio. I had good
intentions, but the weather and other factors kept getting in the way.
My last two rentals from Netflix have not impressed me. First there was
the odd offering of The Draughtsman's Contract from Peter Greenaway that
missed me completely. From what I have read online, the movie was an
allegory of a certain era of British history that I do not know very
well so most of the in jokes were lost on me. Not knowing the
background made the movie tiresome for me and I usually enjoy his work
such as The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover. I should really
watch that one again to refresh my memory of why I like it. I remember,
vivid colors and some graphic sex and violence, but I am not sure if I
felt for the characters or not.
The second most recent choice was the Japanese sexploitation film Sex &
Fury. My primary reason for renting it was that I had read it
influenced the Tarantino film Kill Bill. Now having seen it, I can
definitely see the influence with its use of a female lead seeking
revenge, but overall the movie seemed flat to me. Martial arts fight
sequences from thirty years ago pale next to what we see in cinema today
and that really dragged the movie down for me. Plus most of the acting
was very wooden.
To offset these two viewing disappointments, I sampled episode forty
eight of the anime series Bleach and I have to say that I enjoyed what I
saw. At the moment, I have no real idea what is happening, but I do
want to know more and I see that as a positive. My interest is there
and I am eager to explore the rest of the iceberg.
Yesterday, I watched the final episode of the anime series Last Exile and must confess that I was a little disappointed by the ending. Yes, many plot points were brought to a close and the two main characters were given a happy life, but for me there were too many unanswered questions. For example, I did not understand how the Guild came into existence and why they behaved the way that they did. Were the people in the story descendants of colonizers from Earth? What happened to Dio? Plus I wished that there was more time devoted to the character of Maestro Delphine, because she is without a doubt the most interesting character that I have seen in anime in a long time. She was cruel and enjoyed being that way.
I suppose that I can find answers to some of these questions by scanning various anime news sites and message boards, but that will take some time and part of me would just prefer to move onto a new series.
Warren Ellis continues to impress me with his writing of the Marvel comic book Thunderbolts. Since its inception the book has prided itself on the use of former villains seeking redemption, but Warren has tinkered with that concept slightly by adding members to the cast who are not so altruistic. I find each issue to be exciting and far from predictable. Plus Mike Deodato is doing some of his best pencil work ever.
Having just finished watching the twelfth episode of the twenty six episode anime series Last Exile, I have to admit that I am somewhat confused, but at the same time very excited by what might happen next. Claus and Lavie seem to be caught up in something far larger than themselves and that makes for some exciting storytelling as far as I am concerned. It also has a classic ring to it. I might go so far as to call Claus and Lavie the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of the story. They seem somewhat important to the story, but in the end they are just characters on the fringe of the action. Perhaps that is a stretch, but I could see and have read that the focus of the series does shift away from them.
To keep things simple and to keep my attention focused, I decided to watch all seven discs of the series without interruption. Usually I like to stagger an anime episode with a foreign or independent film in my Netflix queue. In the past when I tried that approach it felt as though I were cheating myself when I limited myself to just one genre. Now I no longer feel that way, plus I can devote all of my attention to the story without any distractions.
Keeping focused seems to be my problem of late and that probably explains the bad dreams where I am either lost in a dorm or unprepared for final exams. My mind seems to be all over the place, be it work, planning for the wedding, trying to organize a trip or relaxing by reading comic books and watching anime. Simplification or narrowing my field of interest is probably what is best for me now so that I can feel like I am accomplishing something. Otherwise nothing gets completed and I feel frustrated. Quite often there are times, when I wish that I could press the pause button on my life. I need to take a break and examine what is best for me, before I lose control.
Wednesday for me is the one day of the week that I try to set aside for complete relaxation. I seldom drive anywhere and try to keep my household chores to a minimum. Today is meant to be a day where I indulge in some of my favorite pastimes such as reading and watching movies. Hopefully I can also squeeze in a healthy amount of sleep.
To start of my relaxing day, I watched the first four episodes of what for me is a new anime series. This time I chose to watch Last Exile and so far I am very impressed by what I have seen. Stylistically speaking, the animation is very different from the last series I completed. Where Fooly Cooly had some mecha elements mixed in with humor and fan service, Last Exile is much more in the realm of steampunk. The characters live in a Victorian era world with fascinating flying machines and technology relying heavily on flasks and tubes. In an interview, the production designer said that he had the world of Germany between the two world wars in mind when creating the look, but to me the clothing and architecture of the world are much more nineteenth century than early twentieth century.
Something else about the series caught me by surprise. Now that I have more than a handful of anime series under my viewing belt, I am starting to recognize some of the voice actors. I could not place her, but I knew that the woman who did the voice of Lavie was familiar to me. Then when I did a quick search online, I had my answer. Kari Wahlgren had done a voice in Fooly Cooly, Wolf's Rain and Witch Hunter Robin, all three of which I have seen and enjoyed. I also recognized the lead male character's voice and found out that that actor had also been in Wolf's Rain. As silly as it sounds, I think that being a voice actor has to be a fun job. Maybe I not aware of some hidden downsides to the job, but spending time in a booth watching great animation sounds like a good time to me.
Yesterday, an issue of the Marvel comic book Thor from the year 1970 was delivered. This is the only issue of Thor that I own that was created by the classic team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. I have yet to finish reading the book, but the style is not something that is seen in modern comic books anymore. Stan and Jack made have caused a revolution in their day, but somewhere through the decades that magic has been lost. Maybe I am being overly sentimental, but I don't think so, because I did not grow up reading these books. I came into the hobby after Stan had stopped writing and Jack had fled to DC. Neither of the two men were what drew into the world of illustrated adventure. Now decades later I get a chance to see what inspired so many modern creators to get into the field.
In less than three weeks, my parents will be relocating with my twelve year old niece to the other side of the state. After months of trying to sell their place here, they can finally start living in what was once my grandparents place. I have no problem with this move and am happy to see the place being kept in the family. One thing that has been on my mind in regards to the move is what my niece will think of this change. When I was her age, I loved spending time there. In my mind, there was so much freedom and things to do there, be it swimming or just exploring in the woods. Staying outside was the only place to be and the days of summer went by incredibly fast. Does a twelve year old girl think the same as a twelve year old boy? Will she have as much fun there as I did years ago? I suspect that the answer might be no, but I will have a more definite answer by next month.
On Sunday night, the teams on the Amazing Race were in Osaka, Japan and I envied them. I may not have visited that exact city when I was in Japan last year, but many of things that they experienced were familiar to me. For example, both the vending machines and the taxicabs were things that I saw all of the time when I was there. One might argue that those are things that can be found in any large city, but for me there were a unique part of the Japanese landscape that I cannot fully describe.
I started to watch what for me is a new anime series called FLCL. It is unlike any anime series that I have seen in the past and I love it because of that fact. Yes, there is a teenage boy protagonist with girl issues. Yes, there are robots that are unlike anything in reality. Yes, there are sequences where the characters eyes transform into spinning circles. All of those elements firmly belong to the world of anime, but the mix seems stranger in this series.
