I'm Still Here!

I've been on vacation for the last week and a half.

Whenever I'm on vacation I find myself losing track of time so badly that eventually I'm not even sure what day it is anymore.

Such has been the case this time. I've been around and I've watched some anime and some animated movies and some animated shows, but I haven't gotten around to posting about them because I can't really remember what has happened from one hour to the next.

But I'm working on a list of stuff I've watched recently so I can update as soon as I get back home next week.

Right now I'm in Seattle for Sakuracon, the PREMIER anime convention in Washington state. :)

Yes, I have a cosplay costume to wear. Whether or not I'll have the guts to wear it is another thing.

Yes, I'll be watching some anime in the viewing rooms. Whether or not it will be anything new and exciting or just something to fill the time, has yet to be determined.

Yes, I've been drinking today. And yesterday. And most of last weekend.

So what, I'm on vacation. Its awesome. The end.

#17: The Princess and the Frog

I realize this is American animation, not Japanese anime, and that its geared toward children and family viewers instead of more mature audiences like most stuff I watch. But I LOVED this movie. So it counts.

It was beautifully animated and brilliantly written. In fact it was one of the best films to come out of Disney in a long time.

And it was old skool hand drawn style. I miss hand drawn animation.

And I've missed watching and falling madly in love with Disney movies. I was raised on them. I saw them in the theaters, owned all the toys from them, reenacted scenes from them in my living room, knew all the songs from them, read all the storybook tie-ins of them.

I believed in them. Even though they gave an unrealistic view of women and men and princesses and princes and the roles that each play in the world. Even though they were mostly fantasy fairy tales that all ended in happily ever afters, and seemed to say that girls would only live that happily ever after if they found their Prince Charmings and married them, I still believed in them.

They were bright and shiny and happy and musical and fantastical and wonderful and I loved them.

But I grew up and became more cynical and analytical and stopped believing so much in fairy tales. I didn't lose my love for Disney altogether. But my views on them changed. Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and Snow White were out because the main female leads were weak and dependent. Mulan and Beauty and the Beast were in because their heroines were strong and intelligent and did what they needed to do.

Like the heroine of The Princess and the Frog.

She is strong minded. She is hard working. She isn't wishing on stars, she is holding two jobs to earn the money to make her dreams come true. She is realistic and still sweet and beautiful and drawn in Disney princess style.

I liked her alot. Almost as much as Mulan (though the Chinese soldier girl is still my ultimate Disney heroine). I liked her world and her music and her goofy, useless Prince Charming, and her Cajun firefly friend and her Jazz playing alligator friend and everything.

I laughed. I cried. I laughed some more. I cried again. I gushed about it online. Other people gushed back online. It was lovely.

The whole experience watching it was lovely.

#16: Basilisk

I liked the manga better.

The anime was drawn okay but the voices were annoying and the story was different.

This is one of my fave manga ever so I was disappointed that the anime had been changed. It wasn't necessary. The story was already deep and complex and dark and intense and beautiful and sad.

It didn't need anything added to it or tweaked. It was already one of the best re-imaginings of the "Romeo and Juliet" story I've ever read. It had all the familiar elements - a boy and girl in love though they come from dueling families, a world torn apart by the bloody brutality the dueling families cause. Then it had added in the whole rival ninja clans fighting for the future of their country element. So there was nothing really that needed to be changed.

But I guess that is what happens when manga become anime, or anime become manga. Things change.

I do have to say that, in its favor, Basilisk had the grossest "death" faces of any show I've watched. And considering how many people die in this show, it was a point brought home again and again. Every time someone was strangled or stabbed or beaten they would make these really horrible, distorted, ugly faces.

Violent deaths shouldn't be pretty, but good grief. This show takes them to a whole new level of disturbing.

#15: Casshern Sins

Casshern has a particularly silly looking super suit. It's skin tight and spacey looking, with a crest on the head and a funky "C" on his chest. It reminds me of Gatchaman actually, only without the fancy cape.

I'm not sure how seriously I can take someone when they are wearing an outfit that goofy.

But this series obviously wants me to take it seriously. It starts off with a ruined world and a bunch of robot/armor guys trying to kill the main character because he killed someone else and caused all the bad stuff in this world. His name gets said ALOT and fighting happens ALOT and wind blows ALOT and its all very dark and moody and serious.

And then the world changes and things are bright - too bright - and the music is cute and there are little girls with giant eyes running around being anime adorable (which is halfway between cute and annoying) and Casshern has hair even sillier than his costume. And its still all moody and serious but with this fuzzy warm undercurrent.

At least until things get all fighting action serious again.

This show is weird.

I'm kinda surprised really at how weird it is. Its been a while since I've watched anything I would label that way.

But I will for Casshern Sins.

From the rocky/mushroom landscapes to the giant spiky hair and the abundance of robots, to the silly super suit and the inability of any character to make a straightforward answer to his questions, this show is really, really weird.

I think I like it.

#14: Heroic Age

Is Funimation the only anime production company left in the world?

Nothing against them really, but they are the only name I'm seeing on the anime I've been watching lately.

Whatever happened to Manga, or AnimeEgo, or AnimeWorks?

I'm not crazy, I know those production companies existed at one point. I've got a bunch of Manga videos on my shelves.

So where did all those other companies go? Did Funimation eat them? That wasn't very nice if they did.

Oh well, so yeah, this show had animation in it and stuff. There was a glowing princess floating around and a guy with silly hair fighting desert squid and epic narrating giving some backstory. The silly hair kid talked to a computer and thanked trees and an old fella growled alot and there was some mobile suits cause there was spaceships and for some reason in anime those are usually synonymous. There was also something that looked alot like an Eva, though of course it couldn't be an Eva because this is the wrong show. But it certainly LOOKED and even sounded like an Eva.

Basically, this didn't seem like anything new and exciting and different and it didn't exactly hold my interest, but it wasn't bad. Just kinda .... boring. A mish-mash of stuff I'd seen before done slightly (or more then slightly) better.

And there was alot of CGI stuff that I found unappealing. I miss hand drawn animation. I really do.

Sometimes CGI is woven rather seamlessly with the more traditional looking animation, but not always. And this was a show where it didn't flow together so well. And it bothered me.

But maybe it gets better. May as well try another episode or two to see.

Its probably a good idea to get along with Funimation and its anime, since they look like they are taking over the world and everything.

Oh Crap

I did it again. I put off watching something until the middle of the night and then I fell asleep without thinking about it again.

So I'm behind.

I'm always behind. Story of my life.

I think it might be best to change the Ultimate and Most Important Goal of my Anime 365 mission. Instead of watching anime every day for a year, I'll spend a year trying to watch anime every day, ultimately make sure I see 365 new things, and talk about anime as often as possible.

So its still a year of anime, just not ... what I originally planned.

Now without all of the pressure (THE PRESSURE!!!) I should have no problems.

Right?

Right. Yay!

Somehow, I get the feeling I may have just totally jinxed myself.

Crap.

Another Weekend Down

This weekend was spent mostly watching episodes of Afro Samurai and Last Exile. Nothing new to report, but those shows were really good. Finished out the Afro Samurai series but still have the movie to watch. Last Exile is a bit longer so it will be a while before I've finished it. Its good though so I'll keep watching.

Been watching alot of MST3K movies this weekend. Its a thing with me and the boyfriend. Part of how he woo'd me in the beginning was showing me MST3K. This time we saw A Touch of Satan ("This is where the fish lives!"), Warrior of the Lost World ("Megaweapon!"), and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (I can't even begin to comment on this one). All awesome, as usual.

#13: Last Exile

A million and a half years ago (around 2003 I think) my BFF gave me a mixed CD of anime songs that she liked. At the time she was watching several series online including Berserk, 12 Kingdoms, and Last Exile. The CD had no labels on it and did not come with a listing of what songs went with what anime, so I had to guess or hope that I would see something they were on, or try to get my wonderful, amazing, awesome, but sometimes rather forgetful BFF to remember what was what. I loved that CD and I loved pretty much every song on it, even though I never did find out (at the time) what shows they were associated with. And over the years since then I've gotten to be surprised and excited while watching anime because every once in a while a series will pop up that just happens to have one or more of those songs as their opening/ending themes.

Such was the case with Last Exile. Both the opening and ending themes were on that CD, and were in fact two of my favorite songs from that CD. I must have listened to them thousands of times, and used them in more anime-themed mix CDs over the years. I like to make soundtracks for novels that I'm writing - to help get me in the right frame of mind/mood - and I know those songs were on several of those soundtracks as well.

So when I heard them on the anime I was thrilled. Beyond thrilled, super bouncy excited even. The boyfriend kept staring at me like I'd grown a second head. I tried to explain why those songs had such an effect on me, but he seemed to still think I was crazy.

Oh well.

He's been obsessing over making a giant, paper mache teddy bear head that he can wear, ever since he watched Afro Samurai.

I'm the crazy one? Pffft.

Anyways, so the music for Last Exile is fabulous and worth watching for almost on its own. Oh yeah, speaking of crazy, lately the boyfriend has become disillusioned with his fave series, Bleach, and has taken to watching just the opening and closing credits for the theme songs, and skipping the rest of the episodes.

Seriously, I'm crazy? Me?

Whatever. Its obvious he's really the one with mental issues.

But moving on.

Last Exile has a pretty cool look to it - lots of flying ships that look more like flying engines than planes (there are no wings or propellers or anything you would normally associate with a flying vessel). Its reminiscent of steam punk without the ... steam. The story is complex and serious for the most part, though a bit of humor shines through during moments between the two main characters.

It certainly isn't a dark and graphically violent show like Afro Samurai. But it isn't bizarrely silly amidst creepy and serious like Corpse Princess either. It rests more in the middle, with a serious story set amidst warring nations, chivalric gun battles, and honor among children and pilots, that also happens to include some light-hearted teasing between heroic characters who have to live real lives along with their fantasy ones.

And it has great music. It totally gets points for that.

#12: Afro Samurai

I've become complacent in my anime viewing.

I've watched so many soft, cute, funny, and pretty anime lately that I've forgotten what anime has the potential to be.

Anime can be bloody, and ugly, and mean.

It can be graphically violent and epically nasty and brutally dark.

It can be Afro Samurai, the tale of a badass swordsman cutting an extremely bloody path towards vengeance.

And when I say extremely bloody, I mean EXTREMELY bloody. When heads and arms and fingers and knees get sliced and diced, the bloody spray from the wounds is immediate and obvious and brilliantly red so you can't possibly miss it.

This isn't a show that pulls punches or pretends that sword fighting isn't extremely violent and bloody. Characters don't get hacked and slashed and then pop back up again, wrapped in tight white bandages and ready to fight another day.

Characters here get their bits cut off and then they are dead dead dead.

Well, for the most part.

There are a couple of characters that drag themselves back up and are basically put back together. One becomes a living (sort of) doll - fully articulated and wearing a giant, googly-eyed teddy bear head (which is creepy and much scarier than it sounds). The other is basically one step away from being a god anyways, so its no big deal for him to just pop his almost-chopped-off head back on.

But for the most part, when someone gets hacked at by a sword, it kills them and they stay dead and its bloody and gross and hardcore.

This whole show is hardcore. From the chain-smoking, lemonade-drinking, revenge seeking titular main character, to the gun-slinging, heads-taking, creepy lisping main bad guy. The language is hard, the fighting is harder, and the characters are hardest of all.

Its awesome and unique and nasty and definitely not for children and one of the best things I've seen in a while. Even if it did make me want to vomit a little after watching it.