Category: Live Action

Ongoing Investigations: Case #041

1 Comment

Overall I really enjoyed Toradora!. The last episode capped off the series as well as I could have asked. Everything came together and there was a distinct feeling of closure. I may have not liked everyone in the show all the time but I came away with a positive reaction to all the characters overall. The ending wasn’t shocking because I felt it was telegraphed from episode one. Heck, just one look at the title should have given you a clue. The thing was every step of the way brought a smile to my face. It was a well done show. I liked the dialog and the humor. The series parts were often high melodrama but it worked even though I know it turned off some people. I will definitely buy this when it comes out on DVD and watch it again. It is one of the best recent shonen romance shows. I would also like to see someone license the light novels. I guess I have something to pimp at Otakon and AnimeNEXT now.

I saw some of the art from March on Earth at New York Comic Con and was instantly struck by its adorable quality. I resolved to pick it up instantly. The story follows Yuzu who is the sole guardian for her nephew after the untimely death of her sister (who had been caring for Yuzu after the death of their parents). So we aren’t starting out on the happiest of moments and the story is mostly a series of her trails through caring for a young child. Most of the comedy comes from the neighboring family who she often spends time with. The older son is hilariously in love with Yuzu and is constantly acting like a lovesick loon at an attempt to get her attention. It was a decent start but almost every chapter is about the same thing, the bond between her and her deceased sister, how she will stay strong, etc. and sometimes using the exact same dialogue and scenes to convey this. WE GET IT ALREADY. It comes off clunky and its most entertaining parts aren’t at the heart of the story.

Continue reading →

Ongoing Investigations: Case #031

1 Comment

I finished the last few Patlabor DVDs and so things just sort of end. Overall it was really enjoyable but isn’t a show for everyone. It has all the benefits and flaws of being a realistic robot show or at least as realistic as you can be in a show with building high police robots. It all depends on if you need your robots to be firing GETTER BEAM and HEARTBREAKER! I was a little surprised when Kanuka Clancy’s six month training was over she really went back to the U.S. She pops up again time to time but not excessively. I liked the writing of the show which is usually pretty smart but not going out of it’s way to be anything more than a procedural cop series.  The comedy episodes were pretty funny especially the episodes where they have to explore the sewers and where one of the mechanics transfers to the American division. I also found the inclusion of one or two supernatural episodes really odd considering the rest of the series is played totally realistic. They slowly built up the two overarching story lines about the Griffin and the Babylon Project well. Like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex they will have a storyline episode in between regular episodes. I wished they had wrapped them up in the TV show proper and not the OAVs which I don’t currently own. Did any of our readers read the original manga? Is it worth reading for 22 books? How much does it differ from the TV? Does it complete things better than the OAVs?

I finally bought Rocket Girls, I have been contemplating it for a while. I have watched the first half of the show so far (six episodes) and couldn’t be happier! It is really a delightful little show with a good blend of comedy, space, and friendship. At one point I felt Yukari was getting annoyingly demanding but they reigned her in pretty quickly. It is great to see the two girls have their strengths and help one another on the mission. They have yet to really introduce the third girl, although we did glimpse her in the beginning. Sure the premise of taking high school girls and training them to be astronauts is out there, but who cares! It is fun. And I haven’t found the show to be fetishy. The animation is rather nicely done. Oh and it also has a great opening!

Tentai Senshi Sunred is still funny is it’s dry wit even on episode 13. The fact that Vamp is a considerably more likable and decent guy than Sunred is a delightful little detail. I also have been enjoying the other branch leader of Florsheim who is a porn fiend. The evil animal force is also usually really good whenever they show up. I have to say the odd mixture of the real wold and the sentai world is in the right proportions to make even very mundane things quite funny. I am curious if anyone who reads the blog has tried out any of Vamp’s recipes. They are rather simple so I might try one myself.

Read the conclusion to The Girl Who Ran Through Time manga, which was only 2 books long. It was certainly much different than her niece’s story in The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. This is a great thing since it makes both piece worth learning about, however the shortness of the manga really left some questions. Especially since the other time mover in the books has very different motives for his actions. I also didn’t find the semi-love-triangle in the manga as engaging as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time’s. A good read but left me wanting more, like the actual novel. Also made me want to watch The Girl Who Leapt Through Time again but that feeling probably would have manifested anyway.

I saw Nana Mizuki’s Live Fighter on Blue-Ray. It was a two day concert and the first day was the Blue concert and the second day was the Red concert. They both had similar song selections with a few differences on each day as well as different costumes. Nana Mizuki is definitely a cute woman with an attractive singing voice. I have to say that Japanese concerts can be extremely flashy with a good amount of production value. Nana flies through the air during her first song and is suspended in the air on a garden seat in the middle of the concert. In fact there is almost always something going on. There is a rock battle in the middle of the concert, a Blue Man Group style performance, and children acting as cheerleaders during one song. She also has a stage set up to walk into the crowd and perform. I liked her main Red outfit because her Blue one was this hideous blue and white sailor getup. There was also some behind the scene footage that would have meant much more to me if I understood Japanese. The concert didn’t turn me into a Ota-gei but I enjoyed it. I would like to thank Moy for letting me come over to his house and see the concert on his totally sweet set up. He is going to be running a contest so you can win the DVDs some time in the future so that is worth looking into.

I was initially attracted to Love Round!! because of the cute cover and back color artwork. Hinako Takanaga has a nice style that translates well from her color pieces to her line art. This BL story seems less typical that what I have encountered so far. Our two boys, Kubo and Kaoru, run into each other on the street. Kaoru knocks Kubo, who is training to be a boxer, out with one punch after he makes an off hand remark. Kubo eventually convinces Kaoru to join the same boxing gym as him, and thus love begins to blossom. Kaoru may have a pretty face but he is feisty and has a short temper thanks to constantly being teased for his looks. Kubo is hilariously blunt and naive despite being a powerhouse boxer. Their relationship is fraught with funny misunderstandings, a knockout meter, and moments of laugh out loud commentary. Not surprisingly boxing and the gym are merely back drops for the developing feelings between these two. This short one book is a lot of fun and has some really cute moments amidst the calamity. There is only one medium graphic sex scene to top off the ending. Love Round!! is the first BL manga that I am keeping for myself after reading it. There is a nice preview of it up, too!

And because it is so lushly animated I had to pick a Tentai Senshi Sunred picture this week. A scene of domestic bliss:

Special Screening: Death Note the Last Name, aka The True Ending

2 Comments

With the love-love that is nigh palpable from Narutaki, there was no way were going to miss the big screen showing of the second Death Note movie. Instead of going to the theater in Union Square we went to Clearview’s Chelsea which was significantly less crowded. If they continue to get anime movies at that theater, I think I will go there from now on. It was a nice place and they had an awesome waffle shop across the street. I myself had some good chai bubble tea. There was a closed shop called Burgers and Cupcakes which I am sure could have been saved by Narutaki if only he knew of its existence before.

Wow, what a big difference between two theaters that are just a few blocks from each other. Our experience at Union Square, while not sold out, was still packed and we were stuck with crummy seats. This was a whole other story, sadly there were only about 10 to 15 people besides us at the screening. However, compared to the number of people in total at this theater that night, that doesn’t seem like bad numbers. The theater was really nice and clean, I will definitely be picking this place over Union Square.

The first Death Note movie ended with L and Light meeting face to face for the first time. The second movie then takes the remaining books and and combines them into 1 movie. This means a whole bunch of extraneous characters, plot lines, and one very controversial plot point got the ax. We get a greater disparity between the movies and the manga than the first movie. I know this leads to some rather strong opinions towards either the manga or the movies.

While the first movie was different from the manga, it still kept some of the major plot lines and interwove them just a bit differently. The second movie starts pushing it in a very different direction. Where the manga stumbles through some of its shifting plot, the movie removes altogether. Afterall, there is only this one movie to wrap up the story so inevitably a lot of things will go missing. To create a solid ending for a series like this in just 2 hours was a challenge that was handled really well.

The movie begins with Misa Misa gaining her own Death Note and becoming the second Kira. L tries to prove that Light is in fact Kira while also trying to catch the second Kira. Light is as always trying to kill L and mold the world to his vision. The plot then follows the manga in a condensed manner up until the Yotsuba Arc. We get a thankfully short version of the arc and deals with one other new Kira. Of course, no Death Note adaptation would be complete without the most infamous line in the series, “exactly as planned.”

The cast carries over from the first film and that is much to its credit. These actors, especially Kenichi Matsuyama, really brought great things to these characters in the first film and continue at the same pace here. You read an in-depth view in our review of the first movie. But we have a few new additions to discuss, namely Misa Amane, Rem, and Kiyomi Takada. Misa starts off our tale and follows rather closesly to her path. Light proves how easily he can manipulate women though never to the misogynistic extent of the manga. Kiyomi is sort of a mish-mash of characters from the manga. She helps exhibit that desire for power present in Light but not seen in Misa. I thought she did an excellent job portraying how easily one can fall into it. The character also solidified my feelings that Light, while a genius, doesn’t have ideals that are new or even unique.

The original Kiyomi Takada from the manga was Light’s girlfriend in college that eventually becomes Kira’s mouth piece as a news announcer. In the movie she is an aspiring news anchor who is a closet Kira supporter. She eventually becomes more involved with the Death Note due to Light’s schemes. Kiyomi Takada works fine in her role. I can’t say that she was extraordinarily gripping but I don’t think she was supposed to be. She is supposed to be a person who feels she has grand designs but really just has very petty schemes especially compared to the machinations of Light and L. Misa Misa is now is now fully integrated into the movie so her full force of annoying is apparent but thankfully has a shortened appearance. Less Misa Misa is always better. Rem is generally the same as she was in the manga but they never make note that Rem is in fact female.

The dub as per the first film makes people giggle at inopportune times. Though Ryuk didn’t seem nearly as out of control. Once again we talked a bit about this in the first film review. Everyone basically stays on target. Though I always miss not hearing Kenichi’s voice just because I like him so much.

I don’t really think about dubs anymore being a subtitle person. I don’t hate them but I just don’t think I pay attention. Therefore someone has to stand out as being really good or really bad for me to notice. The Death Note dub did not have anyone standing out for better or worse. I, like Narutaki, did notice that people were sometimes laughing at the wrong times but it was not anything that negatively effected my viewing experience. Then again I wonder if I really notice anyone being anything other than extraordinary for better or worse in Japanese.

Well, thank goodness someone realized how crappy the extras for the first movie were. They certainly stepped it up a notch with this release and had the actors talking about their roles and working together. It also had some fun scenes of each one performing their final lines for the film and then being given flowers!

I also think the directors insights into the movie were a little more interesting because he was doing more than simply adapting the manga. He was making it his own. It was interesting to see what all the principal actors thought of their roles.

A lot of things about this shorter version appealed to me. Biggest of which was the intensity, the manga became so enormous that it couldn’t hold on to that edge. It started to become too sensational, but with the movie you stayed glued exactly as long as a person can. L also always stays a focus, as he should. He is the perfect foil to Kira and the only one suitable for this life or death game with Light. Plus, strangely, I don’t have enough time to hate Misa in the movie because she is never there for any exorbitant amount of time bumbling things. And if you couldn’t guess it has the ending as I always wanted it.

The Death Note movies are the definitive version of Death Note for me. The second movie takes the best of the middle and end of the manga and condenses it into a climatic ending. The director has the ability to use 20/20 hindsight and take the best while tossing away the chaff.  I felt the manga went on for far too long due to its popularity and lost much of its focus in the middle.  The movies also have the ending that I feel a majority of fans wanted from the start. I know it has the ending I much prefer. You could say they basically ended up in the same place but I feel both conclusions leave a different taste in your mouth.

Top 5 L quirks
5. No shoes
4. Great tennis player
3. How he holds a phone
2. Making pastry shish-kebabs
1. Crouched sitting position