Category: Ongoing Investigations

Ongoing Investigations: Case #079

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hisuiconIt can be easy to dismiss Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn with “another year another Gundam project” but I am thrilled to see a full return to the Universal Century. Unicorn is so UC you can hardly tell it’s not directed by Tomino. Banagher Links is a student on the colony of Industrial Seven.  He is quickly drawn into a brewing conflict when he helps the mysterious girl Audrey Burne who is trying to prevent a war between Neo-Zeon and the Federation over a mysterious object know as the Laplace Box. At the end of the episode most of Banagher’s friends at school have been killed by the fighting that had broken out, he has found his father just before he died, Audrey and his remaining friends have been picked up by the Londo Bell soldiers, and Banagher himself is piloting the Gundam Unicorn. The animation is luscious and everything is what could only be OVA quality. The fights be they hand to hand or mecha are fluid and expertly choreographed. My only real complaint is other than being totally into Audrey I did not get much of an impression about Banagher. We know that Micott is the inheritor of the Frau Bow legacy of being in love with the main guy who totally ignores her and Takuya is a geek. Suberoa and Marida Cruz of Zeon distinctly make an impression as people to watch. It will be a hard 6 months to wait for the next episode but it will be worth it.

YAYAYAANEWUNIVERSALCENTURYGUNDAMYAYAYA! Okay, now that I got that out of my system, I can happily say that all the hype (that I myself was contributing to) surrounding this OVA release is 100% justified. Gundam Unicorn has all the trappings of the original storyline directed by Tomino, it knows its source material well. Audrey caught me happily by surprise with her determination and courage. Banagher acts in typical UC teenager style and does things seemingly for no reason and falls in love at the drop of a hat, but atleast I didn’t want to punch him! They set up a lot of players for the coming story and rattle off a few tempting names before a spectacular finale. I am completely in love with the modern but 70’s characters designs that are the trend for series with old roots, their simplicity actually makes the series looks even more slick. And that’s pretty amazing because the production quality is on overload with this. I am also enjoying the robot designs with this animation as well, Marida’s Kshatriya makes quite a splash in this first installment. Everything about Gundam Unicorn’s debut episode was exciting and better than I could have imagined, here’s to the rest being as impressive!

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #078

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Okay, so by now I don’t really need to say why we were watching Detective Conan movies, right? It is just a part of life! Why are we watching them out or order? Because we can! So began the watching of Detective Conan Movie 2: The The Fourteenth Target. It seemed to be perfect timing as Hisui started to ask me questions about Ran’s parents past and before I could add my two cents the movie starts to reveal a bit of their back story. This is the first of the earlier movies that we’ve watched with any such actual plot for the series rather than being a fun jaunt. This also has the amazing ability to make Kogoro seem cool in his day. As the pattern for the deaths is revealed things just keep escalating until a beautiful and watery finale. I have to say, the reason behind the killings is neigh impossible to figure out, but that is not to say it is an unbelievable reason, just hard to deduce.

I was recommended to watch Detective Conan Movie 2: The The Fourteenth Target as these movies can be watched in any order we decided to go back and take a look at this one. This being the fourth Conan movie I have watched, I know how to “properly” watch Detective Conan. You would almost never be able to guess the motive of the killer; they never give you enough information to figure that out in any movie I have seen so far. In this movie I was able to deduce who the killer was and I think that is what you should be aiming for if you attempt to solve the mystery like I do. The movie itself starts with various people that Kogoro Mouri having attempts made on their lives. At the scene of the crime there is a clue left that ties into a playing card motif. But of course like any good card trick there is more to all of it than meets the eye. Overall it was a solid Conan movie. The last action sequence at the end was fairly epic as a Detective Conan movie ending should be.

I had the chance to play through a good amount of Mega Man 10 as Proto Man on Easy Mode. The game is unsurprisingly a lot of fun, especially thanks to the less-frustrating-but-still-not-always-easy Easy Mode. However, the real enjoyment comes from the quirky stages and bosses of which my favorites include Strike Man with a baseball motif and Sheep Man with static electricity power! Though unfortunately Sheep Man’s power that you gain kind of sucks because of its terrible accuracy and execution. But for the most part all the others work well and have that element of innovation present. There is a lot of fun attached to this game and it lends itself to people (me!) who may not be good at Mega Man games.

I made a guest appearance on the Otaku in Review Podcast entitled Sleeping with Hisui. The podcast starts with me talking about how the blog gets its name just in case you have never heard the story. We then move into talking about what they are watching. I talked about Future Police Urashiman; Jon Ingoglia mentions Tears to Tiara; and Scott Spaziani rounds it out with Sora no Woto and his mixed feelings about the show. As some point I go into a little rant about Gundam Unicorn not having a DVD release. I thought I brought up some good points but Scott had some poignant counter arguments. Jon talks about various anime related iPhone apps after. We then wrapped up the podcast with my worst panel experiences and general panel philosophy. We covered an eclectic but interesting number of subjects and I don’t think I rambled on as much as I usually do.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #077

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It was a natural combination that was an inevitability like the teaming up of Jackie Chan and Jet Li we have the combination of Detective Conan and Sherlock Holmes. Thankfully Detective Conan Movie 6: The Phantom of Baker Street turn out better than The Forbidden Kingdom. When Conan and his detective gang are invited to the world premier of a high tech virtual reality game the festivities quickly turn to a race to solve murders in real life and the virtual world. The draw of the movie is going to be Conan substituting for the world greatest detective as he tries to solve the Jack the Ripper murders in a virtual London. The fact that if they lose the game everyone playing dies also ramps up the tension. The action in the virtual world and the real world work well in tandem but eventually tie together in an unexpected manner. There was always some bit of action or excitement going on which helped keep the movie lively. It was great to see Professor Moriarty and Sebastian Moran in the game as well although there is less Holmes than I expected. The Junior Detective League also seems like they were deliberately part of the script as opposed to crammed in like the other movies. Overall it was a good time and a fine addition to the franchise.

I can’t tell you how trilled I was when I got my hands on this movie, I insisted that it be next on this list. My goodness, what a combination: Conan (love!), Sherlock Holmes (love!), 19th century London (love!), and a Jack the Ripper mystery (love!). I really enjoyed that the creators finally cooked up away to bring all those elements together even if it takes place in a virtual world. And the virtual reality aspect of this film tells you exactly when it was made, the mid-90’s when everyone was convinced that was going to be the next big thing! But it’s not like Detective Conan isn’t already set around some pretty crazy technology so this doesn’t seem out of place. Everyone contributes a lot to this movie and we even get an appearance from Conan’s parents. There are of course many twists and turns, and this one does have some very suspenseful moments. I found the final confrontation scene especially thrilling and once again tip my hat to Ran, in fact the franchise is very good at the final scenes overall. Detective Conan Movie 6: The Phantom of Baker Street is a great romp in the collection!

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