Anime

A rogue sorcerer named Orphen, on a mission to save his friend Azalie, becomes a teacher himself when he takes on an apprentice named Majic.

A young and beautiful girl named Cleao Everlasting coems home from boarding school to live with her mother and sister for the summer holidays.

Majutsushi Orphen Mubouhen
4 & 1/2 Stars

A rogue sorcerer named Orphen, on a mission to save his friend Azalie, becomes a teacher himself when he takes on an apprentice named Majic.

A young and beautiful girl named Cleao Everlasting coems home from boarding school to live with her mother and sister for the summer holidays.

Cleao thought she was going to have another quiet summer back at her family’s mansion, but she was dead wrong.  It’s a coincidence that Cleao’s path crosses with Orphen and Majic, but they do have something in common.  Cleao’s father bought her an old sword for her 15th birthday, but what they did not know is that that very sword is magical, the magical sword of Baltanders.

Long ago Orphen was known as Krylancelo Finrandi, and his friend and mentor Azalie was not a dragon.  Azalie became obsessed, even power hungry, with having more power.  She learned of the sword of Baltanders, but even obsessive studies did not give her the knowledge of how to properly use the ancient artifact.  Azalie used the sword which started her path towards The Bloody August, a dragon with immense powers.

Orphen has been chasing The Bloody August for five long years before he met his companions Majic and Cleao.  The three of them go on an epic adventure to save Azalie and encounter stone assassins, old friends, ex-masters and a wolven cub named Leki who Cleao adopts.  The ex-masters of Orphen are working against him, or so he thinks.

The last five or so episodes are such a twist, that I cannot reveal the ending.  I was sold on the first five or so episodes, then the filler for 15 episodes got old, but I understood it was building on the story and allowing other characters to come in the adventure to tie up the ending.  The last five episodes were fantastic.  The ending is what really made the series worth watching.  I watched it dubbed, and got stuck watching one subbed some how, and thoroughly enjoyed the subbed version, so I recommend that.

Character development was decent, you pretty much get a feel for everyone right off the bat, but relationships flower, you start to hope one works, and the other does not.  The anime deals with backstabbing, killing dolls, dragons, sorcery, betrayal, a hidden love and sex changes.  Odd mix of things in this, but it keeps you on your toes.

 

I went on a vampire movie kick this weekend, you know, the good ones, Frank Coppola’s Dracula, Nosferatu [1922] and Interview with the Vampire.  Finally, on Sunday, I spent a great deal of time frantically searching for an anime to watch and I stumbled upon this one.  Here’s to mayhem and sucking blood, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.  I have to say that this put a damper on my stay-in-bed-cause-I’m-sick weekend movie mash, but it nonetheless was a pretty decent flick in its own right.

Banpaia hantâ D
4 & 1/2 Stars

I went on a vampire movie kick this weekend, you know, the good ones, Frank Coppola’s Dracula, Nosferatu [1922] and Interview with the Vampire.  Finally, on Sunday, I spent a great deal of time frantically searching for an anime to watch and I stumbled upon this one.  Here’s to mayhem and sucking blood, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.  I have to say that this put a damper on my stay-in-bed-cause-I’m-sick weekend movie mash, but it nonetheless was a pretty decent flick in its own right.

Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is set a few thousand years in the future.  Vampires once ruled the night, but that was years before the fearless bounty hunters succeeded in diminishing their numbers.  D is one of those audacious bounty hunters, and his competition is the Markus brothers, a group of rough and tough guys and a girl.

When Charlotte, the daughter of a rich family, is taken from her home by the vampire Meier Link, her father contacts both D and the Markus brothers to retrieve her.  The two battle it out and race to save her before Meier Link turns her into a vampire, even if that isn’t Meier Link’s intentions.  As the heroes follow along their journey, fighting Meier’s hired guards and getting passed Carmilla, they finally begin to suspect that Charlotte may have gone willingly.

D, even though he is out numbered, still has a huge advantage over the Markus brothers.  D is a dhampir, the product of a vampire and a human, his father is Count Dracula.  Being Dracula’s son has its rewards for instance, D has super human abilities and he doesn’t age.  Nevertheless, with benefits, there is always a downside, dhampires cannot handle too much sunlight, and a lot of people shun him for being related to a vampire.

Carmilla ends up being the true villain in the film, only using Meier Link and Charlotte as pawns for her master plan.  Many years ago D’s father imprisoned Carmilla’s spirit to the Castle of Chaythe after her bloodlust got the best of her.  She intends to steal Charlotte’s body once the couple reaches the castle in search of a still-functional ship that will take them away from the castle.  You will have to watch this flick to get the rest of its juicy details.

 

It took me the entire time I wrote this review to come up with an excuse of why I didn’t like the movie as much as other vampire movies, I was disappointed, but that’s probably because I watched so many vampire movies before this one.  The only disappointing part about the entire film is that there is no blood sucking involved, so that’s why it gets a 4.5 out of 5.  Blood sucking is such a huge part to vampirism, and I didn’t notice it was lacking it until I got to thinking.  I knew I was disappointed once the credits rolled, I just couldn’t put my finger on it.  Talking about it, and almost doing it do not count as blood sucking, so don’t even try that.

Other than that, the film is good, well written, well drawn and the dubbed version is not bad.  It is worth watching for anime and or vampire fans, either way it is appealing.

 

In a new-type technology world, Major Motoko Kusanagi and her partner Bateau are part of a covert division of the Japanese police.  It is their job to investigate the cyber crime and crimes committed by runaway robots.

In their world, it is almost impossible to find a person who hasn’t been tampered with by electronics.  But, as Major Motoko states, “if we all reacted the same we’d be predictable and there’s always more than one way to view a situation what’s true for the group is also true for the individual.  It’s simple, over specialize and you breed weakness, it’s slow death.”  That is why it is important for Togusa, the second most prominent male in the story, to be a part of their team.  As an almost human being, except a slight brain augmentation, he adds a different view on the situation for the team.

Ghost in the Shell
3 Stars

In a new-type technology world, Major Motoko Kusanagi and her partner Bateau are part of a covert division of the Japanese police.  It is their job to investigate the cyber crime and crimes committed by runaway robots.

In their world, it is almost impossible to find a person who hasn’t been tampered with by electronics.  But, as Major Motoko states, “if we all reacted the same we’d be predictable and there’s always more than one way to view a situation what’s true for the group is also true for the individual.  It’s simple, over specialize and you breed weakness, it’s slow death.”  That is why it is important for Togusa, the second most prominent male in the story, to be a part of their team.  As an almost human being, except a slight brain augmentation, he adds a different view on the situation for the team.

The team encounters what first appears to be a hacker they call the Puppet Master.  This so-called Puppet Master specializes in implanting false memories in unsuspecting people, just so they will do his dirty work.  The first case starts with a poor and unsuspecting garbage man, a pawn of the Puppet Master’s, who is tricked into believing he has a neglectful wife who wants a divorce, and a daughter who blames him for the divorce.  The Puppet Master gets him to use a public phone, so he doesn’t get caught, to try to hack into his wife’s ghost to better understand the reason for the divorce.  When Major Motoko and her highly skilled team of cyber crime fighters realize what is going on they must catch up with the oblivious garbage man, who ends up leading the team straight to the person who “helped” him.

The team races around the film to only discover that the Puppet Master is an artificial intelligence that has no shell.  The Puppet Master leeches onto anyone he can and controls everything the pawn of choice does.

Major Motoko, once a beautiful shell of a woman, is reduced to a child after tearing apart her last body to get at the Puppet Master.  The thing I like the most about the shifting of her ghost from one shell to the other was when she began talking she had the personality and voice of the child, but soon personalized to her normal self and voice.

The anime is artistically beautiful; however, they did a horrible job at explaining what is going on before they dove into the story.  The voice over at first sounds pretty poor, but after a while you get used to it and it stops distracting you from the story.  I hope that by then you have a good grasp on the film, if not you could easily hit stop, because you really aren’t missing much.

I have had a couple people recommend this to me on some forums I am part of, and I have to say, this is the first time I have thought their recommendation sucked.  Forgive me, I know…  With so many agreeing, why didn’t I like it?  Honestly, I haven’t the slightest clue, this is the typical story for typical me, technology, gadgets, telepathy, guns and action.  On top of all those mouth-watering genres, there is absolutely no love story, none at all.  However, for some strange reason, it just sucked.  Best of luck with this one, many people enjoy it however I did not.

Last week I watched and reviewed Princess Mononoke, one of Hayao Miyazaki’s well-known masterpieces and said that I would tackle Spirited Away the following week, since it was the first screenplay he wrote after Princess Mononoke.  Well, that week is here and I must say, I throughly enjoyed this film.  Miyazaki sure has one wild imagination because his films are strange in their own way.

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
5 Stars

Last week I watched and reviewed [Princess Mononoke], one of Hayao Miyazaki’s well-known masterpieces and said that I would tackle Spirited Away the following week, since it was the first screenplay he wrote after Princess Mononoke.  Well, that week is here and I must say, I throughly enjoyed this film.  Miyazaki sure has one wild imagination because his films are strange in their own way.

 

Our heroine Chihiro is in the midst of a big move to the suburbs with her family when they take a wrong turn at a dirt road near some spirit shrines and end up at the opening of a large building.  Her adventurous middle class parents decide to get out of the car and investigate.  Chihiro refuses to go, begs them to come back, but finally gives in and grabs hold of her mom as they walk down the long dark tunnel.  On the other side of the tunnel there was another opening across a room that lead to a bright and sunny field of grass with a path leading to what seemed like a run down amusement park.  With every step they took the abandoned park seemed to draw them in.  Once they crossed the river and walked up the steps they smelled the delicious aroma of a banquet waiting for them.

Upon finding the feast, Chihiro’s parents sat down and began gorging on the food in front of them.  Chihiro, still nervous about the consequences of being discovered, stood outside the barrier that held her parents.  Chihiro wandered off to explore, while her parents pigged out on food, and ran into a boy named Haku.  Haku was frightened that she was there and told her she needed to leave before the sun went down.  With only seconds before the sun went down Chihiro ran off in the direction of her parents.  When she arrived at their side she discovered two large pigs dressed in their clothes.

Frightened and feeling abandoned, Chihiro ran off in the direction of the car, only to discover that the grassy field was now a river with a ferry drawing nearer.  Day had become night and she was becoming see-through.  When the ferry reached the bank where Chihiro stood, it began unloading its passengers.  The passengers all began walking towards the bath house at the end of the village in a parade of colors.

Chihiro had ran off and hid in nearby bushes where Haku finds her moments later.  He tells her to eat a berry or she would disappear.  If a human does not eat food from their world they will disappear, if they eat the wrong food, like her parents, then they will turn into pigs.  Haru secretly leads her into the bath house, where everyone is freaking out because there is a human in their world, and tells her how to save her parents.  Chihiro must get to the boiler room and beg for a job from the spider-armed Kamajii, the keeper of the boiler room.  This is when Chihiro meets Lin, one of the women who take care of the baths.  Lin leads Chihiro to the office of Yubaba, the witch that runs the bath house, and determines the fate of the people in the world.  After nearly being spotted a couple of times she finally makes it to see Yubaba.  Chihiro needs a job in the bath house or Yubaba will change her into an animal, so she begs Yubaba and gets turned away multiple times.  Finally Yubaba gives in and Chihiro signs a contract giving away her name, from that point on she becomes Sen and that is where her real adventure begins, but you’ll have to watch to see the rest of that.

Hayao Miyazaki’s films are fun to watch and enjoyable all the way till the end.  The story in this is fun to follow along with, and easy on the brain.  This one is very predictable, but that does not detract from the story.  Comparing this to Princess Mononoke, I would have to say that I enjoyed Spirited Away much more.  Yeah, the story in Princess Mononoke was fun, and full of battle, but the struggles of a sheepish girl in a new world was way more fun to see how she accomplished everything.  A must see for those who enjoy the other Miyazaki films.

• Title: Inuyasha 2
• IMDb: link

Inuyasha is still one of my favorite series.  When I mentioned it to a fellow anime-buff, they told me I must watch the subbed versions, not the Adult Swim version.  Way better in his opinion, so I must take that advice and re-watch the entire series.

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