I want!

Famitsu says it's made of rubber and has a soft, slimey feel
YES!

Earthquakes, Lightning, Fires, Father

The title of todays post refers to the Japanese
saying that orders the greatest terrors of the world
to the Japanese people. Jishin (earthquake), Kaminari
(lightning), Kaji(fire), Oyaji(father).



...so if you've always wondered why a core theme in
the majority of Japanese cinema is about people vs.
their father, there's your explanation. <_<

Anyways Japan had some earthquakes and they were big.
Up in Aomori though you couldn't feel a thing and I
only found out about it because I was watching TV at
the time and all the channels were interuptted.
Between this and most of the typhoons missing Aomori,
I think we're getting some freebies to make up for the
fact that it's REALLY FREAKING COLD here already >_<
There's already snow up in the mountains and walking
back from the school late at night after parking my
car requires me to be fully outfitted with 3 layers of
clothing + gloves + headwear and yet by the time I
reach my place 12 or so minutes later I'm completely
chilled. At least my actual house is warm like a
toaster.

Last week was normal as usual. I've been working on
building my awesome futon of the future through
paychecks and am close to completion. Though I guess
there's a problem of if your bed is 'too' perfect
you're never gonna want to get up and leave.

An awesome awesome film was released last week on dvd:
Casshern.

Feature length directorial debut by music video
director and husband of Utada Hikaru: Kazuaki Kiriya,
Casshern again strengthens the idea that like Spike
Jonze, David Fincher, and countless others, the most
creative directors are coming from music video
backgrounds. Casshern is a comic book film based on
an old cheezy manga from the 70's. Kazuaki took full
lead of this project as he wrote, directed, edited,
and was the director of photography for the film.
Rather than doing as many comic book movies do and
telling one story of the comic, Kazuaki wrote a story
that basically covers the entire thing in 2:30 hours.
The result of this is a lot of time jumping, a plot
that asks you to accept everything at face value, and
a whole lot of confusion.

Going by the content of the film, it's easily a
b-movie. It has a subtle feel of the goofiness of
sci-fi manga in the 70s though it hides it well as the
film takes itself completely seriously. But what
makes this film noticable is that it's a B movie with
A+ style. Take the visual look of Amelie, Fight Club,
Requim for a Dream, Dark City, etc... and you have a
small idea of the visual settings for this film. The
settings are just incredible in their art and in the
framing and Kazuaki works with large amount of styles
to keep every section of the film looking like their
own music video. The color correction and costumes
are really eye-catching and the acting ain't too bad either.

Overall it's just a really fun ride with gorgeous eye-candy.
Most fun enjoyable Japanese film I've seen since the first time
I saw Versus.

Other noteable points from last week include finishing
up the Berserk: Millenium Falcon arc game which, as a
fan of the manga, was quite pleasing. I wrote up a
substantial review of it here:
http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?t=19671

I then moved into Paper Mario 2 which I'm finishing up
at the moment. Really fun gameplay and the dungeons
are top class, but the amount of dialogue (I'M SORRY
BUT OUR PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASTLE...should not
take 10 speech bubbles of text to deliver) and the
most backtracking I've ever seen in a rpg make the
non-dungeon bits grating. Should have it finished in
time for Atlus's Stelladeus on thursday.



Macross Zero ended. Personally I've never been a fan
of Macross as planes with legs always struck me as a
dumb idea. I stuck with the Gundam stuff as they tend
to be based on Egyptian designs and ancient Egypt was
a cool looking place. Anyhow the OAV was alright, it
was a simple story with simple characters and by the
book "Love conquors all" theme [the Macross theme I
guess]. Much like director Kawamori's Chikyuu Shoujo
Arjuna, MZ is filled with the same old
environmentalism and the same ugly CG work and the
usual religous imagery. But despite all that, the
overblown really really overdramatic presentation of
every scene coupled with some beautiful music in
(latin? dunno) made it enjoyable to watch all the way
through.


Wong Karwai's latest film: 2046 opened at the local
theater on saturday and I've been kinda putting off
going to see it because the idea of reading Japanese
subtitles for 3 hours seems like more work than play.
But some of the film is in Japanese so it shouldn't be
'that' taxing...and it is Wong Karwai so the
cinematography should be brilliant. I'll probably end
up going tomorrow since Tuesday is cheap movie day for men.

Why the Japanese should stick to trains

Ok, so I live in a town with a population of probably under 1000 in the general 20 mile radius. The streets are wide and straight and usually well lit and you are lucky to see another car every 4 mins.

YET..half the time I walk to school and back I see a crashed car and the police or ambulance taking care of it.

I find this very odd as driving here seems to be incredibly easy and painless. Now I don't want to make any sweeping generalizations like that Japanese people can't drive or inaka folks aren't that great of drivers. But rather I just wonder why the hell are all these people crashing and why does nobody seem to care that in a little tiny town the accident rate is so high?

Talking with a friend living elsewhere in Japan he recalled his experiences with Japanese drivers:

******: I saw someone in front of me just turn and plow STRAIGHT into a fence pole once
******: it was like WHAT DID YOU JUST DO

I mean I see people run red lights like EVERY 3rd LIGHT here...wtf!? At least I've learned that you drive really defensively here and try to not let other people hit you.

You also have to keep in mind that the speed limits here are SLOW. Normal streets are 40-50khm which is like 30-40mph. So you have to wonder if there's something wrong when a country where people drive 1/2 the speed as the people in the US, they get into just as many crashes...

And despite this I hear they're extremely uptight and prejudice against foreigners when trying to get a license @_@

-------------------------------
So the FMA Best Collection album came out and it has already broken some records.




It has remained the #1 selling album on the main music charts in Japan for 5 days now. The last time an anime soundtrack did that was Evangelion: Death OST which happened SEVEN YEARS AGO. To top it off the album is only 8 tracks and retails for 3500yen (~$35). So how did they do it?

Well first thing you notice is that it comes in a really big heavy box with nice art. Then you look at the contents and see that it contains:
--A music cd with all 8 OP/EDs for the show.
--A dvd with clean credit-less versions of all 8 OP/EDs for the show
--A cd booklet with all the lyrics and band info
--A dvd booklet with stills from all the OP/EDs
--A 100+ thick HQ paper guide to the entire series from ep1-51 filled with storyboards, art, and even english quotes which are surprisingly really well translated for being done by a Japanese company ("I, as one who acts upon the will of god, shall pass the sentence in his behalf").

Next you see that it will be discontinued on Jan 1st, 2005 making it a collectors item. Then you notice that the OP/ED's are by many of the bands with albums in the Top 10, and lastly you have the word of mouth from the show.

All that added up to setting some records, and depending on how long it holds #1 it may set even more.

Lastly to anyone reading this who is in Aomori-ken (or Japan in general) and owns a GBA. Go buy Mawaru Made in Wario!



There's not much point in me writing up a review when this man has done it already: MAWARU MADE IN WARIO REVIEW

The sensor the game comes with is just so so awesome. Screw VR glasses, screw steering wheels, screw the power glove, this is the most immersive game I've ever played. Physically moving my body around in circles (which isn't the 'correct asobikata' but it's the most fun! :P) is a blast and the game is just incredibly addictive and perfect for killing time anywhere. Every once and a while Nintendo hits out a winner and this is it for 2004.

I can't wait to hit in America

More Jusco skies.


Elementary school in full song practice before their upcoming festival thing.

So this is mainly about the new season of anime that's begun airing.

Beck:


Story of a band coming together. I've heard great things about the manga and the animation, and music in the show is top-notch. Very entertaining and full off english conversations (in a bad accent way) since one of the main characters is from America.

Gundam SEED Destiny:

ZAKU are BACK THANK YOU GOOD SIR

So is the famous voice actor of Char :)

Whoever designed the colors on the new Gundam needs to be fired. Red is not for mecha.

But FREEDOM will return so all is forgiven.

The Count of Monte Cristo:

Gonzo's sci-fi adaptation of Alexander Dumas's classic novel. Kinda good at times, pretentious as hell and crappy most of the time. I'm gonna follow it cause I'm curious and too lazy to read the novel :P

I'm pretty sure Dumas didn't envision the count to be a blue vampire man.

...nor did he expect him to be driving a spaceship I expect.

Bleach:

Thank you Studio Pierott for doing a lame adaptation of one of my favorite mangas using bad artists and cheap animation.

Otogizoushi - Tokyo chapter:
Well it really isn't new persay. But Otogi was a story set in Heian Japan, ~1000AD. It was a pretty good show with a nice artstyle and classical music and dialogue. Then it kinda ended it's story at ep13, but there is an ep14! Well it's now 2004AD and all the characters have been reincarneted and meet up again. The first story did not end very happily, so the idea is will these people follow the same path and make the same choices again or will they people to break out of the circle of fate.

Hikaru 1000AD vs. Hikaru 2004AD

Tsuna 1000AD vs. Tsuna 2004AD
I give them a lot of respect for doing something original, interesting, and completely unexpected. Woohoo Production IG.

So now with the full season underway I'm following:
Fantastic Children - Still so very very awesome
Tsukiyomi Moon Phase - Kinda crappy, but very funny and I like the staff (Soul Taker/ Cossette)
Otogizoushi
Beck
My-HiME - My Highly-advanced Materializing Equipment. Sunrise's guilty pleasure show. Swords, Guns, Mecha, Magic, Romance, Comedy. But hey when you're Sunrise and make gorgeous animation even you're dumb mainstream stuff is enjoyable.
Keroro Gunsou - 2nd season of the Sunrise show about alien frogs bent on world domination except the captain is a Gundam plastic model otaku and won't leave the house. I approve.
Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice - Still running debut show by Studio 4C. Great Tim Burton style art design makes the show very much worth it.
SEED Destiny




Overall slightly more shows than last season, and just when the rush of xmas games is gonna hit ;_; Now is when 36 hour days would be good stuff.

At least I've got the 1000 kanji down pat at this point. So my next 6 weeks of studying for JLPT consists of making sure I don't forget what I've been studying lately ^^;;

Sendai and all that

Well Sendai was a trip filled with some good and then a whole lot of bad to balance it out. Though for the most part the bad is derived from the weather in Japan which decided to fling a Typhoon at me for the entire time I was in Sendai.

Basically I took a 4 hour highway bus their on Friday night and it rocked. The seats were comfortable, the bus stopped every hour so you could get food, hit the restrooms, and with a good pair of headphones the time went by quite fast...oh yea and it was cheap :)

Unfortunately when the bus arrived it was already raining...something that would continue for the next 3 days straight. Navigating to my hotel wasn't too bad and after dropping off my backpack I checked out the locale.

The main shopping arcade which was long and pretty darn cool.

Shrimp Gyoza in a small gyoza specialty resturaunt! It was really really good. I need to see if I can find a place near me that makes this.

Yea I don't know either ^^;;

Saturday morning was pouring and I headed off to the concert. Seeing as I didn't realize there would be a TYPHOON I dressed lightly as concerts tend to get hot.

Walkin' in the rain.

Inside the concert area waiting for the doors to open.

The concert was actually really awesome as the place was small and I was like 10 feet or less from the stage. Though the sound really and I mean really sucked. They had the speakers up way too loud and just all the settings were off. Even when there was no music, the vocals would be distorted and crap. So after 5 hours straight of being near one of the speakers I pretty much lost all my hearing in my left ear for the next 2 days.

Of the line-up:

Ellegarden - Band was ok. They were easy to listen to because the music was A. Simple and B. In English. The singer was sooo born in America with Japanese parents as he acted American and his english was perfect. Basically they came off sounding like Blink 182.

Miceteeth - A 10 piece ska/swing band kinda like the Tokyo Ska Parada Orchestra. Good stuff and the singer guy seemed like either he was drunk or retarded as he was wobbling around the stage bumping into things and knocking them over left and right. Pretty good music though :)

Tsuji Ayano - This was one woman and her ukalayle (yea I can't spell it). She was pretty darn good and it was really nice.

The Piece - These guy's were assholes. They thought they were the Japanese Ramones, but they're weren't even that good. Just really annoying with mediocre music >_<

KT&T - These guys were awesome. They came out and just jammed hard rock for like 40 mins straight. They sounded kinda like Guitar Wolf but more rockin and less metal.

Straightener - I think these guys are gonna be big soon. They were very easy on the ears like Ellegarden but they had more substance to them. They seemed perfect for a mainstream audience and I see them becoming an Asian Kung-fu Generation in the future.

The Pillows - Totally rocked the show. Pretty much everyone in the audience was there for The Pillows, and there's a reason why. The energy and emotions they put into their songs when playing live is amazing. Just the experience of being in this crowd of complete energy was really moving. One of the best live shows I've been too and I was glad to find out they'll be playing in Hirosaki in Feb.

So after the show the TYPHOON 22 was in full swing and it was pouring hard and the winds were up and the streets were just giant lakes. So I had the fun of making my way 30 mins on foot back to the train station in the dark and watery Sendai Port (while not being able to hear much). So yea I got completely soaked and didn't have a change of clothes so I had to wear damp stuff the next day.

This resulted in me getting sick, spending the rest of my trip in my warm hotel bed resting and then being sick all week. So thanks to TYPHOON 22 my trip was very interesting @_@


Sendai just before leaving.

Birthday

Had a birthday today.

Thanks to everyone who sent me e-mails are wished me a happy birthday.

Went and ate a lot of food which was ok. Then I tried pumpkin pie and was let down as soon as I unwrapped the foil to discover the pumpkin part was yellowish green. Tasted downright awful and more like Japanese bean snacks than any kind of pumpkin.

Other than that I presented myself with some new DJ Technic headphones. Now I can finally listen to music at home and get good sound ^__^.

All in all it was a pretty normal day. But I guess I'm a year older now so that counts for something. Anyways, this weekend will be more interesting when I go to Sendai and see The Pillows play live along with other pretty decent bands. So...

So the new season of anime has started. It's a lot of blah and bleh (Count of Monte Cristo futuristic Sci-fi remake >_< ). But one stood out as being quite interesting, "Fantastic Children".



Story of reincarnation over hundreds of years. Very nice music, great animation, good drama, all the makings of a good show. The designs are going for the retro throw-back look and it works great. Also the ending song is fantastic. Should be the show to look out for this season.

The world is fukanzen, thus utsukushii

^________________________________^
An incredibly strong final episode. Wrapped up the series nicely and still set up the feature film. It really was a fantastic work with great directing, a strong script, powerful music, and a great voice cast. Pretty much everything the series built up paid off and the resounding themes of the series were carried to the extreme in the end.

Summer 2005 can't come soon enough :)

Woohoo

Read an on-going transcript of the 1st debate while at work today. Nice to see Bush getting owned left and right by Kerry :) I heard from those watching it that it was even funnier with all Bush's 'ummm's and dead pauses thrown in.

Kerry: "The president said the enemy attacked us.... Iraq didn't attack us, Osama Bin Laden did.... "

Bush: "Look I know Osama bin Laden attacked
us..."

lol

Kerry: "you can be certain.... and wrong!"

yay

Looking at the CNN polls with Kerry winning the debate at 78%, Bush at 12% and 10% undecided hopefully this will turn some heads. Especially since this was supposed to be the strong debate for Bush. Though who knows how much effect this will even have on election day.