John Edgar Wideman was a black teen in a conversation who stated that he listened to Blues music.  When a white teen successfully challenged his definition of Blues (“Midnighters.  Drifters.  Ray Charles,”) his response was incoherent rage.  He wrote later,

Who was I? What was I? Did I really fear the truth about myself that much? Four hundred years of oppression, of lies had empowered him to use the music of my people as a weapon against me . . . I should have smacked him. I should have affirmed another piece of the truth he knew about me, the nigger violence. – John Edgar Wideman, Brothers and Keepers

For him, the definition of Blues was not a matter of semantics.  It was a primal expression of cultural identity – by blacks, for blacks.  For a non-black to attempt to contradict his definition of Blues was a blasphemy.  It challenged his core beliefs.

Otaku Elimination have decreed that only “true otaku” know the true meaning of Otaku, and those they consider non-otaku have no right to speculate about use of the term.

It’s quite humourous that people with no real credibility are trying to tell us what’s what in terms of Otaku. Take Moritheil for example, since when were you otaku? – otakuelimination

The parallels are intriguing.  I will leave speculation on whether or not OEG is similarly undergoing some sort of identity crisis in more capable hands.

Who the fuck gave those people rights to determine who’s Otaku and who’s not? – rayyhum777

12/10/9

Both shows in Osaka went well.  Last night the usual group (Kitty, CHL, Gadget, and I) went out for a beer after the show.  We found a Japanese dive bar that only served one type of beer, “Malt.”  It smelled terrible but surprisingly tasted like a cross between Coors Light and a German Pils.

The restaurant/bar was divided into a handful of the wooden cubicles commonly found in restaurants in this city.  Each had a square table sunk into the center of the area and was encircled (or would it be ensquared?) on four sides by benches sporting shabbily covered cushions.   You know how sometimes dives have the best food?  This was absolutely not the case here.  The food was not wonderful.  After much speculation over what we were actually ordering, we ended up eating liver flavored calamari.  (It took a LOT of lemon to make liver squid palatable).

So the food was bad, decor shabby, and the beer barely passable.  However, the restaurant’s vibe was fantastic because of the really really good jazz being played over restaurant’s stereo system.  (This wasn’t the kind of jazz that most restaurants would play that is watered down for the masses.   This was the kind of jazz that someone who really loves jazz would play if they were given their choice of music.  The kind that flutters and dances and catches the listener by surprise, and all without any hesitation whatsoever).

There was only a one other occupied table.  Two Japanese businessmen sat eating, drinking, and smoking.  They had both laid their suit coats aside and had loosened their neck ties.   They were deeply immersed in an animated conversation which required frequent  hand gestures that let fall the occasional dusting of cigarette ash onto their table.

I felt just like I was in an episode of Cowboy Bebop.

A long time ago, this would have worked as high-level service material. Now, it's probably not worth noting.

The fall of 2001 was an eventful time for multiple reasons. With this being malaise era and all, there wasn’t all that much to watch. The number that follows pretty much falls in with other seasons.

I begin this week with Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, which had unfortunate timing when it came to its release. The opening credits are a sort of slice of life look at a city that is practically New York for all intents and purposes. The major plot line of the movie revolves around a terrorist plot with a chemical weapon. Oh and the release date was September 1st of that year. Though it took a while for me to see it here, a few weeks later via a fansubbed version of something that was shot using a camcorder, it still had a lot of impact. It’s a good movie, irregardless of the fact it never actually had to be made, it just was a little unfortunate.

Mahoromatic is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me if I’m completely honest. While nearly everything in my brain tells me that there are problems with the story and how such a seemingly inept organization could remain a secret from the public doesn’t even make sense. Yet, I keep coming back to it often enough to make it one of my favorites. Even the fanservice which makes up 80% of a lot of episodes doesn’t bother me.

Hellsing supposedly has an epic quality dub that I have never watched, though that might be because they hired a bunch of English people to do it. Anyway, this is a vampire story which does not follow the traditional vampire canon, but this was always more action-oriented. Much more Blade than Twilight obviously. There aren’t very many weak characters in this show, which I thought was a major plus, though Seras does step into that role when convenient. Ultimately, I wouldn’t call this anything more than a good action series with dated animation and copious amounts of blood.

Highlights from Unseen or Unfinished Items

Millenium Actress seems like quite the interesting little story, at least as far as the story of a character’s life goes. X seemed a little strange to me before I dropped it, but it was right at the point where a certain event changes things. Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 probably doesn’t include the bit about getting dumped out by Turkey in the 2nd round. The Prince of Tennis ran for a long time, and has plenty of fans. I might have been more interested if my own experience of tennis wasn’t being mercilessly killed by private school kids in high school. Hikaru no Go never struck me as something that would be popular either.

Viewers! Readers! Howdy!

I hope hearing from the creative minds behind Annex’d will be as good for you as it is for us. We’re quickly approaching the first anniversary of our show, which is both cause for celebration and a reason to get our act together. Kevin and I agreed from the get-go that regular updates were, y’know, important, and after a year of foot-dragging we’re finally gonna listen to our own advice!

What this means is that every couple of days you’ll hear from either Kevin or me. At the very least we’ll tell you something horribly interesting, and at most that thing will be about whatever projects Annex’d has going on at the time. Prepare to be wildly informed.

-Carl

And the first bit of information is that filming is finally, FINALLY wrapping on Annex’d Episode 5: Protein Samba. The only real spoiler I’m gonna give you is that it’s based off of a favorite Cowboy Bebop episode of ours, Mushroom Samba, and that you’ll finally get to know Allegra (as well as some new Annex’d denizens, in one form or another – mystery!).

I’ll also tell any Toronto-area folks that I’m keeping myself busy at Hart House Theater, playing Dick in their upcoming production of High Fidelity which will go up January 15th and for which tickets are available. I’m not saying it’s gonna be fantastic, but I’m in it, so…

That’s all I’ve got to say for now. But I promise that, as of this post, you’re all gonna be so in the loop you’ll be dizzy. I’ll also leave you with this little gem:

Sorry for my lack of updates, as for my reasons, they consisted of school…and my great amount of laziness. Although, now I shall be back to updating regularly. Hopefully. A while ago, I’ve found a MAD of Dissidia X Cowboy Bebop.

I must admit that I, sadly, haven’t watched any cowboy bebop yet…Hopefully, I could watch it during my vacation from school. This MAD was pretty well made once I compared it to the original opening of that anime though.

this is faye valentines example for testing subcategories

This is my info about spike spiegel (BUBEH BUBEH!

Girls are warm, soft, lovely, and almost exclusively smarter than I, having never been capable of figuring out how I was wrong when I hit on their best friends, got black-out drunk, and called them all miserable psychos in need of Summer’s Eve lily pad wash.  I sometimes can’t help myself, being a man among men with electricity in my veins and raw meat in my stomach.  And sometimes I’m totally right, and being a dude is a much better state of being.  In this follow-up edition of “Dig, Dug, Damn!” titled “Sci X, Y“, I express my man-crushes on some of the strongest, most intelligent, skilled, and suave homeboys in all of science fiction / fantasy.  Women are unbelievable and to die for, but these guys are the masters of the universe (Sorry, He-Man, you didn’t make this list!)

Richard B. Riddick

If he were a real person, and I met him, the only thing I could possibly say is “I love you!”, and I’d say it all weird and animated like that Boxxy spaz.  The entire Riddick Saga (Escape from Butcher Bay, Pitch Black, Dark Fury, Chronicles, Assault on Dark Athena) is my Star Wars, as can be verified by my best friend who heard me tell him everything about the differences between the theatrical and Director’s Cut of the film when it was airing on television a few nights ago and he made the mistake of switching the channel.  First of all, he’s one of the last living members of a badass race of peoples, is the most prolific serial killer in the universe, and has energy projection skills, dexterity, intelligence, stamina, strength, battle and weapons skills, pilot skills, and can see in the dark!  Not to mention that he is an antihero in the purest sense of the term, taking care of himself and his, not giving a damn about the fate of all life in existence, wanting only to protect Imam and Jack/Kyra.  Hell, he even went so far as to have himself imprisoned on a prison planet that is covered by inferno fires for all but 20 minutes a day so he could break Kyra out.  Serious business, right?  I know he’s not one for having friends or anything even resembling them (lest you count being among his countless murder victims as having “hanged out”), but he likes to play the game “Whose A Better Killer” and that is just… just beautiful, man.  David Twohy and Vin Diesel have my eternal gratitude for creating this property.

Spike Spiegel

What can be said about the coolest anime character of all time that isn’t said by the fact that Cowboy Bebop, which is a sum of 26 30 minute broadcast episodes and a feature length film, is the most celebrated and mainstream accepted property of in the history of anime.  Sure, people are also fans of the weathered old vet  Jet Black, the sultry, hip, and madly attractive Faye Valentine, the hilarious, odd, and also attractive (if weirdly) Ed, and even Welsh Corgi data dog Ein, but it’s Spike’s battle with himself, with his past, with his future, with Vicious, his arch enemy, with Julia, the one and only love of his life, that animates the series, gives life to the characters and their missions, and is so damned cool!   Spike will chase you down with a space ship battle, pursue you on foot for miles when you crash, battle you hand-to-hand with ease and take you down while wearing a suit and smoking a Marlboro.  It’s that kind of image and performance and projected masculinity that all male children wish for in the fathers and in themselves when they come of age.  He’s such a romantic character, a life based around tragedy, loss, and everything else that makes the heart sing and weep, and it’s a very attractive existence, to be honest.  Bonus: Spike had been cut, stabbed, shot, and blown up too many times to count and survived through it all so that he could finally conclude the chapters in his life left open, dying one of the most heroic and manly deaths ever.

Angel

Just as Riddick is my Star Wars, Angel is my Star Trek.  First of all, the series Angel is better than Buffy in every capacity and disagreeing only makes you look stupid, so don’t do it (I’m looking at you, Joss Whedon).  Second, Angel the character portrayed perfectly by David Boreanaz, is the greatest vampire in all of pop culture.  His story is this: Born in Ireland and named Liam in the 1600s, he drank and whored until Darla, expertly played by the delicious Julie Benz, vamps him and names him Angelus, the demon with the face of an angel.  He eats his family, runs off with Darla and they terrorize the world together, adding Drusilla, sired by Angel, and Spike, sired by Dru, until one day he eats a Romanian girl and the gypsies curse Angelus with a soul, to make his eternal life one of torture and punishment for all the dirty, miserable things he had done.  Brilliant!  A hundred years pass and he becomes a hero and falls in love, only to discover true happiness will never be his as he loses his soul, a stipulation ensuring he suffers forever.  Yo, my boy Angel went to hell and hell spit him out, because without a soul Angelus is the worst of the worst!  His recreational activities including eating people, nailing puppies to walls, and nearly destroying the world by sending it to hell via a portal.  But with soul regained Angel learns to accept his misery only then to discover he has a destiny: The vampire with a soul will play a pivotal role in THE apocalypse, and for his role he will be rewarded the shanshu, meaning his vampire self will die so that his human self may live, but the prophecy doesn’t say what side he will come down on, good or evil, if he will be Angel or if it will be Angelus, if he is the world’s salvation, or it’s crucifier.  What an epic destiny!  And with a future ahead of him so hardcore, he is obviously one of the most powerful beings, and most conflicted and good, true men in heaven, hell, or any dimension in between.  So yeah, but the show isn’t just good for him and the rest of the equally good characters, but the show being some of the best television of all time is really what makes Angel so incredible.  The last two episodes, Power Play and Not Fade Away are the best series finale I’ve ever seen, ever.  No matter the certain death you face, never stop fighting the good fight.  Never.

Heute ist zwar erst der 30.November, aber es gibt trotzdem schon ein neues Weihnachtsbild. Und gute Musik ^_^

Das Bild erinnert mich daran, dass ich endlich mal Cowboy Bebop gucken wollte, aber erst muss ich mit Ranma 1/2 fertig werden. Bin gerade mal bei Folge 26 von 161…

Blah, got bored so decided to crank out photoshop for something random before I have to go back to doing boring images for crappy websites (mesa dont like doing those).

What does everyone think? Any improvements that need doing/should it be burned to the ground and what not.

A trailer for the new Trigun movie is now available online, thanks to its official Japanese website.

The film, slated to open April 24 of next year, brings back most of the cast form the original animation, though the story is not based on the original 1998 manga.

Trigun is from the golden age of anime, and is the story of Vash who is persued by bounty hunters and two female insurance agents attempting to minimize the damage he causes escaping said bounty hunters. Like Cowboy Bebop of the same era, the show is often referred to as having a “space western” theme.

The trailer can be seen here: (Trigun movie)

My keyboard is no longer working, so no more posts until I get a new one tomorrow.  I’m sure as heck not writing enough for a proper post with this on-screen.  A real shame too, I just woke from a dream about baseball cards.  Let’s just call it ‘anime-esque’.  And I need also to reveal the results of my 2005 Pack Wars twitter 5 pack break here on the blizzog.

And that concludes my short burst of energy.  Back to sleep I go, till at least 4am hopefully.  Goodnight, sports fans and uber-sweet blogger ladies I have a crush on.

43 home runs?? Seriously?

Random pictures I can do…

(Edit: Just found a contest guess from Stats-on-the-Back in the spam comments between a long ranty spam about flu and medicines or something and spam for… semen pills. Umm, yeah.  Sorry you got lost in the shuffle.  Hopefully I can find something especially useful to send in return for your particular clunkers.)

Going out on a (Hall of Fame) High note!

My last ‘75 to show.  Urgh, goodnight again…

Besos.

]]> http://tktdojo.com/2009/11/23/amv-mondays-4/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:00:37 +0000 Tavy http://tktdojo.com/2009/11/23/amv-mondays-4/

This week’s AMV combines Kanye West’s Coldest Winter from the 808s and Heartbreaks with one of my favorite Animes Cowboy Bebop.

1. Cowboy Bebop

Creators:

Ogyoruichi has good stuff on that account but his new account is OgFiasco

By now, you know the deal.

Candy Boy – Kanade Sakurai

Kanade is the one on the left, with the darker hair. The other one is her sister, whom she is dating (incest and yuri....yup, I watched it, and it wasn't bad)

Candy Boy. No boys involved (I think someone made that joke on some blog before). Anyway, there are really only 4 characters here, and as far as I’m concerned they’re all lesbians. Three of them are sisters, by the way. Why did I choose Kanade as the best characters? Well, she’s more mature than her sister/girlfriend, Yukino. Also, I like her character design more, and she’s sick at art, which is always awesome. She wears the pants in the relationship, but also has a soft side, and I think that her character as a whole has more depth than the others.

CANAAN – Taxi Cab Driver

WTF? A Taxi Driver?

Am I serious right now? A Taxi Driver? he was in like, 3 episodes. He had like, 6 lines in the entire show! Well, you know what? When you have an ISSS, you can chose whoever you want as your favorite character. And despite the fact that Canaan has a fucking cool character design, and sick ass powers, along with parkour moves that resemble Faith from Mirror’s Edge, the Taxi Driver has what Canaan does not…..a TAXI.

• Despite being a normal taxi driver from Shanghai, he has no problems with driving his taxi off of a bridge and onto a building. He also doesn’t get fired for doing something like that, because he’s the fucking man.
• Basically, this Taxi Driver is what Bill the Ass-Kicker would be like if he drove a Taxi: Fucking Awesome.

Cardcaptor Sakura – Tomoyo Daidouji

*This show was dropped at 9

Should I even include this? There’s really not any good characters, and I realized after I started watching that this show was dumb, and definitely not good. I’ll be honest, I hate all of the characters in this show, hence I dropped after only 9. I guess I’ll go with Tomoyo, for the sole reason that she’ll grow up to be a respectful lesbian.

Chaos;HEAD – Ayase Kishimoto

Chaos;HEAD was an awesome anime, and I liked it a lot. Now, my art teacher for screen-printing tells me that you can’t just say you “like something,” you have to explain why. And I will, with bullets….actually, I’ll use numbers.

1. Murder
2. Supernatural Powers
3. Dynamic Lead Character
4. Many BAM Moments
5. A pacing that is fast, but not too fast (except the last episode, I felt it should have been two episodes, and explained better)

That being said, Ayase is my favorite, because to me, she seems to be a more unique character than the others. Err, well, actually all of the characters are pretty unique, I actually had a touch time deciding to put Ayase up here, or instead vouch for Kozue, who speaks telepathically. In the end, I decided that Ayase was:

• In a rock band
• Has the best character design (I guess this is important to me)
• Has a different way of thinking (6 Dark Knights as opposed to Gigilomaniacs)

Clannad/Clannad ~After Story~ – Kyou Fujibayashi

See my review of Clannad ~ After Story ~: Kyou Chapter.

Claymore: Teresa of the Faint Smile

I was going to choose Deneve, but she really doesn’t get awesome until later in the manga, so I’m going with Teresa, who is probably still more awesome than Deneve, except for the fact that she dies, which sucks. If you’ve seen her fight, than you know that she’s unbeatable, except that she stupidly shows mercy and pity for Priscilla, which ultimately got her beheaded. I for one don’t believe in mercy (especially in sports). Claymore is one of the best anime ever. Manga is too. I just had to say that.

Chibi Vampire Karin (Karin) – Anju Maaka

She doesn’t talk. I should say, she has one of those personalities. Yea, I can’t really remember much about the actual characters in this show. I guess it wasn’t that great. Also, the anime is actually just called Karin, but for some reason I have the manga name listed, and I’m too lazy move it down. So yea.

Chobits – Chi

Don’t get me wrong, I loved this anime (does that make me a fucking homo? Don’t care.), but as far as characters go, there really wasn’t much to choose from. Chi isn’t really that great of a character, I mean, she’s not even a living thing. but she’s better than the moron who fell in love with her (how do you fall in love with a robot? How much of a loser are you dude?). First of all, robots can’t love or feel emotion at all. Whatever, I’m not going to get into it. And I know that Chi is technically a persecon or whatever, but it’s really the same thing. In the end, I chose Chi because you have to touch her vagina (or the place where a real girl would have a vagina) to turn her on. That’s right, I just dropped a FACTUAL PUN on you.

Code-E -Keisuke Ebihara

Here’s how bad this show was. Keisuke wins because he is wearing a cool Hawaiian shirt…and it’s not even that cool. God this show was bad.

Code Geass – Lelouch Lamperouge/Zero

Do I really have to explain? Ahhhh fuck. Lelouch is fucking awesome. I’m just going to list in bullets:

• Nasty at Chess.
• Nasty at formulating plots, as well as creating strategies.
• Looks fucking awesome.
• Is an anti-hero, which I love.
• Provided me with many BAM moments.
• And so on and so forth.

Code Geass rocked hard.

Cowboy Bebop – Spike Spiegel

Spike kicks ass. The end.

Okay I’ll put some work in. Why he kicks ass is really not a question that needs answering, but he kicks as firstly because he’s just so smooth. Take his fighting style for example. I forget specifically what episode it was (it was the one with the flower I think), but Spike actually shows the audience his technique, which is use the other person’s momentum against them. Needless to say (I really need to stop using that phrase), his style not only works, but makes him look really cool, smooth, and nonchalant when he fights.

Secondly, his general demeanor matches his fighting skill. He takes everything in stride, and doesn’t get flustered or agitated easily. He’s the man.

]]> http://foryouranime.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/d-gray-man-review/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:39:59 +0000 foryouranime http://foryouranime.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/d-gray-man-review/

After watching the first few episodes of D.gray-man, a friend turned to me and said, “Wow, it’s kind of dark for a kids’ show.” Yes, compared to the other shonen anime on tv at the time (Naruto, Bleach, One Piece), it was darker. A young orphan (because you can’t have a shonen story without an orphaned main character) sells his soul to bring back to life the man who was like a father to him, only to have him come back as an evil body-snatching weapon o’ evil. Luckily Young Orphan Boy, hence to be known as Allen, escapes with only a scar over one eye and the ability to see other evil body-snatching weapons o’ evil, called Akuma. Oh, and he also learns that he’s something called an Exorcist and must team up with other Exorcists to hunt down the Akuma and their maker, the Millennium Earl.

The show is dark–there’s no denying that–but that’s what made me fall in love with it! It also balances the dark, soul-crushing angst storylines with pure delightful cracktastic ones. And once we’ve laughed away the depression from the last story arch, often thanks to the wacky Exorcists’ Science Division, we are plunged once again into another story where “bad things happen.”

The characters are fleshed out wonderfully. You have no idea who will become a major character and who is just the damsel-in-distress of the month. I always find it a nice surprise when I’ve resigned myself to saying au revoir to a minor character when a storyline has drawn to its close only to discover that not only will that minor character be sticking around, but they will be kicking much butt as they do so!

The animation is beautiful. It’s a bit jarring if you are coming over from the manga, which has its own unique gothic style. A lot of people complained when the anime first came out that it was “too” beautiful. The motion and fight scenes are awesome and thankfully we get a lot of them. The background theme music made me giggle the first time I heard it because it does seem to borrow a lot from Harry Potter’s Hogwart’s theme, but it’s easily gotten over.

If nothing in this article convinces you that this is a series worth seeing, maybe this will: EVEN THE FILLER EPISODES ARE GOOD!! Ah, filler episodes. They are famous for killing the Rurouni Kenshin anime series and for making everyone want to spork out their eyes at the TWO YEARS of Naruto filler. (Sharks in Ninja vests! Argh!) But D.gray’s filler is…good. It’s enjoyable! It even enhances the plot! Gasp! It helps that both the manga writer and a novelist worked together to come up with the filler storylines. They fill in gaps that happen in the manga storyline, give personality and back story to characters we briefly met, and just make the overall story a bit more satisfying.

For those of you who aren’t fans of multiple episode fight scenes, maybe this won’t be your thing. Fans of other shonen titles should definitely give this a try. I think it’s one of the worthier titles Jump has put out in recent years.

for all your anime news and reviews…. http://www.foryouranime.com

i’m getting excited about the upcoming holidays.  going to pittsburgh wednesday and coming back here sunday.  on saturday, amy and i are going to frank lloyd wright’s fallingwater.  i’m so stoked about getting to see it in person.  i’ve seen a lot of pictures of it and read about it, but nothing’s like seeing something like that in person.  yay!

watched a lot of anime and movies this weekend:  finally saw ‘the big lebowski’ and that was ridiculously hilarious.  i couldn’t stop thinking ‘the dude’ was my dad, though…hahah – they look so alike!  watched the last 8 episodes or so of ‘cowboy bebop’ while eating black bread, pickles, salami and cheese and drinking luksosowa vodka from water glasses.  i have to say, that series was extremely enjoyable – not the deepest thing i’ve ever seen or anything like that, but simply very fun to watch (and the soundtrack is fantastic!).  additionally, i watched the final 3 episodes of ‘tokyo magnitude 8.0′ while bawling my eyes out.  episodes throughout made me cry from the beginning, but i was a non-stop tear machine for the end of it.  what an amazing series.  it’s definitely up there among my favorites.  i wasn’t expecting the twist at the end or how elegantly everything was tied up.  wow.  it was just that good.

had my calligraphy lesson tonight with mizue.  it was fun.  we just copied more sutras for most of the time.  i also showed her my scrapbook so far of japan.  she liked it — sounded like it might be something she’d be interested in doing herself someday.  i told her that miyuki scrapbooks, too, so at least she’ll have someone to work with if she’s interested.

and finally, my glasses are ordered.  i doubt i’ll get them before going to pittsburgh, but i imagine they should be finished when i return =)

The simple plot revolves around Fuu searching for the Sunflower Samurai. The group of ninjas trek through 19th-century Japan in search of the samurai who smells of sunflowers but I’ll admit that most recent shows of note have been visually striking, but Champloo really stands out. The big thing is the fighting, which occurs early and often. Fights are choreographed well with slashes and cutting happening in the blink of an eye. Now I know some people are going to say that while some episodes were good, quite a few of them were bad. In fact, I felt this way as well. In Samurai Champloo the characters are clearly not together for mere convenience because I noticed throughout the series, that they almost constantly complain about the troubles incurred by staying together. Rather, they travel together for almost no reason at all, and find themselves continuing to do so despite each of them repeatedly threatening to leave.

So far the episode structure is like Cowboy Bebop’s, with a funny episode or two followed by a sadder episode. Unlike Bebop, there seems to be no build-up to a larger plot and there’s little delving into the characters’ backstories.  It may seem at times that Samurai Champloo’s popularity is driven more by its own hype than the quality of the series. I don’t give into the hype and after watching this series I thought the idea is more than just urban beats set against historical fight scenes. From the show’s soundtrack fueled by rap beats, Mugen’s break-dance inspired fighting style, episode themes, and subtle designs on the back of kimonos, the urban influence can be felt everywhere. Included here is a wide array of adventures that range from cool to corny.  No matter what’s going on though, the action remains top of the line, the show is slick, and there’s a certain hip element to everything.

Samurai Champloo is one of those rare, very special shows that you need only to watch once, and right away you’re hooked. Interestingly as well, although the producers made a point of stating that the show bears no historical accuracy, watching it I felt transported back into the past, witnessing the opening of Japan to the West. The Tokugawa era to be precise, during the time of Japanese seclusion from anyone whom they considered foreign, which was nearly everyone. Yet Champloo doesn’t exactly allow itself to fall into the rules of history, or at least it doesn’t rigidly follow it. Some episodes really veer off to the left. For example: There is an episode entitled ‘Baseball Blues’, in which Mugen, Jin, and Fuu are conned into playing in a baseball game against some pushy Americans armed with cannons who will leave only if they lose the game. As usual for this series, all Western characters are portrayed as horrible caricatures of their national identity. This is somethign that bothered me quite a bit.

Samurai Champloo is a show that begs to be watched. It may not be an outright classic, but it offers a great amount of energy, fun atmosphere, and inventive characters. Towards the final episodes drama dominates. All of the characters meet the conclusion of their own personal stories, while wrapping up their story as a group. Jin faces a man directly linked to his past as a swordsman; Mugen faces a family bent on revenge for Mugen’s past life as a pirate; and Fuu finally meets the Sunflower Samurai. The end of Samurai Champloo is both exciting and a bit sad. It’s a perfect conclusion to a perfect anime series, and sufficiently answers all the questions left behind in the previous episodes.

As the two samurai heroes say in episode two, there’s something silly about a samurai who smells of sunflowers. However, this series truly shows off some of the best battles ever seen in an anime, embellished with the gorgeous environment of ancient Japan. It’s easy to tell that the artists worked very hard to create visually interesting and pleasing characters and settings. The animation in every single scene is infused with a sense of care and precision that is never lazy or sloppy. The series has been dubbed in English and will play automatically on this setting, but I recommend going into the setup menu and enabling the original Japanese voices with English subtitles. The series is so steeped in rich Japanese culture and the Japanese actors are so superb that watching the episodes in English seems silly. It is also getting the blu-ray treatment next month, so please, you owe it to yourself to watch this series.  It may not be Cowboy Bebop, but its one of the greatest animes of my generation.

The crew of the Bebop, from left to right: Jet, Spike, Faye, Ed, and Ein

Cowboy Bebop was a classic sci-fi anime of the 1990s. The show, despite being Japanese, had a western flavour to it: the episodes were, for the most part, self-contained like in North American animation, and the music was rife with blues and jazz (specifically, the titular “bebop”). As such, Cowboy Bebop’s fandom tends to encapsulate not only die-hard anime fans, but people who usually don’t like the genre.

It was with this knowledge that I wanted expose my younger brother to the show. He is very much aware of my love for anime (and, more cringingly, my love for cheesy J-Pop), but he has never been too interested by it. However, we usually have very similar tastes on a number of other things, and I was curious to see if Bebop would jive with him. After much delay, I finally got him to sit down and watch the 26 episode series and the movie that followed. The results were what I had hoped: he had enjoyed it.

Something interesting came up, though, while we discussed the show’s end — or more specifically, Spike’s final decision to take on his former crime syndicate after the death of Julia. My brother was disappointed by Spike’s last actions. He noticed that throughout the series, Spike was very focused on the present (despite his occasional run-ins with his former life), and would even dissuade others from living in the past (Faye in particular). Thus, Spike’s choice to knowingly end it all in a battle with his past was something that seemed beneath him. Spike knew better.

The reason I bring all of this up is to illustrate that Cowboy Bebop is a show that depicts the unexpectedness of reality. The show throws a curveball, and asks the audience to deal with it.

Now, I agree with my brother. By all intents and purposes, Spike should have realized that his actions would prove nothing, and they would most definitely not bring Julia back. He ignored his own advice, and death was his repercussion. It was his punishment for being out of character. But was he really?

We learn from Spike’s final exchange with Faye (taking place just before he goes to fight the syndicate for the last time) that he lost an eye in the past and that he now has a robotic replacement (something which the show had hinted at previously). Spike claimed that, after the operation, one eye always saw the past with the other seeing the present. He was thus unsure if he was really alive, or if reality was a dream passing before him (this, in my interpretation, makes the assumption that Spike was unsure he survived “faking” his death when he left the syndicate years ago). This information, metaphorical or not, changed the idea of who Spike was. In an instant, his laid-back attitude was altered from being merely how he was to a possible coping mehcanism for his “dream-state”.

Spike’s eye disparity is only rarely made visible. During this scene is one of those times.

Faye herself was taken off guard by the revelation:

“Don’t tell me things like that… You never told me anything about yourself! Don’t tell me stuff like that now!”

She even goes as far as to tell Spike of her own run-ins with her past, which she had, until recently, no recollection of:

“My… memory came back. But… nothing good came out of it. There was no place for me to return to…”

It wasn’t long before she got straight to the point:

“Are you telling me you’re going to just throw your life away!?”

In turn, Spike responded:

“I’m not going there to die. I’m going there to see if I really am alive.”

I include the above excerpts because I think they hone in exactly at my point. In the exchange, Faye embodies the mindset of the viewer, one which cannot accept the incongruity of Spike’s choice with the way he had been presented up to this point. The audience may now know Spike’s reasons, but it still does not seem to fit. The audience, sitting upon the expectation of knowing the ins and outs of things as they occur, is thrown, just as they would be in real life. Human beings rarely know all sides of an event, let alone what someone’s true person and motives are. Cowboy Bebop recognizes this, and decides to use its main character as the vehicle for this aspect of reality.

Now, to be fair, the series does hint at Spike’s deeper bonds with his past throughout the series — especially when he encounters the syndicate — but he still tended to look forward rather than back. The point still remains that his death was wholly avoidable, and as such Cowboy Bebop is a great tragedy. Sure, the series is on the whole an action-comedy, but there is always that twinge of sorrow, culminated in the last two episodes. And it was real in a way many works of fiction aren’t. We did not wholly expect or agree with Spike’s decision, but he went through with it anyway. He was not forced to do what he did, he chose it. And that’s the most real thing of all, in a sense. Humanity will never act in pure logic all the time. Like it or not, it is an important aspect of life, one that should not be excluded from fiction.

(Some blog-notes: being inspired by a certain Chocolate Hammer, I’m going to be a bit more lax with this blog in terms of content. If I feel like writing, I will write here, regardless of whether I have an “essay” or not. I’ve been neglecting this thing for too long. As such, my next two installments of Creative Curveballs may be interrupted by other posts, but I see that as a good thing. In short, I will still write “essays”, but I will also just write if I feel like writing. That is all.)

cartoons piss me off cartoon network use to be a reason to come home after school i guess i should just be a bum and do drugs ” just kidding”but seriously powerpuff girls ed edd and eddy   samurai jack pokemon ” orginal” yu gi oh “orginal” cow and chicken   Cartoon Cartoons and toonami dont even get me started  dragon ball Runonin Kenshin  Yu Yu Hakusho zoids all the gundam shows robottech           those awesome promos toonami should of been its own channel like boomerang thats all i have to say or atleast all im going to type right now but dont worry this rant willl be back

ive devised a playlist of cartoon theme songs or opening themes or songs in cartoons that are really cool/memorable to me with a little help from youtube.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Theme Tune

samurai champloo opening credits – Battlecry by Nujabes

pokemon “oringinal” theme song

boondocks huey vs bushido brown – mf doom all caps

cowboy bebop opening- the seatbelts tank

Gobots intro

dragon ball z intro

fooly cooly outro- the pillows shooting star

1980’s Transformers cartoon intro

big o opening theme

megas xlr intro

Joshua Long är exekutiv producent för filmen “Cowboy Bepop“, en adaption och spelfilm av den populära japanska tecknade animé och mangan som kommer att göras av Twentieth Century Fox med premiär 2011. För närvarande ser det ut som att Matrix-stjärnan Keanu Reeves kommer att ha huvudroll och att filmens manus inte kommer att vara en originalberättelse, utan en direkt adaption från serien.

Joshua Long har skapat ett nytt företag med namn 1212 Entertainment vars huvudproduktion kommer att vara inriktad på just live-action adaptioner av japansk animé. Ett första projekt blir en adaption av ockulta “Kakurenbo”. 

Cowboy Bebop

Källa: Far East Films

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