OPENING

→ Tenkū no Escaflowne – Single OP – Yakusoku wa Iranai

Name: Yakusoku wa Iranai
Artist: Sakamoto Maaya
CD Release: 1996/04/24
Tracks:

01. Yakusoku Wa Iranai
02. Tomodachi
03. Yakusoku Wa Iranai (Original Karaoke)
04. Hitomi’s Tarot Reading
Download: Click Here (0 MB)

ENDINGS

→ Tenkū no Escaflowne – Single ED – Mystic Eyes

Name: Mystic Eyes
Artist: Hiroki Wada
CD Release: 1996/04/24
Tracks:

01. Mystic Eyes
02. Call
03. Mystic Eyes (Original Karaoke)
Download: Click Here (11.59 MB)

MOVIE THEME

→ Tenkū no Escaflowne – Single ED – Yubiwa

Name: Yubiwa
Artist: Sakamoto Maaya
CD Release: 2000/06/21
Tracks:

01. Yubiwa (RING)
02. Vector
03. Yubiwa (without maaya)
04. Vector (without maaya)
Download: Click Here (0 MB)

For those of you who are not familiar with the movie, it is not a sequel or a prequel. It is more of an alternate telling of the Escaflowne story. Hitomi, a young high school student has lost her interest in life. She fears things will never change, is so depressed that she hopes that somehow she will just fade away. What she doesn’t expect is that her desire to escape would catapult her into the mythic world of Gaea. From a young highschool student, she finds herself thrust into the role of the Wing Goddess, who can call up Escaflowne, a terrible suit of giant armor destined to destroy the world. Can she learn to open her heart to the suffering of others so that she can save the world from total holocaust? Or will her denial result in the destruction of Gaia? If you’re entirely new to the world of Escaflowne, you’re in for a treat. Anime hasn’t seen anything like this before, and probably won’t see it again for years to come.

Although I didn’t really care for the character redesigns, I have to say that visually Escaflowne is a spectacular movie. The movie was faster paced and to the point and the characters were darker and had more flavor to them. For those who like the show dubbed, they’ll enjoy the movie, although I’m guessing most people will stick with the Japanese track outside of a quick look-see.

Escaflowne: the Movie is a good film, it’s easy to see how people could think it’s great.  A few character issues, and the generally short run time keep me from thinking it’s great, but it’s a very enjoyable movie that sucks you in very well. The true high point for me about this film was that the score was created by the same team as Cowboy Bebop. Yoko Kanno score permeates through the film and actually keeps your attention a whole lot longer than anything the script has to offer. After watching the series, I found this movie to be an excellent summation of everything in its entirity. However, those who haven’t seen the series may find it a little hard to follow, as some characters have little or no introduction.

I can’t lie because it can get a little boring and dark with too much talking and badly dimmed scenes, even the heart pounding music cant bring you out of a power nap.  But, I was very skeptical as to whether or not I’d like this movie, since I didn’t particularly enjoy the time I spent with the TV series. The movie was breathtaking. The animation quality, the art style, character design, everything in the artistic realm of this movie has been improved from its television form. Again, I’m not sure how much it would appeal to fans of the TV series. However, if you’ve never seen Escaflowne, I’d say this is a good place to start. It feeds you the plot with relative consistancy, and it’ll probably get you itching to see the TV series, too. But if you’re like me and you love the show and everything about it, then you may walk away complaining.

So its about time I started posting this – I’ve been mucking about with these lists for way too long (and I’m still not happy with them >_<) and its driving me nuts, so I’m just going to start posting so I cant change them anymore!

Any as mentioned in my “I’m a Mecha fangirl? When did that happen!?” post I’ve only recently embraced my Inner Mecha Fangirl and have actively sought out shows in the genre to watch.  So what follows are my own personal favourite Mecha series so don’t expect any objective reasoning or much sense at all actually ¬_¬ I’ll try to stick to my usual writing style and avoid spoilers so never fear if you have yet to see any of the series I’ll be rambling about.

I’ll be going in ascending order and have about 2 or 3 series in each post (depending on how long I feel like rambling about each series ).  So after the break are numbers 10 & 9!

10. Full Metal Panic!

I remember watching the entirety of FMP (all three series) within a week .  It was one of those shows that I just couldn’t seem to stop watching!  Everything else I was following at the time got put on the back burner as I was completely immersed in Sousuke and Chidori’s world.  FMP manages something quite remarkable – balancing High school romcom with  sci-fi mecha military action!

The characters are just a joy to watch.  Sousuke is completely socially retarded and struggles with this undercover mission he’s given coming across as anything but a ‘normal high school student’.  Chidori is a strong female lead – a typical tsundere and more than capable of looking after herself, you do feel for her having to deal with this military nutcase trying to protect her!  The side characters are also distinctive and well rounded – my favourites being Mao and Kurz the other members of Sousuke’s Mithril team.  The voice acting goes a long way towards my love of any given character – luckily FMP has a stellar cast and they make the best of the excellent script.

FMP is made up of three series - Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu and Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid; the 1st season was produced by GONZO and the rest was handled by Kyoto Animation.  FMP! & FMP:TSR form the man story whereas Fumoffu (set between the two main series) is a more comedy orientated spin-off (which I reviewed separately in Part 13 of my Short Reviews so I won’t talk too much about that).

The main story is well put together with a nice mixture of elements – great action scenes, solid comedy, excellent scripting and engaging characters; all of which come together to make the best of what (if I’m honest) isnt the most original concept in the world.  FMP contains quite alot of pretty standard elements, but somehow manages to blend them together into something interesting and entertaining.

In terms of animation, both companies involved did an excellent job.  GONZO’s work on the first season was excellent but the show gets decidedly prettier when KyoAni took over.  I loved the character designs – being completely shallow I need eye candy in my series and FMP delivers.  The action scenes are really wonderfully choreographed and exciting – I do like my explosions after all

The Mecha designs are also impressive.  The Mecha in this series are called Arm Slaves, and its obvious that a lot of research was put into their design (and the design of all the military paraphernalia used throughout this series).  Being a series that is set in the not so distant future, quite a lot of time is spend explaining the operation of the Arm Slaves…..but I’m mainly concerned with whether or not they are visually appealing and how they move in action scenes – they are well designed and interesting to watch in battle so its all good

So yeah, I really enjoyed FMP and its stood up to rewatching (I bought the boxsets for the 1st season and Fumoffu……still waiting for a reasonably prices TSR set though ¬_¬), it does have faults (which I like to ignore because I like the show) but its still solid entertainment, very pretty and the romcom elements mean it isn’t pure Mecha action so it appeals to me a bit more.

9. The Vision of Escaflowne

One of my most beloved series and one of the series responsible for kindling my interest in anime; The Vision of Escaflowne is something of a classic in my eyes.  Again it isn’t a pure Mecha series, rather Escaflowne is an amalgamation of numerous genres – taking the best aspects of each and weaving them together to produce a stunning piece of work……seriously you need to prepare yourselves for major fangirling in this entry, hefty doses of nostalgia mean I can see very few flaws in this series

On the surface Escaflowne is an extremely straightforward ‘girl transported to another world’ type series, utilising lots of traditional western fantasy conventions – swords, dragons, knights, princes and princesses are all present and accounted for as well as a generous pinch of the occult (in the form of tarrot cards and dowsing).  It then adds elements of science fiction, shounen action and mecha; mixes it all together and somehow how emerges as a highly original and well thought out series that’s difficult to pigeon-hole.

From the shounen genre, Escaflowne takes its jaw-dropping action scenes and from the shoujo genre it takes its painstakingly well developed characters – even minor side characters who only show up for a few episodes feel well developed in this series!  Hitomi is a wonderful heroine – completely relate-able and even in her bratty moments she still feels real and likable.   The fact that she does have a role to play in the plot (other than being the damsel in distress) is a great bonus, her latent psychic skills make her indispensable in advancing the plot.  Van I loved from the word go – he’s a wonderful lead and as the pilot of the titular giant Mecha, the centre of most of the action in the series. Dilandau is another favourite of mine – deliciously insane he demands your attention whenever he’s on screen.

The animation is nothing short of gorgeous.   Sunrise are the studio behind this series, but even in their illustrious history Escaflowne is exceptionally well put together.  The character designs needed a little bit of getting used to at the beginning (hello giant noses!) but you don’t notice after a while.  The world of Gaia is stunningly realised – the variety of landscapes and different countries visited really adds interest – clearly alot of thought went into the development of Escaflowne’s world setting.  There is also alot of variety in the action scenes; traditional sword fights, mecha battles (where the mecha are like giant medieval knights) and airship battles – its all there.

Now the mecha (which are called Guymelefs).  I adore the designs in this series!  Escaflowne itself is a beautifully put together machine – switching from traditional knight form to dragon shaped flight mode, its just really pretty.  Van struggles to control it at the beginning – the fact that he has a blood contract with it and its somewhat sentient just adds an extra dimension of originality to the mecha in this series.  Of course Escaflowne is a special machine even in Gaia, but the other guymelef are impressive too – I particularly liked the liquid metal weaponry of the Dragon Slayers machines.

The soundtrack needs to be mentioned too.  Its a wonderful combination of atmospheric orchestral pieces and uplifting J-pop which blend with the visuals perfectly.  Even the SFX are brilliant as are the seiyuu.

The Vision of Escaflowne is one of those series that I never get tired of watching.  Being one of the very first anime series I watched on TV (yes I even liked the somewhat butchered American dub of this series) it occupies a special place in my heart reserved for those shows that 1st gave me the anime bug (its in there with Sailor Moon, DBZ, Gundam Wing, Card Captor Sakura and Tenchi Muyo).  Of course I vastly prefer the original uncut Japanese version over the American dub – but its testament to how good a series Escaflowne is that even in its butchered form the quality still shines through.

Well that proved to be harder than I thought!  Even without going into the subtleties of the plot and character interactions I’ve managed to ramble for ages   Hopefully I didn’t bore anyone to death with my fangirling.  I’ll be proceeding with two series per post, but I don’t have a set schedule for posting – it will be whenever I have time

Um dos primeiros animes que vi, ainda mais no formato “26 episódios”.

Com o post da abertura ao vivo cantado pela Maaya Sakamoto (que sempre manda muito bem), me deu uma saudade e ando revendo a série, que faz anos que não via. Que delícia! Além de ser bom pacas, me leva de volta àquela época em que íamos todos juntos para a casa de um amigo ver a fita que um só tinha, a gente era tudo moleque, na escola ainda. Nada como ser iniciado em animes por um anime de fantasia/romance/lutas-de-capa-e-espada-com-gente-e-mechas o/ – A abertura era linda e me toca até hoje. Pena que muito otaku hoje só conheça Bleach, Naruto e One Piece (Nada contra, pois são ótimos!) – mas conhecer animes desse naipe que ainda são feitos vale muito a pena.

Agora dá licença que vou matar a saudade de Escaflowne de novo…

I am in an anime watching sort of mood today, so what better way to start off this special event week than a look at some of my favorites. Over the years, my collection has been pared down to include only the ones I find myself watching again or can see myself watching again in the future.

1. Paradise Kiss

Whenever I am feeling disgusted, uncreative, or discouraged, I set aside a few hours to watch this 12 episode series. I always come away feeling better and ready to take on the world. What struck me most about both the manga and the anime was the ending. The series ends not with an ideal happily-ever-after, but with the characters parting ways to pursue their goals and desires once school is finished. This bittersweet end is a fitting conclusion for a series that features engaging characters and captivating plot.

I really adore the transformation that the main character, Yukari, undergoes throughout the series. She changes from an unsure, unpleasant girl to a self-assured, passionate young woman. If you want to read more about this story, check it out here. The artwork for the series, the character designs and costumes especially, are absolutely fantastic.

2. Escaflowne

What do I love most about Escaflowne? I would be hard pressed to give a simple answer to this question. I love the characters (*coughFolkencough*). I love the story. I love the interesting mix of technology and sword and sorcery. This series has a little something for everyone, whether you’re looking for action, romance, giant robots, dragons or comedy.

Escaflowne’s strong story and characters have always been entirely compelling to me, and every time I re-watch the series I come away feeling awed and inspired. Admittedly, it takes some time to get used to the abnormally long noses but by the third episode I’m usually so engrossed in the story that I wouldn’t care if I was watching stick people. Beware, this is one you want to watch the original Japanese track and subtitles for.

3. Fushigi Yugi

Fushigi Yugi is the longest series I own– 52 Episodes plus 2 OVAs (9 episodes). My most memorable moment comes not from watching this series, but the way in which I came to own it. I received the first season box set for Christmas many years ago. My Mom, my siblings, and I devoured the first 26 episodes in a little more than a day only to find that it wasn’t the end of the series and we were appalled at the outcome of the last episode of the first season. The next day, my Mom purchased the second half of the series and we watched it together. All these years later, I still own the two box sets and have added the OVAs to my collection.

This is another series that I love for the characters and the intricate relationships between them. It, much like Escaflowne, features a fairytale-like storyline that is very much driven by its characters. Miaka, at times, can be a little annoying but by the end of the series one can’t help but feel for her and her situation.

4. Sailor Moon

I am starting to see a trend when it comes to my favorite animes– do you see it? I could not make this list and not have Sailor Moon with a place on it. Though I do not own any of the anime or manga, it still keeps a very special place in my heart. If it wasn’t for Sailor Moon, I never would have discovered anime nor would I have ever started creating my own characters and writing my own stories. So I guess, I owe it to Sailor Moon for giving me a kick in the pants and getting my started down this road.

Sailor Pluto is stil my favorite. She’s so cool and mysterious.

I could go on, but it seems I would start to repeat myself. In the same vein as Sailor Moon, I would like to mention Ronin Warriors. If it weren’t for these two shows I probably never would have wandered into the anime section of my local Suncoast video back before I had a DVD player to buy both subtitled and dubbed versions of shows like Slayers and Magical Knight Rayearth.

Some of my other favorites include Gurren Lagann, Serial Experiments Lain, the Miyazki films, and of course, Vampire Hunter D.

Hey, it’s that anime that contributed the name of this blog!

Escaflowne has been on my to-watch list for a while now. I heard many things about the series — how good it still looks, how great the music is, how wonderful/terrible the romance is, how everything falls apart near the end, and so on and so forth. Most of what I heard/read tended toward the positive, though, so I was quite excited to watch the series. And, overall, I think it is pretty good, if very flawed, mainly because its ambitions extend way beyond its reach, which turns the series into a semi-trainwreck down the stretch. But what an enjoyable trainwreck it is in its own way!

The series begins with Hitomi Kanzaki, a high school girl who has a crush on her senior on the track team, Amano. But one day, a dragon comes swooping down from the heavens, bringing along with it a young, hotblooded prince, Van Fanel. Somehow Hitomi and Van are whisked away to Van’s homeland, Gaea, from which Earth — called the Mystic Moon in this world — can be seen in the distance. Van’s kingdom, Fanelia, is under attack by the Zaibach Empire, led by Emperor Dornkirk, who of course has a mysterious plot going on behind the scenes. Van swears revenge upon the Zaibach Empire, of which his estranged brother, Folken, is now a part, and he and Hitomi travel across the land, picking up allies along the way and rebelling against the empire.

Escaflowne, despite the very strange synopsis, actually has a really good beginning and holds a ton of promise in the early goings. The action is really good, the music is suitably epic and awesome, and there is always something interesting going on in the background, storywise. Plus, there are some really cool characters. I don’t really like Van in the beginning, because he’s an insufferable douche, but Hitomi is a good, strong female lead (and has a hell of a long jump!), Allen Schezar is pretty cool (and is voiced by the king of cool, Shinichiro Miki), Folken has this cool aura about him even though 90 percent of what he says is gibberish in the beginning (but I’ll definitely take Jouji Nakata spouting gibberish!) and Dornkirk isn’t bad in his role as the mysterious emperor.

And then there is Dilandau. Oh my, Dilandau. Voiced with insane zeal by the always wonderful Minami Takayama, Dilandau is the leader of an elite group of Zaibach soldiers whose basic job is to fuck things up. And Dilandau is the best of them at this. Burning, pillaging, wanton destruction, etc. — he does it all, with a great villainous sneer on his face (he generally has great facial expressions) and one of the best insane cackles I will ever have the pleasure of hearing. Plus, his worldview could not clash more with Folken, so the inherent awkwardness of all their interactions cannot possibly be more entertaining. Also, as can be expected, Dilandau is totally batcrap bonkers. He becomes more obsessed with Van as they battle, and wonderful things come from it. I am not at all ashamed to admit I had a total man crush on Dilandau throughout the series. How could I not love someone that wonderfully entertaining and evil? <3

The excitement builds constantly through Escaflowne’s first half, as Dilandau’s Dragonslayers constantly breathe down Van and company’s neck and attempt to slaughter them all once and for all. The crew hops from kingdom to kingdom, engaging in political intrigue all the while, and they really begin to feel the pressure of the Zaibach Empire coming after them, while the empire comes ever closer to achieving its goal. This is the high point of the series, I think, because this is where the coherent story is at its best. From this point on, the story grows ever more insane (and not always in a good way), and the themes of the series are pounded ruthlessly into the viewer’s head (UNMEI KAIHEN, LOVE CONQUERS ALL~, WILLPOWER > PREDESTINATION, and so on) with each new episode. Subtlety is not something with which Escaflowne is familiar.

The stretch of episodes from about 15-21 is without a doubt the worst in the series. Only one (ep19) is truly wall-to-wall awful — its ending is an utter Wall Banger — but it’s not as if the others have that much going for them. This is the part of the series where Escaflowne develops the characters more and reveals a lot of the backstory behind Dornkirk’s plan and Gaea’s past. Some of it is cool, some of it is quite silly and some of it is mindbogglingly nuts. And the way some of these twists are brought about . . . ugh. Lots of boring ass Info Dumping (especially by Dornkirk; guy probably waited his whole friggin’ life for this massive Info Dump) and general retardery. Don’t want to dole out any spoilers, but suffice to say, this stretch of Escaflowne is absolutely horrid and is what people refer to when the say the series completely derails itself. But there are more problems.

One of the worst things about the series is the romance. It is almost all awful, and this is coming from someone who proudly labels himself as a huge fucking sap. The main love triangle concerns Hitomi, Van and Allen. It is OK for a while, but then it just gets insipid and annoying. A big part of it is because the characters are derailed so badly after the halfway point. As the series moves along, Allen loses roughly a bajillion cool points as his (fucking stupid and boring) past is slowly doled out, and he morphs into a moronic asshole throughout this stretch of the series. Thus, only insane bishie lovers would give a shit about Allen’s romantic advances on Hitomi. To make it better, the way the Hitomi x Allen romance is pushed just may be the most idiotic thing in the series, and that, my friends, is saying something, because, among all the good, there is a lot of shit in Escaflowne. Hitomi x Van ranges from very annoying to tolerable, although it never gets anywhere near as bad as Allen’s romance. The only decent romance (Millerna x Dryden) is barely focused on at all. Way to deliver, Sunrise!

What makes the romance more intolerable is that it just about ruins everyone involved. Hitomi goes from a cool, strong lead to an annoying, whiny, lovesick wench for a good portion of the show. The romance pushes Allen into the point of no return, and he’s just a freaking assmunch for the duration. Van is just . . . Van. He’s there to stumble upon stupid things that come straight out of hackneyed Harlequin romance novels crapped out by bored housewives. Die, romance, die.

The other thing that really threatens to derail Escaflowne is all the absurdly stupid plot devices that make absolutely no sense and are introduced just to be freaking bonkers. I’ll just get this out of the way now — the Zaibach Empire literally has blood they can transfuse into soldiers that will increase their luck. Fortune Blood. Fortune. Blood. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT. Is it, like, fucking leprechaun blood, or something? Is there some magical luck hormone biologists have not discovered yet? The world must know about this! There are also some quite grand liberties taken with the concept of gravity that are just . . . I really do not know what to make of them, actually, because I still have no clue what the hell the series is going with that. But it does contribute to the plot of ep19, so it sucks and I hate it. There’s also one more plot twist I really wish I could mock here, but I lack spoiler tags, so no dice. (Hint: It has to do with Emperor Dornkirk’s true identity. And, surprise, it’s just as insane as everything else I just mentioned!)

Really, Escaflowne had my brain going everywhere at times. Mostly to confusion, but I went basically everywhere with this series. Looking back on it, it is fun to see just what depths of insanity the show will plumb with each new episode. Code Geass never got half as crazy as Escaflowne. But, man, is it ever painful to watch sometimes. If my brain had a hand, I would probably be a damned vegetable with how much brain facepalm I would have endured.

HOWEVER . . . while the ship is not completely righted (the series would have to be near perfect to make up for all of that bullshit), it does nearly get back to the excitement of the show’s beginning. The final battle between Van’s crew and Emperor Asshole Dornkirk’s cronies is pretty good, though it’s not the best battle of the series. Hitomi makes a turnaround and becomes cool again. Allen . . . uh, I guess he gets out of the way and lets the awesome people do their jobs. Dilandau gets an awesome servant (and a really weird plot twist, though it is not nearly as weird as the ones that precede it). And the ending . . . you know, surprisingly enough, I actually sort of like the ending. It’s kind of silly, and really sappy, and I would probably enjoy it more if I were warmer toward the Van x Hitomi pairing (OMG SPOILER), but taken on its own, I think it is about as good as could be expected with all the weirdness leading up to it. Not at all subtle about what it is trying to say, but I don’t think anyone expects subtlety at this point in Escaflowne.

Escaflowne is worth watching just because it has such a grand reputation (which isn’t totally deserved, but it’s not a complete piece of garbage, either), and because it is fun in that “insane ’90s anime that spirals totally out of control” kind of way. It is all over the place, and the bad in the show is really bad, but it has enough good for most anime fans to enjoy it. Plus, everyone needs a piece of Dilandau. <3

Uma das poucas cantoras que me arrepia sempre que canta, Maaya é perfeita. Quem viu a série vai arrepiar também:

Recently I enjoyed watching Escaflowne the movie, but one part bugged me to no end.

He's absolutely furious that he can't fall from great distances and not even feel dizzy

Near the end of the movie before the big fight sequence. Soldiers are dropped in big crates from the battleships above the city right on top of and around the buildings. They then march out of the crates in perfect rythm without any sign of motion sickness. A drop that far would break their legs, desembowle them, or simply cause internal bleading. Do G forces not exist?

I’m going to find a tall building crawl into a tight metal crate and try to be completely still. Sue them for me.

Ultimamente en Japón han salido nuevos talentos como es el caso de Jasmine, hoy pondre a algunos artistas, unos no muy nuevos,y otros son artistas que no muchos conocen, empezare con Jasmine .

Jasmine – Sad To Say.

Thelma Aoyama. – Soba ni iru ne

Nanase Aikawa – Owari Nai Yume (motorod) [jrock]

Angela – Beautiful Fighter.

Melody (la esposa de miyavi) – Love Story.

Maaya Sakamoto – Yubiwa.

Nami Tamaki – Reason

Crystal Kay – Motherland

Rie Fu – Life is like a boat.

Mai Kuraki – Secret of my heart .

10.Sailor Moon – Moonlight Densetsu

9.Escaflowne – Yakusoku Wa Iranai

8.Fushigi No Umi No Nadia – Blue Water

7.Dragon Ball – Maka Fushigi Adventure

6.Flame Of Recca – Nanka Shiawase

5.Slayer – Get Along

4.Neon Genesis Evangelion – Zankoku Na Tenshi No Teze

3.Slam Dunk – Kimi Ga Suki Da To Sakebitai

2.DNA² – Blurry Eyes

1.Saint Seiya – Pegasus Fantasy

Hitomi Kanzaki es una chica que practica atletismo y lee el futuro con sus cartas del tarot, un día en una competencia tiene una visión de Robots gigantes librando batallas entre si en una ciudad en llamas, lo cual hace que se desmaye  y termine en la enfermería cuando despierta le revela u amor al superior Amano, y pidiéndole como recompensa que sea el, el que le de su primer beso si ella logra superar los 13 segundos que tenia como record, el acepta y en la noche del desafío hitomi vuelve a ver al chico de su visión el cual aparece de repente en la pista, poco después aparece un dragón con el cual empieza la lucha através de la ciudad, en un momento en el que el dragón esta apunto de atacar a Van,  hitomi puede anticiparlo y avisarle con un grito lo cual sirve para que van aproveche la ventaja y mate al dragón, justo en ese momento aparece un rayo de luz y los transporta a otra dimensión. Van le revela que ese lugar es Gaea y que es el príncipe de fanelia, el día en el que iba a ser coronado es atacado por un ejercito invisible, en ese momento van utiliza el corazón de dragón para despertar al legendario guymelef Escaflowne, así comienzan la batalla para poder escapar Hitomi, utiliza su collar para guiar a Van en contra de los enemigos invisibles y escapar al bosque. 

¿Que aventuras les esperan?  ¿Podra HItomi regresar asu hogar? ¿Que es Escaflowne?

This is going to be a massive update on all of the media that I’ve enjoyed this summer so far. I haven’t been talking about this stuff a lot, a.) because I know you guys don’t really care, and b.) because I’m too busy getting as much of it in as I can before my last undergrad semester starts. So Strap in, kids. Time to get my geek on:

First up, we have Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. My best friend, Korey has been trying to get me to read these for years, and I finally got around to it and read all 4 over the last three weeks. I should have listened and read them sooner. I always knew Dean Koontz was a good writer, I’ve read some of his other stuff before. But the story of Odd Thomas blows me away. Koontz’s voice in these volumes is charming, witty, and occasionally heartbreaking as he tells the story through the voice of Odd Thomas himself, a fry cook from a desert town in California who can see the dead, and is compelled to help them find peace. While Odd often confides in the reader about his hopes, fears, and uncertainties you find that he is no slouch of a story teller, and in spite of this intimate relationship between character and reader, expect to get slapped in the face often with things you didn’t see coming. Koontz often plays word games in these books that will trip you up, only to reveal the truth to you later on, as Odd shamefully admits that he’s been playing word games with you for much of the story. For anyone who likes a great novel, with a touch of the supernatural, romance, tragedy, and triumph, pick up Odd Thomas. I promise you’ll read the other three volumes, Forever Odd, Brother Odd, and Odd Hours.

Next up we have Vision of Escaflowne, which I had almost forgotten about until I started writing on my latest fantasy project. When I write, I like to play something similar to what I’m writing in the background to help set an ambiance, and this round I decided to pull out my set of Escaflowne. I hadn’t watched this show in years, and as an older, more seasoned viewer I admit that I love this show more than ever, because there are complexities that I simply disregarded my first time around. As I write this, I recall some sad soul once scoffing at me for liking this. They said that Escaflowne was anime for girls. All I have to say to that is, wtf? Knights, Samurai, giant robots, sorcery, damsels in distress? What’s not to love???

I’ve been loving my video games too. While most of you have seen my many rants on how I’ve been pwning at Halo like never before, what most of you don’t know is that I’ve finally gotten around to playing Prince of Persia, a title that I have been burning to play since seeing the first teaser trailer on Xbox Live. This will not be a review, since the game is old and any of you who love video games has probably already given it a whirl. Just me with my impressions. While the new cell shaded graphics are absolutely stunning, the music is beautiful, and the story top notch, I have to say that I am severely disappointed with how the new Prince handles. He seems heavier than his predecessor, and while the new grapple claw adds a new element to the acrobatics, he is most definitely not as light on his feet. This will not stop me from enjoying the game, but it is something I definitely noticed.

Since I’ve been getting back into my anime, I decided to watch Gundam Wing again. So awesome. It’s actually really good as a military drama, as well as a giant-robots-kicking-the-fuck-out-of-each-other fest. While Hiro and Wing Zero are still my favorite I have a newfound love for Quatre who literally holds that band of militant toddlers together.

Last on my agenda is A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt. This is the book I am currently reading. I admit it’s a little difficult for me, mostly because I’m breaking out of my comfort zone and reading a sci-fi novel, when fantasy has been my shtick. But I have some ideas for a sci-fi story, and if I’m ever going to write in the genre I need to do what writers do and read the genre. The story follows Alex Benedict, a young antiques dealer who comes to his home planet after his uncle and surrogate father, Gabriel, has died. Upon receiving his last will and testament, Alex begins a journey to uncover a secret that, if true, could totally debunk everything history has told him about humanity’s greatest military leader Christopher Sim. While we are on military dramas, this one is pretty good. While no actual war is going on, you get a good sense of this future’s history through Alex’s research of a past war that humanity waged against a psychic race called the Ashiyyur, and the mysteries he is uncovering along the way keep you hooked. Part of the brilliance of this novel is McDevitt’s narrative style. As the reader learns the history of humanity’s future, Alex literally learns along with you, as he uncovers the truth about the past. McDevitt also explores the question of human identity, and the age old question of what it means to belong to a people, and the price we must pay to finally unite as one. Perhaps sci-fi novel is a bit inaccurate as it is in fact a mystery novel in a sci-fi setting. If you like sci-fi, or are looking to break out of your comfort zone the way I did, A Talent for War is a great place to start.

Whew. That took a lot out of me. I hope I didn’t bore you guys to tears. So now you know where I am. I’ll let you know when I pick up a whole new set of obsessions.

DS Out.

It’s been a while.

Endlich ist Wochenende! Diesmal sogar 3 wunderbare Tage! Pfingsten sei Dank. Die Osterzeit ist offiziell vorbei und ich kann endlich die Fensteraufkleber von der Scheibe kratzen! Ist das nicht herrlich?

Was wohl aber bei Weitem noch herrlicher ist, ist wohl die Tatsache, dass ich die Klausuren für 12/2 ganz hinter mich gebracht habe und für dieses Halbjahr absolut keine Klausur mehr ansteht.

Aber was alles übertrifft, ist, dass heute Abend, 20:15 Uhr, “Der Patriot” im TV kommen wird. Der Film interessiert mich kein bisschen, aber verdammt…Jason “Liberate me Hotbitch Mr. Sex” Isaacs spielt mit…und zwar den Bösewichten…ich meine…RAAAAWR! Besser geht es kaum noch!

Was gibt’s noch? Ich werde dieses Wochenende endlich (!) die Jasper/Ron Fanfiction online stellen! Zu finden auf:

http://www.fanfiktion.de/u/Synderska/

Nein, ich bin kein Twilight Fan, aber verdammt, die Charaktere sind wirklich Gold wert, wenn man sie für Fanfictions braucht. Das wird dann auch die letzte (…) Fanfiction sein, die Twilight Chars inkludieren wird.

In diesem Sinne,

ich meld mich nach “Der Patriot” nochmal und berichte von dem einzigartigen Filmerlebnis mit J Lm Hb MS I!

Title: Anime Explosion! The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation
Author: Patrick Drazen
Publication Year: 2003
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press
Pages: 369

When I got Anime Explosion! in the mail from Amazon, I was so excited. I had seen it on a friend’s bookshelf, and, silly cover illustration aside, it seemed like a fairly serious reference source on anime. Instead of merely listing one anime series after another, its chapters are structured around broad themes (portrayals of nature, anti-war messages, etc.), with chapters devoted to single works or directors at the end of the book. The chapters are filled with well-selected and well-formatted illustrations accompanied by captions that do not merely repeat what is in the text, and there are numerous footnotes, which are also well-formatted and easy to read. The bibliography at the end of the book references such serious scholarly works as Professor William LaFleur’s Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan as well as numerous creator interviews from the pages of the long defunct but still fondly remembered anime magazine Animerica. The book hits all the big bases, like Japanese folklore in anime, nudity in anime, the Pokémon phenomenon, Studio Ghibli, and even one of my personal favorite series, Revolutionary Girl Utena. What’s not to like?

The fact that Anime Explosion! is one of the more boring books I’ve ever read is not to like, actually. And you’ll have to believe me when I say that, during my six years in higher education, I have read some pretty boring books. During my two years in higher higher education, I have also read some pretty terrible student papers, and so I think I can put my finger on what I dislike about Anime Explosion! – it’s the plot summary. Pages and pages of it. All written in singularly uncreative and unevocative prose. Judging from the level of the language, I would say that, despite the occasional frank discussions of sex and sexuality, the target audience for this book are middle school students. The book also assumes that the reader knows nothing about Japan, which I suppose is fair, but, to those of us who have studied the country, the cultural clichés referenced over and over again come off as a little stale. There also isn’t much interpretation involved, and the little that does exist is tepid and sophomoric.

I hesitate to say this, as Drazen acknowledges this problem in both his introduction and his conclusion, but Anime Explosion! is also a bit dated. The individual works covered in the book are, for the most part, classics, and no amount of time is going to change that. In that sense, then, Drazen has done an excellent job in creating a reference work that will transcend the whims of an extremely capricious field. On the other hand, for having been published in 2003, this book feels like a relic from the mid-nineties. The internet? What’s that? The Japanese bubble economy collapsed? Oh my God! Also, to me, a presumably serious scholar, many of the seventies and eighties era texts Drazen references (like Kitteridge Cherry’s Womansword: What Japanese Words Say About Women) can no longer be taken seriously. Also, for those fans curious about such recent phenomena as moe and hikikomori, there is nothing to be found.

All that being said, this is a solid book and may prove interesting to younger or more hard-core anime fans. And, to be fair, Drazen’s chapter on “Gay and Pseudo-Gay Themes in Anime” (which Drazen aptly titles “A Very Pure Thing”) is bold, insightful, and well ahead of its time. For those of us interested in how anime stereotypes came to be, chapters like “Shojodo: The Way of the Teenage Girl” are also useful. For older readers looking for thrills and entertainment, however, I would recommend an anime magazine like Otaku USA, which tends to function at a much higher level than Drazen’s well-meaning but regrettably prosaic reference work.