Fate/Stay Night

Name: Fate/Stay Night
Type: Television Show
Episodes: 24
Rating: TV-14
Runtime Per Episode: 30 min
Director: Yamaguchi Yuji
Produced By the Fate Project, Studio DEEN, and others
Year Produced: 2005

A widely publicized visual novel turned anime, Fate/Stay Night was reserved just for the ending because of my love for it, and no matter what happened, I wanted to end on a high note (for me, not you.  I don't really care what kind of "not" you end on, so long as you read this far).

I guess you could call this a cult classic, but I don't think it would be right to do so.  I do know that the term "GAR" originated from here, but that's about as far as it infiltrated public opinion in so much as internet jargon (and I'll explain GAR later).

The visual novel was produced by a company called Type-Moon.  If you know titles like Tsukihime or Melty Blood, then you know Type-Moon.  They make good stuff.  Though my current non-existent budget only allows me to buy Fate/Stay Night at the moment, I'll be getting the other two when I have the time to strike it rich.
If you're interested in buying these, I'll provide you with a link to a place that I know carries the Fate/Stay Night titles.  There's also Fate/Hollow Ataraxia, and Fate/Zero, which are the top two on my shopping list.

The thing that you have to know about visual novels is that they are like those picture books that you might have been interested in when you were a kid.  The way their set up is that they tell you what's going on, then give you a couple of choices on what to do, and then the story modifies around your choices/actions.  It's pretty fun.
That being said, there are numerous endings, as well as entirely different story paths in visual novels, and Fate/Stay Night is no exception, and the visual novel version of it has three scenarios; Fate, Unlimited Blade Works, and Heaven's Feel, all of which have been semi-combined into the anime, meaning that there are parts of all of the scenarios in the anime, but there are also a bunch of parts that are not there.


Emiya Shirou is the adopted child of Emiya Kiritsugu, who died quite a while ago after saving Shirou from a soon to be grizzly fate.  The whole reason Shirou was orphaned in the first place was that the block that his house was on apparently exploded for, killing almost everybody, and leaving everything else in fiery chaos.

Shirou is generally over it by now, and is now living with his adopted elder sister Taiga in what I would call a mansion.  Shirou is a high school student who attends the same school Taiga teaches at... in fact, Taiga is his homeroom teacher!  But that doesn't really matter right now.  What really matters is Shirou has a cute underclassman named Sakura coming over to his house every day and making him feasts.  I don't know why (except the obvious, and does this happen all the time in Japan, and if so, how in the hell does it start?), but I'll go with it.

There's an important thing that you need to know about Shirou... he's a magician.  I'm sorry, but I'm too lazy to try and sugar-coat it right now.  His father (here meaning step-father) was a magician too before he died, and he's apparently taught Shirou a couple of things.  Shirou's best at what's called "tracing", or determine the base materials that make up things, and using that power, he can find structural problems in appliances and stuff like that.  He's also pretty decent at "strengthening" materials, which is just how it sounds.
He obviously keeps this a secret and nobody around him knows, not even Taiga.
 
All around the city there have been strange incidents that is beginning to scare people, people are passing out from suspected gas leaks, and the police obviously have no idea what to do.

One day, Shirou is staying late at school cleaning up when he hears something outside.  When he goes to investigate, he finds two warriors battling each other with a lance and swords.
Unsure of what to do, Shirou is quickly found out by the warriors and is eventually chased down by the lance guy.  After having seen the fight, it is some  kind of law that Shirou can't be left alive... but a law for what?!  And just like that, the lance guy kills Shirou.

End of Story?  No.  You might wish it was, but then you'd be missing one of the greatest characters of all time.

As Shirou is lying there in the hallway, dead, someone comes to him.  His classmate Tōsaka Rin, the master of the swords guy (I realize that this is starting to confuse the hell out of you right around now, but all the more reason to watch the anime or play the game).
Rin is horrified by Shirou's death, and... somehow revives him.  Freaking magic, man.  Seriously.

When he gets back home, Shirou is still a little anemic, I mean, he got run through the heart, how could he not be?
When things couldn't get much worse, the Lancer guy, who's gotten away from the other guy (Rin's servant), finds him again.  We don't know how, but we just accept the fact that this guy has a bug up his ass about Shirou, mostly because he saw something that he shouldn't have.  The fact that he is a magician doesn't seem to earn him any points with Lancer, who eventually chases him down again into some kind of storage shack.

Just when Lancer is about to deliver the killing blow, something happens and a beautiful girl blitzes out a magic circle and beats Lancer back.  She turns to Shirou and asks him if he's her master.
A "yes" would be an awesome answer here, by the way.  If any cute girl comes up to you and asks you if you're her master... say yes.  I know I will.  Girls... since you're generally not considered to be as perverted or horny as guys, I don't know what you should say, but general consensus is that if it's a guy, it's up to you, and if it's another girl, guys will try to watch.


I loved this anime, end of story.  It was nicely timed and well developed, and had a lot of awesome Taiga and Saber moments.

The plot line was a bit jammed in the beginning, to the point where I had to pause the anime a couple of times in the first several episodes to read the subtitles and the explanations that the subbers made.

The art was awesome.  Among my top ten artists of all time.  Woot to the max.

The animation was nice and smooth, and since there was a lot of action sequences in there, I had a lot of time to analyze it.  There wasn't too much in the way of innovative animation that I could see, but that didn't change the base line that it flowed well.

Japanese is always the best.  The actors that were in this weren't in a lot of other stuff that I remember noticing them from (but that means hardly nothing), but the actress for Saber was in more than a few things that I've seen.
And another thing... has every actor/actress that I've seen in all the animes that I've ever watched, played a part in a Gintama episode?  What's up with that?  Maybe I should just watch it already.

The music wasn't bad, but wasn't hard enough to keep my interest for too long.  It was more long the whimsical side, which is okay for this anime I suppose, but I wasn't too interested in it.  There you go.

Fate/Stay Night Mintheatre
Fate/Stay Night TV Reproduction

The second link is a link to something that they did after the final broadcast.  They compiled all of the episodes into two 60 minute OVAs, and that's what's here.  I don't really get it, and I didn't watch it because I was fine with the original versions (that and it was in parts... I hate parts), but it's totally up to you.


... and that is the end of this review, and the last review that I am going to be doing on this blog for a while... possibly forever.  But if that's the case, I'll probably just shut it down, so don't worry.

Tune in tomorrow for a final thesis thing that won't interest you unless you're going to be wanting my final opinion on being a reviewer... which you won't.

Kai Doh Maru

Name: Kai Doh Maru
Type: Movie
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 45 min
Directed By Wakabayashi Kanji
Produced By Production IG and SME Visual Works
Year Produced: 2001

Not one of my favorites not to mention confusing as hell for someone not versed in Japanese mythology or symbolism, this movie (OVA, actually) had one or two things that I wanted to talk about here, even though it wasn't the best experience of my life.

Made in a dramatic color scheme, this is the story of a young girl who's entire family is killed by her uncle during a power-grab during the Shoreki Era (in 889 A.D.).
Kintoki was named successor by her father, and her uncle didn't like that, and so killed everybody, chasing Kintoki, disused as a boy, and her cousin, Ohni into the mountains.

They are finally cornered.  Ohni is stabbed and Kintoki is about to be killed as well when a samurai lord Raiko saves Kintoki, but ultimately leaves Ohni behind.

Kintoki is then brought up as a boy, training to become a warrior.  She eventually joins the Ministry of Defense in Raiko's specialized "Four Horsemen" unit.


At best this was a rushed anime.  The character development was nonexistent, it felt like there was a prequel or some main story, and this is actually and OVA by many standards, but it's got no background, and that was annoying.

That being said, it was a massively interesting anime to watch.  It had a couple of things that were cool about it.

First off, the way the characters walked was significantly different.
A pretty useless attention to detail, but if you watched the character's bodies as they were walking, you could actually see that the difference in their height was actually expressed, rather than keeping everyone on a track.  Cool!

Another thing was the color scheme.  The entire thing was produced with this kind of white film over it, which made it kind of difficult to see during some scenes, but everything was offset with a brilliant red blood color, it was pretty cool.

The plot left something to be... explained.  Hell, I didn't know the real story until a couple months after I watched it originally, but I was just watching for the action.
... Yes, I did watch this before I reviewed it, and I wouldn't have chosen this to watch out of a pile of anime, let alone review if I had not.  I watched it after getting bored at a video store.  I don't know what inspired me to chose it, but the selection was slim and I was just getting back into anime.

The art was pretty sketchy.  A lot of what looked like Samura Hiroaki, but it obviously wasn't.  But it was pretty anatomical.

The animation style was very interesting.  A lot of foreground and background variation, manipulating the various planes, keeping one unusually steady, and shifting the other wildly.
Same goes for the action sequences, the camera was thrown around a lot, moving with people.  This was the main reason I decided that this anime was good enough to review.  Never mind the story, I was fascinated with the animation!

Japanese or English, it doesn't matter.  You don't exactly watch this for the story, so just pick for yourself which one doesn't distract you.

The music is the same.  Don't really care.  There's nothing in there you could even find on Youtube probably.  Mostly some kind of fusion of old songs with a new singer or something.  Not to my taste.

Kai Doh Maru English Sub Megavideo

I actually couldn't find this for download with my current patience level, so the best I could do is find a Japanese version on Megavideo (sponsored by Megaupload... or maybe it's the other way around...).

Coming up Next!

Fate/Stay Night!

Elfen Lied

Name: Elfen Lied
Type: Television Show
Episodes: 13, 1 OVA
Rating: Mature
Runtime Per Episode: 25 min
Director: Kanabe Mamoru
Produced By GENCO VAP
Year Produced: 2004

A Serious Warning:
This is a very graphic anime, no matter what anyone might say, me included.  I may make jokes about situations, but this is not something that should be taken on lightly (unless you're a gore junkey).
There are more than a few things in this anime that are beyond the pail for an average, unprepared viewer, and I implore anyone not 100% sure about it to not take the chance (unless, as I said before, you have a high tolerance for gore, nudity, and other inhumane scenes/implications/situations).

That being said, I'd also like to downright state that this story is something that should be experienced, so if you don't think you handle watching it, then I'd recommend reading it (I'll provide a link or two at the end).  I'm afraid that it's not a story that you can appreciate by looking at a summery on Wikipedia... or here (duh), and because of the overall message that it sends, you'd do well to understand it.  I think I'll read it again too, actually.

Despite what some might call excess blood, gore, and nudity, Elfen Lied is what I call a must-see, and not just that, it's also an absolutely a must-read.  The manga by Okamoto Lynn is extensive and utilizes an art style that is unique and strange for these genres of anime (those being horror and alike).

Now the anime covers about half of the manga, taking bits a pieces out of the later halves, and then resolving with a different ending.

For obvious reasons, the anime was not aired in the U.S. as far as I can tell, despite the fact that there was a strong desire to by the Programming Director (look at Wikipedia or whatever if you want to know more), though it was later released.


In a quiet, island research facility, something terrible has happened.  For some reason, a test subject has gotten free of her restraints... and doesn't seem too happy about being restrained in the first place.

Using some strange kind of power, this test subject, named Lucy, is now roaming through the installation, trying to find her way out.

She's the quiet type, but that doesn't stop her actions from being loud... and... red.

Now I'm no doctor, but that's too much blood to be coming out of three people (trust me, it's three people).

Emotionless and very deadly, the facility's staff use everything they've got to try and stop Lucy, but can't even scratch her as she cuts through them.

When she finally gets to the front door, they box her in, but someone in the control room (also filled with dead bodies for unknown reasons) unlocks some kind of emergency, way too convenient side-doors, and Lucy goes out into the open air.

...What the hell?

... where she is hunted from afar.

Vectors?

The sniping attempt fails to kill Lucy, just blasting the helmet off her head, and her unconscious body falls into the ocean below.

Back on the mainland, a college student named Kouta has just arrived in town.

While walking up some stairs to his favorite place to watch the ocean, he is called to by his cousin Yuka, who's been looking for him at the train station.

As you might have been able to tell, Kouta has been here before, when he was a child, but that hardly matters right now.  What's more important is that Yuka, who's had a crush on him since childhood, drags Kouta down to the beach for a trip down memory lane.
But what they find is a little more interesting than some rather depressing memories of Kouta bulling his younger sister.

... um, hello?

Are those... horns?

Why yes they are!  Not in the conventional devil sense, but rather in the kind of cute, kitten way.  Nyan!

With an obvious head wound, and probably severe trauma, this naked girl was the beginning of a very interesting road for Kouta and Yuka.

Different from what I was expecting it to be, this anime was more than I bargained for, then again, it was my fault for watching it at night.  I just got sucked in and ended up having a monstrous headache from the sound piping into my skull.

The character development took a more hasty approach than I probably would have normally liked, but I knew that they needed to cram a lot of information into a short period of time, so I'll let it slide.

The character development was not so great to one of my favorite characters out of the manga.  In the anime, they only took him a little further than his starting place (I'll tell you who it is during the spoiler part).

That being said, if you go into an anime expecting the in-depth detail you'll get out of the manga, then you'll be disappointed at the least.

The art was a lot different than the manga.  Elfen Lied was Okamoto Lynn's first manga, and it's easy to see his progress as an artist through the story.  The anime had a different approach, it kept the moe-ness that Lynn started off with (one of the things that made this manga unique was it's lighter art style combined with the heavy storyline and scenes).

As far as I'll say, there were at least two animation styles combined into this anime (or at least into scenes of it).  I don't know if it's right to say this, but there you go, I already have.

There was the normal animation style for pretty much everything, but during the fight sequences, there was a special style that was preformed to create the vectors.

You should stay with the Japanese version on this.  Although it managed to get an English cast, it wasn't anything exceptional.
Actually, you should make a point to watch the Japanese version, at least of episode 12.  The creator Okamoto Lynn makes an "appearance" as "Special Guest", whatever the fuck that means.  If you can figure it out please tell me.  The best I can figure is he's the SAT member who actually says something.

I'm betting it's the guy who says this, since he the only irregular in the list of people who spoke during the episode.

The beginning theme was something opera, and therefore, not to my liking.  It was also repeated endlessly through the course of the anime.  It's not a bad song I suppose, the melody's melancholy, but kind of interesting.  I just wasn't thrilled with it, that's all.
Another thing about the opening was that those images are adapted from a painter named Gustav Klimt.  I don't understand the significance of that, so don't ask me.
That being said, I did kind of like the ending theme.  It was a cool riff and stuff like that is usually more important to me than the words.

If you still want to watch this, please do, but refer to the opening section of this post again, just to make sure.

Elfen Lied Minitheatre

Coming up next!


Kai Doh Maru!

Miyazaki Marathon Day 9: Howl's Moving Castle

Name: Howl's Moving Castle
Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 118 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 2004

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Whisper of the Heart, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.

Today is the last day of this marathon (and thank God, since I was having trouble keeping up).  After this, I'm back to regular animes for about... a half a week, then I'm going to do another movie.  Not a Miyazaki, this is the last one for now, but a movie nonetheless.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed this marathon, and I hope that you'll watch all of these wonderful movies and make your own decisions about them.  Don't you get aggravated when some stranger tells you what to like?!  Why are you even reading this?!
... for the download link?  Yeah, I guess so.


Based on the book of the same name by Diana Wyne Jones, this movie is set in the fantastic world of... you know, it gets really hard to review something when they won't even tell you where it's set.  Fictional, I don't care, just fucking tell me!
This world is filled with mystery, magic, and strange, mobile castles that probably get about a foot to the gallon.

Worse than a Humvee.

The story is about Sophie, a eldest daughter to a hat maker who died a while ago.  Believing herself to be plain, Sophie has taken over general management of the hat store, leaving her younger sister to work at a apparently more glamorous life at a bakery, and her mother to roam the country, buying as much useless garbage as she can, like this.

Are those cannons on the top?

You see?  Who in their right mind would buy that kind of thing?!
Okay, the Queen of England's appeared in some whoppers, just like Prince Charles and... okay, so the entire English Royal Family... every Royal Family since the beginning of time, probably (I type as the S.A.S. busts in and drags me off to the Tower of London, and the guillotine.  Save me, my loyal fans!!  ...).

The entire town's having a royal military parade in anticipation of an expected war with some other country.

Goose Stepping.  Not a good sign.

This country appears to be in the middle of a steam revolution, but since military technology is about ten years ahead of conventional technology, they are probably in the middle of an arms revolution, resulting in both air and naval battleships galore.

I'm just this side of positive that those wing's wouldn't support that.

The rest of the girls at the hat shop decide to head out to try and pick up soldiers (I presume), and Sophie decides to stay behind... but gets bored quickly, and leaves on her own to visit her younger sister Letty.
There have been rumors of a mysterious magician named Howl circling around, rumors like this one.

On the way there, Sophie bumps into a couple of overly affectionate soldiers, and is about to be... accosted by them when a young man wearing a very pink coat over his shoulders appears.

The man flips his finger around a bit and the soldiers are carried away against their will by their own legs.  The man is obviously a magician who then offers to be Sophie's escort.

Along the way to the bakery, they are picked up and followed by a... bunch of blogs of slime in straw hats.

The young man apologizes to Sophie for having gotten her mixed up in his business (they're after him), and then takes a wrong turn.  Boxed in!  Gayahh!  Good thing he can fly.
... What?

Yes!  The dude with the effeminate pink overcoat (for lack of a better term right now) can fly!

Okay, Air Walk, not technically fly.

The man manages to escort Sophie onto the second floor of her sister's bakery without dropping her, and then leaps off the railing onto a safety net that is immediately pulled back and hidden for the wide shot (I'm onto their little tricks).

Inside, Sophie and Letty talk for a while about Sophie's experience, and then Sophie leaves when she realizes how much work Lettie has to do.
I personally don't really understand where Sophie gets the idea that she's not pretty.  I think she's cuter than Lettie... and every other female character in the movie.

Don't you think?  Well, it doesn't matter, since it's not you who's writing this.

When Sophie arrives back at the hat shop/home, the door is opened by a regular tub of lard in fur and a floppy hat (have these people had their fashion sense glands removed?).

See?  No contest.

The woman acts a total bitch to Sophie and when Sophie asks her to leave, the woman reveals herself to the the Witch of the Wastes (the Wastes is a place in this world), and then owns Sophie, since I don't know how else to explain it.

The spell which she's placed Sophie under is one that has made her suddenly... old.  Very old.

Now when I was talking about Sophie, I didn't exactly mean... this.  The young one is cute.  I don't know what best describes "Granny Sophie"... granny...

The Witch of the Wastes (henceforward referred to as WoW (no, not World of Warcraft)), departs, telling Sophie that the best part about the curse she's now under is that she can't tell anyone about it.  The WoW then sends her regards to Howl and leaves.

Sophie has a panic attack and goes to bed in hopes that the spell will break, or this will all be a bad dream.  Too bad it isn't.

The next morning, Sophie's mother bursts in (wearing the obscene hat), and when she goes to see Sophie, is surprised when she discovers that her daughter's now about six times older than she.  Not.  Sophie concocts some lie about a cold, and her mother stays out of her room.

A die-hard optimist, Sophie decides that she needs to strike out on her own to find the WoW and make her break the spell on her, and with that, Sophie sets out.

After going as far as she can to with the help of others, Sophie goes out into the mountains that presumably surround the Wastes (though the mountains could be part of/the entire Wastes right there).

During her hike, Sophie is suddenly struck by how much old age sucks.  When she spots a branch sticking out of a bush, she decides that it'd make a good cane, and so hauls it up, only to discover that...

... it's a scarecrow... that can stand on it's own... and can follow her, how creepy is that?  I'd probably burn it, wear the coat and hat and eat the turnip.  I dunno what I'd do with the pipe though.

Well some good did come of being kind and non-violent, and the scarecrow (now affectionately dubbed "Turnip Head") brings Sophie a cane... and then this.

Howl's Moving Castle... dun dun dun.  Despite the fact that it's allegedly the home of the most notorious killer in all of the world, Sophie still decides to hop on.  What's waiting for Sophie as she sets off on this new quest?


The last of the Miyazaki Hayao movies that have (to this point) attracted my interest, this movie was more than I was expecting.  Sure, it was a little melodramatic (or at least the English version was), but it was still epic, and a lot of fun.
I noticed that the vibrant colors appeared everywhere in this show.  A lot of blue and red, and not the kind that you usually see, but the vibrant shades that make up a beam of light, cool.

I liked the music to this one a lot.  No I don't know why, but I can tell you that I liked the song those star things were singing... or at least the first part.  I'm not sure what happened to it after that, but it was still fun to listen to.

I again liked the English version better, and after I got finished looking at the credits, I realized that they've had a person from the most recent Terminators in it.  Claire Danes was Katherine Brooster from Terminator 3 was San in Princess Mononoke, and Christian Bale; John Connor out of T4 was Howl in this one.  Kind of weird.  I'm not thrilled about the way he talks (no offense, but the kind of whisper thing distracts me or something), but it made sense for Howl.

I wouldn't discount the Japanese version.  I thought that they did better, but since the term "Quiet only when absolutely necessarily" pretty much describes me, I liked the more loud, cluttered English versions better.  And if you have trouble believing me (which a staggering amount of people do) you should know that I'm terrible.  Even when it is absolutely necessary, I end up drawing with my friend or recite Eddie Izzard routines in my head and start laughing.  Really pisses my more strict teachers off).

This movie backs Miyazaki's more humanitarian perspective, or maybe it's backing up Diana Wyne Jones' perspective.  Since I haven't (or probably ever will) read the book, I couldn't tell you.  If I had the... want, I could look it up on Cliff Notes or Wikipedia but... nah.

And thus, my dear reader(s), we are at the end of the Miyazaki Marathon.

Ghibli 13 Movie Collection (Dual Audio) Nihonomaru

Howl's Moving Castle Minitheatre

Coming up next!

Toradora!!

Miyazaki Marathon Day 7: Princess Mononoke

Name: Princess Mononoke
Type: Movie
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 133 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 1997

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

What's still to come are:

Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, and Whisper of the Heart, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.


During a more fantastic age in Japanese history (specifically the Muromachi Period), spirits were a more common sight than they are today.  Sure, those soot gremlins out of My Neighbor Totoro appear randomly, but not around America.

In this time, everybody's heard of the "Spirit of the Forest", which is... the spirit of the forest, the very life of the woods of Japan, but that's not the point right now, the point is that there is a very small village in the extreme countryside of Japan that's having some kind of spiritual... scare I guess, although they could be freaking out about bandits or something like that.

Prince Ashitaka, the... prince of the village (and of the Emishi people (look it up if you care, this is semi-historical)) is riding out to the watchtower on Yakul, a red elk.  He's going out there to find out what's got the village people so worried.  On the way there, he passes his sister and her friends, telling them to return to the village quickly.

At the watchtower, he peers out into the forest and spots something moving behind the barrier placed there.  As he and the old man on guard watch, a demon smashes down the wall and then... sneezes, I suppose.  When it does, the things "skin" comes off in the form of a bunch of weird worms.  It's a boar underneath... or at least until the worms fall back on top.

Achoo!

The demon spots Yakul and obviously sees a meal in it, and so charges towards the tower.  Ashitaka manages to scare Yakul out of his stupor, but in exchange, he doesn't have the opportunity to get down, and so the demon rams and tips over the tower, so Ashitaka grabs the old man and hops to safety in a tree.

Ashitaka gets down, the guard shouting after him to watch that the demon doesn't touch him, less the curse be on him too.

Ashitaka gets Yakul and then dashes after the demon.  When he manages to catch up with it again, Ashitaka tries to ward it off by... asking it nicely, since that's all you can do with a god/demon.  But it doesn't work.

 

The two burst out of the forest, Ashitaka and Yakul dashing on, but the demon pauses and then notices Ashitaka's little sister.  More food.

When it goes after them, Ashitaka gets in it's way, and when one of the little girls falls down, Ashitaka starts a fight with the demon, shooting it in the eye.

The demon gets seriously pissed, chasing after Ashitaka, and managing to grab onto his arm.

Ashitaka rips himself away, then fires another arrow, striking and killing the demon.

After the battle, all of the people run out to see what's left of the demon and their prince.  The place where the demon grabbed Ashitaka is burned with some kind of evil mark now.
The wise woman is fetched and she tends to the boar god, asking it to pass on peacefully, but the boar's bitchy and doesn't agree, and actually curses all the human race.  Wow.  That's not very nice of him.

Later that night, the village elders all meet (along with Ashitaka.  He is a prince, after all).  The wise woman uses fortune telling to determine Ashitaka's fate.  He's going to die.  That mark on his arm will eventually consume his entire body and kill him.  Kind of like cancer, I suppose.

 

Maybe because they don't like living with a cursed person, or maybe because of some ancient tradition, Ashitaka is forced/obligated to leave the village, which he does without complaining.
The only clue he's given is to go West.  That's helpful.  But wait!  The wise woman reaches insider her robe and pull out this; a ball of iron, in case you're wondering.

Before he actually manages to leave though, his little sister runs out (defying village law), giving him a crystal dagger to remember her by.

 This is important later.

And so Ashitaka sets out to the West to search for the answers that the wise woman was talking about, but he's going to find more than just answers.  There's always been a shitload more questions than answers, believe me.


Like I said a couple of posts back, this was probably the first anime that I ever watched, and I'm pretty happy about that.  I mean, it's got everything that a teenager needs; samurais, battles, blood... and that's it!  We're easy to satisfy.

Miyazaki's naturalist theme is back with a vengeance, along with a humanitarian element that has been rather rare since Nausicaa (it was a lot more stressed in the manga, but you could still pick up on the small issues in the anime).
This portrays the natural element a lot more forcefully.  It's presented as a battle, humans and technology vrs. the forest and spirituality.  It's kind of sad how you can relate this to pretty much every one of the world's issues...

The music was nice.  It wasn't to my specific style, but I found myself humming it quite a lot after I had finished watching it.  Serious Japanese influences, mainly because this is a semi-historical film.  The only thing in it that's not accurate is... you know, the flamethrowers.  I don't think that you can do that with gunpowder.
... and if you can, please don't write a million comments protesting your insane knowledge of explosives and firearms, because I find it kind of creepy and... boring.

Actually, I listened to the Japanese version for the first time.  It was really weird, amazingly.  The Japanese version was a lot quieter than the English one.  The Japanese voice actors were a lot more toned-down than the American ones, so that made is quieter, but there was also a lot of stuff said in the English version that didn't have a place in the Japanese one.  That was kind of cool.
... and Moro totally sounded like a guy, only it's not.  Kind of creepy, just like this.

Bwa ha ha ha ha!

It was my favorite one of all the Miyazaki movies, and in the unlikely situation that you actually agree with something that I've written here, you'll like it too.  So watch it, if nothing else.

Ghibli 13 Movie Collection (Dual Audio) Nihonomaru

Princess Mononoke Minitheatre

Coming up next!

Day 8: Spirited Away!

Miyazaki Marathon Day 5: Porco Rosso

Name: Porco Rosso
Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 93 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studio Ghibli
Year Produced: 1992

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

What's still to come are:

Saturday - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's Delivery Service, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.


During the golden age of bi-wing airplanes, the sky is filled with pirates using sea planes to raid local commercial vessels.  In all this rather peaceful time, there are those who fly the skies tracking down and recovering stolen cargo; Bounty Hunters.
Among all of these fliers, there is one name that every pilot in the Adriatic knows; Porco Rosso, the flying pig.

 ... What?!

... Yes, you heard me correctly, I said pig.

Keeping the local skies safe from all of the pirates, Porco Rosso has made quite a name for himself, and earned himself a lot of fans and enemies, namely these guys...

Don't look very happy, do they?  Well that's correct, but now they've gone and hired an American to come and fight with Porco.  His name is Curtis, and he speaks very good Japanese and French... but not Italian... this again.

Now not only are they rivals in the sky, but also for the love of Gina, a singer at a club and another local legend.  "Every pilot in the Adriatic is in love with Gina".

Probably the best one out of the set that I've watched so far (not including Princess Mononoke).  It was funny and had action, anime dogfights!  Always fun to watch, though they can get kind of confusing if you don't know what's going on, but since in my past experience I have done a lot of research on military tactics, I was set (don't worry, it doesn't get that complicated).

Again, Miyazaki's love of things that fly comes back, this time making a staring role, though the naturalist/environmentalist theme was tuned way down again, possibly nonexistent in this one.
There was probably a humanitarian message in there if you were hypersensitive, but I'm not, so I couldn't tell you.

The music was pretty good, a couple of anthems and some other stuff.  There was also a solo that Gina did in the beginning, but I'm kind of adverse to older French songs.  A lot of vibrato and always depressing.

The Japanese version is the one that I stuck with, though the English one surprised me.  Actually, I've noticed that movies (namely Miyazaki movies because that's all I've seen) tend to have a better selection of English voice actors, so the English versions aren't bad.

Maybe it was the better quality that I found in this download, but the animation definitely looked better, a lot smoother, and it might have been a forced reaction to the abundance of action scenes in this movie.

Porco Rosso MegaUpload
- I'm sorry, but I couldn't find this all in one place.  For some reason, people haven't gotten around to ripping it in any kind of quality in one piece (it comes in parts everywhere though), so I had to find this by web searching it...
... So I'm sorry to whoever uploaded this, but good job, man!  French, Japanese, and English, damn!

Coming up next!

Day 6: Whisper of the Heart!

Miyazaki Marathon Day 2: Laputa: Castle in the Sky

Name: Laputa: Castle in the Sky
Type: Movie
Rating: Any Age
Runtime: 124 min
Directed By Miyazaki Hayao
Produced By Studion Ghibli
Year Produced: 1986

The To Aru Kagaku no Home Theater Miyazaki Marathon... and then some... continues, despite public protest!

This is a "festival" where I sit down at spend about a week and a half watching all of the Miyazaki movies that I want to.  I didn't mention this last time, but I don't have any particular interest in Ponyo.

What's still to come are:

Wednesday - My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Thursday - Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
Friday - Porco Rosso (1992)
Saturday - Whisper of the Heart (1995)
Sunday - Princess Mononoke (1997)
Monday of Next Week - Spirited Away (2001)
Tuesday of Next Week - Howl's Moving Castle (2004)


I've already reviewed Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa yesterday, so if you're interested in that, then check it out... back there.


Set in (again, no name) what appears to be a coal or other fuel mining town, Laputa is a magical story about a young girl... actually, I don't have any idea how old the two main characters are.  About 12?

This is Sheeta, the main character.  You try and guess her age!

She is being held captive by a group of strange, suit-wearing men... gentlemen (not), for reasons unknown (I love that word... that phrase).  Suddenly, from out of the clouds comes...

Mutant... dragonfly things.

Well, you explain it!  I don't think that this could work, even in fantasy... especially not with two people riding...

PIRATES!!

And guess what, they've come for Sheeta (of course.  If you can't predict these kinds of things yet, you need to leave.  I actually think that a story about the hero's friend would be awesome.  Yeah, probably slightly boring, but it'd sure as hell be different).  Actually, they didn't come after her, but rather the jewel that she is carrying.

Doom.

So Sheeta brains her guard and escapes through the window.  She's just forgotten one vital thing...

Oh dear...

The fact that she's really high up.  She's above the clouds, for God's sake.  Looking back on it, she probably regrets her choice to brave the outside of the ship, but then again, hindsight is 20x20.

Sheeta manages to crawl along the hull of the ship until she gets to the window in the above picture... then she slips and falls.

If she died, then that would make it impossible to make the joke that I always do, but since she didn't, and I'm getting tired or being predictable, I'll just say this.

She flies away...

...

... no, seriously!  I'm not the boy who cried wolf, dammit!  She actually flew... not away, but she sure as hell floated!

Woah...

She floated down to the surface of Earth... or wherever, where she is spotted and then "caught" by this guy, Pazu.  The guy from Ghost in the Shell SAC before he grew up.  Not.

Pazu...

"Catch".

Actually, in all fairness, that's not what happened.  This is what it looked like (since it is a freaking screen-shot).

Yes, girls are heavier than they look (not intended to be a derogatory remark of any kind).  I can attest that you are not one of those heroes out of any number of B action films.  Neither are those heroes, actually, if you look, they're straining.

Anyway, now that everybody's after them, they've got to get away... naturally.

Okay, I watched this twice, and I have to say that I liked it a lot better the second time.  It had one of the best scenes in it, involving idiotic American-Style fighting!  No spins or twirls or anything, just punch as hard as you can.  It's pretty awesome... actually the whole scene was awesome...

POP YOUR BUTTONS, BOSS!!

WOOT!!

The characters were fun and awesome, and nobody that you cared about died, which was cool.  By the way, the above two characters (especially the second one) are among my top-ten favorites right now.

The music must have been good for the show because I don't remember it at all!  If I had particularly liked it though, it would have stuck in my memory.  I do get the feeling that it was a lot of light, probably woodwind instruments.

Both the English and the Japanese were good, and Mark Hamill makes a comeback as the bad guy.  What's going on there, man?  Am I going to see him in My Neighbor Totoro too?

 Mr. Skywalker?

Check it out, it's good fun.  "Clean" if that's the right word, though I'm not too thrilled about the term "Good, clean fun".

Laputa: Castle in the Sky Minitheatre

Ghibli 13 Movie Collection (Dual Audio) Nihonomaru

Coming up next!

Day 3: My Neighbor Totoro!