7 posts tagged “anime”

There's not much to say, except that Doritos, Evangelion style, is just like , way way way too awesome. Doritos AND Evangelion, AND unique non-American flavorings to boot?

Ah, the internets. I was sitting here with my morning coffee in my awesome new home office, reading all things wikipedia, and a stumble here and a tumble there and bam! some news hit me in the fact like a ton of bricks.

I spent most of Saturday on an impossible quest - finding a decent 1 bedroom apartment in the Inner Sunset (or anywhere in the Sunset near the N, for that matter). This seach has been going on for some time now, but with all the condo/TIC conversions in the area, plus the fact that most flats/houses are 2/3 bedroom, means that finding something that's not a cheap "in-law" or a rundown vermin abode is not easy.

After Yet Another Saturday spent looking at everything from the Craptacular Special on Judah St., to the Building With the Manager Who Talks Way Too Much About the Residents' Personal Lives, The Worst Building Near UCSF, and more, I was ready to turn off reality for a few hours. So I took the N to the 22 and ended up in Japantown, and at the new Sundance Kabuki Theater (about halfway done with the remodel). Noting the times, I decided to go see Ocean's 13, with the option to see Paprika afterwards. Just what I needed.

Ocean's 13 is fine. It is not Sense and Freakin' Sensibility, and there are no lessons learned in said film, nor is it likely to have the level of angst and whatnot some people demand of every film made. It is, however, a well-made "fun" movie. Ocean's 11 is still the best of the series, in that it took a very crappy film, discarded all but the name and general concept, and made a fun film. Ocean's 13 does the same thing, but since we've seen the joke once, it's not quite as original as the first, but it still works, especially if you've spent 6 hours standing and walking around western SF.

I hadn't planned my Saturday, and when I got out, realized that I could see Paprika as well. Many times these anime feature films come and go through the theaters so fast, if you do not see them right away, you don't get to see them until the US DVD comes out, which is often years later. Sure, there's the internets, but well, you know.

Paprika is the latest film from director Satoshi Kon, and as always it is an unusual film, to say the least, and one best seen on a big screen. To try and recount the plot would do it a disservice, since it really is a basic one, but combined with the way Kon tells the story, and the sheer visual mass on screen, it becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

If you haven't already done so, check out his other films, especially Perfect Blue, a Hitchcock style thriller that was originally slated to be a live action film, but had its budget cut, and Millennium Actress both of which are on DVD. Also good are Tokyo Godfathers and the 12 episode series Paranoia Agent, which was on Adult Swim, but was butchered with the usual bad dubbing of English.

When they finally finish the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas this summer, it will really be a great place to see a film, with reserved seating, 2 bars, a restaurant, and really nice seats (already installed), and more, sort of like the famous Arclight Cinemas in Los Angeles. It'll definitely beat the run of the mill craptacular theaters we put up with here in SF.

If you haven't already checked this site out, go now, to this site, and check out the anime style version of The Simpsons, Futurama, and more. No, really, you want to do this. It ranks up with the now famous Battlestar Galactisimpsons pics, one of which I used for my profile pic on Netflix. (Yeah, I know. - yet another site that requires 100x100 profile pics!)

Most of this weekend was New Caprica-esque bleariness, so I took advantage of the weather to catch up on all the mostly legal videos I had been saving for such a day. I finally saw the final 2 episodes of "24" almost a week later. "24" sucked bigtime this year - it's obvious the writers were just rolling hex dice and coming up with lame plot twists. I cannot tell you how bizarre it is for me to say this - this is like a heroin addict putting down the kit, saying "No more buttered scones for me Major, I'm off to play my grand piano, I am forsaking the smack for a glass of water." But it is easy to do when the show sucks.

I also watched the latest episdoe of Dennou Coil (which I mentioned earlier) and the latest 2 episodes of Yet Another Anime Series On TV In Japan, Darker Than Black . I can watch all of this and not be welded to my TV because I really don't watch a lot of "regular" TV anyway (and especially now that LOST, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes are off the air), and I usually just hold them on my hard drive until a dreary day comes along.

I also made a stop at Comix Experience on Dvisadero to pick up the most recent Love and Rockets comic by the Hernandez brothers. I started collecting this comic in 1989 when I was in school at Santa Cruz after seeing the film "Comic Book Confidential." Curious, I bought an issue of Love and Rockets (volume 1) and was rather puzzled by it, since the comic was in the middle of a very involved plotline. I got addicted to the series almost immediately, and have been buying the issues and the books ever since.

Oddly enough there are very few constants in my adult life, given that I've lived in a number of cities, and held all sorts of unique jobs, but one thing that I could always count on was finding time to go to a good comic store and buying the latest L&R, Hate, or Eightball. It is still kind of strange tothink that I've been doing this for almost 20 years, though.

However, I have no intention of stopping, especially not now. I figure that when the System collapses and we're all bartering for stuff, the guy with the generators and water purifiers will be a big Fantagraphics fan and I'll be all set.

I really should be updating my "real" blogs (I have some good stuff for both) but it's the end of a nice sunny day and I'll post those pieces shortly. For now, it's time for some good old fashioned nerdy anime chatter. My pimpslap of the Bay Guardian and a look at the latest plan to "save" MUNI will come later, in more formal forums....

Thanks to the anime reviewer at Memento I found out about what looks to be a very interesting anime from Japan, Dennou Coil . Although I am not watching this in HD (an 867 mhz G4 12" powerbook just can't do it without hiccups), it's been said that if you DO get an HD copy, it looks really good. Looks aside, what makes this series interesting is the world it posits, just a decade (or perhaps a decade and change) from our world . In the world of Dennou Coil, people (in this case kids) wear special visors that add a layer of the virtual world on top of the physical world.

Thus, in this series, a young girl has a pet "dog" that only exists in the virtual world, and without the clear visors, one cannot see nor interact with it. However, the "dog" interacts with the physical object of the world outside, walkign around obstacles and the like if he was real (although sometimes he gets clobbered with an object and the dog's "body" gets all  static-like).

This series just started in Japan a few weeks ago, and I'm getting the unlicensed version via BT for now. I don't know that this series will be imported into the US ever - for a US market that wants More and More Craptacular anime like "Naruto" and other similar teenage tripe, a "Family" show like this may not make it past the US importers.

Thus, it is up to the "fansub" folks at this website to give us a chance to see what is possible with animation these days.

Helpful Unrelated Hint: When you write a really long and involved posting with lots of links, for that blog everyone seems to like , whatever you do, temper your enthusiasm to get it done "fast" and bypass your Rule About Not Composing Online. You can avoid a MUNI Style Screw Up really easily that way!

To be honest, I really don't know why I have  this VOX blog...I signed up for it because I saw something about it at Six Apart's main page (every time I see that name I think of "A Band Apart" or alternately, Bande a Part , but I digress) and signed up. So here I am...

For now, I think I'm going to use it to post about nerdy weird stuff that doesn't fit on The N Judah Chronicles or my "other" blog no one reads as much anymore. It's weird - when  I started the NJC it was just something I did for laughs and suddenly people read it - now suddenly it's become more "serious" thanks to MUNI's bungling. (I'd rather get readers because of other reasons besides MUNI screwing up royally.)

It's nice to write something people like and that has some interest with the public and folks at City hall, but I've also noticed I post less of the fun posts I liked to do. It sometimes feels like I'm competing with certain other websites in an arms race on MUNI angst, and with less resources than "they" have. So maybe I just need a new outlet for geekiness and all will be well?

Anyway.

So for today's nerd link, I direct you to a Japanese "anime" series Gallery Fake. (Wiki entry here...) You will not find this on Netflix ,or pretty much anywhere in the USA. To be honest, I don't even remember how I found out about it, but it is actually kind of fun to watch.

It has a great jazz inspired soundtrack, and you get an art history lesson in every episode. The plot of the series is about a guy, Reiji, who runs an art gallery devoted to forgeries. He gets involved in all sorts of cons and whatnot around famous pieces of art, and the like. Like I said, you can't rent this one in the US, but you can find it via this link here. I'm not a huge fan of BitTorrenting things, but this series is NOT licensed in the USA, and most likely will NEVER make it because it's not as marketable as some anime about teenagers in giant robots with girlfriends with gravity-defying figures.

Check it out.

I missed a really great film at the SF Asian Film Festival - Toki Wo Kakeru Shoujo - which was reviewed by SFist Rita a while back . I finally got a chance to see it through the miracle of The Internets and the series of tubes therein.

Since it is unlikely to get any sort of "real" distro in the USA in theaters ,and an R1 DVD is about as likely as....oh I can't hink of some clever witticism....anyway....I got it and saw it. It was great!

So do a Google, geek out with Matroska containers, and enjoy....