2013 the Year End Review

This is not going to be my normal review. I'm going to review the past year. Ill try to stick to entertainment issues, because that is what this blog is all about. Entertainment - be it movies, games, books, anime, tv, and all the other things that entertain.

Haganai (I don't have many friends) [Anime Review]

 

I can read the entire title even with the kanji, 僕は友達が少ない, Boku wa tomodachi ga sukunai. Which makes me wonder... where the heck did Haganai come from? Is it just the particles between the words + the negative? 'Ha' 'ga' 'nai'... that's my best guest.

Santa's Village of Madness [Rifftrax Review]

I was going to write a different blog tonight, but I decided to put that one back and write a bit about my own personal holiday tradition. Starting a few years ago I went and saw Rifftrax Live: Christmas Shorts-Stravaganza.

Thor: The Dark World [Movie Review]

This was originally supposed to go up on Weds, then again on Friday. But I've been busy - it is the bloody holidays after all. Happy Festivus! Superb Saturnalia! Or whatever...

So this movie has been out a while, it just took me a long time to get to the theater to see it. I told a friend who lives way out of town that I'd go see it with him. I waited to see it with him, and finally we went.

LaGrange - The Flower of Rin-ne [Anime Review]

This is an anime I had no idea really about when I put it in the player. I remembered liking the preview before ordering it, but that was really it. I had to make sure I liked it before ordering season two, and so it went to the top of the watch list.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug [Movie Review]

 The fire was red, it flaming spread;
The trees like torches blazed with light.

Last night, for the first time in a long while I saw a movie at the midnight early release. I went with a friend who had invited me, and I had not seen for some time. They were good enough reasons to move forward the time I was planning on seeing the movie. I tend to watch things during matinee hours. But this once I would see the movie at night. Steeling myself, I bought my tickets through fandango and headed out into the cold night. Others came with me. The journey was not perilous when we set off.

James May's Man Lab - Series 1 [BBC Review]

I first discovered James May's Man Lab back in 2011, a little before the second series aired in the UK. I simply watched it because the titular host was James May from Top Gear, and I really like Top Gear. Man Lab has a total of three series covering thirteen episodes, and hopefully there will be more.

Ookami Kakushi - Mask of the Wolf [Anime Review]

There are lots of anime that seem to have evolved from video games. This one does not seem to come from an eroge (which is where a lot of them seem to come from), it is just a normal mystery-adventure style visual novel for the PSP.

Ghosthouse (1988) [Rifftrax Review]

I love watching bad movies. They really make you appreciate the average mediocre drivel that comes out of Hollywood. Thankfully, there is a tried and true method to watching bad movies. It was created in 1988 by Joel Hodgeson and it is called Mystery Science Theater 3000, which celebrated it's 25th anniversary this past November. There are two modern sucessors to MST3K's legacy, Cinematic Titanic and Rifftrax.

Today's review is a Rifftrax riff of Ghosthouse (1988), a horror movie so bad that it's actually funny.

We Without Wings - Under the Innocent Sky [Anime Review]

Character count: 4 so far.

This might be one of the most difficult anime to ever review without giving away the whole story at once. That not withstanding, I watched it, you get to read about it.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special - Day of the Doctor [TV Review]

From 1963 to 2013, the faces of the Doctor.

I suppose it should be stated at the outset that I am a Whovian.
I have the DVD of every episode that is available. This is important.
More after the fold.

X-Com Enemy Within [Review]

 Early in November, I picked up the expansion pack for X-Com: Enemy Unknown. The base game was good, it hailed back to the same feeling as the original X-Com and X-Com Terror From the Deep. Both where much better than the 3rd X-Com game, whose name escapes me and was not worth the effort of even looking it up in Google. (Yes, the 3rd game was that bad.) 

Rurouni Kenshin: New Kyoto Arc [Anime Review]

I've been watching a backlog of Bleach & Naruto on DVD, so its been a while since I've written a review. I've also failed to make it to the theater, so no reviews from that front either.

But tonight that changes, I'm finally reviewing a relatively new anime blu-ray: Rurouni Kenshin New Kyoto Arc. More after the fold.

Ender's Game [Movie Review]

 Tonight I went to the theater to see a movie that was twenty some years in the making. I saw the movie adaptation of the 1985 novel, Ender's Game.

High School DxD [Anime Review]

Our main characters, sans the males, the reason you'd watch this...

This is going to be a rather short review. This is a pretty simple and straightforward anime to review. So without further ado, I present High School DxD. 

Escape Plan [Movie Review]

This was not the movie I was expecting.

My expectations were simple: Action, nonsense, and violence. I got those, but I also got a lot more. I went in expecting a way to just go mindless for two hours, instead I actually got a character driven movie.

Beyond Two Souls (Demo Review) [PS3]

Two days ago I downloaded the PS3 demo of Beyond Two Souls. I do not normally download a lot of demos for PS3 games. I never played Heavy Rain either, but this game has a lot of hype so I downloaded it.

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere - Seasons 1 & 2 [Anime Review]

There are some anime series that just beg you to watch them.

This is one of them. Everything I learned about the series before I sat down to watch made me wonder what the heck I was getting into.

A classroom filled with the student council. Leaders of a nation.

And now that I've seen both seasons, I'm still not sure I can tell you completely what I watched. This is a very Japanese anime, in that it appears to be an insane jumble of a hundred ideas all at once. Take a look at a Japanese magazine. That's what this anime is like. Lots and lots of information and action and dozens of characters thrown at you.  

Tori, our Hero?! Yes... yes that is our main protagonist.

Ok. I'm going to give a real brief overview of the world the story takes place in. Well, I'll try to be brief... that could be tough because the idea is rather bonkers.

In the future, humans try to flee a devastated Earth. But they can't travel through space for some reason... I do not remember the reason being explained, seriously. Plot contrivance!

Humanity returns to Earth, but the only land that remains inhabitable is Japan (sure, why not, I suppose if an American wrote this it would be set in California or New York). But humanity cannot fit on Japan so they create pocket dimensions to live in. Fine. That sounds perfectly reasonable. 

But that's not all. See, humanity still wants to escape into space. So in order to do so they begin to reenact history according to a Holy Testament. Now, this is just weird but it doesn't stop there. Eventually the nations of the pocket dimensions invade Japan and conquer it, dividing Japan into six Feudal nations and forcing the Japanese to flee. That was five hundred years before the main story starts.

It is 1648 of the Testament Era and Musashi is a city-ship that travels about their lost homeland of Japan. This is where our story begins. Rumors of a great war and of the oncoming apocalypse begin circulating through the Testament Union. When the Testament ends the Apocalypse will occur. There are forces both seeking to usher in the apocalypse and other forces opposing its arrival. 

I'm serious, he's our Protagonist.

 Into this chaos steps Tori Aoi, student council President of the Musashi Ariadust Academy, the ruling body of Musashi. He goal, well... to marry his dead friend. Oh, and maybe retake their homeland in the process... 

Shakespeare vs Toussaint Neshinbara, I think.

Was that confusing enough?

Tenzo, he's kinda the co-protagonist of season II.

That's not even much beyond the introduction of the very first episode. Not even half an episode which spends most of its time introducing you to a class full of characters and their abilities. But don't worry, there will be loads more characters introduced through the season and a whole bunch of English characters introduced in season II, like Shakespeare and Francis Drake.

Now don't get me wrong.

Horizon is a fun series. It's just a whole lot of series jammed into two 13 episode seasons. I re-watched the first season twice in a row just to try and comprehend it. I've seen this anime both subbed and dubbed (both were fine).

Also, he wins the series so far...

It is fantastically animated, you get sucked into the insanity, and once again I've stumbled upon an anime with an excellent music. Unlike the past few anime I've reviewed the intro music is not as excellent. In this series its the insert music, the music in the episodes. Specifically the song sung by a character called P-01s. The song is called 'Toorimase' or 'Let us pass.' A sad melancholic song, but very beautiful.

Excellent music, odd but fun story, and very good animation. I'm looking forward to a third season, but I doubt that either the light novels or the game will be localized this side of the Pacific.

I am confident in my rating for this series. It's biggest faults are too much information and too many characters. Everything else, from the comedy to the drama, from the animation to the music, is very good. It's a solid viewing experience.  It's definitely one I look forward to seeing more of, and there better be more...

4.0 Stars

And you can buy a Tenzo hat! With alternate expressions!

Fabler's Legend [Book Review]

Exact cover art on my copy.

Kirt Hickman's Fabler's Legend might have one of the more banal and nonsensical tag line's I've ever read. Seriously, "All is legal in the fight against evil..." which is a phrase uttered by the most memorable character in the book. Fabler's Legend was a finalist in the New Mexico Book Awards, so there's that.

Attack on Titan [Anime Review]

Attack on Titan, or Shingeki no Kyojin (進撃の巨人 - literally 'Advancing Giants') does not sound like a very good anime at all. The first time I heard the name I had terrifying flashbacks to the regrettable animated film Titan A.E. which does not evoke a sense of quality drama. 

Ok. See now this already looks better than Titan A.E.

However a friend convinced me to try an episode.




Blown. Away. 

The introduction episode was more than I ever expected. I was hooked.

Killroy was here.

I have watched every episode currently subtitled, well all those I don't have to sign up to see. I wait weekly to see the next episode (the previous weeks episode).

It is a very engrossing story. You become entangled quickly in both the characters and the mysteries.


However, lets do the usual, a quick introduction to the show.

The mid episode bumpers have world details.

Humanity is a cowed race. It lives behind three massive concentric walls that are about ten meters thick and fifty meters tall. The outer most wall, Wall Maria, the middle wall, Wall Rose, and the smallest and most inner wall, Wall Sina, surround all of humanity that still lives.

Oh come on...

A salute. It's a bit odd, but makes sense.

Outside the wall are the Titans. Giants standing up to fifteen meters in height who prey upon humans. They are almost completely immune to human weapons, even cannon shells that rip open the Titan's skulls do little more than slow them. They regenerate at an amazing rate.

The year is 845 and humanity has cowered behind the great walls for nearly a millennium. Humanity has begun to grow complacent, secure in the safety of their walls.

Small bands of humans, the Survey Corps, explore beyond the wall. They are responsible for studying the Titans, however to the public they simply waste lives and taxes.

Young Eren Yeager (one of our protagonists) wants to become a member of the Survey Corps because they are the only humans to have left the wall in a very long time. This of course is against the wishes of his parents and adopted sister Mikasa Akerman (another protagonist).

It's Grizzly Adams the Titan!

One day they are hanging out with their friend Armin Arlert when their entire world changes. A new Titan, a Colossal Titan standing over fifty meters appears in a flash of flame and light. It kicks in one of the great gates on the Shinganshina district of the Wall Maria. The Shinganshina is a outer bulge on the wall, protecting the main gate of the Wall Maria.

Titan's flood in. People die. An armored Titan smashes through the gate inside Shinganshina breaching Wall Maria. The Wall is breached... Everything changes.

This show might kill more characters than GRRM.

Enough.

That's the quick summary of the events that occur in the first episode or two. I've left out a lot on purpose.

I have been utterly flabbergasted by this series. The twists and turns are fantastic, the characters very well crafted both visually and via personality.

Mikasa using 3D Maneuver gear.

You never know exactly where the story will go next, what turn it will take, but you know it will be good.

I see what you did there. I still don't care.

Visually, while sometimes the animation is a bit simplistic, it is absolutely gorgeous. I get swept up in the motion and the fluidity of scenes, pulled along with the characters on the 3D maneuver gear. And I even like the mid-episode bumpers (shown above). They remind me of the art style at the beginning of the Dragon Age games. It's not absolutely the same, but it has the same feel.

And the music.
My recent anime selections have all had such wonderful music. Something quite amazing as far as I'm concerned. Even Elfen Lied (which I panned) had quite good intro music. The same goes for Attack on Titan. The intro song is amazing... the ending songs, not so much. Attack on Titan leads with the best song forward one might say.

This series is absolutely outstanding. I highly recommend it. You can go watch it for free (or sign up and watch it in higher quality) at Crunchy Roll, right now. So... what are you waiting for? Oh yeah, my final review score:

5.0 Stars.

I'm going out on a very sturdy limb here. I'm honestly not sure I've watched another anime I have enjoyed as thoroughly. There have been some very very very close contenders. But this one is just astounding. I am eagerly awaiting the eventual Blu-ray. Is it perfect? No. Is it about as close as it gets, yeah. That's why it gets the full five. I cannot recommend this series enough. Now, stop reading, go watch it!

Guilty Crown [Anime Review]

Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose

To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. 

- Henry IV, part II. Act III, scene 1.

Welcome to Funeral Parlor.

Guilty Crown is a story about leadership, about responsibility, and sacrifice. It is a magnificent tale told across two seasons. It is beautifully animated, some of the best I've seen, and the beauty adds to the poignant tragedy that is Guilty Crown.

Funeral Parlor's main males, and a mecha.

However, before we go any further let me give a quick synopsis.

In the year 2022 an asteroid impacted Japan. From it came a new virus, the (badly) named Apocalypse Virus. On December 24, 2029, an event occurred that spread the infection across Japan instantaneously. The Japanese government was thrown in to absolute and utter chaos. Unable to respond to the crisis a UN sponsored NGO, the GHQ, steps in and in a short amount of time brings the virus under control. GHQ takes control of Japan.

Worst chat-up line ever.

The year is 2039, Japan, specifically Tokyo, is controlled by GHQ and their Anti-bodies squads. They patrol, seek the virus, and eliminate it. However there are those who oppose GHQ.

The year is 2039, Shu Ouma is a normal high school student. Well almost normal. He lives inside his own head far too much, questioning everything around him. He even wonders if he has any friends or if the guys he hangs out with just hang out with him because they have nothing better to do and he doesn't get in their way. He is a coward, frightened easily, and takes no risks.

Cat's Cradle.

He spends his time making music videos to the music of EGOIST.

Then one day he finds the lead singer of EGOIST, Inori, a cute pink-haired girl his age, injured in the run down building where he does his video editing. She is taken by anti-bodies right in front of him. He doesn't lift a finger... and he hates himself for it.

Also Ayase. The Enlave (mecha) pilot.

Ayase, a disabled girl. Pretty cute.

Inori from EGOIST.

That's it. That is the synopsis for now. That little snippet gets through about half the first episode.
 
This is a powerful series.

It begins slowly, building up over the course of many episodes. Story elements are constantly revealed, explained, and built into the grand tapestry.

I was constantly on the edge of my chair in suspense, wondering what will occur next, how that character will react, what the hell that new thing is. The show is filled with questions. 

But there is a lot more to it than simply the questions and wonderful animation that make Guilty Crown so awesome.

This is NOT what it looks like.

I have nothing funny or witty to say about this.

The whole series is actually a massive morality tale. A tragedy written along the same lines as Henry IV (parts I and II). There are many parallels.



The importance and responsibility of one person's actions are shown as well as the the importance and responsibility of the actions taken by leaders, rulers, and more.

Infighting inside of various groups, backstabbing, political intrigue. Guilty Crown has all of this, plus strange science and powerful characters. There is loss of life and loss of self. Madness and sadness. Love and hate and life and death and suffering. 

An underground garden, a place of peace, a place for a king to rest his head.

I highly recommend this series. It may not be the best of the best, but it is right up there. The music is utterly astounding, I even enjoy the fan covers redone in English (not a part of the BD, jsut something I stumbled across).

Here, listen to Euterpe. This is a song that gets interspersed through the series, sung by Inori. Or here, try the intro music: My Dearest. If you want to try the English fan covers, here is Eutrepe in English. Let me know what you think.

If you watch this series, you have to actually watch the intro credits and ending credits. They change. The intro credits are really hard to catch and only start changing around ep6. Prepare to wear out the pause button on your remote.

So we're at last down to the final rating. I really enjoyed the series, and am very glad I picked up the two BD sets together. I think waiting to watch season two after season one (only 23 episodes all total) would have been tough. If you watch this, do not stop after season one. Make sure you watch it all the way through.

4.5 Stars