Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful

Something More Beautiful is basically the sequal series/ second season of Mahoromatic. What we have is basically Mahoromatic with more odd characters, more dirty fantasies from the ever-insane Ms. Shikijou and ever more dramatic storylines with comedy sprinkled all over the place. No big surprises there. The animation quality is just about the same as the first season, so I don't think I really need to say anything more about that. The music in the show is also the same, down to the style of the opening theme and ending theme, except that I liked the season 2 opening tune a lot better, and I really don't like the ending theme to this series at all.

The new character, Minawa, isn't the most interesting of characters. She's just too quiet and soft-spoken and has that typical clumsiness that goes with personalities like that, although I will admit that the sheer amount of mayhem her clumsiness results in are rather amusing at times. I'm happier to see that Ryuga is still around, though, having decided to keep his job as a teacher at the school Suguru attend. As the leading representative of the alien organization Saints, his interactions with Mahoro and her panther sidekick Slash amuse me to no end.

To put it shortly, what's here is pretty much the same stuff going on as what went on in season 1, with this new, mysterious human organization taking over where the Saints left off to keep the suspense at the same level. The comedy is pretty much about the same things, but with Minawa's clumsy actions thrown in. The ecchi levels are about the same, lots of boob-shots and nudity of the not-quite-full-frontal variety. However, the ending really threw me for a loop when it arrived. I won't spoil it for you, but I suggest you brace yourself, because it was really jarring and I certainly didn't see it coming. I'm not saying it is bad, but there might be people who won't appreciate it.

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 5

I read this one almost immediately after I read the fourth novel, but for whatever reason I forgot to cover it. It's probably because the fifth novel is somewhat similar to fourth. The only difference being that last one featured a guy falling for Karin and this one has a girl falling for Kenta. Once again, as with all of these novels, drama and comedy ensues and it all culminates in life threatening situation that involves all of the story's major players. It's all incredibly addictive and engrossing and though these novels started blending together towards the end, I really enjoyed them. The sixth novel came out a little over a month ago and my friend bought it, so it shouldn't be long before I get my hands on it.

Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden

Mahoromatic is a fun little anime. Nothing too serious, but at the same time it has it's share of drama & sci-fi action. I started watching it because I've enjoyed what I seen from studio Gainax puts out, so I was sure I'd enjoy it, and also because this is something else my friend randomly lent me. The series begins with Mahoro, finished with her duties as a battle android for a secret organization known as Vespa. She is asked by her superiors an important question that will decide her fate. Will she continue to work for Vespa, or will she leave and live her own life how she chooses? The main reason she is posed with this question is because her life span is about to end in less than 300 days. She decides to leave Vespa and go work for a young boy named Suguru, whose mother passed away shortly after his father died, and he has been raising himself for the last 2 years.

Through my group of friends, I seen bits and pieces of a lot of anime shows are centered around a main character being a maid and Mahoromatic is, in my opinion, easily the best "maid anime" out there (it's also so far the only one I've seen all the way through). Mostly because it doesn't follow the standard of most other maid anime. There is the typical "oh master, let me wash your dishes and cook your dinner" and "please take care of yourself, I'd die if anything were to happen to you", that personifies this genre, but that's not what you'll remember when the show ends. This series is hilarious. It features buckets of ecchi humor, and sexual jokes...lots of sexual jokes. The first half of the series is mostly character introduction, but the story picks up in the last few episodes. The first half of the series is also more comedic, while the latter half becomes more serious and action oriented, almost to point that feels like a slightly different show. This series isn't for everyone, but if your in the mood for a really silly, romantic anime, this one is right up your alley.

Elfen Lied

I was really surprised by the way this show went from a semi-fan service show to a genuine deep and story driven show...with fan service. The story's about a group of Diclonius are being kept in an underground lab. Diclonius are humanoid mutants; their mutant traits include small horns sticking out of their skulls and telepathically manipulated phantom arms (known as vectors) with a reach of at least two meters. Diclonius also have some serious mental health issues (homicidal tendencies being the most noteworthy). One of the diclonius escapes (naturally) and meets college students Kohta and Yuka, who take her in and name her Nyu, which was the only word she could say. However, the Nyu has another, more murderous personality called Lucy. Lucy escaped from a secret island lab by slaughtering more than a dozen guards and once she reached the mainland, the Nyu half of her personality kicked in.

I don't normally go for shows like Elfen Lied; I'm not a big fan of shows or movies whose main selling points seem to be nothing more than gratuitous violence and nudity (hence why I think 300 is horrible movie), but for some reason this one works for me, mostly because it is all rather stylishly done. The first two to three episodes of Elfen Lied are gleefully nasty and incredibly stylish, and I enjoyed them in a guilty pleasure sort of way. But what I wasn't expecting and what I couldn't love more was how the show's story and characters would deepen the way they do. So I was surprised when I suddenly found myself just as engaged by the story. Sure, the numerous decapitations and bloody fights are fun, but there's now a genuinely engaging emotional undercurrent to the proceedings.

There were sometimes where the plot's treatment of some of the characters seemed to be too harsh or just too much, but a course correction was usually right around the corner. I was also pleased by the distinct lack of annoyingly goofy, stupid characters. In fact, the one bubbly, bumbling character is killed off in the first five minutes. This series simply kept getting better and better. From the characters and their relationships, to the various ploy threads, to the humor, right on down to the rampant bloodshed, almost everything about Elfen Lied works. For the time being, this easily in my top ten best anime series.

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 4

So the fourth novel is really just more of the same, so there's not much new to say. I'm not going to go into the plot this time except to say that the romance angle is played up for the first time since the first novel. A big plus to this story is there's more of an expanded role for Karin's family, mainly her sister Anju and her Father Henry. Anju has to be my favorite character, with her sarcastic attitude and that supposedly serial killer possessed doll of hers. As with all of these novels, drama and comedy ensues and it all culminates in life threatening situation that involves all of the story's major players. It's all incredibly addictive and engrossing and I'm glad my friend let me read these.

Chobits

Of all the anime my friend has lent me, this might be my favorite thus far or at least on par with Gunslinger Girl. Chobits is the story of Hideki Motosuwa, who moves to the big city to attend cram school in the hopes of getting into the college of his choice. While there, he notices that everyone has a personal computer assistant, or Persocom. Persocoms look, act, and are treated almost as people in their own right. As chance would have it, Hideki finds a "broken" Persocom just lying in the trash. When he starts her up, all she is able to do is mimic Hideki's movements and say, "Chii." So that's what he calls her. Hideki asks around trying to find out everything he can can about Chii and in the process discovers that she may or may not be one of the greatest Persocoms ever made - a truly artificial intelligence known as a Chobit.

Chobits is a charming series which portrays, weirdly enough, a touching relationship between man and his computer. The show is ranges from incredibly hilarious to constantly amusing. This mostly comes from the extremely likable cast of characters. Hideki is a fish out of water character. He is shy around girls, kind and considerate, and lacks common sense...oh and he's a virgin, which everybody won't let him forget. Chii's role in the story is mostly to be adorable as all hell. At first she just does a lot of endearing things like mimic Hideki's actions and act innocent at the most inappropriate times, but eventually, her own will and personality start to come across as she becomes a more of stronger character in her own right. The rest of the cast are all highly memorable and have fantastic backgrounds. They also provide subplots which are not only emotional in their own right, but feed meaningfully into the central plot as well.

Not only is the show funny, but Chobits delivers an interesting social commentary on the relationship between humans and machines. Watching Chii stumble adorably through certain situations with hilarious consequences left me feeling warm and cheerful. However, later, as the series introduced the more serious subplots, I found myself somewhat intrigued as to how the main plot would pan out. I am unsure whether I agree with the possibilities opened up by the story, although I appreciate how important these issues are for the characters. At the least I can take this as a sign of the series complexity. The one weak point is that the show is based adapted from a manga series and while almost everything from the manga is included, some important information is either too simplified or not answered. Overall, Chobits is enjoyable, has characters that are interesting, and it's pretty damn funny.

Magical Meow Meow Taruto

Yeah...a friend of mine has lent me a rather large load of anime and manga to sample, so I've been powering through them in an effort to get them back to him quicker. If there's one thing my friend has a fondness for it's cute anime girls - specifically cute cat anime girls. The oddly titled Magical Meow Meow Taruto is nothing more than cute anime about cat girls that's only purpose is to be cute...and to my surprise it actually is pretty entertaining. I'll give the show this much credit: at least the cat girls here are as much cat as girl. In fact they're even cat-sized and, for the most part, treated as cats. It's a welcome change from the well-known cliche of girls who just happen to have cat ears for no reason other than to appease people with a cat fetish. The story takes place in a seaside town where nothing much ever happens and all but the most minor unpleasantness are omitted: the show makes its stories out of the most agreeable experiences of everyday life.

The "magical" part of the show comes from the show's prologue which tells us of a race of cat people called the Kinka, who lived in another world, and fought a losing war against a similar tribe called the Byoh. Legend has it that the lost princess of the Kinka escaped to our world. From there we meet Taruto, who may or may not be the lost Kinka princess. She apparently has some sort of magical power, but isn't able to control it properly. The results of her spells are more or less random and she spends most the first half of the series just going about helping people. It's all cute and fun to watch. After a while the show finally gets around to addressing that cat war from the prologue and the show starts to take on a slightly more serious tone. At first I thought there was a strange disconnect between it and the light, innocent material that came before it. But by the series end everything had tied together surprisingly well. Everything from the story came together, all the characters introduced along the way get some sort of pay off, and there's even some good action scenes here and there. Overall, it's just a fun simple children's anime. It's easy to watch, has fun characters, and I have no problem recommending it to people who enjoy this type of thing.

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 3

So, I finally got around to borrowing the other Chibi Vampire novels to enjoy. This time, Karin and Kenta are working at the Julian Family Restaurant when Kira Matsumiya, a rich junior high girl, and her butler Shougo Tachikake, come in so Kira can make take an emergency bathroom break. While there, Kira shows an odd attraction to Karin. Kira then offers her and Kenta a job, to spend the weekend with Kira on her family's private island as a maid and as Kira's playmate. There are two other girls who have been hired as maids-Mayumi Oosaki, a young woman who Karin bit the night before leaving, who is quite a flirt and takes an interest in Kenta Usui, and Shouko Seki, another girl just a few years older than Karin. At the island things seem fine at first,until sweet Kira starts displaying a dark personality from time to time and soon Mayumi ends up missing. Soon Karin begins to wonder if Tachikake or Kira has Mayumi locked up, or had her murdered. This actually has to be my favorite of the novels I've read so far. The mystery angle is played off very well and although there isn't a moment in the story that matches the intensity of the climax of the first novel, the suspense is still pretty gripping. This is also the funniest storyline yet with all of the characters introduced here having some funny quirk about them, most notably Kira's breast obsession. Other than that everything I like about the series is intact here and I can't wait to dig into more.

Pokemon: Mewtwo Returns

Mewtwo Returns isn't a movie, its a TV special that was tarted up to direct-to-dvd movie status. As the title suggests, the special is a follow up the events of the first movie. From what I've been told, the English version is a direct translation of the Japanese script and if this is the case then the Japanese version of the series must be pretty boring. OK, the script is refreshingly intelligent so maybe its just the way the story progresses that is fairly dull. I mean, the movie features Ash and the gang having to deal with a large chunk of the Team Rocket organization (always a treat when it happened in the show) in addition to the team's boss Giovanni, but nothing really becomes of it. It's sort of a huge build-up to a big letdown. Mewtwo himself doesn't do much except continue to ponder his existence. Even when he finally does something, he just gives in. There are morals to story like in the first movie, but their now forced in your face or hypocritical and its actually kind of sweet. All-in-all the special is decent is worth at least one look. I know that I didn't have much to say, but there wasn't much to talk about.

Pokemon: The First Movie

Ah yes, lots of memories with this one. The first Pokemon movie was released at the peak of the craze the series commanded in the late 90s. I remember seeing this twice in the theaters and watching it countless times when it was on video. Just recently watched it for the first time in almost a decade and I found it to still be pretty good. I don't really have much to say here that hasn't already been said. This is the story of a human created advanced pokemon called Mewtwo and his quest for a purpose. Mewtwo then goes about attracting all the best pokemon and their trainers for a fight that the TV series main characters get involved with. Essentially, its the typical man creates beast, beast supercedes man, beast learns humanity stuff that movies churn out every couple of years. The movie is a tad darker than what was normally done in the regular anime series but it pulls it of fairly well and succeeds in conveying some form of emotions. On the flip side though, there are some god awful and just plain hypocritical morals that the film crams down our throats. Pokemon is the wrong franchise to try and drive home a "fighting is wrong" message or a racism stance for that matter. I've been told that none of that exists in the original Japanese version of the film which also features a better characterization of Mewtwo as opposed to dub version where he acts like a cold-hearted villain with a generic desire for world domination. I have no interest in going out of my way to see the Japanese version so I'll just take what I can get. The movie isn't as good as when I was a child, but its still a nice diversion.

Diebuster OVA

Diebuster is the follow-up to Gunbuster. I watched this with same group of friends that I saw Gunbuster with and I can say that this time I enjoyed it as much as they did. This sequel is not so much a continuation of the original story, but an update/retread. It shares some common elements with the original OVA like the flight suit design and the general direction of the story, but mostly the film does its own thing. Diebuster is standard anime material, a young girl named Nono runs away from home to the a military where the mech pilots are chosen by the natural presence of supernatural abilities. Nono is lacking in that department but still manages to infiltrate the group. From there on, things grow more intense resulting in an insane space showdown that pretty much blows up the whole universe.

As an OVA based on a 6 episode series (that I've never seen), it is somewhat apparent there is less time to focus on the character development. Taking those 6 episodes and turning it into a film, the movie misses a lot of the emotional storylines and watching how these heroines got from point A to to point B in becoming talented pilots (or at least that's what I've been told). Like Gunbuster, Diebuster isn't a serious sci-fi series there's plenty of comedy (most notably the abuse of an old dog) and tons of fanservice material (including a retread of the shirt ripping scene from Gunbuster) and there's plenty of crazy nonsense to make you laugh (luckily the science lesson interludes don't make a reappearance). Anyway, I liked this one better than Gunbuster. The overall goal of the film is accomplished by showcasing two cool storylines and I think fans of the original who haven't seen this will definitely enjoy it. I think I'll try to catch the proper series so I can get the full story.

Gunbuster OVA

I watched this with some friends the other day and I have to say I enjoyed it. The basic plot follows Takaya Noriko, a young girl who always wanted to be a pilot like her father, who was killed in space during an alien attack. Noriko is chosen from her academy along with Kazumi, a more experienced student to represent Japan in the war against the same alien force who killed her father. Gunbuster is an unusual but fun anime. I guess it doesn't hurt that just about everything most people want in an anime is in here. Its got giant mecha, great animation, science, humor, romance, action, and a cute main character...and the boob shots don't hurt either, though I think that was played more for laughs (at least it was in my group of friends).

I kept notice odd similarities between this and Evangelion, and it turns out that Gainax Studios produced this as well making Gunbuster something of the prototype for. It starts out as a mostly-silly parody of girl's sports anime and standard aliens attack the Earth stories, but develops into so much more that it is worth seeing through to the end. The characters are what drive Gunbuster as the characterization is very strong and fully-realized throughout the story. The characters complament the surprisingly substantial story and its attention to sci-fi details is commendable. I guess its also worth noting that producers actually went out of their way to explain the various sci-fi effects and how they work within the universe they've created. Throughout the film were these somewhat humorous science lessons that deal with the physics behind some of the technology used in Gunbuster and while I didn't care to much for it, it was a nice touch. I enjoyed Gunbuster, though not as much as some of my friends did. I say it is a good creative twist on a classic genre and good film for mecha anime fans.

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 2 (Review)

Okay, more Chibi Vampire. This time around a series of mysterious fires have broken out in various parts of town. The police suspect arson. Kenta is on his way to the Julian one day when he comes across China Oriska, a novice nun who is being harassed by a lecherous business man which Kenta chases off, and to which China thanks him and starts watching him adoringly. Karin watches the scene across the street and the events bothers her considerably, even though she still refuses to think of Kenta as anything more than a friend. China seems to be attracted to Kenta, even though her status as a novice nun forbids such a thing. From there the characters have a freakishly high number of misunderstandings and eventually wind up entangled in the arsonist's schemes.

This second novel was an engaging read, though I felt it wasn't as strong as the first. It has some comedy reminiscent of the first novel, especially with all of Karin’s ‘embarrassing’ moments and the story also has a dark side. For a comedy, so far these novels have touched on some somewhat serious subject matters and its a shame that the volume two doesn't go as far as the first one did. The first novel's plot entailed the kidnappings of young girls, molestation, sexual assault and murder and it all played out more like a suspenseful detective story at times. The second novel features some kidnappings and attempted murders but it didn't keep me on the edge of my seat in suspense like the first one did.

What amazes me about both of the novels I've read so far is that the trouble Karin finds herself in is dead serious and somehow this manages to mesh fairly well with the lighter and quirky vampire/romance comedy this series depends more heavily on. The mystery and adventure and the new love triangle that brews between Karin, China and Kenta all have their intriguing and enjoyable aspects and manage to keep thing from getting stale. My only major gripe with this book is that much like the first novel, this book takes place between volumes of the manga. Apparently, a pretty big event occurred in manga that changed a bit of the relationship between Karin and Kenta. It's only passingly mentioned here and some of the misunderstandings from Kenta's prospective stem from this and all it managed to do was make me wish they would have covered this event in depth in the novel in well, but I guess I'll just have read the manga. Anyway, the second volume of the Chibi Vampire is enjoyable and it will be intriguing to see what the future novels develop.

The Boondocks - Season 2 (Review)

I actually liked this second season of The Boondocks a lot better than I remember I did. The season aired on television almost two years ago and I recall not being as impressed with these episodes. I think that may have had something to do with the shift in tone. Whereas most of the first season focused on Huey and had some social satire hidden amongst it storylines. Most of the second season focuses on Grandad or Riley and the wacky misadventures they can get into and its more enjoyable than I gave them credit for. Most of these episodes are as hilarious as the first season's better efforts, but I think could've used a little more Huey in some places.

The dvd actually features two episodes that didn't air on television, one of which called the "Hunger Strike" just happens to be the only Huey-centric episode of the season. It attempts to capture the essence of what made his earlier outings so memorable, but ultimately feels weighed down by the BET caricatures (Though it wouldn't hurt to see more of them in the future). The other banned episode " The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show" actually might be one of my favorites for this season along with "Stinkmeaner Strikes Back", which continues an battle from season one while pushing things into a somewhat cleaver parody of The Exorcist. In any case, the second season is just as strong as the first even with the focus change. This is all thanks in part to the entertaining characters, a dynamic visual style and strong voice acting, which all form one of Adult Swims more enjoyable series

Chibi Vampire: The Novel 1 (Review)

My friend lent me this. The same friend that lent me Gunslinger Girl and after reading this I have to admit that man has good taste. Chibi Vampire is the Americanized name of Karin, a manga/anime series and the novels take place between certain issues of the manga. Thankfully the novel explains things for those (like myself) who haven't read the manga. The series is about Karin Maaka, a teenage vampire, but whereas most vampires drink blood from their victims, she injects it into her victims. Her body produces too much blood, especially when she is under stress. Things that stress her out are negative emotions and feelings. One of her classmates, Kenta Usui, is a boy who fits that description perfectly and a new rich boy named Youichiro who also fits that description well and is also searching for Karin.

The story in the first novel progresses with some pretty funny and surprising dark situations. While there are some semi-serious notes here, the comedy is really the focus and its what makes the book much fun and engrossing. I was instantly able to sympathise with the adorable Karin, as I think we've all had overreactions that make certain situations more embarrassing than it should have been. Another standout aspect of the novel are the characters and their interactions...and the comedy that ensues from said interactions. It's surprisingly easy to laugh and cringe at Karin's antics, simply because they're so familiar to anyone who was ever embarrassed as a teenager. Overall, this is a great story about a girl who doesn't quite know who she is yet. It has a very appealing atmosphere, and I can't wait to borrow the other novels.

The Boondocks - Season 1 (Review)

The Boondocks is quite a different Adult Swim show. For one thing, the production values are through the roof, the beautiful animation effectively emulating an anime, unlike most shows on the programming block that characterized by cheap animation. Second, the show runs for a full half hour, whereas most Adult Swim shows runs about 15 minutes. Based on Aaron McGruder's comic strip, the series follows the Freemans, a black family from Chicago that recently moved to the predominately white suburbs of Woodcrest. The Family consist of Huey and Riley, two brothers that couldn't be any more different in their ideas and opinions (Huey is a black revolutionist, while Riley follows the ways of modern gangsters), and their Granddad ,Robert Freeman watches over them with old-fashioned discipline, while also trying to become a ladies man.

The main focus of the series is offering sharp parodies and commentary on African American culture, pop-culture, and political actions. This first season occasionally stumbles with this a bit here and there, often I found it as though they were trying a bit too hard, but even then I still found the show to be incredibly hilarious. I believe it's comparable to South Park in its ability to mix serious commentary with smart and dirty jokes. The great example of this is "The Trial of Robert Kelly", which despite being extremely dated by the time it aired, was a brilliant take on the way race and celebrity work in the justice system. There's tons of humor and some mean spirited jokes aimed at R. Kelly and the way his fans blindly defend him, but it all culminates in wonderful speech by Huey arguing that, while many black men have been charged with crimes they're innocent of, R. Kelly isn't one of them. Another highlight would have to be "Return of the King", a what-if story that finds Martin Luther King, instead of being killed, put in a coma until 2000. When He opposes the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11, he's labeled an "Al Qaeda Lover" and "commie bastard" by everyone. From there King tries to start his own left-wing political party with the help of Huey. The episode is full of just plain funny moments and although this episode raised a lot of controversy over Dr King's use of the n-word (which is the show's most frequently used word by the way), I found it to be true to life and respectful to King's legacy.

The cast of characters are all surprisingly deep and well defined. Huey, with his self-righteous and smart-ass attitude, can be a little annoying at times but he's still pretty likeable. Riley is oftentimes pretty damn hilarious as he's a bit too over-influenced by hip-hop culture and episodes that focus on him are funnier, but a tad weaker structurally, than the Huey-centered outings. Grandad is a delight and gets some great moments like his fight with an old blind man and his fling with prostitute (although he didn't know she was a prostitute, despite many obvious signs). The most interesting supporting character would have to be Uncle Ruckus, a self hating black man whose every other line is some sort of slam against the black community. He's offensively funny and his character never becomes too uncomfortable outside of the season finale. I think I've said enough about this show now, that's kinda what happens with things I really like. I think the show offers more than simple shock value and shouldn't be ignored... as long you have a tolerance for excessive use of the n-word.

Gunslinger Girl (Review)

One of my good friends lent me this last month and I must say I'm glad he did. It's about a branch of the Italian government that runs a specialized assassination squad. Believe it or not, the assassins are little girls, taken from life or death situations and controlled with chemical and psychological conditioning which grants them with extreme levels of strength and agility. The girls are led by Adult handlers that guide them in operations against terrorists and the mafia.

Gunslinger Girls is a different type of show, the closest genre I can associated it with is an action drama. The show's more focused on the drama than action, largely because everything that plays out is incredibly serious and things are rarely ever funny. Everything is character-driven and that along with various relationships and attitudes of the main characters really succeeded in sucking me into their world. The girls never find their situations troubling, regardless of their conditioning, since all of them have been rescued from worse, and their relationships with their adult handlers are varied and intriguing and thankfully never reach a disturbing level except for an excellent and tearful two-parter that hits all the right notes. The only slight downside I can find to the show is that there isn't any sort of distinguishable story arc here. It's largely just a brief glimpse into the lives of special little girls. It's truly a wonderful series and though it's may not be for everybody, it at least deserves a look.

Astro Boy (Review)

I have to admit to never seeing anything related to Astro Boy other than a GBA video game and a parody on "Freakazoid", this American reimagining of Osamu Tezuka's famous manga is my first proper exposure to the franchise. In the movie, Toby the son of Dr. Tenma is killed by a battle robot when General Stone fails to heed some warning about plugging negative energy into a battle 'bot. Stricken with grief, Dr. Tenma rebuilds Toby as a robot, hoping to fully replicate his son in a form where he will be able to defend himself with bizarre upgrades like rocket boosters and guns in his hands. Of course, the new Toby is more than Dr Tenma bargained for and he's also powered by positive energy, something that General Stone would love to get his hands on.

Astro Boy is a middle of the road family film, though it does at least attempt to be more than a fun kids movie. The thing that is most surprising about it is that the movie is pretty dark for a flick aimed at the little ones: a child is technically killed on screen, the movie has strange political undertone to it (General Stone is an obvious model on George W. Bush), Astro Boy is rather harshly disowned by his father and even Asimov's Laws of Robotics play a role in the storyline. Sadly, the movie really missed a great opportunity by choosing not to truly explore any of these concepts (apart from the Toby's death, which is essential to the plot). Sure, most of this would go over the heads of the children watching this, but there's enough decent humor and action to keep them entertained.

The future world that most of the movie takes place in is wonderful to look at, full of funny details and humorous robots. The concepts applied to this portion of the movie are intriguing so it's somewhat depressing that one again the movie forgoes this unique setting for a bland garage dump and a dull sub-plot with some under-developed kids that's just too ordinary and too obvious in children's entertainment. I mean seriously, what was the point of creating a fantastic world that was full of great storyline potential, if they're going to spend half of the movie away from it? The action scenes(when the film finally gets to it) escalates into some fairly impressive sequences of Astro battling giant robots. These scenes are expertly choreographed, and they move at an exciting pace. Action is clearly this movie's strength. I didn't really hate Astro Boy (though I'm sure kids will love it), I just hate that it showed so much potential only to waste it.

My Weekend at AWA 2009

This past weekend I unexpectedly went off with a large group of friends to Amine Weekend Atlanta (AWA) in... well Atlanta. AWA is some kind of 3 day anime, video game, pop culture convention that one of my friends go to every year and this year I was invited to go with him and his friends at the cost of 70 bucks. So I figured "what the hell", I've never been to anything like this before and it's been years since I've been on anything even remotely resembling a vacation. What followed may as well have been the most fun I've have all year.

("Part of my motley crew")

There were 12 of us on this trip, a few I've met before (most of them only a week ago) and we plowed into 2 vans and spent about 5 hours on the road heading to Atlanta. The hotel we spent our weekend at was ritzy, but cheap, charging five dollars for some stupid bottle of water and fifteen bucks a night for an internet connection. While in our conjoining rooms, I slowly but surely started bonding with these people. We all had similar interest and attitudes and just had a blast screwing around with each other. The day before leaving I bought the new Mario & Luigi game with intention of playing it when there was dull down-time between events, but I barely touched the thing as I was spending all my time laughing and messing around with my new friends in the room and during the convention itself. ("Various Kingdom Hearts Characters" )
("Angry Video Game Nerd Vs. Nostalgia Critic" )

The main attraction to this convention is seeing a bunch of people cos-play as bunch of different characters. Over the course of the weekend I saw a lot people dressed as my favorite characters: Mario Bros, Zelda, Pokemon, The Joker, and even The Angry Video Game Nerd and The Nostalgia Critic. The thing I learned from all of this is that cos-play is less about people actually wanting to be these characters and more about people just wanting to show off some cool stuff that they made. One of the only things my friends complained about that I noticed more towards the end of the convention is that the cos-players showed an over reliance on certain franchises. Well over 80% of the people dressed up as characters from Bleach, Naurto, or Kingdom Hearts. It would have been nice if there had been more variety of franchise representation.

(It's Over 9000!!!!)

(The Comedian(Justin) and Rorschach)
(The Mario Sisters)

There was quite a full list of events planned at this convention from watching various anime to pokemon trivia contest to cos-play 101, but I didn't attend most of them. Usually the lines to these things were too long for me to tolerate, so I usually spent most of time with one of my friends in the dealer's room where you can buy rare Japanese merchandise. There were action figures, DVDs, video games, dolls, and swords. I managed to walk out there with a Dragonball Z and Sonic the Hedgehog figure, a Kirby doll, and a couple of Mario Galaxy cards. The downside was that everything was overpriced, a side effect of most of the items being imported I suppose.

(Rikki Simons: the voice of GIR)

(Set phasers to stunning)

The place I spent a huge chunk of time at towards the end of the convention was the artist room where people can go and view and buy fan art. Nathan and I spent too much time and money here, but all of the drawings were just too good to pass up. The coolest thing we managed to do in this room was meet Rosearik Rikki Simons who did the voice of GIR from Invader Zim. We got pictures with him and he autographed some pictures and it was just too cool for words. I really wished I had job so I could buy some more stuff. (I think I just rediscovered my love of Pokemon)
(A yeti eating chris's head, a flamer, and Nathan)

Come Sunday afternoon it was time for us to depart this wonderful locale and head back to our dull reality. Overall I had a blast and have come to find the friends I roomed with as people I can't wait to see again. Nathan and I made plans to go another convention in November, but I seriously doubt that would actually come to be. I'll definitely go back to AWA next year if these people go as well.

Dragonball Z (Review)

Dragonball Z is the follow-up series to Dragonball, a manga/anime about a really strong boy named Goku and his friends who love fighting and go on adventures to collect 7 mystical Dragonballs that grant wishes. Dragonball Z is basically about Goku and his friends protecting the world from increasingly powerful villains. DBZ is the show that got me a little interested in anime and after watching the complete series on DVD, I can say I still love it. It's a great action series and a classic among anime.

Running through 291 episodes with basically 4 major story-arcs, DBZ is a show that does drag on from time to time. This show does follow a standard "fight scene followed by exposition followed by more fight scene" path and the fights can go on for many episodes with little actual stroy development. The prime example is Goku's showdown with space tyrant Frieza which last for a whopping 19 episodes! Even though they run long DBZ has some of the best, well-choreographed fights...ever. These people go through tough fights and it shows.

The characters and their overall development are the highlight in DBZ. Old characters return, new ones appear, characters' pasts intertwine with the current plot and a lot of time is spent watching people change. My favorite development is watching Vegeta's inner conflict with the life of power and war he's accustomed to and the new one of peace he can't get used to. The show was just a joy a revisit and I don't have much else to say other than I'd recommend it to just about anyone who loves insane action.