From the same people that brought us The Animatrix (oddly enough), Studio 4°C brings us this new animated wonder. It’s unique style and tremendously detailed animation net this movie countless awards, and it certainly deserves them. Following the lives of the two orphans Kuro and Shiro, or Black and White in English, the story dips in and out of the underlying corruption of Treasure Town; a bustling city puppeteered by Yakuza.

Kuro and Shiro live on the streets–comrades in the daily adventures of staying alive. With Yakuza threatening the peace of life in the ever-decaying Treasure Town, the two get wound up in a conflict when a foreign investor seeks Yakuza assistance to build an amusement park at the core of the city. Kuro, being the wildcat of the Treasure Town streets, rushes of to save the city from plunging further into chaos, but Shiro is the only one who can save Kuro from plunging into that same chaos himself.

The art is really quite amazing and is like nothing I have seen before in an animated feature. The art design’s uniqueness fits well with Studio 4°C’s unconventional story writing, creating a modern masterpiece of animated story-telling. A great degree of detail was put into the backgrounds used in the movie–the clock tower near the start is a great example of High Definition video put to good use. It’s quite obvious Studio 4°C put a great deal of effort into making sure this movie perfectly matched the vision that director Michael Arias had for the movie.

The soundtrack matched brilliantly and was something very fresh and new for anime. Written by Plaid, a well-known British electronic duo, the soundtrack is beautifully subtle, with emphasis in all the right places. My favorite track being the closing song; White’s Dream, is minimal and earthy yet a powerful close to this brilliantly unique movie.

If you are into artsy anime, Tekkonkinkreet comes highly recommended from me! It’s truly a feast for the eyes, the ears and even the mind–a worthy addition to my budding collection of anime Blu-Rays.

For the longest time my MP3 Player was an iPod which, in all appreciation for how it changed the portable media market, is vastly inferior to some of the lesser known Portable Media Players to come out in recent years. The most significant, in my opinion, being the Cowon A3–the perfect portable media player for an anime lover such as myself. Why you ask? Format support–this thing can play just about -anything-. It can play H264 (unforunately it doesn’t yet support Main Profile) and XviD and most importantly; supports all sorts of container formats like OGM and MKV (Matroska Video). What does that all mean? Well, I’ll let you put two and two together; more than half of fansubbed anime is released in H264 format in an MKV container. Until now those have been unplayable on any form of portable media! That’s just the beginning of the A3′s awesomeness!

What makes this thing so great for an anime fan such as myself is that it has subtitle support! For now it’s not quite as comprehensive as I’d like, but Cowon appears to be working hard to make support better. As of now it doesn’t support internal subs, so they have to be extracted from MKVs with MKVExtract and it doesn’t support SubStation Alpha subtitles yet. Sadly SSA subs are the most popular among fansubbers, but fortunately many fansubbers are nice enough embed srt subs as well and for the ones that don’t there is always VobSub’s SubResync.

The A3 was designed to be an all-in-one multimedia device so it can do anything–even things you thought you’d never need. Audio and Video Recording for example; you can record lossless quality audio with the FLAC audio codec and record DVD resolution video up to 3Mbps! Expect to see lots of video captures of video games and such from this thing in the future. The recording system is quite good too; you can record audio and video from the line in, but you can also record it from the FM radio, the built-in microphone or even Wireless Television via DMB, 1SEG or DVB if you get a MobileTV tuner! It supports recurring schedules, so you can record daily or every weekday, or you could just schedule so specific date and time for a single recording.

It’s great to be able to just copy any media file over and not have to worry about converting it to something else first. The Cowon A3 doesn’t use any proprietary and confusing sorting system like most media players do; you can just copy any kind of media file anywhere on the hard drive by simply dragging and dropping files to a window on your computer. There is several default folders to sort things in, but it doesn’t actually restrict you to use of these folders. A good example of why this is good is music videos. Do you place them in the Movie folder or the Music folder? If you place them in the Music folder they will show up in the directory listing for the Movie Player, so you can place anything anywhere! What’s even greater is that it keeps track of what types of files are in each folder; if you go into the Music folder when browsing in the Movie Player you will only see folders listed that contain video files in them. It makes browsing for music videos much faster if you have a handful of music videos but have thousands of different albums from all sorts of different artists.

You’ll probably also love the Recent Files system it uses. The A3 keeps a list of the last 50 files you played without finishing them. Imagine you are on a trip somewhere and you decide to watch a movie; what if the movie is longer than the ride? You want to see how it ended don’t you? Well then, when you find the time to watch the rest, just turn on the A3 and go to Recent Files then select whatever it was you were watching and it will start back up right where you stopped it!

For audio there is full 10-band Equalization, BBE, Mach3Bass, MP Enhance and 3D Surround. As you might assume; you can get some rather fantastic audio quality out of this thing–that’s what Cowon is known for; audiophile-pleasing quality.

I also really like the Boundary setting for playback; you can set playback to restrict to all files, one folder in from Music, two folders in from Music or Playlist. If you organize your music by Album folders in Artist folders it makes this system work great; you can listen to a specific album, everything from a certain artist or everything. My only complaint is the playlist support; it uses some built-in playlist that you only have one of and it doesn’t allow saving or loading of common playlist formats used on the PC such as M3U Playlists.

The greatest thing about this device though? The screen. It sports a very high resolution 800×480 resolution in the same size as a PSP screen–that’s almost twice the resolution of the PSP’s screen! You know what else it has twice the PSP in? Brightness. The screen on this thing can be turned up so bright you can see the vibrant colors perfectly even in direct sunlight! *_*

The Cowon A3 also has a line-out for viewing on a bigger screen–and component, s-video and composite even! You can watch gorgeous 720p High Definition video on your big LCD TV from such a tiny portable unit!

Overall this is a truly amazing device that’s a simple firmware update away from being perfect. If you like having some sort of portable entertainment then go buy this device RIGHT NOW. No seriously, do it; you won’t regret it.

NANA

The movie begins following Nana, the singer of a rock band called Blast that faded away when Ren, their former bassist and Nana’s love interest, left to join a major band called Trapnest. While riding on a train to Tokyo she coincidentally encounters another girl who is also named Nana, is the same age as her and is going to the same place at the same time. They sit next to each other for the ride and talk a bit, but aside from the various coincidental similarities, the two couldn’t be more different. This Nana is well brought-up and polite while the other is somewhat more rebellious and, at times, insecure. After the train arrives at it’s destination the two part ways and the new Nana goes to live with her boyfriend–or so she thinks. The guy she moves in with doesn’t really seem to be as interested in her as she is in him and he asks her to move out and find her own place somewhere. While on her hunt for accommodations she finds a nicely priced place at only 70,000 yen, the Japanese word for 7 being nana, not so coincidentally. She immediately decides to preview the place and when she arrives there coincidentally runs into the other Nana once again. Despite being polar opposites of personality they decide to rent the apartment together because it would be much cheaper that way. They quickly become good friends and the proper Nana helps punk Nana to regain her confidence reform Blast and reclaim her glory as a Rock singer. In between all this, good Nana is being cheated on by the guy she still thinks is her boyfriend and punk Nana helps to comfort her and push her to keep going. Good Nana wins some free, front row tickets to a Trapnest concert and, not knowing punk Nana’s prior involvement with Ren, invites her to come along. She however declines without really supplying much reason aside from being ‘busy’. She later discovers Nana and Ren used to be close and that she probably still has feeling for him and despite this, or possibly even because of this, she decides to try asking her again. This time she’s a little less resistant and decides to tag along. After the show, punk Nana happens to meets up with Ren and have an emotional moment, albeit a bittersweet one because they know that even though they want to be together they want even more to play their music and that will keep them apart from each other.

NANA2

The second movie focuses more on Good Nana and her important part in the revival of Blast, despite not being an actual band member. Good Nana has long had a crush, as most innocent girls such as her do, on Takumi, the long-haired bassist of Trapnest whom she happened to actually get to meet at the end of the first movie. At the beginning of NANA2 he basically asks her out for a drink and she of course willing goes along. Punk Nana warns her not to get involved however; as he’s known to be a bit of a player. Her girlish obsession is too strong though and she falls into a relationship with him. Nobu, the guitarist of Blast has secretly liked good Nana since they first met when she and punk Nana moved into their apartment together. While at an after-party for one of Trapnest’s recent concerts he hears of this relationship and almost gets into a fight with Takumi, but storms out of the place first. After awhile of not hearing anything from Takumi, good Nana starts to feel that maybe punk Nana was right and when Nobu suddenly confesses to her she decides she’ll dump Takumi and go out with Nobu. This of course makes Nobu really excited and they enjoy a close and happy relationship. All seems to be going well and one day punk Nana shows up at the apartment with some really good news; Blast is being considered for a record label. Unfortunately good Nana has some bad news to counter it; she’s pregnant and doesn’t know who is the father; Nobu or Takumi. Word spreads and Takumi finds out about the coming bundle of joy (and messy diapers) and decides that if it is his he wants her to raise the child and live with him. She decides to go along with this, much to Nobu’s dismay and the rest of the band is quite shaken by the loss of their good friend to a different life. As they say though; the show must go on–and it does. When word gets out that their former bassist is Trapnest’s current guitarist the media is suddenly all over them and they quickly leap into the spotlight where they dazzle the crowd with some awesome tunes. Good Nana, despite living a new and different life, is still accepted to spend some time with her friend from the band and enjoy some fireworks. Then the movie ends…I want a sequel! >.<

Well…that was quite a bit of talking…and to think I left some of the details out to keep the train of thought a little more on one track! I really enjoyed these two movies and highly recommend them to anyone that may be interested. NANA and NANA2 are definitely worth watching, even if they are a little girly. NANA also has an anime and manga that I have yet to see that I may talk about in a future post after checking them out.

Get NANA2 now at Play-Asia!

I’m not usually one to tear up at every chick flick that someone tricks me into watching, so I never really expected I’d ever catch myself crying to an anime, but this immensely beautiful piece of modern art proved me wrong. The power of the loneliness I felt in the characters was so strong that I actually felt sad enough to cry for them. This short movie that started Makoto Shinkai’s prospering anime career is well deserving of my praise. I was seriously awestruck after watching this. I had a few episodes of other shows after this in my media player playlist, but after this ended I had to pause for a few minutes just to pull myself back to reality from the intense emotions it invoked.

Voices Of A Distant Star is a story of a teenage couple, separated by the vast expanse of outer space with only emails sent from a cellphone to tie the two together. As the girl is dragged light year upon light year further from Earth the messages take longer and longer to transmit until eventually they are so far apart that it takes 8 years just to send a message. The love between the two is so powerful that, despite light years of space and nearly a decade of time between them, they still so strongly want to talk to each other.

What amazed me the most about this however is that almost every part of the movie was done by Makoto Shinkai himself; from the directing, to the animation, right down to the voice acting played by himself and his wife. For being a project completed by a single man this is extraordinary beyond belief. Mr. Shinkai is a very talented man and is very well deserved of the following he has developed thus far.

I’m sure you already know about Tim Burton’s classic gothic movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it’s Halloween today, so it’s pretty much required viewing. As such, I thought it might be something interesting to talk about. Tim Burton has made many other great gothic film like Edward Scissorhands and Corpse Bride, but I feel none of them were quite as fantastic as The Nightmare Before Christmas.

The movie emulates the Disney musical format in a way, but with a dark and gothic twist visually. I found it made the movie very artistically appealing and set it apart from other similarly themed films–aside from Corpse Bride that is, which was basically just a rehash of it’s animation style because the devoted fans just wouldn’t let it end with just one movie. The movie makes use of a sort of claymation appearance, which is a very uncommon animation style. Because of this it allowed a more ‘real’ look to it while remaining surreal in it’s content.

The story follows Jack Skellington, also knowns as Pumpkin Jack–he is looked up to by all the fellow residents of his zany home of Halloween Town. Every year the townsfolk make intricate and elaborate plans to make October 31st the scariest day of the year. Jack is depressed by living this same life every year, planning Halloween. He wishes for something different–he desires variety in his repetitive life. He begins to wonder if there is more to life than Halloween and begins to search for somethiing different.

While wandering in the woods, Jack and his ghostly pet dog, Zero find several trees with doors on them leading to to other holiday-themed worlds. Jack, in his curiousity, accidentally enters Christmas Town, a land of joy and holiday spirit. Jack, fascinated by this unique new world, quickly returns to Halloween Town, where he presents the townspeople with his slightly inaccurate impressions of Christmas. The townspeople, who also become interested in the holiday, agree to celebrate Christmas. Jack leads the attempted festivities as Santa Claus but Sally, Jack’s secret admirer, sees only disaster in his plans.With the unusual Christmas gifts and decorations they create , being more frightening and grotesque than pleasing, it is apparent that she assumes correctly. Jack ignores Sally’s concerns and asks her to create his Santa Claus outfit. Jack then assigns Lock, Shock and Barrel, a trio of mischevious, child-like monsters, to transport Santa to Halloween Town. They, after mistakenly capturing the Easter Bunny, successfully kidnap Santa Claus. Against Jack’s wishes and largely for their own amusement, the trio deliver Santa to the lair of Ogie Boogie, a sadistic, compulsive gambler who plots to play a game with Santa’s life.

Christmas soon arrives and, although Sally attempts to stop him, Jack embarks into the sky on a coffin-like sled pulled by skeletal reindeer, hoping to deliver presents to children around the world; although the townspeople are overjoyed, Sally wanders off alone; defeated. As Jack begins delivering gifts, children are horrified by their monstrous, animated presents, while their parents believe Jack to be a monster attempting to imitate Santa Claus. The military shoot him out of the sky, destroying his sleigh. Although Jack is initially depressed, he realizes he is still the ruler of Halloween Town and can bring joy to the world in his own way.

Sally attempts to free Santa, only to be captured by Oogie Boogie. Just as they are about to be killed by immersion in a foul stew, Jack arrives and challenges their captor. Oogie Boogie flees, placing his complex, sophisticated, deadly gaming machines in Jack’s path as obstacles. However, Oogie Boogie becomes tangled in one of his own machines and is split open, revealing himself to be merely an animated sackful of insects. Most of Oogie’s “bugs” fall into the stew and are boiled alive.

Santa Claus, freed, reprimands Jack, then sets off to correct Christmas by exchanging Jack’s frightening toys for more pleasant hings. This he does successfully. Jack and Sally return to Halloween Town, aided by a reformed Lock, Shock, and Barrel. There, they embrace atop a spiral-shaped, flexible extension of land, while Zero looks on from afar. Sally has been replaced in Dr. Finklestein’s service by another mannequin, leaving her free to live with Jack.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a very unusual movie and is definitely required viewing among your Halloween festivities! If you happen to have not yet seen this wonderful holiday classic I suggest you go check it out!

You can buy the Japanese version and some cool merch at Play-Asia.

Sometimes you can walk into a music store and listen to an album to see if you like it, or download a demo of a game off the internet to see if the game was actually fun–sometimes being the key word there. For the most part, this simply is not the case. How can you expect someone to buy something that they don’t even know they will enjoy? And for such unreasonable prices, I might add!

You know how much it costs to have DVDs pressed? Approximately $0.50 per disk. The current generation of video games costing between $50 and $70, that’s over a 10000% profit margin! The production budget of Halo 3 was less than most major blockbuster movies like Spiderman 3, so why does Halo 3 sell for $70, while I can find Spiderman 3 DVDs all over the place for $20? Greed.

But I said that piracy even helps the economy didn’t I? Well, yes; I did. If it weren’t for piracy I never would’ve found Serenity or Casshern, two of my favorite movies, I never would’ve found about 90% of the music I listen to, I never would’ve found out Gitaroo Man was such a fun game.

Would you deprive me of my enjoyment in hopes that I buy your product? That doesn’t exactly seem like a very effective marketing strategy to me…

Open Source is the future, in all respects. You will never get anything back if you never give in there first place. I’m not saying we should all turn commie and live in identical mud huts, but we should have the freedom to support what we want to and only IF we decide we want to. We should be given the chance to experience it for ourselves before deciding if we want to fork over $50+ for it, these things should not be concealed. You know what my greatest regret is? That I actually paid for Beyond The Beyond. That game was so horrible I snapped it into little pieces and melted it, so no one else would make the mistake of inserting that cancerous disk into their poor defenseless Playstation.

I have plenty of pirated stuff, yet I, on more than one occasion, have donated up to $100 to some random programmer on the internet for programming fun games independently. They released the games for free to anyone, but I felt it was deserving enough of my support, so am I still a thief for downloading a game I never would have paid for anyway? Tell me that.

So why is piracy so much more rampant now than way back in the olden days when dinosaurs still roamed the earth? It’s not. There is a greater number of people involved in the piracy scene, but there is also a greater number of people in general. The ratio has actually decreased rather significantly. How many of you couldn’t dig through your house and find an old mix tape lying around somewhere? That was piracy. Everyone had mix tapes back in the day, piracy is not a new thing at all. It just got easier because that’s what time does; it improves things. If, in several decades, the efficiency of piracy had not improved it would be nothing short of an miracle.

Piracy isn’t a bad thing though; sure, it adds a bit of unbalance to the equation, but more often than not, it gets you more attention. Everyone likes free stuff, even if it’s not ‘technically’ legal.

That having been said there is one simple reason why piracy still exists even when it shouldn’t; everything sucks. That is the first expectation anyone has until proven otherwise these days, because that is quite often the case. The market has been flooded with so much mediocrity that it becomes nigh impossible to sift through it all to find those rare, hidden treasures. Thus is the dark side of the technology age. But with the technology age many of these hidden gems wouldn’t even exist because even the companies producing all this mediocrity follow the mindset that everything sucks until proven otherwise. You can’t go to a game company and say, “Hey! I’ve got this cool idea for a game!”, because they’ll just tell you to buzz off. That certainly doesn’t help to promote creativity. I don’t know about you, but I’m not really looking forward to Burnout 17.

I’m sure you anime fans know piracy all too well. Fansubs are treading on mighty thin ice, and could quite easily be interpreted as an immoral practice. They continue to be released because someone loves the shows so much that they feel others deserve to see the show too–even need to see the show too. We’re it not for piracy, I would never have experienced the greatness of Makoto Shinkai’s or Hayao Miyaaki’s works, I never would have experience anime at all. This blog would not exist. The several thousand people that read this blog would likely be in the same position. It is unfair to conceal such a powerful art from such an expansive audience.

Art is to be shared, not locked away for only a privileged few to experience.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. If you know any employees of the entertainment industry send them the link to this post. This is a message that needs to be seen, before the entire entertainment industry simply collapses into itself from such anti-creative methods.

You probably still remember my recent post about the animated film Beyond The Clouds–well, this is a brand new movie from the same director and animation studio! Byousoku 5cm, literally meaning 5 Centimeters Per Second, just came out in Japan this September. The art is absolutely fantastic (as you can probably assume by the fact I posted 65 screenshots of it. *_*), there is some definite improvement in the quality of the art since their previous project, Beyond The Clouds. The art is extremely colorful and extraordinarily detailed at times. You’d almost swear you were looking at the real thing in some scenes!

Aside from the noticeable improvement graphically, I found the story in 5 Centimeters Per Second was much more dramatic and engaging than Beyond The Clouds. The story is split into three chapters, each centered around a boy named Takaki Tono. Because of circumstances beyond his control he has been forced to spend his youth constantly moving from city to city. Takaki’s relationship with his close friend Akari Shinohara is very central to the plot.

Episode 1: Okasho

Upon graduating from elementary school, Takaki Tono and his close friend Akari Shinohara drifted apart. Akari moved to Tochigi Prefecture due to her parents’ jobs, while Takaki attended a junior high in Tokyo. The two kept in contact by writing letters, but despite the feelings that existed between them, the only thing that persisted was time. When Takaki became aware that his family would move to Kagoshima, he decided to go see Akari since they would be too far apart to visit each other after he moved. However, when the day came, a severe snowstorm delayed Takaki’s trip, and it would be hours before he reached Iwafune, where they promised to meet.

Episode 2: Cosmonaut

Takaki is now in the third year of senior high in Tanegashima, where the Tanegashima Space Center is located. Kanae Sumita, a classmate of Takaki, has feelings for Takaki, but she does not have the courage to express her love to him. She later observes that Takaki is always staring off into the distance, as if searching for something far far away. Even though she loves Takaki she understands that he is searching for things far greater than what she can offer.

Episode 3: Byōsoku 5 Centimeter

It is now 2008, and all three characters have gone their separate ways. Takaki is now a computer programmer in Tokyo, and Akari is preparing to get married. One day, Takaki goes out and sees the face of a familiar-looking woman at a railroad-crossing. He tries to look back, but a passing train obstructs his view.

The movie is very subtle in it’s presentation, but it is very rich in emotion and depth. I could very much feel an actual love between the characters in the story. That isn’t something that can often be said of an animated film. It was easy to relate the characters’ actions and emotions–Takaki, in the second chapter had a girl that loved him right by his side the whole time, but he couldn’t acknowledge her because he just couldn’t let go of the past. The movie quite much had a theme to it that dwelling on the past will only be damaging in the future.

From the art to the story right down to the characters this is a truly breathtaking film that anyone, regardless of interest in anime, could walk away with a part of themselves forever changed. This movie is pretty much required viewing for anyone with any interest at all in Japan and it’s unique culture.

Beyond The Clouds was an extraordinary anime, but not so much in the story as the artistry. I call it “a moving masterpiece” because the art in the movie is like a moving painting. People have said that of just about all forms of anime, but this one very much is a piece of moving art. Pictures alone don’t really do justice to the quality of the art, as much of it is in the movement and small changing details like the flashing of lightning or the distorted view created by heat vapors. Parts of this movie actually managed to feel warm despite the video medium being technically incapable of projecting physical things such as temperature.

This is a movie for people that enjoy the art behind an anime as much as the anime itself. The story, though interesting and unique is actually quite slow. Despite that, I kept wanting to watch it because the characters were just so interesting and human feeling. The personalities were far more believable than most animated films I have seen in the past.

The movie takes place in an alternate timeline version of Japan several decades after an event refered to as The Separation has occured. The Seperation split Japan into two halves leaving the southern part occupied by the United States and the northern part occupied by something called the Union. Around the same time as The Seperation a scientist named Ekusun Tsukinoe began the construction of a strange tower for the Union in Ezo, a city we would know as Hokkaido. The tower was so massive that, on a clear day, it could be seen all the way from Tokyo

An underground group called the Uilta Liberation Front was formed in the South with the goal of reunifying Japan. Secretly supported by some Alliance government officials, it engages in terrorist activities on Union territory. At the time of the movie this organization is attempting to bomb the tower. This all sounds like an interesting plot–however; the main characters are more spectators in the whole event than anything really.

The story begins in Aomori on the northern end of southern Japan and follows the story of three friends. The characters are two boys; Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa who both have exceptional abilities in physics and engineering, and the one girl; Sayuri Sawatari, a classmate who becomes friends with the boys.

Hiroki and Takuya have been working together to build an airplane out of a crashed drone plane they had found. They keep it hidden in a warehouse where they work on it regularly with parts they have scrounged from where they work at the Emishi Manufacturing factory. Sayuri mysteriously disappears during the summer while Hiroki and Takuya’s work on the plane fades.

The story then jumps 3 years ahead where Hiroki has become a physics engineer working for the Union, but secretly a member of the Uilta Liberation Front, while Takuya has basically sat around in Tokyo moping about Sayuri’s disappearance. Takuya eventually gets involved when he discovers that Sayuri has basically been asleep at a hospital because of alternate realities being fed into her mind in the form of dreams. If she were to awaken the world could basically come to an end.

I highly recommend this movie, despite the somewhat slow pace, if only for the extraordinary art. It really is something to see, it’s so beautifully done.

Casshern at last comes to North America on October 16th! That’s tomorrow! If you watch one movie this year-heck, this decade-make it this. From the cinematography to the drama to the action this movie is leaps and bounds beyond anything in it’s realm. Some of the more hardcore anime fans out there may think the name sounds familiar; this is actually a remake of the hit 1973 anime Shinzo Ningen Casshân! Plus the theme song is done by Utada Hikaru…honestly, how could you possibly go wrong with her writing the theme song? Think of it as The Matrix if it was a billion times more awesome. That’s one heck of a lot of awesome.

Casshern takes place in an alternate world after a massive war has ended, leaving the world in a broken and distressed state. Geneticist, Dr. Azuma, vies for support from the government for his neo-cell treatment that he claims can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind. But the government leaders, guarding their own deeply entrenched powers, turn down the professor. Driven to complete his work, Dr. Azuma accepts a secret offer from a sinister faction of the powerful military. After an incident occurs in Dr. Azuma’s lab, a race of mutant humans known as the Shinzo Ningen are unleashed upon the world and his son, Tetsuya Azuma, who had died in the war is revived as the invincible warrior Casshern. Now only he, reincarnated with an invincible body, stands between the Shinzo Ningen and a world on the brink of annihilation.

The CGI is jaw-dropping, especially considering the movie actually came out in Japan 2 years ago now. It’s extremely stylized and actually reminds me of Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow in a way. It heavily uses anime techniques including camera angles, action backgrounds, acting styles, and plot elements. This movie is so immensely epic, it has been called “better than both matrix sequels combined”. That’s a rather lofty claim, but boy does it ever back it up.

This movie has everything anyone would ever want in a movie like this; incredible action and choreography, extraordinary special effects and CGI, great writing, very passionate and engaging characters, and a wicked story. Usually when someone tells me a movie will “keep me on the edge of my seat” it ends up being more like “keep me from channel out of sheer boredom”, but this movie is one astonishing exception to that general rule. Perfect isn’t good enough to lick Casshern’s boots.

I very much give two thumbs way up for this, I’d even give more if I could but I only have two hands. If you want a sensational action/drama movie to watch, go get this movie right now. You will not regret it.

The Japanese version is available at Play-Asia, if/when the English version becomes available there I will be sure to update this post!

Famed Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki has raised 73 million yen (US$620,000) to preserve a small forest local residents call Totoro’s Forest. 25 million yen (US$210,000) of the 73 million yen total came from donations from the general public! This enormous sum has been presented to the city of Higashimurayama in hopes that the historical patch of trees can remain for future generations to enjoy.

Developers were planning to make this portion of the Fuchi no Mori forest into a housing complex, but Miyazaki, along with local residents and supporters from all over Japan, potestested the development plan. The Fuchi no Mori forest was a large part of what inspired Miyazaki’s classic film My Neighbor Totoro. This movie played a huge part in the popularization of anime in Japan and was one of the first anime films to bring the unique art form over to North America.

Usually I like development, but this is a major landmark! You wouldn’t tear down the Hollywood sign and turn that into a housing complex, would you? If the city approves the current plan concerning the forest, the reacquisition of the land could potentially be completed by November. If you don’t mind Google’s poor Japanese translation, you can read more at the official web site for the Save Totoro’s Forest Fund.

Go buy some Ghibli merchandise at JList. The movie can be found at Play-Asia.