Bakuman, Bakumon? Baku . . . What?
Read it here:
http://www.onemanga.com/Bakuman/1/
What is it? First thing you need to know is that it is made by the mysterious creators of Death Note: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Got your attention now? Bakuman is about three high school freshman who decide to follow their dreams. Specifically they want to pursue a career in manga and anime production.
Interested yet? So far this manga is very similar to Genshiken. Both involve high school students who are interested in manga and anime. Moritaka Mashiro decides to be an artist after his classmate the ace student Akito Takagi lures/encourages them to work together.
I am enjoying the art style. It is like Death Note but with a softer feel.
Kudos to the writing. It is excellent. Be sure the catch the references to the authors previous work. It’s cool because it is relevant to the story and the personalities/background of the characters.
You need to check it out!
Claymore Manga Chapter 80
Read it here:
http://www.onemanga.com/Claymore/
There have been a few chapters released since I last wrote about Claymore. Briefly, there is much exposition in regards to the organization and the true purpose of the claymores. Also, the world of the claymores have been expanded literally (in both meaning of the word).
New Grappler Baki Manga Review
Read it here:
http://www.onemanga.com/New_Grappler_Baki/
First of all, let me just state that the story for New Grappler Baki is crap. Therefore, you can assume that the ending is crap also. However, I didn’t read this manga for the story. It’s all about crazy martial arts/kung-fu action.
The story starts out as a five-on-five battle. The conditions are that each battle/bout must take place in an everyday setting. Thus, these battles can happen anywhere and anytime, and using the setting/environment for weapons is acceptable and to a certain extent encouraged. I thought this was the main story, but I guessed wrong. There is no main story. The events in the plot are just excuses for the characters to fight. At times the plot goes into a totally different direction. There is also a romantic plot between Baki and his girlfriend. Honestly, their relationship is nothing special, but at least they make a nice couple.
Now about the visual style. You either hate it or love it. It’s obscene and grotesque. The characters are extremely muscular and disproportioned. Sometimes they can look downright freaky. However, you do get used to it. In time, I even appreciated the amount of detail and creativity in drawing at the muscles. I have always like how much detail, flair and effort was put into drawing the hair.
Frankly, it’s a bad manga. Probably only muscle heads or guys who like watching muscle heads fight it out will enjoy this manga. However, just because it’s bad doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate and even enjoy it. I like it because it has a style of its own; plus the insane fighting has no peer.
Soul Eater Anime
Watch it here:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/series-12772/Soul-Eater.html
Download it here:
http://www.bleachexile.com/multimedia/soul-eater-anime-downloads/ (free membership required)
Soul Eater is about three young people who are weapon technicians who are trying to turn their human weapons into death scythes. In order to do so their weapons must eat 99 evil souls and 1 soul of a witch.
So far this anime looks very good. Visually, everything looks bright, and the characters and locales have a distinctive style. For some reason they art style is reminiscent of One Piece. However, there is a quirky anime/goth/Halloween quality about it. One thing that caught my attention was the action. It is drawn nicely and fight scenes are focused on the whole character and animated fluidly.
In regards to the storyline, not much as happened yet. (Spoiler) Maka (the girl) tries to get the last soul she needs. However, something goes wrong and thus the story continues.
This is not so important, but I’m not a fan of the comic elements. So far the gags are nose bleeds and the usual perversions. It seems unoriginal and rather annoying.
In conclusion, this anime series seems promising. I’ve notice that there has been a trend in anime series stories involving shinigami(s), and this anime continues that trend. Take a look at the screen shot and even watch the first episode. Not a must see YET, but surely has potential.
New Grappler Baki Manga
Read it here:
http://www.onemanga.com/New_Grappler_Baki/
This manga is the sequal to Baki the Grappler and it is crazy. The style and the excessive amount of virtually nude guys may turn off some people. However, the story is fairly good and there is always little plot twist and turn during the fight sequences.
As the story goes, Baki wins some underworld tournament. Synchronously, five crazy murderous criminals escape from prison all in the pursuit of “knowing defeat.” They are all intuitively traveling to Tokyo and seeking out Baki. When they all meet unexpectedly at the underground tournament facilities the leader/facilitator of the tournament proposes and challenge. The five criminals will fight the five fighters from Tokyo anywhere and anytime they meet during their daily activities. The purpose is to see who is the best fighter outside of a ring. Thus crazy fighting and killing ensues.
The Purple Rose of Cairo Review
I love this movie. It is smart, funny, has a great wit and has true feeling to it.
It is classic Woody Allen without Woody Allen. As good as, if not better than, Annie Hall, The Purple Rose of Cairo is about a Depression Era housewife, Cecilia (Mia Farrow) in a bad marriage who falls in love with a character in the movie The Purple Rose of Cairo. After watching the movie for a whole day the character Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) from the film notice Cecilia has been watching him all day and steps out of the movie to talk to her. They are talk and fall in love. Things get even more complicated when she meets the actor who plays Tom Baxter and she/he falls for each other.
It’s a social commentary about film and the people who watch them. Not only that it addresses how people choose to live their lives and the importance of knowing what is real or not no matter how great or perfect it is.
Each actor/actress nails his/her part perfectly and the result is
“pure enchantment.”
As rare as the purple rose itself. This film is not to be miss and is ranked as one of the best Woody Allen films, and is deservedly places as one of Time’s best 100 films of all time.
Air Gear Manga (196)
Read it here:
http://manga.bleachexile.com/air-gear.html
Since the last time I updated here has been some pretty crazy development regarding Akito/Agito. He is one f*** up guy. He has problems and it just gets worse. At least he is strong, and there has been some pretty crazy battles. The battles are now approaching supernatural proportions.
Movie Review Round Up
A review of some of the movies I have seen in the past six months.
American Gangster: Average. Watch it if you want to see a rich classy black drug dealer as opposed to the stereotypical ghetto drug dealer movie.
Apocalypto: Good. Not as great as the effort put into it, but watch it if you like chase scenes.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead: Good. Lots of unnecessary time jumping that doesn’t make the movie/story any better. Watch it if you are into stupid evil people doing their thing.
Bowling for Columbine: Great. Propaganda at its best; Michael Moore at his best. Lots of planning, editing, and lying to make a lie a reality. Watch it if you like/hate Michael Moore or like listening to people lie to you.
Charlie Wilson’s War: Average: Bland story, acting, and premises. Watch only if you are into Charlie Wilson or politics.
Children of Men: Great. Obuse, but exciting. A good “what if . . .” movie. Watch if you hate/love babies.
Death at a Funeral: Good. English comedy, enough said? Watch if you like one of these: nudity, midgets, or funerals.
Deliver Us From Evil: Great. Documentary of hypocrisy and sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic church. Watch if you like/hate: Catholic church, child abuse, crying.
Eagle vs Shark: Good/Great. Quirky romance of couple in New Zealand (emphasis on quirky). Watch if you like: indie films, New Zealand accents, nerds, and moles.
Hot Rod: Good/Great. Retro, stupid, teenage, stunt, romance . . . stupid
Mr. Brooks: Average. Boring box making company executive kills people throughout an absurd story. Watch if you like killing people, how to kill people, or want to know who in Hollywood you should kill for making crappy movies.
Piano no Mori (The Forest of the Piano) Review
Watch it here:
http://www.crunchyroll.com/media-273784/Piano-no-Mori-Movie-Complete.html
Download it here:
http://www.kefi.org/piano.php
This is a very surprising movie. I did not know what to expect when I started watching it. I read the synopsis thinking it might be interesting. It is based off of a manga by Makoto Isshiki. In summary it is about a two grade school boys. One is the son of a famous pianist. The other is a son of a whore. Through their love and ability to play the piano they develop a friendship and later end up competing against each other in a national competition.
There are too many great things to say about this movie so I will just list a few. The characters are great. They may be a bit stereotypical but the seem very real and endearing and the audience I ended up caring for each of them. Also the movie portrays a sense of wonder and childlike innocence that is fun to watch. Furthermore, the music is good (it also has a few famous and universally known piano pieces).
The only drawback was the ending. The characters become so likable that there is an expectation of what is next to come. However, the ending never resolves that. What the audience is left with is one of the boys telling the other to promise to keep playing and see the other in the future.
This is a feel good movie the whole family should watch, but probably more enjoyable is you are into classical music or piano.
Mass Effect
I have a schizophrenic relationship with Mass Effect. I hate it, but I love it also.
The things i hate:
- load times (slowest elevators in the universe)
- walking/running controls (slow)
- inventory/equipment screen (bad layout/design)
- ally A.I. (they are stupid)
- game/graphic glitches
- class structure (inability of certain classes to use/equip armor, weapons, etc.)
- barren planets
- buildings in side quests are virtually all the same
- not enough auto save
The things i love:
- dialog tree (actual conversations, your character actually talks, instead of others always talking to you)
- lip-syncing/voice acting
- combat (rpg shooter)
- characters (great distinct personalities)
- space map (just plain awesome)
- graphics (looks so good)
- story/back story/universe
