It's summertime now, and time to finally get out of the house! Kind of, at least... there's a few things that need clearing up before that happens, and that's the status of the last two shows mentioned below.
Firstly, the good: Psych, which I've caught up through Season Five and I'm ready for Season Six. I still highly enjoy the writing on this show, it's managed to stay consistently good longer than House and the snark isn't quite as mean-spirited. I think that they swung the pendulum too far with House, the humor was terrific through about seasons two and three, but then you could tell that it wasn't out of fun that this was happening but that he was lashing out. Psych doesn't have that problem, you can tell that the main character is always playing. Just like MSTing, it's an art that suffers when the characters aren't having fun doing it... the tone is really important in cases like this.
Speaking of tone, that brings us to the second half of Neon Genesis Evangelion. That was a dense show, and for me a difficult one to not only get into but to enjoy. I'm not a huge fan of the giant robo genre... I've watched Escaflowne as well as Martian Successor Nadeisco. With that said, I couldn't even finish the final ten episodes of the show. Of course, there was an alternate reason for that as well, alluded to previously... I'd read so much fanfic from it that I was bound to get most of the canon stuck in my head anyway. NGE has been a very fertile ground for MSTing in the past, including Mystery Octagon Theater as well as our own Dot Every T productions... there may be a chance that we return to it in the future given a good enough target, and if I need to research I'll just watch it online. Other than that, I'm satisfied where I left it, knowing that I just didn't have the time nor attention span to be able to finish it and enjoy the series.
At this point, I need to cast about for both new shows to watch as well as new targets to MST. Megane 6.7 and I are still working on the rifftrax to The Last Dragon, we're hard at work editing our script and I'm still looking forward to finishing that. In the meantime, I'm looking for a good 'fic for a newer series, such as a Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 'fic, or an Azumanga Daioh, or even a Code Geass 'fic. I think we've located one of the latter for a good target to check out, but that's all still up in the air.
Thanks all for sticking by us while we're going through our not-so-productive periods. We hope you enjoy the projects that we're currently working on, and we'll be getting them out when we can.
18 June 2011
02 April 2011
The three-month update:
Not a whole lot to cover for three month's time, but there's a bit at least.
I need to plug Netflix one more time. There is a bit of a lag as far as getting anime series, because it seems that everyone wants disc one because they want to see what the series will be like before they get all the rest of the discs, but other than that it's a ton of fun to be able to get anime for free through the mail, and all you have to do is send it back.
I'm old-school 90s, where there were three options for my anime... one was to buy it tape-by-tape, which was $20-$25 and there was no guarantee you may like it. The other was to be able to find a place to rent it, which was a long shot at best (though my college town did have a place like that, thank heaven, even though I didn't rent too many because of the distance). Three was to borrow it from someone else, and since that entailed the other person to be able to lay out $20 or $25 per tape, you'd have to find some decently well-off friends. (Luckily, the college I went to also had an anime club with a small library, that was useful for borrowing too).
Compared to today, with streaming video, Netflix, and fansubs, it's a far different world now. Currently, our choice is the Netflix setup, because it's easier to find it and put it up on the big screen.
Anyway, the first series that I watched with my children is Princess Tutu. My daughter is into ballet, and we thought that it would be a good show for the family to watch. Thankfully, the grand majority of the show is age-appropriate for younger children.
The setting of the show is in (what looks like) any random old-fashioned European village. There are multiple characters who are not even human, and 90% of the cast dances ballet, even the anteater, hippo, and the teacher who is a cat. The series' protagonist is Duck, who looks like a complete human for the most part but if she quacks she turns into a duck.
I wasn't sure that I would enjoy this series, but there are a few points that I wanted to say that work very well in the show's favor, even if it is a show that young children are able to follow. First is that the show's tenor and tone change rather dramatically after episode 13, which *almost* looked like a conclusion. The second is that characters change alliance, which is always interesting in my book because of the interplay between characters who once were unhappy with each other but find themselves working towards a common goal. And the underlying basis of the story is extremely interesting too... you see, the story actually is a story within a story, and it gets very meta. It really allows room for thought and the second layer was more than enough to draw my attention as an adult (as the kids were able to focus on the first layer, which is still absorbing.) The ending seemed a bit rough on the surface, but fits very well with the second layer too. I would recommend this show to people who enjoy the interplay of meta (as I do), who enjoy classical music (as each episode is built around a different melody from history, such as Swan Lake or The Nutcracker), and especially if children are around as it would be a good anime for them to watch to enjoy the genre.
The other two shows I've been watching are "in progress" right now. First, I'm finally watching Neon Genesis Evangelion I had never watched it in the 90s, nor even in the 00s, bu I'm watching it now. It really is bizarre to watch this show because not only does it feel as if I'd watched every scene -- albeit out of order -- due to my enjoyment of anime music videos, but I've read more than my share of NGE fanfiction as well. Seeing the source material fills in more than a few blanks, though there weren't too many blanks.
I'm currently at episode 10 (or so), and there is definitely something striking about this series. The dub really sucks. Being a 90s anime, it's almost as if they created the dub prior to anyone caring about voice acting. My suggestion would be to see it subtitled, because then Shinji won't sound like a 20-year-old and Misato a teenage valley girl.
The third series is American. My wife and I have been watching Psych, thanks again to Netflix (streaming). The show answers a question I had, which would be what Dr. House would be like if he weren't so bent on self-destruction and tried to have fun. The settings even fall into that sort of stereotype, House on the East coast and Psych in sunny California. I enjoy these types of shows, they're the direct descendant of Sherlock Holmes stories yet still have a twist about them. I would recommend Psych to fans of the genre and even to non-fans to try out and see if they are enjoyable.
The work continues with Megane 6.7 and I, we're still doing a Rifftrax of The Last Dragon and hopefully we will be recording within the next couple weeks. Have a good Spring!
I need to plug Netflix one more time. There is a bit of a lag as far as getting anime series, because it seems that everyone wants disc one because they want to see what the series will be like before they get all the rest of the discs, but other than that it's a ton of fun to be able to get anime for free through the mail, and all you have to do is send it back.
I'm old-school 90s, where there were three options for my anime... one was to buy it tape-by-tape, which was $20-$25 and there was no guarantee you may like it. The other was to be able to find a place to rent it, which was a long shot at best (though my college town did have a place like that, thank heaven, even though I didn't rent too many because of the distance). Three was to borrow it from someone else, and since that entailed the other person to be able to lay out $20 or $25 per tape, you'd have to find some decently well-off friends. (Luckily, the college I went to also had an anime club with a small library, that was useful for borrowing too).
Compared to today, with streaming video, Netflix, and fansubs, it's a far different world now. Currently, our choice is the Netflix setup, because it's easier to find it and put it up on the big screen.
Anyway, the first series that I watched with my children is Princess Tutu. My daughter is into ballet, and we thought that it would be a good show for the family to watch. Thankfully, the grand majority of the show is age-appropriate for younger children.
The setting of the show is in (what looks like) any random old-fashioned European village. There are multiple characters who are not even human, and 90% of the cast dances ballet, even the anteater, hippo, and the teacher who is a cat. The series' protagonist is Duck, who looks like a complete human for the most part but if she quacks she turns into a duck.
I wasn't sure that I would enjoy this series, but there are a few points that I wanted to say that work very well in the show's favor, even if it is a show that young children are able to follow. First is that the show's tenor and tone change rather dramatically after episode 13, which *almost* looked like a conclusion. The second is that characters change alliance, which is always interesting in my book because of the interplay between characters who once were unhappy with each other but find themselves working towards a common goal. And the underlying basis of the story is extremely interesting too... you see, the story actually is a story within a story, and it gets very meta. It really allows room for thought and the second layer was more than enough to draw my attention as an adult (as the kids were able to focus on the first layer, which is still absorbing.) The ending seemed a bit rough on the surface, but fits very well with the second layer too. I would recommend this show to people who enjoy the interplay of meta (as I do), who enjoy classical music (as each episode is built around a different melody from history, such as Swan Lake or The Nutcracker), and especially if children are around as it would be a good anime for them to watch to enjoy the genre.
The other two shows I've been watching are "in progress" right now. First, I'm finally watching Neon Genesis Evangelion I had never watched it in the 90s, nor even in the 00s, bu I'm watching it now. It really is bizarre to watch this show because not only does it feel as if I'd watched every scene -- albeit out of order -- due to my enjoyment of anime music videos, but I've read more than my share of NGE fanfiction as well. Seeing the source material fills in more than a few blanks, though there weren't too many blanks.
I'm currently at episode 10 (or so), and there is definitely something striking about this series. The dub really sucks. Being a 90s anime, it's almost as if they created the dub prior to anyone caring about voice acting. My suggestion would be to see it subtitled, because then Shinji won't sound like a 20-year-old and Misato a teenage valley girl.
The third series is American. My wife and I have been watching Psych, thanks again to Netflix (streaming). The show answers a question I had, which would be what Dr. House would be like if he weren't so bent on self-destruction and tried to have fun. The settings even fall into that sort of stereotype, House on the East coast and Psych in sunny California. I enjoy these types of shows, they're the direct descendant of Sherlock Holmes stories yet still have a twist about them. I would recommend Psych to fans of the genre and even to non-fans to try out and see if they are enjoyable.
The work continues with Megane 6.7 and I, we're still doing a Rifftrax of The Last Dragon and hopefully we will be recording within the next couple weeks. Have a good Spring!
30 January 2011
Review - Firefly + Serenity
I've never really been a major party animal, but when my wife and I were invited to a new-year's party we decided to take the invitation -- there were other kids there, and that would allow my wife and I to have a bit of downtime and enjoy ourselves a bit more. It was not exactly a raucous party, the loudest we got was when we trotted out the karaoke machine and essentially had a sing-along. At the party though, our hosts also showed an older television series that neither I nor my wife had seen before: Firefly
Firefly was a show on Fox back in 2002, a "blink and you'll miss it" type that endured more than one preemption and an out-of-order broadcast, which included two episodes of the fourteen not being shown on original broadcast. We watched the pilot and second episode, and were about halfway through the third when midnight struck. After midnight, we needed to get the little ones home... at 12:30, they were pretty tired and we didn't want to deal with too-tired kids in the morning.
Anyway, we enjoyed Firefly quite a bit and when we realized that we were able to get it through Netflix Instant Queue, we eagerly watched through the end of the series. The series is an odd duck, it combines sci-fi and Old West-type settings. While there are spaceships, futuristic weapons, and tons of planets to look through, there are many elements of aging and oldness in the plot -- the spaceship itself, the captain who was an unsuccessful fighter in a war (yet allowed to remain free), all the characters that seemed to have a backstory including the teenaged girl, six-shooters, horses, and the towns themselves. The second story actually concerns a train robbery; there's a train, alright, but it's an anti-gravity setup rather than traditional rails. Other than the anti-grav, which enables it to float a couple feet off the ground, it's a traditional train the rest of the way.
There were more than a few things that detracted from the show, which included how cheaply it was made as well as what seemed like a few of the inconsistencies that it raised. However, I was extremely thrilled about the characters that the show drew and the wild, sprawling universe that it spawned. This was a place that I may not have wanted to live in, but I absolutely would have loved to explore. The characters felt real, and the writing was superb. At times it did feel that all characters were informed by the same writer, but then on the other hand I have seen more than a few situations where people do act similarly even while making pains to show how independent they are. I think the element that I enjoyed most about the series was that all emotions were in play; lots of humor, some sadness, quite a bit of drama, and none of it really felt contrived.
Serenity came out three years later into theaters. It was intended as a sort of epilogue to the series, as there are more than a few plot points that show that the crew will not be the same following the movie. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit because of the way that it was able to show the characters, for its higher budget as well as the pacing... two hours passed by, but it was a very quick two hours. My only complaint is that as the stakes were raised leading to the climax, it felt almost as if the screenwriters managed to back themselves into the same corner that the characters occupied, and that the finale was a bit implausible if stared at long enough. With that being said, this universe was a brilliant setting and the characters were well-developed, and if this idea happens to receive more attention in the future I will be glad to check it out.
Thankfully, as far as I know, both the series and movie are available through Netflix Instant Queue, I would recommend anyone who likes character-driven sci-fi or westerns to check both Firefly and Serenity out.
In other quick news, the AMFAS frontpage has been updated. The quote generator has all 88 old quotes but it also has new quotes from the MSTings that Megane 6.7 and I have completed through the last couple years, and I have also made the frontpage a bit more current with the times. Thanks for your support.
Firefly was a show on Fox back in 2002, a "blink and you'll miss it" type that endured more than one preemption and an out-of-order broadcast, which included two episodes of the fourteen not being shown on original broadcast. We watched the pilot and second episode, and were about halfway through the third when midnight struck. After midnight, we needed to get the little ones home... at 12:30, they were pretty tired and we didn't want to deal with too-tired kids in the morning.
Anyway, we enjoyed Firefly quite a bit and when we realized that we were able to get it through Netflix Instant Queue, we eagerly watched through the end of the series. The series is an odd duck, it combines sci-fi and Old West-type settings. While there are spaceships, futuristic weapons, and tons of planets to look through, there are many elements of aging and oldness in the plot -- the spaceship itself, the captain who was an unsuccessful fighter in a war (yet allowed to remain free), all the characters that seemed to have a backstory including the teenaged girl, six-shooters, horses, and the towns themselves. The second story actually concerns a train robbery; there's a train, alright, but it's an anti-gravity setup rather than traditional rails. Other than the anti-grav, which enables it to float a couple feet off the ground, it's a traditional train the rest of the way.
There were more than a few things that detracted from the show, which included how cheaply it was made as well as what seemed like a few of the inconsistencies that it raised. However, I was extremely thrilled about the characters that the show drew and the wild, sprawling universe that it spawned. This was a place that I may not have wanted to live in, but I absolutely would have loved to explore. The characters felt real, and the writing was superb. At times it did feel that all characters were informed by the same writer, but then on the other hand I have seen more than a few situations where people do act similarly even while making pains to show how independent they are. I think the element that I enjoyed most about the series was that all emotions were in play; lots of humor, some sadness, quite a bit of drama, and none of it really felt contrived.
Serenity came out three years later into theaters. It was intended as a sort of epilogue to the series, as there are more than a few plot points that show that the crew will not be the same following the movie. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit because of the way that it was able to show the characters, for its higher budget as well as the pacing... two hours passed by, but it was a very quick two hours. My only complaint is that as the stakes were raised leading to the climax, it felt almost as if the screenwriters managed to back themselves into the same corner that the characters occupied, and that the finale was a bit implausible if stared at long enough. With that being said, this universe was a brilliant setting and the characters were well-developed, and if this idea happens to receive more attention in the future I will be glad to check it out.
Thankfully, as far as I know, both the series and movie are available through Netflix Instant Queue, I would recommend anyone who likes character-driven sci-fi or westerns to check both Firefly and Serenity out.
In other quick news, the AMFAS frontpage has been updated. The quote generator has all 88 old quotes but it also has new quotes from the MSTings that Megane 6.7 and I have completed through the last couple years, and I have also made the frontpage a bit more current with the times. Thanks for your support.
17 January 2011
New MSTing: "[None yet Suggestions welcome in Review!]"
Hey folks,
Megane 6.7 and I have finished our latest MSTing, to a Sailor Moon 'fic that went strangely untitled. There's a chess tournament, Canada, tons of senshi, and even more Sailor Mercury. It can be found at the top of our Recent Projects page on the main site, or at the direct links below:
Part 1: http://www.nabiki.com/mst/recent/none3k11.txt
Part 2: http://www.nabiki.com/mst/recent/none3k12.txt
Part 3: http://www.nabiki.com/mst/recent/none3k13.txt
Within the next couple days I'll have another blog post as well. Thanks for your patience and we hope you enjoy the MSTing!
Megane 6.7 and I have finished our latest MSTing, to a Sailor Moon 'fic that went strangely untitled. There's a chess tournament, Canada, tons of senshi, and even more Sailor Mercury. It can be found at the top of our Recent Projects page on the main site, or at the direct links below:
Part 1: http://www.nabiki.com/mst/recent/none3k11.txt
Part 2: http://www.nabiki.com/mst/recent/none3k12.txt
Part 3: http://www.nabiki.com/mst/recent/none3k13.txt
Within the next couple days I'll have another blog post as well. Thanks for your patience and we hope you enjoy the MSTing!
06 November 2010
Postscript to Rifftrax, Youmacon, and anime reviews:
Quite a bit of stuff to get through here tonight:
A bit of unfinished business with the Rifftrax on the previous Thursday: It seems that Mike, Kevin, and Bill are a bit bummed out from not composing music for Mike and the 'Bots to sing on MST3k, so they branched off to form the Rifftones. Their music isn't bad, it's roughly what you'd expect coming from MST3k... it typically consists of a joke looked at from all angles. Mostly it hits, sometimes it misses. With that said, prior to the Rifftrax they showed a "slide show" of sorts which was supposed to parody the slide shows that precede movies. The slide show was funny, though it looped three times (we were about forty-five minutes early to the show). But they did play Rifftones music, and the best one of the group was about sparkly vampires. It also happened to be the one that they started with and cut into.
Now, I wouldn't normally mention this except for the fact that we were there so early... when we walked it, it seemed as if they were playing a Gloria Estefan concert. To be truthful, I had no idea who it was, just that they were playing some sort of Hispanic/Tejano/Cuban type thing, but they went into one of those old songs that I don't remember except for the fact that I remember Gloria Estefan singing it. I do not know if this was Mike's idea of a Rickroll prior to the show or if they just did it at our local theater to be funny, though there were a couple of people who walked in and then walked out during the concert. Oh well, they missed a good show if they didn't come back.
Next, Youmacon. Conventions have changed in the time since I used to go to them in the early 2000's. Firstly, it seems that there are far more people willing to dress up for them. Next, there's such a WIDE range of anime out there anymore that there's a ton of different characters that people can dress as. When both are added together, people-watching has become such an amazing event, far more interesting than it was ten years ago. I spent large amounts of time at Chicago watching people, and almost could have saved the money and just sat outside the convention. (Considering the monkey wrench, which was the dual proms and the poor traumatized highschoolers, that would have been worth it absolutely.)
However, I am also very impressed by the AMVs that have been created lately. I enjoyed them back in the day, though there wasn't quite so much going on with them; they were all hard cuts and trying to match up scenes with lyrics. Now, especially with the on-beat tics, or the lip-synch, the snazzy edits, and everything else it's pretty amazing. Combine that with the energy in the AMV competitions and it's doubly amazing. I know that all conventions aren't like Anime Central or Youmacon, but that's the positive part. I may be hitting a couple of smaller ones in the area, KitsuneKon in Appleton and/or Anime Milwaukee, and I will be more interested in the viewing rooms, or the dealers, or a few other things... there's just so much going on, and there's so much energy at these things now. A convention is almost like a hit of adrenaline sustained for however long you're at the convention, and it is absolutely enjoyable to be plugged into such a scene.
Overall, I enjoyed ACen a bit more than Youmacon, but the main reason was that while ACen was at about four different hotels and a convention center, Youmacon was at one building-- the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. The facility is beautiful, but it couldn't handle all those people. The aisleways were cramped and it was difficult to get from place to place because of all the chokepoints (escalators and small walkways primarily). I'd still go to Detroit again in a heartbeat, and I am pretty certain that I will next year.
Whew, I'm still not finished with everything! Next, three series on which I want to write opinions.
The series I finished out of the three was Highschool Of the Dead. It's an anime that details what happens to-- you guessed it, high school students-- when a zombie outbreak happens. Recent media (Jonathon Coulton songs, Zombieland) have played zombies as humor rather than horror, but this anime plays the plot device pretty straight. It delves a bit into how people would change given a completely new world with which they may have to inhabit. It's fourteen self-contained episodes, and the ending isn't too bad considering what they have to do. I enjoyed that they played it serious, though they only did so for about three nights total. I'd be interested to see what happens six months, one year, three years in the future to everyone... the infrastructure, how to survive, what skills you'd have to learn, etc... but I realize that it is just an anime series. Of course, there's a pretty large roadblock here, and that's the level of fanservice. It's pretty high. If I'd have to guess a rating for this, it'd be R-rated, though that would be for the gore. As for the service... if you'd ever stepped into the shower and realized that you'd left something on the counter, so you stretch out as far as you can while still keeping one foot in the shower... the shower is the PG-13 guidelines, and the show stretches them as far as it dares. The point of all of this? That you would likely expect the gore, considering the fact that they're playing the plot device pretty straight, but that you wouldn't quite expect the level of fanservice.
The second show I've got at least a few comments on is Axis Powers Hetalia. I'd seen this show in the AMV circuit a few times, and it looked interesting. I finally had a chance to check out a few episodes though, and I definitely enjoy the show. It's got the zaniness of most anime, but now there's a bit of historical aspect to the show that's interesting. While it's a bit bad to see things brought to a broad stereotype, sometimes it's an honest assessment as well and helps to hold a mirror to things going on. I know that it's a fairly lazy allegory in that it doesn't require a whole lot of "thinking" in order to draw the comparisons, but on the other hand it's refreshing to not have to figure out what the creator's trying to infer from his drawings. There's still a ton of humor and I'd certainly recommend it, especially to someone who may like history.
Lastly, I attempted to watch Gundam 00. Attempted is the most important word here. I dropped it while watching Highschool of the Dead, because I was unable to really absorb myself into the series. I think it was because there was absolutely no narrative arc as of now, it's really pretentious and preachy currently because it seems that they've chosen their protagonists to be mouthpieces rather than fallible characters. The protags have a lofty goal, but through the first four episodes they're also undefeated and undefeatable. Worse yet, while the series is set "in the future", it's a very simplistic future that somehow has fewer of the issues that people deal with in the early 21st century. I may try to pick it back up after watching more of Hetalia, but I'm not too sure at this point.
So! That's it for now. I hope that the previous novella has made up at least slightly for the lack of updating through the last four weeks or so. Writing is still progressing, and hopefully we'll be hitting the editing phase shortly of the most recent project.
A bit of unfinished business with the Rifftrax on the previous Thursday: It seems that Mike, Kevin, and Bill are a bit bummed out from not composing music for Mike and the 'Bots to sing on MST3k, so they branched off to form the Rifftones. Their music isn't bad, it's roughly what you'd expect coming from MST3k... it typically consists of a joke looked at from all angles. Mostly it hits, sometimes it misses. With that said, prior to the Rifftrax they showed a "slide show" of sorts which was supposed to parody the slide shows that precede movies. The slide show was funny, though it looped three times (we were about forty-five minutes early to the show). But they did play Rifftones music, and the best one of the group was about sparkly vampires. It also happened to be the one that they started with and cut into.
Now, I wouldn't normally mention this except for the fact that we were there so early... when we walked it, it seemed as if they were playing a Gloria Estefan concert. To be truthful, I had no idea who it was, just that they were playing some sort of Hispanic/Tejano/Cuban type thing, but they went into one of those old songs that I don't remember except for the fact that I remember Gloria Estefan singing it. I do not know if this was Mike's idea of a Rickroll prior to the show or if they just did it at our local theater to be funny, though there were a couple of people who walked in and then walked out during the concert. Oh well, they missed a good show if they didn't come back.
Next, Youmacon. Conventions have changed in the time since I used to go to them in the early 2000's. Firstly, it seems that there are far more people willing to dress up for them. Next, there's such a WIDE range of anime out there anymore that there's a ton of different characters that people can dress as. When both are added together, people-watching has become such an amazing event, far more interesting than it was ten years ago. I spent large amounts of time at Chicago watching people, and almost could have saved the money and just sat outside the convention. (Considering the monkey wrench, which was the dual proms and the poor traumatized highschoolers, that would have been worth it absolutely.)
However, I am also very impressed by the AMVs that have been created lately. I enjoyed them back in the day, though there wasn't quite so much going on with them; they were all hard cuts and trying to match up scenes with lyrics. Now, especially with the on-beat tics, or the lip-synch, the snazzy edits, and everything else it's pretty amazing. Combine that with the energy in the AMV competitions and it's doubly amazing. I know that all conventions aren't like Anime Central or Youmacon, but that's the positive part. I may be hitting a couple of smaller ones in the area, KitsuneKon in Appleton and/or Anime Milwaukee, and I will be more interested in the viewing rooms, or the dealers, or a few other things... there's just so much going on, and there's so much energy at these things now. A convention is almost like a hit of adrenaline sustained for however long you're at the convention, and it is absolutely enjoyable to be plugged into such a scene.
Overall, I enjoyed ACen a bit more than Youmacon, but the main reason was that while ACen was at about four different hotels and a convention center, Youmacon was at one building-- the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. The facility is beautiful, but it couldn't handle all those people. The aisleways were cramped and it was difficult to get from place to place because of all the chokepoints (escalators and small walkways primarily). I'd still go to Detroit again in a heartbeat, and I am pretty certain that I will next year.
Whew, I'm still not finished with everything! Next, three series on which I want to write opinions.
The series I finished out of the three was Highschool Of the Dead. It's an anime that details what happens to-- you guessed it, high school students-- when a zombie outbreak happens. Recent media (Jonathon Coulton songs, Zombieland) have played zombies as humor rather than horror, but this anime plays the plot device pretty straight. It delves a bit into how people would change given a completely new world with which they may have to inhabit. It's fourteen self-contained episodes, and the ending isn't too bad considering what they have to do. I enjoyed that they played it serious, though they only did so for about three nights total. I'd be interested to see what happens six months, one year, three years in the future to everyone... the infrastructure, how to survive, what skills you'd have to learn, etc... but I realize that it is just an anime series. Of course, there's a pretty large roadblock here, and that's the level of fanservice. It's pretty high. If I'd have to guess a rating for this, it'd be R-rated, though that would be for the gore. As for the service... if you'd ever stepped into the shower and realized that you'd left something on the counter, so you stretch out as far as you can while still keeping one foot in the shower... the shower is the PG-13 guidelines, and the show stretches them as far as it dares. The point of all of this? That you would likely expect the gore, considering the fact that they're playing the plot device pretty straight, but that you wouldn't quite expect the level of fanservice.
The second show I've got at least a few comments on is Axis Powers Hetalia. I'd seen this show in the AMV circuit a few times, and it looked interesting. I finally had a chance to check out a few episodes though, and I definitely enjoy the show. It's got the zaniness of most anime, but now there's a bit of historical aspect to the show that's interesting. While it's a bit bad to see things brought to a broad stereotype, sometimes it's an honest assessment as well and helps to hold a mirror to things going on. I know that it's a fairly lazy allegory in that it doesn't require a whole lot of "thinking" in order to draw the comparisons, but on the other hand it's refreshing to not have to figure out what the creator's trying to infer from his drawings. There's still a ton of humor and I'd certainly recommend it, especially to someone who may like history.
Lastly, I attempted to watch Gundam 00. Attempted is the most important word here. I dropped it while watching Highschool of the Dead, because I was unable to really absorb myself into the series. I think it was because there was absolutely no narrative arc as of now, it's really pretentious and preachy currently because it seems that they've chosen their protagonists to be mouthpieces rather than fallible characters. The protags have a lofty goal, but through the first four episodes they're also undefeated and undefeatable. Worse yet, while the series is set "in the future", it's a very simplistic future that somehow has fewer of the issues that people deal with in the early 21st century. I may try to pick it back up after watching more of Hetalia, but I'm not too sure at this point.
So! That's it for now. I hope that the previous novella has made up at least slightly for the lack of updating through the last four weeks or so. Writing is still progressing, and hopefully we'll be hitting the editing phase shortly of the most recent project.
05 November 2010
A Few Reviews....
Hey everyone,
I was just surfing the net today, bored, and figured it would be a good a time as any to post a couple of mini reviews of games I've been playing of late.
Fallout: New Vegas -- I rented the XBOX 360 version of the game and was honestly shocked by how buggy it was. Fallout 3 had its problems but it very rarely crashed or stuttered in its framerate for me. Still, the story showed promise so I continued on until I reached a point where I guess I did something the game didn't expect and it flatly refused to let me finish a mission and froze.
I took the game back to Rogers for a store credit and was convinced by one of the guys there to try another copy of the game with the 7 day rental limit renewed and if the game still crashed for me, I could still get a store credit when I returned it. So I gave the game another try, it still crashed in that spot and so I decided to restore an earlier save and try a different path. To my surprise, when I actually reached New Vegas, the game actually starting being fun for me (occasional game freeze and frame rate stutter forcing a reset aside...)
The main story was a definite improvement over Fallout 3, you don't need to fight your way through bleak endless subway tunnels over and over this time just to get to your next destination, and thankfully the epilogues that were inexcusably missing from Fallout 3 are back, so you can once again see the consequences of your actions with the various factions and locations you encounter in the game.
The music, at least the default music that came with the game, was pretty lousy and I was pretty much keeping the radio off after the third rendition of 'Johnny Guitar' and 'Texas Red' or whatever the fuck that song was called. (I never thought I'd be pining for 'Butcher Pete'...) I understand getting Elvis songs would've been too expensive but I'd rather have had more 1940s/1950s era pop songs and such.
Anyway, the XBOX 360 version of the game was still a bug riddled mess and I can't recommend it in good conscience. I know they'll come out with patches eventually but I don't use internet on my 360 and even if I did, it still doesn't make me want to buy the game anytime soon. Most likely, now that I (hopefully) have a computer powerful enough to run the game, I'll wait for the PC version to drop in price, all the patches to be released, along with a bunch of cool mods, and buy it later. I'd recommend to anyone interested in this game to do the same.
Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed II -- Ugh. The first game had an interesting story with frustrating controls and a retarded camera. This sequel has a story that was rushed, dumbed down and thoroughly mediocre compared to the first with somewhat better controls and camera but far less epic in scope. I breezed through this game in about six hours or so, and had no interest in replaying on a harder setting or as Guybrush Threepwood, though I can imagine how that final battle would go:
Guybrush: You fight like a dairy farm... URK!!
Darth Vader: How appropriate. You choke like a cow.
Guybrush: *thump*
Darth Vader: All too easy.
Seriously though, this game reminded me a lot of God of War III and that's NOT a compliment. The graphics look pretty, yes, but unlike the first game which had all sorts of interesting enemies and characters, this one pretty much has you fighting the same five or six enemies throughout the entire game. Force powers are fun to use but it gets old after a while and targeting was still annoying at times.
As for the story, without spoiling anything, it seemed to have a point in the beginning but little to nothing was done with it till the very end and that only served to set up another sequel. The few characters that were brought in from the previous game were one-dimensional shells of their former selves. Rahm Kota was just another commander yelling orders in your ear, Vader was a generic video game villain and Juno had about maybe one or two lines tops and about forty seconds of screen time despite being the central motivation for the main character who clutches his head now and then every time he experiences a flashback to the previous game.
So yeah, I'll still enjoy the cutscenes of the first game from time to time but otherwise, I'm done with this series. I'll see if the upcoming 'Old Republic' is a worthy successor to KOTOR *1* or just another overstuffed MMO.
That's it for now, I have to go out shopping and do errands.
I was just surfing the net today, bored, and figured it would be a good a time as any to post a couple of mini reviews of games I've been playing of late.
Fallout: New Vegas -- I rented the XBOX 360 version of the game and was honestly shocked by how buggy it was. Fallout 3 had its problems but it very rarely crashed or stuttered in its framerate for me. Still, the story showed promise so I continued on until I reached a point where I guess I did something the game didn't expect and it flatly refused to let me finish a mission and froze.
I took the game back to Rogers for a store credit and was convinced by one of the guys there to try another copy of the game with the 7 day rental limit renewed and if the game still crashed for me, I could still get a store credit when I returned it. So I gave the game another try, it still crashed in that spot and so I decided to restore an earlier save and try a different path. To my surprise, when I actually reached New Vegas, the game actually starting being fun for me (occasional game freeze and frame rate stutter forcing a reset aside...)
The main story was a definite improvement over Fallout 3, you don't need to fight your way through bleak endless subway tunnels over and over this time just to get to your next destination, and thankfully the epilogues that were inexcusably missing from Fallout 3 are back, so you can once again see the consequences of your actions with the various factions and locations you encounter in the game.
The music, at least the default music that came with the game, was pretty lousy and I was pretty much keeping the radio off after the third rendition of 'Johnny Guitar' and 'Texas Red' or whatever the fuck that song was called. (I never thought I'd be pining for 'Butcher Pete'...) I understand getting Elvis songs would've been too expensive but I'd rather have had more 1940s/1950s era pop songs and such.
Anyway, the XBOX 360 version of the game was still a bug riddled mess and I can't recommend it in good conscience. I know they'll come out with patches eventually but I don't use internet on my 360 and even if I did, it still doesn't make me want to buy the game anytime soon. Most likely, now that I (hopefully) have a computer powerful enough to run the game, I'll wait for the PC version to drop in price, all the patches to be released, along with a bunch of cool mods, and buy it later. I'd recommend to anyone interested in this game to do the same.
Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed II -- Ugh. The first game had an interesting story with frustrating controls and a retarded camera. This sequel has a story that was rushed, dumbed down and thoroughly mediocre compared to the first with somewhat better controls and camera but far less epic in scope. I breezed through this game in about six hours or so, and had no interest in replaying on a harder setting or as Guybrush Threepwood, though I can imagine how that final battle would go:
Guybrush: You fight like a dairy farm... URK!!
Darth Vader: How appropriate. You choke like a cow.
Guybrush: *thump*
Darth Vader: All too easy.
Seriously though, this game reminded me a lot of God of War III and that's NOT a compliment. The graphics look pretty, yes, but unlike the first game which had all sorts of interesting enemies and characters, this one pretty much has you fighting the same five or six enemies throughout the entire game. Force powers are fun to use but it gets old after a while and targeting was still annoying at times.
As for the story, without spoiling anything, it seemed to have a point in the beginning but little to nothing was done with it till the very end and that only served to set up another sequel. The few characters that were brought in from the previous game were one-dimensional shells of their former selves. Rahm Kota was just another commander yelling orders in your ear, Vader was a generic video game villain and Juno had about maybe one or two lines tops and about forty seconds of screen time despite being the central motivation for the main character who clutches his head now and then every time he experiences a flashback to the previous game.
So yeah, I'll still enjoy the cutscenes of the first game from time to time but otherwise, I'm done with this series. I'll see if the upcoming 'Old Republic' is a worthy successor to KOTOR *1* or just another overstuffed MMO.
That's it for now, I have to go out shopping and do errands.
28 October 2010
Rifftrax Live Review - House on Haunted Hill
Hey again!
It's been four weeks again, and there hasn't been a whole lot to report. Real life has been taking turns patting me on the head and kicking me in the balls, thankfully more of the first than the second, but I'll be glad when everything calms down somewhat.
I don't have the blog to complain though, I have it to provide my thoughts on a variety of matters, and tonight's post is about the Rifftrax Live show that my wife and I attended tonight. Tonight's offering was "The House on Haunted Hill", the 1959 version starring Vincent Price and a cast of also-rans from the B-movie stables. The film was riffed rather well, and I found myself laughing in quite a few spots. If I were to grade the film, I'd say that the first half-hour was a low A and the second half-hour a B or so... they slowed down a bit as the movie went on, and the ending was a bit jarring if only because it didn't seem as if the movie was over.
The Rifftrax guys also came up with two shorts to round the total to two hours, though. The first one was a weird little endeavor called "Magical Disappearing Money", which was very in-your-face in a variety of ways. It was aggressively 70's-ish. Additionally, there was a strange lady, the "grocery witch", who would tsk-tsk all the shoppers' choices for food. One poor kid had to make do with yucky corn flakes instead of his favorite cereal, a poor guy with Ambrose Burnside muttonchops couldn't buy his breaded zucchini on sale, and EVERYONE needs to know how healthy and cheap powdered milk is for them!
A second short was aired, this time a study of paper called "Paper for All". In it, a paper bag is happy that a sick kid spares his life, and so he tells us everything we never wanted to know about paper from "the great Southern [U.S.] forests". The most majorly jarring imagery here was the cartoon face that they drew on the paper bag, the trees, the logs, and everything else... it really almost felt more like a descent into madness than an informational short about paper. The first short was terrific, the second short was good.
The theater itself was nowhere near full, though; there were possibly ten to fifteen paying customers in our theater including ourselves. However, I would not be surprised if there were possibly ten to fifteen other customers in the whole rest of the theater, the parking lot was amazingly empty even if this was a Thursday night. As it was a rather small town that we were able to catch this in, I think that the live Rifftrax movie performed pretty decently.
As a live offering, it has many of the same benefits as the recent live Cinematic Titanic shows, you could hear a crowd reaction and it helped to make me laugh a bit more. The downside was that there were times that they wanted to put the riffers on screen and then times that they didn't show the riffers, which was a bit distracting. Cinematic Titanic keeps all the riffers on screen for the whole movie... I don't have a preference either way, but I would rather that they stick with one method and use it.
After seeing this, I would probably be interested to watch another Rifftrax Live offering, even if I may be going by myself. Considering the movies that they would have to be able to get though, public domain movies, I already know that there is little chance that it will be a recent one; so, if one likes older movies and Rifftrax, this would probably be a good time.
It's been four weeks again, and there hasn't been a whole lot to report. Real life has been taking turns patting me on the head and kicking me in the balls, thankfully more of the first than the second, but I'll be glad when everything calms down somewhat.
I don't have the blog to complain though, I have it to provide my thoughts on a variety of matters, and tonight's post is about the Rifftrax Live show that my wife and I attended tonight. Tonight's offering was "The House on Haunted Hill", the 1959 version starring Vincent Price and a cast of also-rans from the B-movie stables. The film was riffed rather well, and I found myself laughing in quite a few spots. If I were to grade the film, I'd say that the first half-hour was a low A and the second half-hour a B or so... they slowed down a bit as the movie went on, and the ending was a bit jarring if only because it didn't seem as if the movie was over.
The Rifftrax guys also came up with two shorts to round the total to two hours, though. The first one was a weird little endeavor called "Magical Disappearing Money", which was very in-your-face in a variety of ways. It was aggressively 70's-ish. Additionally, there was a strange lady, the "grocery witch", who would tsk-tsk all the shoppers' choices for food. One poor kid had to make do with yucky corn flakes instead of his favorite cereal, a poor guy with Ambrose Burnside muttonchops couldn't buy his breaded zucchini on sale, and EVERYONE needs to know how healthy and cheap powdered milk is for them!
A second short was aired, this time a study of paper called "Paper for All". In it, a paper bag is happy that a sick kid spares his life, and so he tells us everything we never wanted to know about paper from "the great Southern [U.S.] forests". The most majorly jarring imagery here was the cartoon face that they drew on the paper bag, the trees, the logs, and everything else... it really almost felt more like a descent into madness than an informational short about paper. The first short was terrific, the second short was good.
The theater itself was nowhere near full, though; there were possibly ten to fifteen paying customers in our theater including ourselves. However, I would not be surprised if there were possibly ten to fifteen other customers in the whole rest of the theater, the parking lot was amazingly empty even if this was a Thursday night. As it was a rather small town that we were able to catch this in, I think that the live Rifftrax movie performed pretty decently.
As a live offering, it has many of the same benefits as the recent live Cinematic Titanic shows, you could hear a crowd reaction and it helped to make me laugh a bit more. The downside was that there were times that they wanted to put the riffers on screen and then times that they didn't show the riffers, which was a bit distracting. Cinematic Titanic keeps all the riffers on screen for the whole movie... I don't have a preference either way, but I would rather that they stick with one method and use it.
After seeing this, I would probably be interested to watch another Rifftrax Live offering, even if I may be going by myself. Considering the movies that they would have to be able to get though, public domain movies, I already know that there is little chance that it will be a recent one; so, if one likes older movies and Rifftrax, this would probably be a good time.
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