The Angels have finally been defeated. SEELE tries hacking into the NERV's MAGI computer system in order to facilitate a peaceful takeover. When that fails, SEELE tries more drastic measures, and summons the Japanese Self-Defense Force to use more violent means. In the meantime, Asuka is still in a coma, Rei is nowhere to be found, and Shinji is still recovering from the shock of the incident with Kaoru and his own feeling of helplessness with Asuka's present state.
The reason End of EVA exists in the first place is because of the general outcry at the ending of the NGE series ending. End of EVA is a "remake" of sorts of the last two episodes of the series; the movie even sort of treats itself as a two-part OVA as alternate episodes 25 and 26. Was this a "better" ending? I'm really not entirely sure.
Aside from one fairly sweet sequence, there was no classic mecha action in End of EVA whatsoever. The Episode 25 half of the movie was more one orgy of disturbing violence after another with soldiers gunning down NERV personnel in fairly graphic detail. And to top it off, it began with one of the most disgusting moments I have ever seen in an anime. Without spoiling anything, let us just say that it involved Shinji letting go of some built-up sexual tension.
The Episode 26 half at least revealed a lot of the explanations I was looking for in the series, but ultimately never got. Even then, I felt this ending wound up raising more questions than what got answered. As one of my friends pointed out, "That is because Anno Hideaki hates you."
Fans were dissatisfied with the ending of the series to the point where they were even sending director Anno death threats. Ultimately, you can see that End of EVA was Anno's way of thumbing his nose at them; some of said threatening letters and graffiti painted on studio GAINAX's building are even shown in the feature.
Ok, so the storytelling once again is nothing particularly satisfying, but the production values were once again pretty high, although still not great considering this was a feature released in theaters. The animation was pretty sweet (and helping add to the rather unsettling atmosphere). Also, the voice acting once again proved to be one of the anime's strong points, especially with Ogata Megumi's portrayal of Shinji, who has almost completely lost it by the time this movie takes place. So what do I have a problem with? I felt this was a movie that was made on the budget of an OVA. The animation was good, but still nothing compared to other anime movies made around that time, particularly Ghibli productions or the likes of Ghost in the Shell. Furthermore, aside from the end credits tune, the music was largely recycled from the series.
In the end, I would not go so far as to say that the ending of the series was better, but I did not feel End of EVA to be an improvement either. Ultimately, I think fans will have to wait for Rebuild of Evangelion before getting a satisfying ending to the Neon Genesis Evangelion saga.
Score: 2/4
On another note: Manga Entertainment, for the life of them, CANNOT make anime DVDs. I noticed the same problem I did with Read or Die, another Manga release, where I set the language preferences in the menu to Japanese with English subtitles, and then play it only to find the DVD set the language back to English with no subtitles. The only way it seems to listen to language preferences is when you change it using the appropriate buttons on your remote rather than using the menu.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Inglorious Basterds--Review and Reaction
SS Colonel Landa got the nickname "the Jew Hunter" due to his ability to hunt down Jews for the Nazis during the Second World War. After witnessing the massacre of her family at the hands of Landa, Shosanna Dreyfus vows revenge against the Nazis.
Meanwhile, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) assembled a squad of eight Jewish-American soldiers with the sole purpose of killing Nazis and spreading terror.
Years pass, and the Germans created a propaganda film that will be showcased to high Nazi party officials. Little do they know that Shosanna owns that theater and has concocted a plan for revenge. At the same time, the Basterds are notified by their high command of their own plan to assassinate the same members of the Nazi party at the same movie event. Of course, neither Shosanna nor the Allies have any knowledge of each others' plans.
Inglorious Basterds is a very typical Tarantino film and a very atypical World War 2 feature, though, as expected, both these aspects go hand-in-hand. The first thing that you will probably notice is how long the movie is. A lot of it is due to the slow speed at the beginning. Many of the earlier scenes were pretty dialogue heavy in order to set the viewer up with what is to come later on, particularly both plots involving the movie event.
Also, the movie's violent scenes are....pretty violent as Inglorious Basterds does have a pretty high body count. However, there aren't very many of those scenes. Again, with the exception of the massacre towards the beginning and an introduction to the Basterds' methods of warfare, the first half of the movie was generally pretty light with action sequences and focused more on character development and setting up for the climax. Thus, I think this movie does require some patience as many things, such as Donny's introduction, get really drawn out.
By the way, this IS a Tarantino movie, so the violent parts can get pretty graphic (Aldo requires his men to scalp Nazis they kill). In addition, like other Tarantino movies, the characters' dialogue is pretty laced with profanity and there was also a pretty raunchy scene involving Joseph Goebbels. So for the record, kids should not be seeing this movie. I'm very sincere when I say that. Like many of Tarantino's other famous movies, Inglorious Basterds very well deserved its R rating.
Inglorious Basterds started off with a serious enough tone, yet the movie began to take itself less and less seriously as it progressed. That can be measured by the significance Aldo has on-screen as he provides a very significant portion of the movie's very black humor. I really have to take my hat off to Brad Pitt in his portrayal of Aldo as he very much was the spirit of the movie.
Inglorious Basterds as a whole was pretty well-acted. Diane Kruger essentially plays herself as a major German film star. Also, Christoph Waltz was nearly perfect as Landa. Martin Wuttke was no Bruno Ganz, but he got the job done as Hitler.
Throughout, there was a highly anachronistic, yet very fitting soundtrack. A pretty good chunk of the music in Inglorious Basterds was made of hard rock music. Again, Inglorious Basterds set out to be a Tarantino movie first, World War 2 feature.....I don't know where as this was pretty low on its priorities.
On the whole, if you are looking for some black comedy with some pretty sweet acting and clever dialogue and are mature enough to handle some of the content and have the patience for the somewhat heavy-handed story, then I have to wholeheartedly recommend Inglorious Basterds. Also, if you really want proof as to how this is an atypical World War 2 film, all you have to do is bear witness to how the movie ends.
Score: 3.5/4
Meanwhile, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) assembled a squad of eight Jewish-American soldiers with the sole purpose of killing Nazis and spreading terror.
Years pass, and the Germans created a propaganda film that will be showcased to high Nazi party officials. Little do they know that Shosanna owns that theater and has concocted a plan for revenge. At the same time, the Basterds are notified by their high command of their own plan to assassinate the same members of the Nazi party at the same movie event. Of course, neither Shosanna nor the Allies have any knowledge of each others' plans.
Inglorious Basterds is a very typical Tarantino film and a very atypical World War 2 feature, though, as expected, both these aspects go hand-in-hand. The first thing that you will probably notice is how long the movie is. A lot of it is due to the slow speed at the beginning. Many of the earlier scenes were pretty dialogue heavy in order to set the viewer up with what is to come later on, particularly both plots involving the movie event.
Also, the movie's violent scenes are....pretty violent as Inglorious Basterds does have a pretty high body count. However, there aren't very many of those scenes. Again, with the exception of the massacre towards the beginning and an introduction to the Basterds' methods of warfare, the first half of the movie was generally pretty light with action sequences and focused more on character development and setting up for the climax. Thus, I think this movie does require some patience as many things, such as Donny's introduction, get really drawn out.
By the way, this IS a Tarantino movie, so the violent parts can get pretty graphic (Aldo requires his men to scalp Nazis they kill). In addition, like other Tarantino movies, the characters' dialogue is pretty laced with profanity and there was also a pretty raunchy scene involving Joseph Goebbels. So for the record, kids should not be seeing this movie. I'm very sincere when I say that. Like many of Tarantino's other famous movies, Inglorious Basterds very well deserved its R rating.
Inglorious Basterds started off with a serious enough tone, yet the movie began to take itself less and less seriously as it progressed. That can be measured by the significance Aldo has on-screen as he provides a very significant portion of the movie's very black humor. I really have to take my hat off to Brad Pitt in his portrayal of Aldo as he very much was the spirit of the movie.
Inglorious Basterds as a whole was pretty well-acted. Diane Kruger essentially plays herself as a major German film star. Also, Christoph Waltz was nearly perfect as Landa. Martin Wuttke was no Bruno Ganz, but he got the job done as Hitler.
Throughout, there was a highly anachronistic, yet very fitting soundtrack. A pretty good chunk of the music in Inglorious Basterds was made of hard rock music. Again, Inglorious Basterds set out to be a Tarantino movie first, World War 2 feature.....I don't know where as this was pretty low on its priorities.
On the whole, if you are looking for some black comedy with some pretty sweet acting and clever dialogue and are mature enough to handle some of the content and have the patience for the somewhat heavy-handed story, then I have to wholeheartedly recommend Inglorious Basterds. Also, if you really want proof as to how this is an atypical World War 2 film, all you have to do is bear witness to how the movie ends.
Score: 3.5/4
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Comrade Ash
Pokemon's society. People unleash pets on one another. Boys take 10 years to age 3. Giovanni aims to use Pokemon for profit, and is therefore a bad guy. How is this possible? Pokemon takes place in a communist society.
According to US laws, cockfighting is illegal. However, it is, if anything, actively encouraged to unleash pets (the Pokemon) on each other, like gladiators almost. People not only do not find this morally reprehensible, but in fact obsess over how to dominate over the other guy's Pokemon. In fact, people don't seem to have any other problems to concern them, such as food or housing or even getting a big-screen TV. The only way this is possible is if their society either completely takes care of their everyday needs, or Pokemon battles, like gladiator fights, serve as a convenient distraction from society's real problems.
Also, the need for law and order appears to be more or less nonexistent. Officer Jenny's (and that of her relatives) job seems to be little more than enforcing traffic laws and keeping people from stealing Pokemon (because that would be unfair in a battle, would it not?). Either society takes it for granted that either violent crimes like murder, rape, or robbery won't happen, or the government probably had some serious oversight.
On the subject of clones, Nurse Joy (and all her relatives) seems to be all people need for medical needs, which is more often for a Pokemon than for a human. Do people not get sick or seriously injured very often? Are there not any doctors? Nurses is all they need?
Also, Jenny and Joy appear to have been born out of cloning vats a la clone troopers from Star Wars where two women appear to fill Jango Fett's role as genetic templates. Like Jango Fett clones serve as soldiers (for which there appears to be no need in Pokemon society), Jennys and Joys serve as law enforcement and health care professionals respectively. So I guess that's also why Jenny never rises above the rank of Officer and Joy never goes full MD (or veterinarian, or Pokemon Doctor even): they all get identical training, which makes none of them special, and they all have identical intelligence and work ethic parameters, so they are naturally unable to rise above each other.
We also know Giovanni (and his organization Team Rocket) and Lawrence III (the antagonist from Pokemon: the Movie 2000) are bad guys. Why is that? Well, Giovanni intends to take over the world, but to do that he must capitalize on Pokemon, and he must have his agents take them for him. Meanwhile, Lawrence III is a self-billed collector. So how is stealing or collecting Pokemon somehow morally less ok than having them fight each other? To put it simply, they both represent capitalist ideals. Think about it: the whole concept of wanting to make a profit using Pokemon, or to simply hoard them. Those would not be concepts that sit well with a communist society.
Of course every communist society needs a communist dictator. And who is that? That is none other than Professor Oak. Everyone seems to have respect for him and they always turn to him for advice, and more often than not, his word is absolute. He is called Professor Oak, yet he does not appear to be working for any university which would require him to profess his knowledge to eager young minds (you get awarded a cookie if you get this reference). Therefore, "professor" serves purely as a title for him, much like "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il or "Our Beloved Eternal President Comrade" Kim Il-Sung.
Of course, as mentioned before, what Oak clearly forgot was a strong police force, otherwise, Team Rocket and Lawrence III would all have wound up in a gulag a long time ago never to be heard from again.
P.S. Brock is usually labeled as the horny member of the protagonists. However, sometimes, I could not help but feel that Professor Oak was interested in Delia Ketchum (Ash's mom, who's surprisingly sexy considering her age) . Do we know what goes on behind the scenes? ("Now we know raising a 10-year-old boy by yourself must be hard. Oh, and now that Ash is now gallivanting off in search of Pokemon, let's do something.....") Also, finally, Ash himself is one horny SOB, as shown in this screencap of the episode when he meets Professor Ivy.
I don't care what you say. Ash is pretty clearly staring at Ivy's chest. I guess that's no surprise considering it took him 10 seasons of the anime to age 3 years that he finally hit puberty at the end of Season 1.
According to US laws, cockfighting is illegal. However, it is, if anything, actively encouraged to unleash pets (the Pokemon) on each other, like gladiators almost. People not only do not find this morally reprehensible, but in fact obsess over how to dominate over the other guy's Pokemon. In fact, people don't seem to have any other problems to concern them, such as food or housing or even getting a big-screen TV. The only way this is possible is if their society either completely takes care of their everyday needs, or Pokemon battles, like gladiator fights, serve as a convenient distraction from society's real problems.
Also, the need for law and order appears to be more or less nonexistent. Officer Jenny's (and that of her relatives) job seems to be little more than enforcing traffic laws and keeping people from stealing Pokemon (because that would be unfair in a battle, would it not?). Either society takes it for granted that either violent crimes like murder, rape, or robbery won't happen, or the government probably had some serious oversight.
On the subject of clones, Nurse Joy (and all her relatives) seems to be all people need for medical needs, which is more often for a Pokemon than for a human. Do people not get sick or seriously injured very often? Are there not any doctors? Nurses is all they need?
Also, Jenny and Joy appear to have been born out of cloning vats a la clone troopers from Star Wars where two women appear to fill Jango Fett's role as genetic templates. Like Jango Fett clones serve as soldiers (for which there appears to be no need in Pokemon society), Jennys and Joys serve as law enforcement and health care professionals respectively. So I guess that's also why Jenny never rises above the rank of Officer and Joy never goes full MD (or veterinarian, or Pokemon Doctor even): they all get identical training, which makes none of them special, and they all have identical intelligence and work ethic parameters, so they are naturally unable to rise above each other.
We also know Giovanni (and his organization Team Rocket) and Lawrence III (the antagonist from Pokemon: the Movie 2000) are bad guys. Why is that? Well, Giovanni intends to take over the world, but to do that he must capitalize on Pokemon, and he must have his agents take them for him. Meanwhile, Lawrence III is a self-billed collector. So how is stealing or collecting Pokemon somehow morally less ok than having them fight each other? To put it simply, they both represent capitalist ideals. Think about it: the whole concept of wanting to make a profit using Pokemon, or to simply hoard them. Those would not be concepts that sit well with a communist society.
Of course every communist society needs a communist dictator. And who is that? That is none other than Professor Oak. Everyone seems to have respect for him and they always turn to him for advice, and more often than not, his word is absolute. He is called Professor Oak, yet he does not appear to be working for any university which would require him to profess his knowledge to eager young minds (you get awarded a cookie if you get this reference). Therefore, "professor" serves purely as a title for him, much like "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il or "Our Beloved Eternal President Comrade" Kim Il-Sung.
Of course, as mentioned before, what Oak clearly forgot was a strong police force, otherwise, Team Rocket and Lawrence III would all have wound up in a gulag a long time ago never to be heard from again.
P.S. Brock is usually labeled as the horny member of the protagonists. However, sometimes, I could not help but feel that Professor Oak was interested in Delia Ketchum (Ash's mom, who's surprisingly sexy considering her age) . Do we know what goes on behind the scenes? ("Now we know raising a 10-year-old boy by yourself must be hard. Oh, and now that Ash is now gallivanting off in search of Pokemon, let's do something.....") Also, finally, Ash himself is one horny SOB, as shown in this screencap of the episode when he meets Professor Ivy.
I don't care what you say. Ash is pretty clearly staring at Ivy's chest. I guess that's no surprise considering it took him 10 seasons of the anime to age 3 years that he finally hit puberty at the end of Season 1.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Neon Genesis Evangelion--Review and Reaction
After somehow NOT seeing it for this long, I finally finished Neon Genesis Evangelion. What did I think of the series? Well, I'd have to say my feelings are pretty mixed overall.
Earth, 2015, fifteen years after the Second Impact. The Earth is getting bombarded by mysterious alien beings known as the Angels. Fortunately for humankind, NERV has something to say about this, and their response are the mecha known collectively as Evangelion, humanlike robots piloted by 14-year-old children. However, the Third Child, Ikari Shinji, has his own demons, such as his own father, to deal with in addition to protecting mankind in EVA Unit 01.
What I have to credit GAINAX with in this production is the very high production values. For an anime series made in the mid-1990s, the visuals are pretty lush. The mecha designs are very original, I'd have to say and the action scenes are generally very well-done. Of course, since I'm a guy (^_^) I'd also have to credit GAINAX for designing some of the most gorgeous female characters to ever grace an anime series.
Also, I'd have to say the voice-acting in general was pretty good, particularly Ogata Megumi (lead character Shinji) and Hayashibara Megumi (Ayanami Rei). However, I'd have to say the music was a mixed bag of either really good or really average tunes, though thankfully nothing is bad. Both "Cruel Angel's Thesis" and "Fly Me to the Moon" were very good opening and end themes. However, I felt some of the tunes (i.e. the drum tune every time an angel appears) get overused quite a bit.
Now we get to the story. Sadly enough, I feel this is the part of NGE I simply have to criticize. I think I can sort of divide the series into three "phases". The first phase served primarily to get Shinji and co. together into one setting and give introductions to all the major players of the story. The second phase felt more like filler with "Monster of the Week"-type episodes where Angels appear and NERV figuring out ways to defeat them; very little in the way of character development goes on at this point. The last segment of the series, particularly the last two episodes, launches into what seems to be ravings of a manic-depressive. Director Anno Hideaki was apparently on antidepressants while making NGE, and it sure shows towards the end.
In addition to that, I feel half of everything pertaining to NERV was not explained. A lot of this had to do with the ending, which served to be a pretty amazing letdown. I was watching until the end primarily so I could get some sort of closure which I ultimately never got. I simply failed to see how the rest of the series led up to the last two episodes. A pretty good chunk of the major characters had no explanations for their motives, and I felt that I honestly only really knew Shinji, Misato, and Asuka by the end of the series, partly because the ending served as character studies for them; I'm not exactly spoiling anything since the ending is such that it is pretty much impossible to spoil (or even explain).
The ending may at least be partly the result of NGE, like many other anime series, going overbudget before the end. Already, you can see an increase in the use of still cels in lieu of animated motion and other animation shortcuts. Thus, Anno and GAINAX were probably just looking for a way to end the series quickly and economically while letting Anno still have a say in the storytelling.
In conclusion, would I say Neon Genesis Evangelion is a bad anime? No, but I definitely have seen better. Nonetheless, NGE is a classic that should be seen by nearly every otaku primarily for its importance in the history of anime, but (at least in my opinion) certainly not for those expecting solid storytelling or anything else that generally does not resemble ravings of a depressed lunatic.
Overall: 2.5/4
Earth, 2015, fifteen years after the Second Impact. The Earth is getting bombarded by mysterious alien beings known as the Angels. Fortunately for humankind, NERV has something to say about this, and their response are the mecha known collectively as Evangelion, humanlike robots piloted by 14-year-old children. However, the Third Child, Ikari Shinji, has his own demons, such as his own father, to deal with in addition to protecting mankind in EVA Unit 01.
What I have to credit GAINAX with in this production is the very high production values. For an anime series made in the mid-1990s, the visuals are pretty lush. The mecha designs are very original, I'd have to say and the action scenes are generally very well-done. Of course, since I'm a guy (^_^) I'd also have to credit GAINAX for designing some of the most gorgeous female characters to ever grace an anime series.
Also, I'd have to say the voice-acting in general was pretty good, particularly Ogata Megumi (lead character Shinji) and Hayashibara Megumi (Ayanami Rei). However, I'd have to say the music was a mixed bag of either really good or really average tunes, though thankfully nothing is bad. Both "Cruel Angel's Thesis" and "Fly Me to the Moon" were very good opening and end themes. However, I felt some of the tunes (i.e. the drum tune every time an angel appears) get overused quite a bit.
Now we get to the story. Sadly enough, I feel this is the part of NGE I simply have to criticize. I think I can sort of divide the series into three "phases". The first phase served primarily to get Shinji and co. together into one setting and give introductions to all the major players of the story. The second phase felt more like filler with "Monster of the Week"-type episodes where Angels appear and NERV figuring out ways to defeat them; very little in the way of character development goes on at this point. The last segment of the series, particularly the last two episodes, launches into what seems to be ravings of a manic-depressive. Director Anno Hideaki was apparently on antidepressants while making NGE, and it sure shows towards the end.
In addition to that, I feel half of everything pertaining to NERV was not explained. A lot of this had to do with the ending, which served to be a pretty amazing letdown. I was watching until the end primarily so I could get some sort of closure which I ultimately never got. I simply failed to see how the rest of the series led up to the last two episodes. A pretty good chunk of the major characters had no explanations for their motives, and I felt that I honestly only really knew Shinji, Misato, and Asuka by the end of the series, partly because the ending served as character studies for them; I'm not exactly spoiling anything since the ending is such that it is pretty much impossible to spoil (or even explain).
The ending may at least be partly the result of NGE, like many other anime series, going overbudget before the end. Already, you can see an increase in the use of still cels in lieu of animated motion and other animation shortcuts. Thus, Anno and GAINAX were probably just looking for a way to end the series quickly and economically while letting Anno still have a say in the storytelling.
In conclusion, would I say Neon Genesis Evangelion is a bad anime? No, but I definitely have seen better. Nonetheless, NGE is a classic that should be seen by nearly every otaku primarily for its importance in the history of anime, but (at least in my opinion) certainly not for those expecting solid storytelling or anything else that generally does not resemble ravings of a depressed lunatic.
Overall: 2.5/4
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