Birthday • 1990-05-20 Gender •
Female Location • Koreatown, Chicago (seriously) Member Since • 2005-10-16 Occupation • recently promoted to Ultimate Fangirl :3 Real Name • H.L.
Personal
Goals • To become mature enough to accomplish something in my life. Hobbies • Dolls, photography, films, music, and anything even remotely artsy. Talents • Writing, occasionally being very creative, and thinking I'm funny.
myOtaku.com: bellpickle
Welcome to my site archives. 10 posts are listed per page.
aitai ima yasashii kimi ni sakura KISSU--tokimeitara ranman koi shiyo
Just watched episode 13 of Ouran, "Haruhi in Wonderland," and I think I'm one of the minority who really liked it. Admittedly, I think a person's enjoyment of the episode depends mainly on their tolerance level for Alice in Wonderland and lots of visual metaphors and such. Personally, I thought the analogies were worked in really well, and it did a nice job of showing just how much Haruhi and the others have changed over the course of the show thus far, as well as providing some background on Haruhi's character.
A commentor on Memento said that it's the "crackiest recap episode ever," and if you look at it from that perspective, it's actually pretty entertaining considering.
ALSO:
OMG BABY NEKOZAWA. CHECK OUT THE BEELZENEF CAP. Seriously, that just made the entire series for me. Now, I'm off the the Ouran LJ community to demand baby Nekozawa icons. Comments (3) |
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And now, I'm off to the bank, then to see The Devil Wears Prada. :3
EDIT: Got back from the bank, and I have officially gathered all $600+ needed to buy my BJD! I'm probably going to order it early tomorrow morning. ^_^ Comments (2) |
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Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Just got back from watching Superman Returns. Admittedly, I've never been a big fan of Superman (I'm more of a Batman person, haha), but it was pretty entertaining. I think the best part of the whole thing was the lead actor. He was really good, appropriately dorky as Clark Kent and charming as Superman.
Admittedly, I thought Kevin Spacey was a little awkward as Lex Luthor, and parts of the climax scene were resolved in a really stupid way, but I still thought it was a good movie. I enjoyed the first half more than the second, probably because the first half felt more light-hearted and fun than the action-packed latter half of the film. Anyway, I gave it an 8/10 at IMDb. :3
There are a few other movies I'm interested in seeing this summer. In fact, I'm probably going to see The Devil Wears Prada (major chick flick, I know) this Friday.
Also:
That, my friends, is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Comments (1) |
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Tuesday, June 27, 2006
ladies and gentlemen, good evening.
So I spent a large part of today rewatching episodes of Gankutsuou with a friend, and I'm easily on my way to rewatching the whole darn thing. (Which is pretty rare for me, actually.) The dialogue is just so good; I swear I become entranced every time The Count opens his mouth.
As some of you may have noticed, Gankutsuou is the anime with the craaaazy animation that I've been pimping out for months now. And for you poor fools who have yet to see it, I found this vid on YouTube. It's the very last scene of the series (no spoilers, unless you look into it too deeply), and includes a brief rundown of most of the major characters.
Also, Hyde's FAITH album was released in America today. I first listened to it a few weeks ago, and it's surprisingly listenable. (As much as I'm a fan of L'Arc~en~Ciel, I don't highly praise the members' solo works.)
It's a little too American most of the time, though I'm sure many others won't necessarily consider that a bad thing. In fact, much of the lyrics are in actual comprehensible English. (AMAZING, I know!)
Wow. I am feeling incredibly lazy in the writing department today. And since anything Ouran imbues awesomeness, I'll just let these icons speak for themselves.
the two of us, so dissimilar, are connected by a slender thread
I planned to post this yesterday, but I was waaaay to busy to do so. So, I guess I'll end up wrapping up these featurettes tomorrow instead of today.
I cheat on this in two ways. First, I actually finished watching this series about four months ago, but since the second season begins airing in Japan this Thursday, I figure I may as well. Second, ANN published a review of this series a while back, and since that review is what got me interested in the series in the first place, and since it describes H&C better than I can, I'm going to let it speak on my behalf:
"Honey and Clover began life as the debut series for Fuji TV's "Noitamina" (read it backwards) lineup, a new anime block aimed at older female audiences... But even viewers outside the target demographic attest to its greatness, pointing out its heartfelt storytelling and unique visual style. It was supposed to be just good enough for sophisticated female viewers—and it ended up being good enough for everyone."
"...The mood of the show switches effortlessly from madcap comedy to utter heartbreak and everything in between, yet nothing feels out of place. Within a single episode, a game of Art School Twister takes humor to new heights, and yet minutes later, Takemoto muses upon the meaning of friendship."
"...Like all good shoujo, Honey and Clover succeeds because of its characters' complex personalities... Ayumi openly reveals everything we hate about themselves: weakness, insecurity, and the tendency to do really stupid things in the name of love. She is the most human character in a cast of incredibly human characters."
"...Despite this realism on the emotional level, however, the artwork in the show is decidedly surreal and dreamlike. The character designs match the manga almost perfectly with big, expressive eyes, ultrathin lines, and characteristic hatch marks."
"...If music is the language of emotion, then few shows speak it as eloquently as this one... The most effective emotional tools, however, are the insert songs by singer-songwriter Suga Shikao and rock group SPITZ. Playing a poignant song over internal monologue is hardly a new thing, especially in angsty teen dramas, but to hear it used in an anime makes the technique fresh once more."
"...Whether in school or not, who hasn't asked themselves at some point: "What do I want to do? Who do I want to be?" Honey and Clover may not have the answers, but it's all about trying to find them."
I spent most of my afternoon obsessively rewatching a Loveless AMV over and over again while writing an article. But mostly just watching the AMV. It's funny how quickly I turn into a bum during the summer.
When I first heard of this series over a year ago, I was immediately intrigued. Kurosawa's Seven Samurai as a sci-fi futuristic action anime? With mecha? What the!? Though if Gankutsuou was any clue, it can be done! And thankfully, it turned out to be a lot fun.
The storyline of the first 10 episodes or so are devoted to the gathering of the warriors, and thus is entirely original from the film. During this part of the anime, the story is entertaining enough, though it's really worth watching for the action sequences. They're very, very fast-paced and well chereographed--the type of fights I enjoy most.
However, when the samurai reach the village, that's when the story starts to get truly interesting. (Which makes sense, since that's when the original film starts its story.) The tension and conflicts between the farmers and samurai is fascinating to watch unfold, and the issues that erupt between the samurai makes it even more interesting. And of course, the action scenes only get more and more epic.
To anyone looking for a good action series, I recommend you check this series out, especially if you're able to watch it on television. Since I've been watching this on IFC, I don't have videos to take screencaps from. So instead, I lifted the followings screencaps from this website.
take the wine and take my hand and fly
According to ANN: X Japan founder Yoshiki will join MUCC and Nana Kikada at Otakon...
You have got to be kidding me. First it's announced that Romi Paku, CLAMP, and Mana are attending AX, and now this? To anyone attending AX or Otakon: have fun, you bastards!
This is a very, very intriguing anime. The first thing most people probably notice is this series' incredible production values. The animation reminds me a lot of Texhnolyze, but with a certain theatrical level of quality that Texhnolyze doesn't quite reach. (Actually, the series as a whole reminds me a lot of Texhnolyze, except more comprehensible and with a little more action.)
Besides the animation, the sound effects, music, and directing are all top-notch and handled with a lot of care. Also, the more suspenseful scenes are brilliantly executed; as morbid as this sounds, any scene involving PROXY and killing is guaranteed to look amazing. It's truly an excellent series on a technical level.
If all the Texhnolyze references haven't clued you in yet, Ergo Proxy is a very dark series. Some of its scenes even border on horrific. I think the settings express the tone of the series best, especially in the desolateness of the "outside world."
One of the few aspects of Ergo Proxy that could potentially drive viewers away is its slow pace. A lot of interesting events happen even early on, but I can easily imagine others becoming bored with the long bouts of expository dialogue during the first couple episodes. Though, once the story really begins moving and once all of the strange terms they use start to mean something, it quickly becomes very involving.
The series has an incredibly well-made opening--probably the best I've seen. So, instead of the usual screencaps, I'm posting a vid of the opening. We'll have to settle for Youtube quality, though it can only be fully appreciated in the high-quality downloads, and I can only imagine how good it will be on DVD.
Went to the Pillows' concert last night and it was wild. I had a great time, despite being tired, hungry, and sore from standing for three hours at the end of it.
I know everyone already knows of this anime, but I don't care. :P
First off, I've never been a huge fan of comedy anime series. I honestly don't find most of them to be all that funny. So, it's rather rare for me to find an anime absolutely hilarious, but Haruhi Suzumiya is one of those very few series.
Admittedly, when I downloaded the first episode a couple weeks back, I didn't immediately realize that the entire episode was a fake film (and it also served as a parody of magical girl series and harem anime). But once I caught on, it easily became one of the best first episodes I've seen in any anime, comedy or otherwise.
However, much of that is due to the fact that it wasn't really the first episode. This series takes an interesting approach to the arrangement episodes; the broadcasting order is completely different from the actual chronological order of the episodes. This may seem confusing and unnecessary at first, but it actually works to the series advantage later on; certain climactic episodes that were originally in the middle of the series feel much more effective when placed near the end.
If you're a fan of comedy anime, or even if you aren't, I highly recommend you check this series out. Though, considering how popular this series seems to have become, you'll probably be hearing a lot about it soon enough.
EDIT: Holy crap, look at the rating it has on ANN. I don't think I've ever seen that bar grow so long. o_o
Before I go onto today's featured anime, I'm going to tell you all about a little manga I recently bought called Godchild. In a nutshell, IT IS AWESOME. More specifically, Cain is awesome. Man, if only Setsuna from Angel Sanctuary had been more like him.
Simply put, this series is made out of cool. I imagine this is how Cowboy Bebop might have turned out if instead of jazz, the entire mood of the series was based off of heavy metal. Loud, angry heavy metal.
When Levy, the chick in the first and second pic below, first opens her mouth, I immediately knew that I would like the series. Gleeful, gunslinging violence abounds, and the characters swear more than I do. In other words, my kind of anime.
But it's certainly not mindless. There's a lot of interesting themes and issues brought up in the dialogue, especially concering Levy and Rock's constant clash in views and worlds--Levy being the murdering, corpse-pillaging thief and Rock being the middle-class, moralistic businessman turned pirate.
Another note if interest is the opening theme song, which features totally incomprehensible Engrish lyrics. I managed to track down the official lyrics of the song, however:
I have a big gun
I took it from my Lord
Sick with Justice
I just wanna feel you
I’m your angel
Only a ring away
You make me violate you
No matter who you are
It’s all up to you
No one lives forever
Been burn in the hell
By all those pigs out there
It’s always been hell
From when I was born
They make me violate them
No matter who they are
Get down on your knees
Get a good head on your shoulders
If it’s for your guys
Go to the end of the earth
Do what you think
Give it with dedication
I’ll put out your misery
You made a mess
For Christ sake, this rotten world
Shit out of luck
Go with my vision
Light up the fire
Right on the power
Weapon… I have it all
