This is a sticky post that will act as small notice board for random tid bits. All actual posts will follow below this one. For more information please check the “About” page.
2017/03/05 – Updated the theme for my blog! I wasn’t meaning to change the layout, but the “Categories” plugin for my old theme wasn’t working anymore so I had to change to a more recent and supported theme. The banner image at the top was from Sculptures by the Sea in 2013, taken on my Canon 7D. Enjoy!
I can’t believe it’s been over 2 years since season 2 of Sword Art Online finished airing; fans have been waiting for new animation to be released and we get that in the form of a film this year! I don’t really post anime reviews in general but I feel confident enough to put forward my opinion on the Sword Art Online series as I have read most of its material (including all the main light novels and some of the side story light novels). I’ve decided to split my review into a spoiler free section (to help those who want to make an informed decision about whether to watch this movie or not), and an in-depth section with spoilers to engage those who want to analyse the intricate details behind the movie and the series in general.
This semester is very busy; I haven’t blogged for a while. Put two and two together, and you’ll simply see me blogging about anime, rather than something more “important”. But why not? My goal hopefully is to explain to people who are not into anime, the beauty and complexity of this Japanese “art”. Are they nothing more than just “cartoons” you ask? Well, these cartoons contributed to many of my English essays back in high school (and I scored really good marks with them) so they are of some intellectual value at the least.
Anime is a difficult to understand art form because people generally put it down to the same level as children’s cartoons. However, I think a more reasonable way to understand anime is that it is a combination of children’s cartoons (with its imaginative design) and regular TV series (with its complexity in story elements). So essentially, many (not all) anime can be compared to everything else you see on TV, except it’s translated into cartoon animations and may have imaginative themes and elements – or fantasy, more like.
Anyway I’ll try to keep this short so that it won’t bore those who have a weak (or null) interest in anime. There are certain elements that each anime has which determine its appeal to the public; but at the same time these elements are probably apparent in anything else you see on TV. It is these ones which will be common to most anime:
Well obviously the characters are important.
Personality – For personality, it is not just about a single character’s personality but rather all the characters in the anime juxtaposed with each other. Yes I know, it sounds like English again, but this is what makes certain characters likeable. Commonly, pairing up a nice, quiet and shy character alongside one with exactly the opposite traits (loud, hot-headed, outspoken) makes for an interesting cast of characters. Obviously, it makes no sense to have multiple characters who are just like one another, it’d be like seeing the same character over and over again. But anime does well by having a wide cast of characters, all of whom have a wide variety of characteristics which complement well with other characters. Can’t think of a prime example but this one would count:
Edward & Alphonse Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist
Character Development – This is by far the most important aspect for characters; that is, watching them grow as the story develops. In movies and in most TV series, characters maintain their traits throughout; most of the time there are the same character at the end, as they were at the beginning. But a series of anime can go on long enough for characters to open up a side of themselves that nobody has seen; or they can just change completely as well. Some characters change for the better, and others for worse. But part of the enjoyment in watching anime is seeing the characters “grow”. Not the best example again, but this one definitely stands out:
Uchiha Sasuke from Naruto
Voice Casting – The Japanese term for this is “seiyuu" which refers to the voice actor of characters. Obviously, animated characters need a voice behind them; and just like Disney carefully picks their voices actors for their movies, so it is also for the many series of anime that have aired. A character’s attitude and personality is definitely influenced by whoever is playing them and so it’s important to pick the right person for the right job. You can’t just put any voice behind any character. America is a good example of someone who does it completely wrong; just take a look at ANY English-dubbed anime and you’ll see voices that don’t match the character (just from appearance alone), ; it needs to be done right. One recent actor who’s added a lot of depth to the characters she’s played is:
Ayana Taketatsu (Notable roles: K-ON! and OreImo)
Plot – Again, quite an obvious one. All anime need a plot in their story, otherwise there is no sort of “progress” in the anime; and the characters won’t really be doing or achieving anything. It makes sense that any story is easier to follow if the events follow a sequence of some sort. There are some anime that don’t have a plot but can be good, but that really depends on the audience’s taste – do they want a story, or do they just want to see characters do random stuff? In either case, a plot gives the audience something to focus on. And as for anime that don’t have a plot, their strengths must lie elsewhere:
No plot whatsoever: To Aru Majutsu no Index |
Ironically, the side story does: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun – same link |
Ah, better get back to work. Will update later.
This is the 7th movie instalment of the Naruto series and the directors are still somewhat able to come up with new ways to endanger the ninja world. The movie ranks just as poor as the other ones and is pretty much near being the worst Naruto movie out of the 7.
Our antagonist, Hiruko, is up to his final stage in creating the “perfect” ninja through his chimera technique; a body which contains 5 bloodline limits. The last one that needed to be obtained was the Sharingan from Hatake Kakashi. He activates a curse he placed on Kakashi long ago that “zombifies” him and makes him walk from the Leaf Village to his lair. Naruto and friends give chase, stop Kakashi and defeat Hiruko.
What? Did you expect more? Of course not.
Let’s take a look at Hiruko first. I’m still getting confused at whether our main antagonist is male or female, once again. He stays mummified for the entire film but you do get to see his ugly face at the very end before he dies. Essentially he’s the same character as Orochimaru, did forbidden experiments and eventually got booted out of the village. His motive for trying to become perfect stems from nothing more than mere envy; being laughed at for being weak by the Legendary Sannin. And on top of that, he wants to start a 4th ninja war; not the most creative thing to do with power, but it sure beats taking over the world 
(again) any day. Hiruko starts of having already stolen 4 bloodline limits. They’re all simply made up, so don’t think it has anything to do with the eyes: Byakugan, Rinengan. But it does beg the question why the Sharingan was involved. Hiruko’s 4 abilities that stem from the bloodline limits are:
Anything that deals with technical details of the anime will be placed in a quote box and in red.
How does the Sharingan make a ninja perfect? It’s not like Hiruko could use the Sharingan as well as Madara anyhow. And on that note it’s funny to see that Hiruko miserably aims for the weakest Sharigan user around, and there aren’t many to choose from anymore. This was probably a sad excuse to make Kakashi a central character in this movie.
Apart from Hiruko, there are three more bad guys, making a total of 4 bad guys in this movie. What’s worse is that the other three don’t even get named; one of them uses snakes, another is a beast specialist (like Kiba) and the last one uses a weird bird that can drop a lot of explosive feathers (like explosive tags).
The fight scenes are really disappointing, the first proper one doesn’t even come in until halfway through the anime. Meanwhile all we see is a zombified Kakashi advancing very slowly towards Hiruko. Prior to being controlled, he requests to Tsunade not to be followed and that he be made a ticking time bomb to blow up Hiruko when he tries to absorb the Sharingan. The rest of the anime just drags on with Naruto and Sakura trying to follow Kakashi while everyone else is trying to stop them on account of Tsunade’s orders; one sacrifice is enough.
Naruto remains the naive obnoxious character that he’s always been, insisting that they stop Kakashi because they can’t just sacrifice someone to save everyone else. He relates back to the first couple of episodes in the anime with the bell training (the same bells appear as a recurring motif in this movie) where Kakashi tells them its better to break rules than to let your friends down. But of course Naruto doesn’t think with his head about the matter and that’s how we actually get a movie going on.
Shikamaru takes on a larger role than the other characters; apart from being told exactly what Kakashi and Tsunade want to happen, it’s up to him to reason with Naruto and try to stop him. In the pursuit of Naruto, he is the last one to finally let him have his own way, reflecting back on Asuma and what he says about protecting the village and all.
It’s strange how it takes the entire village to stop Naruto and Sakura. All the regular characters make a fair appearance in the movie (by that I mean they get a fair amount of air time and action). Funny how you don’t see any other random ninjas, just the main characters. Anyway they all chase Naruto and Sakura up to Hiruko’s lair where they get confronted with the three nameless bad guys. It was a 9 on 3 fight (10 if you count Akamaru) which makes things just as unfair as the Bleach movies, where the protagonist to antagonist ratio is just unreasonable. Again like I said none of the fights were spectacular, which is fair since all the characters need some air time, so each character only gets enough time to do a simple technique and then leave the scene.
Interesting side notes: We get three flash backs that are worth considering. The first is of Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke’s bell training in the opening episodes of the anime; it was probably good of them to highlight a previous notion they raised there when Sakura and Sasuke tried to feed Naruto despite Kakashi’s orders. Second is of Shikamaru reminiscing on Asuma and the last words he left. Third is of Kakashi back in the third ninja war, where Obito dies and gives Kakashi the Sharingan; you don’t see that particular scene, which sucks, but it sort of adds to context I suppose. The second note is that the summoning technique does what we would’ve thought it does: it teleports the summoned object from one place to where the caster is. The three bad guys can summon each other, and Hiruko can summon all three of them as well. It was funny to see them get smashed individually and then have them teleported from their individual torture (reminds me of Syllabear, and teleporting the bear to save it, like that).
Perhaps the most pathetic thing in the movie was the final scene; skip all the intermediate fighting because it just isn’t worth mentioning. Who defeats Hiruko? Of course it’s Naruto. Nope, not even Kakashi is important enough to get the honours of doing so; he does spend half the movie possessed. How does Naruto beat Hiruko? With shame, that’s how. Remember my theory from many Naruto movies back that the rasengans in each final attack get bigger and bi
gger as each movie goes by? Well, the theory still stands after 7 movies. The final attack sort of followed a Dragon Ball Z: Goku’s Final Spirit Bomb against Frieza. Naruto’s clones and Kakashi cause a distraction, and Naruto comes from above and launches that humungous rasen shuriken. Minus the 5 episode delay, it was a pretty lame climax.
Note 1: Out of some misfortune, Hiruko could not absorb the spirit bomb rasengan, which is stupid and a lame excuse to die. It would’ve been more reasonable if it was the Nine-Tail’s chakara; a blood-red rasengan would’ve been kind of cool. But then again that’s impossible since nobody was in danger to trigger Naruto’s rage.
Note 2: Naruto probably summons more shadow clones in the movie alone than in the all anime episodes put together. On top of that, he makes them all conjure up rasengans, twice! It’s difficult to believe that Naruto would still have had enough chakara to summon the spirit bomb at the end; you know it doesn’t make sense.
Oh, and Gaara makes an appearance, and fights Naruto at some point before the final battle. Didn’t really make sense why they gave him such a role, even the other characters are like: “Why are you here?” He just didn’t belong in this movie. The movie closes with Naruto returning the bells (that he fixed) to Kakashi, who replies with: “You remind me of him (Obito).” Kakashi gives a weird smile, not that you could even see it under his mask, and all the other characters call him gay. Naruto runs away thinking Kakashi is gay, and Kakashi chases after him. Cut to credits.
No, I’m serious, that is how the movie ends. Stupid right? I think so too.
“Velonica” is the 9th single from the ever-popular J-Rock band Aqua Timez and they are very fortunate to have this song being used as the 9th opening for the popular anime Bleach. “Velonica” is slightly unlike Aqua Timez’s more recent singles such as “Niji” and “Natsu no Kakera”. The lyrics are of a slightly more darker theme and has bass and melody to match. We finally see more of the rapping style from Aqua Timez in this song; the verses are rapped out, followed by a slow pre-chorus and then a strong techno and up-beat chorus.
The song does well to maintain a nice long chorus, which gives listeners more to remember subconsciously and hum. Of course due to the rap element in the song, there is less of the rock element but a guitar bass still keeps the rock mood there. A definite must-have for Aqua Timez fans; and for newcomers, do not be fooled into thinking that all Aqua Timez songs are like this, they all vary.
Here is the anime opening sequence for the song:
Here are the lyrics and translations. Please remember these are my fifth translations only.
Zasetsu mamire ryuukou no magire
Shiawase na furi wo shite utau
Motto hashire to iikikashite
Mubou ni mo sotto kazakami he
Kita michi wo ichibetsu yutori wa gomen
Shimensoka sansen ni tsugu ONE GAME
“Yama ari tami ari gake ari”
Chiri wa tsumotte iku
Hateshinai tabi no tochuu de
Machi no hazure ni tachiyoru
Tsukareta ryouashi wo
Sotto nagedashite nekorobu to
Kurikaesareru asai nemuri
Nando mo onaji ano yokogao
Nando mo onaji ano kotoba wo
“Ikiteru dake de kanashii to omou no wa watashi dake nano?” to
Tabako no kemuri ga chuu wo uneri
Utsuro ni kieru kitto mada chikara naki osanai hibi ni
Minakute ii kanashimi wo mitekita kimi wa ima
Koraenakute ii namida wo koraete sugoshiteru
Honto no koto dake de ikite yukeru hodo
Bokura wa tsuyokunaisa tsuyokunakute ii ii?
Mochiageta mabuta sekai wa haru da
Sakura iro no kaze wo kakiwakete
Haruka kanata he mukau tochuu
Kono na no hana hatake ni kimi wa ita no kana
Kono sora ni tori no shiroi habataki wo
Boku ga sagasu ma kitto
Kimi wa daichi ni mimi wo sumashi
Ari no kuroi ashioto wo sagashitan darou na
Piero no you na kamen wo hai de
Taiyou ni wasurerareta oka ni tachi
Tsuki no hikari wo abite fukaku iki wo suu
Sara no wareru oto mo donari goe mo nai sekai
Nukumori ga nakutatte ikite wa yukeru sa
Dakedo bokura ikiteru dake jya tarinakute
Mebuku daichi ya buatsui miki ya
Kiesaru niji ya sugisaru hibi ya
Yozora no SPEAKER shiki no fushigi ga
Oshiete kureta shinjitsu wo sagashi tsuzukeru bokura ni
Doko made tabi wo shite mo inochi no hajimari wa
Ikite aisaretai to nai ta hitori no akago
Koko de wa nai doko ka wo mezasu riyuu to wa
Kokoro de wa nai doko ka ni kotae wa nai to shiru tame
Stained by frustration and confused by fashion,
I pretend to be happy and sing.
I run recklessly and gracefully
further on towards the wind.
I glance back at the path I came from
while everyone betrays me, and the ONE GAME that follows conflict.
“There are mountains, valleys and cliffs”
and the dust keeps piling up.
Along the way of my never-ending journey,
I stop by at the edge of town.
Both of my tired feet silently gave way
and I lie down
to keep falling into a shallow sleep.
It’s that same face every time.
It’s those sane words every time.
“Am I the only one who thinks living is sad?”
The tobacco smoke that lingers in the air
disappears into emptiness in the days when I’m still young and weak
You witness the sadness that you shouldn’t be seeing
And hold back tears that you should be crying.
We’re living by truth alone
but we’re not strong so is it okay to be weak? Is it?
I open my eyes and the world is Spring.
The cherryblossom-coloured wind pushes through
along the way as I head far far away.
I wonder if you were in this field of vegetables.
I search for the white fluttering
of birds in this sky.
You opened your ears to the ground
and searched for the blank trail of ants, didn’t you?
I tear off my clown-like mask
as I stand on a hill which the sun forgot.
The moonlight washes over me and I take a deep breath.
In a world where’s no smashing plates or angry voices
I’ll keep on living even if there’s no warmth.
However, simply living isn’t enough for us.
The budding ground, the massive trunk,
the vanishing rainbow, the passing days,
the night sky speaker, the wonders of the four seasons.
They all teach me to continue searching for the truth.
No matter how far I journey it’s like the start of life,
I’m a lonely baby wanting to live and be loved.
The reason we keep leaving here for somewhere else
is to realize there’s no answer other than in the heart.
You may download the full single from my website here:
The Counter Break 