Showing posts with label animation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animation. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Chevalier D'eon - Anime Review

Overall Rating: B+

Synopsis: D'eon Beaumont is an attractive young nobleman whose normal days of hanging out at Versailles just ended - the story starts with his sister's body pumped full of mercury, floating in a coffin down the Seine River. D'eon falls into the dangers and intricacies of his sister's spy duties as her spirit inhabits his body and assists in searching for her killer.

Far superior to the American movie Marie Antoinette, this show immerses the viewer 18th century France Versailles, and keeps it interesting. D'eon's accomplices include Robin (gunslinging pageboy), Durand (seemingly shifty swordsman), and Teillagory (master swordsman). And, lest we forget, he is also accompanied by his sister's vengeful spirit, who occasionally takes over his body during crisis scenes and commits ultra-violence (it's a lot like he goes Saiyan - his voice gets high-pitched, glowing red text appears on his sword and he's suddenly a bad-ass).

Here are the reasons you should watch this animated series:
- Awesome animation
- Well-written
- Sword fights
- Mercury-filled zombie fights

I adore well-done mysteries, and this one involves zombies, possession and did I mention cross-dressing? There's cross-dressing.

Rating Reasoning: The show has some minor localization flaws. Some of the voice acting is sub-par (which I thought was a play on stuffy noblemen at first). One of the first mystery plot points involve the word "PSALMS" and the subsequent Bible verses. Devout upper-class Frenchmen were unfamiliar with popular biblical references and had to research to discover them. I imagine this was more for the Asian audiences.

Note: This story is also a manga. It is also loosely based on historical fact - Chevalier d'Eon was a French diplomat, spy, soldier and Freemason who lived the first half of his life as a man and the second half as a woman.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Millenium Actress - Animated Movie

Rating: B+
Synopsis: 2001 Japanese animated film. Directed by Satoshi Kon (pronounced "Cone"), animated by Studio Madhouse. A documentary director interviews a former actress, Chiyoko, about her heydays in film during WWII. Millenium Actress has the immersive ephemereal feel that Kon is an expert at.

Millenium Actress gives me that vivid meta-feeling I get when watching Charlie Kaufman's films (Adaptation especially). The story follows two documentary makers as they interview actress-turned-hermit Chiyoko and slowly become recurring characters in her stories from the past. Fiction and reality become so intertwined that it becomes difficult to tell which is which, but the recurring plotline is recognizable, and is expertly given a new twist each time it appears.

I really enjoyed Millenium Actress. The animation is beautiful, and the various WWII film stories manage to incorporate fairy tales, science fiction, and historical dramas into the plot seamlessly. I watched this movie recently in order to gear up for Kon's new film Paprika opening in the U.S. later in May. It can be a bit difficult to grasp some of the things going on in Millenium Actress, so watch it with an alert mind (be careful, Nick fell asleep during the movie, but that's mostly his fault).

Beautiful, award-winning, with a compelling story (and it's #14 on IMDB's Top 50 Animated Films) - you should totally netflix it.
Millenium Actress Trailer (Quicktime)

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

All Hobotaku Reviews/Ratings

Ordered by English Title Alphabetically

** Manga **
Air Gear Volume 1: B
Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes: A
Battle Angel Alita Volumes 1-9: A
BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad Volumes 1-7: A+
Black Metal Volume 1: 666 (the equivalent of an A+)
Black Sun Silver Moon Volume 1: A
Bleach: A+
Buddha : A+
Ceres, Celestial Legend : D+
Cromartie High School : Manga - B? / Anime - A-
D. Gray-man Volume 1: B-
D. Gray-man Volumes 2-5: A-
Dokebi Bride: B
Dramacon: C
Fruits Basket Volumes 1 & 2: A to the cute power
Gacha Gacha (Capsule): D
Genshiken : A+
God Child Vol. 1: C+
Gothic Sports: A+
Hayate: the Combat Butler: B-
Hellsing: A+
Hollow Fields Volume 1: B+
Kamikaze Girls : A++
King of Thorn : B+
King City Volume 1 : A
Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service: A
Loveless Volume 1: B-
ME2 Volume 1: A-
Midori Days: Rating: B-
Monster Book of Manga ; Draw Like the Experts: D
Nana Volume 1: A
Naruto Volume 1-4: A
Negima Volume 1: ?Negima Volume 2: F
Princess Resurrection Volume 1: B+
The Push Man and other stories: A
Rozen Maiden Volumes 1 - 4: B+
Shaman King: C
Shutterbox Volume 1: F
Vampire Knight Volume 1: B+
Venus Versus Virus Volume 1: A+
xxxHolic: A-
Yotsuba&! Volumes 1 - 3: A+


** Anime/Animation **
Afro Samurai: F
Azumanga Daioh: A+++
Chevalier D'Eon: B+
Ergo Proxy: A
Hellsing (original): B
Hellsing (new): A
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: A++
Millenium Actress: B+
Paprika: A+++
Paradise Kiss: A
Voices of a Distant Star: C-/D



** Videogames **
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean (GameCube): A-
Super Paper Mario (Wii): B-/C


** Miscellaneous **
Kamikaze Girls (movie) : A++
Hobotaku Budget Tip #1: Read Manga at the Bookstore
Hobotaku Budget Tip #2: Get a Library Card
People in Manga to Know About: Rumiko Takahashi
People in Manga to Know About: Osamu Tezuka
Train Man: A+