Another week, another decent but ultimately underwhelming filler episode. In many ways, this week's episode felt very much like the announcer at a show trying to keep the audience occupied until the main event is ready to begin. There's some decently entertaining stuff that happens this episode, and while it does a good job of distracting you, its not until the last few moments of the episode that things actually get fairly interesting.
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「ノー・ワン・イズ・イノセン／bye bye angel」 (Nō wan Izu inosento) "No One Is Innocent" Wherever The Truth is from, apparently they need more lolis.
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Spirited Away Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney) Movie - 125 mins. - 2 discs $29.99 (2003) ISBN 786936213843 Japanese/English Audio - English Subtitles Director - Hayao Miyazaki Studio - Studio Ghibli Synopsis: Chihiro is moving to a new town with her family because of her father's work.  She had to leave all of her friends behind and feels sad.  Her father gets lost on the way to the new house and ends up on a deserted road.  Chihiro follows both her parents into a spooky passageway leading to a deserted train station. The station appears abandoned and they continue outside across a field of grass to what appears to be a deserted shopping district.  All of the shops look empty, but food is ready at the restaurants and her parents sit down to eat.  They stuff themselves greedily with no one around and her father makes an excuse to pay the shop owners later. Chihiro drives with her parents to find their new home.  They don'tseem to care that she has just left all of her friends behind. It becomes dusk and lanterns begin to glow all along the streets.  Strange shadowy figures coalesce in the streets and Chihiro's apprehension advances to growing dread.  She knows something is wrong, but her parents are oblivious.  Pleading with them to leave she is horrified to find they are transforming into hogs even as they shovel more food into their lengthening snouts.  Panicking she rushes to cross the grassy field and escape, but it has filled with water to become a river with the deserted train station now lit up on the other shore. Chihiro frantically runs through the previously deserted streetsas the disturbing shadow blobs proliferate and solidify Chihiro is frightened and alone with the shadowy figures solidifying into bizarre creatures all around her until an authoritative boy tells her to leave before nightfall.  Unable to leave and losing cohesion as surely as the shadows come into form she wanders hopelessly toward the entrance of a grand bathhouse.  The boy, Haku, pulls her aside and bids her eat something lest she evaporate from being.  He saves her and she is led into the bathhouse in order to obtain a job, which is the only way to remain there rightfully. Haku helps Sen by bringing her to visit her transformed parents, giving her food, and telling her to always remember her name Yubaba is the owner of the bathhouse and a powerful witch (with a giant head).  Chihiro signs a contract for a job, but the condition is her name is changed to Sen.  If Chihiro forgets her real name she will be a trapped as a servant forever.  Her parents remain hogs in the bathhouse's pens among the other swine.  Sen vows to rescue them and return to the real world. Yubaba is very scary and has a really big head! Sen begins her menial work at the bathhouse by scrubbing floors and cleaning tubs.  She is befriended by another worker named Lin who is gruff, but kindhearted.  The two are given an incredibly odious job to clean out an especially dirty tub and help a disgustingly smelly stink spirit.  The bathhouse patrons are largely from the spirit world and not always what they seem. Lin and Sen work to clean a particularly dirty bath before getting assigned an especially smelly customer Remaining true to herself and drawing on her own inner strength in order to deal with the impossible situation, Sen manages to hang in there and keep a level head.  She is very kind and her good intentions cause a terrible situation which endangers the bathhouse (involving a creature named No Face).  Haku is a powerful spirit himself and trapped in a contract with Yubaba.  Can Sen possibly return to the real world and save her parents from being eaten? No Face offers Sen some bath tokens.  Initially gentle andunassuming, the creature later becomes a serious problem Pros: Wonderful story - just like a fairy tale, beautiful animation with hand drawn scenes meshed flawlessly to computer-aided effects, imaginative character designs - particularly the spirits, highest grossing film in Japanese history (at the time), won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, immerses viewers into a bizarrely magical world, good dub especially Suzanne Pleshette as Yubaba/Zeniba, nice soundtrack, decent subtitles Chihiro works alongside the soot sprites in theboiler room to feed the boiler for the bathhouse Cons: Might be a little scary for some younger kids (particularly sensitive viewers) at some points (especially No Face), I didn't like the one cartoony part where Sen crashes into a wall and goes flat like a pancake (this isn't Looney Tunes), not a Western cartoon and some folks just may not get it (or they'll consider it really weird), plot can jump around too quickly with all of the strange happenings at the bathhouse, things wrap up too neatly and characters can be too nice Chihiro rides the elevator with a big yet kind radish spirit Mike Tells It Straight: Spirited Away is easily one of my all-time favorite films and especially among those from Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli (together with Laputa: Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, and Princess Mononoke).  It's a wonderfully imaginative coming-of-age story which continues to delight me to this day.  This film is another masterpiece by Miyazaki and garnered international acclaim while breaking serious new ground in America after winning an Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2002. Some Yokai patrons of the bathhouse The film is not perfect and although I'm highly biased toward giving it an unabashedly favorable review it may not be equally received by other viewers.  My two-year-old loves it, but she hasn't developed a strong sense of fear yet.  Slightly older children may get scared in a few parts (like when No Face eats one of the bathhouse workers).  The plot can be called too whimsical (mostly near the end with the visit to Zeniba's house) and lacking in structure.  Things happen without explanations - some people will dislike when this happens. Chihiro/Sen on the train with No Face to see Zeniba On the whole Spirited Away is a creative triumph in animated storytelling.  Chihiro's tale is a great metaphor for being an outsider in a new place and drawing on inner strength/conviction/belief to overcome those feelings of isolation.  She makes mistakes and learns from them.  The characters are not all black and white, good and bad.  Each one has their positive and negative sides, much like real people. The soot sprites at feeding time - party! party! party! Spirited Away is long overdue for a Blu-Ray release (or just another release period).  This one I would say is safe to buy before watching - it's that good.  How does Chihiro find her parents among all the other swine?You're interested in anime - want to know what shows are worth watching?
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「偽りの…自由…」 (Itsuwari no... Jiyuu...) “Fake...Freedom..” So how come nobody at the dining table noticed that Rea was only eating poisonous leaves? Not to mention… the same leaves that Baabu was eating…
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Just to be fair to Kira. Besides criticizing his pitch which some people do agree that it is a fruitless endeavour. Let me present my programme that I just came up with and made me sleepless last night. The concept isn’t entirely original, but I never seen these type of shows aired in the country so [...]
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Really, Sunrise?  You're putting your name on this shizzle? Natsuiro Kiseki really has a decent story and characters, but For the Love of God, the animation quality is horrifying.  I'm going to have nightmares about this tonight, I'm sure if it. Having moved a lot as a kid, I can relate to Saki's feelings, but I still can't get past how bad the visuals are.  It's like Sunrise decided to cut
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It is not everyday you get to walk home to a sister you have never met before, what a nice fantasy.  Wait she is too realistic to be a fantasy or delusion.  I found it funny that he said “my little sister can’t be this cute” or something along those lines…that anime sure is interesting, [...]
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Surprisingly, Gakkatsu continues to be a fresh 5 minutes of intense classroom debate. As Chiho, class president, leads the homeroom in a gambit of “What to call your mother?”, a goodbye to a dearly loved class member, and to never … Continue reading →
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. . . . Fantasy by Lama Un-Go Ending . . . . Have I ever told anyone that I suck at night shoots? Honestly, I’ve always had this theory, that if a photographer has mastered night shoots. Then he or she has mastered all shoots. And I’m not saying night shoots as in finding [...]
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Sorry Ritsuko. I think you may be destined to be forever alone. At least if these two princes keep playing jazz to distract themselves from fighting each other. They even ran out together and eloped, right in the middle of … Continue reading →
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While Golden village might not have the best pop corn, they are one of the best Cinema Operator in Singapore, right next to Cathy~ And for their 20th birthday party, they pulled a stunt, inviting 20 of the most well … Continue reading → Related posts: Incite Mill opens 28th October in Singapore SG: Sadako 3D opening in Singapore soon~ X Japan is nominated for a Golden Gods Award!
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Title: Brave 10Genre: Action, ComedyRating: 6.7/10 Summary: The story reimagines the legendary adventures of the 10 brave warriors assembled by the warlord Sanada Yukimura in the year 1600, in the middle of Japan’s tumultuous Sengoku (Warring States) era. Review: Brave 10 was definitely an anime I never expected to get into. The pretty boy fighters [...]
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Also, straight people be crazy! Really! They do! Even if that has nothing to do with my blog being four years old. I have friends who are straight, and they have all been kerrrrr-aaazy lately. I bet it is the … Continue reading →
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Also, straight people be crazy! Really! They do! Even if that has nothing to do with my blog being four years old. I have friends who are straight, and they have all been kerrrrr-aaazy lately. I bet it is the … Continue reading →
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Time to hit those terrestrial TV executives in the mouth. I presume that they won’t fulfill their promise and so here it is. @blockerZENPH of the @zenhonbu recently published an opinion regarding the opportunity that terrestrial (read: Local) TV networks in the Philippines have wasted. As you may notice, we are halfway through the month of May and the rain pours down even harder… and we have yet to see a single decent anime premiering throughout the season. I wonder, did the networks simply forgo the youth audience and just continue with their ‘tried & tested’ formula plots that targets only women, particularly the mothers? It seems so. # Nailed it, bro. The statements above probably sums up what I see in today’s programming on my neck of the woods. It’s like they would like to show to us that the TV they are using for entertainment purposes is (if applicable) not ours. Sailor Moon? Nope, I have watched the final episode thrice. Naruto? Why? One Piece? Nope. Fairy Tail? Not enough. This is why I resort to Cable TV. Imagine, you have channels 43 to 47 to cheer up the child in you. That’s better. Therefore stop begging for new anime on Local TV, they won’t even bother. Remember when TV5 planned an anime convention? It did not happen. Why bother telling yourself “I’m stupid” or “I’m with stupid” begging for an anime series at this specific time when you can have anime at your own time? The message is clear. You won’t see any decent anime series on Local TV ever again. It might take years (with exaggeration) for a miracle. Stop it, your resistance is futile. Considering the Toonami relaunch and their head’s request to “Watch the block and love it, then you get what you want,” this is no small talk. Summer season is over. Any other choices? How about in the middle of the school year? Do not want, of course. End-of-the-year season? It’s ok but it’s short. How about next year? Can’t wait, bro. You said it would happen this year, screw you. You perhaps placed the anime budget in some place, namely the telenovela budget and state that it will be part of the talents’ salary. Ok, but how about us? I am telling you, give up already. Watch your anime on Cable TV or the internet. They won’t bother. QED.
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So here I was, watching episode eight of Natsuiro Kiseki innocently… except my college student mind was deep in the gutter. I’m not going to attempt to explain why, but when Yuka whipped out that bag of balloons, I immediately thought it … Continue reading →
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Key Events Got a little background story to Ranko. Her family owns a traditional inn. She helps out when she can and Chihiro also lends a hand at times. Hear about how Ranko fell in love with Chihiro even though he’s had this zombie fetish. Ranko ‘tries’ to kiss Chihiro but he shies away annoying [...]
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Although one would have only thought so in jest, Accel World actually manages to improve with the introduction of a loli character - comedy spurs, generic as it may be, and now there's somewhat of a central goal.
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Love this episode, could it get better than this? Just as jazz was the catalyst for Kaoru and Sentaro’s friendship, it’s also the salve that mends it when it’s asunder. The episode is a roller coaster of bleak emotional valleys balanced by dizzyingly estatic peaks. Beginning with a breif recap of Kaoru telling Sentaro off, [...]
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