2011-A Year to Remember

The past year for me has been eventful, I will admit. Even though I haven't had this blog for a year, 2011, however is drawing to a close. Over the past  year, I feel like I have accomplished a lot, though it has not been without its pitfalls.

This past year has come many successes, such as graduating high school, and starting college. It might be a community college, but college none the less, and the next chapter in my life. Though both might seem like an easy feet, the stress that went with both was quite frankly horrendous, though I am glad I have done both. Though I treasure my time in high school, I am excited about completing my first semester at college. College is a new experience for me, due to the fact that everyone is more relaxed somewhat, and there is none of the high school drama, though it does have its own bit of drama. It's also a more diverse group of people in college, anyone from just out of high school people like me, to working adults, to even ex-military people. 

First of all, I would like to thank the wonderful people I have met in 2011. One of my best friends I actually met this year in high school, and he is amazingly kind to me, despite some rough patches. He was the one that introduced me to Team Fortress 2, and other computer games, because before I will honestly say I saw computer games as a waste of space on the computer's hard drive. He has also been there for me when I needed him, and we have really fun memories together.

Along with my best friend, I also met some wonderful people in my English class. These people were the party in my life, and even though they are quite insane, I still treasure that class dearly. Everyday was like a riot, a good riot though, due to the fact we would kind of pick on each other, though some of us got picked on more than others. (я ниет лоли). Besides the folks in my English class, my math class buddies were also amazingly nice. They knew how to joke around, and most of them were new to college, like me, and we had a rough time at first adjusting to the class, and some of us, like my self, had to drop the class. 

Also, this year, I have gotten into more American movies, and gotten more into different types of movies. Before I met my best friend, and also one of my friends on my English class, I usually stuck to anime, and I still tend to, though I am becoming more acquainted with American movies. (If you have any movies that you want me to see or review, email me). Also, I have come to appreciate torrenting a lot more for american movies, and not just downloading three hundred plus gigabytes of anime. 

In 2011, I started this blog. Taking inspiration from one of my friends and fellow blog writer, I have started my own blog. I realized that I could actually write(not that well) about movies, life, and anime. Although it's just a beginning blog, I hope to make this blog my own sort of ramblings about anime and movies, with a few game reviews in between(when I have time to play them...seriously). And even though I cannot write particularly well, this blog is a fun experience to try and become better at writing. 

This year, however, has not been with out its problems. Between my computer crashing, and huge amounts of stress and boredom, it probably has made me a stronger person (also taught me to back up my data regularly.) Along with my computer crashing, I am currently still working on building a computer (like built from scratch) and that has come with its problem; for example, it now lacks the BIOS systems, making it virtually living, but a vegetable. (Thank you infinite loops, you murderous killers). 

But as I look towards 2012, I actually do have a couple goals in mind, most of these revolving around my life and my future. One such goal is to go into the air force, though I doubt it will happen in 2012, though I want to talk to the recruiter. Also, I wanna complete my second semester at college, and do some summer classes so I can hurry up and graduate and go into the air force, due to the fact a college degree will make it easier to join. Along with getting on board with the military, I want to at least learn a language and become decently fluent in it, probably become more fluent in Japanese and Spanish, and maybe pick up the romance languages in my mind: German and Russian. (French is ugly thank you)

Overall, this year has been an excellent year, many mile stones I have gotten passed, and I have met many, many people over the past year. I can honestly say that I hope 2012 is as good, if not better than 2011, and I look forward on keeping the reader(s) posted on the movies I have seen. If you have any anime, movie, game, books, and any other stuff that you may want me to review, or even questions or comments,although I will ask you to make the subject of the email about the blog. (I don't read spam).

I'd Like to thank those who have stumbled across this blog, and hope to see some of you return. Until next year (or a few hours) have fun!

Sherlock Holmes-A Game of Shadows

When one says mysteries and detectives, one name usually comes to mind, and that name is Sherlock Holmes. He has wit, skill, and that just right stroke of luck. He has bizarre methods, some of which you may not think would work, but they also seem to pull through regardless. Watson, his side kick and the fellow doctor doesn't have that same streak of luck, though he is a vital part to the movie. In the second Sherlock Holmes movie, Sherlock has to battle the mysterious person who was pulling the strings in the first movie, and defeating this person, and even though his methods are a bit bizzarre, I have to admit, he really is the best detective the world has ever seen.

The movie starts off like the first one, in a mess of random events that seem to never correlate, though they do provide some laughs. After the death of Irene Adler, the possible love interest of Holmes, Sherlock looks into who did it, and he finds that his adversary this time is Professor Moriarty. Through the movie, Sherlock Holmes is probably faced with his greatest mystery yet, and while solving the mystery, he has to stop an international crisis from arising.

First off, in some ways, this is a direct sequel to the first movie. Some jokes, and even the bad guy, are brought over from the first movie. Although it may be advertised as something such as a Bond movie, it really is not. The first movie will explain a lot to you, and it is a good watch in my personal opinion

I will admit, I especially liked the comedic bits, because Sherlock is never serious. He is like Captain Jack Sparrow when it comes to his methods of going through with some stuff. Also, some of the stuff he does may not make sense at first, though you might have just have to roll with it, because everything will make sense by the end of the movie. Even though his plans may not make sense at first, you just have to trust that everything will make sense by the end, just like any good mystery movie.

Also, the weapons aspect of it was very good. Although I am no gun nut, I went with a friend who was and he could explain some of the weapons. At one point, the bad guy was shooting at Watson with a sniper rifles, though Watson quickly finds the Howitzer, which is basically a canon, and fires it at the sniper. The sniper's last words, sadly, were "This isn't fair." Now, for some reason that made me laugh, along with Sherlock's attempts to use a semi-auto gun.

This movie is the perfect combination of mystery, action, and even a bit of comedy, and in my opinion, well worth the movie tickets. They say that sequels are never as good as the originals, but in the case of this movie, I digress: it is on par, and somewhat better than the first. So, if you're in the mood for a mystery, and semi-action film, then go see Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, now playing in a theater near you!

The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo

Along with Tintin, I also had the pleasure of seeing one of the greatest movies I have ever seen this week. This movie had style, humor, mystery, and even some other dark elements that will take you by surprise. The movie, of course, was the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, based off the acclaimed books by Stieg Larsson. The movie had me hooked on the mystery that was involved, and had me guessing until the final clue was revealed.

The story followed Michael Blomkvist, a journalist who recently got busted for libel against Wennerström, a wealthy business man. However he then gets hired by Henrik Vanger, a wealthy man who hires Blomkvist to do his memoirs, though the ultimate task is to try and figure out the forty year old mystery of who killed his niece, Harriet Vanger. Along the line of solving this mystery, Blomkvist encounters the punk hacker, Elisabeth Salander. Together, they solve the mystery of who murdered Vanger's beloved niece.

As the original novel and story was set in Sweden, I am pleased to say that the American movie adaptation was also set in Sweden, which I'll give them credit for not trying to Americanize it. They also kept to Elisabeth's punk appearance, and some of her outfits were nothing short of amazing.

In the begining of the movie, the story seems to be split in two parts: Michael's story and his struggle of trying to get reliability back, and Elisabeth, or Lisabeth trying to make ends meet financially. Blomkvist's part of the story might seem boring at first, such as him just wandering around Sweden Some parts with Lisabeth made me highly uncomfortable, such as her doing sexual favors for the person that she was getting money from, and her revenge on the guy was making her do such favors was a bit cringe worthy, even among the guys in the audience.

The one thing that made this film highly enjoyable, and probably one of the best films I have ever watched, was  the fact even though the beginning was slow, it had an an excellent pace, humor at just the right places, and the serious parts where they counted. The msytery had me gripped, my mind frantically working out the case before the cast did, and it turned out, at every twist and turn, there was something new to consider. Overall, the atmosphere was amazing, and well planned out.

The acting was superb in the anime. First, you have one of my all time favorite actors, Daniel Craig, playing Michael Blomkvist. Mara Roony was Lisabth Salander, and she did an excellent job portraying the character of a top notch hacker, and the rest of the supporting cast did well. The only complaint I honest have with the cast is that the Vangers seemed to blend together, and everyone else seemed not important or got caught up in the mix.

If you're looking for a mystery, with some romance, and even some some humor here and there, then I say go see this movie. The movie will keep you on the edge of your seats, and leave you wanting more of the characters. 

C³~CubeXCursedXCurious~

It is a given that every season needs an anime with a loli in it. It is almost undeniable fact. In the Winter 2011, it was the loli, Fear, who brought love to our hearts. Her story is unusual, for being a type of yandere loli, as well as a bit of tsundere. Her past is dark and bloody, and her friends' pasts seem to be equally so. C³ is a tale of despair, curses, magic, and perhaps some blood shed.

The story starts out with Yachi Haruaki, your normal teenage boy, living at home (because kids seem to do that a lot in Japan now a days), just living the normal life. One day, a package arrives from his father, a cube of some sort. He puts the cube in his house, only the next morning to discover a naked girl has now taken the cube's place. She seems to know nothing of how the world works, though she is trying her best to learn the ways of the world, even if it leads to her destroying the house in the process. One of Haruaki's friends, Muramasa Konoha discovers the girl, and rivalries ensue, of course in a harem like fashion. As it turns out, along with Konoha and Fear, it seems that sometimes curses take human form. It is revealed that Konoha can transform into a sword and is able to be used by Haruaki in order to defeat the bad guys, and Fear is the human form of the Black Cube, a torture device, and her weapon is the cube of which she is named. She can use over twenty different torture devices, but wishes to be rid of the curse. The anime follows Fear, Haruaki, Konoha, and later Ueno Kirika, the mysterious class president, in their adventure of cursed objects, and protecting, and hoping ridding the objects of the curse.

The art in C³ is actually rather quirky, but in a good way. Sometimes, the color shades will change on you, just like in a SHAFT production or like Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu. With that, the art work also tends to shift to what they are talking about, like when Fear mentions the fact Konoha has bigger boobs than her, they show her boobs in a way that is sort of mocking. Also, they tend to handle the serious situations with serious art work, and the light hearted ones with lighthearted artwork, such as flowers and over expressionate faces.  The art work, with the mood and quirkiness, is very consistent and fluid.

As basically a harem anime, each girl sort of fell into a stereo-type. Haruaki is one of these male leads that had some unknown power that seems to draw the girls in, and looks like just like every other male lead in existances: Brown hair and brown eyes. Konoha takes the role of the child hood friends, and also the sort of the main girl that Haruaki would pursue. Kirika is the definite tsundere, being that some of the stuff that Haruaki does kind of turns her on, but it comes out as fustration. Fear is definite tsundere, but she is a loli tsundere, meaning that, like Kirika, she get turned on in the same way, but she is too adorable about it. Also, she is sort of a yangire, due to her dark past and the fact she is a torture device.

The characters I think could have done with a bit more development. For example, I want to know more back story on Fear, and i thought I could see some more, besides the fact she was a machine used for killing and torture, but they kept adding new characters, like Sovereignty and Shiraho. It seemed as with the case with Sovereignty, even though her arc was done, I still felt incomplete with her character, and the characters that were introduced at the end hardly had any development. For a character cast like this, they probably needed to extend the anime to twenty-four episodes, or perhaps a second season. But as the loli of the series, Fear was very funny, where as the other characters were amusing, but didn't have me laughing like Fear did.

On the musical side of things, the first opening theme was amazing. The way Fear sort of danced at the beginning was super cute, and well coordinated. The same goes for the second opening, though with Kirika was more elegate than cute, but all the same, well coordinated. The songs for both will most likely end up on my iPod due the cuteness of the first, and the darkness of the second. Also, the voice acting was well done, especially Fear's "I'll curse you!" is super cute.

Overall, it is an excellent watch, despite what people might say. Lolis, cursed objects, and some what of a harem make this an excellent anime, though thankfully they don't concentrate too much on the harem aspect, just mostly the cursed object. Also, a word of advice when watching this anime: Watch until after the credits, some hilarious stuff happens then.

The Adventures of Tintin

We have all wanted to go on a grand a grand adventure in our lives, whether it be to the jungle, or perhaps a trip on the high seas. Sometimes, we take these trips willingly, with lots and lots of planning, or we take them as due to circumstances. Tintin, a boy and grad adventurer embarks on a journey, a journey of epic proportions.

Tintin is a reporter in Great Britain, and his dog Snowy, embark on a grand adventure after Tintin buys a model boat of the Unicorn, a legendary ship that sunk mysteriously. After he buys it, people are drawn to the ship, offering him double what he paid for originally or naming his own price. He refuses offer takes home, and while Snowy was chasing a stray cat, the ship topples over, breaking the middle mast. After he and Snowy return from another errand, the ship goes missing. Snowy points out a silver tube that had fallen behind the dresser when the ship broke, and in the tube was a piece of paper. A little while later, he goes to see the old abandoned manor, where he sees the ship that had broken, though this ship seemed to be in one piece. It is deduced that the Captain Francis Haddock, the original captain of the ship made three copies of the ship. In his quest to find the treasure rumored to be with the ship, he recruits the help of Captain Francis Haddock's descendant, Captain Haddock,in order to solve the mystery behind the ships and to find the treasure!

The first thing I must say about this movie is that you must go see it in Imax 3D. I had the pleasure of doing so, and the effects in the movie were amazing. At some points, I felt as though I was there, even though it was an animated movie. the dust particles moving around in front of me, the waves almost being able to reach me, and the sand could have been played in if i took a few steps towards the screen, were all thrills of the movie. The layer sof the scenes was also very well done, like Tintin was distinct from the surroundings, and everything was layered properly. Although usually I do not watch 3D, this movie was well worth it to go see it in 3D.

The story of Tintin in my mind could be divided into two parts: The main course which was Tintin and Haddock's adventure for the ships, but also about the local pickpocket. The main story was interesting, due to the fact that they keep going after these clues to the treasure. It had wit, action,and even a few jokes and sayings, such as "It only took a day in the Sahara to make you sober," or "I'm not optimist, I'm a realist," made me laugh and realize that the latter was an application to some of my views in life. The second, and perhaps sort of side story, was the two policemen, Thomson and Thompson, trying to catch a local pickpocket, who had been stealing everyone's wallets. The two police men are actually the source of comic relief in the movie when Captain Haddock's drinking problem fails.

The voice acting was superb in the movie. Captain Haddock's voice fit his character very well, as well as Tintin's. Their adversary, Sakharine, was voiced by the one and only James Bond,Daniel Craig, though I had a hard time recognizing the voice at first. But for the other characters, the voice acting was also superb.

As for the art of the movie, sometimes I started to question if was animated or not. The eyes for the characters were very well detailed, and the people looked natural, save for the noses. Those noses were unnatural, and kind of hideous if you ask me. But the sceneries and the effects in the animation was superb, especially in 3D as I have said before.

The movie was an excellent watch, and well worth the money to see in Imax 3D. If you can and are able to watch 3D, I recommend it highly, and it is a good family film. 

Un-Go-The Tales of the Defeated Detective

In a world ravages by war and terrorism, and the crimes that may arise from such destruction, only one duo can solve them. One man, one boy, out to solve all the crimes, using wit, flair, and perhaps a bit of supernatural abilities. Yuuki Shinjuurou, and his mysterious partner, Inga, are out to solve all the msyteries that arise, and perhaps learn a little about the world around them in the mean time.

Un-Go is a n anime original anime produce by Bones, as you may know, also produced anime such as Gosick and Darker than Black. As usual, my interest perked when I found out that who it was animated by, and thought that perhaps that this would be a good one, though I was a bit hesitant at first, due to mystery anime not being in my particular favorite genre. Little did I know, I made the right choice in picking up this anime.

At first, the anime is episodic in nature, in the means that it is one mystery for each episode. Yuuki Shinjuurou is a detective, though no ones knows about him due to the fact Kaishou Rinroku has been taking all the credit. His mysterious partner, Inga, can force the truth out of anyone for one question, and they cannot lie when they answer her. Together, they solve the mysteries, piece by piece, though the pieces do add up eventually.

For me, this anime was enjoyable in characters department. Inga and Kazamori are by far the most interesting of the cast. Kazamori is a Robot Artifial Intelligence, or R.A.I for short. These two are the most crucial part in helping Shinjuurou solve his cases. Inga can force the truth out of anyone, and whether or not they want to tell the truth, they will tell her the truth. At other times, when she isn't in the "final" form of "Give me the truth," she takes the form of a child, though whether or not it is a boy or girl we are not sure, though I'm betting its a tomboyish girl. Kazamori can hack into any computer systems and can send data over any electronic device. It usually takes one out of two forms: a small stitched up doll that travels around in Shunjuurou's pocket or a loli girl, because all anime has to have fanservice somewhere.



The story is alright, though at the beginning, everything did not flow together that well. But if you think you can skip episodes, you are actually quite wrong, because all the episodes add a bit of character depth to the cast, as well characters to the already extensive cast. Each episode has twists and turns that you would not expect, keeping on me on edge about what was going to happen next. Although episodic in nature, all the points do flow together eventually.

The art UN-GO is fluid, though I will admit it is a bit odd in a way I cannot explain. Shinjuurou's hair is one thing that is kind odd to me, for being in sharp, unnatural edges, and even in a mullet like style. The place where they really excelled in the art was the child form of Inga, basically wanting to make me give her a hug. Her hat thing, where she usually keeps her hands, is also adorable, and also made me wonder for a brief period of that was attached to her hands. Kazamori's loli form is very, well, loli-ish and probably will appeal to those loli fans out there.

Overall, this is a good detective story, and must watch for all mystery fans. At every twist and turn, this anime will grip your attention with it clever plot. Also, a must watch for any Bones fans, and just the general anime audience. 

Inheritance: A Review

Last month, the final book of the Inheritance Cycle, or the fourth ook to Eragon, had finally been released. Though I have had the pleasure of reading this book, the book is far from perfect. The conclusion to the Inheritance cycle is an epic battle of bravery, strength, and bravery.

As you may already know, the story is about a boy named Eragon who finds a dragon egg, and his adventures with the dragon that later hatches from the egg, Saphira. He then flees his hometown of Carvahall, and adventures with an old Dragon rider named Brom. Along the line, he goes to the home of the Elves, where he then receives training from the elf, and Dragon Rider, Oromis, and his dragon Glaedr. in order to become stronger in magic, with the hopes of overthrowing the tyrant king, Galabortrix. Also, you start to get the story on Roran, Eragon's cousin and native to Carvahall, and his adventures of Roran vs. The Empire. The story follows Eragon's and Saphira's growth as Rider and Dragon, along with the people around them. With the book Inheritance, the saga is brought to a close

I will start with the good of the book, due to it being an enjoyable read. The story was well written, with a few surprises here and there. Eragon made considerable progress, both in morals and strength in the final book. Roran and Katrina were important though the book, though they knew when to take the side lines. Nasuada was important enough, but sometimes, I felt like the author tried to include her excessively. Also, there was a few surprises that really added flavor to the story.

Though with the good, there must come the bad. The ending was was admittedly rushed, though rushed to a point that it was practically a bad end. I felt like he was basically saying by the end "Ok, I'm done, I'm going to bullshit my ending." Along with it being bullshitted, I was basically expecting every thing; it was so predictable to the point at every page turn, "Knew it. Kind of Guess it." I think i was expecting better plot twist, though I guess it was a bit late in the series for the plot to actually twist and turn like I would have liked it to. With out giving away, the "climax" was also anti-climatic, due it just being kind of off the wall weird.

Overall, despite all faults, this book was an interesting conclusion to the epic saga. If you loved the first three books, the book are still written with the same flair as the first three, and to be honest, was written maybe a bit better, though rushed. When you get the time, and money, don't be afraid to indulge your self in this wonderful fantasy book.