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Reviews
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
Better then RotJ and TPM, not as good as ANH or ESB
-Spoilers ahead!-
Some random thoughts,
Good-the CGI looked a lot better then the first movie much cleaner and life like. The jedi were interesting, nice that we got to see a lot of them. One thing that surprised me was the fact that it made me feel some sort of emotion for Boba Fett, my least favorite character from the trilogy. The character designs were a step up from episode 1, I thought the cloning aliens were well done, the ship and clone-troopers looked nice, although the new battle droids were disappointing. Some nice things in the background like in Episode 1, Sebulba in Courscant and some other random things. I loved how Lucas just pissed on about 90% of the novels with this movie, especially the Jedi Academy trilogy, the books deserved it. Yoda looked good with a lightsaber, although it wasn't as amazing as everyone was acting like.
-Bad- why is it no one who plays a male Skywalker can not act their way out of a wet paper bag. Some of Anakin's lines were just god awful in delivery and writing. The first half hour or so didn't feel like a Star Wars movie, it felt like an episode of a TV show in the universe. The factory scene seemed very much like a video game, and Anakin's hand being caught in the machinery with no lasting effect was just lame. The dialog was chunky, although not as bad as Episode 1. And yes we do have Jar-Jar to blame for the empire now.
-Ugly- This had the most decapitations I have ever seen in a PG movie, but that is not entirely a bad thing. It seems the more I think of it the worse Return of the Jedi becomes, mainly because of the much smaller scope and the deaths. Boba who was given a decent history still was killed in a moment of comic relief. The Emperor's death is almost as bad, not who did it or why it was done, but how, I always thought it looked very cheesy and now seeing Palpatine in all of his glory it makes it even worse. I am hoping they make another special edition to give the ending of RotJ more scope and to improve on the mistakes of the first one (improve Jabba, make Han shoot first etc.)
-End of Spoilers-
Inuyasha (2000)
Entertaining series
Rumiko Takahashi is known for her long running manga series, Ranma ½, Maison Ikkoku (my personal favorite), and Urusei Yatsura. These series have started the genre for almost any comedy romantic anime that is released today. But Talahashi's also has more of a darker side, as can be seen in the horror manga Mermaids series (ie Mermaids Scar is an example). Inuyasha is a surprising mix of both of these qualities. Anime translations of her series are some of the most popular series of all time, although they have some problems. This series also follows this formula. I have seen 51 episodes of the series, subtitled by fans into English.
Good Inuyasha's premise is very familiar and could have easily degraded into a horrible magical girl/monster of the week series. Kagome is a normal Japanese high school student who's family lives at an ancient shrine. She falls into a sacred well and ends up falling into the feudalistic past of Japan. She runs into the half-Youkai (Japanese demon/spirits) Inuyasha impaled onto a tree by a sacred arrow and finds out she is the reincarnation of the village priestess Kikyo who sealed him up after he stole the Shikon no Tama, a magical pearl that gives Youkai tremendous powers. She was killed because of injuries that she sustained sealing Inuyasha, and the artifact was laid on her funeral pier. Kagome then finds when a giant centipede attacks that the Shikon no Toma was also brought along with her soul inside of her body. After some interesting events the Pearl is shattered into hundreds of pieces that are spread throughout Japan. It is now up to Kagome and Inuyasha to collect the pieces that are still capable of great evil (this all happens is the first 3 episodes). As they start on their journey there seems to be a very dark, powerful Youkai also collecting the shards. This could have easily been a cheap magical girl/monster of the week series but it has some notable differences. For the first 10 or so episodes it is a generic find monster with shikon shard but the series then starts to become more complex with back story and some great villains. There is CGI that is actually integrated quite nicely, used sparingly and usually for supernatural creatures or attacks
The characters are one of the things that make the series great, these are some of the more important reoccurring characters.
Kagome: Strong willed although she is more typical then the average Takahashi female (like Akane) but is a great character that grows throughout the series and is a strong emotional center for the story. She can sense when a shard is nearby and fire charged up arrows.
Inuyasha: A half Youkai that has yellow eyes and dog-ears. Interesting character, seems to have some sort of a connection with Kikyo. He seems to have some feelings for Kagome. Is the generic bad ass anime hero at first glance but is much more complex, showing some smart decisions and a surprisingly strong mind-set. He is trying to get the shards so he can become a full Youkai. Originally controlled by Kagome by having a magical rosary that smashed his face into the ground when she says `sit.'
Shippou: Little fox Youkai that is comic relief, sort of forgotten as the series goes on. Follows the group along. He is a hyper little kid and is like another little brother for Kagome. Appears around episode 10.
Miroku: A Buddhist priest whose family line is cursed to have what basically is a black hole in their hands that slowly devours them. Very powerful funny character, he can be very lecherous and sneaky sometimes, appears somewhere around episode 15 or so.
Sango: Youkai exterminator that uses a huge boomerang as a weapon. Gives the group information about what they are fighting. Has a pet Youkai named Kirara who is a two tailed cat that can be used as transportation. Has a bad habit of getting injured throughout the series. Although she is figured prominently in the intro of the series but doesn't appear until episode 23.
The villains are very interesting. They are much stronger then Takahashi's other villains. There are also many random Youkai that are either sent by the other villains or are found while looking for Shikon shards, they almost always have unusual powers and character designs.
Sesshoumaru: Inu-Yasha's bishounen half brother, a full Youkai. Doesn't appear too much, but when he does there always are interesting battles and storylines. Followed by the very annoying Jaken and later on the little girl Rin.
Naraku: Very powerful Youkai also after the shikon shards. Very evil and manipulative, causes great pain to almost every character. Ruthlessly kills people to his own gain. Spends a lot of time hiding his form in a white baboon skin. He is one of the better anime villains I have seen in a series.
There is a third villain who I will not bring up. All I am going to say is this character is surprising and shows amazing depth.
The bad I mentioned some problems earlier (ie Shippou forgotten, some annoying characters) but the series has some other flaws. The dialog sometimes can get very annoying, characters describing the obvious or spending lots of time on flashbacks to the episode from before, this is common in anime series but Inuyasha seems to have a lot of it. Another problem is involved with Kagome being able to go between her world and the past, this usually isn't a problem but sometimes it hurts the series. There are strange plot points like her getting medicine from the future to cure poison from magical bees. Also Inuyasha has come up the well a couple of times and has almost no reaction to the changes in Japan.
All in all it is an entertaining series a solid 8.5 out of 10. Should be coming out in America in a year or two.
Dragon Ball Z (1996)
ok series
I saw this first on Cartoon Network during Winter Break, I watched it for a about three weeks (it was the only thing on during its time slot), it took place on the planet Namek and they the good guys were fighting against a very powerful creature who's gender seemed to be in dispute. It was fun, good battles, interesting characters, but I had to go back to school where I did not have cable, right when the main character (Goku) showed up to destroy the bad guys. I went to the video store to rent the next 4 or 5 episodes to see how he will defeat the bad guy. There I found the biggest problem with the show, the final battle took place over 7 tapes 21 episodes almost an entire season just battling one guy. The show has way too much filler.
Since then I saw the final episodes of that saga (groups of episodes fighting a single enemy usually 40-60 episodes long) and the next couple and I have realized some things about the show
Good: -Characters, the characters in the show are likable and interesting and some actually have interesting character development. The amount of episodes gives them chances to make characters grow up, get married, have kids ect.
-The action is not that bad, the fight scenes are fun to watch and they can be very entertaining.
Bad -Filler, Filler, Filler they fill up shows with stuff that is not important to the plot, sometimes it is fun like when Goku has a driving test. Other times it is not when a character sums up what happened in the last 20 episodes or when two fighters talk about killing each other for an entire episode, or the infamous "charge up an attack for 3 episodes that has no effect in hurting the main bad guy."
-Remember if you were a kid, you saw a cool battle in an American cartoon, and you wished it could go on a little longer then one or two episodes? Well this is the truth of why they don't do this, when they spend so much time fighting one guy sometimes gets annoying you can't wait till they just end it and continue with the plot.
-Bad translation, I hear in the original Japanese the series has better music and better voices. I have seen it how it was originally and I am not that impressed. The voices were decent but the music sounded just like a video game. The dubbing is edited for TV and early on it was embarrassingly bad (an example would be instead of saying someone died they would be sent to the next dimension)
It is a ok series to watch on TV but there are MUCH better anime series out there, check out Rurouni Kenshin, Trigun or Inu Yasha (coming out with in a year or two) for action oriented series, Nadesico, or Slayers for comedy, And Neon Genesis Evangelion or Lain for Psychological depth. All of those series are better then Dragon Ball Z in the long run and are not that hard to find at Suncoast or Best Buy (except for Inu Yasha) start with the first episode in these series and watch them in order, it is much better that way.
Kidô Senkan Nadesico (1996)
Great parody series
When I first saw the boxes to Nadesico I thought it was nothing more then an Evangelion rip off, I found out later that it was actually a comedy and a parody of Eva and checked it out, I was not disappointed. Nadesico is a very funny anime series that parodies Neon Genesis Evangelion, and the old cheesy 70's mech shows (think Voltron). It has amazing characters and some of the funniest episodes I have seen in an Anime series. The series does sort of wander near the middle and kind of has an open ending but other then that I recommend it.
There is an OAV that is basically a 30 minute long version of the Mecha show they watch in the series which is very funny and a surprisingly dark movie that is decent, but could have been much better (too much build up not enough payoff)
If you like Nadesico Check out Vandread (very similar to Nadesico but with a lot of CGI and much better animation) or the fantasy comedy series Slayers