Hello everyone and sorry it has been so long, but I am back finally!!!
So yesterday I went to the mall in order to purchase myself a new suit at Men’s Warehouse and while walking through the mall I noticed an anime store I had never seen before. My eyes lit up and I began to salivate (quite literally) as there have never been any anime stores near me till this time and I had to do all my shopping online (shipping and handling fees, yuck) or at a con (once a year…) so I walked in there with a spring in my step… only to be smacked in the face quite hard. The store’s merchandise mostly consisted of Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Hetalia, and DBZ junk, and I don’t say junk because I don’t like these shows but because it was literally junk. Boring wall scrolls, bad looking action figures and models, stickers, key chains, that lot of junk. Hell if didn’t even have any manga or anime in it (although it did have a few CDs but only Jpop and Kpop, no OSTs). To tell you the truth I was kind of shocked when I heard the place had still been in business having opened 6 months ago. This was the stuff I could have picked up from my friends and they would have paid me simply because it would have cost less then the shame of putting it out in the trash knowing they had bought it. At least with me they could pass it off as a gift. Now don’t get me wrong there were a few cool things in there. They did have a bunch of mugs which I’ve never seen for sale at a con before and one featured Hatsune Miku. There were also a few cosplays one again featuring Miku (but me being a 6’1” guy I would have had a hard time fitting into it) and they did have some cool but random unrelated to anime masks. I was walking into that store with at least $40.00 to spend and walked out without spending a penny. Now how did they manage that? No art books, the only pillows featuring Hetalia boys, Bleach boys, Naruto boys, and DBZ girls (yes I checked them all and that was what they had) some random rather ugly plushies facing the same offense as all the other products in the store. No interesting trinkets, games, collectibles (continue rant as you see fit). As I walked out of the store I analyzed what I had seen. This was a store for those who are just entering or have experimented with the anime realm, so why would you open a store based solely on that? Our world is not an inexpensive one and it is hard to get people to throw down those $30.00 for the face of Chibi Italy so you can sleep with it at night, but when I see something like Little Busters Special Edition (not the 18+ version) I throw down my $65.00 without a thought (my pride and joy from Sakura-Con this past year). I guess this is why stores operate mostly online, because they can sell these items to the niche markets around the world and the brick and mortar stores must sell to those on the line of otakus, but still at least carry some things that we anime addicts anonymous or not can grasp onto and love or else you will have failed your brothers and sisters who worship their anime in the Church of Mitsugi.
Sincerley and Trolly,
This is Folium ending his rant at the anime store he visited but thankfully recovered due to getting an awesome new suit.
Heya, guys and gals, it’s L Lawliet here for L Lawliet’s Movie Madness!
Hayao Miyazaki-even if you barely watch anime, you recognize the name. Miyazaki is one of the few directors to get an Academy Award for best animated picture outside of the United States, for his film Spirited Away. That’s not the only work he’s done, though. He’s made other influential films such as Princess Mononoke, a tale of nature and destruction, The Castle of Cagliostro, about Lupin the 3rd and his attempt to solve the mystery of the perfect counterfeit bills, and Howl’s Moving Castle, the story of-
Wait, what was that second one?
That’s right, the great Miyazaki worked on an anime film adaptation. That’s not all, though-this was actually the culmination of his work with Lupin the 3rd. He had previously worked on the first series, co-directing and storyboarding about half of the episodes in the show. It’s fitting that his first film is his last work with Lupin, and probably his best one for the franchise at that. In addition, it’s a damn good movie in general. It’s got action, romance, comedy; it’s got the whole shebang. It’s gotten shoutouts in everything from Batman: The Animated Series to The Simpsons Movie, and remains, to this day, one of the most classic animated films of all time. So, let’s not waste any time! Come along and let’s steal a look at The Castle of Cagliostro!
The Plot of the Century!
The story begins with a casino heist-a nice little introduction to our duo of thieves, Lupin and Jigen. Taking off after successfully completing their crime, as the police around them find their cars ineffective and falling apart, the two plot how to use their new millions…until Lupin notices a problem. The bills are fake. Every single one. And not just any fakes, but the perfect fakes-they’re called Goat Bills, and they come from a country called Cagliostro, and that’s where Lupin intends to go. So begins their latest escapade, but there’s puzzles abound. There’s more to Cagliostro, and Lupin’s experience with it, than meets the eye, and there’s an even bigger mystery lying in wait for the duo…
This review won’t be a recap-the movie’s got a couple of twists that I’d rather not spoil here, but I’m gonna give you a basic rundown of the cast, music, animation and overall entertainment value. Sound good? Good. Let’s sneak on ahead, shall we?
Crooks, Cops, Counts, and a Couple of Dames
Hold onto your wallets and keep an eye on your cash, folks, because here comes ArseneLupin the 3rd, speeding by in his signature yellow Fiat, stolen dollars abound. Lupin is a master thief, robber of countless treasures. artifacts and millions of dollars in cold hard cash. He’ll steal your heart, followed by your credit card, and you won’t notice either way. He can be anything from a smooth operator to a not-so-chivalrous pervert, but there’s one thing he consistently is-one hell of a guy.
What good’s being a thief without some partners-in-crime to back you up? Alongside him is his good old pal Daisuke Jigen, the sharpshooting marksman who’s the straight man to Lupin’s comedic foil. He’s not against a one-liner now and again, though, and he’s got some of the best lines in the movie. He’s been around the bend and knows how Lupin works, and has been his faithful companion for years upon years. Goemon Ishikawa, on the other hand, originally intended to kill Lupin, but is now one of his most valued cohorts. With sword in hand, he’ll literally cut through all obstacles, no matter how worthless they may be to his blade. Stoic and collected, he and Jigen are the voices of reason in the quartet of crime. Last, but certainly not least, we have the lovely Mine Fujiko, the object of Lupin’s affections and a deadly piece of work. She usually works with Lupin to achieve her own ends, but it’s obvious that she sees something in him, despite her repeated betrayals, and will always come to his aid in the end should he desperately need it.
What’s a robber without a cop? Hands in the air where Inspector Zenigata can see them, you punks! Hellbent on capturing Lupin and bringing him to justice, Zenigata’s hounded the gang across the world and on nearly every continent known to man, with a minimal success rate. He’s no bumbling office, however (though he has shades of it in many of the TV shows), as he’s captured many other criminals and rapscallions during his pursuit of the master thief. He and Lupin are engaged in an endless cat and mouse chase, and the film wouldn’t really work as well without his inclusion and his chemistry with Lupin.
Taking on double duty as a princess and love interest, we have Clarice, the Princess of the castle of Cagliostro. She’s no damsel in distress; she’s managed to escape confinement in the past, and is brave enough to assist others and fight back when she needs to. She’s forcibly engaged to the Count of Cagliostro, the big man in charge of the country, who wants to use her for his own nefarious needs-and that’s just one of his secrets. Both have a connection to Lupin, though less so with the Count as much as his actions, and both are interesting and engaging characters in their own rights.
Alright, we’ve met the cast, but is the world they live in just as colorful? Let’s find out!
Looking Mighty Fine (And the Pictures Ain’t Bad, Either)
Now, this is a Miyazaki movie, so you gotta expect it to look nice. But, some may be put off by how it looks compared to his other works. While films like Princess Mononoke have deftly made animation, with smooth transitions and designs, The Castle of Cagliostro is a bit more, well, cartoonish. While his other films are intended for the big screen and don’t have any set animation style to abide by, Lupin the 3rd was already a popular series, and it had one movie under its belt before this one. Plus, this was his first film, so this was one of the first times that he got to choose how things would appear. As a result, it looks less clean and more ridiculous than his other films, for the most part, as it’s intended to look that way from the get-go, to keep similar to Lupin’s first series. The scenes heavily involving the characters work well in regards to this, and improves upon the original show’s look with some slight modifications. Co-directing the series helped, to be sure.
Despite these setbacks, this film shows the beauty that would later become more apparent in his other works, via the background animation. The first shot of Lupin approaching the ruins shows intricate design, and an amazing attention to detail. Each tile, each section of grass, and each brick on the walls are given focus to, and this makes the scene a lot more effective. Even the Fiat isn’t left out, as you can see the dirt from the previous car chase scene in it. Miyazaki’s other movies may have perfected his background animation, but it was just a stone’s throw away, since The Castle of Cagliostro’s animation was already near-perfect.
Oh, and there’s the car chase scene, which to this day looks well drawn, with everything given detail, including the branch that hits Lupin in the face.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGTxs2QeWJg
Gets me every time.
So, all in all, the movie looks great, with a few bumps in the road. But does it sound as good as it looks? We’re going to look at the music in this next section, so let’s get right to it!
The Hills Are Alive With The Sound of Lupin~
In general, the music of Lupin the 3rd tends to fit the times. In the 70s, it was actionish, to fit with the era in which the show was made, and in the late 70s/early 80s, it had a pop/disco type feel to it, for the same reason. The Castle of Cagliostro, however, was an adventure movie, and the music suits that genre. It’s designed to make the viewer invested in whatever chase or fight sequence is going on, making sure they are hooked from the first note, while keeping the Lupin spirit. This is apparent in the first track we hear, during Lupin and Jigen’s escape from the casino they just robbed, and which makes recurring appearances throughout the film, Toward the Patrol Line:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T69ratTplrw
Along with this, during the film’s slower, more personal scenes, the music takes similar cues, letting the viewer float along, emphasizing the emotions on screen. This is heard through another recurring track, Fire Treasure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MdKPYo0n0U
Of course, a Lupin movie wouldn’t be complete without the Lupin theme. In this variation, the theme is a jazzy, light-hearted tune used in some of the film’s best sequences, like the car chase and part of the film’s climax:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX2ci_vr8o4
All of this music, and more, are used to great effect to create an impression on the watcher, making sure that the viewer isn’t just into the pretty pictures on the screen. It can be peppy, somber, or just downright crazy, making the soundtrack not just enjoyable for fans of Lupin, but people who like music in general.
Now, I’ve said all these things about it-but is it worth watching more than once? The answer: absolutely.
All Good Things Must Come To An End…
The Castle of Cagliostro is simply wonderful. It’s got a great story, well developed and likable characters, fantastic music, and superb animation. Some may be put off by it being a film of a show, but this is something that you can watch with no knowledge of Lupin and STILL enjoy to the highest degree. Without spoiling, I can say it doesn’t have any aesop, any lesson we need to learn as Miyazaki’s other works contain. What it has-what it is-is a tale of adventure and thrills, love and romance, good and evil, and the daring thief that brings it all together . Miyazaki has made some fine works, but his first, in this reviewer’s opinion, is his downright best. This is L Lawliet, signing off of this edition of L Lawliet’s Movie Madness. Let the good times roll, and believe in your thief.
So, here I am chilling out on a typical Friday night with no worries, no cares and above all, no date, as I happen to see how far down the whiskey bottle goes when it comes to pulling yet another boxy anime tape off the shelf. After some time in the darkness of “over exceeding” a bit to much, I came to in a world of a desolate Japanese city, filled with heavy smog of radiation and abandonment, as I happen to see far into the distance. I then hear a flute tune pierce my ears, with such beauty and sorrow as the tune danced in my eardrum. I look over to see a younger man in a camouflage poncho with a green leaf up to his mouth as he plays the peaceful tune and then looks up at me. He then begins to tell me his tale of how destiny seems to bring him from one Hell to another. This is the tale of Riki-Oh Saiga…
Ok, so for those of you who know what Riki-Oh’s about, you think I’m going to talk about the (overly) awesome live action movie based on the manga by Masahiko Takajo. Well, you would be half right. I am going to talk about Riki-Oh, but only the anime that is a condensed version of the movie, but you get the same story (only the movie is SO MUCH BETTER). Throughout this review, I’m going to use some captions in words to emphasize how crazy some of this stuff happens, and to use some pop/video game culture punching references, so try and keep up kids. So lets Hebrew Fist our way into the wild and crazy world of Riki-Oh: The Wall of Hell OVA.
The OVA starts us off in the year 199x in Yokohama (and it would not surprise me if this was the same 199x as Fist of the North Star series timeline) as the world in this “year” is full of “high radioactivity rain” and “magnetic field warnings” on a daily basis (these are in the OVA I kid you not) where we get to a man in a camo poncho on a stoop blowing into a leaf to make music that most people can play from any toy recorder flute (its all in the tongue kids) as we seem him suddenly stop playing and stands in the middle of the road. While this “mysterious” man does this, we cut to a Cadillac driving down the streets of Yokohama with a fat old guy in the back trying to score some boob action from two honeys on his lap, when the driver notices the man in the street. Before the car can come to a screeching halt, we see the stranger raise his fist to his face with the Star of David etched into his backhand and proceeds to PUNCH INTO THE FRONT OF THE CAR!! This “Falcon” of a punch is able to turn the caddy into an accordion with the driver halfway out the front of the car in a bloody and disfigured mess. The old guy and some bodyguard of his get out to take on this stranger where we see the man in camo punches the bodyguard hard enough in the jaw to RIP IT OFF!! The old guy tries to shoot the man but is stopped by a flying high kick to shatter one of the legs and gets another “Busta Wolf” to the skull to leave a fist impression, killing the old man. We then know who this mysterious man is, which he goes by the one and only name of Riki-Oh Saiga.
"THIS HAND OF MINE BURNS WITH A HOLY POWER!"
For Riki crimes of being a total bad mofo, he gets the hammer of the Japanese judicial system and gets sent to Koboku prison for 9 years. After some shots of prison life with the prisoners making shelves and having a sentence of continuous woodshop class, we cut to the washroom of Wakamatsu being harassed by another inmate Iwata due to Waka getting out on parole. Iwata throws Waka into a shelf for no reason other than to be (one of) the alpha male of the prison. Waka looses his cool and attacks Iwata with a wood scraper, only to be tripped by one of Iwata goons and Iwata using the scraper to leave a nasty scar on Waka face. The guards come in, Iwata says “oh its an accident” and carry off the injured Waka. With Iwata talking up his victory to his running crew, we then see him trip and fall on a plank of nails facing straight up and Iwata gets his hand and eye into swiss cheese. It was Riki who set this up for Iwata and tells him to watch his step, and walks off blowing on his leaf. Iwata, having his eye, hand and pride poked “full of holes”, gets one of the guards to set up an ambush for Riki by using the fattest man there, Bandoh. During this Riki decides to pay his respects to Waka, by breaking out of his cell the only way he wants to, BY PUNCHING THE CELL WALL TO GET OUTSIDE! Once out, he meets the guards who are carrying the corpse of Waka off the grounds handcuffed. Riki states that his freedom is granted when he died and breaks the cuffs off, then Riki gives Waka the wooden train he made for his son and walks off.
Next day in the showers, Riki is confronted by Bandoh who states he is promised all the food in the world for his fat self to eat if he defeats Riki. Riki gets a backhand from Bandoh, only to laugh it off and punches Bandoh once for the deathblow. Iwata decides to jump in with a nail being used as a weapon to stab Riki. Riki counters this by using his hand to catch the fist, which then the nail impales into his hand while he crushes Iwata stabbing hand and sends another Jew Death Fist to Iwata body with enough force to have his entrails BLOW OUT OF HIS BODY FROM THE OTHER SIDE! With Riki actions in check from the corrupt prison guards, he gets sent to isolation for 30 days. We then see a dream or flashback of Riki at a grave site for someone by the name of Bi-Rei with the image of the Swastika inside the Star of David. Yes, in the year 199x, the Jews and Germans have put aside there differences of what happened in WWII and join there two beliefs into one, for the purpose of making the martial “of-all” arts of this dreaded decade. With Riki about to take his life, an old man approaches Riki and tells him about his destiny, and to stop him from killing himself and the dream ends. So what will become of Riki? Can Riki get out of this “Hell” alive? Find out… for yourself.
Imagine the world today without the Holocaust
I am going to stop here in my review, because in this 45 minute OVA, I only talked about maybe 15 minutes of what happened. And boy, does it get crazier from there. Riki-Oh is about one of the many great things you will ever get to witness in your lifetime, and to me, it has one of the best stories you will ever get to know about (through the manga of course). I didn’t even get into the fights with the bosses of the “wings” in the prison Riki is at, or who the warden is, and the more ridiculous stuff that happens from there. Truth be told, the live action movie is actually better represented in the manga because the live action movie is SO MUCH MORE AWESOME than the OVA. I mean shoot, the Daily Show had a clip of the movie in their intros back in the day!!!!
So yes, I recommend EVERYONE ON THIS PLANET gets to witness Riki-Oh for the first and many times after the first time seeing this. Ill say watch the live action movie first, then the OVA. There is one more OVA after this that I have not seen, so I don’t know how insane that will get. If you have enjoyed this review and reading everything about Riki-Oh I care to mention, then feel free to comment, or bake me a cake, or a phone number for you ladies out there what want a Riki-Oh in there lives, its cool.
Thanks again for reading, and check my blog over at Anime of Yesteryear. See yea next time…
Sorry it’s been a while folks. Trouble logging into this. Anyway what have I been up to? Nothing much really. However I have finished Clannad. The first series mind you, not After Story. Just a quick note, I wrote all this in the first person as I was watching them. I wrote them in Celtx. So if it gets too weird You know why. Also I was watching it dubbed.
Okay so, finally going to start watching what some people consider one of the greatest anime of all time. A series that has great character
development(not surprising seeing as how it originated from a visual novel) and has put many otaku in tears. Let’s get this show on the road.
Episode 1:
Hmm starts off bleak doesn’t it? Awful colouring. “Anpan”? What? Oh there’s the colour! And they’re walking. OP time!…Dear God that was bad. So generic. Greg Ayres! Whoo! Dude, don’t mess with the Rugby club. They’re the type f dudes who can knock out pro boxers with one hit. Oh well they’re slac
kers so I guess they shouldn’t be too worried…Getting boring people…Not impressing at all…Blah blah blah shut up about how much you love this school! I don’t care! I hate school! Wait did that chick with grey-ish hair just pwn a bunch of dudes in a moped gang? I like this character already. Seems Greg Ayres’ character wants to do the nasty with our little ass-kicker here. And he gets kicked. Nice. Aww poor what’s her face from the start. The Drama club is on hiatus or whatever. Kinda feel bad for her…Nothing’s happening…Okay going to that girl’s, who’s name is Nagisa apparently, house. That mom looks way to young. And she’s crying. And the dad is really cool. Seems like a cool family. Dude Tomoya lives in a dump! Dad’s a drunk eh? Pity. And he’s running away. “A place where your dreams will come true?” Huh…okay.
Okay I go on for a bit during some of these episodes. Mainly picking the plot holes in Fuko’s stupid arc -_- so I’ll just put in what I wrote for the last episode. Be warned the last half of this episode of Clannad I didn’t write ANYTHING except for one sentence because I was so into it. Also there wasn’t much to commentate on in my opinion. I really started writing this so I could put it into one big blog post but there’s just too much. Maybe I’ll post it all someday, who knows? Also I know there’s an extra episode and an OVA after this but I’m going by official episodes. Actually. I think I may have something written for the Tomoyo chapter…Ugh way too long. Never mind folks.
Episode 22: So Nagisa finally found out. That sucks. I suppose they couldn’t have kept it a secret for long. She was bound to find out sometime. Well..this is depressing. They try to cheer her up and it fails. Wait she’s actually going to go on stage after she pretty much committed suicide in her head? She’s emotionally unstable! Stop her people! Are you all dense? Jesus Tap-dancing Christ!…(I had a lot of ellipsis in this text file because I was so into the episode. I found this happening around episode 13 I think? Right around the time I found a place with higher quality dub episodes. This following sentence was just after the show had ended.) Now that was sweet 🙂
Sorry everyone if this was a short post. I’m just trying to get back into the rhythm into blogging because it’s been a while. Anyway if you are interested in reading any more of my thoughts on individual Clannad episodes or just want to check out more of my stuff well…Tough luck. I only blog here and I don’t like advertising my tumblr or my podcast so sorry folks. Assuming you actually like my stuff that is. Anyway my question for people reading. Did you like Clannad? Just Clannad I’m talking about now, not After Story. If you did what was your favourite episode and why? If you didn’t like Clannad, then tell me why you didn’t like it. No flaming though please 🙂
I review Soul Eater at the request of ELPOMPADOUR86. Also, some plans for the future. That chirping noise was my phone. Forgot to silence it.
http://youtu.be/HNOykLYppXo
Here’s that Ending Video I promised (Possible spoilers, but outside the context of the show, they don’t really mean anything. If you’re that sensitive about it, just close your eyes and listen).
Vancouver, Roanapur … same thing right? I mean, minus geographical placement. And the fact that one is featured in a 24-episode anime and the other is not. I’ll let you figure out which one is which.
Black Lagoon, a quick summary: Good beginning, alright middle, great end. My opinion: watch it. In English. Brad Swaile (Amuro from Gundam UC fame) is Rock, a Japanese salaryman who is betrayed by his company and taken on by the Lagoon company.
I don’t want to spoil anymore for you, so I leave you with the strong urge to go watch it if you haven’t already.
You see over the course of the two seasons how the characters change as the newcomer Rock enters their midst, and how everyone reacts to this. Few series manage to pull such a thing off that well.
The season 1 “finale” makes me wonder how the series was originally aired, and if it was separated into two seasons at that time. Maybe there was a six-month break between 12 and 13 like some recent anime have been doing. All I know is I would hate to end a show, even temporarily, on a note like that.
–CanadaMan eh?
P.S. This post has been sitting in limbo for a looooong time. If there was a reason that I held back, I certainly don’t remember it now.
Innovation is usually seen as a good thing by most people in any given field in human endeavor, however there are always a small percentage of die hard adherents to something that cannot accept change in any form. This is nowhere more apparent then in video game fandom. So I’m going to look through some of biggest fanboy dust ups over game companies trying reinvent their franchises.
OK, these are not in any particular order, there just ones I have been made aware of. The first one is the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise, of which I’m a huge fan. There have been a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh games across many game consoles, but the three that are relevant for this discussion were on the Game Boy Advance and Gamecube. The first GBA game was the Sacred Cards released in July of 2002 and it was different in a couple respects. First, unlike all the previous games in the franchise, this game actually has a story, in fact it lets you play one of the story arcs from the show. The other difference was the rules of the card game itself were different, and that’s really pissed off the fanboys of this franchise. The second GBA game was called Reshef of Destruction, was very similar although it had a completely original story. Now both of these games have flaws, like most games, but they are also good games broken the formula and because of that the fanboys labeled them as inferior, which is so short slighted. Moving to the Gamecube, in 2002 a Yi-Gi-Oh game was released called the Falsebound Kingdom that was radically different from anything seen in the franchise thus and since then. The game was a combination of the RPG and RTS genres and was not a card game at all. Instead the monsters from the cards become characters in the game to be used on RPG style teams of 3 under the command of one of the cast from the TV series. A lot of the items in the game are also cards from the card game, which shows the detail the developers put into the game. RTS element comes out in the missions in the game in which you move your teams and engage your enemies and capture bases, additionally there are other objectives to complete sometimes in a given mission. The games was received very negatively by the review community as with many games that step outside the norm. The game has some flaws, as the maps for the missions were really low rent and not very inspired, but was balanced by the great graphics of monsters and battle animations.
The next franchise that attempted to go a different way and hit a brick wall of fanboy rage was Devil May Cry. The controversy stems from the redesign of Dante, a design that wildly changes from the previous four games. This game doesn’t even have a release date yet, its suppose to come out in 2012 sometime, and the hate is already flowing from the fanboys. You would think that people at least would wait until the game came out ,and not just complain about the visuals.
Infamous is another franchise that has felt a rain of fanboy artillery fire over the design of a character, Cole, the main character in the game. The difference here is that, Sucker Punch the developer of Infamous, caved into fanboy pressure and changed Cole back to to way he was in the first Infamous, although there was still minor changes to him to better fit the new game. Again its just kinda sad that fanboys cannot get pass such trivial things like character designs.
When Transformers: War for Cybertron was announced, the main complain yet again was superficial about character designs. The G1 40 year old virgins were complaining about why wasn’t the game using the 1984 designs. Well maybe because its 25 years after the fact, and things need to change sometimes to bring in new fans to a franchise. Blinded by nostalgia glasses is a common medical problem for most Fanboys, and can be corrected by getting out of your parents basement, actually getting laid , and not watching porn all the time.
In sum, I just wish fanboys would come out of their formulaic comfort zone, and give a game with a different take on a beloved franchise a chance. Its almost like fanboys are afraid of change in and out of their game life, which is probably why they cannot get out into the world and get their lives going. If there is any group of fanboys from anime or video game fandom you look to see get owned by me, please leave a comment or pm me on the forum.
This has been pubic service message from the Truth and Fact Defense Force.
