Anime Blog 41: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy:_The_Spirits_Within

Alright. As most people know, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is a CG movie made by the creators of Final Fantasy...it has NOTHING to do with the series itself.

I don't have too much to say about this film except that it was highly advanced for its time. It uses the same CG graphics that are seen in the FFX CG cutscenes and was highly praised for the realistic nature of its characters. The story line confused me a bit but it kind of all comes together in the end.
It's a movie worth watching at least once :D

So...ART!

 

(L-R: Aki, Gray, and Dr. Sid)

 

I was trying to find a picture with more than 1 character in it...this is what happened...lol

So Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Great CG
• Made by FF
• Alec Baldwin plays Gray

Cons:

• Story sort of falls flat...

Don't get me wrong, there may only be one con...but it's a big one. I still say watch it though.

Thanks for reading, Until Next Time!

~Kei

Anime Blog 40: Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, Last Order, & On the Way to a Smile

I'm going to combine all 3 Final Fantasy 7 "anime" here instead of doing them separately because they are all connected of course :D

Advent Children:
Wiki Page

Alright, Advent Children is a CG film based 2 years after the events of the game Final Fantasy 7.
This time the action takes place in Edge, a city built, can you guess?, on the edge of the ruins of Midgar. There is a rampant disease called Geostigma that no one knows the cure for and there are 3 Sephiroth-clones causing trouble in the city trying to obtain Jenova's head.  (I'm not going to spoil the movie by telling you any more) XD Also...I watched it Dubbed.

I really liked this movie. Cloud was just as angsty as ever and the graphics were great! Plus, I HATED Reno in the game but OMG I LOVE him in this movie! It's a really good follow-up to the game and, in case you're wondering, is followed by FF7: Dirge of Cerberus.

The only thing that really confused me about this movie: Denzel. So now you're wondering who Denzel is right? Well, Cloud and Tifa sort of live together above her new 7th Heaven bar. (Mostly Cloud is using it now for his base of operations, he has a delivery service...lol). Marlene (Remember Barret's daughter?) lives with them and so does orphan Denzel. The movie NEVER explains who he is, or where he came from...more on this later.

So...art!

 

(Top (L:R): Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, and Aeris. Bottom (L:R): Vincent, Cid, Cait Sith (on Red XIII's Head), Barret)

Pros and cons!

Pros:

• Good sequel film
• Great graphics
• Vinny!
• Helps cure Cloud's angst??
• Reno!
• Awesome fight scenes

Cons:

• Haven't we played the "Sephiroth is the bad-guy" card too much?

But that's the only con I can think of.

Last Order:
Wiki Page

Last order is a single episode prequel OVA that I watched subbed.
Put quite simply...it's an OVA of the death of Zack and what happened in Nibelheim. It's pretty sad really. It has nice animation and it's basically what happens at the end of Crisis Core and right before the start of FF7.

Art!

 

(Top (L:R): Sephiroth and Tifa. Bottom (L:R): Cloud and Zack)

 







Alright, pros and cons:

Pros:

• Good animation of backstory
• Good art
• FF7

Cons:

• Sad...

That's kinda all I've got...

On the Way to a Smile:
Wiki Page (Generally)
Wiki Page (Specifically)

Ok so On the Way to a Smile is actually a collection of short stories. Only 1 of which was turned into an OVA: The Case of Denzel (HA! Told you we'd come back to this)

Alright, so this is simple. The story explains who Denzel is from the end of FF7 to Advent Children (basically). It also involves Reeve (remember Reeve? the guy inside the mog that Cait Sith rode on?). But only very briefly. (unfortunately there's not much to say because saying anything spoils the story...and since it was only 1 episode (subbed!)....)

Art!

 

(Denzel)

Since the story is told through Denzel's point of view, it's hard to find a picture of him with the people I want :D

 

(so there are Tons of people in this picture...I can only name some of them...At the very top are Cloud, Marlene, and Tifa. The guy with the bushy reddish hair is Gaskin. The old lady by him is related to Reeve (ha! no spoilers...riiiight). and the two people at the bottom are Denzel's dad and mom. All the other people are people Denzel met in the slums and worked with to find scraps)

 

If that wasn't enough typing....lol.

 

Alright Pros and Cons:

 

Pros:

• Explains who Denzel is
• Nice art
• Throws Reeve in there (I like Reeve)

Cons:

• ...no cons...

So there we go! We've made it through the Final Fantasy 7 anime bits!

 

Thanks for reading! Until Next Time,

 

~Kei





Anime Blog 39: Fault!!

WARNING! THIS OVA IS HENTAI (aka: Anime Porn) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

MyAnimeList.net page

Fault!! is a 3 episode Hentai that I watched Subbed (of course...) and it's censored (with that weird "oh, we just covered everything in these weird variations of pale flesh color blocks in the same shape of what we're covering" thing...I don't know what else to call it...same way Boku no Pico was censored)

So, let me start by explaining that I have a slight obsession with Prince of Tennis (just wait till I get to that blog...it'll be ridiculous) and because I spent an entire summer watching it I gained a small obsession with tennis shows. I don't recall how exactly this happened but I was looking for another tennis anime and a show called Fault!! pops up...remember that whole "sucker for pretty art thing" from my Another Lady Innocent blog??? well it happened again...so I watched this.

So if I remember right, the first sex scene is the main guy and his little sister...disturbed to start with.
Then in the second episode he was doing it with his doubles partner and it's revealed he's slept with the senpai...then has sex with his sister and his partner...had to be one right?
Then lastly he has sex with the teacher and then has more threesome sex in cosplay getting caught by the senpai (who isn't disturbed by this I might add). There you go...whole show. Oh and did I mention all of these girls were virgins before he slept with them? Apparently that was a thing with this show.
Disturbed.

Now I can't remember if I've mentioned this before but I keep a detailed anime list (in Microsoft Access...so I suppose it's actually a database) that includes lots of metadata about the anime I watch along with my thoughts on them. (OMG my InfoSci minor is showing!) My thoughts on this show were (are?) "SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT THIS GUY! The blue-haired one was more attractive."--exact words.

So I suppose that I should reveal the art...

 

(L: Saeki (the doubles partner) R: Mio (the little sister), Rika (the teacher, and Reiko (the Sempai) )

 

(I was having trouble with the original pictures on here so the one above has the game graphics. I kept the picture of Reiko below for comparison to the anime)

 

(Reiko (the Senpai) )

(Kei (the Blue-haired guy and Mio's doubles partner) )

and finally

 

(Shuuichi the man-whore)

 

 Alright so on to pros and cons:

Pros:

• Tennis
• Pretty art

Cons:

• Incest
• Plot revolved around sex
• Did I mention the incest?
• The whole virgin-thing...that was just weird
• HE'S NOT EVEN THAT GREAT PEOPLE!

Ok I think I'm done. I don't know where to put Hentai because some days it can be a pro while others it can be a con...so I'm just going to let bygones be bygones. If you really like Hentai...watch it. If you were in it for the pretty art and the tennis (like me) don't bother...they only play tennis for about 60 seconds. (unless "playing tennis" means "having sex on the tennis court" in which case...)

 

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

 

~Kei

Anime Blog 38: Cardcaptor Sakura

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardcaptor_Sakura

Ok...so Cardcaptor Sakura is a 70 episode Shojo with 3 OVAs and 2 Movies. AND OMG SO KAWAII! (...I watched all of it subbed...no English voices here!)

So the story is simple. A young girl named Sakura accidentally lets these magical cards out of their book, in the first half of the show Sakura has to collect the cards (which transform and cause problems) and in the second half of the show Sakura has to transform the cards using her own magical powers. There is of course a rival for card collection named Syaoran who gets some of the cards as well (in the first half). Syaoran and Sakura's relationship changes from rivals to love interest over the course of the show and is actually important to the plot :D

This show was just so cute! I love Tomoyo (Sakura's friend who creates all her costumes and films her adventures) and I love Toya (Sakura's brother) just because he has jobs EVERYWHERE! And I of course love Yukito (but telling you why would be spoilers!) and even though I didn't like Meilin at first I grew to like her by the end. I also love the relationships of Sakura's classmates: for instance Yamazaki always lies and his girlfriend Chiharu has to beat him up to get his lies to stop. And of course I love the comparison between Fujitaka and Nadeshiko (Sakura's parents) and Rika and Terada-sensei. (Explanation: Fujitaka was Nadeshiko's teacher before they got married when Nadeshiko was 16 and Rika is in love with Terada-sensei...idk if he knows or not XD)

**so I'm writing so much on this because I just finished it 5 minutes ago!**
The OVAs were video diaries by Tomoyo and they were really cute: turns out Tomoyo created the original opening!
The first movie was pretty good, it was a side story about a woman who wanted to get revenge on Clow Reed and mistook Sakura for him because she has the Clow Cards.  (AKA a spinoff!)
The second movie was a sequel to the series introducing a sealed card (so there were actually 53 not 52!) and bringing Syaoran back to Japan. It was really good, the ending decided to play a prank. (I try not to spoil!) and let me just throw out there: since I didn't see him catch her I'm going to assume she fell! (jkjk)

So...art! (I'm gonna challenge myself with this pic!)

 

(Back Row: (L-R) Sonomi (Tomoyo's mom), Mizuki-sensei, Fujitaka (Sakura's dad), Next row down: Rika, Chiharu, Yamazaki with Naoko in front of him, Akizuki (Ruby Moon), Toya; Next row: Yukito with Syaoran in front of him, Kero-chan (the yellow lion), Sakura, Tomoyo, Meilin; Front Bottom: Eriol and Spinal Moon)

Wow...I hope y'all can follow that...it was a little hard because Naoko isn't in a row and Akizuki's head in in the back row but she's standing in the one next to Toya...and Syaoran just had to be sitting...but oh well. Hopefully y'all got it!

The art is just so cute!
So time for pros and cons:

Pros:

• Magical girl!
• SakuraXSyaoran (if you're a CLAMP fan you understand!)
• Clow Cards!
• Kawaii art
• Adorable story

Cons:

• Annoying "villans" (AKA: Hiiragizawa)
• Long...(well for me...ish)
• Takes you-know-who forever to tell the other you-know-who how they feel about them! (if you can follow that logic!)

Overall this was the most adorable anime I've watched in quite a while. EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH IT! Well, thanks for reading!

Until next time,

~Kei

Anime Blog 37: Fake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_(manga)

Fake is a 1 episode Yaoi OVA that I watched Subbed.

Ok so I must say that this disappointed me. I have friends who really liked the manga and told me I should check it out...so I watched it. I really felt thrown into the middle of the story of two cops in love going on vacation and then having to solve a crime that happens to occur at their hotel. Plus I really did NOT like the art...it was actually hard for me to watch because I disliked the art so much.

Honestly that's about all I have to say about this one. I didn't find it to be all that great and the only saving grace was that poor Dee kept right on a trying but could never catch a break.

So art,

 

(Top: Dee, Bottom: Ryo)

So time for pros and cons:

Pros:

• Yaoi (always a pro)
• Interesting idea

Cons:

• OMG THAT ART!
• Really confusing because you're just dropped in the middle

So there you have it.
Thanks for reading!
Until next time,

~Kei

Anime Blog 36: Elfen Lied

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfen_Lied

Elfen Lied is a 13 episode Seinen anime that I watched Subbed and it has 1 OVA.

So let me start out by saying that Elfen Lied was one of the first animes I ever watched. A friend of mine showed me episode 1 on YouTube and I was hooked...I mean a naked girl killed a whole bunch of people with a PEN!? AWESOME! So I watched it and I really liked it.

OH...also copious amounts of nudity...there's your warning.

I have to warn y'all though...it's uber violent. I still don't like to watch the puppy scene...that's just disturbing...but she gets revenge for it, don't worry :)
So basically the story follows a new type of human (a Diclonius) named Lucy. She has telekinesis-like powers and horns. The story follows her escape from an experimental lab to where she loses her consciousness and becomes Nyu...which is all she can say. More Diclonii are introduced later in the story to capture/kill Lucy/Nyu and end up joining the household she has with Kouta and Nozomi.

The ending is a cliffhanger...just so y'all know. But it's good :)

The OVA is about how NANA (another Diclonius) just isn't good at cleaning things...she may only feed the dog...she doesn't mess that up :) It's cute

So art:

 

(Lucy)

 

(Lucy as Nyu)

 

So one of the most famous pictures from this anime is Lucy's eye:

 

It's haunting right?

 

Well there's also a beautiful song with this anime called Lillium. It's in the opening so I'll just post that.

 

The video uses beautiful imagery along with art parodies (read the wiki if you're interested).

 

So time for pros and cons!

 

Pros:

• First episode has hot naked chick killing people with a PEN!
• Really fascinating story
• Hilarious seeing Lucy become Nyu
• Nudity...in this case not way over the top

Cons:

• Really violent (some people may not like that and it even got to me sometimes)
• Confusing backstory
• (I guess if you don't like nudity then that'd be one but as I said above it wasn't over the top)

So that's all for this one! I hope those of you who are interested watch it!

 

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

 

~Kei





Anime Blog 35: Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ef:_A_Fairy_Tale_of_the_Two.

Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two is a Shonen anime in two 12 episode parts (Ef: A Tale of Memories and Ef: A Tale of Melodies) that I watched Subbed.

So let me start out by saying that I absolutely ADORE this anime! And I'm not 100% sure why...it's soooooo sad :( But at the same time, so beautiful! And the great part is that EVERYONE in both stories is connected in some way, shape, or form (whether through people, school, neighborhoods, etc)

So the show follows a number of different couples, some in Japan and some in Australia. The main couple's story  (Yu and Yuuko) is split between the two parts and they're trying to meet once more even though (SPOILER!?) Yuuko is a ghost.

I really loved the story of Renji and Chihiro. Because Chihiro can only remember 13 hours at a time because of an accident when she was younger and so every time they're together it's like meeting for the first time for her. It's so sweet...and so depressing.

I also love the story of Yu and Yuuko because it's really shown as flashbacks and it's so sad. He tried to save her. (I'm trying not to spoil things...why is that so hard!?).

And also the story of Shuichi and Mizuki...It's one of those younger girl falls for older guy stories...except with a sad twist...and the song that he plays on his violin is BEAUTIFUL! (here...I found it on YouTube)

 



 

So I should probably give you pictures of the couples so you can recognize the characters in the videos if you haven't seen the anime :D

 

 

(Yuuko and Yu)

 

 

(Miyako and Hiro)

 

 

(Kei and Kyosuke)

 

 (Renji and Chihiro)

 

(Mizuki and Shuichi)

 

Ha ha! Found them all! Amazingly, good pictures of KeiXKyosuke and MizukiXShuichi were hard to find! But whatever. So there's going to be lots of stuff on this blog because I also love the imagery of the openings.
Ef: A Tale of Memories:

Ef: A Tale of Melodies:

 So for pros and cons.

Pros:

• Beautiful art
• Beautiful music
• Depressingly beautiful storyline
• Great characters

Cons:

• Sad

That's it, I can't think of anything else that's bad about this anime.

Well, thanks for reading!
Until next time,

~Kei