Great Incredible Joe

Explosions.

A waved of destruction of a huge city. And also some ninja battles.

Plus an incredibly cheesy script.

All together in one Hasbro sponsored package.


Then some late night super oily but incredibly tasty beef brisket wonton noodle mix.

(This is the start of "the long late break" where posts from the ether have resurfaced after the interest in my blog waned a huge amount)

Some boards, and some Kung Fu

Boards games in a room with some friends.

Then a movie with some Kung Fu. It was apparently a sequel to something, so I was a bit lost at first. The effects and the general aesthetics were quite good. I especially liked the whole Kung Fu VS technology thing going on. The steam-punk inspired machines were great with all those gears and such. And the humour was spot-on almost every time it came up.

Robo Bug vs Clone; Plus "Baby" Form

Just pitching in on the discussion about the new movie.

Seems like our good old legendary Psychic type has a new form. And a new voice too!

Also, the extremely speedy Bug type is on the job being the villainous artificially enhanced Pokemon. Does it have good intentions hidden within?

Well one thing is for sure, the trailer does seem quite pretty and hints of X & Y are bound to show up.

Plus the extra little Pikachu and Eeveelutions mini-movie has the newest Eeveelution yet! Voiced by Shoko Nakagawa! And narrated by Atsuko Maeda! Hooray for Shokotan and Acchan, I'm sure they'd make for a great duo.

Moving and Watching

Another day of moving. Or should I say renovating? Either way, a bit of heavy lifting and a lot of time spent doing only physical work. At least I brought some manga to read this time around.

Also, watched a certain movie involving super soldiers and Philippines. Not quite what I expected at all.

And the finale of a certain series that will be posted about tomorrow!

The Everlasting Story

Also known as "Madoka Magica the Movie: Eternal", part 2 of the Madoka movie trilogy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one as well, although I must admit that lining up at least 2 hours in advanced plus getting a poster could have added to my already biased views.

The movie felt like the last few episodes with more super nice transformation sequences, and additional scenes that tended to be on the typical somewhat creepy art side of things. Gekidan Inu Curry certainly had fun with those. Contrary to the previous movie, this one felt longer than usual because I don't think they really cut anything out of these episodes. They had a little less than 2 hours to fill, so that made sense.


Spoilers abound afterwards:
It started with the film reel countdown with a curtain opening. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it very much reminded me of episode 1.

This time around, I got to watch the new opening animation. I'm not sure what to say about the sound, as it sounds slightly similar to Connect, but I found the animation itself to be great. It pretty much half-spoiled many things if you hadn't seen the series though, although that number of people would be few. I really liked seeing all the happy Homura and Madoka moments, especially the somewhat infamous check to check snuggling scene. Too cute.

I quite liked the parts during Homura's long time travelling episode. Right before that, the obvious use of CGand/or strange foreground/background layers in the graveyard kind of threw me off, in addition to how drawn out that scene waas. At first I was hoping for the manga-only scene of Kyoko and Sayaka in the "afterlife", but sadly that didn't happen. Instead we feasted on even more imagery in Homura's time travelling travails, along with an even more eerie version of the countdown from the beginning of the movie, except it is counting up and distorted. It even ended in an altered, more happy version the anime opening animation, including "Connect" by ClariS. I'm not sure what to say about that.

The Kyubey entropy and thermodynamics of the universe lesson was always a great part to watch. Big screen Inu Curry visuals are great.

The episode 11 part felt very much the same as the TV version. Not much to say other than how crazy it is to watch Walpurgisnacht getting attacked by Unlimited Arms Works on the big screen. Also, the cleaning of the bloodied Homura's face by Madoka was really nice.

Then the changes start to get a lot more interesting in the final stretch. It could just be my imagination, but everything felt spiffed up when Madoka started traversing time and space. It was hugely apparent during the fantasticly sparkly galactic rift part where Madoka and Homura are having their one last time together. They added dresses! I absolutely love this addition, not only because it makes it slightly less awkward, but also because of how beautiful it looks.

Then of course it went back to the "present", but before that we had a detour of Madoka picking up Sayaka. This, and the parts where Madoka went to pick up the other girls, were the parts that almost made me teary eyed. I truly felt the sacrifices and the bittersweet happiness of them being saved by Madoka. Sayaka's story, though a bit less significant compared to Jeanne D'Arc or Cleopatra, still resonated strongly as being a great sacrifice for a good cause.

Now actually back to the present day, very much like the TV series again, though seeing Homura's happy face at a large size is great.

Then it strangely cut to credits filled with runes, in the obvious style of Inu Curry. I ought to search up what these mean, because they could be pertinent information for the 3rd movie or something. Or maybe they're just credits. I really like the orchestral version of Connect used here as well.

Then back to the "aftermath" scene with the winged Homura and the great quotable text, followed by the film reel ending showing silhouettes of the various magical girls of the ages. I was fully expecting a trailer or something to appear, but instead we are treated to the real credits with the new song by Kalafina.

And after that was done, I was still expecting something, but alas it did no come to being.

-end spoilers.


So overall, I quite liked the two movies, as they covered pretty much everything. Perhaps the one gripe (other than me missing out 10 minutes of the first movie) would be the odd pacing of the second movie. It was starting to feel like they had to pad some parts to make it longer, and it really felt like I was watching the episodes all over again sometimes. The total of four credits (minus one if you don't include the runes-version) felt a bit strange too. Though I admit that I liked the inclusion of Connect in two places, even if it was awkward.

And that's it. I look forever to whatever follows, though my hopes for it coming to Canada any time soon are low. Perhaps in 3 to 4 years at minimum.

The Beginning Story

The poster that some people got.

I just came back from watching Madoka Magica the Movie Part 1. It finally came to my city so I was able to watch it! Unlike the showings in the states, this is actually split up into the proper Part 1 and Part 2, so I'll be watching the next one another day.

I really liked how they did it. I'm surprised they were able to compress all that into 2 hours, because it certainly did not feel rushed at all.

The redone transformation scenes and the remixed music were some of the highlights of the movie. I especially liked the Japanese lyrics version of Mami's theme "Credens Justitiam". I kind of miss the whole "Kajiuran" chanting from before, but this was just as good.

Also, the end credits were really like a super extended version of the TV end credits. They certainly seem to foreshadow what is to come in the next few movies. Spoilers now : There were now more magical girl silhouettes, quite possibly those from across all ages and times. And the end was Madokami holding onto Madoka. Very interesting.


Sadly I missed out on the first 10 minutes of the movie with the new theme song by ClariS. Due to certain school circumstances, I barely even got to watch the movie. But then, somehow I was able to claim a ticket after it was stated as "Sold Out" for the first 10 minutes. The last ticket too. Even though the seats were not ideal, the movie was still perfectly fine to watch. The nice thing about knowing the story beforehand is the fact that I could almost ignore the slightly localized subtitles to watch the bigger picture.

I look forward to watching Part 2, wrapping up the TV arc and possibly foreshadowing at Part 3.

People Chase

We did some weird things today. Involving a video of car chase and Batman. Recreated using unusual methods. Yet it still ended up awesome.

Also, Happy Birthday Mariko-sama! (even though it's passed in Japan already).

Sifting through Bins and Shelves at Z

Z being a certain Canadian retailer going down and being taken over by the American T. Sounds like the making of a zombie game or movie.

Today was one of the few ending days for these stores, so of course there's a chance to find some buried treasure for a somewhat cheap price.

The only things I got were this one animated movie that flopped in sales, but was absolutely glorious in terms of graphics. You know the one.

The next one is a sequel to a video game that I was gifted a long while ago. Takes place in this underwater dystopia filled with crazies, little girls, and big lunks of metal. Hooray for philosophy and super powers!

These stores are closing quite soon, so I might visit again in a week to pick up some more goodies. Who knows what could be left on these barren shelves.

Comfy Phones and Wacky Canadian Western.

So today I got some nice and comfy (and cheap!) headphones! Sony ones too, so now I'm using a full set of Sony's for my music listening.

And I got to watch a Canadian Western! It's a bit old, but it was quite fun and charming. Good to see some good old western with a twist.

2013: Start of a New Day

Hooray for the New Year!

We had a pretty quiet countdown at home. Then I just kept doing what I normally do.

Then we did the yearly obligations early on...

And then we watched a movie about a certain little halfling, a band of dwarves, and a wizard. Quite nice, though there were a lot of parts that felt too long.

Then I started getting even more second thoughts about my new phone... with a wrong price to boot. Who knows what will come of it.


Anyways, Happy New Year! I hope for great things to continue happening this year.