Saw Brave at the cinema and The Hunger Games in the comfort of my own home on Blu-Ray. The sad part is I can’t say I was really blown away by either of them.

Brave

Of the two Brave was a lot better, how could it not be coming from Pixar? They always do such amazing work but it seems that since John Lasseter has left the directing chair they have been on a slow decline (with the notable exception of Brad Bird directing The Incredibles and Ratatouille). There is a lot to love in Brave, the work is Pixar’s best ever and the close attention they pay to the details really pays off.

The film opens very strong and with a brilliant pace that keeps you well entertained and really interested in the story as it unfolds, but once it gets to the half way point when the secrets have been revealed it starts to unwind and there are moments where I was left bored. Don’t miss understand this is still head a shoulders above so many other films out there I was just hoping for more. I will be buying it when it is available on disk, either for the laugh out loud moments in the film or for the excellent short film “La Luna” before it.

The Hunger Games

If there is one redeeming feature of this film it is the awesome beard work of Wes Bentley.

This film did not fair so well for me, right from the opening I could tell something wasn’t going to work. The film starts off slow and then slips down a gear. I know there is a lot of background to this film but it is totally skipped over or hand waved away which I found disappointing. There was plenty to look into before the actual main story was revealed but the film makers didn’t go for that other than a few bits and pieces.

Then you are on into the capitol and all the crazy things going on there, but nothing was ever explained. Why did they look so different, what is the point of the Hunger Games, why are they so enthralled by it. There is some amazing work done in the way it is all presented and the costuming, but there was just something wrong with it all, the acting seemed stiff, the concepts were just glossed over. Donald Sutherland turned in a great performance even if was only for a few very short scenes.

Then you are on into the Hunger Games itself, a blatant rip-off from Battle Royale. I know a lot of people will point out there is a lot more to the story and they are right.. but not for the film. To be honest there is only so much you can really do with it but that is how it felt to me, they have taken a film I love and turned it into something so depressing I really don’t think I want to watch it again.

Of course the concept is bleak, it is supposed to be depressing that is the point of this oppressive regime that makes all the districts send their children to be killed. But Battle Royale manages to make it a lot less depressing while keeping the fun and the pacing in the film, there are also a lot more interesting character in Battle Royale and you get a chance to see how each of them deals with the problem they have been handed. Not so in the Hunger Games where all the characters feel flat and boring.

Conclusion

Watch them both, they will both be important films in the future. But if you want a better time see Brave.

This is my Batman

I have just noticed that the last post on here was one of mine about… Batman. Won’t talk about the massive Batman book I got for my birthday. I am really not a huge Batman fan, I do enjoy the idea a lot more than almost all other “superheros” because Batman is real, he has no special powers other than his intelligence. How can you not love that a lot more than someone who is just magic.

But this is more than that, this is Frank Miller’s Batman. It is very true Batman came from very camp beginnings, but the premise is such a strong and simple one. While a lot of great people did amazing work remaking and extending the Batman legend but Frank Miller took it in a new direction. As well as the distinctive art style he also had fantastic ideas. I am so pleased to see this film is keeping those ideas.

There is also a touch of the original Batman: The Animated Series with the style of the backgrounds they have gone for. If I have one problem it is that Kevin Conroy is not involved. He IS the voice of Batman, instead Peter “Robocop” Weller is doing the voice of Batman. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.

Worth checking out

If you have not seen it it is worth checking out “Batman: Under the Red Hood”, a great and really quiet shocking take on the Batman legend, the opening scene is very memorable.

Best game in a long time

Arkham City is without doubt one of the best games I have ever played. I don’t say that lightly, I sincerely mean it. It has everything you could possibly want in a game, for starters you are Batman. But not some hobbled “I have had all my toys taken away from me and I won’t be cool till the end of the game” Batman but a “I am so freaking cool I can kill guys just by looking at them” Batman… which is nice!

You have great toys to play with and the actual mechanics of playing the game are exactly right. Fighting is at the forefront in this game and you will be doing plenty of it. But its fun, there are so many things you can do as you pound people it is just an endless joy. Then you get to throw in all your cool gadgets and you are set. But its not straight forward, do something stupid and you die almost instantly (that is a good thing as you still have to think rather than button bash).

The artwork and production value in the game is utterly stunning, the art-deco style of Gotham is extended into some weird and wonderful ideas but all of them feel at home here. While some of it is absurd none of it felt out of place. You are playing a man with no special powers but dresses up like a bat.. absurd was left at the door. On top of that the voice acting is superb, I have already mentioned my gripe so we will leave it at that. You have to praise the developers for not sticking with the established designs for the characters, they have taken some already great concepts and just improved on them with this game. It is worth playing the game just to get the the unlocks that let you examine the models in more detail (Kudos to them for including the design of Cat Woman from the animated series as a model as well).

But the standout thing here is the story. I’m not going to tell you a single thing about it that would only spoil it for you, but lets just say it was not what I expected at all and was just fantastic. There are plenty of older characters that make an appearance not just the Joker, Penguin or Riddler, and there are twists and turns all through the story. But at its heart it stays true to who Batman is and what he is about.

Final thought

This is just the perfect superhero game that I don’t you could ever really do with any other superhero. You know you are playing a great game when you finish it before you wanted and you want to start it again straight away.

*I will give you one little spoiler*
I got to beat up a shark!

Batman: Arkham Asylum was a surprise for me, I had seen it coming and it looked interesting. But when you look back at the history of super hero games it is not good. So a long time ago I gave up on hoping on a good super hero game, let alone the best one of them all Batman. How so very wrong I was, I think is has to go down as one of my favorite games of all time.. right up there with the likes of Super Mario World (SNES) and Street Fighter II Alpha 2 (Saturn).

For those that know me they know I don’t often complete games. I usually lose interest somewhere in the middle, put the game down, then never really come back to it. Arkham Asylum treads that careful line between game and cinema, an engaging story, great game mechanics, fantastic voice acting. I think between Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill you can’t not enjoy it.

You know a game is good when I have completed it a few times now and I am working on getting all of the achievements and extras.

On to Arkham City

Of course I have only had Arkham City for one day now, but it is very part the better of Arkham Asylum. Not only is the system better, new ideas have been added, but there are also all new gadgets to play with.

The city is sprawling and feels real and gritty with the various character nicely woven into it. Other reviews out there will go into the details but lets just say its great!

My only disappointment so far

The only thing I am disappointed in so far is Harley Quinn. Of course the character design is spot on, it’s just not as good as Arkham Asylum. Unfortunately they have also changed the voice, in Asylum it is Arleen Sorkin the one true voice Harley Quinn. In City they have changed it to Tara Strong. She is excellent but she is just not right.

For me Harley Quinn is as important as Cammy. She is not the most important character but she is one of the most interesting.

So I was looking through the list and there are some goodies on there like “The Andromeda Strain“, “28 Days later“, and “12 Monkeys” (I have always loved the work of Terry Gilliam). But a few from the top I came across “Pontypool” and from the picture alone I thought I need to take a look at that.

It made another appearance in the current SFX magazine special on zombies at number 39 of their all time greatest zombie movies.. so it has to be worth a look.

Something of a surprise

Like all good zombie films it starts innocently following the journey to work of former “shock jock” Grany Mazzy. It looks like its going to be just another day for Mazzy in the backwater hole that is Pontypool but strange things are already happening but no one has caught onto it yet.

Being the grizzled zombie film watchers that I am I thought it might be interesting but didn’t hold out much hope it would be up to much, after all I have never heard of it.

As soon as I started watching I knew something about this one was going to be good, it has a great gritty feel to it and the direction and acting are excellent. Like all really good horror there is a fair dose of comedy and you get a good feeling for the characters.

All the action takes place in the basement of a church where the radio station is setup, and you only hear about what is happening outside from broken reports and odd bits of news. This only serves to highlight the problem as it is so badly defined anything could be going on.

This is where the film takes a sharp turn from the normal zombie style film and adds its own twist to the proceedings. I am not going to tell you what it is you will have to watch for that, but it is a genius and terrifying idea and one that I can’t believe hasn’t been used before (that I have seen at least).

Not perfect

What is the perfect zombie film, only two spring to mind for me. Night of the living dead (the original George A Romero film the whole genre started from) and Shaun of the dead.

You are probably thinking “what the hell is this idiot saying?”, cool your jets! When I say perfect I mean in terms of character development, plot, pacing. All the things that are really hard in any film. They are not the best zombie films (close) but they are get well made films that hang together well. Most zombie films have problems with gaps in the plot or slow scenes that stop the flow of the film.

Pontypool doesn’t escape these problems but they are few and far between. You can forgive any film its minor moments and its worth powering through the few slower moments to get to the reward.

Does not reward stupidity

Something I have seen more and more in recent films is a tend to make them more appealing to idiots. Why have a subtle plot when you can put it in someones face? Pontypool I’m pleased to say doesn’t do that, if you are not following what is going on then you are out of luck, and the ending is sure to leave you confused.

Conclusion

Worth a watch, might not buy it but if you see it cheap or on the TV it’s worth spending the time.

Saturday 27th August 2011

Transferred from hotel in Narita to one in Shinjuku via the Narita Express, missed it by minutes and had to wait almost an hour. Finally made it to my hotel and although it was too early to check in, they took my luggage into storage so I could go out. I met up with Yugo and Yuichi again at Akihabara and went to the anime centre. Big display of some anime that didn’t interest me but the concept artwork was good and it had some nice merchandise in the shop but the Prince of Tennis movie trailer really got my attention.

Next we went to a couple of shops and then a maid cafe. I joined in with the crazy magic heart routine but will do a kamehameha if anyone that wasn’t there tries to get me repeat it lol. Yuichi got an AMAZING rendition of Gundam in tomato ketchup by maid, almost a shame to use the ketchup. That is saved somewhere on my cameras internal memory and I didn’t bring the cable so I’ll post that when I get back. There was a horrible english video you could dub with a maid. Seriously you are a bunny who worries over opening your new cafe when your new maid has not shown up and you get to have a mini rage at her being late. I could never rage at someone so cute. I would rather dub the Japanese video with a perverted old man doing drunken kungfu before getting blasted team rocket style out the cafe. At least that was entertaining unlike bunny’s but my Japanese is nowhere near that good. The animation was hideously bad for all the videos but enough of that, it was a very fun place and thanks to another of my co-workers (Koji) I got a group picture of me, Yugo, Yuichi and our maid Aki. I love it and it will always bring back great memories. I got lucky there were cute maids in and the green tea cake was very good.

We visited more shops and then we went to Daiba to see the Thousand Sunny (closed but still visible) and went in the Jump Shop. We then watched fireworks from the upper decking mexican restaurant and Yuichi gave me a lift back to the hotel. My nose was running constantly by the time I got back to the hotel and so I had a long bath and then bed

Sunday 28th August 2011

Got up late due to illness which had progressed to not as bad nose but chesty cough. Realised I had left my wallet in the hotel when I got to the checkout of the mini mart, along with having to walk round a drunk woman passed out on the floor was quite an experience. Went back and got my wallet and then my stuff from the mini mart. I tried to be cheap and avoid the taxi fare that the route to the Bandai Museum from Shinjuku had by going from Asakusa. Except that line isn’t jr so I couldn’t use my pass. It was a lot of changes to get from Shinjuku to Asakusa and then had more changesto get to the museum from there. Luckily I had been given instructions to follow. Thank you Yasu-san. The Bandai Museum is in the middle of nowhere and everyone else there was families driving for good reason – it is a pig to get to and from the station is a 10 minute walk in blazing heat through a desolate town. It was worth it to complete my hattrick – I’ve seen the 1:1 Gundam, the Gundam Cafe and been to the Bandai Museum. The museum has a timeline of Bandai Toys from beginning to present and also a decent selection of super vintage toys from the world over. It also somewhat oddly has a section dedicated to Edison, the lightbulb guy. Yes he did a lot of other ingenious stuff but I was there to see toys. There may be some connection but the only english in the place is on signs saying stuff like photo spot so I didn’t really get the most out of everything. There was a Fantastic couple of Gundam displays, the scale White Base is amazing. Shame about the lack of a shop.

Admit it, you would do the same if you came across the wreckage of the Legendary Gundam

I was totally in the mood to buy some Gundams but all they had were… Capsule toys. Seriously what were they thinking. Then again, they know their target audience 1/4 of the place was a play area for proper kids not grown up kids like me. I am glad I went but if you only have a limited amount of time in Japan do not go. There are Far better attractions are out there considering the time involved in getting to it.

To get back I took a taxi to the nearest jr station which ended up costing a little more than the fare from Asakusa but the simplicity of the journey was worth it. I slept past the station I was supposed to change to Shinkansen so took the local line all the way to shinjuku and then went to nakano broadway for some price checking. Stopped off at Hubs English pub where not a single person speaks english but caught the end of the Liverpool Bolton game. I headed back to the hotel and picked up some instant ramen and strawberry milk on the way. Sometimes I am so cheap and lazy I amaze myself.

Monday 29th 2011

I managed to get up on time to get to shinagawa in time to book a ticket and board the 8:40 Shinkansen to Osaka. Long journey with an aisle seat so no view and a woman with the world’s loudest keyboard on her prehistoric laptop.

Jungle Anime - attention all shop owners, this is how to get my attention

You have to change to the JR Kyoto line to Osaka and then I took the long way to Den Den Town aka missed the turning and got lost. Still I got there and enjoyed the amazing displays of figures and character merchandise. They didn’t have the Brave Police figures I was after loose in a good enough condition (that train is supposed to be white not yellow lol) and the boxed ones were OMG expensive! Ebay will be my friend I think. I did find a Figure from Basquash which I’d been after and not afforded last time. It isn’t the best anime by a long way but I like the robot’s design. I think I regret not blowing £100 on a Lina Inverse figure but for a non transforming plastic kit with no articulation or shading, just coloured plastic,  it seemed a lot. Then again I have spent way more on Slayers DVDs hence the regret.

Next was trapsing around Osaka in a crisscross, zig zag somehow missing the Mandarake Grand Chaos store I was after while getting so close a taxi refused to drive me and said walk and pointed right then left. At this point my identity changed into Ryoga Hibiki – the directionless idiot from Ranma 1/2. I walked round and round not finding it in sweltering heat and humidity which to be honest didn’t bother me as it was a nice day to look around and it its nice to lose weight the easy way by walking and sweating it out rather than my usual system of tedious exercise in my home gym. I stopped off for a MacDonalds – every travellers friend, big mac is the same globally and McD’s usually have a decent toilet and price. Caught the Shinkansen back to shinagawa and went straight back to Shinjuku while writing this blog.

Tuesday 30th

I went to Daiba to the United States of Odaiba 2011 festival.  While I don’t know anything about Japanese live action tv shows, one of the main focus points of this event is a fairly large replica of the One Piece ship the Thousand Sunny.

It was another blazing hot day and a long queue mostly kids, brutal but oh so worth it.  I love how it has a couple of slides coming out the rear, even most of the adults used them to get out instead of the boring stairs.

Up that path all the way to the Outback at the top, turn right and then you'll find a small signpost amongst a list of others on a shop wall. Go into the building and take the lift to B2 - Mandarake - for all your rare collectible needs

After some time wondering around the Aqua city shoping mall I had lunch in an Hawaiian overlooking the Statue of Liberty.  The picture is from outside but it was still cool to eat lunch looking at it.

After that I headed to Shibuya and the Mandarake store there, found a fantastic Tenchi TV art book, full of concept work and designs.  I gambled on it as it was sealed and had no description other than the logo and tv series and a picture of the cast.  It made my day when I opened it that is for sure.  I came back to Shinjuku for dinner and some local shop browsing and to get a card reader so i could pull some of the pictures off my camera and now its time to get some rest for another day’s adventures.

Wednesday 31st

The day started out slow with a walk in Shinjuku park and sat there and read the two manga I had brought the day before.  Two volumes in and Toriko is a well done shonen manga, not ground breaking but entertaining.  I brought it because at the Odaiba fair they were pushing him with One Piece X Toriko cross over images and a very expensive crossover figure gift set of Luffy and Toriko.  The characters are perfect for a crossover too, Toriko hunts the world’s most dangerous creatures to eat them and Luffy will eat anything..  Here’s a picture I didn’t post but took while I was there.

Anway in the afternoon I shifted into gear and went back to Akihabara to visit the Mandarake and any other stores I had missed and to pick up a few things I had noted to get last time.  I agonised over whether to go for one hugely expensive but awesome toy (Macross SDF-1 transforming battleship) or a number of cheaper ones.  In the end I grabbed a couple of cheap Gundams and went to Nakano to see if I could find something of almost as good quality but less size as even if I could get it home, I can’t imagine it fitting in any of my cabinets…

Of the art books I picked up, all but 1 were cheaper than their origin price, the Cobra (Space adventure) was 2 1/2 times the original price - I can accept that for Cobra.

In Nakano I picked up a Medicom Fujiko set and some grade A tack. A One Piece bath mat and a Kid Goku figure dressed as Santa – perfect for this years tree.  I then made the mistake of going into the Mandarake bookshop.  I came out with 4 art books which isn’t a lot but then you feel the weight and remember you have to carry this  and pass weight limit.  When I got back to Shinjuku it was raining hard, and warm.  A most uncomfortable kind of weather so rather than go to the restaurant by my hotel like I had planned, I stopped in KFC as it was closer.  Strawberry Krushem in Japan has Banana in.  Suprised me and wasn’t as good I’d say.  My hands were full with shopping so I didn’t go into any of the convenience stores to check for more strawberry milk and now I’m getting withdrawals. My regret about the Lina Inverse figure is abolished as the Slayers art book I picked up is fantastic and way cheaper too. I checked everything would fit into my luggage (two bags naturally, I’d stowed a bag inside my main suitcase for such an occasion as me buying too many toys which always happens.  I then felt very Roger Murtagh.  As soon as I got my huge orrange sports bag full of toys on my back I thought I’m too old for this shit…  Friday morning shall be interesting.  I am going to be sweating buckets lugging all this stuff back to the train station.

Thursday 1st September

I am my own worst enemy, you know how yesterday I was soo happy with that Slayers artbook I didn’t need the figure anymore?  Well I went out to go to Ueno zoo, got on the wrong line, changed at the wrong stop and walked into the Akihabara branch of Volks and brought that Lina figure.  I can’t really explain it, but I guess I really did want that, or maybe it was from looking at pictures that made me want it more. Either way I had wound up in Akihabara again so while I was the I picked up a few more gundams then headed back to Shinjuku to drop my bags off and check in online.

Now lets try that Ueno zoo again… So I’m on my way towards Shinjuku station and figure I have been the same way every time, lets takea different route and what is that – an Animate store in Shinjuku! Damn it’s turned Christmas already.  Animate is a store that sells character merchandise, DVDs and CDs for all the latest anime.  Anyway I somehow managed to only spend a few minutes in there and then, yes I made it.  Ueno Zoo at last! It is odd, some animals seem to have huge areas and others like the panda’s and penguins are tiny. One of the pandas kept walking around in a circle the entire time I was there.  That poor panda has my pity.

Anyway after the zoo I went back to Shibuya to look at the art books again and I got a little carried away.  Macross Frontier character designs, yes I’ll take one of those, oh wait, that one is just the guys, ah yes there’s another for the girls.  Cool, I’ll nab that as well.  Sheryl Nome is a goddess.  Hang on what is that, Brave Series Design Works! Great Fighbird I have to have that.  I picked up some One Piece art books for Brian and while I was there, the whole store was treated to some excellent One Piece karaoke by a cute pink haired shop worker. Awesome. I realised when paying I had gone too far and left myself with under a fiver to last me dinner and breakfast and until my flight left the next day…. D’OH! So then I headed back to Shinjuku and this time I took my time in Animate and grabbed some Toriko crisps as well as a Tiger & Bunny art book and a few bits for other people.  Why the crisps and how, easy, unlike much of Japan, Animate takes plastic.  I made use of a convenience store for some chips and a sausage on a stick that was being advertised by Toriko (I said he was getting a push didn’t I) and was down to 275 yen to last me till my flight left at 11:30 the next morning.  Cutting things close…

Friday 2nd September

Now I had a fair amount of stuff at this point and expected it to take me a long time of slowly shuffling along the road in the heat.  what actually happened was despite my concerns, I’m not too old for this shit yet and fuelled by a snickers bar and with my walkman hammering out inspiring tunes, I was somehow overtaking the locals despite carrying a massive sports bag on my back, a rucksack on my chest and dragging a suitcase.  When I finally stopped 25 minutes later though I knew why.  While normal people arrived at the station looking ready for work, I was dripping with sweat and looked about to collapse. I used 100 yen on a drink leaving me with only enough for one more drink and waited for the shinkansen to the airport and I slept the entire way there.  Thankfully the airport had those luggage trolleys which saved my life.  I had checked in online so I dumped my bags and then went to the duty free shop to do something I had been meaning to do and now couldn’t do any other way.  I always buy a copy of Shonen Jump magazine when I go to Japan and Duty Free shop takes cards, oh yes, and damn, if it didn’t have the Weibritter from Super Robot Wars. I couldn’t resist even though I know it was expensive, it was another figure I had wanted and not had the cash for.  I grabbed a bottle of sake while I was a it and then carded the lot.  Me and my bro, sake and rockband is going to be worth the pain comes that credeit card bill oh yeah haha.  Now t this point I really wanted a Pepsi but there was a problem, Narita airport is a Coke zone.  Not one Pepsi machine or store selling Pepsi in the place. Crap. A smart person would have brought water and not been dehydrated but I’m way from that and thought it’d be useful to keep my change for next time.  Dumbass. No matter how many drinks they gave me on the plane it was already too late and I felt crap not helped by some kid throwing up every half an hour. Nice.  anyway the flight ended and I got my lift home and I was jet lagged as hell. Two days later I’m fine though and I have table full of Gundams waiting to be put away, a loft that seems to be stuck closed so I can’t put my suitcase away and a whole lot of anime to catch up on.

This was far more a shopping trip than my normal trips to Japan but hey, I did a whole tourist trip in February.  That I haven’t posted anything on that is I suck, I have a bit of a post stuck in drafts I never got round to finishing.  If you are going to Japan, do more than shop, and as I did this time, write up some notes as you go.

These are all from Shinjuku

• If staying or visiting the Kabuki-chou district of Shinjuku, then you wn the East Exit of Shinjuku Station
• Tower Records – Shinjuku Station South East Exit
• To get to Akihabara – chou (red) line towards Tokyo then change at Ochanomahi to the yellow line. It is straight across the platform or you can take yellow the entire way but that’s dumb and slow.
• to get to Daiba – Chou line to Tokyo, Yamanote line to Shimbashi, Yurikamome line to Daiba. Note Yurikamome line is not JR, JR railpass won’t work. 320 yen each way or you can buy a day pass.
• Shibuya – > Yamanote (Green) line.  For Mandarake and the decent night life, head towards the Hachiko exit, cross the road to the right and go up the path to the left of the Tsutaya building with Starbucks in.
• Nakano – Chou (red) line to Nakano from Shinjuku.
• Ueno – Jr Chuo (red)  line to Tokyom change to Keihin-tohoku negishi line to Ueno or take the slower Yamanote line.
• Animate Shinjuku – Moath 5th Street.  Up the road by Baskin robins and first left.

It is ambitious and yet somewhat successful. I say somewhat because they have turned a space opera, a slow dramatic show that at times had me as close to tears as I’ve ever been since I saw Optimus Prime die in ’86, into a Hollywood style blockbuster.
How? why? well simple really, you can’t have anywhere near as many near destruction encounters as in the original. The Yamato doesn’t get heavily damaged and fixed again many times over, there just isn’t time. The pace of the film is understandably quick and there are many things that were cut out but I enjoyed the film and as a film it makes sense even if some f the changes may be a little hard to swallow.

What’s it about?

In the year 2199, mankind loses their final showdown in space against invaders from the Gamilas race. With human tech no match for the attackers, Captain Okita is forced to retreat to the radiation soaked Earth where humans live in underground cities after the surface was hit by radioactive meteors sent by Gamilas. Earth gets a ray of hope in the form of a capsule from Iskander, it contains a map and schematics for a wave motion engine capable of warping a ship through space and powering a canon powerful enough to destroy any Gamilus ship.
The defence force construct the Space Battleship Yamato using these plans, its mission, fight past the attackers from space and travel to Iskander and retrieve a device from the high-tech culture capable of purifying the Earth. Character wise it revolves around the hotshot ace pilot Susumu Kodai, the hard hitting love interest Yuki Mori and wise old Captain Okita and his passing of the torch to Kodai.

Modernising Yamato

The whole cg look of the film’s effects seems to be lifted from the 2005 Batlestar Galactica so it isn’t the best cg you’ll have seen but then this is a Japanese movie and budget-wise can’t be expected to compete with Transformers for cg budgets and effects.  The music is instrumental version of the legendary Yamato theme.  I’m too old school and mis the words but duing the film the music is just modern remixes of the classic theme which is perfect as the original’s music was a masterpiece up there with Star Wars.

As for some of the more noticable character changes:

Dr Sado, the Yamato’s chief doctor and drunk in the series was a small balding drunk who was always entertaining as he hung around with his cat, the analyzer robot and a bottle of sake. In the film he becomes, well a woman who doesn’t get to do much other than stand around with her cat and a bottle of sake in homage. Not really the best of changes but in this day and age you probably couldn’t get away with the old doctor.
Analyzer goes from being a red human sized robot with perverted tendencies that hangs around with the doctor lusting after Yuki to a ummm, an artificial intelligence living in a tablet pc operated by Kodai for most of the film (but this redesign is totally redeemed  near the end of the film with a super baddass upgrade).
Aihara was a guy who didn’t do much in the original series (but did more in later series), him becoming a she I can live with.
Yuki Mori has undergone some sort of personality transport and goes from lifestyle officer and nurse to fighter pilot… That said, it works for the film, if you hadn’t seen the original series you’d never know.  If you have, it’s hard.
Saito is a character who was lifted out of the second season of Space Battleship Yamato, he’s less obnoxious than in the series and actually a good addition.

The commander of Gamilus, Desla is a key character of the main story in the anime, in the film, yeah not much time at all and his appearance…  Well he was a blue humanoid before, he isn’t now…

Final Thoughts

Without giving too much away I’ll tell you that you can quite happily watch this film without having seen the original series, in some ways it may help.  What I will also say, is that because of the way it skips large events and actually takes large chunks of Yamato 2′s ending.  You can quite happily watch the series afterwards and be in for a thoroughly enjoyable story and you won’t be left thinking seen all this, you won’t have because so little of the original is in here.  Is that a good thing, I don’t know, but all things considered, I just don’t think it’s possible to compress the whole story into one film and have the same impact.  Instead we get a highly entertaining action packed version of Yamato which is either a great introduction, or a nice alternate telling of it for existing fans.  Either way, this is one anime to live action conversion that is *gasp* actually a good film!  I just hope it gets an official blu-ray release in the UK or more likely the USA.

You do not want to be on the receiving end of the Wave Motion Gun

Its time to bring another big giant robot series, this time it’s The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird, an early 90s  super robot show from Japan where it was known as Taiyō no Yūsha Fighbird and is the second of the Brave series – a collection of super robot shows made by Sunrise to sell toys for Takara.  As such they feature cool looking robots that transform and combine.

Transforming robot and flaming sword = Awesome

That I’m posting about Fighbird now while it’s fresh in my mind and while I’m still desperate to buy all the merch which is is the sign of an anime doing its job.  The plot shameless excuse for robots fighting is that the positive energy beings who make up the Space Police have come to Earth to protect it from the Negative energy being Draias.  The lead good being posesses an android created by Professor Amano and becomes known as Katori Yutaro.  Katori has no concept of a lot human ideas which usually ends up entertaining and being an android, gives him super human butt kicking ability – excellent.  When Draias’ henchman lead by the human traitor Dr Jango bring out the heavy guns/ giant robot beasts, Katori merges with Amano’s fighter jet to become Fighbird and then usually gets his clocked cleaned until he merges with another smaller jet to become Armament Fusion Fighbird and uses the FLAME SWORD!

Fighbird has backup in the forms of Ace Baron who is a 5 mech combiner and the Guard Team who conveniently make themselves at home in the vehicles of  emergency services.  It’s always fun to watch Police Inspector Satsuda puzzle over his missing patrol car missing as Guard Star goes off into battle with Guard Fire (Fire engine) and Guard Rescue (Dr. Yoshiko Kunieda’s ambulance).  When the going gets tough, the guard team combine into Guardion and even better, he later becomes Super Guardion! Their cries of Battle Up (insert character name) are good transformation scenes too.

Humans, there’s always humans….

Newsflash, humans, especially the kids in a robot show aren’t super annoying! Jeepers I can barely believe I typed that.  Prof Amano builds the Baron team of utility vehicles which become Ace Baron, the Fire Jet and later on the Fire Shuttle as well as an assortment of inventions every episode with some wonderfully mixed results.  Kenta his nephew is great as the energetic kid who flies off with Katori into battle but remembers he’s still a kid and gets scared but without falling into annoying tears or getting angsty like Gundam kids.  Man I wish I had his Wrister watch that transforms into a mini robot. That sadly puts Fighbird ahead of every incarnation of Transformers, half of Gundam and a number of other shows.

Haruka is Proff Amano’s niece and is more level headed and typically feisty, someone has to be the straight man amongst the comedy of a mad inventor, an alien who knows nothing of Earth and a kid that just wants to fight and she does the role nicely.  Calling your pet monkey champ gets style points too in my book.

As previously stated, I like the Inspector, he’s misguided in his efforts to bust Prof Amano but his dogged determination is good and its great he gets to help out at times and has an episode about him near the end.

The Doctor, ok she’s not great but not bad either. Dr Jango is a good villain as he has a great rivalry with Prof Amano and Draias is superb. Whenever he gets involved in a fight, you know the good guys may save the day, but he’ll win the fight. He kicks ass and 1 on 1 you don’t fancy our heroes chances.

Burnin’ Fighbird

Fighbird’s intro tune is a catchy number, I liked it so much I’ve imported the Brave series soundtrack (complete with dvd of the intro and end sequences – awesome)

The Good, The Bad, The Fighbird

There’s a lot of good to Fighbird, music is excellent, and not just the opening either, the action,combination themes and general BGM is all good stuff.  The mech design and characters are all good and make me want to see more and buy the toys.  Trouble is, if you aren’t a fan of filler episodes, this show could have been amazing if condensed into a smaller series.  From about ep 6 you could skip, to 19 and not miss anything.  After that though its solid with what you think are throwaway characters ending up as recurring characters and schemes getting more sinister and in some cases just entertainingly ridiculous.  As with any show Fighbird gets an upgrade or two and while Granbird is not as cool, I do like Grand Fighbird.

While I can’t say its the best of the Brave Series, it is the first I have finished which tells a lot in itself.  I’ll keep the blog updated as I finish each.  I’m currently going through Brave Police J-Decker and trying to source the remainder of Da Gaarn (fan subbers stopped). I was leaving GaioGaiGar till last but now I have the dvd boxsets of that so may not be able to resist.  It’s not a show for everyone but if like me you area big kid (or actually just a kid) who likes robot action shows this is well worth tracking down any way you can (unless it has been released in your language in which case buy it – Heaven knows I would if there was a legal version with English subs).

Akira Collectors Edition Steel Book

Yet another edition of Akira you just have to buy. Talking to Sideswipe today this is this will be the firth time he has bought it, the third time for me.

A bargain too. Get it from Play for £17.99

As you may or may now know I am a dedicated lover of Akira I am very choosy about what Akira has to be in order for me to buy it. More specifically it has to be the original American dub of the film. I have seen the original Japanese version (makes a little more sense) and the improved dubbed version but I am not a fan or them. It has to be Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and most of that era or voice actors running the show. If I am not thrown back to my childhood when I watch the film I am just not interested.

What can I tell you? As far as I can tell Cameron Clarke is Keneda… that means this is the original dubbed version of the film, cleaned up, remasters and made better than ever. Check out Mr Clarkes bio on IMDB and give praise to him, he is your childhood and you don’t even know it.

The Incredibles

Probably my favourite of all of Pixar’s work is finally coming to high definition. There is very little I can actually say about it that hasn’t been said before, it is just a great film all around and takes the usual superhero’s film and turns it on its head.

Only £15.99 from play and I think that is a deal.

Superman: The complete collection

Who does not love Superman on some level? For a long time I really didn’t like these films. I don’t even know why, I think it was probably because they were on so often you just become sick of them. On reflection, having seen them recently after such a long time, I have come to really love them. The special effects don’t really hold up very well, it is filled with over acting, and the stories are not very good. But that doesn’t matter, there is a joy in these films from the cheesy special effects used in the titles when John Williams score picks up and you know this is not just a film, it’s a “Motion Picture”.

Not a bad deal on play considering its 8 disks, 3 good 1 crap film. But you have to have them all. £36.99

Don’t forget

There is a lot coming out at the moment, some of the other things I think are worth checking out:

• The Fifth Element (£13.99) – Always an amazing film that I wrote about it recently.
• Tangled (£15.99) – This is a surprise for me from Disney. Darker than I though it might be and actually a lot of fun. Not really a surprise when John Lasseter is involved.
• Laputa : Castle in the sky (£14.99) – All of Studio Ghibli’s work is being brought into the high definition world and its starting here. Saw this again recently after a long time and I had forgotten what a potent film it is. Saw this film for the first time on the BBC with my sister when I must have been about 10, stuck us both as an amazing film even then.

Why? well I like the world it is set in and the characters in that. There is both magic and psychic/espers.  It is set in Academy City, a hi-tech city where those with superhuman powers are studied, and students with potential to develop powers train to develop them.  Psychic powers can be manifested in many different ways, be it controlling electricity, turning invisible or teleporting themselves or other things (and many other things). Magic on the other hand, was scientifically created so normal people would have powers to rival the psychics.  The world has a great balance, if Espers use magic, it causes them brutal internal injuries and if magics users use psychi powers, the same applies.  The higher ups in each side would be happy to see the other side eliminated which provides the series with a range of different styles of encounters with people of different talents.

Touma

Your typical generic super unlucky guy, but it is not as unexplained as in harem series like Love Hina or Tenchi. In fact, the series gives a reason or his misfortune.  Touma’s right hand (the Imagine Breaker) is able to neutralise everything, including luck.  Not that he knows this at the start of the show but he soon finds out both psychic and magical powers are rendered useless against his outstretched hand. Of course this means he can only ever defend, or so you’d think.  Touma’s punch is legendary and if it’s for the cause of protecting what he holds dear, he does not hold back. His life of misfortune reaches new levels when a walking index of 103,000 of the Church of England’s forbidden magical grimoires named Index falls onto his balcony. Her magical robe disintegrates on his touch and unable to use magic, she uses the only weapon at her disposal, her teeth!  From there on Touma ends up as Index’s guardian and takes part in some good stories full of great characters.  It should be mentioned that Touma behaves like a person in an RPG, no not looting every body in sight but in talking to and helping everyone and as a result gradually builds up a number of admirers but the show isn’t about that. It’s about him getting in over his head and somehow pulling through with the help of his determination, his friends and his trusty right hook.

Index

First off, I mark out for any series mentioning England, even if the Church of England in this aren’t portrayed as the best organisation out there (although they aren’t the worst either).
Index follows in the steps of Lina Inverse as being a walking threat to the World’s food supplies. Unlike Lina though, the only way Index can unleash her wrath is to bite people, repeatedly. Touma is usually covered in bite marks whenever he upsets her. In most cases, despite housing the spells of the CoE, Index  can only use a small number of defensive spells unless her self defence systems kick in under extreme conditions (in which case run). Despite her powers, she’s basically defenceless against guys with guns and espers.  Probably a bad place for a magician but then again, it’s a great place for the Church of England to keep her as it’s hard for magicians to get into Academy City and Touma is a great guardian seeing how he can defend against most things.

Only my railgun

One of my favourite characters is introduced early on, Mikoto Misaka, who has pretty much absolute control of electricity, allowing her to fry anyone making an unwanted move on her or to magnetically attract iron particles to form weapons or even magnetically stick herself to a wall, of course the downside is that when her temper blows, the neighbourhood grid is going down.  Her speciality is charging up and then firing a coin railgun style. The animator’s always go to town on that attack, making sure it looks absolutely devastating.  She got her own spin-off show Toaru kagaku no railgun (A Certain Scientific Railgun) and the intro song “Only my railgun” is a great tribute to the attack.  The series itself is a little heavy on the school girls eating sweets hanging out which isn’t really my  thing but there’s lots of electric shocks and from 4 or 5 episodes in it gets a little better in the stories however the railgun comes into play often enough that overall I enjoyed the series and did buy the theme song single while in Tokyo.

Finishing up

There are a load of other characters in this franchise, many with their own motives for helping and hindering things, rarely will people do things just because.  Especially in the second series.  While the animation generally ranges from good to very good, the music is sadly nothing to write home about, the intro’s and endings falling into my “meh” category of not bad and not bring on the next intro.  Of course it helps that for large parts of the series I really wanted to see the next episode which is always the mark of a good series. It’s not ground breaking but it is well done.   Some people will prefer A Certain Scientific Railgun for the girls, me I think Touma is more fun and look forwards to a third series as the second series really ups the scale of the encounters from the first series and sets the scene for bigger things to come.  It would be interesting to read the light novels the anime is based upon and should you get a chance to see or read anything from the series I suggest you give it a try.