June 30, 2004
One Piece Licensed!
Here's the press release pdf.
It's gonna be a saturday morning show. oh well. it was good while it lasted.
June 22, 2004
Gunslinger Girl
This is an excellent, excellent anime. It's about these girls who are somehow rescued from death and then converted with new bodies into killing machines.
The tagline is:
"The girl has a mechanical body. However, she is still an adolescent girl."
That about sums it up. The premise is similar to La Femme Nikita or Kite wherein there exists a relationship between assassin and handler. But times 7.
It takes place in Italy, but everyone speaks Japanese. You'll forgive them that since it is a Japanese show.
The main character is Henrietta, who survives her family being slaughtered and being raped repeatedly. My brother couldn't get passed that one. Anyways, they give her a new body and thankfully erase her memories. Then they reprogram her to love her handler, JoseŽ, and serve the Corporation.
It has it's very action packed moments. But, mostly, it deals with the inhumanity that they put these girls through. Unlike JoseŽ who loves his little assassin, most handlers treat their girls with indifference. They do what they do out of loyalty and love to their handlers. And yet get so little in return. In the end, I guess, the lesson is that to love another, even an artificial person who has artificial love, is not a mistake.
There's also the very premise that it is inhumane to take little girls and train them to kill. That is another rather jarring aspect of this anime. It is heartbreaking to watch as they have been ripped out of their normal childhoods to live these cruel short lives. In one episode, one assassin, Rico, learns that she must kill whoever gets in her way, even if they are innocent.
I've watched plenty of anime. I don't review many. I guess, you should know by now, that if I review one, it must be good. I won't bother writing about something I don't like.
Go and watch Gunslinger Girl when it comes out.
June 20, 2004
June 01, 2004
Coraline
I really like Neil Gaiman's stuff. He's best known for his work on the Sandman graphic novel series. And in the book world for
American Gods or
Neverwhere.
This book is supposed to be one of his children's books. And well, I'm not sure it would be good for bedtime stories because it is damn creepy.
Coraline is a little girl whose parents just moved to this big old house. She sees herself as an explorer and she resents her parents as being boring. Wouldn't you know it? One day she finds an entrance to a twisted mirror world where she has these "other parents" that will give her anything she wants. Of course, she refuses to be adopted by these "other parents" and then her real parents get kidnapped. The rest of the book is spent trying to get her real parents back.
As I'm writing this, I'm realizing how alike this story is to Miyazaki's Spirited Away. Which may be not coincidental that Neil Gaiman did the American translations of both Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. But then, maybe they're all inspired in a way by Alice in Wonderland.
The book reads sort of like a kid's horror story. It's a thrilling page turner. I read it in a week. And maybe I underestimate kids. Or maybe the book is meant for older kids as a sort of introduction to the macabre.
In a nutshell: Good book. Creepy atmosphere. Possibly scary for young kids. Fun for older kids and for adult fans of Neil Gaiman.