Creation. Destruction. Devastation.
I am a fan of some fictional characters on Facebook. Its quite fun and occasionally something interesting is encountered. This time it is a customizable movie… talking about a hero.
Well…. I had to make my own customization, say hello to the hero of our world: Light Yagami
This week I’ve been watching Last Exile. Originally, I ran across it via an AMV I saw at NYAF 2008 and finally I got around to raising it in my Netflix queue.
In my opinion, the story started out slow. It’s about two vanship partners. A vanship is a sort of airplane. Claus is the pilot and Lavie, his best friend from forever, is the navigator. We follow them around learning about the world they live in. It is science fiction fantasy and steampunk-ish. The art is beautiful, but the story doesn’t really pick up until the team encounters the Silvana, a non-Guild ship roaming the skies, and its Captain, Alex Rowe. The two get pulled in the war that is happening in the skies.
After a while it feels like a World War II anime, though it is obviously not. If the fuel called “Claudia” didn’t give it away, or the fact that there are no props on the ‘planes’ didn’t hint at it, they are in fact on a different planet than the one we know. Where our heroes have been living, they have to live on filthy water and any amount of clean water is extremely valuable. As a matter of fact, at one point they go to a floating tavern at one point and try to buy a pint of water and nearly fall over at the cost of the freshest and cleanest in the world.
Lady Delphine, the Maestro of the Guild, the people who control almost all flight in the world, lowers herself to chase down her brother, who all this time has been hiding on the Silvana because of his obsession with Claus’ flying ability. By the time we are finally brought into Lady Delphine’s world, we are well aware of the difficulties of being a land dweller, and the unique problems of being land dwellers who desire to fly. When she brings her brother ‘home’, she invites Claus and he learns how she and the Guild live.
I have been thinking about it and the theme song keeps playing in my head, so I thought I would share. For those who can’t or won’t play the widget, one of the first things you hear on this is the sound of bagpipes, and then it goes into song, mostly Japanese but with English thrown in off course. The TV version is shorter, but I think I like this version better.
Note: Once again it took me too long to post, so this post is going up as is… as if anyone cares anymore.
In my last NYAF post I went on and on about cosplay, costuming, the sales floor and halls. There is more to the festival than just costumes, sales and displays.
In the back of the hall, in the most open area of the festival, was a live performance stage dubbed the Apple Kissa Stage. On stage throughout the festival various acts vied for the attention of the self-entertaining folk of the fest. Unfortunately for me, I missed almost every performance due to scheduling, wandering and demos. However, I have seen nearly all the acts numerous times at various venues. The one act I did chance to have time to catch was the IchigoPantsu Dansu (IchiP) dancers Para Para dance class. The group of cosplay dancers arrived on stage and many fans of Para Para dancing ranked themselves around the stage and learned moves for a couple songs.
Para Para Dancing, for those of you who are wondering, is basically a Japanese dance club group dance similar to line dancing where each move is precise and everyone does the same movements. Watching it done with only a few people such as when the IchiP Dancers put on their performances, is a wonderful sight to see and it looks and feels energetic. Watching a whole group of people doing the same movements is simply astounding. I don’t have any pictures of this phenomenon, but they can be seen across the internet. Here is a video of IchiP on the Apple Kissa stage:
You can see more of IchiP’s dance moves on their YouTube channel: IchiPDansu
In addition to IchiP, there were also performances of ‘test cutting’ from the Byakokan Dojo, comedy by Uncle Ho, a skit elaborating on Vampire Knight by Alone Together NYC, dancing maids… a LOT of dancing maids, zombie survival class, a concert by AKB48 and a Neo-Victorian Fashion show.
I didn’t catch the shows, but I did happen to cross the stage area near the end of several of these events. Regretfully, I watched the endings or just watched the stage as I hurried past on my way to some other event or panel.
(This has been taking too long to post, so I will post what I have and get to the next topic later)
The New York Anime Festival (NYAF), run by Reed Exhibitions, ran at the Jacob Javits Center in midtown Manhattan from September 25–27, 2009.
This year, as in the other two years of its existance, it was a cosplay bonanza. Everything from well-known anime characters to less well-known video game characters to girls with cat ears. It was almost more than the eye could take in and gave a person a reason to pause and just look at everything in their own time. The costumes were elaborate or just thrown together, hand-made or bought off ebay or off the racks of the NYAF exhibit hall. The attendees for the NYAF Masquerade/Yume Cosplay Cup and the Cosplay Hall was as varied as the entrants.
If you don’t know what cosplay is, allow me to give you a short explanation. Cosplay is the Japanese term for people dressing up in costumes or other bits of fancy frillery. A person who is wearing otherwise normal clothes, but then also cat ears would be in cosplay. A person who is dressed like their favorite anime or video game character would also be considered a cosplayer. A person dressed like a Victorian Goth doll or Maid would also be cosplaying. The types of cosplayers range from the lazy (like me!) people who just add bits to their normal comfortable clothing, to the people who put thought and care into ever tiny detail. From finding professionally made bits for their costumes to handmaking every part. You can find more information about cosplay by visiting http://www.cosplay.com/ and other websites that cater to similar interests.
It’s entertaining to be amongst the crowds at the fest. You never know when atendees will turn into their characters and interact with other cosplayers. I was following someone cosplaying a warrior character as we were weaving between stalls in the exhibit hall, when suddenly he stopped his weaving and pulled his “special attack” on an unsuspecting, but fully participating cosplayer from the same story. Cameras clicked. Movement continued. This scenario repeated itself multiple times throughout the convention at any given time. Groups of people broke into dancing at random intervals. Stepping aside for power glomping was also an activity one could get used to. A glomp is when someone almost knocks over someone else by jumping to give them a hug.
The exhibit hall was a place I never wanted to leave. The stalls ranged from quiet unassuming gold mines to loud dance music booming visual attractions selling everything a cosplayer or otaku can dream. Swords of various types were sold next to the artists supplies, specific character costumes and merchandise being sold next to walls of manga, cosplay dancers and singers next to racks of games ranging from early 80s to the present. Everywhere the eye looked, something new caught its attention. To me, the most entertaining locations were where characters mixed. Such as a transformer or other robot holding up a pikachu in the pose of Rafiki (The Lion King) holding up a baby Simba. I imagine the metallic voice calling out “Pikachu! I’ve got you!” with the phrase “Gotta’ catch ‘em all!” running in the background.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Ep. 3: City of Heresy…. put out by Funimation… I am flabbergasted. Seriously. I wish I had a link to the video I actually watched, but this will have to do. Maybe later I can find an embeddable code. I figure this one will be around a while. The fact that this anime is being release on the internet the night after it is aired is pretty awesome in my opinion.
Anyway on with the short useless commentary.
I just watched this on my lunch break. It seems a bit more intense than the original series, more solid action, and again the art has me fascinated. This is the first time the Elric Brothers (Elric Kyoudai) visit Lior and meet Rose. The scene where Edward pulls off his cloak is not nearly as pretty as the original anime scene though. Kind of disappointing. I want to copy that part into this ep. But the drama is way more intense in my opinion.
We see more of Lust and Gluttony, hear more of their voices. Unlike the first episode, this one seems to not be holding inside jokes. Perhaps they are reserving such things for the scenes with Roy Mustang and Armstrong? Regardless. I already want to rewatch all these episodes and am eager for the next.
I don’t know why, but the Funimation subtitles aren’t as interesting as the one I watched. Intriguing.
fma:brotherhood: The First Day
I watched this on my lunch break and I still am admiring the new style. I do wish that I had something better to report. I do like how they presented the origin story. It is a bit more dark than the already dark original anime in a way. More real, I guess. It feels more gritty as I think about it. I thought Winry was a little more whiny though… or was that because she was so young?… or am I just remembering wrong. Oh well, will have to watch it again. Enjoy this vid while it is still around 
Fullmetal Alchemist [ep. 1 April 6, 2009]
I am excited. I remembered hearing, after I was reminded, hearing that a new Fullmetal Alchemist was on the horizon. I thought at the time that they were just going to do another movie. Today I was informed via @pandoradeloeste that a new SERIES had started last night in Japan. This amazing world of technology we live in allows us to watch it mere hours later and innovative individuals have already satisfactorily subbed the show. In honesty, I can’t wait for the Vic Mignogna to voice this new series, but that is a personal sound preference and has no bearing whatsoever on the quality of the new series.
According the @pandoradeloeste, the voices are the same from the original series, for which I am grateful. The art is new, the story is new-ish. Having finished the series, we know where the story begins, where it goes and where it ends. So the new story is able to have more forshadowing, more backstory and flashbacks. Basically it gave the writers something to play with. We know how the characters react to events, so the writers can add more relevant side stories.
On my lunch today, I watched the whole episode. This energetic beginning introduced viewers to all the important players and suggested the past of the Elric Brothers. I can only imagine what a person viewing this series for the first time would think. As a person who knows the entire previous series and the movie, I have to say this is a fantastic introduction full of the seeds of intrigue.
I enjoy the new art. I enjoy the new format. I enjoy the old voices. The intro and outro are pretty cool too. Not as energetic as l’Arc~en~Ciel’s READY STEADY GO, but definitely worth listening to. I am sure there are downsides to this new series, but at this moment, I cannot see any.
At this point in time, I have attempted to embed the first episode in this post. In the case where the link disappears or the player doesn’t play, I will just add a screencap or something at a later time.
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