So as I was driving around this morning. mainly clearing my mind and speeding through some nice turns in the hills. I took a look at my Gurren Lagann necklace hanging from my rear view mirror. I then realized that my car is not very Otaku-ish (otaku-like?) sure its Yellow and Zippy reminding me much of a chocobo. I know that in japan there are a few otakus who go a bit over board with their mods! Then I got to wonder. How other people decorate their car. So otaku folks. Do you have any anime related items in your car? do you prefer to keep your otaku tendencies away from your car?
Please comment how you modify your car to reflect your love for anime/games and anything otaku like. If you can post pictures please do!
Been trying to think of all the female characters who drive stick shift in anime.
1. Irene “Rally” Vincent from Gunsmith Cats, this girl is awesome and her car is awesome! she drives a 1967 Shelby Mustang Cobra GT500 and She can sure drive!
2. Miyuki Kobayakawa from You’re Under Arrest, She drives a heavily modified Honda Today. Not only does she drive a stick but she is also a Gear head.
3. Misato Katsuragi from Neon Genesis Evangelion, she drives a Renault Alpine A310. She showed her Driving skills at the beginning of the series.
4. Yui Narumi from Lucky Star. Her car a Subaru Vivio, most likely supercharged. Now that I think about it she may be a parody of Miyuki hmm. would like to see her race Miyuki.
Anime: been a busy 10 years, can’t say that these have been the best decade for anime. I prefer the 90′s. The big ones from last decade would have to be Naruto, Bleach and Fullmetal Alchemist. They are the most popular and probably the highest grossing out there. Death Note was also extremely popular last decade, kinda surprised me to be honest never expected to have such a large following.
what surprised me this decade was on how much I loved anime about food. my personal favorites from last decade where Bartender, Ristorante Paradiso, Antique Bakery and Yakitate japan.
This decade also brought forth the term Moe, all of a sudden slice of life anime became very popular. anime like K-On, Azumanga Daioh and Lucky Star lead the pack in the Moe category.
In the Mech catergory we saw the return of Macross. Macross frontier is a fantastic anime that continues the tradition of the Macross world. The U.S. may never see an official release of Macross due to litigation by the current licensing owners. Other Mech anime worth mentioning is Gundam 00 and Gurren Lagann.
Gundam 00 seem to go back to the gundam wing formula, lots of pretty boys crying about war and awesome fight scenes. The story isn’t as good as other Gundam series but who needs story when you have an army of pretty boys right ladies. Ofcourse you also got to see a Char clone.
Gainax had a big decade. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann try to redefine the mech genre with their awesome mech designs and semi interesting storyline. Gurren certainly started off a bit weak but ended strongly making it a top contender in best mech anime of the decade. This wasn’t their only big hit last decade, they also had FLCL, with the help of Adult Swim this anime got a huge following in America a big win for Gainax
On the Drama end we saw several beautifully drawn anime. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 was just a great story on what would happen if Tokyo got hit by a large earthquake. Ergo Proxy was another fantastic mystery/sci fi anime that kept me hooked till the end.
There are a couple remakes last decade. DragonBall Z remake or should I say Re-edit and a couple new Evangelion movies made their rounds to try to rekindle the fame of the 90s.
I know that there is probably never going to be a live action version of bleach. Yes there is a Rock Opera but I want a Drama! A live action version of the show. Since there are so many characters in Bleach the dorama version would have to be epic. Similar to the Shinsengumi! drama it would have to be epic and full of well known actors. So here is my wish list of actors that i would cast for the live action version of Bleach.
Evangelion 1.0 You are (not) Alone is currently playing at the Living Room in downtown Portland Oregon. The movie is only playing for a week and Friday might be the last day.
The Theater:
This was the first time that I have ever been to the Livin Room Theater . The website said to show up 30 minutes early if you wanted to order food for the event. I showed up 15 minutes early mainly cause I couldn’t find parking. The theater is right smack in downtown Portland across the street from the famous Powell’s book store.
This is not like other art house movie theaters. The place is a lot cleaner then others I’ve been too. You walk into the lobby and its more like a lounge, the waiter greeted me with a friendly smile and I was able to order my food and my ticket at the same time.
The theater is also very clean, the movie was playing on theater 1. the seats where spacious the halls were also very roomy, allowed me to stretch out without hitting the front seat. I decided to sit in the middle of the theater, the other two group of people decided to sit in the back where tables where available.
I ordered their Deviled Eggs, they were topped with caviar, bay shrimp, avacado and red-pepper relish. Very fancy for deviled eggs and I only got 3 eggs maybe I should have ordered a pizza instead. Oh well they were delicious.
The Movie:
The movie was what I expected it was a retelling of episodes 1 through 6 of the original series.
I have never seen the dubbed version of the tv series so the voices where new to me when I watched Evangelion 1.0. Spike Spencer did a fantastic job bringing over the lameness that is Shinji. I could not get into Misato’s character, the voice actress is the same voice actress as the dubbed version of All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku, so I kept thinking that Misato was going to sprout out cybornetic cat ears and fight the Angels herself! Funimation did a very good job of dubbing the movie the sound effects where crisp and the theater had good acoustics.
The new updated animation was fine, especially the 6th Angel, it was a way better design then the original series, the way it kept transforming all thanks to the wonderful CG. Other then a few updates of graphics the scenes are almost the same as the original tv series.
So overall I had a wonderful experience. the movie was what I expected, I did enjoy the movie and some parts where still as moving as when I first watched them during the tv series.
Bones studios newest anime, This episode was so great that I had to give it its own post in my Anime Summer 2009 round up.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 starts out with Abingdon Boys School single, Kimi no Uta. Pictures of famous locations in Tokyo destroyed. We also see our two main characters walking around within the rubble.
Right after the fantastic OP we see a disclaimer. The disclaimer indicates that even thou this is a fictional story, there has been alot of research and simulations done to bring a sense of reality to the story.
The story starts out with our main character Mirai Onosawa standing among the crowd of people after the earthquake. the story then flashback to a couple days before the earthquake. Mirai seems like a very self absorbed girl who really only cares that she does not get to go on a trip this summer. Her parents working hard and she having to take care of her little brother Yuuki. While on an outing to Robot expo in Odaiba the big earthquake occurs. Its going to be great watching the progression of this anime as Mirai and Yuuki make their way home from Odaiba. I will assume that as Mirai continue on her journey she will become less and less spoiled and grows up. One thing that bothered me was how mean she was to poor Yuuki, Yuuki is a good little brother even offering to put his sisters name on his gift to their moms.
The animation is fantastic! details on the background, Mirai’s manga on her bed, the signs on the bus as it drives pass Mirai. everything is extremely detailed. Bones did a fantastic job on this series. I will continue watching this series, its going to be something big.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni: This is going to be this summers Death Note! yes I know very big allegations, but the first episode rock. it was like one of those old mystery movies where one guy dies and there is 13 suspects. My prediction for this show, One death per episode! each episode will reveal more and more of the location of the treasure and whether Beatrice is really a witch or something else! Defiantly gonna keep an eye on this one.
Aoi Hana: First episode was your average Yuri anime, lots of guessing if its ok to cross the line or not type of situations, very shoujo.
Princess Lover: Ok in the first couple of minutes of the first episode someone dies! was not really expecting it. this setups the whole story on how a normal guy (who happens to know kenjutsu) becomes part of the rich life! This is along the line of the harem anime. 3 or 4 girls lusting over a average guy. I felt this anime had something else thou. I will have to continue watching just to find out.
Spice and Wolf II: Its a new season of Spiece and Wolf! you should know the basics of it.
Umi Monogatari: Its an anime about mermaids. some mermaids find a ring and decide to take it back to the surface. They find the girl who throws it away blah blah blah fireworks OMG scary! released something evil accidentally. evil thing goes into ring…. scared little mermaid end of first episode. The thing that I did find cute was the ED song. basically the video is them watching the story of the little mermaid. its cute.
This is just mainly a list of whats new for summer 2009. My thoughts on the first episode of each series.
Element Hunters 3 kids have to collect elements in a planet called “Nega Earth” in order to save our world. Seems to be in the same flavor as Pokemon and Dinosaur King.
CANNAN Lots of action, Female sniper (Cannan). from first episode not much of the storyline is revealed. For some reason a female photographer(Maria) is searching for cannan. Animation is fantastic! Could be big hit this season.
Needless! LOLI LESBIAN ED. yes needed to get that out of the way. The ending is just dropped there as fanservice to keep people watching. Your typical fighting anime. Tokyo blows up, big giant hole in the ground where some secret society test on humans. Create/manipulate super humans called Needless! Lots of fanservice, some comedy. the term “bishōjo x violence” being thrown around alot to describe this anime.
Taishou Yakyuu Musume Series takes place in 1925, a group of high school students want to start a baseball team. only problem is that they are women and women are not suppose to play baseball. The first episode is about two girls figuring out how they are going to find enough girls interested in playing baseball in 1925 japan. This anime is very pretty but I found it kinda boring.
Another one of those bands that I really enjoy from Japan. First heard them from the Densha Otoko ED. I thought to myself “that is the nerdiest band I have ever seen but they rock”. One thing that I don’t like about this band is that the lead singer tends to scream at the beginning or the end of the songs. One example of this is the song “sekaiha sorewo aito yobunda ze” (the Densha Otoko ED song) at the end he screams love and peace, usually I end up stopping the song when he starts.
Soon after that I recognized the singers voice while watching Naruto. realized that they did the fifth opening for naruto. So why bring up this band now? Well because I have recently enjoyed their newest song “Kimi wo mamotte kimi wo aishite ” the newest ending to the anime Bleach.
