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Showing posts from 2011

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Coicent and Five Numbers...

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I picked up the latest Feature Squared release that includes Five Numbers and Coicent ... Five Numbers Four people awake to find themselves in the ultimate prison: an ex-soldier, a beautiful woman, an average Joe and a young computer hacker. Why are they there? What connection links them all? And how can they escape? The answer seems to lie with the fifth prisoner, an old man who knows far more than he is telling... and then there's the cat. It's the ultimate locked room mystery and all their lives hinge on solving it. Coicent It's a quick time jump to the 26th century where a school trip to a rebuilt 21st century city turns into a wild adventure for teen aged Shinichi. While chasing a talking deer that steals his bag, he runs into a strange girl trying to elude even stranger pursuers, and then things get really wild. It's a mad dash through a city of the past as two young people discover a chance at a new future. Five Numbers , although short, was actually sur

Optimized for Kindle...

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When browsing the blog with my keyboard Kindle, I noticed that the user experience was not really all that inviting. The blog has a mobile template, but, apparently, the Kindle isn't considered a mobile device, so, the standard template appeared instead. The navigation menu on the right side of the page was causing my page to appear in the less-than-appealing zoom-browsing-mode on the Kindle. So, I decided to move the navigation menu to the bottom of the page. Now, the blog entries fit very nicely within the bounds of the Kindle's margins without triggering the dreaded zoom-browsing-mode. December 22, 2011 Update Recently, I realized that the tabs at the top of the page don't work very well when pointing to external links. So, I had to remove the offending tab for the time being. There is a work-around that involves creating a blank page and adding a meta refresh tag to the page's html, but, that seems a bit inelegant and will probably fail in browsers that do n

Puss In Boots...

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Last night Mom and I saw Puss In Boots . According to Wikipedia ... Puss in Boots, a 2011 computer-animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation, is a spin-off prequel to the Shrek franchise, which follows the character Puss in Boots on his adventures before his first appearance in Shrek 2 in 2004. The film starts with Puss escaping a bounty hunter and entering a nearby town. Puss learns that two murderous outlaws, Jack (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jill (Amy Sedaris) have the magic beans he's been looking for half his life, which lead to a giant's castle holding valuable golden goose eggs. When Puss tries to take them from the two outlaws, another cat with a mask interrupts. Both fail and escape, and Puss follows the cat back to his hideout, where they have both a dance and a sword fight. After getting hit in the head with a guitar by Puss during their fight, the other cat reveals that she is female, much to Puss's surprise. Puss then meets his old childhood fri

I Like The New Blogger Dynamic Templates...

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I'm particularly fond of the Magazine template. At the time of this writing (October 2011), there is very little customization offered for the new templates. In addition, scripts appear to have been disabled. This would prevent me from dynamically replacing the rating images on-the-fly. The Blogger team has made assurances that these deficiencies will be dealt with in forthcoming software upgrades. Of greater concern is the fact that the new templates do not appear to degrade nicely in older browsers. About half of my traffic comes from people using older browsers. The site displays a message in older browsers that the user needs to upgrade. The user is given an opportunity to proceed, but, since the bulk of my traffic comes from search engines, I would think that such a message would tend to discourage users from viewing the site. Overall, while I'm very pleased with the new templates, there are still some usability issues to work through, so, I don't think I'll be

Last Unicorn to Return to Theaters...

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According to a post on the AnimeNation blog, a long-running dispute over unpaid royalties owed to Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn , appears to have been resolved... In its latest e-mail newsletter, Conlan Press has formally announced that the 1982 animated film The Last Unicorn will be getting a theatrical re-release next year. "Starting early next year and running through the middle of 2013, there will be more than 80 special digital theater screenings of The Last Unicorn taking place in America, Canada, Great Britain, and Germany. [Last Unicorn author] Peter [S. Beagle] will be at every one of these events to do audience Q&A, meet people, and sign stuff." Furthermore, the film will also be getting a five-million dollar digital overhaul. "Not remastering, mind you, but renovating: going through The Last Unicorn from end to end and top to bottom, spending five million dollars to upgrade the special visual effects and soundtrack, smooth out and improve

Mary and Max...

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Sometime ago, I came across a wonderful animated movie, somewhere on the dial, called Mary and Max ... From Academy Award winning writer/director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs (HARVEY KRUMPET) comes the hilarious and moving new claymated feature film about the pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Daisy Dinkle (voiced by Oscar nominee Toni Collette) is a lonely 8-year-old in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. Max Jerry Horovitz (Oscar winner Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is an obese 44-year-old with Asperger's Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City. Over the course of 20 years and 2 continents, their unusual journey of friendship will explore autism, taxidermy, alcoholism, where babies come from, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and more of life's big and little surprises. Mary and Max follows the relationship of the two main characters, who carry a great deal of emotional baggag

Trigun...

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A few days ago, I picked up the new Trigun movie, Badlands Rumble ... In town surrounded by quicksand, an outlaw from Vash the Stampede's past has resurfaced after twenty years. His name is Gasback - and he's looking to cause a little trouble. It seems Gasback has a serious beef with the town's mayor, who's paying dozens of bounty hunters to protect his turf. One of those hired guns is a beautiful woman with a vendetta against Gasback. Will she get a shot at revenge? Maybe, if she can get through Gasback's bodyguard, Wolfwood. And what's Vash got to do with this mess? Nothing much - except for the fact that he personally set off the entire chain of events two decades ago! To refresh your memory, the original Trigun series plot summaries follow... Volume 1 The $60,000,000,000 Man The legendary Vash the Stampede is a gunfighter so ruthless he has a $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head and entire towns evacuate at the rumor of his arrival. Fortunately, t

Squid Girl...

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I picked up Squid Girl aka Shinryaku! Ika Musume ... Foolish land-born air breathers! Behold the terror from the depths, the tentacled conqueror of humanity: Squid Girl! With your pollution and stuff you really deserve it, so prepare for menacing, inky doom! Squid Girl has come from the depths of the sea to conquer humanity for its pollution of the ocean. Within moments of arriving on the surface world, our easily distracted little invertebrate is promptly bullied into working for the Aizawa sisters as a waitress, supplying their restaurant with squid ink. If poor Squid Girl can't handle two pushy Japanese girls, how will she ever subjugate the human race? Squid Girl is, as one would expect, a fairly silly series. There's nothing truly extraordinary about the series, but, it is still very enjoyable. Squid Girl is superbly stupid, but, I still had a lot of fun watching the series. I'm not sure, at this point, that I would want to watch both volumes of the series. Alt

Kabuto...

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One of Dark Image's releases from a while back was the VHS version of Kabuto ... Raven Tengu Kabuto is the story of the mystic samurai Kabuto. He travels to a village which has fallen under the spell of the evil sorceress, Tamamushi. Aided by his mystic sword, "Hiryu," Kabuto must save his former love, the Princess Ran, before she falls victim to Tamamushi's evil curse. A fast-paced and sexy fusion of traditional Japanese mythology and cyberpunk action from Buichi Terasawa (Space Adventure Cobra, Midnight Eye, Goku). Kabuto is a classic tale of a lone samurai warrior with mystical powers who stands against the forces of evil. This title emerged years before Ninja Scroll came to the U.S. and despite its age, it still manages to hold up fairly well. There is some action, but, not really much in the way of gore or bloodshed. While, there are no naughty bits, there are a couple of bare breasts. The story is a bit slow and the effects are somewhat weak. There are

Kekko Kamen...

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With Go Nagai's name on the box, of course, I picked up the VHS version of Kekko Kamen ... Volume 1 At the academy Miami Takashi attends, higher education has sunk to the lowest levels of depravity, with armed hall monitors, teachers who wear masks to hide their identities and special detention sessions in a torture chamber beneath the gym! It's a curriculum designed to chew up sweet young things, and poor Miami's been voted "Least Likely to Survive" in her class! Is there no hope? Can no one save her? Enter Kekko Kamen, the most outrageous superheroine ever! Clad in a red mask, red boots and nothing else, she is the supreme protector of innocents like Miami. Armed with her trusty nunchaku and a body that just won't quit, she'll make chopped pork out of the swine who run this school from hell! But who is she really? The only one who knows for sure is creator Go Nagai and he's not giving anything away... except lots of free peeks at Kekko Kamen's

Key: The Metal Idol...

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Key: The Metal Idol  is the dramatic story of a robot's search for her humanity... A cold, emotionless, but fragile girl is on a journey to the big city -- Tokyo. Only Key knows that she is a perfectly lifelike robot, created by Murao Mima, who took the secrets of his technology to the grave. The last words of her scientist "grandfather" were, to become human she needs to make 30,000 new friends -- and becoming human is Key's only dream. But how can a girl with no emotions (or even the ability to smile) make 30,000 new friends? Key has an idea how -- as an idol singer, a pop star. Volume 1 When her scientist "grandfather" dies, Key has to learn to face life on her own in the big city, especially if she wants to win enough friends to become a true human. But the city isn't always a friendly place, at least not for young girls on their own, and the 'help" they promise isn't always the best kind... Volume 2 Awakening After running in

Kiki's Delivery Service...

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Years ago, I picked up the subtitled and dubbed VHS versions of  Kiki's Delivery Service . Yes, way back in the misty dawn of time, you actually had to get both versions separately... A young witch named Kiki and her chatty black cat, Jiji, befriend a bakery owner who helps Kiki start her own business: a high-flying delivery service. The job opens up a world of fun-filled escapades and new friendships. Rarely has the animator's art been so brilliantly rendered as in this delightfully imaginative film that will entertain boys and girls everywhere. According to the Anime Movie Guide by Helen McCarthy (page 101). ISBN# 0-87951-781-6... KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (Eng. title for MAJO NO TAKKYUBIN, lit. Witch's Special Delivery) The term "takkyubin" (special or express delivery) had been trademarked by Yamamoto Transport and Isao Takahata had to do some strenuous negotiation to get permission for its use in the title of the movie. So successfully did he handle

Kimera...

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I've rarely met a vampire, I didn't like, so,  Kimera  was an obvious choice. A while back, I picked up the VHS version of Kimera ... A love not human... A love to die for... For centuries, there have been legends of "devils" walking the Earth, feeding off the blood of humans. However, the truth behind these vampiric legends has remained a mystery... until now. Strange "pods" have crashed in the western mountains, bringing with them supernatural beings previously found only in the realm of folk-lore and fantasy. Vampires walk the Earth, at war with Humanity and each other, driven by the most terrifying of genetic imperatives! Like wasps seeking a spider, they have come to this planet for only one purpose: to perpetuate their species. To save Mankind, Kimera must die. Kimera is a tale of vampires and forbidden love, featuring the androgynous vampire, Kimera . There are a few nice visuals, but, that's about it. The story had so much potential and I re

Kishin Corps...

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At a time when Pioneer was new to the anime distribution business, I picked up the VHS version of Kishin Corps ... Kishin Corps is a tale of international espionage, alien invaders and robots as they were meant to be. The story, which unfolds in WW II-era China, follows the struggle between Nazi forces, the Manchurian wing of the Japanese army and an elite force known only as the Kishin Corps for possession of a handful of extra-terrestrial control modules which make possible the construction and operation of immense machines. As much as the story however, it is the style of art and character design which makes Kishin Corps special. The mechanical beasts of Kishin were created with a retro-realistic style and the dark, brooding backgrounds give it a drama uncommon in animation and reminiscent of Disney's Sleeping Beauty or Ralph Bakshi's Lord Of The Rings. The overall effect is what Animerca magazine's Julie Davis described as, ...that very special kind of awe and wonde

Kite...

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Sometime ago, I picked up the VHS version of Kite ... Anime She may be cute, she may be young. She may seem innocent and naive, but don't be fooled. She's a cold-blooded killer, and if you're on the wrong side of the law, you may be her next target. After being orphaned at a young age, her parents victims of a brutal double murder, Sawa was taken in by the detective assigned to her case. Not content to just watch as the imperfect justice system lets more and more criminals go loose every day, he's decided to train her to be his instrument of justice. After all, who'd suspect a pretty college student of being a deadly vigilante! Now she must decide between her allegiance to her guardian and her loyalty to her one and only friend, a fellow sword of justice. Watch as this brutal story unfolds with stunning animation from the lethal mind of Yasuomi Umetsu, the character designer of such anime classics as MegaZone 23 Part 2, Robot Carnival (Presence) and the New

Kotetsu...

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One of the more unexpected releases to come out of AD Vision was  Kotetsu ... Let yourself be charmed by classy Linn Suzuki, the feisty but lovable young warrior known as "Kotetsu!" Fleeing Kyoto one step ahead of her 100-year-old master, she stumbles onto the doorstep of the lovely detective Miho Kuon and into an underground web of intrigue. Ever the innocent, all she wants is a place to stay; but instead she's attacked by zombie street punks, a famous statue, a hot-tempered tree nymph and a geeky magician, who's actually kind of cute. Through it all, Linn never loses her sense of humor, her signature katana or her towel, which somehow clings to her diminutive frame throughout this masterpiece of martial arts mayhem! In Kotetsu , we meet Linn Suzuki, sword-swinger extraordinaire with a habit for exaggeration and somewhat naive when she's not swinging a sword. Kotetsu was surprisingly fast-paced and entertaining. There is no bloodshed or gore and no naughty bi

Kite: Liberator...

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I picked up Kite: Liberator -- not to be confused in any way with Kite , despite appearances to the contrary... The teenage assassin Sawa discovered the man behind her parents' deaths was her own her foster-father, the police detective Akai. She murdered him. Years later, her whereabouts are still unknown. The story of a new killer has begun to circulate around the city. She is called the Angel of Death. She eliminates her targets with grace and precision, and then vanishes without a trace into the darkness. By day, the Angel of Death wears a different face; the face of Monaka, an ordinary high school girl. But she seems so delicate and sensitive, can it really all be an act? Her past is tied with Akai, and her fate is a duel to the death with the one man who can protect her - the one she loves most. Which heart is real? The icy heart of the Angel of Death, or the kind heart of Monaka? First off, aside from being part of the girls with guns genre, Kite: Liberator should NOT,

Kizuna...

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Kizuna  is one of the few titles released in the US, whose story revolves around openly gay characters... This is the original video animation of Kizuna, which appears in Be Boy Comics. Kizuna is the masterpiece of Kazuma Kodaka, who has enthusiastic followers for her works such as Sessa Takuma and Kusatta Kyoshi No Hotei-Shiki. Volume 1 Ranmaru Samejima is a very handsome and legendary high school fencing champion whose sports career comes to an abrupt halt after he is mistakenly run over by a car intended to kill his boyfriend, Enjoji, the son of the mafia don in Osaka. After the accident, Ranmaru becomes paralyzed. Thanks to encouragement from Enjoji, Ranmaru is able to endu re the difficult rehabilitation. Recognizing their intense love for one another, they begin to live together. Some years later in college, they happen to learn that Enjoji's half brother, Kei Sagano, is in Tokyo. Having fallen in love with Ranmaru, Sagano has taken fencing and now gotten into the same c

Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne...

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Over the weekend, I picked up Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne ... Rin Asogi is an immortal private detective with a thirst for vodka and a talent for attracting things that go bump in the night. In a series of nightmarish vignettes spanning sixty-five years, Rin's lush body is sadistically pierced, blown up, and mulched to a bloody pulp. The fiend behind her tortured existence is Apos, an eternal being obsessed with sacrificing Rin to Yggdrasil, the tree of all life. While Rin struggles to unravel the secrets of her endless agony, Apos lurks in the shadows, eager to tear into her ripe body and devour the memories of her countless lives. Rin's no stranger to the realm of the dead, but her next visit could last forever. Somehow, I managed to overlook Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne during its original release. I caught a preview of the series recently and it looked very intense. The image, of two people seated on either side of a chess board with one of the two horribly mutilated a

Highschool of the Dead...

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I picked up Highschool of the Dead recently... TV Series It began without warning. It continues without mercy. Now a band of high schoolers join forces with guns, swords, baseball bats and anything else they can get their hands on to battle a bloodthirsty, flesh-hungry zombie apocalypse! OVA: Drifters of the Dead Drifters of the Dead is a side story to the Highschool of the Dead TV series. When an unplanned stop on a deserted island gives Takashi, Saeko and the rest of the ragged band of survivors a chance to expose themselves to something other than zombie bites for a change, they're more than ready to take a break and let their hair down. Discovering the remnants of an old beach store, the entire group strips to swimsuits and sets out to make the uninhabited island inhabitable, but they're unaware that this seeming paradise is actually just the dead calm before the storm. Sometimes the recently deceased aren't the only problems that can lie buried in the sand

My Dear Marie...

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I've recently taken the opportunity to re-visit My Dear Marie ... Ever met the prefect girl? Did she have the perfect boyfriend? Feel like you can't compete? Why not build your own? When a mad scientist attempts to build a robotic duplicate of his dream girl, Marie is the result. Of course, there are the usual unexpected complications. He built her too well and Marie has a mind of her own and a whole host of questions to go with it. The same questions that each of us ask of life. Where did I come from? Why am I here? Why do I look just like that girl over there?! Well, perhaps we don't all have to worry about that, but Marie does! To make a good deal even better, My Dear Marie comes complete with all three episodes! Awkward Karigari imagines his problems are solved when he builds his own ideal android girlfriend. Things don't quite go as planned when Marie treats him like a brother, but maybe a female influence is just the thing to help Karigari find a real, human g

Wizard World Comic Con - 2011...

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After more than twenty years away from the convention circuit, I went to Wizard World at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on June 18, 2011. I took the bus to Broad and Arch and arrived at the convention center at around 10:30am. The line to buy tickets stretched around the block and there were hundreds and hundreds of people converging on the convention center after I was already in line. Just standing in line was really cool -- there were people from all over who had come dressed up as various characters. I saw a handful of Ghostbusters in full uniform with backpacks and goggles. I saw a variety of Star Wars stormtroopers -- a couple in classic white battle armor, one in black armor and one Imperial officer. Of course, there were super heroes (Thor, Loki, and Lady Death come to mind) and a variety of zombies. There were also a handful of anime characters represented among the fans. If you're into panels, you could meet some of the people behind Buffy, the Vampire Slayer to

Thundarr the Barbarian...

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Yesterday, after more work than I'd care to admit, I managed to complete my own collection of Thundarr the Barbarian ... Man's civilization is cast in ruin when a runaway planet speeds between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. Two-thousand years later, Earth is reborn from the ashes with a savage landscape, strange creatures and a primitive sense of justice. But one man fights to spread peace throughout the land: he is Thundarr the Barbarian and you can own All 21 Exciting Adventures starring Thundarr and his companions Ookla the Mok and sorceress Princess Ariel. Using their strength, courage and wits plus Thundarr's magical Sunsword, they journey from village to village, liberating slaves and battling all kinds of beasts, mutants, wizards, thieves and robots. The future of Earth may be shrouded in darkness, but Thundarr the Barbarian bursts into action as a shining symbol of hope for humanity. I had a handful of episodes preserved in the archives fr

Kashimashi...

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Last week, I picked up Kashimashi ... Hazumu was a shy boy who enjoyed gardening, collecting herbs, and long walks in the mountains. One day he finally worked up the courage to confess his love to Yasuna, but she rejected him. Depressed, he wandered up Mt. Kashimayama, the place where they first met, to reconsider his feelings. After getting lost, he wished upon a shooting star and received a bizarre twist of fate. Now he is a she, and she stumbles headfirst back into social life and relationships only to find that the entire landscape has changed! After reading the description, I thought that Kashimashi might be a fairly typical role reversal situation comedy -- and in many ways, it is. I was unfamiliar with the series, so, I didn't already know how the role reversal was going to take place. My initial thoughts turned to Ranma 1/2 and the mystical spring that caused him/her so many problems. But, then the aliens showed up. And, in a twist of fate that combines Birdy: The Migh