The Machine Girl: Yakuza-killing school girls with machine gun arms

Release date:

Jp) August 2, 2008 (In theaters)

Na) May 23, 2008

Director: Noboru Iguchi

You know those types of movies that are released around summer that are created just for kicks and really do not require any deep, intellectual, and long-ass discussions like, let’s say, Commando? This is one of them. However, this is special because it comes from Japan; YAYZ!!!!1010-14.

This was my first time watching a foreign live-action film (and what a great way to start).  I know that based around the ratings, it was not going to be that amazing but the poster (image on the left) said otherwise.

Plot

The Machine Girl is about the main character,  Ami Hyūga. Ami is just an average teen who likes to play basketball with her friend. She also has a younger brother who she cares deeply about named Yu. One day Yu and Takeshi, his friend,  are murdered by a gang lead by Sho Kimura; the son of a ninja yakuza family. For the rest of the film, Ami seeks revenge on the family as a payback for her brother’s death. During the film, she receives the iconic machine gun arm after a brutal accident.

Music

The music is  not orchestrated and it’s not something that would win an award. However, music is not the main focus with this movie (which is forgivable) and instead, focuses more on…

Actions

One of the supporting characters covered in blood after slicing a character in half.

The action in the movie is really brutal. I mean, REALLY brutal. Examples of such brutality include having:

• A machine gun to one’s face
• Multiple ninja stars cut one Ghost Ship Style (excluding physics)
• One’s four fingures cut off and having to eat them.
• One’s hand being forced into a really hot pot of water.
• One’s upper head is sliced off
• ETC

It’s no wonder that this is sometimes categorized as a horror film. In fact, it’s pretty much a slasher flick except the protagonist is “the killer”. But then again, just because it has blood doesn’t mean it’s a horror, correct

Conclusion

I can't help but think that this was originally suppose to be a video game.

The Machine Girl is a Japanese movie you may like if you watched, and liked, any of the Evil Dead movies (or something similar).  Heck, it’s even categorized in the horror genre on Netflex. It’s more hardcore action than anything else.

I would recommended renting this before considering buying it.

This is a movie that I thought I would like (keyword: THOUGHT)

Release date:

Jp) July 14, 2001

Na) October 16, 2005

Studio: Toei Animation

Let me be honest: I was never interested in the Digimon series when I was young. At the same time, I was interested  in Pokemon. Even so, that did not necessarily meant I considered Digimon (or any other monster/card collecting series) a PKMN ripoff. I was fully aware that Digimon had it’s differences: the talking monsters, the digital world, the super robot/sentai structure of the plot and characters, and etc. But even so, it just didn’t interest me enough.

Now years later after maturing, and realizing that the Pokemon anime was pretty much using the same-old plot/season structure, I started to take an interest in Digimon more (mostly around seasons 1-3). Digimon Tamers was a series that I decided to watch due to it’s departure from the more light-hearted seasons before and that it was written by Chiaki J. Konaka; the same man who worked on Birdy the Mighty, Hellsing, and Serial Experiemnts Lain. I still haven’t finished watching it yet but I have seen both movies. One of them being what I am about to review today.

Oh! I must note that I am basing this around the Japanese sub version of the movie so some things MAY differ from the dub.

I must also note that I am focusing this anime movie like as if it was any other. In other words, don’t expect me to say “OH, GU1M0N IZ Teh Best digimOn Evah!” or something similar to that level of thought.

Story

Takato, Kai, and Kai's grandfather exercising on the beaches of Okinawa

Takato Matsuda (Known as Takato Matsuki in the dub) is taking a summer vacation trip to Okinawa and visit one of his relatives named Kai. It’s also revealed that both Li Jianliang/Rii Jenrya (Henry Wong in the dub) and Ruki Makino (Rika Nonaka in the du-ok seriously, it’s getting annoying how they slightly change the names; excluding Henry that is.) are also taking a vacation: Li going to investigate an underwater meteor (even thou later in the film, it appears he is at Yonaguni Jima; the home of the underwater pyramid) and Ruki is…just staying in the city in case a Digimon attacks the city (Now why does this part sound so familiar?). Takato, along with the others, take their digimon with them.

Unknown to the main protagonists, a Digimon named Mephistomon plots to disturb world-wide communication via a virus and allowing the digimon to transfere to the real world. As the movie goes on we are introduced to a girl who lost his pet during a storm, a Tamagotchi-esque craze going around Japan, and a bunch of digimon who are causing havoc.

Animation

Just like the other Digimon series, their movies are one step above when it comes to animation. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s as great as Akira’s but at least it’s animated better than the series itself. There’s really nothing stunning for me to talk about here except I thought the moments when Gargomon was in the air with his revolver-like machine gun was quite “awesome”.

Music

The OST for the movie (Note Renamon in the background)

The music in this movie is pretty average. From what I remember, it’s at least better than the series’ ost (Original SoundTrack) yet it’s not something you’ll be humming to while in the shower or at work (save for the scene where all three digimon are fighting for the first time. Not to mention the ones with the vocals). It’s also not orchestrated for those who’ve seen the dub.

The movie also adds two songs that are quite new (back then, that is). It’s not my absolute favorite but at least it achieves on giving the viewer a positive and optimistic view on life and/or just setting your mind on summer.

Sample:

A few things…

V-Pets: Lil' bastards who'll stab you in the back when not looking.

One of my main gripes about the movie is the ending. I will try not to spoil it so I’ll describe it in this way:

Do you know how once you defeat Ganondorf for the first time in Ocarina of Time (Or Majora from, well, Majora’s Mask), you would expect to be finished with him? But then he comes back to life so you would have to defeat him and do some final moves and etc (SLASH!  SLASH! STAB TO THE HEAD!)?  that’s what kind of happens at the end. HOWEVER, unlike OoT where after doing so you get this scene that appears to look like as if it was thought out, you just…get nothing. Not exactly nothing but let’s just say that after watching a conflict finally being resolved,  I’d thought we would get to know what happened to some of the characters who ended up getting their asses handed to them (not the antagonist, btw) or at least some final scene that had a couple of words or something.

Maybe this is just me. While Digimon fans would either like the “finale” or debate about how such a thing would occur using foreign definitions, I’m here concluding that the creators just wanted an excuse to waste time and not work on a conclusion. Maybe I’m just being to picky (But that’s what a review is about, right?).

Besides that, I wish Kai’s grandfather appeared more in the movie; he could of became the next Master Roshi if they allowed him to fight Digimon and NOT lose. Oh wait, this is Digimon; where only digital monsters are allowed to fight.

Final

What will result after Digimon fans read this review.

This movie is great to show for someone around 7 to 12 if you want to introduce them to anime at a young age. The story isn’t the greatist around and  I would suggest renting it (or downloading it illegually of the interwebz, YAYZ (SHUT UP! I know it’s about manga but it can also apply to animu, too).

It’s a movie I would mostly suggest for Digimon Tamer fans (just Digimon fans in general). For non-fans, I would suggest watching this, too, but don’t expect anything great.

If you want to see mentally unstable pilots fighting aliens with ironic names or officers bitch-slapping boys who reply “MY FATHER WOULD NEVER DO THAT”…

Then look somewhere else.

In a nutshell, nothing special went on in those 7 months (except maybe that the health care bill was passed and some plane crashed into an IRA(?) building). After christmas, I managed to buy 5 or 6 manga books, 6 video games that date back to the early ’00s, and two World of Warcraft books.

I originally wanted to talk about “Culture jamming” in this post but I’ll save that for another time.

BTW, check out this blog called Tolstoy’s Last Stand. It’s a blog owned by youtube user Tolstoykafkaevsk: the same guy who reviewed the PSP 3000 and the Atari Jaguar.  Yes, it hasn’t been updated since December but I wish for his blog to get more views if possible.

Usually, the Wii is known for being aimed at casual gamers (Examples being

Image from Wired.com

your parents, classmates, teacher, grandparents, and anyone else who had no interest in video games until Guitar Hero appeared). In other words, there is not that much hardcore games on it except with a few like Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Sonic Unleashed and others. But most of those are either first or second party games. Most of the games on the Wii are either shovelware or games ported from another system like the PS2. Let us not forget games that are based on franchises like Bratz, High School Musical, and George of the Jungle [add groaning here].

Well look no further for the action-adventure hit No More Heroes is a breath of fresh air from the typical games on the Wii.

Story

Travis prepares to go outside doing the usual: Filling up gas tanks, mowing lawns, and slicing heads off

Travis Touchdown is an Otaku (a Japanese equivalent of a nerd/geek) who has a Light Saber-Esq beam katana, called Blood Berry, that he won after an online auction. After winning the auction, he runs out of money to buy video games and lucha libre (Mexican wrestling involving mask) videos. He meets a woman named Sylvia Christel (who has blond hair and an accent) who sets Travis up with a job to assassinate a character named Helter Skelter. After doing so, Sylvia tells Travis that he is 11th ranked of the United Assassins Association. Travis makes use for this by asking and promising Sylvia that “When I become #1, will you do it with me?”. She accepts and our main protagonist is out to kill a total of 10 assassins.
It sounds simple but that’s not what matters for there are other things that make this game awesome like slicing up henchmen, street gangs, and criminals.

Gameplay

You are able to walk or ride your motorcycle, the “Schpeltiger”, in a free roaming world. When you are not assassinating, you can be able to dig through trash to find money or T-shirts or find balls and take them to a Russian man who is located at a Japanese-style bar. You could say that it’s similar to that of the 3D Grand Theft Auto games but you do not kill pedestrians and you can not steal cars.

There are two ways to make money quickly. One is by either doing optional part time jobs like filling up gas, mowing the lawn, or cleaning graffiti. The other is going through a list of optional assassination jobs (not part of the UAA) that tell you to kill some henchmen of a fast food restaurant or using a special power up to kill more. By doing these jobs, you will be able to pay for assassin ranked missions, video tapes, clothes, beam katana upgrades, and training sessions. Clothes (T-shirts, pants, belts, coats, and sun glasses) are not a necessary thing to buy but it allows you to customize Travis to your fancy.

During gameplay (in a 3rd person view), when you are fighting against a group or a ranked assassin, you use your Wii remote for combat. You can also use the B button to use wrestling moves when an enemy is unconscious. In order to attack, you press the A button and when an arrow appears, you wave your remote in a direction and Travis will slice the enemy in half either

When he's not busy assassinating he's usually at home, petting his pet cat.

vertical or horizontal. It may sound tedious but it’s quite fun when playing for the first time. To control Travis, you use the Nun chuck. You are able to dodge attacks with the D-pad. This is especially helpful when enemies have attacks that launch energy balls at you or when an assassin is about to charge at you.

As you progress through the game, you will learn new moves and abilities like running quicker and being able to spot enemies on your map. Training in a gym will allow you to get stronger and be able to fight later assassins and henchmen.

Also when roaming in the world, there will be spots where you have the option to accept a mission but be warned that in these missions, if you get hurt once, you failed the mission and you restart from the point where you first accepted the mission.

Music

Let me just say that every assassin/boss battle has unique music playing in the Background, usually fitting the assassin. When fighting against henchmen, the main theme of the game will play unless you are in some power up mode.

This game has music that ranges from Techno, Hard rock, Ambient, to Alternative Rock. So this would mean that while you may not like one song, there are other songs to listen from.

Sound

Sound is very clear and there are a few that sound like it came from an old Atari/NES game (which is only heard when opening the main menu or when saving) while others are the sound of your beam katana swooshing, energetic effects (Again, inspired that of the Light Sabers)

I’m not going to be too detailed about this part but the voices are all in English and they’re not bad. EVEN the Japanese version has the English voices which is strange since you would think Suda 51 (the creator) would have chosen Japanese but he didn’t.

The enemies say lines but it can get somewhat annoying listening to a henchmen/enemy shouting “My spleen!” more than 7 or so times.

This game also makes use for the speakers on the Wii remote. When Travis reaches to an end point of a level, a ring comes out of the little speakers. When answering the call, Sylvia will talk to you through the Wii remote which, I think, is really cool.

Graphics

The graphics of the game are that of cell shading. Similar to Killer 7′s graphics except No More Heroes appears to have more of a comic-like style to it. This means that the character models, buildings, and such have detail to them. In other words, you are able to see detailed shirts, pant folds, and etc.

A few things…

Although I described this game as some form of video game deity, there are some things that I didn’t liked or I thought could have been added.

For one thing, there is little to do in Santa Destroy. It’s purpose is to just let you go from one part of the town to another (this doesn’t include finding goodies and treasure, BTW). When you run over pedestrians, they simply just flinch while still remain standing.

For cloths, I would have liked it if there were not so much T-shirts that had little to no changes except for the color of the shirt. It would of been also neat if you had the option to take your jacket off or even your sunglasses.

After killing a top ranked assassin, there are checkpoints where you can try to earn money. The problem with these missions is that if you get hit once, you’re done and you are back on the main map.

But seeing as how No More Heroes is already being made and developed, they may fix one of the problems I listed like the overworld.

Final

Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest in hardcore games and/or is an otaku if they don’t mind some small cons. It’s really nice to have a main character that people can relate to.

Constant happy painters, French foxes, and an evil Cactus.

If you’re wondering what’s with the last sentence, well that’s what this 1986

Yup, this movie has it all.

animated film, called “The Elm-Chanted Forest”, has. It’s not that very well known except to a small couple of people who either watched it as kids on either VHS or on TV. However in Croatia (and other former Yugoslavian countries) it is still known and was even released around late 2007 in Croatia.

Plot

After feeling unsatisfied by his painting, Peter Palette (No, I’m not making this up) decides to take a nap under an Elm tree. After waking up, he finds out that he has the ability to communicate with the animals and that his paint brush has magical powers.

After getting to know the animals and such, Peter learns that there is an evil emperor called the Cactus King who is trying to turn the forest into a desert. So Peter has to try his best to stop the Cactus King from achieve his goal.

Sound

The English dubbed voices was pretty good. The English voice for Emperor Spine sounds as powerful as the Croatian version and Fifi’s has the same French accent like in the original version.

The original background music that plays in some scenes is nowhere to be heard in the English dub. Most likely because the editors had to edit out the Croatian sound clips in order to make room for the English voices. However, the main songs that play in this movie are intact.

My most favorite songs in the movie where “Waterclock Lullaby” and “Time and Again”. Actually, the ending credits played both beautiful instrumental versions of these two. Waterclock Lullaby is my favorite because it gives one nostalgic memories when they use to either have a fun time watching a show or when they use to play outside.

Animation

The animation is pretty good seeing as how this was around the time Yugoslavia was about to enter a 10 year war from the 90′s to 2001. The mouths seem to not sync up with the English voices due to it being meant for the foreign language. I guess they did a good job at animating Fifi Fox.

The movie, however, reuses animation. It doesn’t happen often but it mostly occurs when the song “Let your fur down” is playing. You’ll see the same animations of animals dancing and a wizard having a psychedelic vision.

Final

When I was watching this movie for the first time, I went in thinking that it was going to be a movie like that one 70s movie that was based around this one doll that had red hair and button eyes (AKA weird). The movie is strange at first but after watching it more than 2 times, I realized that it is just a regular kids movie.

Now I have to warn you that there is a music scene where there are 4 mushrooms that have black stereotype features (black face, red lips). It’s not something to get worked up for since a child may just pass it off as just another mushroom.

So anyways, I would mostly recommend adults watch this before showing it to kids. Adults can have fun laughing at the surreal parts of this movie. Commenting on the protagonist constant smiling and the ultimate fate of the Emperor at the end of the movie. If an adult feels it’s safe to show this to their children, that’s good since exposing kids to movies like these (other than Disney) is good for their creative inspiration.

If you are a newcomer to the Evangelion series, then I recommend watching the TV series first before watching this. Trust me, the movie will have more of an impact on you. So anyways, Evangelion may appear to be your typical giant robot anime where you have some character shouting “FORM BLAZING SWORD!” but that’s not the case. For this movie has both apocalyptic and psychological elements.

So with that, let me begin describing the story. Note that I will try my best not to put any spoilers when describing the plot.

Plot

After his best friend passed away, Shinji Ikari (our main protagonist) appears to have low self-esteem like there’s no tomorrow…literally. JSSDF (Japanese Strategic Self Defense Forces) is ordered to invade NERV HQ (where Shinji is). Following this is a mecha battle between Asuka Langley Soryu’s Eva Unit 02 against 9 mass produced Evas.

Later in the movie, there are psychological sequences that focus on Shinji’s thoughts and what he is thinking. He is given the chance to either live in a womb-like world where he feels safe or return to reality.

Music

This anime movie contains original music that has never appeared in the TV series (or they are just altered versions of songs from the series) and even containing classical music like Bach’s Air on G string (and you would be surprised where this piece plays) and Jesu joy of Man’s Desiring. The final piano piece that plays at almost at the end of the movie is calming yet somewhat disturbing if you are watching this for the first time, not knowing that this is going to be different than that Naruto or Pokemon movie you watched years before.

There’s also a song that plays in the middle of the movie that sound somewhat similar to “Hey Jude” by the Beatles except the lyrics are about committing suicide and other discomforting topics.

This video contains one of the pieces from the movie:

Animation

The animation is really amazing when you compare it to the first episode of the series and even the later episodes. This is true when watching the battle sequence between Eva Unit 02 and the Mass Production Units. The mouth animations may not be as animated but that’s not a biggie since most learn to deal with it.

History

After the airings of episode 25 and 26 around the year of 1996, some fans of the series sent hate mail and even death threats to Hedeaki Anno. About one year later, around July of 1997, End of Evangelion was shown in theaters.

the director/creator of the Evangelion series.

Many speculate that the movie is either an alternative ending to the series or it just shows what is going on during the last psychedelic episodes of the TV series.

Final thoughts

I liked watching this movie, commenting on moments that I thought where funny or just plain “WTF?!” (Most of it being funnyif you have seen the series or movie more than once or twice. AKA a fan). The movie is more for those who like to pretend to be in a Gentleman’s club where they have crumpets and tea (“Tally ho!”).

But on the serious side if you are expecting only action, then don’t watch this unless you like parts that make you think.

I, personally, recommend watching this. Heck, watch it with someone who’s opened to foreign films (ESPECIALLY ones that are animated since most animation is quote “only for kids” unquote). This is also good to show to others if they think all anime is is just “Muscular guys being constipated with yellow hair.” or “Some magical girl with really high skirts”. I liked this because of some of the characters and scenes where the characters are arguing about each other’s divergent minds.

So that’s my review of the End of Evangelion, My next review will be on the late 80′s animated movie, the Elm-Chanted Forest.

Eva Unit 01 looking Kickass

Does anyone know about the book “Flowers for Algernon” and the whay it’s written? If yes, my blog is kind of going to be like it…except I’m going to be talking about my overall year with NGE…actually…I think this blog is going to be NOTHING like the book.

On my other account (which I plan to delete due to my IRL name being in it), I made a post on February 10 of 2008 about my slowly increasing interest in thew anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. I mentioned how I first heard about it in a rant about fanboys/girls in the anime community. The guy in the video mentions about how some fanboy said that mankind should be punished if everyone didn’t loved Evangelion or something. I was curious to know about the anime, Evangelion, so I typed the name into Google.com and I saw pics of it and etc. Basically, in my old blog, I just explained how I heard about NGE and etc.

However, this wasn’t the first time I heard about the anime for I’ve seen clips of it from AMV Hell. I’ve seen the “City is falling down”  clip (the audio being from the Animaniacs cartoon) and that Tootsie Roll Pops parody and etc. But AMV Hell wasn’t the first time I’ve heard of NGE. It was [Adult Swim] that introduced me to NGE around 2005 to 2006. However, I wasn’t intrested in NGE back then (Most likely because I thought it was just another anime I wouldn’t like or proabbly because I was around the age of 11 or 12 back then).

It's just the logo... What, where you expecting me to write something funny?

So around November of 2008, I tried to get a roll as the admrial for an Evangleion parody of  Episode 8 but (un)foutinatley, didn’t got the roll. It was actually a relief because I just broke my wireless headset (that wasn’t working and had a built-in microphone) and I was worried that I might get the roll but I would have nothing to record my voice with and bassicley have a “Aw shit!” moment.

So yeah, I honestly think this blog is kinda crappy but that’s ’cause I’m doing this in 6:00 in the morning. Also, I can’t wait to see what I have gotten this Christmas. I am expecting acouple of things like an Asatru neckalis, a Rei Ayanami Pillow, a copy of GTA: San Andreas, a Gmaeboy Color, and whatever my pairents could afford this year.

So with that Marry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Yule, and happy anyotherholidaythatIdon’tknow!