Search results matching tag 'comedy'

madness remastered

icelava — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:55:17 GMT

Here's why Thai advertisements are so fantastic

icelava — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:58:05 GMT

If there can be only one thing I remember about Thailand, it is the incredible talent of their TV marketing agencies.

With advertisements like these, who needs to flip channels during commercial breaks? Creative, hilarious, downright enjoyable. They spare viewers the irritation and annoyance that Singapore advertisements are so adept at providing. And they hardly ever needed to get a celebrity to endorse their products/services; they know how to get the point across, without insulting the audience that they are blind followers of whatever famous personality is the rage of the time. They acknowledge the intelligence of TV viewers more than typical marketeers give them credit for.

Kudos to Thailand.

Review: kimagure Orange Road 「きまぐれ Orange Road」

icelava — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 12:36:56 GMT

The most tragic fact about video gaming is that any title's enjoyment and entertainment value is tightly depending on the currency of the technology platform. Once that platform goes obsolete, no matter how great it was during its heyday, the game is destined for the graveyard. Not so with film and music. Done correctly, productions on such medium can have such tremendous impact on the populace they span the ages. "Classic" is the word frequently associated to such marvelous pieces of art brought from the minds of past generations. As such, I was fairly interested in discovering this classic everyone talks about, kimagure Orange Road.

Much to my dismay, what I got was a sour and nauseous taste that taught me not all red wines age well, and indeed first-hand experience trumphs second-hand recommendation.

What is so wrong with this production? (if you happen to have seen the score below) It is not so much a question of what is wrong, as it is a question of just exactly what is done right? Nothing, that's the problem. 15-year-old Kasuga Kyosuke moves into a new town with his family, and on the first day of scouting up a hill in his neighbourhood meets beautiful girl at the top of the stairs. Their destiny brings them to the same school and the same class (oh my, what a surprise), and therein begins a whole string of events between them and a whole cast of friends. Except, all these events do not gel to form a coherent story. I do not know if Japanese studios back in the 80s were largely lacking sophistication and maturity in storytelling and plot, but Studio Pierrot's style of shonen romance with this series is one of little direction and moves around in circles repeating practically the same plot. Progression is at a near zero.

Kyosuke the unimpressive teenager is, by the Order of Nature, caught in an undeclared romance tug-of-war between two childhood friends, Hiyama Hikaru and Ayukawa Madoka, the girl he met on the hill. Almost every episode features the extremely chirpy and annoying Hikaru clinging on to Kyosuke like a leech. Her airheaded disposition is simply incredulous and beyond rescue. The entire length of the series has her ignorant to the true air of mutual feelings emanating between him and Madoka, the latter whom, quite unbelievably exhibits contrasting personalities of infamous kungfu-fighting gangster/party girl and sensible mature lady. Madoka who loves Hikaru as a dear friend refuses to express her true feelings and always remains passive. And Kyosuke displays exemplary teenager behaviour by being hopelessly wish-washy in his decisions and actions. Too many times he is forced to hide his guilt and lie. Boy, am I so glad I did not have such stress when I was 15! This just goes on and on without anything to look forward to.

If the trio's frustrating love triangle is not enough, add in two absolutely moronic and lecherous classmates who do nothing but trying to hook with and gossip about girls, and a jealous childhood friend who does nothing but lose temper and break walls. Not enough? Every episode features a completely irrelevant and unfunny couple Ushiko & Umao who read the same Romeo & Juliet lines to each other in embarrassing situations. To make things "more interesting", the Kasuga bloodline is actually empowered with psychic abilities simply known as "Power". This abilities allow Kyosuke's family to perform a variety of superhuman telekinesis activities that contribute to a wide range of episodic situations. But really, all this use of the Power is but a red herring for some extraordinary events and adventures that still revolve around this same ill plot pattern.

In the end, I captured nothing of interest, and absorbed an immense amount of negative character portrayal and example. I come out of it thinking what the audience of the 80s had been drinking or smoking while watching this title on TV back then. Whatever about kimagure Orange Road that people love and consider it a classic, I fail to see it. It has been a waste of my time, and I am better off now watching other mediocre titles.

Overall rating: 0/10
Nothing, absolutely nothing
Utterly boring and lame; cast of undesirable characters; what is the point?

Review: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time 「時をかける少女」

icelava — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 21:58:15 GMT

Some interesting things in life come about purely by accident. So just in the early evening my friend called me to check if we could catch Transformers in the theaters, but sad to say he was way ahead of his time; Transformers won't arrive in Singapore until next week. Maybe he got caught in some time warp. And it was from there did I see Cathay's movie listing featuring an anime by the title The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (toki o kakeru shoujo).

And it ain't from Studio Ghibli. Hmmm. Ah, the wonders of the Internet. A quick check and it was a certainty this is something not to be missed. We did not regret this alternative choice of a movie; my effort to brainwash surrounding friends into otakus just got easier.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is not an original concept, but actually a "follow-up" (I won't exactly call it a sequel) to a 42-year-old novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka. It mimics the first story by featuring Konno Makoto, the boyish protagonist, in a close group friendship with two other boys in her class. Makoto is not an achiever, and struggles pretty hard - and pretty much in vain - to get life to work out to her liking. One day she chances upon a device that grants her the ability to Time Leap, literally jumping and tumbling back into the past. Her style of "entrance" has got to be funniest thing in the show.

Being the good mature responsible teenager she is, Makoto starts using this highly useful technique to score ~~well~~ perfect in her tests, "read" the sporting moves of her opponents, avoid trouble and injury, or even extend her play time. Quite the gleeful girl we see as she increasingly succeeds in life, happy to redirect all the troubles that will befall her elsewhere. I am sure given enough power and resources, she would have plotted for the betterment of mankind as well by counter-influencing the two World Wars, terrorism, global warming, political scandals and corruption, the JFK assassination, and such.

But of course we know the stress points and desires of a 17-year-old lie elsewhere. But then again, Makoto is also close to coming of age, possessing just enough maturity and sensibility to grade issues on the scales of Right and Wrong. I felt the use of this sweet-spot age has been a perfect medium for conveying the message on how our actions and personal selfishness can have far-reaching effects on others. Makoto will soon discover just what kind of consequences take place each time she modifies the past, and she must carry out drastic acts for the sake of her friends. While the first half was light with comedy, the second half brings on a heavier weight, carrying undeniable lessons that "if only i could turn back time" is not exactly a good thing.

While the character art, for a movie, leaves much to be desired, and even with some flimsy attempt to explain certain time travel logic, there is no doubt most audiences will completely overlook these shortfalls and be immensed in the experience Makoto has to go through, with the underlying themes of what it means to be a friend, to grow up and face up to obligations and responsibilities, and the world not being about yourself alone. Truly a must-watch movie for all ages, whether you like anime or not. And then, you too can come to understand the phrase,

"Time waits for no one."

Overall rating: 10/10
profound lessons; hilarious time travel
bland character art; time-travel theory

Review: Full Metal Panic? fumoffu

icelava — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:12:05 GMT

Life is about growing up. The process of learning what's good and what's bad, and focusing to deliver what's good even better the next time round. Such a simple rule, and yet people continue to miss many lessons in their lives and repeat costly mistakes. Not so for wise folks of Kyoto Animation. Having taken over from GONZO to produce the second installment of the popular Full Metal Panic! - notice I did not use "sequel" - they exhibit awareness and acknowledgment of what everybody loved about the old series, and jam packed pure comedy skits in 17 riotous episodes.

The episodes (some short ones are paired together in a single TV airing) are mostly self-contained and can be viewed in any order. Most are stripped of plot fibres linking back to original (annoying) backstory, so no timeline really exists. One can take them as isolated incidents during Sousuke's tenure at school. With no story to adhere to, the Essence of Comedy has been allowed to run wild with reckless abundant. While the plot is essentially absent here, one may nonetheless feel abit lost without first watching the setup of the original. This series is no doubt for "existing customers".

Back to the rest of us, we get treated lavishly by the already infamous Sgt Sagara Sousuke, as he tops himself several notches up the absurdity scale. He gives everybody around him in school an extremely hard time to get by those care-free days. Interpretation of innocent (and not so innocent) events and behaviour of regular people give rise to a wide variety of actionable options. And that means military manoeuvres with his inventory of combat equipment. The ensuing disasters and mess following his professionally precise and efficient executions are outright riots and hilarious to the core. The skits have been organised really well to also grant the supporting characters, especially Kaname, key roles in contributing to the destruction and carnage, or just to fall victim to Sousuke's plans and pay the price of sanity.

Such comedic actions require plenty of fluid animation, and those demands are met with highly dynamic cinematography to give a good sense and awareness of the action. The art quality does not fall as the number of frames increase either. Given the change in animation studios, the artists retained the characters' feartures remarkably well. For most scenes, the females have been toned down on their bustiness to give a more slender, thus realistic look. That is a good thing. But unfortunately, it seems that even a series that spews out perfect pearls still feels the need to sink to the level of blatant fan service. That has only served detrimental to the series, and gets a big red cross from me.

And despite knowing in advance the format of Full Metal Panic? fumoffu, I did feel that yearning for just that bit of plot and character development, so that the relationship between Kaname and Sousuke can witness some growth, and thus giving fufillment to Shimokawa Mikuni's awesome opening song "sore ga ai deshou" ("Isn't that love?"). Alas that was not to happen, but no big loss here. At all. Kyoto Animation has studied the diamond well, and cut out a truly shining piece here.

Overall rating: 9/10
More raw entertainment; comedy orchestration; quality art & animation
May require context from original series; is fan service a necessity?

Review: Full Metal Panic!

icelava — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 14:26:10 GMT

The first disillusionment I had on my return to anime (end of 2002) was a noticeable lack of decent mecha titles. Gundam SEED had been airing a few months back then, and it totally made me lose confidence in Sunrise's ability to produce anything beyond mediocre. Sure Macross Zero just came into the picture too, but the snail pace of OVA releases tested the patience of even monks in meditation. Nonetheless, to satisfy the mechanical fan in me, I continued deep diving the seabeds and prying open clamps in search of that beautiful pearl. That search brought me to Full Metal Panic!, a series that totally surprised and left me with mixed feelings, entertaining me from an unexpected dimension.

The onset of the show portrays a not-too-distant future where political unrest around the globe is on an upsurge. A clandestine peacekeeping consortium known as "Mithril" has been formed to deal with militant and terrorist violence with swiftness and efficiency, disappearing without a trace. There are also a variety of other secret "Black Technology" that are held within special individuals known as "The Whispered". Mithril must protect them from an evil organisation eager to obtain those secrets.

Identified Whispereds are assigned (without their knowledge, since they do not know they carry valuable information themselves) a team of bodyguards who go undercover and blend into their environment watching out for their safety and well-being. One such character is Japanese schoolgirl Chidori Kaname, and Mithril Sgt Sagara Sousuke being of Japanese origins gets assigned to act as a classmate of hers.

And here is where all the trouble, and fun, begins. Sousuke being bred and trained for survival in a war-torn third world country, knows nothing about Japanese pop culture. Everything is a battlefield in his eyes, and it's non-stop laughter seeing him struggling to decipher common items and daily lifestyle into something sensible, and always end up perceiving military threat. Incident after incident of wrongly-diagnosed situations invokes the (amusing) wrath of Kaname, and giving her an incredibly powerful personality that is not in your everyday damsel in distress. For that she remains one of the most vivid characters in anime, along with Sousuke's unforgettably unique antics. GONZO has done a superb job here translating the jokes of the original light novels into full animation. This title is a must-watch just for these alone.

While the political background makes for very rich soil for to grow tasty fruit, the same level of quality cannot said for the progression and development of the solemn military operations. Inbetween the funny episodes, the story takes breaks to delve back into the supposed "real thing" - combating the enemy organisation, Amalgam. Although the Arm Slaves (mecha) of Mithril looks sleek and overall art/animation quality is good, the action does not make up for the playout of events; which is mainly by the use of villainy, one that is absolutely grating. The Unmistakably-One-True-Villian, Gauln, time and again makes appearances in such annoying fashion, one can be lead to believe exterminating the cockroach from all the lands of the earth is an easier job. The story spent way too much time on Gauln without developing him or Amalgam. I was just hoping all the action would end quickly so that I could see more of the comedy.

So if you are looking for "military grade" anime carrying the legacy of Macross or Gundam (none of that post-UC trash, please), prepare to be disappointed. If you are actively seeking funny military tactics, prepare to be have your stomach hurt so bad from laughter. This is a comedy first, and sci-fi second. Make no mistake about it.

Overall rating: 7/10
Comedy format one of a kind; hilarious; sleek clean art; brilliant characterisation
Pesky villian; poor "enemy" AS designs; crippled story and development

Review: Love Hina

icelava — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 07:59:47 GMT

One thing that never sits well with me, even with my adolescent years, is how manga and anime manifests so strongly the bubbly wet dreams of young boys. Nothing exemplifies this better than the existence of so many titles of similar themes that warrant the harem genre. So it was with skepticism that I loaded the first episode of Love Hina despite all the written praise I have read of it.

Spectacled nerd. Coward. Loser. Dropped into a girls-only dormitory with 100% guarantee rate to catch them naked one way or another. All (or most) girls inexplicably still falling in love with hopeless boy. Yup, this is the kind of characteristics that turn me off. Badly.

But boy, could I be so wrong that such genres cannot be entertaining.

We follow the life of Urashima Keitarou, a boy just past his teens and trying, in vain, to gain admission into the prestigious Tokyo University (called "toudai" in short by locals). Having lost patience, Keitarou's mother essentially puts him out on the street and he goes over to his grandmother's inn Hinata Sou. With nobody around and unaware of his surroundings, he eventually settles in the outdoor hotspring bath, only to be joined shortly by a girl. And here is where all the havoc, fan service, and fun begins.

Let's face it. Most harem series suck. It takes a very special gift of thought to embed an inspiring underlying theme and some clever wit to make jokes actually funny beyond the otherwise superficial sexual fantasies. And those are attributes Akamatsu Ken (original manga author) and the directorial staff of Production I.G possessed. Life at Hinata Sou is never boring; we are treated to incident after incident of Keitarou affecting the lives of the girls. Negative impacts (chancing upon them in a modesty-disfavourable position; which form the bulk of the jokes) are reciprocated by the girls' incredible combat skills - punches, kicks, sword slices, and even missiles abound to discipline Keitarou. Maybe "abuse" is a better word, for these scenes picture the kind of lovable torment he has to endure to keep his job as the inn manager, a post his grandmother easily delegated to him while she goes on vacation.

All these well-shot scenes are well done by large part thanks to voices of a stellar cast with the likes of Ueda Yuji (Keitarou), Horie Yui (Naru), Noda Junko (Kitsune), Asakawa Yuu (Motoko), Takagi Reiko (Kaolla), Yukino Satsuki (Mutsumi), and then everyone's favourite veteran Hayashibara Megumi (Haruka; and also sings the catchy opening song Sakura Saku). They perform with perfect characterisation for their assigned characters, giving them life above and beyond that already in the manga, which had already given them a fantastic level of development. Few anime can boast of such an ensemble. Very very few indeed. To top things off the music creates the mood with such natural ease, again accentuating the delivery to a new level.

While the anime does a solid job maintaining the theme and characterisation of the manga, it does not faithfully recreate the flow of the original story. Some episodes are entirely filler not found in the manga; one sometimes feel they could have been better spent on delivering more of the manga plot, for in the end the series drops off in an incomplete state and leaving a large chunk of the manga unaccounted for. (These portions are later covered by future episodes which unfortunately drops severely in directing quality) Anybody who has read the manga can tell you how superior the flow and cohesion that version possesses over the anime in terms of storytelling. But this is not to say the filler content is worthless; contrary to that they are entertaining in their own right, thanks again to clever ideas and a lauded group of seiyuus. The rest of the anime still does instill the underlying lesson of knowing what one's dream is, and putting in the courage and effort to fight towards that dream, despite repeated setbacks.

Despite being incomplete, Love Hina is the epitome of using the inherent strengths of animation production to boost an already outstanding manga. So successful and great a following it created that the cast was commissioned to hold Love Hina concerts; a full-house phenomenon one hardly sees anywhere else in the world. They love it so much, and so will you.

Overall rating: 9/10
Spectacular seiyuu cast; following music; genuinely funny and fun; some life lessons; creative filler
The usual harem characteristics; incomplete

Who helps in your hour of need and support?

icelava — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 06:50:18 GMT

Meet the professionals dedicated to providing you all the assistance you require for the products and services you have purchased.

http://www.callcentermovie.com/movie/movie2.html

Rolling Bomber SPECIAL

icelava — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 05:47:47 GMT

To get into a state of complete confusion as the protagonist of this Power rangers spoof,

The Earth Defender Freshmen!

????????...

Review: Trigun

icelava — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 17:37:06 GMT

Trigun is one those productions that will have a higher chance of success in luring the international audience uninitiated to the power of anime. With the abundance of anime stories that find some sort of life-critical need to have events occurring in Tokyo, it is tremendously refreshing to find the rare title that, in bold search for a new premise, departs the shores of Japan and embraces an outlandish theme in style.

Ok, maybe "outlandish" is too strong a word. The setup is a very similar Wild Wild West culture living on a desert planet, where the name of Vash the Stampede strikes fear into the hearts of everybody. Wanted with a 60,000,000,000 $$ (that's called "double dollar" to you) bounty for the complete destruction of a city, he has earned the nickname "The Humanoid Typhoon" for consistent natural disaster-like wakes of destruction to whatever places of civilisation he passes by. This series is thereby a biography of sorts on the life of Vash the Stampede and his travels.

And an incredibly funny one at that. Fleshed out in playful disposition and carefree attitude, Vash is arguably one of the single-most entertaining characters to watch as he deals with dangerous situations of mayhem and villians one after another to such hilarious effect.

Being a series sporting plenty of fights, the animators have done a very good job animating the action sequences without dropping the art quality. A technical achievement that few studios, even in post-millennium years, can do so consistently. The use of an occasional "side kick", a stylish cross-toting priest by the name Nicholas Wolfwood, really pumps the values of fights way up. (Actually, he is more of an equal standing peer, but I'll leave you to witness it for yourself.)

Usually, a production of such great comedy, animation quality, and art direction would have easily earned a 10 from me. The point of contention is: this should have been two separate anime.

What I have mentioned so far are largely that of the first half. The second half, however, takes a 180° swing and begins descending into a frighteningly dark mood. As mentioned above, this "study" into Vash's life extends to the somber chronicles of his past, providing more than enough material to show just how and why Vash is living the life as he is. The different beliefs in morality then becomes explosive fuel for many conflicts between Vash and Nicholas, thereby bearing even onto the audience a very real challenge to decide just what is right or wrong.

Few anime present a story that doesn't move, but rocks one awake to realise and consider the standards and morals of life we sometimes take for granted. Simple yet powerful, a message has been transmitted loud and clear.

Both styles of storytelling have been tremendously entertaining/moving. But, like one wouldn't really eat bran with curry, they join together to form an odd overall taste. The distance between the two directions too vast to find cohesion. On top of that, the focus of development falls mainly on Vash and Nicholas, failing to include many other side characters whose main purpose then seem to be no more than witnesses to the events.

Still, if the drastic change of direction is not a problem for you, then prepare to sit through one helluva ride.

Overall rating: 8/10
Fantastic first half of comedy; stylish battles; deep moral challenge and development for the protagonists.
Differing storytelling modes; some characters wastefully undeveloped.