First things first, the amazing Shirato family !!

Gotta love that dog’s – dad’s – accent.

A few videos :
Grange’s 1st run
Grange’s 2nd run
Interview

*Cough*

Oh hello my dear friends, or more accurately the ghosts that haunt decaying Internet blogs. Tonight I bring you the last episode of Hanasakeu Seishounen. Don’t ask, don’t tell. Click if you dare.

In fact, ask, because there’s not much to tell. I just fell back into anime briefly last night. Partly because I started writing posts again, on another website, about manga. So then *blabla more rambling about my life* I launched episode 39 of Hanasakeru Seishounen. Given that I stopped at ep. 14 or so a year and a half ago, that was completely stupid. Not as stupid as watching the episode with Spanish subtitles when I don’t speak Spanish (I mean I never took classes, I can catch a few words when they look like French) and I don’t really speak Japanese yet (workin’ on it guys, workin’ on it). All of it screamed fail. And yet, it was quite fun, and sure enough, Chinaman won (mind = not blown).

Something something Li-Ren suffers from annoying fiancee and arranged marriage syndrome, something something Kajika wants her man back because nobody fucks with her, something something SWAT team from the country whose name I forgot, something something helicopter, something something white hair guy is a stalking jerk, something something Lumati wants a new bride.

Now for my favorite part : screenshots and captions !!

I remember you, useless bodyguard guy ! Long time no see !

MIIIIIIIINE (yeah always wear that kind of dress when next to a propeller)

Random people :”A helicopter what does it mean I don’t even” ; Li-Ren “d’awww”

Am I out of shoujo practice or is this the stupidest face ever ?

Should be raining unicorns and bunnies right about now…

…guess it didn’t. Bleh. Would have been sliced by the blades anyway.

Yeah we know and your helicopter’s bigger too amirite ?

Vaguely remember blond guy here. What’s his deal again ? World domination ?

Never saw stoned girl though. Missed a plotline there I guess. Well, too late.

Voilà !

Yes, we finally got around to having Summer Wars on French screens. Given that I didn’t quite follow the news in anime recently, I had just vaguely heard about this movie, always in good terms, so I figured it would be a good way to pretend to work for my Japanese test.

What’s it about ? There’s a boy, a girl, an online community, an evil hacker, frantic typing, a huge mansion in the Japanese mountains, a old woman’s 90^th birthday, and baseball matches on TV. Yes, all in the same movie, no, it’s not a botched copy/paste. Here’s my try at a relatively spoiler-free introduction.

The joyful and pretty Natsuki enlists one of her high school juniors over the summer to “help her with her Grandma’s birthday party” – read “play the fiancée so Grandma will be happy”. What sounded like a bad idea, namely bringing a naïve math geek in your family house to try and pass him off as your future husband, may prove to be what’s needed to save the day. That and the help of many, many, many family members of various professions and resources.

Also, of beer.

Why does the day need saving anyway ? Because something or someone has decided to mess around seriously with everything inside the online world that is Oz. Which is actually everything in the real world. Oz permits you to do everything online, from shopping to playing games or filing your taxes. With the highest security of course. Let’s see how this ends…

I am in your network, stealing your accounts

This movie is playing a lot with sharp contrasts, which I enjoyed a lot.

High-tech/traditional Japan

As I wrote before, part of the movie takes place online, with all the avatars, 3D graphics, outlandish design it implies. The other part takes place in the country, in an old house laden with history and samurai lore (and armor). When you’ve got phones, laptops, or else, what’s the difference anyway ? And, well, the last battle is a tribute to this duality. I’ll let you discover it

Everyday life/Apocalypse

You don’t really get the impending doom atmosphere in the movie. Natsuki’s family still gets on with everyday life, cooking, eating dinner, watching the baseball pride of the family on TV, fooling around… but that doesn’t prevent them from being here when it counts of course.

ALL of them.

Opposites do work well together.

The other strong point of Summer Wars is the fighting spirit of the whole family (and hence of the whole movie) which comes from the mightiest head of the family ever.

YOU DON’T MESS WITH GRANDMA SHE KNOWS WHAT YOU’VE DONE

For the anime fans, it does play on high school romance (and overbearing family) codes, but not too strongly. It’s not a big part of the movie at all, so don’t be scared

Yep, you basically have no excuse to miss this movie. Get your hands on it or go see it if you can.

P.S : Also, a kick-ass rabbit avatar. Which is not the main guy’s for a change.

Yeah, definitely going on my dvd wishlist.

]]> http://dohrnaira.wordpress.com/2010/06/14/summer-wars-in-theatres-partout/feed/ 0 dohrnaira cover_summer_wars_jp summer-wars vlcsnap-450487 summer-wars-3762 SummerWars7 summer_out_7 73537 http://dohrnaira.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/prince-of-persia-in-30-seconds/ http://dohrnaira.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/prince-of-persia-in-30-seconds/#comments Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:13:50 +0000 dohrnaira http://dohrnaira.wordpress.com/?p=1550 ]]> I used to play this :

yeah back when Macintosh were in black and white and before they were fashionable

So I wasn’t looking for a faithful adaptation when I went to see this :

And hey, guess what ? He runs around and grabs things and walks on the walls and stuff. Spikes notwithstanding, that’s pretty much all I remember from the game, so I’m good. You may have guessed by now my gaming years are long gone

Don’t get me wrong, the movie is not a masterpiece at all, it’s average. But it’s huge fun when you study to be a ninja (the third step is the hardest !), and has loads of eye-candy (I’m totally talking about Ben Kingsley here, y’know, like, yeah, totally, *whistles*).

Well, I should go and listen to my Creedence tapes to forget. And pay my tribute. Let’s hope the Dude still abides.

Is this turning into a movies blog ? Who knows ?

How can you possibly resist this ???
Well of course I didn’t ! So I rushed to the nearest theatre as soon as I could (meaning one day after it got released). I thought I would enjoy it, despite Scarlett Johansson , but not love it the way I did. Hey, sometimes life has its good surprises !

Cool guys don’t look at exploooooosions…

Let’s start with bad guy #1, my oh my. Mickey Rourke just had to be Russian and have a fake accent, but he was really impressive. Just by being there. With his bird. I guess I have to convince my dad to come watch it so I’ll know what he says in Russian (if it actually means something). Damn, I knew I’d live to regret the day I dropped Russian classes !
And the others are not bad too. *Whistles*
Well, of course, when you manage to tear your attention away from Rober Downey Jr. Good luck with that. He should be the Wikipedia entry for “charisma”.
When you do, though, you notice that Gwyneth Paltrow is doing a great job too, in a more down-to earth manner.
Sam Rockwell just makes you want to steal his candy and punch him in the nose. Hard. And then laugh at him. He’s perfect in this role.

Of course, the story (and science) are absolutely unrealistic but it’s not like it had to be real anyway ? So yes, basements in Russia are fully equiped to build amazing generators and you can remodel your house and make what looks like half the LHC in your living room in just a few hours. Who cares ? I certainly don’t.

In short, it’s got everything an entertaining movie should have. Decent to very good acting, witty lines, good pacing, lots of exploding and destroyed thingies, people typing furiously on keyboards…
…and robots/people in robot suits fighting in a Japanese garden. I think at that moment my brain shut down. After all that Robert/Robot goodness, it had to prevent permanent damage, I guess.

So guys, go and see it now, and don’t forget to SUIT UP !

And if you’ve got a little time, go see Kick-Ass and How to train your dragon too ! Don’t get me started on Hit Girl or Toothless. Seriously, don’t.