Review: Rurouni Kenshin live action movie — tres bien, muy bien

Rurouni Kenshin (Samurai X) Live Action Movie Poster, taken from kenshin@wikia

dominusalthus and I have just come out of the cinema after watching the Rurouni Kenshin (or Samurai X) live action movie. It’s the movie’s opening day in the country—that’s how excited we were to watch the struggles of the repentant hitokiri/assassin, Kenshin Himura, to find a new home and leave the life of a rurouni/wanderer. I write this while dominusalthus orders her dinner after the show; I want to write the review with my raw and honest feelings, while it is still untainted by other people’s opinions (except dominusalthus’s since we were eagerly talking about it while we exit the theater).

My verdict in one word: perfect. Sitting through the 134 minutes of the movie is worth every second and peso I have spent on it. I am one satisfied little kitty.

Everything exceeds my expectations and I already had the bar set high initially after it was announced that the movie will be comprised of Japanese actors, under a Japanese director, but backed by the production giant, Warner Brothers. Upon seeing the full-length trailers, the bar disappears into the clouds.

And I am anything but disappointed.

What makes a good shoujo manga?

I have read more shoujo manga than I can count. One-shots, multi-chaptered, fantasy, slice-of-life, scanlated (thank you so much, scanlation groups!), and legit English releases. Heck I’d even stare at raws despite not understanding a word character (as in Kanji character) of it. That is probably why dominusalthus calls me moe—which I am not, and I don’t even know how she came to that conclusion in the first place.

Although I can hardly call myself an expert on this subject (the only credential I can boast of is my half-year love-hate relationship with the shoujo mangas I’ve read), I’ve outlined the things that would probably answer the age-old question—“What makes a good shoujo manga?” Exactly what must a shoujo manga contain for it to leave a lasting impression in its audience?

Shorts: Winter 2013 Highlights

Recently, a list for the upcoming Winter 2013 Season was finally released. Of course, it included some favorites from before (Chihayafuru, Da Capo III, Nekomonogatari) and some promising new ones (Savanna Game, Sasami-san), not to mention continuing mainstream anime.

Also, I’m glad we finally caught a glimpse of upcoming OVA’s, OAD’s and movies that will surely get some of us excited for the next season to come:

• Ao no Exorcist — Dec. 28 — Movie
• Genkijouban Hunter x Hunter: Phantom Rouge — Jan. 13 — Movie
• Star Driver the Movie — Feb. 9
• Code: Breaker — Dec. 17 and Feb. 15 — OAD
• Hyouka — Jan. (?)) — BD

I would also like to point out that watching One Piece Film Z is a MUST since Oda-sensei said that the enemy, Z (for Zetto), will be the strongest adversary the nakama has yet to encounter. Quite exciting, ne? Plus, its themes, How You Remind Me (Nickelback) and Bad Reputation (Joan Jett) will be covered by Avril Lavigne. I can’t even begin to phrase how entirely awesome is that.

Also, you ARE NOT a true anime fan if you miss this year’s well-received Rurouni Kenshin, because the rumored batch of screenings outside Japan have started this month (RK’s too awesome to just be downloaded, it’s cinema-worthy). It’s confirmed to be shown on 64+ countries worldwide, so don’t worry. Here are some of the approximate dates:

• Singapore : November 29, 2012
• Taiwan : December 1, 2012
• Philippines : December 5, 2012
• North American Special Screening, LA EigaFest : December 14-16, 2012
• Belgium : April 2013

Yay! We won’t have to watch the trailers over and over and over and over again!

And if you really don’t have time to watch this year, rumors have spread that sequels are already in talks, thanks to the precursor movie’s success.

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Oda-sensei is really amazing. You know how he got Avril to sing the movie themes? HE WROTE HER A LETTER. Hell yeah.

Battleground: Ship Wars

Inset: one of the most controversial ship wars.

Do you know where the word ‘peace’ loses all its meaning and gets discarded like a McDonald’s burger wrap?

I’m talking about friggin’ shipping threads (short for worshipping)–you know, those threads where users go all-out on pairing a character with another that they personally prefer (it has rather become a MUST in all forums.)  From my experience, those anime/manga under the shojo demographic aren’t really contestable. I mean, from the cover of the volume itself, you could pretty much tell who would end up with who, or who will become the rival for which couple–it’s all there.  Now, the real problem begins for the fans of shonen anime/manga.

Review: Colorful

Death is a touchy subject. We sometimes skirt around discussing it, dreading the prospect of inevitably dying. But some people, fed up with their own miserable living conditions, go actively looking for death and commit suicide.

Such is Makato Kobayashi, a 14-year old, third year middle school student. He dies after overdosing from his mother’s sleeping pills. Enter the soul of a recently deceased person who is given another shot at life. The soul takes over Makoto’s body for a limited-time training period. To pass the training, he must find out the reason behind Makoto’s suicide attempt, remember his own sins and correct them as well. Should he fail, Makoto would die again, this time, for real.

Top 100 Shonen Eye-Candies as of 2012

Status

Read this: coming up with a list is not an easy task.

That’s why we chose Ultramega Countdowns for our debut, so it will be a sort of challenge when we create our first post. But coming up with the actual subject and items that constitute our  list is time-consuming. We even considered enumerating the Most Tsundere Characters Ever Created or Most Actually Badass Anime Loudmouths, but decided to shelve those instead (because, come to think of it, every anime has at least two or three tsunderes–male characters at that, and for some reason, many series protagonists are really loud-mouthed).

We also thought of naming the most handsome, but that will be a giveaway to the dudes from shoujo animes/mangas. That’s a given since those are  supposed to cater to girls, and we girls want our male characters to be either insanely good-looking, or ridiculously intelligent, or filthy rich, or a little mysterious (therefore somewhat cold), or all those at the same time. Although people like those are a rarity in real life, shoujo animes/mangas hoard them.

But we, authors of this humble blog, will not subject ourselves through the difficult task of identifying who standout among the bunch of pretty boys. (We both agree #1 should be Usui Takumi, but as for the rest of the list, we’re drawing a blank.) That is a challenge, we are not yet willing to brave.

So our genius solution: list the male eye-candies from the realm of shonen manga and anime.