Romeo x Juliet (anime + manga)

This one is very special for me. I wrote a mini review on this a few years ago under my livejournal... but I thought I would share my thoughts in it all the same. 

First off, let me start by saying that I absolutely loved the anime. I sat and watched all the episodes over the course of three days. A lot of the people fine the whole Romeo and Juliet thing overdone, but this series really reinvented the story. 

Let me start off with the animation. Beautiful scenes, drawings, character designs- just the thing every show needs. The use of flowers and colours really stood out as I watched the episodes. 

Next we’ll move on to the story and characters itself. The anime took a very old story and turned it into one of betrayal and unthinkable death. I have to say, the little twists in the story spiced it up. Not only that, the creators did a blend, bringing in character from other Shakespeare plays, including Othello and King Lear. The twist is, none of them play the parts they did in their original stories. Even William Shakespeare himself has a character in the anime, adding a comic relief to the story. Throw in a few flying horses and you have yourself a world to get lost in. 

Mixing tradition with new elements, Neo Verona (as the the city is called) really pops out, as does the story. It’s not one you can simply stop watching in the middle. 

The manga is another story completely. It did a very good job summarizing the story. But just summarizing. There are quite a few missing points from the manga, so much that you would not get the story unless you had watched the show first. The book is very good, but it should only be read second to watching the show. 

This is a happier response than you will normally see. All do to my lack of ideas. So I will end with this. 

Anyone who does not like the original tale does not need to worry. This one has flying horses!!

I should probably start a grading system.

Romeo x Juliet Anime: A+

Romeo x Juliet Manga: B

Review: The Shrine

Alright, I know it’s been less than a week, but I think I will start now. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to start with, and whether I’d do a positive review or a negative one. So I thought I’d start with a nice movie, which I found… interesting.

This week: The Shrine (2010)

For those of you who don’t know, The Shrine is a movie about a journalist who goes to investigate the disappearance of a young man, in a completely made-up Polish town. If you didn’t gather from the name, of course it is implied to be of supernatural causes. I know it does sound all interesting and good, but this is only the beginning.

We move on to a truly mind boggling scene in which the main character is visited by the very angsty ghost of the missing man. A scene I will add has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Really, watch it and try to connect it with anything else that happened. This was probably ten minutes in.

As we move on, the main trio travels to the man’s last known location. It is there that the confusion level revs up, helped along by weird editing techniques that probably should have been thought out a little but more.

I will say, the story itself was very interesting. To a point. After a while I lost interest in the story and instead shuddered at the technique. I personally believe some of the shots would have worked better if they had cut it differently. Forget quick cuts, move the camera back and forth. And make the recorded audio more realistic.

I don’t want to give too much more away, so let me say this. It was advertised as a horror movie. I found myself laughing at it and overall questioning exactly what it was I had just watched. Don’t get me wrong. Great concept for a story.  Just not that great a movie. 

Starting up!

Hi guys!

I guess this will count as my first blog. I've wanted to start a blog for a long time now, but I honestly had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew it wouldnt' be one just about my everyday life, (I'm planning a webcomic for that) so I decided to hold off until I came up with what I wanted to do.

It came to me a few weeks ago when I was reading a few news articles, and the only sort of comments in my head were all sarcastic. And I wanted to share them with people.

So here's my proposal. I'm going to review things. I'm going to talk about stuff I've seen in the news. Now then I say review, I don't mean just movies and shows, I mean books and anything else that's rising in popularity. Maybe I'll even throw in a few issues. I guess there will be no one thing that I am doing, but it will vary week to week. I will definitely make it weekly, even more frequent if something completely pulls at my attention.

Hopefully my blog won't bore too many people. I had another one once for school, which if I find, I'll connect to. Until then, enjoy!