One day not too long ago I was looking around this awesome used bookstore called the Mermaid bookstore that is is the basement of another store that is now a ham shop. I found an old copy of the book The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle which was an animated film that had been one of my favorites as a child.

The film follows the book nicely seeing that Beagle wrote the screenplay. Of course not all the depth of the book remains in the film, but basically the film is about a unicorn, who believes that she is the last of her kind, going on a journey to find the others. She goes through many struggles including becoming a human and thereby forgetting some of herself and facing the red bull. She also meets friends including a magician. The story has love and a bittersweet ending. All the characters grow and develop and essentially become better which is not the easiest thing to do and is often painful. Throughout the story there is also the discussion of mortality and the fear of death, more so in the book than the movie, but its remains a strong theme.

The movie made in 1982 is an amazing and artsy film. Taprestries portraying unicorns are shown in the beginning credits and later throughout the film. The cast of voice actors includes Mia Farrow, Christopher Lee, Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, and Angela Lansbury. The music is also awesome. It was composed and written by Jimmy Webb and performed by America, the band that sang Horse with No Name. I love listening to the music even now, especially since its so easy to listen to it on the internet since so many people seem to love it as well. There are at least two other versions of the song The Last Unicorn. Not to mention that the artists that worked on this film eventually moved on to Ghibli to work with Miyazaki.

I think the Last Unicorn did better in Europe than America, especially Germany. I guest the tapestries and fairy tale theme make it seem very European.

I recommend everyone who has never seen this film to see it and for those that have last seen it in their childhood for you to watch it again. It has a great story, music, art, actors, and there are hidden allusion and themes that it takes an adult to catch.

Kagehime

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I really love anime and sometimes I even end up watching bad anime from beginning to end become I got addicted to it somehow. But there is some anime that I could barely get through the first episode. I’m sure some people would like them, but I’m definitely not a big fan of either Dai Mahou Touge or Cosprayers. I’m not even sure why I tried watching either of these. I don’t even know if they were dubbed.

In Dai mahou Touge a princess from another world must spend a year on earth in order to be able to inherit the the throne. She appears to be a cute, happy, and kind child, but in reality she is anything but. This anime really makes the viewer seem to be on drugs (not that I’ve ever tried any). There are talking vegetables that are basically shown commiting suicide and tons of bipolar and psychotic activity. Sure it sounds interesting but it was really to crazy for me and I thought I could take a lot of craziness. If you like pure craziness this is for you.

As for Cosprayers, well its basically ecci with a ridiculous plot. Sometimes that works, but not for this… A girl accidently seals away Amaterasu, the sun goddess and ends up in a different world from which she can’t return. Basically I thought it was too stupid to watch. The main girl was a bit too stupid and clumsy for me to handle. If someone could get past that its probably ok to watch.

Well that’s it for the worst anime I’ve ever watched. What’s the worst you’ve ever seen?

Kagehime

Hey everyone,

Imagine if you were named a really horrible name at birth by your parents. Like maybe they had been watching too much of The Simpsons and took advice from Bart Simpson’s prank calls to Moe’s Tavern. It happens to real people as with the case of Al Caholic
and Amanda Hugginkiss. How about the parents who named their children after diseases like Cholera or Mumps. Then parents have named their children after the seven deadly sins and Lucifer. Apparently the Homunculi in Fullmetal Alchemists don’t have oringal names. What kind of parents would do this to their child? There’s more at The Worst Baby Names of All Times. I hope your parents named you well. If they didn’t or if you know of someone with a terrible name just post it here.

Kagehime

Hey, check this out. There’s a fruits basket- loving Princess. She gets attacked by a Koi and rides on a frog. What more do you need?

Kagehime

Hey everyone,

I was at The Japanator, a really neat blog with stuff about anime, manga, and Japan in general and I saw the cutest history explanation ever. All the ~stans in the middle east and America were transformed into manga form. The situation in the manga is made cute while the real situation is written next to it. It was so cute I couldn’t help reading it and in the process I learned a lot about Afghanistan. The site where it can be read is a PB base photogallery. Tell me what you think about the point of view taken. This comic was translated from Japanese so its original target was Japanese people.

Kagehime

Pakistan and Afghanistan playing on the swings

Hey everyone,

This summer so many hero or superpower movies with a heavy emphasis on comics are coming out its ridiculous. What exactly does this say about our society? Are we in a desperate search for a hero and why? Unfortunately I can’t answer these questions I can only list the upcoming films and give a suggestion. Maybe we feel that the world is coming apart around us and we have no control over it.

Iron Man Not as popular as Spiderman or Batman. Let’s see how he does.

Indiana Jones Number 4 in the series. It has the Soviet Union (Thank goodness no Nazis) and Shia LeBouf (Hope he’s better than in Transformers)

Incredible Hulk Yet another Hulk movie I hope it’s better than the last one.

Wanted A young man is trained to be an assassin with super powers after his father his killed. His life was mundane until he meets Fox aka Angelina Jolie. The special effects and stunts look awesome for this one. This movie has a nemesis that already came out Jumper. It’s basically Samuel L Jackson versus Morgan Freeman. Look at their hair.

Rambo How Old are you Sylvester Stallone?

Hellboy 2 I liked the first Hellboy, but I didn’t know that it had done well enough to make a second film.

Hancock Will Smith as a super hero need I say more?

The Dark Knight I’m expecting this to be good. Heath Ledger was apparently so scary as the joker in one scene that Michael Caine forgot his lines.

There’s also movie called Hero Wanted. Kung Fu Panda and Prince Caspian have heroes as well.

Kagehime

Did they do the spoof too early? I’m sure this movie season will be spoof worthy as well. Think there’ll be a superhero movie 2? Or is that asking too much of these serialistic spoofs.

There are several similarities between the TV shows Pokémon and Lilo & Stitch concerning the nature of the characters, the nature of the enemies, and plot. The main character, a human, seeks as many made-up creatures, which can be identified by name or number, and which live in balls, as possible. However, in Pokémon, the main character, a 10-year-old boy named Ash, captures and uses the Pokémon for battle, and the main character in Lilo & Stitch, a young girl named Lilo captures and finds jobs for Dr. Hämsterviel’s evil “experiments” that would benefit society. Both shows feature enemies who are bent on stealing the main character’s fictional creatures. In Pokémon, Team Rocket (consisting of Jessie, James, and a Pokémon called Meowth) is intent on stealing Ash’s Pokémon, and in Lilo & Stitch, Gantu and his sidekick, and “experiment” called Reuben, plan to steal Lilo’s “experiments” and return them to Dr. Hämsterviel. Both shows also have characters whose purpose is to ostracize the main characters: in Pokémon, Gary Oak brags to Ash that he is better than him. In Lilo & Stitch, Mertle Edmonds and her friends constantly mock Lilo by saying she is weird.

Lilo & Stitch is very similar to Pokémon. In both shows, the main character strives to get as many

creatures as possible while warding off someone who attempts to steal his or her creatures.

Although Lilo & Stitch was based on a book, it is quite possible that Disney allowed Pokémon to

influence its plot.

Big Herm

As I was cruisin through the net, I came across this interesting site. Apparently, the study of comics is actually a scholarly endeavor, which is interesting since we are trying to start a comics magazine. Here is the url:

http://www.ijoca.com/

kogepannyanko

I had always disliked Superman for varied reasons, mostly because l hated the simplistic good vs. evil framework and Superman’s omnipotent alien powers (t did not hurt that I liked Batman and Spiderman better, as well). At last, I had found something that articulates my thoughts here. An excerpt

“It almost goes without saying, but if your hero cannot possibly be killed in any instance which does not somehow involve an incredibly rare space-rock, then you’ve got one boring-ass hero. It’s sort of like watching Neo fight all the agent Smiths in The Matrix Reloaded: we know our hero can’t possibly die, and he doesn’t act like he’s in any danger whatsoever, so the entire fight is a foregone conclusion and the audience becomes bored out of their skulls.

I mean, yeah – we obviously go into most superhero stories more or less positive that the hero won’t die, but they still entertain us because the hero doesn’t know that. Spidey is always scared, even if only a little, that one of the Green Goblin’s pumpkin bombs will be the end of him; Daredevil is fully aware that a well-placed projectile from Bullseye could kill him. As a result, these characters act with restraint and forethought; since Superman knows nothing bad can happen to him no matter what, he acts with no such subtlety. He flies headlong into every conflict, fists thrust forward, because he knows he’s in no immediate danger. Thus, we know he’s in no immediate danger, and we get bored out of our fucking skulls.”

Again, the article is here via Sullivan.

Nyx

Hey everyone,

Well Venezuelan TV just took the Simpsons off air because it was consider to inappropriate for children. Which may be true, considering how many parents here didn’t let their children watch simpsons when they were growing up. But it wasn’t like they put something more child friendly in its place. They just put on Baywatch: Hawaii. I understand its an 11 am time slot and here that’s around the beginning of soap opera time. What do you think about switching The Simpsons for Baywatch? Do you think it was just that they think children were more likely to watch Simpsons because its a cartoon and they just replaced it with something they don’t think they’ll watch?

Kagehime