Sillyness, werd

FF7 Advent Children

Well I am back from my retreat; it was an experience to say the least.  But as fun as that was it isn’t what I want to talk about right now.

So yeah, as the post name implies I just finished watching the Japanese release of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and all I have to say is wow.

I feel robbed, robbed that I wasn’t able to watch this on the big screen.  I won’t say it was everything I had hoped a FF7 movie would be, but it was close people, very close.

The story was very well written, in terms of being true to the characters we all know and love from the game, and the animation was wonderful, especially the fight scenes.  The director didn’t shy away from very hectic action, which allowed for some very impressive sequences.

All in all, a must see for any FF7 fan, or for any fan of animation.

User Group a go… sorta

I have been kicking around an idea for a comic for a while now called ‘User Group’.  It is a synthesis of geekery and ridiculousness that fits snugly into the fabric of SsWi.

I am a huge fan of sequential art and have produced a couple of home grown books in the past, so this isn’t new territory for me per se.  The main difference is that I have become… disenfranchised with art and comics over the years and find it hard to get motivated.

The thing is, the more I think about the introductory story arch that is brewing the more excited I am getting.  Excited enough to finally start sketching.  Now all I need to do is convince two of my favorite artists to lend me one of their characters for the arch and we will be set.

I hope to be posting about this more in the future as things progress, so stay tuned.  As a bit of a teaser here is a sketch I did just a couple of minutes ago with my WACOM:”(I am using a PenPartner, which is not really for this type of thing. I am hoping to drop some cash on a nicer tablet soon.)”: tablet.  The introductory arch story makes use of Brent Sienna from Player vs Player and Hawk from Applegeeks, so here is what my Brent would look like… maybe:

Like I said a quick sketch.  Hopefully fortune will smile on me and Scott and Hawk will be generous enough to lend their characters to my opening story arch.

FF7: Advent Children

The newest trailer for the “movie” Advent Children has been added to the japanese site.  Go watch it, and then come back here and read the rest of this post, wherein the author pontificates on the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Read the rest »

Oldy but goody…

Wow, I just noticed after commenting on this post, that I wrote that almost one year ago.

What is so amazing to me is that it is still an active thread.   It is up to 32 posts now and probably will still grow over time.   To me that is one of the most powerful aspects of the blog, not this one perhaps, but of those blogs that are really worth the screen realestate they occupy.   That something pithy or important once said can be expanded on and exlplored for months or even years to come.

This is a very exciting medium to be a part of, if as I said before, your blog is actually worth anything.

It makes me wish that I had decided to make this a more serious forum; and that I actually had something pithy or intelligent to say.   Oh well.

What in the World?

I know that I was not supposed to be blogging about just anything… but this is just to good to let pass by.

“I got a letter from a general at the Pentagon when the name change went through and he says it was great to have the employ of the commander of the Autobots in the National Guard.”

Yes it appears that some knuckle head in the National Guard legally changed his name to Optimus Prime.  Yeah, I know what you are thinking, me too.

For the whole story go over here.

Akira live action…

I am really not happy about this.

Even though the technology is there to bring the look and effects to life, I think that there are some things that should just not be… re-envisioned.

The beauty of Akira was the art, the animation. And the idea that this screen writer knows what elements of Akira need to be translated to the screen is ridiculous. Only one man knows what elements need to be translated, Katsuhiro Otomo. Period.

And oh yeah the site about Katsuhiro Otomo is in french so if you are not enlightened enough to read french, besides my sympathy I will provide this translation:

Whoo! Haven’t translated anything in awhile, there might be some errors in there but you get the jist of it.

And in other news Chris Naughton is apparently not dead yet.

What’s your Power Level?

As a follow up to the DBZ post from yesterday, here is a nifty little formula for you to ascertain your power level.

1. What’s your weight?
2. What’s your age?
3. How much can you lift?
4. How tall are you in inches?
Now, add your weight, age, pounds you can lift and how tall you are in inches, together and divide by 50. There’s your Power Level. The normal Human is between 5-8. What’s yours?

Mine is 20.5

Ahh yeah

Dragonball Z

Well the final episodes of one of my favorite anime’s Dragonball Z are finally rolling on Toonami.

The Buu Saga ends the Z saga, and closes the book on the lives of Goku, Vegita and the rest, at least for awhile. I say this because shortly after the ending of this show another show was begun, namely Dragonball GT.

GT picks up with our characters many years later, Vegita and Bulma have a daughter, Goku ends up being a kid again and Gohan and Videl have a daughter named Pan.

Unfortunately this series has arguably the best animation in the history of the show, but the weakest story lines,and the power levels, which were ridiculous at the close of Z are perposterous in GT. Vegita at 18,000 could destroy entire worlds. By the end of Z Goku at his max, Super Sayan Level 3 was 79,999,999; and the fusion of Goku and Vegita, Vegetto was 99,500,000. In contrast at the end of GT Goku has a power level of 400,000,000, and I have heard some say that in the japanese he was at a power level of 1.8 billion when in SSJ level 4.

Just ridiculous.

But fun.

Ahhh.. Japan, my reason for smiling.

Just when I thought my day was ruined by the lovely folks at Alltel, I run across this site, graciously liked from Blogs4God.

If you have never heard of Yatta!, or seen the video, please do your self a big favor and click here.

I saw this for the first time last year, and have been disturbed by it ever since. Folowing is a loose translation of the lyrics to Yatta!, enjoy.

And oh yeah, this is in Animation/Manga because they now have a Yatta! Anime series.

Dragonball Z: Live action, and new Transformers?!

I just stumbled upon this announcement over at Dragonball Z.com. It seems that 20th Century Fox has optioned he rights to produce a DBZ movie. It is scheduled to be on a fast tack release sometime in the summer of 2003. I have no idea how I feel about this. I am actually a HUGE DBZ fan, but I can’t think of anyone I could actually see playing the different parts. Anywhoo. Just thought everyone should know.

And in other news Hasbro is releasing a new 2d Transformers cartoon. Transformers Armada. They have decided to introduce a new “race” of transformers labeled Mini-cons. Seems a little contrived to me. Why couldn’t they just let things rest with the wildly amazing and popular Beast Machines produced by Mainframe? It looks as though It won’t be made by Saban like the abhorent Transformers: Robots in Disguise that we had to sit through last season on Fox. This show will air on Cartoon Network, and then find its way into the Toonami block.

MegaTokyo

I just found this site today. The product of two warped and deliriously imaginative minds, Piro aka Fred Gallagher and Largo aka Rodney Caston, MegaTokyo is a very well wrought Comic/Manga based on characters who are suspiciously named for the creators.

The plots are at one moment irreverent and clever the next. I would prefer the art adhere to a higher standard, which by the way they are able to produce, as evidenced by these images.

I would prefer a longer time between episodes of the serial to give the creators more time to churn out higher quality work. But even with the above comments, the manga is more than worth your time.