Brave Story

Japanese title: ブレイブ・ストーリー
Number of episodes: 1 (Movie)

Some info:
1) ANN
2) Wiki
3) IMDB Profile

Hmm, this movie was actually of the few anime movies that made it to Singapore cinemas in recent times. Somehow, I didn’t end up watching it in theatres here. But anyway, it reached local shores so many months after the DVD was released. Kinda disappointed back then to be honest, but I guess now things are -slightly- improving (or maybe not?).

Ok enough of that. Now to talk about the movie proper. It seems that this movie has quite a big budget and I kinda agree that at least the animation and graphics aspects looked like they were well done. But maybe the style isn’t too my best liking so I’m not that impressed by it. Heh.

As for the story, I suppose it’s targeted at young audience or at least that’s the feel I get from watching the show. Anyway, the main char is a young boy named Wataru who is going through some tough times. His dad divorced his mom to leave for someone else, while his mom collapsed and is hospitalised. He meets Ashikawa and gets to know of a way to change his destiny and life by travelling to another world. Turns out in order to achieve that, the traveller must find 5 gemstones in order to meet a Goddess who grants any single wish.

However, in the course of collecting the gemstones, Ashikawa has caused havoc and chaos in this other world they travelled to. In the end, Wataru matures and realises what is the right thing to do, although it’s a difficult decision to make, from the viewpoint of his initial aim and goal. Along the way are some of the adventures of Wataru that in the end aid in his maturity growth. Haha.

If you ask me, I think the story isn’t something very spectacular, and in fact is fairly predictable. I could almost tell what it’ll roughly lead to from the time both of them travelled to the other world. Lol, but I guess that’s not the main point. Perhaps it’s some of the simple messages that are conveyed as part of the movie.

Oh as for the ending theme, as well as the insert song that appeared during the show is performed by Aqua Timez. Although I think some of their songs are nice (like those that appeared in bleach anime etc), I think that their type of songs, as well as the vocalist’s voice isn’t that suited for this movie.

Overall, I wouldn’t say this is a truly impressive movie, but at least it’s nice enough to warrant almost 2 hours of viewing time for this one. Haha.

太极

English title: The Master of Tai Chi
Number of episodes: 25

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) English Wiki
3) Chinese Wiki
4) Official Site (Traditional Chinese)

Sorry about the huge pic, but oh well, more than enough space on WP to upload slightly bigger pics anyway. Ok, back to the topic, this show was actually aired in HD in Hong Kong. Being the first HD series, I suppose efforts were made to ensure that this show proved to be a worthy one.

True enough, the show is indeed a pretty neat one overall. The story is about 巫馬 [played by 赵文卓] and his journey through picking up martial arts and becoming a better person [character wise] through gaining enlightenment about various matters. Another key character is 段曉星 [played by 林峰], who is the son and heir to a number 1 [martial arts] clan in the capital city.

There are actually quite a lot of things happening, and many things are nicely set up by baddies [as usual]. I don’t really know how to summarise everything nicely in a nutshell, but I must say the sequence of events often kept me on the show rather well, wanting to know how it will develop [actually there only that many ways, just curious to know which one =P]. Of course, being a Chinese drama of such nature, the presence of influences of 亲情 and 爱情 and all the complications are also present. Sometimes it is a bit draggy [to me], but then again it’s because viewers know a lot of things while from the individual character’s point of view, much is left unknown to them. Haha.

Needless to say, there’s a lot of martial arts fighting and demonstrations throughout the show, which of course is of great importance. The choreography of the moves and fights are actually nicely done and it’s more of realistic moves rather than those 武侠 where you have pwnage 内功 skills that can become AOEs. Lol.

The worst part of the show is probably the last few episodes of the show, whereby they try to tie things up as well as trying to get rid of the mastermind behind all the evil manipulations. Suddenly everyone just somehow manages to bury the hatchet and work together, or at least suddenly the big bad guy loses all his “allies”. Haha. Oh, besides that, the way they concluded the show is also kinda hasty, perhaps to fit into a round number of 25 episodes.

For some misc comments:
1) Wounds and stuff can change position, angle etc, or even disappear. Pretty cool.
2) Lots of food wasted =(
3) Cooking utensils and stuff can appear in the middle of a forest =D Pretty common.
4) Positions of characters can change while in/during/after fight. Pretty common also.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable show with nicely choreographed fights. Go watch if you’re into this type of dramas. =D

p.s. you can read Waikit’s entry here.

Nana 2

Rating: PG
Running time: 130 minutes
Now Out on DVD

Some info:
1) ANN
2) Wiki
3) IMDB Profile
4) Official Site (Japanese)

Sequel to the first Nana live-action movie [blogged here], I guess many people had quite a bit of expectations for this show since the prequel was actually quite nice and all. Unfortunately, I found this movie falling rather short of its prequel.

While some key characters retain their role as in the prequel, some characters saw a change of cast (due to whatever reasons), including one of the Nanas (right of Nakashima in the poster). I don’t know if this change has any influence, but it gave the feel that the interactions between characters in the show don’t feel as strong as the prequel, which is kind of bad, since that’s somewhat an important aspect of the show.

Reading from various sources, it would seem that this sequel attempts to follow the original story closely, but after watching, I still find something missing from a manga (or anime) feel. I can’t really pinpoint what it exactly is, but something’s not right. Lol.

The theme songs this time isn’t so nice, even though Yuna Ito’s [or rather her character in the movie] music video production went overseas to film. Hehz, I felt that the songs in the prequel were nicer. Hopefully there’s nothing wrong with my choice. =X

Overall, this sequel lacks the special touch that the prequel had successfully achieved. My take: 5.5/10

p.s. special credits and thanks to Dom ;)

KOF Clips Vol. 24

This entire entry will be dedicated to some combo exhibition on KOF Maximum Impact: Regulation A. Original clips can be found at this Japanese site. If anyone is still interested to download a copy that’s of decent quality, the links over there still work I believe. [Mediafire rox] Anyway 7 “volumes” in total.

p.s. if anyone is wondering, I’ve only played this game 3 times, all of which are epic fail attempts in learning the game =D

Bonus: Cool Soul’s No striker 2001 CMV preview

Minami-ke Okawari

Japanese title: みなみけ～おかわり～
Number of episodes: 13

Some info:
1) ANN
2) Wiki
3) Official Site (Japanese)

Well, I’m not exactly sure to call this a sequel or a second adaptation of Minami-ke [blogged here]. But anyway, okawari means a 2nd helping (I think), so I guess it works fine either way.

Somehow, I don’t find this series as funny as the earlier one. Maybe it’s because this series is done by a different studio so their styles and approaches somewhat differ quite greatly. But okay lah, it’s still funny every now and then, so it’s still quite relaxing while watching this show.

As with the first series, the story still revolves around the lives of the 3 sisters, of course with different events each every episode, be it about school, lazing at home or whatever. Hence, the slice of life genre it’s being categorised as.

Hmm, I actually don’t have very much else to say about this anime series leh. I guess it’s still quite an okay series to watch though I still prefer the first one. =P