Does "From Up On Poppy Hill" Deserve 2 Thumbs Up?

I have watched "From Up On Poppy Hill" at least once or twice, but I've never blogged about it until today. I know that Goro Miyazaki is not his father, the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, but I still would have liked to see a similar storytelling style. I didn't get it. While Hayao is geared toward fantastical stories such as "My Neighbor Totoro," "Spirited Away," and "Kiki's Delivery Service," his son appears to take a more "slice of life" approach with this film. father, who was lost at sea during the Korean War. Shun Kazama (Anton Yelchin), the engaging editor of the high school newspaper, gets her involved in his campaign to preserve "the Latin Quarter," a beloved but dilapidated building that houses the school clubs. The effort to save the ramshackle structure sparks a believable romance between these likable teenagers. Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa adapted the story from a graphic novel by Chizuru Takahashi and Tetsuro Sayama. The filmmaking is more intimate and assured than Goro Miyazaki's "Tales from Earthsea" (2006). Many Japanese retain a nostalgia for the early '60s, when the Olympics proclaimed their country's reemergence from the destruction of World War II and the period of rebuilding that followed. Kyo Sakamoto's crossover pop hit "Ue o muite aruko," which Americans know as "Sukiyaki," sets the tone. The Ghibli artists outdid themselves creating the dust and junk decades of high school students left in the Latin Quarter: the audience can understand both the students' affection for their ratty headquarters and the administrators' desire to be rid of an eyesore. At a time when American animation is dominated by fast-paced, big-budget CG films, "From Up on Poppy Hill" reminds viewers of the singular warmth of hand-drawn animation. The characters were neither particularly loveable or detestable, and the plot--while it unfolded nicely--was kind of "meh" and not particularly able to hold my attention. However, as a fan of both Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films, I can't bear to eliminate this DVD from my ever-growing anime collection.

Otakon 2013!

Chris and I arrived in Baltimore for Otakon on August 8 (which happened to be my niece's 11th birthday. I left her gift with my parents ahead of time). It was the first time we'd ever gone to a con a day early. The Dealer's Room was epic! I found and purchased "Lupin the 3rd: Red vs. Green" and the latest DVD of the "Fairy Tail" anime, as well as some hentai. I was also able to (FINALLY!) buy a copy of the book "The Last Unicorn" by Peter S. Beagle! I even got to have my picture taken with him! Also interesting was watching my cousins enjoy a showing of "Lupin the 3rd: The Secret of Mamo." (It was their first anime con ever!) Of course, no con would be complete without cosplay outfits! I dressed as Toad ("Super Mario Bros." video games), Rei Ayanami from "Neon Genesis Evangelion", & my purple and black outfit that makes me look like either a ninja or one of the female characters from "Mortal Kombat." I made it a point to take a lot of pictures. Ironically, one of the funniest occurrences happened not in the BCC, but in the hotel room I shared with Hubby Christopher Wanamaker, our friends Kofi & Anwar, and my cousins Rasheena & Tammy. We were all settling down to go to bed for the night, but we were too excited and wound up to sleep, so I pulled up an audio recording of Samuel L. Jackson reading "Go The F*** To Sleep" by Adam Mansbach. We were all cracking up laughing! Unfortunately, that's all the fun that my cousins were able to have. My cousin Lonnie had to pick them up the following morning (Saturday). Saturday was fun for me. I wanted to attend 4 panels, but ended up missing 2 of them (Darn!) The "Ghibli Girls" panel was interesting. As the title implied, it was about the central female characters in movies released by Studio Ghibli. The "Lupin the 3rd" panel was also a treat. Incidentally, "Lupin the 3rd: Red vs. Green" was one of the DVDs I managed to find in the Dealer's Room. Also among my purchases during the con were the 5th "Fairy Tail" DVD and some hentai (some for me, and one for a friend! Don't judge us!) I would have finished this blog post earlier, but it's been utter chaos since Chris & I came back from Baltimore! Among the chaotic moments were coming back from Baltimore to find that my father-in-law went into the hospital the day after we arrived in Baltimore for the con. He has since been moved to another facility, but he is still recovering from pneumonia! Also, we spent September 7-8 back in Baltimore for Baltimore Comic-Con. The best thing I can say about that con is that I got some great 80s stuff on DVD from the Dealer's Room there. ("Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling, "The Hugga Bunch," and "The Popples" were among the DVDs I found). Anyway, now that I have FINALLY finished this blog post, I can concentrate on preparing for Anime USA! Let the fun begin! Oh! By the way, the dates for next year's Otakon have already been announced! August 8-10, 2014! For information on Otakon and other anime conventions, you can go to http://animecons.com/

My First Time Watching "Yamada's First Time" And Visiting the "Arcade!"

NOTE: I have been dreadfully negligent with my blog lately. This post was originally supposed to be published back on February 23! I spent most of the day watching "B Gata H Kei: Yamada's First Time." B Gata H Kei revolves around 15 year old high school student Yamada whose lascivious nature causes her to aspire to one day achieve sexual relations with 100 different guys. However, her insecurities as a virgin herself lead her to reject every guy that attempts to make a move on her. In order to hurdle this mental barrier Yamada goes on a search for her "cherry boy", an inexperienced guy upon whom she will bestow the right to be her first. One day while perusing a bookstore for the replacement of a dictionary she had defiled by highlighting all the sexual terms, Yamada has a fateful encounter with classmate Takashi Kosuda. Believing that Kosuda is the boy she is looking for Yamada goes to great lengths to try to seduce him. All the while, she discovers the difficulties in making that first important step towards reaching her goals, not to mention, finding out her true feelings for him. Hilarious! 2 thumbs up!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish I could say the same for "Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi." After less than 5 minutes, I was tempted to turn it off, in spite of the presence of 2 of my favorite voice actresses (Monica Rial & Jessica Boone, who both had voice acting roles in "Angelic Layer!"). I did, however,make it through the first episode before I decided to turn it off and watch a movie to conclude today's anime marathon! Childhood friends Arumi and Sasshi are residents of the Abenobashi commercial district in Abeno-ku, Osaka. After an accident, they find themselves transported to an alternate sword and sorcery world. Their attempt to get back to reality finds them traversing a series of nonsensical worlds built on science fiction, war, fantasy, dating sim games and American movies. Each alternate Abenobashi is a surreal manifestation of Sasshi's otaku interests, populated by analogs of the protagonist's relatives and acquaintances and a blue-haired stranger known as Eutus. Their quest to return home is at core a bildungsroman because the Abenobashi dimensions are mostly hobby worlds of increasing sophistication. Sasshi does not want to go home, and in fact is the sole force propelling them between worlds. While chasing the cat in the first episode, Arumi's grandfather fell off the roof and was hospitalized. With this new trauma pressuring him in addition to his apprehension about the destruction of the shopping arcade and the Asahina's moving away, Sasshi was no longer willing or able to cope with reality, and unbeknownst to even himself, he had caused their dimension to rewrite itself into worlds echoing his escapist obsessions. It doesn't sound bad, but as I said, it wasn't my cup of tea. I ended up turning it off to finish today's anime marathon with one of my favorite movies. Maybe I'll try to watch "Abenobashi" at some point in the future....Maybe!

Katsucon 19: The Final Teen Year!

This weekend was epic! I've spent the last several hours trying to wind down and get settled in at home. What happened this weekend? The 19th Katsucon, and the 10th year I attended this particular con! I'm exhausted, but I definitely had a ball! I cosplayed, raided the Dealer's Room, and managed to promote my blog and fanpage. Sadly, I missed 3 key things: 1. Seeing Steve Bennett, 2.Seeing Monica Rial, and 3. Attending the Funimation panel. On the upside, I managed to get some of the DVDs I wanted, as well as a few that I got for members of my family. I admit it: I bought hentai! I got "Chains Of Lust" for a friend, and I bought one called "Sextra Credit" for myself! I bought "The Secret World Of Arrietty" for my niece. And of course, I wore my cosplay outfits! I was Rainbow Brite, Toad, and Rei Ayanami. Chris was Krys, Mario, and Ben 10. Quite a few people were taking pics of us, in spite of the fact that my Rainbow Brite wig was ill-fitting. The company I ordered it from claimed it was for adults, but I honestly believe they sent me the child-size wig! Oh, well! I have plenty of time to order a new wig. I won't be cosplaying as Rainbow Brite again until Anime USA! In the meantime, I have to plan on moving out, a vow renewal ceremony for me and the Hubby, another anime con this summer (Otakon), and a few other life events!

A "Fairy" Nice Surprise! A "Fairy Tail" & 2 "Castle" Stories!

I love days like this! Days where I can just relax and let loose the "anime-niac" within me! This entire day has been very "anime-ted," in spite of the fact that I woke up after 7 a.m. I decided to give "Ah! My Buddha!" one more chance before returning it to Netflix. It's not my cup of tea. Then I was wondering what to do next and realized that I had not watched-had not even opened-Volume 4 of "Fairy Tail!" Across the Fiore kingdom, great wizards join guilds and make their pay by filling magical needs - but there's one guild with a reputation as the roughest, rowdiest, most dangerous of all: Fairy Tail! Forced to face her demons at the Tower of Heaven, Erza is in real danger of becoming a live sacrifice in Jellal's demented plan - which spells disaster for Fairy Tail's strongest team! As the Council prepares to wipe out the island with the Etherion beam, Erza's allies endure a heart wrenching battle to get her back! Big surprises await the comrades as they return for Magnolia's annual Harvest Festival. But the celebrations are cut short when Master Makarov's grandson hotwires a contest to determine who's the fiercest wizard in a supercharged scheme to take over the guild! I think I have forgotten the chain of events that preceded the episodes on this disc. I guess I'll have to go back and watch the first 3 volumes of "Fairy Tail!" Some of the characters had me thinking "Who are you and where did you come from?" There was one sad moment for me--the moment when Erza sacrificed herself to save the others. The anime won't be the same without her!!!!!! The question is: Is Erza really dead, or is something big about to happen? I'm not saying one way or the other, but I find it hard to believe that a central character like Erza would be killed off completely! At any rate, I hope that Funimation decides to release the rest of the series in America. In the meantime, I think I'll finish off today's marathon with a few more of Hayao Miyazaki's movies! After all, January is his birth month (and mine!) What better way to pay homage to such a brilliant director than to watch some of his best movies! (Even though I've already watched and blogged about them on several occasions!) I'm concluding today's anime marathon with "Castle In The Sky" and "Howl's Moving Castle!" HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, MR. MIYAZKI! MAY YOU CONTINUE TO REIGN OVER THE ANIME WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anime Deja Vu

Today's anime viewing is almost a waste of a blog post. Aside from the "Ah! My Buddha" disc that I got courtesy of Netflix, today's anime lineup consisted of a bunch of DVDs I've watched and bloggged about: "Spirited Away," "Grave Of The Fireflies," "Kiki's Delivery Service." Don't get me wrong; they're all great movies; it's just that I've already documented them in this blog!!!!!!!!!!!