Sword of the Stranger

Just watched Sword of the Stranger, apparently was released in Japan in Sep 07. Well, it's swords, so I'm interested, yeah, but it's also by BONES, which produced Wolf''s Rain, Scrapped Princess, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Period swordfighting, like Champloo and Kenshin, but totally totally different from the two. Well, obviously it's a movie, but its style is totally different from either of those movies, because it's totally totally serious - kind of like the Kenshin prequel. Anyway, storyline is quite straightforward, tale of redemption kind of stuff, feels actually like a Chinese swordfighting movie, actually, down to the melancholic ending, and the overwhelming preference for flute music. And the fighting scenes tend towards realism, none of the characters have special powers and everybody's kind of mortal - including the main character. Love the way they have like three ranks of fighters - Grade 3 nameless dudes who are just there to die and make the rest look good, Grade 2 chaps with names, and weapons to distinguish themselves from each other, and the two Grade 1 guys who are like pre-ordained to meet. Only bad thing was the Chinese, it's probably more enjoyable if you don't understand Chinese so you can't understand what that group of bad guys are saying.

Oh, and I really love the "where's my sword?" bit. (I need to steal someone's screencap of that scene) Dark humour, yes, but... lol, that's the only humour I found in the whole thing. Oh, and maybe the sarcasm about the hostage situation...

A review.

Kamichu

I’ve been reading Jeff Lawson’s reviews at Hop Step Jump. His favourite material is a bit different from mine – more of the so-called “girly” anime, whereas I tend to go for a more action-packed bunch. But lately, his reviews of Kamichu and Kanon have got me interested to find out what exactly I'm missing...

Byousoku 5 Centimeter

I haven’t watched any anime in a while…. Ever since Bleach went into filler mode, anyway. Mostly, no time!
Here’s the first of two shows I want to catch though:
Makoto Shinkai’s Byousoku 5 Centimeter

I’ve watched both his previous two shows, Voices of a Distant Star, and The Place Promised In Our Early Days. At first it was because he was famous for having done Voices on his own – just him and his Mac. But both shows conveyed a certain atmosphere very well – nostalgia and sadness, set in brilliantly thought out sci-fi settings. In a sense, an anime version of my favourite sci-fi short stories.

I especially loved the two dialogues of the two protagonists running in counterpoint in Voices, and it brings a tear to my eye every single time...

Now this appears to be a longer production, much less sci, but with the same beautiful animation quality. Definitely a show to catch!