Thursday, April 30, 2009

Ten Thousand Thundering Typhoons! The Tintin movie!

So I just finished reading up on the Tintin movie that's coming out in a few years. I was always a big fan of those comics when I was a kid- they're really good sort of "pulp" adventure books, and Captain Haddock was always good for a laugh with his creative expletives.

So when I found a passing reference to the movie, I looked it up on Wikipedia, and DOOD! Peter Jackson and Steven Speilberg directing! Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock! Nick Pegg and Simon Frost as Thomson and Thompson! They're adapting the plot of two of the better books for the movie- treasurehunting, yay!

So I'm psyched, as this is gonna be awesome.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Naruto 44something.

Naruto...when did I last talk about the manga? Huh. Well more than a month ago. I won't bother to go in depth about what happened with Pain's Chibaku Tensei and the 4th Hokage showing up in Naruto's mind. Suffice to say that I have thoughroughly enjoyed and appreciated each chapter as it's come out. Oh, and Hinata's good to go, thanks to Sakura. I smell love triangle, and I know who I'll be rooting for! Naruto's gotten right back into the stride it lost with Sasuke's massive arc, and things look to be shaping up for a fantastic conclusion. Naruto is done with the killy, and is moving on to the talky (apparently paper-chick...Konan, that's it! is just standing there helpless...Like a good woman should!*) with Pain, who's still espousing his ridiculous idea for world peace. Here's a hint, genius. Nuclear weapons didn't stop fighting. This won't either, and it's just going to kill a lot of people. Still, we're getting this guy's backstory, and while I'm reasonably sympathetic to the kid, it's really hard to empathize when right now he's going on the "MY PARENTS ARE DEEEEAAAADDDD!" schtick. It's been done before, dude. Nobody gives a shit. And killing you wouldn't be for revenge. It would be eliminating a threat that just destroyed Naruto's entire village. Revenge is a powerful motivator, but it sure as hell isn't the only reason anyone has ever killed. So shut up and deal.

Oh, and Mr. and Mrs. Nagato's parents? I'm unaware of how war generally works in the shinobiverse, but over here most folk will tend to know if their enemy is of the "brutally slaughter civilians" type. And Konoha? Isn't that type. Which is why charging fruitlessly at an enemy you have no chance of winning against in a dark room when they're not attacking you is generally a bad idea. If you had just sat down, whimpered, and begged for mercy, they probably would have apologized for eating your food. Dumbasses.


*Kidding, kidding. I hate the "Stay in the Kitchen" stereotype.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Because I feel like sharing

I should be studying right now. But I'll pause to share this link with you guys. And no, it's not just so I'll have it linked for myself later. That'd be sad....

I feel like I'm betraying someone.

So I'm browsing various gaming sites (honestly, mostly Gamespot), looking for new games that interest me. Obviously, there's Persona 4 (God bless Youtube- I'm listening to the OST right now), but on the actual "games that are coming out", there's nothing. Particularly on the Wii. I'll be honest. I haven't played anything other than Super Smash Bros on the Wii in a long time. And there's nothing new I want to play. I've got Okami at home that I really need to play (I played it a bit last summer but just sorta didn't bother- maybe because I was playing The World Ends With You a bit too much) and I guess I'll pick up the sequel to Tales Of Symphonia once I get done with Persona 4 (and even then I might just go back and replay Tales of Vesperia on the 360). But there's nothing on the Wii that interests me, really. It seems to be a lot of gimmicky stuff. God, I hate saying that because it makes me look like such an elitist hardcore gamer type, the type that everyone who isn't one likes to rag on for good reason, but when I'm bored, I tend to just want to play Halo and shoot things up. When I really want to get into a video game, it's most likely because the story draws me in, I guess. Controls, graphics, and gameplay are all honestly secondary to "I want to hear a good story." And it really doesn't look like there's anything coming out that'll do that. Short form is I'm looking for good RPGs, and there's really something of a dearth of them on the Wii. I saw something that said it might be getting a new Tales game, but that'd be years off, and I feel like I'm being a bad Nintendo fanboy for turning to the PS 2 or 360 for my RPG needs. Whatever, I don't know. I'll look into this in more detail when I get home and can actually look at what I'm gonna do this summer.

Monday, April 6, 2009

This can't be healthy...

Heya folks, I doubt anyone's reading this, but I like venting anyways! I'll actually give a synopsis of what's been going on in my manga probably when Fullmetal Alchemist comes out this month (also I'll probably be talking about the new Anime, which is apparently incredible, but I haven't downloaded it yet. Funimation's putting out legal subs so I'm waiting like a good little boy. It's out on Thursday.

So remember back in February when I was talking about how I'm going to buy a PS 2 solely for Persona 4? Yeah, that hasn't changed much. If anything it's gotten worse. These folks over at www.giantbomb.com have been doing an extended "Endurance Run", basically a Let's Play crossed with Mystery Science Theater 3000 of the game, and I'm enjoying that immensely, but it's not helping my addiction. I know I'm sucked into a game when I start trawling the intertubes for good fanart, but most of the stuff I've found has been official and very good. And the more I see of this game (and, given that GiantBomb thing started back in February and it's on average 35 minutes or so a day... I've seen quite a lot.), the more I think how awesome the main cast of characters are. The GiantBomb bit is on rescuing one dude named Kanji Tatsumi, and I'm not particularly looking forward to him joining the party. Even if he's voiced by the guy who did Yuri Lowell and appears to be an all-around cool guy, I don't want to see it. The main group has such an absolutely fantastic Five Man Band dynamic going for it that I don't want that broken up by the addition of more characters- The Main character (I'm going to name him after one of my Play By Post RPG characters) is the Hero, Yosuke's the Lancer, Chie's the Big Guy, and Yukiko and Teddie trade off The Smart Guy and The Chick roles. The four (well, three, since the protagonist doesn't exactly say much) humans have such wonderful interactions that I can really see them becoming a core, tight-knit group- a Nakama if you will. Seeing as the main character is designed to be the player by proxy, I really want to hang out with this group. Kinda sad, I know. But Chie reminds me a lot of one of my friends from home, who I've trained in Karate with for a few years now. And Yosuke's a lot like a lot of the guys I already hang out with, particularly back home (again.) Crap, I think this game is making me a bit homesick. Short form is that I wouldn't mind being the protagonist, demonic hellspawn trying to kill me and all. Of course, me being the antisocial loser that I am, that probably wouldn't work out so well. Sigh. Ah well. Fantasy and all that.

Oh, and I've been watching a bit of Castle. Because dude! Nathan Fillion! The man is awesome. I can say, with 100% confidence in my heterosexuality, that I have a mancrush on Nathan Fillion. I'd watch the man reading a soup label. And he makes the show so damn fun. Thanks, Firefly, for, among many things, showing me that this dude is awesome.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Naonha StrikerS

I'm up to episode 13- Vivio just got introduced. Overall, I'd rate StrikerS as mixed, but definitely not as good as A's. All my favorite characters are still around (mostly. Chrono hasn't done much other than stand around and talk- and when he does, it's Kyon's voice! Tomokazu Sugita FTW!- and Zafira and Arf are pretty much nowhere to be seen, but meh. It's Nanoha.) and I really like most of the new ones- as in, the main force of Section 6. Surprisingly, the only character I'm a little sour on is Nanoha herself. I thought her actions with regards to Tea were out of line (Tea herself was as well, but Nanoha's in charge.) More than that, though, she's really kind of boring. She's this perfect, happy mage training new recruits and watching them take form. That's fine, but that type of character isn't really good to focus on. To the writers' credit, she hasn't been the focus as much before very recently, but in the past couple episodes the focus has shifted to her and I hope it moves away soon. I feel slightly hypocritical about this, because I still absolutely adore Fate. And really, now that she's moved away from her "I'm not technically a human" angst*, she's not too much different from Nanoha. She's certainly a lot more motherly (which is odd considering she's 19- my age!) but really not that much different. Maybe it's because she genuinely seems nicer in a lot of places than Nanoha. Maybe it's because Bardiche is cooler than Raising Heart. Maybe it's the long blonde hair. Not sure.

Vita and Signum are still great- Vita had a great Big Damn Heroes moment, and Signum's still as solid as a rock in the group, always there when you need her and still looking as badass as ever. But, they haven't had much focus or a great deal of time for action, as the limelight's been on the newcomers. Hayate and Reinforce Zwei, who I'm fully convinced is not created out of magical energies or anything but instead pure cuteness have much the same deal, except with more Out of Combat focus on running and dealing with Section 6.

The newbies- Subaru, Teana, Caro, and Erio- Let's take 'em from the top. The internet gives Subaru the nickname of GaoGaiGar-tan, as she is apparently one big shout out to that series (just as Signum's an expy of Lamia Loveless from Super Robot wars and such) and tells us that rainbows are straighter than she is. Which is very true. She and Tea seem to be even more of a couple than Nanoha and Fate, and the latter two share a bed. And she fights on rollerblades by punching shit really really hard. Vita has been giving her lessons on how to tank. So in combat, she's just awesome. Strong, straightforward, and excited, she's basically a typical shonen hero. You could make her a dude and it wouldn't change a thing. So Subaru? Is awesome.

Teana Lannster is a dual-wielding mage who comes into the situation with not a great deal of special skills and connections like the others do. She thinks this means she's got to make up for it with Hard Work (TM) and nearly snaps as a result after she almost injures Subaru and overworks herself trying to make up for it, culminating with attacking Nanoha very seriously in a fight. Now, I'm a shonen junkie. Perhaps I've watched too much of it and it's coloring my perceptions. But in many training fights I've seen- Kakashi's Bell Test in the opening of Naruto, many of Evangeline's sessions with Negi- hell, even his battle with Rakan probably counts, a few of Ichigo's more intense sparring sessions- the rookie is expected to be aiming to kill and not hold back in the slightest. Tea's moves fall under that if you ask me, and Nanoha called her out on it. Now, if that wasn't the scenario, fine. And in either case Tea's subsequent attempts to attack Nanoha were out of line. But Nanoha blasting her not once, but twice? Overkill and uncalled for. Bad form, even if it did work out. Tea got over her issues and is developing into a solid team leader.

Erio and Caro pretty much come as a matched set. Caro's a buffer with summoning abilites who was cast out from her tribe for being too strong and got picked up by the TSAB. She's cute, meek, and shy. Think Asahina Mikuru without the chest and the rape. Erio's a quick spear wielder who apparently had some nasty stuff done to him as a kid. He's polite and attentive, and generally a good guy. I like him largely bceause one his weapon's cool and two I would like to see more males in the Nanohaverse and I have to stick up for 'em whenever I can.

It's funny, the four Strikers in Section 6 can be easily characterized combat-wise as the classic D&D party. Subaru's the fighter, focusing on taking and dishing out big hits, but she's got good mobility to back that up. Tea's the wizard, blasting things from a distance with skills in illusions and a focus on making the shot and countering enemy attacks rather than dodging. Caro, is, clearly, the cleric, being taught how to dodge since she doesn't wear heavy armor, and packing a goodly number of buff spells that help out a lot in combat, plus her dragons for heavy fire support. Erio's the rogue/ranger, using his ridiculous speed to flank the target and hit heavily, but he's not able to take blows like Subaru. I think I may have to use this at some point.

My main complaint about StrikerS so far is that after the action-packed adventures of A's, there hasn't been much action at all. Most of the fights have been against robot drones (I was going to say robots until I remembered that all the cyborgs who would make for interesting fights are technically robots, too) or training, and they haven't been very long or good. The sewer fight was very nice, so I hope we'll get more of that.

* One of the things I do really like about MSLN is that for the most part, clones and the like are treated as being perfectly human. Fate's a clone? Heck, who cares? The Wolkenritter are programs? What's your point? They're all integrated in with no problems whatsoever. I'm still a bit fuzzy on Erio's backstory, but I'm pretty sure he is, too. I like that quite a bit.