From Anime to Live Action : Ranma ½ and Rurouni Kenshin

I used to be an anime addict…meaning that I watched anime from Monday to Sunday, unlike nowadays kids, I grew to love Japanese Animation (Anime) more than Western animation. I watched whatever anime shown by any TV Channel. Sadly, there isn’t many anime in TV anymore I miss spending Sunday morning doing nothing but watching one anime after another.

I don’t watch much anime anymore nowadays…not because my love has been wiped away…not at all!! I still love anime more than any western animation…but it’s not easy being anime lover now…TV hardly shown it anymore and buying or renting is a bit troublesome. The last anime I watched was Senrei no Moribito.

Ranma ½ and Samurai X were two anime I watched routinely back then. I like Samurai X far more than Ranma ½ (but I still like Ranma), Samurai X was THE anime that introduced me to the wonder of L’Arc~en~Ciel’s music (which then becomes the band I love the most for the past 12 years). Anyway, I was so happy when I found out that both Ranma ½ and Samurai X have their Live Action movie. Ranma’s movie was for televison but Rurouni Kenshin (the movie title for Samurai X) was played on cinema.

Let’s just move on to the review, shall we

Short Reviews: 3 TV Series and 2 Movies : Moribito, Birdsong, Zenkai Garu, The Prestige, and Thor.

In April and May, I watched quite a lot but I had no time to write reviews because of all the hype on The Most Expected Concert in my life, L’Arc~en~Ciel Concert. However, I thought they are all worth to be mentioned here. It’ll take time to write each of them one by one…that’s why I write this short review.

Let’s start from The TV Series.

Senrei No Moribito (Moribito – Guardian Of The Spirit)

Origin: Japan
Type: Anime
Seiyuu: Mabuki Andou, Naoto Adachi, Kôji Tsujitani
Episodes: 26
Rating:

I watched this anime because I was planning to include it on my Once Upon A Time Challenge. I have read the book last year and really liked it and even though there were some additional scenes in the anime series, it didn’t change the whole story and I can say that I also really like the anime version of that great book.

The story was about a female guard named Balsa who had to protect a young prince named Chagum with the help of her friend, Tanda. Balsa had to protect Chagum from his father’s assassin and from Rarunga, a spirit whose sole purpose was to kill the egg spirit inside Chagum. You can read its full story in my Book Review>> here.

I love the graphic and the fight in this anime. The score music is also stunning. The characters are strongly built just like in the book. I can see their connection and their emotion clearly. The only lack of this anime is the dubbing…I couldn’t find the Japanese one and it disappointed me real bad because I dislike sub-dub.

Death Note – an Amazing Mind Battle Between 2 Geniuses

What if you found a note book that belongs to God of Death?
Deep down in your heart…
Is there anyone whose death is in your wish?

As I have said before in my review of 2 Irish ghost stories post, I have been having a readers block. To save me from a total blockage, I decided to pick a manga I really love beside One Piece, that manga is called デノートス  or Death Note in English. Reading this manga is also away to fulfill 3 challenges at once, R.I.P Challenge VI, Manga Reading, and Hello Japan! Mini Challenge. I have written my review in Indonesian language 5 years ago.

Death Note is a manga I chose by instinct. When I was looking for One Piece, I saw a manga with a very intriguing cover. It was a drawing of Ryuuku in front of a cross filled with skeleton. The cover of Death Note volume 3. I had no idea what the story was and I couldn’t find volume 1 and 2. Despite all of that, I bought the manga because I had strong feeling that the manga would turn out to be a great manga. And it was INDEED an amazing manga.

Death Note is a collaboration of Ooba Tsugumi and Obata Takeshi. Ooba –sensei was the one who wrote the story and Obata-sensei was the one who drew the manga. Obata-sensei was known for his details in drawing. His details are crazy!! He even draws a convenient store full with everything in it. Ooba-sensei’s ability in creating mind battle story is a real page turner. When I first read it, I couldn’t wait for the next volume to show up. I checked the bookstore every week wondering has the new one been released yet. This is my third time reading it.

Laputa – the Castle In The Sky

I wish I can see this anime in big screen.

This is my second time watching Laputa and it is still as fun as the first time I saw it. An anime with such an amazing art follows with a joyful story. Laputa gives us more than just an exciting story, it also gives beautiful treat to our eyes. There are scenes that I find so beautiful that I tend to forget that it is just an animation movie, in my eyes it looks like a piece of art in some gallery. The beautiful scenery in most Ghibli’s anime is the reason why I keep on praising over Studio Ghibli’s animation. Even their worst anime, Gedo Senki, still has beautiful scenery.

The story is simple but enjoyable. It starts with an attack by Dola (Kotae Hatsui), a pirate family, over a government zeppelin/airplane. Their main objective is to seize a green pendant that belongs to a girl named Sheeta (Keiko Yokozuna). While trying to avoid the pirates, Sheeta accidentally falls from the plane but something magical prevents her from free-falling, she is floating slowly to the ground. Upon seeing that, Dola becomes more eager to get the green pendant.

Yuyu Hakusho : The Dark Tournament

As I already said before, after the introduction of Yuyu Hakusho, it’s time to write about The Dark Tournament. Before reading this post, if you know nothing about Yuyu Hakusho, please read Yuyu Hakusho: An Introduction first. In that 1st post, I have written about the main characters of this anime.

After defeating The Four Beast of the underworld, Yusuke received a new job. This time, he went only with Kuwabara. The mission is to save a beautiful Yokai that can control snow, her name was Yukina. Yukina was a special yokai that attracted many greedy human. When Yukina cries, her tears will turn into a rare pearl. She was kidnapped by a rich man and he tried to make her cried by using 2 powerful yokai called The Toguro Brothers. Kuwabara was in love with Yukina, he doesn’t know that Yukina was Hiei’s sister. They could save Yukina by working together and defeated The Toguro Brothers easily.

However, The Toguro Brothers weren’t really defeated by Yusuke and Kuwabara, they were pretending to be defeated by them because a man named Sakyou asked them to do so. In return, Toguro-otouto (the youger Toguro) asked Sakyou to invite Yusuke to the Dark Tournament so that he can fight him fair and square in that tournament.

What is The Dark Tournament? The Dark Tournament is a tournament held once a year in a remote island. The tournament was participated by Yokai around the world, they were trying to find the strongest yokai in the world. But, there was always human involve in this tournament, they invited human as guest fighter. The tournament itself was not held by yokai, it was held by greedy human who used the tournament to gain what they want. The winner of the tournament will get everything they want without any exception. The owners of most the teams that joined the tournament were human being.

Yuyu Hakusho – An Introduction

I have been using my 2 weeks holiday to watch Yuyu Hakusho. It isn’t my first time watching it, I’ve watched this anime in early 2000. My friend bought the DVD recently, because I like this anime quite a lot, I borrowed it and use my holiday to indulge my self with Hiei, my favorite character in Yuyu Hakusho. The English translation for Yuyu Hakusho is Ghost File.

The story is about a boy named Urameshi Yusuke, he was a delinquent boy who liked to play truant. Although he liked to fight, his heart was kind. One day, he was hit by a car when trying to save a little boy. He met a girl named Botan, she worked for Koenma, the highest authority in the Spirit Realm. Botan told Yusuke that he wasn’t supposed to die. Koenma gave Yusuke a chance to be alive again. At first, he refused the offer because no one in his world will miss him anyway. However, he soon saw that his mom and his childhood friend, Keiko, were heartbroken by his death. To his surprised, his all time rival, Kuwabara Kazuma, couldn’t accept his death too. Seeing those people made him decide to take the task that will bring him back to life.

When he finally lived again, he realized that he could see spirits. Koenma appointed him to be the Spirit Realm Detective. He had to solve problems caused by Yokai in Human Realm. His first big case was taking over 3 spirit items that were stolen from Koenma. The thieves were 3 wanted Yokai; Hiei, Kurama and one that I’ve already forgotten his name. Hiei was the one with cold heart and planning to change all human into yokai. Kurama only joined this group so that he could save his human mother. Kurama gave the item back to Yusuke without a fight. Hiei did a dirty trick by kidnapping Keiko. Yusuke defeated Hiei and returned all the items back to Koenma.

The Girl who Leapt Through Time

Toki o Kakeru Shoujo (時 を かける 少女) or The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is an animation from Japan….or should I say another great animation from Japan.

I don’t know if I ever said this or not, I never can appreciate digital animation as much as drawing animation (I don’t know how to differentiate these two animations). Digital animations are the kind of animation produced by Pixar while Drawing animation is the kind of animation from Studio Ghibli and almost all Japanese animation still use this technique. Zee of Mywordlyobsession had written better sentences to differentiate these two kinds of animations. I have the same feeling as her, for me digital animation lacks of art value and therefore no matter how great people said about Toy story or any other animation alike, I always end up saying those are good animations but never could say those are great animations.

The Girl Who Leapt Through time is made by the animation studio Madhouse and directed by Hasoda Mamoru. It was published in 2006 and will be made into Live Action Movie in 2010…I want to watch it, I hope I can find its DVD next year. After doing a little search, I found out that Toki o Kakeru Shoujo was based upon a novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka. When I read his name, it sounds so familiar…I went through my book review and found my review of one of his books, it was called Hell. I wonder if the JF-Library has this book, I want to read it.

Sounds of Anime & Tokusatsu

This is my third post for January’s Hello Japan Mini Challenge – Music to my ears. This time I want to do a little flash back to my childhood.

I could say that the 1st Japanese Music I’ve heard is music from the opening of Anime & Tokusatsu.

I’m sure that everyone knows what Anime is…but some of you might know nothing about Tokusatsu. Tokusatsu is Japanese live action superheroes, such as Ultraman, Kamen Rider and Power Rangers (American Tokusatsu).

As time goes by, changes are happenng in Anime & Tokusatsu’s soundtrack…and that’s what I want to talk about here.

When I was in my late elementary years and in the beginning of my junior high years…I saw lots of Anime and Tokusatsu, they were the first reason I like Japan. At that time, their opening songs are so iconic and original. Original because they really made a song for the Anime & Tokusatsu…the songs really defined what the show is all about. Iconic because everyone remembers that song even after years of stop watching it and even the people who didn’t watch the show know about that song.

Kids remembered the lyric both the sub-dubbed one or the original one.

Here are some example of those iconic Anime & Tokusatsu’s opening songs.

Doraemon, Anime that has run for more than 30years, has the most unfogetable song.

Konna koto ina, dekitara ina, anna yumme konna yumme ippai aru kedo, minna minna minna kanaete kureru, fushigi na pokette kanaete fureru…aji sonna tabita ina…ee take koputa…an an an totemo daisuki…Doraemon (Translation: I want to do this, I want to do that, there are so many things I want to do, everything can be granted from the magic pocket…).

Tho it’s been 20 years since I 1st watch this anime…I stil remember the song and I still watch it once in a while too

Google V, it was the 1st tokusastu I’ve ever watched…Power ranger is somewhat like Google V. I used to sing along whenever the opening song started. Since I didn’t know Japanese back then,I made up my own lyric except for this part ‘google Red, google Black, pink, yellow and blue‘

Sailor Moon. I didn’t watch this anime because I was (and am still) not really into Shoujo Anime (anime for girls)…but I couldn’t escape from it’s iconic opening song.

Kamen Rider Black. Talking about this Tokusatsu brings back so many childhood memory. The intro of the opening song successfully made children stop playing and run to their television set. And again, I made up my own lyric ;p

last but not least Saint Seiya. There’s no one in J-Community (people who love Japanese entertainment) who doesn’t know Sant Seiya’s song…the song is still often played in many events.

I made a video of those songs plus pictures to let know the characters of those Anime & Tokusatsu’s opening songs

Nowadays….

Anime & Tokusatsu’s songs have changed drastically….they do not use original songs anymore they prefer to take songs from famous singers or bands. I don’t say it was a bad thing because I get to know some J-music from anime & tokusatsu, such as Asian Kungfu Generation from Naruto, Siam Shade from Full Metal Alchemist, and many more…however, I prefer the old time better, songs that are made specially for the show have better grip than songs taken from famous singers.

Here are the songs I mentioned above