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[Neonivek]

I meant Axis as a whole. Though Hetalia features TONS of massacres, mass deaths, and genocides

It just doesn't refer to them as such.

[JoshuaFH]

I never quite got that when, whenever there's a war, it always takes place on the same bizarre island, with the same odd series of events that take place each time, only with slight alterations each time.

In fact, I don't get the metaphor at all. That's just me though.

In other news, I watched Howl's Moving Castle, and Porco Rosso, two more Hayao Miyazaki works added to my list.

Spoiler: Howl's Moving Castle (click to show/hide)

HMC, I read some reviews that laud it as Miyazaki's least good movie, and I can see where they're coming from. It's a movie that's all over the place. The main character, Sophie, is used by Howl in the very beginning to escape some blob people, but I don't see why he would, since Howl's much more than competent enough to have evaded them on his own, so he just literally used her for a rather avoidable purpose, and then dumps her off at her Mom's workplace with no intention of talking to her again. This does, however, attract a character known as the Witch of the Waste, who curses Sophie to turn into an old lady. This motivates Sophie to travel to a land filled with Wizards and Witches to find a cure for the curse.

Long story short, Sophie falls in love with Howl, despite only talking with him once or twice and fails to break the curse she was under, completing letting the person that promised to break it flutter away, as if their promise completely slipped her mind.

The Witch of the Waste, who initially seems to be massively competent and influential on the story, is rather easily deceived and drained of her powers, whereon then she's a helpless, lovable old lady, which I found to be intensely disappointing even.

Howl himself has rather vague motives. Why the hell did he become such a powerful wizard, knowing he'd be honor bound to his lordship(s), but not really wanting to help them at all? Why the hell does he spontaneously become a bird person? Why does he have such an amazing fixation on personal beauty and image? Why the hell does he hate war, but uses his magic powers to royally fuck up the 'hack wizards' as he describes them? Why does the closest thing to an antagonist the movie has, Madam Sulliva (or something like that) so obsessed with Howl's abilities, and devote INCREDIBLE amounts of the Kingdom's resources to capturing him or worse?

It just seemed really spread thin, with no clear direction, and all the depth necessary to make the characters truly satisfying, either omitted or simply not included in the original book the movie was based off of. So I found it entertaining, but it could have been better.

I did really find the Witch of the Wastes sweating blubber as she desperately climbed up that flight of stairs to be downright hilarious though. HILARIOUS! It was so exaggerated I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

Porco Rosso, wow this is one badass movie. I don't want to spoil anything as I truly enjoyed this one, but at the end I found myself wanting alot more.

[JoshuaFH]

Oh, also, I started watching a show called Skip Beat, about a woman who was being used by her boyfriend to provide for his living expenses, and generally mooched off of her as he become a famous singing idol. Upon attaining fame and fortune though, he callously dumps her, and tells her that the only way she'd even be able to get close enough to get revenge would be to get into showbiz.

So, in a bout a mania-induced competence, she dies her hair, forgets her old life and humble personality, and streaks to stardom in her throes of insanity.

It's a rather comedy-filled, dialogue and introspection driven tale that focuses on the profession of acting, in short. I'm up to ep 13 at the moment, and I'm enjoying it. Man though, every female character, and there's quite a lot of them, that is introduced, is a TOTAL bitch.

[ToonyMan]

The manga is still on-going if you like it enough.

Also, want to catch up on the One Piece manga since I've got many other things to do.  I'm on chapter 593.

Spoiler: never forget (click to show/hide)

[tehc]

I never quite got that when, whenever there's a war, it always takes place on the same bizarre island, with the same odd series of events that take place each time, only with slight alterations each time.

In fact, I don't get the metaphor at all. That's just me though.

In other news, I watched Howl's Moving Castle, and Porco Rosso, two more Hayao Miyazaki works added to my list.

Spoiler: Howl's Moving Castle (click to show/hide)

HMC, I read some reviews that laud it as Miyazaki's least good movie, and I can see where they're coming from. It's a movie that's all over the place. The main character, Sophie, is used by Howl in the very beginning to escape some blob people, but I don't see why he would, since Howl's much more than competent enough to have evaded them on his own, so he just literally used her for a rather avoidable purpose, and then dumps her off at her Mom's workplace with no intention of talking to her again. This does, however, attract a character known as the Witch of the Waste, who curses Sophie to turn into an old lady. This motivates Sophie to travel to a land filled with Wizards and Witches to find a cure for the curse.

Long story short, Sophie falls in love with Howl, despite only talking with him once or twice and fails to break the curse she was under, completing letting the person that promised to break it flutter away, as if their promise completely slipped her mind.

The Witch of the Waste, who initially seems to be massively competent and influential on the story, is rather easily deceived and drained of her powers, whereon then she's a helpless, lovable old lady, which I found to be intensely disappointing even.

Howl himself has rather vague motives. Why the hell did he become such a powerful wizard, knowing he'd be honor bound to his lordship(s), but not really wanting to help them at all? Why the hell does he spontaneously become a bird person? Why does he have such an amazing fixation on personal beauty and image? Why the hell does he hate war, but uses his magic powers to royally fuck up the 'hack wizards' as he describes them? Why does the closest thing to an antagonist the movie has, Madam Sulliva (or something like that) so obsessed with Howl's abilities, and devote INCREDIBLE amounts of the Kingdom's resources to capturing him or worse?

It just seemed really spread thin, with no clear direction, and all the depth necessary to make the characters truly satisfying, either omitted or simply not included in the original book the movie was based off of. So I found it entertaining, but it could have been better.

I did really find the Witch of the Wastes sweating blubber as she desperately climbed up that flight of stairs to be downright hilarious though. HILARIOUS! It was so exaggerated I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

Porco Rosso, wow this is one badass movie. I don't want to spoil anything as I truly enjoyed this one, but at the end I found myself wanting alot more.

If you like Ghibli movies, you might be interested to know that blurays for Karigurashi no Arrietty just got released a few days ago and there are already some good encodes with official subs floating about. I've got it downloaded and plan to watch it tonight.

[Patchouli]

I wish there'd be a BluRay pack for all of Satoshi Kon's movies. Or at the very least, a BR release for Millennium Actress.

[ToonyMan]

Oh, I should mention something to you Josh.  In 20th Century Boys a bunch of mecha show names including Giant Robo were thrown around in conversation.  They even had a picture of Detective Conan in an earlier chapter.  I thought I should mention this because having other series in-universe as fiction is always fun.  Speaking of 20th Century Boys, I'm on chapter 113 for that one.  It keeps getting better and better!

[JoshuaFH]

I really should check out 20th Century Boys, with how often it's talked up.

[ToonyMan]

I really should check out 20th Century Boys, with how often it's talked up.

It's Naoki Urasawa's work after Monster.  If Madhouse made an anime of it too it'd probably hit triple digits in episode length seeing as it's even longer than Monster by a quite a bit.

[FuzzyZergling]

Howl's Moving Castle is my favorite Miyazaki movie.
Love it so much.

[Levi]

I just finished the watching Claymore.  I didn't like it.

I swear half the anime was the characters very slowly telling you exactly what is happening, even if its already obvious.  The whole anime felt like it was designed for people with zero short term memory.

Add bad dialog, unsatisfactory ending and some very whiny/dumb characters to the mix and this was one of the most painful shows I've seen in a while.

[ToonyMan]

I suppose it's worth mentioning today is the Watanagashi Festival.  Wear some bug spray Tomitake.

[Acanthus117]

I'm watching Code Geass, gonna finish episode 5 later.

My thoughts is that this is really fucking cool and why the hell isn't C.C. dead and I bet 'Euphie' (or however you spell it) is a princess because she seems like it and Knightmares are really fucking impractical (Just sink a HEAT into one of its legs, and BAM! One big useless pile of metal) but awesome and bluh i'll just watch some more.

Gonna start Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni today as well, and Yotsuba&.

[Levi]

I'm watching Code Geass, gonna finish episode 5 later.

My thoughts is that this is really fucking cool and why the hell isn't C.C. dead and I bet 'Euphie' (or however you spell it) is a princess because she seems like it and Knightmares are really fucking impractical (Just sink a HEAT into one of its legs, and BAM! One big useless pile of metal) but awesome and bluh i'll just watch some more.

I enjoyed that one.  If you like it, you'd probably like Death Note.  It gives a lot of the same vibes, but with a bit more interesting(in my opinion) story.

[ToonyMan]

Gonna start Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni today

Best day to start.