Perfect Blue (パーフェクトブルー)

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This anime is not for kids, story has some violence in it.

A pop idol group called CHAM is doing a performance, and the lead singer Mima is suppose to make an announcement that she will leave the group to pursue an acting career, but before she could do it, a group of boys started throwing things, and was reprimanded by a strange looking person. After the scuffle the group finally made the announcement and some fans did not like this change at all. As Mima was being escorted to the car someone gave her a note, and said "I'm always looking at Mima's room."  Which surprised her. When she opened the note there was a url at the bottom, asking her Manager - Rumi about it, she was told that it was a website. So enlisting Rumi's help, she got on the internet and view the site, which turn out to be a diary online of Mima, but Mima wasn't the one doing the entry, yet the entries online was very accurate. Which creeps her out further.

On the set of Double Bind, a TV series, she was given as small role, her Manager wanting to give her a bigger exposure asked the writer if they can give Mima a chance to show his acting capability, so she was given a bigger role, but at the expense of her reputation. This did not turn out well to some of her fans, and due to the scenes she was portraying, Mima was having a hard time distinguishing from the reality and dream state. This was further complicated with the writer being murdered in the same manner as in the set. Is Mima the killer? Or is it just a dream?

Released on 1997 by Rex Entertainment
Directed by Satoshi Kon
Winning an award at Fantasia Festival and Fantasporto Film Festival

Soundtrack titles for Perfect Blue can be found at Anime Dream site.
Translation for the following songs:
1st Opening Theme - Lyrics and translation
Perfect Blue - Laruku - Lyrics and translation

Interview with the Director:




There are portions in the movie that confused me as the days seems to merge, but all in all in is quite a mind twisting kind of a movie. I sometimes wonder for some people who makes drastic change in their life and at the expense of their reputation, is it really worth it?

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5 centimeters per second (秒速5センチメートル)

The title is referring to the amount of time a cherry blossom falls to the ground.

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The story is about the relationship of Takaki Kono and Akari Shinohara, but focuses more on Takaki kun. The two became the best of friends since they share the same interest, Takaki thought that they'll be together for a longer time, however the unexpected move of Akari's parents due to work, when they are about to go to middle school made them realize how much they meant to each other. Not wanting to part but have no choice they kept in touch by writing letters and hoping one day they will be able to see each other again.

It's a story about their long distance love.


Released on 2007  by Comix Wave Inc.
Directed by Makoto Shinkai
The film  won the Lancia Platinum Grand Prize and a few more awards.




Movie soundtrack listing can be found at A.V.A.L.O.N Project site.
One More Time, One More Chance lyrics - English translation and piano sheet (Scroll down to Byousoku 5 Centimeter and click on no. 10)

Wallpapers can be found at WallAlphacoders.com

Another story from Director Makoto Shinkai,  as expected of this Japanese Director the scenery are superbly drawn and details are taken into consideration. Story is a bitter sweet, as some love story in reality goes, yet the way it was narrated leaves an impression in your heart.

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The Place Promised in Our Early Days(雲のむこう、約束の場所)

Two boys became good friends with a girl over the course of summer, seemed like a typical story but this has a more interesting twist - the promise they made to each other during that summer will save the world from destruction.

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Hiroki and Takoya are child prodigies, they are in their ninth grade, and secretly building a ship, so they can fly it to the Hokkaido Tower, which is visible from their current location. The two was excited about the upcoming summer so they can do summer jobs and speed up their money building so they can buy parts for the ship.

In one of the scenes, Takoya and Hiroki are discussing about girls and if they would actually go and date one, Hiroki mentioned to Takoya that he has a crush on Sayuri Sawatari also a child prodigy and their classmate. And as luck would have it Takoya bump with Sayuri in one of the bookstores, they got to talk while waiting for their train ride and he invited her in their summer workplace. Where the three of them got close and made the promise, the promise that three years later would save the world.

Released on 2004 by CoMix Wave Inc and License by ADV Films
Directed by Makoto Shinkai
Won numerous awards




Soundtrack listing can be found at Wikipedia.org
Lyrics for the song Kimi No Koe.

Wallpapers can be found at alphacoders.com and minitokyo.net

It took awhile for me to understand the story since at the start of the movie, the setting was already on the parallel universe, my mind set was, it was still in present Japan, the dialogues can get you lost if you don't listen or pay attention, specially on the talks of parallel universe and Quantum physics. You might want  to watch this movie more than once to pay attention to the details of the story.

Again landscapes is superbly presented in this anime.




Footnote:  An interesting site I found while doing research for this anime:





Visit KAF for anime music/anime OSTs, forums, and more!

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Sita Sings The Blues

The story started with a couple with a cat, where the man was offered a job to do in India, but ends up living there, while they were on discussion about the offer, the scene shift to 3 shadow puppets who are discussing about India's origins, and about the Ram's family, which is base on the Ramanaya.  The 3 shadows continue to narrate the story about Rama, and the couples scene is inserted during the narration.

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Produce by Nina Paley and directed by her
Released on 2008
Garnered a lot of awards.




The story is quite interesting since it is told in a funny way, the animation is different and the songs are quite entertaining. I thought I won't finish this movie since the animation was a  little weird, but the narration and dialogues was quite entertaining, I actually find myself watching the entire film.

And the very surprising part about this anime is, the owner decided to release this film for free and is only asking for donations, do please go to this site, to see the film. Questioncopyright.org

This anime did got some controversy as a group of people in India did not like the way Ramayana's tale was portrayed in this anime.

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Paprika (パプリカ)

The story started with a dream, as it ends, we see that the dreams belongs to a Detective named Konakawa, and a girl named Paprika was helping him in his dream, Paprika can joined the Detective in his dream and recorded it with the help of the device named DC Mini.

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As Paprika is travelling to some unknown destination we see that she changes, and we see Doctor Atsuko riding her car and going to work. As she reached the elevator and the door opens a big fat guy was stuck there and asked for her help, also warning her that the DC Mini was stolen.

She contacted their Chief to tell him about the DC Mini being stolen and their worst fear is, it is an inside job.

Who stole the DC Mini? And why?


Released on 2006 by Sony Pictures
Directed by Satoshi Kon
Animated by MadHouse Studio
Won Best Feature Length Theatrical Anime Award at the 6th annual Tokyo International Anime Fair.




Soundtrack listing is available at wikipedia.org

Lyrics for:
Byakkoya no Musume - english and romanji
Pareedo - romanji and Kanji, english

Official site is at sony.

Observation:
This is again another film on the possibilities of dreams and what's the future for it. Looking for evidence in our dreams for the possible answer which is linked to our reality, and implanting dreams, to either help or destroy an individual.

What is also fascinating about this anime is, the story was very well written that even you get confuse if the characters are in reality or dream state. You can't hardly tell the two apart.

Some say that the American movie Inception would have gotten the idea from this anime. For me, it could be a possibility.

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Tangled

If you are familiar with the Rapunzel story and love that fairy tale, then you might enjoy this movie, as this is base on that story, but Walt Disney studios made a lot of changes to it.

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The story began with a narration of drop of sunlight falling to the ground and became a flower, legend has it that it heals all kinds of sickness, however a witch named Gothel found it and kept it for her own selfish gain. That when she sings a certain song to the flower it restores her youth.

One day, the Queen who was pregnant became ill, desperate to save her, the Kingdom looked for the magical flower in order to save the Queen. As Gothel was using the flower she heard the guards approached, and as she was in a hurry to leave, the flower's cover was knocked over, leaving it expose and was found by the King's guards, they took the flower and fed it to the Queen, who was healed and gave birth to a healthy baby girl named Rapunzel. Gothel sneaked in the castle to take a look at the baby, seeing that the baby's golden hair she recognized it as the flower's magic. She cut a handful of the baby's hair to bring it with her, but the hair would turn brown and lose it's magic. Wanting the magic badly, she stole the baby and hid her in her tower, keeping the magic all to herself and raising the baby as her own.

And so the King and Queen continue to lit a lantern every year on her birthday, letting it float to the sky with a hope that their baby can see it and return.

Fast forward eighteen years later, we see 3 thieves stealing the missing Princess tiara from the castle, as they were being chaste, Rapunzel was at the same time asking Gothel's permission that she be allowed to go outside to find out about the floating light which she saw every year on her birthday. But Gothel refused reminding her of the bad people outside who would recognize the magic in her hair and take it from her. She then left Rapunzel to do some errands.

Back to the 3 thieves, they were beginning to lose the King's soldier, however Maximus, the horse of the Captain of the Guards was determined not to let them go. Flynn one of the thieves was planning to steal the tiara from his partners and he succeeded when he left them behind to be captured and he hid to the tower. Unknown to him that it was Rapunzel's tower.

What will be Flynn's role in Rapunzel's life? Will she be able to see what the lights is really about?

Released on 2010 by Walt Disney
Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard
Won in Animation category in the National Movie Awards



Tangle Soundtrack can be found in St. Lyrics with lyrics

Below is the incantation being song to start the magic:



Lyrics | Mandy Moore - Healing Incantation lyrics

Official site can be viewed at Disney site.


Observation:
One of the best scene's in this movie is the one when they went out on a boat to watch the lanterns being released. This is one of the best ideas to do on a birthday release a lot of floating lanterns or any special events, or you can do this on Christmas or New Year.

I've been looking for some instructional videos on how to do this, but so far this is what I found:



Hope you have a fun filled holiday releasing this lanterns!

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Waltz with Bashir (ואלס עם באשיר‎)

A documentary anime about the Massacre in Lebanon in the Year 1982.

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A dog suddenly appears on the screen, as it runs, it was slowly joined by other dogs, they ran through a bunch of people but did not harm them, it was running with a purpose, then the dogs stopped infront of a white building, where they were angrily looking up to a window where a person appeared, and saw them.

A person was narrating that story, as it was his dream, he was narrating it to his friend who was a filmmaker, the exact same person who made this anime. This is their story.

Released on 2008 by Sony Pictures Classic
Directed by Ari Folman
Won Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language





Soundtrack of Waltz with Bashir can be found at IMDb.


It has always made me sad to think a certain group of people would try and erase a group of race, I thought when the Nazi war was over this would not happen again, coz I believe that the human race would have learned their lesson, but I was wrong, and to think this still happens to day. It seems humanity as a whole is still greedy, too self centered and lesson not learned.

I wonder when will human beings stop this kind of act?

Here is a few list of the Genocide that occured-Genocide in History.

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