Tales From EarthSea (ゲド戦記)

At sea a ship is being tossed and turned by the storm, the captain of the boat called his weatherman to calm the storm, but the weatherman could not control the storm as he could not remember the names of the wind and sea. Then two dragons were sighted, what shocked them was that the dragons was fighting.

Image credit to Animeflavor

Back on land, the King of Enlad is having a meeting, as a diseases was ravaging his country, it seems the land was in trouble, the King gave orders to control the situation, then proceeded to go to his office, but along the way he was told about the sightings of the two dragons, and his wizard Root told him it was a sign of a bad omen, to further the bad news, two ladies reported the his son Arren was missing since the night before. Dismissed by the Queen, the King proceeded to his office alone, that's when a young boy suddenly appeared and stab the King and took his sword. The King's last word was "Arren".

At the shore, a wizard was just docking his boat. As he was investigating ships marooned on land, a wolf howled and he went to investigate.

The young boy who has the King's sword was being pursued by the wolves and as he was cornered the wizard rescued him. And he collapsed. The following day, the two introduced each other, the young boy's name is Arren. Ang the wizard is Sparrowhawk. And so their journey begins...

Released on July 2006 by Studio Ghibli and Walt Disney PicturesDi
Directed by Goro Miyazaki
Though this was a box office hit it, this movie got the Worst Movie of 2006 in the Bunshun Raspberry Award


Soundtrack title is availabe at Ghibliwiki.

Wallpapers can be downloaded at Minitokyo.
You can listen to one of the soundtrack with lyrics below:


Teru's Song - English translation
Toki No Uta - English translation

Opinion:
I was quite shocked to know about the award they got, Studio Ghibli's movies has always been one of the best, but this movie also got the PG rating, a first for Ghibli, due to the some of the violent scences. The soundtrack was good and so is the view, the story is somewhat lacking to me, as some of the circumstance presented in the movie was not explained. Which made me wonder if there's going to be a sequel to this. However all in all it wasn't that bad, so it made me wonder why they got the award.  Pretty sad.

This movie however was base on the Novel by Ursula K. Le Guin - EarthSea, compose of 6 books.

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Pale Cocoon (ペイル・コクーン)

In the distant future humans live in colonies and there is no trace of the once lush forest or sparkling rivers.

Ura one of the main characters in this film works for the Archive Excavation Department, which decodes the images gathered from the former world, he tried to make extra analysis of the images restored as he hopes to see the green fields, their department is the only one left in the upper colony and will be moved to the lower colony soon. It seems people at this time was living underground and also the sun does not give out rays anymore and humans had to live underground in order to survive, so it seems. The Department where Ura worked takes care of the gathered information from the past and connecting them together, or restoring them in order for the new generation to understand what has happened in the past. As they have never seen the surface of the Earth. However as time passes people lost hope or was not interested anymore in the work, so less and less people now worked in the Department.

As Ura finished off the image, he was sent another file by his co-worker, but this time it was not an image but a video, a very rare find. As they worked to restore the video, Ura's friend Riko who works on the same department was losing enthusiasm working in the Archive, as it was depressing to see how humans destroyed the surface, but as they were restoring the video, Ura realize something while watchin the video and made him ran for the elevators....

Release on 2006 by Studio Rikka and DIRECTIONS
Written and Directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura
This is an OVA.
Awarded for the Best Screen Play in SAPPORO Short Fest 2006


Soundtrack has only 1 song which is "Aoi Tamago" by Little Moa, the rest are music scores from the movie.


Lyrics can be found at Gendou.com.
The sound scores you can find in youtube, just do a search.

Wallpaper for this anime can be found at theanimegallery.com, so far only found this one image that is kinda nice.

What I love about this anime is the technology being shown such as this:
Ura's workspace

Love the spread being shown in this monitor

Everything is digital, from the monitor to the mouse and keyboard.

I think Interactive UI are fun to work with and very futuristic right?
One of the fascinating idea in technology introduced in this film is this

A book that they can use to communicate, record, edit and save. Now that would be interesting to use.


Looking at Anime like these always reminds me that the technology they are showing will soon be a reality, just take a look at these videos:



Our technology is slowly getting there.

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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.

image credits

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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Princess Arete (アリーテ姫)

A Princess who was confined in the castle's tower to wait the right Prince for her, asked that the suitor with the most interesting magical item to offer will be the one who can have the princess hand in marriage. During the long wait, unknown to the King and guards, the Princess was sneaking in and out the castle using the secret passages. One day, as Princess Arete was sneaking back in the castle, she did not noticed that a person was following her and manage to get in the castle also.

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That night, the mysterious person gave the Princess a visit, she was a witch who came to the kingdom to look for her missing magical item, but Princess Arete told her she hasn't seen it. So she left her alone.

The next day a sorcerer came to the kingdom to asked for the Princess hand in marriage, off course the advisers didn't want this, but they found the Princess missing, and the soldiers found her at the gate, as she was carrying the book. As she was reprimanded by the King, she refused to go back to the tower, and walked out, but the sorcerer stop her, and transformed her to a obedient Princess. The advisers and King saw this and decided to accept the sorcerers request and marry her to him.

During the wedding preparation, the witch disguise herself as one of the Princess maid in waiting, told her that the sorcerer was one from her land, since she is too weak to help her, the witch gave her a magical ring to aid her to save herself and left. As she is still under the sorcerers magic, she has no will of her own to defy the sorcerer. How can she save herself? Will she be able to get out of the sorcerer's magic?

Released on 2001 by Studio 4 degrees C
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
Awarded for excellence in New Century Tokyo Intl Anime Fair 21





Soundtrack and lyrics can be found at Anime Lyrics.
Translation for the lyrics on Kin'iro No Tsubasa can be found at painters-colic site.
Wallpaper can be downloaded here.


Magical items are so coveted not only in the movies but so much more in games, as they would give you the needed leverage to win the game. They are thousand of magical items mentioned in movies, tv and games that when you search for magical items online you'd be overwhelm with the results you get.

This made me wonder, which is preferable? Magical items or spells?

While looking for some magic trick, I found this interesting clip:

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Millennium Actress (千年女優)

This narrates about a life of an actress. Though the story is a bit dragging in the middle, it has a good wrap up of the story.

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A director named Genya Tachibana is doing a documentary of the life of Chiyoko Fujiwara, who was a famous actress during her time.  He found her in a remote place, far from any contact with the outside world. Before they could start the interview a mild earthquake occurred and Chiyoko thought it was a good way to start the interviewed as she was born after an earthquake.

Then a director found her and tried to ask for her mother's permission to have her in his film which will be shooting in Manchuria. But her mother refused, and she ran out, while outside she took out her frustrations by throwing snowballs at the wall.  Then as she left the spot, she met a man who was running away from the law enforcement, and surprisingly she helped him hide from the authorities. Then as they were talking one night, they talked about the canvass he was carrying, and he talked to her about his dream as to where to finish the drawing, then he showed her a key, which to him is the key of important things. And asked her if can guess what the important things were, and she asked him if she can think about it for the night, that they will see each other again tomorrow. However the following day, it seems the man's hiding place was found out, Chiyoko saw the key, she picked it up, and when she was told that he manage to escape, and was at the train station, she quickly ran, hoping to catch the man and give back the key to him. Unfortunately she didn't made it, the train left without her. That was the reason why she insisted to her mother that she be allowed to act and go to Manchuria, as the man previously told her that his friends was there fighting. Hoping to be able to return the key to the mysterious man.

Released on 2001 by Studio Madhouse
Directed by Satoshi Kon
Awarded with the Grand Prize in Japan Agency of Cultural Affairs Media Arts Festival, tied with Spirited Away and a few more awards.





Soundtrack title listing of the movie is found at teslakite site.
Lyrics for Rotation the ending theme is found at anime lyrics site.


The story started out ok, as it keeps you interested as to who this actress is, but as it gets to the middle, it gets a little boring, but finally picks up at the end. However it will make you feel a little depressed afterwards, as you see the twist in the story.

This anime is the last of Mr .Satoshi Kon's work which he completed before passing away.  Below is a short clip about Mr. Kon.




And some readings on his interview: midnight eye site

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Toy Story 3

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The film began with a playback of some of Andy's playtime with his toys as a kid. But the present time shows that he is all grown up and will be going off to college, and his Mom is asking him what his going to do with his toys. As he was very fond of them, he does not wish to part with his toys and decide to 
place them in a trash bag and keep them in the attic, unfortunately, when he left the trash bag at the door of his room, his mom thought they were to be thrown out, and decided to give the toys to a daycare.

The toys thinking they were in a good place where kids will again play with them, realize that they were given to the kids who plays rough with their toys. Finally wanting to get out of the day care center they device a escape plan however they soon realize that the place was heavily guarded by the big cuddly bear named Lotso and his goons. Will they ever get out? And find a new home?

Released on 2010 by Disney-Pixar
Directed by Lee Unkrich
Received numerous awards, including Best Animated Feature in the Academy Awards




Toy Story 3 OST can be viewed on cduniverse.com site.
If you wish to sing along with your favorite soundtrack, lyrics can be found at metrolyrics.com site.
Wallpapers can be found at EntertainmentWallpaper.

Official site of Toy Story is at Disney.

Ok, so here's my thought on the movie, it is true that as we grow up we outgrow our toys, though sometimes there is a particular toy that would stand out and we would keep that and not let go. I have one I kept, it was a Japanese toy from one of the Japan Expo my father brought home, it was a cute blue chubby thing, with a brush as it's feet, so when you turn it on, it will sweep the floor as the toy moved around the house. Really nice and cute, unfortunately during the time we move to a different house it got lost.

So what do most people do with their toys anyways? Here's a site that answers just that: Miss Bankrupt

Anyways, I found a site related to toys, but most toys registered here I think are from the US. Take a look at the long list of toys categorized per year.  Thisoldtoy site.

And a site for Tonka toys.

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Sword of the Stranger(ストレンヂア 無皇刃譚)

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This is definitely a samurai film, the anime timeline is Sengoku Era.

A prophecy, made a life of a little boy in danger,  chased by the government, he met a stranger while hiding, and lucky for him that he did as the Ming soldiers found out his hiding place, and he needed someone to defend him from the skilled swords men.

How is the boy linked to the prophecy? Who is the stranger? And will he helped him?

The motion of the characters are really fluid, try not to blink or you might just miss out on some moves,  but be warned there is a lot of blood in this anime. Definitely not for the kids.

Released on 2007 by Bones
Directed by Masahiro Ando
Nominated in numerous events, but won Best Animated feature in Brazil at FANTASPOA




Soundtrack of this movie is really appropriate to the scenes and it will quicken your heart to the emotion of the action in the film.

OST titles can be found at Anime-OST site.
Soundtrack can be found in cdjapan site and you can listen to it online also.

Official site can be found at Bandai.

Breathtaking scenery can also be found in this movie.

It's like looking at a painting sometimes.


It is sad that the Samurai's no longer exist in our age, though there are descendants but the skill sets will never be the same, I hope the technique was passed on from generation to generation.

As I was doing research on this, found this very interesting video:




Unbelievable skills, wonder if coupled with a another swordsman, will they show us a good technique like in the anime movies?

If you like to further view more of this man's skill. Click on this link: Syuushinryuu

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The Borrower Arrietty (借りぐらしのアリエッティ)

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This film is based on the book The Borrowers by Mary Norton a British writer.

A young boy was taken in by his Aunt due to his heart condition, he was to stay with his aunt till the operation can take place, to make sure he is well taken care of. As his mother was very busy at work. On the first day of his arrival in his Aunt's place he noticed the cat was curious about something, but before the cat could find out, a crow dive in and peck him. So made the cat leave his interest. Sho, the young boy decided to take a look at the bushes where the cat has left, and there he saw something amazing - a small girl, but it was too quick that he wasn't sure. Finally being called by his Aunt, Sho left the spot.

The little girl' name is Arriety, she finally peek out and ran to the safety of her home, she lives beneath Sho's Aunt house with her family, and they borrow food supplies among other things from Sho's Aunt without letting them know, since they only take a little.

That same day, Arriety was scheduled to go out with her father to do her first borrowing from the humans. Everything went well, until they arrive in the boys room to get some tissue, on the process of getting the tissue, Arriety suddenly saw that the boy's eyes were open, and panicked a little, thinking that the boy has saw her, she cautiously left the place, however the boy suddenly spoke and asked her, if she was the one he saw in the garden? Which alarmed her, coz this would mean she and her family will have to move.

Released on 2010 by Studio Ghibli
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Won the Animation of the Year Award at the 34th Japan Academy Prize




Lyrics for the Arrietty OST:
Arrietty soundtrack for Disney is Around Us by Jonsi, lyrics is available at songlyrics.com

For the Japanese anime soundtrack Arrietty's song, lyrics is available at lyrics wikia. You can view the soundtrack listing at the iTunes store.

Arrietty Song English -lyrics

Wallpaper

As usual the details on the films of studio ghibli are outstanding, everything was painstakingly drawn. That you'd practically want to live there.

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Isn't that a very nice bedroom? Everything is soo green, it's like living in a forest right?
The motion of each character moves smoothly, even though CGI films are a joy to watch, the way the people draws at studio ghibli is still fascinating.

Anyways, as concerning little people, we are always fascinated with the idea of such existence, and there are a lot of anime out there that deals with this subject also, and one of my current favorites is Arthur and the Invisibles. Here's a site dedicated to little people:

Home of the Little People - just a dictionary on little peoples.
The Little People Project - from slinkachu, famous for installing tiny figures on the streets of London, below is a sample clip, quite fascinating and entertaining. I would recommend you visit the sites, the images are quite a treat.

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King of Thorn (いばらの王)

A journey in the dream state that became a reality.

In the year 2012, December 12, a virus called Medusa was spreading on earth, it will infect a human being for a time and when incubation period ends, it will start to petrify the host after 12 hours, there is no known cure and death is certain for those who are infected.

In order to save humanity an organization know as the Venus Gate created a temporary solution, they found that if an individual was put in sleep and stored in a cool place it will delay the process of the virus, however they could only accommodate 160 people in their cold sleep capsule center, those who were chosen were given an invitation. Chosen individuals was put to sleep for a 100 days, hoping this will be enough time to find a solution to the virus.

So the story begins.....


Released on 2010 by Sunrise
Directed by Kazuyoshi Katayama
Nominated in the 4th Asia Pacific Screen Awards






King of Thorn OST is unavailable as there was no soundtrack release for it. However some fan of the anime has painstakingly reconstructed the soundtrack, below are what I have found so far:




Wallpapers for this movie can be found at animepaper.net.

The only known soundtrack for this movie was Edge of this World by MISIA.
Warning: Below is the Ending of the movie, please do not see it if you do not wish for spoilers.





Lyrics of the ending theme of the movie:

 Misia on xtralyrics.com

The story kinda reminds me of those 39 days movie, where a virus got out of the lab and infected the entire earth, but the twist in the story is very unique and original, as usual, anime cartoon can leave you at the edge of your seat, and the storyline will definitely keep you watching.

This movie is base on a Manga by the way, of the same title. If you are interested, you can view the Manga at mangafox.com

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Cars 2

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Shiny cars can still dazzle you in this movie and the espionage theme only makes it more exciting.

The film opens with a boat on a sea, carrying a car named Finn, which we later see is a British secret agent. He secretly boards an oil rig in the middle of the ocean, owned by Professor Zundapp. To spy on something which is being discussed on board, while taking a closer look, he was discovered and a chase ensues to capture him, yet he manage to escape with the aid of his gadgets.

Back in Radiator Springs, we see Lightning McQueen is back to reunite with his friends and girlfriend. Unfortunately it was cut short with Francesco's challenge, a formula one race car, he wasn't suppose to take the challenge but Mater agitated the situation, a little sad that he had to say goodbye so soon, however  his girlfriend urge him to bring Mater much to his dismay. Mater on the other hand was totally excited about it.

At the Grand Prix Welcome party, while Mater was using the comfort room,  Redline one of Finn's contact was also on the same location was cornered by Prof. Zundapp's men, they were demanding that he hand over the images he had gotten, which was vital to Finn's mission. Unwilling to give it to the henchmens, a fight broke, and Mater accidentally barges in on them. Redline knowing he was cornered, passes the files to Mater without him knowing it. When Mater left the bathroom he was met by Holley (Finn's assistant), who mistook him as the agent Finn was looking for. And told him to wait for further instructions for the next rendevzous.

Tokyo was the first location for the race to take place, Lightning McQueen was already ahead of Francesco, when Holly contacted Mater to met up, while following Holly's direction, Mater has forgotten that he has his headset on which McQueen can hear. So while talking to Holly, McQueen followed Mater's directions and lost the race. This made McQueen really mad and he scolded Mater about it. Mater feeling low decided to go back home, and was picked up by Finn and got recruited in the mission.

Meanwhile it was also shown that during the Tokyo race, Prof. Zundapp's men was pointing a camera on some of the racing car, and blowing them up in the process.

What is Finn's mission has to do with Prof. Zundapp? And is McQueen in any danger from them? Can Mater really help Finn's mission?

Released on 2011 by Disney-Pixar
Directed by John Lasseter
This was a box office hit, but did not do well with the critics, and so far is the first low rating review of Pixar.




Cars 2 Soundtrack list can be found at soundtrack-movie.com site with a quick interview of the composer.
To listen to some samples of the soundtrack go to Amazon.com.
Wallpapers can be downloaded at rjun.com site.


The film story focus more on Mater than it is on McQueen, as the main story deals with espionage and not on the race, but not to be totally disappointed,  there are still some good views on the race as the story intertwines with it. What I love about this film also is the zoom out view of the locations, take a look at some of the graphics below:

The Ocean view

A view on the Tokyo location for the Grand Prix

The Tokyo Int'l Airport

Another race track

details, details, and it's a feast on the eyes, definitely worth it watching in the big screen and 3D.

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Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

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This is one of the best films in the 80's, a combination of live and animation, I remember seeing the trailer for the first time and marking my calendar to watch it.

Who framed Roger rabbit is off course about Roger rabbit, who got framed for killing Acme, who owns Toontown and Acme Corporation, Toontown is where all of the toons live.

Private detective Eddie Valiant was hired to investigate on the case. However Eddie does not like toons, as his brother was killed by one earlier in the story, but he is pressured to finish the investigation before midnight, or Toontown will be sold to Cloverleaf Industries. With Eddie's reserve, will they be able to find the culprit? And save Toontown?

Released on 1988 and distributed by Touchstone Pictures
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Won 3 Academy Awards and nominated in the Globe awards




Who Framed Roger Rabbit Soundtrack title list in iTunes store.
Lyrics for the song - Why Don't You Do It Right is available at Lyrics Mania
Wallpapers can be found at 1zoom.

There was a controversy on this film that there was some subliminal drawings, which you won't notice if you look closely.  Click on Snopes.com to view the controversy.

And would you believe it, that there is actually a dance step created because of this film.





This film has some interesting background pictures if you take the time to look closely, a lot of disney characters can be seen interacting as if it was a daily normal activity in their life. Kind of like a behind the scence look. Which added to the entertainment of the film.

I am really unsure if this will fall under the category of "anime" but decided to post it. As I am also fond of live and animation merging together in one film. Going back to purely anime on the next post.

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Blood: The Last Vampire

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A girl named Saya is commissioned by a secret group of the Government to go after creatures called chiropterans. In the film her assignment was to hunt down  the 2 chiropterans spotted near the military air base, since they were exactly spotted in the nearby school, she was to pose as a Japanese student in that school, and seek the chiropterans out and eliminate them.

Released on 2000 by Production I.G.
Directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo
Received numerous awards, like the Special Prize in the akasaki Film Festival







Blood Soundtrack titles is available at anime-drift.
Lyrics for the album can be found at LyricsZoo.
Wallpapers found at coolbuddy.


This anime is so popular that it has another film but this time around it was a live film, and was played by the beautiful Gianna Jun. I actually watched the live film before watching the anime, though both has a different twist in the story,  the anime film keeps you at the edge of your seat, like any other live film. And the scene's were drawn like it was real.

Below is the trailer for the live film:





Vampires are not part of the Japanese folklore, but I think this is due to the western influence. What I have found so far in my research, the nearest Japanese folklore for vampire is their "kappa", which is known to suck blood but from animals and not human beings. For further reading click on Kappa.

Below is a series I found for such creatures:

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Gundam Seed Destiny: Special Edition I (The Broken World)(機動戦士ガンダムSEED DESTINY スペシャルエディション)

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Gundam is very famous for it's series, and they have made a movie based on that series though there is a summary at the beginning of the movie as to the status of the story and it's characters, I would highly suggest to see the series first or read some facts on the Gundam series to fully enjoy the movie. Though the Special Edition is meant to cover the episodes of the series, it has some altered portions in it.

The movie starts off with the summary of the previous war between the ORB and PLANT, and that a treaty was already formed for a peaceful co-habitation. Unfortunately 3 Gundam suit, equip with the latest features was stolen from the PLANT base by the Blue Cosmos, considered as a group of terrorist. Which now started another chaos and unfortunately unknown to the two sides(ORB and PLANT), it seems that the terrorist plan was successfully executed. Now history is about to repeat itself due to this. Will they be able to save their treaty? Or will the all too familiar war totally broke loose this time around?

Released on 2006 by Sunrise Studio
Directed by Mitsuo Fukuda
The Gundam Seed series has won some award, but the film version did not.
However it is still popular among anime lovers.





Gundam Seed SE Soundtrack  can be viewed at wikipedia, kindly scroll to the appropriate section for Special Edition .

Result by Nami Tamaki  - lyrics and translation

Wallpapers available at tatto design.


Best quotes from this movie:
Something has taken root,and began to grow, whether it's good or bad I still dont know yet, but since time stops  for no one, I have no choice but to move forward.Because afterall that is the whole point of being alive.  - Athrun zala

The best intentions of a great man can often lead them to make great mistakes, in addition statement by such men can easily be taken out of context by certain people, listeners with an agenda can interpret these words to suit their own purpose.


....keep that in mind....
- Chairman Gilbert Dullindal

Even an event that occurs only once can be interpreted in many different ways, the problem isn't how you got there, but what happens after that, and eventually that will lead to something else altogether, a good tree cannot grow from a bad seed, yet when you look at people in general, they just don't think of themselves as being bad seeds.
-Athrun zala


Observation:
As usual I love their mobile suits, wonder when we can get to try out one of those. Below are some facts I have found so far:

1. The dialogues in this film hold some truth in it and is applicable to us in reality, what happens to the individuals in this film happened to someone also, how we react to it, how we handle the situation can either make things worse or better.

2.The Isuzu VX2 is actually inspired by one of the Gundam mobile suit.

3. Japanese is off course already trying to make make such a mobile unit, do please take time to read the Scientific America article on exoskeleton suits.

Latest news: Exoskeleton available for the disabled in London

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My Neighbor The Yamadas (ホーホケキョとなりの山田くん)

This anime is about the daily activity a family encounters, the relationships being formed and the realities that goes along with it. But it is presented in a funny way, that would made you watch it to the end. The anime is presented in a different way, the scenario in a scene is not that complete or detailed, it's like watching a draft drawing, it gives a feel of watching a painting in a gallery moving, it is quite pleasing to the eyes. And the funny dialogues will keep you interested in the movie.

Released on 1999 by Studio Ghibli
Directed by Isao Takahata
Got 1 award only, the Excellence Award for animation in the Japan Media Arts Festival 1999





Soundtrack listing is available at wikipedia.
Wallpapers can be found at animepaper.
There's a limited source in the net for this anime, will try to dig some more, and if I found some, will post it here.

Below are behind the scenes for the dub in english I found:





Though the story is more grounded in the Japanese family, but you will see situations they have are almost universal for all families, we do go through what the film shows, and it does makes me realize that though we are from different backgrounds, nationalities and such, there is always one common thing in all of us. The love of the family is very important in each one of us.

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