King of Thorn - Ibara no Ou

Coming to the united States on September 18th. Finally.

Originally manga, then it was adapted into a movie, with a lot of changes.

TOKYOPOP is/was selling the manga, but now the prices are all over the place, ranging from $2.99 USD + Shipping to $88 USD + Shipping.　I think it's out of print and some people are just trying to clear a backlog, while others are trying to make a profit off an out of print book (In english anyway, the spanish one is fine)

I would think it's safe to assume that they might be reprinting it, with the movie release in a few months.

いばらの王
Ibara no Ou
King of Thorn

Released in Japan May 2010
US release in September 2012


Despite the huge difference between the source material, and the animation, King of Thorn is still a great movie that is worth being watched.

CHARACTERS (4/5)

King of Thorn has a very small cast, and that cast gets progressively smaller and smaller and smaller.

  

 Now, at first, the cast seems to be, well, what they seem to be. Marco (above) seems a criminal, who somehow got into the Cold sleep program. Kasumi  (Glasses, left) the unassuming meganekko who leads the cast. Pecchino (Far right, the old man), appears to be, well, he is what he appears to be, so no surprises there.


As the story progresses, we see that the "lottery" to get into Cold Sleep, may not have been random, and the characters all have some deeper reason as to why they are there (Aside from Pecchino), and are revealed through the course of the story.


The voice actors, do a great job bringing their character to life. Even Especially in the beginning.


To you who read the manga. Zeus is not in the movie. At all, it's very interesting to see how one absent character can change the entire plotline, it's also why this doesn't get a 5/5 score.

SETTING/ANIMATION (5/5)



This getting a full score, I really just want to post pictures to prove my point. Sadly, it's hard to find something that both proves the prefect score, and doesn't spoil the story. So, you'll have to take my word for it.

The setting, is one of the most unique parts of the story. It takes the concept of a cryogenic sleep, and changes it around. The usual  setting for "Wake up in post-apocalyptic future" don't apply here. In fact, it may be seen as turning a dream into reality...



The use of color is also a major part to this "Sunrise Smooth" film. The scenes which show the different areas, are usually more saturated in different colors to emphasize the changes.

The Cold Sleep rooms, bathed in white, outside, painted in faded and washed tones, after they wake up, the presence of green everywhere to show how the world has changed (think Origin: Spirits of the Past).



STORY (4/5)

This, is where the movie also loses points. For fear of spoilers, no pictures for this part. The movie can be split up into several parallel stories at first. Kasumi+Party, and Marco and Peter. Though they are different in some ways, both parties are trying to accomplish the same thing in the end. Escape. King of thorn is a survival horror, and the mood set at the start is something that is easy to understand and relate to. Escape. They are in a strange place in a strange new world. Escape. They have to get up, and get out to try to find something familiar.

Then it gets a little more complex...



MUSIC (5/5)

Not much to say here, fantastic soundtrack. Dark and full of a primal kind of energy (or was it fear?). Does much to enhance the story and set the mood.

The song for the movie is "Edge of this World" sang by MISIA.
Song via youtube (not mine)

OVERALL(4.5/5)

It is produced by Sunrise, and Kana Hanazawa voices Kasumi. It's good, the readers of the source material will be a little disappointed, but through and through, this movie is still a fine example of a horror anime done right.

Website Here

Japanese - Listening

This being a blog and all, I can't say much about speaking practice, but for listening, True Listening, most Drama CD's will do.

I'll actually have to admit, I think they are a tad slower then a native speaker.

Listening to this has multiple effects.

1. It helps you develop an ear for Japanese, and believe me, if you want to live and work in Japan, you will need an ear. They talk fast (Granted if you look non-Japanese they will speak slower)

2. Learn to pick out words you need to make an answer, listen for certain. Even when I speak and listen to Japanese, I rarely process the entire sentence, this is helpful on a test (say AP or JLPT), where they are speaking fast, and you can only make out a few words anyway.

Because that was all pretty badly written (re-watching IDOLM@STER right now):

tl;dr

Listen until Japanese doesn't sound fast anymore.

and by fast, I mean this:

Don't read the subtitles, just press play and then minimize the window. Pure listening. See what your up against.

I tend to find that when watching anime raw, they still talk slower then in real life, or on a CD.

There are also a lot of Drama CD's on CRAZY-CAKE

The Hyakumonogatari Original Drama CD is something I would also recommend.

Random note:

Season 2 when?

Did I miss the beginning of Summer?

The Summer 2012 Anime season has finally started.
I have to use simulcasts now, because of the ISP's, or until I can find a way around it.

Crunchyroll Summer 2012 Page - Here

Incidentally, I'm only watching 2 shows this season.

Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse

For those of you who don't know what Muv-Luv is, get out it was originally visual novel, named Muv-Luv. Then a sequel Muv-Luv Alternative. From that is what this show is derived from.

I hear that it's more complicated then Fate/Stay Night, and better (then again, of TM's games, I've only played Tsukihime).

Episode 1 is out for everyone, 2 is only for premium members at the moment.

And I'm also watching

Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere II

Episode 1 simulcasts in 1 hour. I hate waiting
But it's here, it's finally here.

Take (竹)

http://sai-zen-sen.jp/special/takegarou/post-170.html

The name of this is "Red Dress"

VOFAN

http://www.wretch.cc/album/show.php?i=vofan&b=10&f=1676450916&p=41&sp=0

Unnamed, or I just could not find it.

Tales of Xillia

Bought this in Japan too, I'm gonna see if I can get through it without breaking something in frustration.

Not very far into the game, so Milla can still nerf everything.

The (animated) cutscenes are done by Ufotable, and they look very nice.

Old news, but a side note:

Tengoku Kara no Yell

Alright, so, I usually don't watch Live-Action movies (haven't turned on the TV in half a year).

This drama, translated as "Cheer from Heaven" is about a man who builds a Music Studio for kids to use for free because he doesn't have much time left.

It's based on a true story.
T_T

The trailer is on the official site. I would strongly recommend for you to watch this, even if you are not a fan of Japanese dramas'.


This is also a related music video.

I also just realized that I missed the morning post due to jet lag.

Japanese 101 - Suggestions (ます)

I know, I know, I said I was closing it.

Well, during my stay in Japan, I realized that many of the questions asked to me were suggestions, and then I spent a while wondering if I had ever added that to "Japanese 101". Checked 101, it wasn't there, so here you go

Well, like all the other general ます conjugations, it's easy. Take the ~ます ending, cut it off, and replace it with ~ましょう

So, eat (more accurately "will eat") 食べます, becomes 食べましょう, do you wan't to eat?

Also, the です ending, can become でしょう, which can be used to suggest non-verbs.
It's a bad example, but 冒険でしょうでしょう (Boken Deshou Deshou) the name of the Haruhi ED, is saying "It's an adventure isn't it?" so, basically suggesting that something is an adventure.

I'll add this to the Japanese 101 page.

ただいま！

I'm back from my short hiatus, and I am more or less recovered. I hope you all don't mind that 90% of this post is "Ex Post Facto".
By the way, this post will hammer your bandwidth.

The first order of business, Happy Tanabata everyone!

For those of you who don't know what Tanabata is, it's the Star Festival. It's about the stars Altair and Vega (Known as Hikoboshi and Orihime in Japanese), and they are two lovers that can only meet one day of the year (7/7).

Or something like that, I grew up around the Chinese version, so my mind is a little scrambled about all of that.

You write a wish on paper and hang it on a bamboo tree. It's seen in a lot of anime, I don't have any screencaps handy though :/

Second, now that I am back, I can resume TL'ing Sora no Otoshimo PICO.

Third; The weather in Japan sucks right now. Don't visit Asia in the summer.
Aside from that, the people there are really nice and helpful, the streets are very clean, and unlike America, it doesn't take a million hours to get out of the airport.

Saw this in the electronics district in Osaka, too bad I was there 2 days before the release, otherwise I would have gotten Robotics;Notes (a relapse prevented me from leaving to get it two days later)

Oh, also, at the time of my first post, 化物語（上）was the only Japanese book I owned. After this trip, that is not quite the case anymore.

The Zaregoto Series (Bought book 4 twice)

 

Various NisiOisiN (Actually, just Medaka Box and the Monogatari series)






TYPE-MOON








The PIXIV 2011 annual, and Golgo 13









This book was quite interesting:

 
I don't know how well you can see with the resolution (phone camera) but the book is bilingual.

And the most important thing:

Hehe, I guess I'm still not that good at writing, this post turned out to be mostly pictures.
give me some time, I believe in Laconic phrases, and it will take a while to change that.

I did have pneumonia, and I'm told it got quite bad after the first relapse (WBC count at 20k), I'm a lot better now though.