Recent Reading: The Flowers of Evil Vol 2

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Chris Biewer

This week we continue our review of The Flowers of Evil series, volume 2 in particular from Vertical. If you haven’t checked out the review of the first volume, you can see that here.

Volume 2 sticks close to the anime series if you watched it online via crunchyroll. The contract between Kasuga and Nakamura continues, only things get a little complicated since Saeki starts to play a more pivotal role in the series. Saeki and Kasuga go out on a date and begin a relationship all while Kasuga is hiding his secret of the gym uniform from the first volume. Nakamura starts to interact more with Saeki as well playing the role of a potential instigator by telling Kasuga something about Saeki that may turn out to be a lie. In a way, Kasuga starts to develop a second life. His first being the book nerd student at school who is dating Saeki, one of the prettiest girls in school. The second life involves him sneaking around with Nakamura and keeping his secret buried. A secret that plants the seed of an inner struggle.

As the story progresses we can see more and more of the characters dynamics intertwine and how they are starting to develop for the rest of the series. We get more of an insight to the dynamic between Nakamura and Kasuga that begins to show deeper layers than just the contract that was agreed upon that I can only assume will get deeper as the story evolves. The relationship between Kasuga and Saeki is just starting to get underway and should start to be expanded on in future volumes.

Kasuga and Nakamura have their own inner struggles and we catch glimpses of each. Kasuga is torn on what type of person he is and the battle is played out over his choice of which female classmate he wants to be with. Nakamura feels trapped and suffocated in the countryside town the characters live in. This trapped feeling is something that Nakamura feeds to Kasuga and he starts to feel suffocated by the countryside.

The second volume closes on a notable scene with some great artwork. The scene is beautifully animated in the series and plays an interesting dynamic in the future of the story (at least it did in the anime series and assuming the manga and anime continue to parallel one another). The scene is important for more than just the beautiful artwork, in a way it solidifies Nakamura and Kasuga as a unit instead of two individuals.

We get more of an inside glimpse into the characters in volume 2 and each of the characters are becoming deeper, meaning we are allowed to see more of their character and what drives or frustrates them, and the few things that make them happy.

Recent Reading: The Flowers of Evil Vol 1

Posted on December 26, 2013 by Chris Biewer

I have been trying to catch up on some reading and I had to revert back to volume 1 of “The Flowers of Evil” by Shuzo Oshimi since it has been a while and I had to get caught back up. I reviewed the anime a while back and since the chances of a season 2 are probably pretty slim, I wanted to see the story to the end and picked up the manga. Here is the volume 1 cover.

One of the first things you will notice is the lighter art style. The artwork doesn’t get bogged down with a heavy use of tones. Here is an image of the manga art but also the side-by-side anime adaptation as well.

As for the story, it revolves around Kasuga who lives in a small town in rural Japan. He loves books and he feels that no one really understands his love and knowledge for books.
One day while walking home from school with his friends, he realizes he forgot his book back at school and turns back to go get it. While back at the classroom he sees that someone forgot their gym clothes in the school. Kasuga walks over and checks them out; discovering that they belonged to a girl in class he likes Saeki. Suddenly, Kasuga hears a noise and in his moment of panic runs out of the school with the gym uniform all the way back home. Kasuga finds himself in a whole new predicament when he finds out a girl in class witnessed him take them clothes, Nakamura. Nakamura promises Kasuga his secret is safe with her as long as he enters into a contract with her. Kasuga must now obey Nakamura or his secret will be known by everyone in class.

One of my favorite aspects of this series is the character development. The manga and anime remain true to one another in that regards and so far the manga and anime seem to be on the same storyline for the first volume. I also enjoy some of the artist’s notes throughout the book as he usually mentions real-life inspiration behind some of the scenes, people and authors that are mentioned in the story.

I will be posting up further reviews on the series. If you are currently reading the series, volume 8 will be out in early January from Vertical.

Recent Viewing: Pacific Rim

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Chris Biewer

I have had several friends tell me since the Pacific Rim hit theaters that I needed to go and see it. They said that if anime was ever made into a movie, it was going to be this flick. It was some big statement to make, but I finally gave in and decided to check it out.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5guMumPFBag&w=560&h=315]

If you watched the trailer, it basically summed up the premise of the movie. The giant monsters called Kaiju are wreaking havoc on cities and it is up to man to pilot giant robots called Jaegers to take them on. Each Jaeger is composed of 2 pilots that need to merge minds in order to operate the robot. So the plot follows some of you standard mecha series/films plot points.

One of the knocks on the film when it first came out, and one of the positives for some people, were that they felt the film followed Neon Genesis Evangelion too closely. I recall both points from social media when the movie was out, which was one of the reasons I stayed away for a bit. The bipolar effect of the film was astounding. It seemed as if it was a love or hate movie.

I fall into neither tent in regards to the film. I thought there was some good things about it and also some turn offs. Let’s start with the positives.

From an art standpoint, I thought the film was great. The CG was awesome and I felt the kaiju were interesting, even if they didn’t appear a little dark in terms of color, which is really only an issue if you want to see more detail. It was nice to see actual creatures instead of other robots or humanoid type opponent.

The cities and environments were bright and vivid. Areas with neon lights and scenes with bright skies and even the memory scene were all fun sets. The bright color added a lot and made the scenes more interesting overall as well as providing a sense of character. Conversely, some of the scenes that took place in the water were less entertaining to me since I didn’t feel like there was a good sense of where things were since they were out in the open.

I felt the pacing of Pacific Rim was fair. It followed the traditional action movie of starting off with a big action sequence and and filling in story as it progressed. I like stories that do this, in my opinion it jump starts the process of making the audience care for a character.

Now onto the things I felt were a little lacking in the film. In my opinion the acting left quite a bit to be desired. Several of the characters seemed to be too over the top and there were several characters that seemed a little more cold and uninteresting in terms of tone and overall character. I didn’t really feel anything in particular to the main characters. There was a lack of something (maybe charisma?) in the main character that I couldn’t get full behind him at times. His character seemed a little bit too formulaic and the performance was a little flat. The characters that were over the top, I felt should possibly have been more reserved and a couple of the heroes of the story should have been the larger than life and in your face characters.

My other negative point also feeds off of the bipolar emotion the film invokes and that is some of the storyline points. It seems as if the formulaic points of the characters also made their way into the story, but not all. The montage of kaiju attacks at the start of the film explaining their origin and such I thought was great. I also thought the end of the film was unique, but I feel that other things in the middle were as a result of a formula. Like they had a great start and end but highjacked the middle of a typical mecha or action story. The world and characters should have been more open to an unconventional line. I don’t want to spoil any of the story in case you want to check out the film, but I would be interested in others points of view if you thought the story and such suffered from that or not.

I don’t want to really touch the topic of if the film “stole or borrowed” too much stuff from Neon Genesis Evangelion. In my opinion I didn’t feel like it really did. For all the things I heard I was expecting more things inspired by Evangelion but I didn’t see anything too obvious. The kaiju have different origins than the Angels in Evangelion, the mechs are different, the characters in Pacific Rim don’t suffer from all of the mental disorders as the characters in Evangelion do as well. The main characters do not cross over, the ages aren’t the same, even some of the genders aren’t the same. I saw no Misato or Rei characters in Pacific Rim. The mech designs I would say are more inspired by a Gundam franchise. While there were some similarities, I didn’t feel as if anything was ripping anything off.

Overall it was a solid film that I am sure I will rematch here and there. I haven’t checked out the special features yet though either. A second film is rumored to be in the script writing phase so it is unknown yet if a second film will be out. The US release didn’t do that well, but it did well overseas.

Recent Viewing: Gantz (Live Action)

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Chris Biewer

It’s good to have a little free time again. I wanted to write about one of my favorite franchises. I need to first be up front and say that I am a pretty big Gantz fan, so with that in mind, check out the trailer below and we will see you on the other side.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuuHv1rZMhE&w=560&h=315]

First off, Gantz is broken into a couple films, and this is a review of the first one only. The trailer above showcases clips from both films. For those who aren’t familiar with the Gantz universe, it started as a manga series before being adapted into an anime series and eventually into live action films.

The premise of the franchise is that when people die they are taken to a room by a black orb and are given weapons to hunt aliens for points. I haven’t finished the manga series yet, I have completed the anime series a few times and am now working on the live action films.

The first film covers the first several games of the Gantz series. The live action adaptation has its ups and downs. As with any series, when condensing it down into a film you have to make sacrifices. In this case, the sacrifices came at the cost of character development. At times I felt they were stringing key scenes and buzz words from the anime series. It is probably some unfair harsh criticism, since I do hold the anime series in a pretty high regards from a character development stand point and also from a social commentary stand point. I felt they lost some of that in the first film.

The visual effects were pretty solid for the film, nothing to complain about. The film from an action stand point is also solid. If you are looking for an entertaining and action packed film, Gantz may be worth checking out. If you are a fan of deep character development, you may want to check out the anime series instead. The film takes a lot of inspiration from the manga series, even though the manga and anime are very similar for the first several volumes.

I think I am going to check out the second film at some point and see which direction it goes as well. It is possible the second film will focus on more of the character development too. I won’t know until I check it out 🙂 If you have watched Gantz, I would love to hear your point of view. Like I said, I am a little impartial because I enjoy character development above all else.

Recent Viewing: Attack on Titan

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Chris Biewer

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luYOt2-c2TI&w=560&h=315]

The above trailer belongs to a series called Attack on Titan. It was a series that I watched in spurts when I had some downtime because the title has a pretty big buzz associated with it. The fact that you are reading this is evidence of that. You are either reading what another viewer thought or you have heard something about the title and are interested in knowing more.

I am going to start by being completely honest, I think this title is going to be a big series for the anime community when it gets released in the states (by FUNimation). The series is a stark contrast from a lot of the titles that are coming out. Attack on Titan is not a series based in comedy, not a musical promotion anime and not one for the harem crowd either.

The series takes place in a world where humanity has retreated to within tall walls to prevent “Titans” from getting in. Titans are giant fleshless human creatures that exist to wipe out humanity. There are various classes of Titans, some 12 feet tall and some with abilities, as you will see in the show.

The animation of the series is pretty enjoyable. Some have griped about the color palette, I personally didn’t mind it. There were lots of earthy tones, some oranges, tans, etc. I felt as if it felt the world they were portraying well. Considering the circumstances of the story, they wouldn’t have various colored buildings, etc. The action scenes are animated well, with several shots having unique camera views.

The soundtrack to the series enhanced the animation and the unique story. I was watching the stream so the title isn’t dubbed yet. I am excited to see the dub when it is eventually released. The opening tracks by Linked Horizon are some of the catchiest openings I have heard since Evangelion and Deathnote.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OkpRK2_gVs&w=560&h=315]

While the trailer provides a unique look at the world and the story, it really doesn’t do it justice. There is so much more to the series than story outline I described, but I want to avoid spoilers for readers who haven’t streamed it this season. Let me put it this way, Attack on Titan may be an early favorite for my presentation for next year’s SGMS conference.

Have you watched it yet? If not, go check it out on Crunchyroll, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Con Recap: Sogen Con 2013

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Chris Biewer

I was able to make my second con of the year this past weekend in my home state of South Dakota for the farewell tour of Sogen Con. About a month before the con, it was announced on social media outlets that Sogen Con was in it’s final year. I was bummed out by the news, because I am hoping that I can take Cosmic Rage on the con road next year and I was hoping that Sogen was going to be on the list of cons to submit for. While the con could come back in future years, this was going to be it’s finale, at least for now.

I didn’t make it for the opening ceremony on Friday night, but I was able to make it to a couple panels. The first panel I attended was the web comic panel, I always like to hear about other artist’s journeys into the medium and to hear them talk about their artwork.

This year the featured artist was James Hatton, who runs a webcomic called “In His Likeness” A comic based on a dot characters of God, the Devil, Poseidon and other characters of religious mythology. The comic makes fun of pop culture so you should get a lot of laughs out of it.

After the comic panel, I went to a mystery screening session where we poked fun at a few random series. Nothing better than laughing at a series with bad voice acting, bad artwork or terrible storylines. I caught a few screened episodes of Dragonball, because come on, stuff is always funner to watch on big screens.

I headed back to the con on Saturday morning and had a chance to hang out and talk with James a bit more before going to another panel of his where we talked about how the medium of web comics is changing and evolving. I love hearing about what other artists are working on and their perspective on the current state of the field.

After the panel I killed some time checking out artist alley and the dealers room. I talked with a few of the other artists and saw a lot of stuff I wanted to buy, but that’s normal right?

I went to another screening, this time it was some OVA’s on Dominion Tank Police. Some good stuff to laugh at a bit, it was like an animated 80’s hair band music video. Funny stuff.

I grabbed some food, and then went to another panel about kaiju monsters and we worked on creating one as a group that will be online later. The following panel was the Season 2 premiere of a short series called Bar Flies (you can check the first episode here).

I didn’t see season 1 before so after a quick recap we dove into season 2. It was very entertaining and the director and producer were there to answer questions afterwards and tell us about some of the ups and downs of the filming journey.

Before the rave got underway, there was a pretty epic hailstorm that dumped ping pong sized hail in the area. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the con on Sunday, missing a few panels that I wanted to see, as well as the closing ceremony. I met some great people and I hope that Sogen Con can be back in the near future.

Recent Viewing: Fast and Furious 6

Posted on May 30, 2013 by Chris Biewer

I was never really a fan of the Fast and Furious franchise until my job in college was working on cars. One of my friends was excited for the Tokyo Drift movie and I decided I’d check it out too. It was a solid film that kept me entertained, so I checked out the rest in the franchise and kept loose tabs on the other films as they were released. I watched Fast Five for the first time a few months ago, and it raised the bar of the films (in my opinion). So I decided I had to check out Fast and Furious 6 in theaters.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKi5XoeTN0k&w=560&h=315]

Synopsis- The film starts with a great opening credit montage of the previous 5 films, acting as a refresher or prologue to people that my not have seen the other films. Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is tracking down a well known criminal Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) and gang who have made off with some military equipment. In order to help catch Shaw, Hobbs finds Torreto (Diesel) and tries to convince him to help find Shaw. As added motivation, Hobbs shows Torreto a picture of his girlfriend who was thought to be killed in a blown undercover assignment.

Torreto is on board, and he gathers the rest of the crew for the job. They have a location on Shaw and the first conflict between Shaw’s crew and Torreto and O’Connor’s (Paul Walker) crew. The drivers tear through the streets of London, with some in Shaw’s crew driving cars that look like armored Formula 1 cars. Shaw’s crew gets away, but the chase provides valuable insight to the kinds of technology and cars that Shaw’s group has access to. They gain access to the person that designed the cars, but more people from Shaw’s group turn up, including Letty (Rodriguez), Torreto’s girlfriend. A gun fight ensues between the two factions. Who comes out alive and will Torreto be able to get back to Letty? Will Torreto and crew be able to bring down Shaw’s crew?

Review- Fast and Furious 6 picks up where Fast 5 leaves off. All the characters reprise their roles and the movie feels more like an extension of the previous film. I had questioned how this film could have been better than Fast 5, but it delivered. Another question I had going into the film was how were they going to spin Letty still being alive, when she was supposedly killed in the fourth film. The revival of her character seemed a little forced and misleading, but somewhat believable.

The action sequences were on par with Fast 5, with only one sequence that was pretty unrealistic. It was so over the top that it literally took me out of the movie, but doesn’t ruin the film, just a little bump. Comedic timing in the franchise is starting to become magic, the reaction between characters and the jokes they make at other characters expense are well timed and are just like jokes that people crack at each other that are that tight-knit.

I was curious how they were going to close out the franchise and how the Tokyo Drift film was going to fit in. The end of the movie did a good job of sewing up the 6 films and had a nice ending that winks at the first film.

As a motion graphics artist I always look forward to the credit design of the films and also the potential to a lead in to a potential 7th film. I won’t spoil anything, but don’t leave the theater right away.

Music- The soundtrack to this franchise is easily one of my favorites. The mix of music that they get for these films is always something I look forward to.

Recent Viewing: The Thieves

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Chris Biewer

I recently watched the second highest crossing tim in South Korean history, The Thieves, which was released in 2012. In the U.S.A. the film is owned by WellGo I have recently been on an asian film spree and have been pleased with some of the titles I have seen. Check out the trailer below for a look at the film.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDC9QS3MRCs&w=560&h=315]

Synopsis-The film starts with a group of Korean burglars, executing an art heist. A young woman named Yanicall is introducing a young rich tycoon to her fellow thief acting as her mother, by the nickname of Chewing Gum. While the fake mother distracts the young man, Yanicall is able to spring into action and steal an expensive piece of Chinese art. She is able to complete the heist throughout he help of Popie and Zampano. After the heist they are visited by the police and decide that they must leave South Korea for a bit. The group teams up with a group of Chinese thieves and plan on one last group heist. The heist will involve a piece of jewelry that they can sell for $20 million.

Everyone in the group starts to reveal their own agendas and plans to do with the money from the heist. It’s every thief for them-self as the plan starts to fall apart.

Review- The Thieves has a nice mix of action and comedy. There are certain characters that have the comedic relief role and play into those roles well. The film has a nice pacing to it and doesn’t seem to bog down in areas like some films tend to do, I think the comedy aspect helps in times with this. Since the film is an action movie at it’s core, there are several amazing stunts that are well shot.

The two gangs of thieves have an interesting chemistry together that adds an interesting dynamic to the thief/big heist films genre. It’s almost as if they took the buddy cop film and turned it into a buddy gang film. The true value of the story is the depth of the overall story.

On the surface it is a heist movie, but each character has their own backstory and motivation which is the added value. Throughout the film some of the characters will drop hints of their motives, requiring the viewer to choose which thief they are pulling for.

If you are a fan of action films, make sure to check out The Thieves on Netflix.

Dub Quality- Subbed on Netflix.

Recent Viewing: Jeff Who Lives at Home

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Chris Biewer

I have a fascination with that whole fate/destiny thing, and it will always fascinate me. It has made it’s way into a few of my previous projects and it will no doubt show up in Cosmic Rage as well, but that’s a story for another day. So with my fascination with this fate/destiny element I tend to watch movies that tackle the subject and see how they perceive it. I recall looking at trailers on my trailers app on my phone and running across the trailer for Jeff Who Lives at Home. I’m a fan of both Jason Segal and Ed Helms, so I put the film on my watch list since it didn’t make it to many theaters.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34kCWAsddtA&w=560&h=315]

Synopsis- Jeff (Segal) lives in his mothers basement, is unemployed and smokes weed. He also believes in the rationale of everything happens for a reason. The film starts with Jeff receiving a phone call asking for Kevin, no one lives there with that name so its a wrong number. But not to Jeff. Jeff goes to a hardware store for some glue to fix one of his mom’s shudders after a stressful phone call between them.

On the way to the store, Jeff sees a man with the name Kevin on the back of his basketball jersey. Believing in things happening for a reason, Jeff follows Kevin instead of going to the hardware store. This triggers a dayful of events that are strung together by chance or fate (depending on your view).

Along his day, Jeff runs into his brother Pat (Helms) and again, through chance or fate, they discover that Pat’s wife may be having an affair. Is this all that Jeff’s life was for, helping discover an affair?

Review- As much as I am interested in the fate/destiny element, there are very few films that I believe show that element in a new light or don’t have a cliche ending. Jeff Who Lives at Home, does not fall into that category. The film has a nice blend of comedy and the fate/destiny doesn’t come off as over the top or too far fetched.

Through the characters journeys they all evolve and we can see the depth of the family including Jeff and Pat’s mom and Pat’s wife and the evolution of the characters occurs in a short (about 85 minutes) length film, which is well paced. One area the film could have expanded on was a little more of the history of the family or the mom character, but it’s not necessary. I think leaving some of the family history out actually makes the ending more satisfying, but it depends on how much explanation you like in your films on matters like that.

The comedy in the film is well timed and the interactions between Jeff and Pat come off as typical sibling rivalry, which helps with the films almost voyeur aspects at times, coupled with the cinematography. There are several moments in the film that feel very real life, from the above mentioned sibling rivalry to the cube job of the mother.

Production Quality- The cinematography of the film was great, even if i felt the sudden push ins were a little overused in an 85 minute film. Otherise there wasn’t any special effects, animation and such in this film. Several great shots from unique perspectives, usch as the sprinkler scene in the cubicles. The handheld camera added to dramatic scenes in the film as well, that you will have to watch to find out what I mean.

Extras- None, I watched it on netflix

Recent Viewing: The Chaser

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Chris Biewer

This is going to be my first review of a live action movie, but a few years ago I saw the film The Chaser on IFC. I recently decided to give it another watch on Netflix. The Chaser is a film from South Korea released in 2008. It is director Na Hong-jin’s directorial debut and is inspired by true events. For more information on the film and crimes you can venture down the wikipedia hole. However, I strongly suggest watching the film prior to that. So let’s dive into the film.

Synopsis- Joong-ho is a former cop turned pimp and at the start of the film he is having trouble finding a woman to go to a clients. It seems he is having issues with girls running away after paying them up front. Joong-Ho is forced to contact Mi-jin, a single mother who currently is suffering from a fever. After a brief discussion, he convinces Mi-jin to accept the job. Joong-Ho gives her specific directions of what to do, because the client, Yeong-min is suspected of taking his girls and selling them. Joong-ho only knows his client by the last 4 numbers of his cell phone number, 4885. Once in the house, Mi-jin starts to execute the plan only to make a startling discovery. Mi-jin is unable to execute the plan and it is up to Joong-ho to do what he can to save her.

Joong-Ho must now rely on underhanded tactics to try to track down client 4885 (Yeong-min) and prove to the cops that he is selling his girls. A thrilling series of events unfolds and a race against the clock ensues. Check out the trailer below to see more.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkqczsLZd1I&w=560&h=315]

Review- The Chaser is one of the first Korean films I can recall watching several years ago and I must say that it is better than I remember it being. The film was inspired by true events, and the gritty feel of the film gives you a glimpse of how gruesome the events were. In American cinema it is some kind of ratio between the movie 7 and the Saw films. There are a few scenes that are a little bloody but if your immune to fake cinema blood then you should be fine.

There are several unique shots in the film and you actually see a couple of them in the trailer. The story is well paced and doesn’t feel slow at any moments. While it’s not all non-stop action, there doesn’t seem to be any filler to make it a longer film. I anticipate that some people may not like the ending of the film. Personally, I didn’t see a problem with it and if you research the real life events briefly, you can see why the film was made the way it was. If your a fan of checking out new types of films, I really suggest The Chaser.

Dub- I watched the subbed version on Netflix.