Originally posted on the Anime Guidepost blog, March 6th, 2007.
Hello
again. Over the weekend I was able to watch some stuff and I guess
I'll end up reviewing some things I didn't plan on reviewing, but here
goes.
First of all:
Inuyasha the Movie 2: The Castle Beyond The Looking Glass
Animation: ****
Music: ***
Story: *
Overall: **
Oy.
I mean, I've seen a fair share of Inuyasha, so I know what I'm getting
into. I guess I should have figured the plot would be redundant, but
still, there were some things where I was just like, "What?"
The
premise is pretty simple. After killing Naraku, a new evil takes his
place to through the world into darkness. This demoness, Kaguya,
enlists the help of Kagura and Nanna to break her out of the mirror
she's imprisoned in. After that, because Inuyasha and friends are so
much trouble, Kaguya takes Kagome in an effort to fight Inuyasha. She
offers him his wish of becoming a full-demon, but, as anyone would know,
Inuyasha just wants Kagome back.
First
of all, the animation was good, as one would expect from a movie. They
really went all out and had some pretty awesome stuff. And, as always,
the music was very stirring and enjoyable. I've always liked what this
composer has done for the series.
But, the whole story seemed off. Here comes the spoilers. I should have figured Naraku would have stayed dead, but man!
coming from Kohaku's back? That, to me, seemed a little out there,
even for the series. There was no reason why. It just seemed a dumb
way to bring Naraku back into the story, especially at the climax like
that. It was a serious let down for me.
This
is majorly why I gave the show 2 stars. While the animimation and
music were fine, the story tanked and didn't really amount to anything.
Even the whole "This is the only time they kiss" bit wasn't as
great as I thought it would be. So, overall, I sort of felt that I
didn't need to see this movie. The first one was better, in my
consideration, but the whole Inuyasha series I tend to watch with my
tongue in my cheek.
Now,
on to the other thing I did over the weekend. As I have stated before,
I will review manga. However, I failed to mention how I rate them.
Instead of breaking it down, like I do with the anime, I just give one
score from 1 to 5 stars (*). The numbers' meaning is unchanged.
R.O.D. Read Or Die (the manga)
Score: ***
I
understand this to be an interesting and unusual anime series, but I
figured I'd give the manga a shot first. While I did expect it to be
weird, it was a little weirder than I had first thought.
It
begins with a society that goes out of its way to protect books and
their authors. This Library of England has enlisted the help of a woman
named Yomiko Readman. Her code name is Paper, entirely because of her
ability to manipulate paper into whatever she needs. In fact, she's the
best at it in the world. This series covers two of her missions.
I'm
rating the series as all four graphic novels. It was short, but it was
still a lot, especially as things get tense at the end.
The
first mission is Yomiko protecting what turns out to be her favorite
author from another fan with more malicious intent. The action is face
paced and definetly quirky as Yomiko's cheerfulness is never unhinged.
This really makes the battles very entertaining. Ultimately, she must
overcome the various traps and villians set before her in her unusual
way.
The
second mission is a little more intense. Yomiko is sent to find an
underground library for a private school with some severe teaching
methods and rules. She finds herself fighting students with unusual
powers of her own. However, her mission gets complicated when her dead
boyfriend sends her a letter to go for a different reason. Driven by
this, she becomes conflicted between following the mission and seeking
for her old lover. What is the true intentions of the Library of
England? There are a lot of mysteries and back-stories uncovered in
this story that covers the latter three graphic novels.
While
I can't say to you "Read or Die," this series was fun to read. With
lot's of quirky battles and some intense situations, it's easy to see
how this could become a cult hit. It definetly is a step above most
other stories, but it is short and leaves you with a feeling of a roller
coaster ride that stops before it should. Maybe I need to watch the
anime.
Well,
I'm glad I was able to get this off. I don't know how much more I'll
watch and/or read this week. I'm kind of buried with homework.
However, I should update by next week with the third Inuyasha movie. I
hope it's better than this second one. I may also have reviews of Elfen
Lied and Soul Hunter. It depends how things go from here until next
Wednesday.
Until then, thank you for reading and check back again.
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