6/01/2005

The digs of the now

Posted By Owen at 2:38 AM

Here are some things I like;

Samurai Champloo- Best Anime I've seen in ages. Great character design, great style.
everything works.

Mesmirize- The new System of a Down disc. Everyone probably has it by now so this is
probably redundant, but this album is killer. Their next disc cannot come soon enough.
Bring on the Hypnotize, S.O.T.D.

Venture Bros- I'm just catching this now but I'm digging it. Not quite on Champloo levels but I think there is definitely something there. Cheers to adult Swim for being able to use "real" animation, although nothing has yet to beat the low budge charm of the Aqua Teens.

The Gorrilaz- Demon days is a solid disc. I loved the last Blur CD as well though so I'm probably not a fair judge.
Albarn and Hewlitt should do an animated film or T.V. series. It's too good of a concept execution to just have one taste every 3 years.

Gamewise I'm old schooling it up on a game boy advance, Just beat Metroid zero mission and Klonoa and now I'm tackling Final Fantasy 1(!) and Metroid Fusion. Luvs me some 'Troid and even old school FF is drug like.

Thanks all y'all.
--Owen

* 18 comments

18 Comments:

Samurai Champloo *is* a wonderful anime. Well, what do you expect from Shinichirou Watanabi, if not great anime?

I just generally like Flower. His hair is very shiny.

By Nora Shu, at 4:44 AM

While I agree with you on the SOAD and Gorillaz CD's (ain't that funny, I just bought them last week!), I gotta disagree with Samurai Champloo. While it does have awesome action sequences, the plot of almost every episode can be boiled down to this:

Mugen (to Jin): I hate you!

Jin (to Mugen): I hate you.

Fuu: What about that promise you made me? (disappears)

Jin: Oh no, she has been mysteriously kidnapped while we were talking...again!

Mugen: I am going off somewhere else, but inevitably I will cross paths with her!

(fighting sequence)

Fuu: Thanks for saving me!

Mugen (to Jin): I still hate you!

Jin (to Mugen): I still hate you.

By Mr. Sparkle, at 7:08 AM

An anime with excellent action sequences but short on plot? Didn't stop Dragon Ball, Ranma 1/2 or more recently Gundam Seed from becoming insanely successful.

Old School FF? Brian Clevinger, who does 8-bit Theater, a comic using sprites from the same game, has an essay on that subject here: {http://www.nuklearpower.com/essays.php}

By Anonymous, at 8:09 AM

To be fair, I've only seen two episodes of Champloo so far. My opinion is liable change. Watanabe also did Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain right? I haven't seen either of those shows , I should probably rectify that.

The one thing I forgot to mention of my list is Arrested Development. I have the season 1 DVD's and they are terrific.
It's much better when you can watch a batch of episodes in order, although that probably holds true for most T.V shows.

Oh, and as a bonus to playing FF1, 8-bit theater now makes sense to me. Very nice stuff.
Speaking of sprite comics, does anyone do an isometric " e-boy" style comic strip? The Final Fantasy Tactics advance sprites would probably make a good sprite comic in that regard.

I'm also watching the anime "Bleach". I quite like that one as well.

By Owen, at 11:32 AM

If you like any kind of anime with action in it, Bebop will own your soul.

Be that as it may, I have yet to pick up Mezmerize, but if it's half as good as Toxicity, I must.

As far as The Gorillaz are concerned... if you can, get the special edition of Demon Days. It comes with a bonus disc that features the video for "Feel Good, Inc.," some animated shorts, and a means to obtaining two bonus tracks. Delicious.

By Buckeroo, at 11:41 AM

Champloo's plot wears thin pretty quickly, but overall it's a good watch. It's high on style point, the animation is top notch, it has one really nice oddball episode (Baseball!) and the story arc about Mugen is extremely good. The ending is a bit of a letdown mainly because you'd wish it was half as good as that.

By Effovex, at 5:38 PM

Quick off topic question, anyone going to be updating the characters section? :P

By Anonymous, at 3:50 AM

Anyone else notice how S.O.T.D is pretty much just a newer, less experimental/poetic Black Sabbath?

Example:

Black Sabbath, War Pigs:

Politicians hide themselves away.
They only started the war.
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor

S.O.T.D, BYOB

Why don't presidents fight the war?
Why do they always send the poor?

Thoughts?

-NZ

By Anonymous, at 9:46 PM

Venture Bros is quite possibly the best thing to come from Adult Swim. You can check out Jackson Publick's LJ here: www.livejournal.com/users/jacksonpublick which has lots of goodies for those that like the background info. A very nice place to download the show is here: www.myspleen.com

By Anonymous, at 10:58 PM

Black Sabbath > S.O.A.D

By Anonymous, at 4:24 AM

Have you seen Robot Chicken on Adult Swim, yet. I'd rank it in the ATHF catagory.

Theno

By Anonymous, at 5:30 AM

FF1? Oh man... Good luck if you're playing on the original difficulty setting because you're in for a bitch of a quest if you are. Other than the possible exception of FF9, I don't think there's been more frustrating RPG ever made.

By Anonymous, at 8:27 AM

Is it just me, or are Cecania's boobs getting bigger every strip? I'm just saying.

By Anonymous, at 3:51 PM

Is it me, or is the art getting sloppy while Cecania's breasts keep getting bigger?

By Anonymous, at 4:12 PM

A good amount of these strips are drawn whilst drunk, it comes with the late night nature of the biz. These things happen, and unless someone gives me a good reason why I shouldn't have fun and drink and draw it'll have to stay that way. Sorry dudes.

On the Anime front I just started Full metal alchemist and I'm totally digging it. Alphonse is such a brilliant character concept. Very nice.

By Owen, at 4:35 PM

A lot of the Saturday night anime on adult swim is very solid. Paranoia Agent only piques my curiosity ever more in every episode, and flcl is still the crazy mess of eye candy i've grown to love. not really feeling s-cry-ed, it looks a lot like an anime south park would parody.

By Anonymous, at 10:55 PM

Full Metal Alchemist is fucking tops. If anyone could possibly explain to me what the hell is going on in Parqanoia agent i would greatly appreciate it. Champloo=awsome

By Wendigo, at 6:21 PM

Owen if you like Samurai Champloo you should love Cowboy Bebop. Know he did CB not so sure about Wolf's Rain (didn't dig that series so much).

See you later space cowboy,
Tori

By Tori, at 5:44 PM