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When three of the unfinished DC Minis disappear, the head scientists on the project struggle to figure out where they went.  The DC Mini allows therapists to see their patient’s dreams to better analyze their unconscious state.  Unfortunately the DC Minis were not yet finished, which made them more dangerous if someone were to use them improperly.

Paprika
4 & 1/2 Stars

When three of the unfinished DC Minis disappear, the head scientists on the project struggle to figure out where they went.  The DC Mini allows therapists to see their patient’s dreams to better analyze their unconscious state.  Unfortunately the DC Minis were not yet finished, which made them more dangerous if someone were to use them improperly.

The beginning of the movie is a little strange, you first start out in a dream.  The dream takes your from the circus through a series of movie scenes, finally ending with the final moments of a murder scene currently being investigated.  The dreamer wakes up and you meet Captain Kogawa and Paprika.  Seconds later you are rushed into the next part of the plot where you are introduced to Doctors Tokita, Chiba and Shima, the lead developers on the DC Mini project.  Dr. Shima, a short and balding man, is their Chief.  Dr. Tokita, an excessively obese “kid in a genius’ body,” is where the original idea started.  Dr. Chiba, an all work and no play kind of woman keeps Dr. Tokita in line.

Trying to keep the theft of their most important, and most dangerous project a secret they rush to Dr. Shima’s office.  When they open the door to the office they were surprised by the Chairman sitting facing the window in his wheel chair.  He lets them know immediately that he is aware of the theft.  They put their heads together to attempt to figure out the culprit.  The only option is an inside job.  Seconds later Shima flips out, he begins saying things that are irrelevant while running out of the room and jumping out a window.  While he is knocked out from the fall they run the DC Mini on him to monitor his dream state.  In the dream he is perched on top of a float in a huge parade, which is where the strangeness continues.  Himoru, a fellow developer, shows up in the dream, making all the blaming fingers point to him.

The DC Mini is incredibly dangerous to the host, the more you wear it the harder it is to distinguish the difference between reality and dream.  Since Tokita, Chiba and Shima had been testing it on themselves they often merge dream and reality.

Since Shima is injured it becomes Tokita and Chiba’s job to find Himoru and track down the remaining DC Minis.  They went to Himoru’s house only to find nothing but dolls.  Chiba snaps into a dream and nearly jumps over the balcony, only to be grabbed at the last second by another doctor who had accompanied them.

Kogawa is searching desperately to understand his dream, so he spends much of his time in a dream state at the bar with Paprika.

Tokita and Chiba finally find their friend and partner Himoru, or rather he nearly lands on top of Chiba.  They rushed Himoru back to the lab to remove the DC Mini, which had already taken over Himoru.

Chiba and Tokita discover the Dreamland amusement park, where they find a doll that had been sort of following them everywhere.  When Chiba advances towards the doll Himoru comes crashing out of the sky and nearly lands on top of her.  Himoru is badly injured by the fall and they rush him back to the lab so the doctors can take the embedded DC Mini out of his scalp.  Tokita sees his friend laying there dreaming he decides to put the DC Mini on to join his dreams.  Tokita then gets sucked into the parade and cannot escape.

Chiba and Shima join back up to attempt to stop the “psycho-terrorism.”  Chiba, closely monitored by Shima, dives into Tokita and Himoru’s dream, changing her to Paprika.  Paprika is trying to save the two stuck when she discovers who the real terrorist is.  The Chairman and his little minion attempt to take over dreams and reality.  The Chairman then becomes a gigantic dream-mass, black, translucent and naked.  Paprika then realizes that she must sacrifice herself to save her friends.  She too becomes a translucent, naked being and begins swallowing everything in site, making her grow from an infant to an adult.  She then swallows the Chairman and the dream is over.

Kogawa finally realizes what was going on in his dreams, and what he had been running from since he was young.  Tokita and Chiba, after expressing their love for one another, get married.

With the entire thing a mystery, dipping back and forth between reality, it may be a little difficult to follow.  The story is strange, and futuristic, but does have an interesting idea.  I am still a little unsure on how I feel about the film.  The artwork is great, full of color and nice details.  The only thing that I would say is poor is the ending.  The ending seems too happy, Kogawa’s problems are solved, yes he is in love with the other side of Chiba, but he still figured out what he was running from.  Not to mention the love interest between Chiba and Tokita, that was a little strange to me.  It seemed like they were really good friends, and Tokita loved Chiba, but I would have never guessed she loved him back.  Although, the film did keep me entertained and guessing until the very end, which is what it was supposed to do.

Sticking with the movie trend, I decided to do a critically acclaimed masterpiece known as Howl’s Moving Castle. Again, I was worried this was going to be a girl’s fantasy anime with no action and no plot really. But again, I was only slightly wrong. Howl’s Moving Castle has a great story line, plenty of action, and was a total let down.

Howl’s Moving Castle
2 & 1/2 Stars

At the start of the movie, you follow Sophie, a plain girl that works at a hat shop and goes unnoticed by everyone around her. She lives in a small riverside market town. One day after work, she goes to see her sister that works at the bakery when she was stopped by two soldiers. They harass her a bit before a mysterious man saves her. He escorts her down the street when he is attacked by gelatinous creatures. He tells her to hold tight and jumps high into the air. They calmly float down into the balcony of the bakery where Sophie’s sister works. The mysterious man bids her a due and jumps off the balcony and disappears. Sophie is awestruck by the spectacle. She wanders into the bakery and tells her sister about what happened. Her sister was worried since it sound like a wizard, which to them, try to steal people’s hearts, and tells her to avoid him.

Sophie returns home at the hat shop and locks up the place. A large, wealthy woman comes in and starts to poke fun at the “tacky hats”. Sophie gets mad and tells her to leave. The woman gets angry reveals she is the dreaded Witch of the Wastelands. Sophie tries to get away but is stopped by the witch’s henchmen. The witch then casts a spell on Sophie that makes her a 90 year old woman. Another part of the curse is that Sophie can’t talk about it.

She stares at herself in disbelief and goes to bed thinking it’s just a horrid dream. She wakes up to find out that it wasn’t. She goes out to the Wastelands to find a wizard named Howl and this magical Moving Castle. Before she leaves, she hears that a neighboring kingdom declared war on them because of their missing prince. She leaves town before any military action occurs.

While traveling to the wastelands where Howl’s Moving Castle was seen last, she finds out the limitation of her new body and almost gives up. She finds a scarecrow that is knocked over in a bush. She sets it upright and heads off only to find it actually is possessed by a demon and it follows her. She is first afraid of it, but when it helps her find Howl’s castle, she learns to enjoy his company.

She meets a flame demon (which is actually voiced by Billy Crystal) and falls asleep in a chair. She wakes up to a young boy named Markl running around doing errands. Howl later joins them and Sophie finds out he is the mysterious young man that saved her from the soldiers. He doesn’t recognize her with the spell. She volunteers to be their house keeper.

She quickly becomes loved by the whole gang and gets involved in a scheme to try to get Howl out of having to fight in the upcoming war. She claims she is Howl’s mother and goes to the head sorceress of the kingdom and says he is a coward and wouldn’t be any help. While Sophie is at the castle she runs into the Witch of the Wastelands. But the head sorceress stole her powers so she is just an old woman with no powers. The head sorceress sees through the disguise and attacks her. Luckily Howl is disguised near by and stops the sorceress from harming Sophie and pulls Sophie and the Witch of the Wasteland to safety. Sophie takes the witch while Howl provides a distraction and both of them escape safely to the castle.

Howl later returns all beat up but safe, but with a terrible cost. Using too much of his magic, he has a hard time turning back to his human self. Sophie is really worried and confronts him about her feelings. He takes them into consideration, so he decides to move them to a safe location. He moves them magically into her old hat shop, but with some serious redecoration.

They live in secret for awhile, but the head sorceress finds their location and tries to capture them, but the flame demon keeps them protected. The war finally finds its way to their doorstep and Howl has to come out of hiding to save them. Sophie tries to stop him, but he just flies off.

Trying to save him, Sophie mounts a rescue operation to save Howl, but it backfired, nearly killing Howl and his fire demon. She finds out that the demon has Howl’s heart and she puts it back in Howl’s chest. He is fine and they find out their scarecrow friend is actually the prince of the neighboring kingdom and his disappearance was the reason for the entire war.

So the war ends and Sophie and Howl fall in love and wander the world in his Moving Castle.

Well, this one was… different I guess. I was first surprised that Billy Crystal voiced in a anime cartoon. Also another odd thing was that the Moving Castle seemed like a reference to a Russian Fable about Baba Yaga’s Dancing House. Other than that, this anime was ok. I was a little let down because it wasn’t as amazing as I heard it was. It was just a normal movie to me and the plot was a little weak and spotty.

Overall I’d have to say this is one of my least favorite movies I’ve seen.

This movie was previously mentioned on our site here.

**Author’s Comment**  I just thought I would let you guys know that Adult Swim has been featuring this series for quite some time.  It’s on at 12:30 a.m.CST, so catch it if you can, you won’t be sorry!

A water spirit places an egg inside a person, along with several other hosts, bestowing the responsibility of the Guardian of the Sacred Spirit.  Luckily for those who are chosen this strange occurrence only happens but once every 100 years.  This time, the responsibility falls on a boy named Chagum.  Chagum is no ordinary boy though, he is the Second Prince to the New Yogo Empire.

Guardian of the Sacred Spirit
5 Stars

**Author’s Comment**  I just thought I would let you guys know that Adult Swim has been featuring this series for quite some time.  It’s on at 12:30 a.m.CST, so catch it if you can, you won’t be sorry!

A water spirit places an egg inside a person, along with several other hosts, bestowing the responsibility of the Guardian of the Sacred Spirit.  Luckily for those who are chosen this strange occurrence only happens but once every 100 years.  This time, the responsibility falls on a boy named Chagum.  Chagum is no ordinary boy though, he is the Second Prince to the New Yogo Empire.

Chagum begins showing signs of possession, mainly his belly just glows, but this freaks out the Emperor.  So, in fear of the royal family’s reputation being destroyed, the Emperor decides to have Chagum killed.  The Second Empress, Chagum’s mother, secretly asks a female bodyguard, Balsa, to protect Chagum for the rest of his life, no matter what.

Balsa and Chagum leave immediately on an adventure that change their lives, and the lives around them.  On their adventure Balsa and Chagum arrive at the door of her two orphaned friends Touya and Saya. Touya, who lives with Saya, is known to be the best errand runner in town. Touya and Saya are orphans from two separate families, who will later realize their love for one another.  Balsa, strong willed and aims to always protect her client, fought off assassins while Chagum ran into the forest.  After receiving a wound in the gut so early in the series, I was worried what might happen to the plot.  Luckily Tanda, a medicine man and old friend of Balsa’s shows up in the nick of time to aide Chagum in his search for safety and to help Balsa recover from the wound she received from one of the eight assassins seeking her and Chagum.  Good thing she heals fast because the assassins continued to hunt her and Chagum down until they fake their own death.

Finally, Balsa and Chagum can settle down and prepare for what happens next.  They move into the little water mill and await Chagum’s fate.  As time goes on Shaman Torogai comes to visit, and help to understand what is going on within Chagum’s body.  Shaman Torogai goes on an adventure to learn more of the ’water fiend’.  She comes in contact with creatures and demons before she finally understands what must come of Chagum.

Chagum must allow the water spirit to hatch on an even day of spring at the Place of Celebration, while protecting himself and the egg from a demon called La Lunga.  Chagum and his friends have no clue on what to do until the day finally comes, so they evade assassins who realize they are still alive and other people searching for them by hiding out in Hunter’s Cave.  A cave turned into a house for those traveling in the winter months.

When the day finally comes Chagum leads Balsa and a horde of troops from the court to the Place of Celebration.  A great battle scene erupts when La Lunga shows up and the eight assassins, who aimed to kill Balsa and Chagum, begin aiding with the hatching of the egg.

Wow, I mean, this anime really kept me interested throughout the entire 26 episode long series.  I was curious to see what exactly La Lunga was going to be, I initially laughed, not because it was stupid, but because it looked like the flying spaghetti monster referred to in an episode The Colbert Report and also in an episode of South Park.  Now, back to the story line, it was interesting enough to see a woman working in a man environment.  I didn’t touch much on the court, or any of those characters, also Jiguro, there is a lot to learn about him.  I felt that you should watch the series for yourself if my review peaked your interest enough to care.

Overall, I would have to say that this anime series was fun to watch.  I love the feudal era animes, where the characters fight with swords and knives.  I guess you could say the clink of the blade is where I get my kicks.  This is a supernatural anime, so beware if that is not your cup of tea, but it does have a healthy mix of action to go along with it.

At first glance, I was really skeptical about this movie. It seemed to be some third rate production that was put out there to make a buck or two. The basis of the movie looked like a normal girl with a bunch of cats, but I was pleasantly showed otherwise. The Cat Returns is a delightful story about a girl who helped out a cat and got thrown into an adventure of a lifetime.

Neko no ongaeshi (The Cat Returns)
4 Stars

The movie begins with a ordinary girl named Haru being late and scurrying off to school late like she always does. She arrives late and gets laughed at by her class and gets stuck on cleaning duty. Her life seems to really have no point and only seems to be getting worse and worse.

She was walking home with her only friend when she spots an odd black cat walk by with a little package in his mouth. They stop and watch the cat as he walks his way to the road and attempts to cross. Haru notices a large semi-truck hurling towards the unsuspecting cat and she makes a mad dash to save his life. Armed with only her lacrosse stick, she skillfully sweeps up the cat from harms way and they both go tumbling behind some bushes. She notices her lacrosse stick is broke and looks up at the cat, but he is standing on his hind legs and brushing himself off. Staring at disbelief, she questions the cat, and oddly enough he talks back. He thanks her and scurries off. She sits there bewildered by the talking cat when her friend catches up and starts yelling at her for her recklessness. Haru ignores her still speechless from the talking cat. Haru gets home and heads to bed to try to forget the events that happened that day.

She is rudely awoken by the cats of her neighborhood making an awful fuss at night. She goes outside to see what the whole commotion is all about, to see a parade of cats on their hind legs carrying torches. She hides behind her gate and watched the strange spectacle take place. In the center, guarded by four Secret Service looking cats, was a chariot carrying an abnormally large cat with a crown. The cats around him seemed to be his servants. Finally the parade stopped in front of her gate and one of his servants spoke up. He said that the King of the Cat Kingdom, King Cat, wanted to meet her personally and thank her for saving his son, Prince Lune, earlier that day. The fat cat finally spoke up and told her that she will be showered with the gifts of the Cat Kingdom in hopes to please her. Then they marched on. Speechless again, Haru decides to go back to bed in hopes that this was just a bad dream.

She wakes to her horror to find it was not a dream. Her house is swarmed by cat tails, her locker stuffed with mice, and every cat in her neighborhood follows her everywhere. Things just seemed to get worse for her. She is greeted again by one of the King’s Servants and he says that they will take her to the Cat Kingdom that night and she will wed Prince Lune. She seems intrigued by the offer of going to the Cat Kingdom, but she thinks it would be weird marrying a cat. She ponders the idea. the cat grows impatient, takes her delay as a yes and heads off to the King. She sits there worrying about what to do when a voice says to go to the “Cross Roads” and find a white cat and ask about the Cat Bureau. She doesn’t really question the fact that she is hearing voices, and she decides to do what it said. She searches in the “Cross Roads” and gives up. She goes to a small outside restaurant to take a seat and accidentally sits on a really fat cat. He seems to ignore her when she tried to talk to him, but once she said “Cat Bureau”, his ears perk up. He finally talks back and leads her to the Bureau. He leads her around corners and through alleyways until they hit a part of town where everything seems to be a lot smaller, including the buildings. She is introduced to Baron Humbert von Gikkingen, or Baron, a high class, and well-dressed cat that wants to help her with her problems. Baron also introduces the fat cat as Muta. Later a crow named Toto joins them while Haru explains her problem with the Cat Kingdom. Intrigued by her issue, Baron agrees to help her, but it was too late. The cats find Haru and drag her off to the Cat Kingdom. Muta jumps into action and sticks with Haru while Baron and Toto are left behind to catch up.

She wakes up in the middle of a grassy knoll and is dragged to the castle and is dressed to meet her groom, Prince Lune. The king holds a large banquet where Baron comes to her rescue and steals her and Muta away and tries to escape to the portal to the human realm at the top of the spire in the middle of the castle. The are stopped by the king at the top and when all hope seemed to be lost, Prince Lune shows up and declares that he has found another cat to marry. Free to go, Haru returns home with Baron and Muta.

 

As I stated before, I was really worried this was going to be a horrible waste of time. I kind of found myself wishing there was a bit more afterwards, a sequel or something. I really enjoyed this movie a lot. The voice acting was spectacular, and the art seemed it took some time to draw out. It was a bit on the cartoony side, but that just gave it even more charm. A great find for those cat lovers out there.