Anime

A Tree of Palme

  • Title: Parumu no Ki
  • IMDB: link

A Tree of Palme is basically a futuristic Pinocchio tale.  Just like the Disney movie, a small wooden puppet with the name of Palme ventures out into the world to become more humanly.

Palme was originally created to care for the creator’s ailing wife Xian.  When a mysterious woman named Koram, who turns out to be a ghost, gives him the Egg of Touto he vows to protect it.  Koram entrusts little Palme with a big mission to deliver the egg to Tama, the world below.

After attempting to pay attention for 30 minutes I ended up shutting it off.  It moved too slow for me, and it was just too weird.  I was hoping when I picked this one out that it would be good, but I couldn’t even watch it.  The story may have been too slow and too dry for me, but the animation is beautiful.  So sorry for the insanely short review this time, hopefully next week I’ll pick out a good movie or series that I will actually pay attention to.  The one star is for the sheer beauty in the animation by the way.

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Porco Rosso

  • Title: Porco Rosso
  • IMDB: link

Who said pigs can’t fly?  Porco Rosso is about a guy who was once a WWI ace fighter pilot that is now cursed to have the face of a pig for the rest of his life.  Porco, also known as Marco, began his life as a handsome fighter pilot for the Italian Air Force.

When he and his comrades were flying through enemy territory, they found themselves in the midst of a battle.  Fighter planes flying everywhere, shooting left and right and everyone except Porco was gunned down.  Porco was struck down but when he awoke, he found his plane flying by itself.  The plane rose up through the clouds to reveal a white band of planes overhead.  The planes were fallen seaplane pilots on their way to heaven.  When Porco looked to the side of him, he noticed his good friend Bellini and he called out to him but was unheard.  Bellini had just married a girl named Gina before they left for the war, and when he was flying up towards the band of pilots Porco told him that he can’t leave her alone.  After that point, he began flying for himself.  He took his seaplane and left.

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Tokyo Godfathers

  • Title: Tokyo Godfathers
  • IMDB: link

It’s funny how a child can bring people closer together, and pull them from the depths of desperation.  In the movie Tokyo Godfathers, by the same person of Paprika and Millennium Actress, three homeless friends happen to be in the right place at the right time.

One Christmas eve, the three friends were digging through some trash for presents for one another when they discovered an abandoned infant.  The child was crying, cold and hungry, so the three did the right thing and took it in for the night.

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Blood: The Last Vampire

Have you ever watched something and it left you wanting more?  Well, Blood: The Last Vampire did that to me in the worst sort of way.  This anime starts off with a pretty decent beginning full of suspense and sword slinging action ending with pools of blood.

Blood: The Last Vampire
2 Stars

Have you ever watched something and it left you wanting more?  Well, Blood: The Last Vampire did that to me in the worst sort of way.  This anime starts off with a pretty decent beginning full of suspense and sword slinging action ending with pools of blood.

With a main character like Saya, not much can happen in the story that she does not already know or will not take care of.  Saya reminds me of another character named Balsa from Guardian of the Sacred Spirit, an anime I reviewed a few months back.  Coincidentally, Blood: The Last Vampire and Guardian of the Sacred Spirit are linked by Kenji Kamiyama, he wrote B: TLV and directed GotSS.  Saya is another one of those girl power characters, but her lack of friendly speech makes her less like the other weaker Japanese school girl personas, who basically only exist for comic relief.  Saya is part of a secretive government branch that tracks and destroys these monsters they refer to as Chiropteras.  For those who haven’t seen Blood+, read Jeff’s review or watched this movie before, Chiropteras are demons that feed off human blood.

 

After you get the gist of what the movie is in the first 5 minutes, it delves into the story and does not stop the action until the end.  Forty minutes of watching Saya track and attack more Chiropteras, the movie is over.  Granted the entire film is only 45 or so minutes, but I didn’t think it would be a wham-bam thank you ma’am sort of thing.  I mean I feel like I just had a good first date with an awesome guy and he decided not to call or text the next day.  Awfully disappointing, even with its beautiful animation.  I clearly could have spent my hour more wisely by heading to the mall and throwing away a few hundred dollars on some much needed shopping, but that wouldn’t have geared me up to watch the series.  Now, Blood+ has already been reviewed, so go check that out here.

My apologies for the extremely short review this time around, but there wasn’t much to rave about, or rant for that matter.

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Orphen

A rogue sorcerer named Orphen, on a mission to save his friend Azalie, becomes a teacher himself when he takes on an apprentice named Majic.

A young and beautiful girl named Cleao Everlasting coems home from boarding school to live with her mother and sister for the summer holidays.

Majutsushi Orphen Mubouhen
4 & 1/2 Stars

A rogue sorcerer named Orphen, on a mission to save his friend Azalie, becomes a teacher himself when he takes on an apprentice named Majic.

A young and beautiful girl named Cleao Everlasting coems home from boarding school to live with her mother and sister for the summer holidays.

Cleao thought she was going to have another quiet summer back at her family’s mansion, but she was dead wrong.  It’s a coincidence that Cleao’s path crosses with Orphen and Majic, but they do have something in common.  Cleao’s father bought her an old sword for her 15th birthday, but what they did not know is that that very sword is magical, the magical sword of Baltanders.

Long ago Orphen was known as Krylancelo Finrandi, and his friend and mentor Azalie was not a dragon.  Azalie became obsessed, even power hungry, with having more power.  She learned of the sword of Baltanders, but even obsessive studies did not give her the knowledge of how to properly use the ancient artifact.  Azalie used the sword which started her path towards The Bloody August, a dragon with immense powers.

Orphen has been chasing The Bloody August for five long years before he met his companions Majic and Cleao.  The three of them go on an epic adventure to save Azalie and encounter stone assassins, old friends, ex-masters and a wolven cub named Leki who Cleao adopts.  The ex-masters of Orphen are working against him, or so he thinks.

The last five or so episodes are such a twist, that I cannot reveal the ending.  I was sold on the first five or so episodes, then the filler for 15 episodes got old, but I understood it was building on the story and allowing other characters to come in the adventure to tie up the ending.  The last five episodes were fantastic.  The ending is what really made the series worth watching.  I watched it dubbed, and got stuck watching one subbed some how, and thoroughly enjoyed the subbed version, so I recommend that.

Character development was decent, you pretty much get a feel for everyone right off the bat, but relationships flower, you start to hope one works, and the other does not.  The anime deals with backstabbing, killing dolls, dragons, sorcery, betrayal, a hidden love and sex changes.  Odd mix of things in this, but it keeps you on your toes.

 

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