Anime

Have you ever felt like you spent your entire life searching for something that you will never see again?  Chiyoko Fujiwara definitely spends eternity looking for the man that gave her the key to his heart.

At the beginning of the story, Japan was at war and anyone who opposed the war was sought after by military police.  Chiyoko Fujiwara, the main character, at the time was a young and aspiring actress, who in the future will star in many films spanning thousands of years.

Millenium Actress
5 Stars

One day she was walking down the street when a stranger bumps into her, he quickly apologizes and hurries off into the bushes.  With police hot on his tail, Chiyoko lies and sends the police in a different direction.  She then joins the stranger and offers him a safe hiding spot for the night.  Chiyoko takes him to her family’s store and the two sit in the storage room and talk for just a bit.  The only thing she learns of the stranger is he is a painter, he opposes the war and he has a key that is the most important thing he has.

The next day she is walking home thinking of the stranger in the storage room, once she arrives back at her house she notices the key in the snow by her porch.  This frightens young Chiyoko so she scoops up the key and rushes to the store to find the police searching for the mysterious painter.  The painter had successfully made it to the train station, leaving Chiyoko to wonder if she would ever see him again.

From the moment Chiyoko met the strange painter she knew she loved him, so she spent the next thirty years searching for the painter.  She carried the key on her mission to find him, only to lose it or get it stolen from her periodically.

When Chiyoko grew old, she decided to retire to her quiet mountain villa, where she would live out the rest of her life, no longer searching for the mysterious painter.  One day a director, who you come to find out, knew her when she was younger, shows up to interview her for his documentary, “The Seven Specters: The Legend of Fujiwara Chiyoko.”  With him, he brings the key she had lost on the set of her final movie.  The key unlocks the story of her life; it brings her back to the days of searching, movies and her childhood.  She takes her two guests through each movie from her past in chronological order.  In every movie she acted in, she is the same character, always the girl in distress searching for the boy who stole her heart.

Chiyoko admits that she hoped the painter would see her in one of her movies, and by the mid-50s, she was at the peak of her stardom.  Surely, the painter would see her, which is only if he is still alive though.  The rest of the story is a mystery unless you watch it for yourself.

This was a well thought out movie, every minute kept me guessing if I was going to see Chiyoko reunited with the person she loved and searched for thirty years.  I am not much of a fan of love stories or romance, but this was good.  The movies she acted in kept the pace up beat, there was action involved and a good bit of fantasy.  The story lacks in humor, but here and there you might chuckle, so do not go looking for that when you watch this.

For those of you who watched Paprika, and liked it, this the same director, Satoshi Kon.

Gene Starwind and his adolescent business partner Jim Hawking work together to help anyone with anything they need, as long as it pays well.  The two of them take on a job as a simple bodyguard of a mysterious outlaw.  This outlaw turns out to be Hilda, the most sought after outlaw of the Kei space pirate guild.  When Hilda is killed in battle Gene and Jim are left the XGP15A-II, a highly advanced spacecraft also known as the Outlaw Star.  Also, just before Hilda was killed the three of them came in contact with a bio-android named Melfina.  Hilda was in search of Melfina.  Melfina was made to connect to the over-advanced spacecraft, the Outlaw Star.

Outlaw Star
4 Stars

Gene Starwind and his adolescent business partner Jim Hawking work together to help anyone with anything they need, as long as it pays well.  The two of them take on a job as a simple bodyguard of a mysterious outlaw.  This outlaw turns out to be Hilda, the most sought after outlaw of the Kei space pirate guild.  When Hilda is killed in battle Gene and Jim are left the XGP15A-II, a highly advanced spacecraft also known as the Outlaw Star.  Also, just before Hilda was killed the three of them came in contact with a bio-android named Melfina.  Hilda was in search of Melfina.  Melfina was made to connect to the over-advanced spacecraft, the Outlaw Star.

The Outlaw Star needed to be repaired and restocked with ammunition after the battles with the space pirates, and the only person that they can turn to is Fred Luo.  When Gene went to Fred for the supplies, Fred was under attack by the known assassin, Twilight Suzuka.  Gene fights Suzuka to save Fred, eventually offering his life in place of Fred’s.  When the crew of the Outlaw Star prepared for their next departure, Suzuka decided to tag along uninvited.  The crew works together to complete tasks and bring in money, but Gene always thinks of the get right quick schemes.  Gene’s harebrained idea is to enter the intergalactic race on Heiphon, but soon comes to realize that it costs money to enter.  Gene had to go beg Fred to sponsor him, but since Fred is in love with him, it was not too hard.

During the race, the Outlaw Star is attacked by the McDougall brothers’ ship, which is being piloted by Harry McDougall under the false last name of Williams.  While Melfina is busy navigating the Outlaw Star, Harry McDougall enters the ship’s navigation system and reveals he is a bio-android as well.  After the race, the Outlaw Star needed more opportunities for riches, and they take on a series of tasks to reach their goal.  Some strange characters pop up, like the old man outlaw who needs their help recovering a large load of dragonite.

Eventually after 26 episodes, you reach the end.  The ending is awesome; it was the only part I could stay focused on to be honest.  The epic battle between the McDougall brothers and the Outlaw Star is full of twists.  Harry and Melfina both navigate their teams to the Galactic Leyline, the main thing everyone is searching for the entire series.  Watch the series to see how the rest of the story pans out.

Let’s just say that this anime is interesting.  It starts good, gets a little slow in the next 14 or so episodes and then has a good ending.  A few filler episodes in the middle are worth watching just for the sheer comic effect, but have little meaning.  Except oh yeah, Gene got neat bullets.  I watched the dubbed version of this, since it came out quite some time ago.  I am not sure, if it was the dubbed version or if the writers really did mean for it to be as cheesy as it was at times.  Not to mention the couple of times that Gene was a little creepy, whether it was how he looked or the words he said.  The overall series is good, I liked the anime, the idea and the characters, but it was just too darn drawn out for me.

Vampires, guns and ghouls plague this series.  This particular series is rather entertaining.  You meet a series of weaker villains like the Valentine Brothers until you finally get to Incognito.  Incognito is supposed to be Alucards equal, the only one that should be a difficult match.

Alucard faithfully serves his master Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing after she discovered him years ago.  The story does not start out immediately telling you the details of Alucard and Integra’s past, but halfway through the series you learn about Integra’s childhood. 

Herushingu
4 & 1/2 Stars

Vampires, guns and ghouls plague this series.  This particular series is rather entertaining.  You meet a series of weaker villains like the Valentine Brothers until you finally get to Incognito.  Incognito is supposed to be Alucards equal, the only one that should be a difficult match.

Alucard faithfully serves his master Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing after she discovered him years ago.  The story does not start out immediately telling you the details of Alucard and Integra’s past, but halfway through the series you learn about Integra’s childhood.  In the first episode, you meet Seras Victoria, a military girl who became the only survivor of her squad after a vampire turned them all into ghouls.

Ghouls are what the artifical vampires, also known as freaks, create.  The freaks drain all of the blood from the body of their victim, creating a zombie-like minion.

Seras Victoria is nearly killed by the horde of ghouls that was once her comrades.  Alucard shows up just in the nick of time and asks if she would like to become a vampire and she agrees to being bitten by her master Alucard, but once she becomes a vampire, she instantly begins to regret it.

Seras Victoria refuses to drink the medical blood given to her each night; the lack of blood makes her weak.  Alucard advises her to drink to regain strength, even offers his blood from a cut he received from Paladin Alexander Anderson.  She refused, knowing that if she drank his blood Alucard would no longer be her master, she would be alone.  Soon after that decision, she gives in to needs and drinks the blood on the table.  I thought it was strange how they gave her the blood though; they gave it to her with a bowl and spoon.  Sort of looked like tomato soup and here I was questioning why they did not give it to her in a goblet, it would have looked more classy.  Either way she gains strength and is able to wield her enormous guns, like the Halconnen.

The story starts a little weak, with switching villains every episode, but when the story starts to be centered on the defeat of Incognito it becomes less weak.  Switching the villains every episode makes it semi-difficult to stay focused.  The final battle scene between Alucard and Incognito is played out well, little speech, little action and ends in a bloody mess.

I had very little time to watch this anime, but I am a big fan of vampire stories and when a good friend of mine recommended this to me, I figured it was worth watching.  I have to say that I enjoyed it; things here and there were a little strange, but over all a decent series.  The series opener was a real catchy tune, I do not normally focus on that, but I rather enjoyed the song.  “World Without Logos by Yasushi Ishii” I believe is the song, also the opener includes a wandering dog, which was strange to me at first, but it turns out that is Alucard’s other form.  I definitely would recommend this to anyone seeking vampires, blood and mayhem!

Eiri Kurahashi is a normal kid with a normal job.  He works in his uncle’s antique shop; he takes care of the entire place by himself since his uncle is such an avid collector and is always gone finding new treasures. 

Eiri stumbles upon a wine glass in his uncle’s shop, and when he touches it, he is filled with visions of a young and beautiful girl.  The wine glass becomes a gateway for him to peer into and see his love, Cossette d’Auvergne.

Le Portrait de Petit Cossette
4 & 1/2 Stars

Eiri Kurahashi is a normal kid with a normal job.  He works in his uncle’s antique shop; he takes care of the entire place by himself since his uncle is such an avid collector and is always gone finding new treasures. 

Eiri stumbles upon a wine glass in his uncle’s shop, and when he touches it, he is filled with visions of a young and beautiful girl.  The wine glass becomes a gateway for him to peer into and see his love, Cossette d’Auvergne.

Cossette is the spirit of a girl who has been searching for 250 years for someone who could see her, and speak to her, now she needs his help.  The story takes you back here and there to show you what happened to Cossette and why she haunts the glass.

Marcello Orlando, an Italian painter from the 18th century, painted many portraits of young Cossette.  When she showed signs of growing older he could not bear to have her beauty change, so, he killed her.  Eiri is a reincarnation of Marcello, which is why Cossette is more drawn to him.

In the first episode, you learn a little character development with Eiri and his friends.  You learn that Shouko is in love with him.  They spend time together, but once the wine glass is threatened, he goes off the deep end and shows his true side, the true side that Cossette has brought to him.  Halfway through the episode, Cossette speaks out to him, she shows him, in a first person view as the killer, how she died.  She then fills the wine glass with her blood; he drinks, and then enters a blood contract with one another.

Eiri must from then on repent his sins, or rather Marcello’s sins.  It is a rather weird scene; Eiri turns into a demon, Cossette stands across him on a pillar and points at him, ripping out his soul with invisible hands.

The second episode you get a little more information about Cossette as she tells Eiri about her family.  Once he says Marcello’s name though, she disappears.  He has no idea why she does not want to hear the words Marcello Orlando, so he does not drop it.  Cossette and Eiri begin to develop more of a relationship in this episode, more than just the ‘peeping Tom’ thing Eiri had going on before.  After some time, she finally reveals the killer, which is quite a shocker when you hear it.  The second episode does several flashbacks to the day Cossette was murdered, which does get a little annoying.

The thing is the story does not just include Cossette and Eiri.  His friends are continually showing up here and there to express their worry for him, since he had changed so drastically one day, from normal, to talking to himself all the time.

In the third episode, Eiri goes completely mad.  Cossette comes to him and says that it is over; she cannot continue to hold him to his contract anymore.  Once she disappears, he runs through the antique shop trying to find her, his friend Shouko happened to witness him going crazy trying to find Cossette.  He eventually runs off, Shouko follows; he heads to Cossette’s.  He brings himself to the place where he repents and rips he own soul out this time trying to get closer to Cossette.  He finally makes it and finds Cossette, only she really is not Cossette, she is Marcello’s painting.

Once he figures out that she is not the real Cossette, the one he fell in love with, he rushes to find her.  He comes upon Marcello’s easel and paints a blood portrait of the real, the beautiful, Cossette, killing off Marcello’s creation, freeing Cossette.

 

I would have to say hat this anime was a little different.  I enjoyed it the music was great.  Here and there, the music was dainty, which is how Cossette was supposed to appear, and at the end, the music changed to give you a rather eerie feeling.  The artwork was awesome, but I have to say that Cossette looked a little strange in some angles.  The fact that she looked childish was not my main issue, since she was killed as a child to “stop her time,” just simply at some angles she did not look as ‘beautiful’ as she was supposed.  The plot is great, and overall I believe it is worth a 4.5 stars.  The fact that the series is only three episodes long is just a major plus.

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.