Eureka Seven

Well, the main character is a goober, as I expected. Except he's only a goober about girls, and has trouble flying with anyone but himself at the controls. As to the surfing mecha, lets be honest, it looks cool, and isn't any silliar than magical angel wings on Gundams, or any of a multitude of mecha designed to look cool.

One thing I notice, anime makers seem to love the skater archetype, probably because being a rebel of any kind in Japan is a horrible sin, and entertainers love to shock. Also, they have historically been a fascist country ruled by a god emperor, which means that rebellion is new and cool to them. Remember, we were starting on punk culture in the 50s, they were learning to be free. But the authorities in this fantasy world are definitely based on the militarists of the 40s. So, silly outfits, but not too bad.

The girl that our hero/goober Renton likes is Eureka. I rather like her, which is different for anime love interests. She is some kinda alien or gentically manipulated whatsit, who got taken away from the government by an older lady scientist. She is always followed around by three little kids on the good guys airship, who call her Mama. She is quite amused by Rentons silliness, which, I admit, is kinda funny. However, he also seems to be able to pull out extra power from her mecha, resulting in a rather pretty explosion.

So, its pretty, its kinda silly, and it will probably get horribly weird. I'm going to keep getting it, see where it goes.

PSN, what gives?

OK, the Playstation Network now has the exact same features of the other systems, but they have topnotch downloadable games that put most professional games to shame. For instance, I was playing a game demo called Pixeljunk Eden, where the focus is on jumping around and opening flowers. It is all HD sprites, which are so detailed you can barely tell that they are pixelated. Its pretty, has soothing odd music, and a simple interface. Now, the jumps are fairly hard to make, but it is a 2D platformer.

Another game, Everyday Shooter, does indeed have everyday controls, but everything else is oddly perfect. Enemies explode with guitar notes, chaining explosions makes wonderful melodies, and no matter how insanely difficult it gets, I feel relaxed when playing it.

I believe this has to do with the fact that Sony decided to be nice to little developers who want on the network. Sony has been less effective at keeping big companies exclusive, but small companies are so happy to be included in a bleeding edge console, they are quite happy to stay. Also, small games aren't expected to have realistic graphics and excellent physics. So the maker can focus on the experience, not the perfect graphics. Its true that these games could exist on any console, but Sony has seemed to master the quirky little game.

Hope they keep it up, big games just dont seem to be worth it as much. Pretty? Sure. Fun? Judging from the anger levels I feel, they stink. Unless a big game is made by someone I like and trust, I am going to avoid them.

Xam'd: Lost Memories

OK, the studio that made Eureka Seven has an exclusive deal with Sony, playing this new show only on the PSN (well, I bet DVDs will be released later). I have seen the first episode. 4 Bucks for an HD rental is kinda steep, considering you can't keep it. But this is a very experimental idea. A series exclusive to the network of a game console. I bet part of the problem is the fact that to a Japanese company, a low dollar means that its harder to get money from their games in the US. But enough economic complaints.

It seems worth it to me. English subbed, 25 min (intro and ending sadly included). The animation quality is top notch, the characters seem interesting, and the world looks kinda fun. Freakiness has started occuring already. The male main characters parents are seperated, but not divorced, you can tell they don't like the idea of putting their kid through that crap, wish parents in the real world were that decent. Kinda typical, odd parents, with a good relationship with their kid. I'm not sure if this will help or hurt the main characters dealing with turning into a monster.

The secondary characters are kinda typical, though. His female friend is the normal tough martial artist, and his male friend is another martial artist with a nerdy air. Yeah, anime friends. The crew of the postal airship that is coming in as the episode begins and ends are featured in the intro, but no real info. Theirs a reference to Postal Law, no idea, but certain types of ships or arms of certain navies dont care.

So, an invasion of an island (read, fantasy Okinawa) is about to begin, the kid just got fused with some magic thingy, and the scout of the postal ship (in a air-motorcycle thingy) is going to the scene of the explosion that hit him. Hes freaking out, but thats OK for your first monster transformation, I hope he doesn't make a habit of it.

Is it worth $4 for a episode download (fairly long) that doesn't stick around? No. Will I keep watching? Yes. So, if your budgets tight, I'd wait for the eventual DVD release. If you have PSN, and plenty of money, and want to keep up, go for it.

Eh what? OOH! OOH! Explosions!

OK, I was curious about a kinda odd anime series, so I ordered it on Netflix. Some so called anime fans whined that the mechs were on surfboards. Um, its a cartoon. In Ghost in the shell, and many other good, very serious, and violent, anime and games, mechs have powered skates. Everbody knows many anime series have silly stuff like that in them. Now, the main character is probably annoying, thats common in most anime males (Except in the super violent, pure serious shows), and it might be horrible, but no one gave any good reasons not to try it. It tries to be deep, the girl cries alot, the boys a nebbish. What else is new.

The title refers to my first reaction to most anime I watch. Now, it might end up being crappy, but I give it a chance. I will give an update to what I thought of Eureka Seven after I get it. I bet I'll end up hating it, but so what, its not the end of the world.

I feel sorry for the Jester

The great thing about entertainers is that they can be ignored once the show is over. We can ignore everything else about them, the fact that they can be goobers, the drama. I wonder why so many people care about the least interesting part of them? The singing, the acting, that the whole point of them, so why put the boring part of them under the microscope?

For instance, I have no idea who Christian Bale is, besides an awesome Batman. Its so silly, like the entire court following the poor jester around on his day off, the way people obsess over actors and musicians. Its all such a waste.

The fact is, entertainers have always been a bit crazy, I mean, they play a different person every show, they often sing from the point of view of someone who is nothing like them. But now everybody else has gone off the deep end, caring about the silly things Jesters do on their day off. I blame the consumer.

Don't Panic

Sigh, the best thing everybody needs to hear. Hitchhickers guides for everyone! The sky isn't falling, and even if it was, why panic? Bush isn't going to declare himself god-emperor, and Obama will only be as bad a Jimmuh, no matter how creepy his silly goober supporters are. Oh, and McCain doesn't want a hundred years of war. Although many oppressed people might want that. The military does not want your loser baby for war, and if he makes the decision when hes old enough, you can't do squat.

On the non-political front, yes, global warming is, well, was, happening. We'll all gonna fry. Or the sun could go into a minimum, and we have a new ice age. But, the thing is, even that happens kinda slow. Its not like it happens overnight. Theres no rush, even if we get rid of all the carbon dioxide production magically, the stuff already there would keep forcing things, so any bad thing in the next 100 years will happen anyway. Then again, it might not be as big a force on the climate as we thought, and we ust waste money. Just adapt, its what we do, we'll survive.

On a related note, Zombies! Aiiehh!

Environmental Silliness

Well, as I expected, Wall*E is being pilloried and sometimes praised for its message of environmental collapse. OK, fine, its just a movie, but still, its getting tiresome. Earth is not in any danger of being buried in garbage, anyone who's been to a park that used to be a landfill knows this, or should. If anyone has been keeping up, metal scraps are worth cash money to manufacturers, as they don't require all that tedious mining. But if you want to have a story about a robot rummaging through trash, you have to put forth certain kinda dumb ideas. The problem is that kids dont need more dumb ideas in there heads. But, hey, Disney has been doing that for a while.

So, I dont think its neccesarily evil to have a gigantic plot hole. Its when you get into the grotesqely fat humans and silly evil megacorporations that you become annoying. Guess what, kids, humans are fat useless blobs! Toys are evil, buying is bad! None of this means I like overconsumption, its just grating to see a cartoon that has a huge toyline and took tons of power to make saying its bad. People living paycheck to paycheck because they want more and more crap is sad. But its even sadder to see Hollywood, the epicenter of waste, ridiculous consumerism, and rampant idiocy try to preach to everybody else about it. Log in the eyes, anybody?