Lots of anime goodness........and video games too

Ok, so from the post title it sounds like I'm going to talk about a lot of things.  And I have a lot of things I could talk about.  But for now, let's start with the most recent thing I've seen..........Paprika.

I went to see this at the new, wanky, swanky, ridiculously overpriced Sundance 608 near my house.  My only comment there is, if you're going to charge me $3 extra dollars for an "assigned seating fee" then maybe it would be easier if you just didn't have assigned seats.  But.....I'm done with that, let's talk about anime.  I have to admit, the thing I'm most familiar with of director Satoshi Kon's is Paranoia Agent (though I did watch Tokyo Godfathers once a rather long time ago when it was on my on-demand cable).  He's definitely got a unique style, and it was once again evident in Paprika.  The most noteable thing is this......character design isn't exactly PRETTY, but it is well done.  One more thing to say on that subject is that it is amazingly well (more-or-less) hand drawn/colored/animated.  That is to say that there are really not many (if any) studios out there that don't use computers to color their cels once they're drawn.  BUT.....the biggest thing about movies/series done by Satoshi Kon is the storyline.  Always slightly creepy or disconcerting, they really make you think.  That said, I don't know that there's much I can say about this movie.  I'm a believer that if they don't creep you out to no end (Paranoia Agent, I'm looking at you here), you really have to watch his stuff many times before you could claim to understand what it's all about.  Maybe it's just me, but that's how I've felt every time.  I can say a few things.  I love the main character......I love that Megumi Hayashibara does her voice.  I also love one of the male characters a lot, so I'm sad that he kinda lets me down in the end, while still sort of redeeming himself.  The characters that end up together were TOTALLY not what I expected.  But really, that's not the point of the movie.  The point is that the "main character" male is trying to figure out why he has this weird dream that he keeps having.......and everyone else is trying to figure out why peoples' dreams are turning into real life, and exactly what is going on.  I'm not sure exactly what was going on, but it was a good movie and you should go see it.

I've also been playing Wii lately....namely RedSteel (super stupid gameplay) and Resident Evil 4 "Wiidition".  Don't know why I've been so into video games lately, but I'm sure Mayama will happily ride out my desire for games until it goes away.

In other news..........well, there's a lot going on, but I'm not sure I feel like talking about it.  Besides, people are here now to cook onigiri and watch anime so it's time for me to go.

I'll try to remember to talk about other things sometime soon.