Well, this weekend is the summer bank holiday - the last bank holiday before Chrimbo.
I've got to say it's a bit of a misnomer this year, as summer has been a bit of a damp squib. There was a brief spell of hot weather early on, when my aircon came in very handy, but after that it's been a real mixed bag.
Just recently it seems to have rained a hell of a lot, but there have also been some sunny days and both really humid and surprisingly cold days. Over the last couple of days it's really felt like we're heading into autumn, rather than being the middle of summer.
And this weekend also marks the return of the Formula 1 circus, with the Belgium Grand Prix held at the famous Spa Francorchamps circuit. Spa usually produces a good race, and it's also well known for the steep climb up the Eau Rouge valley.
My sister and dad actually went to the Belgium Grand Prix a couple of years ago and sat in the stand at the top of Eau Rouge. They said it is incredibly steep - proper out of breath stuff. I wish I could have gone myself, but I've got the whole problem of spending huge amounts of cash on anime and manga that often prevents me from having proper holidays or doing anything that needs a large amount of cash.
I'm not sure how my walking regime will stand up to the whole Grand Prix weekend thing. I guess this will be the acid test.
Friday, 27 August 2010
Thursday, 26 August 2010
more manga catch-up
So, yes, new stuff I've read:
Toshokan Senso: Love & War
I have to say I was a bit disappointed with this.
A while back there was an anime adaptation, as it's originally a series of Light Novels and I quite enjoyed what I saw of them, so I figured I'd pick up this manga adaptation. The premise for the series is a bit daft, but what I really liked about it was that it had some interesting characters. It was also pretty much a shoujo series, which was interesting as I'd always thought Light Novels pandered to the male otaku crowd.
Anyway, the problem I had with the first volume of the manga was that it was poorly laid out and difficult to follow. I've encountered this a few times with Shoujo stuff, where the panels aren't really logically laid out and speech crosses over panels in weird and confusing ways.
I think I'll give it one more volume, but if I don't like that I'll probably drop it.
Polyphonica: Cardinal Crimson
I was also really disappointed with this.
Again, I saw an anime adaptation that I quite liked, so I figured I'd pick this up. Well, it turns out that the adaptation and this seems to have almost completely different stories and the story here is really badly done.
I dunno - the whole thing is badly set up and not very well written.
Seikon no Qwaser
I wouldn't say I was disappointed with this, as such, more I was disappointed with myself for picking it up.
Basically, it's got one of those totally bizarre set-ups where the writer has just made up a load of old cobblers. But really this is just a framework for lashings of fan-service.
The reason for the self-disappointment was that I watched a bit of the anime version and new it was all a load of old toot, yet I bought the manga anyway. And I'll probably keep buying it.
Natsume's Book of Friends
You'll probably notice the theme now when I say that this was another one I saw an anime version of and enjoyed, so I thought I'd pick up the manga. However, unlike the above two, there was no disappointment involved.
Well, I say that, I have to confess I'm not the biggest fan of the artwork. Shoujo stuff can often be rather stylised - people are often lanky with oddly exaggerated features - and this is no exception. It kinda works for the ghosts that feature in the series, but for the humans I'm not so keen.
My main issue is with the faces, I think - they can look a bit pinched.
But what makes up for that is a very nice set of stories. The mangaka explains that the series is an occasional one, so while the same basic idea is across all the 4 stories in the book, they're actually pretty much independent short stores and each one works well.
Kimi Ni Todoke (From Me to You)
And this one too is a manga I picked up having enjoyed my sample of the anime. It's also yet another shoujo series - perhaps I'm getting in touch with my feminine side or something? I think really it's more a reflection of the fact that women do more reading than men and are, by some account, basically propping up the entire publishing industry.
But back to the manga. I think of the stuff I'm reviewing here, this is my favourite. It has decent artwork that is pretty much like most shoujo stuff, but unlike Natsume Yuujincho above, it doesn't go too far down that road. Also, the panels are fairly well laid out - certainly there's generally a bright and breezy feeling to the panels, which tend to flow reasonably well.
The real strength, though, is with the characters and the writing. The story is basically about someone who's been ostracised because they look and act a little scary. They're actually a really nice person, though, and the story is basically about them gaining friends and becoming more integrated.
To be frank, I'm a bit of a sucker for that sort of story, so I'm probably biased, but I'm really enjoying it.
Toshokan Senso: Love & War
I have to say I was a bit disappointed with this.
A while back there was an anime adaptation, as it's originally a series of Light Novels and I quite enjoyed what I saw of them, so I figured I'd pick up this manga adaptation. The premise for the series is a bit daft, but what I really liked about it was that it had some interesting characters. It was also pretty much a shoujo series, which was interesting as I'd always thought Light Novels pandered to the male otaku crowd.
Anyway, the problem I had with the first volume of the manga was that it was poorly laid out and difficult to follow. I've encountered this a few times with Shoujo stuff, where the panels aren't really logically laid out and speech crosses over panels in weird and confusing ways.
I think I'll give it one more volume, but if I don't like that I'll probably drop it.
Polyphonica: Cardinal Crimson
I was also really disappointed with this.
Again, I saw an anime adaptation that I quite liked, so I figured I'd pick this up. Well, it turns out that the adaptation and this seems to have almost completely different stories and the story here is really badly done.
I dunno - the whole thing is badly set up and not very well written.
Seikon no Qwaser
I wouldn't say I was disappointed with this, as such, more I was disappointed with myself for picking it up.
Basically, it's got one of those totally bizarre set-ups where the writer has just made up a load of old cobblers. But really this is just a framework for lashings of fan-service.
The reason for the self-disappointment was that I watched a bit of the anime version and new it was all a load of old toot, yet I bought the manga anyway. And I'll probably keep buying it.
Natsume's Book of Friends
You'll probably notice the theme now when I say that this was another one I saw an anime version of and enjoyed, so I thought I'd pick up the manga. However, unlike the above two, there was no disappointment involved.
Well, I say that, I have to confess I'm not the biggest fan of the artwork. Shoujo stuff can often be rather stylised - people are often lanky with oddly exaggerated features - and this is no exception. It kinda works for the ghosts that feature in the series, but for the humans I'm not so keen.
My main issue is with the faces, I think - they can look a bit pinched.
But what makes up for that is a very nice set of stories. The mangaka explains that the series is an occasional one, so while the same basic idea is across all the 4 stories in the book, they're actually pretty much independent short stores and each one works well.
Kimi Ni Todoke (From Me to You)
And this one too is a manga I picked up having enjoyed my sample of the anime. It's also yet another shoujo series - perhaps I'm getting in touch with my feminine side or something? I think really it's more a reflection of the fact that women do more reading than men and are, by some account, basically propping up the entire publishing industry.
But back to the manga. I think of the stuff I'm reviewing here, this is my favourite. It has decent artwork that is pretty much like most shoujo stuff, but unlike Natsume Yuujincho above, it doesn't go too far down that road. Also, the panels are fairly well laid out - certainly there's generally a bright and breezy feeling to the panels, which tend to flow reasonably well.
The real strength, though, is with the characters and the writing. The story is basically about someone who's been ostracised because they look and act a little scary. They're actually a really nice person, though, and the story is basically about them gaining friends and becoming more integrated.
To be frank, I'm a bit of a sucker for that sort of story, so I'm probably biased, but I'm really enjoying it.
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
2012
I've kinda had a mixed response to Roland Emmerich's films.
I really enjoyed Stargate, Universal Soldier was okay for what it was, Independence Day was great as a giant B-movie, I enjoyed Godzilla, though recognise it's flawed and that a lot hate it and Eight Legged Freaks was trashy fun.
But The Day After Tomorrow, while having amazing effects, was awful and 10,000BC was one of the worst films I've ever seen.
Both of those two had the unfortunate problem of being scientifically bonkers, but unlike his other films they didn't compensate by acknowledging their daftness or by being purely 'genre' films. And 2012 got off to a worrying start on this front with the revelation that neutrinos put out by the sun were causing the Earth's core to heat up.
Oh dear.
However, while there is other such stupid science stuff in the film, it manages to keep this to a bare minimum. Instead if spends a lot more time focused on the characters and on showing the actual disasters that are going on.
Unfortunately, those characters are a little thin and a bit too stereotypical. The only thing that really works with the characters is that there's no Hollywood "evil" people, as such - you do get the impression that while some of them do bad things on occasion, they're equally capable of good things.
You also get the impression they've had a really good think about how the world's governments would actually go about trying to save the world. So while you do get some hint of "all corporations are evil" the counterpoint is made that how else could they have gotten the ships they use to survive the disaster made?
And problems like who do you save and when do you tell people also get some exploration. There's not a lot of exploration to be fair (in particular there's little thought given to extended families - almost nobody cares for or worries about anyone that doesn't appear on-screen, so with only one exception nobody is worried about their friends/parents/work colleagues, etc), but more than you might expect from a popcorn movie like this.
What you do get in spades is luscious visuals, stuff blowing up and getting destroyed on an immense scale and fistfuls of breathtaking CGI. Unfortunately, it does take the better part of two and a half from beginning to end and while I wouldn't ever say the film was dull, that's a very long disaster movie.
My overall verdict is that it's not quite as good as Independence Day, but it's a lot better than the likes of Tomorrow and 10,000BC.
The DVD also had a bunch of extras, which included a commentary, deleted scenes and, interestingly, an alternate ending that is, quite frankly, cheesy rubbish.
I really enjoyed Stargate, Universal Soldier was okay for what it was, Independence Day was great as a giant B-movie, I enjoyed Godzilla, though recognise it's flawed and that a lot hate it and Eight Legged Freaks was trashy fun.
But The Day After Tomorrow, while having amazing effects, was awful and 10,000BC was one of the worst films I've ever seen.
Both of those two had the unfortunate problem of being scientifically bonkers, but unlike his other films they didn't compensate by acknowledging their daftness or by being purely 'genre' films. And 2012 got off to a worrying start on this front with the revelation that neutrinos put out by the sun were causing the Earth's core to heat up.
Oh dear.
However, while there is other such stupid science stuff in the film, it manages to keep this to a bare minimum. Instead if spends a lot more time focused on the characters and on showing the actual disasters that are going on.
Unfortunately, those characters are a little thin and a bit too stereotypical. The only thing that really works with the characters is that there's no Hollywood "evil" people, as such - you do get the impression that while some of them do bad things on occasion, they're equally capable of good things.
You also get the impression they've had a really good think about how the world's governments would actually go about trying to save the world. So while you do get some hint of "all corporations are evil" the counterpoint is made that how else could they have gotten the ships they use to survive the disaster made?
And problems like who do you save and when do you tell people also get some exploration. There's not a lot of exploration to be fair (in particular there's little thought given to extended families - almost nobody cares for or worries about anyone that doesn't appear on-screen, so with only one exception nobody is worried about their friends/parents/work colleagues, etc), but more than you might expect from a popcorn movie like this.
What you do get in spades is luscious visuals, stuff blowing up and getting destroyed on an immense scale and fistfuls of breathtaking CGI. Unfortunately, it does take the better part of two and a half from beginning to end and while I wouldn't ever say the film was dull, that's a very long disaster movie.
My overall verdict is that it's not quite as good as Independence Day, but it's a lot better than the likes of Tomorrow and 10,000BC.
The DVD also had a bunch of extras, which included a commentary, deleted scenes and, interestingly, an alternate ending that is, quite frankly, cheesy rubbish.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
manga catch up
I don't think I've talked about what manga I've been reading for a while.
The truth is that's mainly because a lot of what I've been reading has been the continuing volumes of series. These have included:
And speaking of dropping, there are a couple of other titles I've been reading that I'm seriously considering dropping. I'm unsure because they're okay, but also I'm not sure I want to keep spending money on them as they're all ongoing series:
What's most annoying, though, is that there also appear to be some series I'm following that seem to have been dropped. I say seem to have been because for 3 of them I can't find any official announcement saying they've been dropped, it's just that it's been ages since last volume came out, they're behind Japan and you can't pre-order any future volumes:
Those last two are releases by Del Ray, which is a smaller company, but apparently prides itself on catering to the hardcore fan. That also seems to mean not really telling people what's going on, so I'm not hugely impressed, and I wasn't that big a fan of there's to start with.
But generally this is the most annoying thing with manga - anime, if someone picks it up you can be pretty much sure they'll release the whole series (it takes going tits up to stop them), but with manga they can just drop it, so where does that leave us fans?
Christ, I've wibbled on! And I've not even started on the new volumes I read, which was the point of this post, so more later.
The truth is that's mainly because a lot of what I've been reading has been the continuing volumes of series. These have included:
- Biomega 2 & 3 - Tsutomu Nihei's art continues to impress, but unlike Blame it's not really work for me. I think its because the sparse style doesn't really suit the type of story.
- Black Lagoon 9 - this finished up the Roberta arc, which has been okay. I like the story and love the artwork and characters still, but Rei Hiroe needs to take a leaf out of Nihei's book and reign in the word count. If these two ever both hit a happy medium between the extremes they seem to operate at, they could rule the world.
- Gurren Lagann is up to volume 5 - this volume was pretty good as it had some original stuff that wasn't in the anime. I mean, it's not a slavish adaptation anyway, but this volume has some properly new stuff, and it's another where the artwork continues to impress.
- Which isn't something that can be said about DMC, where I also have to admit the charm has started to wear a bit thin, as it keeps redoing the same jokes and lacks a longer story arc. There are hints that there may be a longer and more developed story coming up in volume 6, though.
- And Gantz's art continues to be a bit flawed, but with a brutal story that makes up with. It's a little more frustrating reading it at a more normal release pace (we're up to 11 volumes, I think), but I'm still enjoying it.
- I'm also still enjoying Bamboo Blade more than I expected to. It's up to volume 5 now and is still going strong.
- Ichigo 100% is at volume 13 and continues to do what it does - lots of fan-service and a main character who just kind make his damn mind up (pick Aya, you moron). If I didn't know this series ended in 6 volumes time I'd probably be thinking about dropping it by now, as it's getting a bit repetitive - a good thing taken too far.
And speaking of dropping, there are a couple of other titles I've been reading that I'm seriously considering dropping. I'm unsure because they're okay, but also I'm not sure I want to keep spending money on them as they're all ongoing series:
- Dogs: Bullets & Carnage - I really enjoyed the prologue "volume 0", but the ongoing series is not really impressing me. The arts nice, but gets confusing during the many fight scenes and the story just feels like a big old mound of clichés.
- Asu No Yoichi: Samurai Harem - the problem with this is it's a giant cliché. Everything in it is a recycled idea and if it wasn't for the hawtness of the chicks It'd probably bore me (and even that is tainted a bit by having a really young girl who's subjected to just as much groping as the older girls).
- Hayate the Combat Butler - this is the toughest one to drop. I still really like it, but we're already on volume 15 and there are apparently 24 released in Japan and it's not finished. That's a lot of volumes considering it's basically a gag manga where the story is going nowhere (deliberately, mind - it's not really meant to go anywhere).
What's most annoying, though, is that there also appear to be some series I'm following that seem to have been dropped. I say seem to have been because for 3 of them I can't find any official announcement saying they've been dropped, it's just that it's been ages since last volume came out, they're behind Japan and you can't pre-order any future volumes:
- Tenjho Tenge is the most annoying of these. They recently published volume 18 in English and Oh!Great and then CMX basically announced it was stopping publication, only for Oh!Great to announce the end of the series at volume 22 - so there were just 4 volumes left! And with the recent clampdowns on scanslations I've no idea whether I'll ever get to tread the end of the series.
- Kurohime is the second most annoying, not least of all because it's Viz. I always thought Viz just pumped out volumes regardless, but the last volume they did in English was 14 and that was years ago and it's on 18 in Japan, so I guess they've dumped it.
- Yozakura Quartet got to volume 5 and seems to have stopped (it's on 9 in Japan), although I'm not too fussed by this as, while the art was gorgeous, the storytelling was piss-poor.
- Similarly I'm not badly miffed that Princess Resurrection seems to have bitten the bullet at volume 7 (it's on 12 in Japan) as, while I enjoyed it, it wasn't anything spectacular.
Those last two are releases by Del Ray, which is a smaller company, but apparently prides itself on catering to the hardcore fan. That also seems to mean not really telling people what's going on, so I'm not hugely impressed, and I wasn't that big a fan of there's to start with.
But generally this is the most annoying thing with manga - anime, if someone picks it up you can be pretty much sure they'll release the whole series (it takes going tits up to stop them), but with manga they can just drop it, so where does that leave us fans?
Christ, I've wibbled on! And I've not even started on the new volumes I read, which was the point of this post, so more later.
Monday, 23 August 2010
guess what today's blog post is about?
Yup, walking and weight loss.
I think I'm going to make it so that I have 1 day a week where I do an update about the weight stuff, a bit like the mini reviews. At the very least I can give my pedometer readings for the past week (it has a 7-day memory function, which is pretty cool).
If I'm feeling very brave I might actually give my weight, which would tend to suggest Monday or Tuesday might be the best days to talk about it, since I'll be weighing myself at the weekend.
Anyway, the thing I wanted to mainly mention was my brilliant idea to help me walk - audio books. If you're unaware, an audio book is literally a regular book read out by someone and recorded. We're not really talking dramatization, though - think father reading story to child before bedtime, only not in a patronising way.
Having hit upon the idea, I therefore signed myself up to something called audible, which is a kind of talking-book shop (as opposed to a talking bookshop - that would just be weird) done by Amazon.
I went in with eyes open - I knew the audible site uses a DRM proprietary format which has a file extension of "aa". This potentially meant that I couldn't play it on my MP3 player, but I did the research and decided that if worse came to worst I could get around it by burning to CD and ripping it from there.
I mean, the audible system does have the advantage of allowing you as many downloads as you like and by installing their software you can play it from your computer, but this would hardly be a help for listening on the move. And besides, burning to CD means I will have hard copies that (I think) I can listen to in the car anyway.
Anyway, I tested it out this weekend and truth be told it's a bit of a faff, but it's a faff that only needs doing once per audio book, and I'm not going to be buying millions of them. So yeah, I can cope is how I'd put it.
One thing I did get a shock over was the price of the audio books - they're very expensive. In most cases they're more than 4 or 5 times the cost of buying the paperback version.
When I thought about this it made sense - you're not only paying for the story, like you are the normal book, but also there's all that expense of getting someone (or several someone's) in to read the thing, and that can only add to the price. And an unabridged version of a book can be very long. I recently talked about reading Matter and the unabridged audio book for that is nearly 18 hours long!
However, what audible does is it works a bit like the lovefilm rental service, in that every month you pay a subscription fee and that gives you a credit which you can use to get one book. The subscription fee is only about £8 (I think - I forget, plus it's discounted for the first few months) and that's a good chunk less than most of the books I've looked at. But not all - some were only about £5 (older and shorter stories) so those are going to be better to buy.
I think I'm going to make it so that I have 1 day a week where I do an update about the weight stuff, a bit like the mini reviews. At the very least I can give my pedometer readings for the past week (it has a 7-day memory function, which is pretty cool).
If I'm feeling very brave I might actually give my weight, which would tend to suggest Monday or Tuesday might be the best days to talk about it, since I'll be weighing myself at the weekend.
Anyway, the thing I wanted to mainly mention was my brilliant idea to help me walk - audio books. If you're unaware, an audio book is literally a regular book read out by someone and recorded. We're not really talking dramatization, though - think father reading story to child before bedtime, only not in a patronising way.
Having hit upon the idea, I therefore signed myself up to something called audible, which is a kind of talking-book shop (as opposed to a talking bookshop - that would just be weird) done by Amazon.
I went in with eyes open - I knew the audible site uses a DRM proprietary format which has a file extension of "aa". This potentially meant that I couldn't play it on my MP3 player, but I did the research and decided that if worse came to worst I could get around it by burning to CD and ripping it from there.
I mean, the audible system does have the advantage of allowing you as many downloads as you like and by installing their software you can play it from your computer, but this would hardly be a help for listening on the move. And besides, burning to CD means I will have hard copies that (I think) I can listen to in the car anyway.
Anyway, I tested it out this weekend and truth be told it's a bit of a faff, but it's a faff that only needs doing once per audio book, and I'm not going to be buying millions of them. So yeah, I can cope is how I'd put it.
One thing I did get a shock over was the price of the audio books - they're very expensive. In most cases they're more than 4 or 5 times the cost of buying the paperback version.
When I thought about this it made sense - you're not only paying for the story, like you are the normal book, but also there's all that expense of getting someone (or several someone's) in to read the thing, and that can only add to the price. And an unabridged version of a book can be very long. I recently talked about reading Matter and the unabridged audio book for that is nearly 18 hours long!
However, what audible does is it works a bit like the lovefilm rental service, in that every month you pay a subscription fee and that gives you a credit which you can use to get one book. The subscription fee is only about £8 (I think - I forget, plus it's discounted for the first few months) and that's a good chunk less than most of the books I've looked at. But not all - some were only about £5 (older and shorter stories) so those are going to be better to buy.
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