A (late) Ghost in the Shell fan even review

After years of development hell, The Ghost in the Shell feature film is finally done and set to release at the end of march. While the film has faced a few backlash from its choice in casting, the film has gained a dedicated follower of fans that are looking forward to this film. This can definitely be seen from its fan event that was held earlier this month to promote the film.

Ghost in the Shell is a long running anime franchise that started with the 1990 manga by Masamune Shirow and made popular internationally with the animated film by Momoru Oshii. The story varies with each new iteration, but at the core, the franchise tells the story of human turned cyborg Motoko Kusanagi( AKA Major) leading a spec ops organization known as Section 9. The franchise is known by fans for its philosophical and psychological themes of technology and transhumanism.

The film, directed by Rupert Sanders(Snow White and the Huntsman) stars Scarlett Johansan(Avengers) as the Major in here first year leading the Section 9 team where she comes face to face with a mysterious figure that seems to know more about here past than she does.

To promote the film further, Paramount and IMAX held a fan event across several theaters in the US that offered fans an exclusive first look at the film. The show started at 7, but fans were already forming a long line outside the theater an hour early as it was first come first serve. But they didn't have to wait long, as viewers were let in early to admire the concept art and props that were displayed in front of the theater before the screening began. Posters were also given from the film such as the infamous robot Geisha from the first trailer and the even more infamous Batou cybernetic eyes.

By the time everyone were seated in the massive IMAX theater the screening was finally about to start but not before a surprise appearance by Rupert Sanders who told us a little bit about how he got the job and how he use various iterations of the franchise to compose an original story for the film. The screening finally began with the first 12 minutes of the film followed by a short trailer. Not to give too much about the preview away, but if you are already familiar with the scene featuring the robot geisha’s, the you already saw a good chunk of the preview Nonetheless, it was a fun and action packed scene to watch, especially in IMAX.. The preview wasn’t the end of this event though, as several fans who exited the theater were able to meet the Sanders and some even able to get a photo or autograph.

All in all, the event was a fun experience with fun gifts and fun surprises. Having a event for a film with such a niche audience alone was especially fun and being able to see several fans of different demographics, young and old is what make going to these events the most fun.

Ghost in the Shell, the live action film adaptation of the long running anime franchises, debuts March 31.

Is the term "cult flm" changing(again)?

Nowadays if you ask someone what a cult film is, the most likely answer is probably a movie like Donnie Darko. I mean of course for most people a cult film is just a film that is vintage and low budget right? But is it possible for other movies to become a cult film, like maybe Transformers? Sure it may not be low budget, but it does fit the bill.




First we should define what a cult film actually is,  a cult film is by strict definition a film that has a small but dedicated fanbase despite a films critic reception. Over the years though the meaning has changed with films such as Rocky Horror Picture, Labyrinth, and Donnie Darko gaining cult status. It is because these particular films and others like them gaining the status that there is a somewhat misconception that cult films are. It can be easily believed that cult films have to be either from the 80s, quirky and bizarre, or a independent low budget film. This isn't entirely the case since not every film with those symptoms have gone on to be remembered as cult classics.

Which then leads to my argument, if by definition a movie that a rocky horror musical can also be a cult film such as a big budget franchise like the Transformers series. As we mention before, a cult film is a film that has a strong following despite reviews. Despite their sequels getting less and less reviews, the transformers film franchise stills seems to have its number of fans that allow the series to continue. It doesn't stop there a lot of other films such as Jupiter Ascending and even the DC films such as Batman V Superman is gaining quite the following despite it's initial reception.

  

Of course in the end time will also tell. Like Labyrinths, most films gain a cult status long after it's initial release. And while a lot of these films are off to a good start, it is to wonder if they will be fondly remembered ten year later.

Digimon Pre-Adventure Part 2

With 14 days left until the English release of Tri it's probably a good time for me to finish part 2 of the Digimon Pre-adventure series. This is a small series where I talk about a few of the digimon materials that were released before Digimon became an actual hit thanks to the Adventure anime. Basically the time when Metalgreymon was Blue instead orange.

If you want to read the first part you can do so here http://brainnonsense.blogspot.com/2016/08/digimon-pre-adventure-part-1.html




The Game

Digimon World debut in 1998 in Japan, but came out internationally around the time Adventure became popular and was a good mix of what Digimon became known for while still staying true to the virtual pets. The game featured the player being transported to the digital world to help out File Island. As I mentioned this game came out internationally when everyone was way more familiar with the anime than they were with the pets. This included me as well, while a loved getting to explore the eccentric digital world with my digimon like the kids in the show, I was taken a back by the digivolution system. unlike the show you couldn't automatically evolve Agumon to Greymon with a digivice and had to stop exploring to properly care for unless you want a Numemon( which happened more times than I can count.)

Despite it's flaws and glitches though the game became a cult hit with fans and Bandai eventually got  wind of this and released spiritual successors with Digimon World Re:Digitalze for the Vita and Digimon World: Next Order.

                                       

The Pilot Movie

Like the game the digimon movie came out internationally much later than it did in Japan. Internationally, the movie came out along with the following two films as one movie sometime around Adventure 02 was airing. In japan though, this movie came out a week before the actual anime and acted as sort of a pilot for the show.

In case you don't remember the story it involved a young Tai and Kari meeting there first digimon(a Koromon) four years before the series started. Hilarity ensues as the kids try to keep the monster under control until it grows too big for it's own good and begins to wander around town and soon began a fight with a wild digimon.


Like the Hurricane Touchdown movie, this film also offered a new tone not found within the anime. The movie was less of a shounen anime and reminded me more of movies like ET or Where The Wild Things Are as the the film focuses on the child like wonders of befriending a monster followed by the dangerous consequences.

What was probably the weirdest thing I took from this movie that still has me questioning it today was creating an agumon that was 10 times larger than was in they are known for. At first I figured that it was they're way of spectacle to the movie by presenting something you wouldn't find in the show, but after finding out it this actually served as the pilot, I do wonder if the original intent was to have rookie level digimon this size. The only problem with that theory though is that rookie levels from manga and games have been implied to be smaller and with not a lot of behind the scenes information, it's still up in the air how much was planned before and after the movie was made for the anime series. But it's still fun to speculate.

And now the real Adventure

A week after that the rest is history, Adventure debut on TV in japan, along with it coming out internationally shortly afterwards. The anime helped put digimon in the same league of other kids franchises with several other games, movies, and more merchandise to follow. And pretty soon, US fans will get to properly celebrate it's 15th anniversary with the English dub of Tri premiering this month. It will be fun to see the movie in theaters and I hope the event will bring the same excitement I had seeing the first episode on Fox Kids.

Trailer Friday

One thing that helps a tiring week a bit more enjoyable is finding new trailers on YouTube. I am sure I am not the only movie fan that at the end of the day will type "trailer 2016" and come across a few trailers that for movies you are either already excited about or ones you didn't even know were coming out next week.




Morgan

Despite the fact that I do love superhero/comic book films, it does seem lately that it's our only outlet nowadays for action or Sci-Fi movies. Fortunately there are still original movies still trying to come out and the one that has me intrigue the most is Morgan. From what I can understand, this film involves a corporate troubleshooter having to meet with a genetically created human Morgan and decide whether she a threat. This only the second trailer released so there isn't really anything new that you wouldn't find in the first trailer.


Death Note Light Up the New World

To celebrate its anniversary, Death Note has made a resurgence in the media realm. With a new TV drama, the American adaption finally in motion, and a new sequel for there film series that was released 10 years ago. Light Up the New World takes places in present days after the events of the first two films and like the franchise itself, Death Notes are making a come back. With six death notes appear on earth, it is up to L's apparent successor to track them and a new Kira down before it's too late.




Guardians

Its seems that Russia is trying to cash in on the success of superhero movies in the west with the Guardians. Like the Death Note trailer this is the debut of the English trailer for the film. The trailer suggest it is about a team of either genetically created or enhanced humans who have to come together to fight an ancient threat. After seeing and loving the movie Night watch (which is considered to be Russia first high budget blockbuster, I have been waiting to see more European films take a crack at a Hollywood style film. And while I wasn't too impressed with what I saw before, this new trailer has me intrigued.


Rings

Samara returns and has upgraded her cursed video for the modern age as it seems she has converted her video to an MP4 and uploaded it online for new naïve victims to view. This one caught my interest because I had no idea there was a new one being made. Most likely because I don't pay to close attention to horror movies. Either way, finding out this movie is coming out is a somewhat nice surprise.


That's it for this week. Hopefully and surely there will be more to come so this can be a weekly thing.

Suicide Squad: The Expectations of Outsiders

One of the top summer films I was looking forward to was released a few weeks ago and with along with rumors of cut scenes, supposed multiple cuts, and early bad reviews, reception has become pretty mixed. If you were to ask me though, despite some flaws, this film did a good job at what I was hoping the film would do. Present these known baddies in as more than just criminals and use there known tropes and quirks as a means to separate itself from other superhero films.

These characters have a heart(well not all of them)

It can be argued that after the series Seinfeld, jerk ass characters became the norm for a lot of characters. several series and characters such as Archer, Deadpool, and even Rick and Morty have became popular for their use of characters that aren't the typical good guys that you see such action series and instead people who love to break the rules, swear, and show us how great it is to be a jerk. As interesting as these kind of characters were when I first discovered them, I got bored of it really fast. Eventually it just felt like all they had to make a jerk-ass anti-hero was kill a guy, make a vulgar pun or joke, and people loved it. Either that or make the jerk characters have so much insecurities and inner turmoil that they become a bummer like Bojack Horseman. Which is why it became a concern with me when it came to this movie. After all, a movie involving DC's most well known and popular villains for a wide audience was DC chance to cash in on this trope. Fortunately, that wasn't so much the case with Suicide Squad. While the beginning of the film and even trailers focused on the snarky and humor side of these characters, by the time they entered Mid Way City for their first mission became a different story. As the story goes on, the fast-like humor is drop as the characters start to warm up to each other and even visibly show actual. The film also makes an attempt to show that these guys don't necessary want to or even like to be villains but are because of bad choices leading them to a dark hole that is hard to get out of or because society treating them like such outsiders to a point that the feel that their purpose in life is to be the bad guy.

With several other that would rather glamorizing jerk like tendencies, it was nice and even a bit heartwarming to see characters to show that they have a heart that slowly grows throughout the film.


Magick


The Number one thing that got me looking forward to this movie and is still my number one thing about it was the use of the supernatural and magick. When it comes to a lot of superhero movies, heroes are mostly pit against adversary that are basically their superpower doppelganger. Krptonian vs Kryptonian, Super Soldier vs Super Soldier, Iron Man vs yet another business man in a tech suit. Even when we get villain that is different from the hero it tends to be someone who's powers are either otherworldly or science based. It seems that a lot of superheroes films tend to shy away from using elements that are fantasy based. Things such as the Mandarin rings are non-existence in his film debut and even Thor's magic aesthetic in films has been changed to have more of a sci-fi feel to it. This is probably the first movie since Hellboy that I have seen a comic book movie use occult magic played straight within a film and not only that have it faced against characters who have no real experience with the supernatural. It is this that makes the movie stand out pretty well against most superhero films as of late.(At least until Dr Strange comes out I'm sure)

Harley Quinn

I was never a huge fan of Harley Quinn.  For the longest time and kinda even now she is just known for being the Joker's girlfriend which can make her feel like a one note character. It's because of that I really had no interest in attempting to see more of here out side of here debut in Batman: The Animated Series. Since she was included in this movie, I had no choice but to see this character again. But to be honest I'm glad they included her because I felt this was a good opportunity to see the character in a different light and not tied too much to the Joker. In the end I think it work out well. As many can tell she no longer has too much of here clown aesthetic and to extent neither does the Joker. I think this was a good way to have two characters who are a couple able to two still be recognize as different people, similar to how parents stop dressing their set of twins in the same clothes.

Also I may be one of the few that is glad that the alleged extended Joker scenes were cut. While I understand that the Joker should be in the film due the fact that he is responsible for the creation of Harley's path to villainy, I don't think we need to be reminded that the two are in an on-off relationship in great detail yet again . And I said before, the less Joker, the more Harley has the chance to shine and develop into someone that is more than just girl-Joker.

Expectations
Is seems that the theme of this movie was expectations, Society of this films world only expect the worst of the Squad the same way some expected the worst from this film because of how different they are. But both the characters and this film showed that they there differences is what made them stand out from the rest and became the strong point for the film and characters.

Digimon Pre Adventure Part 1

After the recent new trailers of both, the third Tri movie and Digimon Universe series being released, along with the announcement of Joshua Seth returning for the Tri dubbed movie, along with the dubbed release soon upon upon us, it's no surprise that I doing another post about Digimon. Digimon Adventure was what put Digimon on the map in terms of the popular children's franchise back then. But the anime wasn't the first attempt at trying to reach a mass appeal. What some may not know is that there were several material that were created that eventually led to the creation of the anime. Some well known and liked among the fans and some still a bit obscure.


                                  

Before Adventures, the first Digimon merchandise release was the Digimon v-pet that I'm sure most people know about by this point. The v-pet was created by Bandai to basically market a Tamagotchi leaned more towards the boy demographic. Along with taking care of your pet, you also had to pinned them against others in order for them to grow. As for as I know, only the first version came to the States. Up to 6 versions were released in japan along with several others as the franchise grew such as the Pendulum series. Most Digimon fans already know about the pets, but one of the more interesting things that doesn't seem to get much attention was the visual materials and manga that were created to promote them

The First Manga

The first one we will talk about is the booklet known as Digital Monster: I'll be the Digimon King. This was a guide book for the digimon v-pet  that came out on 1997. Besides it being one of the early materials, the thing in this book worth mentioning about is the illustrations. On the back of the book you can see early designs for the champion level digimon on the v-pets. These designs vary from resembling what the digimon look now to looking like there not even in the same franchise. My personal two favorite are the designs for Greymon and Devimon. Greymon the furthest from how he usually looks. His blue skin and grey horns actually makes look a lot like Veedramon, and is apparently the inspiration for Veedramons creation. Devimon also looks pretty different. For someone who is known to have a more scary and menacing appearance, this design is a pretty different contrast.

Here he has more of a chibi like body and come as more mischievous than menacing, reminds me more of Impmon or even Demidevimon. Along with the digimon, we get some of the early cast of humans companions. There are two boys(one blues, the other red) and a girl with yellow hair. Inside the book there is also a manga and a strange illustration of the cast dressed in sentai-like suits. Unfortunately I can't find a translation of the manga, but from the looks of it the manga is meant to be a tutorial on how to fight and take care of your v-pet.

C'mon Digimon

Next we have the manga C'mon Digimon also illustrated by Tenya Yabuno. This one shot manga came out around the same time the Digmon King guide was released and like that booklet featured a lot of what was to come of the Digimon franchise. The story was set in a world were instead of the digital world, digimon only existed in the v-pets where like the real life v-pets, people fought one another in order to raise the best digimon. One of the best digimon player is a character named Shinchiro Josaki who with his digimon Deathmon has not only beaten the competition but is somehow able to adsorb his opponents data and use for its own. The only hope the kids have is our main hero Kentouro Kamon and his digimon Bun. As mentioned earlier, this manga offered a lot for what was to come for the manga. This one of the first fully fledged out story for the franchise and even gave us an early deciption of what the hero Tai Kamiya will look like in the form of Kamon. Also unlike the anime series, the manga focuses more on promoting the v-pets merchandise something quite a few more digimon manga would continue to due when a new one was released.

V-Tamer

Next is probably the most well known and popular digimon manga: V-tamers. V-tamers is when we get our first introduction to the character Tai before he even made his apparence in the Adventures anime, that is if you lived in Japan as the  manga didn't really reach stateside until the show was pretty well known. This series focused on Tai(who I sometimes refer to as his japanese name Taichi to differentiate the two) who is instead of spending his time at summer camp before the adventure begins, is at a digimon v-pet tournament where his digimon is rejected for being considered a glitch digimon. Soon he his transported to the digiworld where he meets his partner, Zeromaru( a Veedramon instead of an Agumon) and Gabumon. Together they are ordered by a Holyangemon to stop an impeding doom that is about to plague the digital world and along the way meets other tamers and familiar faces. This is probably the first series where the concept of the digital world comes into play. Before this, the idea was that digimon only lived in the v-pets, that explores more of the idea of digimon living in a parallel world. Another thing that I thought was intresting was that this manga also gave us the idea of digimon having individual names( such as Gabu the Gabumon) something that is rarely explored in the digimon franchise. The manga is one the longest running digimon manga, and even continued well after the end of Digimon Adventure, leading to this Taichi to have crossovers with other goggled heroes such as Davis from 02 and Takuya from Frontier.

If any Digimon fans or even manga fans haven't read this manga yet, I highly recommend it. It is the first Digimon material to introduce a lot of digimon concepts that we come to know later in Adventures while having a lot of ideas that make it it's own thing.

To Be Continued
That about concludes part 1 of Pre-Adventures, were I covered the manga material that came before adventures. Look forward to the next Parts were I covered one of the first Digimon game and pilot that led to the adventure anime.

What I know and feel about Tri ( or Tri is coming! Tri is coming!)

If there’s one franchise that I continue to love is the Digimon franchise. But lately, there’s one thing the Digimon franchise has done to me is make me eat my own words on multiple occasions, especially the popularity it still has in international. At first, I didn’t think Xros wars would never come to the states, but sure enough it did, none of the PSP titles would ever come her yet sure enough Digimon Cyber Slueth was on its way to the Vita and PS4. Next was the movie Digimon Adventures Tri an Movie(or ova series some would argue) made its’s  debut in Japan last fall with the announcement that it was also getting a subtitled release internationally on Crunchyroll. with that news I figured that was going to be it. I realized and happy to know that Digimon still has a pretty niche audience in the US for the series to still be distributed enough that we will be able to get the series digitally, but I was pretty certain that we would not be getting anything like a dub for the series, especially after the lukewarm response that the Xros Wars got from fans. But yet again I was wrong, early July of 2016 veteran Digimon voice actor Jeff Nimoy(voice of Tentomon and several other characters) announce on his twitter that he just started recording lines for the new Digimon Tri dub. Not only that but the will also be released in select theaters across the country. Like most digifans, I had tons questions in my head. “Will the whole cast come back?”, “will we get a straight dub?”

The Cast
As I mentioned the announcement first came when Jeff Nimoy posted on his Twitter page that he will be voicing his well know digirole, Tentomon. So it’s safe to say that like the Japanese version, there is an effort to bring back atleast some of the cast. It wasn’t long that veteran voice actors Joshua Seth( voice of Tai) and Micheal Reisz( Voice of Matt) has also express interest in returning.

The Music
Over the years, as more and more Digifans are exposed to the Japanese music of Digimon more and more fall in love with their infamous songs such as Butterfly and Brave Heat. It’s no surprise that there are fans out there that hope that the dub will retain these songs when bringing the movie to a bigger audience. At Anime Expo 2016, TOEI was there to promote several upcoming anime and games, one of them of course included a trailer for the Digimon Tri dub. What might disappoint fans of the original subbed version of the show is that the trailer didn’t include the Tri remix of Butterfly that some may hoped, but a new theme similar to what we know and expect from the dub.

This unfortunately had upset quite a few people, I for one didn’t mind the theme too much yes it was kinda bad but, it’s kinda what I feel about most anime songs, Japanese or English. Personally I think the only thing this theme had going against it, was how it was shamelessly slapped on to a trailer meant for a completely different style of song. it may be because of the fact that the Dubbed movie is coming out by fall and Toei and ElevenArts are in a rush to promote it, I’m sure if they put a trailer of there own together to better compliment the song it would not have gotten as much backlash.

The “Style”(and a bit more about the music)
When it comes to the old dub vs sub debate among anime, Digimon fandom seems to be the most divisive. There are fans who don’t mind and fondly grew up with the English dubbed series, but there are also some that are not too happy about how previous Digimon dubs have done things such as change names, music, and add dialogue to the English and believe that this has somewhat changed the from what it is in the original Japanese version. Even though I am someone who personally see’s no fundamental difference between the to and tends to watch it dub, I don’t think fans have much to worry about in terms of how this dub is going to be handle. The main reason is that unlike most Digimon series that have come out over the years this series is in a new style and aimed at a new demographic. when i watched the first movie I didn’t get the feeling like this was made to be a Saturday morning cartoon aimed at children, this show definitely made to be a series for older teens( a seinen, is that what it’s called?) and not only that its also aimed at those who grew up with the show. I think both TOEI and Eleven Arts, have shown that they are aware of this. In a Comicverse interview with Eleven Arts CEO Ko Mori, gave us a vague but intriguing idea on what they are aiming to achieve with their direction with the dub, and the music as well. In the interview, he mentions that they intend to keep the tone and style seen in the Japanese version, but create new music that Americans will be more familiar with. Whether that means we are getting new orchestral music, license songs, or a new version of “Hey Digimon”. Either way from the looks of it, Eleven Arts is attempting to create a dub that pleases both the fans of the Japanese and English dub alike.
My thoughts
As I said, despite me having more of a preference for the English dub(again, to me both versions are the same show), but I do understand the want for Digimon to retain things that are exclusive to the original Japanese version, especially as the franchise continues to reach it’s now older demographic. But I think we should remember that there are people that grew up for almost 15 years referring to Taichi as Tai and it will be a tough thing to just throw away for a small group of people. From the look of thing though, I have good faith that this release will appeal to both fans of the dub along with enough to appeal to those that want the “mature” style seen in the original movie.
Links
http://comicsverse.com/digimon-tri-american-release/ (Eleven Arts interview regarding the Digimon Tri dub realese)

My intro

Don’t really know what to put here, simply just an illustrator who thought that starting a blog would be a fun new hobby. Don’t really know what I’m am into media studies so it may turn into a place where I will write about movies, cartoons and stuff. Maybe even more personal stuff who knows. I’ll probably post my illustrations to though I already have an Instagram for that. What ever this blog becomes, I’m sure it will be a fun ride.