Bleach Ep. 15: Kon’s Great Plan

The first season takes a breather and slows down in this comedy centric episode starring Kon, the stuffed lion. When Kon can no longer take being treated like a toy, he runs away from home to find a better place. But there is a moody parallel story as Rukia finds herself becoming too attached to others in the mortal world. So what does a mysterious black cat appearing mean for our heroes?

Bleach’s comedy is not for everyone and is often over the top. This is one of those episodes, but is leavened by a growing melancholy that quickly becomes foreboding. There are no fights, but plot development is carefully advanced as the next big storyline is setup.

The duality of the episode is introduced early on with a brooding Rukia in bed and a crying Kon dealing with having been put in a ridiculous dress by Ichigo’s sister, Yuzu. Both are suffering for very different reasons and each handles their problems quite differently. At least on the face of it…

Another Year Older, Another Year Wiser?

My birthday was a low key affair, which has become the norm for many years now. While we all get older, the real trick is becoming wiser as the years go by. In a culture devoted to perpetual adolescence, wisdom is dwindling. Not that we ever had enough of that valuable resource, but it is becoming even rarer.

So I hope I have learned a few things in the past year and that they have or in the future will benefit others. It does not seem I learn much for my own gain as time goes by. Since I believe we are here to serve others, it is probably for the best in the eternal scheme of things.

This week I decided to take for myself though. Using my birthday as an excuse, I have focused on me and entertaining myself instead of being productive. This is something someone healthy cannot do and probably does not need to do, but being disabled means you live a life most cannot understand. While I rant against being in a culture of “mass distraction,” it has been a deliberate exercise in it this week.

Being distracted was made easy by the release of Mass Effect 3, the conclusion of the Commander Shepherd trilogy and my present to myself. Some of the content I do not like, but the finale is a worthy ending to the epic story and the conclusion that angered a lot of fans is fine with me. Especially since it appears to be more open ended than they perceive to allow for DLC packs to come. It is a grim story, with the destruction of worlds making that unavoidable. Fortunately, that sense of friendship and personal intimacy with other characters is still intact. Hate the new cover system, it got me killed more times than I can count.

As is tradition, my dad and I went out for crab legs on my birthday. Back when my mother was alive, our birthdays were slightly more than a week apart so we would celebrate that way between them. Amazingly, I did not overstuff myself this year.

Thanks to my sister, I have the Blu-ray of my all time favorite movie coming. Akira Kurosawa’s Ran is a true masterpiece and, in my eyes, superior to Seven Samurai. My first DVD purchase was of this movie, more than a year before I had a DVD-ROM player to view it with. It cost a pretty penny back then, around $35.00 and looked like it was lifted from a VHS tape. No anamorphic widescreen here, just a letterboxed scan wedged into 4:3 ratio. I tried watching it on the new 40” HDTV and it looked awful. So it will be nice to see it in high definition glory.

After we succeeded in out quest for snow crab legs, we went to Blaine’s Farm and Fleet for more wood pellets. There I ran into the deluxe two disc DVD edition of Lawrence of Arabia, the one with the cloth cover on the case. It was in the surplus rack of discount DVDs and was on sale at an additional discount. Paying four dollars to replace my no frills bargain DVD was a no brainer and capped off a nice birthday.

The Long Arm of Uncle Sam

This article on Wired (via Instapundit) caught my attention today. It may surprise people to see just how absolute the Fed’s power over the Internet really is. So any website ending in com, org, or net is claimed to be under United States jurisdiction. What does that mean? It means they can legally shut down any website in the world that ends with those suffixes.

Meanwhile, Anonymous are in a tizzy after one of their own rolled over to the Feds. Language warning for the article, BTW. LulzSec is pretty much done, but there are still quite a few in Anonymous who are sweating bullets at this point.

I am afraid a lot of people assume they can do whatever they want and get away with it due to government incompetence. The thing to remember is that governments are slow and ponderous, but not oblivious. Eventually they will get around to pursuing cyber criminals if they draw enough attention to themselves. With Anonymous constantly making declarations, they might as well be wearing blinking neon signs. Their time is running out.

No deep thoughts on any of this today, because it is merely interesting data for the moment.

Squid Girl Episode 9

UPDATE September 4, 2018

More DMCA take downs have hit the blog despite screen captures long being considered fair use. Due to my not being able to afford a lawyer, I have no choice but to remove them or have the blog suspended. Only the words will be left.

TVTokyo is proving to be foolishly draconian in targeting posts meant to get people interested in seeing the Squid Girl anime and perhaps even purchasing it on DVD or Blu-ray. Being anti-piracy myself this is infuriating that they are targeting posts I wrote hoping to encourage people to try out a delightful show.

In the space of one episode, the show goes from sweetly silly to lunacy. Squid Girl discovers makeup, the dangers of doorbell ditching, and that being fought over is not as much fun as it sounds. But things are not all bad as she makes a friend.

The misadventures of Ika Musume aka Squid Girl are at their best when they mix a dash of sentimentality into the antics. Since most of the stories have a basis in every day events, there is ample opportunity to do so. It is the first story that uses this recipe to best effect and I judge it the most memorable in the episode.

Want to Ring and Jet?

I knew other kids who doorbell ditched when I was younger, but I never found it amusing. Usually the targets were old folks who would become very confused and flustered, which irked me. So when the episode opened with Takeru and his friend doing it, I was prepared to be annoyed. Especially when Squid Girl is taunted into playing “ring and run.”

Seen ringing the doorbell by Chizuru, the hapless girl freezes. Luckily for her, the woman answering the door provides her an out by assuming she a friend of her daughter’s. Bluffing her way out of it, it almost works – until the girl shows up.

Panicked, Ika yanks the girl to a neighboring park and begs for her help in covering up the lie. Kiyomi turns out to be a bright and sweet girl, not to mention forgiving. Her solution to Squid Girl’s dilemma is clever, very clever indeed.

Having made her first friend around her own age, Ika gets carried away and invites Kiyomi to her house the next day. Just one little problem: she never asked for permission from Chizuru, the one person capable of annihilating her. Guilt ridden and paranoid, the big question is whether or not Squid Girl will survive long enough to be friends with Kiyomi.

Do Mollusks Wear Makeup?

The discovery of a tube of lipstick belonging to Eiko awakens the girly side of Squid Girl who cannot wait to experiment with her new look. Delighted that makeup can attract more attention, she finds that it draws even more unwanted advances from the ever annoying Sannae. There is power to be found in style though.

But what style should she go for? Looking around the Lemon Beach House, Ika and Eiko find a wide menagerie of styles. Some are amusing riffs based on other animes, but others are horrific examples from reality. Overhearing a pair of girls talk about how they wrap men around their fingers piques the fish out of water’s interest.

But just how far will Squid Girl take things in her quest for power? And who else in the cast will receive a dramatic makeover?

Aren’t You Armed with a Secret Weapon?

The sudden appearance of Cindy the alien researcher on a sweltering hot day unnerves the staff of the restaurant. Her persistent efforts to haul Ika Musame off to be studied draws the attention of the tentacle haired girl’s main stalker. Yes, Sannae has shown up and will brook no competition. Soon a fight is brewing, complicated by jealousy of Eiko’s spending time with Squid Girl.

As if that was not insane enough, the three idiots from MIT show up in beach wear. Of course, for them that also means lab coats so that the nerds can carry their experiments with them. A very dangerous, if seductive, offer is made to Ika and things escalate out of control quickly.

What horrific events could lead to the above screen captures? What could enrage Chizuru so? It is time for the cast to find out just how deadly the mild mannered young woman can be…

Thoughts

Episode 9 is one of the better entries in the series, mainly due to the first segment that introduces Kiyomi to the ever growing cast of characters. The friendship that starts there becomes a source of some of the sweeter stories later on. One has to like Kiyomi, since she is a refreshingly nice girl without any odd quirks. Her assumption that Eiko and Chizuru are Ika’s sisters is never refuted and the sense that they are family has grown quite strong by this point.

The makeup focused story is great fun too. It serves as a chance to make fun of extreme styles, while also showing Ika becoming a little more normal. But only a little, as the ending shows. I really enjoyed Goro’s lines and the odd relationship he has with his fellow protector of the sea.

Sheer insanity dominates the final story and the ridiculous spectacle of Sannae and Cindy competing over Squid Girl is mad enough, but then the mad scientists drive sanity right over the cliff. But the real star of this segment is Chizuru.

This review is brought to you by Chizuru’s death glare. You really do not want to upset her enough for her to open her eyes.

Recovering from the Weekend

I suppose that most Americans would look at the title and assume copious amounts of partying and alcohol were involved, but since I am a devout Latter-day Saint the latter is not possible. The former can happen, but in this case did not. Still, after two weeks of being ill with a virus on top of my normal CFS, it was a bit more strenuous than normal.

It started with a normal D&D session that got very loopy and not due to the story. When a group of friends have not been together for several weeks, it is very hard to get them to focus on gameplay. At least that is been my experience and it was particularly chaotic this time around.

Stayed over at a friend’s house and went in with his carpool to church, so that meant being there three hours before sacrament meeting started. A light snow had deposited enough flakes to be slippery, so we shoveled the walks. Normally, that would be too draining for me, but the snow was so light it was more like scraping the walks.

However, I am feeling it today. The pain is not muscular, because there was nothing to lift. But when I get too tired and the weather changes, it becomes a double whammy of pain in the joints and back. A rough night led to sleeping in and I am still a little fuzzy headed.

Still, it was worth it.

I see Rush Limbaugh has lost seven sponsors over his extremely foolish insults toward the female students that the Democrats setup to cause a big ruckus. Rush fell for obvious bait and I am continually amazed at how naïve conservatives are in regards to the Left’s tactics. The whole contraception controversy has been a very carefully calculated and laid out plan between the Democrats and the media to divert attention from the economy by reigniting the culture wars. Both Santorum and Limbaugh have shown themselves to be rather stupid in doing exactly what the Left wanted them to do.

It is only the beginning of what I predict will be the dirtiest and ugliest election season since Abraham Lincoln was elected. The political Right have no clue just how bad it is going to get and have busied themselves with self destructive internecine warfare, much to the media’s glee. The phrase “Stuck on stupid” keeps coming to mind.Failing to keep the eye on the ball due to ego is not forgivable.

With global freight shipping declining, durable goods orders down, and inventories growing, the real story will be the economic collapse happening. The media will avoid that as long as possible to keep Obama in power, but I think things will hit a critical point before the election. The fact he has told the House and Senate Democrats there will be no money coming from him and his PACs is a big warning sign that there are money problems. They act surprised by it, but it has been clear that the only person Barack cares about is Barack for a very long time now.

Over in Russia, Putin has shown how it is done with massive fraud and a lot of media blitzing. Reports from observers indicate it was not a fair election, but does anyone really expect it to be overturned? At the rate things are going, America will end up like this.

At least I will have a distraction for awhile. Mass Effect 3 unlocks around midnight and I am eager to see how the trilogy ends. Forget Star Wars and Star Trek, the Mass Effect universe is the most exciting science fiction setting currently out there. The ability to turn a game into something more akin to being inside an epic film or novel series has been the great achievement of the franchise.

I had better get to work on another review before I start playing, or there will not be one posted any time soon!

Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (1996) Review

aka Attack of the Legion.

Everyone’s favorite fire breathing and flying turtle returns for the second chapter of the 1990’s revamp. When an alien menace threatens Japan, the Earth’s guardian gets his scaly hide kicked repeatedly by a superior foe. Brutal fights, massive destruction, and science fiction horror show this series is not aimed at little kids anymore. UPDATED for making of extras.

Gamera was always something of a joke to me while I was growing up. Of course I was a dedicated and loyal Godzilla fan, so a giant turtle that flew by spinning was sure to be a target of my disdain. It did not help that the movies were aimed at very little kids who could cheer him on in fights and revive him by doing so. It was not mere corn, it was buttered corn with sugar sprinkled on it. I prefer salt, thank you very much.

So when I declare the trilogy begun with Gamera: Guardian of the Universe contains the best kaiju (giant monster) films to ever come out of Japan, please note that there is no sarcasm involved. Gamera 2: Advent of Legion manages to do the impossible and that is to turn the ridiculous ideas of the original films into something cleverly entertaining. Attention to detail, character development, and excellent pacing are to be found in abundance. It is almost enough to convince you that a turtle can fly.

Like this post or the monster gets it!

In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

In Memoriam: Andrew Breitbart (1969-2012)

This was a shocker to read this morning. Breitbart had done a lot of good in getting the conservative message out there and especially in giving the libertarians and conservatives in Hollywood a place to voice their views. Like a shooting star, he blazed brightly and all too briefly.

My prayers and condolences go out to his family, friends, and coworkers.