Dragonball Evolution: Should you watch it?

I just watched the movie earlier today. Everyone was going on and on about how it would suck, especially when it was a movie about one of the most famous and popular Manga of all time- Dragonball (Recently been edited to HD, and dubbed “Dragonball Kai”)

You know what?

It sucked.

You know, there’s a template to producing movies:

Young Teenage Boy (YTB) gets trained by Old Wise Man (OWM)

OWM gets killed by Very Evil Released Villain (VERV)

OWM tells YTB to find Older Wiser Man (OWM 2)

YTB meets Hot Young Lady (HYL)

YTB and HYL travel together

They find the OWM 2

As always, OWM 2 gets to show off his awesomeness

With 3 people, they may call themselves a Evil Eliminating Group (EEG)

The EEG meets with a Bad But Not Evil Guy (BBNEG)

The BBNEG helps the group somehow, and joins the EEG

Although the EEG has tried hard, they fail to follow the ORIGINAL PLAN to kill the VERV.

However, the YTB somehow, using a sacred and almighty power known as MORAL OF THE MOVIE (Eg. “Have faith in yourself”) defeats the VERV

The End.

NOW, you know how to make your very own movie. But note one thing- don’t be so stupid as to claim you adapted the idea from a Very Famous And Loved Manga/Anime/Book/Comic/What-Not. As long as you have some famous director claim to be your co-producer (eg. Stephen Chow), the movie ought to be an un-sucky one.

Ok. I’m going out again, to Novena for dinner. :)

Oh yes, don’t watch the movie.

Rating system

Hey you.

I’ve decided to implement a rating system on all the manga I’ve read, to tell you if it’s worth the read. The ratings will be split into 4 categories:

Plot – Obviously, this is one of the most important aspects of manga (or for the matter of fact, any good read). Will this make you beg for more? Or is it so darn predictable it makes you look like Nostradamus? This category is upon 30.

Drawing – A category regarded as one of the most important in the world of comics, be it Japanese, American or Martian. Granted, different artists have different styles of drawing, and distinct differences may be seen between Shoujo and Shounen manga. (For example, hair in general. Shoujo manga characters tend to have wavier hair which look more realistic while Shounen manga characters tend to have more unique hairstyles, some of which look like durians) Does the artist’s drawing fit the character’s personality? This category is upon 30.

Characters – Some may say this category ought to be under Plot, but this is my blog, so stop whining. This category is upon 20.

Feel – This category IS a little ambiguous. But it cannot be denied that even if the plot and drawing is excellent, there may be the “Oom” missing. This is where this category comes in. This category is upon 20.

If you’ve noticed, I just added a rating to the end of the Ouran High School Host Club post and the Bleach Part I post. Will do so for future posts as well.

Ouran High School Host Club Review: Shoujo?

Since I’m extremely bored, I’ve decided to write another (or maybe half) post on Ouran High School Host Club! First, the main characters.

There! I shall introduce them by left to right order.

The guy with the specs looking all smart is Kyoya Ootori, the vice president of the host club.

The twins below him are Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, with Kaoru being the more mature one while Hikaru being the one more prone to jealousy.

Above them with the blonde hair is Tamaki Suoh, a half French half Japanese guy, president of the host club.

The one holding the bouquet of roses is Haruhi Fujioka, who is actually the only female in the club. She’s the protagonist of the whole manga.

The lil’ one beside her holding that cute bunny is Mitsukuni Haninozuka, also known affectionately as Honey. He may look really young, but he’s one of the oldest in the group.

Lastly, Takashi Morinozuka. He’s actually Honey’s bodyguard, tho’ his family is really rich as well.

SO

What is Ouran all about? The Ouran High School Host Club, as its name suggests, is a club consisting of guys catering to girls. Girls of the high school pay to chat with the handsome members of the host club. Oh yes, Ouran High is actually a school exclusively for the super rich and super famous, so the members of the host club do not actually need the money. They just wish to entertain the girls in their school for fun. The entire story starts with Haruhi stumbling upon the Host Club. She is the only non-rich, non-famous student in the entire school, gaining entrance merely through a scholarship. Unluckily (or rather luckily), she knocks over an 8 million yen vase belonging to the host club. However, at this point of time, the host club has no idea she is a girl due to her wearing of long slacks, polo shirts and vests coupled with her oversized glasses. Naturally, a girl-looking-guy would look rather cute to the Host Club. Thus, she is forced to join the club to pay off her debt. Soon later, the host club finds out that she’s a girl, and the guys, one by one, slowly but surely, start falling in love with her due to her innocence and personality. Many comical scenes happen in this Shoujo manga, many revolving around the Host Club members’ ignorance about how the poor live, unintentionally poking fun at Haruhi. (Eg. “I-IS THIS… THE LEGENDARY…. INSTANT NOODLES THE POOR EAT?)

I’ll end here for now. :)

Plot- 23/30

Drawing – 20/30

Characters –18/20

Feel – 16/20

Total – 77/100, Not bad at all.

Manga in general…

Well, many people ask, “What in the world is the difference between American comics and Manga(Japanese Comics)???”

If you’ve asked this question before, this post is meant for you, the Ignorant One.

Firstly, the drawing style is very, very different. The most prominent being how manga artists draw the facial expressions of their characters. The trademark larger-than-life eyes and the gravity defying hair of the characters are the best examples of what I mean. Manga artists aim for a more exaggerated style while comic artists go for a more realistic style. 

This is a rarer case. =]

Oh yes, you may have noted the excessive sweating of the man (whom I do not recognize from any manga) which implies his nervousness (or perhaps, although unlikely, some unknown sweating disorder). Manga artists love to use sweat and other minor physical characteristics of humans to showcase their emotions. Others being throbbing veins, blushing(I do not mean Pikachu) and the likes.

Secondly, one manga series belongs to one artist, unlike American comics where more than one artist may use the same character as long as consent is given by the company which owns the comic. For this reason, the plot is very consistent, with only one arc of the series going on at the same time (Which is actually a rather good thing). HOWEVER, the flipside to this would mean no other interpretations of the same characters of a series. It’s really up to your own taste.

Thirdly, this is perhaps the most obvious, manga is mostly printed in black and white, while comics are printed in colour. Depending on how you see it, this may be good or bad.

Fourthly, manga doesn’t just go for the Biff-Bam-Boom which majority of the comics do, but instead focus on many aspects. Manga are normally split into two categories, Shoujo and Shounen. Shoujo refers to manga targeting female readers, such as Ouran High School Host Club and Fruits Basket. These manga revolve around romance, love and what the Japanese term as Slice Of Life, a manga genre which refers to the depiction of the life of an average person. As you may have guessed, Shounen manga target male readers. Examples include battle mangas such as Bleach and Naruto, detective mangas such as Detective Conan and sports mangas such as Eyeshield 21. Obviously, I have a slight (Okay maybe great) preference towards Shounen mangas, but I do like some Shoujo mangas, like those I mentioned in the above. Some manga are also unique in terms of their themes, such as Akumetsu, which speaks of a boy with powers of cloning himself publicly killing politicians and other people who have proven to be corrupt and detrimental to the Japanese society and economy. The reader will be made to think if this super-terrorist’s actions are justified, especially when he has, up to the present, a zero-mistake kill rate (which means he hasn’t wrongly killed anybody innocent yet). Another type of manga which makes some people smile when mentioned is the Ecchi genre. This is one of those genres which make manga famous. Ecchi denotes sexy content that is added into the story mainly for fans of the genre. That being said, no nudity is ever involved (Only some tentacles and other you-would-never-guess touching where they’re not supposed to).

So that’s it for now. I’ve mentioned some of the manga I love, some of which I’d be writing on in the future. But for now, bye~

Bleach Part I

Okay. Since I don't have time to blog now, I'll be keeping you busy reading one of my older (half) posts on Bleach. You can actually find this on my main blog.



Here's one picture. So, the main character is Ichigo.(The guy with the orange hair)

Bleach speaks of another world consisting of souls and Soul Reapers (Known as Shinigami). They will each possess a sword (Known as Zanpakto) which has a unique ability. That being said, some noobs are so weak their swords hasn't "awakened" yet, and therefore, don't have an ability. There are three levels to a sword-


First level- A normal sword with no special ability


Second level - Known as "Shikai", changes the sword's appearance to better facilitate its special abilities.


Third level - Known as "Bankai", can only normally be achieved when a Soul Reaper trains with their zanpakutō for decades. Once achieved, the Soul Reaper can unlock their zanpakutō's full potential, increasing their own power several times over.

The Soul Reapers follow a very complex system and hierarchy to achieve maximum efficiency in ensuring order for both our world and the Spirit world. When someone in our world dies, he becomes a Spirit. (Duh) However, he doesn't automatically float/hover/fly to the spirit world if he is "attached" to our world. This means that this person had died with regrets and stuff. SO, it's the job of the lower ranked Soul Reapers to run around and stamp their sword hilts onto the spirit's forehead to exorcise him. That being said, sometimes Soul Reapers are unable to correctly track down every single spirit, and so some are left floating around. These forgotten spirits would slowly transform into evil monsters known as Hollows. These Hollows are the main enemies of the Soul Reapers. They eat other Hollows/spirits/Soul Reapers/Humans and practically anything else. To ensure a fair competition between these Hollows and the Soul Reapers, Tite Kubo (The author) granted these Hollows special abilities as well (Such as being able to release little critters from their mouths which would crawl onto a Soul Reaper and explode. Another kamikaze fetish on Tite Kubo's part). As per mentioned, Soul Reapers follow a sort of hierarchy. At the top is the Spirit King (Whose face, even voice, has not been seen or heard by the readers before), followed by Division 0, the Spirit King's personal bodyguards and the King's Office, which specializes in killing Menos (Hollows which have eaten so many other Hollows it develops into a kick ass unkillable giant monster). Right below these two factions is the 46 Chambers, a useless administrative organization which does nothing but give orders. They don't have anyone who can fight AT ALL. Finally, it's the Thirteen Divisions. As the name suggests, it consists of 13 groups of Soul Reapers, each Division consisting of a Captain, a vice captain, and the 3rd to 20th most powerful Soul Reapers of each division known as Officers.



[EDIT: THE PICTURE IS TOO DAMN BIG TO FIT INTO MY BLOG. SO CLICK ON IT TO SEE THE FULL PICTURE]
Here. The thirteen captains of the various divisions. Each of them seriously kicks ass, and all of them possess the skill to utilize the third form of the sword, Bankai. (Apart from Kenpachi, 11th Division Captain, the guy on the right with the super spiky hair. But he kicks so much ass he doesn't even use the second form, Shikai. Yes, he fights simply with a sword. A rotten sword, nonetheless)The leader of the Thirteen Divisions is the old man in the picture, called Genryuusai.Okay, when I said Kenpachi kicked ass, I meant it. But THIS old man, he kicks triple ass.


The above took me 3 seconds to copy and paste.

TREASURE it.

Plot – 24/30

Drawing – 25/30

Characters – 19/20

Feel – 15/20

Total – 83/100, get off that lazy ass of yours and go buy it and Comic Connection now!