somewhat keen observations (inception ending)

SPOILER ALERT 
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
AVERT YOUR EYES NOW OR BE SORRY







I'm awaiting the barrage of analysis on the ending to start right here! 
I want to hear what people think, but here are some observations my friends and I made after watching the movie:


[spoiler]
1. Mal's Totem: one of my friends pointed out that you never actually see Dom's totem, and that he uses Mal's totem throughout the course of the movie. Since they bothered to make such a big deal out of the totem issue, one can conclude that Dom never made an actual reality check because he had been using someone else's totem the whole time. One rebuttal to this argument is that Mal was already dead and that ownership of the totem is irrelevant as long as one understands the weight. However, how could Dom understand it if he never touched it in real life?


2. Waking from Limbo: another friend pointed out that during the final airplane scene, Dom and Saito wake up without any machinery attached. They also woke up without a "jolt". My argument was that the time it took for Dom to find Saito was in actuality just the short amount of time during the actual airplane flight. However, because Saito died and entered limbo, he had aged much more than Dom did when Dom showed up. The scene cuts from them reciting each others' lines because of the altitude drop serving as the jolt. By then, everyone had already removed the machinery and were just waiting for the two to wake up.


3. Spinning Top Scene: if the first scenario I mentioned is indeed correct, then Dom is actually so deeply wrapped in layers upon layers of dreams that he can no longer differentiate dream from reality. It's like that one Twilight Zone episode where the guy kept waking up from nightmares - except in this one the "dream machine" serves as Dom's way of constantly digging deeper into the dream world. While various sites have mentioned that this is supposed to be a "buzzed" and "open-ended" finale, I'd like to think that this entire movie was but a segment of Dom's larger dream that he never left. 


[/spoiler]


*this is an excerpt from a forum post I made, so sorry for the lack of proper grammar.

the long awaited (scarce postings)

So I don't write much here anymore. No, I don't have any new excuses, cause they're pretty much the same. I do want to talk a bit about what I've been up to lately though, cause I feel like I owe it to both myself and the few other people that read this blog. 


First off, I'd like to say that my personal branding is indeed in the works. I agree that I could also say a billion other things are in the works, but I only have less than a year left until I graduate - it's best I begin thinking about how to sell myself. I have a few ideas, but none of them are truly amazing. It's going to take much more soul exploring to finally derive the perfect theme for myself. When that happens, this blog will no longer exist (sadly), but I will redirect all users to my new site! Look forward to this very much.


Secondly, I've been playing some Super Street Fighter 4. I'm actually spending a lot more time with this version of the game than I did its predecessor, though that doesn't mean I actually love the game. I plan on learning it to a decent level at least so that I may walk into a crowd or the arcade without embarrassing myself. Yes, Dictator is indeed still my main, but I do plan on learning Juri and a few other characters to that I may diversify my character vocabulary. 


Thirdly, I have begun to play World of Warcraft again. It's been a long time, and I'm glad to find that upon my return I've been warmly greeted by all the veterans of the original founding members of my guild, Art of War. I must say that the quality of players has really improved; some of the people that I remember were fairly terrible are now leading the DPS meters or officers or both! What a change! I'm glad that players are able to grow and learn to become good at the game - it brings some sort of peace to my heart lol. After raiding twice so far with AoW in Icecrown Citadel, I must say that I definitely enjoy a guild where I only have to raid twice a week versus five days. Unfortunately, as well as I am able to dodge fires and void zones, I am unable to compete with the more geared players in the guild now on the DPS meters (I'm about 5300 gear score now, versus the other players who are around 6000 or more). Believe me though: as soon as I reach that level of gear, I'll be back in the top 5 for damage, I guarantee it. I pride myself in being able to optimize my gear, research the specs that yield the most personal DPS, and masterfully execute my Death Knight rotations. All it takes is time, knowledge, and dedication. 


Lastly, I was invited to the World of Warcraft Cataclysm Alpha! I think there's a pretty heavy hand on the NDA right now, so I can't say much I'm afraid. I am going to end this post with a screenshot though (which honestly doesn't spoil that much), but I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the Worgen campaign and will definitely be making a Worgen alt when the release is out. There are a ton of other changes I'd like to talk about as soon as the NDA is lifted, so keep in touch!

The Worgen warrior animations are definitely the coolest!

Thanks for reading this, and have a nice fucking day.

the taste of sheer anger (a tale of lost sleep)

I don't give a shit who reads this post, or what people think of me after tonight, or if people will get in trouble for it. I want to make sure that I am perfectly clear on what I have to say.


This blog post is probably going to be one of the more peculiar ones, as I am writing this "in the moment". To say the least, I am angry. It takes quite a bit to get me all riled up, but there are just a few things that send me over the edge rather quickly. Before I get into that though, let's flash back a week or so ago.


My parents would be out of town during spring break. This a green light for me and my sister to host gatherings at our pad. Skipping forward a bit, I had two miniature gatherings for some old friends of mine, and I promised to let my sister host something Sunday (or yesterday). So Cory and Genny come over and my sister asks me to pick her up two 30 blocks of beer. So now I know that alcohol is going to be involved in this party - okay sure whatever. I trust my sister enough that I know things won't get out of hand. 


Here's where things get tossed into the haymaker. I have class at 7:30 the next morning, so I tell my sister to clean up after herself, and then hit the sack before midnight. Prior to this party, I asked my sister exactly what time it would end. She said it would take 4 hours (starting at 8). Okay we all know that 4 hours isn't going to happen, so I figured I'd give them an hour or two leeway. I try to fall asleep for about 30 minutes before realizing that it's going to be an impossible task. I then set myself to playing a bit of Final Fantasy XIII, hoping that it'd die down soon. It's 3AM and they're still noisy as fuck. I storm outside of my room to take a piss, except both our bathrooms are occupied, so I go to my parents' room. On my way back up the stairs, my sister and I make eye contact, and I give her an ice cold stare. If that wasn't enough, I slammed my door as hard as I could so that everyone at the party could hear it. I figured that my sister would wise up and tell people that it was time to either shut the fuck up or leave. Well, this bullshit continues for another 30 minutes and I'd had it. I call the house, and my sister picks up the phone in a cheery voice. I tell her to come upstairs, and she instantly changes her tone. "Okay".


All the lights are off in my room and I can hear her sniffling as she slowly climbed the stairs. When she gets here I drop bombs on her. "I thought this party was only going to be four hours? You know I have class in three hours. I probably won't even be able to make it because I'm deprived of sleep. You're denying me class, you're wasting my money, you're wasting mom's money." I am fuming at this point, and her rebuttals included that she couldn't get people to leave and that others claimed they were too drunk. I think this is the part that ticked me off the most. Don't invite people that you won't be able to control, and if they're too drunk, tell them to get a fucking cab. I tell her that I am THIS close to kicking everyone in the house out, including her boyfriend. I don't give a fuck if people don't have rides, I don't give a fuck if they don't want to leave, this is my fucking house and I need fucking sleep. She leaves my room and I expect some results. Well, it's still loud downstairs and now I am completely furious. Either my sister isn't being vocal enough about it or these people are all just meatheads. They had pulled the last straw. 


My sister knows that I like to play Guilty Gear, and I know that you can hear the tapping sounds of my joystick in the entire house. I got out of bed, turned on the TV, and started playing Guilty Gear. I think that got the message across, cause the house turned pretty damn quiet after that. In my anger, I decided to just not sleep and so I am sitting here with my music and writing in my blog about this utterly pointless all-nighter.


I try hard not to be mean to my sister. I don't like doing it, and I feel bad when I am obligated to. I know she looks up to me in many ways, and it kills me to embarrass her in front of her friends. But some things just do not fly, and this is one of them. I realize it's also partly just mistiming, as today is the last day of my spring break while tomorrow is the first of theirs. Regardless, that doesn't mean I'm going to allow an underage drinking fiesta continue into overtime at my house, with a slew of strangers that don't want to leave, while I need to wake up at 6AM.  I think I was already nice enough to buy alcohol for my sister, allow her to invite ~20 people to our house, and not tell the parentals about it. Part of me wants to teach her a lesson, and I know that telling my parents about it would be the most devastating way to do it, but I also know that doing so would literally destroy the rest of her years in this household. 


In the end, I'm going to decide against it. I think she learned her lesson already when I expressed my anger towards her tonight. People might think I'm overreacting or a douchebag, but you know what, it irks me when my sister is unable to handle herself. 


My body is fairly unhealthy right now and this isn't helping. Fuck I am tired. 

stress test (and self realizations)

Over the past month or so, I've come to realize the consequences that result from the "cause and effect" phrase, so famously coined by the Merovingian. On one hand, there is the me who wants to be funny and spontaneous, and on the other hand there is the annoying and offensive side of the exact same coin. At what point do I cross the line? Or in another case, I have a partner for an assignment that I feel is extremely under-performing and unable to take constructive criticism. I beat around the bush, hinting at that fact and eventually force my opinions through. At what point do I cross that line of courtesy? How about this very blog? The things I write on here are oftentimes insensitive and disrespectful. At what point does my free speech turn into feedback?

I feel like I have a unique personality type. I take things seriously and not so seriously at the same time, if that even makes any sense. I still go through the motions that life requires of me to become a successful being, but I do so in this third-person perspective that allows me to realize that in the grand scheme of things the little things we do actually don't matter. Sometimes, I forget about my own philosophies and I let these "little things" get to me. But I still can't help but to ponder and question myself: should I express myself and take the heat, or should I keep my thoughts inwards and suppress my urges.

I find the latter choice to be counter-productive to my very being. I have always tried to express myself, though tailored and edited, and have been supported in most cases. Sometimes I don't tailor correctly, or I come off the wrong way, and end up hurting someone else, and in return hurting myself. It's a fine line to walk. I bring up this topic because there have been, coincidentally, several occurrences that have caused me to question myself, my motives, and my thought processes. 

I think every artist runs into this identity crisis. For me, this is not the first time. It's this sort of nagging, depressing feeling. Or as Bilbo would say, "like butter scraped over too much bread." It's this constant subconscious worry and self-doubt. In the end, I always find my resolve, but it always takes a little while. The truth is that people, in general, love being judgmental. Even the most open-minded person will still inwardly deem their own beliefs as the most righteous; they're just excellent at acting discreet about it. It is impossible to write something or say something, and not be offensive in some way or some manner, in context or out of context. If I said, "I love America", god knows how many people I'd be offending. Or even this previous sentence - not capitalizing "god" might offend Judeo-Christian believers. 

So then what was the point of this whole post if you're just going to continue slandering the fucks that squander expression and take life too seriously? Nothing. Just some self-reassurance that I was born to piss half of you off and have the other half laugh about it.

I'm supposed to promise here that I'll be writing in my blog more, but that'd just be lying lol. More stuff on Magic philosophy and flavor, notes on my industry, and me raving about how not awesome my life is in posts to come. Good fucking night.

lifestyles (of the lazy and fat)

Life moves on. My motivation, however, is not moving with it. I've learned that working and schooling simultaneously is a very viable reason to allow whining/bitching/sadfacing. When the weekend finally rises on the horizons, I am so facking tired that I don't even feel like going out, let alone sitting on my ass to write in a blog about nothing. And you will probably hear these complaints coming out of my sorry ass for an entire year to come.

I was about to write something nasty about my classmates, but I'll save that for another time. But for a chuckle, I guess I could let you know that for my speech class a guy decided to talk about how his online dating experience wasn't working so well. This is a lesson: don't homeschool your kids.

Burnt Toast: Guilty Gear Accent Core!

So two Saturdays ago, Black Chris (aka RaZyRbYrN or however the fuck you spell it) hosted our first ever SoCal Burnt Toast tourney in Walnut. For those who are unenlightened, the name Burnt Toast pays homage to the original West Toast, which was hosted years ago at the Family Fun Arcade. I don't really practice Guilty Gear like I used to, but I still try to watch some videos to see some of the new techniques and matchup nuances that happen over in Japan. The same can be said about most of SoCal though - none of us really play the game consistently anymore and we are all sloppy as hell now. It doesn't help that Blazblue really ruined a lot of players' strict habits that they had honed through Guilty Gear, where holding UP is not an option. Regardless, it was time to see how much I had improved over the past two years.

Round 1: Brett (The Sadder) playing Johnny

Brett is severely out of practice, so I sorta just do my thing and he doesn't really find a way in. In all honesty, I think Brett could be a pretty good GG player if he kept at it. His knowledge of the cast is pretty well-informed, so he has at least that in his side. During casuals later he sorta figured out how to play against Venom.

Round 2: Black Chris (RazyrByrn) playing Zappa

I think Chris and I have played this matchup a lot more than I've played ANY match in SoCal. We both know what we want to go for, but I usually come up on top because Chris isn't as aggressive as he should be in this matchup (IMO). He manages to take the first game thanks to tight play on his part, but I end up taking the next two after playing a bit more patiently. Reckless ball summoning is what'll get you killed here (or in any matchup really), but two mistakes and you're going to have Raou on your ass. What's weird is that Chris has a real hard time against me, yet in Japan they rate Zappa as being greatly favored against Venom. Weird.

Round 3: Mike Z playing Potemkin

Mike Z is out of practice, but that doesn't mean he's a pushover. As a person who is so technically immersed in all of the games that he plays, you can expect a lot of that knowledge and experience to re-seize his control systems. The matches were close, and in all honesty, I should have been able to beat him. Mike Z likes to do things on wakeup. It isn't a very good strategy, but it works for him, and this is America. To punish this, I like to set up very meaty ball formations to try and hit him out of his backdashes. Where I fail is in three places vs Mike: not remembering the Pot matchup, the inability to read his mixup, and missing my air-to-ground links. These three things combined give Potemkin enough leverage to kill me. It came down to the very last round where I threw it away by iad j.H into Pot's fat hitbox and landed short of my blockstring. Being close to Potemkin is a bad thing.

Round 4: Andrew (Dr. Stormlocke) playing Robo-Ky

Strom has always been good at this game. There isn't much to say. My win ratio vs Storm is probably 30% because he understands Guilty Gear habits well and punishes me accordingly. Some furious matches, and I will say that a few rounds we played I locked him out pretty hard. It all came down to me not blocking Robo-Ky's 5D though. Americaaa.

I ended up getting 5th place. Meh. Better than before, but I know I can do better.

Magic the Gathering: Elder Dragon Highlander!

I'm all for fun and retarded formats. This time around, I'm playing in a format that has been growing at a rapid pace.

Just a little blurb about EDH - it is a 100-card format much like Highlander. You pick a legendary creature to be your general and you may only play cards of your general's colors in your deck. You may also only have one of each card, barring basic lands. The interesting part of the format is that your general begins in the command zone; you may play your general from there at any time in the game, and return it to the command zone when it dies. That said, you want to build a strategy around your general or use a general that compliments a strategy, which creates a lot of fun interactions and cool combos.

Due to the nature of Highlander formats, games can be ended unpredictably and swiftly. A timely Armageddon or Warp World can really shake things up. But hey, that's what makes the format wild and fun. Politics are more important than how good your deck is to win, but honestly, winning isn't even that important. It's more about having a good time!

My current three generals are:

Xiahou Dun is my favorite (and subsequently a fully pimped-out deck). The deck is decent in 1v1 and pretty strong in multiplayer. By abusing recursion effects, you can constantly "witness" back cards to wrath the board, tutor for mana acceleration, and ultimately drain everyone's life totals.

Ghost Council is my multiplayer general of choice because he is built around sweeping and token generation. Xiahou Dun's main weakness is dealing with problematic artifacts and enchantments - both of which Ghost Council is adept at. By using enchantment-based token generators, I can wrath the board, save Ghost Council, and still continue my beatdown. Orzhov is definitely my favorite combination of colors.

Captain Sisay is a powerhouse for 1v1. At first I built her cause I thought she'd be a great toolbox deck, but I end up just tutoring for the same things, in the same order, every game. In the end she is a very linear deck with clear answers and an even clearer gameplan. Get Gaddock Teeg, get Hokori, get Gaea's Cradle, get Kamahl, get Crovax, blow up their lands, profit. I usually don't bring her out unless there's someone I really want to destroy. I would consider her on the A-tier of generals, right behind decks like Arcum Daggson, Rofellos, and Vendilion Clique.

I plan on building one more, but I'm not sure what yet. The problem is that all of my favorite colors splash into each other, meaning I'll have a lot of redundant decklists. I love board control, so that automatically means I'm in white or black. I might try a mono-red list like Akroma or Ashling. We'll see :)

Anime 2010: What am I watching?

Nothing spectacular really:

-Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

-Kimi no Todoke

-So Ra No Wo To

-Ladies versus Butlers!

-Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Of these, I like So Ra No Wo To and FMA the best. Looking forward to Gundam Unicorn. Also, the Gurren Lagann movies are extremly hype.

Closing Out: Some Pics for You!

Apparently this combo is worth a $40 buyout.

My new awesome Eva 02 Swiss Army Knife!!!

Thanks to pulsr, my life is now complete.

Sorry for the writing delay everyone! And my bad, the formatting on this post is all jacked up - I updated the editor halfway through the post and am too lazy to go into the HTML to fix the problems.

consistency (or lack thereof)

I feel obligated to pay my upkeeps and post on this blog every week. Lately, that willpower has been waning. I hate to sound like a little bitch, but school and work ARE really kicking my ass. So when I'm not actually tired out of my mind, I will post something meaningful here. And next time you're on the freeway asking yourself why the fuck traffic is going so slow and that the ONLY thing that could POSSIBLY cause this kind of slow down is a car on fire...well, be careful what you wish for.

Cheers.

nobody ever really quits crack (big black pimping in magic: the gathering)

Cardboard crack, anyways. I promised a long time ago that I'd tell the story about how a stupid lunch table card game changed the channels of my thought processes and, ultimately, my life, forever. And that day will still not be today. Because I am fucking tired. Because school and work are draining my life away like a hooker drains my wallet. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have back-to-back 7:30AM classes. You guessed it - fml.

Today's random little blurb that has managed to surface itself from the bubbling muck of my brain's swamp-filled crevices - a short on my epic journey #2: to pimp my decks. I've always had this obsession about pimping my storm deck. Why? I don't even know why. The concept of the archetype is just so god damn intriguing like looking down a low-cut shirt. Anyways, my idea of pimp started way back when with TES (or THE EPIC STORM - what a fucking original deck name, Bryant Cook. You're such a fucking lucksack I hope you're not reading this) and I remember getting ripped off by this guy at my card store with plugs so wide that I could put my dick through em. A whole quarter-inch diameter. He sold me a playset of MINT (you can actually smell the leaves off these babies) Japanese Mercadian Masques Brainstorms. Hawt shit. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. For a ridiculous price of *undisclosed*, he sold me a playset of MINT Japanese Time-shifted Gemstone Mines! HOLY FUCK! Back then, that's what I considered amazing pimpness. I was ONE step closer to achieving maximum Asian-ing (azn-ing? asian-ed? a's in ning?) my storm deck. Well, a week or two after that happened Wizards of the Coast R&D decided that Brainstorm was a broke ass card in Vintage and restricted the bitch pointing fingers at her head with yellow balls spinning around, meaning the price immediately went from 10 bucks a Brainstorm to 1 buck a Brainstorm. Well, three years after that happened, I don't even fucking play Gemstone Mines in my deck.

I'm going after the big fish.

Vintage and Legacy are the two prime candidates of the PIMP SLAP. Because of the lasting value of cards and that rarity of them, players are more willing to shell premium dollar to make sure they blind their opponents while playing a game of magical cards. Some cards, however, are immune to the pimp slap because the PIMP SLAP only goes as far back as Urza's Legacy (or for you non-nerd-literate folk, circa 1999). These cards are the money cards, because they are hard to find, expensive, and most of all, immune to the PIMP SLAP. They're all about the BB, the BLACK BORDER. I'm not talking about the Mississippi, I'm talking about the night-colored 10-point stroke that surrounds your magical card. You see, when a card is WHITE BORDERED, it has no protection, it's like it's naked. Disgusting and uncouth. Put on some clothes man, you're gonna give the women nightmares.

With that said, there are various levels of the BIG BLACK PIMPING:

Regular PIMP SLAP

Alright dude! It's coo, it's coo. Yo PIMP HAND is solid, I'll give you that. But guess what, it's a mothafuckin DREDGE deck. You know what that means? That means I could probably find these cards at WAL-MART. They're fucking everywhere. A real pimp knows that the TRUE GEMS are in the aged wine. Almost cool with those City of Brasses, but nice try.

AZNING PIMP SLAP

This is the LEVEL TWO PIMP SLAP A.K.A. CHING-CHONG-CHOOING. From the motherfuckin far EAST, these cards are hard as FUCK to come by. It takes some serious time and dedication to track these bitches down and shove them into your plastic SLEEVES. When you adorn your most favorite cards in a cryptic language that you can't even read, you're on your way to PIMPDOM.

MEGA PIMP SLAP

OH SHIT HOLD ON! What we got here? CHING-CHONG-CHOOAAAAHHH!! I'M BLIND! This is the MEGA PIMP SLAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When you mix the far EAST with BLING, you will destroy minds. Not only can your opponents NOT read your cards, they get shined in the face when they try to read them. Props mothafucka. Too bad your farmer boys could use some pimpin.

BIG BLACK PIMPING

It might entertain you, or it might scare you, to know that this collection of cards is probably worth more than your car. We have here, foil Japanese fetchlands, signed Guru basic lands, signed Beta dual lands, the complete Beta Power 9, several custom-altered and signed cards (including a full playset of Force of Wills by Terese Nielsen herself), signed and altered playset of Mana Drains, and Japanese foils everywhere else. In Buddhism, they would call this enlightenment. In Magic the Gathering, we call it BIG BLACK PIMPING.

So, Chris, where are you on the scale of the PIMP? In other words, how STRONG is your PIMP HAND? My PIMP HAND is mediocre. I am trying to AZN out my storm deck, and I am nearing completion. All I have left to purchase is a playset of Japanese Lion's Eye Diamonds and I'll be finished. Two years of scrounging around has gotten me all of this, and I am extremely proud of my deck. I'll show it to you guys when I complete the bitch.

If you want to watch a good anime this season, watch So Ra no Wo To. I promise you won't be disappointed even though you have no reason to believe me since I predicted Rideback was going to be good.

it's back to the grinder (new years resolutions and shit)

Well, my three month vacation has finally come to an end. I probably didn't get as much done as I'd like to have, but it was a decent run and had one helluva blast. Thinking about it only makes me want to return to China - oddly enough I feel like I belong there more than I belong here. Is that weird?

Stepping away from forbidden nostalgia, I'd like to talk about some (serious) resolutions I have for the coming year.

- Cleaning up. Seriously. I am a filthy mess. I'm not just talking about my car and room , I'm talking about my overall appearance, tousled hair and sloppy clothing. I actually want to leave a good impression on people, and my hermit clothing is in no way aiding that. The first thing to do is to revamp my wardrobe with some decent dress shirts. The upgrade from the t-shirt to a nice striped button-up is the initial step to looking presentable.

- Living healthily. Staying up late at night is a pretty good way to ruin your natural cycle. Ever notice how sleeping at 4AM and waking up in the afternoon leaves you in a zombie mode? Yea, it's cause your body isn't designed for that kind of abuse. Sleeping properly (and I mean going to bed before or at midnight) allows your body to correctly detox. It's not superstition, it's true!

- Organizing responsibilities. I'm pretty carefree about my education and sometimes even my work. It's pretty sad, because I feel like I am an extremely efficient person WHEN I AM FOCUSED. Most of the time my energy is just wasted doing absolutely nothing. I want to prioritize what's really important to me (work and school), then push them as far as they can go. In this way I am simply just maximizing my time/getting shit done ratio.

- Winning. I'm being a bit vague about this one, but I suppose this word is the best way to describe it. I am often the person who makes the compromise with the happiness of other people on my conscience. And the result is that I never truly win. I really have to reach out and push myself to obtain my goals. I'm not saying that I should kick everyone I know down into the dirt, I'm saying that I should be more aggressive about accomplishing things instead of sitting back and complacently seeing things pass me by. Too many opportunities have been lost with such an attitude. Definitely easier said than done, but I know I am capable of doing so much more. I just have to fucking do it.

- Women. I'm just going to stop right here.

Lastly, I have to end this post with a bang: Bayonetta. I can see why Famitsu would reward this game a 40 out of 40, as there are only a few very minor quirks about the game that I have to complain about. While I wouldn't go as far as saying it's a "perfect 10/10" game, I would still put it in the realm between a 9 and a 10. The action is really breathtaking and the over-the-top style is both humorous and exotic. People have put a lot of time into this game, and players have been rewarded with a sexy outcome. Don't believe me? Check this out:

Well, that's it for this week folks. Thanks for reading my bullshit for as long as you guys have!

human willpower (evangelion 2.0 - you can (not) advance)

The title of this post not only refers to the glue that holds the human race together in the face of Armageddon, using angelic abominations to combat a prophecy set eons ago; it refers to the fact that I could not wait three more months for the DVD release of the Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance.

You always hear me talk about movies and how they're so amazing and whatnot, but I will tell you right now: the Rebuild of Evangelion series so far has really set the bar for Japanese animated movies of the coming decade. The cutting is succinct and powerful; the rendering is awe-inspiring and flawless. Everything that needs to be said is said, and the omitted purposefully omitted for collateral effect. Unlike many previous anime movies I've watched, nothing covers the bases as well as these movies have. It would take VERY much to surpass this level of amazingness.

Because I did not write a review for the first Rebuild of Evangelion, I will begin with a small blurb I wrote for a review site about You Are (Not) Alone for those of you who are unfamiliar with the series (doubt it):

"Neon Genesis Evangelion was, and still is, beloved by the anime community for not only bringing forth exceptional animation and a compelling story, but for completely revitalizing anime in its slump during the early 90's. Amazing as the original was, fans were sorely disappointed with the ambiguity and elusiveness of the series' conclusion. Some people say the director was crazy; others say that the budget ran too low; and a few also claimed that the movie "End of Evangelion", was Hideaki Anno's stab at the fans for the hate he received for the original ending. Whatever the case may be, nearly a decade later, Anno returns to "rebuild" and re-imagine one of the most successful franchises in the history of Japanese animation. Without spoiling anything: to those who have never seen the original Evangelion, this movie is a perfectly fine way to get into the swing of things, as the biblical allusions and psychological tantrums are shrink-wrapped into a very understandable shell. For those who have already seen the original, you will be pleasantly surprised. Witness all of your favorite characters and moments, re-mastered, re-animated, and re-defeating angels in the final battle for humanity. The story has been abbreviated, cutting out all unnecessary fat, and highlights the most intense moments from the source anime. And while this anime to some may be nothing more than a rehash, Anno has promised the fans that the coming three movies will deviate greatly from Neon Genesis Evangelion."

Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance

SYNOPSIS

It's almost daily life at NERV headquarters for Ikari Shinji, going to school and battling angels, till the pilot of EVA 02, Asuka Langley Shikinami, arrives. Obsessed with the need to prove herself as the most independently capable pilot, Asuka pushes herself against angel attacks but begins to realize that she will need the aid of friends in times of need. Shinji and Rei begin grow closer to each other, and Rei finds an opportunity to try and reunite Shinji with his father through a family dinner. All seems to be going well until the 9th angel appears on that very day.

(Please excuse the terribad screencaps. They're from a cam rip so I had to crop out the hair from the guy sitting in front of the camera.)

REVIEW (no spoilers)

As promised by Anno, 2.0 delivers a completely revamped and revitalized story. No longer overly concerned with its Judeo-Christian lore, Rebuild instead pushes the emphasis onto the tribulations of humanity. Stepping away from rampant negative emotions and Shinji's constant self-loathing, 2.0 re-weaves the story to create previously unseen, dynamic interactions between the entire cast. The movie ran the spectrum of themes with a much greater focus on comraderie and affection - two elements weakly explored during the TV series. Anno's new effort and planning is clearly visible as he rearranges key plot points to not only accommodate a 2-hour feature length film, but to greaten their impact. No longer is this only about a story of a young boy, faced with all the troubles of the earth, drowning in remorse and self-pity; this movie introduces all the colors of the human soul.

The one word to describe Rebuild is "growth". The series learned from its mistakes of the past. The new movies do not reinforce the cryptic messages and shadowy tones of the TV series, but have instead changed to cover all of the things that the original had shied away from. Now backed by an aura of overwhelming grandeur, Rebuild of Evangelion manages to redefine anime greatness.

The DVD for Evangelion 2.0 will be out sometime in the Spring. Look forward to extremely high-quality epicness. Next, wish me luck this weekend at the SCG 5K! And finally, HAPPY BIRTHDAY VANILLA SALT! IT'S BEEN ONE WHOLE YEAR OF MY RANDOM MUSINGS!