As is my routine now, I reread Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night in preparation for the movie, which debuted at midnight, but which I’ll not be seeing until this weekend. It was either my third or fourth time reading it. I know I reread it two summers ago just before the final book’s release, but I can’t remember if I’d reread it another time between that and when the book itself released (HBP is the sixth book). I think Half-Blood Prince is probably my least favorite of the series. I’ve always felt that my opinion of Harry Potter started to sour a little after the fourth book, after which I felt that J.K. Rowling lost a lot of focus and inserted many unnecessary and pointlessly distracting things when she should have been focusing on more pressing matters — so I guess the sixth book would be an accumulation of those disappointments. I don’t think my impressions changed much during subsequent rereading(s) of HBP.
So I guess I’m kind of surprised that this time, I think I liked it much, much better.
(This post contains no spoilers for any Harry Potter book or movie.)
[View the rest of this entry…]
So I started rewatching Gundam Wing dub last night. It’s a special series for me since, like many others, it was my catapult into the Gundam franchise on the whole. It was one of my first major fandoms, and I’d seen it in its entirety two or three times back in glory days of Toonami, but it’s been a good seven or eight years or so since I’d seen it last (and it feels much longer than that). Like some things I’ve revisited from the past, I was half-expecting it to be terrible, and to some extent, it was. The characters are hilariously unobservant and brash in ways that don’t even begin to make sense. The dubbing also offers some choice lines in amazingly awkward voices. There are many logic and realism gaps. I laughed a lot.
And yet, even with all the lulz, it’s still so epic when it counts. I’m still enjoying this way too much. Treize takes over the world in seven episodes in one of the most awesome coup de’tats ever. There are so many political things I’m noticing and understanding now that I didn’t even notice the first time around, and it’s just a lot fun to revisit something while simultaneously gaining a whole new experience. Nostalgia and sentimentality is undoubtedly what’s allowing me to forgive all of the more blatant flaws — I’d never accept such huge logic and realism gaps in a recent show, as evidenced by my dislike of Gundam 00, but for Wing, it’s all right.
[View the rest of this entry…]
Because living in the middle of no where sucks, it seems I won’t be able to see the Dark Knight until tomorrow. Much fail. Growing up with an AMC 24 where opening weekend titles often get eight screens, it bewilders me that I was met with a “sold out” sign, even if I was going into a one screen theatre that was a fifteen minute drive away from the house. Yeah, it isn’t anime anyway, but come on, it’s the goddamn Batman. :(
Anyway, to make myself feel slightly better, I was looking for Gundam Wing episodes to rewatch for the lulz. Veoh seems to be complete fail and YouTube’s not much better, but I did manage to find most of the first two episodes. It occurred to me that I haven’t seen very much of the series subbed, but oh man. First of all, Wing’s age is really starting to show. The animation for the most part really isn’t so bad, but the people are hilarious. I sure as hell didn’t notice this ten years ago, but the G-boys’ proportions are… accurate. They’re fifteen year old kids! It’s awesome! The voices in Japanese are ridiculous different; in Heero’s case, it’s disturbingly… spunkier? Is that the right word? It’s kind of odd when it’s his wannabe badass English voice you remember the best.
[View the rest of this entry…]