Tonight at the movies: The good, the bad, and the American

[thistlechaser]

After an ep of Witch Hunter Robin (I really need to finish that darned series), I switched to a movie. The Last Samurai.

Featuring the "dreamy" Tom Cruise, The Last Samurai felt more like a horrible copy of Dances With Wolves than anything original. Actually, it was worse than a copy. If I were Japanese, I'd probably be insulted by this movie. Heck, it was embarrassing just to watch. "No worries, Japanese master fighting-types! People who have trained since they could walk to battle! Mr. Smiling White American is here to save you! He'll lead your army, when only months ago he was your enemy! Oh, and Mrs. Widow? Nevermind that Mr. American was responsible for your husband's death, by the end of the movie you will be kissing him!" Bah. Hell, 'bah' isn't even enough to cover it. BAH!

To get the taste of that crap out of my mouth, I watched Whisper of the Heart/Mimi wo Sumaseba (a Studio Ghibli movie). Oh, it was so much better! Not only did it have a great storyline (about a girl who wanted to be a writer), there were fun references to many of other Ghibli movies (I caught four of them, but there were probably more). Really, really enjoyable. And I'm happy to say, I've seen nearly all of the Ghibli films!

Tonight I'm trying to catch up on Prince of Tennis. I watched three subbed eps, and now I'm trying to get through the raws. There's a lot I still like about the series (Kaidou saying he wanted to "top" some other guy made me giggle like a madgirl), but it falls short in so many ways. I really, really wish they would touch on Ryoma's thing with his father more. (No, not that kind of thing, you pervs.) I'm not looking for this to turn into something deep and dark, but some substance to it would be nice...

Tonight I visited Suprnova for the first time in weeks. (Some people have been getting legal C&D letters sent through their ISPs from various mega-media companies. Sure it's only after they download current movies and music, and I only ever get anime from there, but I still don't feel like it's a very safe place.) I found a ton of stuff I was looking for (and lots I hadn't been!), so I have a bunch of downloads going.

* Flame of Recca: I'm not sure who I heard saying good things about this one, but there was a small pack of eps (1-3), so I'm grabbing it to check it out.
* Xenosaga: I had no idea this was an anime! Since I've not touched the game in like two weeks, I'm going to check it out. Hyper said upon me mentioning it:

[HS] Hyper bets the Xenosaga anime has less sitting around and watching than the actual game does.

Snicker!

* Infinite Ryvius: I've been looking for this series for weeks now. The storyline seemed cool and Lord of the Fly-ish, so I wanted to check it out.
* The Boy Who Saw The Wind: A Ghibli movie which I haven't even heard of yet! Can't wait to see.
* Scrapped Princess: Okay, I downloaded it earlier this week. I watched one ep and I like it quite a bit. Can't wait to see more of it.

BT Clients: Anyone who uses Shadow's Experimental might want to think twice about upgrading to his next version/renamed Bit Tornado. While my computer has never been stable, my Explorer/desktop/whole machine has been crashing a lot more lately, and that's the only new software I've installed. (metron_ariston, one step down in version is still available, that one was stable for me. I feel bad having made this realization after recommending it to you!)

Oh, and I know I've mentioned this before, but if you have the option to burn DVDs, they are SO SO SO much better of a way to make backups. You can get a whole 26 ep series on one DVD with room to spare, and it's made in about 15 minutes! I moved a ton of eps/series onto three DVD this morning, and was done by the time I was finished cooking and eating breakfast. This would have taken me an entire day to burn them onto CDs! It is totally worth the difference in price for the blanks.

Comments

[legendary-idiot.livejournal.com]

the Xenosaga on suprnova isn't an anime, it's just all of the movies ripped from the game. boy was i pissed...

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

Heh, I'd already downloaded it but... oddly enough, it still seems a lot more stable than the original BT. Most of the complaints I've noticed have said that it crashes when peer connections get too high, so I've lowered them and... hope for the best.

Unfortunately, after getting a good chunk of what I was looking for earlier, it seems determined to download at like 2k/s, which is no fun at all. *pokes connection*

[tricianna.livejournal.com]

Ryvius is great. It's a bit depressing at parts, but the characters are great and creepy and psycho.

I feel ashamed to admit that I've never read Lord of the Flies, but after watching about halfway of Ryvius, I really want to pick up the novel.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Luckily I had to read Lord of the Flies for school, otherwise I might not have either. If you see a copy of it I'd suggest snatching it up -- it's now one of my favorites!

Ryvius is great. It's a bit depressing at parts, but the characters are great and creepy and psycho.

That sounds great to me! Hurry download, hurry!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Good to hear! It might just be something odd on my system -- it's an insane little machine.

Unfortunately, after getting a good chunk of what I was looking for earlier, it seems determined to download at like 2k/s, which is no fun at all.

I hate it when that happens! Darned seeds dropping off as soon as they finish...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh, how sucky! Thanks for letting me know, now at least I know what I'm getting (and might not watch them, since I still may play the game more).

Thanks!

Mmm, complainy.

[metron-ariston.livejournal.com]

Heh, and of course I spoke too soon. XP Though it was stable for... oh, hours when I first installed it (and it looks like I did end up downloading the previous version before the name change), upon reboot it began freezing the comp every few minutes, and always just before I was going to make a backup of what I'd already downloaded. *frets* It's like the gods are telling me not to illegally download comics or something!

The comp will also freeze randomly whenever I have any other P2P programs running, but only when I also had IE open. This thing freezes even if I shut down everything else and am just looking at the program running. *sigh* Sometimes this computer is the assiest thing in the universe. *pokes it*

[animarelic.livejournal.com]

You miss a LOT of plot if you just watch the stuff in AMV, a lot is just rendered in-game. (Like most of the Ziggy plot ;.;)

There are rumors of a Xenosaga anime in the works, but I don't know how they'd sustain it for more than a few episodes without ruining any future installments of the game, so far.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You miss a LOT of plot if you just watch the stuff in AMV, a lot is just rendered in-game. (Like most of the Ziggy plot ;.;)

I was thinking about that last night: Since there tend to be more than 13 cutscenes in an hour (ha ha), how could only 13 cover the game's entire plot?

So I'll probably just hold onto these and keep playing the game when I have time.

Re: Mmm, complainy.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

It's like the gods are telling me not to illegally download comics or something!

*snickers* Now there's an unpleasant thought! :) Did you check Bit Tornado's FAQ page to see what they said about fixing that?