Electric Sista Hood :: Video Game Reviews, Tech Gadget Reviews, and Anime Reviews

Bleach: The Movie...

posted @ 10/26/2007 12:22:00 PM by The Admiral

...700MB / 1hr32m58secs: Worth the download? (Synopsis at the end)

Let me first say, I <3 Bleach. As this is my first post so I'll make it short and sweet especially since it's on a topic near and dear to my heart.

It’s one of the best anime series I’ve gotten addicted to in long, long time. However, I felt completely let down from this so called “movie”. If any of you have seen the Pokemon movies you know the feeling. Both series are adventure series where you’re following around the protagonist while he figures out how to handle his new gained powers / responsibility and attain growth both mentally, socially, and spiritually. (Yes! I did it! I compared Bleach to Pokemon and I apologize if I’ve just offended a ton of people by comparing the two but get over it - its the boiled down truth of it all.) These types of story lines are fantastic to watch and the anticipation from the cliffhangers are half the fun. But there were no surprises or growth for the storyline, just as there are never were for the Pokemon movies.

On a side note, this movie came out in 2006 so most likely it occurred after the first season or so. I have to say it tried; It played like an extended episode and simply reinforced the idea that Ichigo has a lot to learn and the Soul Society still treats him as a child to be told what to do. Since I’m currently all caught up on Bleach Episode 144 (Thank You Dattebayo.com for all your hard work on getting those translated!) I can say that the characters are deeper, richer, and more meaningful all around. This movie shows none of that, even though it does show Rukia using Sode no Shirayuki. (Maybe she does more so in the manga, but I like to be surprised by the anime too much to go there.) It's a very isolated movie and you barely get to see any of the other characters.

What does this all boil down to? Well, I’m not going to say don’t watch it... its always fun watching Ichigo stumble and get back on his feet and do something honorable. You get to see his softer side and right now the series is very focused on him getting more powerful. If you’ve got the spare 700MB and time to download and watch it, do it. If for nothing else the animation is of a slight higher quality and is very pretty.

***Synopsis***

Ichigo has been running around doing the Shinigami thing around town along side Rukia. When suddenly a new trouble comes to town in the form of "blank souls" who can't have a soul burial. During the first encounter with these "blank souls" we meet Senna who looks like a Shinigami but is actually more. Senna ends up causing Ichigo a whole bunch of problems, but she's nothing compared with the group of renegade Shinigami that are after her and the destruction of the world. Can Ichigo save Senna and the both Soul Society and the Real World? Only way to find out is to watch the movie...

Yours Truly,
TheAdmiral

"play it like you stole it!"

Labels: Anime, Bleach, dattebayo, movie review, synopsis

Finish what you start...

Renji Can't Sing, but Zaraki and Grimmjow Can

posted @ 7/28/2007 07:55:00 PM by MagicMystic

In my opinion consumerism in Japan is much more prolific and ridiculous than here in the US. I've never seen a TV show title in the US come out with figurines, trading cards, posters, games, manga, novels, multiple soundtracks, radio shows, drama CDs, events, movies and a rock musical as well as all the toys, key chains, plushies, messenger bags and other innumerable items of merchandise. Part of me laughs at the silly consumerist Japanese otaku and part of me burns with massive amounts of jealousy and greed for all the cool items that will never traverse the ocean into my hot grasping little hands.

So imagine my shock and delight when I found a way to get my hands on the Bleach Soundtracks and Bleach Beat Collection.

I immediately jumped on the chance like a starving fat kid jumps on cake. The soundtracks were as cool as expected, loaded with all the awesome background music throughout Bleach as well as some of the openings and endings. But what really caught my attention were the Beat Collections.

Now for those of you who've never heard of the Bleach Beat Collections, they aren't the typical soundtracks you'd expect. They are very short, containing at most 5 or 6 songs each and they are each named after a character or group of characters. In order to further complicate things they come in ‘Sessions’ of 5. For example: you have Bleach Beat Collection 1: Ichigo Kurosaki through Bleach Beat Collection 5: Ichimaru Gin and then starts Bleach Beat Collection Second Session 1: Ichigo Kurosaki and Zangetsu. They are coming out with more as new characters appear and the story moves on. Bleach Beat Collection Third Session 3: Sousuke Aizen will be released on August 1st in Japan. Currently I've gotten 12 of them for about 4 hours of listening.

At first I wasn't sure if the collections were concept songs for the characters, music inspired by the characters or music that the characters would likely listen to. After listening for a bit, I realized that the true answer wasn’t any of the above. The songs were actually sung by the Seiyū (voice actors) of the characters. So as I listened to Renji, Zangetsu and Ulquiorra belting out the lyrics I really got into it. Unfortunately with my limited Japanese I would be thrown out of enjoying the music whenever I heard a word I recognized/understood such as shinigami, quincy, nakama, sensei or a character's name. In my experience it's better to listen and either understand all of it or none of it, and whatever you do never ever chase down a translated version. Poor Rammstein has been bastardized beyond recognition every time someone gets the "brilliant" idea to translate it.

Collection 1: Ichigo Kurosaki- Of all the voice actors Masakazu Morita got to sing the most songs, but I don’t know if he should have been allowed to. He picked up a song on the Uryu disk and dominated the Ichigo/Zangetsu disk as well. He wasn’t anywhere near the best singer of the group, but at least he wasn’t the worst. The biggest issue I had with his singing is that he seemed to use only his own voice and rarely sounded at all like Ichigo. Many of the other Seiyu managed to stay at least partially, if not entirely within character. Since poor Mochizuki Hisayo managed to sing without once loosing the Yachiru voice I’d think keeping Ichigo’s voice going wouldn’t be that much of a problem.

Collection 2: Renji Abarai- As much as I love Renji (Kentaro Ito) and his funny eyebrow tatts, the boy can’t sing. His voice is far too rough and throaty which forced him to sing the angriest sounding songs of any in the collection. He couldn’t harmonize at all and ended up chanting or growling most of the words rather than keeping any sort of harmony with the song. Yet somehow, he was also the only one who was nearly drowned out by heavy background vocals.

Collection 3: Uryuu Ishida – Ishida’s (Noriaki Sugiyama) songs were some of my favorites. One had heavy techno beats and was saturated with synthesizer effects; another was slower and backed by guitar. Surprisingly I can easily imagine Ishida having a wild side and regularly appearing as a Techno DJ at raves. He has that slick cool factor that I’d think would be oh so important to DJs. His voice is just the same as his image. It was smooth and flowed nicely. Noriaki was able to keep nicely within Uryu’s range and made him seem more awesome and appealing than I ever found him in the series.

Collection 4: Hanataro Yamada and Kon – A selection of ridiculously upbeat and potentially silly songs with titles like Shimpainai Oneesan (Worry-free Big Sis) and Lions Never Surrender. I didn’t think it was possible but Hanataro (Kouki Miyata) sounds even younger and Kon (Mitsuaki Madono) sounds like he’s whining even more than usual. It was very difficult to listen to them singing together and not smile, imagining them fighting over the microphone. Well, more like Hanataro holding the mike and getting beaten by Kon for possession of it. Lions Never Surrender was sung by Mitsuaki Madono without using his Kon voice and it sounded alright, but I couldn’t take it seriously imagining the wussy little stuffed lion acting all serious to sing it.

Collection 5: Gin Ichimaru – Although Koji Yusa doesn’t have one of the more recognizable voices in the series, he is an impressive singer. Not much of Gin’s personality comes through the songs but if you think about it not much of his personality has been shown in the story. These songs are less like a cool Bleach special and more like stand alone songs that are cool in their own right. Several of the other songs I like, I may only have feelings for because they are sung by Bleach characters. I don’t feel that these songs have any of those connotations. If I didn’t know that it was sung by the voice actor of Ichimaru Gin, I would never recognize his voice.

Second Session 1: Ichigo Kurosaki and Zangetsu – Zangetsu (Takayuki Sugo) was the dark horse of the group. I was tempted to not even listen to his songs because I couldn’t imagine them being anything spectacular. The rock/techno styles I’d heard so far wouldn’t fit with his voice and I wasn’t about to submit myself to something that was painful to listen to. In his solo song Rain, I was pleasantly surprised to hear his deep voice crooning in my ear like a sensual lover. I actually got the shivers at one point, apparently I have a thing for guys with low voices. The other songs Sky High and Zan returned to a fast moving style and didn’t really utilize Zangetsu/Takayuki’s voice as anything other than the occasional backup.

Second Session 2: Toshiro Hitsugaya, Rangiku Matsumoto and Momo Hinamori – The moment Toshiro started singing it was really obvious that he was a she. Regardless of how great a voice actress Romi Paku is, she couldn’t make her voice sound like a boy while she sang, which was a bit of a shame, but there’s only so much human voices can do. Another bit of a let down was the lack of compilation songs. Each character/voice actor had a song, but there wasn’t a single song done together. Hinamori’s (Kumi Sakuma) song was cute and innocent and Matsumoto’s (Kaya Matsutani) was breathy and sensual as could be predicted, neither was anything super amazing.

Second Session 3: Zaraki Kenpachi, Yachiru Kusajishi, Ikkaku Madarame and Yamichika Ayasegawa – When ‘We’ started playing I had a very strong vision hit me. I had intruded upon a clandestine meeting of the 11th Squad. I had walked in on them having a sleepover, Yumichika was giving Kenpachi a make-over (he had a mud mask on and curlers in) and Yachiru had put a long blonde wig on Ikkaku and was braiding his hair. This scene hit me so vividly that I started laughing hard enough that I had trouble breathing and ended up missing most of the song. I had to restart it to listen to it. ‘We’ had a tune that no Squad 11 member would be caught dead listening to and they definitely would never have sung along so cheerfully together. Visions of them skipping along arm in arm or sitting together singing Kum Ba Yah pervaded my thoughts every time I tried to listen to it. I mean where else will you hear Kenpachi say things like “Come on, Come on Yeah Yeah Yeah Baby.” Luckily for my aching gut Yachiru was the only one singing ‘Funny Days’ and ‘COME to LIKE it. This FIGHT Now.’ was much more in the spirit of 11.

Second Session 4: Jin Kariya, Ririn, Claude, Nova – I wouldn’t know Nova’s talking or singing voice even if Tomokazu Sugita walked up to me and gave a full introduction of himself before he started singing. Mostly they didn’t try to adjust his character to make him sing, he just added a few words here and there as backup, while Claude (Nobuo Tobita) more energetically backed Ririn (Yumi Kakazu) up. However he did have to sing a few verses of ‘Faiteingusouru.’ It made me wish he talked more. He’s got a great voice. Another thing I was a bit wary of was that they’d try to trade on the hokey and stereotypical ‘vampire’ music for Kariya’s (Toru Ohkawa) songs. I didn’t need to be concerned. The songs were all upbeat, which was almost worse to hear Kariya sing than some Japanese version of Thriller.

Second Session 5: Rukia Kuchiki and Orihime Inoue – Seeing as most of the other songs are sung by men I thought I’d enjoy this collection more. It’s not that I don’t like the songs Rukia (Fumiko Orikasa) and Orihime (Yuki Matsuoka) sing, but I don’t particularly love them either. Rukia has a surprisingly mature singing voice. She sounds much older when she sings. ‘Wind’, ‘La La La’ and ‘Holy Fight’ are some of the most melodic songs from any of the collections and they were pretty enough, but I had some problems with each song. ‘Holy Fight’ should be renamed ‘Holly Fight’ because you can hear what sounds like Christmas bells constantly ringing in the background. ‘La La La’, I mean the title tells you everything. The lyrics and even the title of the song were repetitive and unimaginative; I don’t need to know Japanese to know La La La is a pathetic attempt at filling dead air.

Third Session 1: Ulquiorra Schiffer – Unfortunately it seems that every Session that comes out has fewer and fewer songs. Ulquiorra (Namikawa Daisuke) only had 2 songs and a Voice Message. Not understanding more than a few words of Japanese hindered my understanding of the voice message, but it seemed to be a general shout out to fans and a bit of discussion about the character. It was really interesting to hear him switching between his normal voice and his Ulquiorra voice

Third Session 2: Grimmjow Jaegerjaques – Just like Ulquirra, Grimmjow only got 2 songs and a shout out. I was expecting angsty angry teenager type music from Suwabe Junichi but was a little disappointed to get something considerably more upbeat. I will readily admit that I love emo teenager music. Despite my initial misgivings I ended up really enjoying both of Grimmjow’s songs.

Now I’ve said again and again that I have no idea what the lyrics are and I haven’t a clue what everybody was singing about. So, when I say a song is upbeat I’m generally guessing about the song from the tone of voice and the sound of the music. So, if someone is really singing about kicking puppies and stealing candy from children please don’t assume that I think that is an upbeat and happy image.

There are 56 songs in total and I think that there is probably something for everyone, or at least all Bleach fans. Interestingly enough I’ve noticed that most Bleach fans are into ‘The Rocks’ just like me. They seem to enjoy Alternative Rock, Pop Rock, Hard Rock, Soft Rock, Classic Rock, Emo Rock.. etc. Most of the songs can be classified as rock of one sort or another and there is enough of a variety that you’ll be sure to find at least one song you like or even love.

My Favorite Songs-
Aesthetics and Identity - Collection 3: Uryu Ishida
BrEaK - Third Session 2: Grimmjow JaegerJaques
GAME!GAME!GAME! - Second Session 4: Jin Kariya, Ririn, Claude, Nova
Hyo-ri [Two Sides] - Collection 5: Gin Ichimaru
My Blade, As My Pride - Collection 1: Ichigo Kurosaki
Quincy no Hokori ni Kakete - Collection 3: Uryu Ishida
RAIN - Second Session 1: Ichigo Kurosaki and Zangetsu
Sekai wa Sude ni Azamuki no Ue no [The World Has Already Been Decieved] - Collection 5: Gin Ichimaru
Shimpainai Oneesan [Worry-free Big Sis] - Collection 4: Hanataro Yamada and Kon
Suigintou no Yoru - Collection 3: Uryu Ishida
We - Second Session 3: Zaraki Kenpachi, Yachiru Kusajishi, Ikkaku Madarame and Yamichika Ayasegawa

So all in all I highly suggest you pick up at least a few of these collections.

Labels: Bleach, MagicMysticGrl, Music, Soundtrack

Finish what you start...

AB: Pirate/Ninja/Shinigami/Alchemist Ro-Sham-Bo

posted @ 4/25/2007 06:33:00 PM by MagicMystic

Hello adoring fans. Sorry this AB (Anime Boston) info has taken so long to get to you, but there was no wireless in my hotel and I've been sleeping off the weekend ever since I got home.

So this weekend I had delirious amounts of fun, going to panels, watching AMVs and actually cosplaying for the first time ever. I took 13 pages of notes, so please forgive me if I get a bit too long winded.

The weekend started out on a high note. Panda and I were eligible for press passes due to our phenomenal efforts as ESH members. We were allowed to pass by the whole reg/pre-reg line and get our passes almost immediately. On a sad side note, at AB our press passes didn't get us all kinds of cool extra swag the way Ninja's did at E3. We got the typical schedule and program of events, just like everyone else. This swag bag was actually where we got our WoW demo disks last year... and you all know how that turned out.

Our first event was the Opening Ceremonies. I'd never bothered to go before, expecting to be totally bored outta my skull, but it wasn't half bad. They introduced the guests and declared the theme of the convention. The theme was officially Japanese Festivals, but I will always remember it for the Pirate/Ninja drama. So, Panda and I traded on our press passes and got ourselves front row center seating without waiting in line, and when they were tossing free t-shirts at the crowd, I caught 2, one for each of us. All in all, it was a good start to the weekend.

Now, I didn't go to the Anime Dating Game where everything started but I caught the other segments of the whole Pirate/Ninja episode. Apparently something happened during the dating game that caused the need for a Pirate/Ninja truce, complete with peace treaty. So, on Saturday night during the Masquerade, Captain Jack Sparrow and the Akatsuki members got together to ratify the treaty, witnessed by Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye and Colonel Roy Mustang. However, when the Captain signed his name, the treacherous ninja revealed that it wasn't a peace treaty at all, but that all the pirate signees had just sworn themselves over as ninja.

So, since all the pirates were now officially ninja, AB official Hawkeye declared that pirates were an endangered species and it was hereby outlawed that they be attacked by ninja. The warloving ninja weren't happy with this development and demanded that they be allowed to fight someone. Mustang volunteered the alchemists for the position of official rivals of the ninja. Unfortunately, the ninja far outnumber the alchemists and remaining pirates. So, to avoid unnecessary bloodshed the Ouran Host Club volunteered to hire private bodyguards for everyone to protect against ninja attacks. Everyone went home thinking that the matter was settled, but it was to be continued the next day at the Anime Chess Game.

At the chess game, Soifon, Captain of the second squad in the Gotei 13 and Commander of the special forces and Executive Militia within Seireitei stepped forward with a complaint that the alchemists were the ninjas new rivals. Shinigami, she argued, were far better suited to the position due to their numbers and organization. Alchemists couldn't fight ninja head on because they didn't wield weapons, but every Shinigami is equipped with a zanpakuto and additionally it was within Soul Society's power to set up spirit shields to minimize the damages caused to the real world during battle. Alchemists on the other hand must deconstruct their surroundings in order to fight, causing unnecessary damage.

Before Captain Soifon and Colonel Mustang could start a battle right then and there, it was decided that since several shinigami and alchemists were participating in the chess game, the audience would be allowed to vote on who would become the next rival to the ninja based on perforamance in the game. The winners would become rivals with the ninja and the losers would have to declare their rivalry with the Ouran High School Host Club. Needless to say, we shinigami won and are now officially the rivals of the ninja. I say we because I was cosplaying as 10th Squad Vice Captain Matsumoto Rangiku. Of course this official announcement caused a problem between myself and one of my best friends who was cosplaying as Sexy no Jitsu Naruto. Luckily I'm only a part time shinigami and she's only a part time ninja, so our relationship hasn't suffered. I do however pity Panda who's boyfriend is a pirate and sister is a ninja.

Along with the developing news at the main events, there was also a secret competition going on behind the scenes for the pirate/ninja/shinigami/alchemist cosplayers. Those of you who went to AB2K6 might remember the ninja barrel that was being passed around, well this year there were 4 of them, one for each faction. Any cosplayer belonging to one of the factions had the right to challenge the holder of the barrel to a game of Ro-Sham-Bo (Rock-Paper-Scissors) and the winner then got to carry the barrel, until they loose it to another challenger. People were walking around the halls with the barrels and would be mobbed by members of the opposing factions. In the end the results were clear, the shinigami really were the best choice of opponents for the ninja. The Barrel capture results were Pirates (27), Alchemists (127), Shinigami (311) and Ninja (323). I'm proud to say that 2 of the Shinigami wins were mine, but ashamed to admit that 5 of the Ninja wins were my friend kicking my arse.

This whole gang war took place all weekend. There were photo shoots scheduled for all the major cosplaying favorites, but unfortunately the Bleach and Naruto shoots were scheduled at the same time on different floors. Basically the Naruto fans were at the bottom of the escalator and the Bleach fans were at the top. The big mistake here was that they were in full view of each other, so as a cohesive mob the Bleach fans decided to crash the Naruto photo shoot. Seeing as I was wearing a Bleach costume it was impossible for me to remain an impartial spectator, but I feared for my life for a few minutes as this real life West Side Story played out right in front of me (and behind me and to both sides, it was kinda scary..) Luckily, it was nowhere as bad as being at UMass Amherst when the Red Sox won the World Series. Although fascinating to watch it was also damn scary to be in the middle of it all. However, anime fans aren't nearly as rabid as Red Sox fans, so although post traumatic stress scared the crap outta me, I was never in any danger.

I must declare as a veteran of these things that the occasional riot is exhilarating and refreshing. It really gets the heart pumping and circulates large amounts of adrenaline for a great rush without the need of drugs. So, next time your friends ask you to go out on Friday night and have a friendly riot with them, say yes, it will be one of the most memorable experiences of your life.

On another note I actually went to some panels this year. Last year I managed to spend all weekend in artists alley and the dealer's room. I went to the "Creating Your First Webcomic" and "Inside Manga" panels on Friday and "Character Creation" on Saturday. Although the Baby's First Webcomic panel had some great advice and it was really interesting to hear about how Bettina Kurkoski works behind the scenes, my favorite of the three was Character Creation. I mean how could you not love a panel where you spend the whole time talking about your example characters Raven McAngst and Twinkle McFancyPants. It was basically a panel where we discussed what works and what doesn't with each character, and how it's OK to work with stereotypes as long as you try to do something new with them.

Your basic character stereotypes are:
The Master - The old hermit on the mountain who knows the answer to life, the universe and everything (it's not actually 42) and is the guy who sends the main characters on their quest/sets their task.

The Student - Still learning, full of questions and is a master in training. As the reader, the questions they ask usually end up helping you to understand the world your characters are living in. The student drives exposition.

The Hero/Heroine - Your main character, they are the most well thought out and have the most depth

The Sidekick - Always hanging around to help the hero, surprisingly enough they have the most potential of all the stereotypes

The Villain - This is the character who's actions most move the storyline, most heroes can only react to the actions of the villain

Villain's Lackey - Nameless red shirted characters who exist only to be brutally defeated by the main character, or in the case of Star Wars, brutally defeated by Darth Vader in desperate need of anger management classes, or at least someone needs to get him a rubber band he can snap on his wrist.

Villain's Minions - Unlike a lackey a minion is irreplaceable to the villain. They are often the only one the villain trusts, and are responsible for how smoothly things run behind the scenes. Unfortunately for the villain, minions are in the perfect place to screw the villain over.

In order to create an interesting character it's important to mix stereotypes, give all the characters depth and to make sure they have flaws. NO ONE likes a Mary Sue who can do everything perfectly and has no problems at all, it's just too unrealistic. Another important point that was made is that an Anti Hero has a purpose, while random angst is pointless. Along with this vital information there was an incredible amount of geeking out and referencing characters and titles that many a part-time otaku/comicbook dork wouldn't get. We even spent some time discussing why Superman wasn't a Mary Sue.

I'll be writing up details of the Masquerade, Anime Human Chess Game, Cherry Blossom Ball and AMV Contest within the next few days.

Labels: Alchemist, Anime-Boston, Bleach, Ninja, Pirate, Ro-Sham-Bo, Shinigami

Finish what you start...

New Podcast Day

posted @ 3/11/2007 10:44:00 PM by Ninjasistah

It's happens like clockwork around here... Monday comes and brings with it a new episode of the ESH podcast.

In this very special episode of ESH podcastopia MagicMysticGrl goes over the anime series Bleach with a fine tooth comb, and you're going to love it. And if you don't, Bob will kill a starving kitten in France.

Seriously, you don't want that on your conscience... so take a listen to this weeks podcast episode.

Labels: Anime, Bleach, ElectricSistaHood, MagicMysticGrl, My-Top-5, Podcast

Finish what you start...

TGS 06: Yeah, I'm Not In Tokyo

posted @ 9/23/2006 08:36:00 PM by Ninjasistah

Unless you have been living under a rock you know that the Tokyo Game Show [TGS] has started...

what you may not know is that I didn't have the money [nor cajones to fly to Tokyo because it's a long assed flight] so we will only be doing light coverage of the game show. Thing of TGS as like the gran-daddy of E3... bigger, badder, sexier. Yeah, you have the idea... but since we didn't have the funds to go we'll just be mentioning here news we find elsewhere that we feel is really worth noting.

For instance, did you know there was a video game based on the anime series Bleach coming? IGN did... cuz they are in Tokyo at the damn show. [Really, I'm not bitter] Here is an article with some specifics about the game, and here is some video... enjoy.

I'm sure I'd have more to say if I had actually watched Bleach yet. I have the video files, just haven't had time to watch em dang it... get off my back. ;)

We know you have a choice in gaming news, and thank you for choosing ESH today.

Labels: Anime, Bleach, Ninjasistah

Finish what you start...

Polka Dot Toupee Part 2

posted @ 9/17/2006 12:18:00 PM by MagicMystic

“I got my hair highlighted, because I felt some strands were more important than others.” ~Unknown

"Long, beautiful, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen... I adore hair!" ~James Rado and Gerome Ragni, Hair

"When red headed people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn." ~Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Alright, here is the post you have all been waiting for...

Part Two of the Anime Hair Analysis Task (AHAT)

We have finally gotten to the bright unnatural colors that anime is famous for. The colors I have here are the most common and basic staples of anime: Blue, Green, Pink, Purple and Red. There are all manner of shades and hues other than the ones I have here, but I have found that these are the most common and predictable colors. Unfortunately, because people are getting comfortable with the archetypes as they are written here, anime creators are mixing them up and deliberately going against the norm. Personalities and hair colors don't always match anymore, so there are plenty of characters that will not fit into these categories.

Green: Occasionally green is also used as a traditional Japanese hair color, don’t ask me why. Green haired characters are usually the steady down to earth characters with nurturing personalities. Many have healing powers or talents; they are usually secondary characters who support their friends. Characters with green hair are good at heart, if occasionally a little misguided for one reason or another. If a villain has green hair it often indicates that at some point the villain will defect to the side of good. Male characters with green hair often have rouguish personalities. (Midori Midori Days, Lumier Kiddy Grade, Kusanagi Blue Seed)

Red: The redhead in a group is usually the leader as well as being the strongest physically or spiritually. They definitely have the strongest personality and most powerful emotions. Redheads are unsubtle and straightforward, usually incapable of deception. Redheads can fall into several categories, cheerful, brash and rude, or destructive. The typical redhead is feisty and hotheaded; there is nothing anyone can do if they make a descision, because they are so stubborn. In a male character red hair is usually coupled with a delicate, feminine body. Spiritual possession is also occasionally indicated by red hair. (Kenshin Rurouni Kenshin, Tasuke Fushigi Yugi, Ranma's Female Form Ranma 1/2, Gaara Naruto)

Pink: Although just a light shade of red, pink actually means something very different. The pink haired character is always painfully and obnoxiously cute, young and is a hopeless romantic or spoiled brat. They are rarely a character of any importance and are usually younger siblings or kids. (Utena Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sumomo Chobits, Yachiru Bleach) Note: Utena is a deliberate reversal of the traditional character with pink hair.

Purple: Characters with purple hair are usually older or more mature. Purple is associated with the upper class, elegance and refinement. Despite this purple haired characters are usually spoiled and selfish. (Shampoo Ranma ½, Nuriko Fushigi Yugi, Faye Cowboy Bebop, Ayeka Tenchi)

Blue: Characters with blue hair have the most variation in shade, everything from blue so dark it looks black to very light grey blue that borders on silver. As a rule the darker the shade of blue, the greater a characters power, strength and agressivity, the lighter shades are usually found in females or delicate males and indicate a greater sensitivity. Many characters with blue hair are shy, introverted bookworms. They often have incredible intelligence and view the world in a logical and analytical fashion. Blue haired characters are usually solemn and self-conscious, but are very devoted to their friends. (Amy Sailor Moon, Sasami Tenchi, Aoi Ai Yori Aoshi)

I’d like to apologize to Ninja, she loves the purple haired characters, but I really couldn’t find any information on them, or really remember anything specific about anyone with purple hair. Red haired characters on the other hand are legion and I could hardly think of an anime that didn’t have at least one. This is yet another reason why redheads are better than purpleheads.

Violet will be a good color for hair at just about the same time that brunette becomes a good color for flowers. ~Fran Lebowitz (Hey I didn't say it. I just found it and posted it.)

Click here to read part 1 of this story.

Labels: Anime, Bleach, MagicMysticGrl, Ninja, Tenchi

Finish what you start...

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Toupee

posted @ 9/16/2006 12:10:00 PM by MagicMystic

Although none of you know this, because the ‘cast hasn’t been posted yet, Ninja and I had a conversation yesterday about anime hair colors and the personalities typically associated with each color. We also argued about which color, purple or red, is better. Ninja loves purple haired anime men, and I go for the redheads.

So I started taking Quizilla “What Color is Your Anime Hair?” online quizzes like crazy to see the descriptions for each hair color. Did you know that there are literally hundreds of versions of that test? It was not easy, and I got a whole lot of totally wrong or made up personality descriptions. I’ve edited it down to the basic colors and the personality traits I’ve seen them display. I’ll start with the typical “normal” colors and then get into the more bizarre shades. I’ve had to divide the post into two parts because it ended up being a two page word document. I don’t know about all of you guys, but my eyes glaze over if I try to read a page with that much text. I’ll post the second part tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Click here for part 2 of this story.

Black/Brunette: The basic colors. These colors are the default setting for Japanese characters, indicating traditional everyday characters. Usually, if the main character has black or brown hair they are an everyman, someone the typical Japanese person can relate to. These colors indicate a proper and polite character, someone who is honest and straightforward. These characters usually show great physical or moral strength and intense dedication to loved ones. (Tomoyo Cardcaptor Sakura, Yuri Kyo Kara Maoh, Ryu Argentosoma) Note: Ryu was in a horrible accident and now half of his hair is silver, he is also no longer mentally stable and some of his actions could be considered villainous. His personality is literally half black and half silver.

Blonde: As I mentioned black and brown are the default settings for Japanese characters, but as anime becomes more of a global phenomenon blonde has been showing up more and more as well. Unsurprisingly blondes are usually of foreign descent, or if they are Japanese they are a delinquent kogal. There are several blonde archetypes, what’s important to remember is that blondes ALWAYS mean trouble. In general blonde characters are elegant, beautiful and are associated with nobility or aristocratic manners, but have flawed personalities. The two typical blonde types are the airhead and the conniving bitch. The air-headed blonde is playful and ditzy, but clumsy to the extreme. The conniving bitch is vain, scheming and manipulative. Either way they mean trouble. Blonde also means that the character is the focus of chaos and trouble follows him/her. It is possible for a character’s hair to transform to blonde with a great influx of power, usually this is accompanied by a change of eye color. In these cases their personalities are still the same as before. (Vash Trigun, Rosette Chrono Crusade, Chi Chobits, Serena Sailor Moon, All the Sayans DB/DBZ/DBGT)

White/Silver: Ok, here’s a shocker occasionally white hair indicates that the character is old. Yeah, that one surprised me too. On younger characters white or silver hair indicates dignity and skill, usually with hidden spiritual power of immense strength. Spiritual power is traditionally purported to prematurely bleach hair. These characters are very self-controlled and because of emotional difficulties can come off as distant and cold. Although they are incredibly strong these characters avoid fighting. If a character is a white or silver haired bishounen he is typically a villain. White is a stereotypical color for evil in anime and manga. It makes sense to me, blood shows up so much better on white clothing. (Muraki Descendents of Darkness, Sephiroth FF7, Rosiel Angel Sanctuary, Nataku X, Sesshoumaru Inuyasha)

Sorry, I know you're all excited to read about the exotic colors. You're gonna have to wait until tomorrow for that.

Labels: Anime, Bleach, Blood, MagicMysticGrl, Manga, Ninja

Finish what you start...

Adult Swim is My Hero

posted @ 9/07/2006 12:45:00 PM by Ninjasistah

I was getting tired of having to check out anime that Pandalicious suggested to me on YouTube so I gave up. But the only series that I really got into and was pissed to leave behind was Bleach.

Well, now the good folks at Williams Street are hooking a sistah [ok, and the rest of you too] up with this kick ass series starting this Saturday night. [09 SEP 06] They are putting bleach on at 12:30pm EST so I am going to assume they aren't editing a whole lot out of it, more like I am praying that they don't edit too much out of it. I like my anime series au naturale if you know my meaning.

Still, it's nice to see some new anime hitting the Adult Swim block of programming. I wasn't all that impressed with Eureka 7. [although they have a bomb ass website] I just didn't find the main character of Rentin all that interesting, which is huge because I'm a sucker for mecha anime series. So since then, I've only been tuning into AS for Robot Chicken and the venture brothers. Now before you get all huffy puffy, I TiVO Ghost in the Shell so I can watch it later on in the week.

In any case, if you have cable you need to make sure that you tune in and catch Bleach this weekend on Adult Swim. 12:30 Saturday night. I'll bring the popcorn.

Labels: Adult-Swim, Anime, Bleach, Ninjasistah, Pandalicious, YouTube

Finish what you start...

Clothing Makes the Character

posted @ 9/06/2006 08:34:00 PM by MagicMystic

It's time to talk about yet another aspect of anime I love.

These days many of the most popular animes take place in other worlds, in space, or in the far future/past. Characters wear bizarre armors, outlandish clothes, space suits, or modified traditional clothing. I have always loved it when a character who wears something cosplayable is shown in modern day street clothes. Anything that drastically changes the appearance of the character is awesome. This effect is very much lessened in modern day animes where the characters always wear 'normal' clothes; but even the switch from constantly wearing their school uniforms to a different outfit looks good.

Most often this effect can be seen in openings and closings. Saiyuki and Bleach both have opening/closing animations that feature the characters in everyday clothes. Saiyuki is a strange anime, it's got a whole anachronistic thing going on where they are in ancient China but they have guns, a dragon that can change into a jeep, and eyeglasses. So every once in a while the characters wear sweatshirts and t-shirts within the show itself. The characters also all smoke like chimneys and down beer like crazy.

In case you're wondering, Bleach and Saiyuki are both awesome animes that I highly recommend. Just a warning though, Bleach is a really long anime with about a hundred episodes released so far and Saiyuki is a bit rough with a lot of womanizing and swearing.

Labels: Anime, Bleach, MagicMysticGrl

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Bleach: The Movie...

posted @ 10/26/2007 12:22:00 PM by The Admiral

Renji Can't Sing, but Zaraki and Grimmjow Can

posted @ 7/28/2007 07:55:00 PM by MagicMystic

AB: Pirate/Ninja/Shinigami/Alchemist Ro-Sham-Bo

posted @ 4/25/2007 06:33:00 PM by MagicMystic

New Podcast Day

posted @ 3/11/2007 10:44:00 PM by Ninjasistah

TGS 06: Yeah, I'm Not In Tokyo

posted @ 9/23/2006 08:36:00 PM by Ninjasistah

Polka Dot Toupee Part 2

posted @ 9/17/2006 12:18:00 PM by MagicMystic

Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Toupee

posted @ 9/16/2006 12:10:00 PM by MagicMystic

Adult Swim is My Hero

posted @ 9/07/2006 12:45:00 PM by Ninjasistah

Clothing Makes the Character

posted @ 9/06/2006 08:34:00 PM by MagicMystic