I'm a moron
May. 4th, 2003 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2I don't know why I thought the Metro was downtown. I knew the address, Tom and I had looked at a map last week showing where it was, and we'd decided it was downtown. But it isn't, it's on 45th street in the University District, South of Half Price Books, in the same building complex as Trader Joe's. I've been to it before.
So anyway, Jeff, Tom and I left early enough that we were able to circle around downtown and head back North while Jeff got directory info from Jeri-Lynn, and we got to the theatre just as the movie previews were starting. Once again, perfect timing. ^_^
It was pouring rain most of the way. Pretty scary driving when you can barely see through sheets of rain, and everyone decides to drive like an idiot to compensate for not being able to see anything. If you can't see, just pull out into traffic and hope nobody's coming at you. That seemed to be the prevailing attitude.
But we got there, and the movie was excellent. It's funny that Jen and Jared and Cale liked it so much more than the tv series, because it really was exactly the same as the tv series, only they had a bigger canvas to work with. Longer plot, better animation, but everything else was just like the Cowboy Bebop that I already knew. Same writer and same director so that's really no surprise.
I'd also heard that the Japanese music was replaced by American rock, and that it sucked. Well, there certainly was more modern styles of rock but it all fit so seamlessly that I couldn't really say what was added by the American team and what was original, if anything was. Whoever did the music (Les Claypool III from Primus actually) did an excellent job. AT one point, Spike is lead through a Moroccan market, and for background music we had Middle-Eastern singing and music... but the instrument being used was a sintar, the Moroccan bass-like instrument that Hassan Hakmoun plays. That's soo cool, using authentic Moroccan music for that scene. Other music in other scenes also seemed to work very well, so now I'm curious as to how it differs from the Japanese version.
It's playing until April 10th. Gene and Mike should go see it... it's not downtown, you could probably take a bus straight down 45th to see it even.
Tom and I also watched Magical Project S all the way to the end this weekend. Fun show. Charles Solomon is a frickin moron. I don't know him, but he's the official Amazon.com reviewer who reviewed this series.
1. He calls it a "blatant rip-off of Sailor Moon". Hello, moron! Pretty Sammy is a PARODY of magical girl shows. I know it's a big word, but repeat after me: PA-RO-DY. Furthermore, Sailor Moon does not hold a patent on magical girl shows, and is itself a takeoff of shows that preceeded it. Nor does Magical Project S really mirror Sailor Moon to any signifigant degree... Sammy has a baton, a taking cat/rabbit sidekick, and a transformation sequence... and that's it as far as similarities. Lots of other magical girl shows use the same concepts, in case you haven't noticed. And for my money Magical Project S was a lot more entertaining than Sailor Moon.
2. He says it's "like seeing the cast of Tenchi Muyo! perform in a formulaic "magical girl" show that doesn't really suit their talents." Big clue here, guy: Just because it looks like Ryoko does not mean it IS Ryoko. Magical Project S uses nearly all of the character designs from the Tenchi Muyou universe, but recasts them and in many cases renames them... ie they aren't the same characters at all. Which is a good thing, because the three Pretty Sammy OVA specials that preceeded Magical Project S failed to do this... they dropped the Tenchi characters in whole-cloth and had them acting pretty much just as they did in the Tenchi universe, which meant that instead of being supporting characters to the main character, Sasami, they were mostly distractions that took away from the plot and the flow of the anime. Maybe re-using the character designs is annoying to you, but if you'd never seen Tenchi then you wouldn't know the difference. So GET OVER IT.
In any case, many of the main characters in the show are completely original... Sasami's parents, most of her classmates, and especially Pixy Misa. The show revolves around Misao/Pixy Misa as much as it revolves around Sasami, and she's really one of the most interesting characters in the whole series.
3. "The episodes are all predictable and repetitive, with lots of reused animation." HELLO? Reusing animation for the transformation sequence is pretty much a hallmark of magical girl shows... they take maybe 30 seconds each. If you can't get past that, what the heck are you watching this kind of show for? And I get the strong impression that Mr. "I'm A Pro Reviewer" Solomon didn't even watch most of the series, because after the first six or seven episodes the plot takes some very unusual twists and turns, including a visit to an island where all of Pretty Sammy's previous monster foes live in peace and harmony, an episode in which ninjas and cowboys battle it out in a theme park to see which is cooler, and an episode where Pixy Misa kidnaps Misao... herself, in other words. And the series gets progressively less predictable from there. So I don't know what series Mr. Solomon was watching.
4. "Magical Project S isn't funny enough to work as a send-up of "magical girl" series, but it's too silly to accept as an example of the genre." Of course it's silly. I thought it was hilarious. Maybe Solomon doesn't have a sense of humor, I don't know. Personally I like that the show is silly... maybe that's why I don't like Sailor Moon that much, because it's patently ridiculous but played straight. I just can't take any of it seriously, and when they get into time-jumping and weird villians from other dimensions, it's hard to even follow. Now, a lot of what Solomon says applies to the first three Pretty Sammy OAV's, but the Magical Project S series got everything right, as far as I'm concerned.
I'd certainly accept that Magical Project S is not in the same league as Card Captor Sakura... for my money, that's the best magical girl show I've encountered. But it's more fun than most of the other anime and manga magical girl shows I've come across. How can you not like Pixy Misa, I ask you?
So anyway, Jeff, Tom and I left early enough that we were able to circle around downtown and head back North while Jeff got directory info from Jeri-Lynn, and we got to the theatre just as the movie previews were starting. Once again, perfect timing. ^_^
It was pouring rain most of the way. Pretty scary driving when you can barely see through sheets of rain, and everyone decides to drive like an idiot to compensate for not being able to see anything. If you can't see, just pull out into traffic and hope nobody's coming at you. That seemed to be the prevailing attitude.
But we got there, and the movie was excellent. It's funny that Jen and Jared and Cale liked it so much more than the tv series, because it really was exactly the same as the tv series, only they had a bigger canvas to work with. Longer plot, better animation, but everything else was just like the Cowboy Bebop that I already knew. Same writer and same director so that's really no surprise.
I'd also heard that the Japanese music was replaced by American rock, and that it sucked. Well, there certainly was more modern styles of rock but it all fit so seamlessly that I couldn't really say what was added by the American team and what was original, if anything was. Whoever did the music (Les Claypool III from Primus actually) did an excellent job. AT one point, Spike is lead through a Moroccan market, and for background music we had Middle-Eastern singing and music... but the instrument being used was a sintar, the Moroccan bass-like instrument that Hassan Hakmoun plays. That's soo cool, using authentic Moroccan music for that scene. Other music in other scenes also seemed to work very well, so now I'm curious as to how it differs from the Japanese version.
It's playing until April 10th. Gene and Mike should go see it... it's not downtown, you could probably take a bus straight down 45th to see it even.
Tom and I also watched Magical Project S all the way to the end this weekend. Fun show. Charles Solomon is a frickin moron. I don't know him, but he's the official Amazon.com reviewer who reviewed this series.
1. He calls it a "blatant rip-off of Sailor Moon". Hello, moron! Pretty Sammy is a PARODY of magical girl shows. I know it's a big word, but repeat after me: PA-RO-DY. Furthermore, Sailor Moon does not hold a patent on magical girl shows, and is itself a takeoff of shows that preceeded it. Nor does Magical Project S really mirror Sailor Moon to any signifigant degree... Sammy has a baton, a taking cat/rabbit sidekick, and a transformation sequence... and that's it as far as similarities. Lots of other magical girl shows use the same concepts, in case you haven't noticed. And for my money Magical Project S was a lot more entertaining than Sailor Moon.
2. He says it's "like seeing the cast of Tenchi Muyo! perform in a formulaic "magical girl" show that doesn't really suit their talents." Big clue here, guy: Just because it looks like Ryoko does not mean it IS Ryoko. Magical Project S uses nearly all of the character designs from the Tenchi Muyou universe, but recasts them and in many cases renames them... ie they aren't the same characters at all. Which is a good thing, because the three Pretty Sammy OVA specials that preceeded Magical Project S failed to do this... they dropped the Tenchi characters in whole-cloth and had them acting pretty much just as they did in the Tenchi universe, which meant that instead of being supporting characters to the main character, Sasami, they were mostly distractions that took away from the plot and the flow of the anime. Maybe re-using the character designs is annoying to you, but if you'd never seen Tenchi then you wouldn't know the difference. So GET OVER IT.
In any case, many of the main characters in the show are completely original... Sasami's parents, most of her classmates, and especially Pixy Misa. The show revolves around Misao/Pixy Misa as much as it revolves around Sasami, and she's really one of the most interesting characters in the whole series.
3. "The episodes are all predictable and repetitive, with lots of reused animation." HELLO? Reusing animation for the transformation sequence is pretty much a hallmark of magical girl shows... they take maybe 30 seconds each. If you can't get past that, what the heck are you watching this kind of show for? And I get the strong impression that Mr. "I'm A Pro Reviewer" Solomon didn't even watch most of the series, because after the first six or seven episodes the plot takes some very unusual twists and turns, including a visit to an island where all of Pretty Sammy's previous monster foes live in peace and harmony, an episode in which ninjas and cowboys battle it out in a theme park to see which is cooler, and an episode where Pixy Misa kidnaps Misao... herself, in other words. And the series gets progressively less predictable from there. So I don't know what series Mr. Solomon was watching.
4. "Magical Project S isn't funny enough to work as a send-up of "magical girl" series, but it's too silly to accept as an example of the genre." Of course it's silly. I thought it was hilarious. Maybe Solomon doesn't have a sense of humor, I don't know. Personally I like that the show is silly... maybe that's why I don't like Sailor Moon that much, because it's patently ridiculous but played straight. I just can't take any of it seriously, and when they get into time-jumping and weird villians from other dimensions, it's hard to even follow. Now, a lot of what Solomon says applies to the first three Pretty Sammy OAV's, but the Magical Project S series got everything right, as far as I'm concerned.
I'd certainly accept that Magical Project S is not in the same league as Card Captor Sakura... for my money, that's the best magical girl show I've encountered. But it's more fun than most of the other anime and manga magical girl shows I've come across. How can you not like Pixy Misa, I ask you?
