(videogame) Gyakuten Kenji

I love Edgeworth. Not quite as much as I love Phoenix Wright, but I love him all the same, dignified dork that he is. I’m sure a lot of people love him too. But I can’t help but feel apprehensive about his spinoff. For some reason I’m reminded of Square and its torrent of fan-serving FFVII subtitles – all these prequels with the Turks and Zack, etc (I’ve never touched any of them, so I don’t know if they’re any good).

It’s not that I detest the idea of Edgeworth having his own game. I actually like the idea of him and Gumshoe running around and solving crimes. On a more personal note, I may be a bit let-down at the seeming lack of courtroom action, which was what reeled me to the GyakuSai games in the first place; the linear and text-dependent gameplay made it easier to stop and resume a case as opposed to quitting the game in the middle of a dungeon or world map and then forgetting where you are and where you’re going. But I digress.

GyakuKen is said to be set as a prequel, which I find appealing, especially if characters like the Von Karmas are in it. It’s just that I can’t imagine Edgeworth being a hero with the most noble causes at this point in time. As most of his growth as a character happened during the Phoenix Wright arc, shouldn’t this Edgeworth be a little… well, stagnant? It’s not something I particularly mind, Edgeworth being a stuffy jerk with his brand of sarcasm, since that’s how he should be, but I’m not sure if Capcom is writing him that way since they probably have fanservice in mind. I just don’t want him to become another Cloud Strife, who nulled the events of FFVII in his personality in Advent Children. If Edgeworth becomes a hero – or encounters some sort of tribulation that would shape him into one – he’d be disregarding the impact the Phoenix Wright arc had on his life and perspective as a prosecutor, wouldn’t he?

Oh, well. Only time will tell.

(movie) Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Having never read Fantastic Four, I’ll skip stacking them up against their comic-book equivalents. The best thing about the movie is probably the Silver Surfer – I didn’t really buy him here, really I think his character is interesting but wasted, but he looks awesome. Other than that, I can’t say it’s a really great watch. I mean, it’s enjoyable. The scenarios are scripted to be comical, the plot is always busy, Stan Lee makes an appearance, and yeah, the Silver Surfer looks wicked cool, but without anything to weigh it down, it’s unmemorable. I felt cheated by the ending. The characters were too light that they don’t leave an impression on me, and the actors don’t seem to have internalized their roles – not to mention Jessica Alba’s makeup is kinda freaky. Also, Johnny gets all this build-up but doesn’t do anything with it. At one hour and thirty minutes, it’s passable – any longer might have been a waste of time.

(J-drama) Nobuta Wo Produce

Everyone loves Shuji. He’s a good guy. Helpful, funny, friendly without discrimination. He deserves the popularity, really. It’s just that he lies. He tries so hard to please everyone that he neglects to see them as living human beings and subsequently fails to genuinely care for them. It’s an irony of sorts, to be surrounded by people but remain alone. He plays with people, you see, and yeah, he’s a bit of a jerk.

Kusano is a weirdo. He flaps his hands, giggles in a weird way, has a language of his own, and maybe that’s why people stay away from him. It doesn’t really matter; he doesn’t care what people think about him anyway. His eccentricity distracts people from the fact that Akira does have meaningful insights that he can’t communicate well enough to the world. He’s disgustingly cheerful and plain lovable.

Nobuko is the new student, shy, timid, keeps to herself, and becomes easy pickings for the bullies. She’s so used to the poor treatment that she no longer bothers fighting back, just suffers quietly and hates herself. Shuji and Akira come up with the idea to “produce” her – make her the most popular school so that she’ll stop being the target of the little schoolboys and girls.

I’d single out the other characters, but that would make this post longer than it already is. These three take up most of the screentime, but the others get their share of development. Will get to this later.

&Nobuta starts out really slow. The first episode uncovers the foundation of Shuji and Akira’s friendship. Akira sticks to Shuuuuji-kun and claims to be his best friend, while Shuji dislikes him enough to forego any of his pretenses. I only start warming up to the show somewhere in ep 3; by the end of ep 4, I’m hooked.

Here is the nice thing about producing Nobuta: things end up not with Nobuta changing, but with people accepting her the way she is. The person who ends up changing is Shuji – and it’s a different sort of change, the introspective, finding-who-you-really-are type of change. And here’s the nice thing about Shuji: the fact that he’s a jerk and is worried about his reputation – the fact that he has something to lose – makes everything more real. It also makes him more endearing. Nobuta and Akira are outcasts, after all, but Shuji’s spent a lot of time and effort to build his image and it really hurts to let that fall apart.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, Nobuta has brilliant characterization. No stereotypes, no paper-flatness; they’re all three-dimensional. Mariko, the most popular girl and Shuji’s assumed girlfriend, is pretty and smart and athletic. She’s insecure about Shuji’s feelings, she’s a girl so she doesn’t want Shuji to accept other people’s affections, but she loves and hurts like we all do. She also becomes some sort of pillar for Nobuta, and their friendship is a subtle kind, not exactly like Nobuta’s friendship with Shuji and Akira, but no less true. Then there’s Bando the bully. Monumental changes come from little ones, and she shows that. She doesn’t start liking Nobuta all of a sudden, but that’s okay because the difference is only inside her and she knows that and so does Nobuta, and that’s enough for both of them.

Nobuta also says a lot about real life, friendship, and real people. It’s about high school. It’s about love and pain and sacrifices and building memories that you will someday look back to. And in spite of that dampening undertone, you can still laugh when you’re watching the series because these are real people and real people are like this. (Yamapi is also really cute as Akira here.) Real life is like this. You laugh, you cry, you run away, you hurt others, you forgive and you don’t forgive. And you feel everything they’re feeling because these people aren’t strangers, they’re pieces of you.

(J-Drama) Gokusen 2

I appreciate Gokusen the drama in a different light from the manga. In fact, I regard them so separately that I forget that they have the same title. The characters have been recast, the scenarios rewritten, but as someone who watched the drama before reading the manga, I can still love the live action.

The thing about Gokusen 2 is that it’s a rehash of Gokusen, except with altered dialogues/situations and new faces. They recast the recast characters, what is up with that. Only Kuma stays from the Shirokin 3-D bunch. I love Kuma, but I find it… I don’t know, insulting how everyone else is gone and unmentioned. It’s almost like the original 3-D never happened, and the events of the first season were declared null and void.

Also, loyal fangirl that I am (not-so-loyal now, since I did watch Gokusen 2), I am perturbed by the lack of Shin. In Gokusen 2, Shin’s role is divided between Odagiri Ryu and Yabuki Hayato. I do confess that I found Jin quite cute here, but that’s about it. Also, personality-wise, Ryu was more Shin, except that he bored me. He was not cool at all. Just typical and boring. Maybe it’s because MatsuJun was so smirky as Shin and had this obvious attraction to Yankumi, but I don’t know. Ryu’s climactic moment did nothing to me. And maybe it’s because season 2 is like a repackaged season 1, but none of the other characters stuck to me either. I don’t even remember their names. I kinda liked Koike Teppei, whatever was the name of the student he played, but I’m not so sure that’s not just actor bias.

And while the whole Kuma thing was a nice touch, I still didn’t like it so much because it’s just Kuma. I’d think that his high school friends would be there for him (because come on, you know they would – if not Shin, there’s still Uchi and Noda and stuff), rather than leaving it to Yabuki (and Odagiri).

And I didn’t like Kujo-sensei at all. Not that I really liked Shinohara from the first season, but he was okay, I guess.

To the credit of Gokusen 2, they did add the Shin (in this case, Hayato) vs Yankumi duel from the manga, but like I said, I regard the live action series separately, and it’s not like the drama really picked up for me, although it was pretty funny and I loved it when they were singing about chocolate. XD

…That is all.

(movie) Death Note: The Last Name

A few complaints about the second Death Note movie. Spoilers.

1) I wish there were more closure to Shiori. Besides the whole Second Kira thing, didn’t people find it weird that Light was so intent on avenging Shiori’s death but easily got himself a new girlfriend (then again, it’s Misa, so it’s okay)? I don’t know. I think that’s just me.

2) Waitwaitwait. Nitpick: If the Death Note turned out to be a fake, then how did Light manage to see and converse with Ryuk? THIS BOGGLES ME. Is this a production mistake or am I missing out on something. (Like, some really elaborate reasoning that can only be brought about by the cleverness that is spawned in interactions between Light and L.) D:

3) Kiyomi Takada’s role was almost completely rewritten to be a convenient mixture of Higuchi, Mikami and Takada, they might as well have changed her name. But this isn’t really a complaint.

Otherwise, it was a great watch. Something new for the fans, oy (personally, I think the ending is brilliant). It’s nice, how they condensed the whole story neatly into two good movies and even managed to retain certain key points. (Sadly, nothing much on Light’s transformation, but I suppose that’s something that’s manga-exclusive.) And Sota!Matsuda~♥ Also, Sayu has more screentime, whee.

(movie) Letters from Iwo Jima

I had to watch the movie in three sittings due to certain… time constraints, so I doubt I can form proper opinions.

I really didn’t just watch it because of Nino. The first cap amuses me, though. XD

1) I’ve never watched its sibling movie, Flags Of Our Father. I probably never will.

2) I did enjoy the movie, though. I only know two actors, Ken Watanabe (you probably know him too) and Ninomiya Kazunari, who is pretty much my favorite Arashi member, even though I’m not much of an Arashi fan. (I love Jun too, but mostly because of his various roles in various dramas.) At any rate, Nino doesn’t look like he came from a rainbow boyband (and not just because the color tone of the movie is desaturated too). He looks like a baker who isn’t dying for his country because he wants to, which is what he is. His name in the movie is Saigo. I don’t know how it’s written, but it feels appropriate, given that he’s pretty much one of the… well, last people. Or people who last. Whichever.

3) It’s a good movie, really. It tells the story in the side of the Japanese, in the perspective of an ordinary person, which is what the soldiers really are. They all have families that they were forced to leave, they write letters that are never sent. They’re fighting a losing battle, and so the atmosphere is heavy with despair and numbness.

4) I just think that they should take out the flashbacks. I am satisfied with the characterization within the Iwo Jima setting. I know everyone has his story, and I’ve heard some of them. Letters isn’t really a character-driven film, so I don’t think they needed that much exposition about certain characters. I mean, it’s nice – just not necessary.

5) Like I said, it’s a good movie. It shows a lot of the human side of war. But it feels half-hearted. #4 might be one reason; another would be Sam, the American casualty they took in, who also kept a letter of his own, and who was supposedly proof that the Americans are people, just like them. If you want to make a movie about normal Japanese people going to war, fine. Stick to that theme. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like the point got dulled out and scattered, leaving less of an impact. It’s like… I don’t know, starting a story with a first-person perspective then suddenly zooming out to something more omniscient, so it’s a bit disorienting. Or something. I win so much at not making sense.

6) But the last seconds were nice. I’m so inconsistent.