Plans for the Future

Readers,

So, in my continuing effort to do new and radical things in the pursuit of individual enlightenment, I've decided something.

When I was younger and in school, I used to walk around in the middle of the night. To what end, I didn't know. I'd go past friend's houses, knowing they were asleep, I'd retrace the steps of my childhood through the cover of night, eventually coming to find myself dissatisfied by never finding anything.

I was looking for something, what that might have been I didn't know, but I did know that when I finally did come across it, I would know.

So, I find myself here, preparing to return to the same grinding of my soul and youth into a dusty pool that I know as money.

I sell my soul, in exchange for normality. I sell my heart, in exchange for the promise that I will see tomorrow.

No more.

I've decided to cast aside this life of mediocrity and cloudy mass of days, months, and years, broken up only by the toying fiction that my life has purpose like this. I've decided to travel.

It's...a little mind-blowing. My plans are simple really, get a plane ticket, some survival gear, land in a foreign culture and start walking. Hop from foreign country to foreign country, until eventually I find myself somewhere I don't have to look for anymore. Japan first, then maybe South Korea, Russia, Taiwan, or Thailand. China. India. Vietnam, Istanbul, Europe, Africa, South America, the East Coast, Canada, Mexico, back to Japan, hell, anywhere is fine really.

I will keep this up a little while longer, and then life will begin to unfold for me, finally. Twenty-one years lost in the cloud of society searching for something, and I finally feel like I'm on the brink of my ultimate discovery. Money is a tool of society, I will abandon this society and it's rules and take to find my own path.

Asia exists because I've seen it in a book, seen pictures on TV and the internet, and heard about it through the news. This is the same for all things I know about the world, but I am hereby done thinking in such a immature method. I will confirm that these things exist by stepping on them and holding them in my hands. Nothing exists until one confirms it for themselves. I will live by that ideal in just a few months.

Watch over me, comrades and friends. We may not meet again in the near future, but I will carry with me memories of you in my journey.

Regards,
Kageryu

Kara no Kyoukai - Blu-ray Box Set Feature Presentation

I mean what I say and I say what I mean. I got it. I didn't get it just for myself, I got it for all of us, since we can't all afford a $400 box set.

As I recently moved, I decided to set up a Kara no Kyoukai shrine next to my chair at my desk.

Each disc has it's corresponding Takeuchi drawing on it, excuse my shitty cell phone camera, they're actually really, really high quality.

An eighth special disc includes the OVA epilogue, Kara no Kyoukai Remix, and a special program recapping films 1-6 in preparation for the seventh film.

It comes with two books, each with a soft velvet cover and silver writing.

As great as the actual movies are, the box set really shines in the Visual Chronicle.

A collection of visuals by Takeuchi and Tomonori Sudou, each more beautiful than the next.

For the most part, there's two versions of each picture, I'll only be showing a handful of them, but they're all stunning.

The Visual Chronicle also comes with several interviews from Takeuchi, Sudou, and Takeuchi, Nasu, and Maaya Sakamoto. They're fascinating to read.

God I love Azaka. It explains why I also love Akiha.

Excuse all the glaring, it's my stupid lamp's fault. This picture is interesting because it's done in the new cell-shaded style Type-Moon did for Actress Again.

Sudou honestly isn't my favorite artist, and the whole change in art direction for the Kara no Kyoukai films never did really sit well with me, but whatever. It turned out for the best.

Fuckin' love Azaka~!

Everything comes packed in a neat black box with silver writing and this image on the front, small black ribbons allow you to tie it shut.

Exclusive to the US release is this translation booklet for the visual chronicle, the discs themselves come with both English and Japanese subtitles, as well as the little pre-movie shorts with Neko Arc and the puppets.

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Fortunately, the translation is pretty solid, they translated Chokushi no Magan as Mystic Eyes of Death Perception which shows they at least paid attention to the preconceived expectations of what Kara no Kyoukai is to international fans and what it means in having a solid translation. I personally prefer Dirty Red over Disgraced Scarlet, however.

In other news, now that I'm finally settled in at my new apartment, I'm going to try and post a lot more. I'm really sorry about the downtime guys, but things should have a bit of normality now.

-Kageryu

Nothing in Particular - Christmas

I hate Christmas.

I grew up in an underprivledged family with less than stellar parents, and while I like to think they tried their best to give my brother and I a better life, I know in reality that they could have tried a lot better. That said, and that being the case, I always hated Christmas because I never fit into the mold of the perfect American dream.

We never did the presents thing. No caroling. No dinner with family and friends, while in later years I would try those things, they never took with me and I always saw them as a bother. Maybe I just get overly negative around this time of the year, or maybe I'm just some kind of a hater, but even as I grew older and more mature, began to worry about myself less and start working towards the better of others, I found it hard to put much effort out this past month.

That said, this year has been particularly bad.

I say I'm an athiest, and while logically, I don't think there's a God, I find it really hard to simply accept the fact that within a 24 hour period, things go from great, to horrible, especially when I finally face the music, accept responsibility for something I had been putting off, and for all intents and purposes, finally show some balls and take my due.

Why is it that when I finally move towards being the bigger man, so many things around me come crashing down? I need to know, if there is a God, I need to know what his logic is because I simply don't understand it.

If there is any kind of a lesson to be learned, it's that the bad guys win, and the good guys eat shit sandwiches, I can't let myself believe that that's true, and thus why I don't believe there is a God.

With that, I come back to Christmas. While many see Christmas as the season of giving, now that it's soon to be yesterday, all that good will is about to vanish with the course of time, to arise next year, but only until the clock strikes midnight and December 25th becomes the 26th.

People act in good will because they seek a self-gratification, and Christmas does nothing but give them a timeline for that. I don't care what you do, if you lift someone up with a show of helpfulness, only to drop them at the stroke of midnight, then that doesn't make you a good person.

...I guess I don't believe in the goodness in people anymore. I know I'm a good person. Yes, I like to troll people and make them angry, that's fun to me, but I don't think I'm capable of being truly cold and heartless to someone, no, I do far too much inner observation to be capable of such blind cruelty.

I'm a good person, I work towards the better of others in the grand scale of things, and under any circumstance I can be relied upon. These are truths I strive to keep even in the most dire of circumstances, but I don't think there are any people worth being good to.

With that said, I come to the ultimate conclusion of this Christmas day rant.

Throughout my life, I have observed others from a distance, even if I was standing next to them as they enjoyed my company, I stood in the distance, floating above, watching the scene with distanced eyes and a distanced heart. Someone will read this that knows me personally and as they do I want you to ask yourself this. Have you ever asked yourself why I never take pictures? Why I never invite others to my home, and why most people don't even know where I live? Why I only recently reactivated my cell phone and why when others would go out and have fun in social galas, I often chose to stay home or at the very least, was always quick to go home once the festivities were over?

I have spent my entire life observing others, and it is this very methodology and psychological status that has allowed me to grace by the perils and madness of the real world.

I've often thought of myself as being two separate people sharing the same body, but I realize it's more of a puppeteer and a doll, but with 2010 coming to a quick close, I felt it important to gather myself in at least some medium, to express to the world in some way the chaos that swirls in my own head as two very different people fight over the path leading towards my future.

I...honestly don't know where I'll be tomorrow, or next year, at this point I feel like I'm waiting for something just on the horizon, what that may be I have yet to find out but if it doesn't come soon then I fear I may fall to the demons that are chewing away at what little sanity I may have left.

-Kageryu

Moe Life, No Life Feature Presentation - The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Nagato's first appearance in the film.

Every so often, a film comes out at the right time to really rally the spirits.

This year, that film was The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.

I'll spare you all the saying that the film held in it some kind of a message or meaning that one could take into real life, because for all intents and purposes the only real message I could gather was "Once a yandere, always a yandere"

 But The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is special for an entirely different reason. That is that it's Christmas, the film takes place within the same time frame, and it's a memory contained in modern cinema that I hold very dear.

 A memory of my youth.

 That isn't to say that I hung around a time traveler, alien, esper, and tsundere. No, I wasn't that lucky, but instead I was able to reflect back on a time in which I was younger, more naive, but also more energetic and optimistic, the time when I first laid eyes on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya via recommendation of a friend, and saw the anime that would change my life forever.

 The film itself is really only marginally better than the anime that spawned it, to be honest, it's a sign that Lucky Star and K-ON! have corrupted the Kyoto Animation framework to the point that even their most prolific works are stained with an almost fat roundness. Yes, some of the moments in the movie are amazingly well done, but compared to the original Haruhi, it only meets expectations and doesn't pass by them.

 That isn't to say that the film isn't beautiful, but if you spend your life in a rose garden, then even the most beautiful rose in the desert will look standard at best.

 But still, in a season where we all get a little lonely, the characters of Haruhi are the best companions I could hope for.

 For the diehard fans of the title, you'll feel far more at home than anyone else, myself included, it's almost as if the anime never ended, as if the second season was just an extension, and we were back five or so years ago when Haruhi was all the rage.

 The fan service and appeal of the movie is all in the details. The different faces of the characters, the way they say things and the reactions they give beat all forms of visual fan service, a more sophisticated and colorful eye candy is presented in addition to an amazing music score and vocal performance.

 Minori Chihara has rarely been better.

 Kyon is obviously the main focus of the movie, and the monologue presented delivers the overwhelming sense of helplessness present in the character better than many works that have tried before.

 For those who know the character well, his passion and depression are almost your own, and as the story unfolds, even for those who have read the novels, it's hard not to get sucked in.

 I had seen the movie twice before the blu-ray came out. Once in the camrip Mazui put out last year, and once in the live showing in Los Angeles, still, watching it in stunning blu-ray was like watching it all over again.

 There are actually a lot of liberties taken to translate the story into a visual format, details are changed, but it still fits together perfectly.

 And when the plot moves, it feels like a shock surging through the viewer.

 Even still frames from animated sequences look good.

 Making the overall film completely worth the wait.

I just love this scene.

 Those familiar with the film and the novels know full well the weight of many of these scenes, and that's when Kyon's character really shines through.

 For being the most bland character in the cast, Kyon has the most depth. His mental dialogue is one of well-constructed verbal warfare, dealing with harsh mental observation and grueling examination of his own choices and opinions.

 "Of course!"

 The ending is as one would expect, highly predictable and at the same time, completely captivating.

 Haruhi is also in full display towards the end, as her feelings for Kyon, as obvious as they are, are played with an expert's precision.

 The ultimate ending is a show of Kyon's loyalty towards his friends, which is standard, but at the same time riveting.

Only time will tell what the future holds for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

But all I know is that I will eagerly await it all the same.

-Kageryu