The End of the World–May 21st, 2011?

Has anyone heard recently about people announcing that today is the end of the world?

Here is a video on that!

Judgement Day article!

What do you guys think? DO you think the world is going to end in a couple of hours?

Also, what will you do if it is your final hours? Party like it’s 1999? Pray? Gather all of your emergency items? Or sleep the whole day?

I’m going to eat some barbecue, but I will be checking the weather.

Comment and let me know!

Mushishi Anime Review 10/10

*Please Read Other Anime Reviews in the Older entries Section or Under Animejournal at the top *

**THE FOLLOWING ANIME IS Seinen AND IS MEANT FOR AN ADULT MALE AUDIENCE, though anyone can enjoy it*

In the following review about the anime Mushishi, I will be discussing the story/plot(s), the characters, design and tidbits about the writer.

Story/Plot(s): Every plot in the whole anime has two things in common: nature and Ginko. Ginko is a Mushishi. Mushishis collect Mushi. Mushis are supernatural beings that are considered even purer than nature itself. Some people can see them, some people can’t. They are beings that only act to survive, but they don’t really have feelings or care about other beings that are not them. Most Mushi aren’t to be trusted. This is called a “psychological horror”, but I consider it a “nature horror”, because it focuses on how Mushi take the form of normal things in nature and give each natural thing an abnormal ability. And not just like regular supernatural abilities, like super powers. Really, most of the Mushi in the show rarely take the form of humans. Majority of the time it takes the form of something in nature, like water, and the humans use it or sit too close to it, and it latches on to the human, causing the human to act strange. Some of them look like bugs or large swamps, or fish, or sometimes just plain shadows, or light. Whatever form it takes, for instance, like a mountain, the mountain will have a strange addition to it. Like maybe it will constantly change color or something. In each plot, Ginko is a wanderer who helps each place when they encounter the Mushi. As a Mushishi, a Mushi Master, he is very knowledgeable about Mushi and how to get rid of them. Sometimes he has higher knowledge than other Mushishis. The main thing about him is he never wants to kill the Mushi, he only wants to send them away from the person they have latched on because he realizes the Mushi do this in order to survive, just like any other being. It is in a Mushi’s nature to do what it can in order to survive, whether it is latching on to a human ear or human eyes or anything in nature. Each plot is different from one another. It’s normally a different circumstance everytime. And we do get some insight into Ginko’s past throughout the anime. So, I was quite satisfied. You definitely need to be mature in order to appreciate the content. It is not particularly action oriented, hence the “psychological” part means you have to use your mind.

Characters: There are no recurring characters except Ginko. But there is a doctor who appeared in at least two episodes. Other than that, most of the characters are new everytime. However, the use of the “type” of character is very similar. For instance, children are heavily involved. It seems more children are victims of Mushi, especially because, I suppose they are more naive and appreciate nature more and are curious enough to mess with the Mushi. In almost every episode, children are usually involved. Also, the partnership of male and female or siblings, whether it be brother and sister, marriage, twins, but it seems to have an Adam and Eve like feeling from the beginning. Most of the people in the story live in the mountains or in valleys or by large bodies of water, anywhere in large clumps of nature, where Mushi normally reside. They live in small villages too, so many of them lack education and dress very traditional. No cell phones or anything like that. Ginko doesn’t dress very traditional. He stands out completely. He has silver white hair, and one greenish eye. He is very dry, often humorous. He doesn’t have much expression in his eyes. He travels from land to land making a living off collecting Mushi, gathering info about them, and selling them. Throughout the story we also meet other Mushi experts and even Mushishi. Some people know about them, some don’t. But most Mushishi travel for fear of Mushi causing trouble if the Mushishi stays too long.

Design and writer: I get a XxXHolic feel from the design. Realistic features, like normal Japanese hair color and eye color, except Ginko. Height is normal. Greenery is brought out well, but colors are quite bland on the people as they dress very practical, with darker colors, which is more practical. None of them wear exceedingly extravagant and unrealistic fashions and hair dos. The difference with this is it’s just not as lanky as XxXHolic. The writer seems fairly new to the manga world. Her name is Yuki Urushibara. She seems to use nature in her works a lot like with “Filament” and “Waters”.

Well, that is my review on this anime. I felt each portion was pretty original. When it came to the plot, not many people handle a plot dealing this heavily with nature. Most people handle the city in Japan at least once. The creatures were creatively designed and used effectively for the plot. The story didn’t seem to “cash in” on a fanbase. It kept it’s “composure”. It did give a few laughs here and there. Ginko is a pretty dry character, giving a humorous effect. I give this anime a 10/10

Ayakashi Japanese Classic Horror Review 10/10

Alright, I finished another anime in my list of horrors. If you want an idea of my list head to http://myanimelist.net/soratothamax and you can see all of the animes I have lined up and will review. For now, I’m giving you my opinion on my latest anime (yes, another horror):

Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror

I will be discussing the story, character development, music, art design and style, and the writers and creators.

Story: This is a three-part anime. There are three different stories. 1)The first in the anime is called Goddess of the Dark Tower. It’s a story of a Goddess who fell in love with a human. The biggest problem with the Goddess loving the humans is that the humans killed her mother, making the Gods lose their immortality. Really, the Gods needed the humans for food and to ease the pain of losing the Queen of the Gods, who happened to be the mother of the main princess in the story. This was about the two world colliding. Something that irked in the back of my mind was still unanswered in the anime. 2)Yotsuya Ghost Story is next. It is the story about a good woman who fell in love with a samarai. The Samarai seemed good to her, and apparently she had sex with him and became pregnant. But her father didn’t approve. This seemingly nice samarai then gets angry with the rejection, and turns into this evil man. He ends up murdering her father. He pretends he didn’t do it, and promises his woman that he would seek revenge, as men had to do for their families. But soon after his woman had her baby, she became ill, and this evil man started to grow tired of her. A young spoiled girl, who had her eye on him, plotted to poison his wife and take him for herself…which caused a big mess…You have to see the rest. It caused a curse, I’ll say that. 3)Bake Neko is the third story. The story begins with a young girl marrying to help her family financially. But just as she’s about to leave, she falls dead. The story comes up that a demon has possessed the house. A young medicine man appears as well to tell the family this. The only way to get rid of this demon is to know why the demon is angry and the reason it has appeared at the moment. As he finds out the story, the truth about the family’s past comes to the light. All of the stories are interesting in their own way and told in different ways, so this never becomes competitive. It can become confusing if you don’t pay attention. If you like Samarais, you’ll love this. If you are interested in traditional Japan, you’ll love this. And if you love drama or variety, you will love this. The nature of every story is so distinct, you might forget you are watching the same anime.

Characters: The cast is very vast, but the characters are very well developed. The first story is about the Goddess focusing on the characters Himekawa Zoshonosuke and TomiHime. Himekawa is a medieval falconer who lost his bird having him run deeper into a woods which made him meet the Goddess TomiHime. She was supposed to kill him, but he was so nice, I guess she didn’t want to. Well, she was really in awe of humans and fell in love with him. Their forbidden romance causes problems for both worlds.
The second story about the ghost focuses on Tamiya Iemon and Tamiya Oiwa. Tamiya Oiwa was a good woman who took care of her child. But when Iemon abandoned her, she put a curse on him…This was a dramatic story. The third story focuses on a family, but the real main character is the medicine man, who btw, has his own spin-off series called Mononoke. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Music: The opening seems very out of place, but it’s also pretty good. It’s called HEAT ISLAND by Rhymester. It’s a hip-hop/rap song. The ending song is more traditional. It’s called Haru no Katami by Chitose Hajime. Interesting blend of music.

Art/Design: All of the styles are distinct and vary according to the story. The one that stood out the most to me was the third story. It had so many bright colors and geometrical figures. It was pretty loud. The second seemed the most traditional in style. The first seemed more modern.

Writers and creators: There were three writers, which is pretty obvious because none of the stories are alike or told in the same way.

Chiaki J. Konaka (Yotsuya Kaidan)
Yuuji Sakamoto (Tenshu Monogatari)
Michiko Yokote (Bakeneko)

They are the three writers, and have serious distinction in their ideas of horror. If I were to pick my favorite story, I think it would be the third…I guess because there’s just something interesting about the medicine man. The second one would be next because that was just so far-fetched and insane. The last would be the Goddess story because of it’s predictability (like watching Shonen anime) and the idealistic tone.

So this is my anime review. This is a must-read. I recommend the first story for anyone 13 and older. I recommend the second to anyone 18 and older. And the third 13 and older.