Saturday, October 16, 2010
In a Bamboo City III - The Sensei
Wednesday night, a group of the exchange students from that school down the road came to the dojo. One showed up a little late (by around six minutes or so), but he actually remembered to bow on the way in. Not too shabby. The gaijin kids acted interested enough. Their Japanese wasn't too great, but a few seemed to catch what I was saying. I couldn't help them for too long, though; I still had to teach some class. For pushing 65, I surprise myself sometimes. It takes some effort, even when you've been in the business longer than most of these kids have been alive.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
In a Bamboo City II - The Judo Kid
Wednesday night's judo class was interesting for the fact that there was a group of gaijin intently watching the class. They're probably interested in classes. Anyways, they were being taken care of by one of the sensei, so I decided not to get too distracted. Flipping a guy as big as Yamashita-kun takes concentration. Heck, getting flipped takes some concentration, especially on the ukemi. Breaking your fall right is critical.
Kendo, Judo
So I've begun looking at sports, which will probably start after the Kyoto trip. My two options I've chosen to go for are kendo and judo. Kendo is, for those of you unfamiliar with Nipponese sports, the rough equivalent to fencing. Judo is the rough equivalent of wrestling with a touch of MMA. Both are badass.
I'm covering my impressions of Judo in my Rashomon spoof, so pay attention to that. If you want a quick version of my impression, it's this: Judo looks pretty brutal and I think I love it. It's the only sport I know of where an eleven year old girl about five feet tall can flip over a two hundred pound man. It's also actually more brutal than American wrestling by a good amount.
Kendo looks pretty awesome. Tonight, a group of SYA students including myself went to the Sports center (about a five minute walk from my house, luckily) and watched a session. We were there for an hour, beginning with the last half of the little kids' class, and ending with the first half of the older student's session. Kendo looks fast paced, with a rather stylized and sporting version of kenjutsu as its core. However, if this were real kenjutsu most of these kids would have been meatloaf, so I guess bamboo alternatives to swords are a good thing. The fencing analogy is very appropriate.
Kendo has the major disadvantage of cost. If i do decide to stick with it, I can expect an equipment bill of around 700 dollars, minimum. Lesson costs are very low (around 22 dollars a month, same for judo) but the gear necessary is pretty costly. That could be an issue. If I can find used gear I can probably shave the cost down a couple hundred dollars, though. Still, that's a price that my wallet can barely at all handle. I may have to stick with just judo.
I'm covering my impressions of Judo in my Rashomon spoof, so pay attention to that. If you want a quick version of my impression, it's this: Judo looks pretty brutal and I think I love it. It's the only sport I know of where an eleven year old girl about five feet tall can flip over a two hundred pound man. It's also actually more brutal than American wrestling by a good amount.
Kendo looks pretty awesome. Tonight, a group of SYA students including myself went to the Sports center (about a five minute walk from my house, luckily) and watched a session. We were there for an hour, beginning with the last half of the little kids' class, and ending with the first half of the older student's session. Kendo looks fast paced, with a rather stylized and sporting version of kenjutsu as its core. However, if this were real kenjutsu most of these kids would have been meatloaf, so I guess bamboo alternatives to swords are a good thing. The fencing analogy is very appropriate.
Kendo has the major disadvantage of cost. If i do decide to stick with it, I can expect an equipment bill of around 700 dollars, minimum. Lesson costs are very low (around 22 dollars a month, same for judo) but the gear necessary is pretty costly. That could be an issue. If I can find used gear I can probably shave the cost down a couple hundred dollars, though. Still, that's a price that my wallet can barely at all handle. I may have to stick with just judo.
In a Bamboo City I - The Cyclist
(note: The next three posts and the one attached to this message are part of an odd little Rashomon-esque project to be done of this blog. Don't mind it too much)
The man got my attention with a simple "sumimasen". He looked worried about something, like maybe he was running late. I wasn't in too much of a hurry, for once, so I decided to stop very briefly to try and help. He was looking for the gym (yeah, running late), and so I pointed him in the direction he needed to go. In fact, I was heading that way, so I decided to take the turn into the back streets to point out its location to him, as it was very close and only added a few seconds to my journey. He thanked me, and I went on my way.
The man got my attention with a simple "sumimasen". He looked worried about something, like maybe he was running late. I wasn't in too much of a hurry, for once, so I decided to stop very briefly to try and help. He was looking for the gym (yeah, running late), and so I pointed him in the direction he needed to go. In fact, I was heading that way, so I decided to take the turn into the back streets to point out its location to him, as it was very close and only added a few seconds to my journey. He thanked me, and I went on my way.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Redline - A Review
Imagine if Heavy Metal and The Cannonball Run had a baby. That's about the closest thing I can think of to how to describe the new anime film Redline.
Basically, the premise is such: Eight racers, including the main character, JP, enter the galactic racing championship, the Redline. This race is held every five years, under mysterious circumstances only announced a few days before the race itself. This year, the Red Line is on the planet Roboworld. However, the government of Roboworld is led by a group of cyborg fascists who want no part in the race, making this Redline even more dangerous than ever.
Let me start with this: this is not a film about the plot or even the action, as good as both are. This is a film about the animation. Under the direction of Takeshi Koike (Dead Leaves, The Animatrix: World Record), this film took six years to make because every single frame is hand drawn. The only CGI ever used is for effects overlays on the TV broadcasts. This painstakingly, lovingly rendered cel animation is a joy to behold, and the designs of everything from characters to landscapes in the Redline universe are all unique and crazy but still cool. JP's hair is one of the most ridiculous pompadours in all of recorded history, but it fits with his greaser look. His rival/crush Sonoshee has two-toned green and pink hair and body proportions out of this world. And these are just the humans. Each alien has a unique and funny little quirk, and none ever feel out of place.
The artbook (which I bought) gives a good look at everything, with both cels from the film and concept sketches, and it's all incredibly detailed. And this is sitting still. The film is even more impressive in motion. The guys who animated the entire engine block whirring away in the opening Yellowline race scene must have had a blast.
The soundtrack by James Kimoji is also fun, though perhaps a tiny bit repetitive at points. It fits well, though, so no complaints. The songs are always well-timed with the action, though perhaps not to the extent of a music-driven anime such as FLCL, where the songs were actually the motive behind the animation. Even so, the soundtrack fits, and does its job. I'd buy it.
The story itself is actually much stronger than I expected it to be. The beginning ten minutes and end fifty minutes are pure action, but that other forty minute act in between is actually pretty good at establishing all the characters. Most of the racers don't have a whole ton of personality beyond what we see in their introductions, but the two main characters, JP and Sonoshee, get a good amount of backstory and current-day exposition. Also prominent are Frisbee, JP's manager and childhood friend, and Old Man Mogura, an eccentric old engineer who builds JP a new Trans Am 20000 after his original one gets crashed in the Yellowline qualifying race. None of the characters are particularly strong, in that you wouldn't be writing an essay about how JP's crush on Sonoshee represents the modern state of masculinity or something silly like that, but for a film that is essentially style over substance, Redline could have done much worse in presenting a full cast of characters.
The last act, the actual race itself, is a mindblowingly fast paced action sequence full of awesome, awesome stuff which I'm not gonna spoil, and the end is pretty cool in that usual "the main character wins but just by the tip of his massive pompadour thanks to a nearly unforeseen Chekov's Gun" kind of way. The race does have the only real low point of the film, however, in that a previously almost-unmentioned-but-hinted-at but huge event pretty much stops the whole thing for ten minutes. I feel like the whole sequence could have been replaced with something much less out of place or perhaps greatly shortened for brevity and then filled in with more racing. Said sequence isn't necessarily bad, however, just a little out of place.
In short, Redline kicks all the ass. The animation is wonderfully smooth, the characters are pretty well developed for such a stylish piece, and the whole thing flows pretty well overall. It really doesn't feel like 100 minutes.
9.75/10
Basically, the premise is such: Eight racers, including the main character, JP, enter the galactic racing championship, the Redline. This race is held every five years, under mysterious circumstances only announced a few days before the race itself. This year, the Red Line is on the planet Roboworld. However, the government of Roboworld is led by a group of cyborg fascists who want no part in the race, making this Redline even more dangerous than ever.
Let me start with this: this is not a film about the plot or even the action, as good as both are. This is a film about the animation. Under the direction of Takeshi Koike (Dead Leaves, The Animatrix: World Record), this film took six years to make because every single frame is hand drawn. The only CGI ever used is for effects overlays on the TV broadcasts. This painstakingly, lovingly rendered cel animation is a joy to behold, and the designs of everything from characters to landscapes in the Redline universe are all unique and crazy but still cool. JP's hair is one of the most ridiculous pompadours in all of recorded history, but it fits with his greaser look. His rival/crush Sonoshee has two-toned green and pink hair and body proportions out of this world. And these are just the humans. Each alien has a unique and funny little quirk, and none ever feel out of place.
The artbook (which I bought) gives a good look at everything, with both cels from the film and concept sketches, and it's all incredibly detailed. And this is sitting still. The film is even more impressive in motion. The guys who animated the entire engine block whirring away in the opening Yellowline race scene must have had a blast.
The soundtrack by James Kimoji is also fun, though perhaps a tiny bit repetitive at points. It fits well, though, so no complaints. The songs are always well-timed with the action, though perhaps not to the extent of a music-driven anime such as FLCL, where the songs were actually the motive behind the animation. Even so, the soundtrack fits, and does its job. I'd buy it.
The story itself is actually much stronger than I expected it to be. The beginning ten minutes and end fifty minutes are pure action, but that other forty minute act in between is actually pretty good at establishing all the characters. Most of the racers don't have a whole ton of personality beyond what we see in their introductions, but the two main characters, JP and Sonoshee, get a good amount of backstory and current-day exposition. Also prominent are Frisbee, JP's manager and childhood friend, and Old Man Mogura, an eccentric old engineer who builds JP a new Trans Am 20000 after his original one gets crashed in the Yellowline qualifying race. None of the characters are particularly strong, in that you wouldn't be writing an essay about how JP's crush on Sonoshee represents the modern state of masculinity or something silly like that, but for a film that is essentially style over substance, Redline could have done much worse in presenting a full cast of characters.
The last act, the actual race itself, is a mindblowingly fast paced action sequence full of awesome, awesome stuff which I'm not gonna spoil, and the end is pretty cool in that usual "the main character wins but just by the tip of his massive pompadour thanks to a nearly unforeseen Chekov's Gun" kind of way. The race does have the only real low point of the film, however, in that a previously almost-unmentioned-but-hinted-at but huge event pretty much stops the whole thing for ten minutes. I feel like the whole sequence could have been replaced with something much less out of place or perhaps greatly shortened for brevity and then filled in with more racing. Said sequence isn't necessarily bad, however, just a little out of place.
In short, Redline kicks all the ass. The animation is wonderfully smooth, the characters are pretty well developed for such a stylish piece, and the whole thing flows pretty well overall. It really doesn't feel like 100 minutes.
9.75/10
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Morning Routine
So as of Friday, weekday mornings have a new special routine. We wake up at 6:30, do calisthenics based on a radio show that comes on that time, and then listen to Sessou chant out a sutra. The sutra is almost like a capella rap music mixed with a didgeridoo, plus the bells that he uses. After the sutra, we place incense sticks in the various shrines around the house. The final step to the routine, right as Naoko is finishing breakfast, is to sweep the courtyard out. The courtyard has both falling leaves and sand to clean up, but it only takes a few minutes a day. Waking up an hour early isn't inherently fun, but doing something fun in the morning is always cool by me.
Tea Ceremony and Lazy Sunday Thoughts
So this morning I woke up early because I had to go to a tea ceremony demo with Naoko-san. Hyden and I were probably the youngest people in the room by a good forty years compared to the average in the room. We were I got the seat next to the lady teaching/leading the ceremony, which was almost like cotillion, except with old people instead of pimply pre-teens and the anachronisms to two hundred years ago were Edo instead of English. Fancy china and Japanese pottery, bitter tea, and some mochi were all part of the deal.
Sitting Seiza style (legs folded under you with feet flat to the floor) is easy when your pockets are empty, but it still cuts off your feet. For me, it was my first time sitting seiza and actually toughing it out for the whole session, so I couldn't stand for a few seconds when we could get up.
Dead feet aside, the tea ceremony was cool.
Lunch was a Mos Burger. A little expensive and small but not bad.
Grabbed a thing of squid jerky, because that stuff is kinda nostalgic. Also goes with coffee real nicely.
After lunch/snack I did my math homework and some research on longboards.
I've ultimately decided on a Bustin Maestro, though I was also really considering an Earthwing Superglide or Miniglide deck. Bustin's shop is gonna take a while because they're backordered as it gets right now (two weeks), which was the big reason I was looking at other ideas, but I've decided to stick with it. Also grabbed their $5 random t-shirt deal while I was at it.
Sitting Seiza style (legs folded under you with feet flat to the floor) is easy when your pockets are empty, but it still cuts off your feet. For me, it was my first time sitting seiza and actually toughing it out for the whole session, so I couldn't stand for a few seconds when we could get up.
Dead feet aside, the tea ceremony was cool.
Lunch was a Mos Burger. A little expensive and small but not bad.
Grabbed a thing of squid jerky, because that stuff is kinda nostalgic. Also goes with coffee real nicely.
After lunch/snack I did my math homework and some research on longboards.
I've ultimately decided on a Bustin Maestro, though I was also really considering an Earthwing Superglide or Miniglide deck. Bustin's shop is gonna take a while because they're backordered as it gets right now (two weeks), which was the big reason I was looking at other ideas, but I've decided to stick with it. Also grabbed their $5 random t-shirt deal while I was at it.
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