for those of you sick of soccer spam :P
1. New Ghibli film trailer out: When Marnie Was There
I've been sadly behind on my Ghibli fannishness (still haven't watched Arrietty/Poppy Hill/Wind Rises) -- but I think I'm going to adore this one.
(The trailer makes it seem like a lesbian romance. Haha. But seriously, in a year where people won't shut up about Frozen, I'm actually really happy to see Ghibli making a another movie about girls.)
(That theme song = <33333 Priscilla Ahn - "Fine on the Outside")
2. This week's One Piece!!!!!!! Oh MAN. This flashback is going to break my heart, isn't it? Just that one page hit me absolutely in the gut already.
I mean seriously, I don't think I ever expected a character like Law to ever show up in mainstream fiction. Much less in a Jump series. (I mean yes we all expected Law to have a tragic past blah blah who doesn't but oh man, I don't think anyone expected THIS and I think that one single panel just instantly shot Law up to my top five characters. I'd already liked him, but wasn't really a huge fangirl...) And I love how it's all falling into place now.
It's so weird how a goofy writer like Oda understands the mechanics of destructive rage and anger so frighteningly well.
Actually, no, it's not weird. But like I said, it's the kind of thing that hits me hard.
3. I'm ridiculously hyped about Moonlight Blade Online (based I assume on the corresponding Gu Long novel -- 天涯明月刀/Tian Ya Ming Yue Dao, which I've not actually read/watched dramas/movies of).
As you all may or may not remember, I was super hyped about the Age of Wushu/Wulin MMO (based mostly on Jin Yong's Condor universe but also pulling from various other wuxia universes) and even enjoyed the game to a certain extent when it finally came out but it was just so, so flawed (the US "Wushu" version in particular).
There have been other Jin Yong-ripoff MMOs and other wuxia-themed MMOS in recent years (I make a distinction between historical Asian fantasy MMOs and wuxia here): Blade & Soul is frex Korean-style wuxia (nope, haven't watched the anime -- am behind on anime this year as I've said -- but was following development/news on this for about a year or two) and actually looks pretty neat, but I'm thinking in particular of Swordsman Online (based on Xiao Ao Jiang Hu), which looks incredibly shitty (fairly standard Euro-fantasy gaming mechanics dressed up as "wuxia") and embodies pretty much everything I despise about certain contemporary conceptions of wuxia.
But Moonlight Blade? Holy shit, they got an actual choreographer for the model animations and the battle system looks absolutely NUTS.
See: intro vid (~CB2??)
(I've seen some footage from CB3 and the graphics have actually improved!)
These creators truly understand what makes wuxia wuxia (from an action POV). I'm soooo excited!
The music is really great too, which is always a plus. Though for the record, Age of Wushu also has amazing music* -- but the shitty in-game compression pretty much ruins it.
* Faves: Suzhou theme, Story theme, Tangmen theme. I mean seriously, this is movie soundtrack level stuff. <3 Too bad the game itself is mediocre....
comments at the original Dreamwidth post
I've been sadly behind on my Ghibli fannishness (still haven't watched Arrietty/Poppy Hill/Wind Rises) -- but I think I'm going to adore this one.
(The trailer makes it seem like a lesbian romance. Haha. But seriously, in a year where people won't shut up about Frozen, I'm actually really happy to see Ghibli making a another movie about girls.)
(That theme song = <33333 Priscilla Ahn - "Fine on the Outside")
2. This week's One Piece!!!!!!! Oh MAN. This flashback is going to break my heart, isn't it? Just that one page hit me absolutely in the gut already.
I mean seriously, I don't think I ever expected a character like Law to ever show up in mainstream fiction. Much less in a Jump series. (I mean yes we all expected Law to have a tragic past blah blah who doesn't but oh man, I don't think anyone expected THIS and I think that one single panel just instantly shot Law up to my top five characters. I'd already liked him, but wasn't really a huge fangirl...) And I love how it's all falling into place now.
It's so weird how a goofy writer like Oda understands the mechanics of destructive rage and anger so frighteningly well.
Actually, no, it's not weird. But like I said, it's the kind of thing that hits me hard.
3. I'm ridiculously hyped about Moonlight Blade Online (based I assume on the corresponding Gu Long novel -- 天涯明月刀/Tian Ya Ming Yue Dao, which I've not actually read/watched dramas/movies of).
As you all may or may not remember, I was super hyped about the Age of Wushu/Wulin MMO (based mostly on Jin Yong's Condor universe but also pulling from various other wuxia universes) and even enjoyed the game to a certain extent when it finally came out but it was just so, so flawed (the US "Wushu" version in particular).
There have been other Jin Yong-ripoff MMOs and other wuxia-themed MMOS in recent years (I make a distinction between historical Asian fantasy MMOs and wuxia here): Blade & Soul is frex Korean-style wuxia (nope, haven't watched the anime -- am behind on anime this year as I've said -- but was following development/news on this for about a year or two) and actually looks pretty neat, but I'm thinking in particular of Swordsman Online (based on Xiao Ao Jiang Hu), which looks incredibly shitty (fairly standard Euro-fantasy gaming mechanics dressed up as "wuxia") and embodies pretty much everything I despise about certain contemporary conceptions of wuxia.
But Moonlight Blade? Holy shit, they got an actual choreographer for the model animations and the battle system looks absolutely NUTS.
See: intro vid (~CB2??)
(I've seen some footage from CB3 and the graphics have actually improved!)
These creators truly understand what makes wuxia wuxia (from an action POV). I'm soooo excited!
The music is really great too, which is always a plus. Though for the record, Age of Wushu also has amazing music* -- but the shitty in-game compression pretty much ruins it.
* Faves: Suzhou theme, Story theme, Tangmen theme. I mean seriously, this is movie soundtrack level stuff. <3 Too bad the game itself is mediocre....
comments at the original Dreamwidth post