Review: Magical Girl Lyrical NANOHA The Movie 1st

It was only quite recently that I learned of the Nanoha series. It was when I noticed lots of Figma figurines coming out for the series, and when I saw the official movie commercial. I got interested and finished the first season a couple of months before the movie came out. It was only recently that I started watching Nanoha A's. Yesterday I went to watch the NANOHA The Movie 1st, expecting it would be a re-imagining of the first season. Apparently, it was not a re-imagining, but a retelling! I have mixed feelings for the movie, but overall, I enjoyed it. Here are my impressions:

Theater: I watched NANOHA The Movie 1st at Shinjuku Milano 1. The theater itself is big, and wasn't completely filled (which was good). The theater was clean, as expected. The lobby could use some decorations to improve the mood. It still was not Toho or Warner MyCal, but it did not disappoint as much as Musashino. I still don't understand why they did not just show the movie in those 2 theaters. Anyone know why?

Animation: The whole first season was redrawn, bringing the animation and artwork quality up to modern theatrical standards. Settings, character and costume designs, and magical attacks (particularly Nanoha's) were all modernized and improved.

Plot and Storyline: I'll say it again: it is a retelling! Even the setting and angle of shots look the same. Since I just recently watched season 1, it felt like deja vu despite the redrawn animation. Some minor things were expectedly altered to compress the whole season into a 90-120 minute movie, particularly the jewel seed collection at the beginning.

A notable addition in the movie is Raging Heart giving Nanoha what I would call a "Quick Tour" of its features during her first battle. Now that's what I call a real-time Help system.

A new flashback scene was also added that showed Precia creating a new character from her cat. She (the new character) trained Fate and created Bardiche for her. (From my Googling, it would seem the character was probably introduced during the second and/or third seasons... but I haven't watched those, so she is new to me.) Other than these and some insignificant changes, the storyline of the movie was practically the same as the series.

Best scene: The transformations! This wouldn't be a magical girl series if it did not have transformation sequences! Although the original Nanoha transformation was already great, the movie trumped that! I have always thought that Nanoha had a good blend of design ingredients that appeal to both male and female audiences. ^_^

And of course there was Starlight Breaker! The new Starlight Breaker was simply awesome!

Something I would like changed: A new plot twist wouldn't have hurt. I have to admit some talking parts bored me (I was already blinking, blinking, blinking... to keep my eyes open), because I already know what was being discussed from the TV series.

Others: The products on sale at the theater store did not catch my fancy. So I decided to buy the Nanoha Figma figurine at Yodobashi instead. Then again, that was probably just an excuse to buy one. v(^_^

Final Grade: A-

Review: Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

Fate/Stay Night is one of my favorite anime of all time (as you can see in the side-bar). ^_^ So I knew I had to watch Unlimited Blade Works when it came out - which is exactly what I did just this Tuesday. I watched it at Musashino Theater over at Shinjuku. So how did it turn out? Well, in summary, it was great, but it did not overwhelmingly blow me away, unlike Evangelion 2.0. Here are my impressions:

Theater: I wished they were showing Unlimited Blade Works in Toho or Warner MyCal cinemas. At the very least, they would have been nearer. At best, their theaters were bigger and better - for the same price! I had a hard time finding Musashino. The theater is small and feels a little cramped. It could fit only around 150-200 persons. Honestly, the theater sort of turned me off.

Animation: Unlimited Blade Works features far superior animation quality than the Fate/Stay Night TV series, as expected from a theatrical release. Swords clashed, sparks flew, and blows reverberated. Characters were all well-rendered. Well, mostly. Mr. Holy Grail Shinji seemed oddly drawn; but who cares, I wish he just died or something anyway.

Plot and Storyline: In the visual novel (which I never played and only read in Wikipedia), Unlimited Blade Works is a alternate scenario that can be unlocked after finishing the primary scenario ("Fate"). True to this, you should have watched the original Fate/Stay Night TV series (or played the visual novel) to easily make sense of what was happening. Scenes were being fast-forwarded and skipped especially at the beginning. The movie seems to be true to the original Unlimited Blade Works storyline. Some minor details were probably changed, but overall, it's the same.

I didn't know the whole storyline prior to watching the movie, so everything was new and fresh at that time (although I did already know Archer was Emiya). Some scenes surprised me completely though: Rider just dying like that (with so little screen time!), Berserker being defeated easily by Gilgamesh, and best (worst?) of all, Ilya's heart being plucked out afterwards! o_O Now that was creepy.

Unlike the TV series, Saber takes a lesser role in Unlimited Blade Works, with the focus instead being on Archer, and the relationship between Emiya and Tohsaka. It should be noted that Archer and Emiya are vastly more skilled and powerful in Unlimited Blade Works - with Archer/Emiya being capable of duplicating and countering Gilgamesh's Gate of Babylon moves. All these sort of unbalanced me for a while since I was expecting more Saber screen time.

Best scene: Berserker going all-out against Saber. Wow. ^o^

Something I would like changed: Why was Saber wearing a backless wedding gown and bent over like that??? o_O That was weird. Caster was supposed to be "torturing" her... not seducing her. But hey, it was originally an adult visual novel, so I guess it's understandable.

Others: Honestly, I got lost in the plot twists because of my rudimentary Nihongo skill. I had to read Wikipedia afterwards to completely understand what happened in some parts. v(^_^

Final Grade: A

First 2010 Updates

Can't seem to sleep again. I haven't resumed work. Will start working again at the beginning of February. I've been going around town lately with mom, to let her see the nearby sights in Tokyo. I'm really grateful for her begin around, and I want her to also enjoy the Japan experience.

My girlfriend won't be coming as planned, since her visa application got disapproved. It's really sad and depressing, but it can't be helped, I guess. We will be planning an alternative vacation instead, but that will already be around May since I probably can't file any multiple-day vacation leaves - not after this two-month leave for the operation. I'll also need those vacation leaves for my monthly medical check-up.

In any case, I decided to update my long-neglected blog. I've been lazy lately.

First of all, I already changed the picture on the side bar. (Finally!) I also changed the header of that section, since I don't update it weekly anyway.

The list of anime I'm currently watching has also been updated. This time, I added some rough grading of the shows for those interested to watch them. No updates to the all-time favorite anime list, but some of those I'm currently watching may bump some of them out of the list.

Lastly, I already updated the Countdown section - the Macross Frontier movie has come and gone, and I wasn't able to watch it. :( It was still showing last January 1, but I decided not to watch it since I just finished watching Avatar then. And I thought that the theater might already be empty that late into a movie's run, which is no fun. I'm really looking forward to the 2 new movies showing next week! Although I was hoping to watch them with my girlfriend. T.T

*Sigh* Life goes on. (Key in "Life Goes On" from Gundam SEED)

I'm now getting into drawing/sketching again, after DannyChoo's Otacool2 mascot contest announcement. I don't expect to win, but I'm eager to revive that old hobby of mine. To prime things up, I bought myself a manga design book (in Japanese, as the english version is not available in Amazon.jp), and a Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch tablet. Will see where this goes.

Picture Archive: Euphie and Arthur

"Princess Euphemia looking for Suzaku's cat, Arthur. :) A cute little setup of one of my few Code Geass figurines."

Ryles' note: I love this picture so much! The "Code Geass" label, the cute cat, and Euphie simply looks... *ahem* stunning. I think I kept the pic posted for too long. v(^^'