Never seen anyone catch a football that was spinning so fast, dust and smoke was spiraling off of it. But Monta's got it under control. Can Brett Favre do that?

This one is great too. Everything is in slow motion, Sena running, running, running, then BAM! He kicks it into high gear and gets ready to sack the quarterback. The kid doesn't even have a chance to react. Can Brett Favre do that?

This one up above has got the be the most bad-ass image ever. The way Agon just erupts through the smoke, face obscured in shadows, but eyes still glowing. His one arm sneaking out of the shadows to smash Sena down. Can Brett Favre do that?

This composition is brilliant. We are so low to the ground as the captain of the Scorpions (didn't see that coming did you??) and his linemen charge into the fray. Love, LOVE how they are almost trapped in the upper left corner while the ground shoots past them in the majority of the frame. Can Brett Favre do that?

Agon again, showing off his insanely quick reflexes. It's like the artist went ahead and animated his turn on one piece of paper. The sheer force of his speed breaks all logic and creates a sonic boom, which mixes into Sena's dust. Can Brett Favre do that?

In case you can't tell, Sena here just spun past the opponent. Can Brett Favre do that?

So, to recap: I love sports manga because:

A) Special moves.

B) Ridiculous, over the top characters.

C) Physics? No thanks.

D) While not obvious from these pics, we generally have characters with personalities that go beyond, "Dude, I am the greatest thing that has ever happened to humanity." We have characters with fears, doubts, courage, generosity, and hope. We have character arcs. We have rivalries, some that are settled, some that are not.

I rest my case. Can Brett Favre do that?

It comes with great sadness that I write this post. The big news story of the weekend was that 51 year old Yoshito Usui, the creator of that raunchy little bastard, Crayon Shin-Chan, was found dead in the wilderness of Gunma Prefecture. It looks like while hiking, he fell to his death.

Naturally, the Crayon Shin-Chan manga will end up coming to an unfinished end in December. As for the anime, which has been running since 1992, will take a hiatus for a bit while the studio discusses with Mr. Usui's estate what to do.

This sucks. I'm not gunna say that Crayon Shin-Chan is a brilliant work of art, but it is a fun, entertaining show. It's tragic that Usui was all ready to take a break, hit the fresh air, and get away from everything for a while, never realizing that life can sometimes just pull a stunt like this.

So. I like Bleach. I admit it. I know it's just a fighting show with a million characters and very little character development. I know that Ichigo is a bland, by the books protagonist. I know no good guys will ever die. But I like it. 

The other night, Adult Swim aired the first Bleach movie, Memories of Nobody. I was pretty excited to see what I thought would be a pretty standard, but fun, anime film. And that's exactly what I got. Kinda.

Bleach: Memories of Nobody is so paint by numbers, it's absurd. Here we have a new threat that is defeated by the end. We have a new female character for Ichigo to deal with. We have some interesting things hinted at that never go anywhere. And so on.

The film starts off like every other anime film based off a long running TV series: A day in the life. Ichigo and Rukia are Hollow hunting. The film takes ten minutes to establish this before moving into the plot. The first part of the plot was pretty interesting, with the advent of lost souls called Blanks, and the introduction of a Soul Reaper nobody seems to know. From there, however, it falls apart.

The new Soul Reaper, Senna, is your stereotypical super bubbly school girl, prancing around like a lunatic for most of her screen time. What is it with Japanese folks loving these lala carefree girls? Who really says, "let's play tag and if you catch me I'll tell you what you want to know?" Later on, her role is revealed, but by then, the viewer has already figured it out, so it comes as no surprise, and with little drama.

The villians of the film are the Dark Ones. They were banished from the Soul Society a long time ago. That's pretty much all the film explains. One dimensional doesn't even begin to describe how under developed these guys are. There are 5 or 6. None are named except the leader, who is the leader just cuz. What do they want? Why, to destroy the Soul Society of course. But that's it. 

I can complain about how Chad, Orihime, and Uryu don't do anything in the film. I can whine about how the only Soul Reaper captains who actually do anything are the same 3 or 4 that do anything in the show. Why have 13 captains and 13 lietenants if you only going to use 4? 

All in all though, maybe I'm being too harsh. It wasn't BAD, per se, but it was very standard. It luckily didn't feel like a two hour episode (ahem, Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door), but it wasn't anything great either. Maybe a 5/10.

The animation was pretty nice though.

Well, what else do you expect on the 30th anniversary of the franchise? This video popped up over the weekend and it's fan-friggin'-tastic. I'm all about getting all the characters, or in this case, the robots, from the different series together.

This just goes to show that Sunrise is really going all out for the anniversary. Two new animations, a new game, this beauty, a LIFE SIZE RX-78! When will it end?!?!?! Hopefully never, but probably after 12/31/09.

An aside: I wanted to mention that I will start including manga news / posts / rants / what have you to Anime Mondays. I avoided doing so because I wanted to stick to the filmic arena, but really, it's silly to exclude manga cuz it doesn't move.

So, to start things on the right foot:

There's also a bunch of Gundam manga.

Zing!

There's been some big announcements in the world of Gundam over the last week or so. First off, we finally got a format announcement for Gundam Unicorn. According to Animenation, Unicorn will consist of 6 50 minute OAVs. The first one will cover the events of books 1 and 2 of the 10 volume Gundam Unicorn novel series. It takes place after Char's Counterattack, but way before Gundam F-91, in the year UC 0096.

Next up, it has been announced that Yoshiyuki Tomino, original creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, will be helming a new production as well, called Ring of Gundam. ANN reports that Ring of Gundam will be a short film taking place long after the One Year War. Whether or not this means it's still in the UC timeline remains to be seen, as Tomino could do something similar to Turn A Gundam, starting a new timeline in the distant future of the UC timeline. Also, Yoko Kanno will be scoring the film, and that is always a good thing.

Needless to say, I am excited about these announcements. Now, let's get a move on for the PS3 Gundam 0081 game!

Ever wonder where my name comes from? I mean, in normal life, calamity most certainly does NOT ensue constantly. Well folks, as I found nothing of interest to really talk about re: anime news over the last few days, I want to spotlight my favorite show ever: Urusei Yatsura.  I know, I know, you are shocked to hear that it's not Gundam.

Urusei Yatsura originated as a manga by superstar Rumiko Takahashi. It tells the tale of a lecherous idiot named Ataru Moroboshi and his wife-thru-a-complete-misunderstanding, Lum. The show lasted 5 years, 195 episodes, 6 movies, and a ton of OAVs.

Though it starts much like many anime series, with a boy becoming betrothed to a magical / robot / alien / superhuman woman, calamity quickly ensues, as Lum's friends and family come to Earth, spirits start haunting Ataru, and classrooms turn into battlegrounds. It's a very "fish out of water" show, with Lum being the fish, but rather than have to come to terms with living on a primitive planet like Earth, she simply pulls the item of the week out of her bra. Almost every episode starts off normal, with Ataru going to school or the gang hanging out, but soon SOMETHING happens and everything goes to Hell.

There's the one where the gang are attacked by killer potatoes. Or how about the one where aliens sell everyone personality-switching earmuffs? Hell, who can forget the one where the entire class eats "performance mushrooms" and spend the entire episode performing on stage?

Classic.

The show, of course, looks terrible. It is an early 80s anime, and the production team worked nonstop for five years on new episodes. So yes, the visuals suffer a bit, but the humor, the timing, the overly dramatic flair, all courtesy of Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell fame and Kazuo Yamazaki, make it a great, timeless comedy.

I wish my high school experience was like this!

For more information on the best show in the galaxy, head over to Tomobiki-Cho, which is hands down the best, most complete website for Urusei Yatsura.

I know I shouldn't, but I love Full Metal Alchemist. This ending is great. Similarly to what I mentioned last week, here we have an upbeat song with a slow pan while the Elric brothers rest. The images work well to show, especially in Ed, the, I guess, suffering they are enduring. Then, we get a sweet turn to a warm color palette. I personally love the shot of Ed in the cemetary.

Ah Gurren Lagann. One of the best things to come out this decade. I dig the monochromatic look, and the simple animation of Simon walking as the background passes down vertically blatantly symbolizes his growth, as well as the journey from underground to where it ultimately ends up. No spoilers here, folks! I must admit, I don't like the last shot of the stars. It's kinda abrupt.

Ok, I picked this one not because I think it's a nice combo of sight and sound, but rather, because it's TOTALLY INSANE, just like the show. The visuals are nuts. The song "My Omlette" is wacky. Dragon Half is just CRAZY, man! That's all I got for ya. It's also 45 seconds longer than most endings. CRAZY!

Let's slow things down a bit. Now and Then, Here and There is a dark, horrible, depressing show. And I love it. This ending has a bittersweet feel, it's haunting, yet warm. It's very slow, both in the cross dissolves between the shots of the afternoon city, and in the tempo of the music. It's beautiful, and contrasts with the show, perhaps giving a bit of comfort to the audience.

Lastly, the second ending from a personal favorite, Revolutionary Girl Utena. Like the Dragon Half selection, this one is very similar to the style of the show. The silhouettes, the castle, everything about the visuals is right in line with the show. The song itself could very well pass as a rock cover of one of the duel songs. It just works.

So there ya go, kids. To be honest, endings are harder to dig because they are usually softer than the openings. They don't serve to grab ya by the face and stick it in you. But, this is a solid set, if I do say so myself.

Next week: I don't know, leave me alone.

It's been a little slow on the anime news front. Well, there's plenty of news, but nothing I feel particularly inclined to post here. So today, I wanted to post some anime openings. Similarly to how movieguyjon posts trailers, I will post a handful of openings I really like. Now, this isn't going to be openings from shows I love or hate. This is more about what I feel is an effective marriage of image and sound. So without further ado:

I like Bleach as a manga, and the anime is pretty ok, but this, the 9th opening, really works well. It seems that Japanese bands do a much better job of blending rock and hip hop than any American band I've come across. I love how the editing of the images cuts perfectly with the sparse bass line during the first half of the song.

Another rap / rock song. Eyeshield 21 as an anime is awful, as some of the action from the manga simply does not translate well into motion. Sena never seems to hit his stride (literally) in the anime. However, this opening does a great job of presenting Agon as a fierce, unstoppable player. I LOVE how Sena spins past him, and right as the rapping starts, Agon bursts out of the smoke and slams Sena down. This is one of the few instances where the anime surpasses the manga in terms of presenting a powerful move.

Sky Girls is a show I have never seen, and honestly, doesn't look too interesting to me. However, the opening sequence is amazing. It starts off slow, both in terms of visuals and the tempo of the song, but once that fast beat starts, it gets really exciting. I personally love how the beat picks up but the visuals delay dynamic editing, in favor of continuing the slow rotation of the characters.

This is where I piss everyone off. This is the American DVD opening to Zeta Gundam. The original Japanese opening could not be licensed so Bandai slapped this score from the soundtrack over the normal visuals. Maybe it's because this is what I first saw, but I love this much more than the original Japanese version, which is a subpar 80s pop song. This piece of music seems much more in line with the show's tone, and really makes the characters in the opening appear to be what they are: Heros. It just works so damn well.

Lastly, we have the opening for the Mazinkaiser OAV series. Now, I much prefer Shin Getter Robo to this, both as a series and as in terms of opening songs. But the Shin Getter Robo openings are just clips of episodes, and it doesn't really work. Mazinkaiser's opening is epic it REEKS of Go Nagai's style, it's a complete throwback to the 70s excess of super robots, and the the red tints throughout work nicely for a song called Fire Wars.

Well there you have it folks. Join me next time for some neato keen endings!

According to Animenation, this fall will see the premier of a second Inu Yasha TV series. This second series will pick up where the first one ended and continue until it reaches the conclusion of the manga.

This is interesting because it is the first Rumiko Takahashi series to receive this treatment. Sure, Ranma 1/2 got two series too, but the two series were separated by only a couple months. Inu Yasha has been off the air since 2004, which puts a big ol' five year gap in.

Of course, this asks why bother with more Inu Yasha? Takahashi's new series Rin-Ne is simply too young to have a TV series already. Unless of course you want 4 episodes follows by 30 filler episodes. I don't.

Personally, I could do without more Inu Yasha. Out of all the Takahashi series, I like it the least. As in, I don't like it at all. In my opinion, her work has steadily gone downhill, and she will never be able to recreate something as amazing as Urusei Yatsura, or as beautiful as Maison Ikkoku.  Even Ranma 1/2, which continuously created idiotic scenarios for the sake of humor, had charm and fun characters. Inu Yasha is an action series that happens to have some BS high school love drama crap. It just doesn't fit. Plus, all the characters are annoying.

Ah well, at least Naraku is kinda cool.

Just found out that the SciFi Channel will be broadcasting Gundam 00's second season starting ... Well I guess tonight? This is great news because it's been a very long time since we've had Gundam on American TV... But at the same time, it's bad news because I missed out on all of the first season!!! Well, I did see the first episode on Youtube, and I gotta say, so far, it's pretty interesting. I'll be watching more. Certainly beats Gundam Wing.... That's for sure. 

More info: Anime News Network