What was less than fun was that the English questions tonight were to take the English versions of book titles and give the Japanese title. I only knew the real common ones.

Oh well, felt good to get those kanji questions right, and I learned a few new ones. Not sure when I’ll ever need to know 蟇 (it’s the “Japanese toad”) but it feels good to know it.

The one that we’ve been watching on Tuesday night has really been hitting me hard. Well, I actually have refused to watch it sometimes because of how uncomfortable it makes me. The theme is child-rearing and with a son on the way seeing the crazy shit that goes on in this drama doesn’t help me sleep at night. I know it’s fiction, but reality usually ends up being stranger (and crazier) than fiction.

The story revolves around a family that recently purchased their own apartment house and as a result moved to a new area. While they were a two income family at first, the mother’s concerns about not doing enough for her son caused her to resign from her job and become an at home mother. She enrolls her son at the local elementary school and then everything goes to shit.

There are a group of well-to-do mothers who are, in a word, assholes. Backstabbing, lying, using their children to hurt the other mothers, there’s no end to it. Of course, their husbands aren’t perfect either. One woman is being cheated on and another frequently witnesses her husband shit talking about her to their son. The only decent husband outside of the one married to the main character, is wed to a thieving, hate filled woman who convinced her five year old daughter that they need to have their revenge on the son of the main character because the little boy appeared in a magazine and his photo was bigger than her daughter who was modeling which is much harder work than being a decent mother or whatever reason it was that the main character and her son appeared in the same magazine.

The web of crazy is making it hard for me to put out logical English sentences.

The little girl did start the gears of the revenge machine by telling the little boy to squeeze her arms so they could become friends again. This led to an awkward scene of the boy holding onto the girl’s arm while she screamed “harder” over and over again. Of course a group of mothers witnessed him doing it, she cried and now the boy is in kindergarten exile until they figure out what to do with the menace to society that he has become.

It’s completely heart wrenching, and yet, I watch.

Six years of television, which I viewed in five, makes LOST easily the longest television program I have ever watched during its original run. It was quite a ride, one with a good deal of ups and downs, but definitely one I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. When it ended last month, it really felt as if a phase of my life had ended as well. It was a show that entertained me in ways I never thought possible and even managed to create¹ some friendships that I would have otherwise never had.

It was a great show.

The ending of the show pleased me. I knew it would be hard to end, but the last scene was brilliant. Now, the build up to that may not have been perfect, but it was honestly better than I expected. When they finally went down to the nitty gritty and explained the island, I knew it wouldn’t please me. It’s one of those things that was probably better left unexplained. Yet, so many people were clamoring for an explanation. Perhaps even I would have been disappointed had there been none.

I do think, although, that perhaps giving an explanation to everything would be a bit too much which is why I’m glad some things weren’t clarified entirely. Leaving me with a few things to still mull about was a good idea. A lot of my enjoyment of the show was not just in the viewing the mysteries, but the thinking about what possible explanation there was. Really, I didn’t care all that much what the explanation was, but it was the process of consuming and then digesting these mysteries that made up a lot of the fun of the show.

That, and the characters. What a cast. Seriously. Never did I love or hate characters as deeply as I did those in LOST. The best part that I’ve only gathered by talking to other viewers of the show is how much they managed to appeal to a wide variety of people. Everyone I know prefers or dislikes characters differently from me. What a wide variety you as a character creator have to make to achieve such a thing!

I’m not going to sit here and bore you with my own theories on the show. I’ve seen enough arguments about the ending already to know that not everyone is going to feel the same way. What I will say, is that if you watched LOST and gave up at some point, jump back in and watch it to the end. I found where the creators of the show ended up to be amazing considering where and what they started with.

And for those of you who have yet to watch it, I do heartily recommend it. You’re lucky because the way it was ended any “spoilers” don’t really ruin the journey, which is easily the best part of LOST. You’re also lucky because I found LOST best watched in clumps, where the starting and stopping was entirely at my discretion. Watching it weekly caused a few annoyances, especially in the earlier seasons where the pacing was not as brisk. Having to wait to watch this show definitely dragged it down for me. But when I was able to take a season and watch it at my own pace, I enjoyed it much, much more. Now that people are able to do that with the entire series, I’d say it is easily the best time to give LOST a shot if you ever had the slightest curiosity.

It’s a long show, but I doubt you’ll regret it. I know I don’t.

1. And endanger!

What was pretty brilliant about the movie is that they front loaded the tears. Sure, there was a part later on that got me a little misty eyed, but the beginnig was pretty damn powerful. Especially since I’ll br married myself in a month’s time. Unfortunately the rest of the movie wasn’t as brilliant as the opening, but it was still an enjoyable flick.

I haven’t seen many of Pixar’s films, but due to their general acceptance I’d assume most films fall under the “a little bit for everybody” category. I don’t know if Up! falls under this category, but I do know it is a film that any couple in love should go see.

Take a moment to put yourself back into your childhood. Take a deep whiff and remember the smells and the aura of the playground. Remember being with your friends. Recall building a secret hide-out that wasn’t all that secret at all. Remember playing games, talking about girls (or boys) and lazy summer days. Remember those plans you made with your friends. (Ours was to buy a school bus and live in it.). Remember how you couldn’t grasp what exactly the future would hold but it was a blind excitement that confused you in ways you still can’t understand. You would be young forever and nothing would change. You would forget nothing and everything would end up like you dreamed.

Such is the aura that I find encapsulated in Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys. Recently seeing its third and final film released to theaters, this adaptation of the winner of a 2001 Kodansha Manga Award is easily one of the most engrossing stories I’ve encountered in a long time. The plot line traverses throughout the late 90s into and about 2017 and goes back time to time to events of the main characters in their elementary school days. What unravels is a story part mystery, part suspense and all around awesome.

I must admit if I have just one feeling that I cannot explain, it is my love and “nostalgia” for 70s and 80s era Japan. Having lived in America during the 80s and not being in existence in the 70s prohibits me from logically having these feelings, but they drum up as bright as my own nostalgic memories of youth. I can’t quite pinpoint what it is about this era of time, and why exactly Japan tickles me just the right way about but it most definitely is there. There is an aura of safety covered with a fine dusty haze of brutal reality that I sense from this era and while I can’t rightly even say what I feel is correct I can’t prevent myself from feeling like this. Urasawa’s depiction in the manga works wonderfully and it transfers over marvelously into the films. You can almost taste the dust that hangs around the air as the children run around the town. The future scenes are breathtaking as well and give a haunting feeling throughout.

For those unfamiliar with the basic plot line, the main characters as children formed a plan for how someone would take over the world. I mean, how can you defend the world from a danger if there is no danger? Fast forward to years well beyond when anyone would remember what they did as a child, someone starts putting the plan into motion. This someone refers to themselves only as Tomodachi and slowly begins unraveling a plan that only those who wrote it would know. So basically, it’s a whodunit or rather a “who’s doing it” as things continue to progress for the worse and, well, I’d rather not spoil anything. The point is that it plays out fantastically. The childlike innocence of the plan and how it turns out is damn scary at times.

Now the big crux of the plot seems to be “Who is Tomodachi, anyway?” And I’ll be completely honest. At one point I realized that it didn’t matter who Tomodachi was, but I really wanted to know. I felt as if betrayed by a lover. It didn’t matter who it was that did all these terrible things. They were done and irreversible and I could only move forward. But I had to know who did it. My soul was troubled and I had to know who was responsible. Extrapolate this hurt over the entire world and all the reason is something you did as a child and well, I’d bet you’d want to know who is behind it as well. Even if that doesn’t change anything.

So the movies are awesome and on top of that for those of you studying Japanese, they have word for word Japanese subtitles. It was a complete blessing. You’re looking at over six hours of subtitled, excellent entertainment. It pushed me to get the manga which, while lacking that beautiful furigana which helps me read the characters that I do not know how to read, getting a more in depth version of the story is quite delicious.

The manga, which I don’t know if I’d recommend before seeing the movies as I haven’t gotten that far into it yet, does although not feel tarnished by my having seen the films. While the plot seems to play out the same so far, many details are filled out and expanded upon. Their lacking is never a real loss in the movies, but the pacing of the books feels more apt for that medium than that of a film. They definitely did cut out parts in the film but nothing makes the films confusing or lacking, I so far find. I think both works have their own pacing down to what is necessary for that particular medium. To summarize, the manga seems to be the films plus more goodness. I can’t complain.

To give a brief rundown of my preferences, I’d rank the three films in the order of the first and third being neck and neck with my favorite changing by the day and the second at the bottom. I say this because I felt a little less entertained by the second film, but in retrospect it seems it was to build up for the finale that was the third. So if you find yourself enjoying the first but the second not as much, realize that it is necessary to prepare you for what is an excellent wrap up. A marvelous set of films and a fantastic manga is something no one should ignore. And on top of that it’s great for the studier of Japanese. You can’t go wrong.

Plus, its theme is the song that shares the name with the title, T. Rex’s 20th Century Boy. And I’ve heard friends say it is fine, friends say it is good and everybody said it’s just like rock ‘n roll.

Enjoy.

But I just watched Season 3 Episode 8 of LOST in Japanese. Now besides it being a fucking awesome episode, I remember it well for reasons other than its quality.

See, this episode aired February 13, 2007. The night before my interview for JET.

I had driven what took far too many hours to get to New Jersey to drive again to NYC for my Thursday interview. I was exhausted and nervous as hell. I was crashing at Josh‘s dorm and I remember we were frantically trying to get two pairs of headphones working on his computer to watch the feed going through his TV tuner as speakers were lacking.

I guess it just seems funny to me that an episode about memories got solidified with solid memories of my own.

But sure enough, it has been dubbed and is playing on Japanese television.

Outstanding. What will they think of next?

But while perusing a used book shop in Osaka yesterday, I stumbled across the first set of Seinfeld for, well more than it costs in the States, but a reasonable price for Japan. So I figured what the hell? How about a show I love alrady in the language I’m trying to learn?

So I picked it up and am watching Season 1 right now. It’s… interesting. The translation is pretty straightforward. If I remember an ep well enough, I can follow along pretty well, and I have actually chuckled a few times at the Japanese. No idea if Japanese folk would find this funny, though.

The biggest thing is the voices. Japanese voices aren’t yet familiar enough to me that I can tell what “style” they have. George’s voice is whiney enough to fit, I think. Jerry’s voice is a little too deep, Elaine a little too traditional Japanese woman but Kramer does have a little touch of crazy. We’ll see if it’s enough. What was hilarious was Jerry’s parents who had really stereotypical old Japanese folk voice actors. That might have been what was cracking me up the most so far.

Oh yeah, and the Japanese title of the show is “隣のサインフェルド” [tonari no sainferudo] which, if you know some Japanese movies, is very similar to the Japanese title of the Ghibli classic “My Neighbor Totoro.” This also brings me much laughter.

Dragon Fighter is dogshit. I think DOOM is a better crafted film. In fact, the entire time I watched Dragon Fighter I couldn’t help but think that when the Doom movie was created someone said “I want to take what was started in Dragon Fighter and escalate it to the awesomeness of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson yelling ‘Semper Fi mother fucker!’ And put in a titty.”

Not unlike the singular titty of DOOM: Der Film, as it is known in Germany, there is naught but one dragon in Dragon Fighter, making the title’s accuracy the least of your worries. On second thought, there are multiple “fighters” so to speak, as the main character doesn’t even slay the beast at the end. So even the title is shitty. Fuck.

The plot starts with our hero, Carver, taking this doctor scientist of sorts to a remote laboratory via helicopter. By using his super brain given to him by his two scientist parents, Carver is able to deduce that the lab is for cloning. The flustered doctor scientist then, oh fuck it. This is such a shitty movie I can’t even do the $4 novelization version. I can’t even give you the color pictures from the movie in the middle, either.

Basically, here’s the rundown:
Copter’s fuel line gets fucked. This might be a problem later, the hero remarks. OH NO! FORESHADOWING! Go to lab/base. Meet Russian guy. Lab/base is old American Cold War refuge site. WACKY!

Meet ‘hot chick’/love interest, Meredith, whose puppy turns out to be one of 62 clones. We only ever see the one.Meet rest of crew including drunken Kevin, as seen above with a bat. Bailey, hot Russian lady and master of ‘gene manipulation’ or some bullshit. Cookie, the deaf chef. (HA! I get it.) And then Greg, token black guy who loves animals and hates people. But he doesn’t die first! God bless the advancements we are making in cinema.

Then we get a good twenty minutes of bad cloning jokes, commentary on humans making animals extinct and see that crazy doctor guy has a dragon fetish. Okay.

Anyway, they finally go to clone the mysterious sample brought by doctor guy. It clones super fast. They send in these two guys to go see the sample. Let me note right now that these guys are literally on the screen for 2 seconds, wearing full bio suits. There is crazy sounds are heard as the animal’s cage/bio-cloning-refinery thing is open. Upon inspection, it seems the two guys are dead. OH NOES! The characters will not shut up about these two guys for the rest of the movie. They just go on about their poor lives being lost. Who are these guys? They weren’t in the flick, but they were extremely important, apparently. Especially to Hero-guy who didn’t even converse with them. Whatever.

They go to see what it is, find dragon. Animal lover guy Greg gets eaten. Then the dragon escapes to the outer shell around the lab. What follows is just standard “We have to do this to escape. OH NOES NOW OUR TORMENTER DID THIS SO NOW WE NEED A NEW PLAN.” goes on for too long. Some characters get eaten, others get burned to a crisp.

At the end they do escape, the doctor, main guy and love interest, three. As the lab/base blows up with a force “53% that of Hiroshima!” The dragon of course survives and chases them. Doctor guy, still horny for dragons, takes his digital camera and openning the helicopter door, tries to take a picture. Why not through the glass? Well, it’s a little known fact that digital cameras can’t grasp the light reflected from dragons through helicopter glass. Doctor, of course, gets attacked by his love and falls to his death.

Finally, getting ahold of help, hero asks for jet fighters to come. They try shooting missiles at the dragon, but they can’t lock onto organic beings. So, hero tells them to switch to heat seeking. Okay, but the dragon doesn’t give off enough heat, they say. Using his massive scientist brains, hero somehow makes the gas of the heli spray out onto the dragon, then he shoots a flare gun at it. Dragon is on fire, missile is shot, dragon blows up.

Helicopter is going to crash! But love interest can actually fly helicopters, so she succeeds. Hero and love interest make bad flirting attempts at each other. Agree to go out to dinner “as long as it’s not one of those Chinese places with ‘Dragon’ in the name.” HAHA! Christ…

BUT! At the end we see some guys exploring the ruins of the lab/base. We then discover that, as you may already know, the reason everything costs twice as much when the government builds something is because there is a backup! That’s right, under the lab was another lab! And another dragon is about to be let loose! Sigh.

At least in the credits they mentioned that “No animals, including dragons, were injured in the making of this motion picture.”