PhotogMel

Holy Tardis!!! Look.....

2011-09-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

Im so late to the party, but check this out!! David Tennant's entire run as the Doctor collected in one sweet box set!!

According to TvshowsonDVD, heres the breakdown of the discs:

Series Two:

Disc 1: The Christmas Invasion, Episode 1
Disc 2: Episodes 2-4
Disc 3: Episodes 5-7
Disc 4: Episodes 8-10
Disc 5: Episodes 11-13
Disc 6: Doctor Who Confidential
Special Features:

Audio Commentary
Outtakes & Deleted Scenes
David Tennant & Billy Piper Video Diaries
Doctor Who Confidential
Exclusive Doctor regeneration scene

Series Three:

Disc 1: The Runaway Bride
Disc 2: Episodes 1-3
Disc 3: Episodes 4-7
Disc 4: Episodes 8-10
Disc 5: Episodes 11-13
Disc 6: Doctor Who Confidential
Special Features:

Music and Monsters
Freema Agyeman Tour of the Studio
David Tennant's Video Diaries
Outtakes
Deleted Scenes
Read Through of Episode 13
Audio Commentary
Doctor Who Confidential

Series Four:

Disc 1: Voyage of the Damned
Disc 2: Eps 1-3
Disc 3: Eps 4-7
Disc 4: Eps 8-10
Disc 5: Eps 11-13
Disc 6: Doctor Who Confidential
Special Features:

Doctor Who Confidential
David's Video Diaries
Deleted Scenes
Teasers
Retrospective Featurette
Exclusive scene: "Timecrash"
Audio Commentary

Specials

Disc 1: The Next Doctor
Disc 2: Planet of the Dead
Disc 3: The Waters of Mars
Disc 4: The End of Time, Part One
Disc 5: The End of Time, Part Two
Special Features:

Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who at the Proms
Deleted Scenes
David Tennant Video Dairy - The Final Days
Audio Commentary
Doctor Who At Comic Con

The Animated Specials

Disc 1: The Infinite Quest
Disc 2: Dreamland
Special Features:

Disc 3: Doctor Who's Greatest Moments

The packaging looks total bad ass as well. Im definitely saving up my pennies to pick this up when it comes out!

Doctor Who Addiction

2011-08-30T16:38:00.000-07:00

Hello, My name is Melvin Rivera. (HI MELVIN) and I just want to admit...I'm an addict....A Doctor Who addict!! Ive been hearing a lot of things about the new Doctor Who series, so I figured Id give it another shot.

For those who don't know, the series follows the adventures(sometimes misadventures) of an immortal Time Lord , known simply as the Doctor and his female companion across the galaxy and time. Armed only with his supreme intelligence and a sonic screwdriver, he explores the universe along with his companion in his time traveling spaceship, the TARDIS(That looks like a police call box from the outside). Together they help civilizations, people, and right all kinds of wrong yo. Whether they be in 1889 Scotland, depths of an asteroid orbiting a black hole, or NEW NEW YORK in the 51st century.

Sonic Screwdriver!!

Billie Pipper as Rose Tyler

The newer series was revived by Russel T. Davies for BBC in 2005. It wasn't a reboot of the long lived series, it was just sort of modernized for a new young audience. It was a way of revitalizing the series for first timers, but still maintaining the history of the show (which was on air since the 60s.) I decided to try the first series when the Scifi channel aired it on US TV, but for some reason I just couldnt get into it. Wasn't a fan of Eccleston as the new Doctor, but I did love Billie Pipper as Rose Tyler, the new companion for the Doctor.

I gave it a few episodes and moved on. I guess I should have given it some more time, at least for the rest of the season.

So when I decided to give a the series another go after so long, I decided to jump into season 2. I was told by one of the biggest Dr. Who fans online, @undeux, to start from the Christmas Invasion episode. The Christmas special bridged series one and two, which introduced the new Doctor, David Tennant.

From there I was hooked. The characters are likeable (Tennant as the Doctor is absolutely fabulous!!), the villains are scary, and dialogue is quick and witty. The stories for each episode are so unique as well! Im having a blast watching it, much like i did watching Buffy and Angel in the Whedonverse. I'm currently on Season 3 and falling in love with the Doctor's new companion, Martha Jones.

Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones

The Doctor and Martha

Since, ive checked out this series, Ive also started watching Torchwood. Torchwood is a spin off of the new Doctor Who series created by Russell T. Davies. Its about a secret organization in England named Torchwood, whose purpose is to defend the empire from Alien invasion. The series is set in the Who universe, but it has its own voice. I just started season 1, and enjoying it thus far as well.

Torchwood Crew

So, if you are looking for a new series to get into, please check out Doctor Who! You wont be disappointed...and if you are disappointed, you are lame and no longer my friend! Joking of course...Kind of. 0_o.

Huevos Rancheros

2011-08-26T18:18:00.001-07:00

So I have mastered the art of huevos rancheros! Take that hurricane Irene!

Oh no they didnt!!!!

2011-08-20T22:42:00.001-07:00

Nazi mech robots have invaded and tore up my hometown, philly!

According to Secret Avengers #14, the invasion hit us hard. Within an hour, they seized the city.
This Fear itself series from Marvel is no joke!!

Kid Robot Street Fighter

2011-08-19T16:05:00.001-07:00

Just found these at comic shop at King of Prussia. Kid Robot Street Fighter yo!

I ended up getting Blue Blanka! He's going on my dashboard!

Rocketeer at the Banks!

2011-08-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm falling behind in my blogging, but a few weeks ago there was a screening of The Rocketeer at the Schuylkill banks! I wasn't aware, but the Schuylkill Banks organization has movie nights over the summer, and this season they had a superhero theme.

They show movies outdoors, right on the river and amongst center city. I found out about these movie screenings late, but just in time to see one of my favorite movies and very underrated, Rocketeer! So my homies and I packed up our beach chairs and blankets and wawa sandwiches and chips and guac ( I got guac on it!) and made our way to the Schuylkill river. Phil hooked us up with some awesome spiked wawa ice tea drinks.

Its was a pretty awesome experience seeing one of my fav movies on the big screen (inflatable that is) outdoors under the starry sky. Good movie, good food, and great friends make for a fantastic time! Next time, were gonna do it up like the family next to us. They had a full rotisserie chicken dinner with sides and wine. The best part of that night?!? It was FREE! Yup, free movie, free raffle before the movie and free snacks throughout the movie! Free snacks included, popcorn, water, pretzels, etc.

Pretty Much First ones here.

UFO?!?

Hope this dude wasn't dead. He was in same position after movie was done.

If you are thinking of checking out any screenings, the last movie showing is this Thursday, the 18th. They are showing the Incredibles! More information can be seen here.

Food Festival 2011

2011-08-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

Me and my homies, the thundercats loving super cool Phil and my home-ette, Thor's cousin Janie, attended the 2nd annual food festival at the Piazza in Northern Liberties this past sunday for great food, booze, music, and fun.

The food fest is a block party of sorts spanning six blocks in Northern Liberties section of Philly. Festival is for celebrating the arts, food from local places, and local bands. There were all sorts of vendors selling everything from art, clothes, jewelry, delicious food, drinks, and even comics! There were several stages for live music and the occasional carnival game made an appearance.

But before we could enjoy all of that awesomeness, we had to fuel up and get some grub. Since we were in Norther Liberties, naturally we decided to hit up North 3rd, for some Lunner. Lunner is late lunch/early dinner, just made that up.

Alegash Yum!

"Wings are coming, Yay!"

Janie modelling "wine in a can with a sippy straw"

Sad Text and Happy Text

After engorging ourselves with delicous wings, breakfast burritos, and omelettes, we headed out to crowd at the fest. We saw everything from cool graffitti, dude wearing trees on their heads, crazy looking dogs drinking beer, dacing crackhead lady, to an old cross dresser chilling on top of a newspaper vending machine thingy. Good Times!

King of Fighters XIII Trailer

2011-07-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

The latest King of the Fighters XIII is out! See above.

When XIII was first announced a year ago, I didn't really care as XII was severely disappointing. XII had a lot of promise, with the graphics getting an HD overhaul (Characters got updated designs and new animated sprites) and improved fighting engine mechanics.

But with Street Fighter 4 out a few months before, KOF XII's new engine felt like step backwards. In comparison to SF4, the new engine was so plain and simple, it just wasnt fun. And add the extremely laggy online play and the usual lack of features, KOF XII was a bust.

It looks like SNK PLaymore listened to its fanbase. They have promised that XIII has new features(seen in the trailer), improved character balance, new features in the fighting engine, more modes, better Global online play. Also corrected were all of the glitches in the arcade version of the game. I really hope this is true, as I'm a big fan of KOF and I miss it. Please come back to me, KOF!

Frankfurt and Heidelberg Pics

2011-07-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

Ive been tooling around with effects on this cool photo editor online. Working with warming and saturation techniques on some of my photos from Frankfurt. Let me know what you think.

First Trailer for Spider-man reboot

2011-07-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

Next summer, the Spider-man movie franchise will be rebooted. See the trailer after the jump.

Ok, I will begin my rant......now.

Why is this reboot even needed in the first place? I mean, did we forget about the movies already? You know, 2002 was only nine years ago!

The only reason for the remake was for money reasons. I believe Sony didn't want to relinquish their rights to Spider-man movies back to Marvel, so they had to make more movies or give rights up. With the original cast and director not wanting to do anymore, they went in a new direction. And this direction looks lame so far. Below is my Good, bad, and ugly from the trailer.

The Good:

Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy

Web shooters

The Bad:

Seems like they are going with Peter's Parents are spies storyline

No clear villain is shown.

Costume seems a bit off.

The Ugly:

The "Twilight Edward-ization" of Peter Parker. Good lord, they turned Peter into an hooded, emo, pretty boy straight out of Twilight. Peter Parker is an outcast in highschool because he is a goofy nerdy guy. Not Edward, or jacob, or whoever the hell else from Twilight.

Am I overeacting? Am I just being just the Simpsons comic guy? Let me know!

Batman: Arkham City Special Edition

2011-07-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

Over at Kotaku, they announced the special edition of Batman: Arkham City, the long awaited sequel to the smash hit, Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's pretty sweet!

At 99$ Its a bit pricey, but it's much better than the special edition of the first game with the same price tag. Included in the collector's edition is a Batman statue, collectible art book, early DLC access(No info on the DLC conten), the Batman: Arkham City soundtrack, the DC Universe animated original movie Batman: Gotham Knight and four collectible cards.

Will you be preordering?

Top 5! Favorite Cancelled DC books

2011-07-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hi "Top 5!", It's been a while. For those who dont know, when I first started this blog a few years ago, I posted a monthly blog called "Top 5!". Its pretty self explanatory: its a top 5 list on whatever topic I want. It is my blog after all. :)

To re-vive the "Top 5!" im starting off with one for comic readers out there. In conjunction to my friend, Phoenix Pharoah's blog post, about the upcoming DC comics universe reboot. Click on the link and give it a read.

To those who are unaware(and there arent many who aren't), I'm a voracious comic reader. And in my comic reading life, Ive been dissapointed by DC comics. It seemed that whenever I started reading a DC comic, it gets cancelled a few months later. Maybe I was me, but without further a do, here is my Top 5 favorite cancelled DC books.

#5 Manhunter

Manhunter is DC character that's been around for a long time. Different characters have taken the mantle of Manhunter in DC for over 60 years. In 2004, a new Manhunter series started with a new person as Manhunter, Kate Spencer. Kate is the only woman to become Manhunter.

Ive never read Manhunter before, or knew anything about the character, but this new take written by Marc Andreyko, caught my eye. Kate is a divorced, chaing smoking, LA prosecutor, who was fed up with psychos and super criminals evading punishment. She then raids equipment and gear from an evidence room and hunts down criminals. She starts off being a Punisher type character killing villains, but as the series progresses, Kate's character develops into the hero archetype quite well.

Manhunter was cancelled after 38 issues. I really cant blame DC for this cancellation as they gave this series a few tries after initial sales were bad.

#4 Batgirl (Stephanie Brown)

With the upcoming DC reboot, Stephanie Brown as Batgirl is one of the casualties. After the reboot, it appears that barbara gordon is back into the role of Batgirl, which makes absolutely no sense.

For the past two years, Stephanie brown has been great in the mantle of Batgirl. She had a great supporting cast, Including Barbara Gordon as Oracle being her mentor. This series was a fun read, classic superhero stories and I'm sad to see it go. Screw you, DC.

#3 Blue Beetle

The orginal Blue Beetle, Ted Kord, was brutally killed off by DC as a leadup to a big crossover story story, Infinite Crisis. I thought death was in bad taste and done solely as shock factor to get people to buy into the latest Crisis.

Soon after, DC announced a new Blue Beetle series. With a new character taking the helm of Blue Beetle and an all different take. Jaime Reyes, a teenage mexican american, was introduced as the new Beetle. Jaime was possesed by a Blue Scarab from Outer space, granting a cool armor with all sorts of weapons and powers.

This series was written wonderfully by Keith Giffen in the beginning of the series and later by John Rogers. It was a great series, with a fantastic supporting cast. It was as series taht Ted Kord fans would have loved, if they gave the book a shot. People thought this series was a slap in the face, but actually, Jaime looked up to Ted Kord. His motto was, "What would Ted Kord do?".

#2 Power Girl

Powergirl is a character with a lot of baggage. And no, I'm not talking about her giant sweater chickens, Im talking about her convoluted character history. Her character origin has been changed, reversed, upgraded, reset, flipped over and undone since her creation in the 70s. This was so until Geoff Johns and (with art by one of my fav artists of all time Amanda Conner), corrected and cleared up her confusing history with a story in JSA: Classified Power Girl. Turns out that Power girl is Superman's cousin from an alternate Earth, that is trapped in our Earth. Still a bit confusing, but its much better.

After the success of the story, Power Girl was granted her own series, written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Grey, with Amanda Conner on art. PG was a great series, with fun and entertaining stories. Which was a breath of fresh air amongst the doom and gloom DC universe. Sadly, Powergirl is a casualty of the DC reboot this September.

#1 Gotham Central

Gotham Central was a series started by one of the best new writers, Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark. GC is exactly what the name describes, its a police drama that follows the detectives and officers of the Gotham City Police Department and the problems they have living and working in Gotham City. Of course, working as cop in the same city as Batman, comes with its fair share of problems.

This series is like CSI but with cops and detectives dealing with dangers of super criminals and freaks from Batman's rogues gallery, like Mr. Freeze and Two Face. Its a great read and I highly recomend this series to people every chance i get.

Agree? Disagree? Think I'm nuts? Let me know.

Feeling Retro tonight...

2011-07-12T17:07:00.000-07:00

After dinner tonight, I wanted to chillax and play some video games. But I didn't feel like playing Xbox, sure I love my 360 and my games, but I was in the mood for some nostalgia. So I went to my game rack and straight to my Sega Dreamcast shelf!!

For those of you unware, the Dreamcast was Sega's last video game system before jumping out of the video game hardware business. It came out in 1998 and shortly died around four years later due to the monster that was the Soney Playstation. The Dreamcast was a system ahead of its time. It was the first video game console to experiment with online game play. Way before XBOX or the PS2.

Well history lesson over with! I broke out, non other than my favorite JRPG for the Dreamcast: Skies of Arcadia!!

Skies of Arcadia is set in a fantasy world of floating islands, flying ships, sky pirates, and Moon princess who need rescuing. I put so many countless hours in this game during my college years, leveling up my characters, maxing out my pirate ship, and building the best pirate island hideout! That's right, you get to build your own pirate hideout.

Logo Screen

I must say, this game still holds up today. Graphics still look great and loading times are pretty fast still.

Hero of the story: Vyse the Sky Pirate

Even though I have beaten this game a few times already, I'm starting a new game and jumping on the Nostalgia train.

See commercial below:

Northern Liberties

2011-07-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

Went with some peeps into the city last night. We tried to hit up old city, but after circling for 45 minutes trying to find parking, we went to northern liberties instead. Had a late dinner at fantastic North3rd. I took my camera along and took some photos at the piazza.

See pics after the jump..

2010-05-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

Hey all, just logging on with a update on my trip to Berlin.

I just want to say, I love cab rides in Berlin. The drivers are insane! Its great sitting in the backside just going for a ride, like in a disney ride. They weave in and out of traffic like nobody's business; It's awesome! Unlike most cab drivers in the states, the cabbies here's main objective is to get you to your destination as quickly as possible. Even if it means cutting through a parking lots and almost hitting people.

Last night, after work, me and my coworker, Mike, was able to visit the Brandenburg Gate. Its one of the coolest places I have been, ever! Im a dork for history, so I was a bit awestruck being there and seeing this wonderous piece of art/archicture in person.

After walking around downtown Berlin, we ate dinner at a cool Italian restaurant. It was delish! Also got to try gellato and even had a big glass of the best hot chocolate ive ever had. It was very rich and creamy and tasted like melted rocher chocolate.

One thing I noticed in all the restaurants, Ive been to here, is the cool ordering system they use. All of the waiters have a personal ticketing device on them. While taking our order, they are puching in our items which get send to the kitchen immediately. And when you are ready to pay, they print out the receipts from that same device and you pay them. This system should be used in the US, as it saves so much time. Even in crowded restaurants, we waited no longer than 10 minutes for our food.

Arrival in Berlin

2010-05-16T12:13:00.002-07:00

Well, earlier today, I finally made it in to Berlin. It was the longest and sleepless trip in my life, but I made it.

The eight hour trip over to Frankfurt was brutal. I could not for the life of me get any sleep. It was just too cramped for me to get comfortable enough to doze off. That didn’t stop the guy next to me. From the moment he sat on the plane in Philly he was out until just about landing in Germany. I had to fight off the temptation to slap him while sleeping. Wasn’t fair that he was comfortable enough to sleep and I wasn’t. I should have taken some lunesta. I could’ve had dreams about Abe Lincoln, a beaver, and an old school underwater scuba guy playing poker.

I did manage to catch some sleep on the trip from Frankfurt to Berlin. That was a quick flight, but man the landing was terrifying. It was very windy, so the pilot was fighting the winds while trying to land. I got really nervous as the ground was getting closer and closer while the plane was still teetering back and forth trying to jockey into steady landing position. When we landed, I swear the plane bounced.

The cab ride to the hotel was fun. The driver was zooming around the small streets like Jason Bourne in the Bourne movies. The piture above is from my hotel room window.

After a nice nap, I met up with my coworker, Mike, to go for a work and look for dinner. Spotted a lot of cool stores and shops, which unfortunately are closed (being late Sunday evening), but I will plan on coming back during the week. (I spotted an anime store, wooo!) We ate dinner at a nice café, café extrablatt and ate big American pita! Also some jalapeno poppers!

I really like the blending of the architecture in this area. You would think that old buildings next to brand new modern architecture would clash, but it doesn’t. It looks fantastic.

Erotic Museum! I guess thats a victorias secret type store.

After our journey, we ended up at an irish pub, where our lovely Canadien bartender, Michala, informed us about how stingy her small town German customers are with their tips. So of course, we couldnt have that, could we? So we gave her a nice tip, didnt matter to me, as I still think im using monopoly money for currency over here.

Well, its time to relax a bit before bedtime. I have to adjust myself to the time as the work week begins tomorrow. Enjoy the rest of the pictures! Oh and Jose!! Check out the warhammer store and the airsoft guns!!!

Piece of the berlin wall on display.

Its been a while...

2010-05-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

Yeah, its been a while since I posted anything. Sheesh, last post was in January. I mean January was like so 4 months ago!

Lately, ive been getting ready for my business trip to Berlin, Germany in couple of weeks. This will be the first time travelling somewhere where I need a passport. Itll be a busy work week training clients, hopefully ill have some time to sight see. Ill be sure to post daily blogs while over in Berlin.

Theres Comics everywhere!!!

2010-01-16T17:37:00.000-08:00

Finally sat down and organized my comic collection. Ive been neglecting all of the new books ive bought over the last year. Since I buy new books every wednesday, thats a lot of books! I wanted to watch the football games tonight, so the comic organization invaded the living room.

I promise you there is order in that chaos in the picture above.

Body Pillows in Mainstream TV (sort of)

2010-01-15T07:52:00.001-08:00

Well it finally happened, anime body pillows are now mainstream in the US, well sort of.

In last night's episode of 30 rock on NBC, James Franco gues starred, playing himself. See, James Franco is in love and married to a body pillow named Kimiko-Tan, and to stop the public from finding out, his manager set up a fake relationship with another celebrity.

But dont worry if you missed the episode, you can watch it on Hulu, below.

Final Fantasy XIII International Trailer

2010-01-14T12:07:00.000-08:00

Square Enix released the new International Trailer for the highly anticipated, Final Fantasy XIII. In the trailer we get an idea on the story(somewhat), some battle gameplay, and the theme song sung by Leona Lewis.

Video Games Final Fantasy XIII International Trailer

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

The battles look so cinematic and cool! I can't wait to this comes out, I'm thinking about using a vacay day at work when it comes out. I still have to reserve it though, I'm waiting to see if there will be a special edition version of the game. Do you have it reserved yet?

Yoko Is just jealous...

2010-01-12T12:14:00.000-08:00

Working from home today and a bit bored. So its time for some nendoroid fun!

Yui and Mio are so happy with their new guitar and bass guitar! They wanted to pose for some pics. But Yoko couldnt afford to get a new guitar, so she was jealous and a bit pissed!

But in the end, Yoko apologized and gave back their instruments. Since Yui and Mio are good people, they forgave her and asked her to join the band!

Fall 2009 Preorders List

2009-08-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

Just placed more preorders at my favorite figure site, HobbySearch, and like always I will be broke during the holidays. This list of preorders is K-On! heavy with an appearance of a certain video game character from one of my favorite PS2 games.

Nendoroid Mio

This adorable little nendoroid is from the fan crazed new anime, “K-On!”. For those who don’t know, it’s about a group of high school girls trying to form a rock band. Think of it like the adorable and funny baby of Lucky Star and Beck.

Mio here is the very ultra super shy bass player of the band. She comes with the amplifier; at least I hope she does. Cute, huh? She comes out in November.

Nendoroid Yui

Yui is the ditzy, but highly determined, guitarist of the group. Shes not the best guitar player at the moment, but through sheer determination and hard work, she will become the best!

She comes out in December. These are the first two of the four band members and I plan on having the whole band!

Alter Mio

Can you tell she’s my favorite of the K-On girls? This figure is done by Alter and is at 1/8 scale. And judging by the second picture, it looks like Alter will release Yui soon. Is this going to be another set of the band I must have?!? Maybe.

She comes out in November also, so I’ll be broke that month.

Odin Sphere Velvet

Velvet here hails from the totally awesome PS2 videogame, Odin Sphere. If you never heard of Odin Sphere, it’s no surprise. It came out late during the PS2’s life cycle, without any kind of promotion.

The best way to describe Odin Sphere’s game play is combination of a 2D beat ‘em up with RPG elements. You play as different characters, playing through different worlds and maps, beating up everything in your path. But along the way you learn new abilities, spells, attacks, and gain new weapons and armor upgrades. But what separates Odin Sphere from other beat 'em up, is its beautiful animated 2d graphics. Check out the review from IGN.

Well, Velvet here is one of the playable characters in Odin Sphere and since I missed out on buying my favorite character of the game (Mercedes), I immediately reserved Velvet. She comes out in January.

Well there you have it. If you would like to reserve or purchase any of the figures listed, please follow the links to Hobbysearch.com.

What figures do you have preordered?

Ponyo Review

2009-08-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Disney released the English dub of Studio Ghibli’s latest film, Ponyo in the US. So naturally I had to see it opening weekend. How was it? Well read on to find out…

The film opened on Friday, August 14th, in select theaters nationwide. Here in Philly, there are only a couple of theaters showing it, the Ritz at the Bourse and the UA theaters in King of Prussia. I love the Ritz theaters, so I decided to see it there. So along my younger anime crazed cousin, my sister and brother in law, we made our trek to Old City.

Upon being seated at the theater, I was delighted to see it filling up with families and their children. I heard that Ponyo was heavily geared to young children, so I was happy to see the large crowd. Especially since there was barely any advertising for the film.

Ponyo tells the story of a goldfish who desperately wants to be human. The film is loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, and you could definitely see the influence. But Ponyo is not a mermaid, she’s a goldfish, whose father is an underwater Sea Wizard, who works endlessly on “Restoring the balance of the planet”. Not happy, with her life under the sea, Ponyo escapes her father’s magical submarine. While on her journey to the surface, she gets trapped in garbage and is saved by Sosuke, a five year old boy who lives in a coast town. The two then form a special friendship much to the chagrin of Ponyo’s father.

In this day and age, it seems like all animated films are computer generated. I have no qualms with this, as there have been some spectacular CG films coming out recently. But I love hand drawn animation and Ponyo is a beautifully animated film. Everything is painstakingly animated, from the humongous under water creatures to the tiniest little sardine. The colors are so bright and lovely, it’s a treat to the eyes. The amount of detail in the town is fantastic as well. Cars zip along the small windy roads in town, huge fishing boats in the town bay move about realistically, Its obvious no shortcuts were taken by Ghibli which makes everything on the screen seem alive.

I’m a huge Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli fan. I’ve seen most of his films, at least all of them that have been released by Disney in the states. Before watching Ponyo, Spirited Away was my favorite Studio Ghibli film (with Princess Mononoke a close second). But right now, I have Ponyo on the top of that list. Even though the film is more kid friendly and cutesy than previous Ghibli films, I loved every second of it. In fact so did all kids in the theater, after the film most of them were singing the Ponyo theme song on their way out.

I will recommend this film to everybody at the office this week, especially those with children. Please go see this truly wonderful film. Check out the trailer below.

New Slice of Life Animes Announced!

2009-08-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Over at Animenation news, they posted news articles on two new slice of life anime series coming out based on the manga titles, “Arakawa Under the Bridge” and “Working!!”

Arakawa Under the Bridge (pictured above) is a romantic comedy story about a rich boy picking up an odd homeless girl. The series is classified as a “denpa-kei”, which is genre given to anime with slice-of-life stories about people with odd idiosyncrasies. The anime will be produced by Shaft, with direction by Akiyuki Shinbo, the director of Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei.

“Working!!” is based on the weekly 4 panel comic strip of the same name. It’s a lighthearted slice of life series about the staff of a family (The Wagnaria family) run restaurant in Hokkaido, Japan.

I’m excited about these announcements, as the slice of life genre is my favorite genre of anime.

Kannagi Tea Time!

2009-07-28T12:40:00.001-07:00

While working from home today, I got a special delivery from Hobbysearch Japan! Woo!

It's my new Kannagi tea cup! This was a nice surprise as I just ordered this on Friday and made it's way all the way from Tokyo to my apartment in a few days. Much quicker than ordering something from amazon a state away.

As you can see Kannagi got excited about the new surprise:

But she was a bit shocked to see her likeness on a cup!

Being the Kannagi fanboy that I am, I had to pick this up. (I also have a coffee mug on preorder :P ). I love green tea in the afternoon on occasion, but Im afraid to use this awesome cup dont want to stain it. Oh wells guess ill use my other tea cup.