Imagining We Still Had VHS: "Claymore" Volume 1

*Blog post started on August 14, 2020.

Two more blog posts and I should be set for my vacation. It is great day to have multiple realizations. Unfortunately, the first being that you cannot have an anime review about a strong female protagonists that only covers its first few episodes and call it "A Taste of". I hope I get one more realization for an acceptable title by the time I finish the review.

As for my other realizations, I was able to remember my password to all the essential systems at my retail job (I should see if I can update my address outside of those confines) and I remember that I have a notebook of movie reviews from 2010 at my desk. If you want a third realization, it would seem that I was predisposed to focus on the 90-minute runtime as I soon discovered flipping through the pages.

Aside from my questionable health, I think the world is telling me to relax. High interest credit cards are in order. Lack of income should be straightened out with the return to retail. There is so much blog stuff today, why worry about the racist and sexist bullshit that Trump is going to be spouting today, at least for a few hours.

And there is the fourth realization. I am going home at some point this week, so Mom will keep me up to speed on that. It is tempting to put my "Squad Goals" and "IMPEACHED" bumper stickers on my car, but anxiety dictates I not bite the hand that is willing to feed. Play nice through October and be there to comfort her during her upcoming depression, provided this country is not as awful as it seems.

Speaking of awfulness, there are still tweets promoting my blogs to post today. After a momentous week, more trolling of great Americans is likely. With my luck, that might take up this evening, but since I love shooting Malort, I can endure and benefit from it. This would just mean I would have to bump back tonight's tweets to Monday. In turn, lets not worry about rushing a movie review out when the schedule would be better served by a wrestling list.

Just relax and let everything play out. It sort of feels like my increased use of cannabis might be shaping me into the ideal artist. Thank you Governor Pritzker.

Speaking of my enjoyment of the Member Berries strand, I should have probably have partook in it last night. It would have been appropriate since I decided to focus less on 90-minute flicks by returning to what got me into writing and the internet. That is anime.

Member Tenchi? Oh I member Tenchi! Member when Jerry Lawlor talked about puppies?

The only problem was that having seen episodes multiple times, paying attention to them is a little difficult in a sober state. I knew everything that was going to happen when I put "Claymore" into my Blu-ray player. What I failed to remember was how stylized the violence was and how the manga is captured. With rock music, colors, and violence, being high would have probably reinvented the experience.

Marijuana might reinvent the experience that was the pseudo-medieval "Claymore", but since I would like to express my admiration of it, better tell you what it is like with a clear head. Here is the experience of what would have probably been the first VHS tape of the series. Oh how I miss tape collecting.

Claymore: Episodes 1 through 4

Resident Evil: Degeneration, At least it makes more sense than Extinction

Once the action in "Resident Evil: Degeneration" starts rolling, this viewer had to be reminded of "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within". If it the same crew behind RED, that's cool, but if it is not, it maybe the end of photo realistic motion pictures. It has been eight years since the need for Square to merge with Enix occurred (and I'm sure all RPG fans don't fault the result), and if the effects haven't improved much between FF and RE, one maybe a little miffed if we just rented one giant cut scene.

The good news that only the Sony name connects the two which turns the possibility of the cut motion picture from a negative to a positive. Resident Evil: Degeneration may have a good premise, but can it be executed well.

Like "Resident Evil 4" suggests, Umbrella had fallen after the nuclear annihilation of Raccoon City. The US government has kept what actually happened under wraps, so that they can allow a new firm, WilPharma, to further study the uses of the T-Virus. After a biohazard occurred in India and a terrorist government openly expresses interest in using the virus, a Senate-backed American-based research facility in Hardardville would probably meet with protest. Protest that are led by a former WilPharma employee and father/husband to RC victims, Curtis Miller.

At the Harvardville Airport, Claire Redfield arrives to meet with fellow members of TerraSafe. While waiting to leave, they encounter Senator and WilPharma investor Ron Davis as he is being harassed by protesters with zombie mask. All hell breaks lose when some of the slow moving are not wearing masks, and a plane of undead crashes into the terminal. The only possible clue to what is going on his Claire catching a glance of Miller making his escape.

The airport has been quarantined, and Leon Kennedy is on the scene to coordinate rescue efforts and to help oversee the dispersion of a new T-Virus vaccine. Once word that Miller maybe involved, he and Angela, Miller's sister, are out to stop this biohazard from spreading.

Resident Evil: Degeneration is almost exactly like the video games it is based on. Perhaps to exact. When there is action, the viewer is amazed at the action like they are from the intensity of the video games, but once the scenes are over, the viewer is tied into a bloodless cut scene that consumes most of the picture.

The exposition cut scenes would work in a video game because we need to cool down after getting pass a boss. We are a little more accepting of the details and flashbacks. But RED isn't a game, it is a motion picture. It feels like you are reading the "Resident Evil 3" strategy guide as literature instead of a tool to destroy Nemesis.

I'm not saying that you will not enjoy the movie, but Resident Evil: Degeneration is strictly for the die hard RE fans. Everything you enjoyed in the games are here except sore thumbs. The Resident Evil fan should not be among us skeptics. With their cold response towards "Resident Evil 5", we may be praying Milla Jovovich's Alice will save the property.

HellHorror

Tokyo Godfathers: A Nearly Lost Tale of Understanding

I guess I've officially consider my financial state to be poor. This is because my shift at the front desk is just dragging on. Eight o'clock is the time that I like to start thinking about blogging, but it's 7:00 pm hence I've ran out of things to do with the Internet. At least things that I can afford to do with my time.

MovieDebuts.com 

Fortunately, Netflix came through for me when I received Satoshi Kon's "Tokyo Godfathers." Sadly, renting it through this service is the most affordable way to do so (I really should have booted up my Window Vista PC, my Dazzle Video Import hardware and Roxio software...first time I ever consider using the tech for piracy). When you consider the old movies that may never see streaming services, the $7.99 DVD service is really worth it. And it kind of makes you have to watch it ASAP because if you do not, you negate the value of your purchase (like cancelling Nerd Block too late..."Evangelion," worth 35/"Mr. Bean," not worthless). This also makes my "not going to get shitfaced nights" dedicated to watching new flicks (to me) so I'll can get back into the practice of writing movie reviews. I figure my knowledge of film should further support why "Guy Does Finishing Moves on Zombies," to promote "Main Event of the Dead" needs to be completed. If he knows the medium so well, surely his script (that you can get a treatment of by e-mailing russthebus07@gmail.com) can't be too bad.

Keep in mind, this course of action will only occur on nights that I'm not going to be a poor bore at the front desk. I need to save my other sober nights for "Disney Infinity" and "Infamous."

Tokyo Godfathers

This film from one of my favorite anime directors ("Perfect Blue" is a must view) is quite an appropriate title when it comes to my developed course of action for slow hotel nights. Three homeless Tokyo residents are trying their best to be cheery on Christmas Eve, but it's difficult for the alcoholic Gin, transvestite Hana, and runaway Miyuki to stand each other, let alone accept the spirit of the season. God may be looking over them, because as they are digging through the trash for some classic literature for Miyuki, they hear the whines of a newborn baby.

Hana believes this is his "virgin birth" and decides that he must play the role of mother, refusing to listen to his compatriots that they need to turn the newly christened Kiyoko (translates to messenger of God) to the police. Because the immediate needs of the child, Gin softens his stance and Miyuki can relate to the child's plight in her own way. A compromised is reached in the morning when Hana demands that he cannot give the baby up until her parents explain their actions to him. So, the three that society have forgotten will venture on a quest to find a baby's parents that may lead the three to finally understanding and accepting each other.

I think Kon realized that story may be a bit cliche, so Yakuza, wannabe Droogs and hidden ailments of the three compatriots will present themselves to add greater challenges to our protagonists.

I will warn you this is a subtitled only release. The positive of this is that the authenticity of the translation cannot be questioned. The negatives are whatever the typical person has to bitch about reading. My only issue with the lack of a dub is that I like to see multiple angles to my animation. It's a different art to dubbing animation, and with anime's lack of mouth movement to the correct sound spoken, a good dub is about as good as a track where I will not recognize the actors. For fun, a dub can also throw in extra sounds/dialogue to explain the story even further.

Aside from this, "Tokyo Godfathers" is one of the best subtle stories I have seen in anime. Do not worry, crazy things will occur, but they happen to further our understanding of the characters, not to just break up monotony. It's kind of like the J. R. R. Tolkien adaptations to screen, but every action scene provides depth to the protagonist(s) instead of serving as an obstacle to present the illusion that the story is more than midgets walking towards a goal.

The character of Miyuki offers a lot more to be discovered about her, and the story only breaks the surface. Fortunately, the adult characters, the easiest to understand characters, are totally flushed out, so their stories and how they could seemingly coexist make the film very rewarding. Kon realizes that it is still a cartoon, so the film has a style that lacks realism which may make swallowing some of the tougher character traits a little easier.

Also he successfully reminds us of the medium with the incorporation of devices where characters comfortably break the fourth wall. They're very subtle devices that are not too far removed from Wile E. Coyote holding up one of his signs.

A huge positive of this film is how Kon was able to bring together three story-lines into just 90 minutes. That seems like a daunting task for many Asian directors to do with only one line to follow, and perhaps its through making the audience yearn to see the characters stick together that makes it work so well. Kon obliges, and you are given the time to pop "Perfect Blue" into the player (that's why I keep two VHS decks on standby) to see the range of his storytelling ability in just one night.

"Tokyo Godfathers" is a case for preventing a major distributor (Sony in this case) from getting a hold of marvelous niche films. I doubt there is any rush on their behalf for a Blu-Ray of this masterpiece in storytelling, so it maybe a decade before we can easily see this feature again. Since this and Kon's "Millenium Actress" suffer from poor distributing and Satoshi Kon has since passed away, I fear he may be forgotten in the states as one of the best directors of traditional animation.