Leave it to the Japanese to celebrate that kawaii fashion statement, the twin tails. So instead of Groundhog’s Day, February 2 will now be Twin Tails Day. He’ll yeah I say. I’m up for that!
Now all we need is Megane Day and Zettai Ryouiki Day.
If there was one movie I didn’t think about wanting to watch this summer, it had to be The Amazing Spiderman. Why would I want to watch another Spiderman movie after the lameness that was the third? I was hoping for something beyond the standard origin story, but it was a true reboot and started right from the spider’s bite. Why? Didn’t we tread these plots already? What more can we get from another Spidey movie?
Emma Stone. Zettai Ryouiki. ‘Nuff said.
We first glimpse Emma Stone as the brainy Gwen Stacy in over the knee socks. We catch her again in over the knee socks later on in the film. She only gets up to grade B zettai ryouiki only, but zettai ryouiki anyway. I think I would watch it again just for that.
Beyond the titillation in seeing absolute territory, the movie was surprisingly decent. Overlook the fact that we have another origin story, we get the next Spidey villain, the Lizard. He’s just a regular scientist looking to merge animal DNA with human DNA for some purpose to help humanity, and to give himself an arm. Peter Parker helps him play God. The scientist merges with lizard DNA to make a reptile monster who is hellbent on making everyone a reptile too. Spidey has to stop him along with cutie Gwen Stacy. He does and did. You already know that. But does Gwen Stacy get the boy? Or at least live? You’ll have to watch it. (For the zettai ryouiki!)
3 of 5 stars.
Most every anime featuring high school romance is going to have it’s Christmas episode. Hatsukoi Limited is no different. It’s title is “Before it Snows” (雪が降り出すその前に) I just wanted to copy and paste that. You see I needed an anime to tell us all about Christmas in Japan from the schoolboy’s perspective. I would’ve chosen my favorite anime, but settled on Hatsukoi Limited because it sorta has a theme we could attach to it for today.
The set up for the anime is that these girls and these boys have crushes on each other and they either need to acknowledge the crush or be crushed by rejection. It’s a short, simple, complicated manga turned by Kawashita-sensei that you should read about its plot at wikipedia. Anyhow, the Christmas episode has the gang planning a Christmas party. Three girls and three boys each crushing on someone are to attend and they’ll exchange gifts. The day arrives and two girls and two boys have bailed out for various reasons leaving the more antagonist couple alone. They don’t know if they like each other; they just know that the other is really, super annoying. They argue then get into a snowball fight which clears their heads enough to acknowledge that each has a good point to them; they’re steadily falling in love. They exchange presents and each finds that they got what they had wanted.
The Christmas theme for today is koi. Love not familial or brotherly, but passion. We should feel it all year long, but it is more acute around this time because of the sharing and
The second Christmas theme for today is “tsudere goodness.” Assertive, combative, confrontational at first given way to gentle, warm-hearted, loving that’s a Christmas present I can’t wait for.
The third Christmas theme is grade S zettai ryouiki. That’s the star on the treetop and the ribbon on the gift. Waiting for it is worthwhile.
Last year Roger Ebert stirred the up the internet when he stated his opinion that video games can never be art. The internet came down on Roger Ebert and made him change his mind, or at least see the error of his ways. I think with Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch the internet may owe him an apology.
Like movies and entertainment in the 90s being influenced by MTV and it’s hyper-kinetic cuts, movies and entertainment in 00s have been influenced by video games. If they weren’t art at their dawn, they have been accepted by the majority of geeks so that they are an art form by default. Their aesthetics have been incorporated in many other forms of entertainment and sometimes that ain’t a good thing.
One of my favorite movies from last year, Scott Pilgrim v. The World is movie with some video game. Sucker Punch isn’t a movie, but a video game.
It opens with a long silent segment evocative of those opening cut scenes of video games. This establishes the background of various characters and aids in giving them motivation for some of the story. Then it gets to the place where the game takes place. Baby Doll has to escape from the loony bin. There’s a little bit of set up before she get the clues on how to escape. Eventually, she must defeat a boss in order to score the equipment to get her out of there. Very routine video game fodder.
The problem with Sucker Punch is that it wasn’t a video game, but a movie and the story it had to tell was very shallow and uninteresting. So were the characters all stock and cardboard thin. Nothing to care about.
This movie reminds me of Inception. It is a product of the director. Zack Snyder made up the whole story just as Nolan did Inception. And like Inception, it is also a gamble in that it isn’t based on a previous entertainment property no comic book, no novel, no tv show. It must live and die on its own. I admire that. Story telling isn’t dead in Hollywood just that the story its telling is.
Is Sucker Punch misogynistic? I’ve read several reviews that say it is. I can’t really say, but I imagine that the actresses loved to do that action stuff that the boys are always doing. Sometimes it looks as if they enjoyed themselves. Is that empowerment? Is the fact that the bad guys are all men and shown in a demeaning light a case against misogyny? Does the beating of women and glorifying it the case for misogyny? You’ll have to decide yourself.
Neo as the One in Matrix. Baby Doll as the one in Sucker Punch.
Here’s to hoping we don’t get nothing but Baby Doll’s for Halloween. Seifuku is awesome and blue seifuku is awesome as well. But nothing beats the zettai ryouiki. Yes. That’s probably why I wanted to watch this film so badly. I also hoped that Baby Doll was tsundere. She wasn’t.
I’m gonna give it a medium score because I found some of the action fun. The train scene. Like Michael Bay, Snyder has his own style. It’s ridiculous and like wanting to seen the Baysian twirl, you can’t wait for the Snyder slow-fast-slow-fast fight scenes and the train scene is his Mona Lisa perfect in every way. I think it would make me watch it again just for that fight. Anyway, it was this fight and zettai ryouiki brings the score up out from 2 to 3, but just barely.
3 of 5 stars
Suckerpunch looks to be a real fan boy movie. I’m there. Of course, it’s a Zack Snyder production so it will be a 90 minute film stretched to 2.5 hours all in slow motion.
I’m interested in seeing it for the anime/manga/otaku influences. Twin tails is so anime/manga. I wonder if she is tsundere. She’s got the sailor fuku going. Not too bad except that this one’s too Americanized with the bare midriff highlight. Next Halloween we’ll be getting sexy sailor fuku at all the Halloween parties. Most importantly though, zetta ryouiki. Hopefully this movie doesn’t ruin it all, which most assuredly it will.
Was browsing through the bookstore tonight. I know, right? A Friday night and your humble narrator was at the bookstore. It’s my home away from home. I was just browsing the manga stacks picking up the second volume of Twin Spica, BrowserMetrics’ current nice read, when I saw the book of books, Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential!! Yeah, I know, right? Of course I flipped through it.
Hentai! But that isn’t the point of this post.
In the books, there was plenty of pictures of school girls in short, pleated skirts. Lots of Grade D zettai ryouiki. Hentai! But this isn’t the point of this post.
I am a leg man. They’re my favorite part of the female body.
What I noticed though from the book and what has been kind of making me sad is that Japanese girls have chubby legs. Their legs on average are not very shapely. That’s a shame considering that their country loves the skirt and loves the bare thighs. It’s a country that has coined a brilliant word for those bare thighs: zettai ryouiki — “absolute territory.” Think about that. A word to describe the flesh from the hem of the skirt to the top of the socks. Brilliant. Yet, their women have legs that don’t inspire leg men. Even my favorite, Nozomi-chan, her legs are not very shapely, which makes me sad, because with such a cute face, yumm. Lots of cute, cute girls. Lots of short skirts. Not too much shapely legs.
Perhaps my definition of great legs is completely different. Perhaps I’ve got too high standards. No. I’m sure my standards are too high.
But I am a leg man. They’re my favorite part of the female body. Make sure you have the legs to show a little skin. I’ll love you forever.
Now, with that said, I’ll be working on my girls in glasses post next.
I want the poster to this movie really, really, really bad.
Haruhi and zettai ryouiki yum!
schools in manila with zettai ryouiki: the greatest search term to land on BrowserMetrics.
It makes me smile.
Hwang Mi-Hee, Korean race queen.
Zettai Ryouiki – check.
Twin tails – check.
Tsundere goodness? Hmm. Maybe. Hopefully.
Just please, kill me now! With cuteness!
Grade S on the zettai ryouki scale: grade A thigh high stockings, twin tails, tsundere goodness. Kei-chan!
Good sixth episode for Hatsukoi Limited. The mangaka, Kawashita-sensei, previously did Ichigo 100%. Whereas Ichigo 100% focuses on harem style, love triangle fun, Hatsukoi Limited focuses on love dodecahdron style. Every girl likes some guy who likes some other girl who likes another guy. It’s a nice short read in manga about 4 volumes or so. The anime is faithful to the story because it is so compact. The animation is faithful to Kawashita-sensei’s style. In fact, I think Kei Enomoto is drawn better in the anime. Yet, Kawashita-sensei still rulez with her trademark curvy girls.
