ghostlightning

In the Philippines we have a naming system wherein my Mother's maiden name becomes my middle name. My name is ______ Chan _______ My handwriting script has an 'r' that looks like an 'n' I've been signing contracts as CHAR for almost a year now. "That ghostlightning HE IS CHAR"

asuka is a better date than rei any day of the week. the most overrated anime character as far as datability goes is rei ayanami. what would you ever talk about. if she has sex at all, she'd be a total robot about it. erika from daimos is another great crush of mine. also erika from cowboy bebop: future blues.

evangelion: all the endings (i did not see the videogame ending) are flawed and yet they are quite brilliant. consider this: the overriding theme of the series is a search for what is the truth, or what is reality, especially in terms of the psychological or spiritual self. the series ending focused on shinji becoming a person acceptable to himself. i consider this ending true to the intention of the program - refer to the opening track: thesis of a cruel angel "shounen yo shinwa e nara" or young boy fulfill (your) legend (loose translation). it is a journey of a young boy with a (terribly) flawed psyche into self-acceptance and renewal. that is precisely the thing being congratulated by the characters in shinji's mind. disclaimer: i personally think shinji is the biggest wuss in all fiction in end of evangelion, the (psychological , spiritual, and science-fiction) concepts of the series become fully fleshed out. shinji's absorption in the LCL which resulted in the annihilation of all humans (an illusion anyway, they become a singular being in the third impact) made him alone with the voices of the angel beings (rei and kaworu). shinji is not alone. all humans exist as one being. now we ask? if there is only one being, why is it only shinji? the answer to this is that the singular being contains multiple consciousnesses, only that each consciousness is only conscious of the self. shinji experiences only himself and no other (it wouldn't make sense if it were another character). what separates the consciousnesses from each other is what the series calls the A/T FIELD. the absolute terror the experience of "otherness" gives us. this is at least college-level philosophy (existentialism) and i do hope i do not alienate the readers of this thread. having others around renders us vulnerable to pain by virtue of conflict that two separate beings can create. this is the warning kaworu gave shinji when shinji considered that he misses the others. like shinji, a lot of us experience other people with fear. our deepest sufferings are products of our experiences with other people (most notably that of family, partners, friends, and social groups). this evangelion expounds on and fantasizes as A/T FIELDS, "the walls of the heart" that finds expression in giant mecha vs. monster battles. i personally find the net result of the difficult to watch endings quite fulfilling for such an anime (with all its production issues). i almost am sorry for hideaki anno. i wonder how much of himself did he put in the writing. my favorite ending is cowboy bebop's. i also experienced if i were truly alive, and then, it doesn't mean anything at all... peace

though essentially the same story, these two anime provide very different experiences. first off, i'm really a fan of both. i've read almost all of jack mckinney's adaptation novels of the robotech saga and i thoroughly immersed myself in all this protoculture and "the shapings" goobledygook. however, watching the macross story arc of the series was a real letdown, precisely because of the music. ulpio minucci did one or two good tracks, only that any kind of suspenseful moment in the anime warranted playing the singular suspense music, and the opening theme played throughout every episode. it got old real quick and eventually became very annoying. the biggest ruination of this series is minmei. she's supposed to be this pop superstar, but that horrible 'stagefright' track was frightening for all the wrong reasons. this character did become one of the most reviled characters in all anime, precisely because harmony gold produced her this way. consider the original series: minmei had a plethora of hit songs, every single one quite catchy and at times truly lovely: my boyfriend is a pilot, zero-g love, little white dragon, do you remember love? among others whose titles escape me at present. all these tracks somehow was integral to moving the narrative forward, therefore making them good pop music was very important. despite kanno yoko's brilliance in macross plus, no track except 'voices' was as important to moving the story along as much as the music in the original macross. these songs are great 80s bubble-pop, as dance tracks, as ballads, as reggae, you name it. experiencing massive mecha battles was such a tremendous thrill (see macross: do you remember love? oav to get what i mean). compare it to the harmony gold execution and you will see, in this case at least, that music can and did make or break a series. notes: of course robotech was universally loved anyway. also consider however, that it did not have a lot of anime competition. it came before the evangelions and gundam wings that made a lot of people anime fans. i'm 27 years old, and my memory goes back to voltes v, mazinger z, daimos, and the great super robot anime. macross and robotech showed before i was in middle-school, and as a viewer and fan, i was already quite discriminating.

almost always, oavs and movies look better. cowboy bebop: knockin' on heaven's door is really beautiful. two things stand out: fight scenes and dogfights. the fight scenes here (spike vs. elektra, spike vs. vincent) look more fluid and well-choreographed than any of the "fighter" anime that i've seen (dbz, street fighter, fatal fury, etc.). the production team's investment in a stunt/fightning coordinator really paid off. the dogfight scene is awesome, besting even the macross dogfights i grew up loving. even though this is a visuals conversation, it's the musical score that makes the supreme entertainment experience. kanno-san really outdid herself here ("what planet is this?" is such an awesome track). macross plus oav series is another supreme visual treat. the final dogfight really is quite something: the way it serves as both exposition and resolution of the conflict of isamu and bowman makes it such a compelling scene. as visuals go, the mecha specs go all-out in lush animation in breathtaking pace. (the concert scenes with sharon apple are great as well; special mention goes to sdf-1 reactivating) if you notice, i like older anime... and the oldest being macross: do you remember love? movie for something done in the mid-80s, it's animation really holds up to macross plus. that's really quite a feat! again, great minmei music makes every beautiful frame go down better. massive carnage in the mother of all mecha battles animated really well, *sigh* that's the game...

i did not expect myself to be impressed with cowboy bebop. a friend of mine was selling me on it for years and i really like mecha anime anyway. after watching it once, i thought there were too many filler episodes. i wanted the main story arc more fleshed out. something about it, however, made me watch the whole series again, and again, and i've seen the darned thing 4 times in 3 different languages. it's the best anime experience i've ever had. it offers many things at many levels. you can take to it as a campy detective/cop/p.i. adventure with great music and be okay. you can take to it as an action title with great music, and find something for yourself too. you can take it as drama, and encounter engaging tragic stories with great music. but what got me, is that it is about nothing really. the bebop crew aren't even "good" cowboys. they're selfish and they almost always lose the bounty. they're destitute and have poor relationships with each other. in the end, they are pretty much where they started, and the more or less two-year cowboy career was pretty much futile. it was encapsulized as spike's escapist dream, wherein he was only person enough to face when he chose to die. it's nihilist, absolutely empty and meaningless. and that, makes it the cool thing that it is. not that it means anything... i don't know how it's being hyped there in the states, but the way it's being hyped here (the philippines)is totally out of context with what makes it great.

i've always been a music fan, and i've been an anime fan since before i could run, and i would have to say that in general, anime have really excellent soundtracks but the best composer is yoko kanno and her best work is in cowboy bebop. i have all the music, and everything is perfect. and just when you think there's nothing to top all this, future blues comes out and just kicks ***. i mean, 'nock a little harder' is just as good as 'blue' and 'the real folk blues' combined. every day i have a new favorite track. gush gush. to give some perspective, here are other examples of what i consider top notch: steely dan (particularly the 'aja' album 1977) metallica (all music from '83-'87) bach (the art of the fugue) beethoven symphonies mozart anton carlos jobim (bossa nova) jaco pastorius (bassist, particularly his birthday concert) chuck mangione (horn) chick corea (composer, jazz fusion) shin seki evangelion (anime) kare kano (anime: his and her circumstances) mazinger z (themes, especially venus a theme) miss saigon (alain boubil, claude-michel schoenberg composers) swing out sister depeche mode (strangelove, blasphemous rumours) slayer (south of heaven, seasons in the abyss) vision of escaflowne (anime, yoko kanno) macross plus (yoko kanno) macross (minmei music, great pop stuff) i used to play in a heavy metal garage band, fyi.