more review

9 files changed, 215 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/src/anime/review/berserk-1/.gitignore b/src/anime/review/berserk-1/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08d33d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/anime/review/berserk-1/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+/document.en.du.xml
+/document.it.du.xml
diff --git a/src/anime/review/berserk-1/document.en.rest.txt b/src/anime/review/berserk-1/document.en.rest.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..85604d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/anime/review/berserk-1/document.en.rest.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+======================
+ Berserk - movie 1
+======================
+:CreationDate: 2013-01-21 21:15:33
+:Id: anime/review/berserk-1
+:tags: - anime
+       - review
+:rating: 3
+:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/berserk-the-golden-age-arc-1-the-egg-of-the-king
+
+A boy born from a hanged woman. A sword capable of defeating
+semi-divine beings. A beautiful mercenary leader. Ambition so
+all-consuming that it destroys souls, friendships, love, and the
+barrier between worlds. Mythological creatures walking the earth.
+
+MIURA Kentarou (三浦 建太郎) started writing his epic manga in 1990:
+the first few chapters look like a supernatural splatter horror story,
+with the main character Guts felling monsters with his huge sword. By
+the third volume we get to see a 11-volume long flash-back: how Guts
+became a mercenary, how he got recruited into Griffith's "Band of the
+Hawk", how Griffith got induced into the group of semi-divine beings
+known as the God Hand. There follows and increasingly confused series
+of battles, wars, political ploys, and various levels of magic. We're
+now up to the 36th volume, with on end in sight. The pacing of the
+manga is very variable: sometimes dozens of pages are spent on a
+battle that lasts only a few minutes, sometimes weeks pass between
+pages; we may get very detailed briefings on socio-political
+situations, or we may just get "this is the king, he's evil". Despite
+this, the manga is still gripping, and I'm still buying it (we get
+about 1 volume a year…).
+
+The first part of the story, up to about volume 14, was adapted as an
+animated series between 1997 and 1998, to a mixed reception. To fit
+the story into 25 episodes, much had to be cut and reworked, which
+didn't please some fans, even if all changes were approved by the
+author.
+
+Now, a relatively unknown production company has embarked in a much
+more ambitious project: adapting the whole story into a series of
+movies. During the opening credits, we see images of most of the
+characters, including some that were introduced in the last few
+volumes published, which at the very least shows that the production
+is committed to the whole project.
+
+The first movie covers about 6-7 volumes' worth of story starting from
+the 3rd volume, compressing some spans of time, skipping over some
+sub-plots, relegating some back-story to flash-backs. I suspect that
+someone who's not read the manga would not get the whole significance
+of some of these flash-backs (Guts' relationship with his father, for
+example), but maybe they were considered just important enough to
+include, but not enough to devote much time to.
+
+Of course, this is a first movie in a trilogy, which is itself only
+going to cover a third or maybe a fourth of the manga. There's no way
+to get proper closure, but it still stands pretty well on its own: you
+want to see the rest of the story, but you don't feel short-changed
+for it.
+
+What I *did* feel short-changed for, though, is the quality of the
+animation. It's completely computer-generated, and if I had to hazard
+a guess, I'd say there was very little motion capture involved (more
+probably none at all). Movements and facial expressions are wooden,
+acceleration curves are unnatural, the lighting model feels
+wrong. It's very similar technology to that employed for the recent
+Appleseed movies: it looks like cell-shaded machinima, not
+feature-quality animation. I was repeatedly jarred out of the story by
+some shortcoming of the animation, and I feel this lets down the
+entire movie.
+
+If you like that kind of animation, or are better at ignoring its
+problems than I am, you'll find this a very good movie. But even with
+its visual flaws, it's still a promising beginning to a hugely
+ambitious project that I'd love to see to the end.
diff --git a/src/anime/review/berserk-1/du2html.xsl b/src/anime/review/berserk-1/du2html.xsl
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..371d03d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/anime/review/berserk-1/du2html.xsl
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../../../templates/du2html-review.xsl
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/anime/review/ninja-scroll/.gitignore b/src/anime/review/ninja-scroll/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08d33d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/anime/review/ninja-scroll/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+/document.en.du.xml
+/document.it.du.xml
diff --git a/src/anime/review/ninja-scroll/document.en.rest.txt b/src/anime/review/ninja-scroll/document.en.rest.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e8654b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/anime/review/ninja-scroll/document.en.rest.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+==============
+ Ninja Scroll
+==============
+:CreationDate: 2013-01-21 21:15:16
+:Id: anime/review/ninja-scroll
+:tags: - anime
+       - review
+:rating: 2
+:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/ninja-scroll
+
+You know I don't like action movies, and I hope nobody is surprised
+that I didn't like Ninja Scroll very much. All the positive reviews
+I've read seem to find it good mostly because it's the first anime the
+reviewer has seen. Sorry, I've been watching anime since 1982, when I
+was five, and Ninja Scroll is really nothing special.
+
+The story: the Toyotomi family hires a group of demonic ninjas to
+retrieve a large amount of gold, to be used to wrestle power back from
+the Tokugawa (which dates the action between 1600 and 1615). An
+elderly ninja working for the Tokugawa tricks the main character,
+Juubei, a mercenary, into helping him figure out the whole
+story. Super-powered fights ensue, an old enemy (presumed dead)
+resurfaces, all the plots fail spectacularly, the gold is lost, the
+power structure is untouched.
+
+Nothing particularly new there: ninja stories were very well
+established in manga and anime, a good example would be The Legend of
+Kamui (カムイ伝) by SHIRATO Sanpei (白土 三平) was published between
+1964 and 1971, and transposed into anime as Ninpuu Kamui Gaiden (忍風
+カムイ 外伝) in 1969. The supernatural, super-powered aspect is not
+very new either. The story progresses just like video games had been
+doing for decades, with the enemies attacking one by one, even when
+clearly outmatched, and the boss fight at the end. The characters are
+very stereotyped, probably to save time building them, and use it on
+the action scenes instead.
+
+I've read that many consider the animation to be very good. I'll just
+point out that Ninja Scroll was produced in 1993; Akira came out 5
+years earlier; the two Patlabor movies are from 1989 and 1993;
+Miyazaki had already directed Castle of Cagliostro ('79), Nausicaa
+('84), Laputa ('86), Totoro ('88), Kiki ('89), Porco Rosso ('92). So
+no, the animation is not above average for a movie of that time.
+
+The director, KAWAJIRI Yoshiaki (川尻 善昭) was already an old hand at
+action movies: he had directed Wicked City ('87), Demon City Shinjuku
+('88), Cyber City Oedo ('90), even a Lensmen adaptation (SF New
+Century Lensman, SF新世紀 レンズマン, '84). Interestingly, he had also
+directed the third chapter of Kadokawa's adaptation of Tezuka The
+Phoenix ('87), which is definitely not an action-based story. In Ninja
+Scroll he shows very well that he knows what he's doing, but doesn't
+really shine.
+
+One interesting details that I liked: there is at least one homosexual
+and one bisexual character (Yurimaru and Genma), and this is treated
+as completely unremarkable.
+
+In conclusion, this movie scores high on the "action packed", "gory",
+and "nostalgic (for some)" scales, and I don't doubt that many people
+really like it. It's just really not my kind of product.
diff --git a/src/anime/review/ninja-scroll/du2html.xsl b/src/anime/review/ninja-scroll/du2html.xsl
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..371d03d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/anime/review/ninja-scroll/du2html.xsl
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../../../templates/du2html-review.xsl
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/anime/review/towa-no-quon/.gitignore b/src/anime/review/towa-no-quon/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..08d33d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/anime/review/towa-no-quon/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+/document.en.du.xml
+/document.it.du.xml
diff --git a/src/anime/review/towa-no-quon/document.en.rest.txt b/src/anime/review/towa-no-quon/document.en.rest.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..267e982
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/anime/review/towa-no-quon/document.en.rest.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+==============
+ Towa no Quon
+==============
+:CreationDate: 2013-01-21 21:15:22
+:Id: anime/review/towa-no-quon
+:tags: - anime
+       - review
+:rating: 3
+:original: http://www.easternkicks.com/reviews/towa-no-quon-complete-series-collection
+
+Someone at Bones has been reading the X-Men.
+============================================
+
+Bones is a big name in anime: Escaflowne, RahXephon, Wolf's Rain,
+Scrapped Princess, Ouran High School Host Club, Soul Eater. They've
+spanned several genres, but some of the "signature traits" are very
+detailed animation and a preference for character-centric stories. On
+the animation aspect, Towa no Quon does not disappoint: people,
+backgrounds, monsters, cyborgs, even the "shadowy powers" who seem to
+be pulling the strings, they're all drawn and animated with care and a
+very good sense of mood and atmosphere. The story, on the other hand,
+feels too familiar and phoned in.
+
+What's the story about? Well, there are mutant people with
+superpowers; when such power awaken, most people can't control them
+and they become dangerous to themselves and those around them. An
+organisation called Custos employs assault troops and cyborgs to
+capture them, and either study or eliminate them (it's not completely
+clear).
+
+Quon is an exceptionally powerful mutant (strength, speed,
+regeneration, energy weapons, some kind of telekinesis…) who fights
+Custos to protect a large group of (mostly young) mutants, and the
+help them learn to control their powers. He's been around for a very
+long time (regeneration will do that, just ask Logan), and after
+losing his entire village (including his brother Towa), he is
+determined to "save everybody". "Saving everybody" has become so
+common in anime that it's usually a flag for lazy writing…
+
+Custos is apparently controlled by The Order, a vaguely-defined power
+group whose members appear via tele-presence as shadowy figures. If
+this does not remind you of the relationship between Seele and NERV,
+let me add that The Order only talks to the head of Custos, Kamishiro,
+and that he's got his own agenda which is probably not aligned with
+either Custos's purpose, or The Order's wishes. He's way less likable
+than Gendou, though: he's not just manipulative, he's clearly
+power-crazy and evil.
+
+Final pieces on the board, the cyborgs used by Custos are very
+powerful (they can go head to head with Quon and hold their ground),
+but have some interesting emotional instabilities. I don't want to
+spoil the only interesting part of the story, but let me say that some
+of the cyborgs are the only characters showing actual development.
+
+In the end, Towa no Quon's story is just not very good, and the
+characters feel very flat, to the point that not even director IIDA
+Umanosuke (飯田 馬之介) could make the show work, and he was not
+without experience: he directed Gundam: 08th MS Team, Hellsing, and
+Origin: Spirits of the Past.
+
+I did not notice the music, which is apparently written by KAWAI Kenji
+(川井 憲次), one of the greatest anime musician (from Maison Ikkoku to
+Ghost in the Shell to Eden of the East). Either the music was very
+well coupled with the scenes, or there was not much of it. I should
+probably skim the episodes again paying more attention to the
+background tunes.
+
+In summary: nothing particularly original, an adequate presentation,
+plenty of fights. Not a bad product all in all, but very average.
+
+(Linguistic curiosity: Quon (久遠) means "eternity", and Towa (永久)
+means more-or-less the same with a sense of "immortality"; the title
+of the series could be read as "immortal eternity" or something like
+it).
diff --git a/src/anime/review/towa-no-quon/du2html.xsl b/src/anime/review/towa-no-quon/du2html.xsl
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..371d03d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/anime/review/towa-no-quon/du2html.xsl
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../../../templates/du2html-review.xsl
\ No newline at end of file