All That You Can't Leave Behind

Watched the last 2 episodes of Kanon last night. Kanon was originally a Japanese Visual Novel by Key, which also produced Air. Both these anime adaptations really made me cry alot. For some reason i tend to get more emotionally attached to animes than dramas or movies. From my Air anime experience i was already preparing myself to be emotionally scarred at the end but thank goodness it was a bittersweet ending. I can honestly say i have never been so glad to see a 'happy' ending before. Both Air and Kanon are very good dating-sim animes but i still prefer Air because the ending was so sad i remember not being able to sleep after finshing it.

Yuichi Aizawa returns to this city after seven years. In his childhood, he often visited it, but something happened in the past which caused him to block out his memories of the events of seven years ago. On the day after he gets settled in, he meets a girl carrying a backpack with wings on it. Her name is Tsukimiya Ayu and he begins to recall the memories he had lost. - from Animenfo.com

I'm looking forward to Clannad, the latest adapation of a Key visual novel. The teaser trailer was aired after the ending credits of Kanon and release is sometime in October '07. Maybe i can catch it airing while i'm in Japan.

L to R: Ninomiya Kazunari as Asai Shouhei, Yamashita Tomohisa as Iwasaki Kengo, Narimiya Hiroki as Udagawa Hayato and Oguri Shun as Enami Kouji

Screenshot from Stand Up (ep1)! I'm downloading the series in English to rewatch again and so far only Episode 1 is done (it's @ low priority). Maybe i enjoy this series so much because it's damn funny and i can empathise with the plight of the 4 main characters. It's similar to movies like 'The 40-year old Virgin' and 'American Pie'.

The 2 standout actors from the 4 are Ninomiya Kazunari (Saigo from 'Letters from Iwo Jima') because he has the 'Ben Stiller' comedy aura, in that he has a very blur face and somehow all the unlucky things always happen to him; Narimiya Hiroki (Nobu from 'Nana'), pretty one-dimensional actor so far but he's gifted with the joker look and plays the part of the village idiot (fig.) all too well in both Nana and this series. Herbert gets a crack out of seeing him everytime.

Anne Suzuki as Oowada Chie

The main female lead is played by Anne Suzuki (Natsuki from 'Initial D') who looks terribly plain and homely. Everytime she appears Jay Chou's 一路向北 starts humming in my mind. Anyway she plays her role very well. If she looked too pretty all the 4 guys would be chasing after her instead.

If i have to compare myself to one of them i think i would be Enami Kouji (Oguri Shun) because i have difficulty conversing with girls i like. Sadly he grows out of it by the end of the show, i have not.

Update: Got my hands on God of War 2! I know how i'm gonna burn my free time this week at home and on Friday's duty.

Crying in The Rain

Watched finished "Be With You" yesterday morning at 3AM. Very beautiful heartwarming show. I cried alot during the last few scenes till my nose got blocked again (still not 100% recovery from the flu). The pacing of the movie (1HR58MINS long) is steadily slow but i think it's appropriate for a drama. But if it were that similiar pace for an Action movie then i would just fall asleep. The ending song is "Hana" by Orange Range(whose only other song i know is "Asterisk" from "Bleach"). Maybe it was the momentum of the movie but i also shed a few tears when i read the lyrics (translated of course) of the song during the ending credits. It really captures the feelings of the movie's main characters. I went to find the song immediately after the show ended and it's been been repeating on my PSP ever since.


Hana Single Cover - Orange Range. Nice orange peels petal.

Also went to learn more Jay Chou songs by finding 2 of his albums Still Fantasy and November's Chopin. I dislike all his R&B songs in which he raps, he has a lazy way of slurring his words that just irritates me. His ballads however are very catchy and the lyrics are pretty good as well, but i'm probably a poor judge cause i hear only a little Mandarin songs.

I was looking for this movie "Sky High (2003)" but this morning when i checked my download it was actually this "Sky High (2005)". I'm trying to find "Sky High (2003)" because i like the director Ryuhei Kitamura. He directed "Azumi" (not "Azumi 2" which sucked) starring Aya Ueto and also "Versus" which i am trying to find so i can bring to office to screen during VA. He was also involved in directing the cutscenes of the remake "Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes" for the Gamecube. To me his trademark is making low budget action flicks look good and gory. Too bad i don't see many of his DVDs for sale in Singapore. I wouldn't mind collecting his shows. For the time being i don't know what to do with "Sky High (2005)" that's on my HDD. Should i take a risk and waste one and half hour of my life to watch an American High School Comedy or just delete it? Hmm...