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Amish Otaku, DC, Features, Movies

Bat-mania: Batman Begins

Guest Post

While I have already declared my devotion to Tim Burton’s Batman, it was not that movie that specifically recharged my Bat-mania; it was my most recent viewing of Batman Begins, not any of the others, not even my initial screening. I don’t remember much during my first viewing of Begins, but I still enjoyed it the first time around.

Subsequent viewings afterwards had me not so thrilled, however. As the ingredient list on your box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, the following is in order of most important to least. I saw Christian Bale as a Botox faced Jon Favreau. I hated the “Super Duty” Batmobile (as one of my friends accurately described it), aka the Tumbler. I hated the cowl which had as many surfaces as a soccer ball. I did like the costume other than that. The wide yellow-less bat insignia was nice. The gauntlets serving a function was great. Cillian Murphy was incredible as the Scarecrow, while Katie Holmes was terrible. Michael Caine was perfectly cast as Alfred and who can ever argue with the great Morgan Freeman as the perennial voice of wisdom, this time in the form of Lucius Fox. Lest we not forget Liam Neesom as a mythical and powerful Ra’s Al Ghul. Despite all of the decent to great performances, my favorite was Gary Oldman who not only looked like he jumped straight off the newsstand, but played a receptive and skeptical Jim Gordon. However, the train wreck ending capping off all of the generally good acting was stupid the first time and satisfactorily chaotic for this last time. Continue reading “Bat-mania: Batman Begins”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Viper

Vendor

Ten years after the outbreak of Moss, humanity is pushed to the fringes in a struggle to stay a step ahead of a virulent pathogen that’s only lethal to humans. There is no cure for Moss, the only thing that can be done to stop the spread of the disease is to remove the infected limb. This is the world of John J. Vendor and he makes his living selling body parts back to the living.

Vendor, published by Viper Comics, is the first project from Keven Abrams and Adam Moore’s Fairtrade Films company. The company’s name gives away their professional background in the movie and television industries but both have backgrounds in scriptwriting and editing, both of which are vital skills for the “direction” of a graphic novel. Couple their professional writing and business experience with Nicc Balce’s art (more on him later) and you’ve got the potential for great comic.

Vendor himself is a very interesting character. He walks around with a box full of body parts wearing a trench coat that’s missing one sleeve. This arm he leaves bare in case he needs to cut it off and replace it with one more suited to his needs. He runs his business under the guise of a dating service and he also has a sort of death-sense which allows him to find the dying and buy their limbs from them. It’s a handy gift for someone who deals in both life and death. Continue reading “Vendor”

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Amish Otaku, Anime, Production IG

Real Drive: The Sea is Burning

If Shirow Masamune and Production IG continue to release their high quality animes, then I hope their love affair never ends. The latest project between these two anime icons abandons the contemporary setting of Ghost Hound and leaps more than 50 years into the future. Masamune-san hasn’t created as dark and cyber-punked a world as in Ghost in the Shell but RD Sennou Chosashitsu (Real Drive) still has plenty of plenty of flashy technology and the story is grounded in Masamune-san’s image of the future of the Internet.

So far the story is mostly about Minamo – a teen aged high school girl – and Haru – an old man who recently awoke from a 50 year coma. While the setup does seem a bit lecherous the relationship between Minamo and Haru is strictly platonic. Minamo has come to help take care of Haru as part of an internship at the request of Haru’s assistant, Holon.

Haru was once one of the best free divers in the world who was working with his friend and partner Eichiro Kushima studying undersea aberrations. During one of the dives something goes wrong. Haru remarks that the sea is burning and all hell breaks loose. Continue reading “Real Drive: The Sea is Burning”

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Amish Otaku, PS2, Video Games

Gungrave: Overdose–High On Fun

Guest Post

Gungrave: Overdose is the sequel to Yashiro Nightow’s 2002 frentic shoot ’em up featuring the resurrected mob enforcer Brandon Heat, a.k.a. Beyond The Grave. The people at Red Entertainment must have paid very close attention to the reviews and feedback received from the original Gungrave, because almost every element has been improved in Overdose, giving the sequel a more complete and, most importantly, a more fun experience.

One major improvement comes from the overall storyline, something the the previous game had very little of. This time he gamer does not have to piece things together from different Wikipedia entries or wait for the anime to come out since the plot unfolds masterfully through cut-scenes and in-game dialog. The events of Overdose take place three years after the fall of the Millenion criminal empire. Mika Asagi and her plucky young sidekick, Spike, reawaken Grave to stamp out the remants of Seed, the super-drug that turns it’s users into deformed killing machines. Aiding them in their search are two new playable characters: the (literally) hot-headed swordsman Juji Kabane and the ghostly rock star, Rocketbilly Redcadillac. The story is something that the player can easily get wrapped up in since there are so many twists and so much character development as the game goes on.

The game is very easy to pick up, whether you have never played it or have left it on the shelf for a while. That is not saying that it is easy to beat (that’s probably the reason it was laying on your shelf). Even if most of the enemies do not require too much strategy to beat, they usually come in packs and have an insane bloodlust. Luckily you have a variety of ways to get through them, unlike in the first game which was basically just shoot and dodge.

Continue reading “Gungrave: Overdose–High On Fun”
William Hall2 Comments
Amish Otaku, Comics, DC, Features, Movies

Bat-mania: Batman

Guest Post

“Decent people shouldn’t live here. They’d be happier some place else,” deadpans Jack Napier (the great Jack Nicholson) when District Attorney Harvey Dent comments on making the streets of Gotham safer and a quote that summarizes the plight of the Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 classic of the same name.

It is true that I have seen ittoo many times to count. It was one of my favorite movies when I was a little kid and my beat to Hades VHS copy somehow still has some life in it. I have most of the lines memorized to the point where they taste like McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets after you’ve eaten your 25th one in a single sitting which is essentially like dirty rubber.

Ah hah! Dirty Rubber! Just like the Michael Keaton Batsuit which in retrospect seems a little silly, on paper at least, compared to verbally advanced Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale model, which brings an intriguing question: which was the better Batman film? Batman Begins or Batman? My brother challenged me to watch them back to back. And thus was born the first official installment of Bat-Mania, in which I will try my best to provide the readers with a review of something Batman related every week until the release of the Dark Knight on July 18th. Continue reading “Bat-mania: Batman”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, Viper

Wulf and Batsy: We Have No Home

Josh Howard's issue #1 cover

Wulf and Batsy is a new black and white series written and illustrated by Bryan Baugh and published by Viper Comics. Baugh has an interesting resume grounded in animation. In his words: “During the day I work for Disney Animation, where I make a living as a storyboard artist, on a new Winnie the Poohanimated TV series. But then I come home at night and draw horror comics, which have monsters and blood and half naked girls in them.”

The story follows Wulf – a.k.a. Cevin – and his vampire “ladyfriend” Batsy. Cevin and Batsy are itinerant, wandering from town to town, looking for some place to call home. When they get to the village of Eppworth Ruddy they hope for a place to settle down, but when a young shepherd woman interrupts Wulf feeding on her father’s flock Batsy intervenes to save the young woman’s life then puts her to sleep to facilitate their exit.

The next day Batsy sleeps while Cevin explores the town. By explore of course I mean slink into the local brothel. And where else would the local shepherd maiden run to first when she woke up but the brothel to let everyone who’s anyone know about this latest monster infestation. I’m not sure if Baugh is trying to be tongue in cheek or if these types of things are merely unintentional incongruities. Either way it’s amusing. Continue reading “Wulf and Batsy: We Have No Home”

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Amish Otaku, Eastern Culture, Features

Eastern Culture: Japanese Holidays

Guest Post

There are plenty of holidays that the United States and Japan share. Buuuut, there are also plenty of holidays unique to Japan, and that’s what interests me. What are these holidays and why do the Japanese have them?

If you haven’t been able to figure out from all the anime you’ve watch over the past ten years, Japanese culture is workaholic. You know how some Americans work 80 hours a week and never have time for family or friends or anything besides working? Well, the whole Japanese culture is like that. Over there, when you’re in business, you’re in business, and if you’re not… you might be a slacker. Continue reading “Eastern Culture: Japanese Holidays”

Viannah Duncan
Amish Otaku, Features, Video Games

Non-Gaming: The State of Play

Non-games are not new to video gamers. Nintendo’s Mario Paint was an early innovator that can still be seen in YouTube videos. The now-defunct GameTek released a series of titles for the original Game Boy in 1991. From DS Fanboy: “[the series] included French and Spanish dictionaries, a personal organizer, a travel guide, and a spell checker/calculator. Not a dictionary – a spell checker.”

It’s not surprising that these games didn’t sell well and also didn’t do much to expand the non-game market anywhere. More than 10 years later, though, the descendants of the original Game Boy – the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP – have realized the early promise and potential of non-games with their greatly increased power and portability. Continue reading “Non-Gaming: The State of Play”

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Amish Otaku, Convention Coverage, Features

Animazement 2008

The Monarch's Henchmen

Animazement 2008 happened this past Memorial Day weekend – May 23 through 25 – at the Sheraton Imperial in Durham, North Carolina.

Since this was my first anime convention experience I don’t have anything to compare it to. It’s a sea of fans, some dressed in costume and others in street clothes. The lobby and grounds of the Sheraton were literally overrun with otaku for most of the weekend.

Looking at people is one of the big draws of any convention and Animazement ensured there were plenty of safe outlets to get your gawking done. The cosplay talent show is the most visible event of this type but other events like the Loli fashion show gave more outlets for people to show off their costumes and craftsmanship, as well as be seen. Continue reading “Animazement 2008”

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Amish Otaku, Comics, DC

Bat-mania: Batman: The Dailies 1943-1946

Guest Post

From rich-guy superheroes to black and white dailies, this collection fits in thematically with my AO work from the past month. There is one difference, however. Unlike Iron Man and the Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy this is not a must see, except for the die-hard Batman fan due to the historical significance of being the largest body of work that Batman creator Bob Kane penciled solo. The stories are near 100% camp and it is clear that the creators were writing only to kids and from that aspect the stories cannot be faulted completely.

This collection also has the first references to the Bat Cave by name, the great, spectacular, first appearance of the Joker and loads of cruising in the Batmobile and Batplane, the former of which – honestly – looks ridiculous in the initial incarnation while the Batplane looks wicked. Other than that, the stories are generally predictable and not good. Joker’s nickname for Robin, “Boy Hostage,” a grim term that would become serious when the Clown Prince kills the ward (actually Robin II) in the dramatic 1990’s Batman: A Death in the Family storyline, has never been truer. Robin always gets knocked out and captured. I realize that the addition of Robin was for kids to connect with someone their own age and imaginatively tag along with the Batman, but what fun is imagining yourself getting ensnared by crazed villains every other day? Continue reading “Bat-mania: Batman: The Dailies 1943-1946”

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