Happy "Noir" Year, redux

As per my new tradition (started last year), I'm about to commence Yet Another Marathon of my dearly beloved "Noir".

I can pretty much replay each episode in my head at this point, so I don't expect to uncover any previously-missed details, or gain any brilliant new insights. But that's not the point of it anymore; the point is to have fun!

And so I shall. *grin*

Whether or not I post updates along the way, or even if I can make it all the way through in one night (it's 4pm now, and it'll take me nearly 12 hours... Yikes!) will depend on a number of factors -- if by "factors" I mean "bottles of Guinness". So I'll preemptively post my New Year's best wishes to all of you now.

Luck and peace in 2006!

The week in motion (pictures)

More quickies to log:

"Shaolin Soccer" -- the predecessor to "Kung Fu Hustle", this one spoofs the kung-fu movie scene in the context of soccer. Duh. I watched the dub on my parents' "tiny" 32" screen (no surround-sound, either), and the beginning was really, really painful. I'm sure the dub was meant to be over-the-top bad, but it didn't make it any easier to sit through. However, once the zany soccer-playing action finally kicked in, it was quite amusing. It's not as all-out fun as "Kung Fu Hustle" turned out to be, but it's worth a quick watch.

"Mr. & Mrs. Smith" -- Married assassins (played by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie) who don't know that each other is an assassin. For rival organizations. Obviously, hilarity ensues. Obviously it's a light bit of fun, grafting a typical comedy "relationship" movie on top of a spy movie parody. Fun action, the dialogue wasn't a total groaner, and, frankly, Brad & Angelina were waaayyy into it (go figure), and that enthusiasm was rather infectuous. Again, it was on the "small" screen w/o any surround-sound, subwoofery goodness, but it did alright for passing the time.

"War of the Worlds" -- finally, back at my "home theater", I decided to give this one a rent, even though I usually have a "wait for cable" attitude for any film with Tom Cruise in it. Honestly, the only reason I bothered was because Blockbuster didn't have any copies of "Serenity" handy; oh well, maybe next time.

That said, it wasn't half bad. The visuals and the atmosphere really pulled off a sense of scale of the invasion. Speilberg can really pile on the details when he wants to. But there were also a number of nagging inconsistencies that tended to pull me out of the story. Usually revolving around who had "power" and who didn't after the EMP pulses took everything out. The most notable being a bunch of dormant cars on a perfectly functional ferry. And then the very end; but I won't go into that here. Minor stuff, though.

It seemed to follow what details I know about the original story a bit better than the earlier Cold-War-era classic. But I only know the equivalent of the Cliff Notes version of it, so I can't vouch for it's authenticity in the matter. But it seemed to keep a few faithfully reproduced details.

A quick rewatch

I've been rewatching a couple of things this week since I got back, but I thought I'd comment briefly about the boxset of "Haibane Renmei".

I wrapped up my observations about the series a couple of months ago, and I don't have an awful lot to add; I think that post really summed it up pretty well. Additionally, there's a poignancy and authenticity to the feelings that are expressed. The authenticity is especially strong in the revelations about Rakka's & Reiki's past; an authenticity that belies some small amount of experience in facing the subject at hand.

The best part about that is that there isn't a trite, simplistic conclusion to be drawn from it. It's simple, yes, but not simplistic. Where redemption comes from, where forgiveness comes from, and the role that "asking for help" plays; the questions aren't explicity answered, but the feelings are true and simple, and ultimately satisfactory. The narrative "facts" and trivial details are small, secondary players in comparison.

Anyway, it's a contemplative work, for sure. I probably won't need to rewatch it for a while, but I'm glad I have it for when the mood strikes me.

Ex Post Holidus

(Uh, okay, "holidus" probably isn't real Latin... And I've probably conjugated it wrong... but you know what I mean)

Just a quick rundown of the Christmas specials I managed to watch (after locating them on the Great Global VCR aka Bittorrent *grin*):

"The Boondocks: A Huey Freedman Christmas" -- a laugh-out-loud parody of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" if there ever was one, complete with a guest appearance by Quincy Jones, and a shopping-mall Santa getting smacked up the head with a chair. And, of course, some preachy elements, of which "Charlie Brown" was full of as well. All-in-all, a smart show -- not perfect, but still one of the best things on American TV right now.

The "Doctor Who" Christmas special -- speaking of American TV, this won't be found on it any time soon. This hour-long episode introduces us to the latest regeneration of the Doctor -- and a younger, smarmier regeneration at that. I'm not sure I dig it as much as the previous, but there's still hope that it'll be better television than most everything else that's on. All-in-all, the creepiest Christmas special ever.

"Robot Chicken" -- okay, yeah, they had a Christmas special too, with a "Dragonball Z" / "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" crossover. Funny stuff. I wouldn't say "brilliant", but with the shotgun approach of rapid-fire pop-culture references aimed at the 30-something demographic, I can't help but catch something to laugh at.

Missing the point entirely.

So I come home to this thread on AnimeOnDVD. And now I'm fuming angry.

If you haven't seen "MADLAX" yet, don't click that link. Because there's a huge spoiler for disc 6. I mean, the hugest of huge spoilers of one of the most brilliantly executed things in the whole shebang.

And if it was just some schmoe posting it accidentally, well, it wouldn't be a big deal, because someone could go back and wrap it in the appropriate tags. But what this turns out to be is an ADV rep posting a blurb from the official release contents of disc 6. Listing an extra that is going to be on disc 6. The title of which spoils the entire f*ing thing!!!

*sigh*

Okay, 6 hours on the highway stuck behind mo-rons who park themselves in the passing lane has me irritated enough as it is. But this... *grrrrr*

Not that you'll really notice...

...but I'm going to be taking off to my family's house for the holidays, so I won't be posting much for a while. Yeah, I know, I haven't been posting much at all lately, but I at least do on the weekends; this weekend I won't be.

But I did accumulate a bunch of quick things to log on the ol' blog, so I'll leave you off with this.

"Mushishi" ep. 8 -- Again, this one was rather bittersweet. And still extremely sedate and contemplative. And there's not an awful lot more I can say about it. I love the storytelling aspect. I love the atmosphere. There's no particular hook that gets me all obsessive about it or anything, but it's a show I like a lot and I'm glad I have the opportunity to see it. That's about it, though.

"Blood +" eps 9 & 10 -- I'm still barely clinging to this one. Like I said last time, probably out of boredom. It's completely lacking in the "soul" department, but I guess the unique storyline and the details have me curious enough to try to keep up with it. It definitely doesn't have any of the lame cliche deformations or comedy attempts, but there are plenty of other cliches and rather shallow narrative crutches (pun intended) being used, so I really, really should just drop this and stop complaining.

"NieA under 7" disc 2 -- Speaking of lame cliche deformations, if it weren't for the fact that it switches between that and rather well-composed and strong character animation, I'd give this one up already. That, and the whole thread of mystery of the world this is set in -- though that was really only hinted at in the 3rd episode. But that little hint really picques the ol' curiosity. Anyway, disc 3 has already shipped from GreenCine, so I can't drop it now if I wanted to.

"Nadia, Secret of Blue Water" disc 8 -- Oy. I mean, okay, we catch a few miscellaneous bits of backstory about Nadia's origin, and almost get a taste of the original pre-island part of the series, but geez louise, there's a lot of childish nonsense to slog through to get it. And from what I hear, the "Africa" arc that has just gotten underway is just as forgettable. That said, that next disc is shipping to me as well, so I'm pretty much commited to riding it out in hopes of finally getting to the acclaimed end-game. *sigh*

"Cowboy Bebop" disc 3 -- Ahh, that's better. Of course, this is a repeat viewing, so no surprises, but I so very much enjoy this series and every aspect about it. There's not much more I can say about it that I haven't said; probably by the last disc, I'll try to go into more detail about some things I've been thinking about with regards to how this is constructed and why it's so outstanding.

"Noein" eps 7 & 8 -- So I'm still clinging to the characters a little bit, and I'm a bit curious as to where the story's going, but this show refuses to settle on what it actually is. It flits between different styles, different artwork, and different threads in a chaotic mess. Which, seeing as it's about a bunch of alternate dimensions in a chaotic mess of a universe, is probably fitting. Doesn't make it particularly profound or anything, though; it just makes it a bit distracting and difficult to latch on to. Still, like "Blood +", I'm latched on to it for a little while still.

Finally, "Kino's Journey" disc 4 -- I finished up my rewatch, and while I'm not as existentially rattled as I was in a previous post, I'm still experiencing that somber aftertaste and, instead of pulling out any particularly hopeful bits out of it, the sadder parts are setting the overall tone for my thoughts right now. Which is a shame seeing as I'm about to embark on a trip back home, but I suppose it was to be expected, seeing as I knew what was going to happen going into it.

Well, anyway, have a great holiday, everyone. I'll be back before New Year's, which, like I think I've mentioned, will be the continuation of my new tradition: "Noir" Year's Eve. Hooray!

The "Bored" Identity

When I first showed a few episodes of "Noir" to my little brother -- including the "Intoccoble" double-feature -- he said, "Oh, 'Bourne Identity'".

Which was totally wrong, of course. "Noir" aired in 2001; the "Bourne Identity" showed up in 2002. And the only thing in common was the "skilled assasin w/o a memory", Paris, and the whole shooting-someone-while-diving-down-a-staircase moment. OK, the coincidence factor is pretty high, but since "Noir" came first, it's rather obvious who stole what from who.

At any rate, the film was kind of "yeah, whatever", as far as I was concerned. It did reinforce the whole "I want to go to Paris" thing I've been thinking about ever since seeing "Noir", but beyond that, it's just Matt Damon and a chick faking a Swiss-German accent and pretending to be in some sort of intrigue. If by intrigue you mean car chases.

Now I want to see "Noir" again. That'll have to wait until "Noir" Year's Eve, which isn't long from now. I can't wait. But this movie really didn't measure up to that in the slightest. I didn't really expect it would, but based on the reaction of my little brother and others, I figured I'd better confirm it one way or another.

Didn't suck as bad as the others...

I just finished "Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith". And, despite my figuring that it would suck like no other suck... It didn't quite suck.

Well good for it!

Towards the beginning, I was crafting a snarky comment about how my attraction to "attention to detail" really failed me for once. This show has it in spades, obviously enough. With enough cash thrown at it, anything can have an extraordinary level of detail applied to it. And the beginning sequence with the gigantic epic space battle and all that really did feel empty and, well, over-detailed.

But after a while, despite Hayden Christensen's sub-Hamill histrionics, I still found myself sucked into the story a little bit. A bit of me was still detached and cynical about the whole thing. But the obvious "this is a videogame tie-in", "this is a toy-sales gimmick" feeling that the first two installments of this Lucas-driven prequel pomposity oozed just seemed to be absent this time. It's almost like everyone did a "lessons-learned" meeting and tried to actually make a movie instead of a marketing event.

That said, with all the Joseph Campbell lectures I've been watching lately, all the plot-points here seem totally manufactured and a little less genuine than the first two installements. (And I mean the very first two, now known as "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back"). Campbell had a lot to say about the original, and Lucas definitely drew from that fountain of knowledge (along with Akira Kurosawa's parallel implementations) at the time. This time around, it's more like a post-modern deconstructionist interpretation of what made that so resonant with an entire generation of filmgoer. You could actually see the obvious plot-points resolve themselves around a Campbell-esque thesis -- "the protaganist reaches this point, and finds himself compelled to pursue this conclusion". Yeah, okay, we get it. Learn to write, already.

But like I said, it didn't entirely suck. The only dissappointment is that the whole prequel trilogy didn't live up to the expectation of some sort of grand transcendent epic fantasy that the first 3 (yeah, even "Jedi" to an extent) tapped in to. It's like everybody involved -- especially Lucas -- missed the point and went for the formula instead. In the case of "Sith", the formula mostly worked. It's only the loss of what could have been something truly spectacular which overshadows it overall.

The end of "Escaflowne"

Okay, I managed to finish up this series with disc 8. And I really don't have a lot to say about it, I suppose.

It's definitely a "girl's series" in a lot of ways, but that's most evident in the eyes and expressions of the various characters. An interesting point of study for me, but not really something that grabbed me at more than an observational level.

I liked the storytelling overall, and the characters and animation quality delivered that extra bit of "spark" I like, so that kept me with it despite the long gaps between short episode-count discs. But all-in-all, I don't feel the need to ever watch it again, thus I don't have any desire to buy it. It's still one of the few series that stands out above the majority, but it's not something that goes further than that for me.

In other anime-related watching activities, I finished my re-rewatch of "MADLAX" disc 5, and posted my observations over on Bee Train Fan. Besides what I said over there, I'm brewing another one of my "crackpot theories", but I really need to see the next disc to shape that one out a little. But a sneak-peek hint: it involves Friday Monday and Margaret's father.

I also rewatched disc 3 of "Kino's Journey". It has my favorite episode -- though they're all superb, this is the one I enjoyed the most -- the first one on the disc with the young lady who builds a flying machine. Her character is completely enthralling to me. That, and Kino's summation of wonder at the end: "It flies!". Fine stuff.

It also has what is probably the most mind-twisting (but in a good way) episode of the series -- the second one with the Library. And the Author. The stories fold into each other, and carry on a whole meta-discussion about books and creation and experiencing them, and make you question the "universe" of the entire series. The line that struck a chord, though? The one where the Author describes the confusion between the characters and the readers, and the solution to that conflict: become the Author.

Ahhh.

My brain is temporarily down, as well...

...or so it would seem.

I could blame it on a lot of things: the gray, cold, dark onset of winter, the chaos and stress of the holiday season, the last-minute end-of-year rush at work. Or abject laziness.

One way or another, it comes down to not having a lot that is worthy to report in blog form. The holidays seem to mess up the mail enough to break my GreenCine rhythm, so my progress in the series I get from there is stalled. With the few fansubs I still watch, barely any of them have been released of late. On TV, it's pretty much "The Boondocks", "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" -- all of which are going along fine, but aren't really worthy of posting about in and of themselves on a regular basis.

I've still got a stack of movies in my collection that I haven't watched yet, as well as a number that I wouldn't mind rewatching at some point, but I haven't been in the mood to make that kind of commitment.

And the Bee Train Fan site? I'm still waiting for long-promised enhancements to put the final touches on the environment that will let me pull everything together the way I envision it. Unfortunately, that means everyone is just kind of hanging around and waiting, too. Which makes it look kind of dusty in there.

At any rate, expect posting to be a bit sporadic from me, like it's been whenever I get into one of these "moods". And speaking of "mood", I'd better get back to work. *sigh*

BeeTrainFan.org temporarily down.

Looks like my webhost is getting slammed with a massive DDOS attack. Everything's pretty much ground to a halt there. *sigh*

Well, since the site's a little slow right now anyhow, I suppose the wait isn't going to hurt anyone.

Good thing the hosting plan was dirt cheap, though!

And then the non-"MADLAX" anime of the weekend...

...which is to say, not very much.

"Escaflowne" disc 7 -- Again, only 3 episodes on this disc, so it went by rather quickly. The story is still hanging in there, building up to the end. But I really can't think of anything to say about it one way or another. Part of it may be due to my usual "post-MADLAX syndrome", and part may just be that I want to get this over with. And I'm almost there.

"Mezzo Forte" -- The edited version, of course. I'm not sure why I bothered with this one; I guess it showed up in one of the ubiquitous "girls with guns" recommendation threads on the AnimeOnDVD forum, so I decided to include it in my quest. And, while it was kind of clever and a tiny bit amusing, it was also kind of lame. I really couldn't get into it. Especially so soon after watching "MADLAX". *sigh*

"Uninhabited Planet: Survive" episode 23 -- with an episode released every, what? 2 months now? -- I have a harder time wanting to stick with this kids' show. The story and situation and characters were all interesting at first, but it's gotten a bit to cloying for me I think. A decent dubbed version would probably make a great series for pre-teen kids, but I think my interest in it has dried up. That said, by the next time an episode gets released happens, I'll probably find myself curious and will probably download it again. Such is life.

Finally, due to my "MADLAX"-induced malaise, I'm in the middle of rewatching disc 5 right now. It's going to be a while until I watch it again (yes, yes, we all know: "freakin' February"!), so I figured it would be just the thing on a cold snowy night.

So I guess this isn't an entirely "non-MADLAX" post after all... Go figure.

Quick movie rundown

As a post-"MADLAX" break, I watched a couple of movies I had on the DVR.

"Logan's Run" -- the cheesy old time-capsule of a sci-fi classic itself. This time in a new hi-def transfer. I never really watched it all the way through before, and to be honest, I didn't really watch it all the way through this time either. I mean, I saw the beginning, and I saw the ending, but in between I wandered away a few times. Even though I had it on the DVR and could pause or resume at will. It's quaint, rather unintentionally funny in a "Mystery Science Theatre" kind of way, and it's really, really dated. So I guess I give it a "meh".

"Shakespeare in Love" -- I guess I was in a bit of a Gwenyth Paltrow mood this afternoon, so I finally forced myself to sit through this. I kind of lose patience with romantic films in general, but this had enough of an amusing twist to it to get me through some of the eye-rolling parts. And, of course, Gwenyth Paltrow. Heh. Pretty good attention to detail and atmosphere, and the characters were all rather good (except stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb Ben Affleck), so it wasn't a total waste of time in any way. But apparently my English Literature knowledge is even more lacking than I realized, because there were a lot of in-jokes that, while obvious that they were in-jokes, I didn't get the ultimate reference. Oh well.

Yeah, baybee

So it's been a very, very long time since I commented on "MADLAX" episode 20. And even then, I didn't have much to say besides the fact that the continuing episodes were delayed another two weeks from that point.

Rewatching the official R1 DVDs, disc 5 coincidentally ends at exactly the same time as that little gap from last year, which only brings back the memories of when such a delay made "MADLAX" all the more anticipatory.

The difference this time being, of course, that it will be freakin' February before we get to move into the total "pwnership" phase of the series. It really does turn all sorts of awesome starting with the next episode -- but the end of this disc makes it a little difficult to discern that.

Which is too bad overall, but I hope it results in more attention to "MADLAX" in the long run, because that's a title that I'm sure you can milk for years to come.



(EDIT: fixed a ton of spelling/typing/drunken-ranting errors. But this post is still a tad incomprehensable... Yikes!)

Oh for crying out loud!

Okay, I haven't quite started disc 5 yet, but I thought I'd check the latest "Conversations with SSS" extra. With disc 4, I said that it's time that they put that stupid piece of s* to bed finally and just cut it out. (Well, not in so many words.)

I guess they didn't get my message.

Funny, though, that way back then I noticed stuff that I hadn't noticed before. And this time, much of the same. I can't wait for future discs to find out just what I've been missing. Of course, that will be freakin' Feburary before that happens. *sigh*

Anyway, on to disc 5! For real! Huzzah!

Mr. F*ing detail-oriented...

...so I missed a few details in the earlier "MADLAX" discs...

I started tonight's mini-marathon with disc 3, and a couple of things leapt out at me that, out of all the times I've seen these episodes before, I never quite noticed.

At the beginning of episode 9, Madlax meets up with Luciano in the construction crane, with the blinking red light. For some reason, I kept thinking that it was at Madlax's apartment. The blinking red light, though... Watch it closely, and you'll see what it stands for. Never noticed it before.

Then there's the whole deal about just who hired Luciano to knock off Carrousuer at the hotel in the first place. I never quite thought about it before, but, dangit, it was Kuanjitta!! Just watch the whole end sequence of that episode; the whole business of "a light has gone out" or whatever the heck that was.

(Of course, later on, Kuanjitta seems a bit surprised about Carrousuer's identity as someone who has "the gift"... it doesn't quite fit. But after the event itself, it's pretty obvious who did it. Just watch and see.)

There was one more thing in episode 10 that led me to interrupt my little marathon here, but I can't remember. Oh well. I guess I'll have to share my insight next time. But I seem to remember that it was quite a startlingly interesting factoid. Oh well...

Now it's time to finally, finally start disc 5. Hooray!

Next Satoshi Kon project: "Paprika"

Just saw that bit on ANN.


Anime News Service has a few more details:

The next film project for Director Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers) will be an animated feature adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui's 1993 book Paprika. The author is known as a modern master of metafiction in Japan and many of his works are often said to warp the minds of readers, being heavily rooted in linguistic tricks and word play. For Paprika the story centers on a female detective who investigates criminal cases by entering the dreams of subjects. Script will be co-written by Seishi Minakami (Paranoia Agent / Boogiepop Phantom) and Satoshi Kon, Character Designs come courtesy Mashi Ando (Paranoia Agent, Spirited Away), Susumu Hirasawa (Berserk) will compose the music. Madhouse will produce the animation. The film is currently scheduled for release sometime in 2006.

I'm there!

Warm-up

In anticipation of tonight's mini-"MADLAX"-a-thon culminating in the premeire of disc 5, I'm listening to my old Yuki Kajiura OST mix, which I haven't fired up in a while.

Damn, the association between those songs and the imagery in the series themselves is powerful! I've said before, and I'll say again, if I heard any of these songs without ever having heard of "Noir" or "MADLAX", I probably would have said "that's nice" and written them off as some sort of "Hearts of Space" generic New Age, and gone back to my lounge-pop and ska. It's the emotional link to the moments and total experience that makes them something more to me now.

"I'm a ramblin' man"

Restarting "Kino's Journey" last weekend had me thinking about travelling -- it's kind of obvious that I need a vacation, I think -- but a lot of my hesitancy comes down to "where do I go?" and "what will I do there?" Short trips (a week or less is all I can manage to get away for) by myself wind up being a bit pointless. Sitting on the beach, or wandering around some city, drinking in pubs; that's all well and good, but I can do that sort of thing here if I'm just going to do it alone. I keep thinking I'd at least need some sort of purpose to occupy my time at that destination. And then I put it out of my mind and went back to work.

Then I watched the latest sub of "Mushishi", and it got into a little dialogue about travelling and purpose, versus "flow". As in "going with the..." So now I'm thinking wistfully about it again. But a week or less is too short a time, I think. At least, too short a time to really get any meaningful value out of it, as it takes me a while to get my "flow" ramped up, as it were.

And I'm really not ready to ditch everything and pack up a motorcycle and wander around on my mid-life-crisis-inspired quest to find myself. As epic and classic such a quest as it would be, or so says Joseph Campbell in his "Mythos" lectures that I've been watching lately.

But I do find myself thinking about that a bit of late. Particularly if you replace "motorcycle" with "sailboat". Of course, then I wind up flashing back to that Geraldo Rivera "I sailed around the world" special from some years ago. *cringe*

Anyway, that was a really meditative episode of "Mushishi", and a simple one at that.

Oh, I also caught the recent subs of "Blood+" and "Noein" as well; I just couldn't quite bring myself to drop them yet. "Blood+" kind-of sort-of held my interest a little because the scenery and situation changed and that made me curious, but it's really lacking depth when you get right down to it. But since it's not totally immature, I seem loathe to actually admit defeat and get rid of it. And with "Noein", there too was a drastic change of scenery, and maybe even an inkling of what the story actually is about -- because it really didn't seem to be getting anywhere before. The art style is still all over the place, but there's just enough of a spark of life going on there that's keeping me hanging on.

"Tsubasa Chronicle" licensed by Funimation?

While it's not confirmed, all evidence points to it being true: "Tsubasa Chronicle" has been licensed.

I pretty much expected it would happen at some point, as it's a hot title in manga-land. Still, I guess I was holding out some hope that I'd actually get to see the 2nd and possible 3rd seasons sometime before I turned 40. That, and I get the feeling there'll be a lack of Bee Train titles to watch fansubs of. Well, besides the "Meine Liebe" sequel. It's just not the same... *sigh*

Holy Guacamole!

A total shock and surprise, but my copy of "MADLAX" disc 5 showed up in my mailbox today!!

It's not supposed to be out until next Tuesday, I believe, and I thought the mail would take a little while longer since it just shipped on Friday.

Wow!

Yet, seeing as I want to make an event* out of watching it, I think I still might not do so until the weekend. Hrrmm.




(* and by "event" I mean, of course: "marathon and beer")

Nothing new...

I've had a touch of insomnia lately for various reasons, which has the combined effect of putting me in an irritable and impatient mood, and making me feel rather fatigued. So I haven't tried to watch anything new this weekend. To try and pick myself up a little, I tried to rewatch a bit of "Kino's Journey", but I couldn't really get in to it.

Oh well, by next weekend, I should hopefully have the next "MADLAX" disc, so that should cheer me up. In the mean time, I think I'll try to take a nap...

Quick fansub update

Just after I posted my quickie-update, I found out that "Mushishi" 6 and "Monster" 67 were released, so I snagged those and watched 'em last night.

"Mushishi" is still rolling along atmospherically. Very bittersweet with this particular one, but really, you have to see it. I can't really describe it.

"Monster", well, what can I say? A big revelation -- though, really, I think everyone figured that out already -- and basically the set-up for the "final arc". The rush to the end. The crazy conclusion. Yay! Can't wait.

Hooray!

"MADLAX" disc 5 has shipped!!

Now if it will only show up on time...