日本の旅行カウンダウンは始まるぞ！

Forgive my reusing of old Tokyo pictures. There are a few reasons though. Firstly, we're really excited because it's just 6 more weeks to go before we embark on our yearly Japan trip. I've decided that we should try and visit Japan yearly, and we're even thinking of our trip to Hokkaido in 2008. Second reason and more importantly, is that we're running out of new photos.... Haven't been that camera trigger happy recently.

I bought the DVD version of the recently released Spider-man 3 movie. It came along with a A1 sized poster, so I'm thinking of where to place it. Anyway, I watched the movie all over again, and some how..... I'm gettting pissed about it all over again, and with that comes another ranting and bitching session here. I'm a big Spidey fan and I loved the sequel a few years back. I'm not going to say much, but I had some hopes for the DVD release, and was praying that they're put in some of the deleted scenes which we saw in some of the trailers and tv-spots. Here's 3 of my biggest complaints and why I'm disappointed with the movie.

1. When Peter wore the black suit and turned defeated Sandman, he felt something wrong with him, and when he looked into the mirror, he was shocked by something. In the Tv-spots, it was revealed that he saw Venom in the mirror reflections. This, to my dismay, was taken out from the final cut of the movie. I thought that this was a bad move, and have no idea why the producers did it. Probably they wanted Venom to be a "surprise" and not spoil the viewers. I thought the other way round. The viewers need to see Peter realising that Venom was growing within him. That's why he took off the suit. Thus, when Brock would eventually become Venom, Peter would be shocked to realised that HE created Venom, and the thing he feared the most became a reality. But the lack of this particular scene meant that Peter has never seen Venom before, and the impact of meeting Venom within Brock is significantly reduced. This alone is my biggest rant of the entire movie.

2. Why did Peter go to the church? To get a religion? After being rejected by MJ and realising that he's not who he used to be, he puts on his black costume and goes to a church? Doesn't make much sense to me. After all, he has been taking off his suit everyday..... right? Can't he try to take off his suit at home first? Why a church? And Brock's at the same place at the same time too. The pacing in the movie doesn't make sense at this point. In the Spider-man animated series, Spidey realised that the symbiote was taking over him, because he nearly killed the Rhino. He understood that the symbiote was alive, and was preventing him from taking it off. That's why he headed to the church, after learning that the symbiote was weak against sound and ultrasonic waves. A better explaination in the movie would have been much better, for example Spidey ignoring the lives of some innocent civilians or almost killing some lowly thugs.

3) Venom again. He should have been handled more properly. I don't mind Topher Grace being Venom. I just wanted Venom to say to Spidey: "Do you remember what you did to US?" The symbiote needed to show its own personality, which was totally lacking in the show. I can go on and on, but I guess nothing's going to change, and that perhaps no Spider-man 4 is good news.

Tales from Earthsea (ゲド戦記, Gedo Senki, loosely Ged's War Chronicles) is a feature anime film from Studio Ghibli, released in Japan on July 29, 2006, to be distributed in the USA by Walt Disney Pictures and in Australia by Madman Entertainment. It was directed by first-timer Gorō Miyazaki, son of Hayao Miyazaki. The movie is loosely based on a combination of plots and characters from the third and fourth books of the Earthsea series. I've just bought this DVD along with Spidey 3, and I think I enjoyed this better. At least it was less aggravating to sit through. The show shares a few similarities with Spirited Away. What's up with real names and dragons disguised as humans? Anyway, I felt that the previous Ghibli films were better, as this one didn't really leave a very deep impression. Could be one of the reasons why Hayao Miyazaki initially didn't want approve of his son, Goro Miyazaki to direct this project. For more information about this Ghibli produced movie, you can check out this site.

I've started reading the Claymore manga, after I learned that the anime is ending in 2 episodes time and that since the manga is yet to be completed, the anime is getting its own exclusive ending. I've read most of the manga up till the point where the anime starts to diverge, and I'll be holding off the rest because I'm afraid of spoiling what ever's coming up next in the anime. So far, me and Mabel are really enjoying the series, and although she's a few epsiodes behind me she's going to catch up once the series completes. She's the type who rather watches 10 episodes at one go then just 1 per week. I'd rather do the same, but the anime ends with a cliff hanger every week so it's hard to resist some times..... I've been looking for the English translated manga, and I've only found a few issues at Kinokuniya. For those who know where I can get the volumes from the first onwards, do leave me a message..... thanks~

Asami Konno rejoined the Hello Project Gatas team after almost a year of absence to participate in its debut single "Narihajimeta Koi no Bell"; it is still unknown whether she will join the team to play futsal again. Ongaku Gatas (音楽ガッタス) is a spin off shuffle group which consists of some of the more popular Gatas team members. They include: 吉澤　ひとみ, 石川　梨華, 里田　まい, 紺野　あさ美, 是永　美記, 能登　有沙, 真野　恵里菜, 仙石　みなみ, 澤田　由梨, 武藤　水華 (ハロプロエッグ). It's good to see ex-morning musume members Yoshizawa Hitomi, Konno Asami and Ishikawa Rika together again, but I can't say much for the rest of the never been seen before faces, from Hello Project Eggs. The single is more or less a scheme to cash in on the Gatas popularity. But still, the single sounds good and is catchy, although the chorus part with the "ahhh" can get a little annoying. Here's the PV, so enjoy!

Ultraseven X (ウルトラセブンＸ) is the 21st entry in the Tsuburaya Productions' long-running Ultra Series. It is a revival and 40th Anniversary series of the 1967 classic Ultra Seven, and will be the first in Tsuburaya Productions' Ultra hero series to be produced for an adult audience. The show is scheduled to air from October 5, 2007 at midnight. The targeted demographic is also changing for the new show. For the majority of the series run over the last four decades, the shows have been designed as either afternoon family programming or early morning kids shows. The first major change occured during Tsuburaya’s Ultra N Project, where ULTRAMAN NEXUS had been designed as a prime-time series, but eventually aired early Saturday mornings once the network got cold feet. While the film makers say ULTRAMAN NEXUS was eventually made for both an adult and child audience, ULTRASEVEN X is being produced for adults alone and will be broadcast from midnight. This follows a growing trend of late-night special effects programming in Japan, such as GARO , SH15UYA and LION MARU G. I'm not a fan of the new Seven, and he feels more like the original Seven on steroids. I'd rather they design a new hero, similar to Ultra Seven 21. Anyway, the series begins next month so we're see how it fares soon. The 5th (perhaps last) Gekiranger finally appears in the series. No, it's not Geki White, but Geki Chopper. Kinda dumb for a name, but he looks kinda cool. Using a Rhino motif, Geki Chopper uses Karate as his preferred kind of Martial Arts. Similiar to Geki Violet, who uses the Muay Thai style. Not much is known currently, but I'll be posting up videos of his debut fight pretty soon.

The 5 members of Jyuken Sentai: Gekirangers. Will there be more members? The previous few series introduced side characters, so I'm wondering if this series will do the same. After all, there are still a few human characters from the opposing side, which still have a chance of defecting (like in the movie).

The Masked Rider: The NEXT website has been updated with a new introduction to the characters slated to appear in the movie. They include the Shocker Riders, along with the 2 main villians, Scissors Jaguar and Chainsaw Lizard. Yes, 2 more dumb names from the world of Tokusatsu. They look fairly decent though, and also better than those from the first movie. Do check out the website, and check out the link to the trailer if you haven't done so already.

While I await for the release of the Den-O and Gekiranger movies, I'm also stocking up on cash for the purchase of the figures. Haven' been spending anything on my collection of late, so I figure I have a hell of a backlog to settle once I start buying the figures. Well, it's good to save up anyway. Till the next post, ja~