SUMMARY – a 10-year-old Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi) and her parents (Takashi Naitô, Yasuko Sawaguchi) stumble upon a seemingly abandoned amusement park. After her mother and father are turned into giant pigs, Chihiro meets the mysterious Haku (Miyu Irino), who explains that the park is a resort for supernatural beings who need a break from their time spent in the earthly realm, and that she must work there to free herself and her parents.
REVIEW – For me it is the best animated feature film by the great Hayao Miyazaki, I watched it when I was a little boy and as I got older I rewatched it many times over, It’s story is a timeless classic. One I could appreciate when I’m older and even when I was a kid, if I ever have kids I would love for them to see this film and learn something while they’re growing up. I highly recommend this movie, go and see it whenever you can.
Now let’s talk about the animation, it was made traditionally as Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki always prefers to do things the old way, with his later films using CGI as a tool like a pen, not replacing the traditionally animated movie but using it just to enhance some visuals. That I can appreciate fully..
My conclusion is that Spirited Away is a movie about growing up and facing the present, and the thing I can appreciate about what Miyazaki said about female protagonists in his movies is that girls are just as capable of boys if put in the same situation… This movie holds a special place in my heart and I will never get tired of watching it again…..
Initial Release Date – 3 April 1998 – 26 June 1998
Number Of Episodes – S1 26 episodes
Pros – Fantastic Animation, Stellar Soundtrack, Deep Narrative
Cons – Few Terrible Episodes
SUMMARY – In the year 2071, the Solar System is linked by a network of hyperspace gateways. Police lose their grasp on crime and a bounty hunting system has been implemented. On an old fishing starship called the “Bebop,” a cool as Zen man of mystery, a macho former hard-boiled cop, a brash and fickle woman with a large debt, a whimsical whiz kid hacker and an unsuspecting Welsh Corgi band together to hunt bounty heads for a meager living. Unfortunately, they are some of the unluckiest people in the star system. These are the stories of the adventurous (and misadventurous) lives of four struggling people and a dog.
REVIEW – Where do I start, this show is one of the best tv shows out there, the characters, the plot, the animation and soundtrack, each episode is a story of its own and some are connected but most of the episodes are self contained and has a specific thing it tells. It is what separates it from other shows, each episode has different sessions and always kind of trying to tell you something about the human condition, it’s topics can vary things like loneliness, love, solitude, regrets, sorrow and many more. You could relate in some episodes if you’ve experienced living it can tell it very well in some of the episodes. Now let’s get into the voice acting, I only watched the english dub cause I’ve heard that it is one of the best voice acted animes out there, the characters feel real and exist with the way they portrayed them and each character is well written and have depth to them each trying to find something… Something real and genuine, searching in the endless void of pain in life, something in their pasts that hold them back that feels real to me, This is a personal recommendation from me, it helped me through a tough time in my life and learned something in the search of something real and genuine……
Final Cut Release Date – September 5, 2017 on Blu-Ray
Pros – Fantastic Cinematography, Deep Narrative, Cult Classic
Cons – Some Tedious Parts
SUMMARY – In the early twenty-first century, the Tyrell Corporation, during what was called the Nexus phase, developed robots, called replicants, that were supposed to aid society, the replicants which looked and acted like humans. When the superhuman generation Nexus 6 replicants, used for dangerous off-Earth endeavors, began a mutiny on an off-Earth colony, replicants became illegal on Earth. Police units called blade runners have the job of destroying – or in their parlance retiring – any replicant that makes its way back to or created on Earth, with anyone convicted of aiding or assisting a replicant being sentenced to death. It’s now November, 2019 in Los Angeles. Rick Deckard, a former blade runner, is called out of retirement when four known replicants, most combat models, have made their way back to Earth, with their leader being Roy Batty. One, Leon, tried to infiltrate his way into the Tyrell Corporation as an employee, but has since been able to escape. Beyond following Leon’s trail in hopes of finding and retiring them all, Deckard believes part of what will help him is figuring out what the replicants wanted with the Tyrell Corporation in trying to infiltrate it. The answer may lie with Tyrell’s fail-safe backup mechanism. Beyond tracking the four, Deckard faces a possible dilemma in encountering a fifth replicant: Rachael, who works as Tyrell’s assistant. The issue is that Tyrell is experimenting with her, to provide her with fake memories so as to be able to better control her. With those memories, Rachael has no idea that she is not human. The problem is not only Rachael’s assistance to Deckard, but that he is beginning to develop feelings for her.
REVIEW – It is a cinematic masterpiece, it developed a cult following after its initial release, the original release was met with somewhat mixed reviews because of cringey writing and studio interference, that ultimately destroyed the director’s vision of the movie, the original release was also over the budget. But after the initial release it was one of the most influential movies of all time, it influenced classics like The Matrix, Ghost In The Shell(1998), Akira(1988) and many other classics. The subgenre of cybperpunk-neo noir was at an all time in the late 90s and 80s. When I watched it for the first time, it was very confusing because of my lack of attention when I watched it, but I was still intrigued by what happened, so I gave it another watch and another and slowly but surely I fell in love with it, The question that the movie presents on “What Makes Us Human?”, It was such an intriguing take on that particular subject, the movie presented it well, I was so amazed by it. And the movie had one of the most beautifully tragic soliloquy of all time and the character of Roy Batty played by Rutger Hauer was so well portrayed and the tragedy that followed the replicants throughout the whole movie was so heart-wrenchingly sad, that the main antagonist outshined the arc of the main protagonist, The character Rick Deckard played by was somewhat bland but I feel like he was a character that was needed to be there in order to see the world in a new lens. It is the reason why this is one of my favorite films of all time, Whenever I watch it again I never get tired of it, I always see little details of the movie. This movie ain’t for everyone because it can be very boring at some times and slow paced just so you could immerse yourself with a particular scene, the acting is also weirdly good, the way they speak in certain speak almost dream like in some scenes. This movie is a special one and I highly recommend you watch it with no expectations whatsoever and watch it multiple times if you wanna see the full picture. Watch the final cut it is the best version for me. That will be all…..
Pros – Exceptional Gameplay, Fun Mechanics, Good Graphics, Immersive Cutscenes
Cons – Sparse Storytelling
GAME SUMMARY – MGS5 is the eleventh canonical installment in the Metal Gear series and the fifth within the series’ chronology. It serves as a sequel to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and a continuation of the narrative established there, and a prequel to the original Metal Gear game. It carries over the tagline of Tactical Espionage Operations first used in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Set in 1984, the game follows the mercenary leader Punished “Venom” Snake as he ventures into Afghanistan and the Angola—Zaire border region to exact revenge on the people who destroyed his forces and came close to killing him during the climax of Ground Zeroes. The game is set in the aftermath of the events of Ground Zeroes and the destruction of Militaires Sans Frontières (commonly abbreviated as MSF), Big Boss (Kiefer Sutherland/Akio Ōtsuka) falls into a coma. Nine years later, he awakes and helps lead a new mercenary group, Diamond Dogs. Adopting the codenames “Punished Snake” and “Venom Snake”, he ventures into Afghanistan during the Soviet–Afghan War and the Angola—Zaire border region during the Angolan Civil War to track down the men responsible for MSF’s destruction. Along the way, he becomes reacquainted with his former rival Ocelot (Troy Baker/Satoshi Mikami) and encounters Quiet, an assassin with supernatural abilities. While he and Benedict “Kazuhira” Miller (Robin Atkin Downes/Tomokazu Sugita) are initially driven to exact revenge, Snake soon unearths a plot by the Cipher organization to develop a new model of the Metal Gear system known as the ST-84 “Sahelanthropus”.
REVIEW – This is the first open-world game in the Metal Gear Franchise and the final Metal Gear game Directed by Hideo Kojima and the final game in the Main Metal Gear Saga. Metal Gear Solid V offers excellent stealth gameplay and mechanics that feel new and refreshing, the open world aspect of MGSV opens up variety when tackling missions which feel nice and it adds another depth to the gameplay, the problem for me is that the game doesn’t use this to its full potential when tackling the Main Missions of the game when you play main missions you’re only allowed to play in a certain section of the map which kinda defeats the point of having an open world, I mean yeah sure the game has its ways to counteract this but you know I would prefer it if, it wasn’t blocked off when doing Main Mission. The other new thing in MGSV is the “Mother Base”, of course this existed before but you couldn’t fully interact with it now you could visit it but even with this addition Mother Base feels kinda tame, it kinda only serves us a place for some easter eggs,a mini game like shooting trial and some cutscenes other than that its just a barren husk of nothing, also you can recruit people in this game for your cause in the story but Mother Base management kinda feels tedious at times and the development of weapons too and farming for good soldiers. The main hook for me in this game is the “fun” aspect of it, the new mechanics and the tight controls makes it so much fun to play around it, MGSV to me is the most fun I had with a MGSV game, I’m not saying that other games in the series ain’t fun but the open world variety is just so goddamn fun and it hooked me for hours on end, the different ways and limits you could set yourself so you could have the best time. Now let’s get into the goddamn story, If you’ve been following the Metal Gear story like I have you know that it is one of the best, convoluted, complex, and bat-shit insane plotlines in gaming history, an auteur only Hideo Kojima could direct. If you compare MGSV to other Metal Gear games it fails in terms of story having a very sparse conclusion to Big Boss’ legacy, while some parts of it is interesting like the cinematography, the writing in it kinda feels sparse, you’ll feel as if some characters that you like kinda act differently even if nothing ever happens in their story archs, and the biggest change was Big Boss’ voice, through out the Metal Gear Games their was only David Hayter who voiced “Snake” but it was changed to Keifer Sutherland, he did well but his lines was few unlike the old games, he did a decent job as “Snake” but I prefer David Hayter maybe because of how much well written the previous games were and how long the cutscenes were, overall the story of the game was kinda tame and boring at certain parts, there is some shining moments but not enough to explain the legacy of Big Boss and it left me with a Phantom Pain…. Good game overall but it is my least favorite game in terms of story in the MGS series but my favorite in terms of gameplay…
Iroquois Pliskin 