Rubénerd!

Nothing a refreshing can of JCAFE can't fix! Yumekui Merry #06: "Dream Encounter"

As if the writers realised that the last few episodes were a tad slower, this one started to drift into Bakemonogatari territory with the amount of complex dialogue explanations! By that I mean dialogue between characters explaining the situation with dreams, not explaining how dialogue itself works. Shaddup. Suffice to say, the lack of detail in the previous few episodes were sufficiently taken care of this round.

In the cliffhanger (is that supposed to have a hyphen?) last episode, Merry had been told by Engi (the dream daemon who uses Yui as her vessel) that she could never return to her world, and understandably she suddenly lost her fighting spirit. Hey, spirit, that's a pun. Yumeji with his manliness obsession rushed forward to deflect damage, which of course failed miserably but gave Merry the motivation to finish the job.

In another ode to Sailor Moon and their very spiffy "attacks" that take a while to summon (which would have left them vulnerable during that time, right!?), this time Merry generates a powerful [and very pretty purplish] aura that destroys the moon, the lifegiving force during the dream. I think that's what caused the daydream to fall apart so they could return to reality. Maybe. Kinda? Not sure.

It seemed so long ago since they'd entered that daydream that I'd forgotten they'd been grocery shopping and Merry still had the bags in her hand! Needless to say, when one enters the dream world, your clothes remain the same and the injuries you sustain in the dream world come with you to reality (ouch, what a twist! INCEPTION) BUT... you don't bring irrelevant objects with you into dreams that you happen to be holding. Like shopping bags. Considering what happens in these daydreams, its probably a good thing, they'd just get in the way.

Yes Merry, I'm poking fun at your plot holes ;D.

Of course things aren't that simple either, it turns out the dream daemon we thought Merry destroyed or sent whimpering back (aka Enri) is actually still "alive" (if that's the right word to use) and still using Yui as her human vessel... and that she may not be one of the bad guys after all. After said vessel Yui asks if Enri if she's okay, Yui's friend comes back who for some reason reminds me of Kafuka Fuura from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. If she had blond hair. Just saying.

Anyway our struggling author and epic hat protagonists make their way home, and needless to say after being injured in a fight Yumeji struggles up into his room. Isana assumes they both look tired because they've been playing a lot of video games which Merry clearly hasn't got her fill of yet. They don't have video games in the dream world you see!

Yumeji collapses onto his bed, his injuries now too painful to bear. This time his dream returns him to that familiar weird cat world with the floating fish skeleton and Mr Phantom of The Opera, better known as John Doe. Instead of fighting though, some fanservicey nurses dressed as cats bandage up his wounds (of course!) and he's able to get John to explain some stuff.

Allegedly that Pharoah Heracles that he and Merry had been asked about before, wait Pharos Heracles, is a nightmare dream daemon who entices others to enter "reality". Heracles may also know some information about Merry. Screw Inception dream machines that Leonardo DiCaprio has to use to join people into a shared dream, John is the guy who allows/enables Yumeji to enter other people's daydreams. And so on.

At this point I must admit that... despite this episode attempting to be more dark and serious, this assertion made me laugh out loud! Sorry I can't bring myself to say LOL. Wait, I just did. LOL.

So get this: The upshot of dream daemons continuing to invade people's dreams... and its what the literary club is realising... is that teenagers in high school are losing motivation! They seem "listless" and "lethargic".

THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!

My sister and many of my friends, teenagers in high school, ME, we're lethargic and tired all the time because dream daemons are taking over our minds! It makes sense now! Anyway, not sure if that was a gentle jab at my generation by the writers or not, but I chuckled anyway ;)

Speaking of writers and artists laughing at my generation... I didn't intend for this to be a regular feature, but Midriff Fanservice Watch counted far fewer this episode, most likely because plot kept getting in the way. OH NOES! I've already seen at least one forum post by a certain type of fan who was upset about this. I guess its all about what you expect to get from a series.

That reminds me, I started watching Infinite Stratos recently too expecting a science fiction comedy, but its more of a implausible-clothing science fiction comedy harem. Oh well!

Anyway after we were left with that cliffhanger last episode, this time Yumeji finally wakes up and Merry is Teh Happeh ^___^. Will they continue to be a nightmare fighting duo? Having had his arse handed to him on a platter, will Yumeji continue trying to be macho, or will he be nervous about tackling people now? Will Isana have coffee with Chizuru again?

Of course, I've already seen the title of the next one suggests its the Obligatory Beach Episode. Here's hoping that whole idea of a "plot" can make it bearable :P. Haha, "bearable" that's a bit of a pun too. I'm full of it today.

I don't care whether its cool or not to admit, but I hugely enjoyed Inception and have long been interested in lucid dreaming and the like, so when I read the plot summary for Yumekui Merry it was an instant follow :D

Plot Summary: Ten years ago Fujiwara noticed he had a power to see multicolored auras surrounding the person's body. Ever since then he's been having a weird dream about a war with cats. Then one day a mysterious girl falls on top of him...

And of course they mean that quite literally. Hey, at least they didn't use the bathtub meme :P

Aside from ones that are unabashedly moeblob (and I make no apologies for this fact) and despite being a heathen atheist bastard, I'm also a fan of anime that deal with more unconventional concepts like spirits and perceptions of reality. I'm also a huge sucker for graphics and art. Its why I found Bakemonogatari one of the freshest and most interesting series I've watched so far.

It's almost as if not being bound by the real world gives animation a free pass to be more unpredictable and tackle with issues that would be too hard to film with real actors, or ridiculously expensive to do with CGI. I could go on, but I'm not a media student and am not armed with the vocabulary nor critical expertise to discuss such matters ;).

Okay we get it, what about this series?

As a more casual watching guy, Yumeki Merry is the first second JC Staff anime I've started following, and so far I'm enjoying the art and designs. I'm a sucker for Shaft and KyoAni, so being able to appreciate another house's art is... awesome. That's a technical term, look it up.

I could tell by virtue of the fact I could barely understand the first episode that I think I'm going to enjoy it :). In the space of fourty minutes we had students going through a typical train station, giant swimming fish skeletons, dystopia and utopian scenery, huge guys that looked like the Phantom of the Opera with scary looking serrated weapon things, kick arse high octane fight scenes, and pretty much everything else in between.

We were introduced to the namesake Merī Naitomea (Merry Nightmare) in the opening scene by seeing... her navel. In another scene she walks past and we see... her navel. Another scene still and we see her belly button no less than three times. Some series sell themselves to certain otaku by having women who are particularly "well endowed" or always having opportune upskirt moments; in this case I suppose this studio are targeting the bare tummy crowd. As far as fanservice goes, this is pretty tame XD.

As I said I'm a sucker for art though, and I really love the character designs. Like Hitagi from Bakemonogatari she has purple hair which we all know is the best colour ever, and they really went overboard with her huge flowing clothes and cute matching hat which is even used as a plot device ^___^. Her shirt it patently ridiculous and her skirt far too short for someone who presumably spends much of her time defying gravity with high kicks and other fast paced fighting, but this is anime I suppose ;).

From what I've surmised so far, she's a spirit or entity who's like very much to return to the dream world (as is evidenced after she whoops some serious dream arse) but alas she's stuck in our reality. Is that the opposite of Inception?

The protagonist is an attractive, struggling writer-wannabe called Fujiwara Yumeji who has the unique ability to see the colours of people's dreams. Yes, colours of people's dreams. In the real world even until recently I'd have laughed at such assertions, but the idea that we have senses above the five we do have is deeply fascinating. His fingers turn into kaleidoscopes, and he can even perform it on himself in the mirror. Pretty trippy stuff.

I believe they're already up to episode 6, so I have some catching up to do! I'm also very impressionable when it comes to dreams, I hope mine don't start mimicking his with oddly hilarious but creepy bazooka-brandishing cats.

The Social Network cleaned up at the Golden Globe awards, and people are... surprised? Upset? Angry? REALLY?

Awards schmawards

Now first it must be said, I don't usually accord award ceremonies with much of my attention, in real life or electronically on this here weblogging platform thingy. I could ramble on about how everything from the Academy Awards to the ARIAs are either rigged, biased, limited and/or flawed, or I could say that people who watch movies or listen to music based on how many awards they win are missing out.

Fact of the matter is, I just find them universally dull. A yawnfest, if you will. XYZ believes ABC was the best movie of the year because they slept with the director, producer or lead actors, got a big sack of cash and several incriminating photos were not used against them. Big whoop.

In this case however, I'm willing to make an exception. There's a joke about programming there, but its too late at night and I'm not feeling terribly witty.

You know what really Grinds My Gears?

First, it doesn't bother me in the slightest that The King's Speech (with its breathtaking acting and story) and Inception (which was such a serious mindf*ck that I couldn't get enough of it) didn't win the big awards. I don't crave the validation or need a stamp of approval by anyone else to thoroughly enjoy watching them, and certainly my opinion of them hasn't changed.

While we're on this subject, I've never understood why people who had no say in the production of a film (or album) take decisions against them so personally. If you liked it, who cares what other people think? But that's for another post!

No, what ticks me off is people are only talking about The Social Network's win in light of Inception's loss, when I believe there's something far dodgier going on, and we're all being played.

Follow the monies!

There's no doubt that these awards are worth something, and that bribing the judges is a small price to pay for the free advertising and future advantages your film will have over all others for that year. It's a profitable thing to do.

In this case though, The Social Network had very little to do with generating funds for box office tickets and DVDs, though I'm sure such perks are also nice in and of themselves as well. The real ticket, if you will, is Facebook's IPO.

Isn't it curious that all these rumours leak out that Goldman Sachs were to invest billions in Facebook, then this relatively mediocre movie is released and is awarded with so much acclaim? Me thinks someone wants the hype machine in overdrive for when those delicious shares go live and a small army of well connected people in the right places can print themselves reams of money.

Will you and I be able to procure some of those initial shares in Facebook? There's your answer!

Mr Con Jecture, please

It's Salt and Anna Chapman all over again, only in reverse. They expel a Russian spy from the US, then it generates far more news and press than it should, then low and behold Salt is released! Speaking of shameless, would you like to buy me a coffee to support the site? ;).

Movies started off as advertising machines with occasional product placements, then obsessive product placements... now the movies themselves are the advertisement. And its only going to get worse.

It's one thing to show me advertising on commercial television, but I've always figured if I watch product placements in a movie that I've parted money with to watch, I should get a discount or at least some free snacks. I like taking those little fruit platter trays you get at the supermarket and a toothpick and just having at it. Schweet.