n(orth) e(ast) w(est) s(outh) ~ ~

April 17 - Club Meeting

Over the last couple of weeks, we've watched things like the second episode of Straitjacket and Macross Frontier, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, Soul Eater and more. On Tuesday, Eric and I paid a visit to the anime society at Havergal, and there is a movie night in the works. Maybe somehow we could raise money and give it to a charity of some sort? But I doubt we'd be able to make that much money for it to be significant haha. Thinking of showing Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, just because it's overall an awesome movie.
With any luck, we'll have it organized soon, but potential dates are still lacking, just because we are so close to the end of the school year, and everybody's busy.
Justin

Just to add on to that...
This is Hoomoo, yes. HDOTXMIWIASM and Nossie visited our anime club meeting last week (yeah and Justin got a ride home from his mommy while Chiang subwayed, nice). From what I hear from General, the movie night is still lacking ideas in what to watch so I suggest POKEMON. And anyway, the point is, the date is tentatively the fifteenth of May, I believe. Havergal anime will be crashing UCC ALONG WITH MR NILO (^____________^) and yes, good times, gg, lawl.

Update, February 25th

So, over the past few weeks since the last update, we've watched several obscure animes. This includes Strait Jacket and Mnemosyne, both of which have relatively more action to keep the club members occupied. Last week, we watched the first episode of Macross Frontier, the 25th anniversary production for the Macross Series, and so highly anticipated that the first episode was released early in December when it is scheduled to begin airing sometime in April. Anyways, Tony san has kindly written a review for us XD

TONY WAN’s MACROSS FRONTIER (EPISODE 1) REVIEW:

SUMMARY
It’s the year 2059 and the series opens with the arrival of a pop star named Sheryl to the space colony, Macross Frontier. We learn that there was a war and humans decided to spread out into the space, living in space colonies dispersed across the galaxy. We are then introduced to the protagonist, Saotome Alto, a highschool teenager that will perform at Sheryl’s upcoming concert using a jet-pack like device. Our attention shifts to the female protagonist, Lanka, a green haired teenager who works at a Chinese restaurant called Nyan Nyan. She receives notice that she has tickets to Sheryl’s concert.
Meanwhile, in space, contact is lost with a squad in outer space. Back at the colony, Lanka, on her way to the concert, meets Saotome by chance and they walk together to the concert. While the concert takes place, we see that in outer space, the colony’s army is defending against some sort of alien attack. The defence proves to be futile as the aliens break through each line of defence, finally reaching the shell of the colony. The colony is put into a state of emergency and the concert ends. As the people file out, they see explosions in the sky and an alien breaking through the shell. Finally breaking through, the alien flies into the city, wreaking havoc and destroying buildings. A single mech pursues into the city. Unable to match the power of the alien, the mech is held down by the alien, forcing the pilot to eject. The pilot is grasped by the alien and crushed into a pool of blood. Then we see the alien turn its attention to Lanka, sitting helplessly on the floor. Just as it seems the alien will kill her, we see shots being fired and the camera pans to the mech, where we see Saotome has taken control of the abandoned mech.

ANIMATION: *****
Incredible animation. Fight scenes were nicely animated, especially the fancy moves the fighter jets pull off in space. The backgrounds are crisp and clear and movement seems natural. The animators also put much effort into small details. Overall, the animation was impeccable.

SOUND: ***
No opening theme to comment on. The insert theme, by Sheryl during her concert, was okay, a typical JPop tune. The ending theme also another Jpop tune, nothing special. Background music was pretty good for the fight scenes. Nice fast paced tunes to match the fast paced action. Overall, the audio was average.

STORY: ***
Nothing special. This kind of story line has been done to death. It’s the future and humans are forced to move to space colonies due to some sort of war. Aliens attack. Protagonist turns out to be a prodigy in piloting a mech. An okay story for now.

CHARACTER: ***
Also quite typical of an anime. The cool and quiet guy and the cute and eccentric girl. Not much character development, although it is too early to tell.

ENJOYMENT: ****
Nicely animated fight scenes and fast paced action keeps the watcher in tension. Not many boring or stale parts because they are always broken up by shifts of focus to the growing tension on the battlefield. Overall, quite an enjoyable episode.

OVERALL: ****
Overall, the starting and preview episode of Macross F was quite interesting and enjoyable. I look forward to the beginning of the actual series in the spring season.
~Tonykun (Lol.)

Thanks to Tony for the first review we've had in a while. I'm wondering what to show next time too. I'll worry about that later though XD. We also have plans to go to Anime North, but I still need to get an idea of how many people are actually going.
-Justin

After the Winter Break

So, after a short two winter hiatus, the anime club has started back up! In the last few weeks before the December Break, our club co-head Eric brought in the "old-school" Transformers movie circa 1994 for viewing pleasure in its original VCR form. We spent two weeks watching this and that led to the winter break. In the first week back, we watched "Transformers: Beasties" for one meeting. The second meeting, we had a few technical difficulties, but still managed to watch some of "Renaissance: Paris 2054", an animation done in an interesting and unique black and white animation style, featuring detective Karas, who tries to rescue a kidnapped researcher, and as a result, uncovers a devious plot of some sort. We have yet to finish watching it.
The afternoon focus day this week meant that there was no club meeting, but we hope to continue next week. Lots of new anime have come out recently. Some particularly interesting ones include Shigofumi and Persona. Shigofumi is about a messenger that delivers letters written posthumously, and has started rather interestingly. Persona is a sci-fi series with a rather interesting concept. Minami-Ke: Okawari has also began airing, although its content will probably disagree with the members of the club.
Justin

Another Hoomoo Anouncement...

So ums. The div layour in non-overflow was annoying because the brackground stayed put while it elongated so now it scrolls. Yay...?
That means the div layer problem that occurs on IE is even worse because you can't scroll out of it, if that makes any sense...in any case, just use FF while I work on suing IE, kthanksbai.
And if anyone might know what's happening that causes IE to not know how to count pixels, tell me, merciiii n__n

Club on November the 29th: A Review:

Ah yes, we have watched the last bit of Totoro today, continued from sometime ago. There is about 5 minutes left in the film, but I have yet to watch them, thus I cannot make conclusions.
So the last time, we left off when Mei decided to annoyingly drop in at Satsuki’s school then draw pictures of Totoro. They hurry back to their home after school, when they suddenly get caught in the rain. WHOA. Water is not good, especially if you are a girl and you are wearing white (luckily, one was wearing yellow and the other pink). Anyway, they stop at a bus station and the guy next door, I think his name was Kenta or something, just throws his umbrella at the two and runs home in the rain. Strange dude. Anyway, the two sisters share the umbrella and walk back home, then return the umbrella later to the boy’s mom, who called him an idiot for losing his umbrella.
I think the dude wants something from her.
Anyway, the two are excited that their mom will visit for the weekend, and with hopes in their hearts, they wait for their dad in the bus station in the rain, worrying that their father will get caught in the rain because he forgot his umbrella. = / okay… Good job.
Anyway, at this point, Totoro emerges again! He’s in the rain and Satsuki offers her extra umbrella to Totoro, who then screws around with the rain. Satsuki and her sister are pummeled by the rain, and then Totoro goes into the cat bus (the bus shaped like a cat… which has 20 legs or something), then gives the girls some illegal stuff wrapped in leaves. OHHHHHHH smuggling. I see what he’s up to.
Shortly after the cat bus leaves, the two meet with their father and they return home, to find that acorns were wrapped in the leaves. The two plant the acorns and go to sleep.
At this point, they wake up and discover that Totoro is doing some weird ritual to make the plants grow bigger. They fly around on Totoro’s umbrella and spinning top (which defies the laws of gravity). Then they wake up… again. Was it a dream? Yes. It might be that the acorns contained some kind of fumes that created a disruption in their brains. But anyway. The two find that the acorns have sprouted overnight, and rejoice.
Hooray!
The two somehow end up eating some cucumbers on the hill with a granny, then receives a message to call the hospital. The entire family freaks out when they hear that the mom will have to stay in the hospital, instead of coming home for the weekend. O NOEEZZZZZzzz. The little sister runs off, and the big sister tries to find her. The granny freaks out when she finds a shoe in a pond, and the villagers try to find her corpse. Fortunately, it was not Mei’s shoe. It might have been some other kid who drowned, but hell, they just stopped searching.
We left off right before the conclusion… what the hell.
Mike Kim IB1 Wedd’s

Alright, so thanks for your review Mike. We've got the 8th pokemon movie lined up for you guys next meeting and feel free to offer any other suggestions for what you'd like to watch. I'm hoping we can get Transformers going after the pokemon movie so look forward to that. Moving on to the subject of Transformers, we can show More Than Meets the Eye, if we can get a vcr hooked up or something. Or we could try Beasties or the first season of Transformers, its up to you guys.

Chiang

Club on November the 15th: A Review:

So this is what happened in club TWO weeks ago.

Pokemon: Mewtwo Returns is a direct sequel to Pokemon: The First Movie, which follows Mewtwo's quest as he arrives at a new mountainous hideout secluded from the outside world. Ash, Pikachu, and Team Rocket are thrown into the plot to satisfy the traditional Pokemon lore. Unfortunately, the entire picture is jumbled together and accommodated with a plot comprised of cheap Hollywood twists and more holes than a Middle-Eastern insurgent.
The storyline is implausible, with Mewtwo fashioning questionable attacks one scene, and struggling to solve a simple obstacle the next. However, I won't reveal any spoilers. When the viewer is not faced with yet another obscure plot hole, the fill-ins are suspected to be a product of carelessness and underpaid writers; one fill-in comprises of Ash and friends attempting to head-butt a hostile piece of equipment. Pitch in shady voice-acting, and cheesy one-liners, this film delivers to the young ones, but won't stand a chance against any mature audience without Asperger's disease (Scott).

Thanks for the review of Mewtwo Returns, Chhour. So we have a review for a change, which is nice. We might make a page just for reviews of the movies. I have gotten my hands on the 8th Pokemon Movie and today, we nearly finished the rest of Totoro. The movie's basically over. Who's doing the review for our club meeting today? o.O Anyways, it was another successful meeting today, without too much complaining from the club members. I also have to get a picture of you guys for our yearbook by next week. So yes. That is all for now.
Mata ne,
Justin

Club on November the 22nd: A Review:

This week, the anime club watched the film: Mewtwo Returns. This movie was the sequel to Pokemon: The First Movie, a film we had previously watched. The story is set in the Pokemon universe and begins with the protagonists: Ash, Misty and Brock are walking in a forest surrounding Mt. Quena. Unbeknownst to them, the pokemon Mewtwo had taken his band of pokemon clones to inhabit the mountain in peace. Complications with the weather and the missing of the bus force the trio to lodge at a cabin at the foot of the mountain. There, they meet three pokemon naturalists: Luna and Cullen and Domino. Afterwards, the team rocket trio: Jesse, James and Meowth appear and attempt to steal Ash's Pikachu. The villains try to escape with it in their classical Meowth-head hot hair balloon. However, everyone manages to pursue team rocket by hanging on to a rope attached to the balloon. The balloon takes everyone above Mt. Quena. When everyone climbs up to the passenger compartment of the balloon, Domino reveals herself to be part of Team Rocket, a secret agent known as the Black Tulip. She uses a tulip to puncture the balloon, sending everyone, except her, plummeting onto the mountain. She returns to Giovanni, the main antagonist and leader of team rocket.
Giovanni's plans are to capture Mewtwo and enslave him as his warrior once again. He sends an army of team rocket agents and lures Mewtwo out of his home. Using a machine emitting some sort of energy, he manages to capture and subdue Mewtwo. Meanwhile, Ash and his gang find themselves inside Mt. Quena and they discover a pond that contains miraculously healthy and pure water. They are then captured by the black tulip and are forced into a jail cell. As Mewtwo is being restrained, Giovanni begins his other plan: to change Mt. Quena into a new team rocket base. Construction begins and they begin to pollute the pond at the heart of the mountain. This action angers the various bug Pokemon surrounding the mountain. Massive hordes of Beedrills, Ledian and Butterfree fly to the mountain in an attempt to thwart team rocket's plans. The bug pokemon harass the construction workers and causes one of them to drop his blowtorch. This causes an explosion, blowing an escape route for the imprisoned Ash and gang. They rush outside to see Mewtwo still struggling to fight the energy beams of the machines. Ash and Brock, using all their strength, manage to disable the machine and free Mewtwo. Ash then carries the dying Mewtwo to the pond, while Brock, Misty and the horde of bug Pokemon battle team rocket. Ash throws Mewtwo into the pond because the water had healing abilities. After Mewtwo is rejuvenated, he uses his powers to move the pond beneath Mt. Quenas, to allow his Pokemon clones to live in peace. Everyone leaves the cave and they resume their normal lives.
Pretty awesome.

So that was a review by Tony. We've now finished two pokemon movies. What should we watch next? I don't have another pokemon movie at the moment and it will probably be a while before I am able to get another one. Anime club has been successful so far. Let's hope this keeps up! XD

Justin

Club on November the 8th: A Review:

So, we started watching the classic Studio Ghibli film Totoro today. We were introduced to the Kusakabe family, who were moving into an old house. Mei and Satsuki found many small "soot sprites" that were living in the house and chased them up to the attic.
Then, as Satsuki ran back downstairs to help with the moving, Mei was able to catch one of them with her hands and ran downstairs to show everybody but, instead, runs into “Granny”. When she opened her hands to show everyone, all that was left was soot. Then, Granny explained that they must have seen soot sprites and that they were probably deciding whether to move out or not. Just as Granny had predicted, that night, the soot sprites moved out towards the big tree in the forest.
The next day, while Satsuki was at school, Mei runs around the field behind the house when suddenly, she finds a trail of acorns. She sees two totoros and starts chasing them. The "totoros" lead her into a small tunnel into the forest. Here she runs into the big Totoro. Satsuki finds Mei, but she is sleeping. When Mei wakes up, she tells her dad and Satsuki about Totoro, who just laugh at her. Mei starts to cry and, realizing that they had probably hurt her feelings, the Dad says that she probably saw the forest spirit and was very lucky since it only allows some people to see him.
The next day, Satsuki drops Mei off at Granny’s house so she can go to school, only to see that Mei comes to school to see Satsuki. WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT!?? I DO NOT KNOW. Funny this is longer than my French convo.

Alfred

So that was Alfred's review of last club meeting's activities. Thank you, Alfred. XD We'll see if we're going to finish this movie or not, since Mewtwo Returns is now available for viewing. I took a look at it though, and it doesn't look all that great. So we'll see. Totoro didn't get too much crap last time.
Justin

From Hoomoo, the web child:

There's a guestbook so you can yell at Justin and Chiang without the use of E-Mail. How spiffy. Check the right nav bar to find it.
Oh yesh, and I know that we're having a div layer problem on IE. I'm working on it.
Cheers!

The First Few Weeks:

So. A summary of what we (we as in the UCC anime club) have been up to in the past few weeks.
The first meeting, we showed Appleseed – filler while we tried to figure out what we wanted to watch. Unfortunately, people became bored of this movie. We moved on without finishing it. We may choose to continue it in the future, but this is unlikely. An experimental showing of D Gray Man received a somewhat negative response; nobody expressed enjoyment at the viewing of this series, so we decided not to show it. Surprisingly enough, Pokemon, although intended for an audience of young children, seems to be quite popular with the club. The showing of the first episode of Pokemon: Pearl/Diamond received enthusiastic support. In the past two weeks, we showed and completed Pokemon: The First Movie, which also received positive feedback.
With the arrival of fall comes the advent of many new series including Clannad, Genshiken 2, Shakugan no Shana 2, Gundam 00, Bamboo Blade and Hero Tales. The conclusion of series such as Romeo x Juliet, Claymore, Darker than Black, and Lucky Star also means that this material can be used as backup. Claymore seems to be possible viewing material, but its theme of female dominance may or may not be popular considering the entire club is made up of males. The anticipation of new series is also exciting. The second season of Haruhi will be exciting when it does come out, as well as the second season of Code Geass. We shall have to see. With the first Pokemon movie done, the question arises: what to show next? It will be an interesting meeting next week.
~justin

A word from Hoomoo:

Welcome to the website of the UCC ANIME CLUB! It's kinda under construction right now.