writing x-men fanfiction digimon fanfiction misc fanfiction wot rp essays rogambit history anime translations image songs reviews clips bishounen site past designs links e-mail me DIABLOMON STRIKES BACK! RATING(5): Like most of the Digimon movies, Diablomon Strikes Back! is very brief, and it suffers as a result of its brevity. Basically, the plotline revolves around Diablomon recovering from his defeat in Bokura no Wargame and seeking revenge on the Chosen Children. He does this by launching a malicious smear campaign on Taichi and Yamato, as well as downloading himself off the Internet via a plague of Kuramon. Naturally, the Chosen Children - with the help of some cellphones! - prevail in the end. Because of its shortness - it runs a scant half-an-hour with the credits - many important plotpoints are left unexplained. How did Diablomon manage to reconstitute himself after being utterly decimated? What is the Holy Ring and how do they call it up? What is the light coming out of the cellphones, apart from being a visual representation of downloading Diablomon's data? From where do the younger versions of Taichi and Yamato come to blow the whistle and play the accordion? Given the amount of explanation required to answer these questions, the story needed a longer film to be told properly, or a more focussed one. It also commits the cardinal sin of wasting time. When you have thirty minutes to tell a relatively complex story, you should utilise every second. Instead, the writers seem to have felt the need to include unnecessary characters. Yes, there may be Mimi and Sora fans out there who would be annoyed at not seeing their favourite characters, but they have no real role to play in the story. It would have worked better without them, in fact. Similarly, even as it includes all the characters, it suffers from the same problem as the final episodes of 02. I like to refer to it as "glory hog" syndrome. If you have watched the show, you will know that Daisuke and Ken were generally the heroes of the day to the point where I wondered whether the remainder of the Chosen Children were necessary. Whenever an enemy threatened the world, they would throw Paildramon\Imperialdramon at it and it would be defeated. It became something of a joke among my family. This movie is no exception. In cases, the need to make them the heroes overrides logic. For example, if the Holy Ring contains the hope of everyone, then it makes more sense for it to be connected with one of Angemon's forms or even with Takeru. He does bear the crest of Hope, after all. If you're a passionate fan of Daisuke or Ken, you'll love this aspect of the film. However, if you hate them or are simply fond of them (like me), you'll be gritting your teeth after about fifteen minutes. The same can be said about the animation. It does not have the cleanness and the fluidity of the series, as you can hopefully see from the screenshots. Done on computer as opposed to being painted by hand, it is decidedly inferior. The characters are poorly drawn without the attention to detail that marks the show, to the point where I sometimes had to think for a second before I realised who she or he was. Nonetheless, it's not so offensive that you'll need eyedrops after viewing it. Having said that, it is a fun way of spending half-an-hour. The inconsistencies and weaknesses of plot are not that apparent while you're watching it. It was only in retrospect that I began to question certain aspects of the film, and realise that it had not provided the answers. While I was watching the film, I was completely caught up in the flow of story, which is fast-paced and exciting. You will have to catch your breath in places. The characterisation is also good - despite the relatively little time assigned to most of the characters, their personalities emerge strongly. Even if you have never watched the show in your life, you will get a strong sense of who the characters are. All in all, don't expect wonders, but it's more than worth the free download from FET's site. V-Mon and Wormmon being carried away by a plague of Kuramon Hikari, Takeru and their Digis go to help their onii-san! Imperialdramon delivers the coup de grace to Diablomon. A PERFECT BLUE Rating(5): Satoshi Kon's "Perfect Blue" has been described as a perfect blend of Disney and Hitchcock, as well as a Japanese version of Polanski's "Repulsion". It tells the story of a pop idol, Mima, who tries to save her career by dropping music and taking up acting. Unfortunately, the role she is offered in a soap opera is slightly less savoury than could be wished, as are the other requirements of her new career, such as appearing in the nude in magazines. Because of this split between her old and new self, she begins to feel reality slip away, as she discovers\hallucinates an alterego who has never left her pop-group. She becomes unsure of who the real Mima is. At the same time, an obsessed fan seems to be stalking her and killing the people responsible for her career change. As is evident from the brief description of the plot, "Perfect Blue" sets out to be a clever, psychological thriller, that explores ideas of fame, its impact on the performer and the j-pop phenomenon. Unfortunately, it does not quite succeed. Although undeniably tense and frightening, the film degenerates into incomprehensibility in places. Film has never been good at drawing the distinction between schizophrenic fantasy and reality. In this film, the same scene might be shot multiple times with some variations, and only one will be the actual events. And, as the director chooses to tell the story almost entirely through Mima's eyes, there is no little clue as to what is real and what is false, which means that the viewer is given a mass of conflicting information with no way to interpret it. Some might see this as a clever, cinematic technique designed to put the viewer in the same position as Mima. I was simply confused. Having said that, it has one of the most perfect endings I have ever seen. The identity of the killer and the source of Mima's delusions seems to come out of the blue (if you'll pardon the pun), but it has been cleverly set up throughout the film. It is simply a case of interpreting moments differently. Looking back, the killer could not have been anybody else. The animation is also exquisite. It's clean, fluid and strikingly different to much other anime. The locations are very detailed too, which adds to its versimilitude. However, be warned. This is not a Disney feature which you can watch with your younger brother and sister. It contains scenes of nudity and extreme violence. Neither of them are gratuitous or there simply for titillation - indeed, the nudity is a great deal more disturbing than the violence - but this is certainly not a children's film. Rather, it is a very adult look at an aspect of our culture we might prefer to ignore. Mima the Pop Icon, as a member of CHAM Mima feeding her fish "with a special kind of food". Mima attacks her doppelganger SHADOW SKILL I RATING(5): When Gau's parents are killed by bandits, he is taken in by a woman by the name of Ella and trained in the mysterious arts of Karuda fighting. Four years later, he is close to mastering the skills of the Karuda. All that remains is for him to learn the Shadow Skills, which centre around combat with the legs, as opposed to his preference for fist-fights. Consequently, on their annual journey to the graves of Gau's parents, Ella gives him the final test to become a Karuda master. Namely, he must defeat her in single battle with his arms shackled. . . . Feel free to forget the previous paragraph, because the plot of this film is more or less irrelevant. Think the plot of a First Person Shooter and you have a rough idea of how superfluous it is. Basically, it serves an excuse to string together a number of very flashy, very bloody fight-scenes. To the film-maker's credit, these are beautifully rendered and choreographed. The animation is very fluid, the action is fast-paced and the advantage in the battles constantly see-saws between the characters. If you're the sort of viewer who watches anime solely for the fights, I have no reservations in recommending this film to you. Personally, however, I demand more from my anime than my fighting games, and this film is lacking in almost every other respect. The characters are flat - we learn little about Ella and Gau than that they really like to fight and take no prisoners. Even more strangely, there appears to be a group of Karuda warriors in the background about whom we discover absolutely nothing. Their sole purpose seems to be to hope that Ella and Gau are all right. The plot, as mentioned, is flimsy, apart from a flick towards an interesting history of slavery and gender oppression behind this school of martial arts. Worst of all, the ethos is very simplistic as well. There is no questioning of the insane desire to be the best, nor any explanation of Gau's ruthless ambition. As I said, if you like your action mindless and your adrenalin rushes cheap, this is the film for you. If you're more discerning, try elsewhere. Ella prepares for bloody combat. Gau puts on his chains.