I realized that I have not spoken about anime within this space for a while now and wrought with shame I yearn to redeem myself and return pride back to this husky shell.  Keep in mind my proclivities are such that I am consumed with a very large volume of anime product every week, so filtering some of that content may be required.  If I were to go into detail about all the Japanese delights I enjoy on a daily basis, I may bloat the Internet itself with its magnitude.

I wanted to mention a series I just finished up called Baccano!.  It was ran early to mid-last year and only comprised of 13 episodes but what it lacks in longevity it definitely delivers in story and originality.  I am unable at this point to accurately count how many animes I have watched featuring voluptuous young high school girls or building-sized, highly sophisticated fighting mechs – most likely piloted by young high school girls.  This series is neither.

It’s a fascinating tale of what is essentially one event, one moment in time, told from the perspectives of the huge ensemble cast of at least a dozen characters if not more.  While at times the story-telling can come off as slightly confusing as each separate episode may center around entirely different characters and travel forward or backward through time with nothing more than a note of the year, once you get the feel for it the experience is really ripe and will compel you to continue viewing.

The story takes place in 1930s America and is centralized around a fateful ride on the (unsure why it’s so) famous train, the Flying Pussyfoot.  Yeah, it’s seriously called that.  Much of the cast is compartmentalized into three or four different groups all seemingly working against each other for some unknown end.  All the while a much richer story lies beneath the surface taking on an almost science fiction element to the events that unfold.

If gratuitous violence and gore are things you aren’t particularly fond of, you may want to avoid this one, as it wastes no time – or blood – filling the train, and every other location shown within the series, with bullet-ridden and dismembered corpses.  Amazingly enough, however, I would categorize the series as a comedy if not a dark comedy.  Much of the things that happen are done so with an air of humor, even the brutal killings can seen through comedic eyes.

It is not often that a show this atypical in the onslaught of anime infusions comes around, but when they do it really is a treat and in a way shows you just how predictable and formulaic some of the other offerings are.  So, I’m always drawn beyond my volition to series of this kind.  The story is excellent, the animation is easy on the eyes, the characters (while multitudinous) are all distinct and important players within the confines of the story.

If you have roughly six contiguous hours on your hands, I would recommend sitting down and indulging in the delectable treat that is Baccano!.  Enjoy.  Peace.

Are we a blog? A comic? Who knows. I do know that we update more frequently than Refried. Burn on you, Tim. Enjoy another of our random joke makings.

P.S. If the art sucks, it’s because I drew it. I really should leave the artistry to Kether…

That’s right, we study life ciences at Michigan.

For all gamers who enjoyed the series, like FPS strategy games, or just enjoy a good old fashioned flick about contract killing, then to you I would recommend Hitman. It should be noted that I am an avid fan of the series. I found it to be innovative, the perfect blend of challenge and achievability, and with a very compelling storyline (clearly some producers agreed with me on this last point). Luckily for those like me, the game translated almost seamlessly into the clean, kick ass film that we are discussing today.

Now, the film has its shortcomings: cliché characters, a fairly predictable plot, and stifling dialogue, but these were flaws I could attribute to the game as well. The saving grace for both game and movie is the ingenuity in the execution (excuse the pun) of the plot. Sampling from the varied nature of its simulated progenitor, the movie showcases Agent 47’s broad array of lethal arts. Some targets require stealth and misdirection, whereas others require an assload of bullets and bombs.

One particular scene captures why I would not rate this movie of the year, but would give it an award in “fucking awesomeness,” should such a category exist. 47 enters an empty train car with gun drawn, pursuing an enemy. The man pops up behind a seat, gun aimed at 47. The two circle each other at point blank range; each is an assassin of The Agency, born and bred as killing machines. Suddenly, two more agents enter from either end of the car. Now all four have two guns drawn each in a Mexican standoff. Realizing that they are all nonplussed, 47 suggests “dying with dignity.” They all unload their magazines, drop their weapons, and draw from their suit coats two wakizashi. I will leave the rest to the reader’s imagination, but suffice it to say, I chortled with glee upon seeing this.

Sure, in the Hitman series 47 was a clone and the other agents were replicas of his archetype (thus the numbering and trademark barcode tattooing), but it doesn’t hurt the story to have non-clone agents duking it out. Although, there is no explanation as to why the other agents are targeting each other and not just 47, but I am willing to look past this in order to see the awesomeness. I thought Timothy Olyphant gave a solid and convincing performance, and the pace of the movie was almost perfect.

Again, I would recommend this film to just about anyone, and as long as you don’t go in with incredibly high expectations, you should be pleasantly surprised. I’d write more, but now I have to devote some time to my PS2 and my old friend Agent 47. After all, that Columbian drug lord won’t assassinate himself.

–Casimir

It seems I have once again dropped the metaphorical ball and neglected to pay for our hosting. I don’t think it would be all that big of an issue besides the fact that Paypal, a service setup to automatically pay my bill for me, seems to think the total cost for hosting is half of what it actually is. This tends to pose problems when I continue to forget when the bill is due so I never login to pay the balance.

“Don’t you get e-mails telling you of your impending ‘not paid’ status?” And I say to that, “Fuck you.” Yes, yes I do receive e-mails. Probably a handful of them telling me, “Hey fucker, pay up.” But, the problem is I skip over the contents of about 90% of my emails. They are all the same garbage day after day, so they all fall through the grate without proper inspection. I treat mail delivered to me through US Standard Mail very much the same, except the percentage of garbage filtered through that system is closer to 100. More archaic methods, same lack of scrutiny.

It has taken only about two and a half months, but the Fates are smiling on me finally. Which is to say, they have found it in their graces to allow me to function on par with how normal human beings do. I no longer have an illness rampaging through my weak shell, for now. I’m not entirely sure what was the cause or justification for my prolonged health hardship. Perhaps it was the hope and excitement I put into the new year wishing for it to bring joys greater than any before. Maybe it was the constant contact with other people riddled with disease. It’s hard to say, but for a while there, I wasn’t sure I would ever remember what not being sick was like.

Not much else is happening in my daily life, which is by design I assure you. I spend most of my leisure time pursuing my typical leisure activities. I recently finished the first volume of a manga series I had picked up a month back or so; Sundome (that fucker’s hard to find on Google). The series has promise. Although, I would say this about any manga series or otherwise filled with so much ecchi (lightly erotic) goodness. Fill an entertainment medium with sexual innuendo and I will purchase it until I’m bankrupt. Financially and perhaps morally.

The series seems fairly cookie cutter. Hot, young girl comes in contact with uber, geek otaku and they more or less connect. In this case, she decides this guy will be her slave of sorts. Not really in any good way, although there seem to clearly be benefits, but more so in a “I order you to do asinine, humiliating things” way. Luckily for the main character, he seems to lean to masochism and enjoys these types of activities. I’m sure as the volumes progress, the girl will reveal some deep secret she’s hiding and the two will become closer and may actually form a real relationship, blah, blah, blah.

It’s to be seen how well things will play out for the anti-hero, but the abundance of sexually-charged incidents will keep me coming back indefinitely. I do find it funny how so many harem-type (one guy, loads of hot girls) manga and anime series have a main character who is not special in any determinable way, but yet still brings home the ladies. Apparently, Japan is packed full with lonely, sad artists and writers playing out their elaborate, completely impossible dreams through graphic novels and animated series. God bless them. Peace.