Sherlock Holmes Movie

This past weekend (to be more accurate sunday, 24th January) I accompanied my parents in a trip to the movies, and took it upon myself to finally see the Sherlock Holmes movie.

At first I was ceptical of the movie, anxious, and with negative expectations. But I eventually surrendered to Robert Downey Jr.'s expertise in portraying Holmes.

English gentleman, eccentric man, exquisite violin player, witty remarker, and world's greatest detective and analytical mind. That is the Sherlock Holmes we all know and love. The first thing that will jump out to fans of Sir Athur Conan Doyle's books is undoubtfully Holmes himself. The Holmes in the movie comes off as an extremely quirky and witty individual with 'unique' social skills and distinct boldness and rashness. Well, rashness is not exactly the word, since he plans out everything he does before putting it in motion. Except it involves Irene Addler that is.

This particular incarnation of Holmes had much more emphasis on his eccentric personality and unsocial behavior, give birth to a very memorable character. Downey Jr managed to act him out perfectly, revolutionating the original character.

Holmes and Watson

Now Watson, he was portrayed as accurately to the original character as possible. His characteristics of gambling, and his deadpan snarker behavior towards Holmes made him a very memorable character. The film also showed Watson and Holmes' friendship really well. It made Watson a perfect companion for Holmes, with features that counterbalance his. All the other characters were mostly well portrayed, but the one that should've been most carefully planned was the one that I felt more lacking. Lord Blackwood was a plain villain. Sure, he had the whole "evil mastermind and creepy cryptic speech with obscure references" thing going on, but felt very chromatic compared to any of the others. Even Addler. Though his end was very fitting.

The movie itself was very well written, and the scenes when we could see Holmes' martial prowess were amazing. We also got to see his deductive genius in great edge. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie, and the ending adressed one particular case that was bugging me since the beggining of the movie.

Addler is only in London because she was hired by an unnamed individual. In the climax we finally learn that his plot was actually to just steal a piece of the machine that was the core of Blackwood's plan. This unseen adversary worked behind the scenes during most of the movie actually manipulated Holmes and company, exploiting Blackwood's scheme at the same time to get what he wanted. To those who payed attention, he was most likely more of a villain than Blackwood. He came off as the single most interesting character of the film to me, despite only have a few lines and his face remaining unseen. His name: Professor Moriatry.

In the original books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Moriatry was widely accepted as being Holmes' arch-enemy and the only person whose intellect was comparable, or even superior, to Holmes', leading criminal organizations and pulling strings behind the scenes in the books where he starred. Since the movie clearly establishes that Holmes accepts the challenge of catching him, we can only hope he shows up in a possible sequel.

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"He is as brilliant as you and infinitely more devious." Irene Addler, to Sherlock Holmes, about Moriatry

Seitokai no Ichizon 12

Seitokai no Ichizon was most definitely the single most entertaining and rewarding show of 2009. Fun, light, and memorable. Those are the words that come to my mind when I think of it. It completly fulfilled its purpose as a comedic anime and still offered more. You might ask yourself as an anime that's centered around the main characters discussing pointless and random things all while parodying the anime industry can be funny, since it doesn't have anything that really stands out. In fact, the characters themselves comment that they can't have their anime to feature people having pointless talks about whatever comes to mind. Breaking the fourth wall much? Yes, but that's not the point here.

Seitokai no Ichizon's charm is in fact its simplicity. It doesn't have to rely on fanservice, ridiculous settings or unbelievable coincidences in order to be fun and entertaining. It's just a bunch of regular people with distinct traits having comical talks. And making such an ordinary thing fun to watch and re-watch, that's the touch of a genius. We ought to thank the original author, Sekina Aoi, for writing the original light novel. Behind the comedy, the series has a surprisingly deep and serious core that helps us understand the characters a little better. Those serious segments at the end of each episode really made reflect a bit about my choices in life, and sympathise with the cast some more, especially Sugisaki.

Ah, yes. And then there's Sugisaki Ken, our dear protagonist. He's awesome. Seriously. I'm voting for him for Best Male Character of 2009. I have been watching anime for a long time, and he is the first protagonist that I know whose focus is the harem ending! That's right, the dream of all men, but the one none ever tries chasing after, is Sugisaki's objective. And he doesn't mind screaming it for everyone (including his declared harem members) to hear. He most certainly isn't a wimp! That, coupled with his wittyness, and easy-going behavior makes him easily my favorite character in a loooong time. Still, there's more to him that meets the eye.

Underneath that bubbling exterior, he is a kind-hearted and caring person, that always helps others. This side of him is much elaborated upon though-out the series and its most serious portions. He oftenly does comments that get him exasperated with the girls that make up the rest of the student council, but they actually appreciate the work he does and are grateful to him. In fact his justification for aiming for the harem ending is a surprisingly deep one: because according to him, it's the ending where everyone is happy.

In the finale of the anime, we finally come to learn the reasons behind his dream to make everyone happy. The cast meets Nakameguro, who has just transfered to their school. Admist the jokes and Mafuyu's desolutions, he ends up walking together with Sugisaki to the bus stop. He confesses he changed schools because he was always being bullied, and he wanted to escape to a new fresh start, and labels himself as being a weak person. Sugisaki Ken, however, does not share his opinion.

In a long monologue, Sugisaki opens up to Nakameguro and shares a story of how he came to be the strong individual he is. A story of how a weak boy met four girls, and how they helped him to become who he was, and how they taught him to be strong. How they made that one hopeless boy happy. In his eyes, Nakameguro wasn't weak at all, because he made it through alone, while he had four people helping get to where he was. The four he came to love and decided to make happy.

All of this was followed right by Sugisaki noticing the girls were eavesdropping, by the way. And then the last bus passed by them. Resulting in them all running frantically after it. Priceless. XD

Seitokai no Ichizon is a show with a lot to offer that shouldn't be underestimated. To watch if you want a good laugh or just want to take a break from those fantasy battle animes. I guarantee you'll really enjoy it.

If I had to rate this anime in a 1 to 10 scale, I'd give it a 10 anytime! It's definitely an anime to rewatch once or twice after you're finished it. =)

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"Otakus are basically islamic extremists that traded
religion by an unhealthy passion of anime and manga. Well, otakus don't blow up towers, so they're a bit different."

Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini

I bet I'm one of the few people that actually liked the first Darker Than Black and doesn't mind admitting it. It was a nice anime, with a promising story that had some unfortunate flaws that prevented it from reaching 5 star status.

Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini did not learn from its predecessor's mistakes. That, and only that, is the main reason as to why it wasn't better than the first (Ok, maybe the comedic exageration at some points and the slow pace also contributed). When I first started watching DTB: RnG, I thought it held some promise. I also believed that the time for answers was at hand. That was a misplaced hope though.

I expected a Hollywood-esque plot with cliched twists. I expected a great deal of questions to be raised and eventual deux ex machina to happen around the new female lead. I expected the plot to thicken. Still, there were a shit load of things I wasn't expecting.

Instead of solving the mysteries surrounding the franchise and answering the fan's questions, the plot designed by BONES did nothing except help pile up the questions even more. We eventually ended up getting to know the complete truth behind Suoh, and we even got a bit more insight on past events that troubled the fans! But still. This season answered mostly questions regarding the characters, all while ignoring the bigger picture and the most important doubts.

What was Yin evolving into? How was Amber connected to the Mitaka Documents? How come Madame Oreille had all that fancy sci-fic junk? Why did the Gates appear? What are Contractors? Why did a new Earth have to be created? What happened to Pai after all? Why did Yin and Hei get separated? What happened to the two of them? WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?!

Ok, I got a bit carried away there. I apologise, you surely get my point. While it was an average experience, the show was too closed around Suoh's own dillemas. In my opinion, DBT: RnG was probably one of my biggest disappointments of 2009.

Well, as people say: Third time's the charm!

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"You're a contractor. Make the logical choice, BK-201."