Howl’s Moving Castle is the latest Studio Ghibli release from acclaimed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. Dustin and I saw the film with its original Japanese dialog and subtitles at one of the theaters here in town.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about the movie. It was as beautiful as Spirited Away and as mysterious as Princess Mononoke. Miyazaki has the incredible ability to create a modern animated film that looks like it was originally drawn decades ago during the early years of animation.. on the surface. Suddenly, though, you see the enormous amount of detail each and every scene incorporates. On animation alone I’d be tempted to say that this film surpasses Spirited Away.

It’s the story, however, that differentiates the two. While Spirited Away had a fairly straightforward plot, Howl’s Moving Castle has a plot full of twists, turns, subplots, and dead-ends. Overall it is a fairly simple story: Sofie, a young girl working in her late father’s hat shop, gets cursed by the Witch of the Waste and turns into an old woman. Sofie then sets out to find Howl to have the curse removed. I won’t give any more of the story away, as you should definitely see it yourself. I will say however, that there are plot elements that just do not seem to flow well with the rest of the movie. At some points, I was left wondering what I had missed.

This confusion led me to read the book by Diana Wynne Jones that was the basis for the movie. It is an excellent book and an easy read; I think it took me around five to six hours straight to finish it. The book differs greatly from the movie and while it does provide some useful additional information, most of the more puzzling movie scenes are not in the book at all. If you do read the book before you see the movie, don’t be surprised when the two bare little resemblance to each other.

Overall, I think I still think Spirited Away is my favorite Miyazaki film, with Howl’s Moving Castle coming in a close second. Perhaps if I see it again, or in English, I might change my mind. If you have not seen it yet, it is definitely worth the eight plus dollars of admission to see it in the theater.

Samurai Champloo 18 has just been released from Animeforever. Head over to their site for the bittorrent link and let the downloading goodness begin. Plus, go buy the first DVD if you haven’t already!

Yeah, yeah, I’m going to get around to posting a real post one of these days… hopefully when I magically become less busy…

I ordered Samurai Champloo from Rightstuf.com a while back when I was ordering some other anime, mostly to push my total high enough for free shipping. One of the things I like best about RightStuf is they don’t charge you for preorders until they actually ship the items. So a few days ago I received an email saying they had shipped Samurai Champloo. I figured it was just an early warning or something since the DVD isn’t due out until the eleventh. Lucky for me, it wasn’t.

Today when I checked the mail, much to my surprise and delight, I found my brand-spanking new, hot off the presses, limited edition, first volume of Samurai Champloo. Excellent. Dustin and I watched the four episodes on the DVD over dinner and I must say I am extremely impressed with the English dub. As a general rule I don’t like dubs, especially when I watched the show in Japanese first. Geneon does an excellent job, though, and there’s not much to complain about. No super-whiny girl for Fuu and Jin sounds awesome. The only tiny little complaint (more like personal preference) I have is that the same guy that voiced Spike in Cowboy Bebop does the voice for Mugen. After four episodes I’m still calling him Spike. If you pay attention you can also catch the voice actors for Jet and Faye doing some of the lesser characters in Samurai Champloo.

The translation, another thing I hate about dubs, is almost dead-on with the original Japanese. In fact, the whole dub is good enough that I would watch the rest of the episodes in English and be happy about it. It may not sound like a big deal, but trust me, it is. Finally! An anime dub that I can be proud of! No more hanging my head in shame when (if?) I see it on Cartoon Network. Thank you Geneon for not screwing it up!

So we all know that Apple came out with a U2 version of the iPod. I’m sure all seven of the people that own one think they are really cool. Now, however, a truly limited “limited edition” iPod is coming out in Japan from Bandai. Somehow, Bandai got Apple to agree to make a Neon Genesis Evangelion edition iPod. They will start manufacturing the units once they receive 1000 orders but production will be limited to 2000 iPods total.

The 20 gig player will set you back 47,250 yen or about $450. There are some extras such as an enamel case and over the ear headphones plus the iPod and the accessories will all feature the “NERV” logo. If you have more money than brains and you want to get your hands one of these, Bandai plans to start taking orders midday on December 22.

It may surprise you to learn that I am indeed still alive and have not fallen off the face of the planet, at least not yet. I’m been busy with life, work, and my newest addiction–writing fanfiction. Plus nothing much exciting has been happening and even the anime world is moving slowly this month. Samurai Champloo episode 18 will not be out until the middle of January (about the same time the first DVD is scheduled for release from Geneon/Pioneer). Samurai 7 is still plodding along and is now up to episode 17 from IY4Ever. Fullmetal Alchemist is on Cartoon Network on Saturday night and the DVDs will be released in early February. That’s pretty much it. I’ve downloaded a couple new shows but haven’t taken the time to sit down and watch them.

However, my legally purchased anime collection is growing by leaps and bounds. Finding Rightstuf.com was a very, very Bad Thing for me. Their weekly specials are updated every Thursday with several really good deals and who am I to pass up a good deal? So now I own all of Orphen and Outlaw Star and most of Saiyuki. Plus I just ordered the Fullmetal Alchemist starter set, His and Her Circumstances Box Set, the Samurai Champloo limited edition box + first DVD, and the Chrno Crusade box + first DVD. I highly recommend everything I’ve purchased but at this rate I’m going to have to buy another bookcase just for my anime collection. I just try not to think about how much of my money that bookcase is going to be holding. Ouch.