Journal archive: June 2005

FFVII Advent Children Japanese DVD

Happened to be at the Amazon website looking at Kyou Kara Maou stuff when I saw the link to the Advent Children DVD page As usual Japanese DVDs are ridiculously expensive.

Can’t wait for this movie to be out, especially with Sakurai Takahito

Thought I’d just post the specs from the Amazon site here (additional English comments in bold added by me):

内容紹介

【ストーリー】

あの戦いから2年。繁栄の極みにあった魔洸都市「ミッドガル」は廃墟と化したが、人々は再建への道を確実に歩んでいた。だが、「星痕症候群」と呼ばれる謎の病が人々を苛む。治療法もなく、冒された者を次々と死に至らしめるこの病は、希望を取り戻しつつあった人々の新たな脅威となった。デリバリーサービスを営みながら孤児と共に静かに暮らしていたクラウドは、先の戦いで大事な仲間達を失ってしまった心の傷に胸をいため、深い自戒と罪の念に心を閉ざしていた。ある日、クラウドに仕事を依頼する一本の電話が入る。依頼内容は、カダージュと呼ばれる男からの護衛を依頼するものだった。若く、凶暴なカダージュ達。やがて彼らの魔の手は、クラウドと共に住んでいた孤児たちにも伸びる。その目的は何なのか。何故クラウドを狙うのか。避けようのない戦いを前に思い悩むクラウド。「罪って許されるのか?」長き葛藤の末、戦いの決意を固めるクラウド。ついに、カダージュ達との、人知を超えた戦いが幕を開ける。

Subjects: Film, Television & Anime 映像

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: Amazon, Cloud クラウド, DVD, Final Fantasy, Morikawa Toshiyuki 森川智之, Sakurai Takahiro 櫻井孝宏, seiyuu 声優

Express Queues?

Something I’ve been seeing at the Isetan supermarket every Wednesday when I go for my regular Japanese class: whenever customers with 1-2 items make their way to the payment counters, they seem to immediately head towards the only express counter in the supermart, despite the obviously long queue, even though the regular payment counters are free. This is a society where we’re so anal about ‘obeying’ signs that we don’t seem to use our eyes and heads to judge anymore.

Subjects: General

Mood: Discoveries & Relevations

Tags: Isetan, Japanese

Mighty Rearranger

To not know of a new CD released by an ex-Led-Zeppelin-bandmember until a review of it is published in the local newspapers is an extremely strange revelation. It only goes to prove how much attention I have been paying to the rock music world and to the band to whom I worshipped for several years of my life.

The CD in question is Robert Plant’s latest, Mighty Rearranger, which he has created in collaboration with his band Strange Sensation. The cover of the album is Dave-McKean-ish gorgeous and I had the pleasure of listening to a free (note: not illegal but officially free), albeit low quality, quicktime version of one of the songs on the album titled “Shine it All Around”. It is very reminiscent of Led Zeppelin but Robert owns this one. His voice may be older, rougher, but the music has evolved to complement these new vocal qualities.

I’m going to get a copy of the album this weekend. Judging by the ratings in Amazon, the album is probably not going to disappoint. This will be the first rock album I will have bought in ages and I’ve got high hopes about it.

Subjects: Music 音楽

Mood: Raves and Rants

Tags: CD, hard rock, Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant, Strange Sensation