Madoka Magica movie 3 LA premiere

On Tuesday I attended the LA premiere of Madoka Magica movie 3: Rebellion, at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. Like last year’s screenings of the first two movies, this event was a lot of fun, although the movie itself left me with a heavy feeling of ambiguity…

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Madoka Magica movies in LA

Yesterday I attended one of the limited US screenings of the two Madoka movies. The two movies were screened subtitled as a double-feature in a downtown LA theater, with a fifteen minute intermission in between. Also, exclusive to the LA screenings was Aniplex selling some Madoka goodies at the theater (helped by Anime Jungle, a local anime store). As expected, it was an awesome event to say the least…

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The value of silence in anime

A couple of weeks ago I went to the theater to see The Secret World of Arrietty, the latest Studio Ghibli film being released in the US by Disney. Unfortunately I saw the movie on President’s Day, so the theater was packed with kids and families who had the day off. But despite this, the kids weren’t as loud as they could have been throughout the movie and it was indeed a very good film. However, it also got me thinking about a very noticeable difference between an anime production like Arrietty, and most other animated films kids here are exposed to nowadays…

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The appeal of original anime films and my top 5 of them

Original anime movies, “original” meaning their content isn’t based on an existing series, don’t seem to get as much attention or produce as big a fan following as other forms of anime among English-speaking fans. The obvious reason for original anime films being less spotlighted than anime TV series is simply because much fewer of them are produced, so there’s just a lot less of them in total. But wouldn’t having less make each one more valuable?…

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Where are all the films that blend live-action and anime?

While browsing through this entertaining little site yesterday, a thought suddenly occurred to me: are there any Japanese films in which anime characters and live-action characters interact?…

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Evangelion 2.22 thoughts and impressions

I wasn’t planning on making an Evangelion 2.22 post since everyone has already written reviews/impressions of it and I can’t imagine what more can be said. But…I had a lot to say about it anyway and I just couldn’t keep it to myself XD This post is sort of a review, but it’s mostly my thoughts and impressions after finally watching the movie last night…

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“The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” U.S. premiere and movie review

This past Friday I took a relatively short trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco, CA, to attend the U.S. premiere of “The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.”

The first part of this post is my description of the actual premiere event itself, and the second part is my review of the movie. Since it’s basically two posts in one, I apologize in advance for the length…

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The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya camera rip, filmstrip video, and artbook scans

I’ve come across more goodies for the Haruhi movie, which probably won’t get a DVD release until fall at the earliest. Among other things, the long awaited camera rip for the movie is now available…

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The message of Summer Wars’ two worlds

I finally got around to watching Summer Wars, director Mamoru Hosoda’s latest anime film that just won Japan Academy’s Animation Award of the year. What I expected to be a good movie ended up being a fantastic movie that gave me a number of things to ponder…

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The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya is out! (here’s a sneak peek)

“The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya” (Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu) has now been officially released in Japanese theaters, with the first showing today at 8:00am JST. Current news and fan reviews are coming in via AnimeSuki and other sites. Unfortunately, it may be many months before a DVD will come out and allow those of us outside Japan to watch it. So for those of you who have not read the novel and want to find out at least a little of what happens in the story, I’ve complied a “sneak peek” on this post…

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