Arise!

I finally got around to watching Arise: Ghost in the Shell and though visually stunning, it was pretty incomprehensible. I haven't seen anything since the original movie except for snippets of Stand Alone Complex and Innocence. Add that to some really tough Japanese and my late afternoon need for a nap and I was struggling to remain focused.

Good stuff:  Lots of action ... A cute protagonist ... A cuter protagonist ... Great animation ... Cool dream sequence with cherry blossoms...

A sneak preview manga of the next episode in the series: border: 2 Ghost Whispers.

And the above awesome tune at the end credits, kind of like a Japanese Bjork.

Not so good:  Duration--it clocked in at less than an hour! ... A feeling of "what the heck is going on?" ... And lots of complicated Japanese.

Will I go see Ghost Whispers in late November? Unlikely. Not unless I take a crash course in GitS and Japanese.

Next on the anime agenda:

This is by Katsuhiro Otomo of Akira fame and it looks delightful. Short Peace opens on July 20th and I bought an advance ticket for this as well. This time I hope to take an interpreter with me or someone with whom I can share snide comments with (Alex?). It looks incredible with monsters and ghosts and yokai and other cool stuff. This ticket came with 5 cool postcards as well!

Also coming up is 風立ちぬ Kaze-tachinu (The Wind Rises), the latest extravaganza by Ghibli.
There is some artwork up at the Cinema of it and a future Ghibli work.

Even though Japan is a little late enrolling at モンスターズ・ユニバーシティ, Monster's University, I'll be seeing it on Saturday! Woohoo!