Primal Instinct Ready for Deployment

Hello, World. [computer science] 

No, really. Bom gia! 

Here I'd like to write a short update on life and some ideas that have reverberated throughout my memory. 

First, I'm starting to start to ditch my electronics more and embrace nature. I've been experimenting with playing a lot less video games, and now I've finally reached the point where I think I can stop and not feel like I'm missing out. How did that happen? 

Well, you see, I was having extreme computer issues. Minor problems, not hardware issues, just software issues. In the process, I learned a little bit more about software and how to fix them when things aren't handshaking. I had more fun learning and fixing the problem than actually playing the game. Therefore, I don't really need to play the game anymore. Capeesh? 

I even started turning off my phone and not leaving it in my pocket when I'm on the work floor. Much better, mucho gusto. Why? Less distractions. Less anxiety. Better performance.  

Second, I'm starting to enjoy nature more, despite the 100 degree California heat. If you haven't read my post on what its been like being on foot in the hot sun all the time, look no further, and read this post here here. There are a lot of good mentions in that post about how to deal with 100 degree heat, on foot, working, eating, and more. 

My body is starting to respond. The first couple trips of adventuring in 100 degree heat were so brutal, so brutal in fact, that I could hardly really walk without feeling the weight of a thousand suns. [Lol], no, but it was fucking hot and I felt like a ton as a result. The answer to this problem? Well, you might not like this, but you just gotta fucking man up and not wimp out and just fucking overcome it like a boss you fucking weakling. 

Your body feels weak and sluggish in the 100 degree hot sun because its hot, yes. But also, you've grown fat and weak, living on the American fat of bougies society, and now you can barely walk in 100 degree heat. That's the truth of the matter. The answer is to go primal and go back to nature and ditch video games and porn marathons, your endless cable news TV, your VR, your alcohol. Stop being a fuckin' biomass. 

If you want some inspiration, I recommend watching this cartoon on cartoon network called Primal. It's really cool and shows what man is really like when he isn't weighed down by the limitations of the 21st century and its bourgeois rulers. 

But what do I know? I'm a guitar player hippie who should've been around in the 60s, not now. Yet here I am, and there you are, reading this for some reason, staring into the either.

I see now the limitations put on myself and others and am pushing through to the other side of human activity and intersubjectivity through my armchair sociology. 

I see nature as something I've always loved, even as a child mediating under the stars. But I also know that nature is nasty, brutish, and short. So the long and short of it is, yes, nature is good, but it is no replacement or substitution for God or food for the soul. It's just something out there for you to enjoy. To really get spiritual healing you have to go much farther and do much more. 

Go do something you beautiful goon. And don't forget the water bottle this time. 

p.s. time keeps moving but its always in a circle, endless, starless, until it disappears within being and nothingness, and the cycle begins anew

-your friendly neighborhood retail philosopher 

Dragon Ball Super Broly

The new Dragon Ball Z Super Broly movie was pretty cool. It became the best selling anime movie on opening weekend. Although I thought the movie was 'good', I didn't think it was great. However, I don't think one should go to an anime movie expecting something to be great, or for it to change your life. You go in, sit down, suspend your systems of belief for an hour or two, and then move on with your life. I'll explain my problems with the movie as well as what made it good. 

First of all, Broly's origin story in this movie is bare bones basic (b-b-b, anyone?). In the original movies they didn't even try to give him a story, which I almost respect more. Instead they explain how when Goku was a baby, Broly was trying to sleep in his Sayian tank, and Goku kept waking him up with all his whining.Then at some point he broke free, and tried to whoop Kakkarot's (Goku) ass. Pretty simplistic, but it worked well.

Here, we have Broly as a vengeance story. Broly is a baby in his tank and King Vegeta sends the baby off-world because he's seen to have such incredible power, that he might destroy the planet and everyone on it! (surprise, surprise, Frieza ends up doing that anyway) Anyways, Perigues, Broly's father ends up high-jacking a ship to Broly's destination. Once there, he grows up with his son on a desolate planet where everything's trying to kill them. 

Fast forward to Super's time period and all of a sudden Frieza's henchmen (not really lackeys, just peeps doing their jobs as Freiza Force members) find Broly and Perigues on said remote planet. They take them to Frieza, who is in awe of finding more live Sayians. His plan, to pit Broly against Goku. 

Vegeta goes up to bat first. At first Vegeta is beating on Broly pretty hard, even just in base form. Then he realizes that Broly is learning how to fight better the longer the first continues, like a true Sayian warrior! Eventually Vegeta has to keep powering up from Sayian 1-2-blue-god form and every time Broly goes down he keeps getting back up. Eventually Vegeta can't take him on anymore. The power within Broly is immeasurable! 

Next, Goku steps up to fight. Its a brutal battle. In fact, Goku gets thrashed around like a rag doll, screaming in agony, which prompted this writer's laughter in the theater. Super Sayian God form isn't enough to take down Broly, who again and again, keeps getting back up, and powering up even more and more!

Goku talks to Piccolo and they come up with a plan. The only way they can defeat Broly is if they do the fusion dance (embarrassing for Vegeta, a Prince), and become Gogeta! (Gogeta is canon now) Once they combine to become Gogeta, they fight Broly in an epic splatter of cartoon pixels and animation. (the best part of the film) 

Before Gogeta can really do bodily harm or dare I say it, [KILL] Broly, the Frieza Force henchmen steal the dragon balls from Freiza's other henchmen and they make a wish. You see, one of them was a girl that really felt sympathy for Broly, and she even stole and broke Perigues' super strong shock collar that he put on Broly, thus the reason why Broly kept powering up more and more, and he (Perigues) had to just let Broly go on like that. 

Anyways, so the girl wishes Broly to be put back on his faraway planet, away from Gogeta, right before a super strong energy blast is shot at him! This shows you that most fights in Dragon Ball are for the ultimate costs and also for no costs at all. (the true lesson of Dragon Ball) Goku ends up using instant transmission to go to Broly and his two new friends (former Frieza henchmen who saved him), gives them a house capsule, food, and says he will come back to train Broly himself. 

One last thing I'll say is that Broly himself is a simpleton. Although the old Broly movies he was even more of a barbarian who couldn't even speak sentences, here he is still simple minded, like a child. His only friend on the planet was a giant monster that tried to kill him, a play for sympathy that works on the audience. I like the idea of Broly being canon, although I don't think his backstory is very interesting. 

One minor complaint I have about the movie is that the English voice acting isn't as exciting to me, nor did I think it was all that great. Give me Japanese subtitles for any anime or anime movie. I don't mind the reading, plus I think the emotional gravitas (or lack there of) is much easier to accomplish in the native language of the artists themselves.

The animation in this movie is some of the best Dragon Ball I've ever seen, especially in a movie theater where you can really see all the pixels flashing across the screen more easily. Early Super animation wasn't very good but now they've got it down to a t. I'm definitely going to watch this movie again in Japanese and see if I like it any better. 

"We are Gogeta." 

Your Name 君の名は

So I saw a fantastic anime film the other night called Your Name. The film is arguably science fiction, romance, and deals with the fact that nothing lasts forever, which is very Japanese. You could say the film is science fiction because its about a boy and a girl who swap bodies through the mystic mystery of a shrine and the impending doom of a large crash landing comet. And the film is obviously a romance because although they don't realize it at first our boy and girl are star-crossed, and this is made even more evident when they finally meet, where instead of the boy writing his name on the girls' hand he instead writes I love you. The film was a huge commercial success and aired at Anime Expo 2016 (which I attended, but didn't see the film at), but only recently came out on DVD, made available through Netflix shipping.

The film is very slow-paced and mysterious at first. But once the film gets going about thirty minutes in you start to understand where the film is going and the fact that they are living in different time periods, although its only a small difference of three years. But its still so much of a time difference for them to have a hard time finding each other. There's religious elements because the girl lives with her grandmother and they take care of a shrine. The shrine is said to be ruled by a guardian spirit who rules human experiences and connections.

There's a comet that the boy finds out is going to destroy the girl's town and he tells her to evacuate the town. Once back in his own body and time he finds out most of the people survived the comet miraculously and he spots the girl with her soon to be husband in his Tokyo hometown. They chase each other down and ask,"Your name?"

The artwork in the film was very good too. There was some 3D shading effects and details, like when the comet came crashing down. Apparently the art work was all mostly done by one guy. Pretty impressive stuff. The anime art style of the characters is drawn in a modern way and there are some funny Japanese sort of mannerisms, like how every time they swap bodies the girl always touches her breasts, and likewise the guy always grabs down there. Pretty funny but not something that would happen in an American animated film made for the box office.

This is a film I would recommend to all anime fans because although the film is slow it has a lot of meaning in it. The idea of love, trying to find love, always having it within your grasp but then only to have it slip away once again. This is an idea we think about our entire lives even if we think we've found our true love, weather it be a person or vocation. For that reason I'd even be down to watch the movie again with a girl or even my friends who like anime but not so much the thoughtful sorts of anime like this.

Highly recommended!

Crunchyroll and Funimation Team Up, Bringing Joy to Everyone

Today, anime streaming service titans announced that they were going to work together. Crunchyroll now offers titles from Funimation's summer simulcast. D. Dray-man Hallow, First Love Monster and Puzzle & Dragons X will be available on Crunchyroll. What's so awesome is that Cowboy Bebop, PSYCHO-PASS and Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash will follow suit. Dub-centric Funimation will host Crunchy summer anime 91 Days, Mob Psycho 100 and Orange. Later down the road Free -Iwatobi Swim Club and The Testament of Sister New Devil will follow suit.

This is all amazing, right? Yes it's incredible that anime viewers won't have to sway from different websites or services for their subbing and dubbing needs. Although both services are working together this is not by any means a merger. Funimation COO Mike  DuBouise said, “No. Funimation and Crunchyroll have entered into a distribution partnership. Our goal was not a merger. We will still continue to be separate companies serving the anime industry.”

This is pretty cool news. I am a super big anime fan. I wouldn't call myself an otaku or nerd about it but all my friends would. It's my favorite thing to watch other than comedies on Netflix. It's just so relaxing and chill late at night after work. I've had a Crunchyroll subscription for over a year now and I've seen so much great anime there. They stay super updated to all the latest stuff. It's great.

I'll write about some of the better anime I've seen on Crunchyroll sometime. Good day for anime fans.

One Punch Man

 
     One Punch Man is simply put one of the greatest anime I've ever seen. I can compare this anime to something great like Dragon Ball Z, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and Gundam Wing. This is the reason Japan is awesome (among other things like great music). This is a very basic anime. It's a bit of a comedy with a bit of drama and lots of action. It's all about this guy named Saitama and he's a hero for fun. He wanted to become strong so he did this crazy training regiment where he trained so hard that he went bald. And now he's the greatest fighter out of all the heroes. In the show there are other heroes who are ranked in a list online and they're all different. There's this one old guy who's a martial arts fighter. Then there's this gay guy who gets naked and is super powerful. Then there's a young woman who has psychic abilities. Then there's Saitama's disciple, a cyborg named Genos who isn't really that powerful but somehow managed to rank up to S rank, higher than Saitama on the hero scale. There's all kinds of baddies in the show, like a Bee woman, a cyborg gorilla, bald headed footmen in power armor, a giant monster man made in a lab, and the last enemy (and the only one who could take one punch w/o dying) the alien at the end of the story. The thing that I like about this anime is that the fighting is so great. There's so much destruction and chaos. The anime is a little gory as well, as well, things get smashed into a bloody pulp from one punch.
     This is one of the best new anime and it's a must watch for any serious anime fan. But it did leave behind some questions. The 12th episode ends on a note that there won't be any more. However, there was a lot of unknown cliffhangers. On the 12th episode this ninja warrior guy who fought Saitama earlier in the show tells Genos to watch out for Black Knight (another hero), and that Black Knight's not his friend. Also, we never had a truly great fight where Saitama was fighting someone who was equal to his level of power. Even the alien at the end said when he was dying that Saitama was holding back and that he never even had a chance to begin with. It was a great fight visually and the music was awesome but come on, this uber powerful alien King of the Universe died in two punches! Talk about an anticlimactic way to end a great show. But I can't be mad because the whole show was just so good. Another thing left unanswered is the fact that the ninja guy fought Saitama earlier and they were suppose to eventually fight again. This ninja guy was like the only guy who could really stand a chance against Saitama and it would've been great to see them duke it out. Because of these unknowns I don't think that this series is over. I believe that they will make a second season. I was on reddit reading about it and people believe there will be a second season in maybe a year or two. That would be sick.
     Lastly, there's so many memorable moments from this anime. Lately I've been watching a lot of anime, mostly because I'm subscribed to Crunchyroll and I feel like I have to keep watching a lot to get my money's worth. When I finished Hunter x Hunter I took a long break but now I'm watching Gurren Laagan, which is turning out to be another great anime. It's an old one from 2007 that I missed. GL's (Gurren Laagan) about these humans who are forced to live underground by some kind of monster King but the humans fight back using Gunmen (basically giant mechs). It's so cool. I could compare it to other great mecha anime like Gunsword, Gundam Wing, and Evangelion. Anyways, One Punch man is just amazing. You have to see it if you like anime. Chances are if you've been on the internet a lot, you've seen all the One Punch Man memes, quotes, and pictures. They are literally everywhere on Facebook. There's a lot of great cosplays too. This anime is a 10/10, must watch!

Dragonball GT

     The other day I finished Dragonball GT. It is quite a feat because the whole series lasts about 64 episodes. Usually I avoid any anime longer than 24 episodes but sometimes I make exceptions. I've been kind of interested in watching One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach but because of how long those anime are I have avoided them. However, I might decide one day that I need to watch those because they are 'thee' modern anime of our time. GT is basically a bit after Dragonball Z, where Trunks and Goten are older, and Gohan and Videl have a daughter who's still a kid, her name is Pan. In GT, Goku gets transformed into a little kid because of Emperor Pilaf using the dragonballs. So basically the first 30 or 40 episodes of this anime are kid Goku, Trunks, and Pan searching the galaxy for the dragonballs.
     The entire beginning of this series is kind of lame. Goku fights some alien type dudes but most of them are extremely weak and he's able to defeat them as a Super Sayian while in kid form. However, once the series starts going, it gets really good! I would say GT is amazing just because of the enemies that Goku fights near the end of the series.
     The best part of GT, in my humble opinion, is the Baby saga. Baby is this robot mutant created by this evil doctor named Doctor Myuu. Baby kills Myuu and then proceeds to go after Goku. This is the hardest fight that Goku has ever faced at this point, even since Dragonball Z. Baby was way stronger then even Majinn Buu! Basically Baby's main power is that he can take over peoples' bodies and make them kind of do anything he wants. Eventually he takes over the entire Earth and turns them into his race, something called Truffles. He even takes over all the Sayians (Goten, Trunks, Gohan, and even Vegeta!). Once he takes over Vegeta he realizes he's at the peak of his powers and decides to use the dragonballs to re-create his Truffle planet that was killed years ago by King Vegeta and the Sayians of old. But eventually Goku comes to the rescue and has to take down this Baby. The Kai's decide that Goku isn't strong enough so they make him re-grow his tail the hard way; by using a giant pair of pliers and pulling his tail out of his rear end. It was pretty comical but effective. They did this because Goku's only chance of getting stronger was using his tail to become a Super Sayian four, the highest level of Super Sayian in any of the Dragonball series (but not in the Battle of the Gods or Resurrection of Freiza movies). Goku becomes a giant ape against Baby in the middle of their fight but goes on a rampage, almost destroying the entire Truffle planet (which had all the humans from Earth on it). Eventually Pan calms Goku down and he eventually transforms into a Super Sayian four, the peak of Super Sayian power! What's interesting is that he transforms as a kid but once he's Super Sayian four he's an adult again, with a fur coat, a tail, and long black hair; he looks super cool. In my opinion, this is the best looking Super Sayian form and the best. All is going well until Baby Vegeta (because he took over Vegeta's body) turns into a giant ape using something called bluntswaves from the moon, something that evil Bulma uses (he took over Bulma too) to help out Baby. This was the best fight in the series. It's hard to say exactly how Goku won because I've kind of forgotten a little bit. But from what I do remember it is a very close fight but in the end Goku annihilates him into the Sun using a Kamehameha wave.
     The second best part of GT was when Goku had to fight Super Android 17. I'm still a bit confused on how there were two Android 17's and how they fused together to become Super Android 17 but I don't mind being a little clueless; after all this is just a cartoon. This fight is very intense and basically Goku loses this fight just because he's simply not strong enough, even at a Super Sayian four. He ends up only winning this fight because Super Android 17 was fighting within himself, the good side trying to stop the bad side from killing everyone. It was interesting seeing Goku get utterly destroyed in this fight. It was also cool how Super Android 17 looked. He had his classic look but he was bulkier, his hair was longer, and his clothes had a different flair to them. Android 18 was the last one to stand up to him but eventually Goku punches through Super Android 17's chest using an attack called Dragon Fist. It was brutal and awesome!
     Finally, the last best part of GT was the last 20 episodes where Goku had to fight all of these dragons that were the evil contents from all of the dragonballs. At the end he fights this one super powerful dragon that uses all the dragonballs' power. His name was Omega Shenron and the fight against him was super fun, but trying at times because technically Goku could've killed him at some point and it would've been over with, but instead it just doesn't work like that. The horned guy in the picture is Omega Shenron, and that's Gogeta in the middle. In this fight Goku and Vegeta fuse as Super Sayian fours, becoming Gogeta! This fight could've been over when Gogeta used his fatal attack Big Bang Kamehameha but instead Gogeta is having fun at Omega's expense. But things turn bad when Gogeta's fusion time suddenly runs out, and Goku's left as a little kid again, and Vegeta's back to Super Sayian four. By the way, it was awesome seeing Vegeta turn into a Super Sayian four because for most of this series we don't get to see much fighting from him. Everything turns all bad and Omega's about to destroy the Earth, and pollute the entire galaxy with negative energy but then Goku tells Kai that he needs energy from all over the entire universe for his Spirit Bomb to be strong enough to destroy Omega. It was a great finishing move to end the series.
     Lastly, I loved GT and it has a place in my heart with the rest of all my favorite anime. Even though most DBZ fans call it crap I actually loved it. The last episode was amazing and almost brought me to tears, it was so beautiful. In the final episode we see Goku JR (Goku's great grandson) and Vegeta JR (Vegeta's great grandson) duke it out at the World Martial Arts Tournament. Vegeta JR says to Goku JR,"what are you wearing rags?" and then Goku JR (in the exact same cool manner as Goku),"they're not rags Vegeta, these happen to be the clothes of my great ancestor". It was awesome hearing him say that. Then they start fighting and they're amazing. Eventually Vegeta JR turns Super Sayian and Goku JR does the same. Vegeta JR makes a comment about how he didn't know they could both go blonde, and says,"This is gonna be a good fight". It was just awesome. If anyone is debating whether they should watch GT or not (basically because its not canon), I would say they definitely should. The good thing about it is that it is super old and I watched every single episode on YouTube. Its very easy to find and the series gets good right in the middle and stays super exciting until the very end. The cool thing about this was that I finished this series on the same day that I saw Resurrection of Freiza. I'm thinking about the next anime I'm going to watch next. I'm thinking I'll start watching Yu Yu Hakasho. My friends seem to like it so I'll probably give it a shot soon. What are some anime that you all watch? Let me know in the comments.

Dragonball Z: Resurrection of Freiza

    

     Yesterday was an awesome day. For one thing I've had a super busy and exciting week. On Sunday my friend had a party at his place. And then I had some important official business that I had to do for work on Wednesday. But also on that same day me and my friends went to go see Dragonball Z: Resurrection of Freiza. It was awesome! It was the first time I ever saw a Dragonball Z movie in the theaters. Usually I just watch them online. The last one, Dragonball Z: Battle of the Gods, I just saw online in Japanese before it came out in America. In comparison to BoG (Battle of the Gods), I would say that RoF (Resurrection of Freiza) is a lot more exciting and cooler. But for some reason I still prefer BoG because I think the language is better in Japanese, and I saw I saw in Japanese. The English voices in DBZ are what all the American fanboys are used to. However, I feel like sometimes the words and the sentences are better translated in English rather than being said in English. That's just how I prefer my anime. I am kind of elitist about this. I'm sure other people out there feel the same way about their anime. The one thing I hated was Freiza's voice in this movie. The Americans sometimes do very poor voices for anime characters. In this case I can't say that it's bad because its the classic American Freiza voice that we all know and love. But I just found it annoying. The voice for Freiza was at times high pitched and just hits my eardrums the wrong way. Everybody else sounded fine, especially Goku. However, Vegeta seemed to have a much deeper voice. I didn't mind it but I did notice it. Lets talk about the plot of this anime movie.
     Basically Freiza's in Hell being tormented in some childlike land with toys and fairies. He's been in Hell all this time after Goku's defeated Cell and Majinn Buu. Now, Freiza's henchmen suddenly decide that they should use the dragonballs on Earth to resurrect Freiza. When they make the wish Shenron (the dragon that grants wishes) tells them it is not wise because Freiza's body has been dismembered and cut up too much. They say to do it anyways and Freiza comes flying out of the sky in pieces. However, with the new technology that Freiza's henchmen have they are able to put together his dismembered body! Once Freiza's back to life he decides he's going to exact his revenge on Goku. He's comes up with a plan to train for four months. Why he thinks he can beat Goku after only training for four months is a major problem with the plot in this movie, because Goku has been training for years! Anyways, after Freiza trains he decides to attack Earth with a thousand of his men. Meanwhile, Goku and Vegeta are training with Whis on Lord Beerus's sleeping area. Whis is Lord Beerus's (God of Destruction, destroys planets for not having good food) caretaker. He was so fast that Goku and Vegeta together couldn't land a single blow on him. After their training was over Whis told Vegeta that he needs to relax more. And he told Goku that he relaxes too much. While that's happening there's a big battle on Earth. Piccolo, Gohan, Tien, Master Roshi, Krillin, and an Intergalactic Spacecop alien are fighting the thousand Freiza troops. They are all really weak so this is where the classic DBZ fighters shine. I really liked it when Master Roshi was all like,"All right. Let's do this!" and he powered up, getting extremely bulky and strong, reminding me of how Goku looked when he was first fighting Vegeta. My other favorite moment of the movie was when Master Roshi was using Kamehameha against Freiza's henchmen. That was pretty epic seeing as how we hardly got to see Master Roshi fight in classic DBZ. Finally, Goku and Vegeta get Bulma's distress call and Goku instant transmissions to Earth, ready to confront Freiza.
     Freiza is all cocky and challenges Goku to a straight-up fight. Freiza says that he's going to transform into his final form right from the start. He powers up and he's his classic white and purple skinny super fast form from classic DBZ. Goku punches him around like a rag-doll easily. After a while Freiza says that he's been holding back and transforms into a newer, kind of more lame (in my opinion) form. In this new form Freiza is golden, which looks hella lame. But he's like way more powerful in this form now. Him and Goku continue to fight but he's still not quite strong enough to damage Goku. So after a while he says he's done and that he quits. Goku, being who he is accepts this but a split second later Freiza's commander shoots his ray gun at Goku, and Goku's lying on the ground, his hair going from blonde to black. However, he isn't dead yet because Krillin gives him a Sensu bean and all of a sudden he's back up and walking. Freiza made a funny comment about how they had some kind of 'wonder drug'. Oh, and by the way Goku was fighting Freiza in Super Sayian God form, which he learned from the BoG movie. So now Vegeta is up to bat. He punishes Freiza easily. However, Freiza decides he's going to kill himself, as well as everyone on Earth, and the entire planet! Lord Beerus and Whis (who have been watching the fight w/ the Z fighters) put them all in a protective barrier and they watch as the planet explodes. Lord Beerus mentions that Freiza can survive in Space after being blown apart (somehow but I didn't get why, maybe its because of his race), so he calls what Freiza did a cheap blow but rather ingenious. Whis tells Goku that he can go back in time three minutes and Goku can just kill Freiza, thus preventing the Earth from being destroyed. So they go through with it and when they're back Goku just annihilates Freiza with a Kamehameha wave. Very nice!
     Lastly, I thought that ending was rather cheesy. They could've just had to re-fight Freiza on another planet and used the dragonballs on another planet to restore the Earth and all the people who died, but that would've made for a much longer movie. I believe this movie ran around one hour and forty-five minutes, something like that. So yeah, that's the gist of the movie. I really enjoyed the fight against Freiza's minions because they were weak and the other Z fighters looked extremely strong against them. I enjoyed seeing the other Z fighters getting in the fight. Also, it was cool seeing Vegeta go Super Sayian God against Freiza. Vegeta usually doesn't get as much airtime as Goku so it was cool seeing him absolutely destroy Freiza in some cool attacks. Also, it was cool seeing this movie in the theaters because I was sitting next to a young dad who was there with his kids and his wife. The kids were so excited about the movie and the characters, it was cool seeing kids excited about characters like Goku and Vegeta. DBZ was a big part of my childhood too so I could relate. The dad even talked to me a bit about DBZ and how he likes anime and stuff. At the end he even shook my hand and told me to have a good night. It was pretty cool. Later that night when I got home I watched the final episodes of Dragonball GT. If I had to say which is better: GT or this movie, I would have to say that I like GT more. I know most DBZ fans hate GT but I actually love it. Not more than classic DBZ but it does have a special place in my heart now (haha). Anyways, I would interested in seeing this movie again but in Japanese just to hear the difference in voices. This movie won't be in theaters very long so try to go see it soon. Otherwise you'll have to wait to see it online somewhere. It's probably out online in Japanese as I'm currently writing this, look for it if you want to see it. I highly recommend this one.

Rick and Morty

 

     Rick and Morty is my new favorite cartoon. The show is created by Justin Roiland (co-creator/executive producer) and Dan Harmon (Community) for Adult Swim. I really dig how it's mainly about science fiction adventures in outer space. But its not just that. There's also family elements and stuff. The show balances family life with science fiction. Basically the show revolves around Rick and Morty. Rick is Morty's smart but psychopathic technological grandpa who is so smart he's developed a ray gun and an multidimensional portal where he can go into all kinds of places in deep space, even into other dimensions where things like demonic spirits of aliens exist! However, Rick is an alcoholic elderly guy that moved in with his daughter's family. He spends all of his time getting his grandson Morty to go out on these outlandish adventures throughout space and other universes. Morty kind of has a unstable life with his family, so these crazy adventures just cause him a lot more stress at home and school. In addition, Morty is not smart, nor street smart, but he always tries to do the right thing, something that Rick comes to recognize and respect during episodes. There's even comic books for this show and there's only one season! (11 episodes) They've already confirmed that there is going to be a second season coming out in July 2015, just next month.
     The artwork for this cartoon is kind of bare and simplistic, very similar to the Simpsons. Roiland has also said that the artwork was heavily inspired by Adventure Time and Regular Show, other great Cartoon Network cartoons.
     "Since the pilot was made available, the series has received critical acclaim, currently holding a Metacritic score of 85, indicating "universal acclaim"^. David Weigand of San Francisco Chronicle described it as "offbeat and occasionally coarse... the take-away here is that it works." He praised the animation direction by James McDermott for being "fresh, colorful and as wacky as the script", and compares the series as to having "shades of Futurama, South Park and even Beetlejuice", ultimately opining that its humor felt "entirely original"^. Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times praised the series and compared it to the film Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa; he concluded his review stating: "Grandparenting at its unhinged finest." Todd Spangler of Variety gave the series a lukewarm review; while he found the series was passable, he contrasted it with other Adult Swim series as "often seems overly reliant on simply being frenetic at the expense of being witty" and enjoyed it as "a welcome attempt to dream just a little bigger. David Sims of The A.V. Club gave the series an "A−". In reviewing the first two episodes, he complimented the animation for its "clean, simple style." He stated that while the series has "a dark, sick sensibility," he praised its "effort to give each character a little bit of depth", further applauding Roiland's voice talent for the eponymous characters^{." (Wikipedia)
     I've only seen like maybe four or five episodes and I have to say that this show is great. I actually found out about it through the Simpsons. The Simpsons have this opening couch gag and the creators of Rick and Morty did one for the show and I thought it was just way cool. Also, most of my friends have heard of it. One of my friends told me that it's on Adult Swim, and that Adult Swim is catered for stoners. He told me about how sometimes they'll just put on a waterfall, and let the washing waters just run on the channel for 15 minutes. I thought that was pretty cool. 
     Anyway, on this one episode Rick was kidnapped by these aliens and put in this artificial world where he's inside a simulation of real life. The idea has been overdone in many a science fiction movie but they're was comedic elements like the fact that Rick knew that the aliens wouldn't watch him if he was naked because they couldn't bear to look at genitalia, so that was pretty funny. Also, the aliens simulated Morty so when Rick and Morty find the escape pod to exit the alien simulated world, the aliens come and laugh at Rick and he finds himself in a simulation inside of a simulation-Inception much? It was simple idea but it worked well in the show. In the end Rick starts singing this great saxophone riff, one of the best sax riffs I've ever heard. I know I've heard the song but I can't quite place the name. I think its a Kenny G song, but its like his best song and its actually pretty good. I just thought that was a super cool way to end a space kind of episode, with a cool sax riff. Check it out here here. I liked it so much I ordered the DVD with the first season. Should be great.}