June | 2007 | Procrastinating in the Heat

Archive for June, 2007

Appleseed: Ex Machina

The sequel to the popular anime movie of 2004 is about to be released in Japan this fall.

Masamune Shirow’s post-apocalyptic future (apart from Ghost in the Shell and Dominion Tank Police) will once again be in full 3D animation and all the main characters will be back.

I was pretty satisfied with the first movie which is a mix of the first and second book of the manga. The story kept moving forward.

They’re keeping the same director from the first movie to do this new version and visually it looks stunning.

If the story follows the manga, it should tackle the growing difference of bioroids as well as Olympus’ global presence. I just hope they make it a little more funnier. Just like in the manga. Ghost in the Shell is already too serious, we need something to make us laugh.

Here’s the trailer.

2007: 06/30
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: anime
TAGS: anime
appleseed
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Can a device change the world?

Too bad there isn’t a book titled 2007 by George Orwell. If he did, it would be an Apple commercial today.

But today is 2007 and today the iPhone will be released.

Definitely there will be the lines outside AT&T stores as well as Apple stores to be one of the first with the miracle phone. As much as I didn’t want to be one of the millions of bloggers who will blog about the iPhone. But is it truly a remarkable device?

Last January in Macworld, Steve Jobs announced to the world that Apple will be making a phone. And like the Apple faithful people thought it was a great idea.

But this was entirely new territory. The iPhone enters a very mature market. A far different marketplace from when the iPod came out. This phone should be extra special for it to succeed.

The features and the concept behind the phone was totally revolutionary. One of the problems of all mobile phones to this date is that it was based on one form as Steve Jobs pointed this out in his keynote. Much like computers, the form and functions were jammed into the shape even if it was not the most efficient way of doing this. And this was the basis for the interface of the iPhone.

The mere announcement of the iPhone sent ripples through the mobile phone industry. We are now forced to look at things differently. But could the excitement to the phone live up to the hype? David Pogue’s article for the New York Times probably sums up this product.

Will now have an era like Before iPhone and After iPhone? Maybe? Because 2007 won’t be 2007 anymore.

2007: 06/29
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: gadgets
TAGS: 1984
apple
David Pogue
iphone
Mac World
NYT
Steve Jobs
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Can a device change the world?

Too bad there isn’t a book titled 2007 by George Orwell. If he did, it would be an Apple commercial today.

But today is 2007 and today the iPhone will be released.

Last January in Macworld, Steve Jobs announced to the world that Apple will be making a phone. And like the Apple faithful people thought it was a great idea.

But this was entirely new territory. The iPhone enters a very mature market. A far different marketplace from when the iPod came out. This phone should be extra special for it to succeed.

Will now have an era like Before iPhone and After iPhone? Maybe? Because 2007 won’t be 2007 anymore.

2007: 06/29
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: gadgets
TAGS: 1984
apple
David Pogue
iphone
Mac World
NYT
Steve Jobs
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"You’re under arrest!"

One of my favorite anime is coming back to the small screen with a new season.

According to the Anime News Network, a new season of “You’re Under Arrest” is in the works since 2001 for the animated series and 2002 for the live action version.

For those of you who don’t know, the series is about two Tokyo female traffic cops and their department. It’s filed with car chases and motocycle chases and an engaging storyline that could have only been possible on television.

It’s no Ghost in Shell (actually IMHO, Ghost in the Shell is an entirely different genre, totally nothing that deep).

There is great character development and plotline. There’s romance, drama, comedy and all sorts of situations that these traffic cops get into. It’s more of a comedy than your usual cop drama. I’m going to look forward to this next chapter in this engaging series.

Here’s the trailer to the movie.

2007: 06/13
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: anime
TAGS: anime
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How long should you wait?

It hits me around June and July. I consider these months to be my depression months when I think too much about everything. And since I’ve decided to separate my personal thoughts and my opinion on technology and games to my 1up page this place is now devoted to all my rants about everything not related to tech and games and anime and probably movies as well. As for my dot mac site, I still haven’t thought of what to do with that.

Anyway let’s get straight to the point.

How long should you keep people on your friends list? I mean, do you really keep in touch with these people on your friends list? Let’s say you do and they don’t reciprocate? What then? What then do you do?

I usually just let the number rot on my phone until the day that my phone tells me that my directory is full and if I want to delete the number that’s the number I press the erase button on.

But then there are times that number actually calls back.

Lately I’ve been sooo lazy in my directory that when the office calls I just answer the thing to save me the effort of deleting the number eventually.

To keep or not to keep?

2007: 06/06
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: stuff
TAGS: rants
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Add a little "Paprika" to your life

Just recently I saw Satoshi Kon’s latest work “Paprika”. It’s only now that it’s making it’s North American limited release in select cities. I must admit I was very surprised by the film. Anyone who has seen Frederico Fellini’s 8 1/2 would understand what I’m talking about. The trailer posted on the Apple website calls American animators “still in the sandbox while their Japanese counterparts are pushing the limits of the medium”.

I must admit that they’re right.

This film emphasizes that fact. I wouldn’t want to spoil your viewing pleasure of this work of art so what I will do is describe the feeling while watching the moving.

Yes, we all know the words breathtaking and amazing as words to describe the film. The film has surprises in store in every turn of the plot. There’s always something new to see each time you watch it. If you’re a filmmaker you’ll understand what I mean when I say I can really relate to one of the characters.

I admire people who push the limits of the medium. Cartoons are not just for kids the same way comic books are read by people of all ages. I’d push this for an Oscar nomination but I doubt it if it’ll win. If it does, I’d be pleasantly surprised.

Here’s the trailer

2007: 06/04
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: anime
Paprika
Satoshi Kon
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Every Metal Gear Solid game to be re-released

According to 1up.com who states that popular gaming news site IGN says that Konami is re-releasing all MGS games in Japan as part of the 20th anniversary of the franchise. The games will be re-priced and released in their original format. No word yet if this will be available outside of Japan.

I can’t believe that Solid Snake has been around for twenty years already. I still haven’t gotten far in the PSP version which is the direct sequel to the MGS3 Snake Eater. I’m sure people have much better records than I have but my proudest achievement was finishing Snake Eater in less than 3 days and I have a day job. The problem with doing that is I don’t want to play it all over again. Just thinking what I had to go through to finish the first time I played it, even though it was fun, I don’t think I can play it again.

The only MGS game I played over and over again was the Twin Snakes gamecube version. Because they added some of the moves that were introduced in the Sons of Liberty version, it made the game a whole lot easier. Not to mention the graphics were very much improved. So much so that there is speed version of it somewhere in the web.

I do hope that they release it in North America. I’d probably get the PS1 version since it’s the only one I don’t have. Wouldn’t it be nice if it was released at the same time as MGS4?