Author Archives: Milo (blogofthenorthstar.com)

3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Read This Blog: A 2011 Retrospective

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With the third year of this site kicking off in January, I’m forced to look back and think: what a terrible idea this all was.

But that’s not the whole story. Say what you want about the blog itself, working on it improved my communication skills and it’s taught me things which I’ve applied to my day job, with profitable results.

Everything is connected. And it’s with that fact in mind that I put together these three reasons why you should never read my blog. I’m doing this because I care about you.

3. I’m kind of a dick.

I began this site wanting to cultivate a friendly, welcoming tone that might ultimately persuade skeptics to watch Fist of the North Star. Many of those posts now give me douche chills so I’ve deleted them.

Blogging became more fun when I stopped trying to be a calm expert and started trying to give voice to the emotional enthusiasm I get when I really like something. A side effect of this existential probing is increased impulsiveness and abrasiveness in my writing.

Let’s not mischaracterize it: being a dick keeps me blogging without getting bored. I called the Head of Marketing & Acquisitions at MangaUK a cunt, for chrissakes. AND HE APOLOGIZED TO ME FOR IT.

2. I like comics that aren’t about superheros or transgendered robotic muffin princesses from the future.

Alright, I haven’t written about comics often. But I endeavor to do it more going into 2012. It’s intimidating as hell. Joseph “Jog” McCulloch sets the bar too damn high.

I’m doomed to failure, as there’s not much of an audience for comics discussion that goes beyond the gender politics of Power Girl’s tit cleavage or glorified ad copy about what a consummate master Tezuka is for deconstructing his reconstructions.

I’m stunned my review of a Franco-Belgian horror comic gets daily hits, often from search engines. It’s not a testament to my writing skill, but to how little has been written on the subject in English. That comic kicks ass and it’s actively in print in North America! I guess there isn’t a requisite movie tie-in to generate mainstream interest. And no underage nudity for the otaku.

1. I do everything wrong.

To write respectably, you’re supposed to nuance and weaken every point you make, and disguise your preferences with academic language to seem more objective.

To be a good blogger you need a modicum of civility. For example, don’t shit on your audience.

If you blog about anime, you’re supposed to hang out with pre-teens at anime conventions, even though you’re 25, everything is cheaper when you buy it online, and otaku smell bad.

If you like comics, everything at the end of the day is supposed to go back to your nostalgic love of superhero comics, and how that childhood fire only dims with time as your hobby inevitably slides into the pathetic matter of simply collecting comics for the hell of it.

You’re not supposed to like anime without liking video games more.

And if you blog about manga, by god you’re supposed to hail every Vertical title as a must-own product for manga connoisseurs such as yourself.

I do none of these things. I don’t take this blog seriously, and I’m a hack.

You probably shouldn’t visit in 2012.

Outrage: not as much outrage as I was expecting.

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Takeshi Kitano, writer, director and star of the 2010 Yakuza movie Outrage, is a complex entity unto himself. I’ll resolve, then, to talk about this film without bringing in the complicating factors of his iconic past work and this being hailed as his return to proper form. Look Kitano up if you’d like, there’s a reason his reputation precedes him.

When I first heard about this movie and saw the promotional photographs of Takeshi grimly staring on, pistol in hand, I had it all wrong. I imagined Outrage as some kind of “old pissed off Yakuza versus the world” movie. Not the case. Kitano isn’t even the proper star of the film, considering how many plot points rarely involve him. His performance is often disarmingly charming, bordering on jovial. I blame the marketing team for misrepresenting this movie.

Outrage is a crime film about dishonor and nihilistic futility. In it we see boss after boss manipulate their underlings to suit their selfish purposes at each other’s expense. The plot gets so complicated you may begin lose track of who is betraying who, and for what grievance in particular. But that’s part of its maddening intrigue.

It’s not an unpleasant experience, watching this movie. I thank Kitano for keeping the runtime under two hours, as there’s a limit to how long something like this can amble before it grows tedious. Outrage flirts with that limit. There may even be some heavy petting.

One subplot in particular, involving a Ghanaian ambassador, is so rushed and punctuated with fades to black you can’t help but marvel at the creative desperation to detail a series of events which add little to the movie itself. The actor playing the ambassador is terrible, and while his portrayal isn’t at all racist, it’s uncomfortable in that patented Japanese way you’re probably used to. Maybe the actor shouldn’t have bugged his eyes out quite so many times, for starters.

There’s a plodding quality to Outrage which makes it stand out and enriches the performances within. It puts me in an odd place in that I’m not left feeling impressed, but I look forward to seeing the 2012 sequel, which is already in development.

Quick addendum: I know next to nothing about fashion and I’m barely competent at getting dressed in the morning, however: this movie taught me if you’re long in the tooth and not terribly in shape, a good Caesar haircut alone can make you seem more badass. Not sure why that works, but it does.

Tekken: Blood Vengeance wasn’t complete horseshit.

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I feel obligated to follow up on this, considering my excitement for the project when it was first announced in May. As clips from the movie began appearing online, my enthusiasm dwindled so rapidly I even felt dread when my copy arrived.
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I want to defend my earlier excitement. A great Tekken movie could be made! Tekken takes place in a ravaged and depleted world torn apart by enormous militarized corporations ran at the whimsy of self-obsessed gangsters acting out bitter, petty feuds. There’s storytelling potential there.
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Blood Vengeance could have done a better job of capitalizing on that, but the good outweighs the bad, in that familiar Final Fantasy VII Advent Children sort of way. As I’ve said before, I wish we had more standalone computer animation that reflects the action and rich detail you get in video game cut scenes and trailers, and Blood Vengeance is an earnest attempt to do just that.
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Blood Vengeance, like Advent Children, delivered. Eventually. You just have to endure 30 combined minutes of dopey teenage lackadaisical drama. And avoid the English dub. The movie does a marginally better job of being coherent to people who don’t keep up with the video games than Advent Children. And I wasn’t entirely put off by the teenage characters, if that counts for anything.
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But I can’t show you what I liked about Blood Vengeance without spoiling the ending. So join me after the jump if you dare. You’ll probably dare. Whaddya have to lose?

7 things I’d rather spend $60 on instead of a new video game

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I suffer an affliction of the mind. You see, sometimes I buy video games the week they come out.
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I’m trying to get better, but the road to recovery is a long and difficult one. The first step is admitting you have a problem. The second step is outlining alternatives to paying $60 for a video game, because the retail cost of the damn things drop so rapidly.
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This isn’t a hypothetical list. These are all things I’ve bought instead!
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7. Three copies of the same game six months later.
Okay, I never actually did this. But seeing complete editions of L.A. Noire on sale for $20 during Thanksgiving made me feel quite foolish for buying it as soon as it came out, considering I maybe played half of it so far.
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6. A Ghost in the Shell 1.0 Blu-ray imported from Japan.
Call me crazy, but I’d rather have this beautiful piece of art in HD than all of Stand Alone Complex in any format. And don’t get it twisted, that Ghost in the Shell 2.0 we got is a perversion of the original movie. There’s a reason the original is sold separately on Blu-ray in Japan. I didn’t feel like waiting for the dopey domestic market to catch up.
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5. A bunch of used DVDs.
Forget the Netflix and Blu-ray hype for a minute. Plenty of movies may very well never be available in either format. And DVDs are going out of print every day. There’s no reason not to own the films you value, especially considering the absurdly low prices they can fetch used. Amazon and Half.com are my preferred haunts.
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4. Cat Shit One (both DVD and Blu-ray versions).
When I originally drafted this post, this anime was still available exclusively at Amazon.com. Here’s hoping it turns up again sometime soon. Cat Shit One was a nutty idea: a CG adaptation of a manga about anthropomorphic animals fighting realistic human wars. It ended up being a labor of love released to little fanfare. I got the DVD for screen cap purposes, and the Blu-ray for the HD visuals. Each version is packed with so many special features I still don’t think I’ve been through them all.
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3. Art books!
I have a huge queue of art books I’m itching to get. Every once in a while I scrounge up the cash to make a dent in the wish list. It’s hard to beat the re-readability of a gorgeous art book. I’m a sucker for pretty pictures, whether it be high-resolution Yoshiaki Kawajiri movie posters or 19th century engravings by Gustave Doré.
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2. A bottle of Glenlivet scotch.
This is my liquor of choice. If you follow me on Twitter, you might be tired of me talking about it. It’s delicious all by itself. No soda or lemon juice or ice cubes required. Highly recommended.
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1. One volume of the Fist of the North Star TV series.
You’re not surprised, are you? This anime is the bee’s knees.
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