No one knows what happened to the photographer

It is rare to catch a shifter in mid shifting

The Japanese Are Weird: The World God Only Knows

I've said it here before and I'll say it now, the Japanese can be muy weird.  It's like the knob sometimes fall off on their volume control for strange and it's left at 11.5.  Dating Sims are a good example of this.  It's a sub genre of Japanese gaming that is just plain strange.  Guys try to seduce digital girls by manipulating the situation and their feelings.  Yeah, sort of a groddy feel just describing these things.  "The Worl God Only Knows" take the world of dating sims and runs with it.

Our hero is a geek who plays these games so well and so often he's called by fans "The God of Conquests."  In real life he's a geeky nerd who dresses emo goth and doesn't really have any interests in girls in reality.  One day he accepts what he believes to be a challenge from some anonymous email.  Bad move charlie, what he accepted was a deal with the devil.  This is explained to him by a pretty female demon with a broom.  The details are this, there seems to be a lot of loose souls running around.  They are hiding inside the hearts of pretty girls and the only way to free them is to open their hearts as demonstrated by a freely given kiss.  Our hero either does this, or he gets a head shorter.  Let the games begin.

The problem is that of course reality is not a game.  He finds himself stymied by simple things like the girl track team not having their hair up.  Everyone of course knows that girls on track team have their hair up.  Luckily his demon can change reality in little ways like that which everyone finds very weird.  He then tries to put his moves on real women with on again, off again success.  Of course he wins his kisses and loose souls, but the real question is will the hero stay a proto-sociopathic geek or will he somehow learn to really connect with people?

Marceline's Closet

I've always said that generally the best episodes of Adventure Time involve the Vampire Queen Marceline. She just messes with Finn's radar so badly that it always leads to enjoyable hijinks.   This time while waiting for Marceline to come home, they sneak into her house even though they were told not to.  When she does come sooner than expected they find themselves trapped and take refuge in her closet.  They get a good view of Marceline just being a person and doing those things people do when they think they are alone, like nose picking.  The boys try to sneak on out, and fail but they learned a lot. 

Maybe too much.

This was a fun episode and I was amazed at the honesty of it.  Also, I admit the moment when Finn tries to sneak out and accidently caught sight of Marceline in the tub made me have about the biggest Adventure Time laugh ever.  For all his heroism Finn is just a boy and that glimpse was both mortifyingly embarrassing and way too much information.  He goes back in the closet and tells Jake, "Not going out again." 

Definitely not intended by the animators but as I watched this episode I flashed back to the similar scene in "Blue Velvet."  One crazy part of my brain was hoping that a madly animated Dennis Hopper vampire would come in and completely blow Finn's mind.

The Warrior's Way

This film is a big slice of hokey from the get go, and if you can't get behind it don't even bother. This is a modern day version of "Kung Fu," done up Hong Kong style with a side order of Japanoweirdness. Our hero has spent his life learning to be the best swordsman ever. After defeating the previous best swordsman ever, he suddenly feels hollow. Only a laughing baby he was contracted to kill makes him happy. So he leaves his fellowship of assassins and takes the baby to america. There he goes to a ghost town full of circus performers looking for an old friend. The friend had passed on but he finds peace in simple but odd community. Unfortunately, bandits and the assassins decide eventually to rain holy hell down on the town and only his sword can save everybody.

Yes the message is as hokey as any sixties hippy movie. Growing flowers is better than killing people. How profound. But, in the end it works it really does. This film is just five shades of beautiful. It both rocks and rolls and it always has something interesting. I liked how the main female character isn't a "traditional" hollywood beauty, but is just full of life and spunk. The casting is just all around great. I really have nothing bad to say about this movie. Seriously!

Sorcerer Hunters

Apparently in some fantasy worlds Sorcerers are horrible pests. The Sorcerer Hunters are basically bounty hunters and exterminators of these mystic pests. Of course it's not easy to take out someone who can sneeze thunderbolts. Luckily our crew has a secret weapon. His name is....Carrot. Carrot is an idiot, and a rather lecherous one at that. However, he has within him the power to become an ultra powerful demonic being who can take out sorcerers. That of course leaves the problem of what do you do with an ultra powerful demonic being who's a tad upset. Well that's why you have two girls with whips.

Yeah I had to read that last sentence twice myself. Definitely far more farce than action, it's as low brow as a cave man after a stroke. Proceed with caution, you've been warned.

Tangled

For me, Disney is like Tom Cruise. I would dearly love to hate their films because I dislike the person/company in real life, but they just keep making films that are so darn good I can't help but like them. So never mind the Disney wants to own the world and sue it at the same time, never mind that totally. Enjoy a film like "Tangled" for what it is, sheer pure enjoyment.

Innocence.

Here they took the story of Rapunzel and gave that old saw new life. So much life it practically bursts off the table and goes jogging down the road. The first really smart thing it does is that Rapunzel isn't cursed by the witch cause of what her parents did. Instead she has been blessed with the power to instill life and the witch (here more of an old woman but definitely qualifies as something that RHYMES with "witch) steals her away. Since that power is in Rapunzel's hair, Gothel has her grow her hair out to incredible lengths.

The second smart thing they do is in the relationship between Gothel and Rapunzel. Being kept in her tower the only person she knows is Gothel and they form a sort of a mother daughter bond. Gothel uses that love to keep her in the tower. See she COULD leave, but she is both afraid of a world she doesn't know and hurting the only person who she believes love her.

Still she longs to be out of the tower, which leads to smart thing number three. Our heroine is not just a hair freak, but a vivacious young woman who is full of life and creativity.  She's naive and maybe a little clumsy (hey you  try to manage 50 feet of hair) but she's a goer, a trier.  She's just waiting for her chance for her star to shine.  If you can't get behind this girl you have no heart, no soul.

So now after doing so much right in like five minutes of screen time, the film piles on a great plot of a daring thief, his prize and the deal struck between him and the girl in the tower to see the outside world.  Add to this GREAT songs (no one does show tunes like Disney), a horse that practically acts like a hound dog, and a tavern full of scurvy knaves and you have an incredible film. 

Seriously, the music is great.  I'd put some on here but Disney tends to frown on that.  But go over to you tube and check it out.  Then watch the movie.  Then watch it AGAIN.  Really you do yourself a favor. 

My Dopple

My reflection and I
go side by side
a brighter shadow
that can swim
on still waters
and dark glass