Depending on where you reside in the world, the iDOLM@STER Secret Event happened earlier today (or yesterday), and the Bandai Channel re-stream of it wrapped up about half an hour before I started typing this. This isn’t to say that I actually watched it myself – I fear that messing around with proxy and VPN settings feels like one of those slippery slopes, starting with just wanting to watch one or two idol concerts, and climaxing ultimately with getting intensely frustrated with Kantai Collection registration lotteries. I’ve too much consuming my time already without having to worry about another bunch of time sinks.

I digress, however – what even I saw out of the event were the new PVs for both the iM@S Movie and the new game, One for All. Post event chatter has been somewhat dominated by the movie trailer, rather than that of the game. It’s perhaps not too astonishing, given that’s where the real bombshell was dropped – the movie is going to feature a number of characters from Million Live.
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The story of one boy, and his very moe balloon.

Patema Inverted is the new movie by Yasuhiro Yoshiura, a fact that’d probably hold significantly more weight for me if I’d actually gotten around to watching the critically acclaimed Time of Eve at some point. It follows Patema, a girl who lives in an underground society where everyone is close and loving, but follow a set of rules – particularly regarding were you should and shouldn’t be going – to ensure everyones safety. Stifled by life underground, egged on by stories told to her by a long-missing friend, Patema, perhaps understandably (or at least predictably) flagrantly ignores what she is repeated told not to do and goes exploring.

After one such expedition goes awry, she ends up meeting Age, a boy from the overground society. The overground society is all about rules too – excessively so, infact. It’s a literal conveyor belt society, where students can accumulate demerit points simply by looking in an unapproved direction. Age is something of a rebel in his world, as well, though in his case, being a rebel can amount simply to not turning up to the dorms at the designated hour.
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I guess I’ll start this by saying that, should you be the sort of person who happens to live in the US, you can actually watch this whole movie on Hulu, of all places. Assuming, you know, you can stand the frequent, annoying advertisement breaks for products you probably don’t actually need.

Otherwise, I guess this was the first European screening of this movie, based on the novel by Kazuki Sakuraba (of Gosick fame), directed by Masayuki Miyaji (reminding me that I still haven’t seen Xam’d, not that I’m in a particular hurry, though I do own the BDs).

The movie, set just before Japan opened it borders to foreign commerce, follows Hamaji, a girl who goes through life living as a hunter in the mountains, equipped with a really peculiar looking gun. She’s summoned to the capital by her brother, a well-meaning, if somewhat dopey, wanna-be samurai, to help him hunt the last two Fuse – half-man, half-wolf creatures who live by devouring human souls – in the hope that he can claim the sizable bounties that have been placed on their heads, allowing him to actually make something of himself.

Now, guess who the handsome young man that Hamaji just happens to run into whilst arriving in the capital for the first time just happens to be? No, really, guess – unless you are being deliberately silly, you’re probably exactly right.

I don’t know, I have to admit, I’m having a hard time formulating a particularly strong feeling regarding Fuse. I actually really enjoyed it, but I’m a little mindful that I was told it was a smidgen on the tedious side before hand, so I went into it with expectations somewhat significantly lowered. I didn’t actually find it particularly tedious, if I’m honest, in so much as it didn’t have me checking my watch at frequent intervals or anything like that, and the narrative keeps a pretty brisk pace, even if what is happening isn’t necessarily the most exciting things in the world at all times. The animation is good enough, but there’s nothing there which will blow your mind either.

What I will say is that, whilst inspired by The Hakkenden, the movie certainly does show it’s light novel roots. It has a really silly climatic battle signposted only by the fact that it has it’s basis in The Hakkenden, and it’s full of the usual goofy light novel character archetypes in it’s supporting cast.

Not that’s there’s anything particularly wrong with that, but if you go into the movie expecting a weighty, substantial period piece to chew on, as opposed to pleasant piece of pulp with young-adult novel dramatics, you’ll probably be disappointed with it. Otherwise, yeah, it’s fine.

Just to see how completely different things are these days, right?

This is the first issue of UK anime magazine Manga Max, originally published at the back end of 1998 (this is the December issue, which I guess means it came out in November). The reason I have it with me, well, I brought it to accost former-editor (and usual SLA guest announcer) Jonathan Clements with – that’s his autograph you see on the front there.

Manga Max probably has something of a storied history which isn’t really worth getting into in any real depth for the sake of this post – it sprang out of Manga Mania, originally a combination anime magazine and manga anthology published by Dark Horse (as a release vector for the Akira manga, amongst other things), which eventually went through three or four different publishers before landing (back with) Titan. This manga-free relaunch under a different moniker had something to do with trying to expand it’s market outside of the UK.
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Yup, it’s that time of year once again, when I decamp to Scotland for another round of anime movie screenings. It’s Glasgow this weekend, which promises a mixture of things you’ve probably seen, things you probably should have seen, and things you almost certainly haven’t.

Likely highlights of the weekend are Patema Inverted although I’ve still not got around to watching Time of Eve and the mysterious Mystery Film, which I’m trying not to get my hopes up for too much. I mean, most of the hints suggest it might be this (in an still-incomplete edit), but that’d probably be too neat, and last time I went to one of these mystery screenings, I was right about what it was supposed to be, but the materials didn’t arrive from Japan in time… so, yeah, I’m trying not to get too enthusiastic in the off-chance it’s something really weird that I’ve never so much as heard of.

(-edit- Actually, the mystery screen is possibly even more likely this thing, which would also be interesting)

Which would certainly be interesting in it’s own right, I guess.
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