^{Resident Evil}
Degeneration

Director: Makoto Kamiya

Screenplay: Shôtarô Suga

Music: Tetsuya Takahashi

Character Design: Naoyuki Onda

Mechanical design: Takeshi Takakura

Sound director: Yota Tsuruoka

Cgi director: Atsushi Doi

Executive producer:
Haruhiro Tsujimoto
Keiji Inafune
Masao Takiyama

The CG movie is pretty true to the series, not sure about the latest games, which I haven’t played but, it fairs well. I was little disappointed that Umbrella mattered so little and two new companies took the central light. I think I would have preferred the movie to be more of a classic adaptation. I guess that’s the nostalgia from the first games talking.

The animation was pretty good and believable. Of course human faces and some movements are, as always, strange, it’s no Avatar but, actually pretty good in most stuff.

The film is divided in three parts. First, there’s the airport scene, which fits better into the game’s mood with claustrophobic environments, probably my favorite part. Then, in the second part, the plot thickens and we learn about Curtis and her sister. This part also slows down the pace quite a bit and it all concludes in the third part. Here, the mutated G-Virus creates an huge boss zombie monster, classic Resident Evil stuff.

Not much to say about the sound department although liked the credits song.

Really nice direction and photography.

It’s far from perfect, the script and execution have some faults but, overall it’s very entertaining and captures very well feel of the games. I think if you’re a fan of the games or just action oriented horror movies, you’ll most likely enjoy this movie. I would basically describe it as something similar to watching the whole cut scenes from one of the three first games joined together.

For anyone trying to better understand the whole Umbrella-T-Virus thing, here’s a nice article.

Not really worthy of a second view but, as I said, an entertaining movie that will certainly make you feel nostalgic about the games.

^{Naruto Shippuuden}
Kizuna

Studio: Pierrot
Year: 2008
Genre: Action

Director: Hajime Kamegaki
Screenplay: Junki Takegami
Music: Yasuharu Takanashi
Original Creator: Masashi Kishimoto
Character Design: Tetsuya Nishio

Ending Theme: "No Rain No Rainbow" by Home Made KAZOKU

Synopsis: A mysterious group of ninjas makes a surprise attack on the Konohagakure, which takes great damage. The nightmare of another Shinobi World War could become a reality. Sasuke, who was still a missing nin from Konoha trying to kill his brother, Itachi, appears for the second time in front of Naruto at an unknown location to prevent it from happening.
Konoha has suddenly been attacked by flying shinobis from the Sky Country. It turns out to be revenge for the Second Great Ninja War in the past which Konoha destroyed the Sky Country. At the same time, a doctor and his apprentice, Shinou and Amaru appeared in Konoha requesting aid for their village on the outskirts of Fire Country. As they also have been attacked by the Sky Country. Naruto, Sakura and Hinata teams up to form a three-man cell to accompany and help Shinou and Amaru as they head on to their village. Meanwhile, Shikamaru and other ninja’s takes the offensive to attack Sky Country’s fleet before they can launch a second attack.
(from Anime News Network)

Nice movie, it’s the first one that actually keeps it close to Konoha and has a cool new character.

The movie starts with a strange assault on Konoha. It all well done but, something felt off. It’s like half of Konoha was obliterated and only Tsunade realized that. If you compare this to when Pain came to Konoha.. well, they could have pulled it off much better and make it more dramatic. During the assault, Naruto finds some kind of Doctor, Shinou, who has a pupil, Amaru, who’s calling him for help in his village. This two are the "filler" main characters of the movie.

Naruto leaves with them along with Sakura and Hinata. I’m not sure why Konoha would allow Naruto, Sakura and Hinata, three really important shinobi, to leave when Konoha is so damaged and the threat of another attack is real.

Anyway, this Sky Ninjas aren’t that strong. They managed to succeed because the attack was a surprise, short and they were flying. Konoha quickly launches a counter-attack.

Meanwhile, Sasuke is sent to search for the shinobi doctor who taught Orochimaru is rebirth technique. I’m not sure it was good that the movie decided to take some credit off from Orochimaru but, at least they managed to interlink the movie’s plot with the rest of the Naruto saga.

I’m not gonna discuss much more plot details, just know it involves some new beast, evil doctors and a lot of parties fighting each other.  The plot isn’t really smart and has some holes but, it moves fast and doesn’t leave much time for boredom.

I really enjoyed the two new main characters. I don’t normally like "filler" characters much but, this two were really interesting and even though they are not really original they managed to stay away from most Naruto cliches and feel repetitive.

The art was awesome. I really loved the overall background art and specially the jungle’s green/blue theme. The animation was good too of course but, the fights disappointed me a lot. Contrary to how I usually feel, the fighting in this movie wasn’t it’s strong point, it was the characters.

The whole soundtrack is also new and has quite a different feel that the last shippuuden ost’s. Sasuke’s western-like cool theme easily stood out lol

Overall, this movie is far from awesome but, it was the one I enjoyed the most until now. It was the fighting that actually let me down. Even though the movie features some very cool animation, the fights were dull and non-imaginative. I also think they kind of put Sasuke a little too much kind hearted but, nothing that can seriously get in the way of the shippuuden series.

The comedy, although noting hilarious was quite natural and didn’t feel forced at all.

So, cool movie, it kind of ends well in a strange way, it almost makes it right that Sasuke and Naruto are away from each other. I actually wish Amaru could appear in the series in the future. She would be a good choice for some love development with Naruto, although the Naruto manga has kind of always been laking in that kind of relationship.

Sword Of The Stranger

Original title: Stranja - Mukoh Hadan
Type: Movie
Studio: BONES
Year: 2007

I watched some scenes of this movie by accident in an AMV. I got really curious as to what series it was that had such awesome animation and I didn’t know about lol

Well, turns out it was a movie, this one. So there’s a boy, a dog and an old man running from some burning temple, you can notice the production quality right in the first scene. The man tells the boy that he should be safe now and that he has to go back and check on the others. The movie then shifts to a group of swordsman crossing some mountains. Doesn’t take long until the action begins. They are attacked by some thieves. This scene is awesome, the music is really fast paced and fits well, the constant cuts to show some credits are really well made. The boss off the swordsman kills every thieve alone. I must say I hadn’t seen such well animated and interesting fight in a while, no matter how insignificant this fight is in the movie. And what’s better, the battles through out the movie only improve in quality.

So, the boy’s village has been destroyed for some purpose and assassins are now searching for the surviving boy.

Later, the boy, Kotarou, meets the other main character. Their relationship has a really subtle humor to it. Both Kotarou, the dog and the strange swordsman are very likable characters.

Again, doesn’t take long until one of the swordsman finds Kotarou and the strange swordsman is caught in between. At first, he’s just helping the kid against the royal guards because of their attitude, he doesn’t actually injure anyone of them. The killer then starts attacking no mattering who got in his way. The strange swordsman realizes the level of skill of the assassin and how big of a deal this kid must be. He tries to leave but, it seems he can’t. Another awesome action scene.

The strange swordsman accepts to protect and help Kotarou in exchange for a valuable item. I’m not going to further discuss the plot as to keep this review as much spoiler free as I can. Anyway, the plot development is pretty simple. That’s not the strong point of the movie. It’s just that as simple as it is, it’s really well done and the main characters all share some kind of chemistry, and it’s easy for the viewer to get attached to them and actually care for the battle’s results. The other characters, even if they have a really short screen time and are just not important to the main story, they are all still very believable with lots of hints to their purposes, personalities and past. Had this been a series or longer movie, the character development would have had the potential to be really good.

Production wise, as I’ve said, the animation is really good. All the fights are really fast paced, fluid, creative and full of details. The background art is really pretty too, no matter what kind of setting.

I also liked that the movie doesn’t use much CG and the little they use, is very well concealed.

To sum it up, I loved this movie. Although the plot is pretty simple and straight forward once it’s revealed, the characters, dialogs and some of best action scenes I’ve seen make it an awesome movie. It’s not the kind of movie that could win an Oscar (pretend they give Oscars to anime) but, it’s pure entertainment and got me from start to finish. Recommended to anyone who likes action movies.

Uninteresting details:

• my favorite pet in a movie since "I Am Legend";

• most non-annoying and cool kid I’ve seen in movie, that I’m remembering now;

• where’s the love story?

• wow-type action scenes :p

• Story: 3/5
• Characters: 5/5
• Animation: 5/5
• Sound: 5/5
• Personal Enjoyment: 5/5

^{Naruto Shippuuden}
The Movie

The dvd has finally been released and Dattebayo has taken little time to fansub it.

The movie immediately starts off with Naruto’s announced death. But, it’s actually just a prediction of the future. Will Naruto be able to change his destiny? Knowing all the other movies were done like a big budget filler episode, they certainly won’t do something that won’t be congruent with the rest of the series.

The plot involves a demon that has been sealed away a long time ago. A survivor from the clan who summoned it once is still alive. He’s trying to summon this demon again. Konoha and the other villages all try to fight back the demon’s army while protecting the only person who can seal the demon again. The actual mission of escorting that person is given to the new Team 7 Neji, Naruto, Sakura and Lee.

All the past movies have followed the same basic formula that involves Naruto having to protect someone with a bad personality. Naruto then changes that person’s point of view and kill the bad guy with a rasengan.

This movies has done the same but, better in my opinion. This one is more serious and the animation quality is even better.

During normal scenes, you can’t really notice the differences with other movies, but when the action comes, it’s all perfect. Along with the second movie, this has been the one I liked the action scenes the most.

The villains are very week, but use some kind of chakra enhancement that makes them really strong, I’m talking epic here. Although it could have been better, the 3d use of the scenery and it’s beautifulness, specially when they fight in the forest makes this eye candy very easy to like whether the action scenes are good or not.

The music was good and fit well with the action scenes. It’s what you would expect from any Naruto animation.

I’m not gonna talk about the end in case you someone didn’t watch, but it was just the average Naruto Movie ending.

The second one is going to involve Sasuke in some way. I hope it’s about some common enemy and not about Naruto and Sasuke facing each other. It would be cool because of the animation, but there would be no point, since their current situation would have to stay unchanged in the end. But I have good expectations, every movie has been getting better than the previous one.