Evangelion: 2.0

I downloaded a pretty clean copy of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. A few years ago, I bought the boxed set of 8 DVDs containing the original TV series. It was good but confusing. Evidently it wasn't just me that didn't get it so they released a two part (bought those too) alternate ending.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death and Rebirth
Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion

Of course, when they say "The End", usually it doesn't mean the end. Recently, Gainax announced something called Rebuild of Evangelion. Part 1, called You Are (Not) Alone, came out in 2007. That was basically a retelling of the first part of the original story. The second in the series, You Can (Not) Advance, came out in 2009 and seems to be still showing at film festivals. I think a lot of the storyline is new but I need to watch it to find out. The Japanese DVD was released in May of 2010 and there are no official English subtitles yet. There were some subtitle files in the 1.4GB torrent I downloaded but they turned out to be traditional Chinese. Sigh... better than nothing I suppose.


Evangelion 2.0 Trailer

Evangelion 3.0 is supposed to be released this year.

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I found an English subtitle file for Evangelion 2.0. However, it was made for the single CD version whereas what I downloaded was split into two files. I guess I have to split the SRT file manually if I want to understand what's going on in the movie.

Gantz

I found a Japanese anime series called Gantz while surfing the web. I've only watch the first episode of Gantz so I'm not sure what's going on yet. I read somewhere that it was similar to Black Lagoon, another anime series that I've downloaded/watched before and really liked.



It was hard to find videos with English subtitles. While searching, I found both French sub/dub and Spanish sub/dub. I think I finally found two uploaders and together I can get both 13 episode seasons (26 episodes total). I like these shorter series; I've also been watching Bleach and Naruto, each with hundreds of episodes.

Most of the videos are on Megaupload. The free account checks your IP address and limits you to one download at a time. I'm using my work VPN to login at two different "locations" with different IP addresses. So along with my regular home connection, I'm downloading using three different computers. I'm still limited by the bandwidth of my cable modem connection though.

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Dang it. I spent the entire day watching both 13 episode seasons. It was okay until the last episode... for some reason, I can never understand the endings of Japanese anime. I didn't get Akira (movie) and the worst as Neon Genesis Evangelion. For NGE, they had to release a two part alternate endings since the fans didn't like (or understand) the original. Maybe the producers/writers want to share something philosophical instead of just providing entertainment. I dunno... or else it's something cultural that I don't get.

Bleach

There was only one season of xxxHolic on Hulu so I started watching another series called Bleach. I think I saw the first few episodes awhile ago then downloaded a couple of full-length movies. Hulu only has episodes 1-75 and 80-83 but I found the rest on Veoh with subtitles from Bleach Portal. From the Wikipedia article, season 10 is about to start. I just finished watching episode 91 which is the end of season 4 so there is a lot to watch.


It looks like there's third Bleach movie out. :)

xxxHolic

Japanese anime is so weird. I found this series on Hulu and just finished watching the first episode (23 to go). Unfortunately, the episodes are all dubbed; I prefer watching non-English stuff in the original language with subtitles instead of dubbed versions.



I'm not sure why they put "xxx" in the title. So far, it's mainly about spirits and possession.

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

Since we're talking about animation, it looks like Neon Genesis Evangelion is being re-released; I just downloaded 1.0 from Veoh. I bought the original series on DVD plus the two alternative endings. It was much different than I anticipated. The series started out great with huge robots (or something) and stuff blowing up but eventually became a bunch of psycho-babble and weird religions symbolism. Anyway, it appears they are going to compress the entire series of 26 TV episodes down to three movies plus a new ending (third attempt). I'm interested to see if they changed any of the story but I probably won't go out any buy it again after spending $100+ on the original series.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
崖の上のポニョ

Woohoo! Another Hayao Miyazaki animated film. I thought he retired from Studio Ghibli after Spirited Away. Every one of his movies (yes, every single one) has been awesome; can't wait for this one to be released with English subtitles (not dubbed). George Lucas should have hired him to make Clone Wars.

Clone Wars

I just watched Clone Wars with Leon/Steph/kids. It was so so. I expected it to be better since it wasn't burdened with lousy acting but it was pretty much like the recent 3 episodes. Actually, I read a few reviews before seeing the movie so I wasn't expecting much. Too bad. I had really wanted to see a good Star Wars movie.

Even worse, it was almost 2 hours long even though there was only enough plot line to fill 45 minutes or so. One good thing: no Jar-Jar.

.hack//G.U. Trilogy

I just watched a 90 anime called ".hack//G.U. Trilogy" and I have no idea what happened. It's like watching an animated version of The Matrix directed by John Woo. Evidently it's related to some PlayStation games that were published by Bandai. I saw a few games with .hack titles several years ago but I ended up playing Final Fantasy X and X-2. A friend of mine works at Bandai; maybe I can ask her what the heck is going on.
.hack
.hack//G.U.