Reviews #5--Code Geass

When Uncle Yo declared his campaign for Kira/Zero '08, I didn't know who Zero was, but how much worse can you get than Kira? Guy with a magic killing notebook who wants to kill all the "bad" people in the world? How about guy who can force anyone to obey him when he makes eye contact? They're both brilliant, but clinically insane. And, so, simply because they are the most absurd, and yet still remarkably qualified presidential candidates... KIRA/ZERO '08!

On to the review. Code Geass is one of those new ones that I'd heard of but hadn't had the chance to watch. To be honest, all I've read/watched for about 3 months now is Shonen Jump, and various things by CLAMP and Yu Watase. What made me decide to finally watch it was a combination of: a) I did not have school yesterday, b) the "Adult Swim moved it to the death block?!" controversy, and c) Megan Hollingshead has a recurring role. So I get on wikipedia and search for her character. I spent most of yesterday afternoon between List of Code Geass Episodes, List of Code Geass Characters, and Youtube. The episodes told me that Megan's character, Villetta Nu, was in episode 14. So I went to episode 14. In the last about 5 minutes of the episode, she says all of ONE WORD. Feeling cheated, I go on to 15, which she's also in. Well, I get a whole awkward minute this time. I've said it before, and I'll say it again--as a female viewer, I do NOT appreciate fanservice! But compared to how she is in the beginning of the series, and let's face it, just about everyone she's ever voiced outside of Nurse Joy, she was cuuuuute. I kept watching. By midnight last night, I had watched episodes 1, 2, 14-19, and 21-25. 21 had the most of her, and the most of me going... "WTF, a nice character?!" Seriously, she is a really sweet character when she doesn't know who she is. That must make episode 25 especially painful for Ohgi...
Code Geass takes place in post-conquered-by-England Japan, instead of just plain old post-apocalyptic Japan. The Holy Empire of Britannia rules half of Europe, (though not Britain itself??) Russia, half of Africa, both of the Americas, Iceland, Greenland, New Zealand, and Japan. The Chinese Federation and the European Union are the other two superpowers, but a few nations, like Australia, Germany, and Britain, are neutral. I don't know what China holds and what Europe holds, and I don't really care. Here's a map from season 2 when they create the UFN, and it's just Britannia versus everyone else.

For seven years, Britannia has been oppressing Japan, renaming it "Area 11", and dubbing its citizens "elevens" rather than Japanese. Needless to say, the Japanese are not happy with this.

On to the actual main characters. Lelouch is basically Light Yagami, but a slightly better chance of being straight. Despite being the leader of the most successful Japanese rebel group, he is, in fact, a Britannian Prince: Lelouch Vi Britannia. He gives up that name for Lelouch Lamperouge. You really have to love Japanese people trying to make up English names. Especially when they managed to get REAL English names, and the dubbers use the literal Japanese pronunciation. (Karen! Karen! Not "Kallen!")
One day, he gets mixed up with some eleven terrorists, and winds up meeting a mysterious girl named C.C. (pronounced "C2") who wound up being the terrorists' cargo, instead of the expected poison gas. The Britannia army shows up and tries to kill Lelouch, but the girl takes the bullet, saying "he must not die!". Despite taking the bullet between the eyes, she does not yet die, and makes a contact with Lelouch. In exchange for some great mysterious power that not only can save him from the dozen soldiers, but let him change the world, he must fulfill her greatest wish. Power corrupts, you will be isolated because of your power, blah blah, Lelouch accepts, and orders the men to die. Which they do, in splendid fashion, each pulling out their gun, and happily shouting "with pleasure, sir!" Anyone see The Happening? Yeah.

It progresses from there, with Lelouch comandeering Villetta Nu's Knightmare Frame (the mechas) though his new power. (while I think about how much work would it take to get audio from Code Geass and sync it to season 4, or at least episode 173?) He creates an alternate identity, "Zero", leader of the Black Knights, which is formed from the old terrorist group that this whole mess started with. Their current leader, Ohgi, becomes the other half of what is well on its way to becoming my second-favorite pairing. I'll hide the next part in case anyone cares about spoilers.
Reasons I'm now in love with Ohgi/Villetta: (highlight to see) First off, my favorite paring is Jounouchi/Mai. That's pretty much set in stone. What happens between Jou and Mai? They don't get along at first, then they're good friends, she duels a crazy guy and forgets who he is, remembers him, gets penalty game'd, he tries to save her, she is saved but not by him, then she comes back next season and tries to kill him because she's emo over the penalty game. What happens between Viletta and Ohgi? They're on opposite sides. He finds her left for dead, takes her back to his apartment, where she can't remember anything. They get along really well, then she remembers who she is, and shoots him in the stomach. I haven't seen the rest of it yet, I'm quoting from wikipedia now. Later on, he stops someone from shooting her, Then there's something where he's going to be executed but he isn't and she's happy. then she's just going to kill him, he confesses his love for her, they get ambushed, Sayoko tries to kill her, Ohgi jumps in the way, takes two knives in the chest, falls off a cliff, and even though she was about to kill him, Villetta jumps off the cliff after him. I bold because that was just about EXACTLY what happened in Doom. Then they take her hostage to ensure Ohgi's cooperation, but she gets out, and eventually she winds up pregnant with his child and they get married. (I said spoilers, didn't I?) So I like the pairing. Also, she's fanservice-y, (not that I like that, just that it's in common with Mai) she's a good fighter, she's voiced by Megan Hollingshead. He's a good guy, kind of the second-in-command, nice, also a good fighter, reaaally cute and shy with her, and... well, looks and sounds nothing like Jou, but the rest is close enough. I love the pairing. Really. How they meet is the most common polarshipping fanfic plot.


I haven't seen enough to pass total series judgment, but for episode 1, I'm going to give it around a B+. It just feels too much like Death Note, and I do not like Lelouch. At all. I can't even believe that his name is Lelouch. I haven't seen a name that ridiculous since Breaking Dawn.
The artwork is fantastic (they must really have a nice budget for this show, because I was regularly pointing and going "hey, that was really well done!"!) the plot is... interesting, if not entirely original. I think it's funny, actually; Gurren Lagann is... well, not a TYPICAL mecha anime, but more typical than CG, and Geass is the embodiment of nearly every well-known anime type there is. High school, Mecha, post-apocalyptic Japan, AND Death Note. (and FMA brother speeches in the second season) There's even some swordfighting/samurai stuff with Suzaku and Todoh, and the Kyoto families, and some references to Western religion when Zero calls himself a "Messiah" and says another character will be his "Pilate". About all we're missing is a sports team and some ninjas. EDIT: (anime fall) It's got a ninja. -_-;;

I'm going to recommend it, even though I still consider it a pale imitation of Death Note. While Death Note is the best in its genre, BECAUSE Code Geass combines so many different elements, it's really interesting. It can get confusing keeping track of the characters, something that Death Note didn't usually have to worry about, but I personally like shows with large casts and multiple plotlines, because it keeps things moving. It depends though on HOW those plotlines are executed. I think Geass on the whole does a pretty good job, giving enough time to characters that aren't Lelouch to clearly explain what's going on, and keeping interest. They cut out all the unnecessary stuff and just give you what you need to know. Even, say, when Cornelia and Euphemia were hanging out together, and they were just lying on the grass, it wasn't boring (well, nothing's boring when you start at episode 14) and it served to characterize both Euphie and Cornelia, but it wasn't a whole episode. Fullmetal Alchemist, I love you to death, but... episode 16? How many ways do we REALLY need to define that they boys want to get their limbs back?
So Geass keeps things moving, has very nice artwork, and has a little something for everyone. Mechas, bishonens, two boys you could pair if you were so inclined, romance, crazy guy with a chainsaw, post-destruction Toyko, high school uniforms, a little crippled girl, a cat, and a mysterious magic girl who can't die. WARNING! Fanservice! There were two episodes that I thankfully was watching dubbed that had things actually blurred. 16/17+, for violence, fanservice, language, and crazy take-over-the-world plots. I'm also recommending it just because it's so popular, and you might feel out of the loop if you don't have at least basic knowledge.

EDIT: Now after having seen the whole first season, I'm going to change my grade to an A-. It manages to combine all those different plotlines fairly well, and the artwork is amazing. Some of the characters really pulled me in, too. Lelouch, Suzaku, and the whole high school cast can go die in a hole for all I care, but I actually really like most of the Britannia cast. Euphie, Cornelia, Guilford, Villetta, Dalton, Lloyd, and whatsherface that works with Lloyd. Todou's pretty cool, and Ougi I like by default since he's with Villetta, and C2. Everyone else either bores me or has a past full of angst posing as character development. I don't like Lelouch because all he is is one big ball of ANGST. Blind crippled sister, dead mother, fighting against best friend (that he never smiles or jokes with or ANYTHING), whole "the world is rotten and I want to change it" Light Yagami complex, Shirley, Mao, Euphie, and evil father. Light, at least, didn't have any angst. ANY. He was a genius with a nice, well-off family that hated the world.
Good artwork, great plot, but lacking a bit with character development. Before you watch it, remember, Adult Swim rates it 17+!

Bethel Park Anime #27--Behind the Scenes

Alright, so I haven't quite exhausted the vast amount of anime stuff to talk about that doesn't involve reviewing specific titles. I started to write this about voice acting, due to the sudden re-kindling of my desire to meet Megan Hollingshead, who I just found out is RANGIKU on Bleach!
Not that I like Rangiku all that much, just that it's such a main role in a current popular anime. She wasn't really in much for a while, totally destroying any chance of her coming to a con. She still hasn't been to a con in 3 years, but I hope that'll change someday. I have to hope. Either that or get to Youmacon and meet Wayne Grayson.

Anyway, to the article. What exactly goes into producing anime? Well, first there's the animation technique. There's a dozen different ways of "animating", but the most commonly known and the one we'll be talking about is "traditional animation", "cel animation", "hand-drawn", or "classic". A cartoon. (as opposed to stop-motion, claymation, model animation, puppet animation, the one where you take flat piece and put them together, and of course, 3D animation)
The first thing done in ANY animation project is storyboarding. Storyboards look something like a comic strip, being a series of panels showing what the director wants to be animated, and the dialogue. (no word bubbles, though)
After the storyboard is drawn, character designs and model sheets are drawn. Then the backgrounds are chosen, based on the angles of the camera and positions of the characters.

Then the actual drawing of characters begins. Wikipedia does a much better job of explaining this than me, and let's face it, I'm just rephrasing what they say anyway. The first drawings are done by the key animator, who animates, as the name implies "key" frames. In a 16-frame per second animation, I guess that would be something like 4 or 5 frames. The animator constantly checks their work, and in American animation, where the voices are recorded first, the drawings are scanned and checked to see that the voices fit. The clean-up artists trace the key animators' work onto a clean sheet. Then the in-betweeners come in and finish all the stuff that the key animator didn't draw.

This is where things have started to drastically change. Here's how it to used to work:
Backgrounds are typically one big acrylic piece that the cellulose sheets are moved over. All the character animation is eventually transfered to cels, so called because they are made of cellulose, either by inking or photocopying. They are then colored, and finally, the filming process can begin.
Cels are placed on the background and filmed with an animation camera. They are moved for every frame, reminiscent of stop-motion animation.

Nowadays all of that is done digitally. I quote, "The last major feature film to use traditional ink and paint was Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke (1997);" Miyazaki himself drew around 80,000 frames of that film, and personally checked every of the 144,000.

After all the visuals are done, the voices, background music, and sound effects are added. I assume that voices are recorded afterwards to cut down on the budget, simplifying the animation from a specific mouth movement to a mouth just moving up and down. This also makes it very practical to dub anime into other languages, since there is very rarely a problem with another language not fitting the shape of the mouthflaps. There are times where specific sounds are animated, usually when a character is making an effort to say something. Offhand, the only example I can think of is from Yuugiou. (that will be the only offhand example of things I know VERY often) Episode 77, (Oh yes, I know the exact number. I go waaay beyond dork with this series, let me tell you.) part three of possessed Jounouchi (Joey) and Yuugi's death duel, Yuugi tries to break Malik's (Marik) possession by talking to Jou about his sister, Shizuka. Jounouchi, as a sign of the mind control weakening, says her name, and each syllable is animated. (Shi-zu-ka) Well, ironically enough, her name is the most accurately translated. "Shizuka" roughly translates to "peace" or "calm". Her name was translated as "Serenity". Unfortunately, this has one too many syllables for this particular scene, since there's really no other way to translate what was happening. This was solved easily enough, by having the English voice (Wayne Grayson) simply match the first three syllables to the mouthflaps, and let the fourth be spoken while transitioning to the flashback. The names are similar enough that the different word dubbed to the specific mouthflaps is unnoticeable.

The voice acting process in America can be found on the special features of a plethora of American released anime DVDs. The script is re-written for English to match mouthflaps, and hopefully keeping the dialogue still sounding like normal, well, dialogue. (I'm looking at you, early episodes of Bleach--"so what exactly the heck is that thing over there that I'm looking at?") Fullmetal Alchemist is one of the best examples of good American script adaption I know of.
The voice actors individually go into the studio and record their lines. They go into a booth, get a pair of headphones and a mike--all standard in any animation--and they watch the Japanese version. After they know what they're dubbing over, they get three beeps, and where the fourth would be, they start speaking the line, while the animation still plays so they can see what they're doing. (I think.)

Along with voices, background music and sound effects are added. Music is typically pre-recorded, and certain tracks are played depending on what the animators need for a scene. For example, this time in Fullmetal Alchemist, there is a very well-known (to fans of the series) theme for Ed and Al called "Brothers". There is a single recording of this, which is manipulated for each episode it is used in, rather than having an orchestra sit down and record for each episode.
I have very little idea how sound effects work in anime. I know a tiny bit from watching Avatar commentaries, and that it involves manipulating normal sounds, slowing, speeding, etc.

Finally, it's all put together and shown on TV, released on DVD, ripped to computers and fansubbed, and eventually, brought to America! Where they redub it, and hopefully leae it otherwise unchanged. Or 4kids gets it and dubs out anything remotely offensive or not-American. Which apparently are the same thing. -_-;;


Now, being fictional characters, we as fans can never meet our characters. We can, however, meet the voices that play them, and so voice actors are celebrities in our otaku world. As you can tell from my ramblings on Megan Hollingshead, Wayne Grayson, etc. I'm starting to get a hold of my obsession now, though. Really. Some voice actors go to conventions; certain very popular ones do just about nothing but go to conventions and voice-act. There is a group called the "50+" who have been to more than 50 conventions total. According to animecons.com, they are:

1. Steve Bennett
2. Robert DeJesus
3. Greg Ayres
4. Tiffany Grant
5. Vic Mignogna
6. Jan Scott-Frazier
7. Doug Smith
8. Monica Rial
9. Emily DeJesus
10. Kyle Hebert
11. Chris Patton
12. Scott McNeil
13. Mike McFarland
14. Toshifumi Yoshida

I've met 5 of them. ^__^ You'll have the chance to meet some of them, too, if you come to Tekko this spring! (don't you love my shameless plugging?)

Bethel Park Anime #26--1/2 Report 2008

Hard to believe just two short hours ago, Tekko 1/2 came to a close. For those of you who weren't (or were) there, he's my half-con report.

I didn't get there until almost 2, thanks to SATs, the need to find my costume, and my hilarious lack of ability to get around town. I tried to get from McKees Rocks back to MY OWN HOUSE and wound up in Kennedy. Where I then tried to get to Crafton, which I achieved, but wound up going to the West End Circle instead of 79 South. (which was what I wanted to do in the first place, from McKees Rocks, but I thought the circle was closed for construction)

Anyway, after a frightening experience in the circle which I never hope to repeat, I made it to the hotel, armed with duel disk and mullet wig. Yes, it is a wig. That is not my real hair. I was Jounouchi, not Joe Dirt, and not any other Yugioh character. (Jack Atlas? Duke? Bakura?) I would like to thank all the people who remembered me from previous cons. The one and only Tekko-Jou. I was genuinely surprised at the number of people who commented on the duel disk. It looks alright, I guess, but next to a real one it looks like a cheap piece of junk. People seem to like homemade things, though, so it was actually popular. Let's hope they like my attempt to make armor as much as the duel disk...

I met up with my friends, and scoped out the two-table dealers room. For 1/2, it was actually raelly nice to have some dealers. I picked up a Sailor Moon action figure for a friend, and my friends got some OLD-school manga. Not even book manga. Comic book manga! I didn't even know they made that. ^_^;;

We ran around looking at the various things to do. I talked a bit with some folks from last con (Kitty!L/Orihime, Aang/Cosmo, Sokka/Wanda) and then went to the game room. There wasn't any line on DDR, so I made a fool of myself on that for a bit. Then we went back to main events, where Uncle Yo was set to begin at 3:15. While waiting, I watched an impromptu anime charades going on in the corner. Basically it was "say a line, everyone guess the character". I felt the need to shout "WHO'S SO SMALL YOU WANT TO CRUSH LIKE AN ANT?" which was well-received. Then I immediately left the charades circle for the comedian.
Uncle Yo was hilarious. Five words to summarize ANY Miyazaki movie: A young girl eventually flies. AND IT'S TRUE! XD
I don't remember half the stuff he talked about now--Naruto ninjas not being secretive, hobo anime, The Dark Knight by Dr. Seuss, Light kill Near by addicting him to MMOs, WOWOW, shonen vs. shojo, and animaniacs Naruto names, to name a few. He's on youtube, he's on uncleyo.com, and he'll be at Tekko 7! Check him out!

After Uncle Yo, Con President Jim Gogol announced the currently confirmed guests: Greg Ayres, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Stephanie Sheh, and the legendary Johnny Yong Bosch! Sadly, Carrie Savage can't make it this year. She will be missed. I am VERY excited for Colleen, Stephanie, and Johnny. (Greg, too, of course, but I've never met the other three) Colleen is Riza Hawkeye and a director for FMA. Stephanie is Eureka, and Johnny is Renton!!! (Along with billions of other things) Eureka and Renton! Dude! The only thing better than that would be Vic Mignogna and Caitlin Glass for Ed and Winry. (or dare I say Wayne and Megan? But that dub is awful... HOLY SNAP, Megan is Rangiku?! I need to get a copy of Bleach! And find the Tekko guest wish list.)

Then more hanging out with friends, and meeting some new people. A fellow dressed as Near whose name I unfortunately forget approached me and we had a very interesting conversation about 5Ds, amoung other things. Then I went off to get Carrie's autograph with a friend, Yachiru, from anime club. She signed a mini-poster for Shuffle, and took a picture with me!

Back to my friends, and then to my car to retrieve my deck and Yugi-hair, since one of my friends agreed to wear it. I unfortunately did not witness this, but they went on a quest to find an ATM with Cosmo and Wanda, and she wore it outside the hotel. I wouldn't wear that thing outside the hotel. Heck, I didn't wear it at all. Kudos to you, my friend, for wearing the hair. (though perhaps it's less embarrassing when you're not a hopelessly obsessed fan of the series)

Come 6, I went to the RPG/CCG Room and played a match against... Ryan, I think, who was cosplayed as Sasori. With an interesting E-Hero/Synchro combo, he took the match 2-1. I had a couple of nice combos, but for the most part, my Amazonesses need work. It doesn't do much good to have a bunch of cards of the same type if there's no support. But it was immensely fun, and I got to overhear DnD discussions, in which Sid (aka Masquerade MC!) was participating. Uncle Yo also stopped in for a bit, but left before I could fangirl.

We finished the match after 7 (long match!) and I left to find my friends again. We talked a bit, and peaked in on the dance. Unfortunately, I'm neither a dancer nor raver, unless I'm heavly caffinated, and in the presence of a large group of people I know who are also making fools of them--I mean... 'dancing'. Yeah. "Dancing". Anyway, I usually don't do that, and the beginning of it was kind of lame, so we skipped that and headed to the video room, where we caught the end of episode 2 of Fate/Stay Night. It was cool-looking, though I've seen the "killed my mysterious magic bad guy and brought back to life" thing more than enough times before.

That ended quickly, though, since we got in late, so my friends decided to spend the last of their time in the game room. Rockband was COMPLETELY empty, so the three of us, along with a very kind... staffer? He wasn't wearing a green shirt, so I'm not sure. Anyway, a nice guy showed us how to play. (None of us had ever played Rockband, only Guitar Hero) It was fun, though I found that I epically fail at drumming on medium, and even more epically fail at singing anything I've never heard before. Despite what my mother and choir director think, I can't site-read. |D But it was still fun.

I walked my friends to their ride (because their stuff was chilling in my car and I had to get it out for them) and went back up to get in a quick game of SSBM with, amoung others, Uncle Yo! He was very cool, and I hope he MCs the masquerade when he comes for Tekko 7.

Then the game room closed, and I headed back to the dealer's room to pick up a Sailor Moon action figure which apparently are very rare, and therefore will make a wonderful gift for my Sailor Moon friend. Everything else was closed at this point, so I decided to watch the "rave", being a loser and wanting to stay until the very end. Which I did. And then I left, wearing my costume all the way home.

So that was Tekko 1/2 2008. Make sure you all register for Tekko 7, because it's going to be AWESOME! I was personally at the DLLCC last week, and it's perfect for this. HUGE hallways, big random open spaces for picture-taking, stopping to chat, resting, line-waiting, etc, balconies for hanging and pics, giant exhibit hall, and very nicely equipped panel rooms. Getting there was a breeze from the north--I just got off the Ft. Duquesne bridge, took the Convention Center exit, and I was there. Plenty of parking, and a good part of town. If anyone has any complaints about the DLLCC, state them, and I will tell you all the wonderful things about it. The ONLY thing is the price, which is, I think, $5 more. And that's hardly anything, compared to how awesome this place is.

I am so excited for Tekko now. If it weren't for the massive amounts of homework and college applying I have to do, I'd work on my costume non-stop. A few of the staff people I talked to yesterday said there was a lot of programming to fill, so I'm going to sign up for as many panels as I can. I have three planned so far: the 4kids dub/original one, another "everything you want to know about YGO", and a Miyazaki one. With all the stuff, you'll hopefully see me. See you at Tekko!