It's more convenient this way, but I'll focus on the review. So to get this out of the way, today the CPJ had another meeting (second one in the past 10 days), this time in preparation for the upcoming culture festival, which is about to begin on the third of November and last till the 14'th. I'm looking forward to participating on as many events as possible. This marks the second year since I've first met the CPJ and the first anniversary of my joining. I made a lot of photos last year, which you can even find here. More on this when the time is right.

Let's see the review I've been putting off for the past few days.
This concerns the third Bleach movie. Right now I'm laughing on all the people who decided against watching it because 'they heard it will suck'. Well, not only it didn't suck, it was much better than Diamond Dust Rebellion. In fact, I don't think I saw an anime movie this good since the first Naruto movie. Most of the main cast didn't get a single frame, true, but I was willing to put up with that.
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SPOILERS
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So what exactly is this about? The whole thing starts with two intruders appearing in Mayuri's lab and sabotaging his latest experiment. The madman wakes up with all of his memories gone, and panicking, while the malfunctioning machines release a substance that covers most of the city before crystallizing. In the ensuing panic, the culprits kidnap Rukia.
Back on Earth, Ichigo experiences a temporary lapse in memory, and seeks out Urahara for advice, but when he brings up Rukia, his teacher doesn't seem to remember her. Being the smart guy he is, Urahara checks his notes (Hang on? Who is this guy? Riff?), which have Rukia's name, he immediately deduces, that all of his memories of her were somehow erased. Ichigo (accompanied by Kon) runs to Soul Society for answers, and finds the Court of Pure Souls in disarray. On top of that, no one seems to remember neither him nor Rukia, and after a confrontation with Renji, he's forced to leave, but not before accidentally mentioning Renji's Bankai, which also seems to be missing from his mind.
In the meantime, Rukia wakes up in a house and is greeted by two siblings she seems to know from her childhood. The two apparently hold a grudge against Soul Reapers, for taking Rukia away from them, and have erased the past hundred years from her mind to keep her from remembering them. After a meeting with Ichigo, however, her memories start coming back, and the siblings decide to wipe out the Court, before Rukia decides to go back there.
After being confronted by his spirit, Zabimaru (who was still a male baboon back then), who confirms that he really does have a Bankai, Renji realizes that his memories were altered, and seeks out Ichigo, deciding to help him out. Hitsugaya, Ikkaku and Yumichika also decide to help. The other captains suddenly show up, but Urahara arrives in time to break up the fight and explain his findings. Rukia's memories, along with peoples' memories of her and everything connected to her, were apparently "erased" by a memory consuming parasite, that escaped from his lab a hundred years ago.
Back in the Court, the siblings use the same experiment as before, to awaken an eldritch horror, that attacks the city. As all the 13 Court Guard Divisions mobilize to destroy it, Ichigo and Renji track down the culprits, who suddenly fuse with Rukia, triggering a Hollow transformation. Ichigo fights "Dark Rukia" and recalls the time they first met, and she gave him her powers by stabbing him through the heart. Ichigo now does the same, separating Rukia, the two siblings, and the true mastermind, the parasite, that was posessing the two siblings, and eventually disintegrates, unable to survive without a host. Finally being reunited with Rukia, the siblings are given names, before passing on.
With the shutdown of the giant machine in Mayuri's lab, the monstrosity is destroyed, and there is much rejoicing, since all problems are finally resolved. Except for one. Kon is still stuck in a crystal block he somehow got caught in.
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SPOILERS
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The movie was pretty enjoyable. Even if a few details were completely out of the place (Komamura going Bankai against Ichigo without any buildup; Hanataro showing up to heal Ichigo after the encounter, only to point out that even he can't remember him). The graphics were movie quality, even better, most of the time, and this was a problem, especially with deep shaded dark room scenes, where the extra detail, coupled with the regular style pushed all characters (but especially Rukia) into the Uncanny Valley. And about midway through the movie, the characters went off model, and remained like that for quite awhile.
The action scenes were good, and not as forced as they were in DDR. Even Kenpachi got a moment to shine. And yuri fanboys were also treated to more of the entirely not overdone Yoruichi/Shuifeng action. And by action I mean fighting.

Well, that's about it for tonight. I'll be back next week with new and photos of the culture festival.

Noir is the name of ancient destiny. The two maidens ruling over death.
This is the story of two girls who work as hired assassins under the title Noir, the word which may be the answer to the mysteries from their dark past. Little do they know what carrying this title truly means.
They inevitably clash with worlds most powerful organization, and get caught up in it's internal conflict.

Lots of shooting and knifing. Plenty of action and drama. Surprisingly little blood. Surprisingly little fanservice. Surprisingly accurately depicted shuriken (even Naruto, with it's drastic deconstruction of ninja stereotypes didn't touch that). Excellent soundtracks (including an intro from Ali Project). Overall it would be a good series, except for one thing that bothered me. The overall depressing atmosphere that was present in every single scene of every single episode. Even though it was pretty fitting of the theme, I didn't like the fact that the whole thing was so... dead.

Next on list: I started Kamichu as my morning series; that's more my type anyway... no, really! For night shifts, (seeing as I ran out of DB-Kai, and I'm watching DBZ in the Big City) I'm switching to... well let's see... Higurashi. So I'd better come prepared. I only hope it won't give me nightmares.

Just to clear this up. I've mentioned this cultural club I've been part of for almost a year now, and I think I should specify that the CPJ has nothing to do with the 'Citizens for Public Justice', the 'Communist Party of Jersey', or the 'Committee to Protect Journalists' (why would I associate with anything like that anyway; I hate journalists).

Now on to the point.

Another meeting with the CPJ. This time it's the Start-Season meeting. The foreman couldn't make it (that happens a lot), so Mino (she's the secretary) had to hold the line again. The subject of the meeting was basically a summary of the club's activities so far, and a presentation of the events they used to organize. And suddenly I realized something. It's been almost two years since I first met these guys (I first wrote about them in this [link] entry), and now I'm a regular member. I officially joined last year, in December, and have been to most of their meetings since then. Back in those days, we still held our meetings in Yume tea-house (that's the Seireitei manga club's territory), but by now, the group has it's own place to stay, complete with a meeting room, kitchen, two restrooms an office and a reading corner (that's my regular spot).
Interesting changes took place while I was away. The first thing I noticed when I entered was a large bookshelf filled with manga. I immediately recognized it as the Seireitei's collection (and bookshelf), and guess what? Yume tea-house is dismissed, and the foreman decided to invite Seireitei to join us. I have reasons to feel prejudiced against these guys, reasons I won't start getting into, but if you've seen the ad for Sakuracon 2009, you'll pretty much understand these reasons. And I'm not gonna link that horrible thing to MY journal. Look it up yourselves, and watch it at your own risk. Or better yet, take my word for it and DON'T watch it.
Anyway, we also looked through a lot of pictures that were taken at the previous meetings. My great suikawari achievement chronicled in this [link] entry, was once again brought up. Some older pictures still taken in Yume tea-house (more specifically from this [link] meeting) were also there, including one that featured a large hulking thug with a thick beard and long hair - took me awhile till I recognized myself.
Good memories overall.
Now the way home wasn't as eventful as it usually is, mainly because I was simply too tired to go on foot, especially with the large bag I brought to the big city with me. So instead, I walked with the others to the bus. I generally enjoy talking, but I don't like to go though the trouble to actually start conversations, so I was very thankful when one of the girls (her name is Ayako by the way), left a little out of the loop when the others were discussing something, asked me why I'm carrying that thing on my back. We had a nice chat on the way to the station. I rarely get to talk to people, so I really enjoyed it.

Now I know I should've reviewed Kamichama Karin a long time ago. But that topic has grown too old, and reviewing it now would be too forced. Suffice to say, it's a magical girl anime, and the first of that genre I ever watched. It was, how should I say, girly. Cute, funny, sometimes tear-jerking, but very, very girly. However it did have a funny character I almost fell in love with at first sight - and I would if he was an actual person (yes it's a guy, and no, I'm not gay but you should already know that). I faved this [link] stamp for a reason, you know.

Anyway, that's it for today. Writing this journal took me a whole hour, and I feel like playing something before going to bed.

Long story short:

Ice cream: 500 Ft
Registration Fee: 300 Ft
Two sushi rolls: 2150 Ft
Three FMA trading card decks with a buy two get one free offer: 1000 Ft
Kurosaki Ichigo figure: 1100 Ft
One bottle of tea: 200 Ft
One Anime Stars Magazine: 1000 Ft
One Yasutora Sado bagde: 300 Ft
One set of chopsticks: 800 Ft

Total: 7250 Ft

Available cash on entry: 6000 Ft
Remaining cash on leave: 1500 Ft

Reason: None available. The only rational explanation I can come up with is that one of the vendors gave me the change and the item, and forgot to take the price. It didn't bother them much when I went back to ask about it.

Okay, so what is this about anyway?
J-cult fest is something of a mini-con in a Budapest school, organized by some group called the MAJA. It's pretty much what it says on the can. The con included Japan related exhibitions, films, presentations and activities. Among other things, demonstrations were held by two sports clubs (the Phoenix Kendo Club and some archery club that's name I don't remember), and a drum ensemble.
The corridors were filled with vendors, selling all sorts of stuff from anime merchandise to books, magazines and various other random stuff. And since I had money to spend, I bought all sorts of stuff, and somehow, managed to spend more cash than what I had on me. Not much else happened. I'll post pictures sometime this week.

I have a review waiting to be written. I'll get to that too.

I'll be leaving for two weeks at most, and I don't know how often I'll be able to go on-line. So here's one review I don't want to delay for too long.

Yesterday... I mean early this morning, I watched Naruto: Bonds, fifth film based on Naruto. While it had a lot to be desired, it far surpassed that pukewalanche they called Naruto Shippuuden: The Movie, which was a complete wastenado of my timefoon.
First, let's see what it was all about:

[SPOILERS]
A large fleet of steampunk warships approach the land of the fire, and start bombarding, in what appears to be a remake of Pearl Harbor. Entire squadrons of soldiers called Sky-nins leave the decks, and use chakra powered wings to fly over the Hidden Leaf, and begin shooting people and buildings using guns that shoot knives, and some weird balls that look like hand grenades. They eventually leave to restock, and prepare for a second run. Shikamaru and Neji observe their movements, determine the location of their base, and move out along with Kakashi and Sai, for a surprise attack.
Meanwhile, Naruto, Hinata and Sakura are tasked with escorting a doctor who helped treat the injured, and his apprentice (Amaru), back home. After a dangerous trek through a jungle, (during which Naruto makes friends with Amaru as they save each others lives, and he finds out more about HER past with doctor Sinno), they finally arrive to the village, which has been raised. Desperately looking for survivors, Amaru accidentally triggers a booby trap, but the good doctor saves her in the nick of time and gets impaled by a volley of knives. After burying his body, the party splits up to look for survivors. Hinata is captured, apparently, while Naruto and Sakura have a run-in with the Notails (yes, they added another beast, even though there are only 9 of them). The beast apparently possessed Amaru, because of her despair over the loss of her teacher. After dealing with his own inner demon, who really wants to have a go with it's long lost relative, Naruto manages to get to Amaru and help her exorcise the demon. Sakura goes looking for Hinata and the villagers, while Naruto and Amaru explore the ruins, which turn out to be a flying fortess called the Ancor Vantian, and manned by the leader of the Sky-nins, who is none other than doctor Sinno himself. Turns out, he didn't die, he just staged his own death, to manipulate Amaru's emotions. Something he's been doing all this time. He did this so the Notails could feed off her negative emotions, and convert it into dark chakra, that eventually allows him to go Super Saiyan, and beat Naruto Dragon Ball style. Then Sasuke, who has been following Sinno, on Orochimaru's orders, shows up to break the fight, and disables the villainous old man. Sinno escapes, and Naruto along with Sasuke, chase him through the Vantian while Amaru goes to rescue the prisoners. An epic showdown takes place in the core of the Vantian, where Sinno fuses with the Notails, going all mutatey on them and starts draining their chakra. But he's in for more that he bargained for, as the large amount of chakra he absorbs results in a meltdown, leaving him vulnerable to the finishing moves of the two youngsters. Amaru rescues the prisoners (Including Hinata and Sakura, who were captured at one point), and they all escape in a flying machine, while Naruto stays behind to blast the Vantian into oblivion.
All the while, Shikamaru's team successfully decommission the enemy fleet, by infesting the ships with Shino's bugs.
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Epic battles at sky and sea made this film really worth watching. The graphics were a little too cartoony, but the animation was good at least. The story got a little hard to follow at some points, but besides all this, it was enjoyable. It didn't beat the first one, but it's a close second.

Now off to packing. I need to get ready for the big trip i mentioned.