Shelf Life

Shine We Are

As the recent trend goes, East Asian pop stars are slowly becoming Pan-Asian pop stars. Instead of recording songs in just their native language, the cool thing to do nowadays is to learn another East Asian language and do an overseas version of your music, just to be more marketable to a foreign country. A great example of this is BoA, a talented Korean singer that is one of Japan's most popular import artists. With the release of her latest CD, Shine We Are, she's recorded dual versions of many of her songs, first in Korean, then in Japanese. She's even learning Chinese right now so she can corner that market as well. At the same time, a lot of Asian musicians are trying to learn English, so they can appeal to the Western market too. This isn't uncommon for other foreign-language artists, who all re-record certain songs in English just so their CDs can be more easily marketed to US and British consumers. It kind of makes me wish international artists could have their music recognized in the US without first having to do something in English, but those are few and far between. I just hope that this doesn't blur the lines of creativity between each country. It'd be awful if all music started sounding the same.

Welcome to Shelf Life. ADV Films 100 min. 3/7 $29.98 11/16/2004 Re-watching Evangelion after so many years, I've learned that it's one of those things that will never get old... especially if the video quality is as nice as the Platinum Edition. With two volumes already down the hatch, the series is getting more and more complex. Providing plenty of juice in between the battles against the Angels, the series starts delving into the personalities and souls lurking inside the Evas and the Brain Powerd which, contrary to popular belief, was actually planned before Evangelion was released, yet is commonly accused of being the contradicting “response” to the series.

Chrono Crusade Vol. #2 - Holy War ADV Films 100 min. 2/? $29.98 11/16/2004 Two volumes in, and I'm already hopelessly addicted to this show. As the series unfolds, Rosette and her companions find themselves ever closer to Aion and his clutches. With his cohorts dangling Joshua in front of her as bait, Rosette has to use all of her willpower to not fall into all of their traps. At the same time, while she's being tempted with news on Joshua's whereabouts, the audience gets to see more of what's going with him. There's still not much revealed about what happened to him, and what plans Aion has for the Apostles, but it's definitely fascinating enough to keep anyone riveted to the screen. Aion may be moving to the forefront of the series, but there's still plenty of fighting to keep the series moving at a brisk clip. Now that Azmaria has started fighting alongside Rosette and Chrono, it's nice seeing the blossoming relationship between the three continue to grow and expand. What may have started out as an exciting show about exorcizing nuns is now a engrossing story about the ongoing struggle between heaven and hell. Be sure to keep up with this series. Vampire Princess Miyu.

Media Blasters 625 min. 1-6/6 $89.95 11/16/2004 When it comes to dark action series, Bastard!!.

FUNimation 49 min. 1/1 $24.98 11/16/2004 A cowardly boy who travels across the country, befriends bears, and accidentally beats monsters through the courage in his heart? Cute... as long as you first have the patience to sit through the first half of the movie. It's been a century since Son Goku saved Earth from the vile clutches of the Shadow Dragons with his shiny balls. All of the heroes of that time have long since ed away except for Pan, who is now a feisty grandmother that can still beat the crap out of neighbourhood boys. She dedicates her time to training her grandson, also conveniently named Son Goku. Unlike his grandfather though, this Goku is the world's lamest wimp and just begs for a slap on the face. It's not until Pan falls sick that Wimpcake decides to buck up and travel deep into the mountains to go chase after his grandfather's balls. Along the way, he meets up with scary man-eating monsters. Luckily for Goku, he has the accidental ability to shoot electricity from his body and turn Super Saiyan, resulting in a cute, light-hearted, go-get-'em movie about a boy's struggles to believe in the Power He Has Inside™. It may be a little too fluffy for hardcore Dragon Ball GT.

Wedding Peach Vol. #7 - Scarlet Tears ADV Films 150 min. 7/9 $29.98 11/16/2004 This show is perfect for the anime fan on the go. Fast forward through the opening and ending sequences, all the repeat transformation sequences, and all the special attacks, and each episode is only 10 minutes long! Talk about a time saver! Of course, for those of us that like to sit through the full anime episodes, this can be irritating as hell and violently dull. With only two more discs to go, the fourth Love Angel is added to the mix. A snooty gal who despises even the notion of teamwork, Salvia shuns the thought of working with the other girls until they have a peaceful Moment and bond amongst drizzling rays of rainbow happiness. Now that all four girls are finally together, they can finally combine their cheap trinkets and summon the Saint Something Four, a glowing thing that sends out showers of love and cheer. Conveniently for the series, having another girl just means that even more time can be spent transforming and attacking, thus drastically reducing the amount of original material that has to go into each new episode. If anything, Magic Knight Rayearth.

Cyber Team in Akihabara Vol. #1 - Cyber Genesis ADV Films 125 min. 1/? $29.98 11/16/2004 From the sugary cover, I was expecting Pokémon.

Alas, that's all the supply of discs allows for, so I'll see you next week! As always, thanks for reading!