Castenell, Dee- Ghost in the Shell

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The film Ghost in the Shell has to be one of the most interesting anime movies I’ve seen thus far.  It was the first anime film we have seen in which the main character was not human. An interesting topic brought up in the film is the importance of a soul. For the Japanese, its commonly known that everything has a soul but for Americans, only humans seem to have souls. Considering that last statement, I was surprised to see how a robot can function with a soul.

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The main character of the film, Kusanagi, was quite fascinating for both viewers and the main antagonist of the film.  She was birthed in a fashion similar to a human, coming out of a pool of birth-juice (sorry, not quite sure what you call it). Kusanagi demonstrates a personality and feelings, which are quite different from any other robot. The concept of a robot developing feelings is seen in a couple mainstream films like Terminator. Throughout the Terminator series, it always seemed as though the robot became attached to a certain individual, protecting them despite being programmed against it. Free will and somewhat of a soul provide a mechanical figure the ability to express such uncommon characteristics. I would have to say that the scene in which Kusanagi was on a boat with Batou (who’s name means boat) and she goes for a dive in the ocean. First of all, diving in water as a machine is pretty crazy, also the pressure of the ocean drives her sensors and modules to become inaccurate so she can never tell if something goes wrong. The interesting thing is that she says she does it to feel emotions such as fear and hope. Those were some pretty deep words coming from a machine if you think about what a machine is composed of. The main antagonist, project 2501, demonstrated another interesting concept that is quite feared among many individuals worldwide. It gives a great demonstration of humans creating a machine that is far too powerful to control. It acts on its on and ascends the normal bounds of human and machine. Project 2501 intrigued me when it stated that with all the power and capabilities it possessed, all it really wanted to do was be like a human and experience life and death.

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Overall, I would like to say that I sufficiently enjoyed this movie for not only its incredible visuals but its music as well seeing as it contained very powerful music to back up incredibly in-depth themes. I highly recommend this movie to anime fans and the general audience.

Castenell, Dee- Perfect Blue

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The movie which was recently viewed by my class and I was Perfect Blue. It was the first psychological thriller genre of anime I have ever seen. It was quite enjoyable and delivered well. The main thing I enjoyed was the movie’s ability to twist reality and make it seem as though illusion could become reality while clearly stating at certain scenes that it is impossible. Perfect Blue focused on a pop star’s transition to the actor’s spotlight. Through this journey, she faced the overwhelming and over encompassing aspects that come with fame, the major aspect being the detainment of identity when faced with so many interferences.

           

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         There were quite a few influences to her eventual loss of identity throughout the film. Mimania, Rumi, Double bind, and the audiences (consisting of mainly males) were the main ones that come to mind. First off, Mimania was quite grotesque looking and a real “creeper”. He apparently stalked Mima all the time; even to the point where he knew what foot she used to step into the bathtub with.

It seemed as though all the main characters had some flaw in their psychological being. Rumi was afflicted by losing her stardom as a pop idol for being overweight, Mimania was a hardcore otaku who seemed to lack his own real identity seeing as he so desired Mima’s and lastly Mima had a weak handle on her concept of reality.

            I really enjoyed the concept of memory and how easily it can change a person. After looking a blog based on Mima created by Mimania, Mima began to simply check the blog to see what she had supposedly done for the day. Her identity was slipping away and she constantly found herself stuck in between reality and the dream world, especially because of the Double Bind show, which closely related to her actual life. Personally, the concept of reality being frayed and illusions becoming reality are all true and very possible. Self-fulfilling prophecy is a legitimate psychological term and it expresses that if a person strongly believes that they are a certain way, they eventually become that way.

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            I would recommend this movie to anyone looking to be slightly confused. Just when you think you understand it all, something pops up that makes you question what is truly a dream and what is reality.  A fun movie that reminded me of the border of reality and dreams was the futuristic movie Total Recall, an Arnold Swhartzenegger film. Overall, I very much enjoyed this movie and had to watch it two times just to confirm some concepts. The film director did a terrific job and cutting scenes or putting scenes at the right time to throw the viewer off track, very fun stuff.

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Castenell, Dee- Cowboy B3B0P

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 First of all, I’m not used to watching movies in English but this one was quite enjoyable, especially since Steve Blum (one of my favorite voice actors) does the main character, Spike’s, voice. I must say throuroughly enjoyed Cowboy Bebop, more than I thought. At first when I heard of it in my younger years, I turned down watching it because I wasn’t a big Mecha fan. To my surprise, it wasn’t that Mecha-ee after all. I wanted to mention that after seeing a few animes, the lone, incredibly skilled fighter that spike portrays is seen throughout quite a few series. The major one that sticks out to me is Samurai Champloo. It’s pretty funny considering the same voice actor does the voice of Mugen in that series (the one who exhibits the “spike” characteristics). They also resemble each other just a bit.

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Awesome artwork of the two fighting Taken From

Anyways…the film really caught my attention because of the magnificent artwork (I’m a sucker for it). Portraying the city and environments they were in so well; leaving hidden messages in the backgrounds of some scenes, or simply inklings to piece together previous ideas. From the scene when Spike follows Dashin around the foreign bazaar, the scenes go by fast but you get such a great sense of the change of atmosphere so to speak. They show glimpses of people sitting around just enjoying the day, a constant flow of people moving in every direction on the main roads, a kind of sense of trust between people seeing as there were shop owners just sleeping in the back leaving their stands with merchandise unattended and out in the open. Enough of my blabber about that, I wanted to mention the view of Purgatory from the perspective of the main antagonist, a former special ops soldier and an unfortunate experimental guinea pig, Vincent.

Vincent (with a quote I enjoyed) Taken from

To go on a tangent real quick, for those fans of bleach, he reminded me (looks-wise and somewhat personality wise) of old man Zangetsu from Bleach.

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     It was really hard to make out if Vincent was actually an enemy throughout this entire film. He was only doing what he thought was best for the world as a whole seeing as he was denied his regular life and passageway into the afterlife thanks to the corrupt government responsible for the testing. It was quite depressing to see what Vincent had to go through. He had to feign his death to avoid being hunted by government officials, witness all of his comrades perish on a lonely planet, lose all memory of his past and worst of all, lose the memory of his beloved which seemed to mean more to him than anything else. I completely see where he stands after going through all of that. In a different light, he was just trying to be a hero and save everyone from possibly being denied that passageway into the much-desired afterlife, a heaven type place.  Vincent’s view in my prospective was that the life we live on earth is purgatory and we are all born to suffer sadly, I once had the same view (although without the motive to kill people to help the process). Based on our decisions we make in this stage, we can either ruin our future after death by doing bad deeds or live in eternal happiness by living as a respectable human being doing good deeds. Vincent simply wanted to rush the process and end the suffering of all the individuals on earth and grant them happiness in the passageway to the afterlife.

            Before I go on and write too much…Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and recommend it to anyone out there, anime fan or not. It had a nice message, beautiful visuals, incredible jazz music and memorable characters.

Castenell, Dee - Ninja Scroll..Gateway influencing modern anime

  

Jubei, the main character of Ninja Scroll. From NYSDM.

        

  The anime film Ninja Scroll represented many features differing quite a bit from the movie viewed last week (Akira).  Included in the movie are trademarks of Shinto-ism and governmental history dealing with Japan’s past issues. Aside from that, it portrays some religious inklings regarding Christianity considering the main enemies in the movie were all demons seeming to possess or portray one or more of Christianity’s seven deadly sins.

        

Kagero (not you standard run- o- the mill gal)
*Warning: Do Not Attempt anything Sexual with her*

   

  The movie in general was quite fast-paced, and towards the 2^nd half of the movie, it almost seemed as though they were rushing to wrap up the movie. So in this film, the major characters include, Jubei, Kagero, Dakuan, Chamberlain of the Mochizuki clan, Genma, and his 7 demons. To briefly describe them all; Jubei is portrayed as the epitome of what a man should be, strong, good-looking, and compassionate. Kagero is the main female of the film who is strong, full of emotions, and a key helper to the plot and development of the story. Dakuan is an elderly spy for the Tokugawa government; surprisingly he possesses great ability as a ninja. He aids Jubei and Kagero in return for their help. The Chamberlain is the leader of a small clan, although wanting to expand his clan; he cares very little for the lives of comrades or the well-being of anyone of lesser power. Phew…Lastly, we have Genma who is leader of this rogue group named the Devils of Kimon. He desperately wants to overthrow the Tokugawa government and seize control over the land.

            Now that all those characters have been mentioned… Its time to talk about what I had thought of saying. Many elements involved in this movie have been a major influence to modern day ninja anime’s. For example, the concept of ninja possessing abilities such as controlling shadows, shapeshifting, summoning, and much more are all portrayed in later top of the market animes such as Naruto, Bleach, and Full Metal Alchemist. Most of the shonen manga and anime represent those abilities and also the concepts of incorporating Shintoism. Shintoism is quite heavily expressed in the anime Bleach seeing as they use so many key objects in the Shinto faith such as special Gates and their views on the afterlife and death in opposition to Buddhism. To refrain from making anyone read further, considering I’m fully prepared to write a whole 1000+ word paper just talking about comparisons and portrayals of different aspects, I’ll wrap up by just mentioning that the idea of seven deadly sins exhibiting different demons is seen quite vividly in the anime Full Metal Alchemist.

    

          

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        Oh and yes, overall, I did enjoy the movie Ninja Scroll…although it was a bit out of the norm to see the stretch of imagination of some anime writers considering they put a demon-rape scene in the movie. I guess everyone has their own unique fantasies.

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Castenell- Akira

                     This video is a great portrayal of the incredible art work and NeoTokyo and                         h                                                    how society has changed for the worse.

Recently, I have viewed the anime film Akira. It takes place in Neo Tokyo, which has been devastated by a bomb of sorts. In my opinion, the main characters were easy to get familiar with thanks to the directing and camera shots of the anime. In the beginning it is pure chaos and pandemonium switching between gangs and a torn up society to seemingly innocent men dying to protect loved ones. Tetsuo, the main character, developed into a predictable figure. An overshadowed, under-appreciated, feeble member of a motorcycle gang turned against society once he obtained such immense power that there was nothing to stand in his way. Personally, I enjoyed watching the development of the embodied rage within Tetsuo.

Taken from L2D's Tumblr

                                         



There were some other notable characters to me as well. The General, who was a relic of the past attempting to change the terrible conditions and overwhelming greed that had consumed the individuals who were supposedly "running the city". Like some other anime's, this one seemed to portray the General as a man who most would consider not a "good" character. Even though he made some tough choices, he was spared a brutal death...unlike the other officials.
      Overall, I enjoyed Akira. It was quite confusing at the start but after the first 20 minutes or so, everything became clear and it followed the set path of an apocalyptic style movie. Even though I did not fully understand the ending of the movie, it portrayed a good story and the outstanding art work throughout the movie impressed me a great deal.
                   

Castenell - Introduction to Me

     

My full name is Amadee Joseph Castenell the third. My father is a phenomenal musician who is known quite well by many jazz greats and older locals in the New Orleans area. I am hoping to follow in his footsteps considering I have been blessed with some musical talent from him. Currently, I am majoring in Music Therapy to combine the efforts of my talent with the betterment of life for others. I very much enjoy playing my instruments; which include the clarinet (primary), flute, oboe, saxophone and piano. I am also a hardcore video-gamer, both console and computer.

As far as my life goes, I was born and raised in New Orleans up until the age of ten.  At that time, my mother passed away in her battle for cancer. From that point on I moved up to Massachusetts to live with my father. While trying to cope with the loss of the most loving and caring person I have ever known, my mother, I was also faced with hurricane Katrina ravaging the city where all my childhood friends were. After frantically searching for the some sign from my childhood friends, I received notice from the news about the deceased and unfortunately, all of my friends from my younger years were on the list of the dead. The change was incredibly difficult in all manners.  After struggling to fit in, I finally persevered and established my spot within the school system and town I lived in. It was a pleasure to come back to New Orleans for college seeing as I remember great memories from my childhood and seeing the city gives proof to all those past experiences.  

Although I have endured much depression and hardships throughout my life thus far, I have been able to sway from the negative and lean solely towards the positives. I was able to meet life-long friends in the town I moved to in Massachusetts and form bonds with teachers, friends, and the overall communities I encountered. I hope to make in positive impact on the individuals I encounter in my years of life to come.  Through music and a loving community, I have been able to become the person I am today and enjoy the days ahead of me.