Tech and Gear
This morning, Joy gave me good… heck… excellent news. She has pre-ordered for me the first of Kaiyodo‘s Fraulein Revoltech Line: Rei Ayanami!!! Pre-orders just started this month and it will actually come out only by January. Still, it’s good to already know she is coming my way. Can hardly wait! Thanks Joy!
I’ve heard about Neon Genesis Evangelion or Evangelion before. In fact I’ve seen an Evangelion movie (forgot which, see below) and Rei Ayanami is a favorite anime character. However, I haven’t seen the TV series. This is bad since Evangelion is supposedly one of the best as well as one of the most influential animes. This changed when I was able to borrow a copy of the TV series from Aby. I immediately and eagerly watched it over several days.
Evangelion is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth under attack by an enemy referred to as Angels. The Angels are invulnerable to conventional weapons because of their AT shields. The only weapon that can combat the angels are Evangelions or Evas. These are experimental highly-unstable mecha which also have AT shields. As the series progresses a lot of combat ensues and a conspiracy unfolds. This plus the focus on the characters makes for a quite compelling story.
Unfortunately, the ending– specifically episodes 25 and 26– was, to say the least, confusing. It was all a sequence of psychological and metaphysical meandering occurring purely in the characters’ heads. I did some research and found out a lot of fans were also confused and dissatisfied with the ending.
Thus, when the first Evangelion movie, Death and Rebirth, was released it included an alternate ending. It is composed of two parts: Death which is the merging of the truncated TV episodes and Rebirth which is the the alternate ending. Rebirth however is not the full ending as the movie was released before it can be completed.
So another movie called The End of Evangelion was released which is composed solely of the alternate ending episodes (episodes 25′ and 26′) to the TV series. After watching this, things become a bit clearer but also a bit more muddled. But heck, it rocks!
All these were finally brought together in Renewal of Evangelion which is composed of an edited Death part of Death and Rebirth plus End of Evangelion. This movie is considered the complete Neon Genesis Evangelion movie.
But wait! There’s more! A new movie called Rebuild of Evangelion with new scenes is coming out. And there’s even rumors of a live action movie.
Rating: 4/5
I’ve been marathon watching Heroes. It was much more interesting than I expected. It’s basically about otherwise normal people manifesting powers. It’s a recurring theme used in stories like X-Men. But this one focuses on the ordinary lives of the characters as they interleave with the main plot line. One thing I really liked: The heroes don’t wear fancy hero costumes. Why would anyone want to wear colorful, tight-fitting clothes anyway?
At the rate I’m going, I should be done by the middle of next week. Looking forward to it.
Rating: 4/5
UPDATE: I’ve finally completed it. What can I say? The season ender was majorly anti-climactic. What a bummer!
Okay so it’s just in the US right now, but the Apple TV announced by Apple last January is now out. The Apple TV is basically an interface between your computer and your TV. Movies and TV shows you download from iTunes to your PC are transferred via your network, even wirelessly, to the Apple TV. You can then play these movies and TV shows on your big-screen TV while sitting on your comfy sofa.
We’ve had such functionality for some time now. The MediaGate immediately comes to mind but I’m sure there are others out there. However, if there’s one thing Apple does very well, it is package everything essential into one cool package, make everything easy to use, and then tie everything up together. Plus of course there’s the Apple mystique. They did it with the personal computer (Mac), they did it with portable entertainment (iPod) and now it seems they’re going to do it for home entertainment.
I can see new TVs coming out with that white and silver theme now.