One Hundredth Post

Like the title says this is my one hundredth post in this particular blog. And it only took three years. I can be very lazy about updating sometimes. So instead of my normal short and not all that interesting updates on whats going on with my life. (Normal just school working and training to be a rabbi stuff) I thought that I would post about an interest of mine, anime. Yep I do do some things which are not work related and or highbrow.

But first the normal short post. Basically everything is fine or quite possibly better than fine.  I am finishing the last notes in my last essay and thinking about my presentation and other school stuff so this means I've been watching a lot of Anime a) to keep relaxed but also because procrastination sometimes does kick in.

I got into anime though manga, which is unsurprising but my interest in manga really grew out of my love of Japanese prints which I used to collect (and still would if I had the money).  So here is a list of my favourite ten anime, at least as they stand at the moment.  After listing them I will talk a bit about them so maybe don't read down to far I dont want to spoil them.

10. Chobits
  9. Death note
  8.Spirited away
  7. The cat returns
  6. The girl who leapt though time
  5. Elfen Lied
  4.Lain
  3 Barefoot gen
  2. Little Slugger, and
  1. Wings of Sorrow

I am not really sure what this list says about me, if anything, but I like to say a little about each one and why I like them.  Note spoilers from here on in.

10. Chobits:

So I liked both the Anime and the Manga on this one. The animation is nicely drawn and high quality, even if the facial expressions leave a little to be desired. At fist this may seem like a typical loser has more girls interested in him than is really either credible or possible. With an element of harem anime. However there is more to than that, as this is a re-taleing of Pygmalion this is only to be expected.
Chobits: Clamp 2001-2.

9. Death note.

Fun while I was viewing it, and on the second view not sure I'd watch it all the way though in a single sitting again, do have the energy anymore for a start. The animation is good, not great but certainly better than a lot.
It is the tension and the mind-games between the two central chatterers that really put this here for me. Although I did like the Shinna-gammi.

8. Spirited away.

Don't really need to say a whole lot about this more fantastic work by Studio-gabi. Really great all round. Plot, acting, script and animation. Unlike most things on this list okay for children although that said young children may still find it too scary.

7. The cat returns

Another offering from Studio-Gabi, with all the high quality that you would expect from them. Less scary than spirited away above. But all the more hauntingly beautiful for that. And it has cats, which from my perspective is a definite plus.

6. The girl who leapt though time.

Not sure how this one made the list, and relatively speaking so high-up, nicely acted (I watched the subtitled version) the animation is high quality although not stopping the film to stare good. The music and score are especially powerful and the characters nice and warming to spend time with.  But it was the emotion of the whole that left is mark. I enjoyed the basic idea (the central heroine can jump in time). Just a pleasant way to spend some time. The animation has a gentle dreamlike quality to it.

5. Elfen Lied.

Unbelievably violent, no seriously I lost count of the number of people killed just in first episode. And it is very, very, very graphic. Good things first. The music and the score. This is the best music and score I have ever come across in an anime, wonderful breath-taking. It is also visually stunning, I know I talk about the back-drops a lot but they are one of the things I notice in animations and frankly judge them on, the design of the characters is also really well executed (no pun intended), and it is really emotionally powerful. I cried at times. And dramatic and full of tension.
Not so good things. Its way to violent and sexually expiate even for a horror anime. And although it is emotionally powerful this is because it uses some pretty cheep tricks at times.  I mean if 'love and warmth' were all that it would have taken, then WTF why didn't you just give love and warmth in first place.
That said, I really cared what happened to the characters and when i stumbled across it I ended up watching the whole series in one go and then re-watching it. So must have been doing something right. eh? The central characters are well acted, but minor ones not so much. But this is really a powerful anime, which is beautiful even as people are being ripped to pieces, bloodily. If you can stomach ultra-violance to a degree that would make a droog unhappy, and don't get upset by sexual imagery then this is a good anime to seek out. It has lots to offer, if they do brother you then maybe this one to pass by.


4.Lain serial experiments.

I think that this was the first anime that I could really say I loved. However, it is really odd. Basically this is a thinking manga which takes on big philosophical ideas. I was drawn into the plot, although I am not sure I really understood it all. The artwork is really high quality. Again the details of the back-drops and sets really stand out as worth mentioning. A few moments of violence but the disturbing nature of this anime is really in the ideas it puts in your head. Well worth looking out for.

Lain: Yoshitoshi, not sure when this came out I saw it on DVD in around 2002.


3.Barefoot glen.

Hiroshima though the eyes of one child. About as you would think and then some. The plot is powerful and the images stark yet beautiful.  A real classic. This is defiantly a movie in the full sense of the word although based on an earlier manga.
Barefoot Glen: 1983




2.Little Slugger (or Paranoia's agent).

Interlocking stories about detectives investigating a series of attacks.  Centred around Tsukkio Sagi. But this is so much more than this would suggest, it develops into a tense psychological thriller. Can your Id really kill you?
Contains strong violence and some sex (not all of it pleasant). Not for children. But what really made this for me is the open music and credits. Beautiful and thought provoking at the same time. Visually this anime is treat, especially the city scape back-grounds which I would stop my viewing just to study them.
Paranoia's agent: Satoshi Kon 2005? although I didn't see it till much latter.

1. wings of sorrow.

I really cannot say too much about the plot of this anime without spoiling it. But it is a beautiful drama filled with pathos and sadness yet redemptive at the same time.  The animation is lovely and flowing the characters special. I was totally drawn into its world, which I learnt about along with the main protagonist. The sound track is lovely also.
Be warned not a lot happens just girls with wings and halos, yep I know. Talking and life and the city which they cannot leave with walls they are forbidden to apporach or touch.
Bassed on the Manga by Yoshitoshi Abe 2003? English dub in 2010 (I think)

Well this I think must be my longest post. Back to writing my presentation for class.

Snow, school and last of assessments

Its snowing in London, and for that matter much of the rest of the country. It looks very beautiful but is coursing the normal chaos that always seems to happen when there is snow.  Yesterday I had another catch-up class so didn't get that much work done on my remaining essay. I am not worried its almost finished and I still have the rest of today, and Sunday to work on it. Then there is exam week at college, not that I have any exams but I need to have handed in all my essays by the end of Monday.  Then school starts normally on the 28th.
There is one other project I am working on but at the moment I am in a rather chilled out place.  This feeling might well change once the school term actually restarts.  The only other thing that has been happening is that I am finding my weekly therapy sessions really interesting. Although even being 'in therapy' is something of a surprise to me and I guess to those who knew me in the past.  But it is certainly interesting and I, think that I am finding it helpful. Unsurprisingly, for me, once I started and found it both useful and interesting I started reading around the topic.
Latter today another person is coming to have a look at the celling in our kitchen.  This has been something of a saga that has been continuing more or less since we moved in.  But I am hopeful that things are moving towards a conclusion which would be good.
Anyway I'd better go and do some cleaning and tidying around the flat and then get on with some school work.

Lots of work and assessments.

I am still working away on essays. I have fully finished two now and am well on the way to finishing my third essay.  I actually enjoyed working on them this time around. And I think that they are pretty good. Although I know that I can never tell if they are good or not.

I still have my presentation to work but I am not worried about that either, in fact it should be fun. It is not due until the 28th of January so I have plenty of time really.

Although the semester has not started yet we have had catch up classes, one for Rabbinic literature (which was today).  And one last week which was also more or less Rabbinic literature we also had a liturgy class that day. So all in all I'm still rather busy.

It has turned very cold here we even had some snow, beautiful but it made travelling about rather difficult.

Apart from that it has been just the general admin kind of stuff that keeps that just fills up time and seems never ending.

Essays

I am busy working on essays at the moment, I have three which need to be completed in relatively short order (although I am nowhere near the dead line as of yet). My psalms easy is very nearly finished. All that remains is to translate some Rashi for one of my appendices and too add a couple of lines about Ibn Ezra's comments, apart from that its done. (It will of course need to be corrected) I am actually really happy with it, its a good essay.
I am also working on an essay on the Aleinu (for liturgy of course), this is coming together nicely although its a more demanding topic and naturally I am not making life easy for myself. But nevertheless it is coming together well.
I am really only at the note taking and reading stage for my history essay. But even so I am happy with how the whole is forming in my mind.
But as always I am struck by how diverse essay topics (and for that matter presentations) like together and one part of one essay triggers something in another.
It is one of those things that makes being a student and studying worthwhile.

On a different note I am enjoying the rest of being back home.  Recovering from the year so far at LBC and of course from Limmud.