My content from Helium and Associated Content

Anime reviews: Samurai Champloo

"Samurai Champloo" is an anime series that is the perfect mix of Feudal Japan and the culture of hip-hop music. It is created and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe who had also done the same with "Cowboy Bebop." The name of "Champloo" means "chanpuru" which can be defined as a "mix," "stir-fry," or "freestyle." It's an interesting mix of the genres of action and samurai movies. The series seems to be strongly inspired by urban culture such as: hip-hop, rap, break-dancing, slang/ebonics, turntablism, and modernism. But the series still focuses on the element of the Tokugawa era. The time setting takes place a few centuries before the Meiji Restoration.

The series revolve around three people as they travel across Japan. Personality and style-wise, the three of them contrast from each other.

There's Mugen who is a vagabond from Ryukyu or Okinawa. He is one of the most unorthodox fighters in all of Japan. He uses a special type of katana. Without the sword, Mugen uses a combination of breakdancing and Capoeira. His named is derived from Mugen which is Japanese for "infinite" or "endless." He's more of the ruffian and the street-fighter in Samurai Champloo. In the dubbed version, he is voiced by Steven Blum who also voiced the role of Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop.

Jin is a ronin who has a more refined style contrasting to Mugen. He's the more refined swordsman that uses finesse. In combat, Jin uses traditional kenjutsu. Without the sword, Jin uses Jiu-Jitsu. He is voiced by Kirk Thornton in the dubbed version. This is one of the many works of anime that Kirk Thornton had worked along with Steven Blum.

The two of them are recruited by a feisty young girl named Fuu who's about fifteen years old. She's looking for the "Sunflower Samurai" or the "samurai that smells of sunflowers."

The trio travels around Japan as they owe Fuu from saving them from execution. All three run into their own pasts along the course of the series when they try to find the samurai that smells of sunflowers. Despite the elements of modern and hip-hop culture, Samurai Champloo relies on the factual events in Edo-era Japan uch as the Shimabara Rebellion.

Most of the tracks in Samurai Champloo is compiled and sung by Japanese hip-hop artist Nujabes. Overall, Samurai Champloo is a very interesting series to watch despite some of the inaccuracies. If you enjoyed watching Cowboy Bebop, you may enjoy watching Samurai Champloo.

Steven Blum does an excellent job of voicing Mugen while Kirk Thornton does a great job of voicing Jin.

http://www.helium.com/tm/652299/samurai-champloo-anime-series

February 2, 2008 7:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Add Comment

Anime reviews: Bleach

"Bleach" is an anime series like many others that is adapted from a manga. The story revolves around the notion that once you die in the world of the living, you're reborn in another world called Soul Society. Once you die in Soul Society, you are reborn in the world of the living.

The story of Bleach revolves around a fifteen year old high school student in Kurakura Town named Ichigo Kurosaki who's had the ability to see the presence of spirits of those who have died and have not passed on into the afterlife. His ability to sense spiritual presences both good and bad plays an integral role throughout the series. One day in school, he sees a mysterious girl about his age running around the streets in black robes.

Nobody else except for Ichigo actually notices her. And she's fighting a monster known as a Hollow with a white mask and a transparent hole in the middle of their chests. She defeats the Hollow but everybody except for Ichigo is oblivious. Then Ichigo catches the girl snooping around. She's shocked that Ichigo notices her. Another Hollow attacks as it senses Ichigo's high amount of spiritual energy. Then she is wounded and Ichigo ends up fighting for her.

It is revealed that she is a shinigami or "soul reaper." Soul reapers are charged with the tasks of fighting hollows and sending spirits into the afterlife. Humorously, she appears the next day at Ichigo's school as a transfer student. It's revealed that her name is Rukia Kuchiki. She's inhabiting a fake body called a gigai. Rukia easily blends in with the rest of the student body.

While Rukia tries to regain her powers, she trains Ichigo to be a shinigami she he is her substitute for the time being. Most of the time, Ichigo has to fight Hollows left and right. Bleach very much has an interesting cast of characters. Later on in the series, Ichigo finds other people who possess a strong amount of spiritual power that prove to be valuable allies.

Overall, Bleach has an interesting storyline along with an interesting soundtrack. In the series, there are plenty of filler arcs to keep the anime from catching up with the manga. The manga itself is still in circulation.

Still, Bleach is an interesting series that reflects on life, death, and the afterlife. Currently, Bleach is still running on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block on Saturday Nights. The current amount of episodes so far is one-hundred and forty three. Bleach itself as a series is still ongoing.

http://www.helium.com/tm/650814/bleach-anime-series-others

February 2, 2008 7:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Add Comment

Should the draft be reinstated?

This is an article I posted on Helium.com not long ago. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to do a documentary on this possibility. I voted on the "No" side.

Here's the article I wrote:

The draft shouldn't be reinstated. The draft was done away with for a good reason. Take a look at what happened during the Vietnam War. What's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan mirrors what had happened during the Vietnam War. My family had lived through the whole Vietnam War and had witnessed horrible atrocities at the hands of both the American and VC forces. There was a total lack of discipline on the side of the United States forces.

When there's a draft, it shows that the government is desperate to replenish troops. Many people were forced into service and they didn't want to be. They're not going to be motivated to fight for the government. Especially when they have to fight for something they don't even believe in. Then there were people drafted whom were thieves, druggies, drug dealers, murderers, rapists, and what not. Having those people within your ranks is going to cause problems with discipline within your ranks. Watching Apocalypse Now Redux, I could see how chaotic the Vietnam War was from the US Troops standpoint.

I think there would be possibly mass protesting throughout the streets of America's biggest cities and towns if the draft was reinstated. Iraq was the biggest issue for the '06 elections. Take a look at how the government jumps to help out other country yet they take their sweet time helping people in desperate need that happen to be living in this country.

Take a look at the Hurricane Katrina fiasco in which FEMA reacted extremely slow. There was a lot of mess ups at the local, state, and national levels. It was very long wait and chaos ensued. And there's still people looking for relief and recovery after Hurricane Katrina. When the Tsunami Disaster of '04 took place, the United States quickly reacted.

The United States quickly reacted in a matter of days to an incident taking place overseas. Here, the government took much longer in responding to Hurricane Katrina which was a domestic incident versus the '04 Tsunami which was an overseas incident.

Should the draft be reinstated, why would people be inclined to fight a "war" for a government that has seemed to turn its back on them. There's no logic. Forcing them to fight isn't going to help. It's going to make things much worse. Hypothetically should the draft be reinstated, a good number of people would be from the Southeast United States. That goes especially for the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. If I felt that the governement had turned my back on me and I was forced to fight for that same government I wouldn't be a happy camper.

With the immigrants, probably won't have that much of a problem. But we're at the point where the military has relaxed its standards because of the lack of people recruiting. They're going to repeat the same mistakes as they made in Vietnam. With a draft, the military will bring in people that have no business being in the military in the first place.

I wouldn't want to be sharing a foxhole with a druggy who's not going to kick it let alone kick it for the good of the country. I'm for certain I don't want to share a foxhole with a convicted murderer. I'd be pretty paranoid if that was the case. I'm pretty sure I do not want to share a foxhole with a rapist.

Keep in mind, the draft is going to be pretty prejudice. Politicians are going to find ways to keep their children from enlisting in the military. They'll find some loophole to avoid having their children sent off to war.

In short, the more well off are going to find loopholes. Everybody else is going to protest. Forcing people to fight let alone fight for a cause they don't believe in is basically something that's going to explode in your face. It's going to get more costly if the draft is in place.

http://www.helium.com/tm/358641/draft-shouldnt-reinstated-draft

June 16, 2007 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Add Comment