Story
Well, the story start in the usual way; the same as the previous iteration. If Star Wars were famous for their “from the galaxy far far away” scrolling text introduction style, IMHO, Mummy had their own by telling a little bit history about the villain in a form of flashback (kind of story telling). It all start by portraying Jet Li as the Emperor Han doing the usual conquest and killing spree to gain more power. He buried his enemies under the Great Wall and he even master all the five elements (supposedly related to he can use those elements in magical way ) His lust for power come to even greater height by seeking immortality. Thus, he instruct his most loyal soldier, General Ming to find way to immortality for him.

Literally, General Ming found it by asking help from a witches Zi Yuan and both of em’ continue to search at some sacred library. In the process of searching, they both fall in love and since the Emperor also had interest in Zi Yuan, General Ming can be considered fucked up at this point. Both of em’ return to the palace and Zi Yuan present the Emperor the spell book containing the spell to immortality. She then cast the spell to the Emperor after he promise to let her and General Ming live together. But both of em’ playing tricks really; the Emperor in the end broke his promise, kill General Ming, tried to kill Zi Yuan, Zi Yuan revealed that she actually curse the Emperor and his soldier by turning them into terracotta statues, and she escape the palace.

The story then go onwards to 1947. A little bit introduction on how the young Alex O’Connell found the Dragon Emperor’s Tomb, then he found the Emperor in its terracotta form and after some hiatus, bring him back to Shanghai. The previous protagonists Rick and Evelyn O’Connel enjoying their retired life in Britain (although they seems not doing so). One day, the British government want them to carry some relic (Eye of Shangri-La) back to Shanghai as a sign of good faith. They did bring the relic back to Shanghai, encountering Jonathan (Evelyn’s brother) & Alex but in the end like Jonathan said, “You guys are like a mummy magnet!!!“, shits happen and the adventure kick in.

Cast
I strongly want to state here that I miss Rachel Weisz in this movie. It’s not like her replacement Maria Bello was not good, but honestly, apart from the action scene, she failed miserably. I also begin to miss Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo). But knowing the fact that Jet Li would never do a martial art movie anymore after Fearless, I can forgive him for not doing much action on this movie. Beside, he doesn’t need to move much considering the fact he got his terracotta army and his 5 element magic. Jonathan (John Hannah) is as hilarious as usual, and Rick O’connell (Brendan Fraser) kinda feel out a little bit. Clearly he doesn’t have strong chemistry with Maria Bello. Alex (Luke Ford) kinda doesn’t represent the Alex that I know on Mummy Return but maybe he become like that after living separately with his parents. Who knows eh…child complex stuff.

Conclusion
Well…how should I say this. Happy? Not quite. Disappointed? Hell yeah. I guess the first mistake of this iteration is the exclusion of Rachel Weisz. The feeling of the tense to save the world also is not there. Compare this; an army of mortal (Medjai) vs horde of Anubis’s army and the undead vs terracotta army, which one brings more tense? Come on…nobody care if the undead been killed..they’re dead already. I also can’t stop myself from thinking, after all this thousand of years, Zi Yuan never care to really kill the Emperor…it took her 2000 years to try the kill. I don’t mind all the other small details because this is a fiction, it’s to be expected. But it seems, the production took that fact for granted; until up the point of keep reusing the old plot (eg: after thousand of years, the Emperor still have a follower that would do anything to resurrect him, even fighting yetis ). To conclude it all, out of 5 I gave 2.5. Enough said…

The song of the PV is Gravitation by Angela. It’s the opening of an anime series called Heroic Age. To be honest, mecha type of anime is really not my cup of tea. Most of the time it’s just coincidence, not that I specifically look for it; since I like the song, it’s the main reason why I keep watching Heroic Age until the end . Well, enjoy the song, although I personally do have high hope for the PV to be a little bit different…still not bad though

Source: 1up.com

Just today I had downloaded the latest release of Nine Inch Nails, The Slip. Well, before any of you blabbering about piracy and all that stuff, I will tell you that this release is free to download (legal in any way). Quoting from the frontman of NiN himself (Trent Reznor) from their official site

thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me

The release contains 10 tracks and IMHO, according to my ears their genre kind of fusion between alternative rocks, electronic, and a little industrial rocks. I never seriously followed all their previous releases (only heard a couple of their previous tracks once in a while), so I kinda can’t say much about the latest release in terms of comparing it with their predecessors. What can I say is (personally), it’s a little out of my listening taste but I still find it interesting somehow. Maybe I need more time.

So, I can’t say more than that. Some might argue that this kind of release will not be that good, but I beg to differ. I do think this release haven’t fallen low like that and it’s still offer a quality tracks. Download and judge it yourself anyway. The best thing (beside its free to download) is you can choose the audio format; from the usual .mp3 until the humongous file size of either FLAC, Apple Lossless, or WAVE. Follow the link on their official site and you need to give out your emails to receive the download link. If you intend to own the release in the usual form (physical audio CD, etc), the band also plans to release in the form of CD and vinyl around July.

Enjoy

Additional Info

1. 999,999
2. 1,000,000
3. letting you
4. discipline
5. echoplex
6. head down
7. lights in the sky
8. corona radiata
9. the four of us are dying
10. demon seed

length: 43:45

I’m always into samurai and shinobi (ninja) type of anime. I even watch Himawari even tough the anime somehow more into comedy type (means less action) but what the heck…as long there’s a shinobi in it! Just to name a few, among the title that I’ve watched that includes either samurai or shinobi elements in it are Samurai X, Samurai 7, Samurai Champloo, Peacemaker Kurogane, Basilisk, and Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. Recently I had managed to get my hands on another anime that involves a samurai element in it; Shigurui.

The anime took place during the period of Tadanaga Tokugawa‘s rule in Edo era. Basically it’s revolves around the event when Tadanaga Tokugawa held a staged tournament among samurai and using a real katana (instead of using bokken). And the story focused on the first match between Fujiki Gennosuke and his opponent, Irako Seigen. Fujiki is a one armed samurai while Irako seems to be blind and have some injuries with his foot. Two of them take the initial stance in a very weird way (mostly Irako with his “Mumyō Sakanagare” move) and just when the fights about to begin….the story took us back into the beginning of it all…which is approximately 7 years ago. The first episode reveal the above until up to the point of the first meeting between Fujiki Gennosuke and Irako Saigen 7 years ago.

Irako Saigen’s Mumyō Sakanagare

Fujiki Gennosuke Unsheathe his katana

Conclusion

This anime can’t be categorised as an action adventure genre as a whole. There’s a historical elements in it and top it up with an inner deep feels of story telling. The character is somehow been described as detail as possible but not too excessive; just enough for the needed development of one particular episode. The anime often explained events using flashback and most of the flashback is either an actual historical fact or just a past events that one particular character experienced. I must admit that the anime is really slow in terms of pace but not to the point it became dull..just try to delivers almost everything in detail. This anime is definitely heavy as I myself have to watch the first episode more than once because I’m a little bit dizzy due to a lot of involvement of flashback, historical facts explanation, and a few “silent” scene. Those who watched Basilisk anime, try to imagine Basilisk with the addition of samurai and also with more gloomy mood. Heavy stuff but great nonetheless. Watch it and rate it yourself; without hesitation I mark Shigurui as my “Must Watch”!

Shijō Saikyō no Deshi Kenichi (roughly translated “History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi”) is a manga by Syun Matsuena. The story is focused on Kenichi Shirahama, an average 15-year-old weakling, whose life turns to Hell with the appearance of the naive, beautiful, and strong transfer student, Miu Fūrinji. After Kenichi witnesses Miu’s skills in martial arts, he joins the Ryōzanpaku dojo, the gathering place of those who are truly strong, which also happens to be Miu’s home. After beating a karate student in a match, he is soon targeted by all the delinquents in the school. Since then, Kenichi’s routine is divided between his hellish training with the masters of Ryōzanpaku, and his fights against the members of Ragnarok, a gang who views him as either a possible ally or an impending threat to their plans.

Source: Wikipedia

Honestly, the anime of this series was recommended by one of my acquaintances. By reading at Wikipedia, it seems nothing special for me (at first) but things start to get interesting when the number of episodes increase. So, I can officially admit that I’m a Kenichi’s fan now. Although the joke is not hurting much like Gintama, but it’s still hurt nonetheless. Besides, I watch this anime because of its fighting scene (during training or battle) and IMHO, that’s where this anime excel at. Wow…can’t wait for the next episode…

Well, not only the anime is good, but also the fansubbers that involve with it. Just recently, two (or three) Kenichi’s fansubber had launched a release war. Starting from episode of 26 (as I see it) and continues until now. The end point is until episode 36 or 37 I guess. The fansubbers involve is [Umai & Doremi] and [Kuro-Hana]. [Kuro-Hana] is slightly a new comer and only start to sub Kenichi since episode 19, but somehow they manage to cut the episodes that already been done by [Umai & Doremi]. [Umai & Doremi] took a while when they’re subbing Kenichi (even lag behind to the current raw). But at last they’re upping their pace since [Kuro-Hana] almost manage to catch up with the raw. Anyway, this war is more into a healthy competition and not to see which group is superior. As a viewer, I like this war…it makes the release become much faster. Owh not much faster…insanely fast. Seven release in 5 days!! This is madness!!! This is Sparta…er…I mean Kenichi. :-p

Screen shots for your judgment.

Kuro-Hana‘s releases of Kenichi

Umai & Doremi‘s Releases of Kenichi

Recently my watch-list going bigger because of the addition of Scrubs Season 6. Well, officially first aired on 30′th November, the first episode story continue from the Season 5 ‘s finale. It’s end with babies stuff, and now it begin with that stuff as well. I really enjoy the show nonetheless, but there’re rumors saying that maybe this is their last season and IF it’s not, maybe Zach Braff will not be in it. I wonder what will happen with Dr. Christopher Duncan Turk without Dr. John Michael “J.D.” Dorian, maybe still hilarious but I bet will lack the chemistry among them. But whatever happen, let just enjoy the show for now shall we?