Chiaki has become the resident conductor of the Roux-Marlet Orchestra and he had to move to a new place so that he could concentrate on his music. She was also struggling with her studies at the conservatory. These issues factored to the strain in their relationship. Nodame Cantabile: The Movie 2 is about how Nodame and Chiaki evaluate their priorities. Through the course of the movie, they have to choose between music and their love for each other.

The flow of Nodame Cantabile: The Movie 2 is somewhat choppy that it seemed like the director had to cut some scenes so that the movie can fit into its 2 hour long runtime. But the director made it up with a solid plot and music.

The supporting characters got the spotlight early in the movie but their subplots were quickly resolved and they were swept back into the background to make way for the main story. I didn’t even know who they were or what their relationship were with the Nodame and Chiaki.

As a standalone, Nodame Cantabile: The Movie 2 is an entertaining drama that featured great classical music. I guess I should not have skipped the first movie first. But I’m thankful for this movie because it made me discover the beauty of Nodame Cantabile. After the movie, I read the manga and watched the anime but I have yet to watch the first live action movie.

Kimi No Yubisaki is 17 minutes of nothing. The first time I watched it, I didn’t get the message that it tried to convey. So I watched it again the second time and I still didn’t get it. I don’t know if the message was lost in translation or I was too fascinated with the stars that I didn’t about the story or what it tried to express.

But no matter what, that was the best 34 minutes of that day for me. You can’t go wrong with Maki Horikita and Meisa Kuroki. And with that, I leave you a couple of screenshots from Kimi No Yubisaki.

This genre is an acquired taste that one develops during his puberty stage. Some outgrow it while there are others like me who still enjoy watching this type of movie. It has zombies, sword fighting, blood and gore. What more can you ask for? Oh, did I mention that it has pretty girls as well?

Oneechanbara: The Movie – Vortex is a sequel. Well, I haven’t seen the first one yet but I read that the storylines of both movies are unrelated with each other and although the main characters are the same, the actresses that played them are different.

It is about Aya (Yu Tejima), a skillful swordswoman who has cursed blood of Imichi flowing through her veins. She roams the streets and fight zombies with the help of her sister Saki (Kumi Imura). The evil Himiko (Rika Kawamura) wants their blood so that she could remain young forever. Another eye candy in the movie is Aya’s old friend Reiko (Akina Ozawa), who is an expert with the long rifle.

Don’t expect the fight scenes of this movie to be innovative and fresh. But it is good enough to satisfy my craving for some action. And if you’re still wondering, the answer is no. It doesn’t have any full nudity of any sort nor does it have any sexual or perverse acts. It’s a plain old action flick with zombies, blood, and babes.

If you’re looking for mindless fun then check out Oneechanbara: The Movie – Vortex. The story might be sketchy but who gives a damn about the plot when you got hot chicks wielding swords on the screen fighting zombies. That’s good enough for me.

Come to think about it, maybe I should have read about the Japanese version of Elevator to the Gallows before I hit the play button. Meiko (Kichise Michiko) and Dr. Tokito Takahiko (Abe Hiroshi) are lovers. She’s the wife of Temiyako Takamitsu (Tsugawa Masahiko), president of a large medical company and Doc Tokito’s boss.

Meiko and the doctor plan to murder the husband and make it look like a suicide. It looks like they are going to get away with it but Tokito is trapped in the elevator. Meanwhile, his car is stolen by another couple – Mikayo and Kunie (Kitagawa Keiko and Tamayama Tetsuji). Meiko sees the car drive by with Mikayo in the passenger seat and she thinks that the doctor has another woman.

The couple checks into a villa using Tokito’s name and he is implicated in the murder that takes place. All the while, Tokito is still trapped in the elevator. Now the police is chasing after him for the wrong murder.

It has all the elements of a good thriller except it was not executed well. I can’t blame the cast members for this fiasco because their portrayals were spot on. There were some parts of the movie that dragged on unnecessarily. Good thing Kitagawa Keiko and Kichise Michiko were in it. They made the move less boring for me. Elevator to the Gallows is not a good thriller. But at least it is a good treatment for insomnia. I really felt that I was heading to the gallows indeed.

Fish Story is a song recorded by the punk band Gekirin in 1975. They are punk even before Sex Pistols popularized the genre. Despite not mainstream, a producer allows them to record the song. He believes that the song would one day impact the life of a person. Actually the song is good.

The movie jumps through different time periods, from 1975 up to 2012, where a meteor is about to hit the planet. It’s like Armageddon, Japanese-style. Fish Story shows the viewer different stories and how they all contribute to the main story.

It is unpredictable how Fish Story will stop the meteor and I wouldn’t spoil that here. Each story reveals a piece of the puzzle and when the big reveal comes in the end, you’ll find yourself jumping up and down with joy. Then you’ll want to watch it again. Its ending is definitely not a letdown.

Fish Story is well-acted but there are some of them that stand out from the rest. They are Omori Nao, who played the music producer; Kora Kengo, the front man of Gekirin; Ito Atsushi, the band’s leader; and Moriyama Mirai, the champion of justice. Mirai’s action scenes are well choreographed and make Fish Story more entertaining. For eye-candy, there’s Tabe Mikako.

I can’t really pinpoint Fish Story’s genre. It is a good mix of thriller, action, comedy, musical, documentary and drama. Maybe this is the reason why it is gripping and not boring at all. Each of the subplots can be made into a full-length movie and still be interesting. When all of them are combined, the result is a magical rollercoaster ride. It is a fun movie from start to end.

In Loups=Garous, people are living in a tightly controlled environment. Everyone is accounted for. SVC, a giant corporation, controls everything, from the population’s diet to security to education. On the surface, the environment made by SVC is paradise but something’s missing. Real contact is non-existent. People talk with each other online. Busy parents interact with their kids through video chats.

The premise could have resulted into a great anime but instead we get a confusing with subplots that clash with each other. It wants to be a lot of things at the same time. It is predictable except for the main villain who turns out to be a Hannibal Lecter wannabe.

It tries to be complex by taking the viewers to several directions at the same time. It could be good if only it made sense. It relies on stereotypes for its character development. They are paper thin and boring.

Loups=Garous is a forgettable anime. The title is French for werewolf but there are no actual werewolves in the movie. If you come across this piece of crap, don’t press play.

Ace detective Takigawa (Kiritani Kenta) is tasked to take Izumi as his apprentice. He has some apprehensions about Izumi but still teaches her how to be a better detective. And that’s just what Zettai Reido Season 2 is about. It shows Izumi’s progress as an investigator.

Except for some cases that required two episodes, each episode of Zettai Reido Season 2 is standalone. You don’t even have to watch Season 1 of the series to understand the story. The main difference between the two seasons is the type of crimes that they have to investigate. Season 1 was about cold cases, while Season 2 tackled crimes that were recently done. That means the team has to act fast to prevent the criminal from doing more damage to the society.

At first glance, all the cases in Season 2 of Zettai Reido seem unconnected with each other. But thanks to Izumi and the team, the puppet master is discovered and his evil deeds are exposed. I enjoyed watching each episode a lot but the way they solve the cases became somewhat a routine. It was like the team would follow the suspect around, place surveillance cameras and bugs within the premises, sit back and wait for the suspect to make a wrong move. But Zettai Reido still got a few twists and surprises for the viewers, which made it unpredictable and entertaining.

Zettai Reido Season 2 is much better than the first one. Hopefully Ueto Aya would be back for another season. There’s simple absolute zero reason to miss this gem of a Japanese detective drama series.

Narrator: The intrinsic value of people’s enthusiasm is unshackled by the context of a real or fictional environment. So long as the world accords recognition for the applied fulfillment of this enthusiasm, it stands that people would not lose touch with their own reality. Reality, being the foundation of an individual’s conventional wisdom, is a degree of experience that belongs to that single person. Hence, any such individual reality can be perceived by others as nothing more than mere imagination.

Above was the long Engrish intro to Assault Girls. It was accompanied by still photos that established the settings. I should have stopped the movie right there but I wanted to give it a chance to redeem itself. I thought that it would be better once the intro is over.

Then the main act has began. Assault Girls felt like a video game. Actually, it looked like a cut scene from one. CGI effects were believable and this factor was one of the strong points of the movie. It showed a lot of the barren scenery, which at first was cool but it became tedious in the long run.

The characters were paper-thin. They were toons in a game and nothing more. Meisa Kuroki starred as Gray, who is the real reason why I watched Assault Girls. The others are Yoshikazu Fujiki as Jager, Rinko Kikuchi as Lucifer, and Hinako Saeki as Colonel. Their costumes were well made but they were two-dimensional and uninteresting.

I guess they made the movie for a global market and this was evident by keeping the dialogues in Engrish, which still required subs to be fully understood. It could have been better if they kept the dialogue in Japanese.

One of the highlights of Assault Girls was the fight between Gray and Jager. It was funny but it felt out of place from the rest of the movie. But it highlighted Meisa Kuroki and it sort of made up for it. It was fan service for Meisa fanboys who had to endure the whole movie.

Assault Girls was made to look like an MMO and targeted those who play online games. It succeeded in creating a game atmosphere but it lacked a gripping story and interesting characters. I gave it plus points for the settings and having Meisa as one of the stars. Aside from that, there was not much to see from this movie.

It turns out that the company is just a front for a devious plan to control the world. Yoshie and her sister were turned into Geisha assassins and as their training progresses, some parts of their body are replaced and they become androids.

Yoshie surpasses Kikue and becomes Hikaru’s top assassin. But she has a change of heart when she’s tasked to kill a group of old people who are looking for their kidnapped family members. They tell her about Hikaru’s plans.

While weirdness is what makes B movies fun to watch, RoboGeisha is just a series of randomness and gore. There are some scenes that are funny, such as the giant castle robot doing “The Robot” dance. But there are lots of things that are just too stupid.

RoboGeisha features lousy special effects, stupid weapons and other oddities. If you’re looking for a Japanese B movie, I suggest Machine Girl, which is also made by Director Noboru Iguchi.

The team that Sergeant Sakuragi Izumi is assigned to investigate cold cases as well as those involving missing people. The team members use the latest in forensic science to solve the cases. Just like any other detective series on TV, Zettai Reido tackles a different case each episode. There were cases that had to span two episodes.

Each episode of Zettai Reido developed Sakuragi’s character. By the 11th episode, she became a wiser detective. You can see her development as the series progressed. Ueto Aya showed us that she could be a serious actress beneath her cute persona.

Zettai Reido is an entertaining detective series. It is similar to Cold Case, Bones and even CSI in some ways. But it has something that those Hollywood dramas don’t have and that’s heart. If you think that 11 episodes are too short, then you’ll be glad to know that Ueto Aya is back for the second season of Zettai Reido.