The Japanese DVD release of “Ping Pong” has (in addition to English subtitles for the main film) a music only audio-track which saved me from buying the soundtrack. The second disc with extras is not subtitled but nevertheless quite interesting (side-stories, special effects, table-tennis background, …). It is also anamorphic. Well worth it!
Read the “Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou” manga! Excellent translations available from http://mangaproject.cjb.net.
*EDIT* Another URL for different translations (which are a bit further ahead) is http://ykk.misago.org/ *EDIT*.
In spite of my last CTM project (Computing Techniques & Modelling), I watched the Japanese live-action film “Ping Pong” yesterday and it is very good. On the surface it is about a high-school table-tennis club, but in reality it is more about the friendship of two unequal members of the club. The actual table-tennis is good (and looks real) but the focus is not on the matches but on the players, which works really well (although I wanted Mr. Tsukimoto to win in the end). The main-characters are believable and well-acted, which cannot be said for some of the supporting cast; but it never drags down the movie. The soundtrack consists of ambient-techno (most of which is by “Supercar”) which works surprisingly well. The R3-release unfortunately is not anamorphic but otherwise looks flawless w/ a high bit-rate and good english subs…
Actually watched “Hikaru no Go” up to episode 64 (from scratch) and I must say I very much enjoyed it. The middle arc with the pro-exams was a bit long and arduous, but they always managed to surprise me and the last batch of epsiodes (45+) was very good and daring in many ways… Can’t wait to see how it goes on! Although I still (think) I prefer “Hajime no Ippo” as it is for a slightly more mature audience (but I’ve seen much less of it); but “Hikaru no Go” gets more mature as well as you see characters aging, progress and change.
Now up-to-date on “Hikaru no Go”, thanks to an excellently fast FTP-server… ^_^
My copy of Yoko Kanno’s “Ghost in the Shell – Stand Alone Complex O.S.T.” arrived, and it is too good to be true… 😉
It contains whole range of styles, one track in particular owes a lot to Björk’s “Hyperballad”, but they all stand very well on their own. The 2nd part of Track 12 – “Silent Cruise” is my absolute favourite though; it mixes strings from the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra with electronic sounds and beats. It’s so good I get a shiver down my spine everytime I listen to it… <sigh>
There are quite a few tracks with English lyrics (even printed in English in the booklet) which are dangerously catchy, so you’ll have to be careful not to get caught singing nonsense-lyrics… 😉
Absolutely recommended!
As you can see, I spent my weekend trying to get through at least the set of first episodes of new anime lying around on my HDD (thanks to chris!). Because of the 48h Firemen’s strike, the CTM project deadline has been moved to Wednesday, which opened up this “opportunity”. Watched a lot more, but most of the other series didn’t seem worth mentioning in particular (Stratos4, Happy World, CKCB)…