Feb 292012
 

“Kamehameha” is a series of post where we examine various action scenes from movies, anime, and cartoons, to name a few. It’s name comes from one of the most famous special moves in Dragon Ball Z. We chose a DBZ reference because it’s the definition of an action show…minus the drawn out stare down filler.

Hey guys, this week’s “Kamehameha” is a bit different.  I won’t be doing any “analysis” of the scene below, just giving some thoughts.  This is the trailer of Sleeping Dogs (and yes, the trailer is just a live action short, but it still doesn’t diminish the badassery of Wei).  Sleeping Dogs is actually the game formerly known True Crime: Hong Kong. Activision dropped the game because it didn’t think the game would sell well (this was exacerbated by the fact the budget for the game was growing bigger and bigger).  Square Enix then bought the rights to the game, which will be released this Summer.  Sleeping Dogs is an open world game set in Hong Kong.  The plot revolves around an undercover cop named Wei Shen, who is sent to infiltrate the Triads.  From everything I’ve seen and read (here and here too), the game looks promising.  Open world (Assassin’s Creed) + cop drama (The Departed) + sweet melee system (Batman: Arkham City) + slo-mo shooting (Max Payne) + insane vehicular combat (Just Cause 2) = win.

Feb 292012
 

This week will be a little different (not so different I guess since I’ve done it before, and recently) as I’ll be doing an anime movie. However, unlike the other movies I’e done, which were linked to an anime, this one is a pure original work for the big screen. And boy, is it awesome. One big difference between this kind of work and Macross Frontier, the other movie I covered, is that there’s no base material or background knowledge that you can utilize going in; it’s a totally fresh adventure. Of course, that’s pretty normal for a movie, but Sword of the Stranger is a pretty stellar example of the genre. Sword of the Stranger is animated by Bones, which has done a lot of other work, some of which I’ve reviewed (and some of which is quite good). And the music is done by Sato Naoki, who also did the music for Eureka 7 (curiously another Bones production) and if you read my Eureka 7 review, you’d know I was a big fan of his music there. And honestly, it’s the same here, but we’ll get to that in a little bit…

If you're watching for anything, it better be this.

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