Darker Than Black

Darker Than Black is an anime from 2007 with a second season and an OAV that I haven't seen but very much want to. It takes place ten years after two reality twisting anomalies appeared on earth, one in Brasil and the other in Tokyo. They are known as "Heavan's Gate" and "Hell's Gate," respectively. When this happened the sky was changed so that the moon was no longer visible and the stars were replaced with new ones. What the general public doesn't know is that these new stars correspond to people now known as "contractors" who have lost all of their emotions but gained supernatural powers, turning them into the perfect killers. Whenever one of these contractors dies, their corresponding star falls. Every major government (and some other non-political entities) use these contractors as assassins and agents to collect information. This in and of itself isn't very new, all sorts of shows (such as S-Cry-Ed, Heroes, X-Men) have similar ideas with people gaining unique powers, but Darker Than Black does add a new dimension, though. While contractors each have unique abilities, (ranging from teleportation, to pyrokenesis, to freezing stuff, to blowing stuff up) they also have to pay a price (called a "remuneration" in the sub) these can range from obsessive/compulsive actions (setting stones into a grid, putting people's shoes upside-down, kissing people) to the uncontrollable (falling asleep, aging more quickly, aging backwards).

Our Valued Customers

So, apparently when I said "tomorrow" I meant "next week." Sorry about that. Well, it looks like we're going to have to have quite a few updates in short succession. Let's get started.

First off we have Our Valued Customers. It's an interesting comic blog. I hesitate to use the term webcomic because it's far less of a comic strip than it is a "overheard in the comic shop" blog in comic format. The Blog's creator/artist, one "Mr. Tim," apparently works in a comic shop and overhears quite a bit of rather... unusual comments from the various customers who patronize the store. The blog is not for the faint of heart because it just might make you lose your faith in humanity while it makes you laugh your butt off.

Things is busy.

Sorry about this. I've been extra busy for the past week or so. I won't get this week's review up till tomorrow, but I am planning on writing an extra review to make up for it. Please forgive the inconvenience.

Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides

So, I saw On Stranger Tides just a couple hours ago. I assume that most anyone reading this already knows basically what the franchise is about. On Stranger Tides continues the story of Captain Jack Sparrow, who ends up in England to rescue a good friend from the gallows and ends up getting Shanghaied. Onto The Queen Anne's Revenge, ship of Captain Blackbeard himself, no less. So he gets unwillingly pulled into a three-way race between the British, the Spanish, and Blackbeard to find the Fountain of Youth.

Hackers (the movie, not real life hackers)

And here's the second review for today.
Hackers is a much-maligned film from 1995 about, well, a bunch of teenage hackers and their not-so-legal exploits. Much of the complaints that come from my fellow nerds who have watched it stem from the visual representation of hacking. Instead of lots of boring lines of code, the people behind the scenes figured that it would be way super cooler to show what they felt the inside of a computer looked like. And when I say the "inside of a computer" I don't mean the motherboard. No, instead we got large building-like construct thingies representing individual computers with pink numbers floating around and lines I suppose are meant to represent lines of communication. Maybe? It actually kinda looks like "Hello Matrix v0.5". An early beta. It's not hard to see why this part of the movie is derided so much. And really, it deserves that derision. It's kind of stupid. Though you also have to grant that most people are not going want to watch the protagonists typing and nothing else. So, I suppose it was a compromise. They could have done better, but they just as easily could have done worse. And really, when you ignore that part of the movie, or at least disconnect it from anything having to do with real hackers, the movie is actually pretty good and really fun.
I should probably get to what the movie is about, huh?

Old Spice

So, I skipped out last week without comment. That was because I was out of state and very busy. Sorry about that. I should have at least said something. Still, to make up for it, I'm going to be posting two reviews today. First up, Old Spice!

If you don't know what Old Spice is... where have you been? It's one of the most well-known lines of products for men to help them not smell bad. Cologne, deodorant, aftershave, body wash... you name it, Old Spice probably makes it. And it smells manly.

Night Zero (yet another webcomic)

Well, to top off April as Zombie Apocalypse Webcomic review month we have an interesting addition. Night Zero. Night Zero is a photo webcomic done by a group of people in Seattle. It's not as much of a continuous story as it is a series of related stories and vignettes that take place in the same post-apocalyptic Seattle. Part of the inner city has been walled off and survivors are safe there, but the New City is ruled by the mob. There are smaller oases called "speakeasies" outside of the new city, but they aren't necessarily much better. But then again, this is the zombie apocalypse, what were you expecting?