Here comes the terrible, the dreadful, the magnificent, the fearless… Afro Samurai! Check this huge mane, the lousy cigarette (which seems to be filled with more than tobacco), the fleeting headband and the katana. Awesome! :p If I insist on the way this character looks, it’s because this is the main appeal of the anime. The characters’ design is amazing and the fights are incredible. About the plot, the only thing I could dwell on is the useless quest of the headband number 1. The absurd and devastating quest to become the strongest.
Apart from that they are just a bunch of freaks who spend their time killing people over a cool hip hop music. Once I have understood that and admitted that this anime was stupid. I was fully able to just love it! My point is that such animes are just about entertaining and nothing else. I often hear people despising them in a haughty way. I find their reaction silly. I think most of our cultural consumption is about pure and basic entertaining. Well Afro Samurai is a masterpiece of entertaining!
For those who think that news anchors are depressed by the sad news they talk about… If only they could miss the countdown, I am sure their audience would be soaring!
By the way I got this video through this great blog.
Weel as you guess I woke right afterwards, but man! I still have purple hazes all in my brain! I mean, that was so beautiful. If only the magic could have lasted a bit longer. Just a bit longer… Who knows all the wonders I could have discovered?
This is probably my favourite comic. Corto Maltese. Even the name of the protagonist inspires adventures and dreams. Hugo Pratt’s drawing is rough and colourless. But once one manages to look beyond it, a new window appears filled by fragrances and mysteries. It is very rare to meet such a narrative exception. There are no happy endings, no big bad guy to defeat, and no common love stories… Corto is just following his desires and his aimless quests. He meets beautiful women, singular characters and hangs around with a crazy psychopath.
What I appreciate the most is the whole atmosphere. Pratt used a lot of historical facts and mystical episodes in his stories. The combination between hard reality and dreams create a very special feeling. What’s more, the characters all have a quirky charm. Eventually, the dialogues rock! They are a blend of poetry and simplicity.
Now that seems a 100 years ago. I barely remember the brown sugar taste of your lips or the stars in your eyes. Babe, you were my shelter, the salt of my earth. See babe, when you left me I had such sad days I tried everything to forget you. I knew that god could nothing else than make a saint of me… So I went to thedevil and he showed me sympathy. He painted me in black and made me hear that music for broken heart which goes like doo doo doo doo doo… Eventually I got a heart of stone. And now each and every day of the year is a wondeful rainbow.
