Episode Type: Beach Party!

I have noticed that are many common themes that run through different anime series. They vary from food, school, field trips, festivals, and a lot of other experiences life has to offer. Or, what is frequently cyclical in Japanese culture. You can find the same patterns in American TV shows too, i.e. prom and other uniquely American situations.

We're on the verge of the summer. It's so close we can taste it. Luckily for me, I'm in California and in about 45 minutes, official California distance measuring units, I can taste the salt in the air. What I'm getting at is the beach episode. Just about every series has a beach episode in there somewhere. Here are a few that I remember:

Bleach: As often with the beach episode, it is a shameless attempt at fan service. This episode was in the same genre. I remember something about one bikini clad character showing the other how to make a bucket with their large chesticles. Insert some giggling and Ichigo sighing as he rolls his eyes and we have the episode in a nutshell. Not my favorite Bleach episode, but it was... I don't know. A relief between fighting? I think that was the point... and bikinis. I think bikinis was definitely the other point.

Outlaw Star: This one kind of falls into the category of hot springs, but it's all the same.
Characters - Clothing = Beach Episode
It was a pretty funny episode with Gene Starwind collecting caster shells from two male priests for exchange of scandalous pictures of the third female priestess. If you don't remember what the caster shells are, they're like magic bullets with different spells 'cast' on them. It takes a special gun to fire them [insert tutorial on making your own caster gun!]. It never aired on American TV because of nudity and other such, but you can see it on DVD. Nakie people or not, it was just fun to watch.

Anti-Beach Day Evangelion: Magma Diver: I would call this an anit-beach episode. While all the other students went on an Okinawa beach trip, Shinji, Asuka, and Rei are all stuck back at NERV HQ. But Asuka doesn't waste the opportunity to wear her risque (for 14 year old) bathing suit. There is a lot more swimming in this episode than most. We get to see them hang out at NERV's lap pool... That you never see them hang out at again. As Shinji catches up on homework, we learn that Asuka is a physics genius. As always, they are interrupted by an Angel and Unit 02 get's a volcanic dive suit. Plopped down into the belly of a volcano, Asuka and Unit 02 'thermally expand' the Angel, and a hand from Shinji, they save the day! Huzzah! What a great anti-beach day, huh? Relaxation, stressful interruption, getting dropped in a VOLCANO!, imminent doom via 3rd impact, and victory. All in a day's work, right?

Genshiken: I love this series. Unless you're really into anime, this one gets buried in the background of flying robots, huge... body parts, and shojo romances. It is basically a bunch of otaku, nerdy anime kids living out their college years. They make reference to just about every anime on the block just like nerdy anime people do. (Wow sweetie! Your hair looks just like Rukia!) Their beach episode was spent with them analyzing all of the anime that had a beach episode. They threw in some spice with the nerdy obsession to keep pale, but that subsided to fun in the sun and all that. They also talked about the fan service issue as the guys looked at their female compatriots. It was a really great mix of fun and references.

Take the total activities in these episodes and put them together and we have the Beach Episode archetype! Yay beaches!

If you have any beach favorite episodes, feel free to leave a comment!

New Oldies

I think every creator looks at a piece of their work and thinks, "Damn, I wish I would have done that differently." I do that with postings, emails, and everything I have use of words. I know I'm not the only one. It isn't often that a creator is given the opportunity to reinvent their original work.

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and Hideaki Anno from Neon Genesis Evangelion fame have been given this opportunity. They were given four feature length movie to play with the reinvention of the Evangelion franchise. In the anime world, this is no new news. It's been going on since 2007 in Japan. As for the USA, we get a two year delay.

To be perfectly honest, I've only watched the two available movies twice each. I know for me, this is not enough to truly analyze the differences and improvements that were added. But here are a few things I thought of:

Dislikes:

1. In the first movie, it lacked a lot of the humor that occurred in the series. Let's be honest, Evangelion gets into psychological heavy shit. As a watcher, we need those humorous breaks. Otherwise, we all want to eliminate human kind to soon and not on Gainax or Seele's schedule.

2. They changed Asuka's last name. Not only is she not in the first movie, which should be its own dislike, but they changed her last name. Why does everyone else have the original name and change her's? It doesn't make sense. And get Asuka on screen sooner. Plus, they changed her entrance and softened the reason for her and Shinji living in the same house.

3. Gendo Ikari is even more of an ass than I thought possible. I know they relived some of his ass moments because they were an emotional push for Shinji, but they added some even ass-ier moments of him. He was to the point of sadistic.

4. They took away some of the close personal conflicts that affected Shinji. Toji's sister isn't in the hospital for long and he seems to only take a brief revenge for it. I just think all of the small social conflicts of existing in a society were taken away. Those twinges of pain we all feel.

Likes:

1. The graphics are freaking off the chart amazing! Watching anime like this is kind of why I got a Blu Ray player. The color and movement and visualizations... Wow. Just stunning. You just need to see it.

2. I really liked how in the second movie at the end there was a pending evolution and it was stopped by the Lance of Longinus. It makes more sense coming down from the moon. Plus, I really like the idea of a moon base, although they should have named it Zappa. It was also a good intro for Kaworu Nagisa versus his other gay/ vulnerable Shinji thing.

3. Rei wants to be a person. She wants to see others and even herself happy. This is a major shift to being a hopeless doll of Gendo Ikari's will.

4. I like the adding of the fourth true Evangelion pilot. It adds that element of intrigue and spying that the series tried to project with Kaji, but never really went into true fruition. The Antarctic base part was weird and this girl is definitely psycho. But if you're watching Evangelion, you like psycho.

Fair to Middlen:

The one thing I'm on the rocks about it Asuka being absorbed into Unit 03 when it turns Angel. I like the idea of there being "Mental Contamination" so she locked up all secret like in what seems to be a medically enhanced vault. But, that also leaves it so that Shinji doesn't have the absorption experience. Asuka's future looks pretty vague. But, she's a strong character. She'll be back.

That's my breakdown for now. I know the more I watch it, which will be a few more times each easily, I will think up and see more of the awesome craziness. Stay tuned for updates here and there.

Leave any of your Evangelion thoughts in the comments.