wolfecastle86

Being a fan of Japanese horror movies, from psychological to schlocky-splatter films, I had a lot of movies on my list to watch before I ever got to Kairo. I wish now I would have watched it sooner. I was very pleasantly surprised. If you're reading this review, you probably have a grasp of what many Japanese horror movies are like by now. Honestly, not knowing much about it or director Kurosawa, I assumed it would probably be a cryptic, hair-in-face vengeful ghost story.

That was NOT the case. I was thoroughly engulfed in the story, and the many questions it raises. It takes a while to get moving, but in my opinion the buildup is part of the emotional reward of the movie. This isn't just another "ghost coming out of cursed (insert plot device here.)" I would honestly compare this movie more to Suicide Circle (Suicide Club) than Ju-on or Ring, minus the gore of SC. That being said, if you have seen some Japanese horror movies and liked them, you will love this movie. If you're the kind of person who watches anything and says "This sucks. I'm not scared/you're an idiot/wuss/etc," don't watch it. It's that simple. Complain about American horror remakes, not the originals. IF you don't like foreign horror movies because you find them hard to follow (which I admit they sometimes are,) don't watch it. Be content to watch another "reboot" of something from twenty years ago. I loved this movie.

Let me start off by saying I love Blue Seed. On many occasions, I have watched the entire show in one sitting. So when I found out ADV was going to release Blue Seed Beyond, I was pretty dang excited. But all that changed when I rented this. First of all, the animation quality is TERRIBLE. It resembles the TV show in no way. It was animated the new way with a computer, but it actually looks worse than the TV series. Secondly, the story is lousy. Two episodes is way too short to revive an enemy that they fought for 26 episodes, and moving it to America made it even worse because part of the charm of the original was it was a Japanese legend. All the are characters back, but they do not act the same and they are almost aren't even used in the story. The villain is laughably bad, and if you watch the dubbed version, you won't even find it funny but unbearable. And to add insult to injury, they throw in a third episode that has nothing to do with the series. It involves a terrorist planting a bomb in a hot spring where the characters are, and if the level of the water changes, it goes off. It seemed like a rip off of Burn Up, and had nothing to do with Blue Seed. It wasn't funny, it wasn't dramatic, and even the fan service (which they obviously wrote the episode for) wasn't good or interesting. Even though I pride myself on not being a troll or arguing with trolls, I honestly cannot say enough bad things about this OAV. Just rewatch all your old blue seed tapes and do not even think about this, for it might as well not exist.

This is the last episode of the Goldenboy OVA series. Kentaro finds himself working in an animation studio, which is rather interesting if you don't know anything about the way anime studios were run. Besides episode 3, this was probably the least risqué, but it had a nice girl interest, as well as a surprise reunion from others in the previous episodes. My only complaint about this episode is it seemed a little too short, but at the same time this may have only been because it was the only original script for the show that wasn't based on one of the manga chapters. but it ended well, leaving us with the nice feeling that Kentaro is permanently 25, studying on. Definitely watch the rest of the series all the way through, you can buy the whole series for like $17, you can watch it all the way through in about 2 1/2 hours, or watch your favorite episode if you have 20 minutes free time (which i do if i have a lunch break at school.) good series, check it out.