Short reviews for the movies mentioned in this post will be put up later but I will give a little background info.

Sky Crawlers: Animated aerial dog fights set in an alternate history where the only way to maintain peace is by having eternal youths called Kildren to take part in a "game" of war.

Avalon: Live action set in an illegal virtual reality military rpg where if a player gets "lost" or dies in the game becomes comatose in real life. Main character Ash is an elite Class A warrior seeks the hidden level "Special A" where the only options are to complete the level's mission (no reset) or to die.

Sky Crawlers by Mamoru Oshii has always been on my "plan to watch" list for quite some time but it wasn't until I saw a review of the Blu-ray version on ANN that I finally watched it. There were variations of the main theme played throughout the movie but what really caught my attention was the orgel piece of the main theme played while the camera was panning across this antique (almost steam punk) music box reminiscent of the one in Ghost in the Shell: Innocence. Then it got me wondering if it was the same composer and I was right. I quickly found the ost and have been leaving it on loop for the past two days. Another movie also by the Oshii-Kawai combo that I watched almost immediately after was called Avalon with melodic opera/choral pieces sung in Polish and dramatic orchestra by the Polish National Philharmonic Orchestra. I also added that to my loop and what an experience that was. To top it off I found the two tracks aptly named Doll House I and Doll House II in the Innocence ost which I have never forgotten since watching the movie a year ago for an essay.

Craving for more Kawai, I looked up his recent works and decided to try Folksoul (Folklore), a dark fantasy rpg game for the PS3. (I would want to play it however I will be patiently waiting for Sony to release a PS3 slim UNLESS FFXIII: Versus comes out before that. I would drop dead to play that game, ironically I won't be alive to play it XD.) Folksoul ost has a total of 3 discs. Kawai's compositions are interspersed with other composers' pieces. The first few tracks by Kawai made my heart melt because it reminded me of Pan's Labyrinth. It was dark and hauntingly beautiful, fitting for an introduction to the game. The music got more lively but no less dark as the tracks progressed (to parallel the ongoing progress of the game). By this time I stopped checking to see who composed the music because as a whole it's engrossing in its own way but I would have to pare it down to the softer and slower music that I often listen to when studying.

So it's been several years, 4 to be exact, since I've written anything about myself blog related. I use to have one on Geocities but now that is going to close down so I better remember to transfer all my files which I have been using as my own personal storage account. LJ's layout wise----it's the best I can find without upgrading and I am itching to get back into CSS once school is over for the summer. Haven't decided if I will continue with LJ since its raison d'etre was for downloading Yaoi and posting thank yous for their hard work. As for topic, I am still deciding but it's what I am interested in: anime, manga, drawing, games, literature, and music. Thus it'll most likely be me reviewing things or posting some of my own work.

Anyway, people of the blogging world yoroshiku onegai shimasu ^__^