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Wow, has a lot happened in the past few days. Erm... but before I get to that, today's comic. I have to say that Ish did an incredible job with today's strip. Really, the way Tim had drawn it, the colorization would make or break it visually, and I think it worked out just fine. Anyways, moving on to other stuff, I'll start with the Final Fantasy movie. Now, although I agree it wasn't everything it could be, I do disagree with all these so-so reviews for it. It really was a great movie. It just wasn't incredible. First and foremost I want to make it very clear: This is not a standard "vapid Sci-fi flik", as many thought it would, nor is it the "Standard summer blockbuster". It does have a good deal of "thinkin' stuff" in it, as well as the action. On the other hand, unlike Tim, I really didn't think this was a "Final Fantasy" movie. No, I don't require swords and magic and dragons and all that, but it just didn't... FEEL like a Final Fantasy movie. I think it could have just as easily been released under any other name. Second, although the visuals are certainly above and beyond everything else that's ever been done, they aren't quite photo-realistic yet. I don't know what everyone else is thinking. In stills, any part of this movie looks exactly like real life, but in motion, it just doesn't feel right. And of course, there's the common problem of perfectly synching mouths with words, which still doesn't seem right. I mean, their mouths open and close with the words, but it doesn't much look like they're saying them. Third, this movie gives me a similar kind of effect that I got from Evangelion- There's very deep and symbolic stuff going on, I'm sure. But... I'm not exactly sure what it's symbolic OF. There's a lot of stuff that could've been better-explained, and I'm still not very sure exactly what happened at the end... My final complaint is that the movie is very taxing on the eyes, as it uses very dark and dreary colors for the majority of the movie. But, really, don't take all these complaints too much to heart. It's still an incredible movie on all fronts, even if it trips up from time to time. Gran Turismo 3, on the other hand... hubba hubba. Soooooo real... soooo beautiful... Tim never much cared for Gran Turismo, and I must say, I'm dissapointed with him. I mean, I HATE most racing games (Futuristic racers, kart racers, and games like Driver excluded), but when a game is as well-done and brilliantly-polished as the games in the Gran Turismo series, I have to make an exception. And, sure, while you're playing it, it still looks very much like a game (Albeit an incredibly good-looking one), but once you see the camera free of the behind-the-car restraints, you'll swear this looks like a frickin' real race. The smoke, the dust, the sunlight, the reflection, the haze... Oh... my... god. At the very least, every PS2-owner should get this game as a graphical showpiece, but it's got the deep deep gameplay to match. I've also just gotten Gameboy Advance versions of both Chu Chu Rocket (Controls are easier to get used to than you'd think, so long as you're in expert mode) and Bomberman (Surprisingly deep one-player mode, and the multiplayer mode is as great as always), to satisfy my multiplayer gaming urges. And the fact that both are download-link compatible (You only need one cart to play multiplayer) is DAMN cool. Anyways, I just hope I have time to play 'em. Work, work, work... 7/11/01 - I hate it when I'm not "Pleasantly surprised" *Sigh* Well, it turns out, no one got any video or audio footage of Xenosaga at all, IGNSider or otherwise. Damn, that frickin' sucks. Oh well... now, I just have to hope I'll be able to worm my way into seeing the Final Fantasy movie and snag a copy of Gran Turismo 3. Wow... isn't that something? Two huge, incredible releases on the same day! We haven't seen something like this since... Well, since those two Zelda games came out for Gameboy on the same day, I suppose. Neither should be too difficult, as I bought an advance ticket (Like Tim), and I'll be the first in the store I work at to know when we get GT3 in. Anyways, I was gonna' rant about how happy I am with the videogame industry's current state, but I'll save it for another time. Right now, I'll focus on the comic. Today's comic presented an interesting problem: The back-and-forth conversation in panel 2. After a lot of toying around, Tim and I ended up with what you see here, and I suppose I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out. Also, this shows something important about our comic. If you'll notice, we have a word "@#%!"-ed out. So, as you can tell, we're gonna' try and contain our content. Although we'll definetly deal with issues like sex, violence, and the like, we'll try to keep it at acceptable levels... Urm... Think of us as a PG-13 comic And... uhm... Yeah, we're not really big fans of Eidos, and although some dubbed anime is watchable (Princess Mononoke is the only one I can think of at the time, and even that had the great-acting but horribly-miscast Billy Bob Thorton), most of it is just insulting. I don't understand how Tim can watch EVA dubbed. That's just... WRONG. Anyways, we actually contemplated multiple punchlines for this one. We'd considered having the last suggestion being that Zero Wing shrleckh, but I think that even Zero Wing-hating has gotten old by now. And in retrospect, I could've just as easily done it with a variety of other things as well... Pepsi commercials, Britney Spears, Pepsi commercials starring Britney Spears... *Shudders*... In other news, Yahiko went and made us better-looking versions of those link buttons, which are now up in place of the old ones (As they looked similar anyways). Isn't she keen, folks? Tell me she's keen, because she is SO damn keen. In other news, I finally got around to seeing Heat, which was a DAMN good movie. A very thought-provoking and original action-ish movie (With surprisingly very little action- but that's OK!). Definetly something I'd reccomend. Erm... anyways... next update, I'll have impressions and whatnot of the FF movie and everything for you. Ciao! 7/9/01 - What kind of "unveiling" was THAT!? Well, crap. Xenosaga's now been "Unveiled", and I'm prety dissapointed. I was hoping for movies and music, man! Sweet, sweet Mitsuda music! But even puting that aside, what we got seems pretty pathetic. Really, we've learned more about the game from news that slipped through the cracks than what we got. Idunno... maybe by the time this page goes up, one of the gaming news 'sites will have snagged some of the game in motion, but as it stands, this ranks with the X-Box in terms of crappy unveilings so far as I'm concerned. Oh well, at least there's a very good chance it won't be released 3 days after and $100 more than Final Fantasy X. And yeah, I know it isn't quite Namco's fault, but at the very least I would've hoped that some US gaming 'site had been invited to their little party. Well, no, I take that back. No doubt there were some, most of which won't update until tomorrow. And the worst part is, no doubt the video footage I'm hoping for will be on IGNSider. I swear, if that happens, I'll f@#%ing kill someone. And that's another thing, IGNSider. That really pisses me off. Not only does IGN add pop-up banners, Javascript ads, and stall pages (WTF!?) to their free website, but now, they're witholding news for people to pay for. Fer gawd sakes, soon enough there won't be any REASON to use their free 'site, and we'll be getting all our good gaming news from fan websites like The GIA. Again, I understand IGN needs money. They're no nonprofit organization. But, hell. With all the crap they're doing to their website, it's not gonna' be worth it. Worst-case scenario, I can always go to Gamespot. Anyways, getting back to comic stuff, one of our keen fans, Yahiko (See her homepage here) made us some keen small-sized link buttons, as the ones we currently have are too frickin' big. Thanks, Yahiko! Anyways, they are as follows, and you can use them by right-clicking them to save them, and then adding them to your HTML (C'mon, you didn't think I'd explain the whole process, did you?). Perhaps later I'll put up big, complicated instructions, but really, anyone who can put up a webpage should be able to make a simple link. Anyways, they are as follows:   7/6/01 - Le's get this show on the road Well, now that introductions are over, I can start to talk about a few things. First, the initial three comics. Although Tim can draw a zillion times better than me, IMHO, I have to admit I was dissapointed with the art in the second and third strips. A few of the cels in those strips looked outright fugly to me, especially after the first strip, which I thought was very well-drawn. I think Tim agrees with me on this, too. We generally both refer to strips 2 and 3 as the low point of quality, and I think everything after them is generally far better. Strip 4 here is no exception, and though Mog's expressions aren't what I had in mind when I wrote it, they work out very well. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, I refuse to refer to Moogles as "Mogs". All I gotta' say is that the translator that did FF7 must've screwed up. They ain't mogs. Mog is a name- They're called Moogles, dammit! Err... anyways. I suppose I should tell you about the various areas of this website. First, the history section, which will house previous "Clever banter" (What you're reading now) as well as any contests or whatnot that we'll have in the future. Next, the "Bios" section, which will contain descriptions of the folks that work on Mognet, as well as Mognet's characters. In the "Art" area, we'll draw up some extra stuff for you to look at if you happen to care, and we'll even put up gift art... uhh... when we get some (Feel free to send some in!). The other three- Forums, Links, and E-Mail, are kinda' self-explanatory. Uhm... and that's about it. |
Boo. Today's scary. Or something. ... Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within is an odd film. Odd because it's the first successful movie based on a videogame. Odd because it's Japanese anime in style. Odd because the Final Fantasy name isn't in the title just for recognition... this film IS a Final Fantasy story. I've had the same feeling watching Aki Ross I've had navigating Cloud Strife through Midgar City... and the Northern Crater. The Spirits Within has the most in common with Final Fantasy VII out of the other installments in the series. The same ideas of life and death, the same settings, and even the same type of resolution... That struck a chord with me, as FF7 (story-wise) is my favorite of the Playstation series (Gameplay-wise it's FF9, baby!). However, these ideas are profound and the film definitely requires more than one viewing. I...I've wanted to post some Aki Ross fanart on Mognet but that's not quite ready yet... Meanwhile here's some rough sketches of my version of the good doctor. As for today's strip... Ish did a fantastic job with the coloring, yet my art still isn't all that hot... I dunno, people say I'm way too modest about my drawing -_^ but then again, I'm never entirely satisfied with my work... It definitely doesn't match Jake's writing, that's for sure. Hmm, on the movie front I finished watching The Professional an hour or two ago. It's a twisted movie starring Jean Reno, Natalie Portman (Queen Padme!), and Gary Oldman. I recommend it, it sort of reminded me of the Rurouni Kenshin OVAs, but just be prepared. It deserves its R-rating.
Ciao for now! What isn't free is movie tickets... for Final Fantasy.......ack, Tenchi's really distracting me... Anyway!! The next-generation of animated movies opens today (tomorrow!). I can't believe it's here already... It must've been ages ago when I've first heard of Square's (Yes, Tenchi's over!!) plans to make a movie based on the Final Fantasy games. Of what I've seen it's not exactly what I've expected from Square... Years ago (Wow, was it really that long...), I imagined Tetsuya Nomura-designed characters frolicking about with swords and moogles... Ha ha ha! How naive I am. However, two hours of an expertly animated Aki Ross running from exploding aliens should be entertaining enough, even if the movie doesn't particularly live up to the Final Fantasy name. Let's hope it does, or else the nation of Japan will lose a lot of yen... @_@ I finally saw a Woody Allen movie. Annie Hall, a weird tale about relationships and how kooky they are. It had some very smart dialogue and funny scenes... good pacing too. Woody Allen's not a very attractive guy, but he writes and directs his own movies so he can cast anyone he wants as the love interest... I better start writing screenplays...
...Once I get home from Final Fantasy: The Spirits
Within... Osoko natte moshiwake gozaimasen! I keep forgetting that I've got a webcomic to work on... oh well, my tardiness gave me time to see what Jake talked about -_<. Wait a second... I didn't see any Xenosaga unveiling. How much more of it can Namco unveil anyway? Oh, besides the music off course. Sweet, sweet Mitsuda music... *drools uncontrollably* As great as it is, it's getting kind of repetitive listening to the same Xenogears soundtrack (and Creid too!) over and over again. Hmm, I wonder how his music for the PS2 RPG Tsugunai is? But I have been getting my fix for good anime/videogame music lately. "Kiseki no Umi" from Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight ranks up there with Evangelion's "Thesis of the Cruel Angel" in my opinion. If only Lodoss War's animation could match Eva's -_^. There's also a little collection of MP3s called "Pleiades" that I listen to often. "Pleiades", totaling 11 tracks in all I believe, is J-Pop music done in the style of Yasunori Mitsuda's works. So there's a whole lot of Celtic influence there... and fans of the Xenogears Creid album would gobble it up. In fact, Kirche, the band who did the "Pleiades" songs, did Chrono Cross' end theme "Radical Dreamers ~ La Tresoit Interdit." Kirche's talented lead singer, Noriko Mitose, sung everything I just mentioned in this past paragraph... Sorry, Jake... is that pushing it a bit? *looks at Jake's column* Ahem...
YES, thank you, Yahiko, for making such nifty link
buttons for us! We didn't even ask, how kind of you! I
will have to think of some way to repay such a
generous gesture. First of all, I'll try and refrain
from making such asinine alliterations. Other than
that... umm... uhh... you, uhh... free next...?...
*panics and runs away* I know... and it feels great. It'd actually feel better to get some damn traffic around here -_^, but hey, ya gotta start out small... I guess. At least we got a few messages posted in the forum already. Thanks guys! You keep sending feedback, we'll keep sending you the BEST WEBCOMIC EVER!!!! VWA HA HA HA HA!! *cough cough* I hope you like the fourth strip. Mog appears to be a popular name, but the other moogle names from Final Fantasy VI are just as appealing. Kupo, and Kumog, and... the other guys who helped Locke out... in that cave. Well, you know. Actually, now that I think about it... I think the moogle Cait Sith (which I prefer to pronounce 'Kate Sith') rode around on in Final Fantasy VII was named Mog. I dunno, I'm unsure. That moogle was friggin' scary. Even if it was just a toy brought to life by a remote-controlled cat. I wonder if Barret was a remote-controlled Mr. T. That Barret was helluva tough. *rereads clever banter* Damn traffic... *pulls topic out of the air* That reminds me. That movie Traffic is really overrated. It's not a bad movie, no sirree. But I don't think it really deserves all that praise it's been getting. I felt it dragged on a lot with the boring Catherine Zeta-Jones story. And I saw that twist with the Mexican general from a mile away. And does Benicio Del Toro get ANY sleep? At all? Where was his make-up assistant? What an ugly, ugly guy. But hey, it's worth it if you wanna see Topher Grace shoot his mouth off to Michael Douglas. However, Traffic does address a major issue in America today, but it is in no way a major movie. I'm glad Gladiator got Best Picture. That's my two cents. And the kitten played with that ball of string... all... through the night... |
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