Latest movie is out!.

EDIT: Kur's role has been taken. 33% there :3

I'm looking for a few voice actors for my almost-done next movie. Details below:

1) Voices Needed:
Dr. Michael Scotts/Radiant Killer: The Praetorian Earth (read: evil) counterpart of the Dr. Scotts of this universe. This version of Scotts was originally a freedom fighter, but a series of events left him viciously and irreparably insane. Most of his hatred is fixated on Scotts/Radiant Beam... in fact, it appears to be the primary driving force of his life.

Felis Kir: The somewhat sarcastic CEO of Kir Industries, a high-profile company specializing in the development of battle support androids. Ruthless at times and at constant odds with Dr. Scotts, he is nonethless highly intelligent and extremely well-informed, making it his business to know of any and all threats to Paragon City in general (but his corporation in particular).

Kuroda Yuuki: A usually lighthearted swordsman who arrived in Paragon from Hokkaido several years ago. He and Dr. Scotts are good friends... which means that he's usually dragged into whatever mess Scotts gets himself into. He does not believe that his friend is responsible for the reappearance of the ALEXIS.

Dr. Michael Scotts/Radiant Beam (no lines, only included for completeness' sake): A scientist who was responsible for the creation of the original ALEXIS orbital space station. The same disastrous design flaw that destroyed the station and all people aboard years ago made him virulently radioactive and ate away at most of his body... he lives in a containment suit which allows him to control this radiation and is also capable of projecting a holographic version of himself.

2) Script for re.FLECT//ALEXIS:
A lone person is working alone in the Scotts Robotics Lab. It is, of course, Dr. Scotts himself, concentrating on something onscreen when an obtrusive alarm begins to chirp at him. Annoyed, he looks around, but sees only an unhelpful red light with a written note next to it: "Prox???" True to form, he hits it. The alarm stops briefly, before starting up again. As Scotts is about to employ his strategy once again, he is abruptly halted by an electrical shock. As he slumps over his desk, CREY BT99F slowly decloaks. Dr. Scotts manages to push a button on his console as he loses consciousness...

The same alarm noise from the robotics lab is going off in Kuroda's apartment. Curious, Kur traces the sound to the source... which appears to be an annoyingly chirping toaster. As he disables the alarm, his cell phone goes off. He answers.

KIR: (somewhat insincerely) I hope I didn't interrupt anything.
KURODA: What's this about?
KIR: To the point, as always. Approximately ten minutes ago, a large mass materialized into the Van Halen Radiation Belt. Since then, it's been maintaining an orbit directly over the city... not without setting off every space security system and news network in the country, of course. Take a look.
KURODA: (turns on a nearby monitor. On it is a large, staticky image of a familiar-looking space station...) That looks like the ALEXIS.
KIR: For all intents and purposes it is the ALEXIS...although there are structural divergences from the old blueprints visible even from this distance.
KURODA: Have you contacted Rad about this?
KIR: Unfortunately, Dr. Scotts is not in his lab.
KURODA: What?
KIR: (sardonically) Three guesses where we managed to trace him to.

(a short silence as Kuroda considers the news.)
KIR: Personally, I'm more worried about the energy buildup readings we're getting off the station, but I'm putting together a little expedition now. Shall I count you in?
KURODA: ...Send me the coordinates.

As Kuroda looks out the nearby window, there is a sudden beam of green light and an explosion that shakes the city.

[Credits sequence]

Aboard the orbiting space station ALEXIS, Dr. Scotts awakens to find himself imprisoned. As his presumed captor turns to face him, he stares at a man who looks exactly like him.
DR. SCOTTS (DUPLICATE): I trust the hired help didn't treat you too harshly. Welcome to the ALEXIS, Dr. Scotts.

3) Contact Info:
Please email tetradecimal@gmail.com with a sample line if interested in playing a part. If you would like to see the movie so far, that can also be arranged.

I always thought Jigoku Shoujo was essentially flawed for a number of reasons. It's ridiculously pessimistic, focuses only on unbelievably careless, horrible excuses for human beings, and oftentimes the source of the conflict could have been easily avoided. Like that episode about the freakin' cat. I prefer the straightforward PUNCH BAD GUYS IN THE FACE of shounen anime.

Then again, it has Matsukaze Masaya as the eyecandy-rrific Ichimokuren, so I can't complai~~n. Jigoku Shoujo live action also has Katou Kazuki, about whom I had doubts about at first because the only thing I've really seen with him in it is TeniMyu (he was ATOBE, though). But after episode 10 or so when he SMIRKS at the camera and then gleefully pokes the soon-to-be-jigokued victim of the week ("Well, shall we be off?"), I discovered that my crusty old hermit exterior was NOT super effective against real-life bishounen. Incidentally, it's already like wet paper against not-real life bishounen.

...okay, Katou Kazuki. I'll go with you.

... :D;;;;;

So I finally got around to watching Gurren Lagann and it is EXCELLENT. Not quite in the same way in which the other shows I've watched recently (Mushishi, Mononoke) are great, though -- it's a total GAR-fest as soon as Kamina shows his skinny, katana-wielding ass. Tacky giant sunglasses, an endless sword, refusal to wear any kind of shirt at all, screaming of manly sentiments and DRILLS THAT SHALL PIERCE THE HEAVENS.

And then, GIGA DRILL BREAKER, and uniting with THE MOON, and creating a Gurren Lagann that is as big as a fucking galaxy.

Manly tears were shed. Epic.

Oh, I also finished Death Note. It was interesting how much it differed from the manga while still pretty much maintaining the same plot. I was much more attached to anime!L than manga!L, though :<. Poor baby. I also think Miyano Mamoru did a pretty good job with Light, even if sometimes it was like listening to Tamaki trying so very very hard to be mean.

Mikami was even better than expected: "KAMIIIIIIIII!" Miyano-Matsukaze DAI COMBO CHEAMU!

Next: Monster. Back when the anime came out, I'd read the manga recently, so there was no point in watching it. But now I've forgotten everything again, so it's all good. TIME FOR AWKWARD BRILLIANT NEUROSURGEON HUNTING DOWN PSYCHOPATH ACTION.

I always thought it was a little silly how people were so fixated on future robot rights/treatment in sci-fi (I, Robot, The Matrix, Star Trek) -- I couldn't believe that people would ever are behave in such a hideous manner to something that looks and acts so much like we do. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that a good deal of response I comments I'm seeing from Youtube and such to Actroid videos display just such behavior.

Actroids are gynoids -- androids with a human appearance, made by a Japanese company called Kokoro. There are several models, but most share similar characteristics: cute, petite, Japanese features (this seems like a no-brainer).

And perhaps predictably, the Actroid videos -- which generally depict them delivering a short speech about themselves and their proximity to humans -- garner loud wishes to fuck them, reveling that "we won't need women anymore", sneering about Japanese penises (never heard THAT one before -- bravo), and so on. What is terrible is that these androids -- which are, when you get right down to it, neither women OR ethnically Japanese -- must be the recipient of prejudices against both. And because they're "not really human", they can be treated even worse than their "real" counterparts.

Alright, so YouTube isn't exactly where I'd look to find the brightest lightbulbs in the drawer. But Christ, it looks like nothing brings out the bitterness and hatred out of middle class white guys like an innocuous multilingual android.

Whatever happened to treating others with respect and (I know, it doesn't sound like me at all) a little kindness?