Scotland Loves Anime - Day 2

I'm writing this under the influence of a couple of pints of beer (is 'blogging under the influence an offence?) so I'll keep this brief, but the second day of Scotland Loves Anime in Edinburgh meant another three movies for me to enjoy.  What was on the menu this time around?

Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva - Unusually compared to the rest of this festival's offering, the Professor Layton movie was screened using its English rather than its Japanese dub - and it was terrible.  I feel a bit like it's unfair to comment on the movie without seeing the original Japanese version, but this screening was frequently unintentionally hilarious, with its supposedly more moving moments often proving to be its funniest.  A true English gentleman would never publicly criticise a film, but I'm no gentlemen, so this sucked, although at least it entertained me for all the wrong reasons.  It was certainly a far cry from all the positive reviews I've read of the movie.

Summer Wars - I've already talked about Summer Wars on this 'blog, so I won't do again here.  Needless to say this movie is just as good on a second viewing, and actually gains a little by being viewed alongside a full house audience (as you could probably say for most films, truth be told).

Trigun: Badlands Rumblebi - Again, it's confession time here: I've never seen more than a few episodes of the original Trigun anime series.  Although Badlands Rumble is one for the fans, it's also designed for those not familiar to the series to some extent, and thankfully my knowledge of the franchise was great enough to be able to pick up and run with this movie without too much difficulty.  With that in mind, this movie has everything you would expect of it - bullets flying and explosions, plus a rich vein of humour which inevitably comes from Vash the Stampede as he steals almost every scene he appears in via his rather unique take on proceedings in this Wild West of sorts as they pan out.  The overall movie is a lot of fun and has a lot in common with what I have seen of the series, but there are some outstanding gags within the film (visual gags in particular, this being a very visceral film) which deserve being remembered and talked about for a long time to come.

So, another day is over, and tomorrow brings me the moment I've been waiting for - A European premiere of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, as well as big screen outings for Evangelion 2.0 and that old favourite Akira.