'Ninja School' & Avatar (Sun Feb 7, 2010, 2:14 PM)

On Wednesday, i went to my first Bexley Anime & Manga festival event which was Chris Crudelli's 'Ninja School'. Being a martial artist, he taught a group of about 40 of us different defensive techniques. I've been in a session with him before, so i knew some of his stuff. The new bits were quite cool as well. What was pretty awesome was how at the end, he said we should get into groups of 5 and act out a small scene using our 'ninja skills'. The most ninja-like team would get a reward, he said. The other teams were kinda just messing around, especially the team before us. But NO. I was SERIOUS. We put our heads together, gave directions and order. In the end, we entered an imaginary house from different positions, beat up the inhabitants, secured the living room and bailed out. It was pretty frickin cool, but i'm sure we looked ridiculous. Though, we did all use what we had learned aaaaaaaaaaand we WON. They did favour the team before as well for some odd reason, and they got 2nd place. But 'Team Gaiden' reigned supreme =>

On another note, I went to see Avatar with Freeminder. MAN ALIVE. All my expectations have been DESTROYED. That film blew me AWAY. It was so amazingly done. Admittedly, without 3D it probably wouldn't be that amazing. Regardless, it was so well done. A decently long film with enough visuals to fill a universe of its own. Though many may find it odd that i supported the Marines the whole way. Sure, i was on the Na'vis side with how they bonded with nature and wanted to protect what they believe it. Heck, i didn't mind that Sam Worthington fell in love so easily, cause he did so well and cause he was a marine as well. Thing is, the pure AWESOME MILITARY MIGHT, although misguided, was so powerfully rendered that each helicopter and mech had me and Matt bouncing in our seats. And the sorta capitalist ideology the marines as a group represented was what was so admirable in a way. Of course, the forest in Pandora was so FANTASTIC. From the indeginous wildlife to the Na'vi people themselves and those dragon things they had to bond with. All the while never running out of spinach. Wow...just WOW. It has seriously raised the bar on entertainment, and i won't ever watch it on DVD without 3D. It's ESSENTIAL.

There is a 3rd reason this week was pretty awesome, but it's something i doubt deviant art would care about sooooo; have a nice week