1998
Noah’s Barks pages covering things relating to the year 1998.
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Initial D
‘Initial D’ is an anime where one teenage boy finds himself roped into the street-racing circuit. But, if there’s one thing a racing anime shouldn’t have, it’s poor animation quality. (Includes ‘Stage 1-3’ and ‘Extra Stage’) (read more)
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Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness
The sequel movie to mecha parody series ‘Martian Successor Nadesico’ flirts with tragedy, but only succeeds insofar as being a tragic misunderstanding of what made the original series so effective. (read more)
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Shaman King
The shonen classic that never was. What haunted Hiroyuki Takei’s ‘Shaman King?’ (Includes ‘Complete Collection’) (read more)
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Following
It’s incredibly endearing that Following is exactly like what you’d expect a debut budget film from Christopher Nolan to be like. That’s regarding both what’s praiseworthy and budgetary restraints. Nolan’s lean plotting centered around lead characters is all here, but without the grand ideas and execution of his later movies. There’s still a lot of… (read more)
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Glassy Ocean
Glassy Ocean asks for only twenty minutes of your time in exchange for taking you on a trip across its colorful fantasy landscapes. (read more)
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Gundam: Mission to the Rise
‘Gundam: Mission to the Rise’ is yet another seemingly pointless CG short created for an anniversary event. (read more)
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Golgo 13: Queen Bee
‘Golgo 13: Queen Bee’ is a massive step down from the first ‘Golgo 13’ anime adaptation, made all the more shocking by it sharing the same director. (read more)
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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
I’ve never read the Hunter S. Thompson novel but I’ve no doubt it establishes its themes better by keeping Raoul Duke as a constant narrator. For all his ramblings about the American Dream in the movie, the fact that any other conception of the American Dream isn’t established means his philosophy is relative to absolutely… (read more)
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American History X
Some melodramatically emotional punches are thrown, but it’s necessary when trying to cover the slow, personal, lifetime-long induction of racism in only two hours. American History X (AHX) may not get into much past the surface, but it takes the alternate route of looking at that surface in its entirety. Instead of exposing racism by… (read more)
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Dark City
Dark City starts out so good, the kind of nuclear neo-noir it needed to be to breathe life into the genre. But what starts as an atmospheric, slightly surreal mystery story progresses into larger-than-life action about psychics and aliens. It’s a fucking obnoxious mess made more so by Kiefer Sutherland’s absurd overacting. “Sway” and “The… (read more)