The Time Travel and Ending of Edge of Tomorrow Explained

June 9, 2014June 9, 2014 Jenn

Originally posted at Reappropriate

I went to see the new Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt science-fiction film Edge of Tomorrow, which is based on the Japanese novel and manga All You Need is Kill.

The racial cross-casting of Cage’s character aside — he is inspired by Japanese protagonist Keiji in the manga — this film is phenomenal. Nerds and feminists — and especially nerd feminists — will adore this movie. It’s sharp, funny, entertaining, compelling, and visually stunning. Haters of Tom Cruise get to see Tom Cruise get killed about a hundred times in stunt scenes that Cruise himself described as “channeling Wile E. Coyote” on The Daily Show. Emily Blunt’s Rita is stellar: she is the aspirational super-soldier, and not the simpering girlfriend; she’s also got a bad-ass giant sword. Those who loved Pacific Rim‘s portrayal of a male-female peer relationship that was largely non-sexual will adore the relationship between Rita and Cruise’s Cage in this film.

Basically, it’s just really good. Go see it. I’ll wait.

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Anime, Manga, Movies4 Comments

The Three Nausicaäs

February 26, 2014July 8, 2022 Noah Cho

Out of all of the Hayao Miyazaki films I have known and loved, only one has remained my favorite over the years: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaä is famous for a number of reasons, not least of which is for being the film that more or less is the reason Studio Ghibli got off the ground, as its success led to the formation of the studio.

Manga, Movies12 Comments

The Five Major Fails of Spike Lee’s Oldboy

November 30, 2013July 21, 2015 Junko

It’s been a little over a day since I saw both versions of Oldboy — one by Spike Lee and one by Park Chan-wook — back to back. The more I reflect on the Spike Lee version, the worse and worse it gets in my head. So I’ll just barf out the major wrongs about this sad re-make and be done with it.

This write-up will be chock full of spoilers which will save you a lot of time and money. I’m also assuming that my readers have seen the original, Korean version of Oldboy. And if you’re keeping track at home, both versions (American and Korean) are based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi.

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Manga, Origins, Sci Fi

Origins Rewind: Junko’s Nerd Emblems

November 28, 2013June 17, 2014 The Nerds of Color

When this site was in its early stages, each of the contributors told an “origin” story about how they came to Nerdhood. We’ll be revisiting some of these origin stories once in a while to give you a little insight … Continue reading Origins Rewind: Junko’s Nerd Emblems

Manga, Origins, Sci Fi3 Comments

Junko’s Nerd Emblems: Manga and Sci-Fi

September 4, 2013July 21, 2015 Junko

If manga is considered nerdy/geeky, well then the entire country of Japan is one big geek-producing machine, and I’m a child of that machine. Before my love of Star Trek: The Next Generation, my parents and grandparents provided me with an endless budget to consume manga because it helped with my Japanese language skills.

Every summer as a child, I’d inevitably come back from Japan with at least 30 to 50 manga books being shipped over to add to my growing collection. A collection that started with the racy Makoto-chan but really flourished with Urusei Yatsura in addition to the “standard” collection of Dragon Ball.

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