Man, y'allready know what time it is -- More
Weeb Tales with ya boi Honda-Fan!
This time, I went to a movie!
Alright, so this past Wednesday, Crunchyroll sponsored an event for a one-night-only showing of Kizumonogatari, which is the entry point to the Monogatari series of novels-turned-anime. Great series. In my excitement to snag a ticket ASAP, I didn't really read very far into what would be required of me to see this screening.
ISSUE #1-- Location!
Let me preface this by saying, I absolutely don't like the mall. Never really have -- gives me anxiety. However, the only spot showing near me was an AMC 15 that happened to be in the local North Park Mall. North Park is in the Highland Park area, which is a psuedo-enclave where SMU's campus rests. It's where the extremely wealthy of Dallas live. North Park is like their hangout; Unlike many shopping centers, It's
not a dead mall (in fact, it looks just like how malls used to look), it's just so expensive that it keeps us serfs out. Upon arriving, not only did I have to move because of the presence of
valet parking, I later found out that the self-service parking was way in the
nosebleeds! So I parked by the little police booth, and grabbed my jacket.
I went inside and was met by a big centerpiece. There has to be some sort of city ordinance that entails that
all Dallas-area public art has to be red futurist/brutalist metal sculpture. It was surrounded by people who all seemed to have been stood-up for a hot date. I went up the stairs, while noticing others dressed in anime stuff. I started smelling popcorn, and I got to the ticket man-- which spurs us onto...
ISSUE #2-- Runtime!
After my digital ticket got beeped, I noticed the runtime of the movie -- 2 and a half hours.
That couldn't be right; In my head, the Kizumonogatari movie was only like
60 minutes. I went through the line, got my Popcorn, Junior Mints, and oversized Coca-Cola Remix drink (Which tasted like water since the syrup shot out all over the cup and not in it )
AND YES I OVERPAID -- what I described is NOT cuisine befitting 30 dollars. But anyway, I found my way to the theatre I was supposed to be in, sat down, and immediately noticed tell-tale signs of 'long haul' moviegoers. Things like--
-Groups of 3
-Extra food
-Blankets
-Pillows
What sealed the deal was two dudes behind me casually mentioning that it was all of the Kizumonogatari movies put together-- something I hadn't realized, as I guess I'd only ever heard of one releasing. Apparently, they released two more...so, lucky me? As I got more and more sleepy, the movie seemed to get tougher to keep up with. Kizu is not a kid's movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I found it funny that all of the previews were Disney/Pixar type stuff.
3 hours later at around midnight, I left the mall
drained. All the shops had closed, all the valet had gone home, and there was my car under a lonely pool of parking-lot light. It was the smoothest drive home I'd probably ever had since moving. Would I do that again? Maybe. Would I go to North Park again?
Nah.
Also Kizumonogatari was great -- it's really violent though.