The Imitation Game

We finally watched the semi-autobiographical movie about Alan Turing, The Imitation Game. It didn't strike me as amazing. It couldn't decide what kind of movie it wanted to be. It would have been more cohesive to focus on one or two aspects of Turing's life or even one time period instead of jumping around three different timelines--his youth, his time as a codebreaker and his post-war activities. I really wanted to see some in-depth tinkering and discovery, not cliched arguments and conflict.

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Initial D

We were obsessed--and I mean obsessed--with an anime series called Initial D. Although I fell asleep during the first couple of episodes, that wasn't an indicator of how awesome the series it would turn out to be. If you like stories about people coming together for a common goal, rooting for underdogs, and characters discovering new skills, this is really a series which has it all, even a bit of romance. Plus, a ripping soundtrack the budgies absolutely loved.

Basically, Initial D is about street racing in mountain passes and the friendships and rivalries that spring up as competitors as main character Takumi wipes away his competition. There are loads of characters and I found the easiest way to remember them was by which car or team they drove. The animation plus the story also improved with each season, so if you're thinking the first season is rather poorly rendered, take hope it gets better. The writing was amazing, with plots are as twisty and turny as Akina's mountain passes. There were whole races spanning 4-5 episodes, hence why chores went undone and bedtimes were missed while we absorbed all six seasons and some extras.

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