jueves, 23 de septiembre de 2010

Where the funk i was looking at?!?!

Sometimes you find things where and when you do´t fucking expect them. Right now is 3:30 am of 24/9/2010. I am waiting for the subs of the second OVA to be released. To make some time, i decide to rewatch some episodes of Sora No Woto, concretely 1 to 3.

While i was watching episode 3, the scene where princess Ilyia plays the trumpet came out. If you have readed the whole blog, you know how impressed i was about finding that the ruined house that the scene happens actually exists.

But there was a bit of a let down in that finding, because i couldn´t find the drawing of a Guardia Civil we can see in the series. It was one of the reasons that got me to watch SnW.


I thought that maybe that painting was deleted, the wall where it was had fallen off, or it just didn´t exist in the first place...

But while i was rewatching this, i paused the video because suddenly i thought of something: That brick pattern on the right was somehow familiar, but i was sure i searched in every single corner of the inside of the building. But i didn´t even thought about the outside...

A quick search into the pictures of the trip takes me here...


And zooming on that right corner...


Let´s fire up my poor skills of photoshop...


I have been at one point at less than two fucking meters of this and haven´s seen it!! How the fuck could i had miss it... Well, i´m glad at least i took enough pictures of this place, it has paid off in the end...

90 year old wwII vet recounts war incident

Awesome. Simply awesome.

If you thought that the ending of SnW was cliche, watch this, you may change your mind.

miércoles, 22 de septiembre de 2010

Afterthoughts

Well. it´s been some time now since i came back from Cuenca, so it´s a good time to think of some conclusions about the trip.

First of all, it was well worth it. I had a lot of fun those days, and have good memories. Walking in Cuenca, with no marked path, reconogising places here and there, remembering the best moments of SnW, was great fun. Also, finding places that i didn´t expect to exist was awesome, like the ruined house or the "Cristo del pasadizo". I would have done the trip on a normal weekend, and slept into the car if i had known how much worth this was...

I went on this trip, or adventure if you like, alone. Even if my friends and family are tolerant with my weaboo side, this trip would just be useless and boring for them, so i went alone. I am a bit of a lone wolf so i don´t really care, in fact traveling alone is the best way to see and discover places, also it´s very relaxing, having 3 days all for miself.

In my case, this travel was relatively easy, because i live at a reasonable 6 hour distance from Cuenca, i have a car at my own disposition and i am perfectly independent, had money to afford, and finaly got enough free days to do it on confort. I understand that if you are not Spaniard, something like this gets hard and expensive, but i encourage you to do this if you have the chance. If you happen to be on Madrid or Valencia someday, you can catch a train in there, and get to Cuenca in less than 2 hours (guessed time), and with willpower you can get to see all the city in a full day.

It´s a great sensation rewatching episodes of SnW now, and knowing the city first hand. You can reconogise that building, you know where it is, there the characters are coming from and where their path takes them.

I do have some regrets. First of all, i didn´t take enough pictures. At some points i shooted like the motherfucking fist of the north star, but at most of them i would take 2 or 3 and enough. Because of that, i don´t really have much valid pictures for a perfect 2D - 3D comparation. Other times, i just forgot of taking pictures at all. Also you know first hand htat those beautiful scenaries exist.

You know, one may complain that SnW is a photoshop anime, made almost entirely modifying pictures from real life. After being there, i know that most of them were used just as reference. And having the chance to walk in Seize (with a bit of imagination) is something special.

Other regret is that i wasn´t curious enough. I did only inquire about the Japanese people making an anime with 3 people, who didn´t have any clue about what i was talking about. I should have asked more,i probably would ended up meeting someone who knows what i am talking about, or clues of things or stuff, but i didn´t bother as much as i should have. Also, there are some parts of Cuenca that i skipped, thinking that i would not find anything in there, but now i regret not having walked in there, or entering some shops, or even looking for a glass dolphin or a trumpet somewhere in there...

Also, i should have spent at least a night in the Parador. I decided aganist it because it was expensive, but i know that i have missing exploring it from the inside, and i could have set up the alarm at morning with "Après la pluie, le beau temps, track 24 of the OST, and shitted bricks right in the spot.

I went to visit Cuenca in august which mean 2 things: Hot days with clear skies and tourists, tourists everywhere... This is my own opinion, but all that people kills the mood a bit. I´d rather look for that Seize feeling without people everywhere and having to wait to take a single proper picture of something. Even so, the clear blue skies matched the ones in the anime, so everything wasn´t a loss.

One thing i have for sure, i am going back someday. may not be this year, or next one, but i am going back. There´s stuff i left undone, and what the heck, i loved the place. But next time i am purposedly aboiding the tourist seasons, and going in winter. I am more suited to the cold than to the heat, and i want to meet the normal life of Cuenca, with only his usual residents walking down the streets.

And frankly, i wanna go back to that old ruined building in Alarcon in a dark, rainy day...




I hope you enjoyed the read.

Night shots of Cuenca.

I suck as a photographer, my camera is pretty basic, you get the idea, but maybe you will like this shots.

Shot from the top of Cuenca.


The bridge and the Parador.


Bridge.


Casas colgadas.


This is the spot Kanata and Yumina talk in EP.6 (Stairs in city hall plaza) I took this pisture to remind miself to dake one during the day, but ended up forgetting it...


Same stairs.


This is one of the lateral streets of Cuenca. It´s like a huge viewpoint.


And this is where i wanted to go that night.



And i took the next pictures were taken at the first minutes of my last day in Cuenca. I decided to do an early start to meet with my family, and why not, to see this view for the last time, while my Ipod played the track 24 of SnW OST.


Nighttime makes everything feel different.


 Okaeri, Rio...

 

Goodbye, time telling fortress...


 See you next time, Cuenca...

martes, 21 de septiembre de 2010

Last Part: The end is on the beginning.

 OK. Last stop in this trip.

After checking out the brigde, i went to the dam to take some pictures. I had noticed that ruined building, and thought it could be either the place Kureha and Krauss get trapped in EP.9, or even the factory in EP.6, so i decided to give it a quick look. Suddenly i stopped dead on my tracks, because a little look into the interior from the outside revealed something i wasn´t expecting at all.

This is exactly what i saw from outside.


 Closer look. Still doesn´t ring a bell?


 At that point, i was determined to get in there, at any cost. Hard task because the whole building had been sealed. But after looking for a gap, i discovered a hole in the back...

 If you don´t know about urban exploration, there are some risks that you take when entering a place like this, like encountering drug addicts, wanderers, or even stray or dangerous animals, the state of the building itself is dangerous, because the floor or the roof may fall off anytime, and at the worst case, you may get accused of breaking a private property. It´s up to you to take the risk. I did.

At this point, i ask you to please play the first track of the SnW OST, "Une lumière envoûtante"  + rainy mood www.rainymood.com while reading  the following...

A hole in the wall...


Fallen roof. who knows for how many years.


Some of it still standing.



Sealed doors to keep people entering, because it´s dangerous or who knows why...



Another man made hole. Let the little kid in you satiate his curiosity.


A ruined building, in the middle of nowhere. But you are not lost, you already know this place


You wonder, what´s the history about this place, why did get abandoned...


Surprisingly, time has been mercyful here, and incredibily this place still has some beauty left.  And incredibily too, it´s totally garbage free and mostly clean of graffities.


 The sun is shinning today,  but you somehow feel in the mood for rain.
 

A little girl, crying, alone.

 

Maybe it was curiosity, maybe the rain forced her to stop here.


This place means nothing to a normal person, an ugly, old, ruined building. But you and i know different. We know that in the imagination of someone, a history, a whole world was born here.


Suddenly, a sound, a bell, get´s your attention.


 You look around...



Is your mind playing with you? A woman?



Getting closer takes you back to reality. Sadly.


I hope that wasn´t too ridiculous, but i was in the mood. This place was amazing. As i mentioned before, i had no clues about how what kinds of places would find in my trip. but of all of them, i didn´t even imagine this really existed.

It´s an amazing place on it´s own. The contrast of destruction with the beauty of those tiles, and the nature taking back what he used to own, the complete silence and for the first time in the whole trip, the complete lack of people.

We already seen where Kanata meets Ilya, but this is where Ilya meets Kanata. This is something you won´t get anywhere else.


I can imagine how the SnW team went to Alarcon, came down here to watch that bridge and the dam, taking pictures for reference, and how one of them noticed the tiles in the building, went in, called his partners in, and how they suddenly found some inspiration. I can understand why they included this place.

This place has mistery of it´s own. Look at those beautifully crafted pillars, and those rusted beams or train rails incrusted in the floor. Some inspiration for the "angel" fossil maybe?


Interior general shots of the ruined building. This building had a unnacessable basement. and that hole in the second picture went in there, so i had to be carefull


One thing i noticed is that the pattern of the surviving tiles has been respected in the anime, but the pattern of the tiles themselves has been changed.


Only picture of the Parador of Cuenca i reminded to take. I can imagine Ilya princess having some kind of encounter up there, and she needing to be alone for a while...


Outside shots of the building.

  


Well, that´s it. Still gonna post some afterthoughts, some nightshots from Cuenca and anything that i think it may be interesting. Keep reading!

Alarcon.

Alarcon it´s a town located 87 kilometers away from Cuenca. It´s enviroment and architecture make it a beautifull place to visit.

I went to alarcon on the 3rd and final day of the trip. Due to the heat, crappy food and lack of sleep, i was feeling a bit sick and didn´t have all the motivation i should have had, that translates on a lack of pictures. At least until i got to the biggest surprise in the trip, but more on that later...

This is the view from the road of the Town of Alarcon.


Actually, there are some elements in this picture that maybe you reconogice, but i will tell you of those later.

Really beautiful place. Cuenca had the disavantage of being part of a modern city, and being infested of tourists, but Alarcon really has a beautiful enviroment, the water in the dam was nicely clear, and notice how there are several survilance towers surrounding the city. The place is calm and the air smells clean, which is a luxury the people in cities don´t have nowdays.




This part was edited after watching the second OVA.



This tower is part of the entrance of Alarcon, and it´s one of the arcs that the road goes down on the access to Alarcon. When i went there back in august, i couldn´t imagine that this spot was gonna be the place where some of the most awesome scenes of the series were gonna happen. So it´s a shame that i didn´t take proper pictures of this place. The only ones i got were taken for my own storage.


It´s a shame i can´t show you how much the aminated version is accurate to the real tower, because watching it in the pictures, it´s just like real life, a perfect depiction of it.

You can drive all the way to the base of the tower, but you risk to ruin the undercarriage, because it´s a quite broken field. Once again, a Kubelwagen really works here.


Also, Kanata´s driving once again proofs that women should be banned from driving forever.

Just joking ladies.

Feels awesome to know that i discovered this place all by miself, climbed the same stairs Kanata does, or even sat at the same spot Rio does.


 I noticed that some scenes of the ending are also taken from here.




Another view of Alarcon, and 2 of the 3 doors that give access to the town.


IMHO, that the SnW producers did to create Seize, was taking mostly Cuenca and mixing it with Alarcon, keeping the walls of this, and after watching the OVA feels like that.

Alarcon is a fortified city like Cuenca, and also like Cuenca, it´s surrounded by 2 rivers.



Remember this from episode 1? There are 3 doors like this one to close the access to the town.



The road does a tight right hand corner before reaching the city doors, just like in the anime. I can´t help to think that someone in the SnW team did a "Dorifto" joke while they were there, and they decided to include it in the anime. Get´s more evident when you think that the man who dubbed Krauss is the same who gave the voice to Takumi´s dad in Initial D.


As i mentioned, i was feeling a bit sick that morning, and because i didn´t recocnogice anything in Alarcon that was used in SnW, i didn´t bother taking pictures, as it looked pretty much like any spanish town does. I did miss taking some pictures from the Parador of Alarcon, as there was another parador in this town, and i have the feeling that it may appear in the second OVA too.

I did catch this corner that appears in a shot of the ending. Looks like they have used several spots from Alarcon exclusively in the ending.


After walking through the town, i decided to go check the dam and the bridge you can chech in the first pictures, because i had the feeling that they were the ones that appear in the series, and i happened to be right.

First the dam.





 And now the bridge.



Actually, this bridge is used several times, both in the ending and in the actual series. This shot is used in the ending (Rio hug) and in the episode 7.


This is where Felicia and Rio talk in episode 7. which makes this the place where the Obon Festival takes part. sadly it doesn´t look so good, but the river water flow was very calm, so you could put a boat with a candle and it would float for a while...



Also Kanata is seen down here in the ending (Determined face! moment)


OK. Sadly we are close to the end. I have shown you all the places and findings i have done in my trip. But there´s still a last place we have to see, and it´s a very special one, my favourite place in the whole trip...