FANTASY LANDS

In ‘Thrix,' Eli Baxter has created art from re-purposed bicycle tubing ANTON GLAMB PHOTO

In ‘Thrix,’ Eli Baxter has created art from re-purposed bicycle tubing ANTON GLAMB PHOTO

People often say books are better than the movies based on them. Sometimes, I’ve heard people say this without even having seen the movie. Other times, I’ve heard people say it without having actually read the book. Personally, I always think the movie is better than the book. I don’t have that much free time to read for pleasure, and if I did have time to read, I’d rather do something else, like watch a movie. Movies take a few hours tops, while books can last forever.

I often feel the same about TV series. There are so many that I haven’t started — not because I don’t think that I will enjoy them, but because I think I will. There’s so much going on out in the real world that it seems like I’m missing out on life if I stay in watching episode after episode after episode of a series that I’m sucked into. But one series that I did get sucked into recently was an anime called Attack on Titan.

Attack on Titan is about these giants that appeared out of nowhere and eat people. A city constructs 50-meter high walls to keep the Titans out. This works pretty well for a while, until a 200-foot Titan arrives and breaks down part of the wall, letting in a bunch of smaller Titans who casually snatch up innocent civilians and eat them.

The visuals in the anime are pretty compelling, particularly the occasionally manic, occasionally disinterested facial expressions of the Titans. When I heard that there was going to be a live-action film, I got really excited. I wanted to know: Would it be as good as the show?

A limited engagement of Attack on Titan, Part I just played, and truthfully, it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the anime. The story rushed through so many moments that added depth to the characters, and the battles felt so much less significant without entire episodes of build-up. However, it did take a lot less time to watch the movie than the whole anime series, which was good being that I had a lot more important things to do this week than watch some imaginary villagers fight off some imaginary monsters in some fantasy version of Earth.

What was really good was the First Friday at Hawaii State Art Museum. I had never been to the museum and was blown away by how beautiful the grounds and galleries were. Unfortunately, I was only able to stay a short time. During my rushed perusal, I was particularly taken by local artist Eli Baxter’s Thrix: a mystical garden composed of re-purposed bicycle tubes. If I had to spend some time in a fantasy world this week, it would have been that one.

I’m definitely going to return when I have some time to kill.

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