Kineska

New Shinichiro Watanabe show in April!

2012-01-26T16:42:00.003-05:00

Last weekend I was almost going to blog (yeah, I was a bit buzzed) that there really wasn't any anime to look forward to and that I kind of miss those days.

Then ANN reports that Sakamichi no Apollon, directed by Shinichiro Wantanabe, with musical director Yoko Kanno, is hitting the Notiamina block in April!

In this coming-of-age story of "love, friendship, and music," a naive boy and a scruffy boy share a passion for jazz in a provincial town in the late 1960s.

Oh, hell yeah!

BTF host provider down for the moment

2012-01-18T15:45:00.003-05:00

While I otherwise support all the various SOPA protest blackouts, and BTF would be totally horked if it passed, I'm a very lazy admin who hasn't taken the time to do anything about it. So the current outage is totally coincidental.

It seems there's a general outage over on Dreamhost; I'm guessing some a-tards are DDOS'ng something in that subnet. I noticed a huge traffic spike on my work servers earlier, so something's probably afoot.

Happy Noir Year!

2011-12-31T22:25:00.002-05:00

Noir is ten years old. Did you know that?

Anyway, I managed to watch from the Shao-Li episodes to the end this year. Kind of sober (though not entriely, been working on that...)

I love it as usual. But I have to acknowlege that I'm getting older and other shows are starting to encroach on my "favorite" territory.

It seems such a shock to acknowledge... but it's not really quite there yet, either. Kaiba, Xam'd... maybe more... They probably outrank MADLAX at this point at least (though it's been even longer since I've been able to bring myself to watch that).

At any rate, I did my "Noir Year's" duty. And it's done early and I don't know what else to do with myself. *sigh*

I haven't blogged much lately, but there may be big life changes ahead for me. Or not. I think that the things that started me off blogging and whatnot are probably fading for good, though, and I have to find something more substantial. But that may just be the rut I've been in talking.

We'll see.

Anyway, a great New Year to all.

Hollerdaze

2011-12-23T11:18:00.003-05:00

Once again I'm off for family face-time. Not much blogworthy happening, though I might try to work up a Year In Review. Or not. Dunno.

Anyway, cheers and happiness to all who might happen by.

"The Evangelion of magical girl anime"

2011-11-10T16:28:00.003-05:00

I've resisted using this shorthand here, but here goes:

LOL.

(...or rather, "heh"? Naw, "heh" implies agreement; I only find it hilarious)

For the record, I enjoyed Madoka despite not being much of a "magical girl" genre fan.

But I think they had to drastically rework the ending because of the awful earthquake and tsunami tradgedy that happened right before it aired (as evident by the destruction in the flash-forward scenes). Because there are parts of that episode that don't mesh with the rest of the show at all.

Still enjoyed it though.

Vegas, baybee

2011-10-29T10:38:00.003-04:00

Posting from overhead

2011-10-26T19:39:00.003-04:00

I'm 36000 feet over Tulsa Oklahoma, heading for my brother's wedding in Vegas, and posting on the blog just because I can. Go me!

Live-action Noir is turning out as badly as you'd expect

2011-08-21T11:45:00.002-04:00

Some time ago, it was announced that Noir was optioned for a live-action cable-TV series for the Starz network.

Then last week, BTF member Fluffy found the casting slides and character descriptions... which have made their way around to the usual places, spurring quite a bit of ranting and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The changes are rather jarring, that's for sure. And the detailed descriptions and sample casting scenes are even more troubling

60's Paris would be kind of cool, sure. Changing the Soldats to an ancient Muslim clan of the original "Assassins" -- kind of lame and missing the point. But the character changes seem like worst of "pont-missing". Mireille (now "Dubois" instead of "Bouquet") is merged with Altena's scant backstory. And is married. Kirika seems to have been merged with Chloe's personality. And there's more male regular characters, and a lot of sleeping around between them. There's apparently even a scene where Kirika sleeps with Milosh, only to find out he's been sleeping around himself. So she kills him.

*sigh*

So that's been simmering for a bit, only now, a few casting audition videos have been showing up. And my eyes have rolled so far to the back of my head that I don't think they'll ever reset themselves.

*sigh*

I really didn't expect much, I guess. But the things I mostly liked about the show seem to be the things left out, so it remains to be seen if I'll much bother with going out of my way for this one.

Anyway, plenty of discussion over on the 'Fan, for those that can stomach it. Feel free to add your own

Michiko to Hatchin revisited

2011-08-05T23:25:00.003-04:00

My glowing summary of Michiko to Hatchin still stands. In fact, I think it's even better than what I said -- the flaws are trivial compared to the outstanding work by the variety of animators brought in to the project, all directed by the vision of Sayo Yamamoto (who sadly hasn't been seen since. And I really mean sadly, as I weep at her absence).

My rewatching has only reinforced -- no, superseded! -- the fact that I think this is a tremendously well-done work. That it's built of outstanding components, that it's telling a grand and universal story, that it's got the art direction and animation of a world-class offering... And yet it's gotten nowhere.

I really can't fathom why. In the "golden" era of anime licensing, I'm pretty sure this would have been snatched up, and I'm sure the producers were counting on that. But it mainly disappeared from view. A couple of European countries picked it up, but otherwise *poof*... gone. And I'm physically hurt by that fact.

There are tremendous and unique things going on in this show. The expressions, the consistency, the characterizations -- they're fun and friendly and so very much a break from the usual anime cliche dreck, that I am profoundly disappointed in the US anime import community for totally neglecting it. The crash in the economics of importation is a big factor, and maybe there were some drastic price differentials that I'm not privy to, but the result is still something that breaks my heart, especially considering some of the drek that did make it through the pipeline.

Add to that the fact that Ms. Yamamoto hasn't had another substantial project since this, and I'm so greatly saddened that I just can't express it adequately.

I've been a bit stingy with my purchasing lately (I should really buy Eden of the East and the Casshern reboot), but if this were to show up, I'd buy it instantly at full retail if I could. It's definitely in my new top-5 (whatever those shows are) and may very well be a timeless favorite when all is said and done.

You'd think I'd been raptured or something...

2011-05-23T10:44:00.005-04:00

My 7th bloggiversary has passed, and nary a peep from me. I returned from my road trip intact.

I didn't really rewatch MADLAX on the train like I thought I would. And I'm fine with that.

Mashimo & Bee Train have Hyogue Mono going on, but I don't really find anything to blog about yet besides my initial reaction over on the 'Fan.

Still, I'm hanging on to this blog in hopes that I might start writing again. As opposed to late-night druken "inspirations" that passed for writing lately, I guess. I still love animation and cinema, and I still find great little gems everywhere I look. My muse, on the other hand, is MIA. Oh well.

Onward until next year...

Road Trip underway

2011-05-06T19:18:00.002-04:00

While not quite an epic journey, it's maybe a little bit epic... I'm heading to Florida, with my convertible, by way of the Auto Train. 4 nights on Fort Meyers Beach, 3 nights at The Mouse.

I might wind up blogging a bit on the train, out of sheer boredom. No free wifi in any of my rooms in Florida though, which I think is a long-needed break from the internet. We'll see; I still have my tether-able phone...

"Lost" again

2011-01-08T01:20:00.003-05:00

So you remember how I'd get really drunk and watch Lost In Translation and then want to express my undying, unrequited love to Sofia Coppolla?

Yeah, I'm doing it again tonight.

I watched her father's recent "Tetro", which was very nicely executed (even though
Vincent Gallo rather sucked in the dialogue-delivery department, but cinematographogly, it was outstanding), and it was getting late and I had a bit of a buzz and I thought... well, why not?

Her whole film is constructed of moments. How much is what Ms. Coppalla intenteded, how much came from Jesus & Mary Chain (and Elvis Costello and whatnot in the soundtrack), how much came from Bill Murray's impeccable timing (comedic and otherwise), and how much came out of editing... well, I can't say. But the moments and the visuals and the little things that happen on screen all capture me in some wierd alien (yet familiar) construct that speaks right to my heart.

And here's the part where I propose my undying love, though, sadly, it's way too late.

She's got a new film out recently, and I don't remember what it's called, but I'll be looking for it. And in the mean time, I'll always have Lost in Translation.

Noir Year's Eve, again (and again and again)

2010-12-31T15:18:00.003-05:00

Going back to some older posts, I see that I'm always saying that I approach a Noir with "trepedation", "reluctance", "anxiety" et al. And this year is no different.

In fact, I've been on the edge of ditching my "tradition" entirely and settling in to my bluray set of Deadwood instead. But I'd rather milk that one for a while, actually... And heck, how can I go against the strength of such a pun: "Noir Year's", ha I'm so clever! *smirk*

No, no, I'm going through with it, though I'm going to skip around a lot so I can try to wrap up early (and maybe hang around on the BTF chat for a bit of virtual partying). So it won't really be a proper "marathon" anymore, and that's fine.

UPDATE: Fell asleep during the tea party. *sigh* Oh well, I was having trouble deciding what to skip around, as I was enjoying it too much. I just was enjoying what I was drinking just as much, I'm afraid...

Legend of the Galactic Time Suck (and more)

2010-11-27T13:26:00.005-05:00

I've in the latter half of my 2 weeks of "use it or lose it" vacation, and instead of doing something smart and adventurous like a road trip to a sunny southern clime, I've been unproductively frittering around the house. With the exception of my usual Thanksgiving turkey-plus-MST3K ritual, I can't say I've accomplished anything other than catching up on a few (hundred) hours of anime.

I had actually started Legend of the Galactic Heroes about a month or so back, watching a couple here and there. It's a lot of stiffly animated foofy-haired guys talking a lot and flying around in space for over a hundred episodes (plus prequels and sequels that I'm in the middle of now).

And it's really, really addicting.

It's a modestly epic-like space opera, with gigantic fleet battles that last for five episodes, countered with geo-political machichinations in all their minutae. Political Philosophy 101 balanced with Intro to Sun-Tzu with a smattering of chess and poker for good luck. There are more admirials and generals than planets and battlezones. And the dozen or so main and secondary characters pretty much stick to their archetype throughout.

...And I'd say the the most addictive bits are split between the characters -- which we learn a little more and become a little more attached to, flashback by flashback -- to the detailed manouverings and tactical illustrations of ridiculously huge space battles involving tens of thousands of ships facing off in formation and blasting the bejeebus out of each other. Most everything else is pretty simplistic, though nearly always serves to propel the characters forward in whatever path they can forge, after explaining in detail the ramifications 4 or 5 moves ahead in the game for the path they choose.

Throw in a couple of "surprises" (they're more surprising if you just go along for the ride and try not to think too much), and I found myself really wanting to know what happened next. At least through the primary 110 episodes -- the "Gaiden" prequel is a bit of a step back in scale and isn't as interesting beyond some minor backstory fillers.

Of course, that hasn't entirely dominated my time. Panty & Stocking continues to be quite funny, if rather gross and simplistic. It's really just a bunch of "animators on a toot*" with a melange of homage and button-pushing, and just overall fun and experimentation. It makes it difficult for most anyone to watch objectively -- ya either love what their doing, or ya find it some combination of gross, lame, weak, messy, derivative, etc. I'm enjoying it though.

On the flip side, though still comic and silly, is the endearlingly charming Kuragehime, aka Jellyfish Princess on Hulu. A household of 20-something grrl-nerds get their lives shaken loose by a fashionably-flamboyant young transvestite (that last bit remaining hidden to all but the main character, because it's a "no men allowed" apartment). Then hijinks ensue, go figure. It's loaded with the usual cartoony deformation/overreaction and whatnot that generally annoy me, but it's made up for by an earnestness that I really like. Best part is in the OP -- after a funny Star Wars sequence, there's a couple-of-second bit from Signing in the Rain that just pops off the screen with human expressiveness that is remarkably different from most of the body-language shorthand that anime uses most of the time. Delightful.

Finally, I got the bluray sets for Xam'd: Lost Memories, and that's reaffirmed it's place in my top 10... and maybe my top 5. I'll have to re-evaluate long-unwatched titles to see before I decide... (I wonder if I have any pasta in the house?)

(* from the Italian Futurists self-descriptive quote, "artillerymen on a toot")

Best "magical girl" transformation ever?

2010-10-01T21:03:00.002-04:00

Bwah hah ha ha hahaha ha ha hahahahahaha ha!!!

Panty & Stocking With Garter Belt sets up your expectations right away, by jumping feet-first into an extended poop joke. It can only go up from there, right?

Trashy talk and madcap nonsense pretty much sum up the "story" and "dialogue". The animation is a mashup of the thick-lined angular western cartoony style most notably pioneered by McCraken and Tartokovsky in shows like Dexter's Laboratory and Powerpuff Girls, with the kind of frenetic improbable keyframing and action of Gainax classics Dead Leaves and Gurren Lagaan. In fact, it relies a lot on rigged-model style animation constructed out of pieces-parts like most modern western Flash-based (with packages like Toon Boom) more than the more familiar fully-hand-drawn compositions that the Japanese normally still use.

Though it does revert to that for one particular scene: the magical-girl transformation. The girls are rendered in a fluid, detailed, nuanced style totally unlike the rest of the sequences. Absolutly well-crafted parody of the usual cliche.

Oh, and they're on stripper poles.

Because, like, Stocking's magical sword is formed from one of her loli-goth knee stockings, and Panty's pistol is formed from... well, you get the point.

The whole thing is a raunchy, rowdy parody/homage to cartoons of all stripes, and rife with references to native and western influences. Most of which I'm sure I missed. But there's an obvious bit of Invader Zim here, a flat-out John Krisfalusi characterization there...

But frankly, it all goes by way too fast, and I can't quite keep up with it all. And yeah, it's kind of awkward in spots, a bit forced, and more than a bit "WTF?!?" throughout. That constructed/rigged style of animation can be a bit clunky and "cheap" a lot of the time.

But I find it hilarious, and I can't wait to see what other animation tropes they drag through the... uhh, mud.

Weekend tribute pt 2: Paprika

2010-08-28T23:09:00.002-04:00

Last night I got drunk and mourned. It was needed and necessary; a number of things that were hurting me got conflated together like I figured they would. And I felt a lot better today having gotten those out of my system (helped by the fact that it was a beautiful day).

Tonight, celebration. Paprika is a beautifully surreal film, with amazing visual actualization of some of the finest examples of human caring and empathy transmitted in the form of the dream, the fantasy projected on reality.

There are these outstanding sequences (most notably in the titles) where the dream world flows between the real and the artistic in such a seamless way that I can't help but witness it in awe of the genius that conceived of such imagery.

I watched a couple of the special features afterwards, seeing and listening to Kon describe both the process and the inspirations for the film. He's so earnest and dedicated, yet stressed by deadlines and swamped with tasks to complete. All while humble and forthwright and earnest. He's my fantasy of what I would be if I tried to continue down the animator's path instead of selling out to a lucrative day-job. I find myself wondering if I could have come even a tiny bit close to his output if I stuck with it and put the energy I did into my current "career" into my first love instead.

So I suppose a bit of jealousy, like I have when watching Pixar films, might play into my emotional responses to his films. A bit of "what could have been".

But seeing the extent of the meticulous detail he puts into the scripting and storyboarding and layout and planning; the sheer magnitude of screentime he needs to account for every nuance projected before us... I know I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy...

And I feel okay; in fact, I feel pretty good. It was comforting to watch him being so open about what he was doing and thinking and dreaming at the time. I felt the wonder and happiness that he was able to acheive so much in his tragically short life.

His death is a great loss to us all. But he was a normal, hard working human being, and his genius can't help but be a part of the next generation of artists, whenver we finally get to the point where we value that part of our global culture and stop shortchanging ourselves for a quick buck and a cheap laugh.

Weekend Tribute pt. 1: "Millenium Actress"

2010-08-27T22:45:00.003-04:00

I'm only going to be watching this and Paprika this weekend, saving Tokyo Godfathers for it's proper place at Christmastime, and Paranoia Agent for when I have 6 hours to marathon it. (I don't actually own Perfect Blue yet because the DVD release is hard-letterboxed, which is just unacceptable).

So I just finished Millenium Actress. Actually, I just finished sobbing for a solid 20 minutes or so after finishing Millenium Actress. I probably should have swapped the two around and saved it for tomorrow as a fitting end to my weekend tribute. Because the very last scene... it...

I don't know the man. I never met him, I haven't been following his blog or Twitter feed (not that I could read it, but still), but it's hitting me pretty hard for some reason. This movie is perfect; every frame in it is perfect and beautiful. It speaks to me personally (and not because I'm a chunky guy with a goatee who occasionally crushes on movie stars...).

And the last scene... And the hints throughout, leading up to it...

I haven't even been able to read any full translations of his final farewell, but the excerpts were enough. He found out about the cancer in May, knew his outcome, and kept it quiet. Working right up to the end on his next movie. Worried about it getting completed without him.

In the movie, she knew what was coming, and was able to go out bravely and at peace. I can only hope the same for Kon. I suppose I can only hope the same for myself, though my fate is still many years off. Accounts of my father's end weren't so glamorous; maybe that's part of what hurts, knowing that's where I'm headed with these accursed cysts. Selfish, I suppose.

But, the true love was in the pursuit of passion... the key to it all. Can such a thing so beautiful be true? It must be. And I hope to the bottom of my heart that Satoshi Kon felt that as well.

Devestating: Satoshi Kon dead at age 47

2010-08-24T20:35:00.004-04:00

I'm... I'm still at a loss of what to say...

ANN has what little news there is so far, and I assume they'll be the place where we can get more details in English when they come out.

...

This is about as much a shock as when another artist I greatly admired, Jim Henson, suddenly died some years back. I think I'm going to need to let it sink in for a while...

According to ANN: ".hack//Quantum" in November

2010-08-06T10:31:00.003-04:00

ANN reports on a new .hack title.

But they also go on to say:

Bandai Namco Games announced at last September's Tokyo Game Show that a full-CG anime project from Bandai Visual would tie into the .hack//Link game. However, it has not been announced yet whether or not the new .hack//Quantum anime is the same project.

I didn't watch the 3D CGI release from the last time, and if it's more of the same, then I'm not particularly excited. The article scan in the ANN piece makes it look like it might be 2D, though. But does that actually mean Bee Train? Dunno.

Speculation and updates in the Forum, for sure.

"Mary and Max" is better than you can imagine.

2010-06-18T22:53:00.002-04:00

I've gushed intoxicatedly many times here, but at the moment, I'm not particularly drunk at all. But I am stunned to the point of near-speechlessness.

Mary and Max is about as wonderfully constructed a film as can be made.

Visually, it's a simple but beautiful "claymation" (maybe "minuature armiture" is more appropriate) piece. The visuals are exquisitely detailed, and the texture... oh, my the texture! But that's really just the dressing for the storytelling.

Right off the bat, the narration has a poetic and rhythmic pattern that can't help but pull you in to the hilariously quirky and emotionally honest world that the characters inhabit. By "emotionally honest", I mean that you will feel the truth and the feeling of everything that transpires. Well, I did; maybe even a bit too much...

Max is an oddball middle-aged Asperger's loner in New York City; Mary is an outcast young girl in a dysfunctional family in Australia. They become penpals, but there's nothing particularly cliche about how their interaction evolves. There's a lot of funny, especially in the details -- but there's so much earnestness and sincerity that you can't help but be swept up in what happens as they both grow older.

And the ending will leave you in tears, no matter how stoically you resist. But you'll still feel good about it. You'll still feel a part of it.

While Max is an illustration of a rather extreme situation, I can't help but identify with him in many ways; as if he's a gross exaggeration of my own shortcomings and quirks. And yet, so is Mary, and I identify with her as well. There's so much basic human pathos and mentality being explored, but so simply and effectively, that it can't help but have every moment ring true. And funny. And sad-funny. And true-sad. And true-funny. And that makes it beautiful.

Missed my blogiversary...

2010-05-30T18:03:00.002-04:00

...which is par for the course, I guess. Maybe 6 years is *too* long?

Token watch report: saw Ponyo last night. Beautifully done, some outstanding animation in both characters and effects sequences.

"Tatami Galaxy" -- Yuasa is God

2010-04-23T22:07:00.003-04:00

Tatami Galaxy is the best thing out of Japan since... well, Kaiba!

Funimation is actually streaming it! Hooray!

(well, except for the fact that Flash videos are blue-screening my HTPC right now... Boo! But I'm about to spend $$ to fix that...)

At any rate... the dialogue is rapid-fire. Crazy insane rapid-fire that even Excel Saga couldn't compete with. Which makes it really hard for a poor subtitle-reader like myself to follow -- I want badly to watch the visuals, but I want to know what's being said too! Yeesh!. C'mon Masaaki, don't dis your gaijin fans like that!!

In the OP, there was a brief flash of a character wearing a Fellini's 8 1/2 t-shirt. Hell yeah!

And the "female interest" thus far -- when I first saw her I was like "whoa"... but I couldn't figure out what I recognized her from. Then it hit me: Rei Ayanami. Only wacky. Seriously.

So, yeah, this story violates my "loser guy can't ask a girl out" distaste... but it's got a twist that breaks the cliche that I dislike so much. I'm totally sold.

"Summer Wars"

2010-04-10T21:58:00.002-04:00

Summer Wars is probably the most entertaining movie I've seen in a long time.

The excellent animation, artwork, characterizations, and attention to detail are totally beside the point. Most of the time I didn't notice that and just watched the movie! Been a while since I've done that.

The second I can get a hold of it on BD, it's mine.

A truly, truly unprecedented early BBQ...

2010-04-02T18:04:00.001-04:00

It reached 80F today. The lake is still around 45F, so it's supposed to be cold and rainy this time of year. But nope, it's practically summer-like!

So hell yeah, I'm grilling steak! Hooray!

Was I actually right all along?

2010-03-08T19:30:00.002-05:00

Remember when I mentioned how wrong I was to be believing Mashimo-related rumors on the internets?....

From AnimeSuki (by way of the MoonPhase Diary) today:

The shounen manga Mirai Nikki (未来日記) by Esuno Sakae will be getting an important announcement.

I guess we'll find out if I was actually right on March 26th. Heh.

Soronowoto update, continued.... ?

2010-03-07T01:04:00.002-05:00

It's weird, but a post-apocolypse moe show gives me the warm fuzzies.

I was rewatching a couple of random episodes, and just thought I'd mention that.

"Soranowoto" update

2010-02-17T17:12:00.003-05:00

I think this show is coming along pretty well...

(Actually, even with this, it's not quite what you'd expect. It's not "K-On-in-the-army", by any means. And not quite Haibine either. But it's not bad.)

UPDATE: Then it goes and devolves into an extended "gotta pee" joke in the next episode. Oh well. At least there was a tiny nugget of plot-point buried in there.

Must be outage day

2010-01-18T10:07:00.001-05:00

Not only is the Bee Train Fan server down, but so is a critical server at work. I'm not having a good day. :(

No TBD on either, and nothing I can do about either, either. *sigh* I should go back to bed.

Unconfirmed rumor: Mashimo to direct next "Digimon" season?

2010-01-14T10:47:00.002-05:00

I know, don't trust everything on the internet, as my previous rumormongering lead to embarrassing failure... *grin*

But somewhere in Japan it was posted, then quickly yanked, that Mashimo was now on the Digimon project. Which the fan forum post goes on to debunk (as well as provide some poor "facts" on Mashimo, but whatever).

So, we'll either know in April that it's true, or that I'm chasing old rumors around again...

Unexpected potential "hidden" gem this winter: "Soranowoto"?

2010-01-13T16:36:00.003-05:00

So this Soranowoto show is kind of surprising...

I mean, yeah, on the surface, it looks like just another saccharine "moe" schoolgirl romp. But it kind of isn't, either. For one, they're conscripts in the armed forces, tasked with defending a little out-of-the-way town. Why such young girls are in such a situation is not quite revealed. For two, the world they're in has a lot of undiscovered mystery, isolation, and backstory, and you just don't know the "rules" behind everything, even though it's wrapped in familiarity.

From the Animesuki discussion, the general suggestion is that it's sort of a combo of Habine Renmei meets Now and Then, Here and There, mixed with K-On (which I haven't seen due to my overall allergy to that sort of show...)

(...which, considering some of the shows I've been watching lately, I can't claim any kind of purity in the matter. But that's a discussion for another time...)

Anyway, yeah, weird. But add the fact that the art is quite lovely, there's a fine use of soundtrack, and (my favorite) there's actually some decent saguka-list-worthy animation... well, I'm sold!

I mean really, though there are some gaps, there are some scenes that have such a wonderfully natural weight and timing to the characters, that I thought there may have been some common-ground with the staff from Xam'd: Lost Memories. Alas, not. But whatever, "spark of life" is totally there, and the "moe" be damned! This has potential, if it doesn't devolve into total pandering to fanboy fetishry. Fingers crossed!

UPDATE: Okay, it's a lot like K-On in the animation and details. It was recommended that I give it a look-see, and I was pleasantly surprised. But... Soranowoto looks like it has much better potential for depth, discovery and a possible big twist, whereas K-On probably stays with the slice-of-life moe comedy antics.

(...and I might wind up watching that too... *sigh* What's wrong with me??)

Resolve?

2010-01-04T17:39:00.002-05:00

I'd like to say that I've made a New Year's resolution to start trying to write again. And by "write", I don't mean "rant about cartoons & TV while intoxicated" like I've been sporadically doing here for the last couple of years. Heck, even my earlier posts, sober or otherwise, while better, really weren't all that either. But at least I was more thoughtful (or at least less incompreshensible) at the time.

I suppose it was easier to find subject matter then; after all, I just "rediscovered" a whole medium, and had hundreds of opportunities to find new and delightful things. So how could I not have been enthusiastic? Lately, aside from the few gems here and there, it's been a little more of a grind.

I have recently stumbled into the world of web comics. Well, actually, I've been kind of avoiding them for a while. I figured it would be too easy to get sucked into the countless pages upon pages of archives, and I didn't want to commit the time.

Well, I was right. I find myself wasting hours that I could be doing chores (oh, poor me) catching up with series like Girly, Flipside, and The Abominable Charles Christopher -- and probably soon to be a few dozen more.

I started diving in because, for a while now, I've been thinking of starting a couple of projects of my own. My long-standing Blank Page Syndrome aside, I think it would be fun. Some of the other titles I've been stumbling upon started out very simple and personal, and you could see the artist grow in talent and creativity as they progressed. Some will get tired and move on, but that's okay. I shouldn't worry about that; I should accept it.

So what exactly is my Resolution out of all this? Go figure, I can't commit to one. But it's what I've been thinking about. Since there are no new anime series on the near horizon, I guess I'll have more than enough time. At the very least, maybe I'll start reviewing a few web titles, and figure out what I like and don't like.

Finale. Noir Year style.

2010-01-01T01:14:00.000-05:00

I've made it to the last disc of Noir. I was going to try to skip a few episodes in hopes of wrapping it up in time to sleep (and not keep the neighbors awake with gunshots and whatnot), but every episode, flaws not withstanding, is perfect. There's no escaping it.

This time around, Mirielle is my favorite. But I still hurt when Kirika goes "dark". Someday, maybe Chloe, or even Altena, will rate the center of my attention, but it's not as likely. They're not as bad as we are led to feel; they're just warped. But Mirielle and Kirika, they're the ones we have to love and want to protect. Or want to protect us... they're rather badass after all! *wink*

Enough of that. Time to finish it, and time to move on to a new 2010. It'll be another year before I do this again. And that's fine. I'm glad I brought myself to do it again, and I hope that I'll always feel this magic every year when I return to it.

"Le Grande Rewatch: Ultimate GWG"

2009-12-30T23:07:00.002-05:00

I've just finished Day 2 of my Ultimate GWG Trilogy rewatch; partly to celebrate the arrival of my El Cazador box sets, and mainly because it's the lead up to "Noir Year's Eve". I've resigned myself to watching my favorites once per year, because I definitely overloaded on Noir and MADLAX like I feared. I think this arrangement works pretty well, though.

Last night ("Taco Taco Tuesday-su") I blasted through most of Cazzy, only skipping some of the more egregiously weak bits. It's not all that awesome a show, but there are quite a few charming and appealing moments to make up for it. The wish for a "true" successor for the GWG "trilogy" moniker casts a dark shadow over it, and despite the excitement back when I first reported and speculated on it, I'm a bit jaded with the outcome. That carries over into Phantom, which I'll hopefully opine on later (maybe for "Phantom Phriday", if I don't burn out before then...)

Watching the last 5 discs of MADLAX just now, I'm reminded of the technical and structural superiority of this show, and the aspects that first drew me to Bee Train in my post-Noir discovery phase at the beginning of this blog. Watching MADLAX week-by-week, with its convoluted mystery and interwoven story threads; well, it makes El Cazador look like the "moe" show of the week, in comparison. It's not, though... There's a thoughtfullness and care to most of the episodes that the typical schlock can only aspire too. A feeling and a happiness -- whimsy, even -- that works on a few levels all by itself. But compared to MADLAX, well hell, how can you compare anything to MADLAX??

Tommorow night will be Noir, and I fear it. For years, I've feared my reaction to rewatching my true love of a show. To sustain love, I need to feel love back in return, and, well duh -- it's a TV show. I can only project love upon it.

But it's a delight and it will always be. It's a time that's long overdue to treat myself to all that drew me to it in the first place, much like MADLAX did. There's still trepidation, and I'm sure tomorrow will bring reluctance, but I'm very, very much committed to seeing this through. I've been looking forward to it for months. This is Noir's day.

New Bee Train for Fall 2010: "Psychic Detective Yakumo"

2009-12-07T10:10:00.003-05:00

Over on ANN, they report that 2chan says this week's NewType will "reveal" that the Psychic Detective Yakumo novel series will be adapted by Bee Train for next fall. Directed by Murder Princess' Tomoyuki Kurokawa, and written by Blade of the Immortal's Hiroyuki Kawasaki.

Since I was kind of "meh" about both of those, I find myself a little less than enthused. But no big deal; it's still nearly a year away.

...UPDATE: And if I kept reading, ANN also reports that Masaaki Yuasa and MADHOUSE is making an adaption of Yojō-Han Shinwa Taikei novels as well, airing in April 2010. I'm a bit more stoked about that, because I was recently poking around a few Kaiba episodes and wondering what he had next on his plate.

Turkey-related program activities

2009-11-26T16:20:00.002-05:00

I'm a few hours into a Mystery Science Theater 3000 marathon, and I've got a turkey slowly reaching the ideal temperature, and smelling awesome.

I picked up Alton Brown's book on a recommendation. He gets into the reasons behind certain techniques and methods, and while I'm not as interested as getting into some of the gear-fetish geekdom, I was sold on the notion of accurately measuring cooking temperature. At least with roasting, which I often over-do.

I also decided to try brining. Essentially, soak the turkey in a salt/sugar/spice solution for a number of hours before popping it in the oven; it infuses the cells of the meat with the liquid and flavoring. For sugar, I decided to use Guinness, and my fingers are crossed that I got the proportions right.

One thing I couldn't bring myself to follow his recommendation on was stuffing. I really think the whole point to stuffing is to actually stuff the bird. His point was that, in order to cook it to the right temperature to eliminate samonella (165F), you have to overcook the rest of the turkey, which dries it out too much. However, he also describes that brining lets you get the cooking temperature higher w/o that problem, so it's a win/win, I think.

It's Trek Jim, but not as we know it

2009-11-21T23:05:00.004-05:00

Today was Star Trek day, because the new BluRay of the "reboot" showed up from Netflix. I started my early-morning Saturday cartoons with some of the animated series from the 70's (which I watched religously back then), and then some of The Next Generation TV series; both, again, from Netflix.

(The animated series was really shittily animated, but the sci-fi storytelling wasn't all that bad. A pity. TNG wasn't entirely as bad as I thought it would be in the the early season -- better than a lot of Voyager at least...)

At any rate, the JJ Abrams' "reboot" of the Trek franchise didn't suck. But it was very, very different. And not entirely in the well-crafted way that Galact-o-yeah was -- the 20th-century industrial settings of the guts of the various starships, and the gritty textures applied to most everything, kind of betrayed the utopio-futuristic vision of Trek in general. Despite the Apple Store quality of the bridge and all the lens flares thereof.

It was a lot of fun, though. Many ingredients of the Trek Ethos (TM) were left intact. There were quite a few homages to earlier canon, including the "early Spock" days from the animated series episode I just watched (funny how that worked). Quinto almost makes an excellent Spock, except his voice doesn't have anywhere near Nimoy's gravitas. In fact, none of the voices have any real maturity to them. Maybe Bones... he had the best homage to the original character in the whole thing. But overall, it was kind of like "Emo Trek" with all these too-young faces and less-than-epic subject matter.

But I did enjoy it, and I think future "episodes" in this newly-minted retcon universe might serve the "Trek" mythos quite well. Here's hoping...

Those little surprises that put a smile on your face...

2009-10-20T18:17:00.004-04:00

...I get home and see this in my email:

Greetings from DVD Pacific.

We thought you'd like to know that we processed your Invoice today.
This invoice contains:
1 | Batman: The Animated Series - The Complete Animated Series [17 Discs]

I forgot I had that on backorder from many, many months ago! Here's the amazon.com listing, because DVD Pacific isn't even listing it anymore (probably because I didn't pay anywhere near what you see on Amazon!)

Time to get another DVD shelf...

A new member of the family...

2009-09-29T16:07:00.004-04:00

As part of my on-going mid-life crisis (heralded with my first purchase), I sold my minivan to a co-worker with a growing family, and then, after months of agonizing decision paralysis, I made an impulse buy for its replacement.

It's actually a 2010, which will be the first time I bought a vehicle early in the cycle -- but the rebates was good, and the 0% financing was icing on the proverbial cake, as it were...

And now my Mustang can continue stay out of the up-and-coming winter weather. Hooray!

G-scare

2009-09-14T20:54:00.002-04:00

So I get home this evening and fire up the ol' blog (I use my links on the right as my bookmark list), and Google goes and tells me "Blog has been disabled" !!

I try to log in with my Gmail account, and it says "Account has been disabled" !!

Y'know, I've set up a lot of my internet life using this account, so I was a bit concerned. I followed the various "help" bits on Google's site to get to a point where I could enter a plea for help... then nothing. Okay, I figured; this'll take a while. Googling around, I see this happens now and again. Some are panicky. Some are livid. There's a little bit of "be calm and give the form time to do it's magic".

So I endeavor to be calm and wait it out, trying to imagine a scenario where this might be an opportunity to ditch my current personae and build a new internet life* from scratch... And I didn't like the thought so much, to tell the truth.

So anyway, about 3 hours later, it did do it's magic. Well, I'm still not able to access POP, but everything's intact and working again. Phew.

First thing I'm doing is backup all this up! I may not have been very active lately, but I still kind of like some of what I blathered on about back in the day.

*(I actually do have my "real" identity online, and it's not hard to find the connection, but I'd rather not have my obsessive drunken fandom linked to quite so readily, go figure...)

Honk for English...

2009-09-12T19:42:00.003-04:00

I'll just leave this here...

"El Cazador" streaming already?

2009-09-10T21:39:00.000-04:00

I must have missed it. Funimation has got streamed episodes of El Cazador de la Bruja (up to 22 so far) on their site. Subtitled only at this point.

My network is flaky at the moment so I'm not having much luck getting a stream of anything but their dumb commercial. So I have nothing to say about their quality yet...

Gearing up

2009-09-04T09:05:00.002-04:00

Summer lasted for what... 2 weeks? Fall is starting already (which I'm ok with; fall is quite pleasant here if it stays sunny), and my thoughts are turning to...

Upgrades!

I'm a compulsive upgrader, both with my computers and A/V gear. With the release of Windows 7 (I have my MSDN RTM ISO's ready to burn) and my burgeoning BluRay collection, I'm going all-out. I found a great deal on the new Denon 2310CI receiver (which will decode advanced surround formats via HDMI, plus other advanced niceties), and that led to me picking up the new Oppo BluRay player (with advanced DVD upscaling that will totally obsolete the very expensive player I bought a few years ago... *sigh*), which led me to getting new parts for my HTPC, which led me to getting a new 24" monitor and upgrades to my desktop, which led to me getting an SSD hardrive for my TabletPC, which led to.... Oh hell.

So all this stuff starts arriving today (and the bill for it all arrives later in the month *cough*). So I'm going to spend my Labor Day weekend doing something that actually cheers me up -- endlessly configuing and tweaking my gear! Hooray!

"Monster" anime coming to "Syfy"

2009-08-17T19:27:00.003-04:00

ANN tells us that the recently-licensed Monster will be on the Syfy "Ani-Monday" block starting October 12.

It's a long one, so even at 2 episodes a week, that'll be going for a long time, I'm sure.

I'd venture to guess it will be dubbed. I think ulitimately I'd like to watch it dubbed into German, with English subtitles. That would be cool (if there were any decent German dub studios, which I believe is something rare...)

Oh, and "Syfy"? Please....

"Casshern Sins", "Eden of the East" licensed

2009-07-19T18:55:00.004-04:00

ANN reports from Otakon that Funimation has snagged Casshern Sins and Eden of the East, to be released in 2010.

If I had kept up with blogging, I'd have mentioned that I kept watching Eden, and even enjoyed it a little bit, though I found a few minor aspects annoying. Still, the story was kind of interesting.

Casshern Sins was a show I was really trying to work up a decent post about. I had gotten sucked into it a while after it finished, and blasted through it in short order. Though it really had an overbearing bleakness, I thought the design, atmostphere, and unique style were outstanding, and there was quite a bit of energetic, lively animation to make up for a lot of the seemingly static, gloomy angst. It was another of those "journey-not-the-destination" types of runs, where the side characters encountered along the way where often the most compelling part. I look forward to owning this one, for sure.

"Blade of the Immortal" licensed...

2009-06-12T08:24:00.002-04:00

According to ANN, the Media Blasters "AnimeWorks" label will be dubbing and releasing Blade of the Immortal to North America at the end of September.

I didn't blog much about this one, as I was less than enthralled about it (though, by my current lack of blogging about Phantom, enthrallment has little to do with it...), but I'm glad to see it's coming over.

Bloggiversary #5

2009-05-21T16:19:00.002-04:00

Has it really been 5 years? Apparently so. In some ways, everything's more or less the same as it was then -- but in a lot of ways, it's entirely different. Go figure.

The weather has turned exceptionally nice as of today, which is to be expected around Memorial Day weekend. I'm taking a few days off from work to hopefully recharge. And the weird thing is, I'm not planning any sort of anime marathons like I would have in the past. I'm just looking to get the house prepped for summer relaxation, and to enjoy the piece and quiet I have here at the lakeshore.

Someday I'll post about what I've been watching, both TV and anime. Maybe even a movie or two. But for now, a nice beer on the deck in the sun with the refreshing breeze off the water is really all that's important right now.

Unprecedented early BBQ? Not quite...

2009-04-25T17:53:00.002-04:00

I see back in April 2006 (when I actually used to write on this dang thing) I grilled a whole 4 days earlier. But today was a gorgeous rare 80F day in late-April, so I washed my car, took a nice drive, and now I'm about to grill up some steak. And some bacon-wrapped sausage. I've been wrapping a number of things in bacon lately, go figure...

The bugs are thick and annoying right now, and a bird deigned to shat on my shorts, so I'm feeling a bit squicky, but a few more beers and a change of pants is alleviating that.

I've actually been watching a whole lot of things, and even have a few post ideas to start on. But there's that ol' inertia in the way. Like I've said before, it's easier to not-blog than to actually blog. But it's nice, I've got great tunes blasting, and I'm in a good mood; so who knows?

Big surprise! "Phantom" licensed by FUNimation... for online streaming

2009-04-23T14:15:00.002-04:00

(h/t AlexShadow on the forum...)

I was a bit shocked to see this so soon, but FUNimation is posting subtitled streams of Phantom episodes. In the case of episode 4, hours before it's actually aired in Japan!

Over on ANN, in the comments section, a Funi rep clarifies that the license is for streaming-only; DVD releases are a discussion for another day.

Oh, and US-only? Yeah. That's the way it works, I guess.

I guess I'm going to follow along with what I'm doing with Shangri-La and will watch it exclusively through the official channels. As much as I find the FUNimation video player's constant *buffering* an incredible annoyance (leaving it paused for an hour or so to pre-download seems to be the solution), plus the Flash player is rather choppy and blurry when trying to play it fullscreen at 1080p. Oh well, all the more incentive to buy BluRay discs when they're released!

Onward, progress!

"Phantom" has aired, fast fansubs follow

2009-04-03T12:32:00.004-04:00

I took a peek at the raw of the episode, and was pleased! The "Hand of Mashimo™" is strong in this one. *grin* A hi-def version of the fansub has already hit the torrents, so I'll probably catch that tonight.

More over on the forum, of course. And more later when I'm not actually blogging from work.

(Link updated to point to the new Phantom-only board)

Spring 2009 Anime?

2009-03-31T15:03:00.004-04:00

Well, I've glanced quickly at the series that are about to start in the next few weeks, and besides Phantom, I guess I'm only going to give Gonzo's Shangri-La a try.

Artwork by Range Murata evokes my nostalgia for Last Exile, and a soft spot for Gonzo shows that attempt to "go epic". And the animation in the very brief preview looks pretty good. I'm also going to give it a go via Crunchyroll, which will be streaming it at 720p within hours of it's Japanese airing. 2 weeks free trial of that "anime service", then it's for-pay at a price they don't say up-front. But I figure it's time to put my money where my mouth is: I want to see exactly that kind of service and I'd be willing to pay for it. If the stream is good. And if it doesn't cost too much for just the one show I'm going to watch right now.

(and if the show lives up to expectations...)

Production I.G.'s Eden of the East was tempting until I saw how the manga-y bits in the trailer -- a lot of attention paid to backgrounds and wide shots, but nothing much unique about the character expressions. I will probably still give it a chance at some point, because it still seems better-produced than most everything else. But I'm not going to go out of my way.

Michikothon

2009-03-27T23:20:00.003-04:00

Michiko to Hatchin ended a little while back, and I didn't have the chance to watch the last 4 or so episodes until just now.

Have I mentioned that I love this show?

It's flawed. So what? I still love it.

There are aspects of the animation that are crude and clumsy, even until the end. Yet there are cuts that are brilliant and perfect. And the art direction is tremendously spot-on, with a sensuous attention to detail and a scintallating use of color.

And the characters... Even the side characters are lively and fun, despite the occasional lapse into cliche. Our leads, though, are a tremendous presence, with noted screen stars doing the voices, as opposed to the usual anime dub artists (who have a following of their own, of course). That presence is nothing without the character design and animation (and "fashion-of-the-week") artistry from the different studios and animators involved. It was subtle but obvious that there were many players doing their part in this, and it added to the enjoyment from my perspective. I hope I can find out more about "who did what" someday.

The writing, well, again, it had it's moments, but in a "journey is greater than the destination" sense. Which I enjoyed quite a bit. There were homages, tropes, shortcuts, and cliches, and yet there was an ultimate sense of the "moment" when it was important to feel something. It was a fine ride.

The best and most unique part of the whole series -- the sort of thing that is the polar opposite of what you typically find in Japanese shows -- is that there was a distinct feminine perspective to many of those "moments". It's hard for me, a crotchety old bachelor, to put my rhetorical finger on it, but it was pretty clear in a few clear sequences that there was definitely a woman's perspective behind it. Certain gestures, expressions, reactions... you never see these little touches in most any other anime to this point. Or much of any animation for that matter (except probably Persepolis or various indie shorts). It make the whole series a little more honest and true, despite its little indulgences into genre homage and trope-a-liciousness.

I really hope this one gets a decent licensing deal. Sign me up for Blu-ray discs the moment they come out! It would be awesome if it made it a wider audience through some sort of TV syndication. But I fear it might be a bit too quirky around the edges to cross over... We'll see.

(Oh, and I wanted to make a crack about Shinchiro Wantanbe seeming to want to be a DJ more than he wants to be an animator, but damnit, the music was excellent and fun and who can fault him for his contribution here?? *grin*)

Straight outta TAF

2009-03-25T16:55:00.002-04:00

I haven't researched much about either of these yet (especially the "when?"), but the TAF shaky-cam trailers look promising when added to what little info I've heard so far:

CENCOROLL, a solo effort?

Summer Wars, brought to you by the talent from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time; something about a rural town defending itself from an invasion by the internet.

The end of Galact-oh-yeah...

2009-03-20T23:48:00.002-04:00

The ending is a spoiler-rich environment, and yet, maybe a futility-rich one as well.

Not to say I didn't thoroughly enjoy it, because I did. But as I've admitted before, I'm rather easy.

There's quite a bit left unanswered, but overall that's okay. Even with the fact that they tried to introduce new history-via-flashback and tried to shift the previous years' prophecies on to these final buildup, it really did bring some emotional closure; some fine moments, through the extended denoument (and by "extended" I do mean extended).

When you see it, it won't be too much of a surprise. It's closure, after all. Throw in a few bars of the original '70s Galactica theme and it's all forgiven, right?

Like I said, I'm easy. I loved the many moments, buildups, journeys, and projections they threw at us here at the end, and I don't feel any particular loose end worth tugging at. The look and atmosphere has always been superb (the HD broadcast particularly so), and I will never fault this series on it's flair. No siree.

Without spoilers, there's not much more I can think of to say, except "farewell". There'll be the Caprica prequel series, and supposedly another special in the fall about "the Plan" the Cylons had, but otherwise, this one is done and gone.

I enjoyed it, it didn't change my world, and it's done. Moar pleeze!

Watchbusters!

2009-03-16T17:15:00.002-04:00

Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah!!!

...I finally read the comic after all these years when I was in Portland. The NYT review said the movie was probably aimed at adult males who were 1) sophmores in college in the mid/late 80's, 2) had a large record collection, and 3) didn't collect comic books but had a roommate who did. I was like, "hey, that's me!"

...haven't seen the movie though. I'll probably Netflix the BluRay right away though.

My HTPC is dead.

2009-03-09T17:57:00.002-04:00

I was going to put the title "Kirika is dead" for this post (I named my computers after the women in Noir, of course), but I thought it would be a bit troll-tastic.

The morning after returning from my trip, I was about to settle in on the couch and catch up with any fansubs and websurfing I hadn't done all week, when I hit the power button on the remote and nothing happened. No spin-up, no POST, nothing. It had been running almost non-stop since Christmas, which isn't unusual for it, and I've had it off for a week on those occasions I take trips, but this time, dead. *sad*

I've ordered a temporary cheap power supply to see if that is the issue (I've tried a dozen other things including the CMOS battery), and then my final attempt will be to totally dismantle it and try to rebuild bit by bit. But if the motherboard has finally given up, I'll be quite sad, as I'm well-invested in all of the equipment on it, and all of the new equipment uses different interfaces. Which means new all-around. *sigh*

Yet another BTF outage

2009-03-01T17:22:00.002-05:00

The forum is down yet again, due to a couple of failures over at the hosting provider. It will probably be back in the next few hours.

UPDATE: Looks like everything's finally back, much to everyone's relief...

Flying to Portland

2009-02-27T08:45:00.004-05:00

I'll be heading out to the Portland/Wilsonville area in Oregon for business on Monday. I won't have any time to see anything this trip, unfortunately. And I'd say that bloggin' would slack off, but then, I'm already about as slacked as I can get here... *sigh*

"El Cazador" licensed... for real this time!

2009-02-19T18:18:00.002-05:00

ANN reports that FUNimation has officially licensed El Cazador De La Bruja. They'll be "releasing two complete season sets later this year".

For those keeping score, I called it back in August '08. *grin*

AlexShadow already started the discussion over on the forum whilst I was at work. All El Cazador discussions since it aired are there as well, of course!

BTF site outage again.

2009-02-16T22:18:00.003-05:00

Grr. Well, I suppose it's been awhile since the last outage at my webhost. Not counting the daily database lockups, but at least those go away in a couple of minutes.

It's going to put a damper on this evening's silliness, I suppose. And epic RPG posts. With luck everything will be back in place in the morning. If not, hang tight.

UPDATE: Looks like it was only for two hours, though the psychic damage was done... *ahem*

If you've ever wanted an ELDA TALUTA screen saver...

2009-02-11T09:21:00.001-05:00

Forum member Koveras made a screensaver for those of us who haven't had our minds controlled quite enough lately...

Viz to release "Monster" DVDs

2009-02-10T11:53:00.002-05:00

From the "long time coming" files, ANN reports that Viz is releasing Monster. Details coming someday.

Funny coincidence, because I was just thinking about that show, and was considering rewatching the fansubs...

Holy Frakamole!

2009-01-17T20:46:00.003-05:00

Battlestar Galact-oh-yeah returns by pulling out all the stops. The cliffhanger of finding the blackened husk of a planet leads into a deep, dark descent into despair and depression; yet also discovery.

And holy frak do they give us some stark gut-punchers when they do.

They totally made it worth waiting all this time for this continue. It's totally rewarding. Over the top, totally crazy, but completely entertainingly dark and heart-pounding.

We're into the race to the finale. There's a chance that it will detour into the pockets of "Emostar Crylactica" that it diverted to in the past, but given that they've given us such a "welcome back", I have faith that I'll enjoy every last minute of it 'til the end. I hope so. It's worth it.

The rut, I am in it...

2009-01-15T09:37:00.003-05:00

After extended periods of not-blogging, it gets easier and easier to not-blog. No "Year in Review" post. No "Winter Season Preview". No continued praise for Michiko to Hatchin or X'amd. Nothing about the TV I've been watching.

I'm a bit stressed because I'm getting transferred at work. To an office that is a miserable commute to the other side of the city. So I think I need to seriously consider selling my little patch of lakeside solitude and get back into the middle of civilization.

That might be what I need to get out of my rut. Near my friends, near stuff to do. And that's got me mostly convinced to go through with it. In this economy, though, I'm uncertain as to the success of selling this place for the amount that would make the move possible. We'll see.

Noir Year's Eve

2008-12-31T18:01:00.003-05:00

Well, after some time away, I'm returning to my "tradition" and watching the rest of Noir for New Year's Eve. I've even got some pasta-related program activities queued up for a MADLAX followup on New Year's Day. If I can make it... Don't know yet.

Past 'Eves have been marked by my inevetible "Posting While Intoxicated". And it may be that this evening is no exception. Though it really shouldn't be, considering that I'm supposed to give all that up. But the reality is, I don't know if any real change in lifestyle will avert my fate. And I remember my father's last words to me; the summary being that he wouldn't have given up all of his little pleasures if he knew it was going to end as quickly and badly as it did.

Poor justification, and not exactly a postive method for continuing down this path. But a little bit of Pinot Noir, a little bit of Samuel Smith's -- how can I not enjoy these things on special occasions while I'm still able to enjoy them? With Noir of all things??
I haven't been feeling well for a long time now, and now that I'm a bit better, I'm damn well not going to miss out on celebrating!

I've continued where I left off when I last thought I'd do this, and I've just finished our little journey to Taiwan. It's early, yet, and I'll probably finish up before the calendar rolls over. There have been a few very high quality animations released of late, and Noir is having a hard time living up to those. Yet, there's still the whole notion that it's greater than the sum of it's parts, that what it's doing is quite well constructed in its own right, that I'm not at all disappointed. After all these years of thinking and worry about that, I'm happy to say that I'm still enjoying it a great deal.

Let's hope that I feel the same in all of the "Noir" Year's to come!

Travelling...

2008-12-23T08:29:00.004-05:00

Driving 6 hours east for a few days. No grand excursion planned, just a bit of simplicity.

I've still got writer's block, go figure. I don't think this break will change that too much, even though I've got a couple of little things I actually want to write about for once. We'll see.

Enjoy your Generalized Solstice Observances!

"Phantom" character designs

2008-12-15T19:25:00.002-05:00

AnimeNation's blog links to a Dengeki Online article with character designs for Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~...

...and a few more. But gee, do they look familiar?

Phantom speculation over on the forum, as always.

Broken images

2008-12-11T15:49:00.002-05:00

One of my older webhosts has gone and changed everything around, and now all the little icons and banners I've been using are hosed. Go figure.

Blogger doesn't make it easy to batch-edit, so I'm evaluating now if I just want to move this entire thing to my kineska.com holding place, or just fix up the images. Not that I really have time to deal with either.

Oh well, "pardon our dust" as they say...

New Bee Train in 2009: "Phantom 〜Requiem for the Phantom〜"

2008-12-07T16:12:00.005-05:00

I had been halfheartedly scanning my usual news sources for any hint of any kind of Bee Train news, and it turns out I completely missed it when it finally showed up. D'oh!

Forum member AlexShadow spotted this on ANN loooong before I did:

The January issue (on sale on December 10) of Kadokawa Shoten's Newtype magazine will announce that the multimedia studio Nitroplus and writer Gen Urobuchi are adapting their Phantom of Inferno visual novel software as a television anime series. Phantom 〜Requiem for the Phantom〜 will feature the director Koichi Mashimo and series script supervisor Yousuke Kuroda.

Yoshimitsu Yamashita, Mutsumi Sasakir, Yoko Kikuchi and other artists will adapt the game characters for anime. The anime studio Bee Train will be in charge of production. The original game was previously adapted in 2004 as a three-volume video anime series, Phantom - The Animation.

Yousuke Kuroda! Ah, that's excellent news! Hang on for more info as to whether or not we can expect a Yuki Kajiura soundtrack or not. Fingers crossed!

The official site isn't up just yet.

More Phantom anime news and speculation in the Forum...

UPDATE: Scan of the announcement; guess there's not much news there:

The Accidental Retourist

2008-11-25T22:43:00.004-05:00

Well, I can't say that I'm actually going to manage a full Noir marathon, but I'm through disc 2 already and I'm up for a little bit more, at least.

It all started when I decided to see if my new BluRay player would upconvert DVDs any better than my very 'spensive Denon would. The verdict is that it's very close. The audio is definitely lamer, but that's because it's depending on my cheaper amp to decode it, I figure. The picture isn't bad -- it doesn't comb at all, though it seems to lose a little bit of cohesion in the details. I think my 'spensive Denon is probably still the winner (until I get the super-'spensive Denon BluRay player... someday...)

Tech-weenie stuff aside, all I did was sample a couple of scenes from Noir that I knew were troublesome, and here I am about to get 3 discs into the thing. It must mean that it's been waaay too long since I watched it. Go figure.

And go figure that I have some pasta and pasta-related-program-activities on deck for a little more "Le Grande Retour" -ing... not that I'm committing to that course of action, but y'know, a little bit of MADLAX wouldn't hurt right about now either.

UPDATE: Well, go figure, but I started falling asleep right in the middle of Chloe's Big Hello (damn this no-caffiene regimin!), so a full-blown "Le Grande Rewatch" is currently non-operative. I might randomly pick through a few different episodes for old times' sake, but right now, I guess I'm just not up for it. Oh well.

Ashes on Mars

2008-11-17T19:37:00.002-05:00

I've been watching the American remake of Life On Mars this season, and I guess it's okay. It does a great job with the whole "period detail" like it's BBC predecessor, though it doesn't quite come across as believable. Mainly because the performances, though okay, feel a little to "earnest", like they're smirking at the in-joke themselves instead of letting the material do the smirking for itself.

It's still entertaining enough, and it has it's moments, but I had been feeling a little nostalgic about the original. And coincidentally, I somehow stumbled on a little bit of news I had totally missed: back in March, the BBC aired a sequel to Life On Mars called Ashes to Ashes! No wai!

Thanks to the power of the internets, I've just taken a peek at the first of the 8 episode season. And sure enough, it's 100% sequel. The police psychologist who interviewed Sam at the end of season 2 gets shot and sent back to 1981, with, you guessed it, Gene Hunt and the gang. In full 80's fashion and atmosphere. And music! (I have a crazy soft spot for that, go figure)

I'm travelling again this week (a little business, a little family), so I won't get a chance to watch more just yet, but I'm looking forward to the time that I can. Plus season 2 will be out sometime in 2009, so it won't be too long a wait to keep it going.

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

2008-11-05T10:57:00.003-05:00

Well, now that the hoopla is over with, and no matter how vague (or symbolic) you feel the campaign sloganeering central tenet of the victor actually is, you can pretty much guarantee that there will be "change" afoot. Maybe it will be good, maybe it will be imperceptible, maybe it will be totally mismatched with any expectations you've projected on to the outcome.

Just understand this: if there's any particular "change" that you want, just sitting back and hoping for it now that the election is done won't actually change anything. Being a lone voice sternly tapping keyboard keys on blogs and messageboards won't actually change anything. To get anything done, you'll have to join coalitions, form movements, inspire and lead others. You know, work at it.

For me right now, I'm a bit focused on personal changes. I'm considering dropping my long-held psuedonym and working future projects under my real name. My "branding" (as much as I loathe the term and it's ramifications) needs an overhaul and a focus. The "Kineska" brand in particular needs to find it's way back to something beyond drunken anime ranting.

Which will probably be easier to achieve, because health changes pretty much dictate that my PWI days are over. Besides this run-in with acid reflux, I've found out that I have likely inherited my father's liver condition. It's sitting there, dormant, like a bomb waiting to go off once I turn 50. Because this disease is so rare, there's no real solid proof that lifestyle and diet changes have any real effect. The damage may already be done. But knowing what I know about what it will be like after that bomb goes off, it seems like a no-brainer to me.

It's also going to focus me on something that has previously been an abstraction for me up to this year: health care. Now I join the legions of people with a "pre-existing condition", and that pretty much ties me to my job and my existing (and deteriorating) health insurance benefits. If I try to go indie, or switch careers, or lose my job otherwise (did I mention my company announced 3000 layoffs the other week?), then the likelihood of finding any kind of affordable coverage is substantially poorer. There are a lot of advantages my current coverage and access probably have over socialized and single-payer systems, but at the rate that's being eroded due to my company cutting it's expenses and commitments, that's not saying much. I'll have to do a lot of work evaluating the comparative risks.

Nothing's going to change overnight. But change must happen, because the alternatives are rather dire.

Home again home again

2008-10-25T23:23:00.002-04:00

I took lots more pics yesterday until my camera battery ran dry. Walked up to Coit Tower (not by those dreadful steps, but it was still an excruciating climb nonetheless) then down to Fisherman's Wharf, then drove over to the Presido under the bridge.

I've got huge blisters on my feet. Made being stuck in an airplane for hours oh so much fun.

More later after I wind down and upload some more.

A few SF pics

2008-10-23T22:18:00.003-04:00

Just a few pics for immediate sharing; I haven't had a chance to process any of 'em yet (plus I have a lot of panoramas to stitch together...). They all pop to the big originals.

There must be a Spider Rider around here somewhere...

The SF MOMA

One of the views from my hotel, at sunrise.

Sunset last night.

The streets of San Francisco

2008-10-22T22:59:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm halfway through my trip, with my "work" part in San Jose all finished. With all the free food and booze, I think I may have overdone it a little -- though it doesn't take much for me to "overdo" it right these last couple of months thanks to the acid reflux.

Anyway, I get to switch from "free" to "'spensive", because I've just arrived in San Francisco. I'm checked into a clever Japanese-themed hotel in Japantown, which I'll have to post pictures of. It's amusing though stylish. And I didn't really pick it out of any Japanophile leanings, really! When I booked it, there was a special "free parking package" that will save me $40 a night. Plus, the location is pretty convienient. And it's surrounded by sushi places, yum!

I haven't solidified any plans for the next two days, but the SFMOMA is definitely on the list. And it's absolutely gorgeous out; warm, sunny, perfect. I'd probably be happy just hanging out in a park or two (which I did for sunset as I arrived; those pics soon as well).

Enough of that, off to find a little bit of dinner...

Michiko to Hatchin ep 1 first impression!

2008-10-16T20:51:00.003-04:00

In between packing (and loading games on my laptop) for my trip, I managed to catch the Michiko to Hatchin raw. It's kind of low-res and a weak audio mix, but it was more than enough for a good preview.

There was a lot going on, though it was all very much over-the-top and easy enough to follow. I'm sure there's a lot of detail in the dialogue that went totally over my head, which left a couple of sequences confused to me, but on the whole, I think I'm really going to enjoy this one!

Especially if a hi-def version becomes available... because the art direction is probably the most outstanding aspect of the show. The raw was really crunchy, but you could tell that there's a lot of detail and color and care that will totally enrich the Brasil-based world onscreen.

The music was pretty much awesome throughout, with a melange of styles that went from the sort of latin-style that was expected, to some funky 70's exploitation beats that totally accentuate some of the over-the-top bits.

Voices, I'll have to give it another listen to judge. So far the common "complaint" is Hatchin sounds too mature. She sounds like Kino's VA to me (too lazy to check right now...). But I'm not distracted by that.

Story, I'll have to get the dialogue to get a better feel for it, but I'm pretty sure that it's pretty much working at the "fun romp" level, and is self-depricatingly using over-the-top tropes to move things along. It's working up a frothy stew of homage in every sequence, I'm sure. I expect it's going to be all about experiencing the individual moments -- journey-not-the-destination -- and I'm down with that. Oh yeah.

Animation, well, I'm a bit torn. I simultaneously love it and find it annoying. I love that they're overloading the motion and using lots of very expressive, lively poses. Somewhat more subdued sequences contrast nicely with the over-the-top exaggerated action. Very humorous. And did I mention expressive? Yes, yes I did.

But ugh, in a lot of scenes, their motion timing is really clunky. It's not particularly smooth motion to begin with, but like with Bounen no Xamdou, I don't mind that when there's actually a proper sense of weight and gravity to compensate for the lack of tweens. It's no Champloo in this department, that's for sure. Which is a bit dissappointing.

That said, supposedly there are other studios and animators who are involved in various episodes. The ED looks like it's a multi-animator "exquisite-corpse" sort of affair (which Masaaki Yuasa does a very Kaiba-looking segment for, I believe). And over time, I'm hoping it will improve. But for now, it's not a show-stopper.

If it were better, though, I'd be a raving obsessive lunatic over this show. It would do no wrong by me. Heh.

Michiko to Hatchin has aired, OP on the 'Tube

2008-10-15T17:20:00.001-04:00

A non-low-res raw recently showed up, but looks like it'll take forever to download. Not sure when I'll get to see it.

But here's the OP, at least!

It's all just little bits of history repeating...

2008-10-15T09:33:00.003-04:00

Looks like we're partying like it's 1873.

There were many such "panics" throughout our industrialized history, culminating in the Great Depression, after which a system of regulations and standards kept us relatively stable and growing for an unprecidented period of time -- as lousy as some of our recessions had been, they weren't anything like a full scall "panic" like the old days.

And go figure, attempting to dismantle and circumvent the regulatory legacy of the Depression just brings us back to the kind of damaging cycles that cause normal people the most problems. With luck, we're not that far gone yet, but the similarity to 1873 is really, really eerie, isn't it?

(Next week I'll be in California... I hear there's fruit pickin' jobs there, so I have that going for me, which is nice...)

Never going to get to retire...

2008-09-29T15:47:00.002-04:00

Gotta remember that markets are cyclical and having a cushion of savings should get me through a rough patch, but I'm starting to wonder if I could have ever saved enough for what might be coming...

...even if what's coming is an awesome buying opportunity... Oh well.

Status Check

2008-09-18T11:08:00.004-04:00

Yeah, yeah, I'm still around. Not much going on blogworthy.

Still watching Chiko: Daughter of Twenty Faces, though it's in a semi-lame lull. New eps were just subbed and I'll see if I'm at the end this weekend. Blade of the Immortal isn't doing a lot for me, and the amount of time between available episodes is killing any tiny bit of enthusiasm. Oh well. Bounen no Xamdou is hanging in there, but the subbed releases seem to show up at weird times, so I can't keep a regular pace with it. Still enjoying it though.

My Netflix rentals have been continuing the old-skool Gundam, Patlabor and soon Bubblegum series. Nothing much to say about those yet, though I'm thinking through some ideas. They do go on and on, though...

Looking forward to Michiko no Hatchin, of course. And on regular TV, the return of Heroes and Pushing Daisies pretty much round that out. Maybe I'll see what ABC does with Life On Mars, but that's about all that's caught my attention for the upcoming season.

The Middleman ended a little while back on an amusing "alternate universe" episode (complete with goatees), and it's a worthy show for passing the time, if you don't try to get too deep with it. The sheer amount of geek references flying by make me realize that I'm probably missing half the jokes, but I'm certainly getting some of the good ones. I haven't heard if it's getting another season, or a real network airing, or what. I'll keep my ears open.

Part of my lack of "internet presence" lately has been just general work stress and a bit of physical distress (likely related). I was thinking that I was prematurely developing warning signs for heart trouble, but as I've found out this week, it's more likely acid freakin' reflux. *relief*. I've had plenty of heartburn in the past, but this wasn't anything like it. Sure enough, though, I think the doctor might be right. Even if (I swear) he's as young as my little brother! Since when are doctors younger than you?? I'm getting old. *frown* That said, I haven't had caffeine or alcohol in nearly two weeks and I'm getting really, really grumpy. Bleh.

In another month, I'm going to a conference in San Jose, and following that up with 3 nights vacation in San Francisco. Anybody got any recommendations (brewpubs, local specialties, attractions)? The Cartoon Art Museum sounds neat, though I'm going to miss their "Pixar" day. Oh well. MOMA and the Anchor Steam Brewery are high on my list as well.

5 Dissappointments per Second

2008-08-29T23:53:00.005-04:00

That's a bit of an unfair title, because I was looking forward to Makoto Shinkai's 5 Centimeters Per Second. Like I said then, his "simple and elegant" approach is definitely something I like quite a bit.

At the very begining of it, I started to get a bit concerned, because there were these interminably long still sequences with only the littlest, tiniest bit of animation. You'd think that as a Bee Train Fan, I'd be more understanding, but in the context of a Shinkai theatrical, I was expecting a tad more. That said, when there was character animation, it was quite compently done, so I didn't really have a problem when all was said and done.

Well, except in the ending.

Everything else was meticuoulously rendered and quite beautifully drawn. There's a level of mundane=fascinating detail in Shinkai's work that's totally signature for him. And for the bulk of the movie(s), the languid pace and the deliberate character exposision was quite nice and very emotional.

But the very end, where it suddenly decides to close on some kind of hack-edited AMV of the movie thus far, where the cuts were to the rhythm and there were little to no new shots to see; that really stuck in my craw. Especially when the whole thing suddenly ended right there without any hint of resolution.

Deep Thought™

2008-08-26T17:03:00.001-04:00

Bee Train produced Blade of the Immortal so I would nostagically miss El Cazador...

"Michiko to Hatchin" plot translation

2008-08-20T08:29:00.002-04:00

The "Iwa ni Hana" blog has a bit of translation from the Michiko to Hatchin official site. Worth a read.

New trailer for "Michiko to Hatchin" kicks ass!

2008-08-18T17:33:00.015-04:00

It's a tiny little movie that is dwarfed on my big-screen TV, so I had to move over to my desktop to get a good look at it... and it's awesome! Here, I'll blow it up a little for ya:

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

The first trailer was more of a stylish tone-setter; this one actually has quite a lot of footage. Well, rapidly-cut snippets of footage, but there's enough there to see that the character animation and cinematics are going to be everything I could have hoped for. The art & design that's hinted at on the official site is definitely carried through in the footage as well, and some of the moments of action and reaction that are teasingly flashed in tiny bites are promising of real, engaging character portrayals.

October? Can't wait!

"El Cazador" licensed by FUNimation?

2008-08-11T19:07:00.003-04:00

ANN reports:

"Last week, Funimation exercised a power-of-attorney agreement to remove online fansubbed videos of Monochrome Factor, Nabari no Ou, and Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (pictured at right) on behalf of d-rights, the Japanese production company of these anime titles. Funimation and d-rights' agreement also covers Bamboo Blade and El Cazador de la Bruja."

...but:

"The power-of-attorney agreement does not necessarily mean that these titles have a North American video distributor, but the agreement does enforce d-rights' existing worldwide copyrights for these series."

So it doesn't quite mean it's licensed, just that the Japanese license owner is looking to reassert control.

But the likelyhood is a lot higher. FUNi, though?

"Kaiba"-thon

2008-08-08T23:33:00.003-04:00

That was f*ing brilliant.

I was holding out until the last sub of Kaiba was done before finishing it, and now that I've seen it, I can't even begin to figure out how to comment on it.

For tonight, I dialed back to the episode with Patch, which I adore for it's raw energy and wonderfully simple little story. Kaiba as a whole gets a little more convoluted and a tad more involved after that point as well, because we start to get a glimpse into the reality of that nutty little universe the show is based in.

And "nutty" it remains, in that if you were to attempt to describe this show's purpose in rational terms, you'd fail, and fail hard. It's all in the wonderful expressions and reactions of the characters toward each other, and it culminates in an unparalleled love story... at least in anime terms.

The beauty and purity of the expression of the characters, the simplicity and the universality of the themes therin, totally make the otherwise surreal (or "dada"??) universe a mere setting for feeling the emotion that ensues. Who cares about the technical details? This is a love story, and the purity of heart that is expressed feels as genuine as anything I've seen drawn at 24fps (give or take).

This is an impressive (and probably unlicensable) work, and I stand in awe of it's execution. Hopefully Ben over on his Anipages will fill in the gaps that I'm incapable of, and round out the credit to the talent that's involved.

"Xam'd" if you do, "Xam'd" if you don't

2008-08-07T20:54:00.005-04:00

That show that Studio Bones was hyping back in the spring as "better than Star Wars", Bounen no Xamdou, is finally out. In fact, from what I can gather, it's been released in North America first under the title "Xam'd Lost Memories". And via a "Playstation exclusive", at that.

So while it's not legit for me to be taking a peek at the 720p fansubs that magically appear on my harddrive, I figured I'd see if it was, in fact, "all that". And, y'know, it's pretty neat!

At first glance, it's kind of a mashup of Eureka 7 and Laputa, Castle in the Sky (at first I was thinking Last Exile...), but with a little sprinkling of something like Rahxephon, for a little bit of that big organic monster flavor. The designs are very strong and detailed, and the world they are in promises to have a number of well-envisioned nooks and crannies to uncover.

The characters are, to the most part, very well animated. I say "for the most part", because they're really skimping on the 'tweens in this one. There's great key poses and motion followthrough on different levels, and an excellent grasp of gravity and weight in the motion, as well as a sufficient bit of that great "spark of life" I like so much. But the skimping-out really shows a lot of the time, and it amplifies the mediocre cuts where maybe a less-skilled animator is taking a turn.

But when there's a good animator, like in the action scenes (of course), it's got a great natural feel and flow, and dead-on timing.

The characters and performances in general are still a little thin, but I like the potential. There's going to be a number of mild annoyances in many of them, but on the whole, considering it's going to be Yet Another Schoolkid Saves The World show, it's not off to a bad start. I guess I should actually make an effort to find out how to get ahold of this legitimately; I think it'll be worth the money.

(...not the "buy a Playstation 3 just to watch it money", of course...)

"Michiko to Hatchin" official site updated

2008-08-05T19:45:00.004-04:00

...alas, no release date yet. On the "News" page there's a link to Manglobe's job listings, so they probably need more help over there to get it out the door. Heh.

Now if I only knew what it said on there...

I loved the style of the earlier trailer, and there's a lot of detail in the various designs (the Flash splashpage shows different combinations of costumes and backgrounds if you reload the page, though I was only able to see 3 of them after many tries *cough*)

These little tidbits still have me encouraged. I hoping it'll be fun and stylish and competently-crafted; and if there happens to be a little quality storytelling with it, all the better!

"Gatchaman-Batman"

2008-07-24T17:27:00.003-04:00

An update: I got a hold of the BluRay for Gotham Knight and sure enough, the "Field Test" episode was produced by Koichi Mashimo at Bee Train.

I haven't watched the whole thing yet, and only quickly watched that segment (and the credits) with the commentary track on.

A couple of things to look for:

- Bruce Wayne as a young man who looks like a cross between Carroseur Doon from MADLAX and Orpheus from Meine Liebe... no, really...

- The special Bat-armor he's testing looks like something straight out of some sort of post-modern Gatchaman. No, really!

Anyway, I'll probably have the chance to watch more closely this weekend. Discussion in the Gotham Knight thread in the Bee Train Fan forum, of course.

"Batman: Gotham Knight" anime short done by Bee Train?

2008-07-15T18:01:00.003-04:00

I came across a couple of reviews when scanning Google News for any "Bee Train" alerts. Details of what I found are on the thread in Bee Train Fan forum, but to sum up:

- Hiroshi Morioka (.hack, Tsubasa) directed the "Field Test" segment (which ANN says has a "bishonen Bruce Wayne"... *chortle*)
- Only two reviews actually say it's Bee Train; there's nothing on their official site or ANN (ANN says Production I.G. was one of the production companies)

Anyway, looks like I'll have to rent it sooner than later so I can confirm for myself.

"Blade of the Immortal" debuts

2008-07-14T11:53:00.003-04:00

...and I forgot all about it! *sigh*

Anyway, I'm back to work today and won't have a chance to watch it for a little while. In the meantime, the OP was posted to the 'Tube:

So far on Animesuki, it's mostly complaints, go figure. Watching the blood-spatters and angst in this blurry little OP doesn't exactly inspire me just yet, either, but I'll comment more when I get to give it a go. Bee Train Fan discussions in the forum, of course.

Update: On first impression, nothing changes too much in my opinion. Dark, bleak, and rather bloody. Though not all-out gut-splattering gore, still a lot of spatter.

Seeing that this is a co-production with Production I.G., I kept trying to refrain from prejudging any particular shot as having the same kind of soulless look that Otoshi Zoshi had. I'd bet that if I were to go shot-by-shot and say "Bee Train", "IG", I'd probably get every single one wrong.

One thing it's got going for it is that it's far, far from "generic". It's very graphically strong, composed of a near-infinite blend of dreary grays and sepia shading, but punctuated by strong, saturated colors. Mostly reds so far, though interestingly, not so much the blood, which is rather dark. More the flowers, the kimono, the Avenger-esque red moon.

Effects are quite slick, as well, with a myriad of blade glows and light patterns and action montages. Camerawork is almost restrained in a Mashimo piece, though there's some experimentation around some of the "off-camera" slicing 'n dicing that kind of flew by too fast to make much impact on me just yet.

Dialouge animation is kind of stiff and some of the framing is a bit flat in those sequences. And there's a lot of dialouge. In fact, I suspect that once I see a translation, there may be a few "lighter", more humorous moments to help break up the overall dreariness. The one reaction shot where the lead jumps up and hits his head makes me suspect that some of his lines beforehand may have been wisecracks of some sort. We'll see.

I'm hoping there's a true HDTV release for this, as the muddiness would benefit from more detail and less compression. I'm also going to need to pay close attention to details in the background and settings, as there has reportedly been a lot of research and focus on those elements such that my lack of exposure to Japanese history and culture would put me at a symbollic disadvantage.

At any rate, I'm in for the long haul with this one, no matter what.

Watch now: Persepolis

2008-07-12T23:18:00.002-04:00

I pre-ordered the Blu-Ray release of Persepolis sight unseen, because I figured it would be good. I was wrong.

It was out. fucking. standing.

If all you've really watched in animation is anime, be prepared to be shocked by a true sense of depth, expression, and storytelling that you've probably rarely seen. As a long-time conneseur of animation, I was rapt with joy.

And yet, that was only the smallest part of just how wonderful this film was.

Ben @ Anipages reviewed Persepolis way back when it was released to theaters a while back, and I purposely tried to avoid reading what he had to say at the time, though I caught the following tidbits:

Persepolis is the best film I've seen in animation in a while.

Aside from Kaiba, this is dead-on! But then there's this bit:

Watching the film, I was appalled by how anime in contrast seems utterly devoid of sincere expression of the sort I felt in every simple composition in each shot of this film. They weren't simply running frantically in a hamster wheel to catch up with a card-deck of pre-chewed expressive symbols and predictable dramatic cliches. They had a very interesting story to tell that created its own arc, and a very unusual but appealing and original design ethos to do so with that was throughout visually compelling and helped the story speak what it needed to say, without being bogged down in pointless photorealism or allowing things to get distracted by stylistic handstands. On a technical note, perhaps it was just my imagination, but I wondered why the characters seemed to suddenly move with much more richness and nuance during the scenes in which they where in silhouette.

If there was ever a distinct, concise and accurate description of why mass-produced anime has generally been dismissed by Western enthusiasts and critics, this is likely why. It's not Ben's imagination; not by a long shot. The visuals, though simple, are graphically strong, emotionally crafted, and very personal. And above all, the truth from the point-of-view of the author.

For a yankee like me, it's a little-seen perspective. And that admittedly adds a layer of fascination to the story. But it's still so human and honest and universal that you can't help but being drawn to these series of drawings. "Compelling" is the most accurate thing about it.

It's simple and beautiful and real and amazing.

It's all the more serious and poignant and relevant right now because of the heated US rhetoric about Iran and the possibility of immediate war and destruction. The story details the perspective of "the other side" during the Iranian revolution of the late 70's that gripped us in a stupid, nationalistic fervor (I am, and have been, embarressed by my pre-teen ignorance back in those days), and the fact that it's all coming back with a vengance, without any perspective or just-cause, is all the more alarming. Persepolis, if anything, shows the human side of history over there. It's easy to apply some sort of un-informed simplistic rhetoric on the situation we face today, but without an accurate undersanding of the past, the history, and the people, there's only bad news in our future if we ignore the reality of the situation.

And, for some reason, I'm drawn to be political about the subject. The film isn't political in a contemporary sense, outside of the whole perspective of the time it took place -- where it's quite simply political, totally in it's own context. How could it not be? The whole period from the revolution onward is an extremely political act, with conflicting and passionate philosophies in play. Watching them as they play out on a very young, naive girl; and how they affect every step of her development (from aquiring black-market Iron Maiden tapes to living homeless in Vienna) is a personal and important reflection on just how much we don't understand the reality "on-the-ground" over there, and just how much the real human lives over there are like us, and always have been. When the film is done, the politics aren't the important part, and yet the awfulness of the repressive regime hangs heavy over everything. That's not the key -- the key is that there are humans with lives and dreams and they party and "life finds a channel to fill" despite everything.

All in a rapid sequence of simple drawings. That's the miracle of animation, that's the miracle of cinema that keeps me searching, and brings me bliss.

If you're going to go over-the-top, might as well have fun!

2008-07-12T18:01:00.003-04:00

The last ep of Doctor Who finally aired on the BBC last week. And it will probably be the last regular airing for a while, as next year it's being taken over by the writer of some of the better episodes, and they're only going to have a handful of "specials".

The cliffhanger for the next-to-last episode was the usual fun jaw-dropper, but the finale itself was a bit silly (to be kind). But fer crying out loud, it's Doctor Who, not some sort of high-drama! The silliness and scenery-chewing and triumph is all part of the entertainment package. A little eye-rolling now and then doesn't hurt it overall.

Especially when it's obvious that everyone involved is having a blast doing it. It's infectious. It's a blast to watch. If it were a live show at the theatre, it would bring the house down.

There's another little silly bit of potential-fun that just started on one of the lesser corners of cable TV. It's called The Middleman, and it's kind of a cross between Get Smart (the classic Mel Brooks TV show, of course), Pushing Daisies, and Torchwood (but in a good way. No really!).

I'm not convinced that they're having the same kind of "fun", but it's definitely a bit over the top. Slightly-geeky hipster gal gets a job as a sidekick to a goody-two-shoes "fixer" of comic-book-worthy problems. Lots of straightforward cliche-slinging and attempt obscure-reference-dropping. "Frank Herbert Middle School" was amusing, but "J.R. 'Bob Dobs' Memorial Airport" was quite a snarky coup, I thought. A rival gang of Mexican wrestlers, replete with masks. Funny.

It's dumb fun, but it's been tottering closer to the "dumb" side on occasion. The writing is that same kind of self-aware patter that Pushing Daisies was pushing, and for all I know (and I'm too lazy to check), there's some crossover there (it's airing on "ABC Family", so it's all from the Disney Corp.)

It's probably, ultimately, a waste of time, but I'm not figuring on watching it religiously. The barrier-to-entry for downloading shows like that is really low, and sometimes wasting a little time is just what the neurons ordered. And if it's fun, well, bonus!

Chiko - The Daughter of Twenty Anime Titles

2008-07-12T17:26:00.005-04:00

So the summer anime season is just getting underway, and I have a tiny bit to say about that; which I'll do a bit later. The spring season didn't yield all too much for me, despite a few interesting titles back at the start.

That said, I've stuck with one other show besides the incredibly awesome Kaiba -- but it goes by a few names and I'm not entirely sure what I should refer to it as besides "Chiko", the lead character. "Daughter of Twenty Faces"? "Heiress of the Phantom Thief"? Depending on the translation, it's one of those.

Anyway, I wound up giving it a go based on Bee Train Fan member Section_8's quick review in the forum:

the above series features a young Japanese girl in the lead role who is, in many respects, what Kirika would have become if Altena had taken Prozac: a brilliant, charming young woman who can flip out like a ninja and has one heck of a traumatic upbringing. Best part of it is you actually get to see her BECOME this woman, because the show starts when she's 10 and ends (by the looks of it) when she's 18. I'd almost go so far as to say that this is an alternate universe Noir where instead of being raised by the Soldats Kirika's adopted by Lupin crossed with Roger from the Big O.

...and it turns out that Chicko is a lot like a young, 1940's alternate-universe Kirika from Noir. And watching certain shots, certain expressions -- there's a case to be made that if the animators & designers didn't watch Noir specifically, they probably watched it a lot. There's a few shots here and there that seem like a direct like-for-like lift -- well, homage for certain. They're fleeting, quick moments, but they're convincing evidence (watch Chiko jump over a wall in the episode after she returns to "normal" life).

Of course, the design and the expressions and whatnot aren't exactly unique to anime, and Chiko and Kirika could rather be descended from a common ancestor, is all.

The animation in general is kind of generic, though. The details are rather flat and simplistic. The ancillary characters are often cliche and annoying. But because this draws on a classic series of fictional novels, the stories themselves aren't bad, and there aren't too many punches pulled with respect to violence and death. Not that it's some sort of gore-fest, mind you; but people die and the enemies are actually dangerous - ingredients that rather betray the apparent youthful demographic it's aimed at.

I guess overall, there's nothing all that special about it beyond those two hooks. And it won't take too much to make me drop it, though it's managed to skirt the edge and keep up reasonable episodic stories. It makes a good replacement "Sunday breakfast" show for me, which I've been missing for a while now. Fansub releases aren't all that predictable, though, so it hasn't quite worked out as a regular thing for me yet. No biggie.

Galact-oh-Who-boy-howdy!

2008-06-14T20:09:00.002-04:00

For some reason, the definition of a "season" in television has become a warped and unpredictable thing. I think it was The Sopranos that proved to the suits that you can take a show, make it dissappear after a handfull of episodes for many many months (a year and a frackin' half in some cases), and still get an audience to return.

Battlestar Galactica just aired their "midseason finale", whatever the frack that's supposed to mean. In that they've basically dropped a huge cliffhanger on us and won't be back with the rest of the "season" until 2009.

They keep doing this! It's frustrating.

Okay, seriously, I don't really feel any outrage over it, because it's just one of those things. I got over it with The Sopran [delibrate dead air] and with the last time Glalact-oh-yeah pulled this. But what's going to happen is that months will go by and I'll have forgotten what happened and will have a tiny, tiny bit of "don't care" starting to take over.

...And if by some miricale the resumption occurs during a point in time that I actually manage to find a life, that "don't care" will likely mean that I won't be tuning in. Ah well. Like that's gonna happen...

I've got to admit though, that last bit of buildup to the bombshell they dropped was mighty entertaining. Heh.

Also mighty-entertaining is, of course, the only other live-action show I'm watching, Doctor Who. Here in the 'States, it looks like most everybody is only a couple of weeks behind via the SciFi Network for a change. But I still can't resist grabbing it from the 'nets the moment it's done airing over there.

This season is probably "more of the same" and all, but "the same" is a lot of fun. A little bit of cheese, a little bit of horror, and the riveting presence of David Tennant makes this both endearing and watchable despite the contrivances. It's silly stuff, but it's got these little hints of darkness and mystery that only Tennant's over-the-top expressions can truly engage you with.

As a comparison, thanks to Netflix, I've been occasionally watching some classic Tom Baker episodes from a long, long time ago. His presence was, at the time, considered quite engaging and riveting as well, and to an extent, it still is. But the whole thing is very, very dated and a little difficult to watch these days. Still quality work, but low-budget cheese is deep and thick, and the supporting cast's over-the-top BBC-Shakespearian stageplay-with-rubber-suits seems even more quaint when compared to this post-modern remix. Much the way the original Battlestar pales to the new.

Of course, even the BBC isn't immune to the extended inter-season delay syndrome -- after this season is done, there's going to be a changing of the guard (the writer of some of the best episodes is taking over) and there won't be any new episodes for quite a long time. A shame, but probably a well-deserved break.

Anyway, when it's done, I'll likely be done with live TV for quite a while. I suppose there's new Heroes episodes arriving someday, but I think I don't care anymore. Maybe, just maybe, I'll try and see if I missed anything when I skipped Lost. But beyond that, nothing's on the horizon for me.

"El Cazador" licensed... in Germany?

2008-06-10T18:36:00.003-04:00

According to this month's German anime fan magazine Animania, El Cazador de la Bruja has been licensed by a company called Anime-Virtual in Germany.

(h/t ligbi and Koveras for spotting and translating the info)

Summer Blogging Test Drive

2008-05-29T17:45:00.005-04:00

I've got this spiffy new Lenovo X61T tablet PC that's small, lightweight, and has great battery life. But I hardly use it.

Today's the first warm day I can sit with it out on my deck and give it a try. I'm writing this by hand, directly on the screen. The handwriting recognition isn't too bad, but it's got its quirks. The entry widget helps a lot with a quick interface for correcting some of my sloppier scribblings, but on the whole, it's surprising what it does recognize.

That said, it's taking far too long to scribble this, and my hand is starting to hurt. *Sigh* I think I'll save the pen for sketching and flip over to the keyboard for blogging. I blog infrequently enough lately, it shouldn't cause me pain as well!

(Fun fact: The handwriting recognition keeps thinking "blogging" is "flogging" . Or "dogging'. And "flogging" is "flossing". Grrr.)

Four years, huh?

2008-05-21T09:09:00.002-04:00

Blogiversary time again. Hard to believe it's been four years since my first post.

And hard to believe that the Animestuff-R "The Music of Noir" page is still there. I wonder if they're still playing that stream?

I wish I could promise that I'm going to turn a corner and try to get back into the observational groove and write more often. I've actually been watching quite a few different things lately. But aside from Kaiba, they're more or less the same ol' same old. I think I'm just about out of anime. I'm dipping into the old-skool right now with Gundam,Patlabor, and Macross, which I enjoy, but don't have anything insightful to say about them. Galact-oh-yeah is kicking arse, but it'll be short-lived and "to-be-continued" sometime in another year; hardly worth the emotional investment.

I'm trepidatiously* standing at the edge of a cliff, looking to dive into a new realm and take my efforts to a new level. First I've got to overcome my fear of "sucking at something". Which is ironic, seeing as I suck at this already.

(*Yes, that really is a word!)

Two weeks, huh?

2008-05-15T19:49:00.001-04:00

I totally suck.

(If I actually did go off and spend the last two weeks playing GTA4, I'd at least have an excuse. *sigh*)

Is it wrong...

2008-05-01T20:01:00.002-04:00

...that I'm tempted to run out and buy a PS3 so I can play GTA4?

I've got "Vice City" for the PC, but I had given up on it after about an hour of frustration because I couldn't drive the stupid cars effectively. It seemed like kind of a waste to not be able to do that. And I'm not all that much a gamer -- when the controls or the gameplay mechanisms interfere with the playability and the escapism, I just lose interest too quickly.

Seeing as I just spent a tidy sum on a TabletPC (amusingly enough, something that's mocked on the GTA4 in-game internet), I should probably just concentrate on saving up my remaining pennies for the upcoming food shortages and economic meltdown or something...

Power was out...

2008-04-26T18:21:00.003-04:00

...frighteningly accurate. *sigh*

Actually, I was getting ready to leave the house, when the power, which had been out for a couple of hours, suddenly came back on. I was literally about to put my shoes on.

Now back to my regularly scheduled programming. Yay for that.