Church of Nerv? What?

I never thought of this. Honestly. They even have the logo from old series as their emblem?

I am amused by this....

Hmmmm,

Despite the predicted horrific sales prospect for Haruhi S2 DVD/BD sales because of much maligned Endless Eight arc, it did pretty well. The 2nd disc of Endless Eight arc sold close to 12,900 (benchmark is 3000) copies showing that Kyoto Animation magic still held true with massive support from loyal Haruhi fans. First volume of the arc sold about 14,000 copies, much to surprise of many people.Many pundits said that the other remaining volumes of the arc will breach the 10,000 mark each based on this example but it remains to be seen. Seriously, this did not make sense to me at all. The only thing I can think of is moe-tardism: The fans were so enraptured by the moe factor that they willing forgive almost everything, even with such massive trolling by the studio. I cannot imagine any other normal series can pull this off without incurring any wrath from fans. What I fear now that in future anime studios will churn out more craps because they believe the fans will lap it up despite angry reactions from the public. As long it have enough moe and nicely packaged to appeal to more baser instinct.

Like my friend said it once, market forces do not apply to otakus. By the way, the Haruhi movie is scheduled for 6th of Feb 2010, but it is subject to change.

Source

The evolution of Saber from Fate/Stay Night

Honestly speaking, I still prefer Saber as male King Arthur, not Arturia. When first time I heard about this back in 2004, I was a bit taken aback at the idea of female King of Camelot. It took some time for me to get used to the idea.

Top left is original design of Saber (guess otakus can't fap to this), then to famous Saber that we all know, Dark Saber who is corrupted by the Angra Mariyu, Lily Saber from Unlimited Codes,Mordred the stepson who mortally wounded Saber in Battle of Camlann, Saber from new upcoming game Fate/Extra Dungeon RPG and finally Sir Pervical, Saber's loyal knight.

Cheers.

Plan 303E Deep Striker Gundam Sentinel

It is always my dream to see this variant of Gundam in action, guess this is closest I can get. It is from Gundam Sentinel, a graphic novel published in early 90s based on events right after or during Gundam Zeta wars. This design is an awesome expression of Gundam firepower with Irish class battleship gun mounted on it. Designed by Katoki Hajime, the guy who designed mechas for Stardust Memory 0083 and Virtual On.


Just look at the design. What a beauty, compared to boring designs from SEED universe.

Titan the Robot

This is awesome robot suit (there is a performer inside), made this company called Cyberstein Robots. Where people see entertainment, I see the future power armour that can easily converted into combat missions in this one.

Apparently the company is tight lipped about the development of Titan but one rumor is performers were expected to be nimble with console controls to operate the suit. The suit also have power for 30 minutes duration. That is major problem for any aspiring power armour design: power packs.



10 years from now, don't be surprised to see a power suit based on this design.

Otoyomegatari / 乙嫁語り/ The Bride's Story art showcase

Look at the sheer beauty of this scene. No run-of-the-mill mangaka can pull this kinda stuff. It requires patience, passion and love for the craft to produce this kind of detailing (the fabric weaves and patterns are behold to look at). Kaoru Mori, famous for her work in Shirley and Emma (both set in Victorian era England) is penning this story about Central Asia newly wed couple in slice of life story. I suspect it is situated in Kazakhstan based on costumes the manga shown so far (all the hints: is the story is based on Silk Road life in 19th or early 20th century and an off hand comment that "people of the north" are encroaching on their life which sounds like Russians asserting their power over the steppe nomads). The story pacing is slow so far (as expected from her work) but the historical detailing is pretty high standard if anyone reads Emma can remember.













The videos showing stage by stage work of the art. Lots of slow, painstaking stuff here. This Japanese website have more details on this. Amazon Japan is selling the 1st volume. This is kinda stuff that gives me reason why I love art and drawing in 1st place.

Cheers.

Ghost in the Shell Live Action Updates

Laeta Kalogridis is the new scriptwriter for current 3D project of highly anticipated (or highly dreaded) project Ghost in the Shell adaptation to silver screen. In her filmology, she is also wrote for Pathfinder (yuck, remember whale blubber is explosive) and Alexander (so so only)Jamie Moss is the 1st writer for the project. I liked Jamie's work in Street Kings (awesome movie).

However! I do notice she is credited as co-writer for planned James Cameron (a notorious perfectionist) project Battle Angel. Battle Angel is Cameron's adaptation of Battle Angel Alitta mangas, I suspect he is waiting to see audience's reaction to Avatar scheduled to be aired later this year for any decisions regarding about Battle Angel.

However it still remains up in the air if Ghost in the Shell movie will take off or not. I wish to see how Hollywood interpret this work, to be honest. With Dreamworks providing the firepower, it is pretty likely this project will be interesting and become a reality instead stuck in development hell. Hopefully.

Source

Nostalgia: Judo Boy!

Very old series that tickled me back then for sheer cheesiness. It is funny as hell and just retro as hell too. Very, very cheesy.

Will new Astro Boy CG movie destroy the old spirit?

I heard and read many angry retorts from fans about this upcoming movie, citing that using extensive CG will destroy the old spirit that gives Astro Boy its charm. To me, I am don't really bothered by it since anime is medium of expression. CG or hand drawn did not matter in the end since most crucial is the deliverance of a good, solid entertaining story. Afterall, it is what film making is all about. Honestly sometimes I think people need to relax and accept it as alternative expression of similar material.

I will watch the movie without any prejudice, that's for sure.

More discussion here
IMDB entry

Bakemonogatari / 化物語 receipe of success?

According to sources, Bakemonogatari, the relatively unknown and under-the-radar series when it started took the fandom by storm as the DVD and Blu Ray sales of 1st volume shown. 56,000 is a very good figure, beating even moelicious, overhyped K-On! by wide margin.

For Japanese anime industry standard it is a fantastic figure given it is not very hyped up like K-On! or have illustrious predecessors like Macross Frontier. What more, Shaft is often running short of animators (they still advertising for qualified animators) so a lot scenes were minimized or replaced with stock footage, turning it into glorified drama radio. I even read rumors of Shaft Studio often racing against deadline all the time due to lack of manpower.

The series also use a lot of fast cuts to minimize action and some episodes have more talking heads than anything else. What worked for them is judicious use of all anime female trope they can muster and one straight talker in Hitagi Senjougahara who seens to be antithesis of what is considered as standard moe label. She is easily the most popular female character after Mio from K-On!. Not to mention, Akiyuki Shinbo, master of minimalist and creative camera angles is helming the series. If anyone looked into his filmography, one will struck by how many unusual anime series he made like Starship Yamamoto Yoko or Soul Eater. However sometimes he can overboard like looping jokes of nose bleed seen in Mariaholic. I often remarked on how well he seems to be doing with minimal approach, he often let the audience to fill in the blanks instead of telling the audience the entirety of the story he presented. And it worked beautifully in some series like Bakemonogatari.

With all these stacked up against the success, they managed to strike gold. Remarkable.

Cosmology of Miyazaki Movies Pt 3

Metal is not featured in any noteworthy manner in Totoro but it is the centerpiece of story that drives the story forward in Mononoke Hime. However, in Totoro, the bath bucket is made of metal so it is maybe an analogy of security that holds family together as Kusakabe family minus one was having a good time in hot water bath. As noted above, the single musket ball that embedded into pig god is the one that turn into raging, angry demon that lay curse on Ashitaka which later on prompted him to seek cure with answers from place that produces these musket balls. Metal also shown as main component of weapons used in the movie, arquebuses, swords, armour, lances and weapons in general. It is main element of death and destruction with other 4 elements above which gives Mononoke Hime a bleak and gloomy atmosphere since it is about incoming war between 2 forces that have lost patience with each other as man in search of advancement, encroach steadily into the sacred forest that inhabited by these unforgiving spiritual entities. The only positive force that used as comic relief somehow is the Kodamas, little white spirits that made chime noises in the forest. However, when Shisigami was shot and subsequently went into rampage looking for its head, the Kodamas are the first and most numerous victim; showing the death of innocence in face of war brewing around them. Metal was also used in pots, factory tools when the townsfolk loyal to Lady Eboshi in manufacturing the weapons, death begets death as these connections meant to show.

Earth is a maternalistic symbol that grows thing, a giver of harvest that enables life to start. In Totoro, this aspect is not really touched much but a significant scene where Satsuki found King Totoro sleeping is in the small burrow in the ground. Perhaps it is analogy of earthly pleasure of life and security. In Mononoke Hime however, it is mother lode of death again, as the iron ores were dug from it to be turned into weapons. The barren wasteland around Lady Eboshi's city is also shown, it is cloak of desolation and death as no trees grow on it and no single life can be seen too. Earth also used part of human strategy to stop the onrushing wild boar assault, the humans planted few mines to decimate the ranks of animal army. An earthly, sticky and worm like feature also a cloak of death for the angry god spirits, both boar gods were covered with it when they were cursed themselves to be demonic form that is responsible for Ashitaka's predicament in first place.


It is clear from this use of Oriental concept of elements, Miyazaki creating movies based on these elements to express his thoughts on situations and characters presented.

Thank you for reading.

Upotte

Few hours ago, someone posted these pages. I am literally went OMGWTFBBQ. This is weird as hell and I don't know what to make of it. Synopsis is meaningless to describe how awkward this series is.



It is like mutant of gun porn and Japanese school girl. A lethal cocktail.



Perhaps NRA or gun rights advocate will approve this manga? Authored by Kitsune Tennouji,serialised in Young Ace published by Kadokawa Shoten.

Synopsis:
A teacher is looking for a school by the name of Seishou Academy, as he is a new transfer teacher for that school. Seishou Academy is known for having students with excellent marksmanship. However, he gets lost along the way and decides to look for someone who knows where the school is at a summer festival. He encounters a girl at a shooting range and finds her marksmanship skills to be professional. The girl tells the new teacher that she is an assault rifle, not a student. Her name is FNC and is an assault rifle of Seishou Academy. The new teacher attends school the next day to find students, including FNC, practicing shooting M16s and realizes that he has come to an unbelievable school. How will his experience be at Seishou Academy?

Source

Good ol' Japan.