Ghost in the Shell technology, in real life.

Scientists in the US say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people invisible.

Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them "disappear".

The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale, measured in billionths of a metre.

The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people.
BBC Article

Wohoo, yeah! Technology concept inspired by Ghost in the Shell now almost becoming reality and I truly able to see this application very useful in some of the darkest shades of mankind.



More links

This earlier version of the technology developed in Japan influenced by the anime, voted as the coolest invention by Times in 2000. However it is not practical and bulky at that time.

Stealth tanks, anyone?

Kadokawa's view on Fansubbing.

Last May, when Kadokawa Holdings released The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya on DVD in the U.S., fans of Japanese animation swarmed shops in Los Angeles and other cities. For months, Kadokawa, a Tokyo publisher and TV and movie distributor, had dropped hints about the anime's imminent overseas release on a Web site. But other than that, it did almost no advertising. It didn't have to. The company merely tapped into the huge following Haruhi Suzumiya already had on YouTube and other video-sharing Web sites.

It sounds like the classic viral-marketing success story. But Kadokawa arrived at this strategy more by luck than by design. And lawyers would have been appalled by what they saw: the company allowing rampant Internet piracy to go unchecked.

That's not how Kadokawa sees it, though. Chairman and CEO Tsuguhiko Kadokawa thinks his company has nothing to lose by reaching out to anime diehards. As he sees it, the company's traditional publishing business has no future in the digital era. And suing YouTube for copyright infringement, as MTV Networks owner Viacom (VIA.B) did last year, would have only angered anime fans who have been using the site.

Most business strategist will be horrified with Kadokawa's lack of concern for intellectual property piracy overseas as this article seem to be written by a confused traditional business writer who unable to fathom the thinking of Japanese firm.

An interesting article that fansubbing supporters can use to counter the anti fansubber in eternal argument.



Some content-rights owners, like the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers & Publishers (JASRAC), blame YouTube for the surge in piracy and have demanded that YouTube remove every breach of their copyrights. Others have taken a different tack. In March, Tokyo-based GDH started releasing anime clips on YouTube, video site Crunchyroll, and others the day its content is broadcast on Japanese TV.

But most have opted to do nothing. During a scouting trip to Japan, Los Angeles-based movie producer David Alpert met with Japanese studio executives and expressed his interest in buying the overseas distribution or remake rights for their anime. But when he asked for a private screening, "they would say, 'We don't have subtitles,'" says Alpert, a partner at film and TV production and management company Circle of Confusion. "They'd look at us, look around, and then say, 'Check out the fan subtitles on YouTube.'"

Any fansubber will be delighted to read this, it is affirmation of some sorts from source material of their contribution. Ironic.

Full article here

Ichigeki Sachu Hoi Hoi San OVA 一撃殺虫!!ホイホイさん

Ah, a fun short OVA and this is the game that inspires it. Don't take it too seriously and apparently it does a manga serializations. However my knowledge is scant on it.






The game itself. Enjoy.

New Space Opera Tytania

Information is pretty scarce on this title, all I knew it is based on 3 novels by same dude who wrote Legend of Galactic Heroes and Ryoko's Case Files (Yoshiki Tanaka). A lot of people from Macross working on this one so I guess there might be something worth to watch. I really liked the character designer, Mikimito Haruhiko.

Offical site
More infos here in English

Kara no Kyokai 3rd movie 痛覚残留, Tsūkaku Zanryū

Oh yes! YES! This is one of the best TYPEMOON anime adaptation so far. I absolutely spellbound from first minute to the end. It is that awesome. Watching 2 predators sizing up each other and kill out of sheer instinct is powerful and invoking sense of awe. It is like looking at tigers, you knew they are dangerous but due to their nature, they are beautiful. The look, the functional elegance and purpose is concepts worthy to behold itself. This anime movie succeded to create this emotional raw in spades.

Long live TYPEMOON, long live Kinoko Nasu!



The infamous duel on the bridge during stormy night. This whole sequence may not be action packed in fast and furious manner but it is masterfully done. The accompanying music absolutely wonderful in this scene. Theatrical but hell it works. It is setup for an epic fight.





Fujino was looking for her inner peace, not realising in that process she found her calling despite her vehement denials about her true nature when Shiki points it out. Her superego is denying her id which causes her instability. But when her id is out, she found her true comfort as a killer. Hence Shiki's attraction to her and vice versa which at the same time hating each other. According to creditable sources, Fujino is personal favourite of Kinoko Nasu, the author of TYPEMOON.

Her smiles are creepy yet understandable. It is her own version of enigmatic Mona Lisa smile. In few scenes, her character came across as scary due to lack of empathy but yet pitiful due to misguided protection from her parents. Noto Namiko did Fujino's internal anguish and sheer dark impulse of murderous joy characterization at the flip of the coin very well.




First strike, Shiki's battle experience manifested in places she choose to fight Fujino.



Smug, confident Fujino as she appears to have an upper hand. The difference between her and Shiki despite being in the same category of people is Fujino enjoys breaking things whereas Shiki is looking for a good fight.



Shiki prepared last strike as she find out the nature of Asagami killing power. The final coup de grace. Which leads to...



I can kill anything alive, even God. What a line, what a line indeed.

The music, sound and voice acting are top notch. The characters became very alive due to good dialogue especially Fujino and Shiki. This is good example of grim and brutal story well done in anime format, not talking intensive; just show-the-story type of movie. I honestly consider this one of the superior anime movie due to sheer poetry of movement, a kind of zankoku bi or beautiful cruelty which is unique in Japanese culture. The pacing was done well and ufotable take pains to make it digestible as the source material is highly detailed during the investigation scenes (to some readers of novel, it came across as plodding). Mikiya came across as thoughtful and humane person, in this movie you can see why he is well liked by people. Despite the overwhelming darkness in the movie, his humanity shines like a beacon of hope in largely bleak setting.

It is masterpiece, absolutely masterful anime movie. Great to have this on DVD.

Trailer is here.

Cowboy Bebop Live Action?

This article here confirmed it but I honestly would rather wait for more solid confirmation. But this series has been begging to be turn into live action for some time and I am looking forward to it.

Only time will tell.