Not as good as original but it is not bad either.
Wednesday, April 8
K-On! / けいおん！【巡音ルカ】 [Don't Say Lazy] ED by Megurine Luka.
Not as good as original but it is not bad either.
Tuesday, April 7
History of Hatsune Miku development.
With English subtitles (turn on the caption by clicking off annotations at bottom right of the video). Earlier entry. What an amazing technology.
Cheers.
Mandalay Pictures acquire rights to Full Metal Panic
Zac Efron expressed interest in latest adaptation of anime into live action, Full Metal Panic!. Mandalay Pictures announced the acquisition to the famous Japanese mecha//school life series few hours ago. Mandalay Pictures produced few of my favourite movies; Sleepy Hollow and Enemy at the Gates.
No director or anyone else announced for it yet. It is sensible commercial choice, considering it is one of the success story of mainstream anime series in 2000s.
Source news
Positive view on current anime industry?
In the weeks leading up to the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF) 2009, the Japanese film Tsumiki no Ie (La Maison en Petits Cubes) won the Academy Award for best animated short film amid dismal economic news pouring in from around the world.
Despite the dark clouds, the fair's organizers predicted attendance would rise to 130,000 visitors, up from last year's 126,622. They were almost exactly on the nose, as the final figure came in at 129,819.
But the number of exhibitors at the March 18-21 event at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center in Ariake, Tokyo, dropped for the first time in its eight-year history, to 255 from last year's figure of 289.
Full Article
What's significant here is despite the sustainable otaku/fandom crowd (I do wonder how many are local versus foreign) , the industry itself is in dire need to reform. Anime industry practices did not change much from Osamu Tezuka days of "cheap and cheerful" labour (some commentators blamed him specifically for this current malady) to churn out animation products as much as possible using economies of scale.
The middle person got too much cut from the profits and proceeds which leaves very little to the animators. Now what's worst, Japanese animation companies subcontracting to even cheaper nations like Vietnam, China, Korea or Philippines for cost cutting measure. This has led to substandard quality like a shocking episode 9 of Macross Frontier (2008).
It remains to be seen if the positive view is hollow or something that we all can chew on.
An opposite view on the matter.
Despite the dark clouds, the fair's organizers predicted attendance would rise to 130,000 visitors, up from last year's 126,622. They were almost exactly on the nose, as the final figure came in at 129,819.
But the number of exhibitors at the March 18-21 event at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center in Ariake, Tokyo, dropped for the first time in its eight-year history, to 255 from last year's figure of 289.
Full Article
What's significant here is despite the sustainable otaku/fandom crowd (I do wonder how many are local versus foreign) , the industry itself is in dire need to reform. Anime industry practices did not change much from Osamu Tezuka days of "cheap and cheerful" labour (some commentators blamed him specifically for this current malady) to churn out animation products as much as possible using economies of scale.
The middle person got too much cut from the profits and proceeds which leaves very little to the animators. Now what's worst, Japanese animation companies subcontracting to even cheaper nations like Vietnam, China, Korea or Philippines for cost cutting measure. This has led to substandard quality like a shocking episode 9 of Macross Frontier (2008).
It remains to be seen if the positive view is hollow or something that we all can chew on.
An opposite view on the matter.
Monday, April 6
First Impressions : Natsu no Arashii / 夏のあらし！
Frankly, this series managed to hook me. Very interesting use of time travel and paradoxes though the male lead (Hajime) is annoying me with his pettiness: blusterous, possessive and tantrum prone to the max.
It is known that Kobayashi (the mangaka) tends to self insert in the stories so I wonder if Shades is him. This series is also quite liberal with fan service with so many female characters in the story.
Character wise it is pretty normal but it is use of special powers like matter manipulation and time travel that intrigues me to the potential of the story here. With Shinbo style of imagery is absent most of the 1st episode (the ED vid is his trademark though), the angles were interesting enough to accentuate the situation.
Overall, it is an above average start so far. Will follow it to see where the story goes to.
Sunday, April 5
Asylum Session
CoMix Wave, people who behind great anime movies like 5cm and Beyond the Clouds is working on this anime feature now. So far only few screenshots available and no PVs is out yet. Aya Hirano is featured as main VA for the movie, AFAIK.
From the screenshots I can feel it is a psychedelic show with vibrant usage of colours. Not traditional "moe" design can be seen and definitely it feels raw and edgy too.
The synopsis is:
"The Asylum Session's story follows the trials and coming-of-age of teenaged boys and girls in the distant future. In this era, the development of civilization has stopped and even declined. Hiyoko is a runaway girl who goes to live in tents with other people at a stadium nicknamed "Asylum". There, she meets Akira, a leader of a band of street children. Profiteering police want to tear down the stadium, so its denizens create a street culture event called "The Asylum Session" to counter those plans."
Sounds like a story of Rio slums on grander scale and corruption. Interestingly Shinchiro Watanabe just recently concluded Michiko and Hatchin also set in Rio slums too. The movie will be coming at July 2009.
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