Anime

On funny stuff that lasts

Kaijuu — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 20:14:00 GMT

Japan churns out a lot of anime and manga each year; on anime alone, over 30 series are started annually.
Most of it is outright bad, just fluff or just mildly interesting; only a very few of them are worth their salt to see again.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched a few episodes of Azumanga Daioh again with a friend of mine while we were waiting for the ferry to arrive. It then occurred to me that Azumanga Daioh is one of those series that seemingly never bores me, no matter how many times I see it.

But why?

AD isn't very elaborate; it's just a slice-of-life series showing a group of six girls making their way through three years of high school.

The emphasis lies in the funny aspect of those three years; no overt drama, love triangles or sad girls in snow here.
AD does not have great jokes either; many of them are announcing themselves light years ahead and you'll need to have a good grasp of Japanese language and culture to catch them all (though there are translator notes available if you don't).

However, for a series based on a yonkoma-type of comic (yonkoma is a four-panel type of comic, like in the newspapers), they really managed to make it into a nice flowing anime, which makes you laugh almost instantly due to the sheer bizarre-ness of it.
The music helps as well; a light-hearted soundtrack with up-tempo tracks as well as slower ones.

The cast is a well-balanced group, consisting of the six aforementioned protagonists, some schoolmates from different classes and three teachers with very different personalities.
It would be wrong to say that the cast is representing real people, but that doesn't really matter; they're just there make you laugh and it's therefore a great stress reliever.

There are only a few series that really stick, but Azumanga Daioh is without a doubt one of the best purchases I ever did, both in manga and anime.

Cheers, K.

On Satoshi Kon

Kaijuu — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 23:15:00 GMT

I just learned that Satoshi Kon died of cancer yesterday. This saddens me greatly; he was a gifted director and I'm a big fan of his films.
This also means that Paprika will probably his last feature film; the chance of The Dream Machine being finished is slim to none.

Domo arigatou sensei; I think I will have a mini-marathon of Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and Paprika sometime soon to commemorate.

On Twin Spica

Kaijuu — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:44:00 GMT

Twin Spica tells the story of Asumi Kamogawa, and her dream of becoming an astronaut (or rocker driver, as the then 5 year-old Asumi tells her class during Parent Day). She has to endure many hardships, not in the least beause she's kind of reluctant to share that dream with her father, who became a widower after is wife died in an unfortunate accident involving a Japanese space rocket gone haywire and crashing onto the village they lived in.
Obvously, there is more to this, but that will be revealed in later volumes.

It's finally translated into English, so I picked up a copy of this manga yesterday, and it's beautiful. The drama hits a sensitive snare, and instantly reminded me of the also highly recommended Futatsu no Spica anime, which also nearly brought me to tears because of the wonderful story that's being told.
Seeing that the manga came first, it's remarkable how well the animation studio managed to translate the drama into the anime.

Unfortunately, I never succeeded in collecting the fourth DVD, so I have to make do with the fansubs I picked up years ago; if someone manages to find the 4th volume or the box set, please please please let me know.

Every once in a while, something truly remarkable hits the shelves; Twin Spica really hits the spot.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pop the series' soundtrack into the player.

Cheers, K.

On people living under a bridge

Kaijuu — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:10:00 GMT

After having seen the first two episodes, it's safe to say that Arakawa under the Bridge is brilliantly weird.

Cheers, K.

On getting back into the swing of things

Kaijuu — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:40:00 GMT

It's kind of echo-y in here, don't you think?
That's right, I had to abandon some things a couple of weeks ago to avoid going south, and this was one of them.

So I'm going to get back to the regular things, odds and sods, which also means writing down some of my rants down in here.

I guess you could say the past month was really something else; along with my job, my side of the preparations for Anime 2010 took a little more time and effort than last year, due to me doing the technical check for the AMV-competition, subbing some video, keeping the technical bits in check (projectors, audio equipment; stuff like that) and keeping myself in check by relaxing a bit.
The result of all that hard work was a great festival; people had a good time and really like to return to Almelo for Anime 2011.

The city of Almelo came along with a camera in order to get some footage for their promotional video. That's right; our festival will be part of a vid meant to promote the City of Almelo as a cultural hub in that area; how cool is that? :)

We also had a little something at Stripdagen Haarlem; a manga and anime-corner, together with a couple of dealers, the lovely people from MangaKissa and crews from MangaFique, Ani Nation, Yaoi and Yuri-Con and Abunai.
I have never been to the Stripdagen; I must say it's a fun weekend, despite the inevitable "collectors" who are bent on European and American comics, regarding Japanese comics as inferior and without substance.
Luckily, we also spoke quite a lot of people who are more open-minded and are willing to see beyond their own horizons.

I'm going to try and get some pictures online soon, and see whether this blog has any right of existance any more. :)

Cheers, K.

First series I own on Blu-Ray

Kaijuu — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:26:00 GMT

Finally, the first couple of anime series are being released on Blu-Ray outside Japan, and because of Full Metal Panic being one of my favourite series, I decided to get Funimation's BRD-release of The Second Raid.

It's a $40 set of two discs, containing all 12 episodes, the bonus OVA and a pile of extra footage. The extra's are in 480i (the usual NTSC), the rest is in 1080p with surround audio in English and Japanese.
I'm quite happy with the set; both image quality and audio tracks are superb and the fact that they put the whole TSR-series in one set does not disappoint.
Good thing I bought a Japanese PS3 though; the set is region A coded, which means I can't play it on a locally bought BR-player.

As said the first series on BRD that I own; let's hope many will follow.

Cheers, K.

Re: Cowboy Bebop

Kaijuu — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:34:00 GMT

I recently got my hands on the Remix-version of Cowboy Bebop, and since it's been a while, popped it into the player to see it once again.
Although it's been only two years or so, I'm enjoying it all over again due to the laid-back way of storytelling, the well fleshed-out characters and the terrific music.

If there's one series I'd recommend any time, anywhere, it would be Cowboy Bebop. Hands down.

The remix-version makes it even better, since they polished it up and remixed the soundtrack a bit to make it an even better experience compared to the first time I saw the show.
Simply brilliant...

Cheers, K.

Gake no Ue no Ponyo on DVD

Kaijuu — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:40:00 GMT

Finally, Studio Ghibli's latest fairy tale is available on DVD.

To be honest, I'd rather have it on Blu Ray, but alas, you can't have it all.

Cheers, K.

Ticket Booth for Anime 2009 opens!

Kaijuu — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:54:00 GMT

Yesterday, we officially opened the ticket booth for Anime 2009, so that we can sell some stuff to raise the money needed for Anime 2009: Mental Maniacs.
This will be our eleventh festival, and it's going to be fun. :)
Now go and buy tickets.

Cheers, K.

Ghost in the Shell on Blu-ray; Yay!

Kaijuu — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:25:00 GMT

One of my favourite films of all time has to be Koukaku Kidoutai, a.k.a Ghost in the Shell. Its story is an interesting one, but in an even more interesting setting.
For those in the dark; 21 years from now, the world has changed drastically, cyborgs are all over the place and with the possibility of partial borgification, the possibilities are endless.
The Puppetmaster is the supercriminal of the story, and is being chased after by Section 9. One of the lead detectives is Motoko Kusanagi, who has a full cyborg body, but she is not certain her ghost, or her soul, retains any humanity. Throughout the movie, she seeks to find answers to her questions and finally meets the Puppet Master, a rogue AI who became sentient and who is similar to her in its quest for existential meaning.
The film also raises the question on what makes a human, and makes me fantasise about adding some memory to my own. ;)

Anyway, I started out owning a DVD of the film around 2001, when the Palm Pictures-version was released. The disc had one big flaw; the audio was about half a second behind on the image, so it wasn't a real pleasure watching it.

When I got hold of the Special Edition released by Manga in 2005, I was pretty pleased. Menu's were well done, the transfer was great and it was a real joy watching it on the big screen at home.

Today in the High Definition-age, we're playing in an entire different field with much more detail. To get a decent sales catalogue, many flicks are re-released (or rather some of them are re-re-re-released, their first release being on glass plates for a magic lantern) in a remastered version to Blu-ray disc.

Now, I'm not one to purchase films over and over again, but I'm making an exception for some; Ghost in the Shell being one of them.
So when I ran into the Ghost in the Shell 2.0-release with subtitles and a heap of extra's, all in HD, I got excited. :P

If you want it too, just follow the link, and here's the regular edition on BR if you don't fancy the super-duper 4-disc version.

Cheers, K.