Cinderella Boy Episodes 1-3

April 14th, 2008 by Brack

So I thought I should catch up on stuff I should have finished watching ages ago. Which is why this weekend I (re)watched the first three episodes of this 2003 Monkey Punch detective fairy tale.

First things first, the animation is a lot worse than I remember. Perfunctory is a fair description. It’s not Musashi bad. And at least it avoids the trap a lot of Lupin III films fall into where only the leads look like Monkey Punch characters, pretty much everyone here looks like they belong.

The story involves detectives Ranma and Rella who by the intervention of bullshit science end up inhabiting the same body, changing between forms at midnight with no memory of the other’s previous day’s experience. This being Monkey Punch, the logical result is comedic hijinks, cross dressing and inadvertent nudity.

It plays like a mix of Moonlighting, 60’s British detective fantasy TV shows, and most surprisingly, The Rockford Files. Ranma is pretty much Jim Rockford down to the living in a trailer (albeit on top of a building). The other thing I should mention is it takes place in the future, though the sci-fi elements so far are fairly light, such as Ranma’s hover London taxi cab, nebulous “hacking”, the Bond-like gadgets Rella’s maid builds her and the bizzare car/castle the recurring suitor of Rella drives.

It’s a 13 episode series, so I hope to get the rest watched fairly quickly.

Cinderella Boy Opening Animation

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Soul Eater Episode 1

April 13th, 2008 by Brack

Maka and her scythe, Soul Eater Evans, have to capture 99 souls and one witch’s soul in order to turn Soul Eater into a full Deathscythe. We join them as they are about to capture their 99th human soul. Acting as something of a greek chorus to these events are the Grim Reaper and his Deathscythe, Maka’s estranged father. You see, in the world of Soul Eater people turn into weapons, and the physical embodiment of death performs manzai routines with his scythe.

Yes, it’s another show that taps into kids’ love of personifying death. Is Yu Yu Hakusho the origin of this theme in manga and anime? Or is there something that came before that? I can see links to Go Nagai and Ishimori works in the general structure of these stories, but is there a predecessor to the whole teenage agent of the afterlife thing?

Director Takuya Igarashi does a really good job with the material from Atsushi Okubo’s manga. The story is fairly standard shonen fare, as is the humour. What Igarashi does is bring alive and embelish Okubo’s great design work. As with Igarashi’s Ouran Host Club anime, he takes the art and improves it for animation. The blacks are drawn out and exaggerated, and the colours made more vivid. Also the stand-up/manzai influenced comedy delivery that Ouran had is brought back here, making the most of fairly weak gags, and now it’s alongside the typically accomplished action scenes that Bones are known for. All in all it’s shaping up to be another slick, solid product from Bones.

AN ASIDE: I’ve seen the design compared to Tim Burton, but while that’s a fair comparison, I can’t help thinking there’s a more direct, if more obscure, reference to be made. The grotesque grinning moon and sun remind me of Ian Miller and John Blanche’s artwork, but I’m sure they are drawing on something too. While moons and suns with faces seem to be something wired into the human mind to see, I’m sure the actual nature of the grotesquery is a reference to something my ignorance of art history is preventing me putting a name too.

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Final Fight

April 12th, 2008 by Brack

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Jim Blashfield Music Videos

April 12th, 2008 by Brack

I knew I loved all these music videos, but until recently I hadn’t actually connected them by their director Jim Blashfield. Here’s what I love about them: the found objects, the collage animation, the repeated loops of live action and the vocalists trapped in objects. All these things combined give his videos an unique look.

Blashfield Studio

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The Gutter Twins - Idle Hands (Live on David Letterman)

April 12th, 2008 by Brack

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Blogs I’m reading that I should really add to the blogroll were it not already unwieldy

April 10th, 2008 by Brack

I need some fancy pants blogroll widget that allows you to just show the 10 most recently updated blogs on it. Or a new theme. In the meantime I’ve been reading.

似顔絵ロック 〜 Portrait in Rock - You don’t need to be able to read Japanese to appreicate yu-shio the Rock’n'Roll Illustrator’s portraits of classic rock stars

The Wolverine Daily - Gideon Boomer draws a new Wolverine everyday.

The Rossitano Report - A record of every hat worn by Judah Frielander’s 30 Rock character.

The Fury of Linus - Newbridge’s top blogger.

Rick Veitch’s sketch blog

Photo Basement - Photo’s scoured from the web, the best bits are things like this.

Paul Scheer.com - Human Giant’s Paul Scheer

Pappy’s Golden Age Comics Blogzine - Is there any scanblog better than this?

Paleo-Future - Yesterday’s Future, Today

Nerd Armada - Chowder creator CH Greenblatt’s blog

Hey Oscar Wilde! It’s clobberin’ time!!! - Artists draw literary figures.

David Wain’s Blog - Stella/The State/The Ten/Wet Hot American Summer/Wainy Days chap David Wain’s blog

Cartoons, Model Sheets, & Stuff - No prizes for guessing what this is about.

Bateszi Anime Blog - One of the few anime blogs I read.

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Yu Gi Oh 5D’s Episode 1

April 9th, 2008 by Brack

As batshit crazy as the Yu Gi Oh series has got in the past (from the start it was like HP Lovecraft and Clive Barker had teamed up to make a kids story about gaming) this takes up another notch. You see, Yu Gi Oh 5D’s involves people playing card games on motorcycles. In a dystopian future.

Playing card games on motorcycles…

The main influence so far seems to be Battle Angel Alita/GUNNM, with the duels slightly reminiscent of the motorball sport, but moreover the heroes live among junk, and are considered second class citizens. The backgrounds could easily have been pulled out any late 80s/early 90s “cyberpunk” anime. Which mixed with a show designed to sell a CCG gives it a rather odd taste, even for Yu-Gi-Oh. Animation and character designs are a step up from Yu Gi Oh GX, with the surreal monster designs still the high point of the show. Best one this episode is a Dragon/Handcuff chimera.

The strange thing is, if you don’t mind the standard “describe at length how the rules work” segments, it works. It could do with a dose of the Lovecraftian nonsense about beasts bound into cards, mystic spirit guides and possession, but it’s certainly is an improvement on GX. I’d definitely watch a dub of this in the morning while I’m eating breakfast.

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Succumbing to Mechandise

April 8th, 2008 by Brack

Revoltech Gurren Lagann? Yes, that’ll be enough to break my self imposed ban on buying models/toys. The Revoltech Detroit Metal City figures probably would have done it later in the year, but I’d missed when they’d announced the GL figure so I was pleasantly surprised to see it to pre-order.

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Everyone’s favourite fashion label vanity act

April 7th, 2008 by Brack

Does Nigo pay Pharrell in Bathing Ape goods for beats this good? The lower profile of Pharrell recently means this has a lot more impact than when you couldn’t step out the door without being attacked by a Neptunes beat.

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Detriot Metal City OAV - TAF08 trailer

April 7th, 2008 by Brack

Uploaded by saueki

This looks a very good capturing of the art style, similar to how well Sexy Commando and Cromartie were animated. I wonder who is directing, as it would be an ideal project for Akitaro Daichi’s comic timing. Detroit Metal City as a whole really needs a proper English release, the parodies of heavy metal and aspects of the music industry are pretty much familiar wherever in the world you are. Hopefully the live action film might be the thing to kick start it Tokyopop or Dark Horse’s interest (I don’t think anyone else has licensed Young Animal titles - am I wrong?). Sharing a star with the live action Death Note has brought the live action film onto world cinema sites radar, so a US release seems a definite possibility.

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