BPA - Toe Jam

June 15th, 2008 by Brack

That is a really great video by Keith Schofield.

And it’s a good fun song. Norman Cook has a habit of wearing out his welcome, but it’s been long enough that it’s nice to hear a new tune or two from him. And it’s 6 years since Lazy, so another dance track with David Byrne vocals is fine too.

My only fear is that, with Portishead AND Norman Cook revivals in the same year, the twin devils of both “Big Beat” and “Trip Hop” are going to rear their heads again. And the last thing anyone wants to hear are new UNKLE or Bentley Rhythm Ace records…

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15 YEAR OLD NEWS FEED

June 15th, 2008 by Brack

I did a couple of these last year, and not having too much to write about at the moment, I’m going to bring them back.

What are these? Well it’s summaries of the news in the UK manga & anime magazine Manga Mania from 1993. I didn’t actually read them back then, only hoping on in the spring of 1995. These are my little brother’s copies that I took of his hands years later. This is from issue 3, cover date September 1993.

  • Manga Video releases: Judge, Ultimate Teacher, 3×3 Eyes Parts 2 & 3
  • Titan Books release Helen McCarthy’s Anime! - A Beginner’s Guide To Japanese Animation
  • John Courtenay-Grimwood has a rant about the BBFC rating 3×3 Eyes an 18 certificate.
  • In the US:
  • Viz announces Ranma OAVs.
  • Live action Macross (!) announced at Anime Expo. This clearly never materialised, anyone know what this was about?
  • Giant Robo Vol. 3 premiered at Anime Expo.
  • Pioneer sent “shockwaves” by announcing their plan to have subtitles on their Laser Disc releases of “No Need For Tenchi: Demon Emperor Ryou”, “Moldiver” and “Machine God Corps” I wish they’d left Tenchi Muyo with that translation as it’s title.
  • CPM/US Manga Corps releases: Urotukidoji: Legend Of The Overfiend, Area 88
  • AD Vision releases: Battle Angel Alita
  • LA Hero/US Renditions: Superdimensional Century Orguss Vol. 7 & 8, Ultraman Vol. 9, Macross II Vol. 3
  • Family Home Entertainment: Robotech in SP mode VHS with TWO (!) episodes a tape.
  • AnimEigo: Urusei Yatsura Vol. 9, AD Police File-I, Kimagure Orange Road Laser Disc Vol. 2
  • Dark Horse Comics: Caravan Kidd, Version 2.2
  • Eternity Comics: Robotech II: The Sentinels, Robotech: Return To Macross, Robotech: Invid War, Ninja High School
  • Now Comics: New Adventures of Speed Racer
  • Viz Comics: Battle Angel Alita, Maison Ikkoku, Ranma, Genocyber, Sanctuary, Pixy Junket, Crying Freeman, Sanctuary, Nausicaa
  • In Japan:
  • Crayon Shin-Chan’s first film is released
  • Sailor Moon is made into a stage musical
  • Eight Man After, Comet Machine School Saber, Kiss Me On The Apple Of My Eye, Big Wars, Cashan and Giant Robo Vol. 3 were released in August in Japan. For now Trish Ledoux’s focus (for it is she that is writing the US/Japan news) seems to be on writing about Japanese OAV releases rather than what was on television then. Which is fair enough, as that’s what was most likely to get a western release. I’m wondering when that coverage in the magazine changed, and if it will coincide with Evangelion’s broadcast.

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UK Anime Releases for 16/06/08

June 15th, 2008 by Brack

Noir: The Complete Boxset

As I’m sure I’ve said here before, Noir is no good.

Like most Bee Train productions it’s stilted, dull and frequently mistakes nothing happening with atmosphere. Also this boxset has a RRP of £59.99 for 26 episodes on 7 discs. Oh and some dogtags if you are the sort of schmuck who is easily impressed with cheap add-on tack.

Play.com has it for £44.99, so let’s get some perspective on what ADV are offering us, and see what we could get for the same price from there:

You could get Ghost In The Shell: SAC 1st Gig! Complete Box Set AND Ghost In The Shell: SAC 2nd Gig! Complete Box Set AND Ghost In The Shell / Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence and still have change from £45. That’s 52 episodes of TV animation and two feature films for the same price as all of Noir.

Those are all older releases though that have since dropped in RRP. Let’s look at things still on their original RRP:

You could get 3 Naruto box sets for a little less than the Noir set. That’s 39 episodes of TV animation (some of it far better than Noir’s) for the same price of Noir’s 26. It’s not as good a deal as the Ghost In The Shell titles (that’s such a bargain that even I, who didn’t like SAC, am tempted), but it’s still much more comparable to other non-anime TV boxsets on the market.

Talking of which, for the same money as the Noir set, you could get seasons 5,6 & 7 of The Simpsons for the same price from Play at the moment. That’s 70+ episodes of prime Simpsons for the same cost as 26 episodes of dull “girls with guns” anime.

Or assuming you really liked Noir, and therefore have no taste, you could get 4 seasons of Family Guy and still have a fiver left over to buy some rat poison to kill yourself with.

If you purchase Noir, you hate money.

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Catching Up With Kaiba

June 14th, 2008 by Brack

For some reason I’d not been keeping up with Kaiba after the first episode. Hitmen and adorable kittens caught my eye instead. But I’m up to episode four now, and so a few comments:

Unlike some commentators, I’m actually preferring the move to the episodic tales of life on other planets we get from episode 3 (and to some degree Butter & Kochu’s tale in episode 2). The sci-fi concept heaviness of the first two episodes wore me down a bit, not being that big a fan of sci-fi. Episode 2 was particularly heavy in dumping ideas, without explanation, onto your lap.

The transition to a Galaxy Express 999 type of narrative - dipping into people’s lives to tell stories that reflect the series’ theme - made the sci-fi a bit more palatable for my tastes.

The Galaxy Express comparison extends further to the structure of course, both deal in the concept of self and loss of self. However Galaxy Express seems to put a greater tie between identity and your physical body. Kaiba has that some degree, however it puts much greater weight to the idea of memories being the root of identity. I want to say more, particularly some thoughts on how it relates to themes in Kemonozume, but I’ll wait until the end.

That’s pretty much all I have to say at the moment beyond stating the obvious - it looks far better than anything else this year, the love of gags shines through the fairly depressing nature of the stories and that Michio Mihara is an animating machine.

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Say what now?

June 13th, 2008 by Brack

http://giapet.net/2008/06/13/yasuhiro-imagawa-to-direct-new-mazinger-anime/

Now, I thought he was done with directing, so I’m going take this with a pinch of salt, but if this all turns out to be correct, then yay!!! Very yay!!!

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DETROIT METAL CITY - Full Trailer

June 10th, 2008 by Brack

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More Soul Eater thoughts.

June 10th, 2008 by Brack

I think I can now pinpoint the problem I have with Soul Eater, and it’s a problem I have with some other shonen titles to various degrees. It’s the Adult Authority Figures.

I mentioned some time ago the difference between Sgt. Frog and it’s antecedent, Urusei Yatsura, in how they treated adulthood. Sgt Frog treats adulthood as being just as fun as childhood, Urusei Yatsura portrays it as some kind of living hell.

Now the difference between Soul Eater and what is obviously my favourite shonen series, One Piece, is also a difference between how they treat adults, but rather than a difference in a philosophical view of adulthood (Soul Eater seems to side more with UY, given Maka’s father’s characterisation), it’s in the use of Adult Authority Figures.

Soul Eater, like many shonen series has the main characters firmly placed as students of older, wiser, characters, who know more than they do. Naruto is an exemplary case of this format, for all the goofing off and disobeying orders that Naruto does, he’s never shown to be smarter than Kakashi. In Soul Eater, no matter how goofy Dr Franken Stein or the Grim Reaper are, they know more than the main characters, and at the current time, the main characters ultimately have to bow to their greater knowledge.

In One Piece, however, all characters who feasibly have authority over the main characters are wrong. Even if, in theory, they are right. Regardless of common sense, fact or circumstance, Luffy’s decisions always end up being the right one in the end. It’s resolutely anti-authority. It’s a bunch of kids having adventures, doing what they want, without adults telling them what to do. Even if some of the kids are 27, 34 and 100+ years old. Part of what turned me off Bleach was the slow turn of the main characters from being anti-authority, to doing what the series’ “grown-ups” want them to do.

The lesson is: if you are going to write an adolescent fantasy, go the whole hog and STICK IT TO THE MAN!

Posted in Anime, Manga, Things I Know About Pirates | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

Soul Eater - Episode 4,5,6 & 7

June 8th, 2008 by Brack

I really don’t have enough to say to warrant episode by episode summaries. Part of this is that everything that is good about it (the design, animation and direction) is consistently good, and I’d just be reiterating the same points over and over again.

The other part is that, the story just chugs along like your bog-standard shonen adventure manga 101. Episode 4 and 5 reintroduce one character that we briefly met in the prologue episodes, albeit in a new form and set up the introduction of the main teacher character. Episode 6 has Death The Kid get into a fight with Black Star and Soul Eater, and while nicely animated, it’s nothing special in the writing.

Episode 7 steps it up a notch with the introduction of an actual antagonist for the characters, the androgynous Chrona and their weapon Ragnarok, and for the first time in the series you get the feeling something is at stake. Hopefully this raises the actual level of drama for the series, and avoids making it something on the level of the Shaman King or Black Cat adaptations (albeit much better made).

Also, this: My prediction of this being the next highly cosplayed series over here, seems correct. At the MCM Expo there were a fair number of Soul Eater cosplays, far more than you’d expect for a show that’d only been on air for 6 weeks in Japan at the time. Admittedly, the manga could be the reason, but if that was the case we’d have seen more at earlier events. Seems like we could be seeing a lot of Makas, Death The Kids and Dr Franken Steins over the next year…

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Golgo 13 - Episode 7 - A Shot In G

June 8th, 2008 by Brack

Duke Togo goes to London.

This is the best episode of the show so far. We have the exotic location. We have some real world politics (the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning is referenced). And we have Golgo’s skills used for something other than killing a man.

Moreso than the other episodes so far, this story isn’t Golgo’s, it’s the story of virtuoso violinist Thomas Simpson, who during an encore with the London Symphony Orchestra has a crisis of confidence. And so he does what any man would do to get over this, hire Golgo 13 to restore his reputation by means of an impossible gun shot.

The key scene is the one with Simpson and Golgo in the London Eye, where Simpson mistakenly compares himself to Golgo, saying they are both professionals, when in fact the very act of hiring Golgo to carry out his plan shows him to be unprofessional. Another great touch is how Simpson’s face becomes distorted with hate and desperation as the episode progresses, turning him from the relaxed musician we see before the credits to the contorted gargoyle we see waiting in a concert hall for Golgo to make the shot.

Also: Dave, Golgo’s gunsmith appears to be everywhere. Or Golgo knows a lot of gunsmiths who all look alike. Anyway I like the plot convenience of the character being in any country Golgo needs him.

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GO~! TO~! D~! M~! C~!

June 6th, 2008 by Brack

Amazon.co.jp stream of complete episode

Far more than any other anime this has a feel of a manga animated. The shape of the shots changes to reflect the panel shape from the manga, and while the limited animation isn’t quite 1960’s Marvel Cartoon quality, a lot of shots are simply a loop of movement extrapolated from the original panel. However, it seems to work. Not as good as Akitaro Daichi’s gag manga adaptations (Sexy Commando, Gag Manga Biyori), but much better than the Pyuu to Fuku Jaguar flash animation.

GO! TO! DMC!

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