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  • Otaku

    SFGate.com has an interesting article about Anime Expo and anime/manga fandom in general:

    ASIAN POP Generation O
    Meet the otaku — a global network of anime fans and manga maniacs whose unique tastes and burgeoning consumer clout are reshaping the cultural landscape

    While the rest of the nation prepared to mark the Fourth of July by consuming charred lumps of meat and blowing stuff up, a gleeful mob was descending on unsuspecting Anaheim, Calif., for a very different kind of celebration. Called AX, or simply “the Expo” by its organizers and its legion of eager attendees, it too commemorated a declaration of independence . . . in this case, from the dull shackles of reality.

    Breach the glass-and-concrete bunker of the Anaheim Convention Center on Expo weekend, and you pass into a parallel dimension populated by pink-haired schoolgirls and DIY ‘droids, portly alien invaders and bespectacled ninja assassins. It’s a place where little things like race and gender and nationality take a backseat to more important distinctions, like whether you prefer dubs or subtitles. A world where an ordinary guy can be a hero, a king — or hell, a magical fairy princess. [SFGate.com]

  • Hospital – Day 2

    So far things are uneventful. It’s mostly just sitting around waiting for the next time to take meds. Luckily I have my Powerbook with me so that I’m online and finally caught up with lots of posts. I also brought some anime DVDs along so I can finally watch the last disk of Azumanga Daioh (YAMAMAYA!) and some other stuff.

    Anyone feel like stopping by today/tonight and bringing me a snack? Leave a comment if so and I’ll email you back if I see it in time.

  • Powerpuff Girls Anime!?

    I’m still a bit speechless on this one. The images are kind of funky looking. I still can’t decide if this will be a good thing or a bad thing.

    Powerpuff Girls Anime Announced
    Plans for a Powerpuff Girls anime were announced at the Tokyo Animation Fair. A joint venture between Toei Animation, Aniplex, and Cartoon Network, the new project will be tentatively titled “Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z.” Posters from the booth can be seen on AV Watch here and here. [via Anime News Network]

  • Steamboy (and once again Hartford sucks)

    Steamboy opens this weekend for a very limited release. For once something is showing in Connecticut. But, why the heck is it New Haven and not Hartford. Once again, Hartford shows how lame it is. It would be nice to someday get something like this when it was released and not 6 months later at the local university.

    It opens up in more theaters on the 25th, we’ll see if it makes it to Hartford by then.

  • Scrapped Princess on DVD

    One of my more favorite shows from the past few years, Scrapped Princess, is finally coming out on DVD on 4/26/2005. From the web page:

    Pacifica Cassul is known as the “Scrapped Princess.” According to prophecy, she is the poison that will destroy the world on her 16th birthday. In order to avoid being killed, she must secretly wander the lands along with her two siblings who vow to protect the princess every step of the way. But being the Scrapped Princess means you must stay one step ahead of your enemy. Just how long will they journey before time runs out?

    They’ve also got a trailer in Quicktime and Window’s media linked to there. Definitely one to check out if you haven’t before.

  • Edited Manga

    DC comics recently got into the manga biz with their CMX imprint. I’d been kind of excited as they were picking up two titles I was really interested in getting: GALs and Tenjou Tenge. TenTen was just released and already it sounds like a disaster.

    TenTen is a fighting manga. It tends to be quite violent and has quite a bit of fanservice. In japan I believe it had a Mature rating. CMX, which uses the slogan “Pure manga — 100% the way the original Japanese creators wanted you to see it,” chose to edit the series and release it as a teen title. Needless to say the manga community isn’t thrilled. Many bloggers and comics news sites have already posted about it. It will be interesting to see if DC has any response.

    I’m also posting about it because it hits one of my biggest peeves with some manga releases these days. The habit of tweaking art so that they remove things that might be inappropriate for whatever age group they are targeting. One of my favorites is Hikaru no Go. Where at the end of the first volume we have someone putting a blob of gum down on the center of a Go board. In the actual manga, it’s a cigarette. Of course this leads to the second volume where someone is upset about the character “putting out his dirty gum on the Go board.” Please, just translate, don’t start tweaking things like this. If there is content that isn’t appropriate for an age group, don’t market it to them.

  • Anime Bread

    So I’ve seen anime with giant robots, anime about baseball, anime about playing Go, and anime about tennis (to name a few). But I never thought I’d see one about baking bread. Yakitate!! Japan is about Kazuma and his quest to make a national bread for Japan. He figures that since many other countries have types of bread they are known for, Japan needs one too. He’s also blessed with ‘Solar Hands’, which are abnormally warm and help make the bread rise faster after kneading.

    Yakitate-1

    This show is just too much fun. They’ve compensated for bread not being the most exciting topic by making it insanely over the top. The main character’s bread seems to be so good that it makes the people tasting it hallucinate. For instance, when tasting a bread he made with goats milk butter one character hallucinated flying through space to the constellation Capricorn. But mixed in with all the over the top antics are little bits of information about baking bread (I think most of it is fairly accurate).

    Now here’s a chance for anime to break a bit more into the mainstream. It could be on FoodTV. It was be a perfect match! And finally a show I can share with my mom (who used to teach a bread baking class).

  • Nintendo DS in Action

    A friend of mine sent me link to a demo of something for the Nintendo DS. It’s streaming and using windows media, so you’ll need that to watch. It starts out kinda slow, but around halfway through my jaw just dropped. Bonus points go out to anyone who recognizes what is played (I could name it in 4-5 notes). Even more points go to someone who can translate the japanese, since I can’t read it (or understand what they are saying).

  • Not Getting It

    Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant writes in today’s Eye on TV section:

    Japanimation Cute, But Strange; UConn Women Open Season

    The super cutesy side of Japanese animation, already adapted in cartoons like “Hamtaro” and “Powerpuff Girls” (Cartoon Network, 8:30 and 11 p.m.) gets even closer to the source on the new “Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi” (Cartoon Network, 7:30 and 9 p.m.), with its rendering of a popular pop duo as a pair of adorable squibs.

    Like a lot of Japanimation, there are some traits that are still tough to figure – chiefly how the mouths inexplicably become two dimensional slabs of baloney when open; and when open very large, routinely exceed the boundaries of the face. [CTnow.com (registration required)]

    Um, just because the show is based on people from Japan does not make it Japanese Animation. Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi is a Cartoon Network original series. As is the Powerpuff Girls. They may be anime influenced, but that’s it. Hamtaro is anime, but I still think Hamtaro should end up in a wood chipper one of these days.

    Oh, and nobody uses the term ‘Japanimation’ anymore, that’s so 80s.

  • Honey Flash!

    Cutey Honey
    (Cutey Honey after blocking LOTS of bullets with her sword)

    So I finally got a chance to see the Cutey Honey live action movie. It was one of the more fun movies I’ve seen recently. Cutey Honey first came out years and years ago as a TV series by Go Nagi (the individual responsible for many classic shows) and has had numerous other animated versions throughout the years. Finally, someone did enough drugs to decide that the next incarnation really needed to be a live action movie.

    What makes this movie great is that instead of going and tweaking the story too much it sticks with the same over the top feel that the anime has. It almost feels like you are watching an animated movie with live actors subbed in. It’s cheesy as all hell, but then again Cutey Honey is cheesy to begin with. My only complaint would be that the ending battle where she goes up against Sister Jill left me wanting more, but in the end it works out alright. Now I just think they should do a live action TV series. I mean, if they can do a Sailor Moon one this should be no problem! Oh yeah, and the theme song for the movie, performed by Koda Kumi, rocks.