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  • Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: SAC

    Excuse the ad, but I’m just doing my part to help promote Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Crisis start on Cartoon Network tonight. In general Cartoon Network has done a pretty crappy job with promoting anime, so I thought I’d help out a little. Yes, I’m a geek.

    To folks that are just sitting around tonight doing nothing, I highly recommend checking these out, even though they come on a bit late. They are two of the better shows that Cartoon Network has picked up as far as anime goes. Also, don’t be mislead by the beginning of Full Metal Alchemist, it gets pretty intense at times.

    Here’s some info on both Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

  • Neko Mimi Mode – Dimitri From Paris

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    Oh yes, there is nothing like watching a new anime and realizing that the theme song was done by Dimitri from Paris. It is quite slick. Neko Mimi Mode (AAC) is a bit of a variation on Love Love Mode, and is a nice little bit of grooviness (and it’s even better with the animation (with the cute vampire girl with cat ears on)). Definitely a fun little song that had to be shared.

    Of course I now keep having it run through my head and hearing Chiwa Saito say “Neko Mimi Mode” all day long.

  • Anime Meets the Count of Monte Cristo

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    Wow. I just watched the trailer for a new anime series titled Gankutsuou. It looks like it will be an anime version of The Count of Monte Cristo. Of all the promos I’ve seen for the current season in Japan, this is the most stunning (and it’s being produced by Gonzo, who have been doing great work lately). I hope it’s as good as the animation looks. The story has been a favorite of mine since I read a version of it back in French in High School, I can’t wait.

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  • More Anime Coming Soon to the Big Screen

    Wired has a nice article about three anime films making their way to the US in the coming months: Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, Steamboy, and Howl’s Moving Castle. I’m pretty psyched about all of them. The trailers for Steamboy and Innocence look stunning, and i am hoping to find a copy of one for Howl’s soon.

    The Giants of Anime are Coming

    In coming months, anime’s three most prominent directors will release major films in the US. Oshii’s Innocence will hit theaters in September. Soon afterward, Katsuhiro Otomo will debut Steamboy, an Indiana Jones-style adventure that takes place in an alternative Victorian age where turbo unicycles and pressure-powered jetpacks battle for supremacy. Then Hayao Miyazaki will deliver Howl’s Moving Castle, about a teenage girl who flees a curse by hiding in a gigantic mechanical castle that prowls about on insectlike legs. In addition, Disney will issue three older Miyazaki films on DVD early next year, two of which have never before been released in the US.

    The confluence of these films could finally put anime at center stage in a venue where success so far has been elusive: the box office. Even though Miyazaki’s Spirited Away won the Oscar for best animated film in 2003, it didn’t pack theaters. But unlike most previous US anime releases, these films have the backing of major studios. DreamWorks is distributing Innocence, Sony is handling Steamboy, and Disney is in line for Howl’s Moving Castle. Anime enthusiasts have argued for years that the genre’s fractured visions represent the most important cinematic movement since sex, lies, and videotape ushered in a new era of American independent film in 1986. Now multiplexers will have a chance to see what these fans have been talking about. [Wired News]

    Of course Innocence doesn’t even have viewing dates in CT yet. I hate this state at times, I’ll be sure to be watching it up in Boston.

  • Anime in the News

    Two interesting articles on anime related things.

    • An article on The strange but familiar world of a Japanese TV cartoon over at reason online. It’s from May and is about Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (One of my personal favorites of the last year or so). The author has some interesting notes on the subject.

      “Depictions of shapely, scantily clad women are standard in Japanese comics and animations, and this series gladly provides them. But the message is subtly subversive: These bodies are literal commodities, shells their inhabitants can exchange if they feel like it. Kusanagi is female only in the sense that she wears female bodies, apparently to complement her favorite watch. No longer the key to identity, gender becomes a convention.”

    • An article from Forbes.com about John Ledford, the creator of ADV Films. It tells of how the company got started and is a pretty amazing read. I especially like how Ledford got started by importing Japanese video game systems that weren’t available here yet and selling them with an obscene markup.

  • Come Forth, Seratonin! Appear Dopamine!

    valerianRelaxation Combat Team Valerian, at your service! That seems to be the battle cry of these superheros in a new creation by CLAMP called Sweet Valerian. I personally think this is just further evidence of drug use on the part of people producing anime. This show is like the Powerpuff Girls on Acid and E at the same time. In the second episode they fight a cell phone monster and defeat it by drowning it in water. My brain hurts.

     

  • Upcoming Anime DVD Releases

    I decided to play around with iCal today and found myself entering all the upcoming anime DVD releases into it (through 9/7/2004) based on the information at AnimeonDVD.com. I published it so that it can be viewed via the web or icon_ical_small subscribed to in iCal (I think Mozilla Calendar lets you do this also, but I’m not sure).

    I’ll try and keep this updated with around a month’s worth of information.

  • Philips DVP642: Initial Impressions

    I’d been looking to pick up a new DVD player recently, since my old one croaked on me recently. After doing some hunting around online I decided on the Philips DVP642. I decided on this one for a few reasons.
    First, it supports DivX. This was a big deal for me because I watch a lot of anime that is encoded in this format. Second, the price was right. At $69.99 it wasn’t too expensive a risk. Some of the reviews indicated that the DVD playback wasn’t that great, but I figured at $70 even if it was good I’d be happy.

    Today I picked up my player at a local CompUSA (the only place locally that had them in stock). Initial setup was easy, as was updating the firmware to the latest version. This entailed downloading two files from the philips.com website and burning them to CD and starting up the dvd player letting it read the CD. I haven’t tested a DVD yet, but I did test with a DVD-RW that had a few files on it. The good: it read the DVD-R and could play some of the files. The bad: it couldn’t play them all. I’m trying to figure out what the differences were in the files it wouldn’t play, but so far nothing is jumping out at me.

    I’ve also set up a page on my wiki about this player so that I can keep notes on what works and what doesn’t. If anyone has anything they think would be useful to add, please let me know.

  • rentanime.com

    There’s a new online DVD rental service called rentanime.com that I’ve decided to give a try for their two week free trial. It’s a neat idea, but I have a feeling Greencine will still have them beat (at least for me). Some issues I already see with the site. There are some very noticeable holes in their selection. No original Bubblegum Crisis. And they’ve only got the second OVA of Fushigi Yugi (I’d thought this might be a good chance to check out the series since I’ve never seen it).

    So, the first marks against them are for selection, but I’m willing to cut them some slack since they first opened. Beyond that, the site itself feels like it needs a bit of work. the design feels a little rushed. And it’ is missing features that other sites have. For example: Can I queue up a full series and get them in order? Doesn’t look like it. Can I easily request things they don’t have? The don’t say. There are lots of little details that I think they need to look at if they are going to survive. Especially when there are services like Greencine that have a kickass anime selection and a great site overall.

    I’ll report back more when I’ve got my first selections from them.

    Crossposted to An Unnamed Anime Blog.

  • New Anime Licenses

    Anime Expo is going on this weekend and there’s some cool anime coming our way. Ones I’m most happy about: Midori no Hibi, Bakuretsu Tenshi, and Popotan. I’m most happy about Midori no Hibi, because it’s one of my recent favorites. Also, it appears that TOKYOPOP will be releasing CLAMP no Kiseki: The Ultimate Collection. CLAMP’s 15th anniversary, 12 issue collection. With each issue coming with pieces for a CLAMP chess set (with some interesting choices for the pieces).