I have a question for you.
Whenever there is a comic and an animation available for a title, which do you prefer?
I seem to favor the form in which I first experience a title. Personally I think that sucks because I would like to think that I can objectively review a work and like it for itself and not be influenced by my first take.

Kodomo no Omocha? Watched the anime first and LOVE it. I tried the first volume of the manga and couldn’t STAND it.

Chobits? Read the manga first and LOVE it. I tried watching the anime for awhile and stopped. The anime is not that bad, but just not as deep as the manga was taking me.

Saikano? Read the manga first and LOVE it. I picked the first volume when it just came out at a Japanese bookstore based soley on the pencil scratch cover artwork and the intriguing quotes written on the back. I am so happy this is so popular today. I thought that this would be a story impossible to make an anime out of due to the themes and scenes. I watched the first few anime episodes and thought it was very nicely done, but did not go out of my way to get the rest.

Some noteable exceptions are Fruits Basket and Karekano. I watched the anime for these first and love them to death. The manga for these are also wonderful. Maybe my feelings are colored by the fact that the manga is continuing the story for me where the anime left off.

After reading the stuff I wrote, maybe my taste is more along the lines of manga first, anime not as good and anime first, manga is good too. waitaminit, kodocha blew that out of the water. Oh yeah, I think KOR anime rules over KOR manga.

Then you have anime that inspires manga.
FLCL! anime:LOVE IT! manga: kinda like an american independent comic, totally different take, so I can enjoy this as a separate work.
COWBOY BEBOP! anime:ARE YOU KIDDING ME? manga: why bother?
Evangelion! anime: I’m a tool of Gainax. manga: I have not read much but what I have is great and people tell me it is great. PLUS MORE SADAMOTO ILLUSTRATIONS!

So you got an answer to my question already?

Animation Runner Kuromi!

This is a short anime (36min) by Daichi Akitarou, the director of Fruits Basket, Kodomo no Omocha, Jubei-chan.
He is one of my favorite directors because of his ability to create a mood.
Animation Runner Kuromi is about a recent anime academy graduate joining a Japanese animation studio doing what is considered the worst job relating to anime production- collect all the completed key animation scenes from the artists for an anime. Sounds simple, until you realize in order to stay on schedule, Kuromi will have to hound, threaten, cajole, and beg the artists to produce the work every day until she gets all her scenes.
Daichi’s first start in anime was like this.
I heard rumors that some Japanese animators had watched this and could not laugh at the anime because it was too close to the awful truth for them to see the humor.

Even though this is a short anime or maybe because it is, I can’t stop watching it. Maybe because it is a story about Kuromi trying her best in the face of such adversity, the stereotypes of the different kinds of animators that exist, or maybe it is because Kuromi-chan is so CUTE…I don’t know. I do know that it does have that Daichi magic that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside once you are done watching it, like an episode of…FruitsBasketKodomoNoOmochaJubeiChanetc.

Recently an all-region DVD of this came out in Japan which is the version I now have. It is even subtitled in English because Daichi wanted to share this experience with all people.

konnichiwa minnasan!

after many years of slipping drugs into his food and secret mind control experiments, gregory has decide to allow me to inflict my anime-related bromides upon you all.

mua ha ha ha ha.

Mua Ha Ha Ha Ha.

MUA HA HA HA HA!!!!

*ahem*

4649 (yoroshiku)! ^.^

Ripping a few more today, including some random ones that were in the back seat of my car forever.

• Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians – Live @ The Cambridge Folk Festival
• Garbage
• Peter Gabrial – So (remastered)
• FLCL Soundtrack 1
• Cevin Fisher – Underground 2000
• Netwerk Plastic Compilation Volume 2

I’m particularly psyched to get the Robyn Hitchcock CD ripped. I hadn’t bothered yet because I knew the track listing on it was wrong, but wasn’t sure what the correct one was. Thankfully a friend pointed me to a correct one online.

Augh. Nobody told me there was going to be snow. Why didn’t I get a memo?

Damn weather fouling up all my sekrit plans.

I was just looking at some of the VA credits for Abenobashi and noticed that one character was done by Hisakawa Aya and looked up her list of characters. Very impressive. It includes: Kero-chan (CCS), Chloe(Noir), Haruka(RahXephon), Yuki(Furuba), and Miki(Utena). I think knowing that Kero-chan and Yuki are one in the same is quite fitting. Now I’ll forever think of him turning into Kero-chan when hugged.

(Damn I’m posting a lot tonight, that’s what insomnia does to you).

I’m currently taping Gainax’s Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai for k-chan and enjoying watching it through again. While this isn’t in my top ten list of shows (or even top 20 possibly) it’s a show that is pretty amazing in some ways. Shows that do parodies are all over the place, look at Excel Saga for instance. But there is something different about Abenobashi and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Some of it is how much they will follow a parody, they go to some pretty extreme lengths. They even parody themselves. And the amount of references in the science fiction episode made my head spin, and I’m sure there were a number I was missing.

But at the heart of the show is actually a pretty cool story. Once you find out why they keep jumping from world to world and never making it home there’s a different feel in the background to how everything feels. I think if it had been only a parody show I might not have liked it that much. The rest of the story surrounding the characters and their motivations is what made it work for me, even when the jokes started to get a little weary. One thing that is kind of interesting to me was reading the reviews over on animenfo.com as some of them seemed to get it (at least as I saw things) and some of them just saw the show as a silly slapstick comedy. Definitely a show to check out if you get the chance (I’m pretty sure it has been licensed in the US already).

Thomas Szasz. “Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.” [Quotes of the Day]

I watched episode 9 of Haibane Renmei tonight and it was wonderful. This whole show has felt very powerful to me and I think with this episode it really has crawled its way into my list of favorite shows. It still remains to be seen how the whole thing is wrapped up in four more episodes, but I can’t wait to see how it ends.

Oh my. These Bad Taste Bears are a little scary. I just want the one with the chainsaw. Because chainsaws are cool.