The animation is top notch, and the remastering by Disney has done well to remove any artifacts from the original film print. I watched this in the English dialogue version, which has had modern stars Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman and Edward James Olmos doing the voices for characters in the film.
The second disc of the 2-disc set includes the complete storyboards of the film.
The Animatrix came out today. It pretty much is a must see for all animation fans. An anthology of stories all set within the world of the Matrix, animated by some of the best animation studios in Japan. My favorite short is the film noir inspired "Detective Story".
ADV, Gainax and WETA have decided to team up to create a Live Action Neon Genesis Evangelion film. Gainax is the original creators of Evangelion, and ADV is a major publisher of anime in the US. But, I'll bet you've probably never heard of WETA before, although you've seen their work. WETA is the New Zealand computer animation studio that worked on Lord of the Rings. A live action Evangelion might be good, but compressing 15 hours of plotline into 2 hours will be difficult.
After church today, we went down to Jack London Square for lunch at Scott's Seafood. Good stuff, and their brunch entree comes with desert - choice of chocolate mousse (why is it pronounced like moose and not like mouse?) or lemon sorbet. I had the sorbet, and everyone else had the mousse, but someone said it tasted like jello chocolate pudding, which got me thinking... if you got the jello pudding and put it in a pastry tube and squeezed it out into a fancy glass, would it taste like mousse?
I just finished watching Rurouni Kenshin Episode 95 followed by the RK OVA, and now I'm way the hell depressed. I should just put myself out of my misery by following it up with End of Evangelion or Grave of the Fireflies... Everything I've got in the library is just really really ... sad. I need more happy anime. It's just that after spending countless hours watching RK, you really don't want the series to end and if they had left it open ended, one could always believe in a sequel series. I guess that's my way of saying that if you actually watch all 95 episodes of the RK TV series, stop there, and read the manga ending found in the Kenshin Kaden Artbook.
It's funny but the two quotes below from yesterday's entry is actually rather appropriate for RK.
Anime Update: Here's what I've been watching this week. In a way, writing these synopses sorta reminds me of my early days at Cal-Animage. Although it's sad to say, I don't think I've gotten any better at writing them. Another CAA alum seems to be stirring up some trouble.
Gundam Seed:
I'm currently wading through a HK pirate subtitled version of this show. It features some great literal translations such as calling every reference to a ship, mobile suit and fighter a "boat". I especially love their translation of the name "Artemis" as "The Moon Goddess" and "Archangel" as "Angel Trumbone". Aside from the translation problems, It's probably the best Gundam series to date with a good mix of story, excellent animation quality and great mech designs. (Most Gundam series are unbalanced in that one or more of those three qualities is weak).
Mahoromatic:
This is a romantic comedy in the same style of Ranma, Love Hina, Ai Yori Aoshi, Tenchi Muyo!. Actually, the comparison with Tenchi is probably the closest, because there's sort of this sci-fi backstory, but the setting is rather modern. Mahoro is a combat android, and in recognition of her services in defending the earth from alien invaders, she's been given the choice of either remaining in combat duty, in which her lifespan will expire in 37 days or to live out her remaining days as a civilian for a little bit over a year. Mahoro chooses the civilian life, being a maid to Suguru, a 14 year old orphan. Each episode ends with a countdown of days until Mahoro will stop functioning, along with some poetry read by one of the characters in the show. In one of the episodes, the dog Guri barks his little poem (very much like the dog barking ending theme of Excel Saga). The ending theme (Mahoro de Mambo) is especially catchy. While being very fun to watch, there are a number of sexual jokes, so I would not say that this is a series for everyone.
Chobits
What happens when they start making Personal Computers which look like humans? How will life change? Those seem to be the questions asked and answered by CLAMP (creators of Magical Knights Rayearth, X, Tokyo Babylon, Angelic Layer) in this series. While not giving too much away, the basic premise is that Hideki finds a PersoCom that someone has thrown away, the only problem being that Hideki knows nothing about PersoComs or Chi, the PersoCom he finds. Of course, Hideki's friend Minoru alludes to the fact that Chi may be linked to the mysterious Chobits.
Finally sat down this past weekend and watched all the anime that's been piling up for the last few months.
I, My, Me: Strawberry Eggs:
I first heard about this series last year at FanimeCon during a workshop on voice acting. We had the voice actor and the voice director there having members of the audience try their hand at being the dubbed voices for the characters. Later on, at the con during the Pioneer panel, they showed a short 10-minute clip of the series. It made me laugh enough to pick up the DVD when it was finally released in September of last year. It's about a teacher who manages to to make an impact on the students' lives at the school. (Teacher based anime seems to be quite popular at the moment). It is a comedy, though, so some suspension of disbelief is required. Unlike most anime series, this one actually has an end.
You're Under Arrest - TV series, Season One:
I actually started watching this last week. This is an action-comedy series about a police precinct (think Lethal Weapon post-Joe Pesci). The creator of the series is Kosuke Fujishima, Who also created "Ah! My Goddess" and "eX-Drivers", which means a lot of detail is given to the background in being very realistic and very accurate (particularly with things mechanical). It's a pretty old series, so it's about time it was brought over.
Rahxephon:
This is a science fiction drama about a boy and his robot. There's many comparisons to the Evangelion series, mainly because of it's similarity in the core of the story (the reluctant boy who becomes the pilot of a robot) and the background music (which has the same style of piano work as Eva). While I wasn't immediately enthralled with the series initially, after watching a few episodes the story drew me in, and now I can't wait to see more of this series. The art style of the characters is much more realistic looking than most anime, quite reminiscent of Lain or Hellsing.
Noir, Vol. 2:
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this series before. It's about two female assasins trying to discover their past. In the second DVD, we see a lot more character development of both Mirelle and Kirika. The pace of the show still feels a little on the slow side but that's pretty typical of most 26-episode anime.
I didn't get to Spirited Away this weekend, but when I do, I'll make a note of all the cultural references and try to explain... although I'm fairly sure someone on the net has probably already done it.
Alias is coming to DVD later this year. Three Studio Ghibli films were released on DVD this past Tuesday (Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service and the Academy Award Winning Spirited Away).
Not sure if people watched the Oscars on Sunday night, but Spirited Away won for Best Animated Film.
Somehow it doesn't seem right that I should be here, sitting at home. I feel like I ought to be doing something.
Remeber my long analysis (Oct. 28th) on Spirited Away a few weeks ago? New York Daily News critic Jack Matthews has this to say about Spirited Away and Disney:
"Walt Disney, Inc. lowered its 2002 earnings estimate earlier this week because of the abysmal opening of the studio's latest animated feature, "Treasure Planet." Disney will never know whether it squandered a potential windfall when it decided not to commit to a wide release for "Spirited Away," the infinitely superior Japanese animated feature it bought for U.S. distribution. "Spirited Away" remains the best-reviewed movie of the year, and has already won the award for best animated feature from the National Board of Review. I predict it will win all of the critics' awards. Yet Disney sat on it, convinced it was a minor art-house film, spending accordingly. The phrase "penny-wise, pound-foolish" has never been more appropriate."
