Guilty Crown/Kung Fu Love

by dm00

Guilty Crown is definitely turn-off-your-brain eye-candy. Nonsense, but very pretty nonsense.

In a way it’s a pity that so much talent is being used in the service of such nonsense, but Studio 4C has taught me that, if it’s pretty enough, I won’t mind if it’s nonsense:

Update: The youtube snapshot has horrid jaggies, the video is a bit better (and, it’s part of Studio-4C’s Amazing Nuts!, there are ways to find better versions of this short film). When you get to the six-minute mark you’ll see why Inori’s leap into space in Guilty Crown 4 reminded me of this sequence.

Sugimoto strikes again: Kore kurai de utau

by dm00
This short film (a music video) tells a/many delightful story/stories through its visuals:

It’s by Sugimoto Kousuke, whose work has been here before.

Anime has a future.

PS., if you have a Crunchyroll account/membership, seek out the short Korean animation, “Break Ups”, about a couple who discover a time-machine in the midst of a break-up. It takes them back to incidents in their past together. It’s a simple animation style, but I think it tells its story well. It reminded me, in visual style, of Tatami Galaxy (which itself has a theme of time travel).

Update:Omo tells me you can link to “Break ups” (I’d been intimidated by the subscribers-only talk on the page, thinking it was some big secret or something). Here it is.

Hoshi ni negai wo — another independent studio to watch

by dm00

All you folks kvetching about the on-again/off-again sequel to Black Rock Shooter should just relax.

The second episode of Hoshi ni negai wo, a pair of OVAs that are part Lain, part Matrix, and maybe a little bit of Clannad, showed up a few days ago.

Hunt it down and watch it!

The first episode, Cold body x Warm heart introduces us to Hikari Stellamaris, her mother (a sentient computer that runs her ship, the Armadillo), and their world.  While surfing cyberspace, Hikari encounters a floating blob, which she loads into a bit of spare hardware, to discover that it’s the preserved consciousness of a forgotten video-game programmer.  They have a few adventures, dodging the firewalls and antivirus software of their universe.

In the second film in the Hoshi no negai wo series, Fantastic Cat, Hikari meets the doll-jointed Lily,

The girl was all alone in the world.

encounters a cobbled together plush Cheshire Cat,

Nyaa.

and brings about the end of za Waruldo.

Wake me next season?

by dm00, doing an impression of the Anti-TBN

 

Hikari is not impressed (from Hoshi no negai wo - Cold body X warm heart)

 

In a place I hang out, I’ve seen this season called outstanding by a couple of people, but I’m not seeing it. For me, a season that includes Tatami Galaxy and House of Five Leaves is outstanding, this season doesn’t promise anything like that.

Feh:

• Sounds like it’s a creepy little sister incest show. Sorry, I’m done with the whole otaku-wish-fulfillment premise, at least until Genshiken II gets animated.
• A certain Biribiri-deprived index. None of the previous incarnations of this world have measured up, though Mikoto and her incarnations tried really hard.
• Cirno-of-the-sea.  Futakoi Alternative did the whole squid-invasion thing much better, if somewhat inconclusively. Puke pasta did make me smile, though. (Made my mouth water, too. (Ugh.))
• The save-point God only knows. The otaku-centric premise strikes again.
• NieA Under Bridge. This series had already grown tedious halfway through the first season. Why does this get an almost immediate sequel when Bakemonogatari still has mono to gatari? My Shaft-credulity only stretches so far.

Junichi Yamamoto — sad robot in rubble/Hot blooded alien/Kobe & I

by dm00

Thanks to an ANN news story about a Kobe tourism board-sponsored short animation, the quirky and eccentric Kobe & I:

I stumbled onto the director’s Youtube postings.

Kobe and I has a female lead with boyfriend-troubles, who also appears in the manic Hot-blooded alien:

Which reminds me a good deal of Yoshitoshi Abe’s I am an alien, and I have a question (don’t be mislead by the “graphic novel” — it’s only 20 or so pages long). I suppose it should remind me of Sunred, but I never got into that series, for some reason.

Half the films have a melancholy air, such as Melody, a Kunio Kato (Diary of Tortov Roddle, and the Oscar-winning
La Maison en Petits Cubes)-like short about a son’s memories of his deceased father. Watching it, I found myself wondering if my own children would have such memories of me (I fear I have no such memories of my own workaholic father).

It’s a bit trite and predictable, but sweet and affecting, and doesn’t overstay its welcome.

By far the best of the lot is the all-CGI Memory, which may remind some of Eve no Jikan (particularly the episode Nameless):

(If you like that sort of thing, take a look at this Russian adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s story There will come soft rains:

But be warned: the related links may turn into a TV-tropes-rivalling timesink.)

I don’t know if he’s got more animated shorts out there, or not. Google turns up some tantalyzing hints, but also hints that “Junichi Yamamoto” is not that unusual a name.

The TV Show

Found this link from a friend. Surprised that more people haven’t linked to this yet:

An independent animation music video by Kousuke Sugimoto, who according to his Youtube channel is a self-taught animator.  This is pretty good stuff in regards to that, as well as this work he posted earlier:

The music for both of these works were done by Takayuki Manabe. I hope to see more things from both him and Sugimoto to come.

By TheBigN

I have enjoyed my Time of Eve

by dm00

 

Watch Aquatic Language now!

 

Time of Eve comes to an end (at least a temporary one) with a double-length broadcast centering not on Rikuo, Sammy, nor Nagi, but on Rikuo’s robot-averse friend Masaki.

Anime wins Oscar

by dm00

“Anime”, that’s Japanese animation, yes?

Kunio Kato’s (Fantasy Story, The Apple Incident, The Diary of Tortov Roddle) film La Maison en Petits Cubes won the Oscar for best animated short film this evening.

It’s a sweet little film about an old man remembering his life — as he swims down through the flooded layers of his house, at first chasing a dropped, favorite pipe, but then chasing the memories conjured by the abandoned rooms.

It’s not a surprising story, but it is well done, and manages to touch the viewer’s heart.

Like Kato’s earlier films, this one shares the appearance of being done on ancient paper (and shares his storybook imagery).  Unlike Kato’s earlier films, which take the form of separate chapters, often complete with turning pages or title-cards, this film is a single story around a single incident — though, of course, each room, deeper in the water, and deeper in the past, contains its own episode.

If you’ve liked Kato’s earlier films, you should definitely seek this one out.  Even if you didn’t care much for the slow pace and general artiness of the earlier films, you might enjoy this film.  I think Kato has improved his pacing.  For this viewer, it also helps that the film is a bit less surreal and more human.