Leaving the scaffolding in place

by dm00

Schmaltzy song, maybe, but I like the technique in this short (3 min) animation, and the way it leaves hints of the scaffolding in place:

I’ve long been interested in the scaffolding.  And it’s pretty easy to get a close look at the scaffolding behind anime.

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

Eden of the West

by dm00

Aaron Copland’s Rodeo animated by Eleanor Stewart

A wolf loves pork — further excursions in “anime”

by dm00

It’s Japanese.  It’s animated.  Anime!  It could use more Horo, perhaps.

One of the reasons I love animation (of which anime is one form), it the inventiveness of the creators.  This film is an example of that.

Not anime, but might appeal to fans of ef

by dm00

TheBigN invited me here to talk about anime, but there’s lots of that happening, so I take refuge in the fact that “anime” is the Japanese word for animation (I got into anime because I was an animation fan, though I was made one, originally, by watching an anime as a child).

And so, animation. Because of its use of text this might appeal to fans of ef – a tale of (mumble)? (And like tons of other anime bloggers, I think ef is effing brilliant.)

At least this one is animation.  As I contemplated posting this past week, I was seriously thinking about making a Moyashimon reference to this video.

Not anime, except maybe in the Japanese sense

By dm00

By way of Cartoon Brew this wonderful collaboration between math, music, man and machine: Music is math.

An image from

I wish I could figure out how to add a Vimeo link here… (No problem – TheBigN)

But you should check out Glenn Marshall’s page. Then go look at Processing, if you’re at all artistically and algorithmically inclined.