AnimeNation Anime News Blog

After seeing the Thor trailer several times and pondering it a bit, I’ve come to realize precisely what bothers me about the trailer. Thor is a god. He should be superhuman. However, the various trailers never convincingly depict him doing anything particularly awesome and godlike. He throws around some doctors and beats up some soldiers – one at a time. He seems to oppose some supernatural foes, yet they’re not especially imposing antagonists, and Thor seemingly fights them one at a time. Thor opposes the fire-breathing suit of armor, but it only appears to be moderately taller than him. The difference in scale between Thor and the armor suit is like Bruce Lee fighting Kareem Abdul Jabar. That difference is impressive on a normal scale, but it’s certainly not godlike. In the various trailers, Thor does cause a lightning bolt to start an earthquake, but the earthquake doesn’t appear to impact anyone, so its scale and impressiveness are muted. There’s simply nothing at all presented in the Thor trailers that makes Thor seem any more godlike or awesome than Arnie battling a predator. Thor should be on Superman scale, not merely tough-guy scale. Even the Hulk, human that he is, seemed more imposing and powerful in his two movies than the mighty Thor appears to be in his own movie trailers. I want to see Thor taking on armies. I want to see Thor standing up against towering foes. I want to see Thor engaged in epic battles worthy of Norse legend. Not only do I not see that in the trailers, I don’t even get an implication of that.

My point:

The Hellsing OVA series seems to be turning into this generation’s Giant Robo, except while I remember a lot of constant anticipation and demand for further episodes of Giant Robo back in the 1990s, I have the feeling that these days very few people seem to especially care if or when an eighth Hellsing OVA gets completed and released.

I’m quite surprised to learn that Bandai’s April 26 release of The Girl Who Leapt Through Space volume 1 DVD will be subtitled only. Say what you will of my “elitism,” as I don’t mind the absence of an English dub in the least, but I’m surprised that this particular show isn’t getting a bilingual release. The early 2009 series didn’t quite become the breakout smash hit that Sunrise probably hoped it would be. But the show is quite good and did develop a devoted fan following. This is a show which, it seems to me, would definitely attract a bigger audience with an English dub. So I wonder why it isn’t getting a dub. Are there bizarre objections to an English dub from the Japanese master licensor? Does Bandai believe the show doesn’t have the audience or sales potential to warrant the extra investment? Can Bandai simply not afford to dub the show? This does seem to be a budget-conscious release since consumers will be getting a single 175 minute DVD (presumably 7 episodes) for a $29.98 SRP. At least subtitle fans, like me, will get to enjoy our soaring cake.

After more than 130 unique or interesting overlooked, little known, or forgotten anime opening sequences, I’m starting to run out of candidates. Any suggestions? So far every opening I’ve posted has been from a series that I’ve actually watched, but that doesn’t have to be a requirement. I’m only seeking suggestions for opening animation sequences that have some interesting, unusual, or unique aspect and aren’t from common, well-known, currently widely available shows.

After not having heard it in the past couple of years, I’d forgotten how beautiful Arai Akino’s debut song, “Utsukushii Hoshi” (Beautiful Planet), the ending theme to Windaria, really is.

Speaking objectively, I think that the Kara no Kyoukai movies are a mixed bag, yet they still represent just about the epitome of what American otaku traditionally seek in anime. The films are lushly drawn, consistently grim, rather pretentious, periodically violent, and highly stylistic. I’ve long thought that the anime which most epitomizes the idealized consumate anime, in the amorphous perception of the American otaku, is the Jubei Ninpocho movie. I’ve long thought that the ideal depiction of the characteristic elements which American otaku subconsciously expect anime to be is the first episode of the ROD OVA series. The Kara no Kyoukai movie franchise delivers that idealization with a pretentious sense of intellectual and artistic integrity mixed in. However, despite that, I’ll still say that the third KaraKyo movie remains one of the most stunning and memorable singular anime feature films I’ve ever watched. Particularly fans of Bakemonogatari should give KaraKyo (and I just made up that abbreviation myself, unless I’m remembering it subconsciously) a shot because Kara no Kyoukai is literally a cousin of Bakemonogatari that trades quick-cut editing, impressionistic art design, and rhetorical philosophy for slow paced clacissism, gothic modern photorealism, and abstract, pretentious philosophy. In effect, KaraKyo feels like Bakemonogatari directed by Mamoru Oshii instead of Akiyuki Shinbo: very similar content, just a presentation that’s equally obtuse in the diametrically opposite extreme.

There are few anime which I immediately think that would deserve or even demand the full visual and audio benefits of Blu-ray clarity and resolution. The KaraKyo series (and Seirei no Moribito) are among the few titles that do immediately suggest themselves. If there’s any singular anime feature worth $75 on Blu-ray, the third KaraKyo movie is the easiest for me to justify, followed by the first and fifth films. However, the second film may be narratively pivitol, but it’s also sickeningly pretentious and so expository that it’s really a lousy film when taken independent of its role of providing context for the films that surround it. The fourth film is among the best of the seven, but it’s also a dialogue-centric chamber piece with only one brief action sequence. The sixth film feels entirely shoehorned in, and despite having a beautifully rendered climax still feels unfulfilling and anti-climactic. The seventh film should have a tremendous affective impact, but it’s so overwrought and largely underwritten that it cuts away much of its own potential. The strengths and high water marks of the movie franchise are undeniable, yet they’re compromised by the weaker entries, making the franchise a case of having to take the good with the bad.

With the English speaking otaku community suddenly abuzz with discussion of elite fansubbers, “Communist” conspiracies, and missing transport streams, I think to myself that I’d probably be quite pleased if we could all just go back to the old days when anime fans just liked anime.

Taking inspiration from director Neil Blomkamp’s early work, Canadian film maker Sean Wainsteim’s music video for You Say Party’s new single “Lonely’s Lunch” is a darn neat slice of sci-fi action.

Without realizing precisely what I’d done, I now realize that I chose to attend the X Japan concert that occured on vocalist Toshi’s 45 birthday. The final performance of X Japan’s first North American tour was a spectacular show held on October 10, 2010, 10/10/10.

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On the evening of July 13, 1996 a friend showed me a three minute long anime music video. It was director Rintaro and character designer Nobuteru Yuuki’s X², their first anime adaptation of CLAMP’s ongoing manga series X. That fluidly animated, bloody, and spectacularly visual psychic action extravaganza stunned and awed me. However, the anime alone wasn’t solely what made the impact. The music video was set to a pounding, intense Japanese heavy metal song driven by insistent drums, powerful guitar, and raw, emotional vocals that demanded attention. Without even consciously realizing that was happening, I became an X Japan fan that evening, and in the fourteen years since, my respect and adoration of the group and its music has only increased.

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I usually don’t like to show off, but grant me an occasional exception. After nearly 21 years, yesterday, with the assistance of a friend in Japan, I completed my collection of Cream Lemon, Shin Cream Lemon, and Cream Lemon: Ami Sorekara hardcover film comics. I bought the first one way back on September 25, 1989. I’ve been picking up additional ones as I could find them ever since. They’re not all first editions – in fact, most of the 16 volume first series are second editions. And not all of them have their obi, but especially considering that I’m an American collector, I’m still pretty darn proud of this collection, regardless.

The collection includes 16 volumes in the first series, 8 volumes in the second series, and 4 Ami Sorekara volumes. The photo includes three additional hardcover film comics: Cream Lemon Special: Dark, Tabidachi – Ami Shuushou and Lemon Angel.

Below the fold is my entire collection of Cream Lemon anime books (with the exception of the Ami Sorekara movie program, which I seem to have misplaced).

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A friend of mine presently living in Japan sent me this e-mail.

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One thing leads to another. If Predators primarily see with thermal vision, they’d be screwed during a zombie outbreak. Zombies are always the last to get picked when choosing teams because even though they always win in the end, they have no sense of humor.

Sorry folks. We just learned that the link to submit “Ask John” e-mail was broken. It’s fixed now. I suppose that explains why I’ve received so few new messages lately. I thought you just didn’t like me anymore.