| 7:03am | The Astronomer's Dream | | | | I wrote briefly about Malcolm Sutherland before. He's totally one of my favorite indie animators ever. His latest and longest opus, The Astronomer's Dream, is a mighty fine little trip through the mind and the universe and is worth a gander. Malcolm has self-released the film on a DVD together with... |
| 8:03am | The Secret of Kells | | | | I got to see the wonderful Irish-Belgian-French co-production The Secret of Kells this evening. I'd been impressed by the trailer when I saw it a few months ago, and the film didn't disappoint. Kells stands right up there with the films of Michel Ocelot and The Triplets of Belleville in leading today's... | | |
| 7:03am | Explorer Woman Ray | | | | Another noteworthy OVA relic from the post-Akira period of 1989 to the early 90s is Explorer Woman Ray from 1989, which I just picked up out of curiosity. I'd seen it often on the shelves of video stores 15 years ago when I rented anime regularly, but the package failed to impress me, so I'd never seen... | | |
| 6:53am | Yusuke Nagano etc | | | | I don't know much about western animators, but I love effects animators, and the effects in Michel Gagné's Prelude to Eden are pretty nice. I'd like to see more of his FX work. He has apparently been the man behind the effects in a number of features over the last two decades including The Iron... | | |
| 10:54pm | Odds and ends | | | | This has probably been reposted on every person and their dog's blog, but this time-lapse footage of the Los Angeles wildfire is quite amazing. Nature's devastating FX animation. OB sakuga nerd comment: Reminds me of Toshiaki Hontani's Akira smoke. I thought this illustration by awesome Japanese indie... | | |
| 7:07pm | Mirai Mizue | | | | I just found out that indie Japanese animator Mirai Mizue has his own web site and you can see all of his films on there. That's one of the great things about indie animation today - it's quite easy for artists to share their work on their own home page if they want. Many years ago I wrote a bit about... |
| 6:05am | Take the X Train | | | | Many of the more significant anime directors of the 1970s and 1980s learned the ropes at Toei Doga or Mushi Pro in the 1960s. The different approaches to animated filmmaking learned at each respective studio consequently provide the foundation for these directors. Some started out at Toei Doga but... | | |
| 6:59am | The Restaurant of Many Orders and Kenji Miyazawa anime | | | | Many of the best directors working in animation in Japan have adapted early 20th century poet Kenji Miyazawa's timeless short stories. The last film made by Japan's pre-eminent indie animator of the 70s and 80s, Tadanari Okamoto, was an adaptation of Kenji's The Restaurant of Many Orders. Okamoto died... | | |
| 4:28am | Crimson Wolf | | | | Each era in the history of anime has its distinguishing qualities. One of my favorite periods is 1990-1995, when you get OVAs with a sort of crazed energy in the directing and storytelling, and realistically tinged yet fun and manic animation. Unlike in the late 80s, one of the things in the air at... | | |
| 10:13pm | Miyazaki on Kanada | | | | By some lucky stroke, yesterday as I was browsing through a Japanese second-hand book shop, I found a copy of the "Yoshinori Kanada Special" book that was published in 1982 by Tokuma Shoten. It's undoubtedly the single best book published on Yoshinori Kanada, and probably among the better anywhere on... |
| 6:58am | Relic Armor Legaciam | | | | To continue with a little more on the legacy of Bebow, the studio founded by Tomonori Kogawa that I talked about in the Cool Cool Bye post, I thought I'd say a few words about another equally obscure OVA released shortly thereafter by one of the studio's offspring of sorts. I mentioned that Hiroyuki... | | |
| 7:39pm | Ponyo | | | | I got to see my first Miyazaki film on the big screen last night, and it couldn't have been a better film. Ponyo is my favorite Miyazaki film in a good long time, thanks in large part to its rich and dynamic animation, which makes it a film that truly benefits from being seen on the big screen. It's... | | |
| 7:39pm | Ponyo | | | | I got to see my first Miyazaki film on the big screen last night, and it couldn't have been a better film. Ponyo is my favorite Miyazaki film in a good long time, thanks in large part to its rich and dynamic animation, which makes it a film that truly benefits from being seen on the big screen. It's... | | |
| 3:32am | Tomonori Kogawa's Cool Cool Bye | | | | A lot of OVAs were produced in the 1980s, most of which have been forgotten today, usually for the best. Some have been forgotten undeservedly. Cool Cool Bye (1986) is one of the ones that's been undeservedly forgotten. Not only does Cool Cool Bye boast one of the most awesome titles ever, it also... | | |
| 6:57am | Dragon's Heaven | | | | I remember trying to watch Dragon's Heaven (1988) way back when but being unable to get past the atrocious and pointless tokusatsu opening. I braved it again today because I was curious to see Shinya Ohira's work on it, and it was worth it. To anyone who wishes to see some very unique visuals for anime,... |
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