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Today I learned a new word in Japanese - it is mook (ムック) which, according to Wikipedia Japan, is a 'Japanese-made English word' (和製英語) derived from the words 'magazine' (for 'm') and 'book' (for 'ook').
I discovered it when I was checking out the official website of Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto for any new DVD covers - and there it is, the Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto mook.
So there goes another word for anime fans to know by heart. Mark it down!
So it's that time of the year again. This July, with only around 20 new titles coming out, is relatively quiet compared to last July (which had around 50 new titles coming out all at once, if you remember). Here are the shows I would be checking out:
I have already written about my expectations of the first three. I am neutral in respect of Baccano! - not exactly holding my breath but not exactly turning up my nose at it either. I have a feeling that I will probably not like Mushi-uta much besides what I believe to be the OP, which you can hear for yourself in the first video on NewType's page: ttp://pc.webnt.jp/special/sp070614_mushi.html
(If you are looking for a complete list of all the July shows, I would suggest this Chinese page with all the links to the official websites as well as a neat montage of images from the shows.)
Moving on to miscellaneous news...
More details will be revealed on The Sneaker magazine which is to go on sale on 30/06/07. The game is scheduled to go on sale sometime this year. You know, I am surprised that such a game has not been announced and produced earlier.
(Source: ttp://mantanweb.mainichi.co.jp/web/2007/06/psp07.html)
The DVD of this animated has been selling like hotcakes in Japan. It would be great to have more viewers exposed to this wonderful film.
(Source: ttp://mantanweb.mainichi.co.jp/web/2007/06/721.html)
Here is the scoop: Production I.G. just announced that Director Oshii Mamoru (best known for Ghost in the Shell) is to direct a featured film called Sky Crawler, scheduled to debut in 2008. This staff list is here.
I understand that the story is based on a book by one Mori Hiroshi 森博嗣. According to a summary from Amazon.co.jp, it is a fable where children fight perpetual wars and never grow up to be adults. It also seems that the protagonist is a pilot who kills people as part of his job.
Not much is shown in the trailer of the official website, though there are two key messages in the trailer. My rough translation below:
i) Somewhere in the world, there is a country that resembles Japan very much, where children never grow up to be adults. And they are extremely like us.
ii) 'I have something I wish to say to young people these days.' - Oshii Mamoru.
You know, I am tempted to think that this may be Director Oshii's response to the recent controversal statements made by Director Anno Hideaki 庵野秀, who professed that 'I don't see any adults here in Japan'.
I am interested to see how exactly this theme will work out in the film. It is sure to kick up a fuss. I will come back to post more as soon as I find out more details.
[UPDATE: 21/06/2007]
Actually, Production I.G. did put up an English page on this project. You can read it for yourself here.
A period drama fan though I am, I cannot say that I am completely sold on Shigurui シグルイ yet, though much reminds to be seen after it begins to air on Wowow from 18 July 2007 onwards. You can see some screen captures at this site.
What I understand from the preamble so far is this: Set in the peaceful early Edo period, two samurai are made to fight with real swords instead of wooden swords at a match. One of them loses an arm, the other loses his eyes. The two of them are from the same dojo and they are to compete to be the heir of the dojo.
The official website also says there will be twenty-two swordsmen appearing in the show and most of them either perish or come to serious bodily harm. In other words, it will be a quite violent and bloody show. One only hopes that the violence is not mindless and actually has a thematic purpose.
The cast and staff looks interesting. Namikawa Daisuke 浪川大輔 is to play another samurai after his role as Akizuki Youjirou in Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. Yoshida Kiyoshi 吉田潔, in charge of the music of Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, will also be responsible for the music in Shigurui.
I have a hunch that the show will be a cross between BL and Battle Royale, but I am touching wood for now...
(This is not strictly related to anime but...)
I am positively addicted to 'Overnight' sung by Aya, a.k.a. the ED of Le Chevalier D'eon. I have been so ever since Le Chevalier D'eon went on air last autumn, and the addiction persists even after the series has ended in this April. My mp3 player indicates that I have already played it on repeat for 2436 times. My favorite part is actually towards the end of the full version, of which the ED is but a part.
However, it has only occurred to me now to look for other works by Aya. The question is: which Aya? I am not familiar with Jpop but I know there are at least three well-known J-pop singers with the first name 'Aya'.
A search on Google reveals that the Aya of 'Overnight' is in fact a far from widely known independent artist. Here is her official website. I gather that 'Overnight' is a bit of a one-shot wonder. You can listen to the samples of her earlier works at BMG's website, and I have to say that she seems to have a very different style before 'Overnight'.
I am hoping for more great songs from her. In the meantime, I am also looking for songs similar to 'Overnight' (yes, please let me know if you have any suggestions).
So we have more info on this long-awaited animated film from the animation studio BONES. Here is a color spread from the May issue of NewType (courtesy of Maganimation):
The story is set in the Senkoku period. The gist of the plot is that a ronin called Nanashi (meaning 'nameless') saves a young boy Kotarou and his dog Tobimaru at an abandoned temple. Kotarou has no family, is pursued by a mysterious militia organization from China and hires Nanashi as his bodyguard. Nanashi has 'sealed' his sword due to some reason in his past, and sometimes he is disturbed by nightmares. He has abandoned his name along with his past. The man who pursues Kotarou is a man called Rarou. Rarou obeys an old man called Byakuran and is a membr of the Chinese militia. He is very skilled in his sword and it seems from his eye and hair colours that he is not just a Chinese. Unlike his companions in the militia, he has no concept of 'king' and he just wants to fight with the strong.
It seems to me that the expectation among anime fans is that this will feature the best sword fight scenes since... Samurai Champloo. The bit with the mysterious militia organization from China makes me somewhat worried - for some reason, all the trouble-making/bloodthirsty guys/elements seem to originate from/be related to China in period dramas like Samurai Champloo and Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. Or perhaps this is just a matter of coincidence. I have a feeling that, like Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, no satisfactory explanation as to the motives of the mysterious Chinese militia organization will be offered. It will just be something you have to accept at face value.
... has to be Mizuno Risa 水野理紗, who played Lia de Beaumont in Le Chevalier D'eon. I think the wide emotional range of Lia's character is a showcase for Mizuno to display her voice-acting skills, not to mention her magnificent reciting of the Psalms at the end of the first episode - her voice just burns itself into your memory, especially the 'in the name of truth and faith, I shall take my revenge on you (その真実と忠誠の名において、私はお前に報復する)' bit. Here is an audio clip (try Internet Explorer if you have trouble playing it on Firefox):
Other honorable mentions include:
The flair with which he said 'A-bu-na-i-de-su-yo (危ないですよ)' was quite something. I also like his lines towards the end of Episode 1. Here is an audio clip:
He plays several roles in the show. As we know, he has a very deep, sexy and magnetic voice. If I am not mistaken, I believe his voice went up several octaves at several places in one episode.
You have to give her credit if only for the tongue-twisters she has to pronounce in the show.
She has a beautiful voice to begin with. I have played and replayed many times her recitation of lines in the grandiose manner of speech of the kabuki, which is extremely difficult to master, mind you. Here is an audio clip:
He plays opposite Satou Rina in the kabuki plays within the show. Likewise, he has done a wonderful job in speaking in that elaborate manner of speech. Here is an audio clip:
This above is just my personal opinion though. I would love to hear which seiyuu you think did the best voice-acting in 2006.
The poster of this upcoming Chinese anime series produced by the PRC studio Sinodoor (中华轩) sure reminds one of Shinkai Makoto's 新海誠 The Place Promised in Our Early Days 雲のむこう、約束の場所. According to this source, it is to be a 26 episode series and each episode will be approximately 12 minutes long. It will be broadcast on various popular Chinese portals on the internet as well as on television.
Life on the Cloud is billed as a sincere yet touching story surrounding a group of teenagers; it tells of their loves, friendships and growing pains. The main character is a shy young man who falls in love with his childhood friend. You can see more screen captures here. On the whole, it looks to be something along the lines of Honey and Clover to me.
According to the info source, this project is something of a break-through in terms of product distribution and it is an attempt 'to forge the brand of Chinese-made anime'. An estimate of ten million viewers will be tuning in (they have a heck of a lot of people in the PRC).
The question for English-speaking fans, however, is whether fansubs will be forthcoming, or whether it will come with English subtitles. I will be able to watch it raw since I know Chinese, but it would be a pity if this project is not exposed to the anime-watching crowd around the world. Hopefully, they won't be blocking foreign IPs like they do with net broadcast of anime in Japan.
[UPDATE: 12 Jun 2007]
Actually, I just discovered that the first 6 episodes came out three years ago and the project has been stalled for all this time, so technically it cannot be said to be a clone of Honey and Clover. You can watch them on-line here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
[UPDATE: 15 Jun 2008]
Sorry for the confusion. A Flash version of Life on the Cloud came out at around 2004 (my update on 12 Jun 2007 refers to this). A more full-blooded animated version which is a remake of the same story came out in the fall of 2007 (my main post refers to this).Hope this clarifies.
Vaguely continuing from my previous post on the spring line-up of anime - I have dropped Hayate no Gotoku and Heroic Age and I often forget to watch Darker than BLACK -Kuro no Keiyakusha-... Also, it seems that whatever artistic touches that impressed me in the first episode of Skullman have largely absent in the later episodes (though I continue to watch it half-heartedly out of force of habit).
It seems no exaggeration to say that Oh! Edo Rocket has the most creative art direction among the spring shows, and the tenth episode is by far the most outstanding example in that regard. I would suggest taking a look at the second half of this particular episode even if you have not been following this series. There you get a mix of parodies of the kabuki and karaoke as well as dynamic camera perspective, among other pleasant surprises.
Rating: 4.5/5
Gallery of screen captures
The short answer of what Mind Game (マインド ゲーム), a 103-minute animated film, is about is that it starts off with a reunion of childhood friends, then we have the yakusa terrorizing a restaurant, then we have the protagonist meeting God in heavan, then we have the same protagonist going back in time, then we have the protagonist and his friends being swallowed by a whale and meeting a strange old man who has lived inside the whale for decades... The story is a heck of a crazy ride. See Wikipedia for a more detailed summary.
The two sequences of coordination of themes and animation that impressed me most were the meeting with God and the ending where the past converges with the present. In the former, God takes a different physical form in every frame per second because the protagonist has not decided yet in his mind what God should look like - you just have to give them credit for all the creative character designs of God. The latter is strangely life-affirming.
Kudos to the artwork - as with Kemonozume, an anime series with similar artstyle, my favorite frame is one that consists of the colours red, white, gray and black:
Also, if you look carefully at one of the frames in the beginning sequence which appeared for a split of a second, the main theme of this animated film is already written there on the board: Your life is the result of your own decision.
As promised, Iwa ni Hana will open a sub-blog dedicated to Mononoke モノノ怪, a continuation of Bakeneko 化猫, the third story-arc of the 2006 series 怪 ～ayakashi～ JAPANESE CLASSIC HORROR. Mononoke is scheduled to be aired in July 2007, and you can be sure that I will be pimping the show all the way through. It is the most serious contender for the title of best anime series in 2007, along with Seirei no Moribito - except if the quality of Bakeneko is anything to go by, Mononoke will be absolutely soul-shattering whereas Seirei no Moribito is just 'highly impressive'.
In other news, I have uploaded a gallery of screen captures for Cat Soup ねこぢる草, a masterpiece of surrealism in the history of Japanese animation. To borrow a summary of the plot from Wikipedia:
Nyaako, the older sister of Nyatta (the lead character) lays very ill in her room. By accident, Nyatta sees his sister leaving the house holding hands with a peculiar purple being, and follows them. It turns out that Nyatta was following Death taking his sister's soul away. Nyatta claims his sister's soul, by pulling one arm while her memories were erased by Death, who held the other arm. Nyaako's soul gets split in two, and her brother runs away with one half. Death sends a clue about a flower they must search in order to retrieve the missing part then walks away with the other half.
Nyatta returns home to find the doctor telling his parents that his sister was dead. Nyatta gets closer with the soul in his arms and puts it back in his sister's body through her nose. Nyaako wakes up braindead but with her body still alive. This is when the quest starts, Nyatta and Nyaako have to travel through the messed up world where humans act like animals, animals act like humans, life is a child's curiosity and death is not the end. It's a surreal dreamscape where everything is possible, with scenes of postmodern concepts of art and design. One scene portrays God as an old man eating up planets. Time and space concepts are also fused within the film when the old man turns gears of a clock and winds it back so everything goes backward in time.
Be sure to check it out.
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