Iwa ni Hana

An introduction to 'Qin's Moon (秦时明月)' - animation series from the PRC

I think I will just let the video speak for itself.

As you can see, Qin's Moon is a historic fantasy epic set in the Qin Dynasty. This CG/3D animation series has something of a cult following in China at the moment. Apparently, the story itself is based on a series of novels. It spans across 30 years and has a large cast of characters. Fans of Seirei no Moribito may wish to check this out - the story begins with a middle-aged swordsman protecting a young boy whom the emperor wants dead.

Some of the camera work is quite good. The sound effects are above average.  The ED is also quite nice (though the OP is less so in my humble opinion). You can find the official website here and see more screen captures here.

Unfortunately, the series seems to be aimed primarily at the domestic audience (you would probably need a crash course on Qin history and maybe a bit of early Han history to follow the story). I believe there are 20 episodes (each approximately 20 minutes long) released so far. The story has also been adapted into manga format and there is a to-be-published DIY book on animation using examples from this series (the target readers being amateur or aspiring animators, of course).

Sci-fi anime epic from the PRC: 'Moon Dust (月尘)'

News reached me that a Chinese animation series called Moon Dust (月尘) is to be broadcast in the PRC sometime towards the end of 2008. Here are some preliminary facts:

• There are 3 seasons. Each season has 26 episodes. Each epsiode is 20-min long.
• The story is set in 2166. The earth is on its last legs, and humankind is beginning to migrate to space. Nine volunteers undertake the mission of finding livable planets. In the process, they run into conflicts with other lifeforms...
• The series is targeted at young people and grown-ups.

Everything about the series looks promising so far. The producers also seem dead serious about producing a quality space battle epic that explores issues of life and morality etc. Fans of Toward the Terra may wish to mark their calendars to check this out when the time comes.

(Source: http://bbs.dmzj.com/read-htm-tid-245100-fpage-2.html, http://bbs.dmzj.com/read-htm-tid-245100-fpage-2.html)

A book on anime terminology?

Some of you may remember that I told a Japanese friend of mine to blog about anime terms - and the blog Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans came into being as a result.

Lately, I have been trying to make him produce a book on anime terminology, and the discussion thread for what the book should be like is here.

Please go there, have a look and make your voice heard. We would really appreciate your input.

A note of various amateur animation-related videos

1) Colour me impressed by this amateur animation short called Animation Showreel by Keith Maneri, which features (among other things) the OP of Cowboy Bebop, ukiyo-e artstyle, American comic book artstyle, references to Samurai Champloo and other cinematic classics like Kurosawa Akira's Seven Samurai and Rashomon.

2) Colour me also impressed by this creative short called Tim Tom produced by Romain Segaud and Christel Pougeoise as a graduating project at SupInfoCom. I love how the faces of the characters are ringed notebooks and they change their facial expressions by flipping the page. A neat detail that is.

3) I would have thought that these amateur videos brought to you by one Grumpy Ojii-san were some sort of parody of nature programmes on Discovery Channel. But they are actually anime reviews. I first stumbled upon his review of Le Chevalier D'eon (in which he emerged from behind a stone to review the series in much the same tone and seriousness as though he were discussing the formation of granites or plate tectonics or something). The videos are actually quite well edited.

'1001 Nights' by Mike Smith (character design by Amano Yoshitaka)

I was hoping this would be slightly more interesting to watch than the screensavers that come with Windows - which it was. However, if anything it reminds me of how little a fan I am of animation for the sake animation. I like animation that tells a story, however short and simple the story may be. I want to know what happens next. 1001 Nights has a run time of approximately 25 minutes, which is ample time to develop a story. But it turns out to nothing of the kind...

Nice character designs by the great Amano Yoshitaka though.

New anime series from Production I.G.: 'RB Sennou Chousashitsu (RD潜脳調査室)'

News reached me that Production I.G. will be launching a new series called RB Sennou Chousashitsu (RD 潜脳調査室). It has a number of big names on the staff roll such as Shirow Masamune as creator and Furuhashi Kazuhiro as director. You can see the rest of the staff here:

ttp://www.ntv.co.jp/RD/
ttp://www.production-ig.co.jp/contents/works_sp/1740_/index.html

I can't say I am too thrilled about this just by reading the plot summary. There is something the virtual world where people's suppressed instincts and desires are unleashed etc etc. I thought that sort of thing is old-hat by now in the sci-fi genre. (You know it is old hat when it has become more like a real issue in the Real World...)

But we shall see.

The Times features an article on 'Hataraki Man' in the business section

Imagine my surprise on discovering an article on Hataraki Man:

To succeed in her working life, Hiroko Matsukata, a fictional magazine news editor, deploys a range of arts that her fans are quickly adopting themselves. The 28-year-old is sweet when she needs to be and flint-hearted when threatened. She is even able to control her use of Japanese, suddenly dropping the niceties of speech traditionally expected of women when she needs male colleagues to take her seriously.

But her most powerful weapon has turned out to be a controversial one: when work gets tough and her male bosses pile on the pressure, she flicks on her psychological “Man Switch” and is transformed into a career-focused, success-driven typhoon of productivity.

“Absolutely, women need a Man Switch,” Moyoco Anno, the 36-year-old creator of the comic, says. “It doesn’t imply that men are superior to women, but that people need to understand better the differences of how men and women behave in the workplace and use that.”

I watched the series a while back, and Hataraki Man is all that. What interests me in particular is that the show has become something of a 'lifestyle guide':

Hiroko’s adventures have also become the basis of a bestselling lifestyle guide for the modern working woman, teaching the art of remaining feminine during the fight for equality and showing how to cope with truculent bosses, difficult coworkers and unsupportive partners.

But Anno argues that her comic is about much more than just the art of succeeding in a male-dominated work culture. Japan, she says, is a serial waster of both female and male talent. Part of the message of Hataraki Man, she says, is to highlight what she believes is one of the worst problems afflicting Japan – that the desire for a lazier, more comfortable lifestyle has gone too far.

When was the last anime/manga-turned-lifestyle-guide we had? I suspect Honey and Clover (another noitamina anime) probably coincided with those my pace and slow life movements in Japan I heard about some time ago. I also wonder which was the first anime/manga-turned-lifestyle-guide we had. My mind just draws a blank in that respect. Any suggestions?

An excellent German fandub of 'Le Chevalier D'eon'

Today I learned a new word - fandub. It means a dub made by overseas fans who moonlight as voice-actors in their native language. Here is a German fandub of a section in Le Chevalier D'eon:

Isn't that excellent? I was almost fooled into believing that it were the official German dub or something. And the German voice of D'eon fits the role like a T.

I wish there were a French dub for this show that is nearly as good. I have often wondered what the original Japanese lines would be translated into in French.

P-Theater: 'The Back of an Elephant (象の背中)'

I refer to a series of 3-minute animated films at P-Theater called The Back of an Elephant (象の背中). Just looking at the artstyle, you would not have suspected that this is about death. To be precise, it is about the death of a father and the family he leaves behind.

It has great background songs too. The series is strangely heart-wrenching. I have played and replayed this a few times, and by the end I founding something watering in my eyes... It reminds me of De Wit's Father and Daughter, a masterpiece of short animated film which you can watch on YouTube here: