News of Nakamura Kenji (director of 'Mononoke' and 'Bakeneko')

1) I was wondering what he has been doing since Mononoke ended last summer. Apparently he is re-editing an old series of Toei Animation entitled Mushrambo dated 2000.

ttp://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/mashura/

With all due respect, it looks to me that Mushrambo (at least from what I see of the commercial on YouTube) is just a cliched shounen fare. I am not sure how a genius director like Nakamura can turn water into wine. I really wish he were  involved in more creative projects than this - I for one would wash his feet with my hair if he did.

2) In other news, when I first learned of 'the crime of the century' in Austria through the news, I thought of (among other things) Nakamura's Bakeneko. I probably should have noticed it earlier but the pleasure dungeon in which Tamaki was imprisoned could not have been built overnight. The samurai lord must have built it from a long ago with a view of kidnapping and imprisoning his victim there.

Comments

[psgels]

Mushrambo (or "Shinzo" as it was called here) was one of the very few anime who actualy made it to dutch tv for the past decade. It's only quality was the setting it was placed in: a post-apocalyptic future in which mankind has died out and the only survivor being a girl who was put into a forced sleep for 500 years. It's one of the few shounen-series where the premise actually made sense. However, it ended up taking itself way too seriously, though I'm interested in what Nakamura Kenji can do with it.

[Wabisabi]

I have never seen it and do not know the story in any detail, but forced sleep for 500 years... and that is the premise that makes sense?

[B]

1) Bills before art?
2) Funny how the fictional Bakeneko seems more plausible. Every time some horrible news event comes up, it is so hard to believe the wives involved really had no idea something was fishy.

[Wabisabi]

I was going to save this for a post on psychological archetypes but since you bought it up:

If you study the Olympian gods, you would realize that they are actually psychological archetypes. Suppose you are a woman and your husband does not get along with your children - some women would instinctively side with their husband (like Hera), and some women would instinctively side with their children (like Demeter). Hera is not the type to raise a fuss when a child goes missing if it would jeopardize her relationship with her husband. In fact, she never really treats her own children well. Demeter, on the other hand, lets the land go to waste until something is done about her kidnapped daughter Persephone, to the extent of upsetting the apple cart between Zeus and Hades. Zeus, I think, acquiesces Hades' kidnap of Persephone with a wink.

This is the sort of psychological insight that makes me look on world-wearily at love-crazed women. Even as I watch an innocent love comedy like 'Itazura no Kiss', I could not help but wonder - is Kotoko a Hera woman in the bud who prizes her relationship with her husband above all else (supposing that she marries Naoki)? Who would she side with if somewhere down the road Naoki does not get along with their children?

These dark thoughts also come to me as I observe the couples around me in real life.

I suspect that the wife in the Austrian case is probably like that: being married and staying married is more important than being a mother.

[Kirikou]

Mushrambo isn't actually that bad of a series. Like psgels said, it's one of the few anime series that managed to make it to Dutch tv.

Unlike a lot of other shounen series (no offence) it actually has a somewhat original plot and a proper storyline.

In short the series is about the human race and their quest to eliminate a deadly virus. In an attempt to eliminate said virus, scientist combined the DNA of animals and humans and created the so-called 'Enterrans'.

For some reason the plan backfired and what should have been the greatest human creation ever has turned against man and eliminated each and every single human being save for one. Said little girl wakes up 300 years later (500 in the dubbed version) and tries to find other humans in the final human sanctuary known as 'Shinzo' and to strive for peace between the species.

Though the first part of the series is more or less clear, the rest gets kind of blurry. Which was a shame really since it showed a lot of potential compared to most cliché shounen series.

I'm actually quite looking forward to the remake of this series. Nakamura Kenji's earlier works were brilliant and I'm eager to see how he'll do with this series.

[Wabi Sabi]

Thanks for the load-down on Mushrambo. To clarify, I doubt that it will be a remake per se (as in with new CG, voice-acting etc), just re-edited with cuts here and there. From the vibe of it, it looks to me like a one-man re-editing project (one man = Nakamura). But then it's not like I am an insider to this whole thing.

Maybe Nakamura will straighten out the confusing parts.