Iwa ni Hana

News Items: Asakiyumemishi, Usavich, Oshii Mamoru's new film

1) The staff list of Asakiyumemishi (あさきゆめみし) has been announced and Dezaki Osamu (出﨑統) is the director of this 11-episode series. He was also the director of the old-school shoujo classic Onii-sama E and the chief director of The Rose of Versailles (from the 19th episode onwards).

Now, this is interesting. I was originally hoping for Nakamura Kenji who brought us Mononoke to take charge of this. But Dezaki-sensei is a very interesting choice indeed.

2) The third season of Usavich is here:

http://www.usavich.tv/

3) There has been some buzz about Oshii Mamoru's next animated film with Production I.G., which is to be about Miyamoto Musashi. To be honest, I am not too worked up about Miyamoto Musashi bit... but I shall see. The film is to be entitled Miyamoto Musashi - Souken ni Haseru Yume (宮本武蔵―双剣に馳せる夢―).

Introducing 'Usavich (ウサビッチ)': a series of 1:30-min long comic animation shorts produced by Kanaban

I take my hat off to the comic genius that is Usavich (ウサビッチ), a series of 1:30-min long animation shorts which you can view online at the official website here: ttp://www.usavich.tv/about.html

The story is about two rabbits who live in a Russian prison. One of them is docile, the other is a rebel. The title Usavich is probably a combination of usa from usagi (the Japanese word for 'rabbit') and -vich which adds a distinctly Russian sound to it.

It really is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. I am impressed by its inventiveness, well-timed jokes and fineness of detail. More importantly, it reminds me of the uniqueness of animation in that the same story could not have been told with live-action acting. (After all, what is the point of animating a story when live-action acting could have achieved the same effect?)

Apparently, this series is produced by an obscure studio called Kanaban. It is definitely a studio I will keep an eye out for along with Fruit Lab (see my previous post here).Their official website of Kanaban is here: ttp://www.kanaban.com/