Geek with Family

Last Friday’s Best Week Ever (YouTube video link) ran some not so funny, but just kind of mean, Mac parody ads (I originally watched them Saturday afternoon on my DVR). These ads make me feel bad about my hobbies, like blogging, making ironic t-shirts and mashing-up commercial works so I can call myself a participatory fan. I appreciate the parody, though, because I never feel like the real Mac ads are telling the whole story, namely the PC’s major advantage of video games.

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Anime Books has a new art book by my favorite illustrator, Range Murata. 3rd Illustrations [formcode] is a binder with loose prints of Murata’s drawings and paintings. Murata’s unique mix of futuristic fashion and iconic retro-future gadgets fills the pages of this new tome. Sleek lines on dark grey overcoats complement anime bedheads cut with steampunk inspired wire and leather headphones and broken down motor scooters with the same trim as a ‘57 Buick (hopefully Buicks existed in 1957).

Range Murata 3rd Illustrations [formcode]- This is the one volume which cannot be overlooked no matter what! The paintings and techniques of Murata changed from the analog work to digital. Similar to the second book of paintings "futurhythm", this illustration book comes in binder format. 160 pages. Text in Japanese. Measures 11.75" X 14".

Continue reading formcode - New Range Murata Illustration Book

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Paul Robertson’s Pirate Baby’s Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006 is finally finished and online. If you have any love for sprite animation  reminiscent of SNES and GBA 2D video games you must see this animation. PBCBSF2006 depicts two street teens bloodily battling their way through legions of zombies, IM groupies, monster caterpillars and alien octopodes to save their girlfriend from the maniacal Pirate Baby. Super awesome.

Thanks Joystiq (BoingBoing posted about this the other day but the link wouldn’t load).

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The Hellboy Animated production crew keeps a blog. I’m pretty geeked to see this thing. The blog posts the latest character designs, concepts and background art for the series of 75 minute movies. The first movie is finished or close to it and the team has already begun the second feature. The outlook is hopeful for these direct to DVD movies to capture Mike Mignola’s vision better than the Hellboy live action movie or the animated, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, from Disney’s catalog.

Continue reading Hellboy Animated Movies Production Blog

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Toys! You like to pose their arms and legs, turn their heads, aim their guns and slash their swords. With more points of articulation than you can count, today’s toys are more appealing than the static, fixed pose statues that they are replacing. We are moving forward with toys making intelligent decisions regarding artful sculpting of details versus poseability.

Continue reading Playstation Killed the Anime Star - Metal Gear Solid Action Figures are More Appealing than the Next Gundam Reincarnation

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Your eyes will bleed when you watch Studio Ghibli’s Mononoke Hime. Slobber will dribble down your chin and pool in your lap as you marvel at the full on CGI three point perspective action scenes. The arid magical forests of ancient Japan flawlessly rendered in the extravagant backgrounds will make you reach out your shaking hand for that world beyond the movie screen. Ghibli can create more emotion and human empathy out of 2D cartoon characters than Oscar has awarded in the last 50 years. Mind-bendingly fluid animation supporting humankind’s most difficult moral battles set in familiar alien worlds is the Studio’s trademark. Every production they release is an instant classic including Naussica, Laputa, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, My Neighbor Totoro and the aforementioned Mononoke Hime to name a few. This is anime in its purest form. Ghibli is the benchmark that all other feature length anime should be judged.

Continue reading Cutting Corners for the Sake of Anime - Determining a Quality Presentation vs. a Slide Show

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Otakus’ troubles with members of the opposite sex have plagued them since the dawn of information. This stereotypical attribute overshadows any of the good traits associated with the obsessive hobby of collecting useless trivia and merchandise.

Continue reading Otaku’s Shame - Hiding Your Hobbies to Bag a Babe

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In an episode of Martian Successor Nadesico Akito Tenkawa, the series’ heartthrob cook and Aestivalis pilot, is admiring the handiwork of Seiya Uribatake, the Nadesico’s lead mecha mechanic and resident model kit otaku. Akito compliments him on how realistic his snow covered 1:35 scale Aestivalis battle scene diorama is, despite Seiya’s recent change of heart towards the enemy. The mecha otaku explains how he knows the difference between real and realistic. Both men are contemplative and not to let the scene end on a sour note Yurika, the ship’s lovestruck and goofy captain, shows up holding 1:8 scratch builds of herself with deflated breasts and Ruri with enhanced womanly features. She interrogates the otaku on how these can be realistic and demands that they be remade more accurately. The scene ends with her breaking the arm off her own modeled likeness by accident. Baka. Continue reading Realistic vs. Real - A Mecha Otaku’s Journal

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When I was an adolescent I would tag along with my mother while she ran her errands. As she shopped for staples I resigned myself to the grocery store’s entertainment aisle. I would check out the latest mass-market novel releases searching for any movie adaptations usually by the overworked Alan Dean Foster. This was the only way I could experience many of the movies at the time like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Aliens and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. They would always rush these books to market so you would be lucky enough to read the director’s cut with various scenes dropped from the theatrical release. Second to these novelizations were the “limited edition” poster magazines with their fold out wall coverings, production shots, actor profiles and special effects secrets. When forced to make a choice I would always pick the novel over the magazine because it contained more content, but I would study the poster rag so I could successfully visualize the scenes and characters of the film that I would not see until its release on HBO.

Continue reading Sacrifice the Star for the Satellites - Devouring Blind Licensing

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The Divining Pendant

(Major Spoilers Ahead!)

It is a wonder that I am still alive.

Throughout most of my childhood and adolescence a divining pendant determined my health. Whenever I would come down with something as simple as a cold or as complicated and mysterious as a thyroid infection every Valentine’s Day, my mother would solicit the help of her New Age guru Don. Based upon my birth date, name and a physical possession of mine he would psychically prescribe exact daily dosages of vitamins and herbal remedies. A divining pendant (a New Age crystal on the end of a chain) that I assume would point to the right drugs for the cure amplified his psychic ability. If you are detecting a hint of skepticism you would not be far off. However, the fact remains that I was never sick long and I have a relatively clean bill of health considering that I can count on my hands how many times I have made an office visit to a conventional doctor in my 26 years. Am I lucky or is there some method to the madness of the divining pendant prescriptions? What is luck? How is this fate determined? Is it controllable?

Continue reading Vision of Escaflowne - Anime TV Series Analysis - Fate and Luck

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