Kurogane's Anime Blog

Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Wishing everyone a happy Chinese New Year of the Boar in 2007. May there be prosperity and happiness to everyone in the year ahead.

Also, I will be away visiting relatives for a week or so, so don’t expect many/any updates till next week.

Oukashou is the first part of Byousoku 5cm and introduces our main characters Takaki and Akari, both of them good friends who have to be separated due to various circumstances and decide to meet each other one year later before Takaki has to move to an even further place. With Oukashou, Makoto Shinkai has clearly outdone himself.

To me, Oukashou is neither good because of the detailed art nor because of the simple yet touching plot, it is good mainly due the talented direction of Makoto Shinkai who manages to effectively communicate his intended theme of separation due to distance through the narration and feelings of Takaki. Throughout the journey Takaki undertakes, Makoto Shinkai has effectively conveyed the feelings of an individual being separated from their important person very well and in a very deeply moving way too. I couldn’t resist shedding a tear at the moment of Takaki’s arrival and realizing that Akari has been waiting for him.

To end, to quote TripleA, I definitely will say that “This is anime.” is a very apt expression to describe the quality of Byousoku 5cm. The next story, Cosmonaut, will be dealing with the theme of “distance of feelings”. おたのしみに.

Following up on the earlier announcement…

2-17-07 (4:30AM EST)—- Rebuild Of Evangeriwon: Shin Gekijou-ban Films Officially Announced
Just when you thought you’d pinned down an official name for the new Evangelion movie project, new titles and pronunciations keep piling on and as promised, on Saturday, the 17th in Japan director Hideaki Anno officially made his statement announcing the series. A special website has gone live at Yahoo announcing the 1st feature: “Shin Gekijou-ban Evangeriwon” will hit theaters nationwide in Japan on September 1st. A poster carrying the director’s statement was hung in 50 cinemas across the country, its contents have been reproduced online here. Therein it is confirmed for the first time officially that a new company formed by the director will helm production. Additionally, the first trailer from the new movies has gone online in 1MB Windows Media streaming form which can be accessed at the bottom of this page. Mantan is carrying an image of how the poster appears in theaters locked behind a glass wall case.

That’s a weird name there…. anyone can summarize what the poster is about?

Shit literally hits the fan in this episode with the legendary scene of Ayu bringing Yuuichi to visit her “school” only to find out it’s just a tree stump.This is, of course the turning point of Ayu’s story and I still remember it even it’s been 2 years since I first watched the 2002 version. I can’t really remember what happens next though, so what’s going on next will be “fresh” to me.

Suprisingly I’m not feeling the intense emotions that the other arcs have had made me felt, but then Ayu’s story is still halfway done, so for now, all I can feel is an empty feeling of “Oh shi..!” more than touched. Perhaps I just don’t like Ayu as much as I do for the rest of of the girls ;P.

Still this episode was entertaining in it’s own way, and I really like on how subtle but yet a powerful role that Akiko-san played in this episode. She instantly noticed that Yuuichi and Ayu had hooked up and went to reassure Nayuki, who seems to have accepted it well and she’s even waking up on time! Also, Akiko-san tried to give a subtle hint to Yuuichi to help him jog back the memories of 7 years ago, of which he has purposely locked away in his mind. Speaking of which, what does she job does she really do? It does feel like she’s around the house all the time.

So there’s still 4 weeks to go before Kanon ends, and this episode has proven that 25 and 26 are probably flashback episodes rather than real episodes. KyoAni’s tradition I guess. I’m still hoping that 25 and 26 might be new content though, perhaps more Nayuki-centric :P.

(for those of you who recognise this picture, please don’t spoil :P)

Planetes is probably the most awesome work of Sunrise this decade I will recognise (second is probably Zegapain). The whole series is an exploration of humanity as a whole and probably a very accurate representation of what our near-future will be, particularly in the area of space exploration. As one of the main protagonists would put it, the production team definitely put in a lot of “Ai” in to making this series.

On a the technical side, much praise has to be given to the team for actually researching space technology so throughly that an accurate representation of living in space is depicted in the series. Zero-G is Zero-G, spaceships don’t make noise and astronauts wearing diapers are some of the facts that are incoporated in the anime. Even the risks and effects of living in space and low gravity enviroments are factored in and it doesn’t paint a rose-colored picture of the harshness of space and the fact on how humans are very much beings not adapated for space-faring.

Later on, many human issues crop up in the series, involving the disparity between the rich and the poor, the selfishness of the “privaliged” elites, existential angst and the choice between love or persuing one’s dreams crop up and are dealt with in a very human way. What probably makes Planetes able to achieve such feel is the perspective it tells the story, while mostly centered on the few key characters that are considered as powerless individuals, we do see how the petty squables of the “elite” manage to affect their lives in a drastic manner.

I’ll refrain from going on any longer as it’s in contrast with my 500-word guideline already, but suffice to say, Planetes is a series that any fan of the medium should watch and it proves that Sunrise does have the talent amongst them to pull off a very good and enjoyable show.

I might even watch it!

More news again, this time about our favourite dancing anime.

2-14-07 (8:20AM EST)—- 2nd Haruhi Suzumiya Anime Announcement Pending?
A few days back the official SOS Brigade Japanese website at www.sosbrigade.com scaled back on content volume significantly and rather unexpectantly. There now, one can view only a single page place holder. This occured around the same time that a blurb was made at the official Haruhi Suzumiya series site, mentioning members would be contacted about some “activity schedule” to occur in February. All this comes as a large sold out 4 hour event is scheduled to occur in Saitama, Japan on March 2nd featuring the entire main cast including Hirano Aya (Haruhi), Sugita Tomokazu (Kyon), Gotou Yuuko (Mikuru), Chihara Minori (Yuki), Ono Daisuke (Itsuki), Yuki Matsuoka (Tsuruya-san), Aoki Sayaka (Kyon’s imouto), and Shiraishi Minoru (Taniguchi). Hirano Aya recently posted a picture of herself practicing God Knows on the guitar to her blog. It’s speculated Chihara Minori play guitar live there with her. There’s a great deal of specualtion in Japanese fan circles that a large announcement on the future of the anime may be made here.

Looks like they seem to be employing the viral marketing tactic the gaijin’s used and parodied to much comedy earlier. And no, the source code doesn’t have hidden comments this time round. I wouldn’t really speculated it’s 2nd season announcement yet though, since it’s a little too early to say.

Source: Anime News Service

2-14-07 (8:20AM EST)—- Hideaki Anno To Announce New Eva Films On February 17th
New Evangelion film series “general superintendent” Hideaki Anno will release an “emergency statement” regarding the project on the 17th of this month. This will mark the first time the Director has spoken to the public regarding the 4 new animated features. Additionally, its been revealed that the first Evangelion Shin Gekijou Ban film will be released to Japanese theaters on September 1st, 2007. Anno’s statement will be made in several media including a film projected poster, to be shown in around 50 theaters across Japan. A special message in all white colored text will read: “Animation set in and impoverished future Japan”. A 15 second video clip will be screened simultaneously. Those who have seen these media have noted that several Japanese katakana characters in the “Evangelion” title have been changed over the previous spelling. A different “E” character is used and the “O” has been replaced with “WO”. The first fillm is expected to encompass the storyline of the first 6 TV epeisodes. A special internet website will be launched through Yahoo Japan to coincide with the announcement on the 17th. Content there will include messages from the production staff. There hav been around 6000 merchandise items produced around Evangelion to date, with total sales approaching 150 billion Yen or more.

Another 7 months to wait then. Well, I guess Gainax’s financial stability will be guranteed for another decade or so. Let’s hope their standard hasn’t dropped from complacency.

Source: Anime News Service

Nyuu~ ambush!

Just when I thought this was a more laidback episode…. ▼

… Kyo Ani springs this on us. I’ll just have to say one thing… that was some awesome cinematography going along with that scene. Never look down on KyoAni… never…

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Wow, I found a Youtube vid of the original Nanoha concept…

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