Category: Videos

The last AFW post …

… until next year, maybe.

I finally got through all the Anime Festival Wichita photos. You can see 421 of them here.

Here they are in a slide show:

[flowplayer src=’http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/afw7SlideShow.mp4′ width=640 height=480]

Right-click on the blue lady to download the file (57 megabytes).

I was surprised that there weren’t any Madoka cosplayers. Also absent: Chii; Rei and Asuka; miscellaneous Rozen Maidens; Ayumu and Haruna.

500 errors

I’m tired of seeing this

and this

whenever I want to edit a post or check statistics. I plan to move my websites elsewhere soon. WordPress currently recommends Bluehost, DreamHost, MediaTemple and Laughing Squid. Does anyone have any experience with any of them? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

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After seeing the same henshin sequences recycled endlessly in typical mahou shoujo series, I’m not particularly scandalized by this:

Menaces, pink and otherwise

Update: If an image of a pink pony playing a trombone might “frighten, intimidate or cause emotional distress” to you, do not click here:

Spoiler

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I note with alarm that a corner of the otakusphere has been invaded by aliens more frightening than zombies or sparkly vampires. These creatures look superficially equine, but their fur and manes typically are colors that do not naturally occur on mammals. Their behaviors sometimes suggest intelligible sentience, but just as often reflect either hypertrophied reflexes or psychoses. Thus far these creatures have been primarily an occidental phenomenon, but they recently have been observed in Japan. Here is some video footage of these entities. (Caution: sit at least 0.6096 meter from the computer monitor while watching this documentary. If you find yourself repeatedly viewing any of the videos posted or linked here, seek professional help immediately.)

I would recommend summoning superheroes to deal with this menace, but I fear that they have already been compromised. I suspect that our only hope is a new corps of mahou shoujo.

Post script: What exactly is Pinkie Pie?

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Kansas weather is sometimes a little too interesting for my taste. (The heat didn’t make it into the house, but the wind did wake me.)

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Animation of a different sort: time-lapse photography of the beginning of the recent Grimsvötn eruption in Iceland:

(These are large files and might take a while to load.)

Although this might have been a larger eruption than Eyjafjallajokull’s last year, because of the prevailing winds and the composition of the ash, it was far less disruptive. Grimsvötn, incidentally, has a long and busy history, including the Lakagigar eruption of 1783, which was perhaps more consequential than Krakatau’s a century later.

Grumbling and muttering

Dennou Coil is finally available — if you have an iToy. I don’t.

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Watching Fractale is becoming more and more of a chore. Are Enri’s antics supposed to be funny? I’m not laughing.

Yamakan thinks anime today is in bad shape. His solution is to ape Miyazaki. I’m reminded of the Pre-Raphaelites, who sought to revitalize art by returning to their notion of the middle ages. Their paintings make for pretty calendars, but they aren’t exactly great art.

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Here’s a bit of computer animation involving quilting and Celtic music:

Now let’s see some quilting using Penrose tiles, ideally with a klezmer soundtrack.

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No.

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The five best toys of all time.

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Bonus link: John C. Wright has discovered the origin of steampunk.

Captain Broccoli and Ms. Doom

In case you can’t understand the actors, the shows mentioned are Otome Youkai Zakuro, Squid Girl, Tamayura and Mahou Tsukai Sally. Also, it’s difficult hear the difference between “Miss” and “Ms.,” much to Ms. Doom’s annoyance.

If the embedded video above doesn’t work, you can watch it here.

Miscellaneous silliness

Ubu watched Linebarrels of Iron so you don’t have to.

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“This is either going to be a laugh riot, or I’m going to want to hurt somebody.”

The one in pink is Sherlock Shellingford, not to be confused with Sherlock Holmes.

Just wondering: what exactly does the word “milky” signify to the Japanese?

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Here’s the second-most impressive Touhou video I’ve seen: ((The most impressive remains this one.))

Then there’s this:

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I enjoyed The Triplets of Belleville — one of the few movies I’ve seen in a theatre this century — and I’ve been waiting impatiently for Sylvain Chomet’s next movie. Unfortunately, The Illusionist is apparently a disappointment.

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Can’t get out for your morning run because of the weather? Crank up your organ and dash through Chopin’s “Revolutionary” etude:

(The 19th-Century Czech pianist Alexander Dreyschock played this piece with left-hand octaves, which is at least as impressive a stunt as this.)

(Via Frëd.)

Anyone else?

Here are the nominees thus far for best villain in anime.

Johan (Monster)
Cell (Dragonball Z)
Friagne (Shakugan no Shana)
Sephiroth (Final Fantasy)
Light Yagami (Death Note)
Leader Desslok (Space Battleship Yamato)
Lord Genome, the Spiral King (Gurren Lagann)
Gendo Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion)
Ladd Russo (Baccano)
King Hamdo (Now and Then, Here and There)
Beatrice (Umineko no Naku Koro ni)
Piccoro Daimaou (Dragon Ball)
Joker (ROD TV)
Charles Solomon ((Not eligible for technical reasons.))
Yomi Isayama (Ga-Rei Zero)
Vegeta (Dragonball Z)
Freeza (Dragonball Z)
Lust (Full Metal Alchemist)
Lord Shishio (Rurouni Kenshin)
Char Asnable (Gundam)

Considering the number of bad guys throughout anime, this is a surprisingly short list. Who else should be on it?

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John C. Wright declared that April 22, widely observed as Lenin’s birthday “Earth Day,” was actually Pluto Day. Is Pluto really a planet? Of course it is; else why would it have its own Sailor Senshi?

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I recently found “Dennou Coil licensed” and “Dennou Coil Media Blasters” among recent search terms. Has the best show of recent years finally been licensed, or do the searches indicate wishful thinking? The latter, apparently. However, I do note that The Tatami Galaxy (Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei) has been licensed for streaming by Funimation, and if it is now possible to watch Masaaki Yuasa legally online, then there is still some hope that we may yet see Mitsuo Iso on DVD.

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Leiji Matsumoto made a video for “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

(Via Ogiue Matrix.)

It doesn’t work particularly well — the images have nothing to do with the lyrics — but it’s worth watching once for the curiosity value. If you want to see a better example of combining music with the Leijiverse, I recommend Interstella 5555. The best video of “Bohemian Rhapsody” remains the Muppets’.

Dreaming meat

Not anime, but of interest to science-fiction and music fans: Frëd Himebaugh of the Fredösphere has composed a fifteen-minute opera using Terry Bisson’s short story “They’re Made Out of Meat” as the libretto. You can purchase it here for 89¢. See also Frëd’s earlier posts here and here.

•••••

In case there’s anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, here’s the best Touhou video I’ve seen in a while:

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Catholic News Service apparently didn’t think to google the name they chose for their multimedia service.

Checking in

Highlights from the posts I don’t have time to write:

• Taishou Yakyuu Musume is the first new show this year to sustain my interest beyond the second episode. In the first eight episodes of the story, the writers have kept the focus primarily on high school girls learning to play baseball in 1925 Japan, and they have not let the themes of feminism and westernization versus traditionalism overburden the story. There’s also been very little teen angst. ((Some of the girls waste time being moody and depressed in early episodes; part of the story is how they find the mental toughness to keep playing despite errors and losses. However, there hasn’t been any romangst — yet. (In the eighth episode, it turns out that one of the girls has an unlikely crush on the central character. If this gets played up in the remaining episodes, it will be seriously annoying.) )) If the last four episodes are on the same level as the first six (the seventh and eight episodes are essentially filler), the series might be worth recommending.

Taking the maxim that “the pitcher and catcher should be as close as husband and wife” too literally.

• Ponyo is in its fifth week in Wichita, the longest any Miyazaki film has ever played here, and it’s at a theatre within reasonable bicycle distance. I watched it last weekend. The dub is tolerable, though “bug off” is not an adequate substitute for “baka.” It made a little more sense than the fansub I watched last year — I suspect that there was some discreet re-writing in the dub script — but the logic of the story still is, um, hard to follow. I’d rank Ponyo as second-tier Miyazaki, not a classic like Spirited Away or Totoro, but far better than Howl’s Moving Castle (skip the movie and read the book instead). It is well worth seeing on a large screen if you have the opportunity, particularly if you have kids.

• For the convenience of any balletomanes visiting here, this is the only section of choreographic interest in Hakucho no Mizumi, the 1981 animated version of Swan Lake.

[flv width=”480″ height=”382″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/cygnets.flv[/flv]

Sorry — if you want 32 fouettés, you’re out of luck. Swan Lake does have one of the better stories in ballet, but this adaptation trivializes it. Skip it, and find a video of a good dance production instead. Or, better yet, attend a live performance when you have the opportunity.

Coming attractions

Kadokawa has posted the trailer for Mamoru Hosada’s Summer Wars that Fellini 8.5 found earlier:

How long will we have to wait for an American release?

Below the fold are Kadokawa’s notes with the Google translation. I would welcome a more intelligible summarization or translation, should any bilingual reader have the time.

Continue reading “Coming attractions”