Spies like who?
A friend and I are planning to attend Costume-Con 28 next year, and we need to start working on our costumes soon. The theme is “spies.” I’m too tall for Boris and she’s too short for Natasha, and I’m not particulary interested in James Bond, or most other spy movies for that matter. So, I’m wondering what spies there are in anime worth considering. Let’s see: there’s Tenhou and Tenten from Oh! Edo Rocket, and Yomiko Readman and Drake Anderson from Read or Die (I don’t think I should ask my friend to be Nancy). I’m sure that there are others. What other pairs of spies are there?
Update: Are you a fansub team looking for a new project? Consider tracking down and translating the video of the stage play Oh! Edo Rocket. There are some brief excerpts here.
Blossom gazing
Cherry trees bloom in Wichita as well as Japan. The one above is the variety “Kwanzan,” which has large double flowers, not the single blossoms that constantly turn up in anime. It’s not as elegant, perhaps, but it is very eye-catching.
Given the frequency with which cherry blossoms occur in anime, one would assume that the trees are in bloom half the year. I doubt that’s the case.
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Astro says, “BTW your top ten is flawed because it doesn’t include AzuManga’s Yukari. Probably because she’s the best anime babe ever, and you were just trying to make it competitive. *astro shakes his tiny fist*”
Nobody mentioned her when nominations were open. I plan to start the third and last of the preliminary rounds of the Who’s the Babe? this weekend. Should I add Yukari to the candidates? And while I’m at it, should I also add Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, another possibility whom nobody nominated and I forgot about?
Update: the nays have it.
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Bonus nonsense: Subtitles — They’re not just for anime. (Via Dustbury.)
Calling all classicists
Vicipaedia needs otaku who can write decent Latin. The anime and manga pages are pathetic. (I had several years of Latin, but that was a long time ago in a different century, and it would take more time than I can spare to regain competence.)
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Another entry for the “ducks in anime” file:
From Negima Ala Alba OAD #2 (not recommended).
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I discovered that the software used to animate Hatsune Miku is freeware, available here. It’s surprisingly capable. Here’s Miku dancing Maurice Bejart’s choreography; compare it to the final minutes of this. ((I recommend skpping the first six minutes unless you are a Bejart fanatic.)) Unfortunately, like Miku herself, it’s not for Macs.
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More random nonsense:
An animated stereogram. It works, too. There are more here. (Via Cartoon Brew.)
“Not only does it save time, but it’s really stupid, too.” More poem generators here.
Can’t find anything you like on the radio? Set a few parameters and generate your own music.
I did not need to see this:
Spoiler
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First sound of the future
Here’s a curiosity I recently came across: “Uta ni Katachi ha Nai Keredo,” by Doriko, featuring Hatsune Miku on vocals:
Yes, it’s just another instantly-forgettable ballad featuring one of the many nasal sopranos that infest Japanese popular music, but there is something remarkable about this recording.
(Via Martin.)
Dark silliness
Neil Gaiman and Gahan Wilson:
And Raymond Scott:
Via Cartoon Brew
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That other dealer is holding a “bargain bin blowout.” It’s mostly junk, of course, but there are complete sets of some worthy anime available for very reasonable prices, including Bottle Fairy, Divergence Eve and Misaki Chronicles, Haibane Renmei, Serial Experiments Lain, Shingu (including a t-shirt), Someday’s Dreamers and Sugar, a Tiny Snow Fairy. There’s also some Miles Davis.
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So Sailor Moon is girl stuff? Check the results of this poll.
Two years ago today …
… I launched The Kawaii Menace. It’s my second anime weblog, succeeding Beware the Kawaii, which I abandoned when bots found ways of circumventing the anti-spam mechanisms. I’ve been writing about anime to some extent now for about five years, ever since I discovered Serial Experiments Lain.
Today is also the sixth anniversary ((Six years, while not negligible, isn’t all that long in the blogosphere. Charles G. Hill has been around for over thirteen years now and still posts more in a week than most bloggers do in a month.)) of my first weblog, Mixolydian Mode, also defunct for the same reason. ((Coincidentally, Pixy Misa began blogging at almost the same instant I did six years ago. Congratulations, Pixy)). Its successor, Scuffulans hirsutus, devoted largely to photography, music and nonsense, is a good place to escape the virtual crowds; daily traffic there is usually in the single digits.
This is probably as good a time as any to acknowledge the obvious: The Kawaii Menace is essentially retired. I’m not shutting it down. I do have a series of summing-up posts in mind — though I’m in no hurry to write them — and I am as curious as anyone to see who the top ten anime babes are. There likely will be occasional observations, trivia and links about animation, Japan and women with blue hair. But my interest in anime has run its course. Little I’ve seen in the past year has sustained my interest past the second episode. I still enjoy watching old favorites, but I don’t have the patience anymore to plow through all the unremarkable new releases hoping to find another Denno Coil.
Steve, Steve, Steve, Stephen, Steve, …
The Maximum Leader says he doesn’t know who all the Steves are in the current poll. Let’s see if we can do something about that. Here are several of the Steves in action.
Stephen Bennett: “C.E.O. (Comanche Executive Officer)”
Steven King: “Medley: Puttin on the Ritz/42nd Street/It Don’t Mean a Thing” ((The bass you hear is actually the sound of the two lowest strings on King’s guitar run through a separate pickup and electronically transposed an octave down.))
Steve Lukather: “Naima”
Steve Morse: “Cruise Missile” ((Jerry Peek, bass, and Rod Morgenstein, drums))
Steve Stevens:”Melt” ((Tony Levin, bass, and Terry Bozzio, drums))
Steve Vai: “The Attitude Song” ((Stuart Hamm, bass, and Chris Frazier, drums))
For Steves Hackett and Howe, dig out your old Genesis and Yes albums.
I regret that I don’t have any Steve Kaufman handy (what I have is on cassette, but my tape deck died several years ago). He is the only person to place first three times in the National Flatpick Competition at Winfield (Mark O’Connor only did it twice). If flatpicking is what you like, he’s your guy.
If you don’t know who Stevie Ray Vaughn is, you have some remedial listening to do.
Update: In celebration of April 15, here’s Stevie Ray:
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Who’s the babe? Round two
Here are the candidates:
First in a series
I visited Botanica this afternoon for the first time this year. Here are a couple of the things I found there.
Bluebells
Lenten rose (for Eve)
There’s more at my photo gallery.
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.
480 pictures
[flv width=”440″ height=”330″]http://tancos.net/flv/wp-content/uploads/480pix.flv[/flv]
As threatened, here is the new, improved slide show featuring pictures from Steven’s header. The music is “Honga,” performed by Itzhak Perlman with the Klezmatics.
Babe gallery #1
Here are pictures of the round one candidates, a week late.
Fall, winter, spring, winter, winter, winter …
I’ve lived in Wichita for the better part of my life, and I still don’t know what normal Kansas weather is. Does this look like spring to you?
That’s the view from my front porch this afternoon. Aside from a few patches of green at ground level, it looks like February, not April.
There are more hard freezes predicted for tonight and tomorrow. I wonder if this will be another year without lilacs. Here are pictures of the last few daffodils. They most likely will be gone Tuesday.
Continue reading “Fall, winter, spring, winter, winter, winter …”
Precise language
From a discussion in the comments at TSO’s place:
>Reminds me of my System/360 days when we had to suggest to the programmers that rather than ask the operator at the console to type “1 for Yes, 2 for No”, the program should request “Y for Yes, N for No”.
>And what’s wrong with “1” for Yes and “2” for No exactly? 🙂
>One for yes and two for no is great if you have at least one position to the right of the decimal point.
>”And what’s wrong with ‘1’ for Yes and ‘2’ for No exactly?” 1thing.