{"id":440,"date":"2008-01-18T20:43:01","date_gmt":"2008-01-19T01:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tancos.net\/wp\/2008\/01\/18\/a-few-notes-2\/"},"modified":"2008-01-18T20:43:01","modified_gmt":"2008-01-19T01:43:01","slug":"a-few-notes-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/a-few-notes-2-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A few notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m curious about Kunio Katou, the creator of Aru Tabibito no Nikki<\/em><\/strong>, or The Diary of Tortov Roddle<\/em><\/strong>, so I did a litle searching. Here are his web site<\/a> \u2014 unfortunately, only in Japanese \u2014 and a brief curriculum vitae<\/em><\/a>. I also found this note at AniPages Daily<\/a>:<\/p>\n

It’s easy to see why Kato’s films would have won so regularly at the festival, which Norstein presides over every year. Visually they’re incredibly refined and convincing works closer in their graphic richness and craftsmanship to Norstein than to the bulk of Japanese production. Although his Tabibito series was produced in Flash, you would hardly suppose so at first blush. His production method for the series was somewhat unique: he drew each drawing on paper, scanned it into the computer, and left the white space around the figure intact rather than cutting it off as one would normally expected him to have done, which accounts for the handmade look of the series.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*****<\/p>\n

moya03.jpg<\/p>\n

I finally watched the second half of Moyashimon<\/em><\/strong>. Good grief. There is a distinct shortage of microbes. Instead, we get a rather grim school festival, girls bathing (but no real fanservice), girls in leather clothes, aphrodisiacs (which don’t work), alcohol (more effective), fermented herring, expensive people, same-sex kisses and Sawaki’s buddy as a gothic lolita. Oh, and the Aspergillus<\/em> fungi have dirty little minds. It is still a fun watch and there’s nothing quite like it, but I can’t give it an unreserved recommendation.<\/p>\n

moya02.jpg<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I noticed that Shigofumi ~Stories of the Last Letter~<\/em><\/strong> is directed by Tatsuo Sato<\/a>. Sato’s directing credits range from Nadesico<\/em><\/strong> to Cat Soup<\/em><\/strong>, not to mention Shingu<\/em><\/strong>, which was his original creation and his script as well, so I figured I ought to check Shigofumi<\/em><\/strong> out. The premise \u2014 a mail carrier with a talkative staff delivers the last message of a recently deceased person \u2014 reminded me of Shinigami no Ballad<\/em><\/strong>, and I was afraid that Shigofumi<\/em><\/strong> would be mawkishly sentimental. I needn’t have worried. The first episode is grimly ironic; if Shinigami no Ballad<\/em><\/strong> is about life, Shigofumi<\/em><\/strong> is about death. I do have some problems with the first episode. In particular, I need more context for Ayase’s actions, and if the second episode isn’t a continuation of her story, I will be very annoyed.<\/p>\n

shig01.jpg<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

I saw the doctor Wednesday. It’s going to be eleven more weeks and another operation before I can walk again. Bleah. It my be fun to zoom down the halls at the office in my wheelchair, but otherwise this is a blasted nuisance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m curious about Kunio Katou, the creator of Aru Tabibito no Nikki, or The Diary of Tortov Roddle, so I did a litle searching. Here are his web site \u2014 unfortunately, only in Japanese \u2014 and a brief curriculum vitae. I also found this note at AniPages Daily: It’s easy to see why Kato’s films … Continue reading “A few notes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[660,677],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-current-viewing","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xam3-76","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}