The passengers.
Tag: Art and screen captures
Mononoke 2
On the deck of the boat in the Dragon’s Triangle (like the Bermuda Triangle, but more garish).
Mononoke 1
I’m going to be away from the computer for a few days. While I’m gone, I’ll post a few screen captures from Mononoke, a series perhaps of more visual than narrative interest. This is the medicine seller, the central character of the stories, who functions somewhat like a free-lance exorcist. Usually his fingers aren’t dissolving away.
Karakuri plus
We’ve had pocket calculators, televisions, helicopters and worse so far in the 1840’s Japan of Oh! Edo Rocket, so why not a giant wooden mecha?
Ducks in anime, part XVII
Oh! Edo Rocket #5
Bears, too.
La Theatricule Stoique
Yep.
Haibane Coil …
… or Denno Renmei?
(It occurs to me that there are significant parallels between the two Yukos, and Rakka and Reki.)
Form, truth and regret
I will withhold comments on the merits of Mononoke until I’ve watched a few more episodes and have seen whether the payoff of the horror story is worth the buildup. Instead, here are some screen captures illustrating the novelties of this moving wood-block print. Note the off-center and unbalanced compositions, eccentric angles and busy detail contrasting with empty space.
Update: Wabi Sabi has a weblog devoted to Mononoke. (Beware of spoilers.)
Neko musume
A different kind of cat girl, from Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro 2007. (None of the many versions of Kitaro has ever made it across the Pacific. If what I’ve seen is representative, it’s no great loss.)
Fireworks for the Fourth
Really?
From episode one of Sola.
Here’s the view from my front porch this week:
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
(If the rain doesn’t stop soon, my hair is going to be green with moss and algae. This is supposed to be Kansas.)
Show time
As I expected, the story has gotten darker as it nears the climax, but Shingu is still a great deal of fun.
German cameras. ((There are two different brands alluded to here, Contax, obviously, but also the M-series Leica (though the latter were rangefinder cameras, not SLRs like Futaba’s camera).)) So they still shoot film in 2070?
Embarrassing music
Boy or girl?
Bonus link: Ubu on what didn’t happen.
Incidental pleasures II
Baseball as a martial art
Armed and dangerous little sisters
Dancing aliens in tuxes
*****
Sometimes I have got to know What Happens Next. This was the case with Patricia McKillip’s Riddlemaster trilogy, which I read in one (long) sitting, and with Misaki Chronicles, which I watched in one evening. Other times, I want to go slowly and savor every little bit. I spent a week on John Crowley’s Little, Big, and not because it was a thick book. I’ve got two discs left of Shingu left, and I’m not going to rush through them. I’m enjoying the series too much. There are still surprises in every episode, even though I’m past the half-way point and the characters are old friends now.
Earlier this year I wondered if I’ve seen all the first-rate anime that’s available. This month I watched Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles and I’m in the middle of Shingu. Denno Coil also has been excellent so far. My interest in anime will eventually diminish, but it won’t happen as soon as I expected.
While there is still first-rate anime to be found, anime criticism remains a scandalously inept guide. Reviews of the Misaki saga range from limp to stupid, and there are virtually no reviews of Shingu at all. If Steven hadn’t written about them, I would never have bothered with either.
