anime - manga - sci-fi - art
I’m off on my travels again - not Japan this time, but the sun soaked Socialist republic of to Havana. Ten days of snorkelling, rum, fat Cuban cigars and blissfully internet free chilling awaits me. As a result there will be no updates here for a while - and my ninja-like accomplice Flotsky will be moderating comments here - and I’ll reply to them all when I get back. Apologies in advance.
First off I’d just like to say a huge thank you to everyone that read my list of ten anime films you should see before you die - the response has been phenomenal - not just the number of people that read it, but also those that took the time out to get involved in the following discussion at Reddit, Stumbleupon, Twitter as well as here on TMB. Some people loved my selections, some people thought I was well off the mark, but it was clear that there was no way I was going to be able to avoid putting together another list, this time of TV series and OVAs.
I’ve been wanting to check out the bestselling Manga Guide series since I first saw images of them when they were published in Japan, so I was thrilled this week when I received the first four English translations, courtesy of their US publisher No Starch Press. I’ve already got a large and random collection of teach-yourself, ‘Dummies guide’ style manuals covering everything from web development to postmodernist theory, so combining that format with manga artwork was obviously going going to snare my interest. The question was though, where the books serious study aids or just another Japanophile curiosity?
Images courtesy of the brilliant Ghibli Blog.
You may remember that earlier in the year I reported that animation god Hayao Miyazaki was drawing an aviation based manga Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) for Japanese magazine Model Graphix. Well, it seems he’s been enjoying returning to his mangaka roots, and is now considering penning a sequel to his classic film Porco Rosso for the magazine. He prototyped the movie in manga form for the mag back in 1990 in the form of Hikōtei Jidai, the French translation of which being the source of these fantastic images. Anime News Network has the lowdown:
The Spring 2009 anime season marches on, and as always time is my enemy. Trying to keep up with the shows I am interested in is hard enough, let alone taking time out to sample the season’s other offerings. But sample I have, and here I present my findings on the first episodes of four shows that, while I may not follow them, you may want to check out.
Share This
Following on from last week’s look at Rory Doona’s promo artwork for the TOKYOPOP UK summer releases, he’s kindly given me his latest work for them - this time with a vampire theme. I think you’ll agree it’s fangtastic.
I’ll be here the whole week. Tip your waitress. Try the veal. You’ve been a great audience. Goodnight everybody etc.
With the anime industry facing recession and accused of creative stagnation, a common recent tactic has been to take two well established genres and weld them together, often with questionable results. Satellite Studios‘ Basquash! pulls the same move, merging sports drama and mecha action to depict a futuristic world where basketball is played with giant robots.
I just got dropped a tasty treat from Rory Doona - who some of you will undoubtedly remember from my recent look at UK manga artists - a look at his promotional artwork for manga publisher TOKYOPOP. The piece is to promote their forthcoming UK summer releases, so Rory went for a summer beach vibe with a giant-manga-squid-attack twist. Kind of reminds me of the end of Watchmen (the book). If it had been set in Blackpool.
It had been far too long since the last time I made it down to Bristol’s live graffiti night Weapon of Choice, so last night I actually managed to get off my backside and represent. King Audel & Dirty30 were the resident live painters for the night, with music provided by - amongst others - Asaviour & DJ IQ and light hearted Bristol hip-hop crew Hairy Parents. If you haven’t heard of the latter then you need to go hit that link and check them out now - clearly UK rap needs more West Country accents to survive.
Just in case some of you aren’t already reading Daniel Thomas MacInnes’ sublime Ghibli Blog and had missed this I thought I’d post it here - UK paper The Independent has an interview with the world’s greatest animated film-maker Hayao Miyazaki. Its a great piece - as well as a brief overview of his work, he talks about working on the forthcoming Ponyo, and why he made the decision to avoid digital techniques in it’s production:
Recent Comments