Yep, that’s right – more amazing looking cupcakes courtesy of my girlfriend as a sequel to her epic Pac-Man and and Totoro ones. And damn tasty they were too. Apparently she’s got something even more special planned for her next batch. In the meantime enjoy these pics. Just putting them up here has made me so hungry.
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Genius…I’m speechless.
UPDATED: Displaying a staggering sense of humour fail, Ghibli have told Youtube to pull the video. Shame. Seems some people still don’t get this whole internet marketing thing yet. Ah well.
UPDATED AGAIN: And it is back – thanks to NoDeath below in the comments, who has found the video hosted elsewhere. Good work man!
Long time readers may recall my girlfriend’s love for making things Totoro related – including my Valentines Day card and some Halloween pumpkins – and after a busy few months she finally got round to adding something new to the list. These Totoro cupcakes where made for a little friend of ours – a four year old fledgling Ghibli fanatic – who broke her arm right at the begining of the summer break. Look great don’t they? Trust me, they actually tasted even better. More pics after the jump.
If you’ve been lucky you may have missed – buried away amongst all the other media hype and internet buzz – the controversy over Disney’s decision to re-record the Ponyo theme tune. I first found out about it over at The Ghibli Blog, and I have to say I was pretty shocked. The original is a cheerful, simple nursery rhyme sung by a child – reminiscent in many ways of the My Neighbour Totoro ending theme – and always makes me smile when I hear it, if for nothing more than it reminds of visiting Japan last year, where it was still being played wherever you went.
One of the most common misconceptions about us Brits is that we don’t indulge in displays of emotion. It’s not true – in fact it’s a trait limited only to our gangly, socially-inept ruling classes – you know, the ones we would have eradicated if we’d had a proper revolution – and spread around the world by the constant stream of Jane Austen adaptations we shit out and the inexplicable popularity of ’stars’ like Hugh Grant. Anyway. I can assure you right now I am displaying emotions – several in fact – but actually the dominate one is so typically British. It’s disappointment.
With the English language release of Ponyo imminent, and his recent promotional and speaking visit to the US causing a stir, there’s no denying that there’s a buzz around Hayao Miyazaki at the moment. And it’s a buzz that’s not just getting the attention of anime fans, but also grabbing the interest of the wider mainstream media and audiences – something that is, arguably, long overdue. As such it’s either luck or great timing that Manga Entertainment have just released Panda! Go Panda! on DVD here in the UK, and while it’s been out in the US for several years, this was the first time I’d had a chance to sit down and watch this early chapter in Miyazaki-san’s career.
More sad news about a terrible loss to the anime industry – one of it’s true legends and artists Yoshinori Kanada passed away yesterday, after suffering a heart attack at the age of just 57. After making a name for himself in the 1970s working on sci-fi and giant-robo series, he eventually ended up at Studio Ghibli, working closely with Hayao Miyazaki on such monumental works as My Neighbour Totoro, Porco Rosso and Princess Mononoke among many others, and his face will be familiar to anyone that’s sat enthralled watching the extras on Ghibli DVDs. His work was so distinctive and influential that ‘the Kanada style’ became a term commonly used by Japanese animators, and if you want to see just a tiny selection from his massively impressive CV check out the report over at Anime News Network.
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:
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:
