Okay. Time for a little more anime fan-boyness. Let’s start with one of my favorite creators of anime/manga, Masamune Shiro. He is friggin’ amazing, technically and visually. His plots aren’t bad either. He has created probably the most believeable mech designes I’ve ever seen! My personal favorite is Appleseed; I know the site is mostly in Japanese but there is more than enough english to get you to where you need to be. They had a movie out in the late 80s early 90s. I liked it when I first saw it. But then I was just a babe in the arms of anime. I found the manga (the comic book version) and fell hoplessly addicted to it. The richness of art detail and the plot thickness were top notch! Although I’ve never really understood how Bri and Deunan stayed “lovers” since he has a metal bod that does not appear to be anantomically correct. Well I guess he could have an attachment . . . ^^;; moving on. When I saw the movie again the golden glow of the early exposeure to anime had long since warn off, now I saw it for what it was; a lowly TV quality half assed lameness that was hardly like the comics at all.
That brings us up to today! Now Shiro-san has gotten off his duff and involved himself more heavily in the film. The film also appears to be pushing the bounds of animation (especially Japanese) by going full digital! w00t! Bri will actually be all shiny if he has a buff and polish! You can catch the trailer here. Or if you want you can head over to animesuki.com and go to the “series” section. There will be a link there for your BitTorrent client.
If you are a fan of Shiro-san you probably also know of his amazing work Ghost in the Shell. The manga is jaw dropping. Beautiful and thoughtful all at once. Some of you may say “Wait. They used that shot in The Matrix!” Yes, the directors did cite is as an inspriation. It set a visual standard to which any following cyberpunk anime will be measured.
Sadly, the film was made before Shiro-san got annoyed that his works were not coming out on film anything like what he had done in the manga. It also seems to be the same with the new sequel, although it has the same team from the first GTIS movie so it won’t look bad, but it won’t really be Shiro either. ::sigh:: So it goes. It does look like it will be as visually impressive though. Go here for the trailers. Hopefully these movies will help redeem their original works. I’m really excited about the Appleseed movie. It was and is my favorite manga to date. Ah! My Goddess pulls in not far behind. Ooo! And Trigun and Akira and GTIS and oh … geez the list goes on. I’ll have to post that some time. Take care all.
A Geekish View of Life 