New Studio Ghibli Movie Produced By MIYAZAKI

thats, right all you lovely nerds, the newest Studio Ghibli Movie trailer is out and it looks flippin' sweet. All Miyazaki fans wait with baited breath, although this newest film is written and produced but NOT directed by Miyazaki himself. Its Directed instead by the youngest person ever to direct a Ghibli feature.


I cannot wait to see this....

Walking Dead #13!!!!!! AWWWWW YEA! And A Random But Awesome Anime Clip!

There i was, in clear 28 degree sacramento, basting the cutest little baby Tofurkey loaf with a nice oliveoil/sage soy sauce, when I get one of the best fucking messages I could have hoped for. Maggie the Mechanic -> Dale Cooper: "There is a new walking dead out. We need to get it!" Next Day. Not 5 miles returned to EKA and I was in North Coast Role Playing buying the sweetest black and blue colored #13....

The Walking Dead comic has remained one of the most consistently intriguing and intense books i am currently following. I love other comics but I don't wait for them with the same giddy anticipation as I do with the Dead, and #13 here is a packed "this is why i love this comic" book. I wish i could say the same for the TV show, which me and my friends gathered to watch in a nerdy revelry, but has lost me little by little as each episode airs. No matter how hard I try i cannot separate it from the comic. I cannot forgive the detours, diversions and flat out new story lines that have been developed. Even taken on their own merit, as a TV show it is shaping up to be pretty terrible. There is great Zombie death and gore, yes. There is finally a TV show about Zombies..AND ITS THE WALKING DEAD MADE INTO A TV SHOW! But I find that i cringe at most of it. Maybe Season 2 will hook me back in....

and Now For Something Completely Different:

Just thought i would post a little clip of one of my favorite Anime, Paprika. Oddly enough it was this movie that in some bizzare way, inspired me to create this little blog....Enjoy!

Ani Kuri 1 minute shorts are pretty damn sweet!

I just recently found out that the 1 minute short i posted a while back titled Ohayou (good morning) was just one of 15 or so minute long shorts that were aired between programs and were overseen by some of the most acclaimed directors in Anime, hence the name Ani Kuri which is a short on the Japanese pronounciation of anime creator. Some are really great and others just so=so, but i only wish we had filler programing of this quality over here in the U.S.! here is Episode #11 and i dedicate it to little JetGirl. ill post some other quality ones as i find them...

Thought I would repost this beautiful animated short by one of my favorite Japanese animators, Satoshi Kon (PAPRIKA, PERFECT BLUE, PARANOIA AGENT). It is very simple and illustrates the lighting and the mood that makes me love Kon's animation. I stumbled across this 1 min. short on Paul Duffield's blog (Artist for FREAKANGELS) which is a very interesting read in itself. Thanks Paul!

酔いや なぜに 無限と美杯 : Intoxicated And Wondering Why There Is Infinity And Beauty!! Dale Cooper Nerds Out On Anime !

Yes yes. Another day grey and gloomy here on the Redwood Coast. All seem to be huddled warm in their respective lairs, a light drizzle in the seabreeze and a fresh pot of coffee bubbling; for me, perfect time to batten down the hatches and prepare to watch some gorgeous ass-kicking Anime. Not that i am in any way, shape or form any authority at all on the subject of Japanese animation. Im a new fan actually. A convert if you will. I had previously gone through every film geeks Asian Horror phase, and I knew my fair share about the rich and super bizzare fare that one might encounter with Japanese live action, but I didn't grow up with Astro-Boy or Gundam, Perfect Blue or Ghost in the Shell as some of my other school mates did and it would take all the way up until i was about 22 to finally watch an Anime all the way through. It took a while, but then I saw the few that were just so beautiful and smart and fun to watch that I couldn't deny it. I fucking loved some of these movies.

Again I must stress my limited knowledge here. I am nothing compared to a true Anime nerd, I just feel compelled to mention a few that I have always liked and some that have recently caught my attention. Im going to try and keep a running review section of new Anime (well, new to me) as well as running reviews of records, movies , nerdlythings etc.

Recently I've stumbled upon some great stuff by Satoshi Kon, who is beyond famous at this point for Anime fans. Most famous probably for the psychological thriller, Perfect Blue (1998), Millenium Actress (2001) and more recently for my personal favorite, Paprika (2006). As i write this Im watching Millennium Actress for the first time, and i just saw an amazing samuri-style fight sequence that just reinforces the beauty of the medium. Each one of his films has an animation style that is bold and vivid, with themes that often blend fantasy and reality, making for some really unique stories and beautiful animated sequences. Paprika is actually very loosly adapted from a 1993 novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, and remains closest to my heart probably because it was the first Anime that I really wanted to see, really wanted to be good, and it was! It was also the amazing animation, sweet lucid dream sequences and general goofy and fun feel of the movie that got me. Even the music by Susumu Hirasawa was so catchy that I couldn't help but like it. It completely fufilled my expectations of how sweet these movies could be.

Another movie that you should go out and get right at this very moment is Tekkon Kinkreet. Directed by Micheal Arias and based on the Manga of the same name by Taiyo Matsumoto, Tekkon kinkreet has a very unique, almost children's drawing quality to the animation. Its very fluid and gorgeous to look at and if any movie can be considered eye candy this is definitely one of them. We follow the exploits of Black and White aka notorious street gang "The Cats", two orphans battling it out on the streets of decaying Treasure Town, now becoming overrun with young yakuza who just don't do things the way they used to. This movie almost makes me cry every single goddamed time I watch it. Its almost too much. The memory of when my friends and I first saw it, the innocence and beauty of White's view of the fucked up reality to which they are subjected, the overwhelming animation, gets me every time! So sweet you must check this one out. Fun factoid:鉄コン筋クリート"Tekkon Kinkreet" is a child's mispronounciation of Tekkin Konkurito meaning "steel reinforced concrete". Michael Arias is an American-born, Japanese filmmaker who moved to Japan when he was 23. He reads and speaks Japanese fluently and Tekkon Kinkreet makes him really the first non-japanese director of a major Anime.

More to come soon!