Drunken Owls and Other Delights

...this anime was released in Japan:



...and thousands of science fiction fans the world over had their minds completely blown. It's so highly influential it didn't just reset the bar on anime production, it inspired thousands of other animes, films, and stories (and even a Kanye West video). I highly suggest watching the movie at least once if you haven't already. It can be a bit squicky at times (trust me--that guy getting shot in the trailer above is actually pretty tame compared to the climax), but if you watch it purely from a storytelling perspective, you'll marvel at the level of worldbuilding detail as well as the unconventional storytelling.

I mention this, as this movie was one of the inspirations for me to start writing science fiction and fantasy. I was never that big of a fan of the genre (or of anime, for that matter) until I saw a friend's copy in college around 1991. I was completely blown away not just by the level of animation, but also by how detailed and how far they could take a story. I'd also found a few collections of Japanese horror/SF short stories at the local library and ate them up because of this film. From there I'd start renting out other anime from Tower Records and still consider it one of my favorite types of animation. Much of it was primarily for the entertainment, but ultimately I would study these movies for their methods of storytelling as well.

Katsuhiro Otomo didn't direct that many anime films (Memories, Steamboy and segments of Neo-Tokyo and Robot Carnival), and he's done a few other manga series, including Domu: A Child's Dream, The Legend of Sister Sarah and the original AKIRA (the movie was based on what he had of it so far, so it's not exactly note-for-note but more of an extended and more psychological story), but all of them are definitely worth checking out.

Yes, that was an ELO reference. Why? Because the other day I realized I had two days before my monthly 50 eMusic points expired. Strangely enough I was just thinking I was woefully missing a lot of Electric Light Orchestra, a band that I grew up on. Out of the Blue is still on the list of one of my all-time favorite albums, and one of their best. I now have nearly everything they have--I ran out of points before downloading three of their albums and their remaster release extra tracks. I'll be doing that this weekend.


That said...



(The famed DAICON IV opening night animation. ELO's "Twilight" (said reference in subject line) starts at 1:30. Further proof that either ELO and anime is awesome, or I'm definitely an otaku. :p ) (Oh, and this video is why I love GAINAX so much. :) )

I gots anime coming! Just got an email from Amazon saying their stuff from their Anime Sale is on its way!


First: The complete box set of Paniponi Dash!


This one ranks right up there with Bo Bo-Bo-Bo Bo Bo-Bo in sheer volume of silly WTFness. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but it's funny as hell. I can only watch a few episodes before I start getting headaches from laughing so much. :)


Secondly:
complete box set of Ergo Proxy:


WTFness in a serious, meta sort of way, and still not entirely sure what it's about, but we rented this via Netflix and I LOVE it. Also? Episodes named after Douglas Coupland novels. And also? BEST. THEME SONG. EVER. (And also also? Brilliant move using Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" as the closing theme. ;) )


And third:

Tokyo Godfathers...another brilliant work by Satoshi Kon. Now if I can just get around to finding a cheap copy of the Paranoia Agent series, I think we'll have most everything of his available in the US...

YAY for anime! :D

I'm wondering what Cartoon Network has up their sleeve, if anything.

I pretty much gave up watching Toonami's Saturday night lineup after they dropped most of the anime titles (and when Naruto went into the less-than-stellar "filler" episodes between the series finale proper and the sequel (Naruto: Shippuden) premiere. So it comes as no surprise that I completely missed the story of Toonami calling it a day back in September.

I used to love watching Toonami. Back when it was a daily weekday block in the early evening, I'd bogart the TV and watch Tenchi Muyo, Outlaw Star and anything else they played. It was awesome, finally having a lineup of anime I could actually watch on TV. Living in a small town, there really weren't any video/dvd rental outlets (read: no Blockbuster) that had anime I could rent. For awhile it was part of my daily schedule (come home from work, watch Tenchi Muyo, have dinner, then go downstairs to write for 2 hours), and I loved it. It didn't stay forever, but it sure was fun.

Later on I found out about the late-night scheduling of anime, but never watched much of it until I moved in with emmalyon. That's when I really got into the Saturday night lineup...Naruto, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, One Piece, and any of the crazy miniseries they played later on like FLCL or Cowboy Bebop.

Now?

Naruto. And that's about it.

Okay, to be fair, all the anime is now being played on Adult Swim, like it did back in about 2004-2005, before Toonami got big in the early Saturday night lineup. Still, with the current lineup, only about half of the lineup appeals to me. I think what bothers me about the rest is that a lot of titles that get broadcast in the US nowadays kind of blend into each other, theme-wise. Many of them are variations on demons (it's not an episode unless the Earth's destiny is on the line), vampires (sexually ambiguous vampires at that), or ultraviolence (check out the blood spatter in this scene! shiny!). I've seen a few, I know how the rest go.

It kind of makes me wonder just where I need to go to get my anime fix. Which I find deeply ironic, considering I live on the same block as Viz Media. Seriously--most of the anime we've been watching the last year or so have been titles on our Netflix/Roku list, or recommended to us by friends, books, or the media. Granted, I like the fact that we can watch these things at any time when we rent, but at the same time, I miss watching it on TV. Even the anime we used to watch on ImaginAsia is gone--not the anime, but the channel from our lineup. It's as if the cycle is heading back to where it was about ten years ago...back in the late hours, waiting to be recorded by fans.

It could be that I'm still a bit of an animation snob. I still find anything Filmation touched to be absolutely horrific and needs to be burned STAT...I still think Disney's okay, but not my thing...I still think the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons are the BEST THING EVAR and very influential in my formative years...and that most animation nowadays could be so much better than it currently is. Ever since I saw Siskel and Ebert review Akira back in 1988, I was convinced that Japanese animation was far, far superior than anything else I'd seen. Sure, I'll admit to really liking a lot of non-anime stuff out there, but I'll be honest, anime always gets my attention first.

So where do we stand now with anime? Where is it being shown? I know for certain that Cartoon Network is continuing to show random series online via Toonami Jetstream, but what about those of us who either don't have the time to watch streaming video, don't have the greatest internet hookup, or just don't like watching stuff on our PC? I mean, aside from watching fansubs and fandubs on YouTube? And if it's not currently out there as much as it was...when is it going to come back? If at all?

I posted this as a comment in one of chaoticmoth's posts, but I figured it merited its own amusing post, since it's so well done. See how many you recognize! :p

FOUR-DAY WEEKEND, BABY!

1) Sleep
2) Enjoy my b-day off on the 22nd
3) Mail all those boxes o' books
4) Go to the library
5) Write
6) Sleep
7) Football!!
8) Primary Election fun on MSNBC (we're geeky that way)
9) Write
10) Write
11) Sleep
12) Write
13) Food shopping
14) Avoiding B&N even though they sent me another 25% off coupon
15) Not think about work at all
16) Get a bit grumpy because the weather might be a bit questionable on Monday and Tuesday
17) Watch anime (and possibly the two Cowboy Bebop dvds from NetFlix)
18) Write
19) [TBA]
20) Basically vege out