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Interested in Shingu, now...
2007-08-20 07:02:00
It's only after Author links to a Youtube video of the OP that my interest pikes up on Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars. Especially when he finds it "a good match and preview for the show." Strange that it's actually viewing the OP that catches my eye, not all of the glowing talk about it on the anime blogging world I frequent (pretty much started by Steven Dan Beste's gushing over the series). Still, all the positive views of the series really didn't peak up any interest (Though I've been avoiding any real discussion of the show to avoid spoilers if I did decide to watch it). No, it's the OP which as been panned by most critics I've seen, except for Author. And from what I've seen, I agree with him that it isn't bad. I'll put the thinpak of the series on my "to-buy" list after I get my hands on the Mushishi Art Box, the My Beautiful Mari DVD, the Full Moon Volume 6 DVD, and volumes 5 to 8 of each of the Berserk ...
More About: Anime , Este , Eres

They have arrived!
2007-08-16 03:23:00
Only took 10 days to cross the Pacific. Not bad. And they were packaged quite well too.

They have arrived!
2007-08-16 03:23:00
Only took 10 days to cross the Pacific. Not bad. And they were packaged quite well too.
More About: Byousoku 5 Centimeter

AMV Concept
2007-08-15 16:05:00
For some reason, I found this concept a bit strange. It's an AMV featuring Rakka's story in Haibane Renmei , but the song is "Fusshun" from The Twelve Kingdoms soundtrack. Online Videos by Veoh.com read more
More About: Anime , Concept

Updates from a Japanese Import Newbie
2007-08-07 00:16:00
I received an update from CDJapan last night that my order for Gekijo Animation Byosoku 5 Centimeter DVD Box [Limited Edition](DVD) and MIND GAME (English Subtitles) (DVD) was shipped. The email said that the shipment should take 4-12 days to get to me. I'll see how long it would take to ship. And for a small update, I watched the fansub of Byousoku 5 Centimeter last night and was highly taken in by everything except the ending. I still found it to be a very good film overall (excellent if I discount the ending) and I'll try to have more in an update later.
More About: Anime , Updates , Japanese , Import

I am insane
2007-08-02 04:06:00
I just spent $112.62 US on two DVDs. They were Byousoku 5 Centimeter Limited Edition and Mind Game . Granted, I got the first only because I am a Makoto Shinkai fanboy and watching the raw of his latest film moved me to want to import the DVD before I tackle the fansub of it. Yes, I will also get ADV U.S. release coming this December. I got Mind Game as it's one hell of a good movie and the U.S. release of it is nowhere in sight. At least, though, the R2 DVD of Mind Game does contain English subtitles. And my Oppo DVD player is an all-region player, so I'm set there. I'll do a further update on the experience when the order ships and arrives. read more
More About: Insane

Anime Fan Demographics And Nick's Ramblings About Blogging
2007-07-25 21:47:00
Something about this poll on the Anime Nfo.com forum struck me. Well, it isn't any surprise that 85% of the 65 members that answered the polls identified themselves as between the ages of 15 to 24. And the poll results also helps to support the hypothesis a friend had that most anime fans "grow out of" anime by the age of 25 for various reasons. read more
More About: Blogging , Other , Demographics , Blogg

Popular Japanese Words
2007-07-25 15:22:00
A new blog has cropped up by the name of Japanese words of anime fans, by anime fans, for anime fans has gained my attention fairly recently. The title of the blog pretty much describes what the blog is about, but I'm quite pleased with how much detail that bangin, the owner of the blog, goes into describing the word-of-the-post, and how he relates it to other Japapanese words, provides screenshots if necessary, and even goes a bit into the etymology of the word. It's very informative reading, especially for a non-Japanese speaker like me. It's been the first new blogroll addition to this site in a long while. Thanks to a tip from Iwa ni Hana.
More About: Words , Popular , Pula

Oukashou locations
2007-07-17 01:46:00
Daike from the Makoto Shinkai Fan Web has put up pictures of the actual locations Makoto Shinkai used for the first part of Byousoku 5 Centimeter . I recognize all of these from the anime, and Daike includes some interesting commentary with the pictures. Check them out if you've seen the first episode from the movie. It's also three more days until the DVD is released in Japan. I'm sure that fansubs will leak out, and I'm of two minds on them: read more
More About: Anime , Locations , Loca

Nick's Anime Update - July 1, 2007
2007-07-02 06:08:00
Time for an update of what I've been watching. Finished Watching Catblue: Dynamite I had finished a review of this 40-minute movie this morning. In truth, I've probably rewatched this around 5 times in the past week or so, most of that showing the movie off to different people. I don't have much to add here on top of my review of it. read more
More About: Anime , The Twelve Kingdoms , Fuyumi Ono , Update , Claymore

Not Much Substance, But What Style! A Review of Catblue: Dynamite
2007-07-01 17:41:00
I had never heard of Romanov Higa or of his ROMANoV Films before. His previous claims to fame, Urda and TANK S.W.A.T. 01, neither of which I never heard of, were largely panned by reviewers. Ridian, in a review on AnimeNfo, said that Urda, among other problems, suffered from "the rather cheap and cheesy writing". Romanov Higa's latest film released on December 2006 on the web, Catblue: Dynamite , still holds this quality. But this time, that cheesy writing actually added to the full effect of this 40 minute film featuring a blue-haired catgirl who can wield three guns at once; Catblue: Dynamite was heavily influenced by 70s exploitation films. Though I haven't seen many of those myself, I did show Catblue to a few friends who are big fans of those types of films, and they were amazed. Everything in this cell-shaded CG animation, the 70s muscle cars, the amateur English voice acting, the very well used disco music, came together into what became a highly ente...
More About: Review , Style , Mite , Subst

Had a blogging hiatus...
2007-06-22 07:52:00
If anybody noticed that I've been missing from here for a while, well, it's been hectic for a few weeks. read more
More About: Personal , Blogging , Hiatus , Blogg

Byousoku 5 Centimeter - Licensed!
2007-06-22 02:24:00
I just got word from the Anime News Network that, as I expected would happen at some point, ADV has confirmed the licensing of Makoto Shinkai's Byousoku 5 Centimeter ! I had several reactions to the news: Yay!  The movie will be released in the U.S.!  And probably with a good English dub too, given ADV's excellent work with dubbing Shinkai's previous movies. No!  I won't be able to justify downloading the fansubs that will inevitably come out when the movie is finally released on DVD in Japan on Jun 19th! Yay!  I'll be able to watch the entirety of the (expected to be) gorgeous movie in full DVD quality! I can't wait!
More About: License , Meter

Nick's Anime Update - June 3, 2007
2007-06-04 04:47:00
It's been a couple of weeks since I've had one of these, and instead of looking at code this late on a Sunday, I might as well get an update in on what I've been watching in the anime world. read more
More About: June , Anime , Update

Byousoku 5 Cm - DVD Info
2007-05-28 07:22:00
I didn't have time and energy to writeup a Nick's Anime Update, so I"ll just forward this bit of news. Daike from the Makoto Shinkai Fan Web has put up the DVD release information for Makoto Shinkai's new movie, Byousoki 5 Centimeter. Looks like there will be two versions released in Japan on July 19th, a regular release and a limited version release. Check out the MSFW site for further information about what each release includes. Daike also translates some information from Shinkai's site about the potential of a Blue-ray or HD-DVD release. Essentially, it's not planned yet, but Shinkai is definitely interested in such a release. If that does happen, I might not be able to resist importing it at any expense, even if I don't have the equipment to play it!
More About: Info , Byousoku 5 Centimeter

Nick's Anime Update - May 20, 2007
2007-05-20 22:20:00
I am a couple of days late on this (pulling quite a bit of time on making sure a customer's server is working fine after a code migration), but here's my current list of what I've been watching: read more
More About: Anime , Update , Nick

Astounding hand-drawn animation
2007-05-19 21:12:00
Koji Morimoto is a name I only became familiar with in the anime world in the past couple of years, when I first stumbled on a copy of the high-energy short Noiseman Sound Insect. This was when I thought "Ah ha! There are people out in the anime world that really understand how to use 3D computer graphics as an aid, not as a replacement to 2D hand-drawn art!". This was when I started seeking out more works from Studio 4 °C, the animation studio behind that amazing short film. So when I saw this Anime New Network "Buried Treasure" article on Bobby's In Deep (Official English title: Bobby's Girl ), the note about Koji Morimoto's 3-minute sequence at the end of the movie caught my immediate attention. Bobby's Girl was one of Madhouse's early works made in 1985 about a underachieving teen who is obsessed with motorcycles. Because it's long out-of-print, it will be extremely difficult to find a copy (legal or otherwise) of this 44 minute ...
More About: Animation , Hand

How the Lord of the Rings should have ended
2007-05-19 06:07:00
I shouldn't be so surprised that someone actually animated this: Though it's no surprise that I enjoyed this... I think it took me 2 years to trudge through the book, a bit at a time...
More About: Other , Lord , Lord of the Rings , Rings , Have

Nick's Anime Update - May 11, 2007
2007-05-12 05:51:00
Hasn't been too long since I've done one of these, but I probably should force myself to do this at least once a week. I'll try for every Friday evening, if possible. Well, here's the list! (Oh, possible spoilers ahead!) read more
More About: Anime , Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo , Update , Claymore , Ghost Hunt

Subtitle adjustment results
2007-05-07 00:28:00
Here, I will show a few example screenshots from the original subtitled MKV file of Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo from roxfan (Played and captured screenshots using Media Player Classic) and the output from our 46" Samsung DLP Widescreen TV using my repositioned version of the roxfan script (Using the highly technical process of playing the movie on the TV and capturing screenshots using a digital camera). The widescreen TV was using an older version of my original adjustments (The "TV" subtitles were actually placed too low; I had fixed that in the attached file, but didn't get pics of it). read more
More About: Anime , Results , Title , Adjust , Result

Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo - Subtitle file adjusted for overscan on widescreen T
2007-05-06 22:18:00
Well, I had managed to show off Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (using roxfan's subs) to a few people using my housemate's 46-inch Samsung DLP widescreen (I forget the exact model at the moment). Now, this wasn't as easily as simply following the directions on my MKV to AVI guide as the Samsung TV has between 5% to 10% overscan, and subtitles and the karaoke would lie halfway off of the screen, making it difficult to read the dialog. In the past, with hard-subs in AVI files and many fansub groups that do not position their subtitles to adjust for this (This is not meant to be a slight against any fansub group, as they doing the much harder job of translating and timing these subtitles in the first place at no cost to us), there would be nothing I could do other than slightly windowboxing the video as to make sure the subtitles appear properly on screen. Now, though, thanks to MKVs with their soft-subs, I can at least do something about it when converting it to an XviD AVI file ...
More About: Widescreen , Anime , File , Over

Anime on Joost
2007-05-05 06:41:00
I would normally put this kind of post in my other blog, but since it does relate to anime, I'd figure it would be of more interest here. I was recently invited into the Joost beta and am pretty impressed with how it's setup. Created by the people that created Skype, Joost is a very ambitious project to provide paid-by-ads Internet TV. The setup is broken up into different "channels", which include several programs that can be played on demand. For example, there is a Ren and Stimpy channel, which I can pick an available Ren and Stimpy episode to watch (which I was doing yesterday). While the program is playing, at certain points (Usually at the appropriate spot in the program), the client will play a 30 second commercial, then continue on with the program. Some of the channels available are listed here. Click on the "More channels..." link at the bottom to get a larger list of what channels are available and in what region they are available. ...
More About: Anime

The Young Can Call For a Redo...
2007-05-04 09:28:00
I just finished watching Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (Got a subtitled version thanks to a tip from Astro) and I have to say, what an incredible movie! Maybe not quite to the level of Makoto Shinkai's movies, my first impression is that I favor this movie over any Ghibli film that I've seen! I am definitely going to give this one a rewatch! (Update: ok, maybe not better than Spirited Away overall after some thought. I guess I'll have to rewatch that one, too. I'm not complaining...) I'll do a fuller review sometime later, but Astro's quick take on the movie pretty much reflects my initial feelings. Though I do have to admit, I was in a stunned state for a few minutes after the credits rolled. read more
More About: Anime , Young , Call , The Young

Nick's Recent Activity
2007-04-28 18:16:00
Call it laziness or burn-out, but I just haven't had the energy or will to sit down and write about the recent anime I've been watching. Indeed, I've been meaning to write an analysis of the Twelve Kingdoms novel and Fuyumi Ono 's interview and a review of Asatte no Houkou (Quite a nice little series that doesn't overextend itself) and Mushishi. As it is, I do have a list of some of the new anime I'm watching: read more
More About: Anime , The Twelve Kingdoms , Nick , Recent

Just got my hands on this
2007-04-23 06:29:00
Now to find a subtitle file so I can actually watch it... Also getting Paprika to watch for this weekend.
More About: This , Hands , Hand , Hands On

Highly Scientific Experiment
2007-04-21 03:09:00
Daike, in a highly controlled experiment, attempts to answer the all-important question: Does a cherry pedal actually fall at the rate of 5 centimeters per second, as claimed by Makoto Shinkai's latest film, Byousoku 5 cm? His results? It's a negative! You mean even anime can be unrealistic? You don't say! (Imagine this with a sarcastic tone...) You know, if Daike needs an updraft to test his new hypothesis at the end of this experiment, I believe we have plenty of politicians here in the U.S. that he can bring into the laboratory. They release quite a bit of hot-air from my observations...
More About: Anime , Experiment , High , Peri , Rime

Interview with Tekkon Kinkreet's Director
2007-04-19 07:02:00
One of the biggest things that intrigued me about Tekkon Kinkreet is not just the reception it already received in Japan, nor the fact that it was produced by Studio 4ºC (Though that is the major reason I first took notice of this movie), but the fact that it was directed by an American. A rookie American director, at that. Though Micheal Arias has lived in Japan for 15 years and has worked with Studio 4ºC in the past on projects like the Animatrix, this is the time a westerner was at the helm of a Japanese animated feature.And, more importantly, AniPages Daily has an excellent interview with the man! There's also information after the interview about the premier of the movie in New York City on April 25-30 for those who are in the area. read more
More About: Anime , Interview , Direct , View , Director

Anime News Network with Twelve Kingdoms theme
2007-04-18 05:29:00
It seems that Anime News Network is using a theme inspired by Fuyumi Ono's The Twelve Kingdoms - Sea of Shadows novel as part of a sweepstakes from TOKYOPOP. (via jougetsu) It's nice to see that this excellent story is getting some pretty major attention!
More About: Theme , Them

If you noticed that the site was down earlier...
2007-04-18 01:42:00
... I'll just say it was a pure PEBKAC error. Since I'm the one administrating the server, I should looking into debugging that soon. But all is well at the moment. Actually, in future plan news, I am looking into upgrading this blog to Drupal 5.1, hopefully this weekend.  It's not that there's anything wrong with Drupal 4.7, but there's features and updates to version 5.1 that I really want to take advantage of.  Too bad that this theme will be lost, but it's a good excuse to start looking into making a custom theme myself.
More About: Site , Hat , Down , Notice , That

Claymore - Episode 2 Impressions
2007-04-13 08:06:00
Well, I wasn't exactly on the fence when I started Claymore like Astro on the first episode, as I was planning to sticking with this one unless it really does something to repulse me. Watching the second episode has me a bit more intrigued. The organization that Clare is in does interest me some, but it's Clare herself that draws me into this show. Her lack of hesitation at the end of the episode is something I like to see in that situation. read more
More About: Episode , Press , Piso , More