Nick's Anime Weblog

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Criticism of Modern Fansubbing
2008-06-08 18:07:00
I just watched this documentory titled THE RISE AND FALL OF ANIME FANSUBS. Here go you: PART 1 More parts and my opinions after the cut. PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 The narrator makes some very good points; I especially agree with the points about keeping honorifics, not translating words, and putting excessive liner notes on screen. I less agree about translating signs, but I do think putting the translation seamlessly into the animation is over-doing it. I do agree with the over-use of colors, karaoke, and other special effects, especially for opening and ending pieces. Well, at least the fansubbers are doing this for free and I do get to see alot of anime that I'd normally wouldn't get to see otherwise, but I do prefer buying R1 DVDs for the reason that I think the translations for the subtitles tend to be much better.
More About: Modern , Criticism

The Film That Leapt Over Oceans
2008-06-07 00:46:00
Well, this is very promising: And so is this.
More About: Film , Anime , Oceans

Pale Birthday
2008-06-04 08:05:00
Wabi Sabi's post on the trailer of Yasuhiro Yoshiura's Time of Eve reminded me to search for a DVD of Yoshiura's earlier works. And found it I did on CDJapan. The R2 DVD does come with English subtitles (and Aquatic Language on the DVD comes with English dubbing) and I have a region-free DVD player, so no worries there. So for a birthday present to myself (getting to the ancient age of 29 this Sunday), I decided to order the R2 DVD. Besides, I've liked Pale Cocoon enough that I feel I should at least own a real copy of it. Martin has said everything I probably would have said about Pale Cocoon, so go there to read about it. Here's the trailer of Yoshiura's new film, Eve no Jikan (Time of Eve; I've also seen it titled Are you enjoying the time of EVE?): I do agree with Wabi Sabi; the visuals and atmosphere in this trailer energize the Makoto Shinkai fanboy in me. I do hope the film delivers on that, too. I see info that it's been released, but ...
More About: Anime , Birthday

Attack of the Spam
2008-06-02 20:51:00
Looks like the spammers are breaking through Askimet on a regular basis now, making me have to not be so lazy and manually dealing with them. Might have to look for some stronger spam repellant... Hopefully, I'll be able to get some thoughts up on ef - a tale of memories, Kaiba, Ghost Hound, Allison & Lillia, Mnemosyne, and Megas XLR some point soon.
More About: Spam , Attack

NHK Clips Floating Around
2008-04-23 00:05:00
Looks like Don and Author have noticed NHK's AniKuri 15 shorts that have been floating around on Youtube lately. I have Makoto Shinkai's contribution, "Neko no Shuukai", linked to in an earlier post before I realized it was part of the AniKuri 15 collection. Someone else has contributions by Satoshi Kon, Micheal Arias, and Kazuto Nakazawa up. I do have 1080p versions of 12 of the shorts that I have acquired a while back, but I do concur with Author: Dear NHK, please sell us a DVD. Please do, NHK! UPDATE: Author responds: This is the first time when I think that anime on Blu-ray might not be such a bad idea after all. I wonder by what means he ?acquired? them. For me, Makoto Shinkai's The Place Promised in Our Early Days was when I really started considered getting anime on Blu-ray. As for what "acquired" mean, I'm pleading the fifth...
More About: Anime , Clips , Floating

A Kirin's Life
2008-04-19 09:06:00
Demon ChildI had finished The Twelve Kingdoms Volume Two: Sea of Wind novel a while back, and I have to say that I've enjoyed it1. Like most books, it goes further into Taiki's thoughts and experiences than the anime does. Too bad it doesn't have Takasato's experiences in modern Japan, which is told in Demon Child, the actual first book by Fuyumi Ono in the Twelve Kingdoms world before Ono was encouraged to build a fantasy world. Unfortunately, it looks like Demon Child was released by a different publisher than her other Twelve Kingdom novels, so it's likely Tokyopop was unable to license it. Fortunately, there are always fan translations2. In other news, I did stumble on what would be a very good t-shirt... 1. As expected 2. Hey! That Prologue is very familiar after reading Sea of Wind.
More About: Life , Books

New Game Trailer Directed By Makoto Shinkai
2008-04-18 05:55:00
Here's the new trailer directed by Makoto Shinkai for the game "ef - the latter tale", Music was composed by Tenmon. I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet. My internet connection is being very obtuse right now. Hopefully, it will clear up in the morning so I can actually watch the entire video. (Heads up via Daike. He also has links to where you can download higher-quality WMVs, which is probably the route I'll try to watch this.) UPDATE: Finally got to watch the higher-quality WMV video. It seemed to be missing a certain punch that the trailer of "ef -a fairy tale of the two-"1 had. The first thing that comes to mind is that the music in this one lacks the climactic punch that was in the earlier game trailer. As usual, the visuals are very, very pretty... 1. This trailer can be seen on an earlier blog post.
More About: Trailer , Anime , Game

Snow Monster Trees (alternate title: Ice Ice Baby)
2008-04-08 17:47:00
This would normally be in my other blog, but since this pertains to a part of Japan , I guess it's ok to put here, and the images are just too cool not to show. The picture shows off Juhyo (monster trees) that forms on Mount Za? on Honsh?, where cold Siberian winds meet warm and moist Pacific air to create record snowfalls in the middle of winter. You can read more about these "Japanese Monster Trees " and see more pictures of them from David Webber. (via Eugene Woodbury)
More About: Baby , Snow

The Evolution of Chobi the Cat
2008-04-04 08:07:00
One thing that has struck me about Makoto Shinkai is how his style had evolved over the years, and watching through all of his short films emphasized that point. He?s always been an expert at the little details, and the background scenery was gorgeous from the start. Paying proper homage to Chobi the cat seemed to be seemed to be the hard part, though. Here's four shots that have little to do with that point. Here's one from She and Her Cat, circa 1999. Here we see Chobi chilling out on a bench waiting for his honeys. You should notice the lack of features on the poor cat outside of eyes, a mouth, and pads on his feet. I don't think there's a specific point in mind for avoiding giving him any real detail -- making him so generic looking didn't add anything to the story. I suspect that it might have distracted, though, which is why he was shown this way. Though She and Her Cat centers its story around the almighty Chobi, he was left out of Voices of a Distant Star all tog...
More About: Evolution , Anime

A Collection of Makoto Shinkai Shorts And an English Fan Site
2008-03-30 08:06:00
Well, I'm quite flattered that Fledge thinks my obsessions are working looking into. So, I will return with even more Makoto Shinkai visuals! But first, I need to announce the Makoto Shinkai English Fan Forum And Site . It's not super active yet, and there hasn't been any major discussion of Shinkai's work yet, but hopefully, I can get some time to resolve that issue. It's been open for several months now, and I only found it from Daike's Shinkai Fan Site a couple of months ago. Now let's go back in time for what I would call his pre-breakout days. These were the shorts Shinkai made before he quit his then day job to work on Voices of a Distant Star: Other Worlds This is the first of Shinkai's work that I know of. Featuring "Gymnopédie No. 1" by French composer and pianist Erik Satie, this is Shinkai before he had sound effects, voice acting, or color. Clocking in at less than 90 seconds, Other Worlds (Also Tooi Sekai or ????) contains several themes and motifs that wou...
More About: Anime , Shorts

Fixed Some Website Issues
2008-03-27 00:04:00
For some reason, the YouTube tags I've been using were only working for me when I was logged into the site as an administrator. That should be fixed. Should teach me to check this site logged out more often. I wonder when the hell that setting had changed?
More About: Website , Issues , Fixed

Anime News Network with 5 Centimeter Per Second Theme
2008-03-26 18:39:00
Anime News Network is back at it with a website theme based on another favorite anime of mine. They have done this in the past with other anime that I like.
More About: Anime , Byousoku 5 Centimeter , Theme

Neko no Shuukai - A Shinkai Short?
2008-03-26 13:46:00
I know Shinkai's visual tendencies lately has been to not focus too much on realism in his films1 but the preview of his supposed latest short named Neko no Shuukai is something different: If this is truly Makoto Shinkai 's work, then I'd have to say that I'm quite pleased that he's actually branching out. I'm just having a hard time believing that it's his, even if the character designs and background match his style. UPDATE: Looks like a few other bloggers say that it's his work. Huh. If he does more work like this, then he is really becoming the next Miyazaki, despite what I've said before.... UPDATE 2: Look! Subtitles! Ok, not real subtitles. But they are amusing subtitles, nonetheless. 1. He mentions this on an interview on the Five Centimeters Per Second DVD. This actually might be why I found 5 CM Per Second so much more visually striking than The Place Promised in Our Early Days
More About: Anime , Short

New Someday's Dreamers anime
2008-03-25 16:16:00
I got wind that a new series of Someday's Dreamers has been greenlit for production and showed later in the summer season (via the Anime Nfo forums). Seems like one new anime series to definitely put on my watch list. Hopefully, it'll be as good as the first series.

Recent Twelve Kingdoms Interest?
2008-03-09 16:18:00
Looks like there's been some recent resurge of interest in The Twelve Kingdoms recently. Maybe it's the new volume of the novel series coming out or the 90 page story released in a Japanese magazine that sparking it, but the attention still being put on this series isn't too bad for a now 6-years-old TV series. I don't blame Author for dropping the series after 5 episodes the last time he tried watching The Twelve Kingdoms. [See UPDATE, Below] The series didn't seem to promise much at that point other than handful of irritating main characters. Yes, there are loads of information and foreshadowing in those first five episodes, but those are extremely hard to catch without at least watching the entire series once to see how it all ties together. Fortunately, the end of episode 5 is the absolute low point1; the series really didn't pick up until a bit later, and I didn't proclaim it to be my most favorite anime of all time until I finished the third arc. Still, I'd like...
More About: Anime , Fuyumi Ono , Interest , Recent

"One More Time, One More Chance" Guitar Tab
2008-03-09 15:15:00
Well, time to sharpen those guitar playing skills. Found this on Youtube looking for the guitar tab for the main theme used for Byousoku 5 Centimeter: {YOUTUBE:sbmZu5ExzdI} Pretty unusual to put a guitar tab in this format, but it is quite useful at making you play at the original song's speed. Unfortunately, at my skill level, it's nothing to do but repetition combined with getting some finger blisters as I don't play as often as I should1. 1. And I should play guitar more often. It's free to do when I already have the equipment unlike shooting guns or playing hockey and, even if I'm not skilled, it's just as therapeutic.
More About: Guitar , Anime , Time , Chance

New Twelve Kingdoms News: Book 2 and a Surprise!
2008-02-29 20:29:00
Well, I've been holding on to some good news when it came to this franchise, but I'll get to that later... For now, look at this: The second volume of the Twelve Kingdoms novel, titled "Sea of Wind", is due on March 11, 2008, only a few weeks away! Here's some links on where to get it: Amazon Barnes & Noble Book s AMillion This is going to be able Taiki's journey in the land of Tai. Should be interesting to read, as his story didn't get a big chunk of the anime series to get told. Now for the big news, it's this blurb on that I found on livejournal: New 12K story on the way Big news via the Juuni Kokki Database: A new Juuni Kokki story by Ono Fuyumi is scheduled to appear in the upcoming (2/27) issue of yom yom, a Japanese fiction magazine. Title:?????? (Hisho no Tori)Length: 90 pages No further info as yet. Edit: Mainichi News reports that the story will be set in Kei. (Thanks, nachte.) Very good news! It's sounding like Fuyumi Ono might be starting to wri...
More About: The Twelve Kingdoms

Quick Impressions: Denno Coil
2008-02-04 03:12:00
Sometimes, I wonder how the Japanese are able to show what are considered "children's anime" which can deal with very serious topics. How do they allow shows that put their viewers through such an emotional roller coaster that are said to be aimed at elementary school students? And why don't I see or hear about this in many modern American animations, unlike the American classics (recall something like Bambi, for example)? I don't hear of anything that runs like Full Moon wo Sagashite in America today, but I have found another example of an emotionally tiring series in Denno Coil I have basically marathoned the last half of Denno Coil over the weekend after not watching it for several months. I really stopped reading other people's blogs during that time, as I didn't want to spoil myself for this series as of yet1. I found the ending to be very well handled, though I seem to comparing it to the likes of how Gainax ends things2. In any case, it really doesn't matter; I to...
More About: Anime , Quick , Impressions

Just so I have a post in November...
2007-12-01 05:44:00
No, my new hobby hasn't taken up all of my time that I haven't watched anime. I'm still watching, just not having enough time dedicated to blogging it as much as I used to. Hopefully, I can get an update out this weekend.
More About: Post , November

re: Fledge on blogrolling
2007-10-31 07:45:00
Fledge posts about his blogroll and triggered a few thoughts on my end1. To admit, Fledge's Haibane.info was the first anime blog that I really started reading on a regular basis. I can honestly say that I was introduced to several other anime bloggers, including Steven, and Author, either from comments or Fledge directly linking to them. I don't fully remember how I first started reading his blog2, but I do remember that I started reading it regularly about when I started up this blog3. When I started up this blog, I used the blogroll on it as my gateway into the anime blogging circles. Basically, my morning consisted of waking up, pulling up my site, and clicking on every link in the "Anime Fans" section to search for new content. I did realize that this is inherently inefficient, so, like Fledge, I ended up using Google Reader to keep track of the bloggers I read4. I will still leave the blogroll as it is, as I still recommend all of those bloggers for several reasons5, ...
More About: Other

Oh, My Bank Account Groans In Agony!
2007-10-26 07:46:00
I've been doing my part in supporting the anime industry. I had bought volumes 6 to 10 of the Monster manga when I spotted them at the local Books-A-Million and couldn't resist buying them all. I ordered volume 5 from Robert's Anime Corner Store and ordered a few manga to help my girlfriend fill in holes in her collection and Spriggan and the art box and the first three volumes of Mushishi . I rented and watched Spriggan at the girlfriend's apartment several days ago, and we enjoyed it as essentially a popcorn movie. The story it hints at telling is far too much to be told in 90 minutes, but it had some amazingly fluid animation and had enough action throughout it to keep us entertained. It is a Studio 4 ? production, and it shows. Impressed me enough that I bought the special edition version and I can't wait until I can watch it on the big screen at my place with the DTS surround sound track. Mushishi was one of my favorite series from last year and one that was on my to pu...
More About: Bank

Lucky Star Episode 22 Moments
2007-10-26 05:22:00
After a little hiatus away from anime, I picked up on episode 221 of Lucky Star . A few scenes caught my attention. First of all, about the MLB World Series: And on Konata questioning her father on how he would like to die: I'm really been enjoying Lucky Star , especially the later episodes. It stumbled off the starting blocks, but it's now managing to get me to laugh out loud on a consistent basis. Or maybe I'm too easily amused... Yes, I know I'm behind...
More About: Episode , Anime , Moments

Not dead yet
2007-10-17 22:07:00
Just a quick update: I'm still around. Was out on vacation from Oct 11 to 15 and have been swamped at work on coming back. Haven't been watching much anime recently, but I'd like to get a post on what I've watched since my last update. I did complete my Crest of the Stars novels and picked up the first volume of the Dirty Pair novel.
More About: Personal , Dead

Low-brow humor...
2007-09-21 09:16:00
Guchuko apparently has the ability to store things in her pants1. The stuff that she takes out of them simply... well... Well, there's corn. And then, there's this: And... Exhibit #2: ... No comment. Why am I watching this again? Ah well, at least I only have one more episode to watch. It can't be that bad, right? Right? Pants of holding?
More About: Humor , Anime

Mahou Shoujo Tai Alice - Licensed?
2007-09-21 06:24:00
Big thanks to Steven for the heads up! By the looks of it, Media Blasters has acquired Mahou Shoujo Tai! This series is also called Tweeny Witches1, which will most likely be the official title as released in the U.S. To begin with, Studio 4 °C has been my most favorite Japanese animation studio since I had stumbled onto Noiseman Sound Insect and was, at once, baffled and amazed at what can be done with animation in 16 minutes. This short impressed me enough to seek out more material from this studio, and discovered just what was written on Wikipedia on them: They are known for marrying the spirit of independent festival animation with a more mainstream anime aesthetic. The entry itself is far too short to gain any substantial information about the company, but all I know is that I have yet to find any animated film, series, or OAV made by Studio 4°C that I didn't like. And I found absolute gems, like Comedy, which I consider the best under 30 minute animated short that I've eve...
More About: Anime , Alice

...Walked 40 miles in the snow both ways...
2007-09-19 08:44:00
Some of my local peers who are anime fans have been lodging complaints about the "new generation" of anime fans. This came to me as a bit odd at first, as my tastes rarely fell in line with most anime fans I met, online or off, which is why I started doing anime blogging instead of complaining about it or trying to change what I thought was "wrong" in these new fans. Something that a friend posted on the local anime forum that seemed to summarize well what many of them were really saying: Anime fans used to be part of a little-known geek community that spent most of its time watching edgy, counterculture anime that might seem quaint now, but was revolutionary for its time. It was harder then hell to find, cost us an arm and a leg to get, and offered its viewers a glimpse of a visual medium that incorporated aspects of dramatic and artistic expression that were unknown to young Americans at the time. This was WAY back in the day - back when Final Fantasy VII and the PlayStation was...
More About: Miles , Snow

Website Upgrade
2007-09-13 19:59:00
Since I was taking the day off from work, I decided to upgrade the site software to Drupal 5.2. Unfortunately, my modified version of the Meta Theme is not available in this version of Drupal, but I guess a theme update won't be a bad thing (I've had the old one since November last year. I still have a few more things to fix, like how some of the images aren't working well. I'll also be experimenting with the theme for a bit.
More About: Website

diff "Japanese Animation" "Western Animation"
2007-09-12 18:15:00
Kineska links to a neat thread on the AniPages forum where Peter Chung (of Aeon Flux and Animatrix fame) offers some very interesting details and perspectives from his experiences. I'm only half way through the thread myself, but I'll be finishing up the thread when I get time. I was probably a tween the last time I was actually interested in animation theory and process, though Makoto Shinkai's work has inspired me to look into it more in the past couple of years. Check out the thread from the start.
More About: Animation , Japanese , Western , Imation , Diff

Indecisions
2007-09-11 06:45:00
Even after the third time I watch it, I seem to waver between considering the last part of Makoto Shinkai's Byousoku 5 Centimeter either a misstep or a masterpiece. Indeed, I do declare that the first two parts near perfection, but it's the third part that give me some consternation. The first time, I watched the whole 62 minute movie without subtitles, and I was moved. The second time, I was somewhat disappointed by it. This time, on the third watch, I'm picking up cues on some very important details that raise my opinion up again. The clues you can catch by paying very close attention is very consistent, and you can infer things that are rather unimportant in the end. But it's possible that Shinkai was far too subtle at the end. I actually had a similar issue with Shinkai's previous film, Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho (U.S. title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days), except that time I was wavering on the middle part of that movie. The last 15 mi...

Indecisions
2007-09-11 06:45:00
Even after the third time I watch it, I seem to waver between considering the last part of Makoto Shinkai 's Byousoku 5 Centimeter either a misstep or a masterpiece. Indeed, I do declare that the first two parts near perfection, but it's the third part that give me some consternation. The first time, I watched the whole 62 minute movie without subtitles, and I was moved. The second time, I was somewhat disappointed by it. This time, on the third watch, I'm picking up cues on some very important details that raise my opinion up again. The clues you can catch by paying very close attention is very consistent, and you can infer things that are rather unimportant in the end. But it's possible that Shinkai was far too subtle at the end. I actually had a similar issue with Shinkai's previous film, Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho (U.S. title: The Place Promised in Our Early Days), except that time I was wavering on the middle part of that movie. The last 15 mi...
More About: Anime