As a fan of Taiyo Matsumoto’s heavily-Europeon influenced work (Ping Pong, No. 5, Blue Spring), I am more than thrilled to find out we’ll be in Tokyo for the Dec. 23 release of Black and White (Tekkon Kinkreet in Japanese) anime movie.
Head over to the official website for more info. And make sure to click on the “Media” link to catch the trailers. The artwork and animation is top-notch.
It took me forever to get around to watching this anime. Mainly because I don’t especially like the over-the-top violent shows. But at the urging of some friends, I moved it to the top of my netflix queue. I just finished the last volume over the weekend and loved it.
The characters were deep (don’t get attached to anyone. the final body count outdoes Hamlet) and the story kept me guessing what would happen next. At first, I thought it lame that the 26 episodes are spaced over 10 discs, so most of the discs only have 2 episodes, although the later discs have 3. But it really added to the guessing and suspense of the story.
I’m currently considering a block of some more violent shows after midnight (Elfen Lied as well?). If I go through with it, Gantz will surely make the cut.
Satoshi Kon has quite a resume. From his debut with the offbeat Perfect Blue, followed by the amazing and beautiful Millenium Actress, the masterpiece Tokyo Godfathers, up to his horror reconstruction series Paranoia Agent, his body of work is quite stunning. With the announcement of his next project, Paprika, I’m quite excited. It’s due for release in the States in June 2007 (just in time for TBAF3?).
195 episodes and 15 years later.
I have now seen every episode of Urusei Yatsura made for television back in the eighties. Honestly, I didn’t think this day would ever come. From its ups (Beautiful Dreamer) to its downs (not that freaky starry-eyed kid and his bizzare sister AGAIN), my eyes have seen the complete glory.
It’s been at least 15 years since I saw my first Urusei Yatsura comic, and not long thereafter I watched the raw of Beautiful Dreamer (still one of my all-time favorite movies). And with last night, thanks to Animeigo’s terrfic boxset releases, I am done. 195 episodes of Lum, not to mention 6 movies. My favorite episodes usually revolved around Ryuunosuke and her insane father, who insisted Ryuunosuke was his son. All Ryuunosuke ever wanted was a bra and girl’s uniform of her own…
My 10 favorite episodes are, in order of viewing:
Best Episode Title: Love and War! Battle of Glove vs. Pants
Fortunatly, there’s still a little more of Rumiko Takahashi’s characters for me. I have a box of unopened UY OAV’s I’ve been saving.