As if a collective prayer was answered I just found out that Production I.G have announced a new chapter in the GITS saga - Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society. The last two series have been pure genius and could even have been said to improve on themselves so I have high hopes for the next incarnation.
After the spectacular ending of the 2nd Gig who knows where it will go next!
UPDATE (23/03):
Production I.G has revealed in a stock disclosure that the upcoming Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid State Society will be a 100 minute movie released in summer 2006. Anime News Network reports the movie is being produced in Hi-Vision, a format used by Japanese broadcast networks to support wide-screen televisions. The same production team, including main staff, will be carried over from the TV series. It takes place two years after the refugee riot incident. A significantly larger Section 9, with over 20 new officers, investigates terrorist actions related to a wizard-like hacker “Kugutsu Mawashi.”
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An amazing project is going on at the ESA (European Space Agency) to create the most detailed surface map of the world every created, with a resolution three times sharper than any created before. Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument will be used to capture the images which are estimated to take up to 20 terabytes of disk space! “The completed GLOBCOVER map will have numerous uses, including plotting worldwide land use trends, studying natural and managed ecosystems and modeling climate change extent and impacts“. When you look at these images the world looks a whole lot smaller. It is expected to take two years to complete.
Any ‘Ghost in the Shell‘ fans out there will be familiar with the concept of “thermoptic camouflage” where you trick the eye into thinking an object is invisible by projecting an image of what’s behind it onto its masked surface. Now some crazy Japanese scientists have taken another step forward in turning science-fiction into science-fact with their proof-of-concept demonstrations of just that! Whilst it’s still heavily in development the videos on the site show that it’s definitely progressing. It’s kind of scary when reality actually starts to mirror fiction but it’s a fitting testiment to Masamune Shirows futuristic vision (if a somewhat nightmarish one!).
R.E. My last post - Election night was boring and predictable as expected. British politics is dead in terms of true democracy, it needs a serious shot of life injected back into it.
“What’s with the fish? I hear you shout! Think about 1999. Cool 
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I don’t usually go in for comedy anime series but Azumanga Daioh would have to be the exception - it’s about as random as it gets with absolutely no story line, and a bunch of characters so psychotically crazy that you wonder at times just what on earth you are actually watching?!
It’s an episodic series which follows the fortunes of seven girls, two teachers (and one dog) through the three years of high school. It focuses on every day events, which might sound a bit boring at first but actually it’s hilarious. All the characters have their own quirks which play heavily in each episode - I especially like Osaka’s wacky daydreams which are just way off the scale of normality!
Each episode is rather short at around five minutes long (so if you have the attention span of a fish then this is definitely for you!). The animation itself is simple but effective with vibrant colours and a pretty cool soundtrack. In a word its fun without trying to be anything other than this - definitely one to watch on a gray day
[For a more indepth review see here!]
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Had a fun time in our last Japanese lesson of the term today learning a little song from a popular Japanese cartoon - Doraemon.
The cartoon was originally created in 1969 and follows a cat-like robot from the 22nd century of the future (how do they think these things up…!) who is sent back to the 20th century to help Nobita, a rather hapless school boy. It became one of Japan’s most popular and well-loved manga/anime series which has a cult following (just do a search on Google and you’ll see what I mean!).
You could almost see Doraemon as the equivalent of Mickey Mouse in the U.S. (but a lot less annoying). If you’re so inclined you can:
- Download the theme song here.
- Read the lyrics (with translation) here.
- Watch the opening video here (download here).
- Read an article explaining Doraemon’s history here.
- Visit the official website here.
Update (6th Aug 2007): Due to popular demand fixed links to mp3 and video!
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As anyone who knows me will probably testify, I’m a bit of a sucker for beautiful visual effects in film, hence my love of films like The Matrix, Hero, Ghost in the Shell and Koyaanisqatsi. There is something intrinsically spectacular in the way these films manage to turn every frame into a work of art which captures the imagination.
Last weekend I had the pleasure of watching the remade version of Shirow Masamune’s ‘Appleseed‘ which was recently released in Japan. Although my copy doesn’t have any English subtitles it didn’t matter because the story was secondary to this visual feast of hybrid cell-shaded CGI animation!
From what I’ve read and gathered from watching it the story has something to do with a band of the last remaining members of the human race who are locked in a war with bioroids, an army of machines who once were domestic servants in the year 2131 (sound familiar?). Yes it’s clichéd and over dramatized but this doesn’t really bother me because it just looks stunning.
Both the camera and animation motion dynamics in this film are incredible. As the action unfolds so the camera fluidly sweeps through it all in such a way that live action films can only dream of. The detail of the animation is very stylized and practically unique from what I’ve seen, having a simplistic but very modern feel to it. It does not try to imitate photo-realism like some other high budget anime films. It’s also worth mentioning the soundtrack which is also pretty unique in its used of industrial techno which is very fitting to the mode of the piece.
Overall this film may not be as deep or sophisticated as some of the other films I listed at the beginning but it doesn’t half look good. I can’t wait to see it again with English subtitles! You can watch the trailer for it here. The official site (in Japanese) can be found here.
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