Tag Archive for 'Anime'

Overlooking The East

Published
by
David
on August 27, 2008
in Cool and General
. 2 Comments

There have been some amazing advances in CG animation over the past few years with Pixar having a string of hits which seem almost unstoppable and meanwhile a new level of sophistication is emerging both in the visual style and story telling departments. What I find strange though is that the creative output of the Japanese animation (anime) industry is still largely ignored by the west (with a few exceptions) even though they produce more content than every other country put together. I would suspect this has something to do with the cultural gap which can be particularly evident if you are unfamiliar with that part of the world although for me makes it all the more interesting…

Recently I’ve seen two anime films which I’m sure most people will not have heard of but which use cutting edge animation to great effect and if you enjoy that sort of thing definitely worth getting your hands on -

Appleseed Ex Machina

Following on from first film in 2004 Appleseed Ex Machina takes the unique look to the next level in evidence by a greater depth of detail and texture than its predecessor. Whilst some of the character articulation needs work it’s still a visual feast to behold. Cyborgs and mecha eat your heart! [Review]

Vexille

Whilst borrowing on a similar visual style Vexille is an altogether darker film in both its appearance and tone. Set in a self-isolated Japan of 2077 the visuals are outstanding and, even though the score by Paul Oakenfold is unorthodox, it’s refreshing and compliments the excilarating action scenes. [Review]

Neither of the story lines here are totally unique and the character development is sometimes lacking but if you’re after eye candy they might just blow you away!

Enjoyed this post? Please subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date.

Ghost in the Shell Live Action

Published
by
David
on April 17, 2008
in Anime, Cool, Film and Japan
. 10 Comments

What exactly is the definition of human in a society where a mind can be copied and the body replaced with a fully synthetic body? Where is the boundary between human and machine when the differences between the two become more philosophical than physical? Ultimately how do we define what it is to be human?

I’m not going to try and answer this today but these are the philosophical questions that form the basis of the futuristic manga and anime series ‘Ghost in the Shell‘ created by Masamune Shirow (first published in 1989). Whilst being nearly 30 years old the franchise is still alive and well with three movies, a TV series, game and trilogy of novels being spawned from it along with many aspects having slowly percolated into popular culture (it heavily inspired The Matrix).

With such a strong pedigree it’s rather worrying that Production I.G has sold the rights for a live-action movie to DreamWorks under the direction of none other than Steven Spielberg. For fans this is a pretty worrying development. Whist there is no denying Spielberg’s talent it’s an altogether different proposition when applying it to something like this, the main fear being that it will be severely dumbed down for a Hollywood audience.

If they can respect and stay faithful to the original maybe this has a chance but then again the likelihood of that is pretty low - the precedent is already pretty well established for ruining Asian cult classics.

Enjoyed this post? Please subscribe to my RSS feed to stay up to date.