The Boys (and Girls and Men and Women and Little Kids) of Summer

I have a big recommendation for SUMMER WARS, the 2009 Japanese animated film recently released here on home video, with a spiffy English dub job written and directed by Patrick Seitz. Directed by Mamoru Hosoda, the director of the delightful THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, this science fiction tale of a math nerd who gets hauled out to the country on a hot weekend at the end of July 2010 for a questionable job, becomes embroiled in the reunion of a large and contentious extended family, and who helps endanger, and then save, the world is a delight from start to finish. Part of what makes this movie so impressive is the director's and animators' skill in making each of the many characters an individual, each with his or her own "voice," mannerisms, and outlook on life -- something difficult to do in live action, harder in animation, and even harder when dealing with the low budgets that even creators of feature-length animation labor under in Japan.

Pierce the Heavens

I've been watching Japanese animation for a few decades now, and occasionally I'll get so weary of the more mediocre and repetitive products of the anime industry that I'll be tempted to think the industry's best days have ended. Then I see a series like 2007's GURREN LAGANN, which takes a concept as shopworn as giant combining robots and turns it into a brilliant work of storytelling, filled with emotion and wonder (not to mention quite a bit of silliness).

GURREN LAGANN doesn't look quite like any TV anime before or since. It starts out featherweight and then keeps spiraling (pun intended) into something that touches on the profound -- without ever growing ponderous.

And fortunately, the series is available online at Hulu.com:

Lean Times for Japanese Animators

The L.A. Times published this piece (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-japan-anime-20100819,0,7946983.story) about the low wages animators in Japan earn ($10,000 a year on average -- and, having been to Tokyo a couple of times, I can attest that you can't live very well there on $10,000 a year) and the trend toward outsourcing. There's not much new about this news: Animators have likely been making low wages there for decades; and I heard back in the '80's that Japanese studios were outsourcing to Korea the animation that American animation companies outsourced to Japan.

What is news is the threat this poses to the industry's future. Both outsourcing and low wages are shrinking the number of experienced animators. (I suspect that the number of anime artists who can do completely hand-drawn animation -- as opposed to the computer ink-and-paint process that has been in place since the 1990's -- is shrinking as well.)

I wonder if at some point Japan will change its economic model for anime. It needs to take the money all the ancillary merchandising makes for the rights owners and channel more of that yen to the folks who create the actual animation.

The End of ADV

Yet another chapter in the sad story of the decline of anime licensing in the U.S. Texas-based A.D. Vision, one of the top U.S. licensors of Japanese animation in the '90's and most of this decade, has shut down as an entity, its assets transferred to other companies with such spiritual names as "Aesir," "Valkyrie," and "Seraphim."

This is sad news to those who enjoyed the many superb titles that ADV brought to the United States, such as "City Hunter," "Neon Genesis Evangelion," "Excel Saga," etc., etc.

The Academy of Miyazaki

This past Tuesday, Amy and I spent a delightful evening at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of a sold-out audience to master American animation director John Lasseter's interview of master Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki.



The evening was punctuated by several of Lasseter's favorite clips from Miyazaki's movies, such as the incredible bus stop/catbus sequence from MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO; Pazu's rescue of Sheeta from CASTLE IN THE SKY:LAPUTA; the Hotel Adriano scene from PORCO ROSSO; and the bit from HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE that begins with Sofie quietly mending hats and ends with her literally walking on air arm-in-arm with a wizard.

The clips illustrated the magic of Miyazaki's films. Miyazaki dares to focus on quiet moments, such as a little girl falling asleep while waiting for her father at a rainy bus stop, or a pig-faced pilot pouring a glass of wine for an old friend who's learned that her husband has died. We watch such sequences, because (a) they're beautifully realized and (b) we know something incredible is going to happen next.

Miyazaki was charming. He embraced his old friend Lasseter at the beginning and end of the evening. When the audience gave him standing ovations, he bowed and applauded the audience. When a question called for a complicated answer, he would bow his head and rub his brow, as if crafting the perfect response. We learned fascinating tidbits. He felt he was "tricked" into directing his first feature, CASTLE CAGLIOSTRO (the assigned director came to him and asked for help); and he completed the film in four-and-a-half months -- an incredible feat for a film Steven Spielberg once hailed as one of the best action movies he had ever seen. (When he was done, Miyazaki said, he had forgotten to walk by putting one foot in front of the other.) He related that starting his studio, Studio Ghibli, was easy; he and his partners only had to rent a building, and the staff would gather for each project. (It got more complicated later on, he said.) The plot for TOTORO, according to Miyazaki, started with two images in his head: a girl chasing a tiny spirit through a forest; and another girl waiting at a bus stop and encountering a magical creature. He thought the first girl had to be a little girl; and that the other had to be a slightly older girl, to be waiting at the bus stop. He connected them by deciding they were sisters. After that, the story fell into place.

We ended the evening by walking through the incredible exhibition at the Academy, "Anime -- High Art and Pop Culture." The exhibit was a broad survey of the field, and included lots of rare art and cels. The exhibit runs through part of August; and if you're in the Beverly Hills area, I highly recommend you see it. Best of all, it's free.

Miyazaki's Beverly Hills gig was the last stop in a three-stop tour of California that included an appearance in Northern California, and another at a Disney panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. I missed the Comic-Con appearance (it was in the 6,000 seat Hall H, and I never ventured into that hall during this year's con), but the kind folks at Anime News Network have posted a video of it.

Conan & Andy Do Manga (07/24/09)

Video Recaps Full Episodes Webisodes

He's Comin' At You So You Better Look Alive

Back in the 1960's, the Japanese animated racing series MACHGOGOGO was brought to the US. The Japanese title was a multi-layered pun: "Go" in Japanese is "Five"; the car the lead character drove was called the "Mach 5"; and in English, "go" meant to, well, go, and "gogo" was a style of dancing. Once the American distributors got their hands on it, producer, head writer and lead voice actor Peter Fernandez threw out all of the original writing for the series, and made up new stories to match the animation for each episode. So was born one of the seminal anime experiences for my generation, the TV series SPEED RACER.

Now, with ideas in Hollywood at a premium, the Wachowski Brothers (of "Matrix" fame) are bringing SPEED RACER to the big screen -- an adaptation of an adaptation. The producers have put up a Website featuring photos and statements from the Berlin press conference for the movie, along with other goodies. The movie is being shot in Berlin.

The photos that most impressed me were of John Goodman, who was perfectly made up as Pops Racer; and the updated Mach 5. I want one. I suspect there will be lots of males (and quite a few females) who will too.

By coincidence, my cousin Lee Goldberg is producing a racing-based TV movie, FAST TRACK, which is also currently shooting in Berlin . Lee has run into crew members from the Wachowski production. No word on whether any chimps or rotund little boys have stowed away in his trunk.

When Everything Seems Like the Movies

Have movies shaped our dreams as much as dreams have shaped the movies? Before movies came out, did people dream as cinematically as they do now?

Satoshi Kon's new film, Paprika, brings these questions to mind. In this science fiction movie, researchers have developed psychotherapy machines, the most advanced of which enables them to not only visually record dreams, but to enter them. The repressed scientist Dr. Atsko dives into other people's dreams, where she becomes her alter ego, Paprika, who is as adventurous, uninhibited and flirtatious as Atsko is reserved. The problems start when the technology is misused -- threatening reality itself.






Among the many themes this smart movie explores is the connection between movies and dreams -- particularly for one of Dr. Atsko's clients, a police detective who professes to hate movies, yet has recurring dreams that conjure images from "Roman Holiday," "The Greatest Show on Earth," "Tarzan," and "From Russia With Love." It's an apt subject for Kon, who showed his fascination for movies in the Hitchcockian psychological thriller "Perfect Blue" and the John Ford tribute "Tokyo Godfathers," among other movies.

The art style of the lush animation also played into the theme. The characters were rendered in a stylized-realism form, incorporating slight caricature, reminiscent of American comic books -- themselves highly influenced by (and in turn influencing) cinematic storytelling.

The Internet also plays a strong part in the movie. The film points out that the Web often serves the same purposes as dreams -- providing us with an emotional outlet, or a place where we can become other people in a dreamscape.

I don't want to give the impression that "Paprika" is a philosophical snore-fest. Instead, it's a fast-paced action film, which uses animation to play with shifting perspectives and fantastic visuals, to illustrate dreams and what happens when dreams and reality collide.

We saw "Paprika" with friends in the new Landmark cinema, which had just opened the day before. It turned out an apt venue. Several of the scenes in "Paprika" take place in movie theatres, and the characters are often shown in darkened theatres watching other scenes unfolding on the screen. At moments like those, the line between reality and the animated world on the other side of the screen seemed to blur.

"Paprika," like several of Kon's films, is a perfect answer to those who believe that intelligent, mature stories cannot be told in animation -- or that Japanese anime consists solely of game merchandising, giant robots and porn.

Magicplay is Dancing

Excellent news for folks who, like me, are fans of 1980's anime from studio TMS: Imaginasian TV (Channel 157 on our cable network) has announced that beginning in June it will begin broadcasting a daily block of three subtitled TMS shows from the '80's. Best of all, one of those shows will be my all-time favorite TV anime series, CAT'S EYE. It will also be selling the three series as subtitled DVDs.

That CAT'S EYE is being picked up for broadcast and video is something of a minor miracle. Even though the series was broadcast through most of the rest of the world in the '80's, it was never picked up here, so most anime/manga fans have never heard of it. (By contrast, another anime series based on a manga by the same creator, CITY HUNTER, has had numerous episodes issued on DVD in the US, through ADV.) Actually, TMS tried to market the series to American TV in the '80's, even taking out ads in Variety and Hollywood Reporter; but for some reason, the syndicators weren't too eager to broadcast an animated series in which the main characters are, well, thieves.

Further, the commercial prospects for CAT'S EYE seemed dim now, 24 years after its debut, since (a) the series doesn't have giant robots, ninja, samurai, or magical-powered high school girls, and (b) the fashions, hairstyles and music are all extremely early-'80's vintage. Plus, while the series is delightful, funny, and exciting, with engaging characters and great art, one has to deal with the obviously-silly aspects of the plot. In a nutshell, three sisters find out that pieces from their artist/art collector father's collection have been showing up in the hands of various ne'er do wells. So the ridiculously talented ladies set out to steal all the items, in hopes that they will provide a clue as to their missing pop's whereabouts. Do they do so surreptitiously? Do they keep a low profile? Of course not. In the tradition of "gentleman" thieves, they brashly leave metal cards announcing their next heist. Sometimes they shoot the cards into police headquarters. And they call themselves (or at least, middle sister Hitomi) "Cat's Eye." Further, they maintain a coffee shop -- across from police headquarters. And the coffee shop is named -- uhm -- Cat's Eye. And sister Hitomi's boyfriend is -- wait for it -- a police detective. The one whose primary case is, yes, tracking down Cat's Eye.

Sure, it's a high-concept series that Aaron Spelling would have loved, but it's great. Trust me.

Another one of the TMS series being broadcast/sold is ORGUSS. (No, it's not what you think.) This series holds a place in anime history not only as a neat science fiction/time travel/giant robot series, but also as an unofficial sequel of sorts to a much more lionized series from that era, MACROSS. Although MACROSS was produced by another studio, Tatsunoko, ORGUSS ended up with much of the same creative personnel -- most notably, character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto. ORGUSS, unlike CAT'S EYE, was partially released in the U.S. back in the early '90's, under the auspices of U.S. Renditions (whose principals included an old acquaintance of mine, David Riddick); but that was when the U.S. anime market was in its infancy, and only the first 17 episodes were released, with a fairly disappointing dub job.

I can only hope this new incarnation, and its sister series, have a better fate.


The images (if they ever appear above) are copyrighted by TMS and Tsukasa Hojo/Coamix.

Photos from the First Day of Sakura-Con Are Up

I'll post a con report later, when I had the time. Best experience so far: The panel for the US premiere of the anime adaptation of Tsubasa:Reservoir Chronicles. Downtown Seattle in April is great, too.

A Conventional Guy

We've been making plans to attend several comics, anime and science fiction conventions this year. The most exciting trip (for me) will be to Yokohama/Tokyo around Labor Day Weekend for Nippon 2007, the World Science Fiction Convention. We were last in Japan in 2004 for Anime Expo Tokyo -- the first fan-run anime convention in Japan -- which was apparently a try-out for hosting the Worldcon. Also, all of the Worldcon's I've attended (in 1984, 1996, and 2006) have been the Anaheim ones, largely run by LA-area fans; so I'm looking forward to one in a different country, run by different folks.

We have our hotel reservations in Yokohama. We're planning to spend about a week in Tokyo after the convention, and we've got a travel agency working on our accommodations there. There's Internet everywhere in the Tokyo area, so I hope to be blogging about the experience.

A con that is coming up sooner is Sakura Con, an anime convention in Seattle that we decided to attend fairly suddenly. I'm not sure how attendance will be, since it's being held (a) Easter weekend and (b) the same weekend as Norwescon, a large regional science fiction convention. True, not all anime fans are SF fans, or vice versa, but it seems like there'd be an overlap.

Other cons we've arranged to attend are Anime Expo 2007, to be held in Long Beach; and (of course) Comic-con International: San Diego. Believe it or not, this will be my 22nd San Diego Comic-Con. It was fairly big when I attended my first one (with my father and older brother) in 1980; but it's become unimaginably huge, with an attendance that topped 114,000 last year.

The Spoilers of War

Older folks like me will recall that TV Guide, back when it was a force in the publishing world (and before there were 10,000 stations) would have a capsule description of the plot of each TV show; and often a cast list for prime-time shows, set forth in its own indented paragraph. There is obviously an art to writing those summaries in such a way that they intrigue the potential viewer, without giving away the plot points of that show.

When I record shows on my DVR, the shows are organized by their TV Guide online capsule summaries, so that in order to start the show I have to see the summary. One would think that the summary writers would therefore practice circumspection in writing their blurbs. One would think.

This morning, I watched a DVR recording of the episode of EUREKA SEVEN, a science fiction anime series that is being broadcasted on Cartoon Network at one a.m. Sunday mornings (and anyone who did not watch that episode from this morning should stop reading now. I'll even put in a few extra carriage returns to facilitate it.)







The episode features a surprise plot development in which one of the protagonists, Eureka, who had strange luminous growths on her arm, suddenly sprouts wings! That is, it would have been a surprise had not the TV Guide summary read something like: "Eureka, nursing Renton's wounds, sprouts wings . . . ." The summary went on to list every other plot development in that episode.

The quality of writing program summaries is not strain'd.

Linda Lea's New Lease on Life

When I drive to the Second District Court of Appeal (located in the Ronald Reagan State Office Building -- yes, the Ronald Reagan SOB -- on Spring Street) to argue a case, I usually park in a pay lot just north of Third Street. The lot abuts what used to be the Linda Lea Japanese Movie Theater; and I could just see the back of the theater and the sign from the lot. According to this article in today's LA Times, the theater closed in the early '80's, and has just been demolished (a good thing, too; apparently the facade crumbled when removed).

The property's owners have plans to build a new "Imaginasian Center" in the theater's stead, showing Japanese, Chinese, Hong Kong and Indian movies. They believe that the current interest in Asian pop culture is strong enough to support the venture.

I wish them luck. Although the home movie market has made a dent in art house and foreign-movie theater attendance, nothing replaces watching a terrific movie -- especially a Hong Kong martial-arts extravaganza, a samurai flick, or an anime film -- on a big screen.

Photographs from Anime LA are Up on Photobucket

We only went Saturday, so all of the photos are (naturally) from that day.

Unique Anime Mythologies

Although I was a big fan of anime in the mid-eighties, when no legally-translated anime was available commercially, uncut, in America, I dropped out of anime fandom in the early nineties. That's when companies here were first selling unedited anime through the home-video market, albeit through overpriced videocassettes; and in Japan, most series were uninspired imitations of previous series. I started following it again in the late '90's, when more quality anime was (a) being made in Japan and (b) being translated and sold here -- particularly with the advent of the DVD.

Which is why I want to bring up two anime series I've finished that managed to go far off the various beaten paths most anime treads. Just as most American TV shows tend to follow set formulae, much of anime follows the giant-robot, mysterious-transfer-student, or Shonen Jump formats. (The latter -- although followed by such excellent series as BLEACH, NARUTO, and ONE PIECE -- invariably follows a young man who has unrealistically high goals; is viewed as an underdog; wins several apparently unwinnable challenges; meets some foe he cannot overcome; goes through "special training"; is locked into some kind of tournament or interminable fight where he must face off against several foes; and, well, it goes on and on . . . )

Both series are not only striking from a visual and storytelling standpoint; both create their own mythologies, and strike out on their own paths.

One of the series is HAIBANE RENMEI, a 13-episode anime which was released on DVD here but not broadcast on American TV. The series is written by artist Yoshitaka ABe, a painter trained in classical Japanese painting, and based on ABe's self-published comic book (dojinshi) series.

The best analogy I can think of for this story is a kinder, gentler, more spiritual THE PRISONER. In a village that looks vaguely 20th-Century European, people --the Haibane -- who once existed in the outside world (and who may have died young) are reborn from seed pods. They have wings like angels, but the wings gradually emerge from their backs as if the backs were giving birth. They have halos, but the halos are forged in circular molds. Their world has non-angel-like people, but they seem to exist to protect the Haibane. The world is bound by all sorts of arcane rules. The story follows Rekka, a Haibane, from her birth in the village through her struggles to expiate her guilt for some unknown sin she committed in her previous life.

It's an emotional story -- and in the central portion, where Rekka becomes depressed, the story cannot help but become depressing. But the creator intended it to reflect the process of salvation from the pits of despair; and the story resonates soulfully. Plus, it's beautiful to look at -- although other character designers worked on the anime, it reflects the watercolor look of ABe's art.

WOLF'S RAIN is a 30-episode SF-Fantasy series that is much more violent and story-oriented than HAIBANE RENMEI. It was broadcast in Japan in 2003 and 2004; and on America's Cartoon Network during 2004. Yet like HR, it invents its own rich mythology, one influenced by Eastern, European, and Native American beliefs.

In a future (?) where "Nobles" govern, hording technology, and wolves are vitally important, a Noble sets out to exterminate wolves. The wolves escape oblivion by adopting the ultimate disguise: They hypnotize the human eye into seeing them as humans. The illusion is complete to the extent that the wolves are able to talk to people. The anime constantly shifts between showing the main pack as wolves and as a group of inhumanly graceful teenage boys. In one particularly interesting storyline, a wolf-hunter's dog discovers she is part wolf; and as soon as she does, people see her as a stylishly-dressed, tousled-haired young woman. The story (which may be more complicated than it has to be) deals with the possible end of this future, and the wolves' search for "Paradise," guided by a girl who has seemingly been cloned from a flower (one of the impossibilities that the plot glides over without much explanation.)

As with HR, the story gets emotional -- particularly near the end -- and manages to lead the viewer down paths that steer around cliche.

The above images are copyrighted by the respective copyright holders.

Be Our Guest, Be Our Guest . . . .

Sometimes, the Barer Cave opens to admit visitors . . . .

This past weekend, we were delighted to host at our home three anime fans from Utah -- Christie, Natalie, and Sarah -- whom Amy met online, and who we met in person at the Anime Vegas convention in September. We introduced the trio to some of the joys of Los Angeles anime stuff, including Power Anime at the Westside Pavilion; Kinchan Ramen and Volcano Tea on Sawtelle; and Kinokuniya Bookstore, Anime Jungle and Japan Arcade in Little Tokyo. Not to mention such gastronomical wonders as Junior's Deli. Thanks to our ever-cheerful and upbeat guests, we had a blast.

PMX 2006 photos

My photos from last weekend's Pacific Media Expo 2006 (albeit only Sunday) are up on Photobucket.

Yougle Tube

Google, the company that owns Blogger (this blog's host), has purchased YouTube -- a company until recently housed in an office above a San Mateo Pizzaria -- for an eye-popping $1.65 billion. Apparently one of the keystones for the new relationship has been YouTube's approaches to various copyright holders in an attempt to still the waters of litigation.

YouTube has certainly captured the imagination of Web surfers -- to the degree that even staunch supporters of copyright have posted copyright-infringing snippets on their blogs.

To celebrate the union between Google and You Tube, here is an utterly silly clip of two Asian girls dancing to the tune of my favorite anime TV series, Cat's Eye. Magic-play is dancing.