Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 6, 2010 in Videogames
This is a cute promotional video for Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles 2G game which will be out on the PSP. This battlefield simulation game is based on Valkyria Chronicles which came out for the PlayStation3 back in 2008 — although I think setting the game on a portable platform makes the anime aspect of this title even cuter. Read more…
President Obama has been slowly redecorating the Oval Office at the White House — and of course there are the usual bits of history and family photos, but this geeky gem caught my eye:
“Also new to the Obama bookshelves are three mechanical devices on loan from the National Museum of American History’s patent collection: models for Samuel Morse’s 1849 telegraph register, John Peer’s 1874 gear-cutting machine and Henry Williams’ 1877 feathering paddle wheel for steamboats.”Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 5, 2010 in Comic Books
Above: I’m sorry son, you’ll have to move to the back because these fierce fangurls now own comic book fandom. Photo by Christian Liendo.
I just read the article Trends in 00s from Comic Book Resources was blown away when coming across the following mislabled “trend”:
The Rise and Fall of MangaGeorge Tramountanas: At the beginning of this decade, manga was on the rise. Everyone was reading the little “backwards books” and publishers were trying to figure out how to hop on this zeitgeist. Since then, several American manga publishers have either had to reduce their output or have gone out of business. I guess I wouldn’t actually say that manga has “fallen,” but it’s definitely not as prominent as it was in the early ’00s. As for reasons behind this – I have no idea. I don’t know if it was an overabundance of material, or if fans are getting their manga digitally now (I understand lots of Japanese kids are reading manga in a digital format). In any case, it’s something I’ll keep watching – and reading!Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 5, 2010 in Japanese TV
Just look at her: She’s so smitten with him! Sadly I couldn’t trace down the baseball player and the lovely lady from this wonderfully cute advert from the 80s. I also love the added touch in the commercial of how she changes her outfit for each special soft drink encounter. Although I did figure out the orange, pineapple and grape flavored beverages featured in the advert was manufactured by Hagoromo foods.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 4, 2010 in Animation
2010 is now here and the season of top manga and anime lists is now over! Most of these lists are on the fanboy quest to figure out the most important anime series of the last few years. And to me this isn’t a trivial quest: Looking back allows us as critics to pick out the overlooked titles that deserve a second chance, and by contrast to acknowledge the fads that have faded. In fact it always interesting to me how an amazing film or television show can receive lackluster box office receipts or poor ratings, only to be recognized in retrospect as important. And thus I submit to you that the most important anime show of the last five years was Bakugan Battle Brawlers. Read more…
On paper 2010 has all of the ingredients of a great film: A story by Arthur C. Clarke, a cast that includes A+ actors like John Lithgow, Helen Mirren and Roy Scheider — and then add to that you’ve got a visual genius like Syd Mead working on the production design. Even more impressive is the fact that as a genre hard science fiction films represent a blank canvas of possibilities. Yet as a film fanboy (who loves science fiction) I hated every frame of it. Read more…
It’s impressive to see NASA send these cute toys to explore Mars to wander about — but the damn things always seem to break down. It’s frustrating to watch knowing that humans wandering about in spacesuits could be much more productive. I’ll grant you that the cost is much great, but it’s sad to me that the United States doesn’t seem to be serious yet about going to Mars. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that Obama gives NASA a budget boost, but NASA needs more than a gentle increase: It’s time to aim high again…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 1, 2010 in Animation
At long last Bandai is bringing out The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The dubbing here is pretty professional, but I’ve got to admit that I always get a little bit let down when I hear the voice acting go from Japanese to English. However i do have to say that I’ve been impressed with the fanservice friendly low budget videos that Bandai has been putting out to push the show to American otaku: Read more…
The good news: Hollywood won’t ruin this film! The bad news: There isn’t a very strong tradition in Japan for making live action science fiction films. Mind you I’m not saying that this can’t be done, but the odds are against you. So given that I’ve got to say as an ancient Star Blazers fans that this trailer has me much more excited than the animated film that came out this year, which to be fair got better review than I expected. Here’s a screen-by-screen breakdown of my thoughts: Read more…
Fanboys love their toys! And 2009 has been a great year for collectors of both high and low art, so we’ve put together our favorites from this year with an eye on unique twists on old themes. For example shown above O-No! Sushi by Andrew Bell is an urban toy reaction from a vegetarian to sushi. Read more…
David Lipson of Lipson Robotics has been doing some impressive work with his homemade robot sculptures. His latest Speaker Bot creation takes this to the next level — it features a working speaker which can be plugged into a mp3 player. Shown in this photo is Lipson’s retro first generation iPod: Read more…