Bandai: Is the Official Company Uniform Gundam Cosplay?
My favorite thing about this Mobile Suit Gundam toy commercial? The fact that it shows all of those Bandai employees dressed in in uniforms from the show: Read more…
The Most Overlooked Anime Series of The Last Five Years
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…
The Melancholy of Haruhi Americanized
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…
A First Look at the Space Battleship Yamato Live Action Film
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…
Dancing Animated Rice Balls
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 31, 2009 in Animation, Japanese TV
This 1991 advert for rice balls features J-pop singer Arisa Mizuki (観月ありさ) who was just making her singing debut at the time this commercial was shown. Arisa had been modeling as a child since the age of four, but her big break came with the TV drama Mou dare mo Aisanai which was followed by her first single record Densetsu no Shoujo. In addition during this time she also provided vocals for the Sailor Moon song Kaze Mo, Sora Mo, Kitto.
Princess Iron Fan: A Chinese Animation Classic from 1941
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 29, 2009 in Animation
Not so long ago a friend was asking me why animation in China was never as strong as Japan: A simple answer would be that because of Mao’s Communism from 1949 until 1976 that it was very hard for creative artists to express themselves in China, and especially even more so during the cultural revolution in the 60s. However it should be noted that there is a growing industry there today, in fact most of the hard work done to create Japanese anime is outsourced to China. Read more…
The Toro Station Looks at the Upcoming Lucky Star Game
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 28, 2009 in Animation, Videogames
This latest episode of Weekly Toro Station (週刊トロ・ステーション) takes a look at the Lucky Star Net Idol Meister game that’s coming out in January. I love how both cats are dressed as characters from the series in their sailor girl outfits.
Lum Celebrates the Year of the Tiger
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 27, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
To celebrate the year of the tiger you can order this swanky limited edition Lum lucky charm. Although if you’re a die hard hard Urusei Yatsura fan you’re going to need a bit more than luck to buy this limited edition lucky charm as this goodie will set you back 80,000 yen plus shipping (and orders are due by December 28th): Read more…
Obligatory Spice and Wolf Propaganda
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 23, 2009 in Animation
I personally blame Gia Manry for the American popularity of Spice and Wolf — oh I’m sure other fans were into the show, but the first time I heard about it was when she did a review of the light novel back in the day. Without me realizing it somehow Gia had planted the seed and now every where I turn that’s all that anime fans seem to be talking about. Well now Gia can claim victory as Funimation has capitulated to wolf fandom and released the first season on DVD…
Is the Pen Mightier Than the Gundam?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 22, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
Just when I had thought that I had seen every Mobile Suit Gundam goodie along comes another trinket to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the classic anime series. In this case we’ve got a collection of ballpoint pens that are shaped like the various weapons the mecha suits carry into battle, and at $11 the set is pretty cheap in terms of collectables: Read more…
The Man Who Saved Disney — Twice!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 17, 2009 in Animation
When people think of Disney they always think of a solo founder — Walt Disney. And while Walt was a genius he had a partner that made the business work: Roy O. Disney. He was the younger brother to Walt, and business brains of the operation. To be blunt, without him Disney might have been a director and a producer but never a studio head. It’s because of Roy that Disney as a company existed. Read more…
Omamori Himari: How Many More Catgirl Cheesecake Anime Shows Can Japan Produce?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 16, 2009 in Animation
This is a promo for the upcoming anime series Omamori Himari (おまもりひまり) which is due out in January 2010: It’s your typical boy meets supernatural samurai catgirl type of story. Now I know that this type of show always appeals to the fanboys, and is a sure fire break-even proposition from a marketing/merchandising point of view — but over the long run it doesn’t bring any new fans to anime. Read more…
The Lucky Star Concert I Sadly Missed!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 14, 2009 in Animation
This commercial is from a month ago and who knows when this concert took place — but according to this advert the DVD for Lucky☆Star in it for you from the Budokan will be released on December 25th and will be available through kyotoanimation.shop-pro.jp. The video is 118 minutes long and features Dolby stereo so you can sing along with the voice actors, although the light sticks that the audience members have are not included.
Control Gigantor With Your Netbook
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 13, 2009 in Animation, Japanese TV
Shown above is an NTT ad for the Docomo for PC service which features Tetsujin 28-go, which is lovingly known to American fans as Gigantor. I love how while the two giant robots are destroying Tokyo the Docomo PC user is still spellbound by his nifty software…
Clever Google Animation Showcasing Chrome OS
I’ve got to say that when Google wants to they can be very creative, even doing things that are more interesting than Apple. This video is an example of this: It’s a stop motion animation to promote their Chrome operating system and it’s fun to look at even if you don’t care about the technology. Read more…
Gundam vs. Gundam
This video of two Gundam robots slugging it out is from the recent 2009 International Robot Exhibition. I like how the decapitated Gundam continues to dance after defeat…
Fraggle Rock Remixed
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 28, 2009 in Animation
This mysterious Jim Henson Company video is being used to promote a website called Drdoozer.com which is currently under construction: Read more…
The Original Fantastic Fox: Ladislas Starevich’s Le Roman de Renard
Posted by Nick Kent on Nov 25, 2009 in Animation
Catching the trailer for Wes Anderson’s first animated Fantastic Mr. Fox brings to mind Ladislas Starevich’s 70+ year old animated feature film Le Roman de Renard, which I was unaware even existed as of a couple years ago. It was probably the second stop motion feature after Aleksandr Ptushko’s The New Gulliver (1935) though it his was in production and may have been shown years earlier in silent form. It was also likely the 3rd animated feature with sound. Read more…
Monster Waste: A Retro Anime Public Service Announcement
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 24, 2009 in Animation, Japanese TV
I’m not sure of the date of this public service announcement, but my guess is that it’s from the 70s. This animated announcement by the japan Advertising Council warns about the dangers of wasting food. To an older generation (represented by the old man) who went through World War II food shortages weren’t theoretical — so it felt to be important to pass these values onto the next generation.
SMAP Starring as Gatchaman
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 20, 2009 in Animation, Japanese TV
It’s amazing what you can discover on YouTube sometimes: The above commercial for NTT is from the year 2000 and features the J-Pop band SMAP as Gatchaman! Of course Gatchaman is known to use old school anime fans as Battle of the Planets which played a key role in introducing Americans to sci fi ninjas. There were four commercials in total and below is a fully animated spot which looks amazing: Read more…
Kaneda’s Bike Will Light Up the Eyes of Retro Anime Fans
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 20, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
It’s amazing to me to think that Akira is now over 20 years ago: So if you want to celebrate old school Neo-Tokyo the folks at Sideshow have produced a Kaneda’s Bike Die-Cast 1/6 Scale Replica. Although this is no average mecha replica as this model features LEDs which light up. In addition to the lights this set of wheels features sound effects, the headlights move up and down and you can remove the exterior panels: Read more…
Why Don’t Anime Fandubs Exist?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 19, 2009 in Animation
What you’re looking at above is an example of the “good old days of anime” which weren’t so good. When it came out Captain Future wasn’t so bad in terms of quality, but the dubbing here is amateurish to say the least. This wasn’t so unusual in the early days of anime as small companies would blow everything they had to acquire the rights to a show — only to realize that they had little budget to do a proper dub. Read more…
The Simpsons Slurping C.C. Lemon
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2009 in Animation, Japanese TV
I think The Simpsons are even better with Japanese voice acting, they somehow even seem sillier than usual! This advert is for C.C. Lemon a Japanese beverage that’s distributed by Kirin (I admit that I had hoped that it was a beer commercial!).
Bleach: The Third Musical!
The third Bleach musical will take start on January 15th, 2010 and tour three cities in Japan: Fukuoka, Osaka and Tokyo. What makes this show interesting is that it features some of the voice actors from the series. Tickets are 6600 yen and go on sale November 15th. Here’s the official flyer for the show: Read more…