What makes One Piece (ワンピース) so appealing is that the characters aren’t stiff but cartoony and fun. This new set of One Piece Portrait of Pirates Excellent Model Mild Straw Theater Figures picks up on this and pushes the character designs even further as collectable figures by making the head of each character just a bit bigger and cuter. This collection includes Monkey D. Luffy (shown above), Roronoah Zoro looking grumpy and a happy smiling Nami: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 29, 2009 in Animation
Shown above is a commercial for the upcoming anime series Sora no Otoshimono (そらのおとしもの) which translates to The Heaven’s Lost Property in English. The series which starts on October 4th is based upon a manga by Suu Minazuki and combines romantic comedy plot elements with fantasy. Here’s an official trailer from July Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 25, 2009 in Animation, Fandom
I came across this very odd photo essay from a Japanese blog that shows some poor store manager in the Akihabara district of Tokyo who is forced to wear a suit and a Keroro mask in order to sell snacks based on the anime series that features frog stories aimed at fanboys: Read more…
The Toyota Automobile Museum (located in Nagakute Town, Aichi Prefecture, Japan) will be running a special exhibit on “The Car and Comics” from October 10th until March 7th, 2010. The exhibit will feature many autos from various popular manga titles and anime series like Initial D, Detective Conan, Speed Racer and my favorite the Lupin III film Castle of Cagliostro. Here’s a guide to the exhibit from the official museum website: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 24, 2009 in Animation
This episode of Little Lulu dates from the mid to late 90s which took place just a bit after Gen X started to come into their own thus bringing tattoos into pop culture. Little Lulu dates all the way back to 1935 when she got her start as a comic in the The Saturday Evening Post — anime fans should note that she even had an animated series in Japan called Little Lulu to Chicchai Nakama (Little Lulu and Her Little Friends) which was produced in 1976.
K-On! (けいおん!) candy is hitting the store shelves in Japan for sweet toothed otaku. The candy inside of the cool guitar packaging are chocolate and strawberry marshmallow treats (which are not in the shape of a guitar). Although some of the boxes include a Yui Hirasawa t-shirt treat at random. Read more…
A line of Lucky Star toys with a Macross theme (that’s Robotech for you American fanboys) is due to hit stores in Akihabara on September 26th. This photo series shows a preview of these goodies which are put out by Banpresto and will be awarded on some sort of lottery system: Read more…
Looking back at it I think Snoopy is one of the few places in pop culture where World War I was a regular running theme. Having spent a childhood growing up on World War II films and TV shows it was odd to see Snoopy make reference to the oddly named Sopwith Camel aircraft which was so oddly named that it made me run to the library. Shown above (and in the video below) is a Flying Ace Snoopy USB Hub from Japan which will entertain you with beagle feats of bravery. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 19, 2009 in Animation
This latest promotional Astro Boy clip is titled Escape Metro City, but it’s more like Escape Pixar City. The more I see of the upcoming Astro Boy flick the more I absolutely hate it. It’s bad enough having to watch every other film trying to poorly imitate Pixar, but then to see such a classic anime character get dragged into the mud is humiliating. This clip sums up while I won’t be standing in line: We’ve got A list actors doing C- voice acting, poorly timed animation that telegraphs its punches and a great deal of eye candy over substance.
Summer is just about over but for a hardcore fanboy it’s never too late for anime themed flip-flops! These new flip-flops feature the characters from K-On! (けいおん!) and man are they too cute: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 15, 2009 in Animation, Tech
The stop motion animated spots above and below are for Google Japan and I’m just blown away by the quality of craftsmanship and creativity shown here. The spots are explaining how Google street maps will help ensure privacy by blurring out people’s faces and the like. In my humble opinion Google should tap the creative team behind these ads to enliven their branding in the United States which is a tad too dull for such an innovative company. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 11, 2009 in Animation
I’ll sidestep all of the politically correct (or not) arguments about this film until I see a bit more. On the positive side I really like the animation I see here, it’s classic Disney and that’s nice to see good old fashioned cartooning in a world filled with too many 3D animated films. However the one thing that I dislike in this second trailer is the soundtrack by Randy Newman. To me Newman has always been overrated and his previous work on Pixar films hasn’t changed my mind at all. Given the focus of the film on New Orleans I wish they did a bit more with the music, it feels like they’ve ignored all of those wonderful musical traditions associated with the venue.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 10, 2009 in Animation, Fandom
Sadly all good things come to an end sooner or later: And thus I’m afraid for yours truly it’s a bit too soon as the giant Gundam on display in Tokyo is being taken apart! Part of me always assumed that the Gundam would be on display forever, but sadly I was wrong. And what makes it worse is that the damn robot just sits there and does nothing to defend itself against a wimpy looking crane…Read more…
I was trying to figure out why this recent commercial for Tokyo Disneyland Disney Halloween looks so damn cool. I’m an anime fanboy so my thought was that anything with a Japanese voiceover would just seem cooler, but that’s not the case. Then it struck me: Mickey and Mini and decked out in Venetian costumes instead of the typical goth look associated with Halloween. The result is that our mouse suddenly takes on a magical European quality that I just doesn’t associate with Mickey who’s as American as you can get. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 5, 2009 in Animation
Shown above is the beautiful Soviet propaganda film Mister Twister from the height of the Cold War in 1963. I really love how they’ve done so much here with such a little budget and no technology by modern standards. And of course my favorite shot is the opening scenes showing a decadent New York City which is cluttered with vintage ads. What’s also interesting to me about this cartoon is you can really see how Jim Crow really hurt the image of America abroad during that era: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 3, 2009 in Animation
I loved The Royal Tenenbaums and I can see some of Wes Anderson’s touches on this film, but there’s a major problem looking at this trailer. What Anderson is great at is getting emotion out of actors on a screen, so a small nuance can communicate volumes of emotion and storytelling. But every frame of an animated film demands painful planning to achieve that spontaneous feeling. And what I’m seeing in the trailer above is a very stiff looking film which is bad news for an animated film. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Sep 1, 2009 in Animation
The latest Space Cruiser yamato film is set to come out on December 12th this year and a new trailer has been posted to the official website yamato2009.jp. Looking at the trailer above I’m happy to see less of an obvious computer graphics look to the film, but on the other hand the plot looks exactly like something that we’ve seen before. And that’s an amazingly sad statement for me to make given that I can’t even speak a word of Japanese! Read more…
Despite having no mouth Hello Kitty has taken a huge bite out of America, yet most mundanes have no clue who Doraemon is! Example: When I came across this cute Doraemon flash light it was sadly listed as a “Space Kitty Rechargeable Flash Light”. Now looking at this site it’s clear to me that I’ve committed the crime of just shining the light on all things Sanrio — so here’s a quick intro to Doraemon, the other Japanese kitty you should know:Read more…
Shown above is the GeGe no Kitaro Original Version posable figure which goes on sale in October. It’s amazing for me to think that the character of GeGeGe no Kitaro has been around since 1959 yet he’s never become well known in the United States. Kitaro is a demon spirit who was born in a cemetery; his trademark look is that he’s missing one eye which he cover up with his hair. Since his manga introduction he’s gone on to star in about six anime series, a PlayStation game and two live action films. Here are the opening titles from his 1968 anime series which hold up rather well: Read more…
This is a promotional video for the anime themed Nintendo DS game Spice and Wolf: The Wind that Spans the Sea which comes out on September 17th. This is the second title in the series, Spice and Wolf: Holo’s and My One Year came out earlier this summer. Here are some screen shots from the up and coming title: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 27, 2009 in Animation
This is the third trailer for AstroBoy, yeah there’s a quick shot of Tezuka (at the 1:18 mark) if you don’t blink or get distracted by the bad voice acting. But what pains me is the poor animation I’m seeing here. The danger of doing 3D animation is that you put yourself up against Pixar unless you are doing something very different, and for something that’s very different (it is suppose to anime, no?) this looks like a 2nd rate Ice Age straight-to-video project. Of course the real problem from what little I’m seeing here looks like the script, if you can’t get that all the money you throw at the screen won’t improve anything. Read more…
I could be wrong but I think this amazing 1986 ad for milk may have been done by Colossal Pictures, which was a San Francisco production company that did a great deal of amazing work back in the day (tons of work for MTV and the like which would always feature a collage of live action and animation). Read more…
These Robo-Q Transformers toys from Japan are ultra cute! They’re each just a bit over an inch high and come with a radio controller. Manufactured by Takara Tomy there’s an Optimus Prime and a Bumblebee model available: Read more…
The stop motion animated spots above and below are for Google Japan and I’m just blown away by the quality of craftsmanship and creativity shown here. The spots are explaining how Google street maps will 
