Snout Spout: The Silliest Masters of the Universe Toy, Ever!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 20, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
Snout Spout
Look Out Jem: It’s Barbie & the Rockers!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 19, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
This video shows two things: The first is how a show like Jem can come out of nowhere and give a well established brand like a Barbie a run for the money — and the second thing is just how much cultural mindspace MTV owned back in the 80s when it was new. Inspired by MTV Jem and the Holograms went on the air in 1985 and suddenly Barbie who had been around since 1959 seemed slightly old fashioned. Read more…
I Love Listening to Noto Arisa’s Chatter!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 14, 2009 in Animation, Japanese TV
This is Noto Arisa (能登有沙) who is nicknamed Nocchi, this video is a regular feature on the DogaDoga7 Anime NewType Channel. I’m somewhat addicted to these videos on YouTube because Nocchi is always hanging out at anime cons and sneaking around animation studios. In the video above she’s announcing her 2nd personal manga, talking about some DVD and mentioning that she will debut as a voice actor in an animated drama titled Deba no Hime Goto. Below is the video of her snooping around Gonzo, the studio responsible for the Strike Witches: Read more…
M.A.S.K.: An Undercover Anime Series from the 80s
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 14, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
I recently came across these two Kenner toy commercials from 1986 for M.A.S.K. (which stands for Mobile Armored Strike Kommand and shouldn’t be confused with the 1995 animated series based on the the Jim Carey film The Mask) and was surprised to discover that this classic 80s kids series was in fact anime! The series was produced by DIC, but the actual animation was produced by three Japanese studios: KK C&D Asia, Studio Juno, Studio World and Ashi Production. Of course they weren’t alone back then, many anime studios did work for American series — the best example would be ThunderCats from that era. Read more…
Gundam Memory Gizmo Will Revive Your Vintage Anime Memories
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 13, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
You can relive your memories of the early days of anime with this Mobile Suit Gundam USB Memory device. It will hold up to 4 gigs, which might just hold a few digital backups of your old VHS tapes or photos of your giant robot collection: Read more…
A Century Ago Today: Le Voyage sur Jupiter Premieres in the United States
We like to think of sci fi films as something new, but the fact of the matter is that the genre is now over a century old. On this day in 1909 the French film Le Voyage sur Jupiter opened in the United States. Directed by Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomón in 1907 the movie is quite similar to Le voyage dans la lune from 1902 by Georges Méliès. Although to his credit Chomón was very good at special effects and shows off a few new tricks here. Read more…
Ponyo: The Voice Acting Sounds Quite Promising!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 7, 2009 in Animation
We already know that Ponyo is going to be a great film — but the real question is if Disney would mess up the voice acting? I always hate when Hollywood studios favor screen actors over good old fashioned voice actors, but I’ve got to say that it sounds like they’ve pulled it off looking at this second trailer! The film opens on August 14th so get ready to reserve your tickets…
Leader Desslok’s Wine Goblet: Please Don’t Drink and Drive Space Battleships
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 7, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
As a Star Blazers fanboy at heart I have to admit that I feel slighted by the slew of high quality Gundam merchandise I’ve been seeing hitting the streets of Japan. Well as if to answer my prayers I just spotted this amazing new replica of Leader Desslok’s wine goblet that just came out: Read more…
Sgt. Frog Invading America
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 6, 2009 in Animation
This is the latest trailer for the Sgt. Frog season one DVD release from FUNImation (which comes out on September 22nd, 2009). Frog is one of the most beloved anime fanboy series due to the generous cultural references to Gundam, Space Cruiser Yamato, Dragonball and Evangelion (just to name a few shows). I’m really happy that FUNImation has decided to invest their resources into a fan favorite, and with 263 episodes and several movies it would be ice to see them get the support to bring over more episodes.
A Proper Otaku Porsche
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 6, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
Oh sure any fanboy can put an anime emblem on their car — but it takes a very special otaku to tattoo their beloved Porsche with the characters from Lucky Star and Hatsune Miku! Read more…
Gundam Cosplay Heaven: Char Aznable’s Helmet
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 5, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mobile Suit Gundam there will be a special full scale replica of Char Aznable’s helmet released this month. I think this has to be one of the most distinctive hat designs in the history of anime, on par perhaps with Darth Vader’s infamous helmet: Read more…
Rock & Rule Will Never Die
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 5, 2009 in Animation
On this day in 1983 the animated film Rock & Rule opened in the United States: This was the first film produced by the Canadian animation studio Nelvana and it’s a bit of a lost classic — for starters it features voice acting by Deborah Harry, Lou Reed AND Iggy Pop! The film had been in production since 1979 and the quality of the animation is pretty high, plus this was one of the first feature films to use computer graphics (although in a very limited way). Read more…
Clever Ninja Hattori-kun Escaped My Attention for Dozens of Years
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 4, 2009 in Animation
After all these years I’m always amazed by how much I don’t know about anime: Case in point is the comedy series Ninja Hattori-kun which started life as a manga. Shown above is the opening title to the TV series based upon the manga which aired from 1966 until 1967. So looking at those opening credits you’d just assume that it was an anime series? Wrong! The opening titles were animated but the show is live action — but the show looks very strange as they have live action characters wearing manga like masks: Read more…
Anime 3000 Podcast: The State of the Anime Industry
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 4, 2009 in Animation
I’d like to thank Sean Russell for having me on as a guest on his podcast! This episode of his show (click here to listen) was quite amazing (I was scribbling notes during the show) — the theme was the State of the Anime Industry and the two guests other were Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network and Patrick Macias of Otaku USA and Japress. I have to say that Justin painted one of the most devastating accurate portraits of the field that I’ve heard in a long time (well worth hearing for anyone into anime) — and Patrick’s inside view of life in Japan is always fascinating.
An Animated Film — from Wes Anderson?!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 31, 2009 in Animation
When I caught this trailer my first thought was “oh no, not ANOTHER damn 3D looking animated film!” Although then I noticed that the directors credit belong to Wes Anderson who’s done such an amazing job on films like The Royal Tenenbaums. This film is titled Fantastic Mr. Fox and is based on the book by Roald Dahl. From what I’m seeing in the trailer I have a bit of a mixed reaction: One one hand the animation looks terrible, everything is so stiff and there’s no timing to be found. Yet in the other hand the story looks like it could be good, in which case I might forgive the animation to a degree. I guess we’ll have to see how this goes when the film comes out this fall.
Update: I’ve been informed by the talented wardomatic that this film is stop motion not CGI – however sadly the animation is still terrible looking… Read more…
Pixar Taking 3D to Another Dimension
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 29, 2009 in Animation
Only Pixar could get away with making fun of their own medium — I love how in this promo they’ve literally broken the third wall! It’s this sense of humor (i.e. understanding of storytelling) that makes their animation so brilliant in my book. Toy Story 3-D (which is Toy Story 1 & 2) will hit theaters on October 2nd, 2009.
This Lucky Star Drive Makes Me Purr!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 28, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
As a Lucky Star fanboy I always feel left out! Sure there are like a billion action figures associated with the show, but I’ve always found a lack of USB merchandise to satisfy my geeky side. Well it seems someone in Japan answered my prayers by designing this Lucky Star Nyamo USB Drive. The drive features the abstract cat character Nyamo, who is said to be a self-portrait of manga artist Kagami Yoshimizu (the man created Lucky Star to begin with). Read more…
Strange Sgt. Frog Commercials
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 28, 2009 in Animation, Japanese TV
To celebrate the latest Sgt. Frog publications Kadokawa has been putting out these very surrealistic commercials on YouTube. Although the frog themed water bottle looks quite cool: Read more…
Mighty Joe Young: King Kong’s Little Brother Turns 60
On this date in 1949 — yes that’s exactly sixty years ago — the film Mighty Joe Young was released in the United States. I grew up with this film because it was always paired up as the double feature with King Kong during holidays on ancient broadcast television (this wasn’t the major networks by the way, something you’d see on an independent channel like WOR-TV here in NYC). King Kong was of course an iconic film made in 1933 and even watching in the 21st Century it still is a powerful film — but sadly like a lesser little brother Mighty Joe Young never quite measured up in my book. Read more…
Osaka Maid Cafe Exchange Program with Taipei, Taiwan
I think this somewhat serious looking NHK news video is showing an cultural exchange program between the city of Osaka, Japan and Taipei, Taiwan. The cosplay maids are being deployed to the largest anime and manga event in Taiwan this week. Part of the exchange program is to help the local Japanese tourism trade which was down by 44% last year due to the avian flu and the recession. I think we should pray for the success of the cosplay maids in their diplomatic mission!
Stewie on the Rocks
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 26, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
Frankly I’ve always found Family Guy to be a bit pale when put next to the likes of old school South Park — although I do admit that I wind up watching it every now and then in the middle of my more mindless channel surfing moments. So therefore the fanboy in me would avoid most merchandise associated with the show, however I did find this Stewie Ice Cube Tray to be amusing and well designed. After all how often do you find cartoon characters in your cola?
Marvelous Marvel Anime Trailers
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 25, 2009 in Animation, Comic Books
I really like what Madhouse is doing with Iron Man and Wolverine! As you can see with that extra touch of anime love Iron Man features some nice mecha and Wolverine wades more into a goth look: Read more…
Tron Legacy Trailer: Retro CGI Fun
I hate to say it: But it looks like director Joseph Kosinski is doing a nice job with this Tron update! What’s great is that they’ve kept to vision of the original art direction of the film and given it just the right dash of slick. I also like the fact that Jeff Bridges is in this film as well. Hats off to Disney for getting this one right…
Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko’s Advert is Super Kawaii!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 25, 2009 in Animation, Comic Books
The video above is a promotional spot for the 20th anniversary of Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko which is the light novel label for Kadokawa Shoten (who published the Haruhi Suzumiya series). The celebrate the anniversary Kadokawa Shoten has put together a nicely designed website: Read more…