This is not a tag line!
anime
Kaneda’s bike?
Nov 13th
It was the end of the 80′s and as a dorky teenager, I was fascinated by Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, and in particular, its main character‘s bike. This childhood’s dream of a bike seems eerily close today with the EV-X7 prototype electric bike. Looks like I won’t have to wait until 2019 after all! 
New anime collaboration between Shirow and Production I.G.
Sep 7th
I’m pretty excited to learn today about a new collaboration between Masamune Shirow and Production I.G., collaboration which already resulted in one of my favorite series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (sequel and OAV included). The new series is called Ghost Hound (official website, Production I.G. english website) and it’s starting on October 18th, 2007. Hopefully, it will be just as bit as good as the previous collaborations!
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Jun 16th
I have finally watched Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and 2nd Gig entirely. I am still amazed by the quality of the animation and of the story despite the series being several years old now. Even watching all the episodes in close sequence, the story is so complex, it is still difficult to follow all the nuances. I will need to watch 2nd Gig again sometime soon. It’s too bad that neither The Laughing Man nor Individual Eleven made it on DVD here. It would have been interesting to see the main plot of both seasons isolated from the other sub-plots (though in the case of Individual Eleven, it might prove quite difficult since the main plot is much more present than the Laughing Man theme was in the first season). I guess I could watch all the bonus features and the Official Log Volume 1 (seems like there’s a volume 2 but I haven’t been to find it for sale). Also in queue, I am eagerly waiting for my copy of Solid State Society.
Quick anime post
Feb 13th
Naruto and Bleach story lines are finally picking up after a long filler period… hopefully, they’ll pick up the pace where they left off… Nana (excellent mix of humor and drama, nice character design and excellent soundtrack) is getting more intense. I finally finished watching Blood+ (which was probably a little too long for my taste) and Black Lagoon (which was really interesting with its realistic depiction of violence and its unapologetic, complex characters and very well animated to boot). I still haven’t watched any of the GITS: SAC 2 episodes since I had waited to get the full series in DVD before starting watching. Shirow‘s stories are usually complex and watching a couple of episode every month just doesn’t do the story justice. I also need to finish watching Mushishi at some point but in both instances, I just haven’t had time so far… And, no, I still haven’t had time to check out Death Note again… I also follow Pumpkin Scissors (pretty good with an intrigue starting to develop) and Capeta (which is a little slow to develop).
More Ghost in the Shell in the media
Oct 8th
This time, courtesy of an SF Gate article exploring the different aspects of the “myth”: Masumune Shirow’s perspective in the manga and TV series and Mamoru Oshii’s movies.
The Red The White The Black The Blue from the album The Lost Riots by Hope Of The States
Rolling with the Roller Walker
Oct 7th
The name may sound like something you’d use to help infants get around, but the Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Roller Walker is a distinctly kiddy-unfriendly metallic hunk of speedskating meanness. It doesn’t look much in the photo and we suspect it’ll be fairly clunky when walking, but it redeems itself when it’s slinking around in high-speed mode with the wheels on its feet flipped out (watch video). We’re not sure what speed it maxes out at, but it does look like they’re reining it in to avoid taking out bystanders. Anyway, bottom line is we want to see a bigger, meatier version of this chasing Will Smith around if they ever make I, Robot II.
Looking at the video and the description, the first thing that popped in my mind was: is this the first step towards Tachikomas? 
Butterfly Caught (RJD2 Remix) from the album Exclusive by Massive Attack
Anime feature in Wired
Aug 31st
Wired offers a nice article by Charles C. Mann on how animes came to be and why they might be on the verge of becoming mainstream in the US (though one could argue that they already are).
For all the interesting historical notes, there is a glaring omission in the article: while Oshii had an undeniable influence over the “look and feel” of the resulting animation, Masamune Shirow, the author of the original Ghost in the Shell manga and one of my favorite mangaka, is responsible for the themes and general story. Since the Wired article deals more about the themes (at least when addressing Innocence) than the animation itself, I think it would have been appropriate to credit the Shirow since the subjects that Mann highlights are really his.
On a related note: I am not despairing to see Appleseed in the theaters here yet, but I am not holding my breath either. Appleseed is another of Shirow’s mangas that has also been turned into an anime in 2004 (it’s actually the second time this manga was animated but the first effort was forgettable.
Innocence opens tomorrow (in the US, anyway)! Wired has a review.
Lazergum from the album The Sound Of (R)Evolution by Mouse On Mars
Sunday morning reading
Aug 29th
I managed to get up early enough this morning and got some reading done. Here is a couple of interesting articles:
- Reason Online has a nice review of the themes explored by Masamune Shirow in the Ghost in the Shell universe, focusing on the first Stand Alone Complex season.
- The Village was a very disappointing movie for me: I thought it had a lot of potential but ended up just being silly. Discussing the movie with friends, I eventually managed to articulate what I thought made the movie a failure though it took some discussing to get to that point. It was therefore interesting to see that an article exploring M. Night Shyamalan’s filmmaking hubris mirrored my opinion concerning the movie. I also agree with one commentator’s suggested improvements.
Subbacultcha from the album Trompe Le Monde by Pixies
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex coming in the US
Jul 21st
I might be late on this but apparently announcements have been made regarding the showing of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex in the US. It’s going to show on The Cartoon Network starting Saturday, Nov 6th @ 11:00 pm.
Alternatively, the DVDs are also coming out (DVD 1 is going on sale July 27th). I had hopes that the goodies found in the Japanese DVDs will be made available here as well but then again, I wasn’t holding my breath and rightfully so… 
The National Anthem from the album Kid A by Radiohead
More info on Innocence.
Jul 18th
Infogargoyle has more details on Innocence (see my previous post about it). The official (English) website has also been updated though it is rather Flash-heavy and not well configured (try downloading the Mac screensavers on OS X for example)…
Hopefully, the movie will play close to here.
Clark Gable from the album Give Up by The Postal Service
