Passing Moments

Felix Lorioux

2008-02-27T15:38:00.000-08:00

Felix is a well-known French illustrator for numerous children's books. His talent was once recognized by Walt Disney and asked to illustrate mickey mouse as a marketing strategy in France but his handling was too 'artistic' for Disney's liking.

Read more
Lines and colours
Animation archive

I see some Asian influence here...

或る旅人の日記

2008-01-30T22:34:00.000-08:00

或る旅人の日記,translated as 'The Diary of Tortov Roddle' is a rather unique animation series which tells the surreal encounters of a traveller in a magical world. The pictures have bluish green tints and distinguished paper texture like an illustration book. There're 7 or 8 short stories of 3min each. 'Voice overs' are presented in text boxes as diary entries. The general atmosphere is quiet and toned down, despite all the fascinating, bizarre things he witnessed. I find it pretty relaxing to watch.

Some screen shots from the first diary 'City of light'

More episodes here

Official site

给本仁戻的集体慰问信

2008-01-28T22:35:00.000-08:00

参加豆瓣的“本仁戻是我老大”小组后遇到少数邪教同好，人数不多但讨论热烈，质量远胜数量。群体给老大写信是柴郡猫发起的，筹划的过程我觉得更有意思：

2008-01-12 01:24:54 柴郡猫·2008·继续腐 (上海)
我请教了我专门迷恋并且追捧外国偶像的朋友，她说大家不用写很多信件，一人买一张明信片就可以了，从各地发出，邮戳不同，不仅有纪念意义，邮寄费用也不贵。
　　因为是大家各自邮寄，如果各位同意的话可以在明信片的角落上标上大家共同商议采用的属于我们小组的专属字样，这样可以让老大知道我们是有组织有计划的在做这件事。
　　一定用日语或英文。并一定要核对好语法及单词的准确性（必要时最好请会日语或英语的朋友一起核对。）
　　
　　大家觉得怎么样？还是说希望由我一并统发？两者我都没有问题，最主要的是保证信封地址的正确性，确保信能被老大收到……

***

2008-01-12 01:30:42 悍马-->gv狂人 (北京)

　　这样可以让老大知道我们是有组织有计划的在做这件事。
　　
　　==================
　　
　　这句好喜感。。。

***

2008-01-12 01:48:58 柴郡猫·2008·继续腐 (上海)

　　汗……是不是太党了…………
　　
　　我从没干过这等事不知道究竟是群发好还是分开发好……大家从长计议，群策群力…………

***

2008-01-12 20:00:30 猪肉馅饼儿 (Vancouver)

　　全靠悍马无比强劲的妈了！！
　　还没想好要写什么，再想想。。。
　　
　　关于群发，我们来接龙吧，大家看行不行啊
　　这里大概七八条走狗吧，假设标号1-8。由1发起写好明信片，寄给2，2写好了传给3，然后4、5、6、7。。。在周转了大半个地球后（若还健在），最后由8负责将贴满邮票、盖满邮戳、满是字迹、皱皱巴巴的有组织有计划性的集体明信片寄给老大。
　　
　　要不要试验一下呢？大家排个队。

***

2008-01-15 10:53:20 柴郡猫·2008·继续腐 (上海)

　　汗…………好吧好吧就这样，大家把明信片寄给我，然后我统一发给老大那个地址。这样既有大家的心意又比一张明信片环游全国更能能节省时间。
　　　　
　　既然这样我就自作主张地来做个募集人和发起人，希望你们表介意：）
　　　　
　　1、想发明信片或者信件的同学请务必要写豆油给我（这也是统计人数），我会回邮告诉你们我的地址。
　　　　
　　2、为了表示我们是团体作战，落款处写自己名字前请加上“本仁戻是我老大小组组员”英文字样。如：A Member of "Modoru Motoni is my boss" Group
　　如果是信件，可以在信件里附上自己的照片或者其他纸质小玩意。不宜过多过重。
　　如果是发明信片，为了不破坏明信片的完整性和收藏性（如果一张明信片的收件人是我而内容完全不搭界，想必很囧），如果愿意或者有可能的话请大家在外面套个信封，收件人写我（中文），但是明信片内容请写给老大的祝福（例如“Dear Modoru：I love U！I'll alaways be your slave,forever more……”等），英文或者日文。我会把所有东西收集完毕打包全部发过去并且存照。
　　　　
　　3、因为不希望活动拖得太长，本次收集明信片活动截止时间为2008年2月14日，2月14日我会去邮局发信（真是寓意深刻的时间啊XD）。
　　　　
　　就是这样一个细则，如果到后天晚上结束（1月18日的零点）还没有人提出异议，那我们就按照这个方案开始执行，请想参加的小犬们尽快给我写豆油获取地址并且尽快发信，其他就不再多做调整了。
　　　　
　　这是我们小组的第一次集体活动，可能有很多疏漏也有不完善的地方，不过相信我们的热情可以补足，等活动结束后我们可以进行总结。而且做人么，总是在一次又一次的摸索中进步成长的（就好比小美纪和阿光做了4次才达到和谐的嘛XDDDD)

***

好吧，我承认我做事很拖，在活动发起半个月后才动笔，现因国内暴雪不知能否赶到情人节前寄到活动HQ。

记录一下过程：

封面是PS过的小美纪和野狗看夕阳，小美纪喜欢喝可乐，野狗喜欢黑咖啡。

打在厚纸上切下来，发现刀不灵光了，划出去两次差点割刀手，惊险！

背面同人一张，临摹时深刻体会到老大的线条真是干脆硬朗啊，绝对不是我这个性格能画出来的。全靠google translate，写了一段我看着也很天书的话，希望是说“dear本仁sensei，我喜欢你，I'm your slave，永远爱你。我还在学日语，下封信会写得更好的。”署名“本仁戻是我老大”小组成员，以体现组织性、纪律性。

从08年的猫台历中撕出2月14和4月7日两天，情人节和老大生日，尽在不言中（肉麻）。

折叠起来插在背面了

立起来可以当台历哈，我真是天才！

现在就指望这情书能赶上大部队直奔老大出版社了。

苏州的雪积了十几厘米。同事的小孩儿上周出生了，大家说要起名叫“雪旺”，姓茅，叫茅雪旺成么？我觉得跟他爸“茅峰”有过之无不及。这雪是天灾啊，南方有人欢喜有人愁。今年冬天那么反常，祈祷过了年能有福来。

Basso

2008-01-24T22:38:00.000-08:00

最近又迷上了欧式风味浓重的漫画家basso，很French，很小资。上传了她的插画，喜欢的人这里下载：YSI 。

Basso: http://www3.ocn.ne.jp/~orsi79

えすとえむ est em

2008-01-19T22:40:00.000-08:00

很喜欢えすとえむ est em的简约式画风，线条饱满有力，喜欢红白黑这种欧式gothic搭配。我把她的画都存下来了，归罗在一起看时禁不住想，若有人看到我收藏这些（这些多指牛头人身或人头牛身、流着鲜血的绅士，身着大摆褶子裙的男舞者）会觉得我很危险？

作者的小窝

简介：
名：えすとえむ
生日：4.2
血型：A
喜欢：火箭、飞机、船、自然的蓝色、足球、奥林匹克、白熊、马戏团、银幕、雷、斗牛、绅士靴
寻人：名叫Elvis的fashion model

贴几张图，版权えすとえむ est em所有

Twins

Nina Parley's Sita Sings the Blues

2008-01-18T22:33:00.000-08:00

http://www.sitasingstheblues.com

Trailer

Battle of Lanka

很可爱，风格上有点印度版蔡志忠。。。用4年时间做出的flash，入围了Berlin International Film Festival。

官网上贴来的图片和简介

Sita is a goddess separated from her beloved Lord and husband Rama. Nina is an animator whose husband moves to India, then dumps her by email. Three hilarious shadow puppets narrate both ancient tragedy and modern comedy in this beautifully animated interpretation of the Indian epic Ramayana. Set to the 1920's jazz vocals of Annette Hanshaw, Sita Sings the Blues earns its tagline as "The Greatest Break-Up Story Ever Told."

Pixar: One Man Band

2008-01-16T22:31:00.000-08:00

This's the most hilarious among all the Pixar shorts I've seen so far... And the characters are so cute!

From Wikipedia

One Man Band is Pixar short film. The film made its world premiere at the 29th Annecy Animation Festival in Annecy, France, and won the Platinum Grand Prize at the Future Film Festival in Bologna, Italy. It was shown with the theatrical release of Cars.

The short was written and directed by Andrew Jimenez and Mark Andrews and produced by Osnat Shurer, head of Pixar's Shorts group. The score for the short was written by Michael Giacchino, who also composed the score for Pixar's animated feature film Ratatouille.

Like many Pixar shorts, the film is completely free of dialogue, instead using music (played by the characters) and pantomime to tell the story.

On January 31, 2006 it was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film, but lost to The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation by John Canemaker and Peggy Stern.

井上雄彦NY现场壁画

2007-12-16T22:41:00.000-08:00

之前犹豫要不要买他那本water画集的，看到这个后决定还是买！！本尊长的很阳刚啊，和slam dunk里的热血男儿一个模样。

转载转载，原新闻来自Anime news network，翻译by南方动漫网。

井上雄彦献给纽约漫迷惊喜！黑板画后水墨画！

继2004年创下“连续24间高中教室黑板漫画”的空前创举之后，知名漫画家井上雄彦在16日飞抵美国纽约，受邀在全新开募的纪伊国书店花了3天时间亲笔绘制了三幅《浪人剑客 Vagabond》巨幅水墨壁画！

这是来自《Anime News Network》的新闻。日本知名连锁书店纪伊国书店为了庆祝座落于美国纽约Bryant Park的纽约市旗舰店将于19日开幕，特地邀请国际知名漫画家井上雄彦为店内2楼空间的3面墙上作画。其实，会邀请井上老师前去共同开幕还有另外两个原因：第一个，是正在北美发行的《周刊少年Jump》漫画杂志官方英文版确定将以全彩+二色印刷的方式于12月开始连载《灌篮高手》英文版，第二个原因，则是北美知名漫画代理商Viz宣布将在2008年7月正式发行《REAL》英文版漫画单行本。

这三幅水墨壁画，总计花了井上老师3天时间完成，并且顺利在19日的纪伊国书店－纽约市旗舰店开幕式典礼中正式公开。想观赏其他更多照片请参考《Anime News Network》新闻。除此之外，井上老师也愉快接受记者专访。

专访重点摘录如下：

1. 虽然《灌篮高手》表面上是个篮球漫画，但井上雄彦真正要传达的是一个人如何藉由参与某项运动而从中获得体验与成长。

2. 井上雄彦高中时期参加过篮球校队，但自嘲球技并没有很好。即使《灌篮高手》连载完结之后，他的球技还是没有多大进步(笑)

3. 提到日本首位进军NBA的职业球员田卧勇太，井上雄彦对他充满尊敬与敬佩之意。

4. 决定推出纯黑白色调的浪人剑客画集《墨》，井上雄彦认为跟今日主流的彩色画集相较之下，《浪人剑客》惯用的技法使他更能够完美诠释每张画稿。所以井上雄彦才会在推出彩色画集《WATER》之后，坚持一定要推出这本黑白画集。

5. 井上雄彦是应坂口博信之邀而对XBox360最新游戏《Lost Odyssey 失落的奥德赛》进行游戏人物设计。

在受访的最后，井上雄彦表示“当你画漫画的时候，你总是必须坐在桌前一个劲儿地作画，更何况我已经持续这样好多年了。而这里(书店的墙壁)则是给予我一个前所未有的作画环境，瞧、一个超大画布！这样的变化有助于刺激我诸多灵感，而且这些新灵感将能够在我打算进行下一部新作品时派上用场。大师的一举手一投足，满是风采。住在New York的朋友们可别忘了前往那家位于Bryant Park的旗舰店、亲眼目睹大师画作啊！

Ponyo theme song

2007-11-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

Ahhhh, the gold fish princess is SO CUDDLY AND CUTE!!

Miyazaki's gonna recreate the magic of My neighbour the Totoros!

Shinkai

2007-09-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

After watching the cast interview for 'the place promised in our early days', I have a better understanding of Shinkai's aesthetics. Not a whole new understanding revealed in torch light, but rather an reinforcement of the elements that are already evident in his movies.

He said he used to stare out of the railway train for hours and hours wanting to catch everything. There's always something new to see. So he was bound by a nostalgic childhood scenery that becomes an recurring motif. I guess there is indeed something wonderful and meditative about rusty railways nestled quietly in road grass, appearing blotchy and flickery under warm sunlight. The place isn't for trespassing, except when trains whoosh through with the old chunky chunky rhythm. The two parallel lines could lead you somewhere, might be better than where you stand. Most of all the air smells of a slightly baked summer.

Opposed to a preformed image I have of him, shy and taciturn, Shikai is actually rather outspoken and he talks in 1.5x average human speech pacing (make it 2.0x when he gets carried away). Still I look at him and couldn't help thinking, this's a sensitive guy who makes feminine, monologue movies where voice overs make up for the lack of actions or a solid story plot. Sometimes I wonder if this 'shortcoming', which forwards itself as a trademark rather than an outstanding defect, can be easily brushed aside. There's no limitation to the type of medium a director chooses to fulfill his artistic needs, but there seems to be too much abandon in the code of free expression. It's the same thing when I look at modern art. The spotlight is on 'the concept' while traditional craftsmanship, the solid skills easily slip unnoticed. Call it heavy make-up?

It would be better if Shinkai could do more than a bunch of nostalgic feelings and pretty screensavers.

Byousoku 5cm | 秒速5センチメートル

2007-08-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

Info@Anime News Network

For fomality's sake, here's the introduction. Byousoku 5cm (or 5cm per second) is a chain of stories composed of 3 episodes telling a romance story of two childhood friends growing apart geographically because their parents are on constant move but they never stop seeking the shadow of each other. The ending is rather maudlin and sour.

If you're familiar with Makoto Shinkai(the director), his story-telling is very introverted and is based on a large amount of soliloquy pouring out melancholic thoughts for the loved one. Byousoku 5cm is what I take to be very personal and might work effectively for teenage audience who share an experience of tender love, but technically and stylistically, this production is a stand still compared to 'the place promised in our early days', his previous animation feature movie. Background design bears the trademark of soft warm light, classrooms, cherry blossoms, panorama views of grasslands swinging in the wind, all matching well with his romantic slash but none of it goes to his credit. You can't possibly pull the old tricks tirelessly without dulling my senses. Too much sentimentality can be a deadly weakness. At least I don't want to see the wine brewing and brewing till it turns vinegar.

The movie is best summed up in the ending song, some 7min long clip which succinctly concentrates the essence of all 3 episodes.

'I've been looking for you everywhere, in places where I know you don't exist. ' There's something heart wrenching about our foolishness in holding on to an ideal that remains an ideal. We so often refer to such relentlessness as 'youth', thinking it's untainted and beautiful.

Lyrics from Hunting the Elusive

One More Time, One More Chance
Writing: Masayoshi Yamazaki
Arrangement: Toshiyuki Mori
Transliteration and translation: daike
Translation support: Emma
Translation edit: icie

How much more do I have to lose, before my heart is forgiven?
How many more pains do I have to suffer, to meet you once again?
One more time, oh seasons, fade not
One more time, when we were messing around

Whenever we disagreed, I would always give in first
Your selfish nature made me love you even more
One more chance, the memories restrain my steps
One more chance, I cannot choose my next destination

I’m always searching, for your figure to appear somewhere
On the opposite platform, in the windows along the lane
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If my wish were to come true, I would be at your side right away
There would be nothing I couldn’t do
I would put everything on the line and hold you tight

***

If I just wanted to avoid loneliness, anybody would have been enough.
Because the night looks like the stars will fall, I cannot lie to myself.
One more time, oh seasons, fade not.
One more time, when we were messing around

I’m always searching, for your figure to appear somewhere
At a street crossing, in the midst of dreams
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If a miracle were to happen here, I would show you right away
The new morning, who I’ll be from now on
And the words I never said: “I love you.”

***

The memories of summer are revolving
The throbbing which suddenly disappeared

I’m always searching, for your figure to appear somewhere
At dawn on the streets, at Sakuragi-cho
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If my wish were to come true, I would be at your side right away
There would be nothing I couldn’t do
I would put everything on the line and hold you tight

I’m always searching, for fragments of you to appear somewhere
At a traveller’s store, in the corner of newspaper,
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If a miracle were to happen here, I would show you right away
The new morning, who I’ll be from now on
And the words I never said: “I love you.”

I always end up looking for your smile, to appear somewhere
At the railroad crossing, waiting for the express to pass
Even though I know you couldn’t be at such a place
If our lives could be repeated, I would be at your side every time
I would want nothing else
Besides you, nothing else matters

Satoshi kon's Paprikia

2007-07-11T00:22:00.000-07:00

Paprika Official Sony Picture Site

US. Theatrical Trailer

Paprika literally means a spice made from grounded red bell peppers (ref. wiki).

'You can't tell dream from reality' has been a signature motif of Satoshi's kon's films. Paprikia is a come-back of Paranoia Agent.

Skipping over synopsis and trivia, there's something else that interests me. I can surely smell Shinichiro Watanabe! But can it be he has anything to do with this film?? The old cast of cowboy bebop is back and I'm glad I can distinguish their voices without peeking at the credit. Dr. Chiba is voiced by Megumi Hayashibara (Faye) and Dr. Osanai is voiced by Koichi Yamadera (Spike). Take a close look at the character design of Dr. Chiba who looks like a female version of Jin (Samurai Champloo) =D The heavy appearance of parades and dolls, and extensive philosophical quotes draw you back to Ghost in the Shell. Deja vu?

The opening credit is absolutely enjoyable. You see Paprika dashing between dream and reality, blending into objects and appearing from thin air. Detective Konakawa's reoccurring dreams retold in slightly different twists and progressions is another notable highlight. His rendezvous at radioclub.jp bartenders who brought a final message from Paprika closed the film perfectly. After all, it's a Satoshi film which means it's another provocative approach to acute social problems and human emotions. Although I'm not sure with the term 'superflat', I think Satoshi's manipulation of animation to deal with consumerism culture is a forerunner of such motif.

And yes I'm very touched when the ghost of Chiba reveals her love for Tokita, a bear sized fat genius scientist who invented DC mini. Unconventional but sweet!

But again watching Paprika is a head spinning dream experience since psycho patients are talking gibberish and there're absolutely no rules in dream states. That's why animation's probably the best medium to express it!

All photos are taken from Paprika Sony official site. Credits go to the artists and sony picture classics. (This movie is rated R)

Konakawa's dream in which he was caged on a circus stage and a crowd bearing his face swarmed and screamed his name.

In the finale, a void appeared connecting dream and reality. The world was greatly disturbed.

Director Shima's subconscious world was invaded by a big parade. And look at that doll?! Doesn't it look similar to GITS the movie? I'm compelled to conclude Japan is a doll fetish nation...

more dolls and cyborgs

Paprika venturing into a deserted site

I love how Paprika's dressed up in spicy red with that classic oldie hairdo!

Dreams and butterflies ALWAYS go together. Talking about creativity people!!

我们这一家

2007-05-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

Sherry介绍的一系列动画片叫“我们这一家”，超级搞笑的家庭笑话。那一家人姓“花”，花家有两个小孩，姐姐叫“橘子”，弟弟叫“柚子”。妈妈长得像恐龙，爸爸像狗熊。搞笑的不行，还蛮有生活哲理的。而且我觉得很多事情自己也都有相同经历，特别是剪头发，买衣服和备考那几集，哭笑不得。强烈推荐！！

Youtube上搜繁体的“我們這一家”，台湾配音，配的很可爱。

橘子的小睡时间（相信大家都有强烈共鸣）

================
动画资料存档 (原文这里)

== 漫画==
《我们这一家》（あたしンち；ATASHIn'CHI）是日本一部以小家庭成员为中心，表现出日常生活中所发生大小事为题材的漫画与动画作品，原作者为Eiko Kera（けらえいこ）。

最初自1994年6月起，以多段四格漫画组成一回，每回共23格的形式，在《读卖新闻》的星期日版以全彩方式连载，直到2006年3月为止；作品受到不同年龄层读者的欢迎，并于1996年获得文艺春秋漫画奖，2002年获得手冢治虫文化奖。单行本自1995年开始由MEDIA FACTORY出版，目前出版至第12册（至2006年11月）。中文版由东立出版社发行，台湾、香港目前均出版至第12册（至2007年2月）。

== 动画与剧场版 ==
电视动画版于2002年4月开始在朝日电视台播放至今，每周六播出一集，目前已经播出208集（至2006年12月）；台湾的台视、东森综合台与中视，以及香港的无线电视儿童台与翡翠台（2006年12月起在《放学ICU》中播放）也先后播放过电视动画版。另外并由东映制作剧场版《映画あたしンち》，于2003年12月在日本上映（不过由于票房不如预期，因此至今未有再次制作剧场版的计划），台湾预定于2007年2月9日上映。

== 情节简介 ==
花家，居住在东京近郊城镇，个性看似互异却又有著些许共通点的一家四口，就像是众多小家庭的缩影。不管是家庭当中的生活百态，与同学、友人…等周围人们的日常互动，或是个人的心情起伏以及对事物的各种感受…一个又一个贴近日常生活，平凡中趣味横生的大、小故事持续上演著…。

== 花家 ==
* 花妈（母　配音：日本→渡边久美子；台湾→王瑞芹；香港→雷碧娜）
九州人，标准的家庭主妇。个性相当拚命而固执，总是对一些鸡毛蒜皮小事极为在意，还会为此和橘子、柚子争论不休。坚持“能省则省”的原则，十分贪小便宜和讨厌浪费，不管是吃的、穿的还是用的都不例外。此外也经常将自己的行为合理化（特别是在被人发现自己言行不一时）；对于事物的情绪和动作反应有时也非常夸张。不过倒是经常表现出对爸爸特别在意或包容的心情。

* 花爸（父　配音：日本→绪方贤一；台湾→孙中台；香港→陈永信）
九州人，中年上班族。个性沉默寡言，我行我素，行事作风上有著传统的大男人风格。平日忙于上班与应酬，对于其他事情总是兴趣缺缺，不怎么关心。不过，对于妈妈的奇特或夸张行为，却经常抱持著看笑话的态度，当作娱乐看待，事情影响到自己的时候才会突然生气，而且变得没有耐性和暴躁。有不少怪癖，像是上厕所不关门、酒醉回家后随便打包家里的东西准备丢掉、喜欢把饭碗放在比饭碗小的东西（像是酱油瓶）上等等。

* 橘子（立花みかん（たちばなみかん）　配音：日本→折笠富美子；台湾→林美秀；香港→林元春）
高中二年级学生，由于个子比较矮小的缘故，曾被人误以为是初中二年级学生。个性大而化之又带有一点迷糊，有很多天马行空的梦想，也很喜欢自己一个人做白日梦。经常因为在一些小事上和妈妈意见相左而斗嘴，有时也会因为某些事情而被弟弟抱怨。因为喜欢泰迪熊，所以加入了学校里的“泰迪熊研究社”。

* 柚子（立花ユズヒコ（たちばなゆずひこ）　配音：日本→阪口大助；台湾→雷碧文；香港→周文瑛）
橘子的弟弟，初中二年级学生。个性细腻、害羞而纯朴，有著深奥的内心世界而很少说话（没有说出来的“内心话”特别多），有著较他姊姊成熟的思想，不过也经常会被妈妈和姊姊有意或无意的行为、言语刺伤。看到妈妈和姊姊作出一些在他看来相当怪异的举动时，暗地里常会戏谑地说“没救了”，而相比起橘子，他是一个十分爱整洁的男孩。因为觉得同班同学石田百合的一些奇怪动作很好笑，所以对她有点好感。非常喜欢听音乐，也有一位喜欢的偶像，名叫丸野丸美。

== Links ==
MEDIA FACTORY我们这一家漫画单行本列表（日文）
朝日电视台官方网站（日文）
Shin-Ei动画官方网站（日文）
Eiko Kera（けらえいこ）网站（日文）
木棉花"我们这一家"介绍网站（正体中文 - 台湾）：第一季／第二季／剧场版
东森电视第一季介绍网站（正体中文 - 台湾)
台视介绍网站（正体中文 - 台湾）
中视介绍网站（正体中文 - 台湾）
批踢踢BBS我们这一家讨论区（正体中文 - 台湾）
香港Uwants讨论区我们这一家讨论区（繁体中文 - 香港）

咎井淳 (Jo Chen)

2007-04-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

很早前就接触了这个漫画家，曾误认为是个韩国人，后来又误认是日本人，原来是台湾同胞。看了半天“他”的作品发现，啊？？原来是“她”！标准一个美女画家。这一连串的误会大了，不仅仅是我个人这么认为。这也算是偏见吧，谁说好的漫画家就一定要在日本了，又谁说画少年漫的都是男的了！初识咎井淳大概是高中，很欣赏她网站上贴的几张铅笔素描，洗炼的笔法让人觉得执笔的定是个性格分明的人，筋骨突兀，画的相当流畅且有力道。后来有这么一两年没关心过这个人了，最近看到新动向，似乎她在美国市场也打下个小天空，开始兼职画插画。像Buffy the vampire, Runaways几部有名的卡通杂志都是她负责画的扉页，最有名的是Fable游戏的封面设计，算是她在美国观众中的立名之作。Sherry看到后惊讶不已，继而愤愤不平说“NND，Fable是她设计的！”。愤愤不平有几个原因：性别误解，当意识到作者是和自己一般的女性时有强烈的反差和挫败感；再来，对于一个亚洲人单枪打入欧美市场觉得是很了不起的成就；又，问及咎井淳芳邻，和我们是同一辈的，绝倒！敢问你现在在做什么，人家在做什么，画功上的差距需要多少光阴填补？？

黑白画来说印象最深的就是她的透视，很不寻常的取镜角度。牛逼的漫画家最喜欢画超难度的死角，标新立异的同时毫不掩饰的向你炫耀“怎样，你画不出来吧？”。采访中她说，她也没怎么练习，透视是天分，这更让人受刺激！

贴些资料和图上来。

笔名：咎井淳
外号：G.P、饭桶
籍贯：浙江省诸暨县
学历：复兴商工毕业，目前在NORTHERN VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE学习正统美术。
生日：7月4日
星座：巨蟹座
血型：容易紧张的A型
个性：少根筋、冒失、一着急就开始胡言乱语、乐天，但有时会为无聊的芝麻小事钻牛角尖、容易想入非非、喜欢倒胃口的话题
嗜好：听摇滚乐、弹吉他、看电影。
如何进入漫画界：同人志
首次发表处女作：《无聊剧场》、《维纳斯童话》（金星战记同人志）
最欣赏漫画家：安彦良和、多田由美
愿望：儿时想成为漫画家，现在想成为暴发户
最喜欢的运动：曾经喜欢篮球，现在偏好不动
最喜欢的音乐：CLASSIC ROCK（60－70年代）
最喜欢的歌星：NUNO BETTENCOURT
最欣赏的影星：艾尔柏西诺
影响最深的人：姐姐
最喜欢的颜色：黑、蓝
最喜欢的服饰：T-SHIRT、牛仔裤、靴子
主要作品：《镜子的另一边》

Links

专访漫画家咎井淳 (摘录自东立星少女1998七月号)

颓废风吹袭漫画界，跳槽到商业志的同人漫画家咎井淳，刚出版的首作《镜子的另一边》，也采取颓废风，内容描述一对在纽约黑街相遇的落魄情侣，同病相怜的故事，画风充满冷冽的色彩。

亲眼见到咎井淳时，觉得她和这种超酷的风格完全不上线。长发及腰、身上还穿着件超人T恤的她，话匣子一开，遍劈哩叭啦的停不了口，丝毫不见作品里阴沉的气氛。怎么想到这么严肃的题材呢？咎井淳自称是："为赋新词强说愁'，耍酷而已。"

从国小便开始画画的咎井淳，国中便混进同人界，二十三岁的她，还是同人社团"秘密结社"的正式社员。"其实，我以前都画打杀搞笑的少年漫画，最喜欢的是安彦良和的《金星战记》、《亚利安》，《钢弹》之类少年漫画，即使中学时上了女校，没有女同学要鸟我的作品，我还是爱画。"连她也没想到，日后她竟然会以冷冽画风发表商业志。

从同人创作者跃上商业志，有何不同呢？ "专业画家有稿压，我曾边哭边赶稿，虽然赶出来后心里会很爽，毕竟还是不一样。"因此咎井淳建议同人志玩家："要恶搞就要彻底，能玩的时候尽量玩！"虽然被爸爸骂虚荣，她还是从美国搭飞机回来举行签名会，移民已有五年的她，和漫迷们面对面时，紧张的连名字都签错了，让签名会拖拉了超长的时间。

想看看镜子的另一边有什么吗？咎井淳邀你来分享一个同人画家的成长。
星少女专访
文：张正颖

上午11点，咎井淳踏着轻快的脚步迈进编辑部，穿着一件简单的深色上衣、一件LEVIS牛仔裤，背着一个小背包，提着一个大画袋，一头长发随着她走路时特殊的节奏微微飞扬，大大的眼珠闪着点点亮晶晶的光芒，对于这次访问似乎相当的兴奋，这样的"咎井淳"形象和小编的想象中那个画风透明冷冽，空间感十足的"咎井淳"，几乎无法作同一个人想象。但从她闪亮眼神中暗藏着的沉稳中，似乎又隐约看到了"镜子的另一边"的影子。

小编："咎井淳"，我一直觉得你的名字很特殊，有什么特殊的意义吗？
咎井淳：哈哈，这个名字是翻字典凑出来的！！因为当时我相当喜欢上条淳士，所以那个"淳"就是上条淳士的"淳"；而"咎"这个字......我很喜欢它，觉得这个字很美；至于"井"嘛......，因为当时不知道"咎"、"淳"这两个字该怎么连接，于是我姐姐说"就用‘井'字连接吧！"这就是我的比明"咎井淳"的由来。

小编：刚开始我还以为"咎井淳"是个日本人。
咎井淳：变成很像日本人的名字；我也是史料未及的。（哈、哈）其实，我父母是有"仇日情结"的。因为受到父母的影响，小时候还曾经发生过一件很糗的事！有一次姐姐在买"贝露莎"的卡通原声带（......记得这部卡通吗？），我还跪在地上大声哀求姐姐"不要做汉奸！"（哈、哈）搞的整家店的顾客全都再看我们，好糗喔！

小编：你姐姐对你的影响很深？
咎井淳：对。我喜欢漫画、会入这一行，都是受她的影响。对我来说，姐姐就像是个"启蒙灯塔"一样。小时候，我们就常常拿着一大张白纸，我坐一边、姐姐坐一边，先设计出几个人物；姐姐会先就其中几个角色安排他们之间的剧情、发展、对话，之后便轮我安排我手上角色的剧情、发展、对话，有点像"纸上即兴创作"，这也是我创作的起源。

小编：姐姐是你的漫画导师？
咎井淳：其实不仅只漫画、连在生活上都受她的影响很深。今天能有这样的"咎井淳"她也是最大功臣。我和姐姐之间就像"光与影"（当然，我是影。）无论画漫画、买日本漫画杂志、加入同人志社团......，姐姐总是站在我的面前，为我披荆斩棘的开出一条光明大道。我认为，在创作的摸索过程中是需要被鼓励的，不能对一个初出的创作者太严苛，对我而言，姐姐就扮演了这样的角色，在我年纪小、绘画技巧还不好的时候，她总是一直在旁边鼓励我；让我有信心走到今天的地步。

小编：你现在的画风色彩相当类似多田由美，受她的影响很重？
咎井淳：嗯......我是个很容易受环境影响的人，喜欢的作品风格会很容易的表现在自己的作品里。国小的时候很喜欢安彦良和（金星战记、亚利安等等），当时的绘画风格就很"安彦"，很少年；长大一点之后，因为姐姐的关系也喜欢上条淳士，大概有一年的时间，我的画风都受到他的影响，大约在同人志时代，当时读者还认为我的作品"线条很流利，可是人好丑！"！之后，又从ASUKA杂志上发现了多田由美，让我大为惊艳！！现在的作品视角、取景风格，受她的作品影响相当大。

小编：你创作的灵感从哪里来？
咎井淳：梦。（小编呈现呆滞状）真的！我觉得梦是属于每个人最独一无二的东西，在我的床边有一本"梦笔记"，记录我作过的梦境，我的很多短篇的作品都是由我的梦境发展出来的。

小编：你的作品分镜相当流畅、空间透视相当立体，一般所谓的少女漫画风格中算是相当特殊，在这方面是特别受了谁的启发吗？
咎井淳：我的空间透视是一种直觉上的天份，并没有特别学习。但是以后会学习一些摄影方法，让自己的透视感更好。至于分镜方面......应该是受到电影的影响吧！

小编：你喜欢什么样的电影？
咎井淳：我喜欢充满异色、潮湿、古老气息、仿佛颓圮的街头死角般的电影。像"龙族战神"（李国豪主演）、the city of lost children等等。或者是黑色幽默的电影，像昆汀塔伦堤诺"黑色追缉令"或卢贝松的电影我都很喜欢。

小编：你喜欢的电影和你的作品感觉很像。
咎井淳：我很容易受环境影响。（哈）现在在美国我每天不是画漫画、看电影、就是看影集。有两个影集是我必看的：X档案和NYPD.blue。（此时小编的眼睛突然亮了起来，两个人开始讨论X档案的剧情，访问因此中断。）

小编：（咳、咳！）嗯......你喜欢的创作类型是什么？
咎井淳：我觉得一个创作者应该尝试不同类型的创作题材，再从中发现最适合自己的类型。像我之前比较擅长幽默搞笑的作品，在"龙少年"上的短篇"森林奇谭"就是一部那样的创作；或者是人生历炼还没到一个阶段，对于情感戏就完全不行，这篇"镜子的另一边"是我第一次尝试这样类型的作品。

小编：你当初创作这篇故事的动机是什么？为什么要叫这个名字？
咎井淳：这其实是我和表妹一同讨论出来的东西。因为之前大部分只画短篇作品，这是第一次尝试长篇的东西。或许是现在我的生活环境的文化冲突的影响吧，让我开始思考有关"认知"与"存在"的问题，所以才有这一篇作品。由"镜子的另一边"这个篇名就代表了这篇作品的主旨。我希望藉由一个性格晦暗的男主角，面对事情的态度，来讨论人类思想的价值观念。"幸"与"不幸"是一体两面，而镜子代表了所见世界的藩篱，一种人类价值观的认知。人的命运往往是自己造成的，遭遇事情的时候，男主角往往只看到"不幸"的那一面，并没有发现，只要跨过那面"镜子"
又能发现另一个世界。

小编：最后，和所有的读者说句话吧！
咎井淳：这篇"镜子的另一边"是我第一次尝试的类型，很多不成熟的地方希望大家多多包含，多多给予我鼓励，我会继续磨练画技、多多充实，会创作更好的作品让大家欣赏，请大家拭目以待！

Written By: Jewels

Posted: 05/25/2004

Photography: Photograph courtesy of Jo Chen, Box Art by Jo Chen and courtesy of Microsoft Game Studios

One of the most up-and-coming Manga and comic-book artists in the U.S. is Jo Chen. More recently known for her Racer X comic-series work, Jo had the opportunity to work on the packaging art for the highly anticipated Xbox game Fable, due out this summer. From publisher Microsoft Game Studios and developer Big Blue Box, Fable is one of the most hyped and long-awaited video game releases of 2004. The promotion story for the game states: “Fable is a ground-breaking role-playing adventure game from Peter Molyneux, in which your every action determines your skills, appearance, and reputation. Create your life story from childhood to death. Grow from an inexperienced adolescent into the most powerful being in the world. Choose the path of righteousness or dedicate your life to evil….” JIVE Magazine had the chance to discuss the new game’s box-art development with Jo and share how it differs creatively from any other type of comic-art project. You can find out more about Jo Chen and browse her galleries at www.jo-chen.com.

When did you first learn about the game Fable and how did the package-art project come about?

Todd Elhart of Hubris Studios contacted me in the spring of 2003 and pitched the idea. We had a couple of initial telephone conversations in which he described the game and what he had in mind for me. At first, he only wanted me to illustrate the packaging. But as the scope of the project expanded and became clearer, they asked me to do an Xbox Fable magazine cover and some promotional stuff like point-of-purchase art and in-store stand-ups. They even asked me to work with the British developers on the menu guts for the game itself, but that was too much for me to accept given my other commitments to D.C. and Marvel for cover work.

How did you develop your first ideas for the artwork? Were you given a prototype of the game to play or something else like storyboards? Also, how free were you to express your own creativity in terms of how the characters on the box looked?

The developers already had some pretty concrete ideas about how the characters should look. They sent me some pre-production art and some screen captures of the game itself to work from. The main illustration on the front of the packaging was undecided. The original idea for the package, I think, was to show the clean-cut protagonist dressed for war, with his arms folded in front of him. I honestly can't recall if they were already toying with the idea of the boy staring into rippling water and seeing a reflection or not. In the end, it was agreed that the most dramatic piece would be the wide-eyed, innocent boy starring at the reflection of the evil, leering adult. I did some rough work that was apparently well received and I remember participating in a nerve-wracking phone conference with the guys at Hubris, some designers in London (from Big Blue Box, I think), and some Microsoft personnel. I was so nervous and often I couldn't discern who was speaking or if they were addressing me. As a result, I often spoke out of turn, confusing everybody. In hindsight it was comical, but at the time it wasn't. I'm no good in those types of situations. Most of the time, the developers and Microsoft would relay their likes and dislikes of my work through Todd at Hubris, who would then convey them to me, whereupon I would modify the paintings accordingly. For the most part, I had a free hand rendering the established characters in my style. Conversely, I was constrained by some design concepts that had already been approved before I came aboard, such as armor and weaponry. Mainly, it was my style of drawing people that they were after.

What are some of the things or styles of the characters you would have changed if you were free to do so?

If I had had complete freedom and creative control, I probably would have changed some things. The current packaging's focal point is the little boy, despite the antagonist's presence in the murky reflection of the water. I might have made the villain the locus of the piece. In fact, I did one sketch of the metamorphosis of the main character in which each incarnation is breaking through the shell of the previous incarnation, something like a moth breaking through the shell of its cocoon, only several iterations occurring in the same illustration, depicting spiritual and physical devolution. But this is all just personal preference. In fact, the final painting I did that appears on the box, we all agree, captures the spirit of Fable very well.

Do you enjoy creating characters or drawing existing characters more? Which is more difficult for you?

Of course I thoroughly enjoy putting my mark on existing characters like those in Fable and Batman and Robin, etc., but I love and live for creating my own characters and my own stories. And although it's much harder, it's extremely rewarding. I've been so busy painting for other publishers that I've let my own stuff languish, which I regret. But all that regret goes sailing out the window and is forgotten when somebody approaches me and tells me how much they like my work on Fable or The Runways or Street Fighter. It makes me so happy to hear that my art is appreciated and it keeps me out of the emotional troughs. I've come to the conclusion that I need to work on a mixture of existing characters and my own. Professionally, it's a nice, healthy balance.

What is your typical process of creating such an art piece and what type of technology do you use?

First, I usually create multiple rough—very rough—thumbnails from which I or my editor can choose. I hate drawing something infinitely detailed and then having to return to it over and over again to modify it as suggestions are made. It's a lot of unnecessary work and slows down the entire process tremendously. From the thumbnail, I create a larger rough pencil and ensure proper perspective and dynamics. Then I sketch a detailed pencil, with sharp lines, which gets scanned into Photoshop, where I apply base colors. All of the actual painting (i.e., brush strokes) occurs in Painter. In fact, I keep both programs open simultaneously and toggle between them to work on a piece. Many people ask me how I create these images, thinking this is a filter or some effect in Photoshop or Painter. But the images really are paintings. I paint them exactly as I would paint in oils or acrylics. The brush strokes are real and done with my graphic stylus rather than a brush. Only the special effects, like neon, lightening, or auras, are done with software gimmickry. The biggest advantage of this process is that I'm not covered in dabs of colored paint, smelling of turpentine and linseed oil. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that there is no original physical canvas since it is a digital image. I can never really have a gallery exhibition of my work that isn't composed of prints.

After completion of your first draft of the work, how many iterations occurred due to input from the developers or publishers of Fable before it was finalized?

Quite a few. However, the modifications were usually small things: making the eyes wider, making the thumbs bigger, making the dagger sharper and more sinister, etc. By far, the most difficult piece of art for me was the rippling effect in the water. I wanted to keep the package illustration as a one layer file in the software, but the requirements dictated that different characters had to appear in the reflection of the water, beneath the boy, for different promotional purposes. In the end, the artists at Hubris lent a hand in manipulating the ripples after my various illustrations were applied. There was no simple way around the problem, and it was a bit of a headache, but challenges are always good.

What is the hardest thing about doing artwork for a video game as opposed to other types of projects? And likewise, what is the easiest?

The hardest thing about games is that because of the size of the investment, a greater number of people are involved and have a say in the final version of the art. You have to please everyone: the developers, the marketers, the distributors. That said, the easiest thing about working on a game are these same people. They are artists, too, after their own fashion and everybody has a hand in creating the product. With Fable, everybody couldn't have been nicer—Todd Elhart at Hubris, especially. He really gave me a free hand, or at least the pleasant illusion of a free hand, and for that I am grateful. I would love to work with him again. The creative process on the whole, at least for me, is pretty much the same with any type of product. With comic books, I usually deal with a single editor, or an assistant editor, who rarely contacts me, except to give deadlines or a few instructions as to the type of illustration they're looking for. With games, there is much more conferencing to brainstorm, to ensure that instructions are clear and that required modifications are being attended to. Oh yeah, and the pressure. On Fable, it wasn't overt, but I felt its presence. I imagine that everybody involved was acutely aware that a lot was riding upon the work of each of the project's participants. And you don't want to be the one who blows it for everyone by missing a deadline or doing a bad job.

Do you play video games, and if so, which ones?

I played them before when I was younger and less busy, but rarely play now. I realized how much time a person can spend playing, leaving time for little else, and I had a career to start! I enjoy watching other people play, though. Let's see, in the past I've played Tekken, Tenchu, Resident Evil, and Grand Theft Auto. I always get killed so quickly in these games and usually end up with a sore hand from pressing buttons so hard. Not good for a painter.

What are your current projects and what future projects are you excited about?

I am just finishing up my series of covers for Marvel's The Runways series; I'm working on the last one now. I am continuing to create covers for Udon Comics' Street Fighter series. Mostly, I've been taking a break and working on my own stuff and trying to update my Web site. I've done a few doujin for publication in Asia and I continue to work the kinks out of the story arc for my epic tale of Chinese mythology, tentatively titled “The Specter King.” It's been five years since I published anything substantial in Asia and people who bother to write me indicate that they would like something new from me. So, I am working hard to get “The Specter King” off the ground. It is my intention to publish this in multiple languages, including English.

What is the most inspirational piece of advice you could give to a budding artist who sees you as a true success story, especially for working in gaming, Manga, or traditional comic-book industries?

Practice, practice, practice! I've been drawing and refining my style since I was five or six years old, and I'm still not perfectly happy with it. That drives me to improve myself through constant practice. This is my pragmatic advice to the budding artist. Also, study to be an artist and not just a comic-book or anime artist. The fundamental skills one learns in art classes will transfer into your work in the various popular industries like comics and video games. The work of the masters is far more valuable than any “How to Draw Manga” book ever will be. I refer constantly to the works of John Singer Sargent, Vermeer, and Georges De La Tour when I'm creating covers for comic-book and video game packaging. My second piece of advice is to get your work on the Internet. It seems pretty obvious but I don't know how many people I've met at cons who aspire to be working artists who don't have a site on the Web! I’m kind of stunned when I hear this. Honestly, it's the cheapest way to advertise in history. For $10 or less per year, you can secure a domain and build a full-color gallery site to showcase your work to millions of—scratch that—billions of people. And some of those people just might approach you with work; that's exactly how I got my first professional job in the U.S. Now, get pencilling and good luck!

Walerian Borowczyk

2007-04-03T17:41:00.000-07:00

Walerian Borowczyk (September 2, 1923 - February 3, 2006) was a Polish film director. He directed 40 films between 1946 and 1988.

Keywords: European, sex and horror, erotic, satirical, surrealist,catastrophe,short animation

Representative works:
Był sobie raz (Once Upon A Time) (1957) and Dom (House) (1958, with Jan Lenica)

Links
Wiki
A review on his animation shorts (with video downloads)

From the 2nd link above:

“Matter is the most passive and defenseless essence in the cosmos. Anyone can mould or shape it; it obeys everybody. All attempts at organizing matter are transient and temporary, easy to reverse and to dissolve.” —Bruno Schulz

...

Rose petals are put to good use in female masturbatory fantasies. Female genitalia is so often compared to rose petals (e.g. Kane�s �Rosebud�) Here Borowczyk offers a literal on-screen deflowering!

Borowczyk Walerian-Scherzo Infernal (1984)

Jean-François Laguionie & La Fabrique

2007-04-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Came across this animator in a book... FLAT CARDBOARD STYLE? Hmm let's see...

Animator Profile
Jean-François Laguionie, born on Oct 4 1939 in Besancon, is a realistic animation film maker. Critically acclaimed and award winning, his work has been described as a kinetic combination of "naïf painting and René Magritte." He wasn't initially interested in animation but preferred theatre. It was through meeting Paul Grimault that Laguionie learnt the techniques of animation. Although the two were close, they did not work together.

Jean-François Laguionie made several short films, among which the famous La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame (crossing the Atlantic to the oar) was awarded by Cannes and César. During the production of 'Gwen', or 'The Book of Sands' in 1985, Jef (nick) founded the animation studio 'La Fabrique' (The Factory). However the film was met with critiques and did not achieve major success.It was not until 1999 that his second full feature film 'A Monkey's Tale' came out and in 2003, Black Mor's Island was completed.Currently, Laguionie is working on Le Tableau (Table), a full length film mixing animation and real graphics.

'La Fabrique'

Quoted from Official Site:
More than 20 years ago, Jean François LAGUIONIE, director of several short animation films, settled in Saint Laurent le Minier, in an old silk factory to begin work with a few artist friends on a feature film: "GWEN OU LE LIVRE DES SABLES", and from then onto a stream of short films destined for the cinema. All these artists stayed in the Cevennes and in 1987 the Fabrique Association became a production company (although the association structure is still operating in order to ensure the projection of the films and the functioning of animation workshops)

In 1995 the work area was enlarged from 330 m2 to 600 m2 to allow for the production of a second feature film "THE CASTLE OF THE MONKEYS".

And so the adventure goes on , with the goal of having a diverse production activity combining the making and distribution of author's short and feature length films and working on television specials of a top quality level. Animation services for the developpement and production of interesting projets are also available.

Today, La Fabrique counts about one hundred films in it's catalogue, films often coproduced with major television channels and other french and european studios.

La Fabrique Feature Films

La Fabrique Short Films > Refer here

Filmography & Awards (from IMDB)
Synopsis quoted from La Fabrique Official Site

Filmography (as Director)

Île de Black Mór, L' (2004)
... aka Black Mor's Island (literal English title)

Château des singes, Le | Castle of the Monkey(1999)
... aka A Monkey's Tale (UK)
... aka Kwom und der König der Affen (Germany)

Gwen, le livre de sable | Book of Sand (1985)
Behind the ramparts of a city , in the middle of a sandy desert, an ancient civilisation has left a monstrous machine which for centuries has continued to produce gigantic objects only to hurl them in to the desert.. Roseline, a 173 year old woman, like all the other nomades of the desert , does not understand the utility of these objects, sinks, telephones or coffee machines and so they are used in other ways, such as for shelter from the sun and the cold. The forbidden city, looming in the distance, is the haven of the dead and no one has ever come back from there. However GWEN, a thirteen year old girl will be the first to attempt the journey in the hope of finding her friend who has disappeared. Rosaline will be her guide and the journey,full of surprises, becomes a sort of initiation.

La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame | The Atlantic Crossing(1978)
At first it was only meant to be an ocean crossing, an exploit like any other. However, some journeys last longer than others…

L'Acteur | The Actor(1974)
In his dressing room a young actor makes himself up as an old man , but under his mask of youth , which is his real face

Une bombe par hasard... | An unexpected bomb(1969)
The town has been abandoned by it's inhabitants who fear the explosion of a diabolical machine. A tramp appears, unaware of the situation….

La Demoiselle et le violoncelliste | The lady and the cellist(1965)
... aka The Lady and the Cellist (France: literal English title)
Down by the sea, a musician unwittingly unleashes a storm which carries off a young fisherwoman catching shrimp.

Awards
1965 La Demoiselle et le violoncelliste (the lady and the cellist) - Grand Prix

1967 L'Arche de Noé - Silver Dragon

1969 Une bombe par hasard... - Special Jury Prize

1978 La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame - Golden Palm : Best Short Film
1978 La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame - Grand Prize
1979 La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame - César: Best short film - animation

2000 Le Château des singes (aka. A Monkey's Tale) - Hollywood Discovery Award: Best Animation

2004 L'Île de Black Mór (Black Mor's Island) - Adult's Jury Award : Cert. of Merit

Nominated
2004 L'Île de Black Mór (Black Mor's Island) - Starboy Award

La Traversée de l'Atlantique à la rame (Crossing the Atlantic)

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

La Demoiselle et le violoncelliste (The lady and the cellist)

Other videos on youtube

J.F.Laguionie- Le masque du diable(Part 1)

J.F.Laguionie- Le masque du diable(Part 2)

J.F.Laguionie- Potr' et la fille des eaux(Part 1)

J.F.Laguionie- Potr' et la fille des eaux(Part 2)
----------
Reference
IMDB
Wiki (French)
La Fabrique Official Site
Jean-François Laguionie (pdf file in French)

The Marathon

2007-04-02T12:52:00.000-07:00

Found this clip when I searched for 'Alexander Petrov'. A heart-warming short that tells you, animation is ageless. Your favourite heroes are ageless. The legend is ageless. And love for free spirit and creation is ageless. Reminds me of another quote by Chanel "Fashion fades, only style remains the same." In the world of animation, people come and go but imagination remains =D

Homage created for the 60th birthday of Mickey Mouse in 1988 by animators Mikhail Tumelya and Alexander Petrov.

Amazing nuts by Studio 4℃

2007-04-02T03:52:00.000-07:00

My past entry on Studio 4℃

Reference
Bug Hole
Studio 4C Official Web
Studio 4C @Wiki
Animenewsnetwork

Amazing Nuts is a musical collaboration between Studio 4C animators and four artists under Rhythm Zone. It's available in DVD+CD release (2006 Dec.)

From Anime news network: Plot Summary> A compilation of four short animations from Studio 4°C. In which each is a mix of nice visuals and music. The first short entitled Global Astroliner, has an urban style with hip hop music by M-Flo. This is followed up by Glass Eye; where the animation is cell shaded with music by Ram Rider. The next is Kung-Fu Love, consisting of beautiful animation with background music called Twinkle (unknown artist). The last piece, Joe and Marilyn, is computer generated and music by Mink.

1. Global Astroliner (Daisuke Nakayama x M-Flo)
2. Glass Eye (Takashi Yamashita x Ram Rider)
3. Kung Fu Love (Yasuhiro Aoki x Twinkle)
4. Joe and Marilyn (?x Mink)

Studio 4°C - Global Astroliner (song by M-flo)

Ram Rider - Smile Again

Kung Fu Love (storyboards by Yasuhiro Aoki) | Full Version

Koda Kumi - Twinkle

Mink - Here by my side

Other works by Studio 4℃

「音響生命体ノイズマン」（1997）
15min, Beyond C/BANDAI VISUAL
Noiseman Sound Insect
Director: 森本晃司
Character Design: 森本晃司,湯浅政明
Music: 菅野よう子 (trees make sees)
Lyrics: Tim Jensen
Song: Cristal Willams

Noiseman Sound Insect Part I

Noiseman Sound Insect Part II

「マインド・ゲーム」(Mind Game)（2004）
Direct/Script: 湯浅政明
Original Story by ロビン西

Mindgame - Trailer

「ディープ・イマジネーション創造する遺伝子たち」（2006.7）
Deep Imagination
Short feature films

[1]ダンぺトリー教授の憂鬱 (Direct: 小原秀一)
[2]End of the world (Direct: 小林治)
[3]COMEDY (Direct: 中澤一登)
[4]彼岸 (Direct: 村木靖)
[5]ガラクタの町 (Direct: 伊東伸高)

Punch 1 - Professor Dan Petory's Blues

Punch 2 - End of the World

Punch 3 - Comedy

Punch 4 - Higan

高嶋上総 (Takashima Kazusa)

2007-04-02T02:39:00.000-07:00

Takashima's back after 3 years!!! I think...

Some evidence > Her name appeared on recent Beboy magazines and it seems she's drawing 2008? calendars for Beboy. And of course she updated her website!! (after 3 years!)

The review below is in Chinese only.

三年没有更新，三年！！然后昨天突然发现有新迹象，我当她彻底挂了（估计在生小孩？），起死回生啊。唉，再看一遍彩图作品还是那么出色，幽默，童趣，帅气。色彩的感觉，人体解剖比例的协调性。。。要好好学习学习。。。

:: 档案 ::

高嶋上総 | Takashima Kazusa
居住地：北海道
生日：10.23
血型：B
网站：maxmaximum (http://kazusa-t.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/)
email (kzsusa-t@mbr.nifty.com)

喜欢：ADIEMUS，白饭（饭桶么？），茶，小动物等
讨厌：肥肉，无聊，拘束
希望：世界和平

如果明天地球就灭亡了最想吃什么？用煮熟的饭捏成的饭团子。

链接
Maxmaximum (old official site)
Takashima's new blog
Canalblog on Takashima
Kazusa club on deviantART
Exceptional - a Takashima fanlisting
Takashima community on Livejournal
X-style - a Takashima fansite

:: 非BL作品 ::

ハーレムビートは夜明けまで 1-3册（Harem Beat：直到黎明）
vol 1(eng) | vol 2(chn) | vol 3(chn)

来自地狱的王子和他的宠物猫逃到人间为了寻找点fun，王子他爸得知后大怒，派出僵尸+吸血鬼+人狼三人组去擒获王子回巢。唯一的线索就是王子背后的地域刺青（因为到了人间后模样都变了，身体缩小），所以只有让他脱。。。然后就是一串搞笑事件。

宅配戦隊ハコブンジャー（送货上门队Hakobunja）
连载中，NO单行本 Part 1 | Part 2 (link & scanlations by east27)

来自天堂的superpower四人组，到地球上解决人间的各种麻烦事情。（似乎是按金木水火分的，每个人都有一只超可爱的宠物）

:: BL作品 ::

Fanmade MV: Last Client - Woke up this morning

■ ラストクライアント（Last Client）：职业杀手和男妓的爱情故事，连载到第7章高嶋竟然不画了（没能赶上截稿期所以退出了，似乎是这样。漫画家之耻啊！），晕。这算是她唯一有情节的故事了（因为剧本是另一个小说家写的），画的很精致，分镜也很讲究。也许太精益求精了才交不出稿！（Scans available from Shiran )

■ ワイルド.ロック（Wild Rock）：单行1本 | 两个原始部落间的羁绊，情节0。。。
这个比较强，某叫香代乃（图左）的漫画家大抄高嶋（图右）>> 罪证

■ 犬も歩けばフォーリンラブ（如果狗能直立行走）,单行1本。收录了若干短篇：狗狗3部曲，また、夏が来た（夏天来了），ピンポイントラヴァーズ（Pinpoint Lovers），scans available from Shiran

■ 短篇无单行：Dragon Boy。不知道出到哪里了，估计也是高嶋消失前未完成的连载。

GALLERY SELECTION
(All pictures copyright Takashima Kazusa)

暑中見舞所用插画

随笔画

残暑見舞所用插画

月刊Asuka封面 | Harem Beat

BEXBOY GOLD封面 | Last Client

BEXBOY GOLD 封面 | Dragon Boy

崖の上のポニョ

2007-03-19T04:03:00.000-07:00

News from Ghibli World

You can subscribe to their news feeds here

Credit: photo from Ghibli World

Summary: Hayao Miyazaki announced the next Ghibli film '崖の上のポニョ'(Gake no ue no Ponyo, or Ponyo on a cliff) to be released in 2008. It's a story about a 5 year old boy Sosuke modelled around Hayao's son Goro and a goldfish princess named ponyo. The setting is based on 鞆の浦 (tomo no ura), a little town on the bay. Producer Suzuki said 70-80% of the story revolves around sea. They adopted watercolor and pastel like medium for the movie.

The story's interesting and the medium is also refreshing. I adore the watercolor approach in 'my neighbor the yamadas'. I have a feeling the movie's gonna be a whole new concept and Ghibli always does a brilliant job in landscapes.Remember the sea in Spirited Away or the enchanted forest in Princess Mononoke?

In previous interviews I read from Nausicaa.net, it's rumored that Miyazaki includes at least one の (no) in the title, like a spell that ensures the movie's gonna succeed. Princess moNONOke, Sen to Chihiro NO Kamikakushi(Spirited Away), Tonari NO Totoro (My neighbor Totoro), Majo NO Takkyuubin (Kiki's delivery service), Hauru NO Ugoku Shiro (Howl's moving castle), Kaze NO Tani NO Naushika (Nausicaa the valley of wind)...haha, funny old man.

Maybe his son should rename 'Gedo Senki' as 'Gedo no Senki', just a thought...

Ryszard Czekała

2007-02-22T04:02:00.000-08:00

转贴浓缩铀

Ryszard Czekała
1941年出生，与家父相近。波兰。

主要动画作品
Ptak (the Bird, 鸟), 1968
Syn (the Son, 儿子), 1970
Apel (the Roll-Call, 点名), 1971
Czlowiek i chleb (Human and Bread, 人与面包), 1997

作品中沉郁、厚重的震撼力量撞击心灵。剪纸动画形式迸发出如此惊人的表现力，前所未有！其中首部作品-鸟，讲的是一个看管公厕的老头儿，省吃俭用，用节省下来的钱买鸟放飞的故事。故事太好了，表现形式也极为精彩，而且这竟然是他的首部作品！

秒速5センチメートル

2007-02-04T03:56:00.000-08:00

官方网站:http://5cm.yahoo.co.jp/index.html

以下简介转自http://blog.sina.com.cn/u/4b3c615c010006ql

片名：《秒速5センチメートル》- a chain of short stories about their distance
译名：《秒速5cm》- 有关他们之间的距离的连续短篇故事
监督/编剧：新海诚 (Makoto Shinkai)
制作：CoMix Wave
音乐：天门
主题歌：山崎まさよし《One more time, One more chance》
首映：2007年初春涩谷CinemaRise影院

知つてる
樱の花のおちるスピ--ド
秒速5セソチメ--トル
どれほどの速さで生きれば、
きみにまた会えるのか

知道么？
樱花凋落的速度是
每秒5厘米

那，我要以怎样的速度生活
才能与你重逢呢？

——《秒速5cm》预告篇

新海诚2007年春季將推出新动画：《秒速5センチメートル》（中譯：秒速5cm。代表樱花掉落的速度）。电影副标题为“a chain of short stories about their distance”意为：有关他们之间的距离的连续短篇故事，片长为60分钟左右，。故事背景是[上世纪90年代后期]与[当代]两个时段的日本现实社会，以少年远野贵树为主轴，由3部连续短篇动画交织出男女主角两人的故事，分别为《桜花抄》（贵树与明里的重逢）、《Cosmonautコスモナウト》（他人视角中的贵树）、《秒速5センチメートル》（贵树内心的彷徨）。

新海誠的新作，07年上映。虽然不是很喜欢他的人物设定，总体还是满期待的。作为导演，新海誠的审美意识和岩井俊二的还蛮像的，取材青涩的青春故事，而且擅长用唯美的自然环境（樱花，雪，阳光斑斓的放学课堂等）来烘托年轻人的梦想和自我压抑。晦涩的甜美似乎更适合作为定格的画面来享受，故事情节方面并不算特别充实。之前的那部《云的彼端，约束的场所》也是这番感觉，科幻像是辅佐作用，增添了不少浪漫和命运的成分。背景设定一直都很强，非常协调的颜色搭配，光的处理也和岩井电影中的手法类似。官方网站上有不少壁纸照片，贴几张上来。

这个是新海誠早期的作品《彼女と彼女の猫》（她和她的猫），灰白短篇，关于心灵治愈的故事，朴素平淡。

Gedo Senki wins Raspberry Award

2007-01-22T04:00:00.000-08:00

Original News from Ghibli.world

I haven't yet seen the movie but well... not the least did I expect it to win the worst film + director ever!

21th of January, GEDO SENKI "WINNER" BUNSHUN RASPBERRY AWARD "WORST FILM 2006": Of course with all the great movies made by Studio Ghibli we’re often blessed with good Ghibli news. However, this time it’s not the case. Logboy, from the excellent film website Twitch, pointed me to a news item on Hoga Central about Japan's annual Bunshun Raspberry Awards. For those not familiar with these awards, they are given to the worst movies in the year selected by 32 movie critics in Japan. Unfortunately, Gedo Senki "won" the award for worst movie, as well as Goro Miyazaki "winning" the award for worst director.

More on Aleksandr Petrov

2007-01-19T03:59:00.000-08:00

Brief biography from wiki:
Petrov was born in the village Prechistoye (Yaroslavl Oblast) and lives in Yaroslavl.

He had studied art, in particular at VGIK (State institute of the cinema and TV). He was a disciple of Yuriy Norshteyn in Advanced School for screenwriters and directors (Moscow).

After making his first films in Russia, in Canada he adapted the novel The Old Man and the Sea, resulting in a 20 minute long animated short — the first large-format animated film ever made. Technically impressive, the film is made entirely in pastel oil paintings on glass, a technique mastered by only a handful of animators in the world. By using his fingertips instead of a paintbrush on different glass sheets positioned on multiple levels, each covered with slow-drying oil paints, he was able to add depth to his paintings. After photographing each frame painted on the glass sheets, which was four times larger than the usual A4-sized canvas, he had to slightly modify the painting for the next frame and so on. It took Alexandr Petrov over two years, from March 1997 through April 1999, to paint each of the 29,000+ frames. For the shooting of the frames a special adapted motion-control camera system was built, probably the most precise computerized animation stand ever made. On this an IMAX camera was mounted, and a video-assist camera was then attached to the IMAX camera. The film was highly rewarded, receiving the Academy Award for the best animated short and Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. After this, Alexandr Petrov has maintained a close relationship with Pascal Blais Studio in Canada, which helped fund The Old Man and the Sea, where he works on commercials. He returned to Yaroslavl in Russia to work on his latest film, My Love, which was finished in spring 2006 after three years' work and had its premiere at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival on August 27, where it won the Audience Prize and the Special International Jury Prize.

Petrov's style (from the late 1980s onward) can be characterized as a type of Romantic realism. People, animals and landscapes are painted and animated in a very realistic fashion, but there are many sections in his films where Petrov attempts to visually show a character's inner thoughts and dreams. In The Old Man and the Sea, for example, the fisherman dreams that he and the marlin are brothers swimming through the sea and the sky. In My Love, the main character's illness is represented by showing him being buried beneath freshly-fallen snow on a dark night. There are many other examples as well.

Films

director
«MARATHON» (1988)
«THE COW» (1989)
«DREAM OF A RIRDICULOUS MAN» (1992)
«THE WATER-NYMPH» (1996)
«THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA» (1999)

script writer
«THE COW» (1989)
«DREAM OF A RIRDICULOUS MAN» (1992)
«THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA» (1999)

art director
«BY A WAVE OF THE WAND» (1984)
«THE TALE ABOUT THE SMALL FRY» (1985)
«WELCOME!» (1986)
«THE GUARDIAN» (1989)
«DREAM OF A RIRDICULOUS MAN» (1992)

Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose (wiki entry)
- 1986 paint on glass animated
- Directed by Alexei Karayev and art by Aleksandr Petrove
- Won Grand Prix at Ottawa International Animation Festival (1988)

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA

My Love(2006), website from Ghibli Museum

Aleksandr Petrov exhibit in Ghibli museum

2007-01-17T03:58:00.000-08:00

Ghibli museum will be hosting an Aleksandr Petrov exhibition, with his latest film 'My love'. Aleksandr Petrov!! I was really excited to be reminded again of his masterpiece 'The old man and the sea'. The animation consists of finger painted glass frames in oil. Can you imagine drawing tens of hundreds of oil paintings?? and the old animator did it all by himself. The pictures look fleshy and dreamy. He's a real romantic who knows how to capture the dream states.

wiki entry

Adventures of Tintin

2007-01-07T04:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's wiki daily article is on Tintin which explains for this sudden spark of interest in researching into my vague memory. I once bought a T-shirt with the blue lotus cover imprinted on the back. Thought I threw it away after a house cleaning. I threw away a lot of things which I shouldn't. This's definitely one of the comics I'll appreciate much better as a twenty something. The wordiness and maturity of contents (maturity doesn't imply violence or sexual explicitness here!) were of little interest to me as a child. I can't quite imagine the amount of research behind the story telling if the author didn't in fact travel around himself. Here's some info from wiki. The full entry is here.

The Adventures of Tintin (French: Les Aventures de Tintin) is a series of Belgian comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé, the pen name of Georges Remi (1907–1983). The series first appeared in French in a children's supplement to the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle on January 10, 1929. Set in a painstakingly researched world closely mirroring our own, The Adventures of Tintin presents a number of characters in distinctive settings. The series has continued as a favourite of readers and critics alike for over 70 years.

The hero of the series is the eponymous character, Tintin, a young Belgian reporter and traveller. He is aided in his adventures from the beginning by his faithful dog Snowy (Milou in French). Later, popular additions to the cast included Captain Haddock and other colourful supporting characters.

The success of the series saw the serialised strips collected into a series of albums, spun into a successful magazine and adapted for both film and theatre. The series is one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century, with translations published in over 50 languages and more than 200 million copies of the books sold to date.

The comic strip series has long been admired for its clean, expressive drawings in Hergé's signature ligne claire (footnote1) style. Engaging, well-researched plots straddle a variety of genres: swashbuckling adventures with elements of fantasy; mysteries; political thrillers; and science fiction. The stories within the Tintin series always feature slapstick humour, offset in later albums by sophisticated satire and political/cultural commentary.

Online Links
Tintin official site
Tintinologist.org

1. Ligne claire (French for "clear line") is a style of drawing pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian creator of The Adventures of Tintin. It is a style of drawing which uses clear strong lines which have the same thickness and importance, rather than being used to emphasize certain objects or be used for shading (for this reason it is sometimes also called the democracy of lines). Additionally, the style often features strong colours and a combination of cartoonish characters against a realistic background. The use of shadows is sparse and all elements of a panel are delineated with clear black lines. The name was coined by Joost Swarte in 1977.

Hergé started out drawing in a much looser, rougher style which was influenced partially by the famous American comic strip artists of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was only after World War II that his drawing style evolved into ligne claire. For Hergé, the style was not limited to the drawings but extended to the story: the plot must be straightforward.

Satoshi Kon | 今敏

2006-06-14T22:02:00.000-07:00

For now, only this review in Chinese which's scarily comprehensive and 'indexical' (suite my taste). I'll do an English review in the future, if I ever will...

开创新时代的动画人 - 今敏
转载：文章出处（huoshen.com）
作者：Stranger

以漫画家身份出道，27岁进入动画业，34岁开始做监督，第一部主创动画就和宫崎骏的《千寻》一起获得了日本文化厅年度动画大奖及多个世界电影奖项…… 他，就是日本的著名动画人——今敏。

今敏这个名字初听起来可能会感觉有点古怪，当年他刚刚成名的时候有些日本媒体甚至会写错他的名字。然而，当这个名字连续数年出现在多部成功动画的总监督位置时，人们不得不擦亮眼睛仔细地对他研究一番了。他是谁？他的成功源于什么？他下一步将会做什么？一时间，关于他的一切都成了人们讨论的话题。

【今敏的创作历程】

与日本的另外几位著名动画监督相似，今敏最初是以漫画作者的身份亮相的。青年时代的今敏非常希望成为一位漫画家，读大学时就有作品发表在刊物上。从今敏的履历来看，1987年大学毕业以后，他也和很多以漫画为理想的作者一样经历了艰难的奋斗期和转型期。直到90年第一本漫画单行本出版时，他的人生道路才发生了一次转变。而为他带来这个转变机会的人就是大友克洋。

大约在90年的时候，大友克洋正在筹划《老人 Z》的制作。这时今敏的漫画作品引起了他的注意，大约也是在他的介绍下，今敏担任了该片的美术设定一职，初次涉足动画制作。1991年大友又推出了亲自监督的动画《World Apartment Horror》，而今敏则包揽了该做的漫画单行本。

1992年，大友酝酿已久的动画三部曲《Memories》开始投入制作，其中由森本晃司负责监督的写实风格作品《她的记忆》一片，特意找来了今敏负责角色设定以及部分脚本的创作。因为在动画创作中，设定工作一旦完成以后设定人员就会处于比较长时间的“无事可做”状态，所以在93年到94年间，虽然《她的记忆》仍在制作当中，今敏却在负责另外两部动画的分镜和美术工作，在此期间他和押井守也合作了一段日子，接触到了押井那种独特的叙事风格。同一时期的今敏还没有脱离漫画领域，先后画了两部短篇连载。

※ 在这里我想插一下，很多文章里认定今敏是大友克洋的“徒弟”，我不知道这种说法的依据是什么，但是我认为年龄只相差不到10岁的他们，应该只是很亲密的朋友关系。大友克洋在创作时喜欢启发和带动新人，对于今敏这样有才华的作者，大友自然会愿意在创作上为他铺路。然而从风格上说他们之间的差异还是很大的，他们都有自己鲜明的个人风格，我认为并不存在所谓“师徒传承”关系。 ※

1997年，同样是在大友克洋的协助下，今敏第一次尝试监督了一部剧场动画《Perfect Blue》（又译《未麻的部屋》），在这部作品中今敏将他的个人风格带入了作品，用一种独特的意识流式的叙事手法完成了这部心理惊悚片。该作拥有鲜明的美术风格和剪辑手法，在当时千篇一律的日本商业动画市场里，这样一部作品的推出自然引起了轩然大波。

1998年，借助《Perfect Blue》为他带来的名气，今敏开始尝试在创作中进一步发挥自己的风格，他的第一部原创剧场动画《千年女优》开始投入制作。这部于2001年推出的向日本电影大师小津安二郎百年纪念致敬的动画，是今敏倾注全力指导的作品。推出以后引发了世界范围的巨大反响，它的影响甚至超越了一般动画的范畴而在电影圈内引起了广泛关注。

《千年女优》可以说是目前为止最能体现今敏风格的作品，也是他的代表作。《千年女优》在叙事上使用了一种梦幻般的手法，将现实和回忆穿插在一起，在交错的时空中天马行空地讲述了一位女演员的人生旅程。这部作品的故事架构及镜头运用都有鲜明的电影特色，尤其是对角色的内心描写完全超越了一般动画作品的层次，达到了电影级的震撼力。难怪获得了多个电影奖项。

继《千年女优》以后，今敏又推出了第二部个人风格鲜明的作品《东京教父》。这是一部现代都市题材作品，不过讲的不是什么浪漫爱情，而是几个东京城市底层流浪者的故事。在《东京教父》的制作即将收尾的之时，今敏接受了WOW电视台的邀请，开始了他的第一部TV动画《妄想代理人》（简称《妄》）的制作，虽然是一部TV作品，但作为总监督的今敏对动画的整体品质把关非常严谨，每个镜头乃至每一处声音都不容有误。与之形成对比的是，该作在题材选择方面完全是实验性的。据今敏自己讲，《妄》在已经开始进入制作的时候甚至只有一个架构。在第九集甚至请来了N位日本动画高手做了几段“剧中剧”，处处都体现出了实验精神，也是TV作品中罕见的手笔。

不过，从整体上来看，《东京教父》和《妄想代理人》都应该算作今敏过渡期的作品，尤其是《妄》剧中大量启用“外援”这一点，很可能是为后面的作品做一些提前的试探工作。所以今敏的Fans大都对他的下一部作品都充满期待！

【关于今敏的风格】

我尝试了用很多词汇来描述今敏的风格，但试来试去还是没有找到一个恰当的描述方法。不过不知道是不是一种巧合，我觉得今敏这个名字本身用来形容他本人的风格就非常恰当。

“今”代表了他喜爱的题材。今敏的几部作品所选择的题材，都不是所谓的古装剧或者卡通动画中常见的那类架空设定。他似乎非常偏爱现代题材，而且几乎每一部作品里都包括对人们在当今社会的各种压力下表现出的矛盾心理描写，而这些往往是一些艺术电影才会关注的内容。

“敏”则代表了他的美术和叙事风格。今敏非常在意角色的各种表情、手势、眼神，甚至有时候要逐帧来看才能发现一些角色的动作细节；他对人物的心理活动也描写得细致入微，在很多镜头里他都会设计一些不容易发现的内容，比如用某种声音来象征一种暗示等等。这些特点都让他的作品值得一品再品。

然而，作为一位已经名扬世界的动画人，今敏还是缺少一些真正的“大众动画”作品。今敏的风格非常独特，但故事题材有过于明显的“小众倾向”。他在评论界的知名度要比在普通观众中高的多，他所选择的题材也缺少宫崎骏作品那样的大众性，在市场表现上也常常无法与其他的主流动画相抗衡。当然，我确信今敏有监督所谓“主流动画”作品的实力。我想他本人也在摸索着个人风格与大众需求的结合点，毕竟他才只推出了4部作品，风格也没有完全定型。我们唯一需要做的，就是期待他下一部精彩作品的推出。（2005年2月24日）

【今敏档案§Profile】

中译名：今敏
英文拼写名：Kon Satoshi

履历

1963年 10月12日生于日本北海道。
1982年北海道釧路湖陵高等学校毕业。考入武藏野美术大学视觉传达系。
1985年漫画作品在讲坛社的杂志上初次发表。
1987年武藏野美术大学毕业。
1990年第一本漫画单行本《海归线》（讲坛社刊）发表。
参与大友克洋的作品『老人Z』担任美术设定，初入动画业。
1991年漫画单行本《World Apartment Horror》发表。
1992年在大友克洋总监督的作品《Memories/她的记忆》中，担任脚本、美术设定。
1993年在《机动警察2》中任分镜。
『JoJo之奇妙冒险』中任脚本、故事板。
1994年德间书店连载《セラフィム》（原案：押井守）。（未完）
1995年《OPUS》连载。（未完）
1997年《PERFECT BLUE》监督。
1998年第一部主创剧场动画《千年女优》投入制作。
1999年《千年女优》制作中。
2000年《千年女优》制作完成。
2001年《东京教父》投入制作。
《KON'S TONE‘千年女優’への道》出版。
2002年《千年女优》公映。
2003年《东京教父》公映。
第一部主创TV动画《妄想代理人》投入制作。
2004年《东京教父》DVD发售。
《妄想代理人》DVD全6卷套装发售。

【作品简介】

漫画：

动画：
《老人Z》| 美术设定
《走れメロス》
《Memories/她的记忆》| 脚本、美术设定
《机动警察2》| 分镜
《JOJO奇妙冒险》| 脚本、故事板
でたとこプリンセス（第2話）
《PERFECT BLUE》| 监督
《千年女优》| 原作、脚本、监督
《东京教父》| 原作、脚本、监督
《妄想代理人》| 原作、脚本协力、分镜协力、总监督

今敏的几部动画作品介绍请参看此帖

单幅

今敏专门的单幅创作很少，主要精力都在动画和漫画的创作上，以下为今敏1999年以前的一些单幅作品，基本都是Painter画的一些习作。

【相关链接】

今敏个人主页

《千年女优》官方站

《妄想代理人》官方主页

『妄想』的产物
- （今敏为《妄想代理人》所作的个人网页，其中收录了很多制作《妄》一片幕后的感悟和手记；日文）

Tales of Earthsea Production Complete

2006-05-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

Nausicaa News:
May 23, 2006 Animation Complete on "Tales from Earthsea"
The May 23 Production Diary announced the completion of animation on the film.

History of production:

Sep 06, 2005: animation production began
Jan 20, 2006: 149 cuts (12%)
Jan 27: 180 cuts (15%)
Feb 03: 230 cuts (19%)
Feb 17: 326 cuts (26%)
Mar 03: 422 cuts (34%)
Mar 10: 481 cuts (39%)
Mar 17: 517 cuts (42%)
Mar 30: 687 cuts (55%)
Apr 7 : 776 cuts (63%)
Apr 17: 844 cuts (68%)
Apr 25: 935 cuts (76%)
May 1 : 997 cuts (81%)
May 8 : 1,056 cuts (85%)
May 15: 1,176 cuts (95%)
May 23: 1,236 cuts (100%)

Animation production length:

Tales from Earthsea: 8 months and 17 days
Howl's Moving Castle: 17 months and 6 days (2/1/2003-7/7/2004)
Spirited Away: 16 months and 26 days (2/1/2000-6/27/2001)

《地海传奇》幕后班底大搜索

2006-05-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

信息属南方动漫网中文专
2006-05-18 16:38　南方动漫网　作者：亚述
(编辑：唐)

背景一：动画制作班底

1．制片人：铃木敏夫（吉卜力总裁）

　　1948年出生于爱知县，1972年进入德间书店公司，然后在78年进入《月刊动画》编辑部。从1981年开始策划宫崎骏特集，次年开始大力推进《风之谷的娜乌西卡》的长篇连载；在《风之谷》拍成动画大片之后，一跃成为德间方的制作委员，十分活跃。1989年，转入今日如雷贯耳的吉卜力工作室（STUDIO GHIBLI），在此后所有的作品中都是以制片人的身份出现。同时利用此前作为编辑的经验，在出版界也开展得风生水起。在与德间书店成功合并之后， 1997年成为德间的取缔役，"吉卜力工作室"事业本部长，2000年9月开始成为常务。

2．导演&联合编剧：宮崎吾朗　(Miyazaki Gorou)

　　此人的身份当是本片最大的卖点之一：宫崎骏的儿子，38岁的宫崎吾朗。

　　1967年、东京生人。信州大学农学部森林工学科毕业后，从事建筑咨询行业，计划、设计公园绿地以及都市绿化。

　　自98年起着手设计三鹰之森Ghibli的总体造型，01年至05年6月任该美术馆馆长。

　　曾荣获2004年度艺术选奖文部科学大臣新人赏的艺术振兴部门奖

3．联合编剧：丹羽圭子

　　参与过吉卜力作品《听海》的脚本制作。

4．音乐：寺屿民哉

　　1958年4月10日出生在熊本县。

　　以独特管弦乐编曲而闻名的乐界天才，挎刀打造剧场版动画《地海传奇》音乐。

5．主题曲和插曲《特鹿之歌》演唱者：手茑葵

　　兼为歌手和声优，现住福冈，年龄--My God，1987年6月21日出生--19岁未满。有着模特身高：174cm；兴趣是芭蕾和读书。遗憾的是神秘新人的照片尚未披露……

　　新人手茑葵，在出任女主角Therru声优的同时，她悠远清澈的天籁之音打动了导演宫崎吾朗，被钦点担纲演唱影片的主题曲和插曲，被赞为"有着朴素,治愈系的歌声的她,是地海传奇中女神般的存在"。

　　相信大家都已经听到了她在预告片中的天籁之音了，那么我们一起期待这位呼之欲出的新人在今年7月份公映的《格德战记》中的美妙声线吧！

6．声优：

　　冈田准一、手茑葵、田中裕子、小林薰、夏川结衣、香川照之、内藤刚志、倍赏美津子、风吹纯、菅原文太……

背景知识二：

1．关于《格德战记》译名和内容：

　　《格德战记》的内容简介是这么说的：

　　"人与龙曾是一体

　　人选择了地与海

　　龙选择了火与风

　　这个夏天，人与龙将合为一体……

　　一名少年巫师的魔法之旅，他走的愈远，就愈深入自己的内心！

　　神秘绮丽的岛屿风情、巫术的奥妙、老术士寓意深远的智语、巨龙、创生古语真言、无所不在的黑暗势力、爱情的救赎、人性的试炼，在地海 (Earthsea) 的奇幻世界里波澜壮阔的上演……"

　　英文原著的书名是Legend of Earthsea--"地海传奇"，小说的繁体中文版以及早年改编的电影都译作《地海传说》，后来由人民文学出版社出版的简体中文版定名为《地海传奇》；在日文译著中书名改为《ゲド戦記》，原意译为中文是"格德/基德战记"；有如此多的版本，因此新片未出，片名先乱。然而既然是介绍GHIBLI的片子，本站从日版，从《格德战记》之说。

2．关于原著《地海传奇》：

　　《格德战记》根据美国女作家厄休拉·K·勒·古因《地海传说（Legend of Earthsea）》系列小说改编，这套小说常常被与托尔金的《指环王》三部曲和刘易斯的《纳尼亚王国》三部曲相提并论，在所有年龄段中都有这套小说的 Fans，曾经获得过五个雨果奖、五个星云奖和国家图书奖，《地海》系列小说已经被翻译成16种语言，总发行量数以百万计……有如此辉煌的原著支撑故事的骨架，想差都差不了了……

3．作画参考：シュナの旅（《秀纳之旅》暂译）

　　作者:宫崎骏
　　出版社/制作商:德间书店
　　发售日: 1983/06
　　媒体形式：文库

　　此书乃是宫崎骏大师以西藏的民间传说为原型创作的全彩图绘本。但没有拍成电影。在绘本的结束语里，宫崎爷爷深情地写道："将这个民间故事动画化是我的一个梦想……。"

4．原著作者：厄休拉·K·勒·古因（Ursula K. Le Guin）

　　勒·古因以从1968年到2001年横跨三十余载的《地海传奇》(Earthsea Cycle) 六部曲系列，奠定了她在奇幻文学界的崇高地位。六部曲被翻译成19国语言出版；其作品意涵颇富中国老子道家思想；并非强调善恶对立的二元价值观，而是传达 "平衡"、阴阳同源的理念；以阴阳相生的概念为核心，迥异于西方基督教的善恶二元对立观。

　　事实上宫崎骏作品中，从1984年的《风之谷》到2004年的《哈尔的移动城堡》）等，风格上都很受《地海传奇》的影响。但阴差阳错，大师最终还是没有将古因的作品搬上银屏，而这个历史性的工作则在这个夏天由他的长子完成了……

5．小说日文版译者：清水真砂子（しみず?まさこ）

　　1941年出生于北朝鲜。儿童文学翻译家?评论家。

　　毕业于静冈大学，现为青山女子短期大学教授。著作有《儿童读物的现在》、《学生发光的时候》（以上两本为岩波书店出版）、《幸福的写法》《儿童读物的视线》（以上为洋泉社）等。译著有《到天亮之时》《醒来、魔女！》《谈话?谈话E.L.克尼斯堡讲演集》（以上为岩波书店）等。因翻译厄休拉·K· 勒·古因的《格德战记》（岩波书店）的全6卷获得平成16年的日本翻译文化奖。

Toei targets Shanghai, China

2006-05-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

Toei Animation will open offices in Shanghai next month. The company hopes their ties with local stations and manufacturers will allow for "large-scale business dealings." Toei's Digimon Adventure was broadcast in China in February, and Dragonball will air in June. Source: Animaxis

Toei Animation: a Japanese studio under which Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata used to work with. Famous TV series under their belts: Saint Seiya, Digimon, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon etc.

Over the Hedge - AWN review

2006-05-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

Over the Hedge: Making The Leap From Newsprint To Pixels
Joe Strike chronicles the long journey Over the Hedge took to make the leap from comicstrips to the big screen.

May 19, 2006
By Joe Strike

DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge is unlike the competition: it manages to translate a property from another medium without destroying its spirit or alienating its creators. All images courtesy DreamWorks Animation SKG.

DreamWorks’ Over the Hedge, the latest star-powered CGI entry in 2006’s animated feature sweepstakes, opens this Friday on the heels of Fox’s Ice Age 2 and just ahead of Pixar’s Cars. Unlike the films bracketing it, Hedge is adapted from a pre-existing work — an 11-year old daily comicstrip featuring a cast of funny-animal characters observing and interacting with suburban sprawl and American consumerist culture.

The film succeeds in a rare-for-Hollywood balancing act — translating a property from another medium without destroying its spirit or alienating its creators — perhaps because they were heavily involved from the film’s conception. And while the strip’s critters have made the leap from newsprint to pixels, Hedge the movie is a different animal from Hedge the strip — a number of different animals, as a matter of fact.

Over the Hedge was born in 1995, the brainchild of writer/cartoonist Michael Fry and children’s book illustrator T Lewis. The pair had worked together on King Features’ Mickey Mouse comicstrip and tried to launch The Secret Life of Pigs, a strip of their own. “We thought it was destined for cosmic greatness,” Lewis recounts, “two pigs on a farm secretly observing humanity. We were told ‘it’s a great idea, but nobody likes pigs.’ Then Babe came out.”

Fry and Lewis tried again. They replaced the pigs with a trio of suburban animals — suave raccoon RJ, worrywart turtle Verne and manic squirrel Hammy. Instead of a barn, the critters lived on the outskirts of a suburban development rich in wasteful consumption and human absurdity. The retooled strip was snapped up by United Features Syndicate and today runs in some 250 newspapers, but back in ’95 it caught the eye of animation producer/writer Jim Cox. Cox, whose credits go back to Oliver & Company and include story development on Beauty and the Beast (and now co-producer of the Over the Hedge movie) contacted the pair via the e-mail address wedged between the strip’s panels.

A partnership was quickly born. Cox, Fry and Lewis put a pitch together and made the studio rounds. According to Lewis, “Fox, Henson and DreamWorks were the most interested. A bidding war actually broke out, we were really rooting for DreamWorks — look at the personalities involved, c'mon. Fox ultimately won, the power of sheer money won. It was only a year or two after DreamWorks formed and they were not able to throw the money around that Fox was back then.”

The project wound up on Fox’s shelf and stayed there — much to the frustration of Tim Johnson, its ultimate co-director. “I was aware of it, I knew it was sitting there. It was making me crazy. Even eight years ago when I was making Antz, I knew Over the Hedge was there and just the seed of a fantastic film. I loved the characters and the opportunity to comment on suburban living. When Fox let the option expire in 2001 we grabbed it at DreamWorks and put it in development right away.”

Michael Fry (left) and T Lewis are the creators of the comic strip Over the Hedge, and also served as creative consultants for the film.

Rumor has it that when Fox optioned Hedge, DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg predicted, “those people will never make that movie, and when they don’t, I will.” Lewis attributes Fox’s failure to make the film to the fact that “Hollywood is wiggly — everything is always changing. We had a champion who brought us into Fox, Jon Jashni [most recently exec producer of the Poseidon remake]. Then he got shuffled somewhere. In a big studio system like Fox, as opposed to a boutique operation like DreamWorks, when you lose your champion, you pretty much get lost.

“We were at Fox when there was a lot of wringing of hands — ‘What’s going to happen to family films, what’s going to happen to animation?’ They were trying to break in with Anastasia and we were sort of this odd little duck. It was actually pitched back then as a Babe-like thing, where we were going to have live-action and then the animals would be computer generated, kind of like Garfield. When we came on board at DreamWorks for a month or two we were thinking Hedge was going to be a 2D movie. At one point they were talking about claymation because they had this contract with Aardman. Ultimately those were just ‘run it up the flagpole’ ideas.”

The original Fox story pitch (which Lewis describes as a series of set pieces “more or less strung together”) was refined into a “how it all began” tale, recounting RJ’s first meeting with Verne and the ‘blended family’ of animals he looks after — the excitable Hammy, a porcupine couple and their kids, a father and daughter opossum pair and a lady skunk with serious self-image issues. Other than Hammy, it’s an extended family that doesn’t exist in the comicstrip, whipped up for the purposes of the film’s feature-length narrative.

“The new characters are fine with us,” says Lewis. “We totally understand this was a story beyond the comicstrip and you had to add stuff. When we pitched the script early on we had this clan of animals — wasn’t exactly as it is now, but we had come up with more animals too, realizing the story more or less dictated it.”

Over the Hedge’s journey to the big screen took a circuitous route. Fry, Lewis and Jim Cox sold the pitch to Fox after a bidding war but it was quickly put on the shelf. DreamWorks, an original bidder, snapped it up years later.

Co-director Karey Kirkpatrick shares Johnson’s enthusiasm and respect for the original comicstrip. “Tim and I are both huge fans of the strip and what it has to say. Its point of view on society is what attracted DreamWorks to the project. We would constantly run stuff by [Fry and Lewis] to make sure we were in the right ballpark tonally and ‘Hey, do you have any jokes we’re missing?’” For her part, production designer Kathy Altieri praises the comicstrip duo too, “They were great, they worked with us a lot on potential ideas. They were really gracious about sharing our [version of Hedge] with theirs and finding the place in between where the match was perfect.”

According to Fry, writer of the Hedge comic, the filmmakers “mined the strip” for individual gags, working them into the script at appropriate moments. “They really got the sense of the characters and their spirit — I’m really pleased.”

Verne however underwent a not insignificant accommodation to the demands of the film’s narrative, one that met with Fry and his partner’s full approval.

“In the movie, it’s necessary for the characters to be rather innocent and naïve and for Verne to be their leader,” Fry explains, “whereas in the strip Verne is a leader, but more in his own mind. There’s a certain tension there between him and everyone else. Verne is the smartest turtle in the room and unfortunately no one appreciates that. They kind of, sort of ironed that out a little bit in the movie.” Lewis is even more unsparing of Verne, “He’s a lot more dysfunctional in the strip — he’s a mess. He’d love to be the leader of the group, he might think that he is from time to time and may for a moment be, but he’s lot more a boiling kettle of disdain and despair.”

Kirkpatrick credits Fry and Lewis for “keeping on us to make sure [the movie version of] Verne was smart and funny. What tends to happen in development is the character carrying the movie’s emotional core can be a one-note whiner if you’re not careful and all he’s doing is saying ‘let’s not go over there.’ They were really great about pushing us to not fall into that.”

Everyone involved with Over the Hedge credits the relationship between RJ and Verne as the heart of the film and the quality that set Hedge apart from any number of other talking animal strips on the comics page. “Verne and RJ are best friends in the strip; they’re such a great odd couple,” Johnson says. “Someone who’s always worried about tomorrow and someone who’s always ‘seize the day,’ the ultimate party animal. I loved that because all of us have that battle — do we do the smart thing and think about the future, or do we sit around and play videogames and eat nachos all day?” Kirkpatrick compares the pair to “Felix and Oscar, Lucy and Ethel… the man-child vs. the nudge… the id vs. the superego.”

Directors Tim Johnson (left) and Karey Kirkpatrick share an enthusiasm and respect for the original comic strip. They constantly ran stuff by Fry and Lewis and mined the strip for individual gags.

For Kirkpatrick (whose scripting credits include Chicken Run and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), the film was both a screenwriting job and his first directing assignment. “DreamWorks had approached me to write Over the Hedge months before, but I was busy with other scripts. They came to me six months later: ‘How about directing it?’ When I came on, two writers were already on board, Lorne Cameron and David Hoselton who were doing a fine job. I was actually a little tired of writing, my first thought was ‘this will be great, there’s no typing.’

“Len Blum was the first writer who tackled translating it from the comicstrip. Lorne and David came on and gave the film its current structure. When they were done with their contracted stuff they moved on. I was the typist, it was on my résumé so I assumed writing responsibilities.”

Kirkpatrick recalls that it was Katzenberg himself who asked him to co-direct Hedge, a challenge he was eager to take on. “After Chicken Run he’s been trying to get me to direct, he had no doubts. I was at all the Chicken Run recording sessions; I worked closely with some of those actors through Nick [Park] and Pete [Lord]. It really wasn’t that big a leap. Jeffrey saw me at meetings, working with storyboard artists. A lot of it is ‘how good a collaborator are you, how good are you at communicating your thoughts, how strong is your vision?

“Tim was already on the movie. We knew each other; we’d been consulting on each other’s projects. We’d been circling and wanted to work together. This was great for me because Tim had already directed a couple of movies; any rookie mistakes that I might make, he was there to fill in that void.

DreamWorks animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg brokered the directorial marriage between Johnson and Kirkpatrick and the pair found their skills and experience were complementary.

“In some directing teams you handle this and he handles that side of it, but for me and Tim it was a straight partnership/collaboration. We were both at 98% of the meetings. On occasion when you get into the heat of it you’ve got 350 people on crew and the day is broken into 15-minute increments. Sometimes you literally need to be two places at once and that’s when two directors come in handy. In those cases if there was something that required more tech expertise than I have, and Tim comes from a computer animation background, I’d say ‘you should take that one.’”

Johnson’s CGI background reaches back some 18 years into the dawn of the digital age when he joined the staff of Pacific Data Images, one of the very first computer animation shops and the company that would eventually become PDI/DreamWorks. (“That PDI badge means something, at least in our world, so they kept that name, which is great.”) While production of Hedge was based in DreamWorks’ Glendale studio, a satellite crew operating out of the original Silicon Valley PDI facility pitched in with additional animation, effects and lighting support. “We share everything, it’s really amazing,” Johnson enthuses. “We’ve all got the same software and the distance disappears once you get the video conferencing going. We had animation dailies and all the team would be sitting with us in a screening room and there’d be bunch of people in northern California synched up on a huge screen at their facility so we’re all watching the same thing.”

From Lewis’ perspective, the synergy between directing partners was to the film’s benefit. “Tim has a good story sense, but Kerry has a great writing background. When he came on and partnered with Tim the picture really started taking off. They really had a good chemistry, never losing sight of that sense of fun you need to bring to a project like this.”

After redesigning the strip’s 2D characters for CGI, Kathy Altieri’s next job was the film’s environment, recreating the world from the perspective of the film’s foot-high stars. “We were trying to create a world that felt like it was in our backyard. Every one of us has gone out, gotten down on our belly and crawled around with a camera so we can feel what we felt in the movie.” Meanwhile, Johnson and Kirkpatrick were wrestling with the film’s story and structure, and the evolution of RJ’s character from self-centered con artist to someone who cares about others. A turning point in the film comes when RJ is about to take off with a red wagon-load of goodies he’s tricked Verne’s family into helping him gather.

Johnson and Kirkpatrick wrestled with the film’s story and structure, and the evolution of RJ’s character (front) from self-centered con artist to someone who cares about others.

“We always sort of likened to RJ to Harold Hill in The Music Man, that he was a bit of a traveling grifter,” Kirkpatrick explains. “We always thought there’d be a scene called RJ Gets a Home, where the other animals would give him the thing he’d never had, a place to come back to. What we liked about it structurally was when they tell him, ‘RJ come here we want to show you something,’ had he said, ‘You guys go on’ and hopped in the wagon and left, he would have been home free. The fact that he let his guard down and was emotionally hooked further complicated things.

“What never worked about it, it used to be too maudlin — until we twisted it. Just as it’s getting a little sappy, that’s when we yanked the carpet out from his happiness.” The carpet-yanking consists of a barrage of TV soundbites on the subject of betrayal that triggers RJ’s dormant conscience while the camera stays on the raccoon’s guilt-ridden face. “We always knew conceptually we wanted something like that. I think it was David Soren, one of our storyboard artists who came up with TV idea, and I think I added the Dr. Phil punchline.”

A trio of high-energy slapstick set pieces punctuate the film — Verne’s traumatic initial foray into the suburban development ‘over the hedge,’ Verne and RJ’s encounter with a slobbering, extremely playful dog that ends in a kerosene-powered rocket flight and an apocalyptic battle aboard a runaway truck. While the first sequence was part of the film from its earliest days, the second originally featured a ferocious dog who swallowed Verne in one bite. “Then it was up to RJ to perform a canine Heimlich,” recalls Johnson. “That scene was in the film for a surprisingly long time, before we conceived a friendlier dog and funnier chase about 20 months ago. The truck battle entered the picture after several third act experiments; we only settled on that scene a year ago. The script was not written around any of them — they were all created to serve the overall story.”

Like all contemporary animated features, Over the Hedge’s voice cast is a mixture of high-profile stars and accomplished character actors, led by Bruce Willis as RJ. Johnson says “having Bruce voice the character meant you could have a con man, but there’s something he brings to it that keeps RJ sympathetic and lets you go on the ride with him. RJ was based on the character in the comicstrip, but when we approached Bruce we said we missed David Addison from Moonlighting. He said, ‘I kind of miss him too, I’ve been busy saving the world for the last 12 pictures.’”

Over the Hedge’s voice cast is led by Bruce Willis as RJ. The directors urged the actor to channel David Addison from Moonlighting to create the sympathetic con man character.

While acknowledging that name-brand actors are crucial in giving an animated feature visibility among higher profile “event” movies, Kirkpatrick admits that he keeps certain performers in mind from the get-go. “Who am I thinking of when I write this character? Coming up with an opossum who dies big — Shatner! Or you think Albert Finney — that’s what I want, Shakespearean. You kind of think of that voice while you’re writing it, and you wonder if he’ll do it. Then you call Shatner and he says yes!

“We have a powerful head of the studio in Jeffrey who can get anybody on the phone and get them to agree to be in one of his movies — but he won’t do it unless the voice is interesting separate from the face. There are some stars out there that we’ve listened to that just aren’t good voices. When you’re not seeing their face and just picturing the character, sometimes that voice just doesn’t work.

“We never do star for star’s sake. For instance, there was early inclination with the Verminator (the orange-suited exterminator pictured prominently in the film’s advertising) to do some stunt casting with a really big name. But I was working with Thomas Haden Church on Charlotte’s Web. He’s a big name to me, he was Oscar-nominated but he’s not on the Tom Cruise level. But when I heard his voice I said, ‘you guys have to hear this.’ He’s great, he’s perfect and he made that character. Or you take someone like Garry Shandling. No one’s used him, but he has a strong, distinctive voice and a phenomenal sense of humor. If we can tap into that we’ve got something really special.”

For his part, Fry offers special praise for Steve Carell’s voicing of the high-strung squirrel Hammy. “Steve is really incredible, he gave a great voice performance. The most impressive acting from him is the moment he says, ‘I’m not stupid.’ He says it once as Hammy and it just pulls your heart. Then he walks away and says it in his own voice. In that moment it gives you a little bit of the depth of the character — somewhere inside there’s this Steve Carell lurking about who’s really wounded.”

Steve Carell continues his break-out year with the voicing of high-strung squirrel Hammy (left). The comic’s creator Michael Fry was impressed by the depth of emotion in his performance.

Johnson denies that any of the characters in the film were deliberately drawn to resemble their voice actors, but suggests the impression may result from “the way we recognize motion in people. We videotape the actors recording their lines and some of the animators like to look at the tapes for how they’re going to do their motion. I think it’s amazing and a tribute to the animator’s art that even though none of the characters were designed to look like the actors, in a way they all do a little bit. I think Eugene Levy was captured very well by the animators and ended up looking just like him, although if you looked at the freeze frames [of his character Lou the porcupine] I don’t think Eugene would be very flattered.”

Johnson looks at his voice actors as collaborators. “They’re not just reading lines. They’re actually helping us design and discover the character. We mold and change and adapt the story, rework scenes around what we discover. It’s so important to match the performance to what the actors bring — it’s really like workshopping a play or a Broadway show, but in slow motion.”

That slow motion sped up near the end of the production cycle, with new dialog added as recently as the end of March. “We made a ton of changes,” Johnson recounts. “It’s amazing how you can fly in new lines of dialog. Garry saw the picture and wrote something like 12 new lines, things like, ‘I’d thought we’d be dead by step two, so this is going great!’ You can’t show him the whole film because you don’t have it, and when you finally have it it’s almost too late so you scramble to get these great ideas in.”

One of the most interesting things about Over the Hedge though, is what’s missing. In a film swimming with fast food and merchandise, there isn’t a single instance of product placement, and hardly any self-conscious pop-culture references. Johnson admits that the film “is making comment, not always flattering, about the world of consumer products. I don’t know if any company would’ve wanted to get involved with us. The other thing we realized the parody was part of the fun.

Like the best of Pixar’s films, Over the Hedge has the feel of a classic animated feature. Its directors hope the film to make animation whole family entertainment like live-action used to be before it became stratified.

“One of the first scenes to really come together was that Trail Guide Girl cookie heist. We had a little competition among the staff of who could come up with the funniest name for cookies. We ended up with Love Handles, Smackeroons, Neener-Neeners, great names. Kerry and I got really excited and remembered those old Wacky Packages stickers. We thought that’s where we’re going to go with this thing, we don’t want real products. The way to make a comment and hold up a funhouse mirror to this consumer culture is to make up all the names we want. It goes by so quick too. One of the things I want to put on the DVD is all the work that Kathy [Altieri]’s department put into the product design.

“The only product that’s in the movie? The THX logo [seen briefly on a TV set]. Do you know we had to pay for it? We had the joke and we asked Lucasfilm if we could use it. They said ‘yes, but’ and we said, ‘wow.’ It didn’t cost that much, though.”

Like the best of Pixar’s films, Over the Hedge has the feel of a classic animated feature, one where we eavesdrop on the animal world to see our own through different eyes. Unlike Disney’s overly literal The Wild, Hedge is replete with cartoon exaggeration — characters squash, stretch and speed so fast they distort time and space; they survive the worst sort of physical misadventures with only their dignity injured; and one classic cartoon image that hasn’t been seen a while, a turtle who wears his shell like a removable suit of clothes.

Johnson and Kirkpatrick look at Over the Hedge and other animated features as continuing a tradition that’s lost ground in Hollywood in recent years. As Johnson puts it, “Hopefully we’re taking animation to where I think live-action films used to be — whole family entertainment. Live-action films get so stratified — teen-slasher, superhero movie, big-budget special effects films — I feel animated films are now the general entertainment films you don’t see in live-action.” For his part, Kirkpatrick finds himself “upset a little bit when somebody says ‘I wouldn’t go see this, animation isn’t really my thing’ and it gets relegated to something just for kids. Some of the smartest, best archetypal storytelling out there in the movies is being done in animation, movies like The Incredibles and Toy Story and Shrek, they’re as good as any movie that comes out all year long.”

Regardless of what happens to Over the Hedge’s critter cast when they enter the multiplexes of the human world, their comicstrip counterparts will continue to go their own way. “We talked with DreamWorks about folding some of the movie characters into the strip,” Lewis admits. “We both very independently, very stridently thought no. The movie and the strip ought to be two parallel distinct things. The power the strip brings to this is that it has its own integrity; it’s its own separate thing. You start merging the two, it’ll look like the strip’s just shilling for the movie.”

Regardless of what happens to Over the Hedge’s critter cast in the cinema world, the comic strip will not add any of the movie characters. Lewis wants to avoid the appearance of the strip shilling for the movie.

Lewis’ art for the strip has evolved since its 1995 debut, due both to his desire to keep the strip’s look fresh, and the addition of computer toning to his arsenal of tools. When asked, he admits the characters’ big screen redesign has also influenced their look on the printed page. “Around 2000 when I started working on the movie a little bit [contributing concept art for new characters] the strip’s animals became more naturalistic.” (One character Lewis particularly regrets not making it to the big screen is an owl that would have been voiced by Gene Wilder.) “When I started doing those characters for them it jostled the illustrator in me because I come from that background. Ernest Shepherd, Winnie the Pooh’s illustrator, he’s like my hero, Tenniel, that late 19th, early 20th century is my style.

“That change was inspired by my work with the folks at the studio. There’s such high quality of work you’re surrounded with there. When you know your stuff is being looked at by these guys — and a lot of them would get our strips e-mailed to them every day by the syndicate — I’d say to myself ‘I’ve really got to be on my game here.’”

If Over the Hedge the movie achieves the success its creators are hoping for, will there be a sequel in the works? It’s a question one hardly needs to ask of DreamWorks, considering Shrek 3 is due out next May and a fourth Shrek is already in the works. However the studio may have already tipped its hand early on in the movie — when RJ shows Verne and company a map of the suburban development that’s sprung up around them, an arrow reading ‘FUTURE DEVELOPMENT’ is pointing to their small, unspoiled patch of green. Stay tuned for future developments…

Joe Strike lives in New York City and writes for and about animation. He has recently completed a children’s novel.

Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.

Paperless Animation Production

2006-05-16T22:32:00.000-07:00

Animation World Magazine: "The Animated Scene: “Paperless Animation Production” — Myth or Reality?
In this month’s “Animated Scene,” Joseph Gilland addresses the reality of “paperless animation production,” which used to make his blood curdle.

May 16, 2006
By Joseph Gilland"

After an almost two-decade stint in the animated feature film industry, I have been re-introduced to the world of television series work, bit by bit, over the last four years. In some cases actually working on an animated television series, but more often as a casual observer, watching my overly stressed-out animation industry friends, who always seem to be rushing off to work over-time on yet another on-going television series with an insanely short schedule. Storyboard artists, character designers, layout artists, animators, effects animators — you name it — they’re all out there trying to make ends meet, in what seems to be an industry of ever shrinking schedules and budgets.

Whenever I hear about the insanely tight schedules that these artists are working on, my head just spins! Shorter and shorter schedules, smaller and smaller budgets, but is the quality of the shows diminishing? Well, sometimes yes, but incredibly, a lot of the time it is not! We have at our disposal today the tools to make quality cartoons, faster, slicker and better looking than a great deal of the so-called “limited” animation of years gone by.

This trend that we’re seeing has taken off in the wake of a staggering plethora of new animation technology, hardware and software, which, for better or worse, has enabled us to create stories, storyboards, animatics, backgrounds, characters, animation and special effects in ridiculously short order.

This is much to the delight of distributors, broadcasters, and animation clients of all kinds worldwide, who find that in today’s animation industry, an idea or a script can get from early development, into location and character design, straight into production and actually on the air in a matter of mere months. Projects that would have taken at least a year to fully develop and begin to get off the ground, can now sprout wings and take off in a really big hurry, and at a mere fraction of the cost of an old-school hand-drawn cartoon.

There are some key technological advancements in the tools, both hardware and software, that we use to produce cartoon series these days that have contributed enormously to the speeding up of the overall process, and I’d like to discuss a couple of the most important ones, that I feel are changing the way we make cartoons today, besides the obvious technological developments that we have all come so familiar with, like Flash.

The combination of the screen surface with a sensitive grip pen makes artists comfortable with the drawing “feel” of Cintiq 21UX.

First of all, the whole idea of “paperless” production (Oh, how that concept used to make my blood curdle!) which has been batted around for the last two decades, is actually starting to successfully take place, largely due to a couple of truly innovative, effective tools that have finally come close to matching the needs of traditional artists, who are willing to work with digital tools, if they actually help, rather than hinder, the creative process. Now we finally have these tools at our fingertips, they actually work and they are rapidly changing the face of the modern animation studio. Not only the television series industry either, or only the “2D” animation industry. Every studio, from the smallest hometown commercial ventures, to the biggest feature animation powerhouses, is taking full advantage of this new software and hardware.

First of all, the incredibly effective Wacom Cinitq 21UX interactive pen display is an LCD monitor that enables artists to draw directly onto the computer’s screen, and it is the first product of its kind that really has artists getting comfortable with its drawing “feel” very quickly and intuitively. I had tried one of the earliest versions of this tablet many years ago, and it was at that point in time still a relatively frustrating tool for a traditional pencil and paper sort of an artist to deal with. The tactile quality of the drawing pen just wasn’t there, and there was an enormous disconnect between the hand and the image. I was skeptical that I would ever be able to become comfortable with such a tool, but that has all changed recently.

The folks at Wacom, in developing the Cintiq have put a lot of time, research and effort into creating a screen surface that actually has some “bite” to it, much like a real piece of paper, as well as a wonderfully programmable and sensitive pen, and the results are surprisingly successful. It seems that the developers have really been listening to us pesky artists after all! Up until now, getting a really natural drawing sensation that inspired an old school artist was inconceivable.

And I was one of the biggest naysayers to the tablet technology that has been emerging, precisely because of that very reason. The tactile sensation of a graphite pencil digging into the texture of a good quality piece of paper, well, there’s nothing quite like it. The sculptural feeling of “working” a drawing on paper is a key element of how I create design drawings, and, until recently, I had never encountered a tablet that was even remotely satisfying in that respect.

But today, of all the artists I know are using the Cintiq tablets, myself included, the vast majority are enjoying it a great deal and truly getting a good drawing feel with it. It speeds up many aspects of the animation pipeline, by finally doing away with enormous amounts of paper that needs to be scanned and put in binders and archived in filing cabinets. Artists can create everything from storyboards to character, effects, set and prop designs in literally half the time it used to take them, simply by the virtue of being able to undo things quickly and work in layers, which enable quicker development and experimentation with designs.

This may not seem like something entirely new to so many people who have become accustomed to using digital drawing tablets and working with software like Photoshop and Painter for many years now, but not enough emphasis can be put on how far the technology has come. The natural feel of the pen on the drawing surface of the Cintiq is quite amazing, and the ability to rotate the entire tablet much like an old school animation disc is also a huge asset. I can’t believe how quickly many of my old-school pencil and paper artist friends are catching on to the Cintiq, and raving about its astounding functionality.

Old school pencil and paper artists are astounded by how far technology has come. Products like Cintiq allow creative teams to present their drawing ideas quickly, compressing the time it takes to deliver a project.

Today, creative teams are able to send their drawing ideas quickly and directly to the director or lead designer, who can then make changes, notes and suggestions on a new level directly on top of the artwork and send it back to the artists in the blink of an eye. The time saved by an artistic director who once had to be constantly on the go, moving from artist to artist, making suggestions and changes out on the floor of the studio, is enormous. Of course if a more hands on approach, face to face interaction is desired, that can still be done, but the options available to manage the flow of our creative ideas are far greater with these new tools working as well as they do today.

Software too has been catching up quickly to the desire for a natural drawing experience on a computer, and Alias (Autodesk) Sketchbook Pro 1.1 is another tool that is catching on like wildfire, because of its extremely user friendly, intuitive tools, pencils, pens, brushes and levels. The learning curve is extremely fast, no real need for training or leafing through weighty user manuals.

This is the kind of tool traditional artists have been waiting a long time for. No fuss, no superior computer skills required, just a fast intuitive way to draw on a computer. For a purely straightforward piece of drawing software, it is hard to beat, although of course there are bugs to be worked out, and countless improvements that should be, and I’m sure will be made.

Personally, seeing the work being created in my current production workspace using the Cintiq and Sketchbook Pro, I am finally becoming convinced that “paperless” animation production may one day become a reality, even at the earlier design stages where it is still common to see artists using every thing, from charcoal to oil paint, to create design ideas, character, location, special effects prop designs, color palettes, and conceptual ‘look of picture’ designs of all kinds.

If these tools become even better than they are now, we will see more and more old school artists giving up their beloved paints and pencils, and moving, if somewhat reluctantly, onto the world of digital drawing.

The Alias SketchBook Pro, with its ability to capture ideas quickly, might replace the pencil and napkin. It is extremely user friendly with no real need for training. © Alias Systems Corp.

Beyond the earlier stages of development, design and storyboarding that I have detailed here, of course we have seen digital ink-and-paint and particularly, Flash transform 2D animation into a process that takes a fraction of the time to produce than the old animator assistant/inbetweener/production model of years past. No need to go over that here, we all know the process is speeding up, some of the resulting animation is looking better and better, and not necessarily too far removed from the “high quality” animation that we all want to see being produced.

It looks to me like digital “2D” animation, is really coming into a new and exciting era. Even with shrinking budgets and schedules, we can look forward to creating better looking shows than ever if we embrace and exploit the super efficient digital tools that we have at our fingertips today. Even this crusty, narrow minded, old school, hand-drawn, animator’s survival kit thumping animator can see that we are entering an era of a much broader and less restricted visual vocabulary.

Of course I for one will never stop emphasizing the need for good old school hands-on training for our students of the craft, if only for the purpose of teaching them the importance and the value of every frame that we deal with in animation. Letting the computer do too much of the work too early on in an artist’s development may severely stunt their ability to process creative ideas thoroughly in their imaginations before committing them to paper, uh, that is, their digital tablet… But even the earliest, teaching, design and development stages of animation production may be done on digital drawing tablets some day soon, as these products become more widely available and affordable.

One by one, my industry friends who use the Cintiq at work are getting them for their home studios as well (at least those who can afford the still rather high price tag). Keep in mind folks, I certainly don’t write about animation to advertise these products! In my mind, this phase of technological development is one of the most important developments in the history of our industry, up there with Technicolor, digital ink-and-paint and 3D CGI technology.

Visit a few studios these days, and these new drawing tablets are conspicuously evident everywhere you look. And they are giving us greater and greater creative freedom, as well as making it possible for more new shows to be developed and produced affordably, (even in spite of their somewhat lofty price tag), and within the time constraints of an ever more demanding clientele. Hopefully this will challenge more and more companies to develop and offer us even better and more importantly, even more affordable new digital drawing tools.

In his 30-year animation career, Joseph Gilland has worked with studios as diverse Walt Disney Feature Animation and the National Film Board of Canada. He has worked on all styles of animation, experimental films, television series, commercials, theatrical feature films, stop motion, title sequences, live-action films and documentaries. Formerly the head of the classical and digital character animation programs at the Vancouver Film School, Gilland is writing a passionate book about the art of animation.

Gedo Senki Director Interview

2006-05-15T00:45:00.000-07:00

- Director Goro Miyazaki

Original artical can be found here: http://www.ghibliworld.com/goromiyazakiinterview.html

Aoi's voice (the singer of Gedo Senki's theme song 'Song of Teruh') conveys that loneliness in youth, a bit unsteady, but clear and charming. It's 'love at first hearing', Goro said.

I like that ^^

Song of Teruh

2006-04-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

Song of Teruh

Lyric : Miyazaki Goro,
Music : Taniyama Hiroko
Arrange : Terashima Tamiya
Song : Teshima Aoi

--------------------------------------------------
yuuyami semaru kumo no ue / 夕闇迫る　雲の上
itsumo ichiwa de tondeiru / いつも一羽で　飛んでいる
taka wa kitto kanashikarou / 鷹はきっと　悲しかろう

oto mo todaeta kaze no naka / 音も途絶えた　風の中
sora wo tsukanda sono tsubasa / 空をつかんだ　その翼
yasumerukoto wa dekinakute / 休めることは　できなくて

kokoro wo nani ni tatoeyou / 心を何に　たとえよう
taka no youna kono kokoro / 鷹のような　この心
kokoro wo nani ni tatoeyou / 心を何に　たとえよう
sora wo mauyouna kanashisawo / 空を舞うような　悲しさを

hitokage taeta no no michiwo / 人影絶えた　野の道を
watashi to tomoni ayunderu / 私と共に　歩んでる
anata mo kitto samishikarou / あなたもきっと　さみしかろう

mushi no sasayaku sougen wo / 虫のささやく　草原を
tomoni michi yuku hitodakedo / 共に道行く　人だけど
taete mono iu kotomonaku / 絶えてもの言う　こともなく

kokoro wo nani ni tatoeyou / 心を何に　たとえよう
hitori michi yuku kono kokoro / ひとり道ゆく　この心
kokoro wo nani ni tatoeyou / 心を何に　たとえよう
hitoribocchi no samishisawo / ひとりぼっちの　さみしさを
--------------------------------------------------
over the cloud in the dusk
the hawk is flying always alone
he might surely be sorrowful

any sound was ceased in the wind
his wings takes the air
he can't rest his wings

how I express my mind
my mind like hawk
how I express my mind
my sadness like flying in the sky

the path in a field, nobody has passed
walking on there with me
you are surely lonely

on a grassy plain that insects has been chirping
we are making journey together
but we haven't been talking

how I express my mind
my mind that goes alone
how I express my mind
my loneliness that are alone

Never like the first time

2006-04-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

Animators Unearthed: Never like the First Time! by Jonas Odell
Chris Robinson excavates Jonas Odell’s Never Like the First Time! and discovers the first sexual experiences of four people in this month’s “Animators Unearthed.”

April 03, 2006
By Chris Robinson

I was 15 when I lost my virginity. My partner in the meat dance was Sheri Gagnon, a girl from the nearby Uplands air force base.

The first attempt failed. We were upstairs at my friend, Steve Leggett’s house. I couldn’t cope with the pressure of knowing other guys were around. The turtle, so to speak, wouldn’t come out of his shell. Meat dance aborted.

The second attempt was at the comfortable confines of my parent’s place. Mom and Pops were at work during the day, leaving me plenty of time to do the dirty deed comfortably and calmly.

Being self-conscious about my body, we got undressed in the slightly darkened room. I don’t remember much else. We probably kissed. I bet she gave me a blowjob cause she gave me lots of them. Beyond that I just remember flopping down on her. After struggling to find my way in, Sheri eventually grabbed hold of my cock and guided it home. Then I just lay there. Seriously. I figured it was like an amusement park ride or a pinball machine. You drop your quarter in and stuff happens.

Well, that’s about it. After about 4-5 minutes of lying atop Sheri, we agreed that was enough.

Never Like the First Time!, the latest film by Swedish animator extraordinaire Jonas Odell, re-creates the first sexual experiences of four people. While the first two stories convey relatively common sexual initiation experiences (man gets laid at a party, woman recounts the slow, sensual build up to the eventual let down of the big moment), the last two are at once shocking, sad, beautiful and poignant. In the third segment, told using only black-and-white with rotoscope, a woman suggests that her first time might have been when she blacked out and was possibly raped at a strange man’s house. However, she’s not even sure. She just remembers waking up naked, feeling sore all over. In the film’s final episode, an elderly man recounts his first time. As Odell recreates the man’s vivid memories with a collage of cut-out images taken from vintage advertisements, the man’s voice become increasingly excited and passionate. His words carry him deeper into his memories and to a happier time and place that he had temporarily lost, but clearly not forgotten. In that single moment, the man rediscovers life’s beauty and simplicity.

“The idea for the film,” explains Odell, “came after having made Family and Friends. I thought it was interesting to do that kind of episodic film, where you put several stories on the same subject next to each other. I had the idea that I wanted to let several people tell their story of the same event in their lives, and put these stories next to each other. I think there is something really interesting about putting several stories on the same subject next to each other. You get a result that is more than just the sum of the different parts.”

Odell considered different ideas for the subject of the film, but came back to first sexual experiences “because it is that kind of experience that is sort of a milestone in people’s lives (at least until they’ve done it). Between August and October 2002, Odell’s colleague, Benjamin Wolff, conducted 30 interviews with an assortment of friends and strangers. “I listened to the interviews,” says Odell, “and tried to find a way to tell each story on film, and then had him go back to a number of the people asking questions that were in line with what I had in mind for each story. I then edited the interviews. Each was about 1-2 hours and I edited them down to 3.5 minutes. This was the most interesting part of the process, seeing I haven’t worked with documentary material before. It was a challenge to build a narrative in the edit, and still be true to what I felt they were trying to say.”

As the viewer becomes comfortably and cheerfully settled after the first two light-hearted tales, Odell suddenly jolts us with a dark story of abuse. While the decision to include this somber episode came out of a desire to have a range of different experiences, Odell says that this experience was, surprisingly, not a unique story. “Too many people have had similar experiences,” notes Odell.

The segment also stands out because of the calm, subdued manner in which the woman recounts her story. As she struggles to clearly remember the experience, her controlled and matter-of-fact voice gives the segment an almost comic tone of bewilderment. By the end of the story, she’s not even sure if she did lose her virginity on that alcohol-drenched evening.

“I worked a lot with the tone of that segment to get a balance between taking it seriously as a very dark experience, but still not using it for dramatic effect, but trying to tell the story in a way that reflects her own way of telling the story,” adds Odell. “I think it was important to include this story, and in a way the film is structured around it, leading the viewer down into this darkness and then up into the light again.”

For the film’s touching and spiritual finale, Odell selected the story of a 92-year-old man. “I really wanted to include his story,” says Odell. “He was the only one out of the 30 people interviewed that was totally positive towards the experience of the first time. He turned 95 a few weeks ago, by the way.”

While many animators of late have been drawn to using actual interviews, this is the first time that Odell has worked with documentary material. Odell was excited by the challenges of using a documentary soundtrack: “You have in one sense to think like a writer when you are editing the material, and on the other hand I felt it was important to let them say what I imagined they wanted to say with their stories, and to be true their way of telling the story, even if only three minutes out of a two-hour interview made it into the film.”

As might be expected with a film by Odell, the film uses a rich array of mixed-media techniques that enhance and complement each story. Music, always a strong point in Odell’s films, never overstays its welcome; instead, like a comfortable old friend, the sounds seamlessly harmonizes with the tone and pace of the each speaker.

One thing bothers me about this little piece of tale. What about Odell? Where’s his story? I told Odell that since I had divulged the awesome details of my first fuck it was only fair that he did the same. But Odell wouldn’t fess up. All I could get out him was that “it was a very matter-of-fact thing in a tent....”

Chris Robinson has been with the Ottawa International Animation Festival since 1991. A noted animation critic, curator and historian, he has become a leading expert on Canadian and international independent animation. His acclaimed OIAF programming has been regarded as both thoughtful and provocative. In May 2004, Robinson was the recipient of the President’s Award given by the New York chapter of animators for contributions to the promotion of independent animation.

His books include Between Genius and Utter Illiteracy: A Story of Estonian Animation, Ottawa Senators: Great Stories from the NHL’s First Dynasty, Unsung Heroes of Animation, Great Left Wingers and Stole This From a Hockey Card: A Philosophy of Hockey, Doug Harvey, Identity & Booze.

News - 2006 中国国际动漫影视作品“美猴奖”大赛

2006-03-18T22:08:00.000-08:00

2006 中国国际动漫影视作品“美猴奖”大赛参赛事宜
2006-2-23 12:14:27 中国动画网

2006中国国际动漫影视作品“美猴奖”大赛

参赛事宜

一、大赛背景及宗旨：

经中国动画学会授权，第二届中国国际动漫节组委会将举办2006中国国际动漫影视作品“美猴奖”大赛。本次大赛在中国动画学会的大力支持和资源配合下，将邀请世界知名动漫节以及国内外各知名动画机构、企业的顶尖专家担任评委，努力打造国家级动漫赛事的优质品牌。

在“美猴奖”大赛期间，将开展优秀动漫作品展映活动，通过这种交流来促进中国原创动画的繁荣和发展。在中国动画学会的支持和世界动画协会（ASIFA）的合作下，“美猴奖”大赛中脱颖而出的优秀作品，将获得直接被选送参加世界动画学会的著名国际大赛的机会，其中包括：萨格勒布世界动画节，昂西动画节，广岛动画节，东京动画节，首尔动画节，ASIFA好莱坞安妮奖，渥太华动画节。

另外，通过多渠道宣传“美猴奖”的优秀作品，扩大其在国内外的知名度和影响力，并争取把中国动漫影视作品“美猴奖”大赛列入主要国际动画大赛名册。

主办：第二届中国国际动漫节组委会

承办：中国动画学会

杭州市文化广播电视新闻出版局

特别协办：杭州高新技术产业开发区管委会·杭州市滨江区人民政府

协办：中央电视台

中国动画网

新浪网动画频道

CG杂志

漫友

搜狐网动漫频道

千龙新闻网动漫频道

支持：世界动画学会（ASIFA）

韩国动画学会

JETRO日本贸易振兴机构

萨格勒布动画节

二、奖项设置及奖金：

1、影院动画片奖项

——最佳影院动画片大奖一名：奖金 30000元

——影院动画片特别奖一名：奖金 20000元

2、动画短片奖项

——最佳短片大奖一名：奖金 20000元

——评委团特别奖一名：奖金 10000元

——短片荣誉奖二名：奖金 5000元

3、系列动画片奖

——系列动画片大奖一名：奖金 30000元

——系列动画片特别奖一名：奖金 20000元

——荣誉奖二名：奖金 10000元

4、商业/教育动画——（包括广告片，教育、科学电影）

——广告片大奖一名：奖金 10000元

——特别奖二名：奖金 5000元

5、网络动画——使用网络技术创作的动画作品，Flash或Macromedia Shockwave。

——特别奖一名：奖金 5000元

6、剧本奖

——最佳剧本创意奖一名：奖金 30000元

——最佳潜力编剧奖一名：奖金 20000元

——创意荣誉奖二名：奖金 10000元

7、外语片奖

——最佳影院片奖一名：奖金 20000元

——最佳短片奖一名：奖金 10000元

——最佳系列动画片奖一名：奖金 20000元

passing moments

2006-03-17T21:25:00.000-08:00

This's probably the last revamp. No more. The background picture(inverted) is from Animatrix - Beyond. I really love this episode, especially the coloring.

So, something about this blog which I started out two years ago. It's dedicated to animation, anime and manga. There're all kinds of animation techniques: CG, traditional cell drawings,clay (also a type of stop-motion), and there is 'anime', a term specifically applied to Japanese animation.

Animation, to me, is free expression. It combines art with traditional movie techniques to create a world of limitless possibilities. Hmm, this's pretty succint. I didn't know I'm so capable of summarising. (readers: what the hell...)

About the title 'Passing Moments', it's actually the name of a CG short. I lost the link to the video. How sad.

This site also serves as an archive of information on specific artists and works. You can follow the navigation menu on the right.

Current mini projects

Anime Series
Cowboy Bebop
Samurai Champloo
Paranoia Agent

Studios (Coming)
Ghibli
Studio 4C
Pixar
Fox(this studio went bankrupt a few years ago)

Great Minds (Coming)
Alexander Petrov
Hayao Miyazaki
Satoshi Kon
Shinichiro Watanabe
John Lesseter

Mangaka
Hojo Tsukasa
Minako Narita
Masakazu Katsura
Ai Yazawa
Hisaya Nakajo
Modoru Motoni
Sumomo Yumeka
Satomi Yamagata
Yamimaru Enjin

About Me
Name: heavenlypigsty
Contact: heavenlypigsty@gmail.com

News updates

2006-03-15T13:32:00.000-08:00

Source: http://www.591ac.com/

Death Note movie screen shot - the scene where 月 plans to murder the FBI agent

New artist who sings the theme song of new Ghibli movie 'Gedo Senki'

巨匠·宫崎骏监督(65岁)的长子·宫崎吾朗先生(39岁)首次执导的吉卜力艺术家工作室的最新动画电影《格多战记》，这部即将在7月公映的作品的主题歌，将启用无名气的新人演唱。

　　这位歌手的名字是手嶌葵，听了演示带后宫崎吾朗监督对那个充满透明的歌声立即决定起用，并表示“也能遇见这么好的声音看来就是‘命运’的安排，这种朴素和善地触及内心深处的歌声让人感动”。为了让主题曲能够很好地表现出作品的意境，宫崎吾朗亲自上阵，担任主题歌和插曲的作词。

Satomi Yamagata

2006-03-08T23:59:00.000-08:00

青涩的爱情在指间转瞬即逝，渴望像泡皱的脏纸一样在水泥塘中荡漾，一上一下，飘忽不定，不知何时心灵也变得跟这薄纸一般，被水花割成一块块的，散了。

<--- 以下图片版权为作者所有，只供个人参考，请勿转载 --->

:档案:
Satomi Yamagata,一个画工和情节都很强的漫画家和插画家，BL和正常向的都画。
汉字：山縣聰美
生日: 1970.8.21
血型：AB
漫画经历：处女作在2000年《スリーピングラヴァーズ》杂志刊登，出道约5年
烦恼的事情：脑精不好，很难把自己的漫画画得很好看，真的很烦恼。
喜欢：昏睡
讨厌：胡萝卜，青椒，读书，画背景
现况：有两个女儿，住兵庫県。
官方网站：

:主要作品:
1.Kiss Kiss Kiss 系列故事（少女漫画）

第一部：2003.10.05,COMIC MU comix刊登

第二部：2004.12,COMIC MU comix刊登

2.深沢山下系列故事（BL漫)

第一部：3/4 Love (四分之三的爱情)

第二部（完结)：Fake Fur (虚伪爱情）

3.其他

2005.12,《感情回路》

2004.5.10,Honey Baby

Fake Fur（伪装的爱情）
2004.9.27

关于标题：Fake Fur， Fake就是假冒的，Fur是动物的皮毛，翻译成《伪装的爱情》也蛮合适的。就好像皮毛是动物自我保护的盔甲，当梦想中的爱情离自己远去时，谎言就变成了那层维持自己生存下去的，Fake Fur。

《Fake Fur》是《3/4的爱情》的续集（不过是倒叙形势的），讲述了主角山下在遇到深泽前的恋爱史。

一共有5个小故事：
R(Restricted)
R(Remembrance)
伪装的爱1-4
从恋情结束的开始
感情线路

序曲：R(Restricted), R(Remembrance)讲的是山下在初中时的初恋久保
中段：《伪装的爱1-4》则是讲初恋结束后，山下短暂结交的朋友雷尼
尾声：《从恋情结束的开始》是和《3/4的爱情》桥接在一起的过渡章，讲的是已读大学的山下和深泽交往中的一段小插曲
番外：《感情线路》，恩，这个和老师最近出版的《感情回路》有关哦，讲的是累尼和真树的故事

R(Restricted)
等我发现的时候，已经太迟了，爱情 --
若早知道爱情会来临，我就会低头回避了。

情人节那天，山下和无话不说的好友久保收到一大堆礼物，其他男生见了很羡慕。他们女人缘很好，却都没有女朋友，所以被归为“酷男组”。久保热衷于烹饪，无暇顾及女友，而且还很认真的说“那些女生的巧克力还不如我自己做的好吃”，不过山下就不一样了，他觉的自己的酷是装出来的，因为本身对女孩子就有一定惧怕，还不如和男生在一起的好。正当那帮男生讨论得热火朝天时，有人发现山下收到的情书里有一封印有男人的签名，不会是有男生对山下表白吧？可怜的山下想辩解都没用，因为大伙儿开玩笑开得太厉害了，这时只听玻璃噼里啪啦碎裂的声音，原来久保受不了他们的玩笑硬生生的用手把身后的窗户给打破了。闹事的人被吓走了，看着久保用舌头去添被玻璃被割破的手，山下不好意思地把头转向了一边。放学后，久保约山下去他家里玩儿，两个人一边吃着久保的新料理一边聊天。久保说他小时候就受叔叔的影响，一直都很想继承他叔叔在北海道开的餐馆。山下想了半天也没想到自己有什么类似的远大理想，那就干脆谈次恋爱好了，因为这个突然想起今天收到的情书。“那封信是我在录像带出租店认识的学长写来的，他看我经常借同性恋的带子，就问我有没有兴趣去他们的一个同志组织” “山下你不会是认真的吧？”久保很惊讶的问。“我从小就不觉得这类事有什么奇怪，所以一直想找个人谈谈。”山下一脸认真的回答说。这就是山下的特点呢，不管心里想什么都会诚实的反映在脸上。被久保这么称赞，山下不好意思地脸红了（多么可爱的孩子啊^^）。久保想留山下过夜，说要和他多聊聊，不过山下觉得自己把气氛搞得怪怪的，干脆还是回去吧。久保看着挥手道别的山下，若有所思。

第二天早上，久保没来上学。“山下你不知道吗?他和另一个同学今天去城外考试，说要上北海道的高中。” 山下惊讶的说不出话，心也顿时沉了下去，他什么也不知道。去北海道继承叔叔的店，那不是很久以后的事情么？他想和久保继续升同一所高中，想和他一边吃意大利面一边聊天。初中的时候久保身边还围着很多朋友，后来他就单独找山下去家里玩儿，像考试这样的事情，他也一定是昨天想单独告诉我，跟我讲他的梦想，有这样的朋友不是够了么？这么想的山下走向了车站等久保考试回来，最起码也要跟他说句“加油”。久保终于出现了。“山下，你的眼睛好红。” “嗯，太冷了，我快冻死了。”山下笑着说。“久保，我今天去找昨天写信给我的人，他介绍给我他们的社团，名字叫'R'，不知道是什么意思那。”久保翻出一本字典，“R...受限制电影。”“啊？？！不是吧。”“就单个字来说，是受限制的意思，还有限定于特定的人（目的）的意思。”说到这里，两个人沉默了。

“我一直找不到时机，我昨天想了很久为什么没能告诉你我去考试的事情，我现在还在想。”久保先开口了。

沉默。。。

“山下，你是不是喜欢我？”

那时，山下终于明白了，他希望那个人就是久保。

“十五岁的冬天，我终于明白了。”

R(Rememberance)

他给了我世界上最温柔的一句话：“再见。”

临近毕业前的最后一个暑假，山下和久保一起去山下爷爷那儿旅游。

把画好的画放在室外，正面向上，
三不五时会来到这里的朋友，
看过了之后，
会把画翻过来，
离去,

于是，
两个人都知道，
那个尚未实现的梦，
仍在继续 -

未补完 -

[转贴]杂烩渡边信一郎

2006-02-22T16:21:00.000-08:00

转贴
杂烩渡边信一郎 :: Scissorhands

杂烩渡边信一郎

他最出名的作品是两部26话的TV版动画《cowboybebop》（《星际牛仔》）和《samurai champloo》（《混沌武士》）。

他可称之为“电影剧场版”的只有《天国之扉》和黑客帝国动画版中的《kid’s story》（《少年故事》）和《detective story》（《侦探故事》）等几个屈指可数的作品。而且《天国之扉》其实只是《cowboy bebop》向商业妥协的烂尾巴，《Kid’s story》和《detective story》也仅仅作为向黑客帝国致敬的动画短片中的一部分，十几分钟的片子。尽管如此，把他归入日本一般意义上的动画导演却是我们的过错。

渡边信一郎有一个尴尬的境地，他的作品从来不会得到那些标签式“日本动漫迷”的追随，他们几乎不接触他的动画。他也不像宫崎骏、大友克洋、押井守一样，在电影界得到推崇。尽管他的每一个故事几乎都可以以一部完整的电影看待，他却固执地用电影的手法来做着26集的动画片。于是他的名字很少出现在这两类资讯宣传的任何一方中，但这并不妨碍他自得其乐。

他说“如果只是在动画爱好者的接受的范围内进行缩小再生产，看的人会感到腻，同时制作者也会渐渐走进死胡同。”所以他要做一些“向外的，比如突然拿给一个居住在摩洛哥的人看，他也会觉得有趣的作品。”可你千万不要误会，他决不是指从更大范围的观众出发做动画。渡边信一郎从来不是广大观众的上帝，相反，从艺术来说，他是一个极端的个人主义者，一个随性的天才。他用作品做着纯粹“渡边”的事情：他让史派克打李小龙的拳法，以此向这位功夫明星致敬；他管自己片中的餐厅叫 “Woody’s Ice Cream Parlor”，在其中出现的人物形象也与伍迪·艾伦有几分神似（《cowboy bebop》第5话“重金属皇后”）；他用皇后和滚石乐队的经典曲目做自己的片名(《cowboy》第6话“sympathy for the devil”和第13话“波希米亚狂想曲”)；他借剧情对葵川爱信和他带给梵高的向日葵灵感进行调侃（《samurai champloo》第5话）。而他没有吕克·贝松一生只拍10部电影的宏愿，十余年来却只有6部作品问世。他归隐于世地做着自己的事情，很难有外界的影响能波及到他，从《cowboy bebop》到《混沌武士》，他毫不在意自己作品主题和风格的转变甚至可能让观众跌下板凳。他极少在媒体前出现，却只是说“动画界已经开始走向均质化”，并在自己的作品中理所当然地涂抹个性主义色彩。

Animation Prototype

2006-02-20T03:12:00.000-08:00

Animation before its time
- the earliest optic toys in the 19th Century

1825 John A. Paris, Thaumatrope
1832 Joeseph Plateau & his sons, Phenakistoscope
1861 Horner, Zoetrope
1872 Emile Reynaud, Praxinoscope
1879 Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxiscope

Death Note to be made into live action movies?!

2006-01-17T22:50:00.000-08:00

From Animenewsnetwork
Death Note Movies (2006-01-17 11:45:45)
Manganews.net reports that Weekly Shonen Jump issue 8 (January 23 issue) will announced two live-action Death Note movies. The first is to be released in June, the second in October.

Hayao and Goro Miyazaki, Tension!

2006-01-13T01:16:00.000-08:00

Latest News from Nausicaa

January 12, 2006 Miyazaki Interview about Museum Shorts and "Tales from Earthsea"
The Daily Yomiuri Online has coverage (in English) of a recent roundtable interview with Miyazaki. He talks about the three newest Studio Ghibli Museum films and has the following comments about his role in the production of Tales of Earthsea:

I won't say anything [about the movie], lend a hand or even look it over. I'm not involved in any way. I'm keeping myself to myself in my studio as whenever we see each other we quickly start to feel tension.

The relationship between a parent and a child isn't easy or simple. And I myself have my own standards to evaluate other people as professionals--whoever they may be.

But I'd never say, "Give up!" even if I didn't like something he was doing. I've never said anything like that to him.

------------------------------
Personal Thoughts

I don't understand why Hayaoi Miyazaki doesn't support his son on the new project or is it because it is his son and he thinks their father-son relationship will bring extra attention and gossips from the public that might tarnish the studio's image? Or another major reason could be Goro Miyazaki has no previous experience in directing, or 'drawing' for that matter that he's deemed an unsuitable heir? The latter concern is reasonable but if that was the case, why wouldn't a father give his child his fullest mental support even though it is Goro's virgin project? Don't let public expectations butt in the way...

Experienced or not, I think Goro's going to give his 100% best just to prove what he's capable of! GO GO!

Sandwichbag & more

2006-01-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

newly discovered animation blog. will find time to read through hopefully...

Taylor Illustration, another treasury hunt!

Toribito Hiromi

2006-01-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

http://toribito.jp/garou/garou.htm

horoscope

2006-01-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

original picture source

Modoru Motoni Fansite Updates「猫さん　脱出」& Music

2006-01-07T00:38:00.000-08:00

「猫さん　脱出」

Modoru Motoni Site Updates
online mini game - let the cat escape!
cat as in Detective Aoneko. you have to move him to the exit.

Music for Detective Aoneko
Wow this's really ingenious. A must-check out. A fan composed 2 pieces of music for Modoru Motoni's work - Detective Bluecat and they're inspired by Chapter 11「鵺狐」(?) & Chapter 7 贋作家族(family of forgery). I love the 1st piece! Ahh only if I could write music...(wishful thinking)

STUDIO 4℃

2006-01-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

Studio 4°C is a Japanese animation studio founded by 森本晃司|Koji Morimoto('Beyond' in Animatrix, Memories), Eiko Tanaka|田中栄子(producer), and Yoshiharu Sato|佐藤好春 in 1986. The name comes from the temperature at which water is densest.

They are known marrying the spirit of independent festival animation with a more mainstream anime aesthetic. In addition much of their output is considered superflat(usually concerned with consumerism and sexual fetism in postmodern Japanese context) with some artwork from Morimoto being featured at Takashi Murakami's exhibitions.

Feature Films

* Memories (1995)
* Spriggan (1998)
* Princess Arete (2001)
* Mind Game (2004)
* Genius Party (2005? - Announced)
* Sachiko (2007 - Announced)

TV Series

* Eternal Family (1997)
* Urarochi Diamond (2000)
* Piroppo (2001)
* Tweeny Witches (2004)
* Kimagure Robot (2004)

Original Video Animation

* Noiseman Sound Insect (1997)
* The Animatrix (2003)
* Hijikata Toshizo: Shiru no Kiseki (2004)

Music Videos

* Ken Ishii - Extra (1996)
* The Bluetones - Four Day Weekend (1998)
* Glay - Survival (1999)
* Ayumi Hamasaki - Connected (2002)

Short Films

* Gondora (1998)
* Aerial Bar (2000)
* Chicken's Insurance (2001)
* In the Evening of a Moonlit Night (2001)
* Table and Fishman (2001)
* Sweat Punch 1 - Professor Dan Petory's Blues (2002)
* Sweat Punch 2 - End of the World (2002)
* Sweat Punch 3 - Comedy (2002)
* Sweat Punch 4 - Higan (2002)

cowboy bebop song

2006-01-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

What's Your Cowboy Bebop Song?

Hosted by theOtaku.com: Anime. Done right.

Happy 65th Birthday - Miyazaki-san!

2006-01-05T20:54:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to you , happy birthday to yooooou!!

Great year ahead. Don't work too much. Sit back and relax! Trust your son. He'll be a great director just like you ^^

Which cowboy bebop character are you

2005-12-30T19:43:00.000-08:00

Which Cowboy Bebop character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

spirited away

2005-12-30T14:11:00.000-08:00

I rewatched spirited away, for the 7th/8th (lost count) time! Somehow I feel myself deeper into the emotional developments of the characters than ever.

Miyazaki was planning to retire from his director job but after meeting a daughter of his friend, supposedly a naive and rather spoilt young girl(the early version of Chihiro), he decided to make a come back and there you have Spirited Away. Warnings to Japan's future hopes (maybe not Japan alone): In this world in order to survive, you have to pay off with your own labour.

It is heart warming and encouraging to see Chihiro grow up from a timid, lazy girl to an assertive, sympathetic and courageous heroine. There're also current problems addressed: pollution(as portrayed by the dirty and stinking guest who turns out to be a river god) and infinite greediness of the grownups as opposed to an innocent child such as Chihiro who wants nothing more to rescue her friend.

Everytime I see the shimmering sea under moonlight, I just can't help feeling an unreachable and undescribable remoteness of longing buried deep within a dream. That's also partially affected by Joe Hisaishi's perfect scores. You hear the undulating high notes mimicking the restlessness of the sea and an underlying steady flow of low keys whispering an unfathomable sureness that's embedded within the vastness and magnitude of the space in front of you. As the train slides gracefully past the lonely sunlit island, I fixed my eyes on the house, the low hanging tangerine clouds, and for the first time ever I was sadly conscious of the idealness and impossibility. It has almost become a sanctury to me, somewhere I seek refuge, somewhere I breathe in the colours, soak in blissful solitude and be able to think of nothing but the precious tranquility. And I know it's there in my dream. That time I saw ice sculpted sunflowers floating in the sky. A feeling that left me utterly stunned and beside myself.

asahi.com：J-pop, anime to buff image - ENGLISH

2005-12-27T18:22:00.000-08:00

original article

Although I'm an anime fan myself, I'm disturbed by this article. Although anime and Jpop is insanely popular in China, just don't confuse it with politics and 'polishing up postwar image'. This's another strategy to divert attention and the most worrying thing is, it's aimed at the young generation. The nature of 'bridging international friendship' is in itself good to start with but through entertainment and popular culture? And I bet their priority isn't to 'polish their tarnished image' or else they could've spent more money on correcting their textbooks. This's another money-grossing business that opens up the market under a flowery title.

Another thing about (some) anime is the hidden propoganda of their particular cultural element - bushido, samurai spirit, whatever you call it. It's not totally negative but they're sometimes portrayed in such extremes you start worrying about the mentality of the characters and the effects they have on the kids. I don't have any evidence to support this but just like any other culture, big Mac, R&B hiphop, this's part of the external influences that subtly or massively cause a cultural desert phenomenon eventually. Their new plan's not the cause but the catalyst. Anime is already popular and the new money just speeds up the process.

Bottom line is, they do whatever they want with anime. Just don't relate the whole money-grossing business with political issues.

And what about home grown animation business... probably another 50 years but there's still hope.

Howl nominated for 3 Annie Awards

2005-12-22T21:40:00.000-08:00

Howl's Moving Castle has been nominated in three award categories for the annual "Annie Awards" given out by ASIFA-Hollywood this coming February 4th. The three nominations are 1) Best Animated Feature (other nominees: Chicken Little, Corpse Bride, Madagascar, and Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit); 2) Best Directing in an Animated Feature: Miyazaki (other nominees: Mike Johnson and Tim Burton for Corpse Bride and Nick Park and Steve Box for Wallace and Gromit); and 3) Best Writing in an Animated Feature Production: Miyazaki, Don and Cindy Hewitt (other nominees: Steve Box, Nick Park, Bob Baker, and Mark Burton for Wallace and Gromit, Tony Leondis, Michael LaBash, and Tom Rogers for Kronk’s New Groove). A full list of the categories and nominees can be found here. In 2003 Spirited Away won all four Annie Awards it was nominated for: Best Feature, Best Director, Best Writing, and Best Music in an Animated Feature (Joe Hisaishi).

source from animenewsnetwork

last client by takashima kazusa (again)

2005-11-25T18:20:00.000-08:00

2005. 11.25

Great story, wonderful wonderuful wonderful art. But c'mon where's takashima kazusa??! I searched through the internet and was confirmed she stopped right before the grandly advertised ending. Says there on the magazine 'Don't miss the next issue! Last chapter of the last client. 70 pages with 3 full coloured spread outs.' And great, that became an unfulfilled prophecy. Damn it...

Whatever happens to Takashima. She carried on with a short series called 'Dragon Boy' afterwards and worked a little bit more into 'Harlem Beat' but no news ever came of the Last Client. I don't understand how she could desert the project half way, not to mention it's a project she obviously put so much heart into if only you take a look at the story boards, the character designs and such. They're meticulously beautiful and neat. It's as if you're watching a movie complete with the hooks, the foreshadowing and the atmosphere... Unforgivable... If I were a manga artist, I'd never desert something I worked so hard for half way lying in the desert to dry up and wiped away by the wind... Very unprofessional and disappointing to the fans.

Oh Takashima... she's got the most spontaneous and intelligent lines I've ever seen. Magical talent, sorceress' hands! She's born to draw. Just where the hell are you??!I'm sad...

anyway, some more pics from the last client.

1 2 3

Naoyuki Onda

2005-11-04T22:03:00.000-08:00

Onda! My new idol! All his animation character design rocks!! His styles simply depart from traditional japanese manga/anime where you see sharp turning lines and rather pointed chins. He's greatly influenced by western drawing style(rather obvious), where the characters look more fleshy and the concept of 3D more punctuated.

Get to know him after watching Ai no kusabi, one of his most well known works. Although a BL anime back in 1992, the production is of rare quality and the character design looks bizarrely out of the general context of the 90s. Too good to be true is what I felt.

Incomplete Filmography
(as charater designers, not in chronological order)
->Detective Story in Animatrix

->Ai no Kusabi(Wedge of Interval)

->Gantz TV

->Sol Bianca

->Parasite Dolls

Links
Info @Animenewsnetwork

Here's an English site which has a short paragraph of introduction on Onda san ->Profile & Filmography @ AIC anime

Sumomo Yumeka | 夢花李

2005-10-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

This review(in Chinese) is on one of my favourite mangaka Sumomo Yumeka. Switch your browser encoding to Unicode if you can't read the text below.

少女/bl漫画家，同人，小说插画家
笔名：夢花李(Yumeka Sumomo，画BL用) ，‘SASSHI'（同人用），佐原水（少年漫用）
生日：12.25 （山羊）
血型: A

相关链接：
梦花李非公式站
Sasshi Homepage 梦花李 Fanlisting （英文）
Mochi-Mochi （英文网站，有很多梦花李的漫画下载，也许要代理）

注：
关于Mochi-Mochi，请读者不要转载，或在论坛/自己的网站/BT 上跟别人共享。如果只是提供网址的话，也请注明是出自Mochi-Mochi。

梦花李最吸引人的地方就是清新的插画风格和诗一般的故事情节吧。作品如其名，看她的画如置身于唯美的梦境，每一句对白，每一个镜头都被染上青涩的甜蜜，似乎闭上眼睛就能闻到薰衣草的芳香。她的作品不太多，出过几篇同人（高达, 火影），还有几个短篇集。比较有名的就是《同细胞生物》

作品介绍

同细胞生物

《同细胞生物》是老师第一次用‘梦花李‘这个名字出的第一本短篇集，全书由4个故事和两个短篇组成。

中川和横田是同班同学。有一天课间休息，他们俩在窗口看天边的云发呆。横田盯着一朵云喃喃自语‘那个好像baikin'（一个卡通形象的名字），中川猛的转过头看着横田。世界上有多少事是巧合呢？还是说他们是同细胞生物？- 因为在看着同一朵云遐想联翩的那一刻，中川心里嘀咕着‘啊。。。那个好像baikin'。

即使是同细胞生物也有略微的区别，横田不管做什么都会结尽努力，而中川经常抱着懒散的态度，但又样样在行。 “其实我好羡慕你“ 横田认真的对中川说。 “我才羡慕你啊，无论什么事都那么投入。“ 听到这样的称赞，横田小孩子般的开怀大笑。‘傻瓜，你干麻那么开心啊？‘看着他无邪的笑脸，中川莫名其妙的脸红了。

那一天横田邀中川去他家里看鬼片，胆小的横田因为‘鬼片后遗症‘ 硬是留中川过夜。看着横田可爱的睡脸，中川恶作剧似的狠捏了他鼻子一下（可惜横田睡得像死猪。。。）安静的几秒钟就这样过去了，中川终于还是忍不住吻了熟睡中的横田。

第二天，横田找到了在楼顶午睡的中川。。。

惊醒后的中川：你—你。。你干什么？
横田：昨晚的回礼

藏在心中的这份不定终于有了结果。

[那，如果有一个超级完美的女生向你表白，你怎么办？] 横田摊开自己画的‘完美小姐‘，旁边还写着假设的台词"中川，我爱你！！”
中川拿起铅笔，把自己的名字划去，改成‘横田‘。[如果她向你表白，你怎么办？]中川反问道。
‘我当然会拒绝，因为中川是我最重要的存在啊。‘ 横田把‘完美小姐‘肖像揉成了一团废纸。
‘我也会拒绝，因为横田是我最重要的人。‘ 中川脱口而出。
横田抬起头，一脸惊讶的看着第一次如此坦白的中川。突然意识到自己说的话有多不好意思的中川猛地站起身向教室门外狂奔，不过还没逃离现场就被横田拽住了。
‘中川你好可爱哦！‘
‘完了，完全暴露了。。。‘满脸通红的中川只是低头不语。

还有很多可爱的细节，推荐大家自己去看吧。总之是部非常清新的作品，画面也很漂亮。

这个作品还出过drama

------------------------------

变成蝴蝶的那一日

-〉大概翻译成《变成蝴蝶的那一日》
英文版介绍+下载@mochi-mochi -> 这里

有个孤僻的男生叫mikami, 也有很多人叫他'mimi‘（耳朵），据说他能听到常人听不到的声音。去年全班打赌一个患病的老师什么时候会死，只有mikami答对了，从此别人都对他存有戒心。患有先天心脏病的同班同学uka也觉得mikami是个怪人，而且每次mikami看到她都一脸没好气的样子，自己被讨厌了也说不定。如果传闻是真的，那mikami是不是也能听到自己的死期将临？
可是那天下雨的午后，mikami出现在uka家门口，‘你们是不是在找一个失踪的孩子？去附近的桥洞口找找吧，也许还有希望。‘ mikami说对了，如果不是他的帮助，那个孩子也许就没命了。
[你果然听的到。。。]
[原来你也相信无聊的传闻？]
[既然你都这么说了，那我相信你。] uka下定了决心。
沉默半晌后，mikami转身要走。
[慢点。。。什么时候方便来我家吃饭吧。。那个，我想感谢你。。。而且。。。你不讨厌我吧，不然也不会有人在倾盆大雨的天气专程跑到讨厌的人家里去。。。] 说完这些话后，uka很不好意思的跑开了，留下瞪大眼睛站在原地发呆的mikami。

一段毫无理由的恋爱就这样开始了。 ‘为什么选我？为什么不是别人？你到底喜欢我哪里呢？” uka不止一次的质问mikami，可他只是回答‘不需要什么理由，不要不停的问，我不喜欢这样。”
[为什么喜欢上一个快要死去的人？ mikami，你知道的，对不对？那么到底为什么？]这些话uka始终没有勇气讲出来。

赌气，不理睬，闹别扭，无理取闹的uka问，[mikami。。。喜欢我吗。。。你还喜欢我吗？]
[嗯。。。]

那么，被爱着的理由不问也不要紧吧。。。

[嘿，mikami，你身上有个蝴蝶的纹身哦，别人是不是把来世盼望的东西刻在身上？我也好像要一个。。。]
[你也想要吗？一定要想好，因为这是会追随你一辈子的东西。]
和我身上的蝴蝶一模一样的东西。。。

手术那一天，uka苦笑着挥了挥手说"再见，mikami" 。如果手术失败，这将是最后的一别。mikami望着渐渐离去的女友，忍不住流下了眼泪。“你是唯一一个说你会相信我的人。。。我不止一次想过要放弃，喜欢上一个快要离去的人有什么好？可是我始终做不到，我不够坚强。。。”
“每个被你帮助过的人都能更坚强的活下去。我终于知道你为什么能听见别人听不见的声音了，因为mikami是个温柔的人。” uka回过身，轻轻搂着mikami。
‘那么，答应我，回到我身边‘。

阳光明媚的某一天。。。
[看，mikami，蝴蝶！]

- 决定和你一起走下去的那一天，就是我变成蝴蝶的一日 -

------------------------------

就这样开始的恋情。。。

英文版介绍+下载@mochi-mochi -> 这里

另一个版本翻译成《爱如此奇妙》，改编自月村老师的小说(也帮这部小说画了插画)

这部漫画还没有结束（不知道会不会继续画下去）。内容很好的一部作品！

高中生未树从小就被亲戚领养，幼小的他也许是为了得到周围人的认可，凡事都体谅别人的感受，是个很懂礼貌，温柔早熟的孩子。有一天，他的女朋友找他说分手的事情，似乎有点难以启齿。“我看还是分手吧，因为现在学习也很忙了，我又是属于那种不能一心两用的人，最近成绩也在下滑。。。”未树察觉到女友的窘境，找了个理由先开口了。他们就这样分手了，没有任何难堪。后来被朋友问起分手的事情时，未树说“她是个自尊心很强的女孩子，要她先开口很难。所以我只好找个台阶给她下。” 心里虽然很难过，但无时无刻都先替别人着想，未树就是这样的人。

分手的那天下午，心情烦闷的未树偷溜去顶楼喝酒抽烟，结果被一个年轻的上班族撞到了。[惨了，他不会发现我在抽烟吧？] 结果那上班族不但没说什么，还帮未树捡起空的啤酒罐。“你冷吗？只穿这么点。啊，年轻真好啊！”上班族笑了笑，说了些无关紧要的话。这是他们第一次见面。

有一天未树照常在顶楼抽烟发泄，突然听到楼梯上有人在争吵。 “你一定还爱着Ryousuke！” [Ryousuke?不是男人的名字吗？被指责的人似乎也是男的，这是怎么回事。。。] 正当未树还在呆想时，楼下的争吵已经结束了，被指责的男人已站在自己面前。原来是他，以前见到的上班族。那人只是尴尬的笑了笑，“你听到了吧。。。也许你已经知道我是同性恋了。。。如果不介意的话，能到我办公的地方聊聊吗？” 心想一定是堵口费的事，未树不情愿的答应了。

浅浅淡淡的交情就这样开始了，上班族名叫浅海，未树自从第一次去他的办公室后，俩人就成了午后茶友。浅海每次都会准备些饼干之类的小吃，随时欢迎未树的到来。有一次未树去的时候，浅海的朋友正和他谈生意。未树在一旁静静的听着，偶尔也会插几句话融合一下气氛。客人走了以后，浅海突然问“未树，你是不是一个内向害羞的人呢？” 未树愣了一下，以前从来没有人这么说起过。 “其实有两种内向，前者因为不好意思而不说话，后者则是不习惯无话题时的沉默而特意说话。未树是后者吧。刚才很感谢你，我和朋友处得尴尬时你都留心找话题来聊。” 为什么会有人一眼就读懂自己呢？未树觉得有些不可思议。

有一天未树照常去浅海那儿。 “今天都有些什么有趣的事啊？”浅海笑着问道。 “课上到一半时有只猫闯进了教室，但什么都没做，只是静静呆在那儿和我们一起听课。。。”未树想了半天才想到这么件事，说着说着就沉默不语了。 “我还是学生的时候每天都有好多激动人心的事情发生哦！学生嘛，每天都是一个惊喜吧。” 浅海似乎察觉到了什么。未树仍是低头不语。 “不只这一件事吧，另外还发生了什么吗？” 未树踌躇了一下，最终还是吐露了实情。

他在放学时不小心听到已经分手的女友和她的朋友在聊天。 “你们为什么要分手啊？他不是挺帅的嘛，人又好又温柔。“ “什么呀，他不管做什么都依着我，一点意见都没有，无聊死了。与其说是老好人，更像是个透明人，根本感觉不到他的存在。”女友冷冰冰的指责道。这句话在从小就被领养的未树听来是如此刺耳。

“她说我是个透明人。。。”
“每个人的生活方式都不一样。总是先为别人考虑，这就是未树的生活步伐，就算是很慢很累的步伐，但这就是未树。所以充满信心的走下去吧！未树的细心体贴我可是很感激哦。”
以往别人只会说 “既然这么累就改一下吧”，可眼前的人却笑着说这样的自己没什么不好。未树头一次感觉到这久违的暖意。

- 漫画到这里就结束了，后来的情节只有看小说了。

------------------------------

最后介绍一个短篇，大概翻译叫《机械心》(Kokoro Kikai)，有[雪]和[雨]两部分。
这个是mochi mochi最近才上传的

《前篇》- 雪
每天都重复着同样的事。我无聊到死。我的世界好小：上学，和朋友交谈，放学，每周打工两次。除此之外无所事事，日子就这样在眼前流失。
我好空虚。
。。。。。。
我活着么？
- shinobu

shinobu在一家卡拉ok打工，有一天他被另一个打工的男孩(nishino)使唤去收拾客人留下的残局。[为什么你不自己去收拾？！] 一肚子不爽的shinobu突然眼睛一亮，看到桌上放着一本服务反馈簿。把对那家伙的不满写进去好了！shinobu随手翻了翻，里面全都是些颓废的留言，要不就是搞笑的涂鸦，shinobu忍不住笑了出来。可是，当他看到那只写着一行字的纸时，他愣住了。

- 我活着么？

放工了，shinobu换下工作服和朋友一起回家，突然下起了雪。不远处，有个背影驻足在飘雪的街道，是他，nishino, 那个随便使唤自己的人。

shinobu睁大了眼，一种莫名其妙的妒嫉感油然而生。

第二天回去打工，shinobu翻开服务反馈簿，里面的那张纸条不知被谁扯走了。

某一天，shinobu走过nishino的更衣柜，突然看见柜门内贴着那张熟悉的纸条。

- 我活着么？
- 最起码你比我活得更充实。

后一句是shinobu留的言。。。原来。。。

[你你你。。。原来你是？？？]shinobu指着那张纸条，语无伦次状
[我是什么？？] nishino望着手忙脚乱的shinobu一脸不解的样子
[没什么。。。] shinobu赶紧离开了
奇怪的家伙。。。nishino一边想着，一边低头扣纽扣。当他再一次抬头看到那张纸条时，他才恍然大悟。

放工后，nishino主动邀请shinobu出去吃饭。

[下雪的那天，你是在学某个电影里的动作吧？]
[嗯，没错。以前在电影里看到过那个镜头。我也不知道为什么要那么做。。。只是觉得自己会有些不同。。。]nishino若有所思的解释道，[可惜毛线衣都差点被扯坏了哦。]
不知为什么，shinobu觉得整个人一下子放松了起来。

吃完饭后，天上又开始飘雪。两人都把衣服拉了出来兜雪花。
shinobu: 你知道吗，我一开始根本受不了你
nishino: 。。。。。。
shinobu: 不过我现在好像很喜欢你

nishino不好意思的笑了。

雪花静静的飘着。

感觉上，我还是活着的。。。

《后篇》- 雨

有空再补。。。

啊~~~~~~~ （狂叫），那么好的一个短篇被我介绍成这样！！

--------------------

还有一些作品没力气介绍了。。。（累|||）
先把图和网址贴出来

超级短篇
英文版介绍+下载@mochi-mochi -> 这里

我的夏拉拉
英文版介绍+下载@Dark Kitsune -> 这里
一个小魔女为了增强自己的法术，便化身成一个高中男生。她的目的是要得到她遇见的第一个男孩子的眼泪，那就是传说中能增强魔力的法宝。。。目的达成了，可是。。。

--------------------

非BL作品

Gundam的同人 - Oh! My Lover!
英文版介绍+下载@mochi-mochi -> 这里

补全几部少女漫画

星之声
以佐原水这个笔名出的少年漫画，原著新海成

几个月前出的Asuka Comics系列少女漫画
英文版介绍+下载@storm in heaven （不全）->昔久街的羅吉奧尼

一丁目桔梗屋女孩、忘不了的旋律、羅吉安涅的思念、淋風の人

------------------------

梦花李的小说插画

秘密は白薔薇の下に
恋愛は貴族のたしなみ
遠野春日 (著)

誰よりも君を―ブランドロマンス
秋津京子 (著)

名前のない関係
椎崎夕 (著)

となりの王子様
桜木知沙子 (著)

ラブ・マイナス・ゼロ
榊花月 (著)

君と緋色の恋を抱き
高月まつり (著)

そして恋がはじまる
いつか青空の下で-そして恋がはじまる〈2〉
月村奎 (著)

僕だけの騎士
愁堂れな (著)

蒼天の月
可南さらさ (著)

ゆめのつるぎ少年源頼朝の巻
若木未生 (著)

僕は瞳の中にいる
あさぎり夕 (著)

この愛さえもあなたのために
この接吻さえもあなたのために
高崎ともや (著)

Jigoku Shoujo

2005-10-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

Jigoku Shoujo Official Website
Animenewnetwork Info

First episode of 'Hell Girl' - The Other Side of Twilight aired on Oct 4th.

Typical Japanese horror elements come into play. Vanishing faces, floating lanterns and objects suddenly turning into skulls. We got a peek into the general template of story developement. Someone victimised calls out for help. They go to a strange website at 12 o'clock midnight and with unsureness mixed with fear, type in the name of the most hated person. Just when they're about to click 'send', they hesitate and their finger hovers above the mouse. Click or not click? Eventually they do when the limit of their tolerence is breached. And in the next second, a message flashes up on their cell phone : Request received - Hell Girl.

After a deal is agreed upon - revenge granted at the price of your own soul, hell girl dresses up in beautiful kimono in a ceremonial fashion and rides the flying wagon driven by flaming heads. Off she goes for her mission.

The storyline might seem mundane and the horror elements we've seen thousands times before don't make it a major attraction. Still, the etheral feeling of the setting twilight, or the boat that slowly drifts in an aqua bed of dimming lanterns and in front, the gate of hell looms large and undefiable. Jigoku shoujo, the girl with bloody red eyes and a soothing voice devoid of all emotions, speaks of despair matter of factly. She looks empty, lonely but not wanting, distant yet as palpable as the breeze on your skin.

We shall see the pasts of the hell angels unveiled, and more victimised lives filling the empty chess board.

Modoru Motoni Q & A (translated)

2005-09-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

[banner from Modoru Motoni Fansite - Rue Royale]

There're 82 questions in all.

Original questions & answers are posted on Modoru Motoni Fansite - Rue Royale, and can be found on this page.

If you're unfamiliar with Modoru Motoni but nonetheless interested, visit my fan page here. Enjoy!

Disclaimer:
The translations below have no guarantee of accuracy although I try my best to make the meanings come closest as I can.(I know nothing about Japanese so the only source of help is online translation software. You know how it works.)

Please don't distribute it in public forums/bbs without acknowledging the original source and always be reminded it is NOT accurate.

Now let's sit down and have some tea with Motoni-sensei.

1. Do the settings from the book really exist?
Some of them do.

2. What about costume designs. Are they original?
Some are designed by myself. Some are referenced from magazines.

3. Do you collect and keep reference materials for drawing?
I don't think so.

4. What is the most important thing you pay attention to when you draw a character's face?
I'm careful with facial expressions so that they don't fade in the sketches.

5. Do you draw from your own experience with love when drawing those BL works?
Not really. I just try to place myself in the characters' shoes and think hard about how they feel under those particular situations.

6. Any work which has an extential influence on you?
Coins Locker Baby by Muracamiruu (コインロッカー・ベイビーズ , 村上龍)

7. Is it possible to increase publication by ten fold in the weekly magazine?
That's impossible. My work load would've gone up by 10x!

8. Are you planning on drawing any sequel (Rogue, Mizuhara etc.) or is there a specific sequel you wish to work on?
These are not in my schedule. There'll be a sequal to 'Shiikugakari Rika'.

9. Do you have a secret love?
Such things aren't supposed to be spilled in front others.

10. How are the names of characters and the book title decided?
The characters' personalities, their outlooks on the world and their conversations are weighed and consdiered and simple nuances

are chosen.

11. Who's your favourite character?
For me currently, it's Teru & Miki.

12. Is there ever a character whom you dislike (hard to portray)?
It becomes hard to draw when the character who enjoys a high popularity is in fact opposite to my nature.

13. Is there a character whose popularity has gone out drastically and unexpectedly?
No.

14. Are there characters whom you spent time detailing but don't enjoy as much popularity as you thought?
Maki and Endo.(マキ、遠藤)

15. Best 3 kiss scenes?
'Dog Style', end of 2nd episode & start of the 3rd episode. Also the 14th episode of 'Detective Bluecat' with Count Saotome.

16. Who's the ideal lover, marriage partner, relative, brother or any other suitable role in your opinion?

Lover: Count Satome (早乙女, from Bluecat)
Marriage Partner: Glass Bat (蝙蝠, from Bluecat)
Relative: Prince Bee (蜂王子, from Bluecat)
Brother: 鬼島 (from Dog Style)
Others: メガネっ娘　(?)
Dog: Teru (from Dogstyle)
キジ：鶯　(?)
Ape: Iida (from Poison Cherry Drive)
Ghost: Rika(from Shiikugakari Rika), Mamezou (from Poison Cherry Drive) & ??
おかま：アンジ (?)

17. What clothes do you prefer to wear at work?
T-shirts that are worn out at the sleeves & cuff.

18. What would you be doing if you haven't become a manga artist?
Anything else besides a manga artist? It's impossible to picture now. I persevered and become a manga artist.

19. One remark when you look in the mirror?
Seems there's no hair where it's not dyed.

20. Ideal type of male and female for you?
Ideal type of male: Glass Bat(蝙蝠), Count Satome(早乙女) or Mizuhara.
Ideal type of female: Reiko (from 'Koiga')

21. What are the factors that make you take a liking to someone?
a share of common topics during conversations and similar sense of humour

22. What's your favourite phrase or the words spoken when you're happy?
「萌えました」 (budding? probably means something's about to happen)

23. What are the conversation topics you'd pick when presented to an VIP?
Some practical ones or those related to the person's hobbies.

to be c'td

snake heart

2005-09-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Snake Heart

The site-master (a free-lancer?) is really a pro. Amazing.

Do check out his page on CG rendering by Painter 5.5 here

Hope this isn't considered 'misuse of fanart'. I'm just here to praise his work.

paradise kiss TV

2005-09-25T22:38:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable! They're making Ai Yazawa's manga 'Paradise Kiss' into TV series!! Not sure whether I'm happy or not, just feeling plain weird. Ai Yazawa,for those unfamiliar with her work, she created the famous series 'NANA'. 'Paradise Kiss' was an early work which ran in 4 books and it was about a high school student Yukari who got herself invovled in the fashion business and also a relationship with an ambitious and talented designer named George. I even joined the fanlisting for PK... Why did I do that?? Never mind.

It's all about Fashion, twisted personality and the importance of 'muse' to a growing artist. Suddenly an image popped up: one of my friends would give a thumb-up when she hears the word 'twisted' ^^b Yes, the main character George sure is a twisted guy inside out. Nothing matters under the grand title 'fashion designer'.Give it a few twisted nerves and you're all head over heels for it.I just wish they wouldn't make it into a candy sweet shoujo anime which's rather sickening honesty... And I wonder if the person responsible for clothes design lives up to this job.

Madhouse takes over the production. They did a good job for 'Paranoia Agent' etc. (but that's Satoshi kon up there, duh). Director is this Kobayashi guy whom I'm totally unfamiliar with.

Links:
PK TV Official Web
Animenewsnetwork Info

Benjamin

2005-09-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

Benjamin - well, I know little about him. The first time I saw his work was at a CG exhibit the year before. The colours look juicy fresh and there's a thick commercial touch to all of the works. Characters are usually blended into background with a blurry transition at the edges. The techniques might not appear strikingly original or expertly but nevertheless they stand out among the exhibits.

ordinary happiness

2005-09-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

A feel-good pic, although relationship is questionable but that's not the focus. Colouring is really pro. The original website where the pic comes from has already expired. Munen des.

detective aoneko

2005-09-22T17:41:00.000-07:00

What sparked Modoru Motoni to work on 'Detective Aoneko'? Rich and romantic aristocrat with uncontrollable libido? Doing detectives when he's in the mood, and for the rest of the time getting excitied about underpants or having fanciful dreams we won't go into. One day Motoni sensei looked out the window and saw the concrete buildings. City life, grey iron and steel. It might be a midsummer night's dream she managed to hypnotize herself into. Anyhow she imagined the cold concrete turning into a sea of grassy green. With spirally creepers that feel their way into another space far back in time, when there was something called leisure, when gentlemen took off their hats as they bow and politely kissed the lady's lace-gloved hand.

angel heart

2005-06-01T00:40:00.000-07:00

Angel Heart
They're going to make Hojo Tsukasa's Angel Heart into a TV series. And it's the same seiyu (Ryo) from City Hunter. I didn't watch City Hunter anime but the manga itself is a masterpiece. I wonder how it'll turn out this time and not sure which studio is doing it. Wonder why they wouldn't make Family Compo into anime. It's much more interesting than Angel Heart in my personal opinion. Maybe the popularity carried forward from City Hunter auges well for Angel Heart while Family Compo on the other hand is much less well-known and its transvestite & ambiguous sexuality contents may easily offend the audience. Whatever, GO!! HOJO!

Here's the news link to the official Hojo Tsukasa webpage

But I seriously think Tsukasa Sensei is getting older. The age ridden sentimentality typical of someone going through mid-age crisis(he isn't married?)is clearly manifested in Angel Heart. Action no longer takes central stage. Various roles lamenting about the pasts and their desires to build families, have kids and settle down are just so atypical in his previous works. It's a 'mature' manga no doubt, a manga that started off with a female assasin, who was later tamed and turned into a docile daughter. Well, Tsukasa-sensei, you should start a family soon. It's not late at all.

A Review on 'Angel Heart' @EX

Hojo Tsukasa Official Website

I visited the BBS on the official website and amazingly(or maybe not so amazingly) there're posts in English and Francais. Thanks to my 3-week French crash course. I can actually understand what they wrote! ^^ Je adore Hojo Tsukasa.

howl's moving castle news

2005-05-30T01:12:00.000-07:00

News Updates
A press release from Disney confirms that director Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki will attend the June 6 screening in New York. Other expected to attend include Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, Jean Simmons, Emily Mortimer, and Gloria Steinem.
source: Nausicaa

haha, guess Miyazaki will take the usual Japanese airline to the States this time. Wondering about the reasons behind his insistence with Japanese airlines.

The official Disney Website for Howl's Moving Castle is up & running. The English voice cast seem to be doing a pretty good job. I like Howl's English voice better than Kitamura's. It's deepr & more mature. In the trailer, they pronounced ghibli as jee-bli while it should be gib-li, a secret code used by the Italian airforce in WWII, meaning 'hot wind over the desert'. And there seems to be a change in original script. When Sophie shouts to Howl from the trapped cave, she says 'Find me in the future!'. But I remember the original script doesn't mention anything about the future O_o maybe I'm wrong.

Now I think about it, there IS one scene in howl's moving castle I find particularly moving. It's the picture of Sophie walking into a 'dream' of howl's chilhood. The young wizard is standing beneath a briliant star-lit night sky. The background music is by Joe Hisaishi, a track titled 'star boy'. The fallen stars slash through the velvet sky, glide on the shimmering lake and quickly die off as the last golden sparks sither & disappear. The boy who pities the beautiful stars, stretch out his hands to catch them before they plunge to their death. I feel the tiny little hope slowly gathering heat & starting to burn, on something as fragile as a boy's fingertip, stretched out far into darkness & slowly, light.

loveless

2005-05-27T23:13:00.000-07:00

LOVELESS

Links
Loveless Official Website (Japanese only)

Yun Kouga's(the mangaka) Homepage (in Japanese)

A Loveless Website Search Guide (Japanese only)

General Info @Animenewsnetwork

Fate - A Loveless Fan Site (in both English & Japanese) - includes gallery, wallpaper & a whole lot of links

Loveless Fanlisting

Soubi Fanlisting

Start to watch 'Loveless'. In fact I watched episode #4 long time ago but it was so not my style I deleted it then. Just when did the old spark come back?? Well, the characters are pretty cute with cat ears & tails. All furry & puppy. Besides that, I have to say the story is a bit on the dark side. The relationships remind me very much of Tetsu & Hiro in 'Rika the breeder'. It wasn't sexually explicit in any sense but the old elements just seem to make a comeback. S&M, that fuzzy brotherly love left unexplained, and the unknown side of Seimei. And yes, Soubi. I can roughly equate soubi with rika, seimei with tetsu & rika with hiro.

Soubi
The character design for soubi, again, reminds me of jin in samurai champloo. Tall & lanky, sharp-chinned , with long hair and most importantly glasses! Which make a guy look 10x more deadly composed & mature. Soubi is a definitely a masochist who doesn't shy saying 'I love you' 1000 times as long as Ritsuka bothers to hear it. To be governed & fated to his master is his only & one wish. To be possessed, I think, is a proof of the value for existence for some people. In the last episode I watched)#8 trustless), Soubi disobeys Ritsuka again and during the fight, he is suddenly hit by a strong feeling of emptiness, or the feeling that his existence is no long meaningful without Ritsuka's commands. He fights alone, for no one. I was for that moment feeling sad for him. But at the same time, he appears stubborn & childish. He wants Ritsuka's love so much that he acts against his own desires. Why doesn't he just call Ritsuka. One more thing, Soubi's realtionship with the principle of that warcraft training school is another question mark. My guess is, they're another SxM pair.

Ritsuka & Seimei
Kawaii ne! A very popular kid it seems. Everybody around him, except his mother who's a bit psychotic to say the least, adores him. Soubi, his sensi, seimei & schoolmates. He's scarily moody at times. & I'm not sure how much weight this kid gives to seimei & to soubi. Sighs, again, it's just like Hiro, stuck between Rika & Tetsu. Although so far the Seimei is only introduced in flashbacks and in manga vol5, some descriptions were given from Ritsuka's standpoint and it's obvious their brotherly relationship is suspiciously questionable. And the seimei Ritsuka knows is different from what's remembered by the rest of the organisation. So what exactly is Seimei like? A mysterious character.

Well, I wonder who Ritsuka's true master is and if it's to be revealed (sure it will, what a cliff hanger & dead knot in the plot) in later publications, will it damage the relationship b/w Soubi & Ritsuka? And seems Seimei is one of the '7 moon' & he's killed by his own kind for an unforgivable crime he committed. What is this crime exactly?? The more I look at the whole thing, the more it reminds me of Rika the breeder in which Tetsu the older brother's raped by his own kind and later committed suicide. But it's also possible that Seimei isn't dead yet coz the body's burnt beyond recognition. chances he's still alive ~10%

This's not the usual type of anime I adore. But I had fun watching it. maybe coz of the amount of 'angst' in it? The art is above average.

So far 11 episodes aired in Japan. Wondering why there're only 8 out on BT. Problems with getting the raws?
oops, just chedk animenewsnetwork, episode 8 was aired on 25th May, so the translation teams on hot on heels. 3 more episodes scheduled for airing in June. Guess there'll be a break after episode 11?

champloo on adult swim

2005-05-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

First screening of properly voice-dubbed samuri champloo will be on Adult Swim on May 14th. And I followed the link to Behind the Scenes of the english voice acting job. And... you know, it's just too hard for someone from another cultural background to get the essence of it all. The voice actor for Jin went over the line 'I don't wanna kill you' several times but even the finalised version sounds funny to me. The original voice for Jin is icy cool and dead composed. A expressionless voice that reminds you of a frozen sea. Of course sea won't freeze but the immensity of space hidden behind the unquivering quality of that voice is totally unique to Jin. And it's deadly if you ever raise the pitch half note too high!!
'I don't wanna kill you. You're not worth killing. You're just gonna dirty my sword.'
'I(flat) don't(down) wanna kill you(up). You(flat)'re(down) not worth killing(up)...'
Geeze, how can he say that line so lyrically. It spoils the character. Thankfully they did something with the pace so the final version was slowed down a great deal and sounded more serious, more like Jin, not some fool-around pinhead who brandishes his sword for fun.

And look at this deadly hilarious cosplay of samurai champloo!!! What happened to that boisterous Fuu? They made a yin yang guy out of her!

I'm quite certain they didnt mean to be truthful to original characters in the first place, purely for fun.

Origiinal character design for comparison:

And another much more professional cosplay group

modoru motoni 本仁戾

2005-05-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

Switch your browser to Unicode if you can't read the text below.
如果显示出来的全是乱码，把浏览器encoding改成unicode。

This's a detailed review and introduction to one of my favourite manga artistis - Modoru Motoni. She's a yaoi(involving male male relationship) mangaka so if you're not comfortable with that, don't read it.

Everything's written in Chinese. For English versions, you're welcome to visit my fanpage here.

modoru motoni 本仁戾

本仁戾的自画像，她的Q版人物都长着鸡嘴，头像个大气球。背景里有只羊，因为本仁是白羊座的。

【性别】女（虽然起了个很男性化的笔名）
【生日】4月7日 (大概30出头）
【籍贯】埼玉县
【血型】Ｏ型
【星座】牡羊座

【相关链接】

Mqronicle
有详细的作品列表[日文]

Fanlisting
嗯，为什么成员表里只有一个人呢。。。明明有很多支持者的

Sanguine
一个大势已去的英文饭网，不过‘怪物王子’一栏还有看头的

My Modoru Motoni Gallery @Msn Space
个人收集的本仁戾图片

【本仁本人】
本仁戾属耽美系(yaoi/BL)漫画家，也给多部小说提供插画。她曾经梦想做一个小说家，可投稿屡次失败，倒是插画被选中。自怜没有写作天分的她便开始作画。1992年在Bexboy杂志发表处女作后开始漫画生涯。
她笔下的人物大多性格扭曲，故事情节也相对变态，可是把绝望，爱恋夸张到了极限的她却又实实在在的描绘着人赤裸裸的欲望。本仁戾独特的黑色幽默和她‘天方夜谭’的故事情节也可谓是天造一对，辛辣的对白，不合逻辑的事实，‘这就是本仁’，即使不看画也知道是她。本仁戾擅长用黑白对比，高光和阴影的应用已极为纯熟。她塑造的男主角属超级美形，但不奶油=_=。如果再分析的详细点，她的线条很有骨感，高挑的鼻梁，清澈的眼眸是她笔下男主角的共同特点。也许画男的太多，画女的倒是次了一等（早期作品中而已）。嗯，我觉得她的分镜也很有学问，是个很会渲染气氛的漫画家。

【点滴】
这是看了《恋爱允许的范围》后断下的结论：
由于作者是白羊座的关系，男主角也免不了和她同出一炉(《恋爱允许的范围》中的yamazaki是典型的白羊座‘征服’男）。可是，我支持你！！（hoho, 本人也是白羊）美丽的白羊座们~~

本仁应该是个大书虫，和《饲育系·理伙》里的理伙一样。把自己爱看的书画进去应该瞒得意地~

【主要作品】（标题对照）
注：详细资料参见 Mqronicle & Maquinicalis

1995 [短篇集] Super BBC

中：蜂巢的秘密?
英：hatchi no su no himitsu
日：蜂の巣の秘密

收录：
蜂の巣の秘密
桂
僕の先生は、フィーバー act.1
SOUND MASTURBATION
プラスチック・プラズマ
マルキ・ド・アナキズム1

简介：
只看过其中的一个短篇Sound Masturbation. 中世纪时期主人和骑士间的变态故事。嗯。。。变态阿

1996~1997~1998Super BBC

中：恋爱允许的范围（3卷）
英：Koi ga Bokura wo Yurusu Hani
日：恋が僕等を許す範囲

简介：
大学时期的好友，一个插画家和一个普通的上班族在各自女朋友的认可后，发展起‘恋’的关系，（光看这个就知道本仁戾的故事情节有多天马行空了。。。）只要在‘恋’和‘爱’间划清界限，大家都能和平共处，可事实却异常痛苦。
这部作品强调的是‘爱’与‘恋’的区别，可是‘爱恋爱恋’界限终究是那么模糊，最终跨越了单纯的‘恋’的两个人已是伤痕累累。本仁戾对人物形象的塑造在这部作品里是最杰出的（个人感觉），yamazaki心口不一的矛盾性格，fujio的成熟，恋着一个人到全身麻醉可心却绞痛着的幻觉。

I've come to the point where I,
just long for you,
just long for you,
and long for you,
and long for you,
and long for you...

主角介绍：
Yamazaki Kenji
(和我同天生日的人O_O)

Yamazaki睡觉。。。zzzZ

Yamazaki让Fujio学猫叫

在艺术家家庭长大，插画家，和fujio大学同窗，第一面见到fujio就认定了fujio是他理想伴侣。经常偷fujio的一些小东西，比如说一支笔，笔筒，筷子，垫子之类，都被他小心翼翼的收藏起来当成宝贝。最后他连fujio家地板的灯都不放过。
Yamazaki性格恶劣，心口不一。他经常会做出让人心寒的事。。。不过那也是因为他太喜欢fujio了。。。。。。

点击看大图

人物设计档案1 - Yamazaki Kenji
注：scanlation from MFY & NAKAMA

Fujio Eihiko

Fujio沉思中。。。

Fujio是个普通的上班族，性格沉稳，和yamazaki是两个极端。反应有些迟钝，不过善良体贴，宁可伤害自己也不让别人难过。
人物设计档案2 - Fujio Ehiko

Reiko

yamazaki的女友，比yamazaki大三岁
[友说这张画的像Nicole Kidman]

Miku

fujio的女友，起初和reiko同谋让fujio yamazaki发展起来，可到了后来越来越不满这种模糊不清的关系。

片断1
故事的开头-心照不宣的两人
reiko说她怀孕了（其实是骗人的)要yamazaki负责
reiko: 如果换成是fujio怀孕了，你怎么办？
yamazaki( 摸下巴）：嗯，这个问题很有意思。。。
yamzaki: 如果fujio怀孕了，我一定让他把孩子生下来，到时候会有男人接生现场报道
reiko（气爆了）: 你。。。我要和你分手！
到了晚上临睡前，fujio怪罪yamazaki说‘reiko她是想和你结婚，这是她的王牌了’，yamazaki一听到fujio催他结婚就很反感。

片断2

Fujio一气之下对Yamazaki吼道：“你还不是一团糟！你被你自己的叔叔强奸了！’Yamazaki听到这句话手一松，香烟掉在了地毯上。

资源：
Koiga 123
Scanlations @MFY(joint with Nakama)

1998[短篇集] Super BBC

中：怪物王子
英：Prince of Monster
日：怪物王子

收录：(标题对照）
赞美诗|Sanbika|サンビカ
KILLING MOON
机器人的一生|Vita Makinikarisu|ヰタ・マキニカリス
怪物王子|Kaibutsu Ouji
バイバイ・ミズハラ

简介：
这个短篇集里收录了有关吸血鬼，人狼，机器人的故事，有一定文学性。故事虽有差异，但结局都很凄美。值得一提的是这部作品的插画感很强，即使不喜欢故事情节也不亏。

这是第一个短篇‘赞美诗’的截图。骑士刺瞎了自己的右眼以示对主人的忠诚。而他的主人，一个永生不死的吸血鬼。。。

Killing Moon中的‘人狼’。短小精悍的恐怖故事，人最害怕的到底是什么？

《机器人的一生》讲的是一个厌倦了社交的科学家为了能一心钻研科学，制造了一个和自己思维方式和长相一模一样的机器人来打法别人。没想到这个的完美副本竟威胁到了自己的生存价值。‘多余的东西毫无意义，存在只需一个就够了’。

《怪物王子》像是一个经典的童话故事，囚于高楼的公主等待白马王子的来临。可是本仁戾的童话世界里没有公主，只有天生一双血红眼睛的‘怪物’王子。同样被囚禁在高塔中的他却别无选择，只有将自己的灵魂出卖给恶魔。

资源：
Review @Sanguin

1998~2001~2004

中：饲育系·理伙（上下篇），铁 x 理伙（第2部）
英：Shiikugakari Rika ， Tetsu x Rika
日：飼育係・理火，テツ×リカ　

简介：
这部拖了6年的作品似乎还没有明确的了结。在一个全男生的高校，所谓‘Salon'的组织通过暴力和性来管治失控的学校。Salon分为Aces, Kings, Queens(就像扑克牌一样），只要是加入Salon的人都会受到组织的保护。 Salon以外的学生被称为Jacks. Aces是Salon中的首脑人物，Aces又分不同的职务，其中，有一个职务叫‘饲育员’（breeder),他的任务是调教顽固分子。而担任饲育员一职的理伙（rika)是全校的sex symbol，也同时是他们的发泄工具。有一天，转校生Hiro干涉了Salon的入典仪式，由此牵出了以前发生过的悲惨故事。Rika失明的左眼，Hiro的条件性哮喘，和Hiro上吊死去的哥哥（Tetsu），这些都并非偶然。这部作品初看极为变态，很难被人接受。不仅是校园暴力和性虐待的内容，还有‘恋母情结’为根基的扭曲心态和残酷的爱情。但本仁戾对主角的心态处理很彻底。拿来做心理学研究不错。

不知在哪个论坛看到这样的评论‘刚看标题，《飼育係・理火》，还误以为是养畜之道，农民之友’。题外话而已。

主要人物介绍：

Rika 押川理伙
高二，天秤座，A型, 176cm
左眼失明，有尖端恐惧症（就是当尖锐的东西<哪怕是手指>靠近时整个身体都动弹不得）
是Salon中的‘饲育员’

Hiro Natsume 夏目ヒロ (中文译为‘比吕’）
高一，狮子座，O型，173cm
当别人提到自己应被强奸而自杀的妈妈，或是有人喊‘救我’的时候，就会不停的咳嗽。他转到了哥哥以前就读的高校，为的是调查哥哥自杀的原因。

Tetsu Natsume 夏目テツ（中文译为‘辙’）
天秤座，O型，180cm
Hiro的哥哥，高三时自杀而死。唯一的线索就是他残留下的日记，写满了‘Hiro, 救我’这句话。

片断1
-Rika和Hiro的初次会面
Hiro在高校赶考途中路过一个坐在阶梯上看书的人，那人问道：‘你是去考试的吗？’
消瘦的背影，蒙住半边眼睛的rika突然起身回头对Hiro说：‘还是放弃吧’

片断2
-般宿舍的第一天，Hiro推门而入
“‘饲育员’是什么意思？”
Rika用一种奇怪的表情回答说: MAMA.

片断3
Hiro追问‘饲育员’的真正涵义，Rika生气了。

片断4
一年级的理伙(Rika)和当时的辙(Tetsu)
所谓‘一见钟情’的两人，背后又隐藏着什么秘密呢。

理伙看的书

资源：
1. Review on Rika part I @Aestheticism
2. Review on Rika part II @Aestheticism
3. Rika & Gothic, A Review @Aestheticism
4. Tetsu x Rika text translation @ Aestheticism
5. Yuyurika Homepage
站长游游李华是本仁戾的超级粉丝。网站收录了yuyurika翻译的《饲育系·理伙》节选片断，和十几篇读后感/分析。
7. Secret Dungeon @Rue Royale

1999~2001~2003~2004花音コミックス

中：侦探青猫（4卷）
英：Tantei Aoneko
日：探偵青猫

简介：
这算是侦探还是搞笑呢，后者居多吧。主角‘青猫’是个有钱没出花的贵族侦探，清秀的长相常给他带来麻烦。本仁戾也许想换换花样试着写侦探小说了，不过情节还真够扯的，不枉她的一贯作风。剧情轻松搞笑，时而穿插一些感情的纠葛倒让气氛凝重了。值得称赞的是服饰设计和黑白的运用，让人口水直流~

CD:

声优之作，没什么兴趣所以不去调查了。。。

资源：
1. Scanlations @Fifay
2. Review on Bluecat Vol2 @Aestheticism
3. A Review @ Aestheticism
4. Secret Gallery @Rue Royale

2000~2001 ASUKA COMICS DX　

中：高速ANGEL ENGINE (3卷）
英：Supersonic Angel Engine
日：高速エンジェル・エンジン

简介：
《高速ANGEL ENGINE 》讲的是天使和恶魔的故事，暴力成分较浓。两个主角，封面上黄头发的是恶魔，黑头发的是天使。我没读过，不过听说里面的人时不时就口水四溅。。。好奇怪的漫画啊。。。

资源：
1. A Review @Aestheticism
2. A Review @Dosmikos

2002Super BBC.

中：麻辣鲜师（1卷）
英：Boku no Sensei wa Fever with Moto Man
日：僕の先生はフィーバーwith本マン
原标题翻译：我的老师狂恋本仁
（汗啊,哪有这么为自己打广告的。。。）

2005.3花音コミックス　

中：毒樱桃(1卷）
英：Poison Cheery Drive
日：毒チェリーカバー

2005.4

还有就是目前连载之中的
DOG STYLE (已出1卷）

截图：（不知什么网站上的）

听说是很搞笑不含色情成分的一部作品。

不行了。。。想到还要写《饲育系·理伙》和《恋爱允许的范围》的评论我已经怕了。。。改天加油。。。

mangaka

2005-05-12T16:15:00.000-07:00

Ahh long time no updates. Here I am... Been itchy fingered and all pumped up to write a review on my favourite mangakas. I've only done a short review on minako narita and even that killed all my breath. I need ENERGY & PERSEVERANCE! Well the problem is, once I have a project idea in mind, I feel compelled to sit through the whole thing at one go until I see it properly finished with my own eyes. And how pathetic I am with my own idea of perfection. Thus writing reviews could be a physical n mental chore which takes eons to accomplish. One look at the past reviews I've done and I'd let out a heavy sigh. yes yes i'll finish it up. Samurai Champloo, Paranoia Agent, Cowboy Bebop, what not, all left half way undone coz I ran out of energy.

Here's a list of mangakas I plan to review
First comes the yaoi/shonen-ai/horror/mystery genre artists
However to list them apart from the 'mainstream' isn't meant to be a personal bias. Their fantastic art style and shocking storylines are just as appealing if not more grabbing.

Modoru Motoni
Private Site - Rue Royale
Modoru Motoni Fanlisting
- Koi ga Bokura wo Yurusu Hani (the limits allowed by 'ai' & 'koi')
- Shiikugakari Rika (rika the breeder)
- Tantei Aoneko (detective bluecat)

Takashima Kazusa
Official Website [up. 2004.1.4]
Takashima Kazusa Fanlisting
- The Last Client

Sumomo Yumeka
Unofficial Space
Homepage - Sasshi's HP
- Chou ni naru hi (the day that becomes a butterfly)
- Dousaibou Seibutsu (same cell organims... geez my translations sux to bottom hell...)

And here comes the 'mainstream' so to speak.
Masakazu Katsura
Official Jap Website
- Video Girl Ai
- I'S
- Shadow Lady
- DNA 2 ( 2=square)

Hojo Tsukasa
Official Jap Website
- City Hunter
- Sunlight Girl (is the original title 'sora no shoujo'?????)
- Family Compo
- Rash
- Angel Heart

Minako Narita (one review started, not done)
- Cipher
- Alexandrite
- Natural

Rumiko Takahashi
- Ranma 1/2
- Inuyasha
- Maison Ikkou

Ai Yazawa
- NANA
- Paradise Kiss

And some other mangakas I like but not so feverish.
Ima Ichiko
- walking ghost at night

Hisaya Nakajo
Official Jap Website (constantly up.)
- hanazakari no kimitachi e (for you in full blossoms)

What a scary 'to-do' list, I'm shaking... I've decided to write reviews in chinese... and hopefully I'll be done with top one on the list - modoru motoni...

samurai champloo

2005-03-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

Scanning through past entries, I realized I didn't write a single word on samurai champloo except for three arty pictures. And now the series has come to an official end (although i still cross my fingers for a movie, like what shinichrio watanabi did for cowboy bebop - 'knocking on heaven's door' which could be treated as session 23.5 just before Ed left bebop).

And funny I only started writing stuff AFTER the whole thing has ended. There'll be little anxiety in this entry because the ending set our heart at peace. Our great heroes lived to embrace each of their new journey. After successfully riding themselves of the ghosts in the past, they now set out on a refreshing new life, knowing they've found something precious from the destined journey which fosters an unbreakably tender bond between the trio. Awwww, how touching.

Ok now i shall start my wholesome review properly.
First of All
The Players! The samurais!

Name:
Fuu, the kanji character means 'wind', kaze, which goes well Fuu's character. She's gentle and being the only female in the 'champloo group', her easy going nature is somewhat soothing and pleasant.

Age: 15

Costume & Accessories:
1.Pinkish kimono with a knot tied to the front (usu for young girls I heard, sometimes for prostitues coz it's easier for them to untie n undress, unlike married or what they call 'decent' women who have knots tied to the back. Oops i wandered off the topic) and also normal looking wooden sandals

2.Momo-san , the grey-back flying squirrel which has a patch of lighter coloured creamish fur on her stomach and also a X shaped scar (scar? well i assume it's a scar). The most amazing thing about this squirrel is, she tends to disappear in times of crisis and when Fuu most needs her and reappears out of no where. For example in the last episode, momo-san's never around when Fuu's kidnapped n beaten, but comes back (from??) in the end where they're about to part ways.

3.Pinkish Kanto (a short dagger)
Well, everything about her is kind of pink. But it's a very beautiful Kanto with a linqour cylindrical-shaped shiled, with lots of nitty gritty accessories dangling from it (a skull in which a christian cross could be seen inside, and a dog)

on the right is Fuu's kanto, not very clear
picture taken from Amalgam episode 6 guide

Character-wise:
very bubbly and energetic, wide-eyed. One word : cute
complains a lot (especially in episode 12 disordered diaries, she uses lots of 'mo', i guess it means 'geez' 'what the hell' along that line)
She eats a lot!! and the amazing thing is, she bloats up twice her original size after a BIG MEAL and even her voice changes after she bloats up!! It sounds totally hilarious. [All pictures here taken from Amalgam Episodic Guide]

from episode 6 stranger searching
the trio participated in the 'Fourth Annual Eating Contest' in Edo, Fuu could have won the title if not for the annoying fly which made her clap her hands, a gesture taken to be a 'give-up' sign.

from episode 15 bogus booty
Turns out to be a bonus blessing! Fuu (fat version) was seen with Mugen n Jin who later got into trouble. The bunch of evil doers wanted to deal away with Fuu as well and asked around passers-by if they saw a fat girl of around this n that age. And they even asked Fuu herself!(already shrank back to normal size) 'Have u seen a fat girl about your age?' 'No'Fuu answered innocently

from episode 23 baseball blues

Relationships:
with Mugen & Jin: They're the 'nakamas', comrades more like it. Jin's more like the big brother in the group, silent n composed. Mugen quarrels a lot. Fuu's the little sister who's forever annoyed about the stupid doings of the two bakaish guys.

to be continued...

A summary of samurai champloo [including the ending, spoiler-full]Well, actually i've already spit out the ending haven't I?
There goes.
Fuu, a 15 year old energetic girl (chubby in the face, kawaii ne) finally decided to set out on a journey to find the samurai with sunflower smell. A little bit of insight, Fuu's mum died of disease years back and Fuu had been working in a teahouse which was burnt down to the ground the day a bunch of annoying people (including our main characters Mugen & Jin) came and used the teahouse as their 'battle field'. Left homeless, Fuu decided to embark on the adventure, with the help from Jin and Mugen. So the trio travelled and the journey was never smooth. Mainly because, in my opinion, Jin and Mugen are equally hopeless and lousy 'bodyguards' to Fuu who was constantly kidnapped and used as bait/hostage. And Mugen who has a big attitude to almost everything and everyone (esp. Jin) never lived a day without troubles it seemd. They followed Fuu's lead and came to Nagasaki where the sunflower samurai was roumoured to be sighted. Things got complicated into the last 3 episodes[Evanescent Encounter part 1, 2 and 3] as they finally reached Nagasaki. It was introduced in previous episode(#21 if i'm not wrong) that Sunflower Samurai is in fact Fuu's father who left the family when Fuu was still small in pursuit of Christianity. He was probably the leader of the early Christianity movement which was brutally surpressed by the government and all activies were conducted underground in discrete. However, the magistrate regarded such 'deviant' movement as an eyesore and threat to the government's rule so they sent out a highly skilled samurai to kill Fuu's father and later Fuu. The man's called Kariya who deliberately let his prey guide him to the liar. That is to say, he let Fuu guide him to sunflower samurai's hideout and it worked. On the way to assassing sunflower samurai, Kariya had to settle Jin and Mugen.

It turned out the death of Jin's master was partly Kariya's evil doing. Kariya wanted to turn Enshiro's (Jin's sword teacher) school into a place where they would train assassins for the magistrate. In that era, the way of samurai was gradually dying as the cvil war ended and guns n powders took over. Sword schools were disappearing or taken over by government as was the fate of Enshiro's. However Jin resented the idea. Kariya thus ordered Enshiro to kill his own student but in self defense (sighs, Jin's wayyyy too good), Jin killed Enshiro who attacked Jin in his dorm at nightfall. (I suppose Jin couldn't really recognize the 'assassin' in the dark and just blindly defended himself until he realized he had killed his own master)

And now Jin met Kariya. Was he able to take revenge for himself and also for his master? Jin's life had been on the run ever since he killed Enshiro and that's also the reason why he wore glasses (funny) as a disguise.

Directing our attention to Mugen, three 'perverts' from his past chased him down for Mugen mutilated the body of one of the brothers back when he belonged to that small island where sinners dwelled. The 3 perverts (i'll just call them 'Team Ugly', as coined by members of Swords n Sunflowers forum) kidnapped Fuu (again!!) to get Mugen. Mugen set Fuu free but put himself in an almost fatal preposition. The fight of life n death continued.

And Fuu finally met her own father who was bedridden and on the edge of death. Fuu spilled out all the sorrows she and her mum had been through. She could have punched his father for her mum's sake but he was already so weak. The encounter was short and sad (his father after giving his final words, was killed by Kariya who defeated Jin and got to Fuu) but the purpose of the journey was fulfilled and Fuu felt contented that she finally saw her own father's face and that her father in fact love his family very much.

So what happend to Jin, Mugen and Fuu who was later threatend to be killed by Kariya? Mugen fought his own battle with Team Ugly and survived, while Jin came to Fuu's rescue despite being severely wounded by Kariya in their first confrontaton. The trio survived and after everything quieted down, on a sunny morning, they stood at the crossroad bidding each other farewell. Before parting ways, Fuu spilled that she tricked them into this journey.
'Remember I said if the coin turned out head, you guys could fight with each other all you want but if it was tail, you two have to accompany me on this journey?'
'Well, actually, it was head.'
'Geez, she tricked us.'
'Well, that's it. See you again someday'
With these words, the trio went their separate way as the music started to play.

It was sooooo moving n refreshing. I don't think I could find a proper way to express it. The ending music is from the rap group called 'midicronica', song titled 'san fransico'. It's a light beat happy song chosen for the parting. No sadness, no regrets. 'Get up get up get up and walking, good day and good sunshine'. Fuu lived her wish of seeing her father, a wish she made to the devine gods when she prayed with her mum in front of the temple. Mugen thought he'd kill anyone who's stronger than himself but he no longer felt that way anymore. His heart was finally at peace, with himself and with his daunted past. Jin had been alone all this while, fighting for himself, his skills supreme but his strength baselss. But now for the first time in his life, he thought he had friends, that he could have comrades. Each carries with them that piece of treasure as they set out on the new journey ahead. 'Mata itsu ka', Fuu says, 'till we meet again.'

Twice during the journey they parted, only to be united again by fate. Will they, just like in the past, be destined to meet again some day? For me, whether they meet or again or not doesn't matter anymore. With heart's fulfilment and warm memories of each other and of the journey surging inside of them,, they'll be courageous enough to face anything with lightened spirits, knowing they've emerged from their cacoons to embrace the wind, the fragrance of spring flowers, and that hope which idly floats in the bluest sky beyond the path they ride on.

I rewinded the ending theme, heard their goodbyes, saw that sadly lingering smile on Fuu's face, and the sparkling hope in her eyes, or was it trick of the morning sun? Mugen and Jin stood still for a while, watching Fuu walking away, then with a final glance, walked the opposite path. And the light beat music that sets ur heart flutter. There're a couple of eye catches as the 'camera' zooms in on Mugen and Jin's separate paths.

Mugen's walking along a grassy path in the village and a bird (the same bird from #17 lullabies of the lost[verse 2], probably a Japanese Robin as suggested by a member in Swords & Sunflowers forum) watched him with the same deadly composed eyes, a gaze from another world. Different from the death god's stare in episode 17 though, this time the robin seems to be watching him with thoughtful eyes, as if musing about something, then suddenly stirred n took flight, leaving the tree branch vibrating with force. We see the purple feathered bird circled freely in the sunlit sky, as if it's saying Mugen's finally escaped the shadows of his past and unchained.
Spread your wings and take flight!

Jin's walking along a narrow road one side of which's flanked by a row of Buddha statues, chided away by age and looked strangely serene. I guess Jin has finally found his peace of mind, that 'Zen' state of mind, true freedom. I remember in episode 12 - disorder diaries, in the flashback scene we saw the trio, each of them sort of 'confessed' to the monk their one of a lifetime wish and asked for guidance.

Here's the excerpt from Almalgam #12 episode guide
We see all three sitting in the temple where they stayed in #10, in cross-legged meditation postures: Jin's ruler-straight and scholarly, Fuu's less studied but dutiful, Mugen's a tangled slouch. They each get to ask the monk one question.

People are born free, they aren?t born to be bound by anything, says Jin. That?s what I?ve always thought. But isn?t that contrary to a warrior's duty? Freedom, the monk tells him, isn't something earned through suffering or pushing yourself. You must accept yourself just as you are and live according to the flow of things; that is true freedom.

I've been through so much trouble because of these two, says Fuu, that I wonder if I picked the right people to travel with. Every meeting, the monk tells her, is a chance of a lifetime. For you to have met and traveled with them is destiny, fate, no matter what you experience from now on.

Mugen just wants to know how he can become strong enough to beat Shuryuu, insults the monk?s bald head, and gets a thwack--no words of wisdom for you.

The ending echos well with it. Jin's finally free. Fuu never regrets the journey and Mugen is no longer concerned about whoever's stronger than him. And above all, the true meaning of this journey - that they learned friendship and were guided along by destiny and found what they were looking for, is most touching. Just like what the monk said to Fuu, 'every meeting, is a chance of a lifetime.' So true.

Oh I'm not sure if anyone noticed. The old man from the last episode, the 'servant' who took care of Fuu's father, made his debut appearance in the very first episode of samurai champloo. In the teahouse, the magistrate's son and his gangs were making fun of an old man who was scared stiff and spilled his tea. That's him! Only when I rewatched it did I realize. Isn't it funny.

The Adventure - Fun details
The threesome went through a lot of hassles, which could be roughly broken down into
(i) hunger/penniless
we hear stomach grumbles throughout the series and they're always out of money.

Mo... It's so troublesome to write a review. I always planned to write it brief n succinct but ALWAYS turned out explicitly detailed & long-winded. There're still so many things to fill in. I'm not even half-way through. And the summary sucks, urghhh, cries.
loading...
list of stuff to add
basic facts about this series
- director shinichrio watanabe
- manglobe
- official links
- Jap seiyu n american cast
- character design, music, key animation etc, first airing time

character session
- Fuu: history, relationships(with the artist, the beatbox bandit baka, and more)
- Mugen
name, age, height, history, relationships(from the island, and the female ninja,
and sara...)
- Jin
name, age, height, history, relationships(shino, enchiro, kariya, his 'brother'
from the shoujo)

adventure session
- perpetually hungry
- Fuu constantly kidnapped
- 'anachronims'
- 'sidedish appearances'

geez, i'm sooooooooo worn out.SHALL NEVER ATTEMPT TO FINISH A REVIEW with just one attempt

the last client

2005-03-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

This's gonna be a werid post.
Yaoi or adult oriented boy love manga is most of time kind of crappy n highly commercialized. And i came across this yaoi manga titled 'the last client', written n drawn by takashima kazusa. [geez i can never remember her name]

Chris Valentine [the hitman]

Aya
Real name Asahi

The episode scans I read weren't complete and i have no idea if takashima continued with the story since the 6th chapter. Plotwise, well, it's already way above average. The storyboards r good, so are the character designs.
It slowly dawns on me that there're lots of mangaka who draw in roughly the same style. It isn't original in any sense. Like the way takashima draws the hair in confident black streaks with lots of highlights, and the way she expresses the tendons, muscles and the male body anatomy looks just right. I used to think nakajo [author of 'hanakimi'] is kind of unique in style but after seeing all kinds of works (those not in the main stream), i slowly get the idea that they're all the same. Sometimes it's kind of hard to tell whether it's by the hands of a female mangaka or not coz the lines r kind of handled with lots of strength n certainty. Maybe it's just my own false assumption.

paranoia agent

2005-02-26T16:39:00.000-08:00

PARAnOiA AGeNT

Title: Mousou Dairinin (Japanese)
Director: Satoshi Kon
Character Design: Masahi Ando
Production : Madhouse Production

Visit Official Website

Genre
Psyche, suspense, horror (? a bit maybe...)

Synopsis (can't get more brief than this... quoted from www.animenewsnetwork.com )
A kid dubbed with the title "shounen bat" has been going around attacking people with bats. now two detectives are on the case to stop this kid from any more attacks... but they will find out soon enough, that this is much more than they can handle.

Director
alrite, let's get started. Paranoia agent is a TV anime series directed by the renowned director satoshi kon, who's credited for his ingenius movies such as 'perfect blue', 'millenium actress' and 'tokyo godfather'. Satoshi kon speaks the real hard truth in anime, not exaggerating, nor masking the thing we know so well as 'reality bites'.

Character Design
I wasn't aware of it until the name 'ando' caught my eye. Masahi Ando works for Ghibli as well. His style is, mmm, very realistic n comfortable to look at.

Infomation from www.animenewsnetwork.com

Madhouse Studio
www.madhouse.co.jp

---->Satoshi Kon

Tokyo Godfather is about three tramps (a girl who stabbed her own father when overtaken by rage, a transvestite who has a gentle heart and the dream to become a real woman ~_~, and a seemingly good-for-nothing guy who had a broken marriage). The unimaginable assembly of the threesome and their transient interaction with each other triggered by an abandoned baby bring us lots of surprises and warm reminders of how kindness still prevails even in the subzero city states that adopt us yet abandon us.

Camera zooms in. Big movie banner that says 'heaven's tears' and a huge crowd of people gathering on the floor, listening to priest's 'how God loves us' talk on CHristmas Eve.
Focus change. Top of the building, a girl pokes her head out of the safety bar and looks down on the dark crowd, then spits. Someone in the crowd who has been listening attentively jerks his head up as the spit hits him hard. But the girl already withdrew from his vision. All that is visible is the movie banner 'heaven's tears'. So it must be it. He wonders, eyes open wide, as the priest carries on with preaching.
Heaven's tears. In a cold hard city where people gather in search for love and truth.
My ass. Just a speck of spit. And streetcars buzz on.

That's Satoshi Kon you come to admire.

--->Paranoia Creeps in
What do u make out of the title? It's a psyche series, one that's full of deceits, illusions and hooks that set your mind on a frenzy search for the absolute truth which's somewhere far far away. I've only watched the first five episodes but from the rate of progress, the plot is getting more n more intangible as the no. of victims grow and so is the web of relations that pull these characters together.

Episode I Shounen Bat Has Arrived!!
Opening Theme
We see the main characters in the series laughing. Laughing laughing and laughing, as if seized by disease. THat's all they do, laugh.
No wonder it's called paranoia.

Noises, lots of noises. People shouting on mobile phones, cars and trucks horning away, congested subway trains rushing past. Graudually the noises mingle together until the cacophony is on the brink of exploading.
Then...
We see a senile patient scribbling strange characters on the ground of the hospital carpark. I don't understand Jap so I can only make out the last line 'blah blah = 510'
510 seems to be an omen, or an important clue.
In front of him, a commuter bus pulls to a hault. Through the window, we see a spectacled gir(Sagi Tsukiko). The old man gasps and looks alarmed.
It started out weird enough with a designer called Sagi Tsukiko who has her shot of fame when one of her designs becomes a fav. (if you ask me, japs they have sooo many funny little soft toys that look pitifully kawaii). Maromi is a gloomy looking girl who's taciturn and easily nervous. She always carries a soft toy with the name Dorubakon in her bag. She doesn't get along well with her collegues who are jealous of her talents and say harsh things behind her. And her all money-minded boss who thinks she could come up with money grossing designs overnight buggs her nonstop.
'With you magic!!'
'magic, magic, magic, i wish i have it...' mumbles Sagi as she walks home alone at night. An old lady who's picking through trash bags gives her creepy stares as Maromi walks past. There's something mysterious about the identity of this obasan. She's a tramp that camps around Maromi's apartment but disappears after the day of incidence. Alrite, so Sagi is scared and starts running as the street lights turn out one by one and dark shadows slowly devour the space and creeps in on her (paranoia!!) In the utter panic Maromi trips and falls, spilling the contents carried in her handbag. Scraps of designs are scattered all over the ground . She presses herself onto the ground and extendes her arm as far as possible in order to fetch a design that gets lodged beneath the car base and just as she straightens up, a shadowy figures looms out of nowhere and attacks her with a bag. The next morning, she's in hospital with two detectives in charge of the assault. One of them has a quick temper that simply explodes in front of witnesses who refuse to speak. The other is extremely patient and gentle. In the end, they gather that the assailant is a primary school kid with a baseball cap and attackes people with a crooked baseball bat. Back in her room, Sagi is scanning the msgs posted in her fan forum. One post which reads ' you're attacked by the shounen with the golden bat...' scares her and her pet toy Dorubankon slips off her lap as she shivers. The scary thing is not about the threatening post in the forum. It's the pet toy. Dorubankon speaks !! n moves!!! utter horror! I have no idea whether it's a ghost from Sagi's own paranoic imagination or plain fact.

An annoying freelancer who wants to write sensational stories out of the incidence traces Sagi down like a pervert dog. Yaks, he's so disgusting. All he thinks about is sex and money. One day when he is chasing after Sagi, the shounen bat appears and attacks him in the same way he does to Sagi.

Second Victim.
End of Episode I.

Tidbit of Episode I
The ringtone played as Sagi crosses the road and bumps into the annoying writer is exactly the same as that used in 'Beyond - Animatrix'. And it sounds horribly paranoia!

The trick about this anime series is, you stop believing in anything you see coz they could all be figments of imagination and the series is in totaly anacrhonistic chaos. Flashes of scenes that take place in different places and time and only give you an abstract and nonetheless eerie feeling of what indeed happens, and all those weird characters, existent or non-existent!!

to be c'td

oscar05

2005-02-06T13:26:00.000-08:00

Check it out!
AWN holds a special animation oscar 05 showcase site
http://www.awn.com/oscars05/

walt disney

2005-02-06T11:51:00.000-08:00

Walt Disney - The Visionary and Father of Animation

Disclaimer: all information obtained from Walt Disney Official Site

"We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us."
- Walt Disney

Detailed Biography

Try to imagine a world without Walt Disney. A world without his magic, whimsy, and optimism. Walt Disney transformed the entertainment industry, into what we know today. He pioneered the fields of animation, and found new ways to teach, and educate.

Walt's optimism came from his unique ability to see the entire picture. His views and visions, came from the fond memory of yesteryear, and persistence for the future. Walt loved history. As a result of this, he didn't give technology to us piece by piece, he connected it to his ongoing mission of making life more enjoyable, and fun. Walt was our bridge from the past to the future.

During his 43-year Hollywood career, which spanned the development of the motion picture industry as a modern American art, Walter Elias Disney established himself and his innovations as a genuine part of Americana.

A pioneer and innovator, and the possessor of one of the most fertile and unique imaginations the world has ever known. Walt Disney could take the dreams of America, and make them come true. He was a creator, a imaginative, and aesthetic person. Even thirty years after his death, we still continue to grasp his ideas, and his creations, remembering him for everything he's done for us.

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois, to his father, Elias Disney, an Irish-Canadian, and his mother, Flora Call Disney, who was of German-American descent. Walt was one of five children, four boys and a girl.

Later, after Walt's birth, the Disney family moved to Marceline, Missouri. Walt lived out most of his childhood here. Walt had a very early interest in drawing, and art. When he was seven years old, he sold small sketches, and drawings to nearby neighbors. Instead of doing his school work Walt doodled pictures of animals, and nature. His knack for creating enduring art forms took shape when he talked his sister, Ruth, into helping him paint the side of the family's house with tar.

Close to the Disney family farm, there were Santa Fe Railroad tracks that crossed the countryside. Often Walt would put his ear against the tracks, to listen for approaching trains. Walt's uncle, Mike Martin, was a train engineer who worked the route between Fort Madison, Iowa, and Marceline. Walt later worked a summer job with the railroad, selling newspapers, popcorn, and sodas to travelers.

During his life Walt would often try to recapture the freedom he felt when aboard those trains, by building his own miniature train set. Then building a 1/8-scale backyard railroad, the Carolwood Pacific or Lilly Bell.

Besides his other interests, Walt attended McKinley High School in Chicago. There, Disney divided his attention between drawing and photography, and contributing to the school paper. At night he attended the Academy of Fine Arts, to better his drawing abilities.

Walt discovered his first movie house on Marceline's Main Street. There he saw a dramatic black-and-white recreation of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

During these "carefree years" of country living young Walt began to love, and appreciate nature and wildlife, and family and community, which were a large part of agrarian living. Though his father could be quite stern, and often there was little money, Walt was encouraged by his mother, and older brother, Roy.

Even after the Disney family moved to Kansas City, Walt continued to develop and flourish in his talent for artistic drawing. Besides drawing, Walt had picked up a knack for acting and performing. At school he began to entertain his friends by imitating his silent screen hero, Charlie Chaplin. At his teachers invitation, Walt would tell his classmates stories, while illustrating on the chalk board. Later on, against his fathers permission, Walt would sneak out of the house at night to perform comical skits at local theaters.

During the fall of 1918, Disney attempted to enlist for military service. Rejected because he was under age, only sixteen years old at the time. Instead, Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent overseas to France, where he spent a year driving an ambulance and chauffeuring Red Cross officials. His ambulance was covered from stem to stern, not with stock camouflage, but with Disney cartoons.

Once he returned from France, he wanted to pursue a career in commercial art, which soon lead to his experiments in animation. He began producing short animated films for local businesses, in Kansas City. By the time Walt had started to create The Alice Comedies, which was about a real girl and her adventures in an animated world, Walt ran out of money, and his company Laugh-O-Grams went bankrupted. Instead of giving up, Walt packed his suitcase and with his unfinished print of The Alice Comedies in hand, headed for Hollywood to start a new business. He was not yet twenty-two.

The early flop of The Alice Comedies inoculated Walt against fear of failure; he had risked it all three or four times in his life. Walt's brother, Roy O. Disney, was already in California, with an immense amount of sympathy and encouragement, and $250. Pooling their resources, they borrowed an additional $500, and set up shop in their uncle's garage. Soon, they received an order from New York for the first Alice in Cartoonland(The Alice Comedies) featurette, and the brothers expanded their production operation to the rear of a Hollywood real estate office. It was Walt's enthusiasm and faith in himself, and others, that took him straight to the top of Hollywood society.

Although, Walt wasn't the typical Hollywood mogul. Instead of socializing with the "who's who" of the Hollywood entertainment industry, he would stay home and have dinner with his wife, Lillian, and his daughters, Diane and Sharon. In fact, socializing was a bit boring to Walt Disney. Usually he would dominate a conversation, and hold listeners spellbound as he described his latest dreams or ventures. The people that where close to Walt were those who lived with him, and his ideas, or both.

On July 13, 1925, Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds, in Lewiston, Idaho. Later on they would be blessed with two daughters, Diane and Sharon . Three years after Walt and Lilly wed, Walt created a new animated character, Mickey Mouse.

His talents were first used in a silent cartoon entitled Plane Crazy. However, before the cartoon could be released, sound was introduced upon the motion picture industry. Thus, Mickey Mouse made his screen debut in Steamboat Willie, the world's first synchronized sound cartoon, which premiered at the Colony Theater in New York on November 18, 1928.

Walt's drive to perfect the art of animation was endless. Technicolor was introduced to animation during the production of his Silly Symphonies Cartoon Features. Walt Disney held the patent for Technicolor for two years, allowing him to make the only color cartoons. In 1932, the production entitled Flowers and Trees won Walt the first of his studio's Academy Awards. In 1937, he released The Old Mill, the first short subject to utilize the multi-plane camera technique.

On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated musical feature, premiered at the Carthay Theater in Los Angeles. The film produced at the unheard cost of $1,499,000 during the depths of the Depression, the film is still considered one of the great feats and imperishable monuments of the motion picture industry. During the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed other full-length animated classics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi.

Walt rarely showed emotion, though he did have a temper that would blow over as it blew up. At home, he was affectionate and understanding. He gave love by being interested, involved, and always there for his family and friends. Walt's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, once said:

Daddy never missed a father's function no matter how I discounted it. I'd say,"Oh, Daddy, you don't need to come. It's just some stupid thing." But he'd always be there, on time.
Probably the most painful time of Walt's private life, was the accidental death of his mother in 1938. After the great success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt and Roy bought their parents, Elias and Flora Disney, a home close to the studios. Less than a month later Flora died of asphyxiation caused by a faulty furnace in the new home. The terrible guilt of this haunted Walt for the rest of his life.

In 1940, construction was completed on the Burbank Studio, and Disney's staff swelled to more than 1,000 artists, animators, story men, and technicians. Although, because of World War II 94 percent of the Disney facilities were engaged in special government work, including the production of training and propaganda films for the armed services, as well as health films which are still shown through-out the world by the U.S. State Department. The remainder of his efforts were devoted to the production of comedy short subjects, deemed highly essential to civilian and military morale.

Disney's 1945 feature, the musical The Three Caballeros, combined live action with the cartoon animation, a process he used successfully in such other features as Song of the South and the highly acclaimed Mary Poppins. In all, more than 100 features were produced by his studio.

Walt's inquisitive mind and keen sense for education through entertainment resulted in the award-winning True-Life Adventure series. Through such films as The Living Desert, The Vanishing Prairie, The African Lion, and White Wilderness, Disney brought fascinating insights into the world of wild animals and taught the importance of conserving our nation's outdoor heritage.

Walt Disney's dream of a clean, and organized amusement park, came true, as Disneyland Park opened in 1955. As a fabulous $17-million magic kingdom, soon had increased its investment tenfold, and by the beginning of its second quarter-century, had entertained more than 200 million people, including presidents, kings and queens, and royalty from all over the globe.

A pioneer in the field of television programming, Disney began television production in 1954, and was among the first to present full-color programming with his Wonderful World of Color in 1961. The Mickey Mouse Club was a popular favorite in the 1950s.
But that was only the beginning. In 1965, Walt Disney turned his attention toward the problem of improving the quality of urban life in America. He personally directed the design of an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). It was planned as a living showcase for the creativity of American industry. Disney said this about EPCOT:

I don't believe there is a challenge anywhere in the world that is more important to people everywhere than finding the solutions to the problems of our cities. But where do we begin? Well, we're convinced we must start with the public need. And the need is not just for curing the old ills of old cities. We think the need is for starting from scratch on virgin land and building a community that will become a prototype for the future.

Thus, Disney directed the purchase of 43 square miles of virgin land--twice the size of Manhattan Island--in the center of the state of Florida. Here, he master planned a whole new "Disney world" of entertainment to include a new amusement theme park, motel-hotel resort vacation center, and his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. After more than seven years of master planning and preparation, including 52 months of actual construction, the Walt Disney World Resort, including the Magic Kingdom Park, opened to the public as scheduled on October 1, 1971. EPCOT Center opened October 1, 1982, and on May 1, 1989, the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park opened.

A few years prior to his death on December 15, 1966, Walt Disney took a deep interest in the establishment of California Institute of the Arts, a college-level professional school of all the creative and performing arts. CalArts, Walt once said, "It's the principal thing I hope to leave when I move on to greener pastures. If I can help provide a place to develop the talent of the future, I think I will have accomplished something."

The California Institute of the Arts was founded in 1961 with the combination of two schools, the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and the Chouinard Art Institute. The campus is located in the city of Valencia, 32 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Walt Disney conceived the new school as a place where all the performing and creative arts would be taught under one roof in a "community of the arts" as a completely new approach to professional arts training.

Walt Disney is a legend; a folk hero of the 20th century. His worldwide popularity was based upon the ideals which his name represents: imagination, optimism, creation, and self-made success in the American tradition. Walt Disney did more to touch the hearts, minds, and emotions of millions of Americans than any other person in the past century. Through his work he brought joy, happiness, and a universal means of communication to the people of every nation. He brought us closer to the future, while telling us of the past, it is certain, that there will never be such as great a man, as Walt Disney.

Walt Disney at work [explaining storyboards]
- He's a true comedian.

Disney Feature Films [not updated]
Walt Disney Full Length
Animated Features

1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937.
2. Pinocchio, 1940.
3. Fantasia, 1940.
4. Dumbo, 1941.
5. Bambi, 1942.
6. Saludos Amigos, 1943.
7. The Three Caballeros, 1945.
8. Make Mine Music, 1946.
9. Fun and Fancy Free, 1947.
10. Melody Time, 1948.
11. The Adventures of Icabod and Mr. Toad, 1949.
12. Cinderella, 1950.
13. Alice In Wonderland, 1951.
14. Peter Pan, 1953.
15. Lady And The Tramp, 1955.
16. Sleeping Beauty, 1959.
17. 101 Dalmations, 1961.
18. The Sword And The Stone, 1963.
19. The Jungle Book, 1967.
20. The Aristocats, 1970.
21. Robin Hood, 1973.
22. The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, 1977.
23. The Rescuers, 1977.
24. The Fox And The Hound, 1981.
25. The Black Cauldron, 1985.
26. The Great Mouse Detective, 1986.
27. Oliver & Company, 1988.
28. The Little Mermaid, 1989.

After The Little Mermaid, Walt Disney Productions switched from hand drawing and painting their animation to a new computerized system, called "CAPS,"which stands for Computerized Animation Production System.

29. The Rescuers Down Under, 1990.
30. Beauty And The Beast, 1991.
31. Aladdin, 1992.
32. The Lion King, 1994.
33. Pocahontas, 1995.
34. The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, 1996.
35. Hercules, 1997.
36. Mulan, 1998.
37. Tarzan, 1999. (Released June 18th, 1999)

Animation historians love to say "It all started with a mouse". In fact it actually began with a visionary named Walt Disney.

From the early years in Kansas City with the likes of Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harmon and Rudy Ising. Walt Disney went on to become the single most important man in the history of animation. His legacy is a veritable who's who of animated characters; Snow White, Donald Duck, Pinocchio, Alice, Bambi, Cinderella, and of course, Mickey Mouse.

The Process of Animation
[note: just a GENERAL process. there're vast variations b/w japanese animation and western ones.]

1. A storyboard is made, all the animators and directors come together to discuss the entire film.

2. The storyboards are presented as the story

3. Once the story is laid out, the dialogue is recorded. This is done before animation, so the animators know what the characters will say.

4. After the dialogue is recorded, the animators can make rough sketches of just the characters. Usually these drawings are quite messy, there is still no color, or background. Some animated films have used over 50,000 individual drawings.

At most animation studios, the best animators only sketched a few animation drawings, leaving gaps in between. Later on, a person called an "inbetweener" would finish the scenes, by drawing in between the areas that the animator had left.

5. Once the entire film has been drawn on paper, the animation drawings go to the inking department. There, the inkers copy the animation drawings on to a clear celluloid acetate, sometimes called a Cel.

6. After the outline of the characters has been made, the unfinished Cel's go to the Painting Department. The painters flip the Cel over, and paint the colors on the back. They paint on the back so the characters appear crisp, and have an outline.

7. Before the Animation Cels get photographed a background must be added. Because a Cel is clear, and it only has the painted character on it, if a background is made, it will show through. Usually backgrounds are painted with Tempera or Water Color paint. Although, in some Disney productions, the background was painted on glass, and combined with other glass painted backgrounds to create the illusion of extreme movement. (This technique is use in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.)

8. Now all the combined elements (the Cel and the background) can be photographed. Although, the final product is not filmed with a normal projector, or camera. A special device, with a lens mounted facing down on to a table top captures each frame of the animated feature. Usually, the background is placed into a special mount, then covered with the Cel, then covered with a large piece of glass, then photographed.

9. After all the drawings have been filmed, the dialogue is added. Sometimes the film is edited at this step.

10. The animated film is released, and the general public may view it.