Many years ago I played System Shock 2 and had one of those fundamental gaming experiences. To quote from a previous post, it went something like this:


Some time after that I came across the announcement that BioShock was in the works. This got me both excited and apprehensive as a result. I posted again, voicing my concern for the fact that I may yet again be unable to stop playing this game, SS2's spiritual sequel, and be entirely frightened throughout the whole experience.

In the meantime, a lot of hype was being generated for BioShock because, well because of SS2 of course. SS2 is a bit of a legend in the gaming world, and it raised the bar very very high. So then BioShock came out, and everybody was raving about it, including Nick. His subsequent post didn't help things much.

Eventually I just downloaded the 1.5 GB demo, since I did have a shiny new video card installed and ready to burn some polys. Naturally the demo wasn't all that long, but it was plenty to give you an idea of what the game was all about. It was more than enough to make one thing abundantly clear to me: System Shock 2 it ain't. That is to say, it's pretty much the same game, made pretty, yet stripped of it's difficulty and complexity. Basically, I'd have to agree with most of Ben Croshaw's points in the video above. But he just makes it that much funnier, so watch his review and you'll get the idea.

Maybe it's just that the game didn't live up to all the type, and maybe it just couldn't quite clear the SS2 hurdle the developers so gloriously raised themselves. I suppose that if the game had received minimal advertising it would be the next awesome cult phenomenon, so it might all just be in "the image." Whatever the case me be, I still maintain that if you want the real experience, just go back and play SS2 with all the graphical mods in place. You'll love it, or hate it, or both. But I'd say SS2 is more likely to be worth what they're charging for BioShock, even now, than the latter itself.

The good folks at Focus on the Coast magazine have published a wonderful article on the Coloring Stories for Conscious Children project. Written by Joel William Fernando, the article outlines the process behind making this book along with its challenges and small triumphs.



Complementing this nice piece of journalism are Fernando's photos which he took the night of the opening. The photographs are viewable on the In Focus website, or in a picasa album here. If you look hard, you might even find me in one or two of them.

Update: Looks like I got the jump on Focus on the Coast with this post. But now they put the article on their site as well. So you can either read it here, or head on over the online version of their article!

Update: Apparently the link is no longer valid. I tried to search for the article on their site, but it doesn't seem to be up anymore.

Recently I have completed two new paintings. Both are a slight departure from my continuing obsession fascination with anime eyes. Greater emphasis was placed on color in these works as well.

This first piece was done from a sketch I had finished some time ago. I thought it interesting to try and see how much effectiveness of the anime eye can be retained when the eye is closed. The result I find fairly successful, and a little surprising even. Keeping to a monochromatic palette helps to retain focus on the closed eye.


The second piece was begun last year, and supposedly finished. However, I had used the wrong brush to add the black lines at the end, and the whole thing didn't turn out very well. It sat around for a while in it's state of semi-completeness until I could figure out what to do about it. I decided to simply go back a few steps and repaint the individual areas of color. This also gave me a chance to adjust the colors a little more. I ended up doing a lot of layers on this, and putting in additional texture in the yellow area. Finally, I was able to redo the lines proper and tweak the mouth.

I suppose this is the first official "mouth painting" in what will turn out to be more when I'm not working on the "eye paintings." Chances are I'll be doing both series simultaneous at some point though.

In my relatively brief residence in Wilmington I have noticed that there was not a lot going on in terms of anime related activities. This is why I took it upon myself to put on some events for all the anime fans around here. We have quite a lot of people who enjoy anime, given how many schools we have here. Not to mention that there is a strong film industry in our area to help that along.

To my knowledge, Aniwave has been the first event series of its kind in Wilmington. However, I would like to note that this year has also seen the first Coastal Cosplay Picnic take place this August. The lack of such events is somewhat surprising given the aforementioned sizable fan-base for anime. I hope to try and do this again next year, with every intention of making it even better.


Anime Screening at Jengo's Playhouse


Our first event was the screening at Jengo's Playhouse, home to the annual Cucalorus Film Festival, on September 22. We provided Japanese drinks and snacks purchased at Tokyo Deli. Fanboy Comics gave away free manga, and had a prize drawing for a $50 gift certificate. Additional free items came from the good folks at AnimEigo, such as posters and promo DVDs of their newly licensed series Yawara!

Our program started off with a showing of two shorts: Fata Morgana, by local film-maker Saben Kane, and Makoto Shinkai's She And Her Cat. Our features for this event were Voices of a Distant Star, followed by Cat Soup. All of these films were chosen for their high level of quality and mature artistic approach. I was glad to hear that those who came also appreciated the difference in our selection of anime. Having viewed these, local writer Joel Finsel felt that his understanding of anime "has grown from a misunderstood medium in [his] mind to a more legitimate form of expression that [he thinks] has a great deal of appeal to people of our generation."

After the anime screening, we had another prize drawing for complete anime box sets generously provided by AnimEigo. The remastered Bubblegum Crisis box set went to Doug Sincox, while the Urusei Yatsura OVA collection went to Japanese exchange student Mayu Kazumatsu. The largest of the three, the complete series of You're Under Arrest totaling four separate box sets, was won by Sean Crowder.

Overall attendence for this first event was admittedly lower than I had hoped, but we still had a great time. And since the number of attendees was smaller, there were enough t-shirts for everyone. Not to mention plenty of Pocky! So, big thanks go out to everyone who came to Jengo's in support of our first screening.


Cosplay Tour at the Cameron Art Museum


On October 5 I held a tour at the Cameron Art Museum of the William Ivey Long costume exhibtion. The tour was intended for anime fans, and specifically for cosplay enthusiasts, and tour goers were encouraged to come in costume. Senior member of the UNCW anime club Wesley Steffen, is shown above in his Ouran Host Club costume.

The goal of doing this tour, besides simply getting to see some spectacular costumes by the premier Broadway costume designer today, was to demonstrate to cosplay fans the possibility of taking such an interest to the higher level of a career. Many cosplayers are probably not aware of such a career path being available to them. I had hoped to show that if costumes are something that someone is passionate enough about, they could pursue that further than the occasional anime convention.

Again, turnout for this event wasn't high, yet this allowed for an intimate and informal group that was not without its merits. In part I think the price of admission for the tour was a factor. We all know that funds are limited when you are a student, which is something I will have to consider more seriously next time around.

Ultimately, the tour was still quite enjoyable for me, and I think also for those who came for it. Besides, any chance to spread the word about anime and its related elements such as cosplay is a welcome opportunity.


Anime Screening at the Cameron Art Museum


On November 2, we held our third and final event in the Aniwave series. It was another anime screening, which took place at the Cameron Art Museum. We gave out additional posters, Yawara! DVDs, and had a drawing for more t-shirts.

I wasn't sure what kind of turnout to expect given the previous two events, but I was pleasantly surprised. It appeared that we had at least double the attendees of our first screening. Interestingly enough, that night's attendees comprised a wide range of ages. This just goes to show you that anyone can enjoy good anime, no matter their age.

Our first feature was Spring and Chaos, by Shoji Kawamori. It is based on the life of Kenji Miyazawa, a celebrated Japanese poet. Everyone seems to have enjoyed this film greatly, and some offered such thoughts to me after the showing. Anya Hill, president of the UNCW Anime Club, noted that Spring and Chaos contained a great number of cultural and historical references. This is surely a big part of the film's appeal.

The second feature we screened was Blame! Based on the ten volume manga series by the same name, it is a darker collection of six short vignettes that are less accessible than most anime. Blame! has a definite independent art film flare, and probably left most of the audience scratching their heads. Its hard-edged science fiction feel offers more riddles and clues than clear plot structure, and should perhaps be experienced more as an aesthetic work.

A big thank you goes out to Daphne Holmes, curator of public programs at the Cameron Art Museum, who played no small role in getting this part of Aniwave off the ground (pictured above). Overall, this was the most successful of our three events, with the best attendance.


Acknowledgements

I must be honest in saying that I was hoping for a little more when our first two events came and went in terms of community support. But after our last event I do feel much better about having made Aniwave a reality in Wilmington. Though I curated it by myself, Aniwave would not have come together were it not for a number of very significant supporters in our community.

I would like to extend a great thank you to our two sponsors. AnimEigo, a local anime production company, was incredibly generous in their donations for our events. Fanboy Comics, a local comic book store, was also a great supporter of these efforts. Without both of their donations, Aniwave would not have been possible.

In addition, I want to thank Dan Brawley at the Independent Art Company for providing us with a venue for our first screening. As mentioned before, big thanks go to Daphne Holmes of the Cameron Art Museum for making our second screening possible in their space.

Also, let us not forget those who made it possible for us to show the various anime in our lineup. Thanks go to Saben Kate for Fata Morgana, ADV Films for Voices of a Distant Star, Central Park Media for Cat Soup, Tokyopop for Spring and Chaos, and Media Blasters for Blame! And of course, all the creators of these anime, for their artistic vision and willingness to share it with the world!

Last but not least, I would like to thank the UNCW Anime club for their patience and support. President Anya Hill, senior member Wesley Steffen, and member Lachelle Gatson donated their time distributing promotional material, and have come out to these events. Your support means a great deal to us!

This has been in the works for some time. I actually spent quite a bit longer on this than I do on many of my paintings. This is in part due to the size of the piece, but also because I approached it a little differently. Akogare was one of the first anime inspired pieces I ever did. In fact, I think it was the second actual anime painting, done back in 2004. That was a long time ago.

The initial version of this was an attempt to design an original character, since my first painting was based on Lain. The character itself was not bad, but the execution of it in this painting was not so very good. I still hand the painting sitting around since that day, and a few months ago was stricken by the urge to make this right. To be fair, some elements in this piece weren't bad, and there is a spontaneity to the background which does not come easily anymore.

I first sketched out the character concept anew and more accurately, after which I began to paint over the original face. Nevertheless, my goal was to keep the same expression and feeling that was intended when I painted it the first time around. I took my time with the renewal of Akogare in order to make sure that I did the piece justice. Because, even though I wasn't that fond of the end result, the feelings contained in the piece were and are still important to me.

With the character finished, I had a hard time figuring out what to do with the background. I knew I wanted to keep some of that powerful brushwork, but needed to tie it in with the new character somehow. After much deliberation, I decided to simply accentuate what was already there, and relate the background to the character using color.

In the end, I believe I'm mostly satisfied with the result. It is certainly much stronger than the previous version, and thus Akogare is born anew. Better, faster, stronger, as release candidate 2. Or something like that.