Just found this fun little video from Aniwave '08. Those crazy kids, what will they do next? Well, I'm just happy that people enjoyed it. For anyone else who didn't get to see the outcome of last year's Aniwave festival, just go to the Aniwave website for photos and press.

In the interest of time, I am combining my thoughts on the three most recent anime I have seen into one post. That, and maybe I don't think one of these deserves that much thought anyway. But mostly it's in the interest of time, and because these are pretty long overdue.



Saiyuki: Journey to Nowhere

This summer we somehow made it through Saiyuki. I wanted to watch it, because I have been a fan of the original story. It's a good story, and serves as a good basis for much creative work. When I saw that an anime had been done based on Journey to the West, I was pretty excited. Of course, that was some time ago now, and we just now got a chance to see this anime.

Little did I know what I was getting myself into! Overall, Saiyuki was little more than a giant waste of time. So where do I start? Well, let's see... This anime is a formulaic journey to nowhere. It's low production values show in the first episode with the animation quality seriously lacking. On top of that, the plot is boring, since most of the episodes don't connect to the main plot arc anyway. After getting through two box-sets I came to the conclusion that the characters are pretty static and trite, and that this anime has little more in common with the original story than the name itself. So there's a good chunk of time I'll never get back.

In the end, the only purpose which Saiyuki serves is to present all the fangirls with a handful of bishonen. Yet it doesn't even do that well, as the animation never approaches the quality of the cover illustrations. The irony, is that the women are drawn much better, and even the guys all have a feminine look to them. Some episodes even move towards yaoi, which is where I just shake my head.



Bubblegum Crisis: Still a Classic

This fall I had finally gotten my hands on almost all of the Bubblegum Crisis DVD's out there. I say "almost" because the only thing I didn't get is BGC Tokyo 2040. That was more of a choice though. So other than that ommission, this includes the first AD Police Files, the original Bubblegum Crisis series box-set, Bubblegum Crash, the name-recycler AD Police, and Parasite Dolls.

The first series of OVAs, AD Police Files, is an excellent three part animation. It's gritty and mature stories gave it a Bladerunner-esque feel. Probably one of the best pieces of the whole franchise. The BGC series was also very good. Originally, the story didn't jive with me as well, back in the day when I first saw this, but somehow it made more sense now. I'm not sure why, or maybe I realized that it was more about the action and animation quality than plot. Following this up with Bubblegum Crash made for a much more complete package and left me pretty satisfied with this classic. The latter still had the animation quality of the original series, though some of the voices, most notably Priss, were different and of lesser quality.

The next installment, AD Police, was nothing like the rest of BGC. Low production values brought this series down, and much like Sayuki, I couldn't wait to be done with it. What I didn't expect, however, was to be pleasantly surprised by Parasite Dolls. Set in the same universe, but pretty far removed from a lot of what makes up BGC, this feature-length film went back to the roots. As in, back to the style of AD Police Files, with enough gritty cyber-punk action to satisfy most GitS fans. With top notch animation, sound, plot, characters, and plenty of gratuity, Parasite Dolls is a definite sleeper hit. Don't pass up this gem, especially for the cheap price tag it's got on Amazon.

Maybe some day I will give BGC Tokyo 2040 a shot. But I don't know that I can ever get over the fact that they butchered Sylia, one of the best characters from the original. So for now, my recommendation is to stick with the classics, and to save Parasite Dolls for dessert.



TekkonKinkreet: Wow!

The wonderful Nikki was kind enough to surprise me with TekkonKinkreet for Christmas. And after watching the film I can best summarize it with the word Wow! No wonder it grabbed so many awards.

This film oozes creativity and originality. It's plot is set into a simple enough framework, gang rivalries, but it's core is pretty heady. I'll have to watch it another time or two before I can really wrap my mind around it better. For the time being, I can only marvel at the awesomeness. With excellent animation quality, not to mention a unique art style that I haven't really seen in anime before, and fantastic characters, TekkonKinkreet goes in the direction of struggles between good and evil within the self.

It's heavily metaphorical, allegorical, and symbolic. Since I'm not Japanese though, all of the metaphors and allegories and symbols will inevitably elude me. Maybe with some time I can decipher more of the meaning behind Black and White. I love that those are the names of the two protagonists. In fact, there is nothing bad I can say about this film, so if you still haven't seen this phenomenon then it's about time you do!

I must admit that overall, 2008 was a good year for me. Art-wise, it also brought several anime culture related art exhibitions which are worth mentioning. Most notably of all these was the Takashi Murakami retrospective which opened earlier in the year at MoCA in Los Angeles, then traveled to the Brooklyn Museum for the summer.

My hope was to see this exhibition in person during our trip to New York, but by the time I got there it had already left. Alas, I will have to look for another opportunity to see Murakami's work in person. Until then, I will have to content myself with my humble collection of the Superflat Museum figurines.



Incidentally, those have been on display at the Cameron Art Museum here in Wilmington since the fall, in the Toy Crazy exhibition. While it may not be exactly all art vinyl, which is what interests me more, Toy Crazy does have variety going for it. The majority of the toys on display are vintage, with a small part comprising more contemporary fare.

Another big exhibition took place in Vancouver, under the name Krazy! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art. I managed to pick up the accompanying book at the Whitney, which allowed me to get a better sense of the art included. The scope of the exhibition was truly great, encompassing various comics, animation, video games, and so on from all over the world. This was not simply a Japan-centric show, as one might expect, but included contributions from multiple countries.



What was perhaps a bit of a surprise to me was the inclusion of highly commercial projects in the "Computer and Video Games" section, such as Super Mario World, Zelda, GTA, The Sims, and Quake to name a few. No one can deny the iconic nature of the jolly plumber or the little boy in his green hat and tunic, but I'm not sure about its place in this exhibition in light of the thousands of other possible choices. Perhaps I'm too much of a stickler about the indie scene, but still. It makes me think of an analogous attendance of an art-film festival and being shown Harry Potter.

The good news is that there is plenty of work in Krazy! to redeem its commercial tangent in electronic gaming, such as the fantastic Satoshi Kon film Paprika. That film does embody the indie spirit as far as I'm concerned. Other notable artists included were Makoto Shinkai, Junko Mizuno, Art Spiegelman, Roy Lichtenstein, and KaiKai Kiki artists Chiho Aoshima and Mr.



Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic ocean, at the Deutsches Filmmuseum, 2008 saw another exhibition focusing exclusively on anime. Anime! High Art - Pop Culture showcased some of the most important Japanese animation to ever be created. Separated into genres of Kodomo, Shojo, Ecchi, and Shonen to name a few, the exhibition showcased numerous important titles. Akira, Mononoke Hime, and other works by Hayao Miyazaki, Osamu Tezuka, and Yoshitaka Amano get my vote. While it's apparently necessary to have exclamation marks in the titles of anime related exhibitions, I'm still unclear on whether the museum was showing the actual films or single cells from the films in question (based on this collection of photos).



Lastly, the folks at MCAD kicked off another SGMS, or Schoolgirls and Mobilesuits: Culture and Creation in Manga and Anime. This sounds like a fascinating event to attend, with the major guest speaker in 2008 being Yoshitoshi Abe. It's hard for me not to be envious of hearing him speak, as he has served as such a major inspiration to me. Yet that is one more opportunity I have missed and will have to look for again.

The three day event bears some resemblance to a con, yet with the focus shifting more towards an intelligent look at otaku culture in the West it reaches a maturity that cons probably never will. Among the scheduled programs at SGMS are fashion shows, lectures, academic paper presentations, and your more traditional segments like screenings and panels.

The success of SGMS has also given rise to the publication with a similar focus. Mechademia is an annual journal of writings on this very subject which I'm going to have to try and get my hands on. Maybe it's time to put my degrees and experience to some better use and get on board with them.

So there you have it. Three major otaku culture exhibitions around the world, though there's probably more that I didn't come across. Add to that the SGMS event, and my fledgling Aniwave, and I think this anime thing is going up to another level in the cultural strata. A pretty good year for anime culture, even if the anime industry wasn't doing so hot.