o-tak-u

This year at the San Dieago, Comic-con. At the Q&A panel Hayao Miyazaki makes his appearance. THIS IS CRAZY!!! If i knew that Miyazaki will be making an appearing at the comic-con, i would of booked my ticket years ago. Alas, i missed the event, but thanks to animenewsnetwork, i was able to see him appear and was able to listen to him talk about his inspirations and such.

At the Comic-con Miyazaki was there to recieve his inkdrop award and to promote the latest studio ghibli movie “Ponyo”

Hayao Miyazaki, I’m sure you all know him, if not then i’m sure you’re familiar with “Totoro”, well he made that movie. Hayao Miyazaki is probably the most well know and best Animator in Japan, and has been inspiring many animators both in Japan and America, and who knows where else, probably the whole world.

Miyazaki is my role model and like a god like figure. As a student trying to become an animator, I really look up to his work and everthing he does.

Here are some Interview/Q&A with Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki Q&A from ANN

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Hayao Miyazaki Interview

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sorry for the lack of information, today was a little hecktick, but this news is great and the interviews are really great too.

till next time

~O-tak-U

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

 Original Creator: Yasutaka Tsutsui

 Director: Mamoru Hosoda

Production Group: Madhouse Studio

Movie

Running Time: 98min

Vintage: 2006-07-15

 Summary: Makoto Konno an ordinary high school girl living her ordinary life gains the ability to, literally, “leap” back in time. With the power, she imediately starts changing her life with simple changes, like getting better grades, and preventing personal mishaps. However, she soon realises that changing the past can really get things messy, so eventually, she will have to rely on the limited powers to shape the future of herself and her friends.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, few thats a mouh full. Is a movie directed by Mamoru Hosoda, you may know him through other movies like Digimon and Superflat Monogram. For this person was a new director, and i dont really know about him too much, but one thing i can say is that “I am a big fan” of his now, after watching TokiKake(the girl who leapt through time in japanese akronym) His animations i could recognise through the movies i watched, but never really knew who directed it.

What suprised me was that Madhouse studios worked on the Animation. I thought Production IG would of taken the job, seeing how they would do more of this kind of genre. Either way, Madhouse did a great job. The Animation done by the madhouse crew and Mamoru, is actually somewhat similiar to Kyoto Animation, sometimes the characters are very loosely drawn and makes them look out of proportion, but thats one way of showing an interesting animation. The color scheme used for this movie is beutifully done, almost like Makoto Shinkai’s artworks, the decending sun, the rippling water, the leaves of the trees, the blue sky, its amazing.  Such great visual.

  Currently Mamoru Hosoda is finishing up his newest feutured film called Summer Wars, very interesting, cant wait to go see it when i go to Japan.

So the end, the movie is really well made and that everyone will enjoy watching this, whether your not a anime fan or watcher, any movie watcher would love The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

instead of OP/ED on the watching section, i’ll have the Trailers for both Tokikake and summer wars.

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Ratings:

Story: A

Animation: A

Art: A

Music:A

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Youtube video of the OP/ED will be posted, so please go and watch them if you are interested.

Thanks again for reading and if there are any suggestion/comments/questions, please feel free to ask.

Jya~ne see ya later

 ~O-tak-U

 Fate Stay Night

 Original Concept: Kinoko Nasu (TYPE-MOON)
Original Character Design: Takashi Takeuchi

Director: Yuji Yamaguchi

Production Group: Studio DEEN

Total Episodes: 24
Vintage: 2006-01-06 to 2006-06-16

Summary: Shirou Emiya lost his parents when the whole town was on fire, he was then adopted by a sorcerer named Kiritsugu Emiya. Shirou had full admiration towards his adopted father and wanted to become a great sorceror and a ally of justice, but Shirous limited power was unfortunetly not meant for Sorceror level. But that all changes when he is drawn into the Holy Grail War. This is where he summons a “servant” called Saber in order to fight and protect him for the Holy Grail. Whoever obtains the Holy Grail, can grant one wish. There are 7 other “Servants” that will fight their way to obtaining the Grail. The Servents need to hide their real name in order to keep their weakness  safe. 

Fate Stay Night, from what i know is that it was based from a pc game designed by Type-Moon. Not really sure of what kind of game it was, but must of been quite popular, due to the occasion of them developing a anime series after it. So in this series there are 7 Servants and each has their own master and special techinique. Lets entroduce them. So the first is Saber, the main heroine and her partner is Shirou Emiya, Saber is from the knight class, wielding a giant sword, later obtaining the exchalibar. Other Classes from this series is, an Archer, a Rider, Berserker, Lancer, Caster and Assasin. They all go by the nicknames of their own class. The rival of Saber is basically Archer, and other enemies they fight are very strong as well.

I did enjoy watching this series, suggested by a friend who also enjoyed this series. So i took up the chance and gave it a go. Great story line, i really liked the ending  very much, great ending. The battles through out the show is pretty intense too, the great special effects and actions. There are some humor inbetween, which is nice, and they also add in a bit of romance.

 The animation studio that worked on this is Studio DEEN, its a well know studio, although i dont really know about it as much as Bones or Kyoto, but Studio DEEN makes alot of clean animation, very detailed, yet they do a very good job in keeping the details intack with the animation. Really great job on that.

Nothing really to add for the OP/ED, the OP is pretty slow and kinda mellow feel, almost like one of those OP for Clannad or AIR, the aniamtion of it i think should of been more mellowed down or chose a different song, because the animation is a lot more exciting then the theme song. The ending is about the same, alittle more slower in beat, the animation is simple too, basically has Saber standing in a field and the wind is blowing, nothing special.

 Anyhow, i think that despite the OP/ED, the series itself if very good, so i’ll suggest this to those who are interested in action fantasy battles. Great ending, XD

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Ratings:

Story: A

Animation: A

Art: A

Music: C

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Youtube video of the OP/ED will be posted, so please go and watch them if you are interested.

Thanks again for reading and if there are any suggestion/comments/questions, please feel free to ask.

Jya~ne see ya later

 ~O-tak-U

(btw the main character is the girl with blue hair behind the little girl with red hair)

 Lucky Star

Original Creator: Yoshimizu Kagami

Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto

               Yutaka Yamamoto

Production Group: Kyoto Animation

Total Episodes: 24

Vintage: 2007-04-08 to 2007-09-16

Summary: Portrays the lives of several school girls attending a  high school. Their lives filled with very loose humors, and basically chill all day.  The main character is Konata Izumi, a super athlete and intellegant student, but dispite all that attribute, she doesnt join any sports club, or have good grades. The reason behind this is because she is a big Otaku, and her love for anime and video games over run her life.

Lucky star is somewhat similiar with Azumanga Daioh, both are 4-coma manga and they all have similar humor, actually Lucky Star has alot more loose humor then Azumanga which has a more comical humor. Lucky star, is very interesting and sometime alittle confusing, if your not really obsessed into anime and otaku life, there are some Otaku jokes here and there which you will not understand. They also do alot of Parodying of other anime and stuff. Others are loosly everyday situations jokes, which in times are kinda lame, but its also funny because the same thing applies to your own life. A fun series to watch with a group of other otaku or anime loving friends, then you can laugh along side with them.

 Like all other school slice of life genre anime, They always have the steriotypical characters like, Sports girl, Popular girl, dumb girl… etc etc. Lucky star is alittle bit different, they added alittle more originality to the characters. Such as Konata Izumi, a very athletic and intellegent girl, but is a total dope. Tsukasa and Kagami Hiiragi, the twin, but yet both have different personalities, one is shy and the other is a tsundere. Miyuki Takara, the moe/glasses/bust/smartest all in one girl. There are other types who appear as secondary characters, but their personality is also very unique and makes the show more fun to watch.

The animation is done by Kyoto Animation, which probably makes the best moe/cute animations in Japan. The very simple drawing making the animation feel really loose, really gives a good impression with the viewers. Kyoto has made the famous Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Clannad, K-On, and much more other series, that really has been a big hit in Japan.

In the end, Lucky star was a fun series to watch, Like Haruhi, they made a Opening song “Motteke Sailor Fuku” which basically lead alot of otaku’s to self teach themselves how to dance that exact steps and basically did it at conventions. Also another fun thing about this series is, you get to listen to many different (mostly old school) anime series sung by Konata, and sometime by the othe characters, Which is really fun. XD

So if your into the slice of life school life series this one will be a pretty good catch. I am sure you will all like it.

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Ratings:

Story:B+

Animation:A

Art:A

Music:A

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Youtube video of the OP/ED will be posted, so please go and watch them if you are interested.

Thanks again for reading and if there are any suggestion/comments/questions, please feel free to ask.

Jya~ne see ya later

 ~O-tak-U

 Marvel Anime series

 Isn’t this interesting, Japan and America coming together through anime. The Marvel world meets the world of anime. First was the Halo Legend series, and now Iron man and Wolverine. Both series (perhaps more, seems like madhouse studio’s is not revealing the other “2″ they have in work.) will be airing late 2010.

 Both series are being produced by Madhouse studio’s, i dont know what gave them the idea of working on American comic titles. But Madhouse does a lot of things, so not surprising.

They also have trailers for both of the series.

My first impression of Wolverine was… “WTF, Wolverine looks so freakin wierd…” I did not like it at all… lol at his hairstyle too. the trailer showing him fight ninja’s and a giant demon, was really cool though, i gotta admit the animation of both series, Iron man and Wolverine is top quality and the battle for both will be mega awesome. You’ll have to watch it to believe it.

Marvel seem to have moved away from the traditional depictions for these productions; they describe it as “popular Super Heroes redesigned and re purposed as emerging from the fabric of Japanese culture”. Particularly in the case of Wolverine, at first glance it is certainly easy to get the impression that this is actually a Japonified version of the series actually intended for American audiences…

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Trailers

WOLVERINE

IRONMAN

 SO yeah either way these american adapted anime series wouldnt be released till late 2010, so i have some time to check up on it some more.

I’ll definetly be checking this series out when its released.

Well thats it for today.

~O-tak-U

 Doraemon

 Original Creator: Hiroshi Fujimoto

Director: Various

Production Group: Tokyo Movie Shinsha

 Total Episodes: over 700

Summary: Nobi Nobita, a middle school student, who is a very lame and dumb boy, he cannot do anything by himself. To save him from his misreable life, Doreamon a 21st century robot cat comes from the future to help him. Day by day Nobita’s life begins to change with Doraemon.

 Doraemon was probably one of the first anime series i watched as a kid. The family oriented anime starring a future robot helping a helpless boy, was always fun to watch. I’ve been a fan of this show for all my life, until the day they totally remade the series and completely destroyed my childhood dream of doreamon. But there was nothing we can do about it, the show was going to change due to the 25th annevarsity of Doraemon. I will always keep Doraemon in my heart as a great old school anime series.

Doraemon a robot cat from the 21st century, comes from the future to help a boy named Nobita who is basically the lamest kid you’ll ever see. The story is basically all the same, but its original and fun to watch. So the jist of each episodes is this… Nobita gets beat up/ or is shown off, by his enemies; Gian and Suneo. So he goes to Doraemon for help, and what Doraemon does is gets an item from the future that basically teaches them a lesson, but Nobita also ends up getting taught a lesson, by over using/ over powering the others. A great source of entertainment, each episode is about 15min long, various characters are introduced, although there are mainly 6 characters used throught the series. Doraemon, like i said, is the robot cat from the future to help Nobita. Nobi Nobita, the main character, the lame boy who cant do anything with out Doraemon. Gian (Goda Takeshi) the very famous class bully. Honekawa Suneo, the rich boy in the show, and a partner in crime with Gian. Minamoto Shijuka, the idol of the series. And Dekisugi-kun(dont know his last name) is the very smart student everyone is envious of, but he rarely makes it into the shows.

Doraemon not only is famous for its countless amounts of episodes, but for the great amount of Movies too. Almost every year, Doreamon has had a movie made. All really great movies. So far they have about 30 movies, and is still ongoing with the new remade Doraemon. The movies are very original and has many great fantasy and fun. From dinasours to space aliens, the Doraemon movies really are something great to watch.

Like i said earlier how they changed everything for their 25th anniversary, That was the starting point for me to stop watching it. The one thing that i couldnt stand was the voice actors changed, and now with Doraemon with a squeeky voice, i cannot stand that, it is so annoying. Another thing is the animation, its definetly better in quality, but the originality dissapeared, which i am truly sad about. Ever since the change i never set my eyes on the new series, sadly.

This is the New Doraemon Series, this is the poster for the 2007 Doreamon movie they produced. Basically a remade version of an earlier Doraemon movie.

They added new special affects to make the pictures more dazzling and all, but the old school series was alot more better

Thats probably because I was watching Doraemon since the beginnig so the new voice actor was just too lame for me. I know the new generation of kids who is watching this Doreamon would not like the old Doraemon voice acting and such, vice versa.

 But Lately i’ve been thinking of at least watching the movies, because the movies were good, and i want to see what they did to improve.

All in all, Doraemon is a great series to watch with your family. A very fun and some times educational series that teacher moral values to your childrens. I know i learned lessons  througout watching Doraemon.

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Ratings:

Story:B+

Animation:B

Art:B

Music:B

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Youtube video of the OP/ED will be posted, so please go and watch them if you are interested.

Thanks again for reading and if there are any suggestion/comments/questions, please feel free to ask.

Jya~ne see ya later

 ~O-tak-U

 Ouran High School Host Club

Original Creator: Bisco Hatori

Director: Takuya Igarashi

Production Group: BONES

Total Episodes: 26

Vintage: 2006-04-04 to 2006-09-26

Summary: Haruhi an tomboish student is enrolled to a ultra-wealthy school with rich students from rich families, how Haruhi was able to get into the school was because of scholarships. Wanting to become a lawyer, Haruhi chose this prestigeous school. Although not from a rich family Haruhi cant afford student uniforms, later walk into the third music hall to study, but when she opend the door, it was used as a Host Club. Trying to escape Haruhi accidently breaks a very expencive vase. The Host Club president Tamaki gave Haruhi a chance to repay the debt, and that was to serve and gain the hearts of the female students who attend the school. The thing is… Tamaki  didnt know that Haruhi was a girl, not till later.

Ouran High School Host Club, well in the beginning i gave second thoughts of not wanting to watch this “shoujo” anime series.  after a couple month, when they were airing the last episode, by friend sent me an email talking about this series and how great it was. I didnt know what to say, so i gave it a go. The first impression i got was that the animation was very nice. BONES studio, one of my faveorite studio’s out there worked on this piece, I was quite suprised. Usually BONES would do more intense action series, but this was so different in many ways. After the first couple episodes, i really got hooked, i believe i almost watched the whole series within the span of 2-3 days.

The characters in the series is awesome and very comical and humourous. The President Tamaki, the “king of the host” acts really dumb but is actually quite intellegent, caring and loving to everyone, he is the one thats very popular with the female attendee’s. Then their is Kyouya the mysterious guy with glasses, aka the cool type. Mostly in the financial part of the host club, doesnt really “host” the girls who come in, but does whatever it takes to get more money for the club and his secret ambition. Then there is the Twins, Hikaru and Kaour, the all famous “guess who Hikaru is” game, and their brotherly love gets the attention of many of the female students. Then the pair of third year students, Takashi and Honey, the freakishly tall takashi + the baby faced Honey = the cutes pair, which brings many costomers to their tables, and last but not least, Haruhi the newby who has a huge debt to the club and has to get 100 fans in order to pay it back.

The BONES series always  has been a great studio that i’ve been watching eversince they made Eureka Seven. Their animation is very beautiful and flawless. I really enjoy watching all their series.

The Music in the series is fun and lively. The opening theme song “Sakura kiss” by Chieko Kawabe has a really great opening for this series, the roses, the bishounen characters, the fun dancing movements, the upbeat music. A great intro to this series. The ending song “Shissou” by LAST ALLIANCE, is a really awesome song, the high beats and extreme electronic tune really brings out the music, The animation itself isnt all that exciting, the music takes its place for excitement.

overall, i really enjoyed watching this series alot, i even rewatched the series couple times. If you guys still havent watched this series yet, i would suggest it highly. A great source of comedy and romance all in one.

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Ratings:

Story:A

Animation:A

Art: A

Music: A

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Youtube video of the OP/ED will be posted, so please go and watch them if you are interested.

Thanks again for reading and if there are any suggestion/comments/questions, please feel free to ask.

Jya~ne see ya later

 ~O-tak-U

 Halo Legend

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MAJOR UPDATE

the Trailer for the Halo Legend Anime series is out

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The most interesting news that i was able to acquire was the they are making a Halo Anime!

wow, isnt that cool, although i myself wasnt much of a shooter game fan, but playing Halo was a lot of great fun. So when i heard the news of that Halo was being created as an anime series it really got my interest. So for this series, there will be about 5 production groups working together. The 5 production groups are…

Bones : the studio that brought you Eureka Seven, Darker than Black, FullMetal Alchemist.

Casio Entertainment : Studio that creates very great visual effects, won many film awards with.

Production I.G : Creator of Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh and countless  amount of great films.

Studio  4°C : One of the top studios in Japan, Maker of Tekkonkinkreet.

Toei Animation : Probably the biggest production group in Japan.

With these 5 amazing studio’s there is no way this anime series will suck, another thing to add to top the cake, is that it is being directed by Shinji Aramaki, the renowned director of Ghost in the Shell. With this team, the Halo anime series will be a big thing in the anime world.

With Microsoft backing up this project this should be a really high quality anime series.

Unfortunetly there is no further information about the release date and such, but with this team it should be in the near future, suppose in about a year or so.

This is going to be announced at the comic-con in san diego.

more information about the studio’s and their ideas for Halo can be found: AnimeNewsNetwork

Hakurei Reimu Nendroid.

 So recently i was given a link from a friend who was checking up Sankakucomplex the other day and told me that i would definetly go crazy over this.

I did, i really did get crazy after finding out that they are making the very first Touhou Nendroid figurine. I am a big fan of the Nendroids and their crazy cute little figures they make. Sadly i dont have any of them due to financial problems, but sooner or later when i do get the income, i’ll be investing on some of them nendroids.

So as i mentioned earlier, this is the very first official Touhou Nendroid, Hakurei Reimu. This will be released at the big comic convetion in Japan in August 2009. Not sure of the price, but it will definetly be around 3000-4000 yen (app. $30-$40) per unit.  One thing i love about Nendroid is how simple the design is, but it they do a really great job on making it looks so FREAKIN cute.

Like all the other Nendroids, which has interchangeable face parts, hand parts, and props that let her banish youkai or enjoy tea. It even comes with a ying-yang design platform for her to sit/stand on. Very awesome nendroid.

Perhaps they (Goodsmile) thought of making an official Touhou nendroid after seeing how some fans made their own Touhou Nendroid from scrath. I was suprised how they didnt really think of making it earlier, because Touhou is gaining more popularity everyday and soon it’ll become known throughout the world.

(Previous self made Touhou Nendroids)

I myself would love to get my hands on the Hakurei Reimu Nendroid when its going to be released through the market. Going to the comic market in japan would be almost impossible for me.. seeing how i live in america. So either way i’ll just be waiting for the official release of the nendroid in the market place to get my hands on one them beauty.

Courtesy of Sankaku Complex for the pictures.

No ratings yet, when i get one sure why not.

Till next time

Lessonguy aka O-Tak-U

 Claymore

original creator: Norihiro Yagi

Director: Hiroyuki Tanaka

Production Group: Madhouse studios

Total Episodes: 26

Vintage: 2007-04-03 to 2007-09-25

Summary: Clare a half human, half “Youma” warrior also know as a Claymore. Their mission as a Claymore is to defeat all the Youma that is attacking villages. The orginization that Clare works for is plotting to kill her by sending her to very dangerous missions, the reason behind that is because Clare became a rogue and is disobeying the orginization and its ways. Clare’s one reasong of becoming a Claymore is to seek for revenge. Avenging for her savior who was killed by another member of the orginization.

I just finished Reading the manga(which is still on-going) and i really like it, so i decided to follow up with the anime series. The story is quite well developed and the characters are all very unique. I really liked the idea of having them ranked in order of how strong each Claymore is. All the special abilities that they all possess. Clare starting as the very weakest number eventually rises to surpass everyone with her powers. Her revenge towards the orginization and the one who killed her savior pulls her together to become the strongest. Also with the help of Raki, a boy who was exiled from his town because his family was killed by Youma’s. Clare then takes him in and is saved by Raki many times. Just simple a great series, Although i think that ending the series so abruptly was not a good part.

The original creator Norihiro Yagi is also the author of Angel Guardian (my previous journal in the manga section) which definetly shows similiarity’s between the two manga/anime. The facial expressions, the characters. The only difference is the genre, one is school life and the other is hack and slash. Very intersting how one manga-ka can create such different series. Just like, Inoue Takehiko and his Slam Dunk and Vagabond manga.

The Animation is very bloody with the hack and slash action happening like every second. The idea of having body parts blow up in many pieces isnt something i really like to see, but once in a while i guess its ok. Just gives me the creeps sometimes. The animation itself is very smooth and well made, but its still just one of those typical style that you would see every where, nothing unusual.

Nothing really to mention about the OP/ED, they basically play the whole same song througout the whole 26 episodes, which i think was kinda boring. I mean the songs were great, but after the couple episodes it got kinda boring.

I’d say the great thing about this series is the story line, although the ending is really hurried and i wished that they developed it more better, but its different from the manga and the manga is really great.

Indeed a great series to check out on your free time, if you like hack and slash and demons and freaky monsters.

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Ratings:

Story: B+

Animation:B-

Art: A

Music: B

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Youtube video of the OP/ED will be posted, so please go and watch them if you are interested.

Thanks again for reading and if there are any suggestion/comments/questions, please feel free to ask.

Jya~ne see ya later

 ~O-tak-U