streaming video

Catblue: Dynamite on Crunchyroll

Nick — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:56:11 -0500

Looks like Crunchyroll is on a roll here. This time, they will be streaming Catblue: Dynamite, though I'm not sure if the movie will be available for download (whether for pay or not) from the site. I have talked about this fun CG anime before...

Hopefully, this me reporting on series showing on Crunchyroll reported by Anime News Network won't be what this blog pares down to. I'll try to get a proper post up at some point...

Eve no Jikan on Crunchyroll

Nick — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:02:42 -0500

I was just thinking of Eve no Jikan (Time of Eve) when I saw this announcement on Anime News Network:

Crunchyroll to Premiere Time of Eve in English/French

posted on 2008-09-23 15:48 EDT

1st 2 acts of Yasuhiro Yoshiura's sci-fi anime to debut online on October 2

The Crunchyroll video-sharing website and the media production company Directions, Inc. have announced that Crunchyroll will premiere Yasuhiro Yoshiura's Time of Eve (Eve no Jikan) anime series in English and French in North America and Europe on October 2. Yoshiura and Studio Rikka — the creators of the Mizu no Kotoba and Pale Cocoon anime — developed this "non-hard science-fiction" story about everyday life in a future Japan populated by robots and life-like androids.

The first two acts of the series will be available on October 2 at 1:00 a.m. PT through advertising-supported streaming and through a download-to-own (DTO) option without digital rights management (DRM). Crunchyroll also plans to host a live question-and-answer session with Yoshiura this November.

The first act of Time of Eve had already been streamed for free in Japanese in August, but not the second act. (In the linked page, select "Movie" from the top menu and then select "Act 01: Akiko.")

Image © Yasuhiro Yoshiura/Directions, Inc.

I'd still rather download and watch the series on my TV setup, but this is a good way to give exposure (and a handy1 link to interested viewers) to Yasuhiro Yoshiura's latest work.

UPDATE 09-24-2008: Author highlighted one part of this deal that I had glossed over earlier, from the claim in the article about Crunchyroll offering “a download-to-own (DTO) option without digital rights management (DRM).” If this is truly the case, and I can just stream the downloaded file through TVersity to my living room setup, I'll probably just purchase the episodes off of Crunchyroll as they come out. I'll try it out with the first episode, since it's only 2 dollars per episode (Not sure what the badge bonus is about, but I don't need ipod or PSP versions either).

UPDATE 09-24-2008 Part 2: Boo! The stream requires an account to view it. It's harder to float the link out to people (most of who won't have a Crunchyroll account) to get people to check it out this way, even if registering on the site is free.

UPDATE 09-30-2008: Yay! I just checked, and it looks like you can watch this streamed now without having to be logged in.

1. Legal, in other words

Pale Birthday

Nick — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:05:37 -0500

Wabi Sabi's post on the trailer of Yasuhiro Yoshiura's Time of Eve reminded me to search for a DVD of Yoshiura's earlier works. And found it I did on CDJapan. The R2 DVD does come with English subtitles (and Aquatic Language on the DVD comes with English dubbing) and I have a region-free DVD player, so no worries there.

So for a birthday present to myself (getting to the ancient age of 29 this Sunday), I decided to order the R2 DVD. Besides, I've liked Pale Cocoon enough that I feel I should at least own a real copy of it.

Martin has said everything I probably would have said about Pale Cocoon, so go there to read about it.

Here's the trailer of Yoshiura's new film, Eve no Jikan (Time of Eve; I've also seen it titled Are you enjoying the time of EVE?):

I do agree with Wabi Sabi; the visuals and atmosphere in this trailer energize the Makoto Shinkai fanboy in me. I do hope the film delivers on that, too. I see info that it's been released, but I haven't been able to score a copy of it anywhere.

And here's the English dub version for Aquatic Language.

UPDATE: Got an email from CDJapan that my order shipped yesterday, June 8, 2008 (On a Sunday?), and my previous order took 10 days from when they emailed me the shipment notice to when it arrived at my house. I'll probably will be getting Pale Cocoon next week, though the email claimed 4-12 days delivery.

New Game Trailer Directed By Makoto Shinkai

Nick — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:55:26 -0500

Here's the new trailer directed by Makoto Shinkai for the game "ef - the latter tale", Music was composed by Tenmon.

I haven't gotten a chance to watch it yet. My internet connection is being very obtuse right now. Hopefully, it will clear up in the morning so I can actually watch the entire video.

(Heads up via Daike. He also has links to where you can download higher-quality WMVs, which is probably the route I'll try to watch this.)

UPDATE: Finally got to watch the higher-quality WMV video. It seemed to be missing a certain punch that the trailer of "ef -a fairy tale of the two-"1 had. The first thing that comes to mind is that the music in this one lacks the climactic punch that was in the earlier game trailer. As usual, the visuals are very, very pretty...

1. This trailer can be seen on an earlier blog post.

A Collection of Makoto Shinkai Shorts And an English Fan Site

Nick — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:06:31 -0500

Well, I'm quite flattered that Fledge thinks my obsessions are working looking into. So, I will return with even more Makoto Shinkai visuals!

But first, I need to announce the Makoto Shinkai English Fan Forum And Site. It's not super active yet, and there hasn't been any major discussion of Shinkai's work yet, but hopefully, I can get some time to resolve that issue. It's been open for several months now, and I only found it from Daike's Shinkai Fan Site a couple of months ago.

Now let's go back in time for what I would call his pre-breakout days. These were the shorts Shinkai made before he quit his then day job to work on Voices of a Distant Star:

Other Worlds

This is the first of Shinkai's work that I know of. Featuring "Gymnopédie No. 1" by French composer and pianist Erik Satie, this is Shinkai before he had sound effects, voice acting, or color. Clocking in at less than 90 seconds, Other Worlds (Also Tooi Sekai or 遠い世界) contains several themes and motifs that would be the spine of almost all of his future major work:

Best described as visual poetry, this is also the animation that I would call as the most "pure", as other than Satie's song, Shinkai did everything including storyboarding, shot placement, backgrounds, character designs, hand-drawn animations, computer graphics, compositing, editing, and timing. Made in 1997 to 19991, Other Worlds is a short animation that I watch many times, and it always manages to leave a lump in my throat. The idea is very abstract, the drawings are crude, yet it still manages to connect to me.

She and Her Cat

Another independent short animation that I would call visual poetry, She and Her Cat (also Kanojo to Kanojo no neko) runs for a bit under 5 minutes and is perhaps my most favorite Shinkai film. This time we have voice acting featuring Shinkai himself and his then girlfriend and the background piano piece was composed and performed by a co-worker going under the name Tenmon 2, but otherwise Shinkai did all of the visuals and timing. We also start to see Shinkai perfecting his background imagery, lighting effects, camera placement, and other directing skills that, to me, form much of the appeal of his later work:

To me, this is his most brilliant work. Shinkai worked on this for around 5 months while working a day job at a game company in 20003 and stars Chobi4 the cat as the main character voiced by Shinkai himself. The film is really about his owner, who's name is unknown but is referred to as "She" by Chobi. I find it to be a powerfully emotional piece.

After this, I'll be listing the other short and non-independent animations that Shinkai has done after his breakout and may have slipped under the radar of many of his fans, but they also feature motifs and visuals that are very common in his work. A very big thanks to Daike for his very informative "Other Works" page, and I highly recommend going there to get more information about where these animations came from. Mainly, I'll be skipping over Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and Five Centimeters Per Second as I highly recommend renting/purchased these movies and watching them on the best home theater system you can (or better yet, try to watch them in a theater). I'll also exclude Neko no Shuukai because I've mentioned it before.

Bittersweet Fools opening

This was the opening for the Minori game Bittersweet Fools created by Makoto Shinkai in 2001:

Technically, it seems this one was made before he worked on Voices of a Distant Star. This and Voices of a Distant Star are also the last two animations that Shinkai directed in which he also did the character animations.

Wind -A Breath of Heart- opening

This is the opening for the Minori game Wind -A Breath of Heart-. The characters were drawn by the Minori staff, but Shinkai apparent did all of the other visuals:

How the CG cherry petal scene at the start might look familar to Shinkai fans, as he was actually working on this opening at the same time he was working on Voices of a Distant Star and used the same CG effect in both.

As a side note, Makoto Shinkai was credited for working on the CG in the Wind: A Breath of Heart TV series. Unfortunately, not everything that Shinkai touches turns to gold. It was, to say it bluntly, crap, but it didn't seem like Shinkai had anything to do with the directing or story writing.

Tou no Mukou

This 3-minute animation was a "draft" of The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and could be thought of as a pilot for the film. It works pretty well as a trailer for the film too, but readers that have watched the film should notice the differences:

I apologize for not being able to find a subtitled version of this clip.

Egao

Now for something a bit different: an actual music video!

If you really want more info on this music video, Daike has quite a bit of it (Do a find on the title "Egao").

Haru no Ashioto opening

Another game opening directed by Shinkai in 2004. The music was composed by Tenmon:

ef -a fairy tale of the two- opening

Again, directed by Shinkai in 2006, music composed by Tenmon:

The paper airplane scene near the beginning might be familiar to those who watched Five Centimeters Per Second.

As you can see, I am a fan of Makoto Shinkai, probably bordering on obsession5. Hopefully, you can see it's for good reasons. Now go out and watch Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, and Five Centimeters Per Second, dammit!

UPDATE: Apparently, I forgot one more short Shinkai had directed...

Commercial for The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun newspaper

Shinkai created this commercial sometime last year for his hometown's paper. Unfortunately, the only example of it has the audio out of sync, but it really isn't a big deal:

1. Shinkai apparently mostly finished Other Worlds in 1997, but continued to tweak it until 1999. Source: http://daike.hp.infoseek.co.jp/03_filmography/other_works.html
2. Tenmon would also be Shinkai's "go to" composer for music in his films since She and Her Cat. A good choice, as I find that their styles match perfectly for each other. Shinkai's movies would not be so good without Tenmon's piano and orchestration supporting them.
3. Source: http://daike.hp.infoseek.co.jp/03_filmography/neko.html
4. Chobi also makes cameo appearances in Shinkai's future work, but not as a talking cat.
5. Ok, who am I kidding? I am obsessed!

Byousoku 5cm First Episode Stream

Nick — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:19:53 -0600

Not that it would do me much good, but it looks like the first episode of this movie will be offered online for streaming. According to MSFW:

Byousoku 5cm Official Site (Yahoo! Japan) says they will release the 1st episode for Yahoo! Premium members and Yahoo! BB members by streaming... The streaming is distributed only for 3 days: from February 16 12:00PM to 19 12:00PM (Japan Standard Time: UTC+9:00).

Heck yeah, I'm excited too. Even if I won't get the opportunity to watch this stream, and, if I could watch it, I wouldn't understand it anyways!