Temptations

Nick — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 13:15:26 -0400

Am I crazy enough to drive a bit over a thousand miles to this?

Hmm...

Genius Party releasing in Summer 2007

Nick — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 16:13:13 -0400

Genius Party has been a series of shorts from Studio 4°C that I've been waiting for nearly a year now. Here's some information about the release:

7 animated shorts coming from Studio 4°C

Vol. 1 release date : Summer 2007 (Japan) ...

7 Directors - 7 Shorts :

#1 GENIUS PARTY - Atsuko Fukushima
#2 Space-Time Wars - Shoji Kawamori
#3 Death Take Four - Shinji Kimura
#4 Doorbell - Yoji Fukuyama
#5 LIMIT CYCLE - Hideki Futamura
#6 Dream Machine - Masaaki Yuasa
#7 BABY BLUE - Shinichiro Watanabe

http://www.genius-party.jp/

And Here's the third trailer:

There are also two more trailers for it, but they're not as comprehensive as the third one.

According to AniPages Daily, this is only the first part of Genius Party. The second part will be released later possibly featuring the work of Shinya Ohira, Koji Morimoto, and Tatsuyuki Tanaka.

I can't wait!

Nick's Anime Wishlist, 2007

Nick — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:33:41 -0400

Normally, I don't have many anticipated up-and-coming anime that I'm waiting for. I seem to have more of a wait-and-see attitude, and often will wait until others of watched and discussed the anime before I start watching. As it is, I already have quite a backlog of anime waiting to be watched. I find that this serves me well, and it's rare that I watch an anime that disappoints me. But sometimes, based on previous experiences with certain creators or an intriguing concept, I'll find myself looking forward to several animes, like right now. There's a number of anime, mostly films, coming out of Japan that I am keeping an eye out for.

Tekkon Kinkreet

I'm look for this odd-looking anime movie mainly because this is a Studio 4°C production. They are an animation studio that has rarely failed to put out a show that highly entertains me. Another reason this movie intrigues me is that it was actually directed by an American, and the movie was quite well received by the Japanese according to this L.A. Times article (It requires registration, but there's a discussion of the article at the ANN forums).

Genius Party

Another anime made by Studio 4°C, but this one is going to be another anthology of short, animated movies that this studio takes part in fairly often like Memories , Digital Juice, Sweat Punch, The Animatrix, and Amazing Nuts!. Studio 4°C work with some serious talent to create beautiful, fast-paced, thoughtful, or downright weird animated shorts, and I'm sure Genius Party will be no different.

Byousoku 5 Centimeter

I have been a Makoto Shinkai fanboy ever since I first watched his Voices of a Distant Star. My most favorite work of his was the five minute long She and Her Cat. Was, in that Shinkai was finally able to present on the big screen what he was aiming for in that short film, before he was encouraged to create a sci-fi film for his first DVD release. Don't get me wrong, what resulted from his 8 months of near-solo work was a gut-wrenching sci-fi drama about a couple being separated by war, but Shinkai is not a very accomplished storyteller in that respect. But he has a real gift of creating atmosphere and of creating characters that draw you into their world. I believe that Byousoku 5 Centimeter was the full realization of his talent. Well, as of the first episode that I was able to see, it is. This story of a young boy riding in the Japanese train system in the early 1990's to meet who would be best described as his girlfriend for possibly the last time was possibly the perfect love story to me. And I can't wait until I can see the rest of it!

Paprika

Though I have some faults with his style, Satoshi Kon is my second favorite animated film director in Japan right now. He caught my eye when I watched Millennium Actress a few years back, and his other work have proved that he can create multi-level anime that can delight, entrance, or horrify you. Kon is one of the few directors that I look forward to, a list that includes Kori Morimoto, Hayao Miyazaki, and, of course, Makoto Shinkai.

Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (The Girl Who Lept Through Time)

This one seems to be the odd-ball entry here, as it wasn't directed or produced by any of the people that draw me to their work. But the premise does sound interesting, nevermind that the movie won Animation of the Year at the 6th Annual Tokyo Anime Awards among other rewards. Fledgling Otaku at Haibane.info reminded me of this one, since I've been waiting for this one to become available for quite a long time now. I'll also have to thank Don for his comment on there that it should be available in mid April. I'll have to fire up Anime Night with some friends to watch this one.

UPDATE: Ok, so I just realized that almost all of these are anime that have already had their theatrical run, so they're not exactly up-and-coming. Not like I had much of a chance to see these in theaters that are across the country for me or beyond the Pacific if I wanted to...