A mysterious young girl wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying a large egg. Director: Mamoru Oshii Writers: Yoshitaka Amano (story), Mamoru Oshii (screenplay)
Need we say more?
Will report back.
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Space Battleship Yamato 2202’s Sequel “2205: The New Voyage” Hits Theaters in Fall 2020
Well I’ll be damned; looks like they’re going all the way with remaking the entire series! I’m intensely curious, as I was less than 100% thrilled w/ 2202, even if they did accomplish the mind-numbing feat of combining both endings of Saraba Yamato and Yamato 2. We all know the original New Voyage served largely as a prelude to Be Forever, so we’re looking at Yamato material for years to come… assuming we’re here to see it, that is…
From Crunchyroll:
Following the teaser announcement six months ago, the official website for the Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love anime series confirmed today that its sequel titled Space Battleship Yamato 2205: Aratanaru Tabidachi/The New Voyage is scheduled to be screened in Japanese theaters in the fall of 2020. As the title suggests, its story is set three years after 2202, and is expected to be produced as a remake of the 1979 TV special Space Battle Ship Yamato: Aratanaru Tabidachi/The New Voyage.
Shoji Nishizaki, an adapted son of the Yamato anime franchise’s original producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki, will serve as executive producer again. And Harutoshi Fukui, who worked on 2202 as series composition writer in place of the first series 2199’s director Yutaka Idebuchi, is confirmed to stay in the same position. Other staff members will be announced at a later date.
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Nocturnal Emissions | Sunday Edition
WIP: A new Drax avatar for twitter from the gloriously talented @maximpetergriff | maximpetergriffin.wordpress.com
The Creep in the Art Department is currently tweaking it. We’ll see.
The Inspiration/Direction given was WITCHFINDER. Behold this glorious illustration of Vincent Price as Matthew Hopkins by Abel Mvada
ALBUM OF THE WEEKEND: Resonate/Reason Nitrate by Tonepoet & Wings Of An Angel
ANIME OF THE WEEKEND: MARDOCK SCRAMBLE
THE HORROR SHOW DOUBLE FEATURE: THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN
…which rated a solid B+
and
THE WARD, John Carpenter, Director
…which was (sadly) pedestrian and offered nothing more original and scary than a sub-par made-for-cable snorefest. C-
We’ll see you tomorrow, True Believers.
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If It’s Friday and You’ve Had Enough and You Want to Get Off This Damn Planet—
—this might be your ride.
Also, it helps if you’re in Japan. Opening today.
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Anime 101.5 | A Sudden Slice of Prescient Transgender Shōjo THE ROSE OF VERSAILLES | This Assignment: Mandatory
Shōjo, shojo or shoujo (少女 shōjo) is a Japanese word originally derived from a Chinese expression written with the same characters.The Chinese characters (少 and 女) literally mean young/little and woman respectively. In Japanese, these kanji refer specifically to a young woman approximately 7–18 years old. Shōjo can often be translated with the English word girl.
Yes, I cribbed the above from Wikipedia—yes, I am a lazy hungover deranged bad-hair professor, just deal with it. And yeah, swerving from YAMATO into Shōjo might seem a weird left turn but really, it’s not. There are stories for boys and stories for girls, but despite whom these stories are “designed” and aimed for, both sexes happily dip into genres of the other and both are left richer for their explorations.
Which gives me a bitchin’ dead-on intro to my main topic.
There are fewer white-hot issues in our western world right now in 2014 than the recognition and the rightly-demanded rights and deserved respect of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi, transgender) community. Head scratcher: Japan, one of the most conservative (and sexist, militaristic, and exploitive) countries on the planet, had centuries ago accepted homosexuality, cross-dressing, and transgender as a silent “norm.” (This from a country that for most of the 20th century found the concept of a kiss “obscene,” but that’s another article.)
Contradiction and complexity: These factors make life interesting.
The Rose of Versailles (ベルサイユのばら Berusaiyu no Bara?), also known as Lady Oscar or La Rose de Versailles, is one of the best-known titles in shōjo manga and a media franchise created by Riyoko Ikeda. It has been adapted into several Takarazuka Revue musicals, as well an anime television series, produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and broadcast by the anime television network Animax and Nippon Television. The show remains incredibly popular in Italy.
The Rose of Versailles focuses on Oscar François de Jarjayes, a girl raised as a man to become her father’s successor as leader of the Palace Guards. A brilliant combatant with a strong sense of justice, Oscar is proud of the life she leads, but becomes torn between class loyalty and her desire to help the impoverished as revolution brews among the oppressed lower class. Also important to the story are her conflicting desires to live life as both a militant and a regular woman as well as her relationships with Marie Antoinette, Count Axel von Fersen, and servant and best friend André Grandier.
It features elements of the yuri genre embodied in the relationship between Oscar and her protégée Rosalie Lamorlière, the secret daughter of the scheming Madame de Polignac, whose admiration for Oscar may be interpreted as either hero worship or romantic love coming from her possible bisexuality. Many of the court ladies also greatly adore Oscar, openly admiring her at parties and become very jealous when she brings female companions to them.
“PROFESSOR DRAX! ARE YOU CUTTING AND PASTING FROM WIKI AGAIN?!”
Yes. Yes I am.
Here’s the first episode from 1979. Still good. The opening theme rocks.
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Anime 101.4 | Yamato Never Dies | This Assignment is Mandatory
This essay originally appeared in VideoScope #19, Summer 1996. Jesus.
Yes, the ship itself was the “hero” of the series and films, but the story wouldn’t have worked without a compelling human drama. This is a beloved episode from the American iteration of YAMATO dubbed in English, Star Blazers, one of the characters’ most desperate hours from the second television series, Yamato 2.
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Anime 101.3 | YAMATO Teaser | You Know, I Was Never Hard as 宇宙戦艦ヤマト Made Ready to Fire the Wave Gun But Boy I was Breathing Heavy
This truly might be the most pornographic build-up to firing the Wave Gun in the entire series. Or perhaps I’m just weird.
I’d give you my detailed Freudian analysis of this sequence, the pacing, the imagery—but I don’t want to spoil it.
This assignment is optional.
The next: mandatory.
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Anime 101.2— a draxian list for a friend: Still with Tezuka, in Which We Leap Forward, Then Back, Then Forward Again. It’s all About Karma. PHOENIX (Hi No Tori)
Phoenix. Firebird. Hi no Tori. Tezuka considered this his masterpiece, his life’s work. This excellent little 3-part OVA (Original Video Animation) from 1986-87 adapted from parts of Tezuka’s original manga is heartbreakingly beautiful and required viewing for all students of Anime 101. Failing to do so will result in immediate expulsion from the program and may have future impact on your credit score, the release of intimate photographs, bank numbers, terrible secrets, etc.
Bottom line: you MUST at least watch the first chapter. Or else.
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Now in Paperback & Kindle!
Now in Paperback! New Cover!
Revised Edition!
Now in Paperback!
Available in Kindle!
Forthcoming
