Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Ok then, somebody has never seen Tenchi Muyo, and they are amongst us as we speak.....
Someone needs a severe schooling in classic anime. At least the great stuff they used to show on cartoon network back in the day. This is for Knightwolfgirl who asked who the "bunny thing" is on the top of my page. Well let me tell you, that is ryo-oki, the infamous carrot loving cat creature that transforms into ryoko's spaceship when needed. Technically a softcore hentai, Tenchi Muyo was one of the best shows even when edited by CN's shitty editing team. Still love you even though you didn't know who that was. Anyhow, I promised a talk about the future. And since I want to get back to taking souls on Valkyrie Profile(yes I just picked that game back up cause I'm bored, gcube broke, remember?) I'm going to make this a quick, what do you think scenario. Ok, here's the list:(some of this bs is hypothetical or might happen) If you want, number and tell me what you think of each one.

1. In the future, cash will be obsolete, and we will all pay for everything with credit in our names.
2. No such thing as a doorknob anymore. Isn't it fun not having to touch the door you want to walk through?
3. Doesn't that suspiscious-looking sensor on the auto toilet make you a little uncomfortable? Feel like it's actually a camera? Ew, who would rather just manually flush the damn thing?
4. Auto-on sinks are cool, cause you don't have to touch the dirty sink handle. Huh?
5. The one you all knew was coming. The very image of the future when it comes to mind. Hovercars? How is that possible? Magnetic roads? Loss of stability just to make everything look cool? Idk, what is your stand on flying automobiles?

Alright, that's it for now. I think next time I'll show you something innovative from today's technology that you might not have known about. And maybe another anime lesson. Alright kids, I'll catch ya next time, and consider this: the future is cool and all, but shouldn't we be a bit more concerned and focused on the time at hand. If we keep starry eyes on the future, we'll lose sight of the present. And I love presents. Which is irrelevant. Happy winter all btw.

love ya
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Monday, November 19, 2007

Alrighty folks
I was going to try to blog about the next topic, but I waited too late, and now I have to go to work. So tomorrow well talk about the future, society, and anime! Aren't you excited? I know you are. So if any of you reading this has anything you want me to answer or post about tomorrow, let me know now so when I log in tomorrow, I can read your comments then add and/or answer questions in the next post. Alright?
adios kiddos
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Friday, November 16, 2007

Life's a Bitch, and then you Die
A wise New Yorker once mad a song, more or less a funky beat yo, called Life's A Bitch. This song is like the anthem for people on the grind. I'm sure none of you listen to rap, especially even heard of a song from '94 by Nas. It's an ok song, but the lyrics are the most appealing part. I was going to post the lyrics, but I'll spare you non-rap listeners the eyestrain. I promised in my last post a condensed summary of life. I have already said it in the title of this post. But some of you wanted to hear another rant. Well, this time I won't freak out, because I keep my cool when pressure's on. I'd like to get this done before english class in 20 minutes so here we go.

Folks, no one ever said this was supposed to be easy. We got to where we are at because we're all looking out for our best interests. That's what it all comes down to. You can claim you don't only think of yourself, but in a sense, we all do. That's what it's all about. You can say you do care about those you love, but mainly it's because caring about their well-being makes YOU happy and/or content. I'm not saying that we're all selfish when it boils down to the bare details, but seriously, we live life to keep going and accomplish something whether we know what it is or not. Life is a gift given to us by those before us. I'm not talking god, or I may be if you are religious, sorry. But I'm talking about our parents. And such a gift is not to be wasted. We will all have to endure hard times more than once in our lives, but hey, knowing that there is something worth it all in the end is enough for me to want to keep going. Even though life's a bitch, there's something in it for all of us. Mainly a great deal of happiness is brought to us at different times. We can be mad, unhappy, happy, or depressed, and there is still a possibility of hope or happiness to come your way. We all have support in different ways, and for those who are reading this, obviously you got your little network of friends here on myotaku, whether you know them personally or just by talking to them on the internet and never even having seen them before, me for example. So endure what you can kids, and seek help within your circle of trust when it's too much for you to bear on your own. Because someday, you'll see dry land, and we'll all be there in the same future as each and every one of us here today. Don't cry

love ya kiddos

oh, catch me next time when I make a commentary on our obvious lack of humanity in society in my terms. Then we'll talk industrial revolution including toilets that flush themselves, proximity opening doors, and automatic sinks that know you're ready to wash your hands.(I have all three here at college^__^) And we'll tie anime somewhere in there next week or something, idk.
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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

ok kids
This may come as a shock to some of you younger folk. If you are easily scared, do not read this post. EXIT THE PAGE IMMEDIATELY!! This is a warning before I rant so don't say I didn't warn you.
It seems that students (usually high school) think that once you gradutate, it's all milk and cookies(like my wack ass metaphor?) WELL IT ISN'T!!!!!!!

Milk and cookies are the delightful treat that grandma makes for you when you slip and fall. Or smash your frickin nose on the boat and bleed for 20 minutes then go to the doctor to find out you almost broke your nose but instead you got a boo boo that can be cured by milk and cookies.

Do you want to work your ass off going to school full time, and then working a stressful full time job? Your boss doesn't give a damn that you are tired, or want to eat food to stay alive while you are on your break. No, that bitch wants their money. That's what it's all about. If you think you're going to get out of high school and live a wonderful life with a job that has recess, you're way wrong, by the frickin way, we stopped having recess in fifth grade, and if those who are reading this say, " Well I have recess" You're too young to have a myo account so peace the F!@# out then!

Another thing. Yes he has another thing to say.
A wise woman, and mother of a crippled ex-military Tom Hanks, once said: "Life is like a box of chocolates,"
YOU HAVE TO READ THE STUPID PAPER TO FIGURE OUT WHICH ONE YOU'RE EATING. AND THEN YOU FIND OUT THE ONE YOU THOUGHT WAS TRIPPLE FUDGE TURNED OUT TO BE COCONUT FILLED. THEN YOU'RE LIKE, SHIT! I WAS HOLDING THE PAPER UPSIDE-DOWN THE WHOLE TIME. That's why you never eagerly whip open the box so the paper flies out.

No one is ever going to get a box of 100% delicious chocolate-only chocolates!!! We all have a few nasty-ass coconut chocolates in our boxes. Makes you wanna shoot whoever is responsible for mixing those two, that's beyond me. But anyway, I want to wish you all luck in whatever you do. And for god's sake, if you come across a coconut flavored one, think of what I said and SPIT THAT SHIT OUT!

check me out next time where I summarize life in a post-sized format, can't wait? I know

love ya

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Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Can't believe I'm still here
It seems like it has been so long, but it has only been three years since I joined here, and it seriously serves well as a home on the internet. People have come and gone. Some have even come back, which amazes me. I'm glad there's always a chance to make new friends on the site whether your old friends leave or not. Well, I just want to take this short time I have to thank you all who have been on my team whether it's been years or months, you're the best.

Anyway, if I get the chance, I'm going to redo my layout. I have a really good idea, but I will have to put a lot of work into it. I doubt I'll have the time, just hope no one gets too sick of misaki...

By the way, does my background show up on your computer? I can never see it when I load it on the school computer. I want to know if I have to redo it...

Oh yeah, p.s. I forgot to say my gamecube broke a couple of weeks ago.. Right before I was about to play Phantasy Star Online.... Why does it work out like this??? My NES and N64 still work perfectly. I was just playing both yesterday. I love those systems... Now accepting Wii donations. jk
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Friday, November 2, 2007

This is very important to me. I love you if you are able to read all this.
I was just doing some web searching because I have to do an extensive research paper for english class. I chose to research the main components of Japanese Animation, you Otaku obviously know that as Anime. Yahoo!, well, I came across this site, I have no idea why I clicked on it, but when I read an essay this Japanese animator wrote about his experience in this career field and how it changed his life, I thought about you all. So, I decided I am going to post this essay and cite the source at the bottom, since we're learning how to cite sources properly in English class. I just want to let you know before you read this essay that it is very long. Also, if you don't care about what anime means to an animator and their life, then don't bother reading it. So in other words, if you are an aspiring animator, or just want to see how some people feel about it personally, then please, read this and tell your friends about it. This writing means a lot to me already, and I just read it.

This is wicked long, so you probably want to read a little each day unless you have a lot of time. I doubt anyone will want to read anymore after all the shit I just wrote. This is almost a confession of sorts by Iwanami Shoten, who was an animator for Toei animation studios, and still may be: Translated by Ryoko Toyama who disclaims the translation may be a bit off in spots.

It was 1958 when Hakujaden (The Legend of White Snake), the first feature length color cartoon movie in Japan, was released. In the end of that year, I, who was a senior high school student and was supposed to be preparing for the university entrance exam, met this movie at a third-class cheap movie theater.

I have to make an embarrassing confession. I fell in love with the heroine of a cartoon movie. My soul was moved, and I stumbled back home in the snow that had just started. Comparing my pitiful situation to their (characters') earnestness, I was ashamed of myself, and cried all night. It could be my depressed psyche during the entrance exam time, underdeveloped adolescence, or cheap melodrama-- it's easy to analyze and dismiss it, but the meeting with Hakujaden left a strong impression on me, who was still immature at that time.

It made me realize what a fool I was, who was trying to be a manga writer by writing an absurd drama, which was in fashion at that time. It made me realize that despite the words of distrust I spoke, I yearned for such an earnest and pure world though it may be a cheap melodrama. I could no longer deny the fact that I really wanted to affirm the world.

Since then, it seems that I came to think seriously about what I should make. At least, I came to think that I should work with my true heart, even if that's embarrassing.

It was 1963. I was a rookie animator at the Toei Animation Studio, but the work wasn't interesting. I couldn't agree to the projects I was working on, or the projects in plan. I was yet to abandon my dream to be a manga writer, and I was lost. The inspiration Hakujaden had given me was long gone, and I could only recall its imperfections. I doubt if I would have continued to work as an animator, had I not met Snow Queen at the screening hosted by the union.

Snow Queen proved how much love could be put into a work of animation, and how much the movement of the pictures can sublimate to acting. It proved that when you draw a simple and strong emotion earnestly and purely, animation can strike people's hearts as much as the best works of other media can. I think that Hakujaden also had it despite its weakness in the story.

I was thankful for the fact that I was an animator. Someday, we might have an opportunity. I decided to settle down and continue this job.

Both Hakujaden and Snow Queen are popular movies. Although I don't like enka, I must admit that I myself am a man of popular culture.[1] I kept going to see the works of ATG (Art Theater Guild) since Matka Joanna od aniolow, but I prefer Modern Times more than all of them combined.[2] For a popular movie, the moment of the meeting is important. The state of mind of the audience determines the meaning of the movie, as much as the contents of the movie do. Its value as eternal art isn't a question. The audience, including myself, have only limited ability to understand, and tend to overlook important clues. If such an audience can be released from the stress or sorrow in their daily lives, can release their gloomy emotion, can find unexpected admiration, honesty, or affirmation in themselves, and can return to their daily lives with a bit more energy, that's the role of a popular movie. Even if you laugh at the sentimentalism in the movie a few minutes later, the movie has a meaning to you. My meeting with Hakujaden meant a lot, not because it affected my choice of profession, but because I met it when I was a lot more immature than now.

Hence, I think that a popular movie has to be full of true emotion, even if it's frivolous. The entrance should be low and wide so that anyone can be invited in, but the exit should be high and purified. It shouldn't be something that admits, emphasizes, or enlarges the lowness. I don't like Disney movies. The entrance and the exit are lined up at the same low height and width. I can't help but feel that it looks down on the audience.

The reason why I wrote something which might be considered as a religious confession or simple empiricism before I write about Japanese anime is because I wanted to make clear where I stand. Today, I can't talk about our business without some bitterness. Compared to several works in the 1950s which inspired me, we in the 1980s make animation as if it's an in-flight meal served on a Jumbo Jet. Mass production has changed the situation. The true emotion and feeling that should be carried through have been replaced by a bluff, neurosis, or teasing. The craft that we should put our love into has been worn down in the piecework production system. I hate the abbreviation anime because I can't help but think that the word symbolizes the desolation (of Japanese animation).

I don't feel like defending, speaking for, or analyzing Japanese anime. Anime is more suitable to be discussed together with computer games, foreign cars, or playing gourmet. When I discuss anime with my friends, it somehow turns into a discussion about our cultural situation, the desolation of the society, or our tightly controlled society. Something called the anime boom had come and gone, but about 30 TV series per week, several scores of theatrical and video anime, and subcontract works for the United States are still produced in this country today in 1987. But there is no use talking about it. If there is something we have to talk about, it's the "excessive expressionism" and the "loss of motives" in Japanese anime. These two are corrupting Japanese popular animation.




Excessive expressionism in anime
There is no limit to the techniques of animation. You can make animation without drawing a picture. If you put a camera somewhere, and continue to film a frame, meaning 1/24 second, per day with the same angle, you can make a movie of about 15 seconds after a year. If you continue doing so in Tokyo, where there are a great many changes, it should be a very valuable work. What kind of film will we get, if we keep filming a nude person one frame per month, from the time that person is a newborn?

There are countless techniques, and classy and excellent short works are still produced somewhere in the world. But we can pretty much say that our popular animation is made in the technique of cel animation.

Cel, meaning celluloid sheet, has become vinyl chloride sheet, but we still use the abbreviation today. In this technique, a picture on paper is transferred to cel (by adhering carbon via heat treatment). Then it is colored with water-based vinyl paint and filmed with the background. By the way, this technique was developed in Japan almost at the same time as in the United States.

Cel anime is a technique suitable for group work, and the images in cel anime are clear and have strong appeal. The clarity of the images at the same time means their shallowness. In other words, they are pictures with little information. You can easily tell this by looking at picture books using cels. They are appealing and easy to understand at first glance, but you soon become tired of them. A really bad drawing can become tolerable when it is made into a cel picture, and a good drawing loses its power when it is made into a cel. In short, cels make both good and bad into mediocre. This characteristic makes the mass-production (of animation) with many animators possible.

To make cel animation with a certain quality, you need a group of technicians with talent and patience. At the core of this group are animators who give movement to pictures. And how difficult it is to foster a group of good animators! Some say that animators are the same as actors, but if so, an improvised play at a year-end party would be better. The basic laws such as gravity, inertia, elasticity, fluidity, perspective, timing, etc.[3] There are too many lessons you have to learn before you think about acting, and animators get lost in the mountains of homework. It is not too much to say that if there are 100 animators, 100 of them can not make animation acting. If a director of an animated movie demands that characters in the movie act, he will immediately fall into distrusting animators and get frustrated. Rotoscope, which is a technique to draw poses and timing from live action film, was developed in the United States and the Soviet Union because the limits of animators' imagination and ability to draw was clear from early on. However, if you just transplant live-action into drawings, even the acting of a great actor can change into something peculiarly slimy and indistinct. That's because acting is not just movement. It is made of the subtle changes of shadows and lights, texture which can not be expressed with cels, wetness and dryness, and a succession of signs which are faster than one twenty-fourth of second.

Skillful staff members demanded the model actors to act in a more simple style that expresses itself through body silhouette. They thought that the acting style developed for theaters was better suited for cel animated movies than the style developed for movies. That is why the gestures of Disney characters look like a musical, and why (the characters in) Snow Queen act like (they are in) girls' ballet. There are many disastrous failures in rotoscope. Bakshi's The Lord of Rings could not be a success when it was based on poor live-action. Also, Disney's Cinderella has proved that seeking "more realistic" movements using rotoscope itself is a double-edged sword. The search for "more reality" just expressed a common American girl, and it lost the symbolism of the story more than Snow White did.

In Japan, rotoscope didn't become popular. It isn't just because of economic reasons. I myself hate this technique. If animators are enslaved by live-action films, the excitement in the animator's work would lessen by half. Though we can also say that we didn't have an acting style after which we could model. Bunraku, kabuki, nou, or kyougen are too far apart from our works, and Japanese musicals or ballet which are just borrowed (from the West) didn't interest us.[4] We have been animating with our passion, hunches, and feeling, based on various experiences of movies, manga, and others, as much as time and money allowed us. Gestures (of the characters) tend to be constructed by symbolizing and breaking characters' feelings down to facial parts (i.e., eyes, eyebrows, mouths, and noses) and reconstructing them. But we tried to overcome the decay of symbolization by animating through "identifying with the character" or "becoming the character."

You shouldn't look down on the simple power (of such an approach). It is far from style or sophistication, but if you can capture the true essence of what you should express, a picture with a true feeling has power. I love such power much better than the smooth movement of rotoscope.

Let's get back to Japanese anime. Japanese anime make manga into anime, use character designs of manga, absorb the vitality of manga, and are made by staff members who wanted to be manga writers. Of course, there are exceptions, but I think that this is pretty much the case in general. Before 1963, when the TV series (anime) started, there were other styles of Toei Animation Studio than manga, but the mass production of TV series and manga severed this tradition (of Toei style). Based on manga, Japanese anime started as TV series with weekly production schedules, which is overwhelmingly shorter than feature-length movies. Due to limited time and budget, the number of drawings had to be reduced as much as possible. The lack of staff brought the mass introduction of unskilled and inadequate workers. That wasn't limited to animators. It was the case for all the divisions including direction and script, and there was unprecedented padding and promotion of staff. The horrific thing is that this trend continued for 20 years.[5]

(A TV anime) has to be ready in time for the TV broadcast at any cost. And we have to make the product by using "movement," the biggest characteristic of animation, as little as possible. The reason why such a strange (style of) animation was accepted by viewers was probably because the image language of manga, an older brother of anime, had already penetrated society.

Japanese animation started when we gave up moving. That was made possible by introducing the methods of manga (including gekiga). The technique of cel anime was suited to obvious impacts, and it was designed so that the viewers would see nothing but powerfulness, coolness, and cuteness. Instead of putting life into a character with gestures or facial expressions, (character design) was required to express all the charm of the character with just one picture.

Strangely, theorists who justified this situation appeared during these times. There were people who said that it was time for limited animation, or that a still picture was a new expression and we no longer need movement.

Not only the design and personalities of the characters, but time and space were also completely deformed. The time needed for a ball thrown by a pitcher to reach the catcher's mitt was limitlessly extended by the passion put into the ball. And animators pursued powerful movement (to express) this extended moment. Depicting a narrow ring as a huge battlefield was justified as it is equal to a battlefield for the hero. Strangely, the way of such storytelling has become closer to koudan.[6] How these animations resemble the depiction of Heichachiro Magaki running up the stone steps of Atago mountain on horseback.[7]

The role of the techniques to move pictures was limited to emphasizing and decorating the extended and skewed time and space. The depiction of characters' action in everyday life, which (Japanese anime) was not good at to start with, was actively eliminated as something unnecessary and out-of-date. Absurdity was strongly pursued. The criteria for judging an animator's capability was changed to (the capability to animate) battles, matches, or detailed drawing of machines, an emphasis on the power of any arm, from nuclear to laser weapon. If there were a depiction of (character's) feeling, the method of manga was easily borrowed to get it done with music, angle, or decorating one still picture, without motion. It came to be considered as a rather uninteresting sequence, a section where the animators could take a rest. Animators became more inclined to judge only on the flashiness of the movement when they considered the value of the sequence they were to animate.

For example, a hero who can only sneer, since if he smiles that would screw his face up. A heroine with huge eyes that suddenly turn into dots without any connection between these two types of eyes. Extremely deformed characters with no sense of existence pretend to be cool in a deformed colorful world by extending time as much as they want-- that has become the major characteristic of Japanese anime.

When this expressionism first appeared, it was justified by "passion" which was in fashion at that time. Indeed, when the audience got excessively involved with the piece of work, and sympathized with it more than the work expressed, this method was overwhelmingly supported (by the audience). Kyojin no Hoshi in the high-growth era was one example[8]. However, as the passion wore out, it merely became the easiest pattern of technique. And to turn around the adverse situation, expression in anime more and more became excessively decorative. At first, two robots were combined to be a robot, then it became a three robot combination, then five, and finally the twenty-six robot combination. Character design became more and more complicated. Huge eyes had seven-colored highlights. More and more shadows were painted in different colors, and hair was painted in bright colors of every possible shade. It makes animators suffer, by increasing the workload of those who are paid by the quantity of animation they drew. The pattern has become prevalent to a frightening degree.

Maybe I, too, am exaggerating (the situation of) Japanese anime. Not all Japanese anime is run by excessive expressionism. I do not say that there was no effort made to establish their own (style) of acting under various constraints. I do not say that there was no effort made to depict time and space with a sense of existence. I do not say that there was no effort made to refuse to be a subordinate of manga. However, most of them followed this trend of expressionism, and many of the young staff have joined the anime industry because they admired this excessive expressionism.

As the formula of "anime = excessive expressionism" becomes widely accepted by society, anime hit a wall. In the same way that koudan cannot meet the needs of today's audience, anime creators lost the support of the audience. They brought it on themselves by losing their flexibility and humility towards the diversity of the world. Even so, many of them are still unaware of the strangeness of their views on anime. They are still convinced that excessive expression is what makes anime appealing.

Actually today in 1987, excessive expressionism has been forced to retreat as it loses share with the end of the anime boom. The remainder has moved to videos, but the market remains small although it (the video market) has been hyped a lot as a new medium. It has been pigeonholed as a market for anime maniacs by anime maniacs in typical reduced reproduction. Rather than feeling pity, I cannot help being reminded of the frog with a ballooned stomach in Aesop's fable. Meanwhile, there is now a strong trend in the TV anime world to return to works for children, as we regret that we have raised the age of the targeted audience too much. However, none of the conditions that created the expressionism of Japanese anime have changed. Because the conditions which leade to anime using few moving pictures haven't changed, many animators think that it is just a degradation, rather than think that they are making anime to please children.

There is a phrase, "Saturday Morning Animator," in the United States. On Saturday morning, TV is filled with animated programs so that it can babysit while parents sleep late. It is a self-mocking phrase of the animators who make such programs. After the boom has ended, it is likely to be very difficult for Japanese animators to rediscover their work as a craft that they can put their love into.




The loss of motives
In one of the episodes of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson says "you saved humankind!" Things would be much easier if we were able to think like that. Making a story would be much easier if we were able to conclude that love conquers all. Making an action movie would be much easier if we were able to conclude that justice is on our side, and all evils belong to other people.

If we could say that one should not hesitate to make any sacrifice or devotion for a noble ideal, or, if we could even believe that such an ideal exists, our work would be much easier.

On the other hand, things would also be easier if we could conclude that humans are all stupid, nothing can be believed, all causes and beliefs are dubious, and all self-sacrifices are self-serving in the end. It's very easy to find ugly and dirty things in this society.

Among all popular culture, anime was probably the one that kept its preoccupation with love and justice the longest. But maybe that was not because we had strong beliefs, but because we were just behind the times due to such facts as anime being made by groups, or anime following behind manga.

Today, creators can no longer give heroes spontaneous motives. It seems that for some reason, we have just accepted the vanity of human effort in this managed society. Our old enemy "poverty" somehow disappeared, and we can no longer find an enemy to fight against.

The only remaining motive is, as in other genre, professionalism. Characters fight because they are robot soldiers, pursue criminals because they are police, beat competitors because they want to be singers, or work hard because they are sports players. Or else, (the remaining motive) is an interest in something in skirts or pants.

Of course (we ran out of motives). Even the last resort (of motives), "the organization who wants to conquer the world," bores us after seeing such things several times a week. It would be strange if love did not look so pale after it was so commercialized by Space Battleship Yamato. Yamato started the anime boom, but it's ironic that it was actually the grave of love and justice.

It was not just because of excessive expressionism that Ashita no Joe, made way past the 1970s, was left behind the times and became a smelly corpse.[9]

Loss of motives: Japanese animation has proven how terrible it is to keep making works without motivating characters based on their value system.

You can't hate your opponents just because you belong to the Giants and others belong to the Dragons, Carp, or Tigers.[10] "I don't want to lose, but I can understand your position"-- there have been many such themes in TV anime series about robot space wars. They were filled with torn-apart characters, and the audience accepted it as a realistic simulation of the society into which they have to go out, but at the same time, they were fed up with it.

Professionalism is a kind of no-value view, and it somehow resolves into the "survival of the fittest." And what happens when we pursue it with the excessive expressionism I mentioned before? Everything becomes a game.

Love is a game of the mind, war is a game of killing, and sports is a game which brings money.

Japanese anime have come to be filled with games. Even the deaths of the characters became games, and creators became gods and reached a dead end. It is natural that anime has been replaced by computer games. Players can get a bit more satisfaction since games allow more participation.

American movies got fed up with the loss of motives, and they made an alliance with (Ronald) Reagan. They overused Nazis as villains, so they asked the Soviet Union and its underling guerillas to get on stage again.

If creators depict something they don't believe, that soon becomes apparent. And still, we were convinced that such things as vitality or energy were important. When I see that those "today's kids," whom people thought so highly of in the 1960s, have now become parents and are living in bewilderment as baby boomers, I realize a self-evident thing: things which are born out of situations and fashion cannot become more than that after all.

Even if the creators cannot have motivation, kids are born and growing every day. Their battles are not lessened at all. Even if they aren't encouraged by a hero of justice as kids used to be, kids today still want to get encouraged, still want to learn how to feel the world is beautiful. Otherwise, why are they so violent or self-destructive?

The loss of motives is today's situation. Distrust, resignation, or nihilism has been born out of the situation. Without realizing it, what can we make that is only based on our sensitivity? I think that the cause of the corruption of Japanese animation is the foolishness of making anime just by professionalism.




A conclusion which cannot be a conclusion
The wishes of the public cannot be changed so much. I think that their wishes are buried in the very things they call uncool or out of fashion. No matter how times change, I believe that children want such an impact as the one I received from watching Hakujaden. If this turned out to be untrue, I would quit such a job (as an animator) in a minute.If I can be so arbitrary, I say that we are running relay. We are running to pass the baton to the next runner. I think that our work as a popular culture is fundamentally different from such a terrifyingly radical thing as art or creation. Let's not deceive ourselves by using such words as "artist."

We are fed up and disgusted, but if you live in today's Japan without being disgusted, that would be strange.

I've been working on cel anime for a long time, and I feel that there are more things we cannot do than things we can do. Still, I think that seeing a wonderful animation when one is a child isn't such a bad experience. But on the other hand, I am very much aware that our business targets children's purchasing power. No matter how we may think of ourselves as conscientious, it is true that images (such as anime) stimulate only the visual and auditory sensations of children, and they deprive children of the world that they go out to find, touch, and taste. This society has bulged out to the point where the sheer volume has changed everything.

Today, many people in my business are having difficulties in making a living. But I can not justify what we have been doing enough to proclaim our distress too loudly. Our profession has been corrupted.

The ambivalence in myself is also getting worse. While turning my back on the flood of images, I am still struggling to do at least a little bit better job. For that, I even rationalize the techniques to get on in the world. While saying I hate pros, I know that at work, I myself judge people solely based on their talents. While saying I don't want to talk about it, I always talk about animation. While bellowing "to hell with Japanese anime," I worry about my friend who is out of work. Right after yelling why do we need more anime, I start talking about a new project. Although I know that we have to accept that we have to live inhumane days if we want to make humane anime in today's situation, I become a workaholic as a matter of course.

Still, for our works to make some sense, what should we do? We can't see anything if we stay in Tokyo. We can't find anything if we look for a hint in the TV or movie industry. Unless we make an effort to get a viewpoint to see far away, we will end up in a small closed world. I think that my ambivalence is the same with the bindings from which the audience wishes to be freed. We need the will to sustain. Hence, I have no choice but to go back to my starting point time after time.

Shoten, Iwanami. The Hayao Miyazaki Web. 28 Jan. 1998. 2 Nov. 2007 http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/aboutanime.html
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Monday, October 22, 2007

been a while, eh kiddos?
I'm trying to blog before I have to go to english class. And I still have to read this passage before I have to take a quiz when I get to class. Just to let you know how alive I am, I just got my old NES to work last night,,,. Yeah! Now I can play FF1!!! w00t, seriously, not that exciting. The game I really look forward to playing when I get off of work is Legacy of the Wizard. One of my most favorite RPG games from way back when I was still watching Power Rangers. Yeah, life is rough, but I haven't given up yet! I'm still writing my own drama. Well, technicalllym my comic entry for The RSOM contest is a sci fi drama. Pretty sick, I know.. It's been in development for almost 8 years.....

So, to whoever decided to read this, you must have noticed "hey! Zack updated today! He hasn't done such a thing for almost a month now! I love him so much that I'm going to visit!" you know the deal, Let me know what's good, yo..,

AKA how's life treatin ya
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Thursday, September 27, 2007

well well well
Yes, life is like a box of chocolates. The exploding chocolates of doom and coconut. I hate coconut. If I was stuck on a tropical island with nothing to eat but wild coconut, I would die in the first week.. Speaking of food, eating sounds like a great sport right now. I didn't eat breakfast this morning because I ran out of cheerios dammit. Anyway, the real update here, and the only cool thing that happened yesterday before work was......................................... I finally obtained the entire season of Gundam: The 08th MS Team. My favorite series of all time. Though only 12 episodes long, I love it more than any other series. I'm so psyched. But I don't want to watch it until I can get all of my friends over at my house to watch the entire series with me.Does anyone who visited have mini picture links to their site?? I want to compile an area of my site with links to my friends sites so it's easier to visit and keep track while I'm on my site.I'm writing a fan fic manga of the 08th MS Team. And it's so sick, I'm going to write it and draw a manga hopefully if I have the time, and once I get manga studio for the computer. I also want to order my new alienware laptop so I can sort out my life(play video games online).
Enough about me. How is everything going with you?
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Quite busy, no??
One thing first,, I am so glad I heard from Miaki... You may not know her, but she was like the first friend I talked to here on myo when I first joined. But anyway, I don't want to bore you with the latest news on my life, so I would like to discuss the topic of fan art today.

1. Contests and publishing companies
- One company; Del Rey Manga, is holding a contest in new york city. TheOtaku.com is advertising this on the main website, or Click here to see entries by my otaku users
-The theme is winter.
-Draw a picture of an original anime with the theme of winter..
My thoughts:
I'm considering entering a picture of the main character of my current working manga in the contest.
CONTEST TWO:
The Morning International Manga Contest
click the above link to view the official rules directly from Kodansha's website
Sponsor: Kodansha
- this is a highly overlooked and under advertised contest. Kodansha is currently holding their second contest now until Dec 31, 2007
-The first contest didn't go over well, though I believe it was due to a failure in popularization of the winning manga.
-Despite the previous failure, they are doing it again this year.
-Grand prize for 1st and 2nd place
Company royalties and publishing of the winning manga, and extra advertisement
-I'm thinking about trying it out myself
CONTEST THREE:
Tokyopop's Rising Stars of Manga Contest
Sponsor: Tokyopop
-You've all heard of it and know it well to be the biggest manga contest in the United States
-Winner gets their own series in Tokyopop publishing manga

Well, there is a lot to think about when it comes to contests in this career field kids. Keep practicing, and never give up. When I saw the entries in the link I provided you with above, I was more than a little intimidated, especially since I don't have photoshop. But that's nothing a little old fashioned manga style drawing can't fix. Good luck out there kids, and I'll try to let you know more about these, and other contests when I get around to it. Enjoy! Love ya
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Saturday, September 8, 2007

I have to apologize
Sorry to those who I scared with the college stories.... It's not so bad... And no, the homework doesn't take 6 to 8 hours. More like two at the most for me at least. Yes, between work, school, and video games, I can't find the time to get on the computer. But still, life is quite tiring for me. I can't wait until christmas.

At work yesterday, I thought of a good question,

buuuuuuut.... I forgot what it is... Damn, it was good though. Witty yes, but I forget....

You may get this a lot, but how's school kids???
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