Getting the Race out of Airbender
Yup, Asian!
Whenever racism comes up there's obviously a lot of tension and emotion. Â As an American of Chinese heritage I luckily haven't had to deal with many overt acts of racism to my person. Â I grew up in the country-side where myself and a handful of others were the only Asians in my high school graduating class of around 400. Â Although I have a deep appreciation and respect for my heritage, it's important to note that a more authentic Chinese American wouldn't be completely off base in calling me a twinky or banana. Â Both are derogatory slang for someone who is "yellow on the outside; white on the inside".
With that disclaimer out of the way, I'd like to tackle the whole controversy surrounding the movie The Last Airbender.  This is where people's emotions get involved.  The movie is based on a beloved television series named Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Even being a show targeted at young American children watching Nickelodeon, it borrowed heavily from several Asian cultures.  The amazing thing, is that it did so with a healthy amount of respect.  Caricatures are funny, but it becomes racist when it's the predominant form of entertainment featuring a particular people.
Anime Brief: Pumpkin Scissors Review
Pumpkin Scissors?
Pumpkin Scissors is a supernatural, alternate history, action, mystery, military show.
It starts off a little slow with encapsulated episodes. Â Slowly the information begins to connect between episodes to give the viewer an idea for what the big picture is. Â As the over-arching story unfolds the show's pace really picks up.
Unfortunately this apparently is one of those anime shows that isn't finished. Â I'm not spoiling much by saying the show ends on a fairly big, if not somewhat obvious reveal. Â Then there's a poorly tacked on ending.
Overall, Pumpkin Scissors is a lot of fun.  Besides the ending, there are a few other quirks.  The dub supervised by ADV has some odd accents.  There's a mix of British, German, French, and American all rolled in.  There are three main nations in play, but the accents aren't consistent between them.  There are some recognizable voices but I definitely enjoyed the dub more than the original Japanese.  In order to enjoy the show, you'll need to tolerate some magic mixed in with your German style soldiers that have been robbed of their Nazi symbols.  It almost feels like they just wanted an excuse to use the word "jäger" a lot.
There's a theme of class struggle with commoners versus nobility. Â It's not a subtext or anything but obvious and part of the story. Â The main story is one of an illuminati style group pulling the strings of corruption from behind the scenes. Â Sadly this plot just gets running when the series ends at the 24th episode.
I definitely recommend the show if you like fun with a side of awesome.
The Coloring Divide
I AM BETTER COLORED MAN
I've been watching anime and reading comics for less than half my life. Â Because of that I have no real attachment or sentimental memories of my childhood favorites. Â I can say that one of my favorite movies is The Last Starfighter;Â knowing it's a corny movie I can still say that I love it. Â As I play catch up with anime and comics, I'm finding that a lot of material that's recommended to me suffers from the same nostalgic memory lens. Â People remember things as being awesome, but under the light of fresh eyes, the ink starts to fade.
Take for example Gundam.  More precisely the earlier Universal Century stuff. I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for criticizing it, but a lot of the art is pretty poor.  It's quite possible that I'll never experience the adventures of Amuro Ray because I can't stand to watch it.  Until I saw Cyborg 009, I thought I had issue with character designs.  That was the first show that made me realize that wasn't the case.  So what's the matter?  I love mecha.  I enjoy mecha so much that I'm willing to put up with awful plot lines and whiny characters (see Gundam Wing) to get my fix.  It boiled down for me to a very shallow feature of the art.
I group anime and comics together here for a purely aesthetic reason: color.  The two art mediums share a common production process:
Copyright in the Digital Download Era
What follows here is just my thought process on copyright and piracy. Â I'm not trying to judge, just bring to light the factors at play.
A recent discussion amongst a few of my followed on Twitter brought this question to mind: how did the piracy of copyrighted works evolve to how it is today? Â Thanks to digital reproductions of digital products, there is rarely any difference between an original licensed work and a pirated copy. Â When copyright law was envisioned these circumstances can't have been imagined.
NIS America to Publish Anime
NIS America
With the recent losses of some anime publishers in America, it's welcome news that another company will be stepping up. Â NIS America, a subsidiary of Nippon Ichi Software, is known for bringing quirky niche video game titles like Disgaea to the United States.
In a press release dated February 12, the company has announced their intention to meet the growing demand for Japanese culture in America by releasing anime series on DVD. Â The "first 4 anime titles" are: "Toradora", "PERSONA -trinity soul-", "PandoraHearts", and "Our Home's Fox Deity".
These four shows seem to span the thematic spectrum. Â It ranges from the darks of Persona to the high school love of Toradora. Â I look forward to seeing how well NIS America's efforts do. Â Their experience in the niche market of RPG and Strategy RPG video games should prepare them well for a similar experience in anime.
East Meets West: Anime and Manga of American Superheroes
I'm Lovin It!
There's more to an art form than the medium itself. Some subject matter lends itself better to a particular style. I'm sure you could do a landscape of a spring meadow with a sculpture, but surely an impressionist watercolor is better suited. That's a bit of a stretch, as different painting styles really can't be segregated that way, and there's an exception to every rule. In the plastic arts (wikipedia) this may not be so clear cut. Even in literature, it becomes difficult to make divisions along the lines of content being paired with style.
Serialized illustrated work seems to have taken an interesting evolutionary path.  Compare the American comic book and  Japanese Manga industries.  While there are standouts, the American comic book is often about a costumed super hero.  Sometimes there are secret identities, but more recently they have taken a back seat to the main course: heroes vs. villains.  Crazy fights in worldy and other places with amazing powers.  All of this done in beautifully drawn and colored artwork.  These are amazing to behold.
Crunchyroll – Anime on Your iPhone
Crunchyroll
Wow. Â Thankfully I was checking out Anime 3000 while listening to my friends over at Reverse Thieves. Â A3K happens to be hosting their new podcast. Â Go give it a listen!
Anyway, this is an amazing development and I can't believe I hadn't heard about it till now. Â For those who don't know, Crunchyroll is a a legal streaming site for anime and live action drama from Asia(Japan and I think Korea). Â Before Netflix had their streaming, I used Crunchyroll a lot.
The Sky is Crawling with The Sky Crawlers
The Sky Crawlers
Directed by Mamoru Oshii, this movie is definitely more cerebral than the typical anime that becomes popular here in the US. Â I find it hard to review movies after just one watching but I'm going to to my best.
As you can see on the cover art there to the left, Oshii is credited with bringing us Ghost in the Shell. In his works, the viewer is transported to another world like our own but different in a few key ways.  At first glance The Sky Crawlers could be taking place in one of the theaters of World War II.  The opening features a beautifully rendered dogfight between a wing and a solo planes of a nondescript make and model.  As the story progresses, the viewer is treated to unfolding layers of secrecy that both the audience and some of the characters are unaware of.
With the exception of the motherly mechanic, most of the characters are flat and undeveloped.  They have the bare necessities required to get their role in the story across.  If you want a movie with interactions between complex characters you will probably be disappointed.  That's not to say that there isn't character interaction; the relationships between the key figures in the fighter squadron is integral to the story.  The blank expressions on the box art inform us of the mood that Oshii strives to display on the screen.
Yah for Gunpla!
My good Hisui over at the Reverse Thieves briefly mentions his brief foray in to gunpla (usually refers to the building of Gundam Plastic Models). Â He went nuts in a good way and assembled a Perfect Grade original Gundam kit.
I've just started with my HG Guncannon kit. Â I saw it in the store and at around $20 fell within my impulse purchase range. Â It's pretty rare to see a Gundam kit this far north in New York State. Â Take a look at his assembly, it's quite well done! Â Eventually I'll post about my experiences with my HG kit. Â I quickly finished a Strike Gundam 1/144 scale kit and promptly murdered it with heavy acrylic paint.
A Missing Gap in Solty
Curse you Netflix! Why must you be so awesome and yet so tantalizingly close to perfect?
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