I hate to admit this as a long time anime fanboy, but the computer animators from Taiwan are doing some very timely funny work on a shoestring budget! Their latest epic is a recreation of the Spiderman disaster on Broadway — and the best thing about this clip is that it includes an appearance by Bono. The last time I’ve seen an animated show react this fast to events in the news is when South park was at the high point of their game. Read more…
The Warriors was a brilliant low budget sci fi horror film set in a future New York City dominated by gangs. Recently Tony Scott announced that he’d be doing a remake of the film, although it looks like Hello Kitty has beaten him to the punch with this t-shirt showing our cute feline armed with a baseball bat. Can you dig it?Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 21, 2010 in Animation, Tech
Everyone knows about Domo, but another famous mascot from Japanese television is Stray Sheep which was first spotted on Fuji TV in the mid 90s. Sadly Fuji TV has ignored poor Poe and Merry, however the folks at Robot Communications have given the woolies some love and created the interactive book Stray Sheep: Poe’s Christmas for the iPad:
This is one of the more interesting examples of K-On! merchandising that I’ve seen: They’ve created authentic scarfs based upon the ones that Yui Hirasawa wears in the series. Sadly it seems that one set is already sold out but the fish design still seems to be in stock:
This is a beautifully done series of art posters created for the collectible art house Mondo. Shown above is Star Wars by the artist Olly Moss — here are some other nice gems that are part of the series: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 20, 2010 in Animation
Studio Ghibli has picked the shojo manga Coquelicot saka kara to be their next film subject. I don’t have to see the film to know that they’ll do an amazing job with it — especially as the manga is reported to be very close to Miyazaki Hayao’s heart. Yet to me it’s sad that Miyazaki doesn’t seem to be taking any chances in his old age. Of course many of the great directors like Walt Disney or Howard Hawks seemed to make the same film again and again over their career; but to me it’s a sad reminder of someone like Tezuka who really experimented in his later years. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 18, 2010 in Animation, Cinema
So as the end credits start to roll in the theater my friend turns to me and says “that sucked!” But my reaction was “Well they did about as good of a job that they could have…” The original Tron was an impressive film on a number of levels, but the heart of the film was that it represented a breakthrough of computer animation on the big screen — but as a film it was quite average. So the problem is that if you’re going to make a sequel over 25 years later everything that was great about the first film is going to be dated. Read more…
I got a real kick out of the new line of Superhero Snapsuits which are aimed at fanboys and fangurls in training. The series includes Wonder Woman (shown above), Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Batman and of course Superman. What nice about this line is that it comes in several different sizes from six to twenty for months so you can keep up with your superkid! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 13, 2010 in Fandom, Star Trek
These wonderful Victorian styled Star Trek photos are he handy work of an artist known as Rabittooth. I really love how the artist has matched the role of each character on the show with an appropriate historical counterpart: Read more…
I just love the level of detail on this recreation of Andy’s room from Toy Story which was made using lego bricks! The talented artist behind this effort is Matt De Lanoy who will be showing it off at the 9th Annual Lego Train Show at Cantigny Park, Wheaton, Illinois. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 13, 2010 in Science
The video clip below doesn’t show just anybody predicting settlements on Mars, but Pete Worden, Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center. Now I’ll grant you that gives us a good fifty years to get there — but what kills me is that we have the technology today to do this, or to at least get started trying. In fact part of the problem I think is that NASA is just spread too thin; I’d love to see the agency with a single focus on manned space exploration with a realistic budget to match. But alas that could be fifty years off in the current political climate…Read more…
Eons before Ramna 1/2 us old time otaku fell in love with Rumiko Takahashi’s 80s epic Urusei Yatsura. Shown here is a special figurine that will be released in Japan next year which features the character Lum as a child sporting a Tigers baseball team hat. Apparently the baseball connection is that Takahashi is a Tiger’s fan: Read more…
As an anime fanboy I think one of my most bitter lessons one year was waiting until the last minute to order my new year’s calendar — sadly every one was grabbed up. Part of the reason for this is that often the Japanese fans will grab them quite a bit in advance leaving the sad crumbs for poor gaijin otaku like myself. Well I learned my lesson and I started to plan my wall decor well in advance. Shown here are my top suggested picks for 2011 starting with the beautiful Bleach (B) 2011 Calendar shown above. Here are my other favorites: Read more…
The animation isn’t exactly Pixar, but the humor in Warriors of the Unknown will bring a smile to any gamers face. This video (which is available on DVD) was created by the Cosmic Radicals, a team of online gamers who know their subject perhaps a bit too well. Watching the videos I loved the juxtaposition of romantic fantasy elements set against conversations about dog food: Read more…
I’m in a total state of shock: It seems like just yesterday that I was watching every episode of Bleach — so I was blown away to just read the it’s almost the 10th anniversary of the franchise. Of course that marks the 10th anniversary of the manga which was first published in August of 2001 and is now up to 48 volumes and over 300 episodes of the anime series which went on the air in 2004. Shown here are a set of coasters which have been created for the occasion in Japan which feature illustrations by Noriaki “Tite” Kubo: Read more…
By chance I was watching the Bloomberg TV show Game Changers and they had an interesting biography of Larry Ellison. Honestly not being a database guy I thought it was going to be dull, but then there was an amazing segment of the show which which explored Ellison’s lost project from the mid-90s: The Network Computer. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 1, 2010 in Star Trek
I just ran across this sadly under-viewed interview with William Shatner, and I have to say that for man who will be 80 years old in just a few months he looks great! The interviewer from Time magazine asks him just one Star trek Question: “Have you put the Captain Kirk stereotype behind you?” to which Shatner answers “Probably not but it was a great show…” I hope J.J. Abrams finds it in his heart to include him in the next Star Trek film: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 30, 2010 in Comic Books
I’m really excited about The Li’l Depressed Boy #1 for two reasons: First it’s just nice to see a book that looks different and secondly this comic is yet another example of how a web comic can become “discovered” and make its way to print. Featuring a story by S. Steven Struble and art by Sina Grace this book will be coming out in February 9th, 2011. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 29, 2010 in Comic Books, Tech
Pity us poor anime and manga fans who have to settle for mere Facebook for in Japan the social media service Mixi will be rolling out a series of premium manga themed new year’s cards for 2011. Included in the series is Nodame Cantabile (shown above) and Moyashimon (shown below). By the way sadly for us Gaijin signing up Mixi requires a Japanese cell phone.
I was saddened to hear that Leslie Nielsen had passed away: While he was a brilliant comedic actor being a sci fi fanboy I’ve always loved his work in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. Even fifty years later the craftsmanship on this film is quite amazing even if the special effects are no longer cutting edge. In fact I’d also dare say that in may ways Nielsen helped pave the way for Star Trek which hit television a bit over a decade later. Read more…
We tend to forget just how quickly things can change in the tech world. For example once upon a time Palm was a dominant player in the space, and by all rights they should still be there. What happened? Well you can blame it on any number of things (poor engineering, marketing, cash flow, etc.) but the reality is that it comes down to good old fashioned hubris. Read more…
It’s the old classic problem: How do you keep your family from opening the fridge door all the time and wasting valuable electricity? Well Fridgezoo is here to help! These cute little characters which are shaped like mini milk cartons sense when you are opening the door of your refrigerator and then greet you in Japanese; and then if you leave the door open for too long they ask you to close it. The manufacturer claims that these critters are good for the environment, although I think the practical gag possibilities are much more entertaining: Read more…
