NIPPON-ICHIGO

Awesome!

Yes! My personal Top 7. Why 7? Because it’s lucky!

I’m a great fan of short things; short stories, short animations. They’re all opportunities to show a powerfully concise moving, touching, or just plain funny story. They require a special kind of skill to execute, and all the better when they’re visually unique!

I won’t say too much about each of these animations, or else I would be spoiling them. Needless to say, they mostly speak for themselves.

This is my entry to this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri, as hosted by Muza-chan. Thank you, Muza-chan! (Not familiar with the Matsuri? Well, you should read up on it. You should also check out this month’s other entries.)

7. Takumi K. & Mayuko K. “Sarumomo”

Actually, this one is a little sad. Stories like this always make me cry… Yet, so sweet. Apparently there would be more parts to this, but I did not see them.

(more…)

How did I ever live not knowing that this man existed?

As I attempt to immerse myself in more independent short animation, things like this continually restore my love for the art. Restooore!

I can’t stop watching this now…

See also:

I don’t have time to do a big recap on a decade of released anime, since I only just now thought to post, and since I didn’t watch that much to begin with.

But, 10 years ago, I discovered Japanese animation. I, in fact, discovered that a lot of the things I was already a fan of, like Super Mario and Zelda, are also of Japanese origin, and from there I went to learn more and more about the phenomenon of Japanese media and more things in general.

I started out watching anime like this…

Excel Saga

…and this…

Tenchi Universe

…and also this.

Gravitation

Of course, things like Tenchi, Dragon Ball, and Rurouni Kenshin became a regular part of the routine. (Didn’t they for everyone? Totally gateway anime.)

After years, I began pursuing anime like this…

Mononoke

…and this…

Gankutsuou: the Count of Monte Cristo

…and also this…

One Stormy Night

…sometimes to the chagrin of some of my friends. I always had strange tastes. But, as with anything, as long as it’s good or entertaining, I will look, watch, read, and listen.

I’m a fan of Japanese animation because it manages to be so distinctive while being varied, like a pool of all possible styles and genres. Even some of the most common and low-budget series manage to be very well-animated and expressive in their own way. Of course, it could also be that I never “grew out of” cartoons like some people expect you to. Must be the artist in me. I’m an animation geek in general.

If you haven’t seen it, here’s an amazing animated short done by a team of what I believe was 5 people:

Here’s to another decade of creative animated media from all over the world!

From the very onset of my discovery of anime, I’ve noticed one of its staples amidst Western fans and critics alike have been the “huge, sparkly eyes”. It can’t be denied — it’s become such a staple that there are now contacts to simulate the look of them, and also stuff like this.

Eyes like this are more common in anime aimed towards girls

It’s especially striking since in a lot of more common anime (and art in general) large eyes are used to define the looks of children, but adults (women especially) retain very large and child-like eyes as well. This may derive from a common inability to distinguish adults from children in art (something which bothers me a lot, as I prefer adults to be cute, but in a grown-up way, if they’re going to be cute at all)…or it may just be a “stylistic choice” to have adults resemble children, which at any other time would be creepy.

Why yes, I DID just Google "manbaby" for the very first time.

“Big”, however, should not be a catchall term for “detailed,” “elaborate,” or “shiny”, all of which anime eyes can also be. And it never stuck with me in correlation — lots of cartoon characters have big eyes, and other things out of proportion to the rest of their bodies. Lots of Western cartoon characters are also not intended to be as “realistic” as lots of anime characters, too, but they’re all still cartoons, many still subject to the ridiculousness that cartoons entail.

So, I give to you, a very random post of huge-eyed characters who aren’t from anime. You probably already knew they had huge eyes but you never thought “whoa, that guy has friggin’ huge eyes,” did you?

5. Tom (and Jerry)

Mouse Trouble

Forever a great cartoon. The eyes aren’t elaborate at all, but they were very emotive, like lots of animation from that era.

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As someone on a forum I go to put it.

Marvel Entertainment and Madhouse have adapted Wolverine into an anime. This pretty much guarantees a new generation of fangirl submissions on deviantArt, drawing him all over the place, with perhaps one hand sweeping through his beautiful, flowing mullet, the other held up, tongue delicately licking sheer adamantium claws.

Um…

Yeah, so anyway, how about that?

(Oh, and there’s going to be an Iron Man anime, too. It looks much better. In fact, it’s awesome – especially if it’ll consistently have as much action as it does in that trailer.)