Comike goers arriving at the train station around 6 in the morning

Also inside the Diver City was a Gundam Museum, where there is a 360 degree video dome, as well as a walk through Gundam and Bandai’s Plamo history.

There was a Gundam Cafe near the Gundam, where they sell overpriced food items, but to a Gundam fan, it’s hardly pocket change being able to eat something that resembles an animation that they love. The cafe is [...]]]>
Managed to visit the Odaiba Gundam yesterday. Situated at the Diver City mall, this colossal 1:1 Gundam model is based upon the original RX-78-2 which was made famous in the original Gundam anime series, Mobile Suit Gundam (Kidou Senshi Gundam)

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Also inside the Diver City was a Gundam Museum, where there is a 360 degree video dome, as well as a walk through Gundam and Bandai’s Plamo history.

There was a Gundam Cafe near the Gundam, where they sell overpriced food items, but to a Gundam fan, it’s hardly pocket change being able to eat something that resembles an animation that they love. The cafe is quite packed, due to the Odaiba’s seaside location meaning that it’s very windy, and combining with the 9 Celsius average that you get in Tokyo means it’s quite uncomfortable to stay outside for long

With such a strong showing it might no be long that it will grace the cinemas of other countries as well

http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/confidence/2018946/full/

Sorry for the audio quality for Watanabe Shinichiro’s panel. The location that we had set up the camera was awful and we only noticed it after the panel has finished

Sword Art Online

Detroit Metal City

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Girls und Panzer

Bleach

Oniichan dakedo Ai sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne!

School Days

Madoka Magica

Sky Girls - Strike Witches

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Ore no Imouto

Thanks to Gabriel Ross Johansen [bukan nama sebenar - fake name]

Unlike many other much more hardcore otakus, my first experience with Production IG’s Kamiyama Kenji was with the much acclaimed Higashi no Eden (or Eden of the East). Higashi no Eden was quite an experience at the time, as it was quite different from all the normal moe animes that were force fed into fans seasons after seasons. The storyline is gripping, and while it’s easy to pass it off as [...]]]>
During Anime Festival Asia 2012, I was invited by the organiser as well as Production IG for a preview screening of Kamiyama Kenji’s latest full length animation film, RE: Cyborg009. If you felt that the title is familiar, this is because it’s a remake of an old Ishinomori Shotaro’s (of Kamen Rider fame) manga title. Done in full CG with the help of Studio Sanzigen, did Kamiyama-san did justice to this title with this adaptation? Read on then.

Unlike many other much more hardcore otakus, my first experience with Production IG’s Kamiyama Kenji was with the much acclaimed Higashi no Eden (or Eden of the East). Higashi no Eden was quite an experience at the time, as it was quite different from all the normal moe animes that were force fed into fans seasons after seasons. The storyline is gripping, and while it’s easy to pass it off as a fancy sci fi, it does tend to have some elements of reality in it. It was then that I was told it was directed by Kamiyama Kenji, who had earlier came to fame directing the TV series version of Ghost in The Shell (which amazingly, I have yet to watch).

Caution: Some Spoilers in this review
Three years prior to the start of the film, Dr Gilmore led 00-Cyborg team which had been protecting the world was disbanded, and most of the members seperated all across the world. Cyborg 009, aka Shimamura Joe had his memory reset by Dr Gilmore for him to live a normal life, but terrorist suicide bombing of skyscrapers across the globe (including KLCC) forced the team to regroup again to find out who was behind the act.

I never read nor watched the various incarnation of the original Cyborg 009 series, hence I can’t compare what Kamiyama-san did with the original. But there is some similarity between the lead, Shimamura Joe with Takizawa Akira from Higashi no Eden. Both had their memories wiped prior to the start of the show. And both seems to be plauged by what they have done in their past. I think Kamiyama-san uses this approach so that he can easily tell what is happening without making the viewers feel that they are being babysat into it.

Along for the ride are Cyborg 001 Ivan Whisky, Cyborg 002 Jet Link, Cyborg 003 as well as Shimamura’s love interest Françoise Arnoul, Cyborg 004 Albert Heinrich, Cyborg 005 Geronimo Jr, Cyborg 006 Chang Changku, Cyborg 007 Great Britain, and Cyborg 008 Pyunma. Each has their own unique ability, which was retained from the original design of Ishinomori Shotaro-sensei.

So how was it? Well honestly speaking, it was a really thought provoking movie. Kamiyama-san focuses not only on the political state of the world, with subjects of war profiting as well as fake terrorism being an issue, but he also touches about the spiritual aspect of humans, as well as religion, making you think deeply about what is happening in the world currently. This could be a problem for casual viewers if they are not up to date with most of the happenings around the world, but as Kamiyama-san told me in his interview, this movie is not for casual viewing.

While at first I had my doubts over usage of CG for this movie, all those were squashed once the movie starts. This movie was made with 3D in mind from the start, and the usage of CG means that they could emulate a stereoscopic camera easily in the computer, hence giving you a realistic depth of feel perception compared to movies that was converted in 3D in post production. And while it’s ‘officially’ a CG movie, it’s not what you think of CG like what Pixar does. It does retain that distinct ‘anime’ look. Heck, my only complain would be the snail paced 15FPS the film was rendered into but most people won’t even notice it.

From the official movie brochure, it shows how easily it was to get the 3D effect

Music is as expected from Kawai Kenji. Most, if not all of the soundtrack seems appropriate to the scene it was featured in. In addition, the sounds were done at (the now formerly) George Lucas owned Skywalker Sound Studio at Marin County. The surround sound is just right without being too overwhelming. And yes, this is one movie that you NEED to watch in a cinema, and not in front of your PC using your shitty 2.0 cheapo speaker.

But this movie is not without it’s flaw. It’s easy to see that Kamiyama-san wanted to tell an important message in this movie, and yet it’s hard to cram everything in just 2 hours. Hence there was a lot of reduncency, especially in some of the cyborg characters. Come to think of it, none of the 00-Cyborg were given much background story, and some even appeared in one or two scenes only. To make sense of the character’s relationship, you really need to keep focus on what is happening, as it will turn out confusing if you don’t.

The end was left ambigous, but Kamiyama-san personally told me that it was intentional, that the ending is left for the viewers to decide. Honestly for me, RE: Cyborg009 would have been better off as a TV series rather than a movie as it could lead to better pacing and explanation.

So did I like it? Yes, very much. Some parts of the movie reminds me of Evangelion in parts, questioning humanity, religion as well as political culture of the world. The 3D cg is awesome and hats off to Sanzigen for pulling this off magnificently. Just that don’t expect to understand this movie in just one sitting, especially if you are not giving attention. You might even need a second or third watch to really catch Kamiyama-san’s message. A must see if you are a fan of his, but if you are a casual anime viewers, you might be better off starting with some of his earlier works as well as TV series that is similar to this before watching it.

The movie will be shown in Singapore starting on December 1st, but Anime News Network listed Malaysia as one of the places it will be shown, so who knows, you might be able to watch it locally.

Staff
Director: Kenji Kamiyama
Screenplay: Kenji Kamiyama
Storyboard:
Yasuhiro Aoki
Yuichiro Hayashi
Unit Director: Koudai Kakimoto
Music: Kenji Kawai
Original creator: Shotaro Ishinomori
Character Design: Gatou Asou
Art Director: Yusuke Takeda
Animation Director: Daisuke Suzuki
Art design:
Hiroshi Takiguchi
Takashi Watabe
Director of Photography: Takahiro Uezono
Producer: Tomohiko Ishii
Color design: Yumiko Katayama
Lead Animator: Masanori Uetaka
Line Director: Reina Kawabata
Production producer: Mitsuhisa Ishikawa
Project Producer: Hiroaki Matsuura
Sound Design: Tom Myers

Cast
Chiwa Saito as Cyborg 003 / Françoise Arnoul
Daisuke Ono as Cyborg 002 / Jet Link
Hiroyuki Yoshino as Cyborg 007 / Great Britain
Mamoru Miyano as Cyborg 009 / Joe Shimamura
Noriaki Sugiyama as Cyborg 008 / Pyunma
Sakiko Tamagawa as Cyborg 001 / Ivan Whisky
Tarou Masuoka as Cyborg 006 / Chang Changku
Teruyuki Tanzawa as Cyborg 005 / Geronimo Jr
Toru Ohkawa as Cyborg 004 / Albert Heinrich
Nobuyuki Katsube as Professor Isaac Gilmore

Animation Production:
Production I.G
SANZIGEN Animation Studio

For those that never knew much about this series, it’s an adaptation of a novel series by the same name authored by Yonezawa Honobu by Kyoto Animation. Centred around everyday life “mysteries” and borrows some liberty from British detective novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dame Agatha Christie, Hyouka was Yonezawa’s first [...]]]>
I rarely blog now, let alone blog about an anime series. But somehow, I felt compelled to write something about this series after it ended last Sunday. Why you might ask? Well why not? But the real reason might be that for a long time, it’s a series that I watched because I genuinely was interested in it, rather than watching just to watch some other generic shit that is puked out from some Japanese animation studio where I just mindlessly let it play in the background while doing work or other stuffs.

For those that never knew much about this series, it’s an adaptation of a novel series by the same name authored by Yonezawa Honobu by Kyoto Animation. Centred around everyday life “mysteries” and borrows some liberty from British detective novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dame Agatha Christie, Hyouka was Yonezawa’s first published work, and also his longest running. Only 5 complete novels were published in between 2001 to 2010 and Kyoto Animation adapted the first 4 volumes.

The series piqued my interest quite a bit. Firstly due to KyoAni adapting a novel instead of a light novel series which seems to be the medium of choice for animation studios nowadays, and also what the director, Takemoto Yasuhiro said before the series aired, that the series will be bittersweet.

In the first ep, we were introduced to the main characters, namely Oreki Houtaro, a self admitted ‘energy conserving’ teenager that holds to the idea of ‘if I need to do something, do it quickly and swiftly’, Fukube Satoshi, his best friend and a ‘database’ and also Chitanda Eru, the moe mascot of this series, with her large shining eyes and trademark line, “kininarimasu” (literally either ‘I am curious!’ or ‘I am a tree!’, choose which). Other than the industry recognised KyoAni quality (the first picture I posted where Chitanda’s air grew into vines needed to be seen to be believed), the first ep was… quite boring. Oreki’s sister forced him to join her old Literature Club (Kotenbu) where he met the president, Eru, who was locked inside, and asked him how she was locked. It was mundane at best, and feels lacking since they ‘mystery’ was so easy.

The first real arc, The Niece of Time, seems quite normal as well. Kayano Ai was a breath of fresh air as the tsundere last member of Kotenbu, Ibara Mayaka, but that’s rather about it. The mystery behind the story of Chitanda’s uncle, Sekitani Jun helped explained quite a bit of the Kotenbu’s background, but it does not really bring much to the series in terms of a ‘Mystery Series’. Other than the great animation by KyoAni, I was thinking what were they thinking adapting this series. But there is a lingering feeling that something would happen with the characters for some reason…

The next arc, ‘Why Didn’t They Asked Eba‘ feels quite different from the first one. Borrowing from the title of a famous Agatha Christie’s novel, ‘Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?‘ the Kotenbu was tasked on solving a mystery of an unfinished movie, and figure out what the script writer wanted to do. Fair enough. Pretty straightforward right? And that’s what happened… initially. At the end of the arc, suddenly manipulations, lies and personal secrets appears out of nowhere. And yet looking back it was hinted there all along. I was just expecting this to be another moeshit show that I was too blind to see it. And that suddenly made me realise what’s this series is actually about. It was never about the mystery. The story is about the characters as humans, with the mystery being there for the characters to grow. And certainly enough, when you realise where to actually focus upon, that was when the series became much, MUCH better.

If ‘Why Didn’t They Ask Eba‘ was the appetiser, then ‘Welcome to the Kanya Fest‘ arc was Hyouka’s main course. A simple mystery of a thief in a school festival turns into an intricate story of multiple people, interwoven together where all path leads back to Oreki. Oreki, which character this time is based upon Christie’s Miss Marple. As with Miss Marple, Oreki rarely venture out from one place, instead relying on information that various people told him to solve this mystery. But being Hyouka, the mystery itself is just a backdrop of various characters, each with their own unique story which initially seems to be jumbled up but actually makes a larger picture that encompasses the whole Kanya Fest. Feelings, lots of them took the centre stage here as Hyouka toys with your heartstring more than once.

It was hard to see how the last few episodes could top the Kanya Fest arc, especially when it’s adapted from the 4th novel that focuses on the interactions of Chitanda and Oreki. And yet somehow or another, it still delivers, and delivers well. While the two previous arcs focuses on a myriad of characters, the latter ones shows the viewers how Oreki and Chitanda, and in a lesser part Mayaka and Satoshi changed according to the events that had happened around them.

The Valentine episode, or what would I call the “Deconstruction of Satoshi Fukube” episode showed that it can still spin an elaborate tale, even if it’s just a tale of one character. And yet it was believable and befitting of not only the character in focus, but all the other characters as well.

The last episode erupted so much reaction with the viewers that I could make a specific blog entry just to dissect it. But I won’t since it will spoil it’s beauty. But let’s just say that it was a befitting end to a wonderful series, where the characters stayed true to their character, even tho it would have been better for them to change for the sake of the viewers. But changing them would spoil the whole series, spoil how they have grown and changed, and for that, it was the only logical end that they could have chose to do.

There is a saying, ‘Truth Hurts‘. And yes, it hurts when watching Hyouka. It hurts because you are watching the truth about human. This is not your generic anime where the main character is some Gary Stu being the most important person in the world or encountering some aliens or fighting demons or meeting ghost. The characters in Hyouka are mundane, and in some cases just ordinary. And not one of them are perfect. They have individual flaws, dark secrets, jealousy, greed, differing personalities according to occasions, but in the end thats what humans are. What Hyouka shows especially in the latter half is that, it does not matter if you have flaws, you could change, and the people around you could balance out those flaws.

Kudos should be given to KyoAni for sticking true to the source. With just some creative changes, the magic of the novel was not lost, and in fact, the subtleness of it all was multiplied greatly using the animations. Each scenes felt like it belongs, and not just some random eyecandy created to pander to the viewers. Whoever says that ‘pictures tells a thousand words’ was telling the truth. The sideway glances, the cracked voice, the changing colour of the background, everything tells you something without it being forced down your throat. The above scene shows the change in Oreki’s mindset, from the dull ‘grey‘ at the start of the series to the ‘rose‘ tinted life he starts to embrace at the end. It’s subtle, yet it tells a lot.

And they certainly did not spare anything. The image above were sidecharacters, some appearing not more than once, but were given the same loving detail as any main characters. Heck, some are even voiced by big names, names usually HEADLINES series. Fukuyama Jun, Tomokazu Sugita, Chihara Minori, Toyosaki Aki, Taketatsu Ayana, and a lot more were used, some less than even a minute. It would be cheaper just to use some new names for them, but it won’t have that same feel, that feel of everyone is a part of a large community, and no one is more important that others.

Will I rewatch the series again? Sadly no. Firstly the roller coaster ride of various feelings that I have during watching the Kanya Arc was really too much for me to handle. Secondly due to my short attention span, I know I’d never going to enjoy this as much as I had during my initial viewing. Would I recommend this? Totally. Just that don’t expect this to entertain you like a normal anime would. If you want to follow how Mayaka defines a masterpiece, then Hyouka is certainly not one. But it certainly not something generic or normal either. I just wish Honobu-sensei would resume with this series, but going with his pace, it would take around 30 years for him to fully churn out a full compilation until the main characters finish high school, and he already stated that he would like to have Hyouka covering the characters in college as well. I might even live at the time he finishes this, so I’d have to be satisfied with how it currently ‘ends’.

Bah, I think I would follow what Chitanda says. Everything is just starting…
If ‘

The incident, or “prank” as it’s known was planned by one Yamanaka Takahiro, a bigshot at Kings Record, and the producer for the Kokoro Connect series. The victim was one Mitsuhiro Ichiki (pictured above), an aspiring voice actor. In the spirit of dokkiri (どっきり – practical joke), Ichiki was offered a role of an original [...]]]>
Bullying is a quite unique subject in Japan. Traditionally it’s rampant, where people of power bullies much more weaker people. In workplaces, schools, heck even online like the 2ch boards are not safe from it. And yet it’s like an open secret, something that should not be talked about even if it’s happening in front of you (the recent government of Japan cover up of suicide/bullying incident comes to mind). Thus it’s quite a surprise to see such an reaction over a recent bullying incident revolving around a current anime series, Kokoro Connect

The incident, or “prank” as it’s known was planned by one Yamanaka Takahiro, a bigshot at Kings Record, and the producer for the Kokoro Connect series. The victim was one Mitsuhiro Ichiki (pictured above), an aspiring voice actor. In the spirit of dokkiri (どっきり – practical joke), Ichiki was offered a role of an original character in Kokoro Connect and was asked to come for an audition two months ago. The audition was recorded with variouss hidden camera (Dokkiri itself stems from どっきりカメラ aka Surprise Camera) with Ichiki being told to voice various lines as loudly as he could

During a promo event for Kokoro Connect, Ichiki was invited to come on stage, without being told why. Expecting to hear an announcement of his original character, instead he was shown a spliced, edited video of his audition, told that it was all a prank, and was forced to become Kokoro Connect’s PR. The event was shown live on NicoNico and also Ustream, and throughout, he was ridiculed by the “official” seiyuus, Terashima Takuma, Mizushima Takahiro and Oogame Asuka.

The PR work is also a batsu game (punishment game) and if he fails certain task, he would be punished. If you guys are familiar with “Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende“‘s batsu game, you would realise that it’s quite harmful. He was even electrocuted for failing, live on Nico and Ustream. He was even ridiculed to lengths on the official Kokoro Connect radio show by the other seiyuus.

Ironically, this would have gone quietly under everyone’s radar (honestly, are the people watching the stream and listening to the radio stupid?) if it was not for Kikuchi Hajime (from Eufonius)’s tweet regarding the incident. The tweet lead 2ch to investigate, and pieces the incident together.

So what happened? Kokoro Connect took quite a large hit. The official radio show was canned (as the image above announced). Pre-orders from the Blu-Ray dropped and many went to Amazon and gave bad reviews for the series, meaning much more sale lost. 2ch also started to boycott the anime and won’t stop until Yamanaka resign. Ironically they are bullying the bully as well.

Things are not so well across the Atlantic (or Pacific? I dunno, all seas are the same) when 4chan’s /a/ board overreacted and started spamming Kitamura Eri’s twitter account with pictures of penises. This was due to an unconfirmed rumour that KitaEro is the girlfriend of Yamanaka, and decided to punish her, for some reason.

Due to the unwanted (negative) attention that they are getting, the management even forced Ichiki to say that this was just a staged stunt, something which makes no logic whatsoever. And they also released another apology earlier today, apologising for the earlier apology, and saying that Ichiki WILL be featured in the anime, albeit in an OVA episode which, due to the low sales, hardly would be seen by anyone.

Long summary of the incident: http://pastebin.com/Pu2hADMc
Other source: Kotakuem