Sugoi! Mubi desu!

As well as writing about my two years living abroad, my day-to-day life since being back, my work and anything else that pops into my mind, I’ve decided to throw one more topic in to the mix: films. Specifically, films I’ve seen threw the years that more likely than not, you, dear reader, have not. To begin…

Yokai Daisenso

Or in English: The Great Yokai War. This film, directed by Takashi Miike, is technically a children’s movie which, to anyone out there that knows Miike, might seem surprising. I’m sure I’ll write about a few of his other films in the future.

The Great Yokai War is a remake of an older Japanese film made in 1968 called Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare*. In both films, good yokai (Japanese spirits) band together to overcome the big, bad yokai. It’s that simple. Why do I love them both? Cause I love yokai. They’re bizarre and I promise to elaborate further in future blogs.

But, there are several reasons to love Miike’s remake apart from “Yokai are cool”. For starters, just take in to account that this IS a children’s’ film. Keep this in mind as you scroll through the following images:

Bloody mutant cow fetuses?

Melting monsters in vats of red goo?

Small children being murdered by giant Optimus Primes from Hell on their way to the bathroom?

Kill Bill/Battle Royale's Chiaki Kuriyama’s numerous panty shots?

And my personal favorite:

The message to Japanese children everywhere that if you want the ability to see all these really awesome yokai all you have to do is drink A LOT of Kirin ‘biru’.

Other great things this flick’s got? Well, loads of fun special effects which, although nothing to compare to most of the CGI-extravaganzas out right now, celebrate the typically not-so-great-looking special effects we expect from any over-the-top Japanese monster movie. And for the hippies out there, some feel-good, peace-and-love messages: “Those who discard their past have no future” and “Wars don’t bring any good. They only make you a fool.” Right on, dude…

Oh, yeah… and yokais are just freaking cool.

*Sadly, I can’t remember for the life of me what the title is in Japanese and, even sadder still, the internet has failed me as well.

So much for March...

Well, it’s been a long hard month. For those of you who don’t know I moved to Brooklyn, had no internet for the first three days I was living here, then got it back for one day only to have my computer of 5 years up and die on me the next morning.

In light of those rather weighty and depressing events, I’m going to keep this, my first post since moving, rather, umm… light.

A few months back, I was working at 8 Hats High on a project for some toy designers. Part of the project was to create multiple models (actual models; not 3D renders) of the proposed toy. In order to do this we needed a mold (cue my excitment! No, really. I like making molds). So, Sonha and I began our quest for molding and casting materials.

That quest lead us to a ‘somewhat deceit, but still unsuited for our needs’ art store. The question of whether or not we found what we were looking for is unimportant and was completely overshadowed by this awesome find:


I have no idea what place this has in an art store.


Boxers or briefs?


A few of those necessary outfits.


Our future president who, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on how you want to look at it), doesn’t have an ‘undressed’ state.


However, Jeb looks like one sour little bastard; probably cause he knows he won’t ever get a shot at the presidency.

Monsters, no ink...

I was encouraged (a.k.a told) I should post more drawings.

To appease the (sparse) crowd I shall, but with a slight twist since I don't like to always do exactly what I'm told. Besides, sculpture has always been one of my favorite forms of art.


I sculpted this guy while living abroad, teaching English in Japan (he was even exhibited in a big art show in Sendai). To give you some idea of what that involved, this sculpture in particular was completely almost entire during working hours (that's how much they cared about learning English... I kid, I kid).


The experience did garner one of my more interesting altercation with a Japanese co-worker about how an artist's mind works. He didn't understand that the design for this creature came from 'my imagination'. He kept asking me where it was from. When that proved to frustrating, he moved on to ask if it was a whale or a camel. I finally told him it was a kind of kaiju like Godzilla and Gamera. You think he would have understood that.


Good thing he never saw this guy... it would have blown his mind.

Mee-sa love Anni!

Comiket is primarily a comic convention for people who are so obsessed with characters such as Anakin Skywalker, Harry Potter and even that masked chap from V For Vendetta that they create and sell their own fan-fic of said characters.

If I had known Comiket was going to be a fan-fic convention, I probably wouldn't have gone. I was expecting Spiderman, just not in this format. In the end, I'm glad I went for two reasons: One, I didn't spend nearly as much money as I thought I would. Two, apparently when someone is as obsessed with Obiwan Kenobi as these people are, they are mostly concerned with writing about whether or not he's going to get Anakin in bed. That's right. Comiket seems to be filled with nothing but yaoi.


There was a LOT of Harry Potter yaoi. A LOT. This proved a bit of a challenge because I wanted to find one that I wouldn't feel ashamed to show my librarian mother when she inevitably asked to see it. All I could manage to find was this PG-rated one (mostly due to a penis joke involving the Weasel twins).


Spidey was also really big that year. This particular comic is the first half of a two part story involving Peter and Harry's growing and ultimately awkward love for one another. Unfortunately, my friend got his hands on the last copy of the second half in which Peter has Venom's love-child. He actually had a hard time convincing the girl who created it to sell him the copy (boys aren't suppose to like this stuff!).


I did get this sexy postcard, though!


This one is probably one of the nicest. It's got a simple but fun story while keeping the art and characters true to the American cartoon it was obviously based off of. In case you can't read the fine print, the story involves:

Girls-Bash-Night
Harley and Ivy are best pal. Merry making of girls's night. Love and the talk of sex are indispensable at a girlfriend's night!



Basically, Harley and Ivy talk about which hero/villain they'd like to 'do'. There's even a clever, if obvious joke about the Flash. All in all, it's cute and the characters remain true to the originals.


This, however, is perhaps my favorite. I can only guess that the Replicator is malfunctioning or something...

Whatever the case may be, it's certainly upsetting Number One.

Kudos to anyone that knows who this is or can guess what the story might entail...

Gomenasai...

Between some work with They Might Be Giants wrapping up, looking for a new apartment, a wicked cold that seems to come and go every other week and the upcoming move to said new apartment this poor ol' blog has fallen into disrepute. Once the move is complete, I promise interesting and exciting pictures of my new neighborhood and feline roommates.

For now though, I shall hope to amuse you with an exciting two part blog all about my adventures at Comiket back in 2006 (today's post) and some of the strange fan fiction I collected there (later post). Shall we begin?

Comiket is a HUGE comic fair held annually in Odaiba, just south of Tokyo that focuses primarily on fan-fic. The group of us headed down by shinkansen which some how was always more exciting to prepare for than to actually ride.


Bill's REALLY happy about Comiket.


I can't really see why... looks like a bunch of otakus milling about a warehouse.


Oh, now I know why he was excited... I had no idea 'The Boy Who Lived' was such a big fan of yaoi.

In all honesty, I think I spent a grand total of three hours actually at Comiket. The rest of the time, I wondered around Odaiba which had way more to offer.


Like Japan's very own Statue of Liberty!


And the giant ferris wheel... I don't think it's the biggest in the world but I'm sure some local swore to me that it was.


In fact, the best part of the trip down south was the giant mall (yes, mall) nearby. Inside, you can find Sega Joypolis.


It's basically an indoor amusement park complete with rollercoasters, simulation rides and other such goodies that I don't actually know the proper names for.

The coolest floor, though, was one made up to look like a matsuri (festival) straight out of the 1960s with a haunted house, boweling alley (well, really just one lane) and lots of vintage pinball machines and arcade games. Hmm... maybe this will be a three part post...

Tell me doctor, where are we going this time?

One of the neat little factoids I've learned in the year I've been working at 8 Hats High is actually about the building our studio is housed in.


Located in downtown Middletown, NY, it may not look like much to many of the big-time city folks but if we take a step back in time...


... we would find the grand olde Bull's Opera House in which none other than Edwin Booth performed one of his most famous roles as Hamlet.


Now while some of you might be disappointed that it was Edwin and not John who graced the stage here, rest assured Edwin was the better actor. Today, you'll find just as interesting a character waiting at the door to greet you...


From here it's upstairs to the old lobby with concession stands and ticket booths. Sadly, these have all been replaced by light tables, computers, scanners, two TV sets and a few fake pine trees. From the one-time lobby, you enter into what was once the theater.


Today, the high ceilings serve to house our Motion Capture system...


... and green screen.


Then there's the lamp post that leads to Narnia, but I'll save that for a later blog...

Will work for work...

With the present state of the economy, I figured now would be as good a time as any to put a little plug in here for myself and more specifically, my work ethic.

About a year ago I was hired by Market America to act as sound editor at their annual convention in Miami, Florida. I got flown done there, put up in a swanky hotel and paid a decent sum to run through hours of audio and cut out anything objectionable (crowd applause, questionable comments, etc.). Then all the audio had to be converted and uploaded to Market America's website by the end of the day.

It was a race against time and distractions were plentiful. The Miami sun, NFL Champion with the Philadelphia Eagles Dennis Franks, yacht parties galore and appearances by J. Lo, Marc Anthony and some younger version of Shakira all tempted to distract me from the task at hand.

But not even when supermodel-turned-fashion designer Kimora showed up did I turn from my computer screen. Now that's dedication! Don't believe me? Check this image out from her TV show, 'Life in the Fab Lane'.


If it's on TV it must be true. Hire me!