Category: Animé

Shake That Kitty!

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/Azu.flv 400 294]

Carol came up with the expression “Shake That Kitty,” as seen in the DVD menu for Azumanga Daioh. Great Dick Dale style surf guitar.

I strung together some snippets, including another menu from the DVD. The other scenes are from an episode where a cat costume figures prominently. The cat parade is very nice, don’t you think?

The character that pets the dog is the one shaking the kitty. Her cat bites her every time she tries to pet it, so she’s quite taken with the placid dog.

Raspberry Heaven

There’s lots of Azumanga Daioh on YouTube™, but as a follow-up to a previous posting, here are the end credits, framed by the commercial break outro and intro.  The “Raspberry Heaven” catch-phrase is very catchy. 
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/azumangadaioh.flv 320 236]

It took a couple of episodes to see past the underlying wackiness.  Something I didn’t realize at first is the show deals with some very contemporary themes about growing up that in previous generations were simply not presented.

Seven Samurai 7

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/samurai_7.flv 425 236]

Honorable son Eric’s latest Animé pick is Samurai 7, a series based on the legendary movie, The Seven Samurai.  When I was in high school, the Boston PBS station showed it complete and commercial-free, and it was my friend and mentor Morris Hyman who made sure I didn’t miss it.

Eric and I watched the original movie together not too many months ago, and I was pleased to see that he was suitably impressed.  George Lucas borrowed much from this movie when creating The Jedi Knights.

I’ve spliced together a couple of brief scenes from both presentations for comparison.  Below is, obviously, the original.  No robots!
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/7samurai.flv 320 240]

Eric’s Animé Pick

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/azumanga.flv 320 240]

This time around is the opening to Azumanga Daioh, along with a couple of gags.  Azumanga Daioh is so totally nonsensical it defies description.  Originally a 4-panel comic strip, it was then turned into a daily 5-minute Animé for TV.

Since this video preview is already wacky, for contrast I’ll tack on a single-gag cartoon done of the 4-panel comic strip Peanuts, way back in 1963.  This was some of the first animation produced to test Charlie Brown and the gang for television.

Eric’s Animé Pick

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Eric has us watching a totally bizarre, edgy and over-the-top 6-show series called FLCL.  The most accessible thing about it for me is the music by The Pillows.

The video is a catchy Pillows song from FLCL called “Ride on Shooting Star.” Use the embedded audio player to hear the song with much better sound, in stereo.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/Japan/Pillows.mp3]