Category: Animé

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.

[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]

[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.

My first favorite cartoon character was Popeye.  Here’s Popeye finding himself in the totally incomprehensible world of today’s animated offerings.

This is a YouTube™ video, so if the area above is blank, don’t blame me!

[flv:/Movies/Wordpress/Oct06/pillows.flv 440 330]

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]

See a previous post for two trailers to the Animé title, The Place Promised in Our Early Days.

Here are two scenes from the movie that I’ve spliced together.  Note: the bit rate is pushed up to 700 Kbps.  We’re giving this one ★★★★★ (OK, who sees five red stars here and who sees something else?).  Thanks go again to honorable son Eric for putting it on the Netflix queue!

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