[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/Anime/Haibane.flv 425 240]
Honorable son Eric’s latest animé pick is a very odd offering, indeed. Odd because Haibane Renmei depicts angel-like (although not angelic) creatures who are perhaps on their way to Heaven? Seems like a rather Christian basis for a Japanese story. Without Netflix there’s no way we’d be able to see all of these animé titles.
[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.
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!
