Back in April we attended the Anime Boston convention. Unfortunately, my post about it was lost in the database disaster in early June. This weekend in Long Beach, CA is the big one — AX, The Anime Expo. A bit too far away for us to take Eric and his fellow Anime fan cousins!
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUL07/AnimeExpo.flv 400 300]
Category: Animé
Eric’s Anime Pick — Kurau
Kurau Phantom Memory is about a girl with extraordinary powers who’s a secret agent; but not for the government, which is out to get her. At least that’s what’s happening in the story as far as we’ve seen it. Kurau has a kid sister named Christmas to protect, who is actually a younger version of herself. Where this is heading, I don’t know!
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUN07/Kurau.flv 400 300]
The video has the “clean” (captionless) versions of the opening and closing to Kurau, along with a clip from episode 6.
Eric’s Anime Pick — Paniponi Dash
Paniponi Dash! is a little of this, and a little of that, with some obvious inspiration from Azumanga Daioh. The video includes the DVD menu (because the music is fun), then the lead-in with the opening credits, the closing credits, and a trademark false preview that has nothing whatsoever to do with the next episode.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUN07/PaniponiDash.flv 425 240]
Eric’s non-Anime Pick — Train Man (Densha Otoko)
A highly-popular recent manga/movie/TV series in Japan is Train Man or, as it’s known there, Densha Otoko. It’s a romantic comedy that is supposed to be based on a true Internet bulletin board thread about an ultra-nerd who helps a girl that is accosted by a drunk on a subway.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/JUN07/TrainMan.flv 425 240]
This movie is all heart, with none of the mean-spirited macho posturing tone that afflicts The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Another nod to honorable Eric from his humble parents!
Kamichu, the Girl-Child God
Eric had written a special guest blog entry for Kamichu, an Anime series about a girl who somehow becomes a god. Not a great god, but a good one. The text was lost in the Great Database Debacle, but here’s the video…
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAY07/KamiChu.flv 425 240]
As Eric pointed out, this sequence is atypical for the show, which is mostly slice-of-life vignettes, sometimes featuring little spirit creatures.
Kino Kicking Again
Here’s another repost of an entry about an Anime title that was lost to the database error. We’ve watched the entire series of Kino’s Journey, which turned out to be one of our favorites.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/MAY07/Kino.flv 425 240]