#count downs

[charityreadsabookanddrinkswine]

There has been little to look forward to this year. But here are some lights at the end of the tunnel

Thanksgiving: 64 days

A Sky Beyond the Storm: 69 days

Acosf: 146 days

Blessed monsters: 195 days

[blueeyeswithagoldenblackheart]

People are counting down to Christmas, but I'm over here counting down to New Years because I'm done with this year.

[otapleonehalf]

My Top 5 Anime Commercials

Animated commercials are common place, and so are anime commercials (at least in Japan). Anime commercials are produced by studios small and large from to Studio Ghibli to Studio Colorida. Not to mention all the commercials advertising individual anime themselves and the cross promotional campaigns spun off of them with Evangelion probably having the weirdest. Some of these commercials are actually rather impressive or entertaining. So here are my favorite anime that are actually advertisements.

5. Toshokan Rocket (Library Rocket)

This cute animation from 2013 about little birds in a corgi-shaped spaceship is set to a song about the wonders of discovering history and learning through books. It’s presumably meant to promote literacy and library visitation in Japan, but I think it’s pretty entertaining too.

4. Bear Control [Wonder Garden]

This short (which I didn’t actually realize was a commercial until I did some research) is how I first heard of Studio Colorida. They make interesting anime shorts and commercials with significant talent behind them. Despite the popularity of their McDonalds recruitment commercial, this Bear Control promo directed by former Ghibli animator, Yojiro Arai, is my favorite of their works.

3. Internet Explorer

This video was produced by Microsoft’s Singapore branch in celebration of Anime Festival Asia 2013 (one of the largest anime conventions in the world ranked just above Anime Expo). Microsoft has a long line of cute anime girl mascots used to personify and promote their products. Windows 10 is the most recent addition. (But fans have come up with a more accurate personification of the software)

2. Superflat Monogram

In 2002 Takashi Murakami, one of Japan’s most famous contemporary artists, collaborated with fashion brand Louis Vuitton to design a line of handbags. This animated short was created as part of the promotional campaign for the new bags and premiered in 2003. Murakami collaborated with director Mamoru Hosoda on the short and the result is conceptually and visually similar to Hosoda’s later work Summer Wars. The short then received a sequel in 2009, this time solely directed by Murakami, called Superflat First Love and features a teenage version Louis Vuitton himself.

1. 6♥Princess

This is a commercial for a collaboration between make-up brand Shu Uemura and Takashi Murakami.  If you know much about my tastes I’m a big fan of magical girls as well Murakami, so this was an easy top pick for me. There’s allegedly going to be an anime series based off this short, but very little has come to light on that front. 

[otapleonehalf]

5 Literal Anime Music Videos

You’re likely already familiar with the concept of a fan made anime music video. But there are also official music videos that take clips from anime and set it to a song from the shows soundtrack in a similar fashion to their fan made counterparts. From old classics like the 80s Creamy Mami to modern shows like Space Dandy, this is a very common practice in not just anime, but other mediums as well since it’s a good promotional tool. 

But what about music videos that don’t recycle clips but instead create brand new animation? These do exist in fandom. The most famous obviously being Daicon IV, but there are other examples of copyright infringement or character homage (depending on how much you like it) particularly in the rap industry. A more recent example of this would be branUn Deshay’s Had Em All.

But then there’s also new animation created to officially accompany an anime’s soundtrack (that isn’t meant to be interspersed with recycled footage).  Things like the music videos spun off of the anime Gurren Lagann, or the anime Mekaku City Actors spun off of music videos. 

So with so many types of anime music videos, I’ve narrowed things down to a list of five official music videos that used new animation to accompany songs not created for the purpose of an anime soundtrack or franchise promotion.

5. Takashi Murakami’s It Girl

Pharrel Williams collaborated with contemporary artist Takashi Murakami to create a hip-hop, superflat, epileptic, anime and video game montage for the song It Girl in 2014.

4. Daoko’s Girl

Not to be confused with the previous entry on the list, this music video was a part of the Animator Expo in 2015. The animation is simply titled Girl but the song is titled Samishii Kamisama (Lonely Deity) and is by J-pop artist Daoko.

3. Gundam’s White Reflection

For electro pop duo TWO-MIX, their sound was perfect for the Gundam Wing soundtrack and the growing interest in 90s techno among anime fans. (TWO-MIX’s music has also been featured in the anime Detective Conan.) So for their 1997 song White Reflection, the music video took the form of an animated short film, but the feature was unrelated to the mega-franchises anime fans knew them for.

2. Miyazaki’s On Your Mark

Miyazaki wrote and directed a music video for the Japanese band Chage & Aska in 1995 for their song On Your Mark to help his writer’s block during Princess Mononoke. This was the first time Miyazaki used CG in one of his works.

1. Leiji Matsumoto’s Bohemian Rhapsody

Back in 2009 Queen collaborated with Leiji Matsumoto to create a story set to their signature song. The result is a music video that’s more like a short film. This wasn’t the first time Matsumoto made visuals for a western band. In 2003, he collaborated with Daft Punk to create the film Interstella 5555, a film based on the band’s album Discovery. Both projects have a very similar feel.

Related Posts:

My Favorite AMVs

[otapleonehalf]

21 Must See Anime You Can Watch Right Now

I get asked for anime recommendations all the time and I’m always surprised by how many people haven’t seen what I think of as classics. So if you by chance haven’t seen any of these yet then check them out.

Movies:

1. Ghost in the Shell via Hulu

2. The Castle of Cagliostro via Hulu

3. Tokyo Godfathers via Crackle

4. Millennium Actress via Youtube

TV Shows:

5. Cowboy Bebop via Hulu (or funimation)

6. Princess Tutu via Hulu (or the anime network)

7. Samurai Champloo via Hulu (or funimation)

8. Michiko and Hatchin via Hulu (or funimation)

9. Ouran High School Host Club via Hulu (or funimation or Netflix at the time of this post)

10. Kino’s Journey via Hulu

11. Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad via Hulu (or funimation)

12. Revolutionary Girl Utena via Hulu

13. Gurren Lagann via Hulu (or crunchyroll or netflix at the time of this post)

14. Shirobako via Hulu (or crunchyroll or the anime network)

15. Mushishi via Hulu (or crunchyroll)

16. Trigun via Hulu (or funimation)

17. Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water via Hulu (or the anime network)

18. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day via Crunchyroll

19. Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo via Hulu (or funimation or crunchyroll)

20. Taisho Baseball Girls via Hulu (or the anime network)

21. FLCL via Hulu (or funimation)

Bonus Shorts:

The Daicon Animaton

On Your Mark

(All the streams active at the time of this post)

[nyxgerl]

DAY 40

First small argument this week. But good news, less than 170 days left! Just get through this three times more until deployment ends! And babe will be back in the U.S. pheww.. Yet there is still a loooong way being away from him... The longest i was away was three months, yet the longest of not hearing each others voice was one month. I don't anticipate the hard moments yet to come of missing him so much!!.. its no fun. 💔

[nyxgerl]

Day 32

So i gotta say, the new management is getting a little comfortable with the her employees.. i like how she takes action! And that she has my back on some things.

I woke up with an addiction of buying these new stamps! Omg if i had all the money in the world not only would i help third world countries and the needs here in the US, i would shop for life!

We’ll see, i ordered my charming’s bday gift.. and it back ordered… booooh 👎

So alot more shopping and errands for another friday!

[otapleonehalf]

My Favorite AMVs

AMVs have been a staple of anime fandom for what feels like since the invention of the internet. I don’t think there’s a fan out there that hasn’t seen at least one. Like many other fan works they possess the passion of their creator and are meant to kindle emotion in other fans as well. Depending on the when and where you watch it along with and actual content of an AMV they could take on a deeper meaning for the viewer.

This is a personal count down, in that I am not listing the AMVs that I think are “the best”. Instead, these are AMVs that are associated with or significant to my personal history as an anime fan.

5. Imagica by Chiikaboom

I couldn’t get this one to properly embed itself since it’s not a youtube video. So you can follow the link to watch it. 

I first watched this AMV during an Anime Rest Stop panel a few years ago. By the content of the AMV you can probably guess it was a magical girl panel. After the clip ended they asked who could recognize all the shows used and I was one of the few people who raised their hand. It was really the first time I realized that the average anime fan was likely to have seen a few of the big name magical girl shows. It was then that I started considering the genre as a sort of specialty of mine and dug even digger into than I already had.

4. Ship Happens by Vivifx

2014 was my 3rd Otakon and was the year I started consistently going to at least three cons a year. I love anime conventions. But I rarely attend opening and closing ceremonies. Arrival and Departure times are always tricky and that’s not counting the time you spend in registration, etc. etc. But in that year I had managed to make it to both ceremonies for Otakon and one of the best moments was the crowds reaction to this video being played as one of the AMV winners. It was just a great high note to end a great con on.

3.  Viva la fillette revolutionnaire by Nevermoreninenine

I came across this video online one random day after I had recently finished Rose of Versailles. I loved Versailles and was already a big Utena fan so this combo was a perfect match. Both of these shows have powerful female leads in addition to playing with gender. This AMV does a great job of taking the heavy ideas of challenging gender in both shows and presenting them in an upbeat way. Plus the song is catchy. Basically, I just like this AMV a lot.

2. Hold Me Now by Marissa Panaccio

Princess Tutu was one of my very first cosplays. The outfit is long gone but I still have the really poorly made crown and necklace that I lovingly constructed at 15. This AMV was one of the reasons I watched the show in the first place, along with some strong recommendations. At the time the show was still fairly obscure and one of my favorite parts of wearing that cosplay was when I was asked where I was from and I got to recommend this show that I really cared about to others who could enjoy it.

1. Forsaken by Why hallo there!

This is literally what got me into anime. Back when youtube wasn’t owned by google and recent uploads were displayed at the top of searches, typing in the single word anime had this as the first result. After watching it I HAD to know what it was. Then 12 year old me began obsessing over DNAngel. I first watched it fan subbed, then got the DVDs and watched the dub and then bought all the available manga at the time. I owe it to this AMV for getting me hooked on anime in the first place and becoming the fan I am now.

This obviously isn’t an exhausted list. You can find more awesome AMVs I’m a fan of on my youtube channel.