About Me
I'm an Australian ex-cinema studies student who has a special interest in anime (Japanese animation), videogames and roaming the internet. These are my rants, funny links and thoughts.
I popped in my Blu-Ray copy of The Sky Crawlers (2008) today and sat down to give it my undivided attention. It’s an amazingly beautiful film – the aerial fight scenes are particularly impressive. The 5.1 HD sound and full HD visuals reminded me yet again why it is that I own a Blu-Ray player (my PS3), a full HD television and lovely surround sound system. Yet it is the thought provoking concepts around whether it is acceptable to just ‘live’ – to go about your life every day without a real care for anything. The film seeks to address a languishing society comprised of youth withdrawing almost entirely from it – the hikikomori. Some have even gone so far as to say it’s a reflection on the relationship between anime creators and the otaku (Sevakis, 2009) – which probably isn’t that crazy when one thinks about it. Anime is growing sterile these days – with the saturation of loli fanservice and terrible garbage of today’s output I can see why this argument is made.
I haven’t seen a film that’s hit me so hard in some time – this one certainly did. There’s certainly something to watching a film about characters who barely recognise their own existence and don’t concern themselves with any emotional drive to do just about anything. The characters spend a substantial amount of time drinking beer, smoking and indulging in prostitutes – they have lost their drive to achieve something out of life. Narrative spoilers aside – this film is something that really makes you think – and as the film begins to unravel it becomes clear that some strong messages for society (and as previously stated, possibly the anime industry itself) are being made.
“The aerial action has been carefully crafted for excitement and offer impressive scenes of skylines full of fighter planes: the mix of CGI and 2D animation give depth and a gloss that would make Michael Bay proud. But The Sky Crawlers can be commended for going deeper than any Bay blockbuster with an intellect that will have you wanting more long after the surprise at the end of the credits.” (Barnard, 2010).
Thankfully this wasn’t a Michael Bay film – I will have things to ponder for some time to come.
Official Sony Pictures site
Anime News Network encyclopedia entry
Works Cited
Barnard, M 2010, The Sky Crawlers Film Review, viewed 8 July, 2011, http://www.futuremovies.co.uk/review.asp?ID=1152.
Sevakis, J 2009, The Sky Crawlers (Blu-Ray), viewed 8 July, 2011, http://www.animenewsnetwork.com.au/review/sky-crawlers/bluray.
The Sky Crawlers 2008, Blu-Ray, Sony Pictures, Japan, directed by Mamoru Oshii, Written by Chihiro Ito, Music by Kenji Kawaii, Voices by Ryo Kase, Rinko Kikuchi, Shosuke Tanihara & Chiaki Kuriyama.
Anime by .
I got on my high horse and produced another rant at videogam.in again – this time it’s on Australia’s Senate commitee’s recommendation for ratings to be applied to art exhibitions with controversial artwork. Read as I let loose from both a political and moral standpoint. Huzzah!
Today I began my task of researching anime for my directed reading course. I’ll be specifically looking at narrative form & structure as well as aesthetics in Japanese televised animated serials. To begin, I’m re-watching Haibane Renmei and taking notes – this will fall under aesthetics. This is the biggest essay I’ve ever worked on – it’s meant to be 5,000 words.
I’ve forgotten how interesting the setting of Glie is – Old Home is a very warm seemingly rural place with only the essentials (no luxury items) – given I’ve seen it before I know all of that (and know why) but attempting to watch it from a fresh perspective really shows this. The ‘angels’ are depicted as such – halos and wings – however there’s a certain level of rawness to it. Wings burst violently from one’s back with much pain and blood, halos are seemingly manufactured and one of them smokes.
Again, these are all things I know but are now of greater interest to me as a cinema undergraduate student; I cannot wait to start tackling this one in essay format. It’s a beautiful piece of work with a very homely yet dark atmosphere.
Anime Cinema Studies by .
Well I got bored again and made another website. This time I’ve actually made one about/for myself. Pretty egotistical right? Nah, I just got bored and wanted a place to upload crap and get an email address that won’t look so dodgy on my resume. Plus everyone else seems to have one these days, why can’t I? The site’s “in beta” at the moment as I continue to work out how Word Press works (though I think I’ve done an alright job of making it look/feel nice) and fiddle with things. So sit back, watch some funny YouTube videos and get that warm nerdy feeling of reading academia. Or just close the site and never come back, whatever works for you.
YouTube by .
YouTube by .