As seen elsewhere on this blog, i’ve become a fan of anime in the past several years. I think there’s several reasons:

a) I’ve always liked animation, whether movies, TV cartoons, and in many cases, even ads;

b) the diversity of animation just keeps on getting better and more interesting, even if increasingly computer-based. Of course, just as seen in video games over the past 15-20 years, there is no substitute for actual plot, good writing and coherent themes with good character development. The best looking animation(s) can still end up boring and predictive without them (yes, Appleseed Ex Machina – I’m talking to you!);

c) I think in part anime is also interesting because so often the characters are written in a more over-the-top sensibility (certainly every Initial D episode i’ve ever seen qualifies on that score, but many others are right behind) and often have characters act as if they are in ‘life or death’ struggles (which in many cases isn’t true, but they act that way anyway).

d) Anime just has a different take on things. It’s not usually glorified sitcom situations or plots (at least not the anime I watch) and often has crazy inclusions for characters (Poipodor in Mars Daybreak comes to mind) or fantastical futures that all but make no sense (IGPX) but somehow still manage to entertain.

Which brings me to Initial D. This is an anime series about a school kid living in Gunma province in northern Japan, whose father runs a tofu shop and is an ex-street racer. The father, Bunta, subtly encourages this trait in his only son by having him deliver tofu to several accounts in the early morning over a mountain pass. The kid, Takumi Fujiwara, is fairly dense but seems to have a talent for racing and surprises older 20-somethings who race more seriously. In the first several series, we see Takumi’s talents develop until he’s the equal or better of most other racers in the area and beyond. In Stage 4, ‘Project D’ – he’s now become part of a traveling race team led by a former rival, Ryosuke Takahashi, who dreams of conquering japan’s many mountains and street racing teams with his brother Keisuke and Takumi as the two ace racers on the Project D team. They travel around Japan, challenging team after team in tough and varied races.

What’s appealing about this series is as mentioned before – the characters take themselves VERY seriously, which in some cases comes across as laughable but endearing in a way. You’d think the world would end if this kid doesn’t win a given race by the way they act in posturing against each other up to and during each race.

Also cool is simply the thought of blasting down mountain roads in souped up cars at clearly WAY illegal speeds – watching it on animation is about the only way i’d ever do THAT – I don’t like driving SLOW on cliffside roads – ask kerewin about that one when we were driving around on Crete or Santorini last fall!

Also amusing is how no matter where they go, everyone (racer-wise, anyway) knows about them and keeps putting the best racers up against them. Yet no cops ever show up to THROW THEM IN JAIL for such blatant mountain-racing at nearly every mountain pass they encounter? This was amusing in Wangan Midnight too – although in that series they are largely blasting around highways IN THE CITY at ridiculous speeds but also apparently immune to police (or at least, invisible)?

Anyway, Initial D is pretty entertaining – don’t expect detailed character development or much valid social commentary – it’s pretty focused on one thing, blasting down mountain roads in the middle of the night. But it does a good job of handling that story over and over. Hoping there will ultimately be a Stage 5, but time will tell…..

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So finally saw Speed Racer (the 2008 live-action version, not the original 60s anime) tonight. When this movie came out, I was definitely interested in seeing it, but then many reviews were middling to bad, so I didn’t. The Wachowskis are somwhat polarizing filmmakers these days, and have a lot to live up to (and live down) after the Matrix series went from excellent (1st) to good (2nd) to somewhat mediocre (3rd). But V for Vendetta was also excellent (IMHO), so whatevs – most other filmmakers would be completely jealous to have only a *couple* of those movies in their CV, after all.

Anyway, this movie takes in a lot of the original anime’s plot devices (yes, Chim-Chim is here) and I was definitely pleased to see a scene where they go through all the Mach 5′s special devices (but they never used the Ctrl-G ‘Homing Bird’? They used to use that all the time in the anime!). Racer X of course is key to the plot, and he doesn’t disappoint, either. The look of the cars varies from ‘shiny Hot Wheels surrounded by CGI’ to semi-real looking (when the humans are in them or driving them on “normal” streets).

The movie itself owes a LOT to Pixar (Monsters, Inc and The Incredibles most notably for the factory scenes and the Racer family neighboorhood/house/school/etc.). It also definitely takes from at least two PS2 videogames I own – Kinetica (robot battle-racing) and XG3: Extreme-G Racing (hyper-powered motorcycles with weapons) – both games are played on crazy tracks that soar up/down/multiple dimensions/aerial/underwater/you name it. Props must also be given to drift racing/dirt track racing in general (given the way they drive the cars almost horizontally a lot of the time) and the old standby – Initial D, which I’m sure the Wachowskis have watched at least most of. In the big rally race mid-movie, some of those crazy mountain races look a LOT like the way Initial D shows its crazy mountain racing (the latter’s animation being far more primitive, however).

Finally, there is a lot of IGPX here too (a recent anime from 2005) in the look and feel of the racetracks, especially the Fuji race – and the battling between the cars during the race.

As you’d expect, the races themselves are very well done and crazy to watch, and the movie doesn’t try to oversell the characters, either – unlike the mostly cheesy Racer family seen in the anime. I would say the Racers are as appropriate for the story as The Matrix’ characters – without the speechmaking every 15 minutes by Morpheus of course . What was a bit sad was that actor Emile Hirsch (who plays Speed) was BORN the same year I graduated from high school – DOH! I guess you can’t win them all. The usual anime ‘challenges’ confront Speed and the rest to varying degrees – *almost* insurmountable odds, increasingly maniacal opponents, crisis-whew-bigger-crisis-whew, etc. – But it moves along fairly well and has a bit of fun even with camera asides in a few tiny scenes.

In summary, I was far more entertained by this movie than say, Avatar – even though the latter is of course way more advanced effects-wise. Even having seen some of the SR anime before as a kid (probably 30+ years ago) didn’t really spoil anything. This is a great movie, and i’d definitely see it again on the big screen (Cinerama or midnight movie at The Egyptian, anyone?) I watched it this time at home on my computer……

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Watched Pirates of Silicon Valley again (all the way through this time – only had seen bits and pieces of it before). It’s not the world’s most riveting film in a second watching, but it’s decent (more so if you are a computer nerd, definitely). If you didn’t already know – it’s basically a TNT-made movie, the story of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates – with ancillary players including Steve Wozniak, Steve Ballmer, Paul Allen and a few other assorted personalities. Woz and Ballmer take turns narrating it, depending on whether the movie focuses on Apple or Microsoft at any given point. The movie basically covers the period in time from the very earliest days of Apple and Microsoft in the mid-late 70s, up until about 1998.

This is an interesting film for me on so, so many levels:

a) Watching what goes on in this movie (and having read a bit on the subject of Silicon Valley craziness elsewhere) and by virtue of simply having worked in the software industry the last 12+ years – it still to this day boggles my mind as to the money flying around. With Apple and Microsoft – it’s at the level beyond what most COUNTRIES have, let alone personal fortunes – really! How many countries can you name that have $40B+ in the bank like Microsoft does? Not bloody many, barring our own, maybe Canada, and possibly some of Western Europe and Japan? It’s just beyond the ability to comprehend.

b) It’s not completely clear how many actual situations in this movie are ‘factual’ – and they sure don’t paint a nice picture of Steve Jobs (Gates gets off a bit easier in my view, because he gets to be the ‘business nerd’ that doesn’t care about saving the world and then points out Jobs’ hypocrisy on this point to his face in a short, but effective outburst) – but in a recent speech (2006), Woz noted that they got the real feel and gist of what happened all but exactly right. The fact that this movie is already over 10 years old, the events in it already over 20-30+ years old makes ME feel old – doh!

Side comment – Dr. Edward Roberts, creator of the Altair 8800 (the home computer Gates and Allen wrote their first software for) passed away earlier this month – RIP.

c) I guess this movie in many ways crystallizes what I perceive as core dysfunctions (and crazy advantages) the tech industry has and to some extent, still enjoys – Certainly most corporate environments end up creating ‘empire builder’ people who care most about getting to the top and lording it over the rest of us – that’s not exclusive to the tech industry by any means (nor are egomaniacs – sadly that’s a human problem, not a tech problem). But on the other hand, if a tech company is driven and (definitely) lucky at being in the right niche at the right time, the acceleration from bootstrap to crazy wealth happens in such a short time it’s not to be believed. Along the way, many yes-men and bottom feeders manage to attach themselves for the ride, and naive people in at the start may be left behind (through a combination of their own ignorance/personality, coupled with key people deliberately taking some advantage). The old adage ‘looking out for #1‘ applies in many ways across the tech industry – mostly neutral, but some crazy good (for a lucky, often early few) and some actually really bad in a few cases.

d) I remember from dot-com days when I would sometimes look around the office and muse whether the founders were in it for ‘building the best software x we could build’ – or just for the money/IPO cashout – or some ego thing, or something completely different and not apparent. I never did figure it out, although certainly people cashed out quite well, and we did have a great product for a time, too.

I guess the moral of the Apple/Microsoft story is ‘watch your back, because just when you think you’ve conquered everyone and established yourself as untouchable – someone is poised to knock you right off the mountaintop’.

Certainly just when Jobs thought he had obtained the crown jewels from Xerox (the ‘rich neighbor/open back door’ analogy Gates makes – pretty spot on, whether or not he actually said it), Gates was there to take them away and move in a completely different (and far more lucrative) direction. It helped enormously that Gates also built a monopoly (which they milk to this day), but those parameters weren’t apparent until much later and not to Jobs until it was too, too late.

To me, the bigger lesson (which I think in many companies has yet to be learned) is ‘most people don’t care about building an empire, they just want to be treated well, paid a decent wage and valued for their input and contributions (dependent on role).’ It’s too bad that money, egos, and turf battles often obscure this simple fact and make far too many people’s lives otherwise unhappy for no good reason.

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Well, after 2-3 weeks of off-on watching, I finally finished the second Ghost In the Shell anime TV series – S.A.C. 2nd Gig. This series is a continuation from the previous Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (see earlier post on that one here).

This second series is more of a political thriller than the first. Both series have a long story-arc that persists until the end, but they don’t seem to ‘explain’ as much in this one by the end – there are still at least a few motivations and actions I didn’t quite understand. There is more straight up ‘battle’ and conflict in this one too – and I liked the fact that they gave the other members of Section 9 (Paz, Boma, Saito and Ishikawa) a lot more to do in this series, than just focusing on the main four characters (Togusa, The Major, Batou and The Chief) as seen in the previous series.

There is a great villain in this one too – Kazundo Gohda, the head of the Cabinet Intelligence Service. Besides being facially disfigured and scarred (like all great over-the-top villains) this guy has plans within plans within plans, something every other main character finds out all too often along the way. While personally I thought The Laughing Man from the previous series was a more interesting foe for a variety of reasons – I had small hopes he’d show up in this one at some point – Gohda is definitely a man with a complex and hidden mission.

The main ‘anti-hero’ in this series Hideo Kuze, who remains at least in part a semi-major enigma. It would have been neat to see another episode of flashback(s) to his wanderings in Eurasia and how he came to his revolutionary stance portrayed in the series. They explore some of this through dialogue, but IMHO not enough. The Tachikomas even get a bit more to do – there are computer simulations of them used for the various episodes centered around computer hacking, besides their usual role as battle-backup for Section 9.

All in all, another great and interesting series – the animation is again excellent, The Major isn’t near as invincible in this one, and even Batou has to face up to a number of his own demons by the end.

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Having been a huge animation fan for most of my life, over the past few years I have become interested in anime. For those of you who don’t already watch it, it’s the highly stylized, often violent and over-the-top (depending on the genre) animated art form originally from Japan (although its influence has been spreading for years). I tend to avoid most of the kiddie stuff (where grade schoolers seem to obtain super powers, enlist the help of monsters to help them solve crimes, mysteries or join up with elves, etc. to save the world) and go for more of the sci-fi, cyberpunk or borderline occult themed series. They just seem more interesting and often have better character development IMHO. And then the occasional guilty pleasure such as Initial D or Wangan Midnight, of course.

So, I saw the first Ghost In The Shell movie some time ago, and despite the main character apparently able to defy gravity with her cybernetic body, this is essentially a cyperpunk detective story at heart, and a good one. I’m not really sure what the risque content adds to the show, unless it’s just there to ‘excite the 8 year-olds’ given that it otherwise has little to no relationship to the actual plot (kind of like how Dr. Manhattan walks around au naturel in The Watchmen, but that’s a whole different set of gripes )

There are several later movies and at least two series that grew out of the first movie – this review is of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (the first series). This is a GREAT show – they recently started showing it on Adult Swim (which is how I picked it up, then simply rented the DVD set and watched the rest on a recent business trip).

So the series tracks an elite group of mostly cyborg cops in future Japan called Section 9, and has at least one or two long-term multi-show stories beyond the episodic crimes being solved. The central character is ‘The Major’ – the same chick from the movie – and her fellow cyborgs/detectives and their section chief, who is both an old-school cop and master politician/administrator at the same time.

Some of the great things about this show are that it never insults the intelligence of the viewer, with the possible exception of the Tachikoma characterizations (a bit too ‘little kid’) – and treats the unfolding story around The Laughing Man (elusive criminal? hacker/vigilante? Watch and judge for yourself) with extra care to draw the viewer in and keep them guessing nearly until the end.

While it would be nice to see more of the history around other members of Section 9 in more detail (they are often only seen in limited scenarios or when the whole group is briefed on something by the chief) there’s still more than enough going on here to occupy the viewer. They also don’t ‘explain everything at the end of the episode’ a la Star Trek (I love ST since forever, but this IS a fundamental flaw, for pete’s sake!), which is nice. Many things about future Japan are never explained at all, or simply mentioned once or twice to suit moving the story forward but not much else.

The animation is generally very well done, and doesn’t seem to flip between drawings and CGI the way say, Initial D does. Or they are far better at hiding it. But generally, fluid and pretty animation (kind of has to be given the level of action, explosions, and running around in most of the episodes – this IS a cop show, after all).

Reading between the lines a bit, I’d have to say the future portrayed is a bit bleak, however – if people give up their human bodies when only a toddler or young child (like The Major and at least two other main characters) how can they be expected to really relate to society later on, not having gone through those same challenges we all do as we age? This perspective seems to flip all the recent military sci-fi I’ve read on its head – instead of a person nearing the end of their human life with a worn out body (only to be transposed into a super-soldier with a brand new, young, cybernetic body) – GITS: SAC has them doing it before they’ve really even lived much at all? Interesting….

At any rate, if you like cyberpunk mixed with detective stories, this is a very entertaining and thought-provoking series. It helps to watch some of the other movies first to set the scene and learn about some of the characters, however.

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Started re-watching Black Books again – what a weird, twisted and funny series. If any of you have seen either of the Simon Pegg comedies Shaun of the Dead or the more recent Run Fatboy Run – you will recognize Dylan Moran as the crazed Irishman in both – but in BB, he’s the star. He plays Bernard, (effectively) a sociopath who owns a bookstore but hates customers and wants to be simply left alone to smoke, read, and drink wine all day. His friend Fran (Tamsin Greig) minds the gift store next store and alternatively joins in the craziness/smacks Bernard upside the head when he’s gone too far. The always funny Bill Bailey plays Manny the assistant/comedic straight man to Bernard.

It took **way** too long for this series to come out on DVD (originally saw it on a business trip to London back in 2000) but now that it’s finally here, it was definitely worth the wait. Surprised it hasn’t made it to PBS to follow other BBC classics such as Monty Python and Black Adder (my fave being by far B.A. the 3rd – if you want to see Hugh Laurie a.k.a. House, in one of his most ridiculous roles as the stupid German prince, Black Adder 3 is a must watch). But Black Books is probably on the ruder and more anti-social side vs the other two, so likely more an acquired taste. If you like Conan, Letterman, or The Simpsons – you will probably like Black Books, too.

Just one thing to remember – don’t put The Little Book of Calm anywhere NEAR your soup mug!

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Couldn’t resist a Spinal Tap reference when a ‘henge’ is involved. Just finished reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s Icehenge sci-fi novel. And as the wiki entry notes, it is similar in many ways to his later Mars Trilogy, although with different characters and plot. The book is divided into three sections, based around three central characters that live in three successive time periods, but have inter-weaved history with one another as you progress through the book. The book touches themes of separation, revolution/resistance, and friendship.

One common feature of this book and the Mars Trilogy is the very long life given to the characters based on advances in medical science (the books in both cases take place at least 100-200 years from now), which adds a new dimension to their experiences and perspective – again explored much more thoroughly in the later trilogy. Given that we don’t presently live over 100 years (and most often not even that long), the way the main characters deal with these situations is interesting and unique. Sci-fi has long discussed extending life through a variety of means (read about Lazarus Long in Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children for one of the earliest, best examples) but I still think the perspectives in these Mars books is a unique one on the subject.

I liked it. If you like this book, you probably would *really* like the Mars Trilogy, because there is a lot more going on, across three much more detailed (and longer) books. And in that series, the interplay between the various lead characters is pretty diverse and definitely not all harmonious (I read the series several years ago, been meaning to re-read it someday again). This is a quick read, too – in some ways it kind of reminds me what the later Mars-related plots of Babylon 5, specifically seasons 3 & 4, might have achieved with a little more detail (and in many cases better dialogue and less silly melodrama). Check it out and see what you think!

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Looks like it’s a done deal for Conan and his staff. I think this article way oversimplifies things and gets several wrong – Conan wasn’t any more a ‘flop’ than any of the others in that slot had been when they started (and arguably better than some – e.g. Jay?) but simply wasn’t given a true chance. If he had similar ratings after two years – ok, flop. But 7 months? Even s**t-com pilots get at least that much, and don’t have to air 5 nights a week, either?

NBC, I hope you’re happy. Zucker, I hope you are selling bibles door to door like you belong, very soon. Comcast, time to clean house! And Craig Ferguson – beware any network that says it wants to ‘promote’ you by moving your timeslot earlier – run screaming to Comedy Central, and fast!

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This Blows.

I hope the d-bag Jeff Zucker ends up in the hot place not long after Comcast takes over and fires his sorry ass. Norm McDonald must be experiencing at least a little schadenfreude about now…

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Conan vs. NBC

While I don’t think the new show is as funny as the old – that has as much to do with the timeslot and different guest demographic than anything else. NBC are *idiots* to screw him and try to shove Jay back in there. Either they should have not promised this to Conan in the first place and waited for Jay to leave, or, just pat Jay on the back and let him go – his show sucks! Maybe Jay can replace Simon Cowell at A.I. But 7 months is ridiculous! They just paid Conan a ton of money, moved him to L.A., built a huge new expensive studio, and moved the staff out there (and hired Andy back – yay!) – at least give it a couple years, you idiots! It’s good he’s backing Jimmy Fallon too, like Lorne Michaels did when Conan first took over Late Night (and almost got cancelled bef. he was allowed to build his audience).

Go Conan!

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