20 Top Anime Videos

First up one of my all time favourites the Tezuka directed ‘Bagi the Monster of Mighty Nature’ (1984). It fosters  psychedelic allusions and experimental techniques to tell the story of a girl who has 50/50 cat/human DNA and is the last of her kind after the rest got slaughtered.

At number 2 is Nadia : Secret of Blue Water.  Starts in Paris in 1889, its got good battles, good characterisation and while a handful of the 39 episodes are throwaway the series is strong with the central theme being the relationship between the mysterious bluewater jewel and the lost city of Atlantis.  Original concept on ANN is listed as none other than Hayao Miyazaki.

3rd is Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal, Rurouni Kenshin in Japanese.

Next is Barefoot Gen, its a horrific look at the atomic bomb drop in Hiroshima.The is a a trailer for the live action version.

At 5 comes Tokusatsu show Kure Kure Takora. In many ways it can be seen as a convergance of Teletubbies and The Magic Roundabout. With 260 2:41 minute episodes it will keep you entertained for a while. Here’s episode 244, inspired by William Tell?

New Miyazaki film ‘Gake no ue no Ponyo’ or Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea is looking good. Its been 4 years since Howl’s Moving Castle and it looks set to be another winner.

No list would be complete without Paprika, a film that simply dazzled me when I first saw it. Here’s a guy playing a paprika.

At 8 is Kirby of the Stars (Hoshi no Kaabii). Featuring a round 100 episodes we see Metaknight fighting alongside Kirby as King Dedede conjurs up a range of well animated monsters to take him down, there’s a lot social opinion in there and plot structures are unusually adept . JK Rowling gets a speaking role here in Episode 38 – watch out for demonbeast Broom King.

Rumiko Takahashi creator of Ranma 1/2 created Rumic Worlds in the beginning.

Still on TV in Japan its Regios.

Olympics (Video Collection)

Seems like a good idea to have something topical as I return to my blogging ways here on The Red Flames of Revolution. We’ve seen all kinds of riots in recent days, protestors complaining about killing in Tibet. Is it a legitimate dispute, a cleverly executed strategy by foreign or national governments, or is it merely an excuse for the flint to be lit between Western and Eastern cultures? We’ll start with the most recent, this is San Francisco, pretty much now.

Next up a fight in the water fountain in London on April 6th.

According to Western media the incidents weren’t reported on Chinese television. Here it is on Chinese television.

The following day it was the turn of Paris.

A more detailed look at this after the break.

Doraemon Anime Ambassador

I’ve watched this many times, I certainly would be interested in knowing the translation.

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25-03-08 04.22 Cool Websites (#16)

Once again we’ll begin in topical form. Here are a group of Tibetan monks having fun on a rollercoaster.

Meanwhile here is superhot Burlesque model Dayna Delux.

Nokia and Cambridge University teamed up last month to launch the Nokia Morph Concept phone,intended to show the benefits of using nanotechnology to create more dynamic stretchable displays. The video coming right up.

23-03-08 22.55 Good Music (#10)

Thats a pretty large button. Of similar stature is this run down of some of the best music out there. We’ll start with Roots Manuva and we’ll go back to his roots by showcasing his debut album the 2001 opus ‘Run Come Save Me’. There were two standout tracks, ‘Highest Grade’ and this classic tune ‘Witness.’

An artist I’m a long time fan of is Miss Kittin. I recently discovered her new album ‘Batbox’ and it certainly follows in the footsteps of its predecessors in terms of sheer quality. If this video for the track ‘Kittin is High’ is anything to go by the French DJ won’t be letting up anytime soon.

Just before the cut and this tune seems to be the one that will become dubstep anthem of 2008. Released a few weeks ago this is Caspa & Rusko. The tune is ‘Bread Get Bun’. Check it out.

Vilayanur Ramachandran

We spoke about psychophysics in a recent post and its certainly an emerging field. Here’s Vilayanur Ramachandran breaking it down in the guide to understanding the path to de(re?)composing consciousness at TED 2007.

Previous Uncategorised: Mistaken Identity ♦ Mass Games Finale ♦ Harry The Hamster ♦ Washlet

11-03-08 23.04 Top Anime (#6)

Today we’ll have a have a look at some of my favourites, some old, some new, all with what I perceive to be novel artistic styles within the genre. Start off with a new one this is Hakaba Kitarou. Here’s the beginning of the first episode.

When it comes to decent art style there’s not much that Mahiro Maeda of Animatrix notoriety doesn’t know. This is a 26 part series called Gankutsuou done at Gonzo. It is based on the classic book ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. Here’s a 5 minute trailer – another cool one after the cut.

10-03-08 00.19 Online Chatter (#3)

Been checking out the SomethingAwful forums recently and have found a lot of interesting stuff… it appears one ‘goon’ found a notebook when moving into a new apartment and it contained a story called Peach’s cake. Here’s a small sample click over for the rest.

• This cake Peach was baking for Mario was the eighth in as many days. Her love was like insanity, repeating the same thing over and over, hoping for a different result. She would do the same with this one as with the others; a procession to Mario’s room where she would present it to him and then clumsily attempt to slip inside before Toad could stop her. He knew she wanted only a few moments alone and nothing could happen in that time, but he was King Toadstool’s chief advisor and wouldn’t let that happen. The Princess was an asset that needed to be preserved and couldn’t be wasted on a strange man from a strange land.

• From a window high in Mushroom Castle, Luigi watched Mario savagely spur the Yoshi into motion. His brother’s mood was the blackest he’d seen since the night before they’d come to the Mushroom Kingdom. The end of a personal affair for Mario had left him in a torrid state; aggressive and pent-up, but completely frustrated for a release. Luigi ran his fingers over his mustache. The indescribable dreams that night kept tugging at Luigi’s mind as he looked down on the stables. Mario had confirmed they’d shared those dreams but had always remained completely unwilling to talk about them.

Mistaken Identity

Cab driver gets more than he bargained for when he shows up at the BBC.

Previous Uncategorised: Mass Games Finale ♦ Harry The Hamster ♦ Washlet ♦ Elmo Live From Baghdad

09-03-08 02.59 Cool Websites (#15)

Today I think we’ll have a good run down of the best robots, their manufacturers and the new good websites to look at in a cornucopia of related fields. We’ll start with Paro the Seal Robot. See this robot as the Japanese perception of the Bhutanese mantra of Gross National Happiness as opposed to Gross National Product.

In the field of neuroscience there are a range of of contributing disciplines. One key discipline is the field of psychophysics – it is ‘based on the assumption that the human perceptual system is a measureing instrument yielding results (experiences, judgments, responses) that may be systematically analyzed.’ Apart from Paro there were a number of interesting new robots at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo which ran from November 28th – December 1st 2007.