You can now watch Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind on Google Video for free. This 1984 Hayao Miyazaki masterpiece was made under another studios name, but it is acknowledged by most to be the true start of Studio Ghibli.
Be warned, this one is NOT work friendly, but it is a whole lot of fun! The original lives at the Rachel Does Stuff directory on YouTube (owned and created by Rachel Bloom), and I was passed the link by Neil Himself. Just after that he posted the famous Kurt Vonnegut quote: What Science Fiction & Pornography had in common was their vision of an impossibly hospitable world. Only fitting, considering what the final T-Shirt of the video says. And for those who were wondering, this video is by the same woman who Tweeted: Promo line for the new season of Weeds: “The plot deepens.” How much deeper can it get? Nancy f*cks a Martian and invents the flying car? 10:40 PM Jun 5th via web.
One of the most interesting and surprising Anime’s I have seen in a while is Time of Eve (Eve no Jikan) from Studio Rikka. The visual quality is amazing, and uses 3D environments with traditional 2D character animation to very good effect. But it is the stories themselves which make this series special; each episode focuses on a character (human, robot, or android) and explores their relationship with a member of the opposite phylum. This wonderful little series started life as webisodes in 2008, and was migrated to TV in 2009. They have made a theatrical version which hit the big screen in Tokyo and Osaka this spring, and you can watch the TV version streaming online at Crunchyroll. I really hope they do a second season of this one, and release the movie to the US soon.
There are times when the world hands you a new twist on an old favorite. In this instance, it was caused by the mashup between Libraries and the Old Spice adds. One of the variations came into existence because someone read about the Old Spice add campaign response to fans, and created a meme that got retweeted often enough to catch their attention so a response was created. The second instance is even more fun; someone else uses the basic style of the commercial to create a direct appeal for libraries (thanks, Scott). While watching these I kept hearing the chorus to that song; The futures so bright, I gotta wear shades.
There are times you feel like watching something strange and silly, made with decent computer animation skills. I just kept gawking at this, so I thought I should finally share it.
I commented previously (in fact gave an entire review) about the new show streaming on Crunchyroll, Occult Academy, which is off to a wonderful start. If you are a premium Crunchyroll member, you get to legally watch new episodes one hour after they air in Tokyo; if a non-paying member, you can see them at slightly lower resolution a week later. Anyone who follows this blog knows I have become addicted to this service, and the annual fee has already paid for itself in terms of knowing which shows I do and don’t want to buy when they come out on DVD.
They have added a few new programs to the Summer Streaming Lineup that look pretty good on initial glance, although you might have to work for one of them. That one would be Tono to Issho, which is kind of the Anime equivalent of one-liners, or the 4 panel comic strip jokes everyone knows from newspapers (at least, those old enough to remember what non-interactive static media forms like newspapers were). You have to know a bit about the culture, history, current events, and popular opinion of Japan in order to get these jokes, but if you do they are delightful. Like all the best satire, it occasionally slips into Sci-Fi or Fantasy memes to make its points.
The third brand new program is Asobi ni Ikuyo: Bombshells from the Sky, an Alien Catgirls Romantic Comedy with a certain amount of Kawaii overdose (cuteness overload). We are still 13 hours out from the start of episode 1’s simulcast stream, but the trailer looks promising.
An old favorite come back for another round is Strike Witches season 2, the parallel timeline story of heavily armed propeller booted WWII flying girls versus alien invaders who seem to be related to cats. Check it out, and if you feel the need to catch up with season 1, it is available on DVD now in the US.