Category: 2023

Beginner Anime And Manga Recommendations

Published February 9, 2023

I’ve always thought that it must be tough to make a beginner anime and manga recommendations list (a good one at least). People’s tastes can be incredibly different and, despite the common factor being that they’re beginners, I don’t believe that one can make a recommendations list that’ll apply to everyone. Therefore, I thought that something I would do is recommend some anime and manga based on other interests. Of course, there’ll be some generalisations but I do believe that this’ll result in a better list.

Fans of Western Animation:

I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people develop an interest in anime because they’re fans of animation and want to try something a little different. For those people, I think a logical, and perhaps too obvious, suggestion is to watch the films of Studio Ghibli, an anime studio that is often compared to Disney. I also think Mamoru Hosoda films would generally appeal to these fans as well. As for manga, I think a manga like Unico would appeal to Western animation fans but, since it can be a bit awkward to get a hold of, I’d also recommend Princess Knight, which is from the same author as Unico, and a Clamp manga such as Angelic Layer, although some of their other manga may prove to be a bit much for beginners.

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Did You Know That Anime Companies Outsource To Other Studios?

Published February 6, 2023

I’ve spoken about anime studios in the past such as Sunrise and Studio 4°C and I often say how “Sunrise animated Gundam” or “Studio 4°C animated Mind Game” but the truth isn’t quite as straightforward as that. I don’t believe that my statements are wrong, each studio is the primary animation production company for those works, but it does gloss over quite an important fact, that many anime rely on outsourcing. Given this, and how it’s quite easy for people to not know about this, I thought I’d take a look at how and why anime companies outsource to other studios.

As far as I’m aware , the earliest example of an anime studio outsourcing to another studio is with the original Astro Boy anime from the 1960s. For episode 34 of Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka decided to outsource the episode to a company called Studio Zero. However, a major problem for this studio was that very few people had actual experience with animation. Thus, when the episode was completed, a lot of the characters were off-model compared to previous episodes. Even within the episode itself, the art style changed depending on who animated it. Understandably, Osamu Tezuka was not happy about this and, when his animators came back from their break, they had to try to partially correct the episode so that it was suitable for airing.

An image of Astro Boy flying in the 1963 TV series.

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I Wish Streaming Services Released Their Content On Home Video

Published February 2, 2023

If you’ve been reading my blog for even a small amount of time, you’ll know that my preferred format in general is physical. However, as part of my passion for horror, I ended up subscribing to a streaming service called “Shudder” last year and have been making use of it for horror films that I either can’t get or are too pricey in their physical release. However, an interesting discovery I made recently was that Shudder do actually release some of their exclusive content on DVD/Blu-ray. I was quite stunned and overjoyed but, upon thinking about it further, it reminded me how much content is becoming locked behind streaming. Therefore, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at streaming services, their relationship to DVD/Blu-ray and how I wish that they released their content on home video.

Let’s begin by looking at the history of arguably the most notable of all streaming services, Netflix. Interestingly, Netflix actually started out as a rental service for DVDs. Subscribers originally were able to pick from a catalogue of DVDs which would be sent via a package whose return was already paid for. Once Netflix actually began to produce original content, a smattering of their initial releases eventually found their way to DVD such as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black. However, as time has gone on, we’ve seen less and less of these series make their way over. That’s not even mentioning that hardly any of their original films have made their way over! It would be one thing if this issue merely applied to Netflix but we’ve seen other streaming services such as Disney+ and Amazon Prime take a similar approach.

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Apple Needs To Do Better For Mac Gaming

Published January 30, 2023

I’m not particularly fond of macOS but I do think it’s undeniable that it’s very popular, it’s the second most popular desktop OS, and, as a fan of PC gaming, I’m always enthusiastic about PC games being available for multiple OSs. I’ve already spoken about how the push that we’re seeing from Valve and other companies to make Linux more capable for gaming has me excited and I was hoping that recent events would lead to a similar level of excitement for Mac gaming. However, Apple are clearly making mistakes and I thought I’d take a look at several of the problems Apple will face if it continues on its current Mac gaming path.

Mac gaming hasn’t always been in this state. Apple originally had a game included in their, then, new Macintosh computer in 1984 called “Puzzle“, an electronic version of the 15 puzzle. As time went on, more and more games were slowly released for Mac systems with a few particularly notable examples being Dark Castle, Myst, SimCity and the Marathon trilogy. However, the problem Apple has always had is that they have an unfortunate distaste for video games. Apple were apparently afraid of their product being labelled a “home computer” since they disliked the association with gaming. Even as late as the mid-00s, Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of the Valve Corporation, stated with regards to Apple “we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them, people there go “wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming”. And then we’ll say, “OK, here are three things you could do to make that better”, and then they say OK, and then we never see them again. And then a year later, a new group of people show up, who apparently have no idea that the last group of people were there, and never follow though on anything.“

The OS market share according to the December 2022 Steam Hardware & Software Survey.

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The Interesting History Of Disney Anime And Manga

Published January 26, 2023

I’ve always been a fan of Disney and I strongly believe that many of their animated works are some of the finest ever created. However, I think it’s fair to say that part of the reason that many people are drawn to anime and manga is how different it can be in terms of storytelling and visuals from most Western animation that feel unable to separate themselves from Disney’s impact. However, I think it’s interesting how, throughout the history of their mediums, anime and manga have teamed up with Disney to produce works that combine the styles of the former with the IP of the latter.

As far as I’m aware, the first time that this occurred was Osamu Tezuka’s Bambi in 1951. Osamu Tezuka, often considered to be the founder of the modern anime industry, was a big fan of Disney and he particularly adored Bambi. He even ended up watching it over 80 times during its original Japanese theatrical release! He managed to eventually license the right to Bambi and to produce a manga adaptation. Interestingly, he also produced a manga adaptation of Disney’s Pinocchio the next year but, since copyright was hard to enforce at the time, it was an unlicensed work.

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The History Of The Unusual Anime Company Studio 4°C

Published January 23, 2023

Generally, if I’m aware of a studio, I have an idea of what an anime from that studio is going to look like. While the works of studios might have a little visual variance, I’d have a pretty good idea what the anime is going look like if you mention Madhouse, Production I.G., Sunrise etc. However, upon watching several of their films recently, I realised that I have absolutely no idea what a Studio 4°C anime is going to look like. Given this, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at the history of the unusual anime company Studio 4°C.

Studio 4°C was founded in 1986 by producer Eiko Tanaka and animator Koji Morimoto with their first original project being a short film called “Jack to Mame no Ki”, an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk that was released as part of the Anime Video Art Collection in 1989. While continuing to do a few small projects, a particularly notable moment for Studio 4°C was when they worked together with Madhouse to animate the 1995 anime film “Memories”. For those unfamiliar with the movie, it consists of three short films, “Magnetic Rose”, “Stink Bomb” and “Cannon Fodder”. Madhouse animated Stink Bomb while Studio 4°C animated Magnetic Rose and Cannon Fodder and it’s immediately evident how visually distinct Studio 4°C could be with sharp, crisp animation enhancing the two completely different art styles in their shorts.

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The Wonderful Genius Of Horror Effects, Tom Savini

Published January 19, 2023

As a massive fan of horror films, I’m always showing some of my favourites to people. Interestingly, as I watched more and more horror with others, one of them began to take note of a name that appeared in the opening credits, Tom Savini. He’d often be credited as a “Special Makeup Effects Artist” and, whenever she saw his name, she’d turn to me and say “This is going to be a gory one isn’t it?” I immediately became fascinated with Tom Savini and his wonderful horror effects so I thought it’d be great to take a look at the history and career of this genius.

As Tom Savini himself tells it, he first began his interest in developing a career in film when, at the age of 12, he saw a film called “Man of a Thousand Faces” which is a dramatisation of the life of Lon Chaney, an actor and makeup artist from the silent film era. He was so inspired by the film that he soon began to create his own makeup effects which he’d practise on both himself and his friends. He later ended up serving in Vietnam where he coped by imagining that the violence he was seeing were special effects. He later encountered legendary filmmaker George A. Romero and ended up doing stuntwork and other effects for the 1978 film “Martin”.

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Taking A Look At My Steam Replay 2022

Published January 16, 2023

I was recently on Twitter when I saw that Valve had released a new feature on Steam called “Steam Replay 2022”. This acts as a summary of how you used Steam and contains some very interesting information. So much so that I thought it worth taking a look specifically at my personal 2022 Steam Replay. I also decided to make my Steam Replay 2022 public for those who wish to take a closer look at certain aspects with the link being available here.

Before I start taking a look at the specifics in my Steam Replay 2022, there is something that I have to point out that’ll be necessary in order to analyse the results. I subscribe to a service called Humble Choice which offers around 8 games every month and I’ve discovered and played a great many wonderful games through subscribing to them. However, I also make use of a program that I use in order to get the initial Steam cards from all of the games I get by running the games simultaneously in the background and, combined with the many games I get from Humble Choice, this means that certain figures such as playtime, the number of games I’ve played etc. aren’t as accurate as they would otherwise be. However, many other figures remain accurate and I’ll do my best to mention whenever I believe that a result may have been affected.

A quick summary of my Steam Replay 2022.

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The Interesting Mangaka Naoki Urasawa

Published January 12, 2023

When someone is learning about manga for the first time, I’m sure that the sheer number of important series and mangaka can prove to be a little intimidating. However, as much as I love to talk about many of the classic mangaka such as Shotaro Ishinomori or Mitsuteru Yokoyama, it’s true that there are a great deal of very talented mangaka working in the modern industry. One of the more notable is an individual called Naoki Urasawa, a particularly interesting mangaka whose body of work has seen both strong critical and commercial success.

As a child, Naoki Urasawa idolised the work of Osamu Tezuka, later naming him as one of his two heroes alongside Bob Dylan. Despite this, he didn’t initially end up pursuing a career as being a mangaka and it was only chance that he ended up becoming a mangaka. While visiting Shogakukan in search of a job in business, he decided to bring along some of the manga he’d drawn and, after initially struggling to get the attention of editors, he ended up running into one who submitted it to a contest for the 1982 New Manga Artist award. He proved to be quite surprised when he won and decided to begin working as a mangaka.

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The Remarkable Japanese Stop-Motion Animator Tadahito Mochinaga

Published January 9, 2023

I think it’s fair to say that when we think of anime, we generally envision 2D animation. It’s true that we are seeing more and more anime that are created in CGI but the hand-drawn look remains iconic. However, it’s all too easy to forget that Japan has produced many other styles of animation with stop-motion being particularly notable. Within this area, a particularly remarkable Japanese stop-motion animator would be Tadahito Mochinaga who’s had a surprising impact that many may not even be aware of. Given this, I thought it worth looking at his contributions and why you should know about him.

Born in Tokyo on the 3rd of March, 1919, he started out his career in animation by working on cel animation under the supervision of Mitsuyo Seo, himself a very important animator in the history of Japan. After serving as an animator on Arichan the Ant, for which he notably built Japan’s first multiplane set-up, and Momotaro’s Sea Eagles, he decided to move himself and his wife to Manchukuo, the Japanese-occupied territory of Manchuria, and ended up working for several years in the Chinese film industry where he developed and honed his skills in stop-motion before moving back to Japan in the early 50s.

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