Digimon Returns With 'Digimon Adventure Tri'

While Pokémon may have won the animated monster war in the 90's, I've yet to meet a single person who doesn't agree that the Digimon animated series far surpassed the Pokémon animated series. While the monsters were what kept me coming back as a kid, the inclusion of a consistent story line and characters that actually developed through the course of the series was what continued my love to do this day.

It was announced earlier last year that a new Digimon series would be airing this Spring as a brand new followup to the original two seasons. Unfortunately, like every anime I fall in love with before it's release, the series was delayed. It wasn't until yesterday that an official trailer and release date was announced. Pushing the followup until November 21st of this year. 

What's more surprising is seeing the followup series switched to a 6-movie format, something that seems to be somewhat trending (a la Berserk and Ghost in the Shell Arise). I admit to being a bit bummed I'll have to wait until November to see the first entry, but the trailer has me fully hyped.

Seriously though, seeing Omnimon in full animated glory is something to shed a tear at. 

Otaking's 'TIE Fighter' Is The Star Wars Anime Tie-in We Deserve

The Force is strong with this year. While sci-fi afficiandos and movie-goers patiently wait on further news and publicity concerning the seventh Star Wars film slated for release this December, Paul "Otaking" Johnson's fan-made short TIE Fighter only proves that the franchise's future continues to resonate long after the films.

The short follows a troupe of rebel X-Wings embroiled in a deseperate fight against a fleet of Star Destroyers and their host of TIE Fighters. Accompanied by Zakir Rahman's inspired heavy metal soundtrack riffing off of the musical troupes of early 90's anime, TIE Fighter is an impressive fan-short that takes as much inspiration from Lucas' iconic space-opera as it does from the works of anime titans such as Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit Gundam) and Leiji Matsumoto (Space Battleship Yamato). And to top it off, not only is it painstakingly well-animated, it's canonically accurate as well! Now that's what I call dedication

Yuki Yuki Goes Sari

What begins with a young anime girl materializing from a patchwork of pastels and brushstrokes à la Duck Amuck and Rabbit Rampage quickly becomes a hallucinatory trip through alternate realities collapsing over one another in a cascade of screen-tearing colors and ambient electronica.

Yuki Yuki Goes Sari, or as it is titled "(ゆきすすみさりゆき) Yukisusumisariyuki", is the creation of seemingly one mysterious animator who goes by the name "kwgt". We've reached out to him to learn more about the technique and influences that went into this clip, though in the meantime, let's just enjoy this psychedelic experience on repeat.

Figma's God Warrior Figure Is The Stuff Of Nightmares

Holy crap. I mean c'mon seriously, look at this thing. Is this not one of the most terrifying and awesome figurines you've ever seen? Based off of Studio Ghibli's 2012 live-action collaboration with Hideki Anno, A Giant God Warrior Descends on Tokyo, this limited-edition figma figurine was once sold exclusively through the Tokyo's Museum of Contemporary Art and is now up for sale at online retailer GoodSmile for 3,600 Yen (translated roughly to $30). With a price like that, I'll might just snag one up myself!

The way that this figure was cast is especially cool; Taking the original life-size puppet into a 3D printer, scanned, shrunken down and then handed off to resident Figma sculptor Takayuki Takeya for the final polish! The figma also comes with the typical array of alternate head and hand styles, a plasma mouth cannon, light spear, translucent stand, a pair of very Eva-esque energy wings!

Check out more photos of the figure after the break!

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Trailer Is Filled With Chills For Fans Of The Classic (And New) Series

I thought things really couldn't get much better for the classic series, Space Battleship Yamato, considering how fantastic the 2013 remake ended up being. Thankfully I was wrong. After a rather sub par ending for Space Battleship Yamato 2199, a followup movie was announced to give the series the send off it deserves, (flying completely under my radar).

Earlier in October, another Space Battleship Yamato 2199 film was released, but the overall reception was rather poor, myself included. Rather than being a recap of the series like it's predecessor film, the new film features an entirely new plot line that's destined to fill that Yamato shaped hole in your heart. The movie is already out in theaters in Japan with no outside releases announced, but I would definitely keep an eye out.

Meder Taab's 'Legend Of Korra' Art Is Drop-Dead Gorgeous

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The Legend of Korra is hands-down one of the most thoroughly satisfying animes I've watched in recent memory. Korra, much like its predecessor Avatar: The Last Airbender, is one of those few miraculous animated shows manages to deftly tackle emotionally difficult and complex ideas in a way that feels both nuanced and easily-accessible.

Institutionalized prejudice? Egalitarian fascism? Depression and the struggle to define a self-identity? If Korra was only meant to be a cartoon show, its creators sure haven't been acting like it. That's why fan-art for the series, like Meder Taab's amazing countdown posters for the final season, get me so excited. Pieces like these make me appreciate Legend of Korra so much more, not just for what it is for but also for what it's capable of being.

A fun-loving, sci-fi fantasy martial arts romp with endearing characters, brilliantly choreographed fight scenes, thought-provoking villains, and revelatory meditations on life, identity, and self-acceptance if you'd only look beneath the surface. I'll be sad to see it end.

Check out the rest of Taab's series after the break, and if you haven't already, go give A:TLAB and TLOK a watch-through! You won't be disappointed.

Army of Frogs: The Rainbow Serpent Trailer

I'm typically not a fan of book trailers, but this one here is a real treat. The talented folks at Secret Sauce Studio have released this impressive extended animated trailer for the equally beautiful children's book penned by Trevor Pryce and Joel Naftali. The original 30-or-so second trailer is attached to select showings of Mockingjay: Part 1, but this one is twice that length and made all the better for it.

Army of Frogs follows a band of anthropomorphic amphibians as they fight to protect their home in for a vicious host of scorpion marauders. Jamie Lewis' sound direction is on-point and Sanford Greene breathes the awesome fight scenes and gorgeously-rendered mythic anime aesthetic of the books to life. I wouldn't mind an actual show spawning out of this!

Go check out the studio's youtube page for more awesome animated gems to come, and why not give Army of Frogs a read-through too!

Worth Checking Out - Cannon Busters The Animated Series

LeSean Thomas is a busy dude, and I couldn't be more happy for him. With work ranging from The Boondocks to The Legend of Korra, LeSean Thomas has quite an impressive body of work. Canon Busters: The Animated Series looks to be another awesome addition to the increasing amount of crowd funded animation (including the still running campaign of URBANCE).

The animation presented in the Kickstarter video for Canon Busters is incredible looking, and holds a style similar to some of the many anime favorites from the 1990s. With influences ranging from Escaflowne, hip hop, and classic RPGs, Canon Busters sounds like an awesomely original experience drawing inspiration an interesting mix of genres. There's something about mashing up of robots and samurai that really gets me excited, but seeing the quality put into Cannon Busters is all I need to start reaching for my wallet.

With the high cost and time requirements of hand drawn animation, it's become increasingly most difficult for sci-fi series to exist in the animated world, but it appears to be making a comeback (and for good reason, it's awesome). The studio at Makestuff LLC is looking for a reasonable $120,000 to produce their first 8-10 minute pilot episode. Once met, future stretch goals may enable them to produce a full 24-minute episode.

If you dig what you see as much as I do, definitely check out the rest of their Kickstarter page over here and drop a few bucks.

Worth Checking Out - Under the Dog

I find it difficult not to claim Japan as the final frontier for televised animation, the amount of quality animation that's released every season is outstanding. Despite a constant stream of anime, it would be silly of me to claim that Japanese animators get full reign of their projects, which explains the massive amounts of slice of life and your run-of-the-mill shonen entries. Luckily our crowdfunding friend, Kickstarter, exists for the sole purpose of putting the control back into the creators grasp.

After the success of Masaaki Yuasa's Kick-Heart, it's no surprise that another talented team has turned to Kickstarter to fund their next big project. Under The Dog is a science fiction thriller animated by the talented folks at Creative Intelligence Arts, Inc. The team is compromised of an incredibly talented bunch, including Masahiro Ando (key animator for Neon Genesis Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell), Yusuke Koazki (character designer for No More Heroes and Fire Emblem: Awakening), and Jiro Ishii (producer of the incredible 3DS game, 999).

It's awesome seeing the work of each individual member of the team, and seeing them collaborate on a project like this is insane.

This project looks and sounds too good to be true, but the team seems wholly dedicated to creating a top-notch sci-fi anime. While it's a bummer that only one episode is planned, the stretch goals promise a second and third episode, along with a full-length film if funded enough. The scenes presented in the Kickstarter video are absolutely phenomenal, and the team's dedication to stick with an original story shines a very hopeful light for this project.

Other than the more recent Psyco-Pass, it's been a minute since we've gotten a solid science fiction and Under the Dog looks to be attempting to fill that gap for the time being.

If you'd like to donate, hit up their Kickstarter over here. $25 will gets you access to the episode, which is set for December of next year.

Masaaki Yuasa Directing A Trippy "Space Dandy" Episode - We Have No Clue What's Going On

And as expected from the director of movies like Mind Game, this episode is looking as bizarre as we've come to expect from his camp. Yuasa is contributing his quirky directing style to the 16th episode of the series, which airs this Sunday in Japan.

It's been a fantastic time for the director, who's been spearheading the popular Ping Pong anime series, as well as contributing his talents to co-directing western shows like Adventure Time (The 'Food Chain' episode). I'm predicting one of the strangest episodes of an anime I've probably seen in years, if the trailer is any indication.

The Art of Simetta

(Via)

Simetta is a Japanese artist whose work heavily evokes the surrealistic melancholy tone of the films of Makoto Shinkai. Deep saturated flourishes of purple, youths staring wistfully off into the distance, and exquisitely detailed backgrounds that capture both the urban density and rural quietude of some of Japan's most iconic locations. His illustrations depict moments of ephemeral stillness that are equal parts intimate and inspiring, calming and exhilarating. Moments that feel lighter than air. Check out more of his beautiful work after the break!

"Satoshi Kon" - An Animated Tribute

We lost visionary anime director Satoshi Kon just under 4 years ago after a brief battle with a deadly illness. Over the years his mind brought us some wildly imaginative features and shows, including the likes of  Perfect Blue, Millenium Characters, Tokyo Grandfathers, Paprika and Paranoia Agent. All which I remember fondly. Kon had a knack for creating compelling female characters in his work, always focusing on typically unexplored aspects of social stigmas and the human psyche.

At the time of his death he had just begun work on his next feature, Dreaming Machine- an as of yet incomplete feature that's currently residing at studio Madhouse..Founder Masao Murayama recently claimed, we still don't have enough money. My personal goal is to get it within five years after his passing. I'm still working hard towards that goal. As of 2013 only 600 of the 1500 shots required have been completed, so I'm hoping that this project will pop up on a crowdfunding site sometime soon.

Vimeo user HelloWizard put together a fitting tribute to Kon's animated work, covering a directorial career that took off in 1997 with the fantastic psychological thriller, Perfect Blue. Set to the creative opening track of Paprika, which was composed by long time Kon collaborator Susumu Hirasawa.

Space Dandy - Key Animation Love

Somebody recently released a collection of animatics from Space Dandy, the wildly creative follow up from the creator of Cowboy Bebop, following a 'dandy' alien bounty hunter and his alien cat through a series of strange intergalactic misadventures. The coolest thing to note is that all this key framing is still done on paper, something that thankfully hasn't changed with the advent of control z. These sequences feature the work of key animators Tadashi Hiramatsu, Yutaka Nakamura, Norifumi Kugai, Gosei Oda , Bahi JD and many others.

For anyone unaware of typical animation process, key frame animators follow the traditional animation system of drawing all the beginning and end points of any smooth transition in animation. Their work is followed up by clean up artists and in between animators, who create the transition frames between the key frames. Check out another sequence from Space Dandy after the break.

"Attack On Titan" Opening - The Pencil Drawing Version

Attack On Titan is without question, one of the best things happening in Anime right now, offering a really cool narrative that's rife with mystery. A planet overrun with mysterious titan entities intent on wiping out humanity, the stories of the last remaining enclaves of humanity, and a plot focused on some truly intriguing conspiracy theories about who is creating these monstrous creatures. It's like that smoke monster in Lost, which left people guessing for seasons at a time (Except AOT actually has answers behind it's mysteries to offer).

Youtube/Niconico Douga user Animesakai took his love of the series to the next level, embarking on an incredible journey to recreate the memorable opening of the series using pencil drawings from observation. The duration of the project? 8 months with a total of 423 drawings generated during that time. To put it simply, that's insane.



For comparison, you can watch the original OP above. After translating his description of the video, Animesakai mentioned that part of the reason he created the video was to show off that analog art can be just as amazing and fulfilling of an experience as the much more convenient, prevalent digital art format. I can imagine he learned a ton during the experience if you look at it from an observational drawing standpoint. Kudos to him for following through till the end with the project, and give Attack On Titan a chance if you haven't already- It's available on everything from Netflix to Crunchyroll.

Masaaki Yuasa-directed Adventure Time To Premiere Later This Year

A good friend of mine turned me on to Masaaki Yuasa's work awhile back. If you're an anime enthusiast, it's likely you recognize Yuasa's beautifully crazy style from such works as Kaiba, The Tatami Galaxy, Kick Heart, or that one particularly trippy episode of Samurai Champloo (you know the one).

Well it's looks like you can add Adventure Time to that list too, because the Yuasa-helmed "Food Chain" is airing this June. While the episode isn't canon (Yuasa was given full autonomy) and this isn't the first time the Adventure Time folks have completely handed the reins off to someone else (see: 'A Glitch is a Glitch'), I think that his signature eccentricities are uniquely compatible with Adventure Time's light-hearted craziness. I can't wait to see the full episode!

Katushiro Otomo's "Short Peace" Opening In US Theaters Next Week

This is awesome news. Thanks to the efforts of the LA based distribution company known as Eleven Arts, Short Peace will be rolling out to over 50 theaters across the US on Friday, April 18th with Canada to follow in May. The compilation will have a total of four short films, including the Academy Award-nominated Possessions, directed by Shuhei Morita. Featuring a mixture of CG and hand animation, Short Peace covers a broad range of themes and narratives, and like other compilation features serves as a celebration of animation and some of the most successful animation directors of that era.



This will be the third anthology feature that Otomo (Director of Akira, Steamboy and author of countless iconic mangas) will contribute to over the course of his career. If you're interested in checking out the other two, there's Robot Carnival (1987) and Memories (1995). The latter has the distinction of solely being based off of three of his own short, one off manga stories (Magnetic Rose is a must see).

Doraemon Meets Akira at the 2020 Neo-Tokyo Olympic Games

Did you know? Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira manga correctly predicted that the Tokyo summer Olympics would occur in the year 2020. Following the successful bid for the summer slot, Tokyo appointed Fujiko F. Fujio's famous Doraemon character to serve as a special ambassador/mascot for the upcoming games.

When animator Alex Pitarch put one and together, he felt an irresistible urge to mash these two revelations into an absolutely awesome mashup, starring Doraemon as Tetsuo in that infamous scene that scarred many minds across the world. Pitarch did an amazing job bringing this very strange animation to life, making it feel like it could have actually been part of the original landmark 1988 anime feature.

Taiyo Matsumoto's 'Ping Pong' Is Stylish As Hell

Those familiar with both Taiyo Matsumoto (TekkonKinkreet) and and Masaaki Yuasa's (Kick-Heart) work know exactly what to expect for the upcoming adaptation for Ping Pong. Taiyo Matsumoto's character design is some of the most original in the manga/anime industry currently and it's awesome to see more of his work getting recognized.

In 2002 Ping Pong was given a live-action movie release, but this is the first time we're getting an animated adaptation to fully portray the craziness of Matsumoto's work.

Along with the above trailer, individual trailers have been released for the series' characters, getting my fully hyped for this Spring release. I'm really digging the fluidity of the animation along with super-stylized backgrounds, a staple of Masaaki Yuasa's work.

While the initial air date has yet to be announced you can spend your time longing for the series after the break with the currently released character trailers.

Toshiyuki Inoue's Animation Tribute Reel

MAD is an acronym for 'music anime douga,' the Japanese term for anime music video. Unlike the AMV's we're accustomed to seeing stateside, which tend to focus on adding Linken Park soundtracks to cool footage of say, Naruto, Japanese MAD artists tend to create these as tributes to individual animators.

This MAD covers the work of Toshiyuki Inoue who's had a chance to work on features including Akira, Jin Roh, Ghost In The Shell, Evangelion, Millenium Actress, Paprika and dozens of others.

First Minute Of Knights of Sidonia Anime Previewed

Knights of Sidonia is probably my favorite series currently running, Tsutomu Nihei has truly refined his storytelling skills and has provided an awesome mech experience. Like most popular long running manga series, Knights of Sidonia is getting the anime treatment and while I was originally on the fence with their use of CGI, the newest preview has cleared up a lot of my doubt.

Not gonna lie here, I'm pretty f**king hyped.

CGI in anime very rarely appeals to me, but it seems that Polygon Pictures has really stepped up their game and is providing an awesome animated experience. I'm actually pretty happy with how the mechs look, it's a lot less janky than I would expect. The series will air in Spring 2014 in Japan and in the Summer for Netflix subscribers. Can't say that I'm not ready for this.