A Crow Is White - Himitsu

Regardless of your taste in music, A Crow Is White has some talented animators behind their most recent music videos. Earlier this year, fake!fake! introduced us to the colorful and frantic style also seen in Himitsu, which thankfully looks just as amazing as it did the first time.

The song's groovy bassline and cute vocals really pop with the constantly morphing animation which makes it hard not to want more. The mesmerizing nature of morphing animation as the song progresses really nails it with the bright color choices.

Space Shower Music has been knocking it out of the park with their artists, and A Crow Is White does nothing but reinforce my love for the record label. It's a shame a majority of their music will remain unknown to most of the world, especially with the amount of effort and love put into accompanying animation like this. For merch and other info on the band, check out their website over here.

The Colorful Art Of Mintchoco

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Mintchoco's colorful work literally bursts off the page, with some really cool saturation usage that strangely enough doesn't overwhelm the rest of her images. Inspired by some truly interesting illustrators, including Dutch children's illustrator Dick Bruna (Best known for Miffy) and pop artist Keith Haring, you can see where she gleaned bits and pieces of her style from.

With a nice mixture of original art and fanart from franchises including Metroid, The Powerpuff Girls and Pokemon, her vibrant, summery gallery of work is truly satisfying to check out. More of Mintchoco's pieces after the break.

The Illustrations Of Tadahiro Uesugi

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At a first glance, Tadahiro Uesugi's work resembles more of the type of exploratory concept art pieces you'd see in a Pixar or Dreamworks art book. Long, elongated femmes that seem pulled straight out of a fashion designers book of ideas wandering about some truly European looking locales, either on their way to a rendezvous or simply sightseeing.

While on a first glance his pieces might seem a little light on detail, Uesugi's pieces showcase a masterful understanding of light and color all around. Over the last few years he's been privileged enough to have his work showcased internationally, as well as contributions to France's Elle fashion magazine and work on some of Laika's features, including promotional artwork for Coraline. Check out more of his fantastic work after the break.

The Art of Simetta

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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!

The Art Of Kondo

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The piece titled Ray's Dream (Pictured above) stopped me in my tracks when it popped up online. It had been a while since I'd seen anyone use negative space to such a cool effect, but Fukuoka based illustrator Kondo knocked it out of the park. Negative space refers to the space around and between a subject, and if you check out the treatment he did on this warrior's Hakama (Samurai robe), it's literally the same color as the background, but our mind fills in the blanks thanks to the implied dark sleeve and wrap covering her chest. When pulled off correctly, this effect gives illustrations a highly designed, graphic edge.

Kondo occasionally experiments with more painterly subject matter, but he mostly excels with highly limited color palettes, which result in some truly bold pieces that excel in a 'less is more' fashion. Check out more of his awesome work after the break!

The Art Of Maekake

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Bravely Default, Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy Tactics..These are just a few games that have been beacons of light in the at times creatively tenuous gaming scene. Bravely Default was pretty much the unofficial Final Fantasy reboot we'd all been waiting for, and is visually probably one of my favorite titles I've had a chance to enjoy in years. So when I ran into the work of Maekake, I initially thought I'd hit the gold mine- Akihiko Yoshida's very own art gallery..Until I saw the wide variety of tribute art to the franchises I listed above.

Maekake provides a very good emulation of these different games' distinct art styles, channeling Yoshida's sketchy style and muted color palettes, Team Ico's more moody look and Tactic's ultra stylized characters- the highlight being an awesome portrait of Ramza that could pass as official concept art.

Shame that he currently only resides as a hobbyist, as I feel that he'd make an awesome concept artist if he wanted to with his versatility in stylistic emulation. Check out more of his awesome work after the break!

The Art Of Ranbararu

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Ranbararu is a Japanese concept artist and illustrator hailing from the Chiba prefecture, and his work brings back memories of what I like to call the 'Good ole days' of Capcom. The days in which Street Fighter 3 - Third Strike was the hottest thing around and Capcom didn't shun some of their more creative and niche franchises like Breath Of Fire, Megaman and Rival Schools. The concept art coming out of the studio back in Capcom's heyday was really loose but always cool.

Ranbararu channels that vibe, with plenty of artwork that emulates that retro Capcom look and level of stylization that the studio had at it's prime. Speaking of which, Udon is planning to release the Art of Capcom: Complete Edition book which will contain art from that era I'm referencing (Late 90's, Early 2000's), so I'd recommend picking that up when it's released on July 23. More of Ranbararu's work after the break!

The Art Of Cancer

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Wooha! While we initially thought that Cancer was a Japanese artist based off of his taste in subject matter, we quickly realized that the talented 23 year old illustrator actually hails from China. That's what kind of tipped us off about his work, the fact that it was so uncharacteristically painterly for fanart. Not saying that this level of rendering doesn't exist in the Japanese fanart scene, it's just rare.

Cancer's artistic upbringing with a lot of traditional mediums is front and center here, featuring a really cool rendering style that mimics painterly brush strokes and a fantastic grasp on subtle color variation. This imbues his tribute pieces to franchises including Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and Kill La Kill with a level of refinement that's truly above and beyond what we're used to seeing from fanart. Couple that with a smattering of really cool personal pieces and you've got one solidly rounded out illustrator. Check out more of his awesome work after the break.

The Art Of Rakuchi

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Rakuchi is a Japanese hobbyist and illustrator with a bright, poppy colorful style that fits perfectly with the onset of summer. Backdrops of rich blues, warm oranges and more pop his characters off the canvas they're rendered on, giving his vibrant pieces a pleasant aura that we couldn't get enough of. This usage of ultra saturated elements has been very popular with a growing generation of young illustrators on Tumblr especially, who've been incorporating these unorthodox stylistic flairs based off of higher accessibility to websites like Pixiv.

The artist also does enough things different to differentiate his anime aesthetics from most of the crowd, with wild compositions and a great sense of movement to his work. You can check out more of Rakuchi's portfolio after the break.

The Art Of Toshiaki Takayama

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Toshiaki Takayama has been making waves for a while both in his native country and abroad with his awesome art, which has graced promotional materials for anime, various card games, arcade titles and console games for the likes of Konami and beyond. Aside from his wonderfully chunky mecha illustrations, which always have a nice sense of atmosphere and scale to them Toshiaki is incredibly versatile in his subject matter, creating pieces that range from scifi to fantasy, and even combos like his untitled mecha-knight piece above.

All of his pieces have a great sense of movement and calculated flow to them, while also making great usage of secondary elements like saturation to control where the viewers eyes land on his compositions. Considering the sheer amount of work he's pumped out over the years I'm not the least bit surprised at his ever improving skills as an illustrator. Check out just a small sampling of his work after the break. Minor nudity warning for those concerned.

A Look Back At Vintage Godzilla Posters

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I always get the feeling that the art of movie posters has regressed somewhat over the years, giving way to more 'quick and dirty' driven techniques that always follow a predefined template of a few effective, eye catching designs (Basically giant heads everywhere). We do occasionally seem to get some creative takes, but those are few and far in between.

To celebrate the premier of Godzilla recently, we found the work of Noriyoshi Ohrai- One of the most famous movie illustrators in Japan, and I'd go so far as to call him their equivalent of a Drew Struzan. Over the years he's had the privilege of creating the Japanese poster adaptations of classic movies such as the original Star Wars trilogy, Blade Runner and many other classics, including an entire series for each installment of  Konami's Metal Gear franchise.

Noriyoshi Ohrai’s also spent his career creating some really incredible posters for the original Heisei Godzilla films over the years, which had a style all their own. Check out a small selection of the incredible amount of work Ohrai's created over the years after the break!

Left 4 Dead Arrives In Japan - As An Arcade Game?

Valve and Turtle Rock's Left 4 Dead franchise has been out and going strong for years now, spawning a sequel (Or two), selling millions of copies on Steam and consoles and being a key player in the zombie genre revival that's been prevalent over the last few years. A new trailer unveiled yesterday shows off a new entry into the franchise called Left 4 Dead - Survivors which will be making it's debut in Japanese arcades relatively soon with field tests at the end of the month.

Developed by Taito, who have had a relationship with Valve since 2006 in creating some truly unique arcade adaptations of their core franchises, this looks like it's shaping up to be a more streamlined version of the core L4D cooperative experience with a series of networked arcade cabinets. You might ask yourself how on earth a first person shooter like this will work without a traditional mouse or keyboard setup, but we have a few ideas.



Half Life 2: Survivor took the classic sequel and condensed the entire experience into a more arcadey dual joystick shooter with a much more linear progression throughout. While the story remained relatively the same, a timer option added quite a bit of stress to wrapping up the campaign. The title was also networked with other machines to offer multiplayer modes, including a coop option.



CounterStrike NEO was an even stranger breed, taking the classic gameplay of the Terrorist Vs Counter Terrorist premise and reskinning it to have cyborg characters with an anime aesthetic, female announcers and maps I've never seen before. The arcade version actually had a rudimentary mouse and keyboard setup with a 'profile card' system that would allow players to store their stats and settings.

So why all these arcade ports of titles that could be easily purchased on Steam and other platforms? It's been pretty well documented that Japan's gaming community has always been lukewarm at best towards first person shooters, so this is yet another attempt by Valve to acquaint Japanese audiences with their franchises in a more palatable, convenient format. Left 4 Dead - Survivor will be premiering in arcades sometime this summer.

The Art of Johnson Ting - Neo Japan 2202

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Johnson Ting is a Malaysian concept artist whose portfolio consists of futuristic helicarriers, armor-clad desert marines, re-imagined Marvel heroes and writhing biomechanical mecha à la Evangelion. His most impressive and well-known body of work however is probably his 'Neo Japan 2202' series, a collection of thematically connected pieces set within the titular far-east metropolis where private police androids and renegade drones clash in a hail of gunfire and neon lights.

Johnson is currently collecting fan input with the intention of turning the Neo Japan illustrations into a 200-plus page book complete with new artwork, posters, in-world documents depicting a fully fleshed-out backstory and possibly a soundtrack CD! After what I've seen of his work so far, I sincerely hope this becomes a reality. Check out more of this awesome series after the break!

Tokyo - The Peculiar Traveler

Ever play The Stanley Parable? The game benefited from having an amazing, narrative driven experience that gauged your willingness to go along with what you're told versus what you actually want, with surprising results. I get the feeling that filmmaker Alex Cornell had a chance to play the game, because his incredibly charming little travelogue about Tokyo has a very familiar feel to it. So much so that it will probably leave a smile on your face, and really make you want to impulsively drop everything and travel to Japan for a week or two of feeling wonderfully lost. Absolutely loved this.

The Art Of Heb Mueller - Tinges Of Diesel Punk

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When I see the work of Heb Mueller, I can only think of the pieces of inspiration that came together to create the aesthetic of Skullgirls, the pseudo-anime inspired beat 'em up from the mind of Alex Ahad and co. Thing is, Heb Mueller is simply the alias of a Japanese artist with a love of western culture, western cars and a diesel punk aesthetic.

Diesel punk pertains to a severely undertapped genre, combining the aesthetics of diesel technology with retro-futurism. The most well known application of this genre is probably Fallout and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, although diesel punk deserves a lot more love compared to it's oversaturated cousin, steampunk. Cars, babes and mayhem after the break.

Takashi Murakami's "Jellyfish Eyes" - Coping With Fukushima

Before taking on his first film project, Takashi Murakami built up a reputation with his ultra colorful, stylized paintings featuring a wide array of strange creatures. I ran into Murakami's work countless times over the years in modern art galleries, which familiarized me with his 'superflat' style, which borrows from traditional Japanese art and post-war culture.

In his directorial debut titled Jellyfish Eyes, it seems that the main theme of the scifi film revolves around an anti-nuclear message, and to serve as an indirect reminder for younger audiences about the devastation that Fukushima had on people's lives. The addition of the Pokemon-esque elements definitely makes the message en easier pill to swallow. Despite that the movie looks visually stunning, and I hope to catch a screening during it's limited US tour, which begins on May 1st.

Jellyfish Eyes tells the story of Masashi, a young boy who moves to a sleepy town in the Japanese countryside with his mother in the wake of a natural disaster. After returning home from his new elementary school one day, Masashi discovers a flying jellyfish-like creature whom he befriends and names Kurage-bo. Masashi soon discovers that all his classmates have similarly magical pets, known as F.R.I.E.N.D.s, which are controlled by electronic devices that the children use to battle one another. Despite their playful appearances, however, these F.R.I.E.N.D.s turn out to be part of a sinister plot that will threaten the entire town.

Becoming Sumo

This cool documentary directed and produced by documentary studio Salazar, featuring a very unorthodox sumo wrestler from Egypt. Despite being a fish out of water in an entirely new culture and environment, it's refreshing to see his passion and the open mindedness of the 'stable master' who accepted an outsider into their ranks.

Ōsunaarashi (大砂嵐金太郎) is the first professional sumo wrestler hailing from the African continent. Born Abdelrahman Shalan near Cairo, Egypt he first became involved with sumo through an acquaintance at the age of 16. In 2011 he came in third place at an international junior championship. The same year he decided to follow his dream of becoming a professional wrestler and moved to Tokyo, Japan.

The Art Of Bthx - Colorful And Mysterious

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If there's one thing that's been more challenging about hunting for cool illustrators overseas outside of the obvious language barrier, it's the Japanese cultural norm of keeping a relatively humble, low profile. While it's an appreciated 'overall' trait, it does make our lives pretty difficult when trying to find out more background information about certain artists.

Bthx is one of these talented illustrators that we ran into recently who got our attention with his incredibly clean, lineart driven aesthetic- Yet in regards to info about the artist, there was virtually no information other than an email address (Which we unfortunately didn't hear back from) and a simple thank you for looking! Based off his art he's either an ultra talented fanartist, or a concept artist at Atlus considering the amount and quality of Persona related work we found in their folio, amongst other fan favorites like a stunning little piece of Asuka from Evangelion, which you can check out after the break.

The Art Of Totto - Path Of The Fanartist

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Totto is a self proclaimed fan artist from Tokyo, who set out to learn painting and drawing in order to pay tribute to some of his favorite characters and franchises. Like many other young artists currently rising to visibility in Tumblr, Twitter and other social platforms, fanart tends to speed up the process of getting a following, more so than original work. Part of me wishes that wasn't the case, but I won't deny that it's fun to see different people's takes on iconic characters from movies, cartoons, anime and so on.

Nintendo is where Totto's fanart allegiance lies, with a bunch of cool pieces dedicated to Zelda, Animal Crossing and Super Smash Brothers, with a comparable amount of original work thrown in for good measure. With nice, warm color palettes and a visual style that resembles retro videogame concept art, Totto's an artist worth keeping an eye out for. More of his work after the break.

I Am Alone, Walking On The Straight Road

Masanori Okamoto created this rather curious papercraft animation piece to commemorate the work of Taneda Santoka, one of Japan's most famous Haiku authors. While on an initial viewing I was a tad perplexed by what I saw, witnessing a man having a drink and slowly exhibiting all the subtle mannerisms an inebriated individual would, I slowly came to realize what this was all about. Aside from being a technically impressive short by Okamoto, who setup an experimental system for emoting with a cutout paper method, the short embodies everything that Santoka himself lived for.

Savoring the moment. Enjoying one's saké. Realizing that there is no destination, only the journey. Santoka embraced an unusual pursuit of achieving enlightenment, choosing to walk to achieve his own version of Zen. Over the course of 28,000 miles walked by foot he would record his thoughts and perceptions regarding everything he encountered on his way, which would ultimately immortalize him as one of Japan's literary treasures.