Rintaro

[samus]

On Friday 6th February, I attended a lecture at the Japanese Information and Cultural Centre (in Washington, DC). Rintaro, a veteran anime director, gave the talk.

It was very interesting to hear Rintaro-san's perspective on the anime industry. He directed the first anime TV series in Japan, Astroboy in 1963, and has since directed numerous other anime classics, including Galaxy Express 999, and more recently, Metropolis. He was funny and entertaining, and the talk didn't leave me looking at my watch. He mentioned anime conventions several times, and he seemed particularly enthusiastic about cosplayers. I think the overall feeling I got from him on this point was that he felt inspired that anime could, in turn, inspire millions of people to spend their time, effort, and money to make costumes of characters that they love, and to attend the anime cons. Rintaro-san also spoke about computer techniques being combined with traditional cel animation. He seems to regard cel animation as more 'alive' than animation that is purely made inside a computer.

If you guys get the opportunity to show Metropolis, do so. It's pretty good.

[hr]samus

[General Porkov]

Well, Project Anime did show Metropolis at the beginning of the 2002/2003 session. This was the 2001 version, which was released in the UK at around the end of August 2002 (I know this, as we used my DVD player and my copy of Metropolis). Some people, however didn't appear to like it - but hey, people are allowed to like it or not!

Doom Lord General Porko Porkov
Doom Lord in Japan! Collecting lots of anime-based stuff!

[Thalia]

Personally..i didn't like metropolis that much - i mean the visuals were great but you got the feeling the characters were just there to move the story along, there wasn't really much development except maybe with Rock, and the story didn't really do much for me - i got the feeling like it had all been told before (which it had since it was based on a 1927 film) but even though that isn't always really a bad thing...they didn't really bring anything new to the story either except for the cool way they blend the CG graphics with the 2D drawings...

I find it a bad thing, really, when you find yourself wishing that Rock would just shoot the girl they're all after already ^^;;

EDIT: cos Porkov got there before me - t's been shown already? Ah, good, that means i won't have to watch it again in the near future ^_-

[samus]

I actually sort of fell asleep when I saw Metropolis as the story was a little bit lacking. But the CGI/cel animation was amazing.

Rintaro-san actually said that Metropolis was influenced by Frtiz Lang's Metropolis, but it wasn't based upon it.

[hr]samus

[Dee]

We showed Metropolis on Monday. Hurray!

For all five of us who are still here. Hurroo!

Okay the ending depended on a plot device from the evil overlord's list. And there were a few holes in it as well. The characters looked a bit like they were from "Adventures of TinTin" (not sure why - possibly the blacked out eyes although the proportions may have something to do with it as well) and weren't exactly in depth.

But the setting and music (with one VERY BIG exception regarding the latter) were among the best I've seen - quite film noir in places and these were my favourite bits.

Rintaro sounds pretty cool from what you say Samus, but I'm not going to fanboy at him any more than that.

[hr]"You can tell a lot about a man's character by the way he eats jelly beans."

-Ronald Reagan