Too much anime, again

I decided today to make a list of all the anime DVDs and Blu-Rays that I own but have not yet watched. I have DVDs and Blu-Rays scattered around the apartment in several places, with no real system, but I have a general idea as to where most of them are. I just went through them all (well, most of them) and made up a list in Evernote.

My list contains 16 entries, which doesn’t sound too bad, until you realize that most of them are series with 4 to 8 DVDs. And a number of the items on this list from 2006 are still unwatched, which is kind of silly.

I’m kind of in an anime mood right now, so maybe I’ll start watching some of this stuff again. But, then again, watching too much TV might raise my risk of Alzheimer’s. I wonder if that would apply to subtitled anime, though. It seems like that would stimulate the brain in a similar way as reading a book. (At least to a certain extent.)

Akira

I just finished reading the sixth (final) volume of Akira. I read volumes 1-3 quite some time ago, and decided to read 4-6 just recently. I’m not sure why I waited so long between 3 and 4. (Volume 3 was a good breaking point though.)

I find myself wondering if there’s some really deep meaning to Akira that I’m missing. There’s definitely a lot going on, and I’ve seen various people drawing out various themes and metaphors from it. I stumbled across this video today, which doesn’t really get into the deep stuff, but does do a good job of summing up the narrative of the manga vs the anime.

And finally finishing Akira makes me think back and realize how long it’s been a part of my life. I first read Akira via the Marvel/Epic color series, from the late 80s and early 90s. I didn’t read the whole series, and I don’t remember exactly when I stopped buying it. But it was definitely the first major manga I ever read.

I can’t quite remember the first time I saw the Akira film either, but I distinctly remember buying a pirated version of it on VHS back in the early 90s, at a comics convention. (I know I’d seen it before then, but I’m not sure where. I don’t think I could have seen it when I was in college, since it wasn’t released until after I graduated.) Either way, I’m pretty sure that it was the first anime movie I’d ever seen. (At some point, not too many years ago, I bought it on DVD, and have watched it at least once; I think it’s due for a repeat viewing soon!)

I bought the six Dark Horse black & white volumes a few years ago, at a con, probably San Diego or WonderCon. I’m pretty sure I got them out of somebody’s discount box, possibly TFAW‘s. (I’ve gotten some good deals from them.)

I gave the first three volumes, and the Marvel/Epic issues, over to Superheroes for Hospice, when I donated most of my collection earlier this year. I’ll likely donate volumes 4-6 next year, assuming I can talk myself into going through the piles again and donating a few more boxes.

I thought it might be cool to have a digital version of the Akira manga to maybe reread at some point, but it’s not available on the Dark Horse site or on Comixology. (Apparently, Kodansha now has the license for the manga, not Dark Horse, and I don’t see any sign that they’ve made it available digitally.)

Now that I’ve finished Akira, I have no idea what to read next, but I have a few things in mind. I never did get around to finishing the Rurouni Kenshin manga; I have several volumes of that series gathering dust. And I have a random sampling of Oh My Goddess! volumes waiting to be read. That would make for a nice change of pace from Akira!

too much to do this weekend

I just figured out that both AnimeNEXT and WordCamp Philly are happening this weekend. I kind of like the idea of checking out a WordPress gathering, and the Philly WordCamp would be relatively convenient. And I haven’t been to an anime convention in a few years, so it would be cool to drop in on AnimeNEXT and check it out. Maybe I can drive to Philly on Saturday and drop in on AnimeNEXT on Sunday? Of course, I need to fit my laundry and grocery shopping in there too somehow.

Anime watching

It’s been so cold out, I decided to just cocoon myself in my apartment this weekend and watch anime. I haven’t actually done that in quite a while. It was kind of fun. I watched the first twelve episodes of Gatchaman, and the first season of Big O. Looking back at some old posts on this blog, I see that I’ve had the Big O DVDs sitting around since 2006. The Gatchaman DVDs are probably almost as old.

Gatchaman was fun to watch, and very campy (as I expected it would be). I don’t think I’m interested in watching any more of it though. It was fun, and nostalgic, but repetitive. I have only vague memories of watching Battle of the Planets as a kid, but they’re good memories, and it was fun to see what the original source material was like.

Big O was quite good. Kind of ridiculous, but the visual style of it is really great. It’s clearly referencing a number of disparate influences, such as the old Bruce Timm Batman animated series. The first season ends on a cliffhanger, so now I’m wishing I’d bought the second season when I bought the first.

I haven’t been closely following anime news for the past couple of years, so I’m just noticing now that a number of the companies that were issuing DVDs a few years ago are out of business now, and used copies of some DVDs are going for pretty high prices. It looks like a new company has picked up the Big O license, so they may re-issue the DVDs. Here’s hoping!

If this cold spell keeps going, I may be watching my Samurai 7 box set next weekend.

45th birthday

Yesterday was my 45th birthday. It was a pretty low-key birthday. I strayed from my diet and had a couple of slices of pizza for dinner, and I allowed myself a buttered roll in the morning, but I didn’t go overboard with anything. I had the idea today to look back on what I might have been doing on and around my birthday, since I started this blog. So here’s a pretty random list of stuff, assembled by looking back at my Blogger archives.

2003

  • I went to Comic-Con that year. (I was making reservations in March. I’m going again this year, after skipping it for a few years.)
  • I was reading Sinfest, which I haven’t been following lately, but is apparently still around (and still funny).

2004

  • I was reading “His Dark Materials“, and listening to Rum Diary.
  • I had just gotten the 90,000 mile service done on my 97 Civic. (I got my 2008 Accord inspected yesterday. It’s got about 45k miles on it.)

2005

  • Windows XP was giving me grief.
  • I was listening to Warren Ellis’ “Superburst Mixtape” podcast. (That’s long gone. He has a new one named SPEKTRMODULE now, which I’ve been listening to recently, and is quite good.)

2006

  • I was watching Samurai Champloo on Cartoon Network. (I have it on Blu-Ray now, but I haven’t gotten around to re-watching it.)

2007

2008

  • I got my first Kindle. I’ve since traded that in for a new one, but I still haven’t read some of the books I loaded onto that first one (and later transferred to the second).

And that’s about where I feel like I should end this. I’m feeling weirder than usual about my birthday this year, for various reasons. But I can’t complain. I’ve been able to spend time with several really good friends over the last couple of weeks, and I think I’ll likely enjoy this coming weekend too, so that’s all I can really ask for.

Satoshi Kon

I read this morning that Satoshi Kon had passed away. He was only 46. He was a brilliant director and writer. Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers are two of my favorite films of all time. I saw him at Big Apple Anime Fest, probably in 2003, for the first American showing of Tokyo Godfathers. (I remember first seeing Millennium Actress at BAAF also, probably in 2001, but I don’t think he was there for that.) I also got a chance to see him in 2008 for a retrospective at Walter Reade. He seemed like a really nice guy, self-deprecating, but very serious about his work. And he was very Japanese, in a way that’s kind of hard to define, though his work was influenced by both Japanese and American culture. The NY Times obit by A. O. Scott is well-written and I agree with pretty much everything said or quoted therein.

NYAF

I bought my 3-day pass for New York Anime Festival today. I went last year, and enjoyed it, though I didn’t really buy much or spend that much time at the con. I think I just went in for a couple of hours on Saturday. This year, I bought a three-day pass, and I plan on taking Friday off from work, so I should be able to spend more time at the con. I’m still so far behind in watching my accumulation of anime DVDs, and reading my accumulation of manga paperbacks, that I probably won’t buy much again this year. But, I’m hoping to just hang out, relax, and avoid thinking about work for the weekend. How’s that for a plan?

AnimeNEXT

So I went into work on Friday and found out that there was an anime convention going on at the Expo Center across the street from my office building. And more interestingly, they were using part of the first floor of our building too. So, we got to watch cosplayers wandering around in our lobby all day. Cool.

I had to work this weekend anyway, so I went to the con (AnimeNEXT) after work yesterday and today. There was a lot of stuff going on. They were using space at the Expo Center, the Doubletree hotel, and the Doubletree “training center” in our building. I picked up some random toys and candy in the dealers room, and the Samurai 7 box set. I paid $40 for the box, which seemed like a good deal at the time, until I got home and checked Amazon, where they have it for $26. Oh well. It usually turns out that Amazon is the best place to get anime or manga, though it’s more fun to come home from a con with a few things in my backpack, even if I overpaid for them!

The space in our building was being used for video rooms. They had 5 rooms going, and they were showing some good stuff. I didn’t catch anything new and great, though. (I remember discovering great stuff like Master Keaton in the video rooms at San Diego.) I kind of like the idea of having a bunch of anime video rooms running in my office building, so I can just go downstairs and watch some Eva any time I’m feeling stressed at work. Maybe I can just hide some DVDs in the server closet.