Redshift #25

Here’s your latest round-up of attention to older anime around the web! The load on this post is a little lighter, which we hope is just because the end of the Christmas break has made hobbyists less active, and not because we’ve missed whole tranches of activity…

This blog’s series of index posts is coming up on its first birthday—it’s 28 January—so thank you very much to everyone who’s reading! We might or might not manage more developed reflections on this anniversary in our next post.

As usual, remarks from Feez are in blue and those from Thaliarchus are in red.

Blogging

Feez has begun a series of posts on people significant in the making of Turn A Gundam. The first gathers bits of information about the director, Yoshiyuki Tomino, and also about how he brought others onto the project. The second discusses the character designer, Akira Yasuda, possibly better known as ‘akiman’. I hope people are enjoying these posts! I’m having a lot of fun piecing them together. Next one will feature Syd Mead, the mecha designer. It’s striking how long a lead-in was involved in getting akiman involved! And the reference he used for clothing design is a surprise…

Motoko Tamamuro’s series of posts reviewing and summarising untranslated Japanese books about anime continues with a fascinating account of The Colour Artisan of Animation. This is a biography by Yasuko Shibaguchi of Michiyo Yasuda. Yasuda worked for decades in the anime industry as a cel painter and then a colour designer, and collaborated closely with Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki. Lots of fascinating details here, including an account of the transition to digital colouring.

At Juve-Niall Delinquency, Niall’s essayistic progress through the various City Hunter films covers Bay City Wars and Million Dollar Conspiracy.

Orphan have provided Majo demo Steady (1986) with possibly its first English translation, and as is often the case Collectr’s post on the one-shot OVA is long enough to be a useful primer to the nature of the title in and of itself.

The episodic posts on Princess Tutu at Wrong Every Time have reached episode 19. Coverage of Ojamajo Doremi, meanwhile, has reached episodes 45 and 46.

At Zimmerit Sean has a post surveying some of the early doujin by Kenichi Sonoda, who would go on to be a key artist and designer in the later eighties. It’s interesting how many artists have humble beginnings in doujin circles.

The Great OAV Watch, now healthily in its second hundred posts, reaches Nightsong of Splendour (1989) and California Crisis: Gun Salvo (1986). I’m watching Nightsong of Splendour myself at the moment. It’s more diverting than mindblowing, but Dezaki’s always a good time for me.

Andrew Osmond has been putting up articles he’s had out in print elsewhere: two on Royal Space Force and one on Escaflowne.

Podcasting

Dynamite in the Brain touch on various older anime in their Top 100 Anime of All Time (update) podcast.

The Anime of Yesteryear Podcast dedicates an episode to discussing Sol Bianca (1991).

Translations

• Dream Fighter Wingman 8 (Johnny English)
• Ninku 45 (Saizen)
• Baby and Me 18 (Saizen)
• Bad Boys (OVA) 1 (Saizen)
• Laughing Salesman 64–8 (Saizen)
• Yume no Crayon Oukoku 40 (Square; no release post but check usual trackers)
• Attack No. 1 83–4 (Old Castle)
• Ichigatsu ni wa Christmas (Old Castle)
• God Mazinger 2 (/m/subs)
• Getter Robo 34 (/m/subs; see also 1–34 /m/subs-Caffin batch)
• Dash! Yonkuro: complete (Square)
• Bonobono (1995) 30 (GANGO)
• Majo demo Steady (Orphan)
• Kindaichi Case Files 135 (Kindaichi Lovers)
• Toki no Daichi: Hana no Oukoku no Majo (Cold Caption; possibly no release post; secondary translation from Chinese)

What we’ve been up to

Feez — I’ve begun a Turn A Gundam rewatch to refresh myself and prepare for the 20th anniversary in a few months. I’m not keeping a continuous Twitter thread going, but check my feed for commentary and pictures. In other news, I’m debating getting into Kingdom Hearts, but it’s certainly a daunting venture!

Thaliarchus — Yes, good luck with Kingdom Hearts if you go for it. While I’ve nothing but respect for its inhabitants, that’s one pop culture rabbit hole that looks too big and complex for me! 

I’ve been watching more of the 2016 Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu adaptation, which I’m very much enjoying. Apart from anything else, it’s fun to see the buildings and technology gradually change around the characters as time advances. Meanwhile my attempt to rewatch Zeta Gundam with a friend who’s not seen it before has reached the third episode. That show packs a lot of organisational complexity into those first three rather bleak outings, so I’ve been dredging up memories from when I saw it in 2008 to try to keep up.