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Mushi-Shi: The Movie
Japanese Cinema DVD Review
by Brian Cirulnick
 Mushishi is one of the most beautiful and certainly one of the most esoteric anime series ever, but this live-action take on the character Ginko and the supernatural beings that inhabit his universe is downright creepy.
The Japanese have made some of the best horror films of the last decade (and Hollywood has shamelessly made poor-quality remakes), and clearly, some of that has rubbed off into this film, as the CGI Mushi are the stuff nightmares are made of. This film corresponds with chapters 2, 7, 9 and 15 of the manga, but, oh, is it ever effective at creeping you out. Do not watch alone and in the dark! Read More...
Heroic Age
Anime DVD Review by Brian Cirulnick
 Heroic Age takes anime to a grand scale, recalling epic, galaxy-spanning mythologies that also influenced series such as Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5, and you'll see elements of those and many others here, as a complex tale unweaves before you.
Set during a time where humans have been a space-faring race for so long that their homeworld of Earth has been lost to them, it introduces us to a group of "tribes" that populate the universe. There was once a "Golden Tribe", and they were like Babylon 5's "First Ones", a superior and powerful race of beings, they are what we, in our ape-state would have considered "gods". The Golden Tribe sends out a message to all the other tribes to make contact, and three tribes respond; Silver Tribe, Bronze Tribe and the Heroic Tribe. Read More...
The Tower of Druaga
Anime DVD Review by Brian Cirulnick
 Some anime needs to come with "Cliff Notes". You know you're in trouble when you have to STUDY to understand what's going on. This is how I felt when initially faced with The Tower of Druaga, an anime series that is a sequel to long-running video-game franchise. And by long-running, we're talking originally an arcade game from 1984 -- that's longer than most of you reading this have been alive!
And this sequel takes place sixty years after the events of the game -- King Gilgamesh has defeated the monsters of the Tower, but now it seems as if the tower is being reborn again. Read More...
Halo Legends
Anime DVD Review by Brian Cirulnick
 The Halo universe expands into anime via Halo Legends, a DVD anthology of episodic films based within the popular game's mythology produced by 343 Industries, a unit within Microsoft Game Studios. If you enjoyed "Batman Gotham Knight" and "The AniMatrix", you'll certainly get a kick out Halo Legends.
Exploring the origin and historical events of the Halo universe and its intriguing characters, Halo guru Frank O'Connor worked directly with Japanese screenwriters on each of the seven stories — spread over eight episodic installments — that include all the elements familiar to Halo fans. Read More...
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Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet
About a million years ago, I was over at my friend Mike Ling's house watching him create artwork on an Amiga computer using Deluxe Paint. Mike's technique with the mouse was astounding, he would essentially sculpt the image by putting down a blob of color on the screen and then carving away with the eraser anything that wasn't what he wanted.
But I dare say that very few of us have his level of talent. I'm used to sketching my images, and then drawing over them to clean then up. I was trained to use a pencil, I've *never* been able to draw with a mouse. Thank goodness for the Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet, which allows me to use the computer like I was holding a pencil.
This amazing gizmo gives me back my creative freedom by treating my entire screen as a canvas on which to render whatever is in my imagination. It can even be used in place of a mouse entirely, allowing you to use the computer in ways you never expected.
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Orange Crows
Original English-language Manga Review by Brian Cirulnick
 Call me a traitor, but in many cases, I'm beginning to prefer Original English-language Manga (OEL) to the manga brought in, flipped and translated. For one, it's giving jobs to local talent to come up with the story and draw it. Secondly, the manga can actually be targeted to the American audience, so things that might not go over as well here (like nudity/panty shots/shower scenes) can automatically be expunged in the planning stages rather than in printing. Read More...
Yokai Attack! The Japanese Monster Survival Guide
Japanese Culture Book Review by Brian Cirulnick
 A few years ago, there was a humorous series of books known as a "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide", which showed you things like how to fend off a shark attack, or how to properly control your car in a spin-out. While they were done to be funny, the information was actually valuable should you be in the unfortunate situation of finding yourself *in* one of these worst-case scenarios. Read More...
Animation Development: From Pitch to Production
Animation Book Review by Brian Cirulnick
 In all seriousness, is there anyone among us who doesn't believe the system for pitching and development is seriously flawed? Even the development executives interviewed for this book know it is so, admitting that the way networks green light and develop animated ideas into pilots and series is too slow. Well, that's a start, but its certainly not the only problem. Not only is the process by which networks review and develop projects slow, it's also often expensive, wasteful, and rife with the wrong people in chargeññgiving the wrong notes, making the wrong decisions, and otherwise getting in the way of the process in any number of ways. Oy! Read More...
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