8BitKid: Living Bit by Bit

Before Gainax blew our minds with Neon Genesis Evangelion and FLCL they created a short film for the Japan Science Fiction Convention. The burgeoning animation team, featuring greats such as Hideaki Anno, debuted their first film at the con (a.k.a. “Daicon”) in 1983 to critical acclaim.

Two years later, they returned to Daicon and debuted the “Daicon IV Opening Animation”, which was not only a satire that featured the prominent use of characters from American and Japanese animation, but also an overwhelming and visually stunning short in its own right.

Unfortunately, it is extremely hard to find a copy of this film beyond the grainy versions available online. The film was set to the song “Twilight” by Electric Light Orchestra, which they did not have the rights to. This licensing issue has squashed the possibility of legitimate distribution. It was pressed in very limited quantities on laserdisc. I was fortunate enough to see an incredibly high quality version when attending “Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture” exhibit at the Japan Society in New York.

So enjoy this film that helped launch Gainax and is a landmark work in animation history.

April 25th is an important day to me. No, it isn’t a holiday nor a family memeber’s birthday, but it is a historical day. Today is the day that the new Neon Genesis Evangelion Movie, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone, comes out on DVD in Japan. This retelling is the first of four films that will cover the complete story arc as well as an all-new ending. While I certainly can’t condone piracy, if you happen to have a friend flying back from Japan today who happens to be willing to personally subtitle the whole film for you, I would definitely recommend it. Check out the trailer for the film below.

Luckily, the New York Comic-Con happened to overlap with my trip to the Big Apple to visit my family and catch up with some old friends. I found a couple of hours on Saturday and rolled over with a fellow geek to witness the con craziness. Here is a video of some people doing a lightsaber stage combat performance. I don’t want to think about how many hours of practice went into this…

This morning I arrived in NYC courtesy of a JetBlue redeye. This weekend is going to be filled with family, friends, and, by a lucky coincidence, comics. That’s right, New York Comic-Con happens to fall during the same weekend as Passover, and so I’ll get to enjoy both. After the great time I had at the San Diego Comic-Con I am excited to see what this will have in store. I do know that the creator of my favorite web comic, VG Cats, will be there. Enjoy this video featuring Leo and Aeris from his strips.

Jeff Mangum, one of the founders of the Elephant Six Collective and the man behind Neutral Milk Hotel, has been somewhat off the radar since the band dissolved. However, just because he stepped out of the limelight it doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been busy.

One interesting side-project is the series of radio shows featuring mostly experimental music that he hosted on the excellent independent radio station, WFMU. You can find the archives here: http://wfmu.org/playlists/MU

For the intrepid “Neutral Milk Hotel” fans, you can purchase CD’s of the shows here (thanks to my brother for the link): http://neutralmilkhotel.org/wfmu.htm

Also, Mangum is the man behind the “Major Organ and the Adding Machine” project, featuring members of Elf Power, Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal, that put out an album on the Orange Twin label. They are gearing up for a film, and you can find the zany trailer below.

- audio courtesy of MFR

The trailer for the new Batman animated project I have written about previously has hit the web. This project is a direct-to-video release that features a series of short films that fill in the story gaps between “Batman Begins” and this summer’s “Dark Knight”. I can’t wait to pick this one up on Blu-Ray and see what happens when premiere anime directors tackle the american comic icon.

- click here to watch the movie in glorious 720p glory courtesy of Yahoo! Movies

Here is a pretty amazing clip of people in Transformers costumes. I once had a friend who did a similar thing as “ZZ-Toptimus Prime”. It was spectacular.

Sorry Eva fans, there is no secret governmental organization working to protect Tokyo-3. Instead, NERV is Cisco’s “Networked Emergency Response Vehicle.” This specialized vehicle serves as a mobile command center to aide during disaster relief.

Watch the video below and click here for more information.

In honor of this week’s “South Park” episode, here are some of the featured classics:

IGN crafted this amazing trailer for April Fools’ Day: