8BitKid: Living Bit by Bit

The word on the street is that Leonardo DiCaprio and Warner Brothers are teaming up to make a live-action version of “Akira”. They will take the manga story arc and split it into two films; the first one will be released in 2009. The setting will be changed from “Neo-Tokyo” to “New Manhattan”.

Really? Really? Does this really need to be done? Are there no “Titanic” sequel scripts lying around that LeoDio can lend his creative energies to?

This is now the second anime film near and dear to my heart to be getting the live-action treatment. “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is also in production, with WETA at the effects helm. Are anime remakes the next script-factory that Hollywood will be turning to once we run out of comic books? How long until Mila Jovovich is cast as Major Kusanagi in a new “Ghost in the Shell” film?

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In light of the recent announcements swirling about Blu-Ray’s defeat of HD-DVD, I decided to go out and buy my first Blu-Ray discs. i swung by Amoeba Music and picked up “Paprika” and “Tekkonkinkreet”, since I figured that animation would really pop in HD. I made the plunge into hi-def viewing by inaugurating my PS3 with “Tekkonkinkreet”.

As I sat absorbing this gritty tale of orphans taking on gangsters, I was amazed at how the cripsness and brilliance helped immerse me in the film. The film centers on two codependent children, Black and White, who challenge rival street urchins as well as the Yakuza in a territorial battle over “Treasure Town”. The film deals heavily with the question of finding balance: in the development of city, in the control of the town, in the power of friendship, and within one’s own psyche. The ethereal tone of the film highlights animation’s power to forge fantastic worlds.

There is no better way to celebrate the imminent demise of HD-DVD and the end of the “Format Wars” than by enjoying some hi-def goodness. Will I repurchase my entire movie collection? No. Is having a single format better for consumers? Certainly. Is direct-download going to replace physical media? Eventually. Is there a better way to handle this migration as well as a more convenient model for content ownership in the digital age? That is a whole other blog post…

I never turn down the chance to see anime on the big screen. Luckily, as an L.A. resident, the opportunity does occasionally present itself, usually through midnight showings or special premieres tied to cultural centers. Next weekend, the American Cinematheque will be presenting three of Hayao Miyazaki’s phenomenal films in a Studio Ghibli showcase at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica:

Friday, February 1
7:30pm - “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”

Saturday, February 2
3:00pm - “My Neighbor Totoro”

Saturday, February 2
7:30pm - “Spirited Away”

This is a rare opportunity to sample Miyazaki’s craft in a theater setting, and you owe it to yourself to experience his storytelling. If you don’t consider yourself an “anime” fan or simply have never seen a Miyazaki film, I assure you that you will find these films captivating, your imagination sated, and leave with a smile on your face. I have already bought my tickets to all three at fandango.com, and let me know in the comments if you are planning on attending.

- news courtesy of Anime News Network

Here is the special card sent out by one of my favorite animation houses, Studio Ghibli, to celebrate the new year.

- from Studio Ghibli via Anime News Network

“The current state of the net, which wasn’t around before humanity established its existence, loosely forms a subconscious mind; one which is split off from mankind’s consciousness. This mental level net and the electronic network now cover most of the world. The subconscious mind they give rise to is done so in the form of the general consensus of the whole.”

- Ghost in the Shell, Stand Alone Complex: Season 2, episode 15

If it isn’t obvious through the limited exposure you may have had to me through this blog, I am a fan of anime. Specifically, of philosophical anime with sci-fi themes. One of the shows that struck a chord with my mind is “Ghost in the Shell, Stand Alone Complex.” The series is built around the idea that a collective subconscious can give rise to copycats that are mirroring each other while lacking a singular shared source to mimic. In other words, since the near-future society of the series is a place where the internet enables people to constantly share information with each other, multiple people arrive at the same conclusion simultaneously.

This notion of how the internet can function as a collective subconscious had a marked impact on my own outlook as someone who works in web tech. In this age of del.icio.us, Youtube, and Facebook, we are, as users, continually aware of what others are doing. This is the power of non-verbal communication (a theme I will delve into at a later date). Just because people may not be consciously and intentionally exchanging information, the very nature of the internet gives rise to its more current incarnation as a largely crowd-sourced medium. Since the internet itself is a product of collective shaping, its content, in turn, seeps back out to the users, thus redirecting this collective pool of thought.

To me, this is not just a theoretical concept in a TV show, but an idea that has implications that are relevant to building a model of understanding why we seem to be rapidly moving towards certain conclusions simultaneously online, even when existing in isolation oblivious to the others. It is because we are all being exposed to the same information that the probability continues to increase that a subset of similarly-minded people will encounter a high percentage of the same data. The substantial extent of the commonality in ingested information leads these individuals to the same terminal point. This is a philosophy that can provide insight into how we currently interact with particles of information and illuminates the truth about the impact of the inevitability that we will, as a collective, be continuously linked through the web in the future. As we accelerate the pace at which we become interconnected through the fibers of the internet, it will, in turn, increase the osmosis of the digital collective subconscious that guides us independently towards a singular conclusion.

Greetings everyone. Since I have reached a point in both expected maturity and practical storage space where it is no longer feasible to be buying collectibles (or what some would call “toys,” including me) I have moved on to cels. Today, the second of my two recent purchases arrived.

For the uninitiated, cels are the original drawings made on celluloid (hence the name) that were used in traditional animation in the pre-computer era. Most recently I have purchased two cels to round out my collection. “Porco Rosso” is a phenomenal film by Hayao Miyazaki, who has continued to make classics like “Spirited Away”. The second cel is from an anime that not only changed anime, but showed me the power of anime and pushed me to think about it in a whole new way. From the brilliant mind of Hideaki Anno came “Neon Genesis Evangelion”, a 26-episode series that my roommates and I watched in a single marathon sitting.

Please join me in welcoming these two new members to the fold.

Porco Rosso

Neon Genesis Evangelion