Fullmetal Alchemist: The Star of Milos Full Trailer

Movie comes out in Japan on July 7, 2011. It'll be in theaters over in the US next spring. Animation looks totally sick. Presumably that's Yoshimichi Kameda's work at 1:19. It's getting the usual reactions that it lacks details and shading, and I suspect that pretty soon people will be saying that even the animation quality from the 1st TV series looked better. All of this is nonsense. Yes, they cut down on the shading. Yes, they don't add in as much detail as they would if they just used one frame for a panning shot that takes forever to end. But is everybody so blind to the sheer vigor that's being put into the movement of these characters? The staff has been allowed to go wild and it's clear they're taking advantage of Kenichi Konishi's designs to bring a new spin to the FMA world.

It's clear it'll be worth watching for the animation alone, as the plot doesn't necessarily looks all that interesting. The plot seems to be a side-story and it's getting some backlash on that front alone. But I never heard anybody complain about the novels that were no different in that regard. Hopefully people can look past their predispositions to the norm when it comes to animation and actually appreciate this kind of ambition in the setting of FMA. It's not like the animators are going to stop working like this if they don't.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence MAD.

I helped out a bit on this video, so I'm posting it here.


Yay, sakuga. This movie is tedious to watch, but I've actually warmed up to after watching it a few times. Though, it still is a masturbation session for Oshii and his pet topics (philosophy and...his pet). But the animation is absolutely amazing.
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On another note, some upcoming episodes for Naruto Shippuden that have potential are episode 211 with Seiko Asai as the animation director and 213 with Tokuyuki Matsutake in that role. Presumably, Matsutake is there pinch-hitting for his pal Hirofumi Suzuki. That's about all I got for right now. I might comment on ep. 204 and Masayuki Kouda's 209 later on.