Denno Coil galore Part II – Japanese novel + guidebook + magazine feature
Posted By yonghow on October 6th, 2007
Book one from the Denno Coil novel series, which I picked up from a book store in Kichijoji on my way to the studio.
You Are Viewing Animation
Freedom 5 dvd – Takeru & Ao on earth vehicle
Posted By yonghow on October 3rd, 2007
Cover art for Freedom 5 dvd, due for release on the 26th of October. Ao makes her debut cover together with Takeru on the earth modified vehicle.
Denno Coil Galore Part I – Special limited edition dvd 1
Posted By yonghow on September 27th, 2007
With its captivating storyline and jawbreaking animation, Madhouse’s Denno Coil ( 電脳コイル） has been keeping me on a fix ever since its release a few months back. The initial press limited edition dvd 1 ( containing episode 1 & 2, plus a bonus making of disc and storyboard book ) just arrived in the mail yesterday.
Tekkon Kinkreet dvd + Hiroaki Ando autograph
Posted By yonghow on September 6th, 2007
Work on Freedom 5 has just ended, and I finally get a little free time in the studio. The first thing I did was to grab my Tekkon Kinkreet dvd and ask for Ando-san’s autograph, who was the co-director on the film.
Denno Coil （電脳コイル）
Posted By yonghow on July 7th, 2007
Sometimes 15 seconds is all it takes.
Months ago while channel surfing I caught a short trailer for an upcoming TV anime series, nothing but a short 15 sec blurb; 3 characters in a chase scene through some mundane Tokyo neighborhood. It was so short I didn’t even manage to catch the title, but the animation was jaw-dropping; unmistakably feature film quality.
Next day at work the animation folks were already talking about the same trailer I saw. It turned out our neighbour from across the street, Madhouse ( the folks who gave you Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika ), has a new work up their sleeves – Denno Coil. （電脳コイル）
Tekkon Kinkreet limited edition dvd
Posted By yonghow on July 1st, 2007
Just received this today, Michael Arias’s Tekkon Kinkreet 2 disc limited edition dvd, which I had also watched in Shinjuku a few months back. The limited edition comes in a thick, sturdy cardboard case, with the main feature labelled Kuro ( black ) and the specials on Shiro ( white ). There are also 2 booklets, ‘Director’s Notes’ and ‘Essence Tekkon Kinkreet Making of’. Everything is in Japanese, except a production note that Plaid wrote.
Update 060907- I managed to haggle Ando-san, co-director of Tekkon Kinkreet for an autograph on this dvd. Read more about it here.
Tekkon is a visual powerfest conjured up by the top talents in the industry, and one viewing is simply not enough to fully appreciate the insane amount of detail and beauty created by the art direction team, headed by Kimura Shinji, who also worked his magic in Steamboy. ( Morita-san once lamented that it was a pity Kimura-san was unable to work with us on Freedom )
For those who can’t get enough of the artwork behind Tekkon, these 2 official art of books, Shiro and Kuro (book covers and purchase links below ) are must buys; there’s so much artwork to show, they couldn’t cramp in one book.
I also have a few rare copies of the above books that are autographed by Kimura Shinji ( art director of Tekkon Kinkreet ) for sale, if you are interested please contact me about details. While stocks last.
You can purchase a set of the Tekkon Kinkreet limited edition dvd here.
Takeru Cup Noodles
Posted By yonghow on June 14th, 2007
Takeru graces the lid of a Nissin Cup Noodle, illustrated by Sajiki-san. In Japanese it says “Mobile item get campaign”, to spare you a splitting headache from trying to figure out what that means its basically a promotion for a chance to win some Freedom merchandise by accessing Nissin’s website using your mobile phone. I’ve known this to exist for quite a while now but its the first time I’ve actually bought one that came with the contest form attached.
The earlier campaigns featured the Otomo Katsuhiro illustrated Takeru ( the image I have on my sidebar ) which had Freedom fans eating insane volumes of Cup ramen just to collect it.
Meanwhile at work Freedom 4 is finally completed after slogging 18 hours daily on fine-tunes for the past few days. *Minor spoilers ahead* This episode must be the most hilarious so far with Takeru and Bisu’s misadventures on earth. We’ve also spruced up the opening sequence, I can’t show any images as yet but stay tuned for more updates.
Freedom’s 5th television commercial
Posted By yonghow on April 20th, 2007
Screen caps from Freedom’s 5th television commercial, airing on Japanwide TV from today on. ( 20th April ) You can watch it from Freedom’s website by following the link below :
http://freedom-project.jp/?filenumber=4018
The theme song for this spot was initially Utada Hikaru’s “Flavour of Life”, but was changed during production to her latest single, “Kiss and Cry”. In any case, I love both the songs.
