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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.

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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）

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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 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.

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.

My Mindgame ( Studio 4C ) dvd boxset, which I ordered immediately after watching the rented dvd. Its the biggest, baddest boxset I’ve ever bought. At around $100 singapore dollars, I dare say its somewhat of a bargain. The film itself, needless to say, is absolutely mindblowing.

You can purchase this box set from Amazon Japan.

Cover art for Freedom 3.

Respect for Production I.G’s Ghost In The Shell Stand Alone Complex creative team; 26?! mind- blowing episodes that left me completely hooked and hungry for more. As far as quality of the production is concerned, if I may be allowed to translate in our local island colloquial; “biangz, dun play play.” Hanpa ne-.

Respect also, for Japanese photographer/filmmaker Ninagawa Mika. This lady has a near frightening, unbelievable sense of colour. Bleeding from the eyes may result from prolonged viewing of her imagery. Bleed away right here : http://ninamika.com/

Bollocks. Gotta work harder.

Its confirmed: Freedom Project will be seeing its US release on the 26th of June 2007, with both DVD and HD DVD versions to be made available. I’m wondering how the entire marketing campaign for the US version will turn out should they remove the Nissin Cup Noodles elements, ( Freedom been a huge tie up animation project with the giant noodle company Nissin, a ubiquitious, household name here in Japan but probably not in the states, making it somewhat irrelevant ) but I hope it turns out catchy in any case.

I’ve got all three bikes parked in my garage, had them shined this morning too.

All Illustrations by Sajiki-san, our character and concept designer, whose usually serious and calm demeanour vanishes inexplicably to be replaced by loud, gregarious laughs and silly antics everytime he gets into a conversation with Matsui-san, my lighting chief, who oddly enough displays the same affliction. Crazy folks.

Yesterday we were handed the storyboard for Freedom 3, which promises more action scenes than both 1 and 2 put together. I can’t wait to see the finished product, but with significantly more shots than Freedom 2, it simply means more time in front of my workstation for the next 2 months or so.

Those were some screencaps off the 4th 30 second spot for Freedom now playing on Japanese television. You can also catch it streaming from the official Freedom website here.

Happy New Year folks !