A piece of conceptual artwork done for Freedom 4.


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Aug 23rd 2007

Ayanami Rei from Evangelion graces the September cover of Rolling Stone Japan.


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Aug 17th 2007

Design for one of two new Freedom posters to be given away as prizes in an upcoming Nissin Cup Noodle Campaign. This is actually a scene appearing in Freedom 4, where Takeru says ” やっぱり外で食ってうまいよな!” – which roughly translates as “It ( Ramen ) just taste better outdoors !” Whatever that means.

Anyway, you probably won’t notice this, but if you are to examine the poster again in detail you might notice that Takeru’s noodle cup is just gargantuan ! Sure, we have 大盛り ( jumbo ) sized cup ramen here in Tokyo, but that’s really pushing it. A correctly sized cup would have looked tiny in Takeru’s hands, so I figured the modellers scaled that up upon request from Nissin.

Aug 13th 2007

Its a little known fact ( to all but my closest clubbing friends ) that I invariably succumb to temporal insanity whenever fed any music by Paul Van Dyk. Its like flipping on a switch inside me. His Politics of Dancing II Tour at Ageha in 2006 was one of best gigs I ever went to, so its utterly saddening that I had to miss his In Between Tour earlier in June this year due to work commitments.

I have only the album release on the 14th this month to salve my pain, but for my Singaporean friends, PVD will be spinning at Zouk on the 1st of September, you lucky chaps. You won’t be needing any booze; PVD’s music alone is intoxicating enough.

Aug 10th 2007

I believe I first heard of the obscure word Chiaroscuro many many years ago as an art elective student in Victoria School – My then art teacher, a distinguished Irish gentleman named Paul O’shea, was an accomplished artist who taught the subject with such passionate fervor that Art history left a deep, lasting impression on me and continues to be a big source of inspiration for my works today. Mr O’shea also pronounced Chiaroscuro ( and Contrapposto ) beautifully; I lucidly remember my classmates and me grinning in childish pleasure every time the word escaped his lips.

Chiaroscuro, simply put, means light and darkness. In painting terms, it denotes the use of deep variations in and subtle gradations of light and shade to create the illusion of three-dimensionality, often to dramatic effect. The Baroque artist Caravaggio was a champion of Chiaroscuro, creating paintings ( Supper at Emmaus, below ) as hauntingly beautiful now as they were 400 years ago.

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Aug 7th 2007

Located just 15 minutes away by bus from Mitaka 三鷹 and Kichijoji 吉祥寺, ( a bustling shopping town that was the visual basis for Takaramachi in Tekkon Kinkreet ) is Jindaiji 深大寺, an age old shrine village dating back to the Nara period 1200 years ago.

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Aug 3rd 2007

With the first Rebuilt of Evangelion film hitting theatres in a month’s time the advertising onslaught is on, and what better strategem than to infiltrate the local ubiquitous コンビニ ? ( convenience stalls )



First off we have the Evangelion Doritos chips, followed by the iced milk coffee. Not a bad combination for an afternoon snack. The limited stamp collection was released a little earlier ago. These items were all cursory purchases; in that I didn’t set out specifically hunting for them but simply noticed it by accident, so there must be plenty of other merchandise out there for the EV fan.

Product placement through Anime is commonplace here in Japan, ( Freedom Project is an excellent example ), something which I feel creates considerable vibrancy and dynamism to both parties when executed skilfully. Sometimes “Product Placement” can be an oxymoron, because the very existence of the animation is to sell the product.

Evangelion Stamp Collection available here.

Jul 31st 2007

Freedom 4 goes on sale today, so I can finally post some screen caps from the renewed opening sequence :


I must have seen the opening sequence a hundred times over( both the old and updated one ) through the course of my work here but I still get that adrenaline rush everytime I watch it because its so beautifully done ( by the brilliant folks at Kamikaze Douga 神風動画 ), with the visuals and Utada’s “This is Love” complementing each other perfectly. In this renewed sequence the visuals get an update, with some new content from episode 3 spliced in, as well as Ao’s first appearance.

Jul 27th 2007

One of the perks of living in a big metropolis like Tokyo must be the wide and wonderful choice of art exhibitions. Over my 3 years of stay here I have been fortuitous enough to attend some truly breathtaking ones like Mucha and Pixar’s 20 Years of Animation, certainly not exhibitions that strut by your house everyday.

Kazuo Oga’s exhibition at the Tokyo Museum of Comtemporary Art, which I visited with Ros yesterday, is the latest addition to that fine list.

Kazuo Oga Background Art Exhibition & Art Book

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Jul 23rd 2007


Freedom’s 6th television commercial starts airing on Japan TV today, so I can show some screencaps from the clip. The theme music is again Utada Hikaru’s “Kiss & Cry”, the single is slated for release later in August. We started working on this about a month ago, shortly after we finished Freedom episode 4. Its the first time the audience get to see Takeru and Bis on earth and the lush greenery is a nice change from the colder colour palette used in Eden.

You can watch the full clip from Freedom’s website here.

And now for a little production trivia. Which part of the animation was 3D and which was 2D ? ( excluding backgrounds, dust effects and water ) Is it…

1) Everything is 3D. Period.
2) Only the vehicle is 3D, the rest are hand drawn.
3) Only the vehicle and the 2 characters are 3D, the bison are hand drawn.
4) Everything is hand drawn.

Anyone ? :]

ps Please read this post for the previous (5th ) Freedom Cup Noodle Commercial.

Jul 20th 2007

I haven’t been following much Japanese music other than Hikkie these days, but during a recent trip to Tsutaya an album playing in the store caught my fancy so much I asked for it after listening to just 2 songs. It turns out the copy they were playing was the only one they had in the store – so its a case of pure serendipity I guess. The album is “School Food is Good Food” by a relatively new band who call themselves School Food Punishment. Please don’t ask me why; Japanese bands have the strangest names.

You can listen to 2 sample tracks from the album here. I’m drawn inexplicably to music which triggers my brain to visually create scenarios, a sort of mental mise en scene – which very often create inspiration for my animation projects. Music by Chicane and Clannad, for example, and most recently School Food. I really like that feeling.

By the way, my 2 year old Ipod is dying on me. There’s rumours abound that the 6th generation Ipod will feature a full touchscreen like the Iphone, so let’s see what Steve Jobs say later this year before I make plans to replace my old one.

Jul 18th 2007

Traffic lights at a cross junction in Nishi-Ogikubo, where I cycle past everyday to and fro work. In Tokyo cross junctions allow you to well, cross diagonally (unlike Singapore), which can really be a live saver when one is in a hurry. Speaking of which, the busiest scramble crossing in Tokyo will have to be in Shibuya, made famous by Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation.

Jul 16th 2007