Paprika

I hope the trajectory of Satoshi Kon's career continues on this upward swing, because my enjoyment of this work has been trending up with each of his projects, culminating with my unabashed admiration for the last two. Paprika, a full-length feature from 2006 and Paranoia Agent, a television series from 2004 both possess a unique, hallucinogenic vision and a fascinating examination of the nature of reality.

Paprika directly examines the line between the waking and dreaming worlds. Plot-wise, it's based on the use of a technology that allows users to share the perception of a collective dreamspace. The technology falls into the wrong hands (doesn't it always?) and the walls between the two begin to crumble, allowing the dreamworld to bleed into the real world. A race then ensues to bottle the dreamworld back up and save reality. All of this is told in a style that would make Alejandro Jodorowsky proud. While certainly not as creative as Jodo, it does share a similar, "what will happen next?" approach that I simply love. If you share my love of that hallucinogenic mind/eye candy style, then Paprika is definitely recommended.

I'm not sold on this idea. Otomo is signed on as executive producer, so there's that, but still… I have visions of a rat in front of the statehouse running through my mind.

I'm looking at you Martin Scorcese.

WB takes franchise turn with 'Akira'

Warner Bros. will turn anime artist Katsuhiro Otomo's six-volume graphic novel "Akira" into two live-action feature films, the first of which is being fast tracked for release in summer 2009. Legendary will co-finance with WB.

Photographer Elena Dorfman examines cosplay:

Statement of Purpose

Elena Dorfman’s prior body of work, Still Lovers, focuses on the relationship between silicone sex dolls and their owners. Explorations of identity through portraiture are at the forefront of Dorfman’s work. In her most recent series, Re-Anime: Photographs of Fandom, Dorfman explores the pop-cultural phenomenon of "cosplay." Cosplayers dress up in costumes that represent characters from video games, animated films, and the Japanese graphic novels. This exploding subculture, adapted from the Japanese “geek” craze, flourishes at convention centers, college dorms, private clubs, and homes across the country, every day of the year. It is a private world that continues to grow.

I've seen a lot of that stuff from the front lines. I could dig up literally dozens of photos I've taken from behind the table at comic shows of people dressed up as everyone from Spider-Man to Naruto. For me, sitting behind a table slinging my comics wares it actually livens up the day. Sometimes the costumes are stunningly good, other times they're stunningly bad or just ill-conceived (think skin tight costumes on "fat flash", "fat green lantern", or "fat wonder woman.") Regardless of the way they go they're always interesting.

Anyway, the photos in the above link are fascinating to me because they separate the cosplayers from their environment. Which brings a different feel to them. It's one thing to see Sailor Moon or Naruto or whoever in a convention hall filled with 60,000 geeks. It's quite another to show them completely stripped of context like they are in the photos. There's something about it I like a lot both visually and intellectually (although it'll take me a bit to clarfiy what exactly)- hence me linking to it.

Happy friday.

okay… here's a little explanation.

Appleseed (Widescreen) (2004) Masamune Shirow's Appleseed is actually one of the first Manga I ever read regularly- way back in the 80s when Japanese comics were first seeding themselves on these shores. I loved it then and I loved this souped up, computer eye-candy filled version from 2004. It's maybe not the mindfuck that something like Shirow's Ghost In the Shell (at its best) can be, but it's a great action story that delivers some thrills and looks phenomenal doing it. I'm still more of a fan of a traditional animation look, but the work done here is a real treat to watch. Definitely worth a rental if you're into big robots, gun play, little mech suits and creepy old dudes strapped to life support systems.