Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

Big anime event at New York’s Javits conference center, featuring a ton of musical acts as well as cosplay and guests ranging from fashion designers to actors.

It’s fun to listen to John Powers of NPR review Death Note, the massively successful Japanese comic/TV import.

When my wife and I first began watching, we didn’t know how long the series ran. And at episode 10 we were raving about how skillfully the show was building to it’s climax.

Oops.

We discovered there were 27 more half-hour episodes. Nearly all of them riveting.

Great manga has a way of making you feel like you are always about to turn the final page.

Also of interest:
Manga
Great Manga: Pluto, by Naoki Urasawa

Our friends at Frames Per Second have put together this great gallery of around 30 production stills from the Tekkonkinkreet film … which I still haven’t seen yet.

UPDATE: Oh, this is nice. Tekkonkinkreet is already available for download.

Somebody’s got to know what movie this clip is from, right? Some incredible anime action going on with some nice camera moves, plenty of decapitations, explosions, b-boy headspins, and gunplay. All within the course of 6 minutes. I have no clue what it is, or who did it. Anyone out there in Drawn!-world willing to help out a poor, hapless animator find his sanity? Much ‘preciated.

NSFW, unless your employer digs violence. For a much larger version, click HERE.

(Many thanks to Eric, my fellow colleague at my new place of work, LAIKA/house, for this link.)

UPDATE: (Boy, that was quick!) Thanks to Evan Dahm, the title of the film in question is AACHI AND SSIPAK and it’s Korean. Good stuff. Thanks, Evan!

I will be impatiently counting the days till May 25th, when Satoshi Kon’s latest film, Paprika, will be released. I don’t know how I’ll wait that long. Having just watched the trailers, it’s all I can think of now.

Watch the trailer here, and the teaser and other goodies here. You’ll find yourself watching these all at LEAST three or four times.

When you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor and your heartbeat has calmed, you may have that amazing soundtrack running in your head. No problem. Head over to composer Susumu Hirasawa’s website where he graciously offers some of his work as free downloads, including Paprika’s theme, “The girl in Byakkoya.”

Go now.