FREEDOM!!!

Because I know many of you don't watch Japanese Animation I generally don't post about it...

However, I did get a degree in Animation, so I do enjoy watching said animation...

And sometimes one thing just completely startles me...

This one thing is Otomo Katsuhiro's new project called the "Freedom Project". Six Direct-to-video (Which in Japan doesn't mean "Relly Bad" like it does in America) animations sponsored by Nissin Cup-of-noodles (Which shows up a lot in the Anime, sometimes with rather humorous results).

Other than the fact that the opening song is voiced by Utada Hikaru (One of my favorite singers), the animation was so stunning I literally stopped talking to Maia on the phone to stare, open mouthed, at the anime...

Otomo Katsuhiro is best known for the anime "Akira", which is one of the landmark Anime's in the history of the Genre. The animation in that was so groundbreaking that, in 1989 when it came out, many Americans suddenly sat up and took notice of this little niche market called "Anime"...

He's out to do it again.

Freedom Project takes place on the Moon, about 300 years in the future. A disaster befell the Earth and killed everyone but the folks on the (then) fledgling moon colony... so the only survivors of the Human race live on the moon.

That was then, this is now.

Now, the main charcters live in a thriving moon colony where they race really nifty motorcycles (Think Tetsuo's bike from Akira, except with SW Episode One's variations and sound effects). I won't give away too much of the plot, but it has me hooked... I can see why it has been rented out every time I went to the video store for the last three months...

The animation is, mostly, 3D... but the only reason I can tell is that they still have "Drift" (As in the movements are a little too fluid, the head moves to the left and drifts back to the right a little. One of the little telltales of 3D animation... and something that is really hard to detect). But the 3D models are perfect... they look hand-drawn! There are still shots (Where the crowd is watching the bikes prepare for racing, so nothing is moving...) which are obviously hand-drawn, but the animation... is 3D... and it merges seemlessly! I was having a hard time seeing the switch... (In fact, I'm still not sure where the switch really was!)...

The thing that I loved most, though, was the opening credits (Again, not just because of Hikki's song), there are shots of the bikes racing in the "Racing Tubes" which are rendered as if they are from the Manga (Comic Book)... complete with ziptoning! (The black dots that comics use to simulate gray values so that they can print it... if you have ever photocopied somthing that was drawn in pencil, you'll understand what I mean. Ziptoning prevents that "Blotted black" look that you get when printing a page). The bikes squeal around corners and there are little floating "KI! KI! KI! KI! KI! KI"s (The Japanese sound for squealing tires in a comic) that drift by the skidding bikes! It's absolutely gorgeous!

If it wasn't $60 for each 30 minute disk (USED, no less)... I'd own the whole lot... as it is, I'll have to just rent them, watch them, then wait until I get home and buy it there...

Ironically, Anime is one commodity that Japan knows it has and prices accordingly... I have rarely found any Anime for less that $20... new OR used. Most new DVD's are $70-$100. Now I only buy Anime I know I can't get in the US... I bought Macross the movie, which is 25 years old (And completely unavailble in the US), used for $70... because I had no other choice. It sold new at $75, and resold at $70... that's the way it is... And the only extras on the disk are 4 television commercials from the original movie release in 1984...

So, if you folks are looking at buying Star Trek: Remastered and are complaining about the $140 price tag for 20 hours of television... keep in mind that Anime is roughly $100 per each hour over here...

---Impressed with "Freedom Project"