cwmodels

Looks like a Messer-Fest!

Well, here is something I've been working on slowly: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/43647-macross-cygnus/ And here is my comic company site: http://www.excelcomics.com No problem, hope to see you do a good job on it!

You welcome! That's pretty much how it is in the comic industry. And please make it a comedy! If anyone offers a good price, I'm game! I kinda did do some Southern Cross art when I did the art for "Robotech The Movie" comic adaption for Academy Comics. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! We were just trying to pitch a short story based on what Antarctic Press was doing at the time. Kinda glad they botched the job and lost the license soon after. Cool! Thank you!

So I saw the live action Ghost in the Shell movie earlier this week... It is not a good movie by all means. Even though I am familiar with the original property, I was never really a fan of it. I've always thought the manga was overly complex, and Mamoru Oshii anime movie was excessively slow and boring. I didn't really mind the idea that a big Hollywood version can simplify some of the themes and contents, but what was delivered on screen was just piss poor in it's conception. The movie started with a clumsily written opening text that poorly established the world, and then cuts to three expository scenes that explains what the opening text tried to explain. The movie was stumbling right out of the gate from the get-go and the pacing was choppy all the way after that. What bothers me the most is the absulote lack of personality and motivation for every single character. The dialogues were pretty blend and most of the acting was subpar. It's like the director want to duplicate the anime visuals but never thought of all the practical implications when transferred to a live action movie with real people. American movies are usually very good at combining action with special effects, if they don't want to include all the cerebral stuff, they could've just gone with a straight forward story of Section 9 being a kickass group of rag tag guys stopping cyber crimes, and I would've been perfectly OK with that. But instead the director decided to slavishly adapt all the anime movie scenes but not the context each represents, so in the end it all comes up completely hollow without any meaning. All the special effects used for world-building are just crammed onto the screen for the sake of more stunning imagery, but with a lack of visual believability in its sci-fi implications. It's really the first time I thought a movie have TOO MUCH SPECIAL EFFECTS. Another interesting point this movie bought to light for me is how outdated Ghost in the Shell is as a science fiction piece. When the original manga was created in the late 1980's, cybernetics and humanity in machines was the hot sci-fi theme used in many anime, books and movies (Terminator, Robocop, Bubble Gum Crisis, Star Trek's Borgs). But since then, real world advancement in A.I. and genetic research have pushed sci-fi themes more into that realm of exploration. I thought the lack of including any modern science understandings in this world made it unable to compete as a sci-fi property, similar to how most 1920's science fiction pulp is completely unreliable to us today. I don't know if anyone noticed... the actress that plays the female doctor, she tries to convey distress by shaking her head back & forth while she talks in every scene. The director should've told her to keep her head still because it's bad over-acting, and that Reverse-Flash crap was driving me frakken crazy!

NOOO.... that dreaded sinking feeling of Chuck's plane going to be P Bandai or worst yet NO RELEASE!

Not sure if I am ready for a new TV show so soon after the meandering-fest of Delta. And part of the fun of Macross was always waiting about 5 years for a new series.

Judging from the photos showing the sprue and parts, Hasegawa can easily swap out the wing booster sprue for a fold booster conversion like in Macross Plus episode 4! Come on Hasegawa! Do it! http://www.hasegawa-model.co.jp/product/65836/

It's finally WALKING!

In the past few months dealing with in China, we’ve actually gotten to a point of seriously discussing the possibility of a Captain China animated series. So my contacts in Asia is in the process of shopping for an animation studio and to get a budget quote for a 1 season series. The idea and possibility of using Japanese animation studio also came up, and an industry source told us recently that most Japanese studios when comes to TV series production only prepare scripts for 2 episodes ahead of schedule due to sponsorship demands, because quite often scripts are changed on the whims of a sponsor. It can be something as simple as “you need to feature this upcoming product” or as drastic as “kill off a character to make it more emotional and get some higher ratings”. Of course I don’t know for sure if this 100% percent true for Delta behind the scenes, but it sure seems like it. This can explain why so many weird, messy, and out-of-place stuff happened in Delta since it is a heavily sponsored show. The final episode of Delta in my opinion did put some good will back into the show, a lot of cool and interesting visuals that are definite trademarks of when a Macross series is hitting its high notes. But there are also still so many dangling loose ends, under-developed plot points, and unanswered question that cripples it from being anywhere near a satisfying ending. Seeing how good some of the scenes are put together in this episode, I am more than certain that shoji jumped ship and phoned-in a good number of episodes during the second cor. And how can Shoji say that he always try to do something different when so many ideas, visuals, and plot elements are copied directly from frontier’s last episode? But then again, Seven, Frontier, and Delta’s ending plot points are all technically copies of each other: •Big Bad betrays others bad guys for his or her own hidden agenda that somehow ties to protoculture. •Entire Galaxy is threatened by Big Bad and super unstoppable power. •The good guy side is on the brink of losing. •Unreasonable and inexplicable miraculous crap happens because of singing. •Bad guys joins good guys to fight big bad. •Singing and lots of missiles conquers all. •Remaining bad guys flies away. •MEGA HAPPY ENDING FOR ALL THE GOOD GUYS! At least in the original Macross, singing causing cultural shock is an explainable reason to how the the fight was won. All the shows ever since just goes into nonsense territory when comes to singing and winning. And do any of you ever wonder why Macross plus is better? It's because there is no falling onto the protocultule BS clutches with characters or story or miraculous crap happens to save the day for it's conclusion.

Episode 26 conclusion...

Episode 25 development...

Thank god it is not a P-Bandai release. Now where is Chuck's VF-31E???

The series director Kenji Yasuda admitted he and producer Eguchi Kouhei vetoed the idea in this interview: https://karice.wordpress.com/2016/05/29/p509/ and if you read the interview again now you'll find a lot of what he says is pure bullshit when compared to how everything ended up.

So they can use stock footage from previous episodes!

I just need Immelman Dance.

When did that happen?

Well... Didn't think this episode was as bad as some of the previous one. But still, it's not much to go on. I don't mind if there is no Valk action if the story is intriguing and the character are developing, or vice versa - more action less talking, but there is none of that. The love triangle is barely there after 23 episodes. No kissing, not even hands-holding. They set me up in the beginning with dancing robots, and aerial stunt sequences, and upbeat concept stuff. And now there is no trace of it... The series has drifted so far from when it began.

I think there is still a lot of good Anime & Mnag work out there since Tezuka, it's just by large, most of the current/modern anime is commercially driven, generic, cash grabs without themes, ideas, or concepts that can layer a bit more depth into the story and characters. Most of the stuff today have no message or unable to saying anything by the time it's all wrapped up. Black Jack was a great read. Unfortunately it was another incomplete work of Tezuka. In the story, Black Jack was seeking 5 men who caused the accident that killed his mother for revenge. Throughout the entire run he only found 3, and the stories regarding the other 2 men were never written.

Piff! Kids these days! They have no idea what it mean to really have a waifu. In the old days they make us work hard for them like a real woman! But please do give my regards to the Anna. Her site helped me a great deal. Yeah, I did a lot of freelance pre-production work of VIZ between 2005 - 2008. Pretty much all the jobs with them was removing the Japanese text & sound effects and replacing them with English ones. I was credited as "Primary Graphix". As for the book, you can actually register with Amazon Japan fairly easily because the site do offer English language support. And they do ship book out of Japan. All you need is a valid credit card. Give it a try. https://www.amazon.co.jp/火の鳥2772-MF文庫-9-11-手塚-治虫/dp/484012065X

One a separate but related note... and this is very strange because I would have never thought I would be telling this story to anyone... I came across this book: "AERIAL Comic Act 5" in 1988 while shopping around for the first time at a Books Nippon store in Manhattan, New York during my junior high school days. It was an officially published doujin based on the OVA series of A.R.I.E.L. (All Round Intercept & Escort Lady). I found ONE SINGLE COPY of this book sitting on the shelves (next to AERIAL Act 1,2,3,4), and as I randomly flipped through it, ONLY ONE PAGE caught my eye, and it was a pinup piece featuring a re-designed Orga (I looked through Act 1-4 just to see if the same artist did any other related work or if there were other Phoenix 2772 contents but there was none of it). I liked the pinup a lot but the book was priced around $15.00, and because there was nothing else in the content that I cared for, I didn't make the purchase. But since then, every time I'd stop by Books Nippon to pick up a Hobby Japan magazine (or buy some other Japanese book), I would take AERIAL Act 5 off from the shelf and look at that pinup piece again. I did that for several years until Books Nippon closed down. Then life went on for several more years without seeing that book, until I visited a Japanese mall in Edgewater, New Jersey. In the mall there was a Books Nippon branch, and as I browsed through the store, I saw AERIAl Act 5 sitting on the shelf next to Act 3&4. So figured that after the NY Branch closed they must've moved all the inventory here in NJ. And there it is, THE SAME EXACT BOOK! I pulled it off of the shelf and flipped to look at that pinup page, but once again I put it right back on the shelf due to the price. That went on for about 2 more years until one day on when visiting that mall again, I saw Act 5 sitting only next Act 4. For some reason I thought: "If I don't buy it now, I'll probably never see it again". So I finally decided to just go ahead and buy the book for that ONE PAGE. And that's how this book came into my possession. And in retrospect, I am so glad I got it, since there is no info on the internet for it at this point. Maybe it's fate, but that book was gonna be mine. About 10 years ago, I decided I was gonna try to scratch-build a figure of this redesigned Orga. But it was my first attempt at sculpting a full figure so I lacked the skills and understanding of materials at the time. And I pretty much failed at it. But I do have the skills now, so one day, just like how this book finally ended up on my bookshelf, I swear, it will be done!

I'll have to say I truly appreciate coming across that Russian 2772 site. For years I had known about the Anime film version of Phoenix 2772, but there was no records of the comic adaption anywhere. I also worked for VIZ for several years doing preproduction work on English translated manga, and Tezuka's Phoenix Saga was one of the projects that floated my way and even then 2772 was not included in the series. So I thought I was crazy until I saw images of the comic pages from that website. It was a relief after so many years to finally know that comic book actually existed. Here are some random images of Orga I gathered throughout the years while searching for that book.

Well... here is my encounter story written on facebok about 5 years ago when I finally got my hands on the reprinted manga adaption! Phoenix 2772 - The first time I saw this comic book was at the age of 5 in Taiwan. I remember my mother came home one day with a bag full of Japanese comic books. She told me her coworker lend the books to me to read. Of course I couldn't read too many words at that age so all I remember doing was looking at the art. Out of the batch, the one book which I vividly remembered was Phoenix 2772. There were 2 reasons why it made such a lasting impression on me at that age... 1: I remember the artwork was stunningly beautiful. 2: I was really taken with "Orga", the robot-maid and heroine of the book (She's probably the reason for my lifelong love of female androids). I remember flipping through those comics for several days until my mom took it back to her friend. And I never saw this comic book again since! Throughout the years, I searched for the book but had no success of even finding a trace. It even got to a point which I thought I remembered it wrong and the book never existed. But by pure chance while doing just a random search online 3 weeks ago for Phoenix 2772, I stumbled onto a site (http://www.2772.otaku.ru/comments/e_comic.htm) that had several scan images of the comic. And an even bigger surprise was finding out the same night that the book got reprinted in Japan and available for purchase! So I immediately order it and last weekend I received it in my mail box. So after 30 years, I have finally found the book and it is now in my hands! I am reunited with one of the very first comic books I have ever laid my eyes upon! God is good to me! The story was too complicated for a 5-year-old to grasp at the time, but this is the general gist of it: Phoenix 2772 is set in the distant future where planet Earth is dying from a lack of energy resources and a disheartening political climate where all human beings are produced by computers to live out certain social roles. The main character Godo is one such child brought up to be a military cadet and nursed by the beautiful robot-maid Orga. Godo was chosen to go into space to hunt down the mystical Phoenix, its blood has the power to heal Earth. Godo meets Rena, a "daughter of the elite" and his social rank forbids them to fall in love. For this crime, Godo loses his citizenship and is sent to a labor camp in Iceland. While in Prison, he meets Doctor Saruta, a professor who wishes to escape and search for the Phoenix. Godo is rescued by Orga and they sets off into space in the ship Space Shark. The crew encounters the Phoenix but was unable to subdue it. Orga sacrifices herself to save Godo and the ship. Upon Orga's destruction, Godo realizes his true feelings for Orga and was distraught over the loss and his inability to repair her. Amazed by Godo' love for Orga, the Phoenix took the form of Orga because it desired that love. After being reunited with Orga/Phoenix and given a paradise planet to live on, Godo still has feelings to return to the dying Earth. But the Earth is on the brink of destruction upon their arrival and the Phoenix reveals to Godo that the only way to save Earth is for Godo to lay down his own life in exchange. Godo makes the sacrifice and Earth is restored to life. And as a parting gift, the Phoenix changes Orga into a real human and Godo is reborn as a baby. Their relationship starts all over again. The scene on the last page baffled me to no end as a child. The idea of rebirth and the religious symbolism (virgin birth) was way over my head at the age of 5. But it is also the page that made the strongest impression on me and why I wanted to find the book again. Phoenix 2772 was actually released as an anime movie in 1980 and the comic was simply an adaptation of it. But in my opinion, the comic book surpasses the film in many ways and is the real embodiment of this story. Satomi Mikuriya's masterful artwork creates a strong and mature atmosphere the movie lacked. It is also rich in details and graphically beautiful to behold. This work is a true representation of Japanese comic at it's finest! I am so please to be able to see it again! *What is kind of interesting is that while I was searching for that russian page today to post the link as reference, I stumbled across this Chinese Blog post and the writer recounted pretty much the same story as mine of reading it as a kid and then was unable to find it again until he got a reprint version (in Chinese language) in a online auction 25 years later! http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=594&t=2077728 ​And here are some scans from the reprinted version:

And I search 30 years for the Manga adaption of it and finally found it several years ago when it was reprinted in 2007. https://www.amazon.co.jp/火の鳥2772-MF文庫-9-11-手塚-治虫/dp/484012065X Here is a detailed write up of the book with some images: http://www.2772.otaku.ru/comments/e_comic.htm And I've tried to scratch-build a figure of this redesigned Olga (unrelated artwork to the manga adaption) over 10 years ago, but this was my first attempt at sculpting a full figure so I lacked the skills and understanding of materials at the time. But one day, I swear, it will be done!

I think Shoji is interested in explaining Protoculture backstory and all that mythology building. But I actually find it unnecessary and for the most part never get any satisfying explanation or answers. It's kinda became a story crutch that the series leans on too often.