Impending Structures & Artistic Trevails: The 2010 Anime Expo - Feature
The essence of Anime Expo rests mostly in the eyes of the beholder. With the prospect in most cases limited to the exhibit floor, the industry side of the purveyance as compared to recent years seems a bit light which has much to do with the compacting of the anime companies themselves in structure to anything else. The implementations that are able to keep their bottom line or personify with limited runs survive the onslaught. Ultimately the conventions provide the escape for a certain percentage but with the lurid amounts of manga, graphic novels and the like online as well as close proximity to Comic Con, the battle continues to maintain an industry that while interred with followers needs to remain prevalent to survive.Digital Manga Publishing As one of the small integrations among the anime companies moving simply in many ways within the small book areas to keep pertinent, the control of Vampire Hunter D affords some interesting transgressions in terms of selections for the niche label. In maintaining with the brand, D's Volume 5 will be released in Winter 2010 while the complete edition of "Demon City Shinduku" which has never before been released in the US will make its 2011 debut along with the new license "Countdown 7 Days" from Kemuri Karakara (who created the popular "Sword Of The Devil") about a boy with only 7 days to live.
Pop Japan Travel Integrated in many ways with DMP, which precipitates the question of why they do not have a more broad marketing share in the anime business, this off-shoot offers to the crowd obsessed with all things pop culture in Japan, the possibility to see the island on a very real scale. While last year's tour highlight functioned more within the idea of anime and interacting with those creators, the focus this year seems to be more cultural with a hint towards fashion, shopping and history which works well for the consumer on a cost effective basis but in terms of industry functional contacts which predicates some attendees, the idea has moved away from that center.
Film: Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade In an arena known primarily for explosions, this tale of terrorism and counter-intelligence works best as an emotional story. A Super Soldier for all intents and purposes helps his team hunt down and neutralize attackers by, in effect, shooting first and asking questions later. When the opposition in the middle of the protest activates one of its young operatives, the soldier in question hesitates for a milli-second allowing the bomb to detonate. Dealing with traumatic stress and an afront to his training, he begins hanging around with the sister of said assassin trying to understand his hesitation. Eventually what transpires is a backwards conspiracy to figure out the new target. Lone gun battles and executions in abandoned industrial areas becomes the functionality of the latter half of the film with an abundance of wolf hallucination sequences which ultimately fails to connect the pieces despite an intensive visual style reminiscent of the old anime inferences which blended political style intrigue with high octane action.
Video: Samurai Champloo This anime telling of warring mob clans emphasizing codes of honor in the modern world works because the fluidity and breakdown of emotions is not held back by the concerns of culture. Marking considerable resemblance in style to the anime sequence in "Kill Bill", Champloo forgoes the cute aspects and chivilary of some series for hard knox and stylish possibilities. While still retaining aspects of codes of conduct in terms of the samurai way, the sit downs that end in harikari and the hardening of prostitutes to ascertain their situation and rebel against the male society serve as a sociological view on certain ideals in Asia but also comes off as exceptionally entertaining as the balance of tension and temptation is maintained.
Video: Freedom [Bandai] Like "Moonlight Mile" which showed an intensive run on the new space race, this anime of a similar recent variety takes the reverse as humanity has taken refuge on domes on the moon as they were preparing to terraform Mars. A massive orbiting space dock had malfunctioned and crashed to Earth creating a global climate disaster making it uninhabitable. Centuries later, humanity's remaining 3 million citizens live under the watchful eye of the surviving council but a small group of young adults, who spend their days as racers in almost pod type crafts spinning through long corridors, seek to see Earth again. But a secret is being kept. While the fluidity of the animation is quite stunning, the process of using 3D models underneath the actual 2D drawings is becoming more prevalent but also noticeable. However the scope and angle possibility make a point for its advantages.
Anime Expo, while still maintaining the core of its structure, continues to consume itself more in fan based cosplay, concerts and voice acting which, while intensive for an interactive experience, almost draws the necessity away from the industry structure and art that was commonplace even three years ago. While this specific criticism does not affect the bottom line, it shows a continuing change in structure which will have to deal with new ideas of distribution in a world where new high end material is being created everyday with very few global outlays.