Haibane.info

Month: July 2009

  • World of Warcraft: The Movie

    Sam Raimi – Sam “demoncam” Raimi – will be directing the World of Warcraft movie. In other news, there’s going to be a World of Warcraft movie.

    The last major update that we had on AICN on the WORLD OF WARCRAFT came from Moriarty here, back in 2007. The last major bit I heard was a rumor that Uwe Boll was offering Blizzard untold tonnages of gold left crowns of undetermined origin to direct – and that allegedly BLIZZARD laughed his ass out of the place. In Mori’s piece we were supposed to get this movie in 2009 with a $100 million budget. With LEGENDARY’s main man telling BLIZZCON that it’d be over that figure. And there was some concept art.

    Well, I don’t have concept art. I don’t have the firm release date, but I do know who is directing the WORLD OF WARCRAFT film and that is Sam Raimi. It will come out in trades later this week or next. But you can take this one to the bank. Sam is going to make a huge budget fantasy bit of unf&^kingimaginable coolness – and it will be yanked from the WORLD OF WARCRAFT.

    From that previous AICN story two years ago:

    The plot for the film will take place approximately a year before the start of World of Warcraft, including races you have played and lands you have wandered in, where lots of plot arcs are melded into a two and a half hour story. The film itself will revolve around a ‘badass’ new hero, with a theme towards conflict and culture – being a War Movie rather than a quest movie, from an Alliance’s perspective.

    OK this has the potential to be all kinds of awesome.To be honest I dont care if they screw it up completekly, anyway – the licensing profit for Blizzard alone will mean more money for the game development, so we fans of WoW win either way 🙂 But just imagine seeing Ironforge on film? Or Booty Bay? In fact, there’s already concept art for Teldrassil: (click to enlarge to insane resolution to see all the detail)

    WarCraftArtSmall.jpg

    Wow. Just… WoW, literally.

  • What are examples of Yokai anime?

    At AICN there’s a discussion of yokai manga, which I found interesting:

    From the preface of Hiroko Yoda and Matt Alt’s Yokai Attack, “written with the Japanese characters for ‘other-worldly’ and ‘weird,’ the word ‘yokai’ has typically been translated in a great many ways, from ‘demon’ to ‘ghost’ to ‘goblin’ to ‘specter’ – all of which are about as imprecise an un-evocative as translating ‘samurai’ as ‘Japanese warrior,” or ‘sushi’ as ‘raw fish on rice.’ Yokai are yokai.” It’s a class of supernatural creatures that encompasses shape changing foxes, tsukumonogami – artifacts that come to life after existing 100 years, kappa – bowl headed, turtle-men water imps, urban legends like the kuchisake anna – “slit mouthed woman,” and many more subjects of folktales and nightmares.

    A good yokai story breathes life into a murky corner of perception. It takes the fright of a dark corner, the wonder of a natural phenomenon, some metaphor or word play that sticks in the mind and gives it semi-human form. It might take some ferreting out, but one of the fascinating attributes of yokai is that they generally trace back to some mental hang-up like an unexplainable sound one hears wondering the woods or a coincidence in words and names.

    This is prelude to a review of a manga title, Yokai Doctor, which they found wanting in some respects, but as a genre I am curious to see if there’s a footprint in anime too. Off the top of my head, I think Spirited Away and Mushi-shi might loosely qualify. I can’t think of other examples but I am sure there are more. Anyone have any ideas?

  • the Romanticist astronaut

    Steven is a bit harsh on Brickmuppet, who was complaining that we haven’t escaped low-earth orbit in four decades, and how that represented a betrayal of our generation’s birthright. Steven argues that the past 40 years, dominated by unequivocally successful space probes throughout the solar system and (in the case of Voyager) beyond, have been anything but a betrayal, but I think Steven misses the point.

    Steven is right, that the best way to do science is via unmanned probes. You can pack more sensors and bring back more data without the need to keep a human being alive – this is just the simple reality of biology, information theory, and physics. But the space program was only partly about science, it was also about something more primal, about something that is unique to the human animal, the need to explore and understand. That indefinable wanderlust has been the subject of artistic exploration as well as physical – I think it’s best captured by Romanticist art, in particular the famous painting The Wanderer (1818) by German artist Caspar David Friedrich:

    471px-Caspar_David_Friedrich_032.jpg

    I’ll leave the meta-analysis to Wikipedia but I think anyone will recognize a familiar emotion in this work – the same emotion that makes us receptive to 2001: a Space Odyssey, or Star Trek, or even Lord of the Rings. The space program was the ultimate expression of this wanderlust because it was real – the possibility existed that we might actually follow where our imaginations have lead. All of us wanted to be an astronaut, and most of us still do. Maybe our children will yet be, one day.

  • revisiting The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

    I was really interested in The Girl Who Leapt when I first heard about it via AICN, and I downloaded the fansub a couple years ago, though it was a rough production and I had some trouble seeing the text render properly. VLC hadn’t reached v1.0 either so maybe that was a contributing factor to my technical difficulties; nevertheless I remember being quite enchanted with the story and it’s been on my rewatch list for a while. It looks like the DVD has been out a while now and Pete gave it a shot, based mostly on the positibe otakusphere buzz (to which I contributed) – but found it wanting:

    Certainly, Tokikake is not bad bad, just immensely underwhelming and disappointing after all the fawning coverage it received on the blogs. To begin with, the fundamental animation was insubstantial. The story was all emo and no conflict, no struggle; Marimite-like. Characters were ok, I guess. Dudes were much too perfect and cartoony, but it’s not like anyone got much chance to shine. There was barely enough acting time for the lead to show herself.

    I guess I am predisposed to maho shoujo so maybe my bar was lower on this one. My taste is probably circumspect because I seem to be one of the few who preferred The Cat Returns to Whisper of the Heart.

    Pete if you want to recoup some of your failed investment, I’d be interested in buying your DVD off you for my kids – drop me an email.

  • consolidating my alts

    Yet another lengthy digression on World of Warcraft. Bear with me 🙂

    My main character, Aabde (human warrior, on Staghelm), has finally finished off Redridge, and Loch Modan on the side. This puts him at level 27, a bit ahead of the game for Duskwood. I also finally did the Deadmines run, tagging along (for free) with some lvl 80 paladin who was escorting a bunch of his low-level newbie friends through for loot. They kindly offered me a share of the loot but I declined, I was just interested in ticking Westfall off my todo list for good. I’d made a solo run attempt at level 25 but got overwhelmed by the mobs, I just don’t have enough area-of-effect damage techniques yet. I did ask the paladin for the chance to take on VanCleef solo, which went pretty well, though they had to heal me a couple of times (if I’d been solo, assuming I’d have gotten that far, I’d have used potions and bandages accordingly. I think I could have taken VC myself, but it was nice to have help).

    At present Aabde has a pile of Stockade quests and the initial slate of Duskwood quests to start working through. I had a big pile of gnomeregan quests too but I’ll do that later, the quest log is too full again. I’ve decided to table Aabde for a bit and refocus on Zzamba (nelf druid). When I left Zzamba he was lvl 14, and had graduated from Teldrassil to Darkshore. To be honest I was getting a bit tired of Darkshore though – I decided to ship out to Azuremyst and work my way through the Draenei realms instead. This has been a nice change of scenery and provided for some easy questing to get me used to playing a druid again. I am now about halfway done with Bloodmyst isle and it is beginning to get a bit tiresome, but when I am done I’ll have a nice level surplus when I get back to Darkshore so hopefully that will go a bit more quickly, too. I’ve already got Zzamba to lvl 20 there and will probably be at least 23 when I’m finished with it (unfortunately, non-Draenei characters don’t get eth cool parade with teh chickens and all when they finish, though).

    I wonder though, whether anything really changes up ahead. As you scale up, so too do the zones, meaning that you still end up with the same sort of grinding quests in your mid-20s as you did in your mid-10s. Since the mobs scale too, it takes about the same amount of time and has the same tedium factor. I don’t think I’m going to stay interested in this past the 30s at this rate. I’ve already abandoned my other alts, GGanda the dwarf rogue and Aelasha the belf paladin, because the cursory attempt I made at logging in with them was yet more tedious leveling all over again. The narrative on bloodmyst is at least more interesting, and I am enjoying the Stormwind storyline as well to a lesser degree, but at some point the relentless leveling is going to wear me down.

    If there are fewer of the “go kill X number of such-and-such beastie” or “retrieve N knick-knacks” up ahead, that will really be much appreciated to know. There’s one quest to retrieve Galaen’s amulet on bloodmyst that has a horrific, absolutely horrific drop rate – I am only trying to get a single drop but I’ve killed at least 50 sunhawk belves so far with no results. I’ve given up and am just picking off a belf whenever i happen to run past that area now. This is an extreme case but I’m just not interested in collecting murloc knives or bear flanks or whatever anymore. The better quests are the ones where you need to go discover an area, retrieve a single item, or take on a boss baddy, but these tend to be stingy on the XP (thus far anyway). I suppose I could just harass my guild members to help me level by walking me through some high-level instance somewhere, but once I’m level N, its going to be the same thing. Or will it?

    I suppose i could just focus on professions and achievements, especially the world events. I had an absolute blast running Aabde all over Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms after those bonfires. I also leveled pretty well in there too, mainly because the bonfires were so generous with XP. And I have been making a point of fishing whenever I can. I don’t want to repeat all of this though with Zzamba too – improving your skills gets tedious, too. I know a lot of people tend to proliferate alts all over the place, and that was my initial inclination too, but to be honest even two toons are getting to be too much for me. What I ultimately crave is novelty, and it seems that even the World of Warcraft gets to be pretty small after a while.

  • anime Iron Man and Wolverine

    Following the path blazed by the Animatrix and the anime prequel to the Batman movies, comes word that Marrvel will be commissioning two anime-style series, for Iron Man and Wolverine. Here’s the press release via AICN:

    Marvel Entertainment Inc., has partnered with renowned Japanese animation studio Madhouse (Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers) to create four all new anime versions of classic Marvel Super Heroes. Get an exciting first glimpse of two of the planned four series at this year’s Comic-Con International, the country’s leading comics and popular arts convention. The Marvel Animation Panel will be held on Friday, July 24, and will include an exclusive first look at official teaser trailers for two of these new series, hosted by writer and multiple-Eagle Award winner Warren Ellis, who will appear to discuss writing the all new adventures of these re-imagined Super Heroes.

    These Marvel Anime TV series are being created as a way of merging the beloved Marvel Super Heroes of western culture with the bold animation tradition of Japan. The resulting product will be four visually groundbreaking anime series featuring popular Super Heroes redesigned and repurposed as emerging from the fabric of Japanese culture. The series is expected to begin appearing on the Animax channel in Japan in spring of 2010.

    These are being released for Japanese TV, but I’m sure we can get subbed versions off the torrents. I was disappointed by the Batmanime series, and I’m not that enthusiastic about the anime style of Paprika or Tekkon Kincrete, though – I hate the stylized misshapen proportions technique. I’m more of a classical anime style fan, but still style is secondary to plot as far as I am concerned.

  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, part 6 of 3

    Um. Er. Hmm. It would seem that there’s a new H2G2 book coming out:

    An Englishman’s continuing search through space and time for a decent cup of tea . . .

    Arthur Dent’s accidental association with that wholly remarkable book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has not been entirely without incident.

    Arthur has traveled the length, breadth, and depth of known, and unknown, space. He has stumbled forward and backward through time. He has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released, and colorfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. And of course Arthur Dent has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.

    Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate.

    Arthur’s chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world’s oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up . . . again.

    And Another Thing . . . is the rather unexpected, but very welcome, sixth installment of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. It features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone’s favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese.

    It would be easy to go on a rant here about how they are raping Douglas Adams’ legacy, if not for the fact that DNA’s widow herself has blessed the project, not to mention there’s significant precedent (for example the Second Foundation Trilogy written after Asimov’s death, by scifi authors Benford, Bear and Brin). Plus, the long-awaited H2G2 movie was such a horrific waste of time that I think I’m all outraged-out as far as DNA’s legacy goes. I mean, what more could they possibly do? At least in a novel you have relative freedom to actually develop things like plot and whatnot. In a weird way, seeing the new Star Trek movie has also made me more amenable to giving someone else a chance at H2G2. It’s better than having nothing at all, and there’s a reasonable chance that it might even be good.

    This is actually old news – the BBC had an article on it last fall, with some more detail on the author:

    Eoin Colfer, 43, is best known for the best-selling Artemis Fowl novels.

    He said he was “terrified” by the prospect of creating a new Hitchhiker book almost a quarter of a century after being introduced to what he described as a “slice of satirical genius” in his late teens.

    ‘Pressure’

    “My first reaction was semi-outrage that anyone should be allowed to tamper with this incredible series,” he said.

    “But on reflection I realised that this is a wonderful opportunity to work with characters I have loved since childhood and give them something of my own voice while holding on to the spirit of Douglas Adams.

    “I feel more pressure to perform now than I ever have with my own books,” he said, adding that he was “determined that this will be the best thing I have ever written”.

    well, ok then. sigh. please don’t suck, ok? It comes out in October. I guess I could pre-order it… heh. am I pathetic or what?

  • the infinite Khan

    This is amazing.

    People always discount William Shatner as an over-actor, but this mesmerizing loop of his most famous syllable really highlights the incredible range of nonverbal emotion he is managing to convey with just a clenching of his jaw and a tic of his eye. This is only a few minutes long but apparently the full version is 15 minutes. This needs to be made into a screensaver or something.

    Somehow I think Chris Pine has a long way to go before he can deliver something similar. It should be noted that even in the alternate timeline of the movie, Khan is out there, waiting to be discovered.

    UPDATE – ah, Youtube! Here’s the complete Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in ten minutes.

    UPDATE 2 – and who can resist Wrath of Khan as a literal space opera, courtesy of Robot Chicken?

  • Coffeegasm: protection against Alzheimer’s

    The following has essentially zero impact on my habits, but it is worth crowing about all the same:

    A U.S. study has found drinking five cups a day not only protects against Alzheimer’s disease but may even reverse damage.

    Scientists at the University of Florida tested the theory on 55 mice bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s, giving half the test group caffeine in their water once signs of memory impairment became apparent.

    Astonishingly, and to the delight of the cafe latte set, those dosed up on caffeine performed far better on memory tests and thought-related skills than those who were not given caffeine.

    “The results are particularly exciting in that a reversal of pre-existing memory impairment is more difficult to achieve,” said study leader Dr. Gary Arendash in a BBC report. “They provide evidence that caffeine could be a viable ‘treatment’ for established Alzheimer’s disease [sufferers] and not simply a protective strategy.”

    “That’s important because caffeine is a safe drug for most people,” he added, “it easily enters the brain, and it appears to directly affect the disease process.”
    The team believes the application of caffeine has a preventative effect on the production of both the enzymes needed to produce beta amyloid — the protein which forms destructive clumps in the brains of dementia patients.

    Those mice lucky enough to be dosed on caffeine showed up to a 50 percent reduction in the damaging protein. Dr. Arendash has called for further tests to see if the results can be replicated on humans.

    So, in a sense I can rationalize my Starbucks habit as a preventive health care expense. Incidentally, this is not the first study to suggest coffee’s beneficial effects wrt AD. Here’s a couple papers on PubMed I found when searching for “coffee alzheimer” – the second one is the paper referred to above.

    Alzheimer’s disease and coffee: a quantitative review.
    Barranco Quintana JL, Allam MF, Serrano Del Castillo A, Fernández-Crehuet Navajas R.
    Neurol Res. 2007 Jan;29(1):91-5.

    Caffeine protects Alzheimer’s mice against cognitive impairment and reduces brain beta-amyloid production.
    Arendash GW, Schleif W, Rezai-Zadeh K, Jackson EK, Zacharia LC, Cracchiolo JR, Shippy D, Tan J.
    Neuroscience. 2006 Nov 3;142(4):941-52. Epub 2006 Aug 28.

  • the infinite reading list

    Mark at Kaedrin has been posting detailed science fiction book reviews. I’ve been meaning to link for a while, he is now up to the third installment: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Check it out, very helpful in deciding what to read next (if I can tear myself away from Warcraft). Mark is currently reading Infinite Jest, and tackled the Baroque Cycle and Gravity’s Rainbow a while back too. I am seriously inspired.