FunBlog

I am sorry to hear that Geneon has decided to stop publishing Region 1 DVDs (via Don). Of all the North American anime publishers, Geneon probably has the best taste. This means that some of the best anime series are going to become hard to obtain, at least for a while.

Geneon’s licenses and master recordings are valuable properties. Barring unexpected legal problems somebody will probably pick them up, so we may hope that completed series like Shakugan no Shana, Haibane Renmei, Chobits and Kamichu will be available before too long under another label.

Things look worse for series that are not yet complete. For example only one disc of The Story of Saiunkoku has been released so far; most of the remaining episodes are probably not translated yet, let alone dubbed. This is a worthy story but since it lacks fan service or constant violence, yet is over the heads of most children, its mass appeal is probably limited. It is quite possible that the rest will never be released.

In the Shadow of the Moon is a documentary, currently in limited release, about the Apollo space program. The narration is provided by eight of the surviving Apollo astronauts, the men who actually went to the Moon. The film is not flashy or pretentious; it lets the astronauts and the spectacular archival footage speak for themselves.

If you’re interested in this stuff then you want to see this movie, preferably in a theater. (If you’re not interested in this stuff then you’ve probably stopped reading already.)

Many of the images are familiar of course, but there is some spectacular footage that I had never seen before. Particularly impressive is a sequence in which a lunar lander training simulator spins out of control, hits the ground and explodes in a fireball, just as Neil Armstrong’s parachute opens in the sky above. (If he had been a fraction of a second slower, someone else would have had to be the first to walk on the Moon.)

This is an inspiring story about men who took great risks and pushed their technology to the limit to achieve a dream that was widely assumed to be impossible. It’s well worth seeing.

(The movie poster implies that it comes from Ron Howard, the director of the fictionalized blockbuster Apollo 13. However I don’t see his name on the actual credits, so I suspect this is just marketing hype.)

Superficially this series resembles Kino’s Journey. Both are collections of short stories tied together by a similar device: a lone traveler who moves from place to place, each week meeting new people who have a different story to tell. Also in both cases the story-telling is first-rate.

Yet the two series are very different in tone. Kino’s Journey is darkly satirical and focuses more on the follies of nations than the fate of individuals. Mushi-Shi is more humane and more personal. Most of the stories are poignant rather than tragic.

Another thing that distinguishes this series from most others is the superb artwork. The backgrounds in particular are amazingly beautiful.
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