FunBlog

This is mostly interesting as a proof of concept: a demonstration that if you were sufficiently talented and fanatically dedicated you could create a professional-quality anime all by yourself, or perhaps with the help of a few friends.

In 2001 Makoto Shinkai quit his job as a video game developer and spent about seven months working head-down full-time to create this 25-minute anime on his computer. A friend handled the music and sound effects; Makoto and his fiancée did the voice acting. (It was later redubbed using professional seiyuu.)
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This story is a bit too melancholy for my taste, but it is interesting and original and has a small but devoted following.

One thing to keep in mind is that this is an anti-war story, and such stories usually do not have cheerful endings. It would tend to defeat the purpose.

In any case it is a thoughtful story with a unique premise. Considering that it is from Studio DEEN, the artwork is surprisingly adequate, with attractive backgrounds and impossible, beautiful flying machines. I found the character designs a bit disconcerting at first, but quickly got used to them. The music is haunting (I’ve had “Hikari ni tsusumare musuu no hana-tachi wa…” stuck in my head for days.)
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After testing the site with Safari for the first time I ended up making some massive, long-overdue changes to the stylesheet, which hopefully will allow things to display better in more browsers and screen resolutions.

In particular I eliminated the use of pixel metrics, replacing it with logical sizes (inches and points.) I also reduced the dependence on bitmap images for formatting and fixed some malformed relative URLs, which Firefox and IE handled correctly but Safari didn’t like.

If the site now looks WORSE in your browser, let me know what your configuration is and I’ll see what I can do.

I’m going to risk making a fool of myself and try to guess the ending of the second season. (If you have read the books and know the right answer, please keep quiet.)
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…simply and elegantly in a series of cartoons: here. (via)

Guinevere Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) is a failure as a governess. She has been fired from her last 3 jobs for gross malfeasance and no one else seems likely to hire her. In desperation she resorts to a bit of subterfuge to wrangle a job as a social secretary to Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), an American actress. Delysia clearly needs a social secretary (or at least some sort of professional help) in order to juggle the 3 men in her life.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is set in 1939, and it is actually the sort of screwball comedy that was popular at that time–right down to some overly broad acting. Nevertheless it is pretty funny, and anyone who has a certain fondness for that sort of movie is bound to like it.

Amy Adams is delightful as a scatterbrained actress prepared, if necessary, to sleep her way to the top. McDormand and Ciarán Hinds (as a jaded lingerie designer) provide a slightly more serious tone. It’s all totally implausible, but satisfying.

In cast anyone’s wondering why certain pictures in the Air (TV) review were replaced by equivalent pictures from the movie, it has to do with the fact that the WordPress makes it easy to overwrite existing image files with the same name. Anyway it’s fixed now.

I’ve had my doubts about this sequel, but at this point, all I have to say is this: Episode 21 rocks!

The Other Boleyn Girl is a 16th century soap opera. At the beginning of the story Sir Thomas Boleyn learns that King Henry VIII’s marriage is on the rocks. Naturally he orders his daughter Anne (Natalie Portman) to try to become the King’s mistress. She agrees readily enough, but unfortunately the King’s eye falls instead on Anne’s gentle, pure-hearted younger sister Mary (Scarlett Johansson.)

I presume most readers will know the rough outlines of what is going to happen: Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn and the marriage ends badly, but not before producing the future Queen Elizabeth I.
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