We are big, big fans of Masaaki Yuasa's Mind Game around here - reviews here and here - so news that the director has a television series due to hit Japan's Wowow network is more than welcome. If you can tell what the premise is from the just released trailer then you're a better man than I, but there's no mistaking Yuasa's work. He's definitely one of the most distinctive and interesting animators in Japan today ...
Kemonozume Trailer (streaming Windows Media)
Via Catsuka.
I have no idea what's going on, but I'm excited anyway! It'd be great to see a weekly animation series by the Mind Game director. My Japanese is modest, but what I caught was:
"The man (she) loved was the ENEMY. The woman (he) held is a MAN-EATING DEMON. From the Yuasa Masaaki, the director of Mind Game, comes his first television anime series. Violence and Action. Love Story and Comedy. Giant Monsters, Robot Warriors, Guns, Swords, Beautiful Women ("Bijou"?)... Monkeys? What does it all mean?... [and then it loses me...] Stylish action..."
Not that it makes any sense, but it's nice to see it's got monkeys in it. There aren't enough in Japanese animation.
Links to official websites:
http://kemonozume.net/
http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/kemono/
Watched the first episode of this today and it is DAMN good stuff. This guy's got such an incredibly distinct style, there's just nothing else out there like this at all ...
Oh, Christ yes. The first episode - well, I suppose it'd have been nice if he'd been working with a story where the twist wasn't so... I dunno, it did seem a liiittle facile, maybe?
Other than that, I gots nothing. Pure unremitting genius from start to finish. I laughed, I gaped, I jumped up and down in my seat - if he can keep this up for 12 more episodes this is going to come very close to challenging Bebop as my all-time favourite series.
I just finished watching episode 2. DANG!!! This show is just... AWESOME. Eight Rooks: Bepop is hard to beat but I know what you're saying.
I hope it doesn't wimp out either. First 2 eps are rock solid.
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