Ethereality News & Weblog

News:
New concept art posted:

Weblog:
This Louis Vuitton “Superflat Monogram” ad is absolutely one of the cutest and most charming thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’m not sure if LV is actually selling products for young girls, but based on this ad, it would make sense if they did. Although the visual style of the animation is fairly simple, there’s actually quite a bit of complex 3D animation behind it.

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For those of you that enjoy gawking at playful nubile lasses, these Reon Kadena videos will put a smile on your face. If you ever doubt that God is the most talented artist of us all, then just watch those videos.

There are tons of glamour idols in Japan making photo books and videos, but many have the personality of a plank of wood and the allure of stale bread. Sexiness and charm requires far more than just impressive measurements–at least on video they do. I’ve seen some of the glamour videos of the charmless girls, and they carry themselves with about as much elegance as a twelve-year old girl learning to walk in highheels for the first time–the resulting footages are more comedic than sensual most of the time. I almost feel sorry for the photographers and directors of their products, because directing charmless girls with awkward postures and trying to make them appear either cute, sexy, or elegant, is a frustrating task. I’ve shot sessions with really wooden and boring girls before, so I know how impossible it is–some girls are just not meant to be in front of the camera, no matter how attractive they are. But then again, most consumers of such products don’t care–they are only concerned with what alphabet the girls’ cup sizes are. What’s unique about Reon is that she’s very confident, playful, and bubbly. No wonder she’s so popular–maybe the consumers do care about personality?

Although that link contains just glamour videos showing off Reon’s assets with no nudity (only implied), they’re still not quite work-safe, so watch them at home instead. And if your girlfriend or wife is the jealous type, you should probably watch them alone. I’m lucky that I never have to worry about offending Elena–she drools just as heavily as I do for hot chicks

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I was surprised to find that Sakamoto Ryuichi has been writing in his blog on and off again. He stopped doing it for a long time–years in fact. It’s interesting that although he’s a world-renowned composer, he writes mostly about human rights, animal rights, environmental issues, politics..etc. He’s always been heavily involved in activism though–that’s going to remain a part of his legacy as a humanitarian genius composer.

New:
Kitty Cat Diaries updated:

Weblog:
The new Studio Ghibli film, Gedo Senki/Tales from Earthsea, is directed by Goro Miyazaki, the son of Hayao Miyazaki. I can only imagine the pressure he feels as the world gets ready to compare him to his father–who’s considered the greatest living animation director. This is also Goro’s directorial debut–which makes it all the more daunting. He actually keeps a blog, which has been translated here, and it documents the thoughts that went through his head during the making of the film. This is totally unexpected because it’s not a very Japanese thing to do. I’m sure it took a lot of guts, and I wish him luck on opening day. What’s even more interesting is that the blog begins with Goro stating that his father was against him directing the film, but he doesn’t tell you why and urges you to keep reading the blog to find out. I think his approach has the potential to catch on, because he mentioned that when filtered through the media (interviews, articles, commercials..etc), a lot of times the messages are misinterpreted or lost, and the blog is an experiment for direct communication without the filtering of the media. I hope he at least has a publicist who reads his entries before they go live, as to prevent unintentional jamming of his foot in his mouth. But then again, people often say what they shouldn’t during interviews anyway, and some interviewers are real bastards as they try to trick information out of you. At least with a blog, no one is there to trip you over unless you trip over yourself.

According to Goro’s blog, he had no prior experience in animation, and knew nearly nothing about the process–whether about animation, being a director, or just a storyteller in general. I don’t know if that’s him being a humble Japanese, or if it’s really the case. If that really was his first time, then I have to wonder how it was decided that he had what it takes? Shouldn’t they have him make a short film first? What about let him be an assistant director for a bit? I guess when you’re the son of the greatest animation director on the planet, you don’t have to pay your dues–you just “learn by doing on the job” as he says. Am I a tiny bit envious? You bet your ass. So are the hundreds and thousands of aspiring writer/directors out there who don’t have a world-famous director father that’s got his own production company for his son to use. Man, the number of people I’d kill to get to write/direct my own animated feature film done by a world-class studio–there’s not a bomb big enough in this world.