| 1. | (9 posts) | Finding the "Best" Soundtrack |
| 2. | (6 posts) | The MML at AX |
| 3. | (5 posts) | Ghibli Guitar Book Reviewed |
| 4. | (4 posts) | Raman Hui on "Princess Mononoke" |
| 5. | (4 posts) | Conan DVD with Japanese Subtitles |
| 6. | (6 posts) | "Sen" Marketing and Trailers |
We looked at 72 posts by 43 different contributors.
No notes this week.
Any question containing the word "best" is likely to receive multiple (and widely varying) answers. As shown when Daisy Cheung wrote, "I was wondering if anyone could tell me which studio ghibli soundtrack is the best one to get..."
Chris Wallace replied, "My personal favorite Ghibli-related soundtrack is the Image Album to "Whisper of the Heart", followed by the soundtrack to "Whisper of the Heart" and then the soundtrack to "Kiki's Delivery Service". However, I love em all. *grin*
If you are looking for a more "ensemble" piece, I recommend the "Studio Ghibli Songs" CD.
I wrote, "One (semi) warning, all the tracks on this CDs are vocals. If you're looking for instrumentals the Animage or individual soundtrack CDs are a better bet. Does anyone like the vocals from "Pom Poko"? (ducks)"
Joe Monson, who needs help, replied, "I do. :-)". Rebecca Ballard's family is obviously demented, "I definitely do. So do my kids." The mind reels.
Rebecca's search for "Pom Poko" lyrics was partially solved when Bruce Jones pointed her to the script. However, the search continues, "I had never thought to look at the script for the songs. Is there a translation anywhere with the song lyrics in romanji, or just hiragana? (I only know a few kanji.) Also, I have two "Pom Poko" songs on my "Studio Ghibli Songs" CD that I am looking for. . . "Ajia no Kono Machi de" (image song) and "Itsu demo Dareka ga" (ending song in the script)."
Yakko Hudson Saotome wondered, "Who's gonna be at AX? Is there gonna be a Team Ghiblink panel? We gonna try to arrange a ML meeting or some sort? etc. etc. etc."
Michael Johnson replied, "For the first time in five years, I will not be attending Anime Expo. I have nothing against Anime Expo (except the fear of waiting in long lines with possibly 10,000 other fans for popular events, which is irritating enough at an amusement park open year round, but a complete waste of time at a once-a-year convention).
My main reason for not attending AX this year is that THERE IS NOTHING TO REPORT THAT IS USEFUL TO THE NORTH AMERICAN MARKET. . . I was almost not going to attend Sakura-Con 2001. . . However, I was asked nicely enough by the convention staff if I could host another Disney-Tokuma Deal panel this year, and I gave in. . . the presentation was a simple 45-minute video with trailers for each film Disney has the rights to release worldwide. Feedback on this list and at the convention about the panel was more positive than I expected.
Larry Greenfield asked, "I did see Michael's post about not attending AX this year, but was wondering if any sort of ML meeting or lunch is being arranged."
Chris Wallace decided to (sort of) pick up the torch, "I will be present all four days, so if we do decide something I shall attend." He requested that planning take place on nausicaa-shadow, but as of press time zero messages on AX had appeared.
As reported over a month ago, Freddie Wong gave his impressions of the Studio Ghibli Guitar book, "For the most part, the pieces are decently challenging, though some are hard to recognize to the real thing. The format is dual staff's (one regular piano notation with tab notation beneath it.) About the hardest part of this book is that beginning two measures of Mononoke Hime requires knowledge of harp and regular harmonics, but it's a pretty straight forward music book. . . I'll be scanning some samples soon. I may make some sample mp3's, but don't hold your breath. . . this book took about a month to ship because Animenation needed to import it for me. It is possible that they ordered several books, so you may not need to wait for the import mumbo-jumbo."
The remaining messages in the thread tried to decipher the table of contents (with varying amounts of success). A finalized TOC will eventually find its way to the Sheet Music page.
Marc Gregory spotted a NY Times piece by Raman Hui (supervising animator of "Shrek") in which he listed his top five animated films:
Marc commented, "There are those oft quoted references to Anime; "animation limited" and "isn't very detailed". . . I don't necessarily agree that either characterization applies to Ghibli films in general and PM in particular. I do agree with the "strong story" comment."
Andrew Osmond wrote, "I'd just like to say I think Hui's comment is reasonable. Please note, 'the animation is limited' doesn't mean 'the animation is bad'; it'd be rather surprising if it did, given that Mononoke is in Hui's Top Five. His remark that 'Most Japanese animation isn't very detailed' is ambiguous. If he's talking about the overall picture, including background scenery, I think it's implausible. If he's talking about _movement_, especially character movement, again I think it's a reasonable comment, even when applied to a film like Mononoke."
After Ryoko Toyama announced the re-release of "Conan" on DVD (with Japanese subtitles), Dale asked, "I am curious. Why with Japanese subtitles?"
Walter Amos replied, "Probably for the same reason that English DVDs are realeased with English subtitles (or perhaps closed-captioning). Not everyone who wants to watch a movie can hear, you know."
Chris Meadows added, "Though in that case, I would think they'd use captions (with sound effects stated) instead of just subtitles (the way Mononoke R1 did--with both subtitles and captions).
It's also worth noting that this would also be a way of helping kids (and students in foreign languages) learn to read Japanese, by showing them the characters for the words as they're said.
Ryoko Toyama spotted the official release date for "Sen", "According to Sports Nippon, a Japanese newspaper, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi will be released in Japan on July 20."
Chris Meadows inquired, "has there been any indication of when a Sen DVD might hit the market?"
Joe Monson replied, "Based on past releases, I would guess sometime in mid-to-late summer 2002. The Mononoke and Yamada video releases were about 1 year after the theater releases, so that's my guess for the Sen DVD release."
Derek Webseter commented on the lack of a marketing juggernaut, "I just noticed today in the Yomiuri that "Omoide Poro Poro" is on NTV tomorrow night (in Japan of course). Given that there was nothing about Sen after Cagliostro a couple of weeks back, does anyone know if there's likely to be anything on after this one?
Since the marketing machine seems to be rolling into full gear now, I was surprised they didn't put anything after Cagliostro
Ilan Nguyen answered, "It's true that the marketing around the film has started to take some importance, but it should get even larger as the release day comes closer, and during the first weeks of screening."
Ryoko also wrote about a trailer, quot;a trailer of "Sen" was aired on TV at the end of the "Friday Movie Theater" program. It was totally different from the trailer in Kiki DVD. There was very few lines. Instead, it was accompanied by the theme song, which was very beautiful. It was eerie, strange, and very beautiful."
Ilan added, "That trailer. . . is shown at the beginning of every screeening of the "MIYAZAKI Hayao retrospective" held these days at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. It is trully very strange, the song is quite kind and the melody very light, but some of the images are quite impressive..."
Derek posted a (spoiler-filled) synopsis of the trailer.
Felix Wong noted that Amazon Japan now ships overseas. Andrew Osmond announced some more Barbican information. Bad, badder, baddest. Joe Monson posted the release dates for the "Totoro" and "Panda Go Panda" DVDs. Larry Greenfield noticed that Miyazaki's car makes an appearance in "Sen". Bob Brackenbury discovered that buying a copy of "Sherlock Hound" is in itself a mystery. More info on Horseclaws from Scott Ryan. Good comments about HobbyLink Japan from Paul Sauberlich and Brian Tootle.
Week 5 of June is only a single day. Saturday look like the day issues will be released in July. If they're late, blame Anachronox.