Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Media in other forms or hey anime shorts on YouTube

Okay I blog about a lot of things.  On wordpress you can find my blogs and the perils of writing, examples of my writing, a cooking blog and a photography one.  But like everyone else under the age of 90 I am a fan of lots of media.

I watch tv, movies, listen to music, read books and even browse around on youtube.  Something cool that my hubby found yesterday for the family to watch was an anime series of very short eps based on the SD gundam.  As I have been learning to build these fun little guys I wanted to see the series that they are based on.

Of the first 6 or so eps I have watched I find it both funny and actually pretty good at the same time.  Yes it has a lot of the typical anime bits.  Three heroes who combine for a bigger, stronger fighter.  Bad dialog from the villains and the token female (this is for the male audience) character.  But the best part is this little series is great for the entire family.  Titled Brave Battle Warriors (I know but that is what it translates to) this is something that both parents and kids could sit down and watch.  Each episode is about 12 minutes long  and while there is a lot of cliche here, it is pure fun.  Fun in the old style of fun from when we adults were kids.

Anime has come a long way since I was first intriduced to it way back in the 60s.  Back then it was Speed Racer and Kimba the white lion.  Now you get the redux of Ghost in the Shell and the soon to be released Captain Harlock in CG.  Just pulling out my old VHS tapes of things like Wedding Peach or Bastard can send me back in time yet inspire me to new views of the world.

Japan has given the world a lot of amazing artwork over the years with mangas like Mushishi and Far, Far Away.  They have given us things like DragonBall Z (the never ending) and now they have given us a world stuffed full of tiny little robot warriors who are living out ancient legends.  Retelling stories that are a part of their cultural heritage while putting those tales into a format that the current crop of kids will enjoy.  That is both smart marketing (IE the model kits) and smart teaching.

As a writer I try to tell my tales in a way that will catch an audience and I have been known to take an existing legend and twist it around to fit my story.  I like that they have taken cultural history tales and twisted the characters to fit the story.  Try looking this up on YouTube.  I bet you will want to watch them all.

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