Brian Ruh's Blog

Shoujo Artist Doc on NHK

Jean Snow has news of a show he just saw on NHK detailing the life of a shoujo artist. This is familiar terrain for those who know Fred Schodt's writings on manga, but interesting nonetheless.

(Now that it's summer I'll try to blog a bit more.)

Janken Decides $20mil+ Art Auction

Seriusly. From the New York Times. The president of a Japanese electronics company made reps from Christie's and Sotheby's play a game of rock-paper-scissors to determine who got to auction off the company's valuable collection of art.

L33tsp34k for L4m3rz

Heh. A silly article for silly people. I particularly like the "bully" bit:

If you're a parent, pay attention to the following list. These words can point to illegal activities or indicate your child is a bully:
H4x = hack
Warez or w4rez = illegal software
Pr0n = porn
Sploitz = exploits, or software vulnerabilities
0\/\/n3d or pwn3d = an assertion of superiority

Mu

Once more, nothingness. Until this post. Then there is something yet again.

School. Research. Writing. I intend to post more once this semester is over.

New anime books from Palgrave

It looks like Palgrave Macmillan (the publisher of my book on Oshii) will be publishing two new books on anime later this year. The first one is actually a revised version of an already existing book -- according to a listing on Amazon my friend and mentor Susan J. Napier's book Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke will be reissued as Anime from Akira to Howl's Moving Castle, Updated : Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. The second anime book, according to Palgrave's 2005 catalogue is Andrew Osmond's The Myth and Magic of Hayao Miyazaki. I can't wait to get my hands on these titles later this year!

Stray Dog of Anime on Anime.com

My book has shown up on this month's entry on Anime.com. A short blurb: "If you're a fan of his [Oshii's] work in any way, this is more than an interesting read."

Spanish Stray Dog Review

My friend Rolando has written a review of Stray Dog of Anime in Spanish. It's now up on the Animebaka webpage. It's in section eight on the page, so you'll have to scroll down most of the way in order to read it.

NCTA Enrichment Event

For anyone curious about the NCTA Enrichment Event I said I'd be speaking at this summer, more info about it is now available online. I've never given a presentation to such an audience before -- it should be interesting.

My DVDs

As a relaxing break to some of the stuff I've been working on recently, I thought I'd take stock of my DVD collection. I had tried a similar thing a couple of years ago, using a program (the name of which escapes me right now) that had a lot of information but was really kind of awkward to use. (In order to add a title to your collection you had to input the barcode number, meaning that you had to pull out each individual DVD from your shelf.) This time I tried the online site DVD Aficionado and I must say I'm impressed with the results. The interface is pretty easy, and I was able to get everything added in a short period of time. If anyone's curious, you can check out my DVD list at DVD Aficionado.

Conclusions? Well, I certainly have a lot of anime, but I knew that. But I think the list illustrates how much I need to branch out. Keep in mind that I have only added the stuff I actually own -- I have of course seen many more films than this.

Saving My Readers From an Empty Page

I'm up far too late to be thinking about posting, but Sarah informed me that my blog page was blank, so I thought I needed to post something here. I love fatherhood, but it's really taking away from my blogging time.

I was thinking of going to Japan this summer for the Expo 2005 to see the Oshii and Miyazaki exhibits, but that didn't pan out. I was on the verge of booking a plane ticket, but then decided that the trip would be too expensive and that I was being selfish -- I didn't want to leave Sarah at home alone with little Charlotte to take care of all by herself.

As a consolation to myself, I just ordered some Japanese DVDs -- totally not the same, but I'm excited about them. I'll be getting the omnibus Killers (to which Oshii contributed a segment), Katsuhito Ishii's Cha no Aji, and Blister! (a film about otaku acquisition tendencies).

But my summer won't be totally anime-free. I'll be giving a 45 minute presentation at the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) 2005 summer enrichment event in July here in Bloomington. And I don't remember if I mentioned it here yet but I'm going to be a guest at A-Kon in June -- my first time to be a con guest!

Nobody's Innocent

Following up on my post about Innocence getting the shaft by the Oscars this year, Anime News Service has a link to an MSN Entertainment article about the films that should have made the Oscar list but didn't. Of Innocence, writer Sean Axmaker says:

Anyone who has seen "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" knows that that it is a more ambitious and adventurous film than the tongue-in-cheek "Shark Tale" and "Shrek 2."

I couldn't agree more.

SXSW this year

Based on a reply Carl Horn made to a post on Patrick Macias's blog, I thought I'd check out the list of who is playing at South by Southwest this year. There are always some great bands playing, and this year we've got anime fan favorites The Pillows. Also from Japan are Bleach (interesting chaotic punk -- I got one of their CDs for Christmas but haven't listened to the whole thing yet), Shonen Knife, and Guitar Wolf. Not that I'll be anywhere near Austin around the time of SXSW, but I like to keep up with what's going on.

Mechademia work

Whew! I just finished the first draft of my review of Paul Gravett's Manga: Sixty Years of Japanese Animation and Fred Patten's Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 Years of Essays and Reviews for the first issue of the upcoming anime/manga/gaming journal Mechademia. One project down...

Oscar Disappointment

Well, it looks like Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence didn't make the Oscar short list for Best Animated Film. Instead we see The Incredibles (a great film, wholly deserving), Shark Tale (I didn't see it, but it looks kind of blah), and Shrek 2 (okay, but could have been better).

No matter what you may have thought of Innocence, I would think that any fan of animation as a medium would be disappointed by this news. Innocence was one of the few animated films in the list that tried to speak to an adult audience, and its removal signals the fact that animation is still seen as an avenue for comedy, often geared toward children (or a general "all ages" crowd).

I would have loved to have seen Oshii win an Oscar.

Ghost Tracker

Back in October the Bloomington Herald Times did a piece on me and my book. I didn't link to it because, for some reason, the Herald Times doesn't let non-subscribers have access to the articles on their website. However, I have since found a digital copy of the article, and it is now reproduced here for your reading enjoyment.