What does a daikon, a girl in a bunny suit and a seventies synthetic rock band have to do with the m

Whew, that was long title!

Okay, give up? Then here we go!

During this years past AX, I attended a panel on the importance of anime opening and closing sequences. A delightful informative panel, one of my highlights of this years AX.
Anywho, one of the clips talked about and shown was the legendary Daicon IV opening animation sequence (Clip include in article)!

Still confused… well let me give a little history to this image.

The Nihon SF Taikai or Japan Science Fiction Convention, is as you might have guessed already, is a Sci-Fi con that has been happening annually since 1962, with the location of the con changing each year. The location of the con determines it’s nickname for the year. So if it is in Tokyo, it is called “Tokon” or if it’s in Osaka it’s “Daicon” (Side note: Osaka is known for it’s daikons, a radish type plant), etc.

Anyways, for the third Daicon (The third time the con was held in Osaka) in 1981, an amateur group of animators, later to be called Daicon films, were asked to make an 8 minute short for the convention. The short was about a little school girl trying to carry out a mission by aliens to water a daikon (Which later turns into a ship) while battling various famous Sci-Fi characters to do so. It was a hit, but it was not until Daicon IV when it really became legendary.

In 1983 Daicon four took place and once again the same amateur animation team made another eight minute short for the convention to follow Daicon III. This time the short started with a 90 second prologue recapping what had occurred in the Daicon III short and then led into the current story were the school girl has grown up.

Watch the actual video clip and see how many pop culture figures you can spot:

After the flash back, where the synthetic voice appears that is a song by the seventies British symphonic rock band ELO or Electric Light Orchestra called “Prologue”. It is then followed by their song “Twilight” which is used throughout the rest of the action sequences.

This clip along with the song “Twilight” became the epitome of Otaku Culture and is not only famous through Japan but also all over the word. The reference of this clip is cameo dozen of times in anime, manga, etc. The live action drama version of Densha Otoko (AKA Train Man) uses the song as it’s opening, since the story is about an otaku. Several anime girls have dawn the bunny cosplay as a tip of the hat to Daicon IV.

So why all the hoop-la? Well it’s a very well made animation for it being a fan-made film and that little amateur animation group changed their name in 1985 from Daicon Films to Gainax!!

Yes, Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Takami Akai, Toshio Okada, Yasuhiro Takeda and Shinji Higuchi made this film! The makers of Eva, Nadia, Gurren Lagann , FLCL, and many more!

This clip showcased their talent and with that they were able finance the now famous established company it is today.
Not only did this clip set milestones for the anime industry, if it was never around their would have probably never been the ground breaking Eva and the domino effect goes on and on.

Sadly, the two short animations will never be able to be put on DVD because of copyright issues over the Playboy Bunny costume and unofficial use of ELO’s “Twilight”. There was a Laserdisc copy made of DAICON III & IV Opening Animation was unofficially released in Japan as bonus material to a ¥16,000 art book of the animations, but if you have ever seen a laserdisc (Which I’m sure most of you haven’t http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc) It’s really big and such few copies around that it is extremely rare and valuable!

Gainax does several tips of the hat to Daicon IV through out it’s works. For example, in Fooly Cooly, Haruko dresse ups in a bunny outfit and flys around on her guitar while fighting a mecha in the series. Sounds Familiar? Also in Otaku no Video , the bunny suit is all over in it.

Well I hope you have enjoyed this trip between the boarder of your waking mind!

define "Yaoi-Chan"

As defined by The Otaku Encyclopedia

yaoi-chan: A put down for fans of yaoi or female Otaku in general.

It's something I never knew, but I found it so damn amusing! As a fan of yaoi I wouldn't be remotely offended if someone called me that - hell, I'd consider it a compliment! It's just so catchy, don't you think?

ObamAnime

Since the '08 primary election Obama and Hillary have shown up in all sorts of manga and anime in one hilarious form or another. I ran into these clips while being awesome and thought I'd share! Maybe I'm behind the times and you've all seen it, but I'm extra special so pretend it's a surprise!

As much as I'm sure subtitles would've amused me I had a lot of fun pretending what they were saying. I also had to wonder why the Bill Clinton-like character was Hilary's father. And I'm not sure if it's supposed to be implied between Obama and Hilary, or if Obama is supposed to have a crush on some boy! I get such a kick out of these things. ^_^

They've got more talent in their 66 bodies than you have in your little pinky

As of 2005 Japan has featured a group of 66 dancing, singing females collaborating in the form of a pop group - the largest pop group in the world. They go by AKB48. The concept behind the group is "Idols you can meet everyday." Not everyone gets the chance to meet a super star face to face, but when one group has 66 members, your chances are much better.

AKB48 will be in New York city September 27 to do a free show. Keep in mind that free things make happiness go 'round, and I gotta say that these girls already seem pretty amusing, even when they are not singing.
In an interview with three members from Teams A and K (the group in broken into three teams of 22) they talked about what they wanted to do when they got to New York. Some of their highlights include:

• Speaking English to people there :D
• See a Broadway show (they are epic after all)
• Collaborate with Gaga-San (er, Lady Gaga) and Beyonce

I have to say, I was genuinely amused by the group from their fashion, to their music (most of it), and to their personality (not because they wear school girl uniforms - that doesn't work on me).

source: mtv iggy

The Bento of the week!

Every week I'm going to post a picture of a really kick-ass bentos, since we are the Bento Bulletin, I thought it be cute.

To start it off here's an adorable Wall-E bento!

Once I found this, I just had to put it up *An Avid fan of Pixar*