Bubblegum Crisis (1987)

Thanks to the Anime World Order podcast, I watched the Bubblegum Crisis OAV. Only the three hosts of this podcast to make me watch this anime. I was traumatized by the dreadful Bubblegum Crisis 2040 and I was certain that I would never watch anything remotely related to that title.

I noticed something interesting on episode 5, Moonlight Rambler. Sylia Stingray, leader of the Knight Sabers, meets an informant called Fargo in a pool bar called C'est la Vie. Episode 20 of Cowboy Bebop (1998), Pierrot le Fou, has Spike Spiegel play pool on a place called C'est la Vie. I wonder if that is a direct reference to BGC or if both are referencing a famous noir movie. Could this specific scene from BGC be an inspiration for CB? I also compared staff and cast of both titles and was surprised with the results.

Below are images from Bubblegum Crisis:




Below, images from Cowboy Bebop:




Kouichi Yamadera, voice of Spike Spiegel, below seen inside Cowboy Bebop's C'est la Vie:


He was also the voice of Fargo, below seen inside Bubblegum Crisis' C'est la Vie. Notice the loose necktie.


Megumi Hayashibara, voice of Faye Valentine:


On BGC, she is the voice of Nam, who briefly appears on the beginning of the episode 5, but notice a girl who is seen at the Bubblegum Crisis' C'est la Vie.




Kenyuu Horiuchi, voice of Gren:


On BGC, he is the voice of Daley Wong, member of the AD Police. If you watched both, you know why I'm posting these two.

Playtime (1967)

Thanks to a list made by Les Cahiers du Cinema, I've recently watched Playtime by Jacques Tati. Only once I recall feeling so impressed by a movie. I saw Fritz Lang's M (1931) a few years ago and just kept questioning: how did he do that? Just one advice: disable the subtitles. You don't need them. Just let your eyes feast at this beautifull movie.

Mobile Suit Gundam - The Movie Trilogy (1981)

I'm currently watching the three movies that encapsulate the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series. I'd only recommend these if you are a die-hard mecha fan or if you, like me, is just interested in anime history. This post is mainly to display something I found amusing. Below are pictures from a scene where Zeon spies enter White Base, the mothership of the protagonist crew. The plot of the original Gundam features the war between the Zeon and the Earth Federation. The Zeon started this war to claim independence. They name this particular Federation spaceship the Trojan Horse.





As the two spies sneak in, I was surprised to find out that one of them is disguised as a Brazilian.

JiT 2

Some more pictures from my trip to Tokyo.

A fancy restaurant they took me to. Another picture taken by my cousin Natsuhiko. From left to right: Masako, me (in the back), Yuri, Haruhiko, Naomi, and Takio.


I have absolutely no idea of what I ate there.



I don't know if this is fog or pollution. Tokyo Tower seen from Roppongi Hills.



Can you believe that Pokémon is over ten years old?



Subway sign somewhere in Tokyo.

July in Tokyo

Some pictures from my Tokyo trip in July when I visited my grandmother's tombstone.

Picture above taken by my cousin Natsuhiko while we waited for the priests to finish the ceremony prior to ours. From left to right: Takio, Yuri, Naomi, me, Masako, and Haruhiko.











Washing the tombstone, leaving flowers, and burning some incense is the tradition here.

Presentation of the Website

Below is the short and extremely crude stop motion video I made to show the creation of the online portfolio step by step.

Fashion Illustration: Color + Medium

In the end of last year's November I was contacted by an editor at maomao Publications, Macarena San Martin. She asked if I was interested in participating in the last part of a book they were assembling called Essential Color in Fashion Illustration (title changed since then). She had seen my illustrations online and wanted to put four illustrations in the last section of the book reserved for alternative techniques. The process took almost a whole year, but I must emphasize that Macarena was always very attentious and explained everything carefully. Today I picked it up at the local Japan Post central agency since I wasn't home yesterday when the mailman came by.