Hair based on Sheila from Mahou Shoujotai. I wonder if this title is Studio 4C´s necessary evil.

Saturday I watched "Is It College Yet?", TV movie that concludes Daria. I must confess that I expected more since the first movie, "Is It Fall Yet?," was great. I guess that when I think of a movie from a TV series I think big bucks which wasn´t the case in either.

It´s interesting to look at Daria and see the differences between American and Japanese animated series. I guess that while Japanese animation suffers from rigid schedules that need lots of planning, American cartoons suffer from the lack of it due to the necessity of immediate popularity response. I´ve seen lots of American live-action and animated series have their plugs pulled due to poor ratings, something kind of rare in Japan (the only I can remember is Dragon Quest). But on the other hand, once series survive the first seasons and networks enable a proper planning schedule, major improvements can be seen.

I´m on the middle of Daria´s fifth season and I´m really impressed by the evolution of the show. The sarcastic character-driven animation shifts to a more dynamic plot-driven style. The end of the fourth season and the season finale movie were fantastic because the creators had the guts to break from the typical stand alone episodes and stepping on the land of the cliffhangers.

I recently watched Mean Girls (2004) because it was written by SNL´s Tina Fey (I always ask my brother to call me when the Weekend Update starts). Unfortunately, another blasé teen school movie. The problem with these films and TV shows is that they all seem to be just a mixture of lots of stereotype jokes with a weak plot to link them all. Even Daria pisses me off sometimes with the necessity of always showing the Kevin-Brittany (stupid jock and dumb cheerleader) routine. They work too much on the high school subculture instead of a good story.

The best films that work inside the teenage environment I´ve seen up til now are Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) and Rushmore (1998). The best TV shows are Daria (1997) and Kareshi Kanojo no Jijyo (1998).

Based on FLCL´s Haruko. I´m watching Furi Kuri once again after a long time. After reading some interesting texts about it, I started paying more attention to the images. Sometimes I even forget of following the subtitles.

Just to remember, just like the first, the second season finale of Daria is also outstanding. I guess I like "Write Where it Hurts" because it deals with the evolution of the characters.

This afro hair should be a challenge alone to draw on the computer. I had the urge to draw it because of Jodie Landon, character of MTV´s Daria. I´ve been downloading Daria and I must admit I was afraid of not liking it again. Thankfully she alone is an unique character. Probably the strongest icon of sarcasm of animated programs. I´m on the end of the second season. It is a good show but the scripts are unstable. There are good, average, and weak episodes. Only 3 outstanding out of 23 til now: "Pinch Sitter", "The Misery Chick", and "Gifted". I pray that there is some kind of evolution of the relationships and personalities on the episodes to come. There is nothing worse than to be stuck on a stale loophole. Like the Simpsons.

Daria´s look updated.

MTV helped create breakthrough cartoons that reshaped American animation. Liquid Television (91), Beavis and Butthead (93), Aeon Flux (95), The Maxx (95), and Daria (97) stand as some of the most original animated TV shows ever made. It also gave a big help to other equally important works such as Nickelodeon´s Ren & Stimpy (91) and Comedy Central´s South Park (97). It was a time when MTV still aired videoclips, remember? Unfortunately this phase is long gone. The plague of reality TV and hundreds of idiot shows infest this completely sold-out network. Don´t turn the TV on. It´s a sick sad world.

I´ve drawing a lot but am I focusing enough on urban fashion? I guess this post is the results of my worries. Her jacket is based on a fake military one I bought on a second hand clothes shop in Japan. The skirt came to my mind as I remembered the Toxic Avenger movie. And I just had to put Plankton on the bag.

Daniel was the one who insisted that I watched Spongebob. I had never seen it and thought that it was just another uninteresting Nickelodeon toon. I was hooked instantly by the great plots. It rises as Ren and Stimpy´s heir but less... extremist. Finally a cartoon that makes Cartoon Network shiver.

This time I tried thicker eyebrows. Just like in reality, they make a lot of difference. On Hey Arnold! the two "tough" girls of the series, Helga and Patty, have each a single extended thick eyebrow that gives them a mean look. Do people with thick eyebrows look meaner?

Last post I asked two friends what they thought of high heels. I was feeling guilty of drawing yesterday´s post in high heels because my common sense understands that it must be a painful experience for women. Even though being extremely thin, Zilmara told me that being elegant is painful. Camila, who´s also very thin, wears them because of her job. The impression I got is that she became accustomed, but she also told me she loves her All Star shoes.

I value being comfortable a lot. I only have boots because I hate when my socks get wet. Last month I attended a wedding wearing my converse sneakers. My brother was pissed off and the groom even joked asking my brother, "who the hell is this punk?" That´s why today´s post wears platform sandals, Zilmara´s favorite footwear type.

Thanks once again to PJ Harvey. The drawing is based on a photo of the CD booklet of her latest album Uh Huh Her.

Hm... it didn´t turn out as good as Number 5. I was thinking of a completely different outfit. The problem is that I had to associate with her KND image by some important details. Sacrificing here and there just demotivated me a bit.

Lately I´ve been watching Codename: Kids Next Door a lot. One of the things I really like about it is that it works like Bobby´s World and Rugrats, but instead of alternating between the "children´s world" and the "real world" the children in KND never leave their imaginative views of a never ending battle against the adults. Another thing I like is that, although episodes can be seen independently, there is a main plot rolling along the episodes. It´s not a complicated story, just mindless fun.

The production of KND is remarkable for a channel in which all productions seemed to be unaware of the world outside the Tom and Jerry / Bugs Bunny format. It´s strange to notice how Cartoon Network sticks to the slapstick humor so strongly. Even though they have the biggest archive of cartoons on network television, they continue to emphasize on the same old type of visual jokes. If you watch Bugs Bunny cartoons through the eras you´ll even see the exact same stories with only slight visual differences. Unfortunately, a similar critic can be said about Japanese animation. In 2003, over 100 animations were produced in Japan. I didn´t watch them all (I sort of have a life) but I can guarantee that about 99% of them don´t have anything new to offer. I recently read a very interesting article by Malcom Gladwell. "Old words in the service of a new idea aren't the problem. What inhibits creativity is new words in the service of an old idea." We shouldn´t expect a revolution from all animations but we should at least try to find from where the original ideas came from.

Finally, the first drawing is of one the main characters: Number 5. A great point about American cartoons is the liberty they choose to have with character design. At first I thought she would be just another of those "put at least one black sidekick-stereotype there so they don´t call us racists", but surprisingly KND is very democratic about giving each kid interesting personalities and individual episodes. I love the fact that (at least in my head) KND has some kind of very sad fatality because as seasons go by, they are closer to their inevitable destiny of becoming their worst enemies: adults. Since Number 5 is my favorite character in KND, I imagined how she would look like as the enemy.