The website is ready. Forgot to post it. It´s online since July 21st.

Computer on repairs. Video board blew up. Four days and a half off line. I realized that I have enough drawings for this project. The next post indicating the address of complete website should be the last.

I tried to use my time wisely. Rented four movies on this order: La Dolce Vita (1960), Ai no Corrida (1976), Hable con Ella (2002), and Jules et JIm (1962).

Watched La Dolce Vita because Daria reccomends it on episode 51, "Fire!". One of the best films I´ve ever seen in my life. I guess MichelangeloAntonioni inspired himself here to the the excellent Blow Up (1966).

Ai no Corrida (Realm of the Senses) may be a reflection of relationships based solely on sex: no content at all.

A friend reccomended Hable con Ella to me. I watched some movies directed by Almodóvar when I was younger and created an aversion to him since then. But I was dumber then. So I gave it a shot. Hm... seemed like a sophisticated chick flick. I honestly couldn´t see anything spectacular.

Jules et Jim is the first Truffaut movie I´ve ever seen. 60s movie that technologically seems from the 40s but with an end of the century character/plot development. Quite impressive.

Probably the best male figure I drew until now.

Yesterday I watched Red Spectacles (1987). It´s like a college student movie. Mamoru Oshii carries on some of the ideas he started in Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer (1984) but this time on live-action. He is the only director I know that continuously works with both animation and live-action. It´s interesting to watch both because you can see how similar ideas work spectacularly in animation but poorly with actors.

Maybe this sketch book is getting smaller...

This is another version of the top part of the drawing two posts ago. It was bothering me.

I loved this one.

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.

Based on the fourth Wong Kai War movie I watched this week, colors should do the break point of the illustration.

Cowboy Bebop´s (1998) 5th episode, "Ballad of the Fallen Angels", is a reference to this extraordinaire movie. Fallen Angels (1995) is the kind of movie Quentin Tarantino dreams to do. I usually expect more subjectiveness and a more "artsy" style from non-American movies, but thanks to director Kai War Wong this perspective has just gained a wider angle. Working with Hong Kong´s action movie tradition added something to his style that I haven´t seen in neither French, Iranian, Japanese, or whatever other country´s movies. And the best part is that this isn´t his strength. His fluid protagonist/narrator shift may even surpass Robert Altman´s direction style. Due to this, he also shifts genres in a way that I have never seen before.

I´m guessing this is how I´ll feel once this project is over.

Watched Chungking Express (1994) yesterday. Great movie. I wonder if it inspired some ideas in Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001).

I´m not sure about her outfit. I´m taking suggestions.

Note to self: maybe suspenders.

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).

Damn construction building near my house.

This one I did for another university project some years ago.

I guess you can save lives and still be fashionable. Gosh... I sound like Quinn Morgendorfer.

I´ll make a second version of my Threadless T-Shirt design submission. If someone can provide me a photo of a woman´s back on a similar pose with her hands together I´ll gladly make the back of this drawing.

Weekend holidays implemented.

Another request. I´ll have to do changes on their clothes and reajust the wrong proportions.

Watched Battle Royale (2000). It was fun, but should I really be laughing throughout the movie? Although I don´t like this new wave of Japanese cinema, it´s good to see that writers and directors are able to do something Americans can´t.

Games that look like films. Films that look like games. Battle Royale is probably one of the few watchable titles until now. BR is better than the rest because although it inherits a game logic, it fits as a non-interactive media since it is interesting to watch the fate of each one - something that couldn´t be done in the game. You´ve got a problem when you think that playing the game should be more fun. Like in 28 Days Later (2002), Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), Resident Evil (2002), Tomb Raider (2001), Mortal Kombat (1995), and Street Fighter (1994). There should be less crap like these and more games like GTA3.

BR´s necklaces reminded me of Wedlock (1991).

I´m sick. My body is weak. Give me a break.

Watched Appleseed (2004) yesterday. A cel-shaded Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001). They didn´t even try to change the story much. I don´t get why films like Appleseed, Final Fantasy, and Spriggan (1998) are directed like your typical American Action movies. If Appleseed was a person, it would be somenone with no substance who is trying to impress you by it´s looks.

It makes me scared that this was based on Masamune Shirow manga.

Based on a photo a saw on the Tokyo Street Style website.

Got a cold. Sore throat. Bad hair day. No work done yesterday.

Used my spare time to watch the Galaxy Express 999 (1979) movie. This is a good example of why it´s important to watch the so called classics. At Japan, I watched The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1942), Dial M for Murder (1954), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Vertigo (1958), Some Like it Hot (1959), Spartacus (1960), and The Apartment (1960). A small and incomplete list but probably huge to many people of the echo boomer or the X and Y generations. They call themselves cinephiles and go to the movie theaters every week to watch industrialized movies that have no idea of the concept of originality. Most are almost the exact copy of the copy of the copy of the copy.

I need a metaphor. I´ll use the Star Wars DVDs that my brother bought as an example. By the way, Star Wars and The Animatrix have the best DVD extras I´ve seen until now. The yellow introduction rolling towards the infinite. I thought it was George Lucas´ idea but the extras show it is actually based on the Buck Rogers (1939) TV series. I read that originality is to know how to hide your sources. It didn´t diminish George Lucas on my perspective, it just made me think how ignorant I am on the science fiction genre. It kinda made me admire him a bit more for having the guts to show his references.

While watching Galaxy Express 999, I could notice that lots of animes use it as a reference. Direct parodies on Daicon 3 & 4 (1981-83), Excel Saga (1999), Furi Kuri (2000), and Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai (2002). It is a landmark of the anime space science fiction genre and I guess I could notice references on Nadesico (1996), Cowboy Bebop (1998) Vandread (2000), and on Samurai Champloo (2004).

On FLCL, Naota asks Haruko who is she after discovering the mechanized version of his father. She answers: "I am the youthful illusion of childhood in your heart." (according to the subtitles). It is a reference to what Maetel tells Tetsuro: "From now on, I will be a woman who lives in your memories only. I will be nothing more than an illusion of your young boy´s heart, a phantom of your youth." (also according to the subtitles). On Nadesico and Samurai Champloo it is the singer in the bar. On Vandread the logic behind the enemy. On Cowboy Bebop, Vicious uses a mixed reference of Lupin III´s Goemon and Captain Harlock (coincidentally they have the same voice actor, Makio Inoue). Tochiro´s bird (phisically it has the same characteristics as Vicious´ bird) ends on Harlock´s shoulder in the end of the movie. It looks very much like Vicious and his bird.