Bethel Anime Club

Hey all–
It’s time for Anime Club, tonight–7:00–AC337–be there! After Blue Submarine No. 6 damages our minds and our souls, we’ll have a double-feature Princess Tutu (because the final episode of BSN#6, to be viewed next week, is super-long and will take up Tutu’s time too). Rejoice, for this is the second-to-last week we shall have to watch two episodes of anything! Princess Tutu will be followed by one of the most darndest NICE episodes of any anime ever, a Windy Tales about a flying squirrel named Donguri (which will also represent the third night in a row ferrets have popped up in Anime Club–hurray for my one of my favorite animals!); the night will conclude with a dreamy Yume Tsukai about the desire to be noticed, the dangers of getting a hermit up early, and the Clinamen. And if you don’t know what the Clinamen is, you need to be there (or you need to go look up Lucretius’ take on Epicurean physics).
See ya!
–Matthew
PS: If anyone is interested in synopses for last week’s shows, let me know–I can still do them. But I need to be sure that someone will actually read them…

Matt,
My copy of Densha Otoko episode 1 is bad. Would it be possible for you to bring that episode for me to copy onto a flash drive?

Hey all–
Don’t forget to come to Anime Club tonight at 7:00! (I’m sure that you all remember that it’s in AC337…) Submarines shall almost certainly explode, ballet dancing shall certainly abound, a runner shall feel the gentle wind against her face, and a little child shall dream of empty shoes and a man wearing a fish bowl on his head. Except the man with the fish bowl won’t be a dream. And possibly something else; we’ve got to decide on schedule revisions today, so be there if you want a say!
Episode synopses are up for the shows we viewed last week; it’d be nice to know next week whether or not anyone actually reads them so that I know whether or not to continue writing them.
See you tonight!
–Matthew

I saw that… I’ve been following the director’s blog religiously ever since they started translating it (quite fascinating really), and Ursula Le Guin’s comments were of course of great interest to me.
I think the movie will be fantastic, particularly after hearing the music (I was playing it once at Anime Club) and seeing the trailers; all reviews say that it’s “too serious,” but I’m not so sure that it’s not a product of reviewers going in expecting what they call “Ghibli fare” and being surprised at the difference between the younger and the older Miyazaki. And anyone who has read Goro’s blog will know that the accusations of “shoddy” animation are completely wrong-headed. And since the reviews say it’s “otherwise very good,” I expect it to be very good ideed.
Methinks that this is cause for buying the Japanese DVD, as I did with Nausicaa… almost all the major Ghibli DVDs come with the same English subtitles that are later used for the Di$ney releases.

You may have heard that Miyazaki has made an anime version of Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea Trilogy.
Sci Fi channel has 4 more years of exclusive U.S. rights to make movies from the book. So the movie will not release here until 2009.

Hey all–
Just so you know, last week’s episodes of “Yume Tsukai” and “Windy Tales” are now available on the download server, along with that copy of “The Race” (if it doesn’t seem that impressive, just check out the list of shows they used in the end credits). I’m going to try to update the website and rework the schedule as soon as I can…
–Matthew

http://www.icv2.com/articles/home/9325.html

Not bad–I’ll post a high-quality downloadable version to the server when I upload this week’s unlicensed episodes.

Boing, Boing just posted a link to The Race, which is a must-see for every Anime fan.
If you have not watched this yet, watch it.
The Boing, Boing post. http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/17/worlds_greatest_anim.html

Hey all–

Tonight’s the night–it’s time to introduce ourselves and kick off our series for this season in earnest! I’ve said it enough, I don’t need to say it again, but I will anyway: we’ve got a truly great lineup this semester–so good that I feel the need to waste another one of my allotted exclamation marks to describe it! Most weeks I’ll have (spoilerless) mini-previews for the next episode of each series in this announcement, but as I don’t want to give ANYTHING away today I’ll just promise that we will explore love, dreams, sky, and the ocean depths; that earnest entreaties and unintentionally heartless insults will pass before our gaze; that we will see the deep gulf between intention and perception, and we will begin to understand that this gulf *might* be overcome if only we could learn to live properly.

Also there will be a few explosions, some partial (but Bethical, I am assured) nudity, and an enormous number of calico cats.

So come one, come all, tonight at 7:00 to AC337 (look for the nice man tempting you with pocky)–it’s opening time! (I will not, however, guarantee a Calico Moon.)

–Matthew

PS: Remember, because of introductions tonight’s Anime Club might go a little bit long. If you need to arrive late or leave early, then, although we admit that your absence will strike at the very essence of our existences, we will understand.