Dougma (dŭg·mə) n.

I was having a decent enough day until this came across my rss reader:

DreamWorks Acquires Rights for Ghost in the Shell

And another of my favorite franchises gets mutated, warped and ruined. “But it’s DreamWorks and Spielburg“, you say. Exactly. Not only do I get to see something I love destroyed, I get to watch DreamWorks produce a turkey. To be honest I do hope they can pull it off, but I really do not expect it to happen. Even the franchise creator Masamune Shirow botched it (GitS2: Innocence was utter crap). They plan on making ‘it’ a 3-D live action movie (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth), but are very vague on what exactly ‘it’ is. The origional film from 1995 was revolutionary. It brought cyberpunk to a new level which has not been matched sense; not even by the rest of the franchise.

When I first hear that a TV series, GitS: Standalone Complex, was going to be produced I was concerned; just having been betrayed by Innocence. I was dismayed when I saw the opening sequence. You see in anime, the opening and ending sequences say a lot about the show in an indirect manner. The opening is usually orders of magnitude better than the actual show. The GitS:SC opening, rendered on a Playstation2, was so bad that I wrote it off (don’t get me wrong the music is top notch). That is until I heard from friends what I was missing. It turned out to be a good solid anime, shot through with moments of brilliance. Then came the follow up 2nd season, appropriatly named GitS:SC 2nd Gig. The entire season was phenomenal. The opening actually lived up to the series (without surpassing the actual content of the show). The sub plots were all tied together superbly. There were a total of 2 ‘filler’ episodes and even those managed to move the other plots along (which again were part of a seamless whole). GitS:SC Solid State Society actually made up for Innocence wrapping up the story and ending the franchise on a high note.

And therein lies the problem. The story is done. The only way to do anything more with it is to take it to a different country where the majority of people know nothing about it and re-do it in some botched way (ala ‘The Ring’, ‘The Visitors’, ‘Dark Water’, I could go on for pages…) Go see the originals of those films, especially ‘Dark Water‘. No comparison.That movie gave me nightmares; I turned off the US remake because I was laughing.

What really scares me is that another Masamune Shirow’s works (and another of my favorite manga+anime’s) AppleSeed was recently redone in ‘live action based 3-D‘, and… well… I could not watch more than 15min of it. I wish I had never seen those 15min as they have laid a taint on my memory.  It was bad. I mean really really BAD. It’s Phantom Menace all over again (or at least Bubblegum Crisis 2040… why? The series was done… no need to ruin it!) [Yes I have the Priss Hurricane Video in origional japanese and Live Concert on import PAL VHS]

Postscript: What did we do before wikipedia and youtube!?!!?!?!?

It appears that the AZN cable channel will be going off the air. This is a little sad for me, as it was one of the few places I could find some of the movies friends have been recommending I see, with their original subtitles. The Anime they have is mixed at best (currently only Last Exile and Moon Phase), and the movies have been spotty. Guess its back to Netflix.

I must admit that I have spent a number of late evenings dancing with Sarah to the opening and ending music of Moon Phase and Last Exile. She prefers the former, I prefer the latter. I am a little ashamed to admit that I have seen all of Moon Phase in it’s subtitled form (way back when Josh was born no less so the full circle is kind of nice.) The dubbing is some of the worst I have heard in a long time (and I have heard some bad stuff.) The first time I saw Josh or Sarah smile were to that anime, so it grudgingly holds a place in my heart if for no other reason; well that and the neko mimi. Last Exile is decent enough with a great soundtrack, great writing, and above average animation.

The real loss are some of the movies that now I will just have to rent and plan for. I personally would rather stumble upon a movie that was recommended, but that has always been hit or miss anyway; more miss than hit really. I did get to spend some late nights working on PyCon-Tech, (or in one case, not working on it,) watching the channel. I tend to enjoy the surreal. Actually I revel in it. There is no better escape than a surreal movie or an on-stage farce. Soon after Sarah was born, the AZN channel aired Wool 100%, which came highly recommended from friends who share a similar affliction to mine. I spent the entire movie standing rocking Sarah. I was mesmerized from beginning to end. I missed the chance to see Kamikaze Girls again when they aired it, but it is another of those borderline surreal movies which scratch that itch; and I hate the entire goth-loli things; really, really hate it, all evidence in this post to the contrary. (Why Nana why!??! Your 2002 demo had so much promise!)

One of these days I will get around to making a list of good anime/manga. One of these days. Until then, go see Paprika! (seriously, go see it.)