GHP: A bit of Disney animation history and K-ON! (11/16/2009)

Ah, here we are again with another newsletter. Manny's win yesterday was historical, he became the first boxer in history to win seven world titles in seven different weight divisions. Cotto on the other hand was a good fighter, he landed a few good smacks on Manny's face, accepted his loss like a good sport and I respect that. Okay, now back to business, I got a few new downloads again that I can share with you guys, blank DVD lang kailangan. Anyway I decided to put a little animation history as the topic since "Oswald the lucky rabbit" will be making his comeback under the Disney name through a computer game. I was also inspired by Cookie Monster, so I decided to put a new portion in this newsletter. I will be featuring K-ON! under this newsletter as well since I missed putting Yui Hirasawa under the slow and cute portion last time. Since I liked the characters in that series I decided why not feature them all.

GO PACMAN!

OTAKU WORD OF THE DAY

縞(Shima) + パンツ(Pantsu) = しまぱん(Shimapan)

Mio Akiyama reveals her shimapan when she tripped on stage.

Shimapan - means striped panties. For a long time now the Japanese seems to have a thing with striped panties, I'm not sure why but it seems to have an effect on me as well. Maybe because they look nice?

K-ON!

The carefree Hirasawa Yui is finally attending high school. Yui feels she needs to do something now that she is in high school. She decides to join the light music club with three other girls to save the light music club from suspension. The only problem is, Yui has never played the guitar and does not know how to read sheet music. In my opinion, its probably the "Moe" factor and the blend of the characters which made this show addictive.

Characters:

Mio Akiyama

Mio is a shy girl in the light music club who plays a left-handed, 3-Color Sunburst Fender Jazz Bass with an attached pickguard made out of tortoiseshell. She originally intended to join the literary club, but was forced into the light music club by her childhood friend and the club's drummer, Ritsu. She gets excellent grades in school, but is bad with listening to stories involving painful experiences, and cowers whenever something gross is brought up. While she can be mature and strict sometimes, she gets embarrased easily, and is often subject to teasing from Ritsu and Sawako, their club adviser. She cites that she chose bass since it is not the center of attention in the band, unlike the guitarist, though being the main vocalist somewhat negates this. Mio is more technical when it comes to music, and Yui often comes to her when she is in need of more guitar tutorials. She is the main vocalist in the group and also writes the songs, although they feature some odd lyrics like ''Light and Fluffy Time''. She is left-handed and is fascinated by other left-handed bass guitar players. Due to an unexpected accident in one of their live performances, and fan club for her is then formed, much to her dismay considering the circumstances surrounding it, whose founding member is the former student council president, who also stalks Mio.

Yui Hirasawa

Yui is the main character of K-On!. She is one of the members of the light music club, and plays a Cherry Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard electric guitar that she nicknames ''Giita''. She does not get good grades in school and is easily distracted by trivialities. Yui is clumsy and easily spaces out most of the time. She takes a huge liking for any kind of food, but admits that she does not gain any weight. She has her younger sister Ui to take care of her and keep herself in line. She has a very easy-going nature, but has incredible concentration when hyped, though this is only limited to one subject at a time. She will totally neglect any other things in the process, to the point of forgetting anything she has learned beforehand. Despite all of this, Yui is still devoted to her band and will practice hard enough for the club. She has perfect pitch and is one of the group's vocalists, although she is known to forget her lyrics in mid-performance, as well as overdoing things, making her unable to perform sometimes.

Tsumugi Kotobuki

Tsumugi, also known as Mugi, is a wealthy girl with a gentle and sweet personality. She is the third member of the light music club and plays the keyboard. Tsumugi has been playing the piano since she was four and has won various piano contests. She is the daughter of a company president, and her family has several villas in various places around Japan. When Yui goes to buy her guitar, Tsumugi is successfully able to drive down the price. She brings sweets and tea frequently and keeps a tea set at the club room. She originally intends to join the choir club, but joins the light music club instead since she would rather be "friends with fun people that you don't meet often".

Azusa Nakano

Azusa is a new student who joins the light music club and plays a Fender Mustang electric guitar but she is also in possession of a Gibson Les Paul Custom 50th Anniversary Gold Top (as seen in episode 13). A self-proclaimed novice guitarist who has been playing the guitar since the fourth grade and whose parents are working in a jazz band. She is in the same year and class as Ui and has quite a mysterious demeanor. She often finds herself bewildered by the tea parties and cosplaying aspects of the club, when she would rather just practice and is curious on how the club is able to play so well despite their problems and lack of practice. However, she has a certain weakness for cakes and can be calmed down rather easily, sometimes by just being petted. She could be described in part as a tsundere. She is constantly hugged by Yui and is nicknamed Azu-nyan after trying on a pair of cat ears and meowing. In the band, she looks up to Mio the most due to her maturity and the fact that she is an experienced bassist. Since joining, Yui comes to her for advice on playing guitar, as well as maintenance.

Ritsu Tainaka

Ritsu, or Ricchan, as nicknamed by Yui, is the president of the light music club and plays a yellow Yamaha Hipgig Drumset. She has an ambiguous yet upbeat personality, and often has trouble remembering important club activities and announcements, and gets constantly yelled at by Nodoka for forgetting to send in important forms. Ritsu is cheerful, often likes making jokes and is sarcastic most of the time. She usually brainstorms for ideas to earn more money and for the club's success. She says she chose to play the drums because they are "cool", but in reality, she has trouble playing instruments which involve intricate finger movements, such as the bass, guitar and keyboard. She is a childhood friend of Mio and will often tease her whenever she is cowering from something and has the opportunity to do so. Ritsu is always on the go and will stop at nothing for the success of the light music club.

K-ON plus cupie dolls, you can't go wrong. 

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Oswald was introduced in 1927 after Disney’s series of Alice Comedies had run its course. Disney signed a new contract with Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle where he would produce a series of cartoons for Charles B. Mintz and George Winkler. The first Oswald cartoon, Poor Papa, was rejected by the Universal studio heads due to poor production quality and the sloppiness and age of Oswald. After this, Disney, together with Ub Iwerks, created a second cartoon called Trolley Troubles featuring a much younger, neater Oswald. The short officially launched the series and proved to be Disney’s greatest success yet..

A few of Oswald’s adventures dealt with humour related to the procreative abilities of his species, as illustrated in the episode description of Poor Papa: “Oswald gets a visit from the stork... again and again and again. He has to resort to a variety of strategies to stop the continual flow of babies.” Trolley Troubles also showed Oswald surrounded by numerous baby rabbits, this time heckling him while on the job. Other cartoons, however, generally placed Oswald in more human-type conditions and situations.

Watch this if you want to find out what kind of cartoon character Oswald really is.

In spring 1928, with the series going strong, Disney asked Mintz for an increase in the budget. But Mintz instead demanded that Walt take a 20 percent budget cut, and as leverage, he reminded Disney that Mintz owned the character, and revealed that he had already signed most of Disney’s current employees to his new contract: Iwerks and Les Clark were among the few who remained loyal to Walt. Disney refused Mintz’s demand, disassociating himself from Oswald after the series first season. While finishing the remaining Oswald cartoons, Disney, Iwerks and Clark created the cartoon hero who would become The Walt Disney Company’s lasting symbol: Mickey Mouse, the most famous of Walt Disney’s characters. Oswald was replaced by Mickey Mouse (a slightly altered Oswald the Rabbit to avoid litigation) in the Spring of 1928.

Mintz, meanwhile, opened his own studio consisting primarily of former Disney employees, where he continued to produce Oswald cartoons, among them the first Oswald with sound, Hen Fruit (1929). Laemmle was dissatisfied with Mintz, and terminated his contract and opted to have the Oswald cartoons produced right on the Universal lot instead. By a coincidence, Disney and Mintz each produced nine cartoons the first year and 17 the next before Oswald was taken over by others. Laemmle selected Walter Lantz to produce the new series of Oswald shorts. Lantz consulted Disney about Oswald and he gave Lantz his blessing to continue the Oswald series as the Mickey Mouse shorts had become more successful so the two became close friends.

Over the next decade, Lantz would produce 140 Oswald cartoons, making for a grand total of 192 films that the character starred in, spanning the work of all three producers. After Lantz took over production in 1929, the character’s look was changed to some degree over the following years:

Oswald got white gloves on his hands, shoes on his feet, a shirt, a “cuter” face with larger eyes, a bigger head, and shorter ears.

With 1935’s Case of the Lost Sheep, an even more major makeover took place: the character was drawn more realistically now, and with white fur rather than black.

With Happy Scouts (1938), the second-to-last Oswald film produced, the rabbit’s fur went from being all-white to a combination of white and gray.

Not long before Disney reacquired Oswald, Universal was in fact marketing the character quite actively overseas. In 2004 and 2005, Oswald products were popular in Japan, and were primarily made available as prizes in UFO catchers. Typically manufactured by Taito and/or Medicom, these products included puppets, inflatable dolls, keyrings, and watches. They were generally based on a navy-blue version of the original Disney/Iwerks character.

Return to Disney ownership: the Al Michaels trade

In February 2006, a number of minor assets including the rights to Oswald were acquired by the Walt Disney Company from NBC Universal as part of a deal that sent sportscaster Al Michaels from Disney’s ABC and ESPN to NBC Sports. At the time, ABC had lost its contract for NFL broadcast rights, and despite recently signing a long-term contract with ESPN, Michaels was interested in rejoining broadcast partner John Madden at NBC for the Sunday night package. Universal transferred the copyright in a cartoon character to Disney, and in exchange, Disney released Michaels from his employment contract, allowing him to sign with NBC.

Disney recently confirmed that Oswald will be the primary antagonist in the Wii video game currently codenamed "Epic Mickey", which will be released in 2010. The game will be developed by Warren Spector, and will feature a dark atmosphere and a platform-RPG gameplay. In this story, sorcerer Yen Sid has crafted a world for his forgotten creations. Oswald is the first resident there. Mickey Mouse needs to befriend Oswald to save the forgotten world. Developer Warren Spector said "All he really wants is to be loved by Walt Disney."

Gameinformer Site: http://gameinformer.com/mag/mickey.aspx

New Downloads

Beet the Vandel Buster

The story is set in the "Dark Ages", a term referring to the time since Vandels appeared and started attacking humans. Beet is a boy who dreams of joining the "Zenon Warriors", a group of "Vandel Busters" who are considered to be the strongest on the continent. When the group comes to protect his village from the Vandel, Beltorze, Beet tries to join them but is rejected.

When Beltorze appears, the Zenon Warriors seem to have the upper hand until Beet cheers them on, causing the Vandel to notice his presence. Beltorze attacks Beet, and the Zenon Warriors are forced to drop formation to help him. Beltorze uses that moment to attack again, which mortally wounds all of them. Hidden in the smoke, the Zenon Warriors decide to rescue Beet’s life by putting their life force into their “Saiga” and giving them to Beet. When Beet complains and asks them why they are doing this, it is revealed that Zenon is Beet’s brother. The now weaponless Zenon Warriors then emerge from the smoke and continue to attack Beltorze. When Beet regains consciousness, both Beltorze and the Zenon Warriors are gone. Guilt-ridden and sad, he cries and vows to destroy all the Vandels and end the Dark Ages. He then goes on a three-year training expedition.

Tayutama: Kiss on my Deity

The story of Tayutama revolves around the male protagonist Yuuri Mito, a third year high school student who is a descendant of the Mito family of the Yachimata Shrine. One day during spring break, Yuuri and his friends Ameri and Sankurou discover a wooden relic which bears mysterious symbols in the school's woods. The relic turns out to host the Tayutai race which the shrine worships, but is deemed to be insignificant for preservation by the school, and will be demolished to allow the school grounds' expansion. Yuuri later sneaks into the school to transfer the relic's spirits, after coming to the conclusion that destroying the relic may be harmful. As he performs the ritual, he accidentally summons Kikuramikami no Hime, a Tayutai goddess who explains the belligerent relationship between humans and Tayutai, and materializes as a young girl, hoping to maintain a mutual relationship with humans. The relic is then destroyed after an accident caused by Ameri, which accidentally releases the entire Tayutai race, among whom are Nue and Oryu, two other influential Tayutai who hold humans in low regard.

D.Gray-man: Season 1

Set in England during the end of a fictional nineteenth century, D.Gray-man mostly centers around 15-year-old Allen Walker. In his childhood Allen was abandoned by his parents due to a 'deformed' left arm and was adopted by a travelling clown called Mana Walker. At some point, Mana died and Allen was approached by a person named Millennium Earl, who offered to revive Mana. The Earl revives him but Mana reappears as a machine called an akuma that is ordered by the Millennium Earl to kill him and take on his skin, as akuma do. During that moment Allen is gifted with the ability to control his left hand and turn it into an anti-akuma weapon because of a substance called Innocence is embedded in it and against his will, kills Mana. Before Mana dies, he curses Allen's left eye, which later gives him the ability to see the souls of akuma. After that Allen discovers that the Millennium Earl tries to trick those who have lost loved ones to turn their dead souls into akuma and decides to train himself in order to stop him. Soon after this he becomes the apprentice of General Cross, an Exorcist of the Black Order, a secretive organization which aims to stop the plan set in motion by the Millennium Earl and to save the souls trapped as akuma. However, the Earl has raised an army of akuma, created by taking advantage of grief over one's misfortune, and summons the direct descendants of Noah himself, the Noah Clan, to aid him in his second attempt. Because of the akuma's ability to wear a human's skin, they are nearly undetectable by any human. Allen proves to be a powerful asset as his 'cursed' left eye is able to detect the trapped souls within an akuma. Other Exorcist commonly assisting him are Yu Kanda, Lenalee Lee, and Lavi.

Heroes: Season 4

Episode 08

"Shadowboxing"
Though Peter's new ability is helpful in his job, it is trying on him until he uses it to help Emma. Claire learns that the sorority rush attack happened because of something her father did. Sylar's battle to control Matt's body moves into dangerous territory.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Episode 31

"The 520 Cens Promise"

Ed passes on what Riza told him to Al, and the two contemplate about what to do after they complete their objectives, and as to why Scar and May's alchemy worked when their's was blocked. However, May had run off, so they go and look for her. Meanwhile, Riza, Breda, Fuery and Halman say their goodbyes as they are sent to different HQs, with Roy finding a hidden message inside a chess set Halman gave him. Roy later reminds Ed that he owes him 520 cenz, but Ed decides to keep ahold of it until he becomes Fuhrer. Roy uses the note he got from Falman to make contact with Grumman. Meanwhile, Fu is shocked to find Lan Fan had lost her arm, and declines Ed's help to find an automail mechanic, since it would involve his acquaintances in their troubles. Afterwards, Knox gets a visit from his children, who are pleased to hear he's been able to successfully treat patients. Realising that Marcoh had escaped along with Scar, Envy releases Kimblee from prison, giving him the task of retrieving Marcoh and killing Scar. Wanting to find out more about Kimblee and the secrets behind his brother's alchemy, Scar destroys Marcoh's face so it won't be recognised, before heading off to the North to recover his brother's notes.