2010-10-News

"Professional" Clip, Best of Hisaishi Album

• A seven minute clip from Professional featuring Miyazaki and his new short (see previous news article) is now on YouTube.
• Joe Hisaishi's "best" album with the London Symphony Orchestra will be released on October 27 in three versions:
  • CD-only - ¥3000
  • CD + DVD - ¥3980
  • 2 CDs + DVD - ¥6500

Tracklist for the main CD:
01 - Water Traveller
02 - Oriental Wind (commercial BGM, full version)
03 - Kiki's Delivery Service (new arrangement)
04 - Saka No Ue No Kumo (NHK drama theme)
05 - Departures
06 - Summer
07 - Orbis
08 - One Summer's Day (from Spirited Away)
09 - My Neighbor Totoro

Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.

--LLin 17:00, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Miyazaki's New Short, Ghibli's New Film

NHK's "Professional" featured Miyazaki's new short film "Pan-dane to Tamago-hime" (Mr. Dough and the Egg Princess). Pan-dane contains ~24,000 cels for 10 minutes of animation, the largest ratio in Studio Ghibli history. For comparison:

• Water Spider Monmon - 30,000 cells in 15 minutes
• Ponyo - 170,000 in 110 minutes
• Spirited Away - 112,000 in 125 minutes
• Princess Mononoke - 144,000 in 133 minutes

Toshio Suzuki explains on the program, "He has no idea what film, theme, or technique will be good in the 21st century. But he wants to get a hint of it in Pan-dane. So, he draws, draws and keep drawing it. He suffers while drawing it." Suzuki mentioned on his radio show in January that Miyazaki is drawing the key animation for Pan-dane and he has spent more than ten months on the short film's production.

Studio Ghibli blogger Nishioka talks about Pan-dane while the Studio Ghibli Museum has an English announcement about the film. The museum is displaying an image board of the film and according to October 5 Museum Diary the chief animator is Kitaro Takasaka.

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The September 13 Studio Ghibli diary shows a picture of animators hearing greetings from the director of the new feature film. The production term is very short and difficult. If the release date is next summer, they must complete production in 10 months.

Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.

--LLin 20:59, 22 October 2010 (UTC)

Toshio Suzuki Does Design, Nausicaa BD Drawing, Arrietty Stats

• Best known as a producer Toshio Suzuki recently branched out into character design with a cat named Konyara. Nisshin Seifun uses the cat as an image character and their website contains a 15 and 30 second commercial starring the bulbous feline.

• Home Cinema @ The Digital Fix is giving away three copies of the Nausicaa BD. The contest is open to UK residents and closes at 6pm on October 31.

• Anime News Network notes that Arrietty has been seen by over 7.5 million people in Japan, a record for a first time director.

Thanks to Shinji, Jordan Scott, and Kuhaa for the news.

--LLin 21:28, 15 October 2010 (UTC)