Explaining the joke: I keep seeing people share "AI" generated images of Ghibli x Lord of the Rings. But the thing is, this actually already exists. Ghibli was founded by animators from Topcraft, who animated The Hobbit (1977) for Rankin Bass. They did a beautiful job!
Rankin Bass/Topcraft's adaptation of The Hobbit (1977) was followed up by The Return of the King (1980). So yeah, Ghibli x Lord of the Rings more or less already exists. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Now to be clear, most people associate Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki, who did NOT work on the Rankin Bass/Tolkien films. And also not every ex Topcraft animator ended up at Ghibli.
However, Topcraft did animate Nausicaa (1984) and following the release of that film, 70% of their staff left along with Hayao Miyazaki to form Studio Ghibli.
Among that 70% was Toru Hara, the founder of Topcraft itself. Hara was also one of the principle animation leads on The Hobbit and The Last Unicorn. He was executive producer on Nausicaa (1984) and other early Ghibli classics. He was a co-founder and producer at Ghibli until 1991 twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
So all in all there is a lot of real overlap in staff between the films of Rankin Bass/Topcraft and the films of Studio Ghibli. twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
I mean heck, Nausicaa technically was a Topcraft film! Ghibli didn't exist until after that film was released! But since it's so strongly associated with Hayao Miyazaki it's retroactively become a Ghibli movie.
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It's interesting how Nujabes ended up being unquestionably one of the most beloved and influential musicians of the 21st century. He wasn't necessarily revolutionary at any particular thing, but he hit on the PERFECT VIBE that everyone has been chasing.
Let's say that Samurai Champloo was where he was launched to international fame. It's been 2 decades since then. And every year since then, new music only sounds more and more like Nujabes.
You know the "Thing Japan" meme? How people often say "you only like that cos it's Japanese!" I'm so glad that basically NO ONE says that about Nujabes. Everyone I know that loves hip hop (and I mean REAL TRUE LOVE) loves Nujabes.
🧵The Western take on Yoshitoshi is that he was a tragic figure waging a lone war against industrialization and modernization. A war that he lost and thus the traditions he championed died with him. It's a romantic notion that also satisfies tons of biases.
🧵But it's so far from the truth. Yes Ukyo-e fell out of favor for more modern methods of reproduction like photography. But it never died out. For instance there was the Shin-hanga (新版画) movement of the early 20th Century, whose purpose was to keep Ukyo-e alive and evolve it.
1. Manga has been more popular than Marvel or DC comics in the west for decades now
2. Marvel & DC =/= All American comics. Dog Man is one of the best selling books (not just comics) in the US. Americans definitely still enjoy reading American comics!
In fact, there have been times where Dog Man has been the #1 best selling book in the US overall!
Dog-Man is the most popular comic in America, outselling any manga. But for some reason it's not really considered a comic by most, i guess cos it's for kids? Where are the articles about how Dav Pilkey is a threat to Superhero comics lol
Listening to this nice piece on the film "Living" and how the author, British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro was inspired by the Akira Kurosawa film "Ikiru," an internationally beloved classic whose title means "To Live." npr.org/2023/03/06/116…
The piece drops the ball at the end tho, when the narrator says that the film "is not just a remake" and they have a Brit critic that goes "'Ikiru,' by Kurosawa, seems to be a film about Japan, 'Living,' by Ishiguro and his colleagues. seems to me a film about humanity"
Like WTF
What does that mean? Ikiru has been widely regarded as one of the "great films" internationally for decades. It's obviously very universal in its appeal. How is it that "Ikiru" being set in Japan makes it "about Japan" but "Living", being set in the UK, makes it "about humanity"?
Sometimes I think about when Hail To The Thief dropped & this one music critic called it pretentious pap saying Thom Yorke simply screams the words "PENETRATION" over and over in 2+2=5. But the actual lyrics are "we are not even PAYING ATTENTION" lol
Oh man this album rules. It brings back so many TERRIBLE MEMORIES lol. But in a good way!
I think There There is one of Radiohead's best singles. Such a rich, downbeat, groovy, anxious sound. And what a perfect message for the times. "Just cos you feel it, doesn't mean it's there." Tough pill to swallow. But sometimes you really need to hear it