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Live-Action Anime: Casshern
Posted by
michael
on Sat Mar 20, 2004 05:30 AM
from the first-person-slicer dept.
from the first-person-slicer dept.
Silverhammer writes "Apple Japan is hosting the trailer (Quicktime required, of course) for an upcoming movie called simply CASSHERN. There have been many attempts at so-called 'live-action anime', but this is possibly the most impressive attempt I've ever seen. Part 'Final Fantasy', part 'Brazil', with CG and green screen work that puts even 'LoTR' to shame. (Hat tip: Penny Arcade)."
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Matrix? (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://kundor.org/)
More impressive than the original matrix?
The Wachowski brothers were very much anime-motivated in that movie...
Re:Matrix? (Score:5, Informative)
Here [geocities.com] is a detailed comparison between The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell [imdb.com]. IMHO, page 6 [geocities.com] is the one that shows the fact The Matrix was heavily based around Ghost in the Shell. Watermelons exploding from bullets during a marketplace chase scene? Hmmmmmm...
And here is The Matrix vs Darkcity (Score:5, Informative)
What is this...object oriented movie making?
-L
Parallax effect..... (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.clickonstore.net/)
The basis of this idea is that in the animated animes, the forground would be moved frame by frame in relation to the backround moving in the opposite direction. - This is effectively an easy way for animators to quickly produce the effect of the camera moving within a scene.
The effect in this film appears to be replicated by actually moving a camera with a telephoto lense across the scene.
All in all, from the trailer, the effect appears good and in combination with other anime-esque effects although I could see how it would become annoying in live-action if over-used.
The motion effects in anime nearly all stem from the animators tricks to avoid having to constantly redraw cells when they can just move them around.
Its quite an amusing transposition of techniques to watch.
Attempts? (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainSe
Or go to animesuki.com for torrents of the series.
BitTorrent (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.colingregorypalmer.net/)
-Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]
Re:BitTorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday February 15 2007, @08:00PM)
Original anime version (Score:5, Informative)
(http://zzz.zggg.com/)
Original anime version characters [aii.co.jp]
One of original anime character designers is AMANO Yoshitaka, who is famous for original character designer of Final Fantasy.
mmm (Score:2, Informative)
(Last Journal: Friday April 16 2004, @02:33AM)
Re:weta... (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://ian.testers.homelinux.net/ | Last Journal: Sunday March 18 2007, @01:47PM)
Ok, I call BULLSHIT on your post. Do you have any idea what you are talking about? Are you just pulling numbers out of the air?
Or perhaps a better explaination is that you're confusing internal representations with output formats. My younger brother tells me that LightWave uses some 192-bit internal format, but I'm not going to be some wannabe loser and claim that it creates "192-bit color". Gee, perhaps they're using floating point numbers. 3 x 64 = 192, oddly enough. Or maybe they're using single precision, which gives us 6 x 32 = 192. I don't know exactly what the six numbers are, perhaps RGB with a surface normal.
Also, lets look at your numbers. Firstly, you're always counting an alpha channel. But alpha is only needed for compositing, not for final output. Secondly, most of us here are using 24-bit (8,8,8) or even 15/16-bit (5,5/6,5) true-colour display modes. Have you noticed any colour ringing or banding because of the lack of precision? I rarely have, and even then it was back when I used a 16-bit mode. 24-bit (i.e 8 bit components) is just fine for almost any work. About the only place it would be inadequant is perhaps doing X-ray or some other type of medical imaging. Now you're not only trying to tell us that Hollywood currently uses 32 bits per component but that the human eye can see 128 bit components? BULLSHIT. You do realise that for every bit you double the number of possible values? So 96-bit colour (3 x 32) has 16 million TIMES the number of values PER COMPONENT than 24-bit colour? My god, can you even comprehend how many different shades of colours that would produce?
Sorry to come down hard on you, but I think you sound like just a confused adolescent with bit-inadequacy issues. You're confusing internal representations with output formats. For internal work, sure you need extra bits to guard against rounding errors. You'd probably scan any film with a 12 or 16 bit scanner (i.e 36 or 48 bit colour), render to either a similar precision or even HDRI formats (floating point, 96 or 192 bit colour) and keep any intermediate images at the highest precision you can. And for compositing you'd have an alpha channel (or three for chroma-key work). But when you process it for final output, you throw away the alpha (which hopefully equals 100% by that stage) and round everything down. For DVD, that means converting to the YCrCb colour space, subsampling the croma channels to half size (i.e 4:2:2 sampling) and encoding. For a film "printer", it might take 36 (3x12) or 48 (3x16) bit RGB, or maybe just 24 bit.
</rant>Direct Link (Score:5, Informative)
Questions about CASSHERN... (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/~LinuxParanoid/journal/ | Last Journal: Wednesday April 21 2004, @05:53PM)
1) Will there be a release in English?
2) If so, will it have subtitles or overdubbing?
3) Where was the movie shot?
4) The actors and target audience are clearly Japanese. Was the rest of the production (directing, crew, special effects) all done by Japanese?
5) Most of the writing in the trailer was Japanese (no surprise), but the title (CASSHERN) was in English. Is there any significance to this? Is this a common practice? Does the movie have both a Japanese and an English title? (I couldn't tell on the Japanese side.)
6) The production values and trailer looked pretty darn good (and I didn't even understand what was going on...) Is there any particular reason why Japanese movies don't get released in the US the way US movies get released in Japan? Don't most US movies get released in Japanese when shown in Japan?
--LP
Re:Questions about CASSHERN... (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.yorrike.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday September 04 2003, @08:03AM)
It's a common marketing ploy with Japanese products, marketed to Japanese people. As odd as it may sound, English writing and Roman characters are seen as exotic and unusual in Japan (or so it seems from what I've read regarding Japanese culture over the years).
Let's fighting love (Score:2)
WOW! (Score:1)
The visuals sort of reminded me of avalon albeit a lot
more colorful (avalon is a japanese movie with fantastic
and unique visuals, from the director of ghost in the
shell).
Fish (Score:5, Funny)
The fish [altavista.com] is our friend. Or maybe not; see if you find this useful. I got it off the story section of the Casshern site.
Um, yeah.
Re:Fish (Score:5, Informative)
An alternate world with an alternate history.
The entire planet was divided between two opposing alliances.
After fifty years of bitter warfare,
the Greater Eastern Federation triumphs over
the forces of Europa and gains dominion over the Eurasian continent.
However, this is an empty victory.
Years of chemical, biological and nuclear war have poisoned the land and
left an exhausted population at the mercy of every pestilence and newly-mutated disease.
It seems that there's little hope for humanity's future.
Debate rages over the chances of finding some way to stave off
the seemingly-inevitable decline of civilization.
One man comes forward with a possible solution.
Dr. Azuma is a geneticist who proposes a "neo-cell" treatment that
can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind.
He's driven in his studies by a desire to save his beloved wife, Midori,
from the ravages of pollution-related disease.
He appeals for funding to the government
but the politicians in the Health Ministry turn him down,
fearing that the new technology will threaten their entrenched powers.
However, a sinister faction in the powerful military makes
a secret offer to provide the support he needs to further his research.
When an incident occurs in the lab that sends
the Professor's "neo-cell" cloning experiment haywire,
a race of mutant human beings (Shinzo Ningen) is unleashed upon the world.
Instead of being the savior of mankind,
the Professor's miraculous technology looks set to threaten its very existence...
wtf? (Score:1)
(Last Journal: Friday March 26 2004, @04:49AM)
But on the friggin website, the section headers are in English, yet the text is in Japanese!
WTF?
Peace & Blessings,
bmac
U.S. Release? (Score:2)
Re:U.S. Release? (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday November 28 2002, @09:21AM)
The USA has been exporting massive amounts of 'cultural products' for the last 100years. To everyone *outside the USA* (or english speaking countries), it is in a 'second language', yet, its still they eat it up.
Now, consider this trailer again, imagine that it wasnt in Japanese -- what would you be thinking of this movie? It frankly looks terrific. If this movie were coming out of America, it would be MASSIVE. One of these days soon IMHO, Japan is going to drop a blockbuster on the USA. Its cultural products are very much palatable to the American Cultural Sensibilities (for bad as well as good, the USA->Japan post WWII influence is imense) -- Japan is very much due to have its own modern Culture play well in Peoria.
Maybe this movie is it, maybe not, but Japan is becoming a more influencial player in international 'style' and culture. And really, being a fan of Anime is not a pre-requisite. Im sure this movie will stand well no its onw.
Shiina Ringo? (Score:1)
First live action anime?! (Score:2, Funny)
YESS, that's called Kyashan in Italy (Score:5, Interesting)
Have to have (Score:1)
(http://curnomatic.dk/)
Great, now i gotta learn Japanese (Score:1)
(http://gorffy.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday December 29 2004, @05:07PM)
Volcano High (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://www.thespork.org/)
IMDB Link [imdb.com]
YES! Robots! Swords! Explosions! (Score:1)
(http://www.designpoolstudio.com/)
I'm Troy McClure (Score:1, Funny)
Holy crap. (Score:1)
(http://ii-0-ii.com/parodycheck)
I must see this.
Pronunciation (Score:2, Interesting)
(http://magbast.blogspot.com/)
There is an anime movie as well (Score:4, Informative)
They finally got it on to DVD a few months ago. Very cool indeed.
Hail Black King!
Looking forward to this (Score:3, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
The general plot is the usual mysterious-fighter-saves-world-from-robot-army, with twists.
it will be interesting to see this done, if only just to see how well they pull it off.
Slow down there tiger.. (Score:1, Informative)
Lets wait for a little more information before we rush out to stand in line for tickets
Yay.. (Score:3, Interesting)
The Wachowski brothers were very much anime-motivated in that movie...
Yep, but no one in the mass media seem to coment on this. I'm so sick of hearing "Matrix inspired" or "Matrix like", I know the Matrix pulled out some great effects but a good portion of them were seen on Anime before it!
No other anime is better than Big O. Simply for the fact of the intro.
I'm not that much of a fan of the intro, kind of chessy IMO
Eye opener (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://isohunt.com/)
Just watch the trailer, the eery graphics is SUPERB. The interweaving of live action into anime is intriguing, and from just the trailer I can already get a sense of the style and mood of the movie, with a strong feel of Dune (future tech + medieval setting).
I will certainly want to see this in theater, if it's not Japan only. I'm in Canada.
PS. The trailer seems to be surviving
Going to be a wild ride (Score:5, Insightful)
LOTR, SpiderMan, and Xmen (as well as numerous other great CGI movies) were just the appetizer for the feast of fantasy we'll be dining on during the next 20 years. It's going to be fantastic.
Golden age of movies (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree, though I believe it goes far beyond special effects.
A lot of people would point to the "Old Hollywood" as the golden age of movie making, but I believe we are on the threshold of what will be seen as the real golden age.
Movie making, special effects or not, is becoming much, much cheaper. What we're going to see in the coming years is an explosion of non-Hollywood movies (U.S. and non-U.S.) that are first-rate in terms of polish. So-called "independent" films are going to look as good as any other and have far more impact than they do now. Hollywood will no longer enjoy the position it has enjoyed since its inception.
There is a wealth of talent out there -- actors, writers, directors, cinematographers, makeup and set designers, computer graphics artists -- that exist on the fringes (especially the actors, writers and directors), ignored by the money-chasing, unimagintative, group-think of the Hollywood studios. The talents of these professionals will finally be able to find a vehicle for their expression that will have a world-wide impact.
Even more amazing than filmakers being unshackled from the laws of physics will be the results of filmakers being unshackled from the "laws" of MGM, Newline, UA and so forth.
Are you sure... (Score:2, Funny)
Strong Bad [homestarrunner.com]:
One word: ZERAM! (Score:1)
(http://code-fu.com/)
ive known about this since... (Score:1)
Plot overviews (Score:4, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/)
This movie looks kick-ass. I hop it's going to have worldwide distribution, or at least worldwide DVD distribution.
Plot #1 : (Loosely Translated from the Official Site)
The great 50 year war continues, as for the world is divided into two camps: Asian federal republic and European combination.
On an end of a long fight, Asian federal republic wins control over the East Asian Eurasian continent. But the victory caused a great devastation of human nature. The actions of chemical weapons and germ weapons resulted in major chemical injuries and a large "radioactivity" virus.
Doctor Higashi, whose wife is suffering from the "radioactivity" illness, creates a "new structure cell" theory
Though dismissed by the hygienic ministry, Higashi continues his research with the help from a troop of authorized personnel (who is utilizing the theory because of their own selfish desire).
Plot #2
Made for 5 billion yen, "Casshern" tries to address the idealistic question proposed in Shakespear's "Hamlet" (Why do people fight with each other?) It is also a continuation of the Japanese animation, "Shinzou Ningen Casshern" which was broadcasted back in 1973. A riot occurs within the robots that were made to clean up environmental pollution. As a result, a professor of robotic engineering revised his "son" Casshern to calm the riot.
Plot #3
The world has taken a different path as we know it today. The great war has gone on for 50 years and the world is divided into two groups, the Republic of Asia and the European Union. After the long battle, the Republic of Asia came out as the victor and it has come to take over the Eurasian Continent. However, the only thing that came out of this was the demise of the human spirit, chemical weapons, germ warfare, viruses derived from nuclear bombs, the prognostic symptoms of radioactivity, and the razed land. Will mankind just sit there and look at the fall of its kind?
Pfff.... (Score:4, Funny)
hmmm... (Score:1, Interesting)
I thought they took a picture of Mont St-Michel (France) and paint over it....
Not so Anime (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.timewarp.org/ | Last Journal: Monday September 30 2002, @08:49AM)
Ridley Scott is a good example of a director who does this, many French works (City of Lost Children had some recognition in the states), all the way back to Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
Tossed in among all the HK fantasy/SF cinema, this looks like just another film. A high budget one, one that looks like it could be really good, but not some sort of exceptional breakthrough that people have been making it out to be of late.
--
Evan
Hyperbole will get you nowhere (Score:2)
It may have some great CG, but I think "putting LoTR to shame" is overstating the case a bit.
How can you even tell in quicktime?
Downloadable URL (Score:1)
(http://www.thehomeland.org/)
That's not Anime (Score:1, Redundant)
Ya got to have blue hair! [homestarrunner.com]
Out of the kindness of my heart, here's a script (Score:5, Informative)
Pronunciation? (Score:2)
Utada Hikaru is doing the music (Score:1)
As far as LOTR goes (Score:1)
(http://slashdot.org/)
It's like no anime I've ever seen... (Score:1)
This reminds me of another series... (Score:1)
My Japanese is hideously inadequete. Perhaps someone fluent in the language can tell me if this is based on that groovy anime series?
High-budget tokusatsu (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.eyrie.org/~robotech/index.html | Last Journal: Thursday August 26 2004, @12:10PM)
If you're interested in checking out what the original version of some of the Power Rangers shows look like, or in looking into the more mature Kamen Rider series, there are quite a few digital fansubbers out there who have started putting the series out--for instance, TV Nihon [tvnihon.com], which has a lot of stuff up on BitTorrent [base0.net]. Also, there are badly-subtitled pirate DVD sets selling on eBay...
English Translation (Score:2, Informative)
(http://www.ocdproductions.net/)
Oxymoronic (Score:1)
Akamai (Score:2)
(http://www.jkovach.net/)