What can I say? It’s a slow morning…

One of the new series I’m currently following called “Xam’d” or “Xamdou”.

Unlike most anime series that eventually make it to the West, Xamdou is exclusively being distributed via the Playstation Network.

Using an online gaming network in this manner is quite interesting, as it’s a very highly focused distribution concept that targets the niche consumer that’s more likely to appreciate anime.

I’ve seen the first season (13 episodes) so far and despite the plot and setting that has shades of Eureka 7 in it,  I’m finding Xamdou enjoyable and engrossing.

I’m overdue for my anime write-ups so I’ll be covering Xamdou, Kannagi, Ga-Rei Zero and Kannagi.

Tags: xam'd, xamdou

MS Igloo 2 (no, I don’t know why they called it ‘Igloo’) is the second series of 3D computer animated short stories that take place in the original Gundam continuity.  While MS Igloo 1 featured stores of the war from the Zeon perspective, MS Igloo 2 will focus on the Earth Federation’s perspective.

Is MS Igloo 2, Episode 1, we find the Earth Federation forces in an all-out retreat in multiple theaters around the world as the Zeon forces launch their global invasion on multiple fronts.

Anti-Mobile Suit Specialist Commander Lt. Ben Barberry is among the thousands of Federation soldiers in retreat when he’s handed a seemingly impossible mission:  Bring down three Zaku Mobile Suits who’re threatening the retreating forces with nothing more than some missiles and the surviving members of his battle-weary infantry squad.

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I’ve started watching Casshern: Sins, a new series from the Fall 2008 line-up.  It’s a bleak rewrite of the original Casshern story that started out as a serial  Kodansha’s “Terebi Magazine” and Akita Shoten’s “Boken Oh”  and was given the animation treatment in 1973 wTwNjzVFVU

Taking a page out of the “Gundam Guide to Writing for Animation”, “Casshern: Sins” completely discards the established continuity.  In the original story, Casshern (aka Tetsuya Azuma) is a human-turned-cyborg superhero who teams up with a beautiful girl named Luna and a robot dog named Friender to rid the world of rampaging robots lead by the villainous Braiking Boss.

These robots were originally created for the betterment of the world and humankind by Casshern’s late father, Dr. Azama.  But the robots came to the conclusion that in order to restore the Earth’s ecosystems and to make the world a better place, humankind must be destroyed.  (Hard to argue with that logical conclusion. ;-)  Together with Luna and Friender, Casshern defends humanity against the robots and fights to stop Braiking Boss once and fo rall.

However, in Casshern: Sins, things aren’t so rosy.  The world has been destroyed.  Humankind is on the very brink of extinction thanks to the robots.  But Robotkind itself is dying due to an “affliction” called “The Ruin” which rapidly breaks down their components.

And it’s all Casshern’s fault… or so he’s been told.  But Casshern has absolutely no memory of his identity, let alone what had happened to the world.    All he knows is that everyone, everywhere is out to kill him (partly due to a rumour that his body will stop “The Ruin” in any robot or android that ‘devours’ him) and that he may have been responsible for the murder of a young woman who might have been able to stop the cataclysm.

So how the hell did things go so wrong?

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Apparently there’s a Korean live action film in the works based on the Taekwon V movie.

Taekwon is your basic mad scientist creates army of evil robots for world domination, good scientist counters with a powerful single robot plot.

(L-R) Taekwon V, Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and Grendizer

At the time of Taekwon V’s creation, the Japanese manga and animated series, Mazinger Z, was very popular in Korea. And you can clearly see the influence in Taekwon’s design.

The upcoming movie purportedly has a budget of 20-billion Won ($17M Cdn) and is slated for release in 2009.