Browsing Tag: anime

In the new millennium dance music is on
fire Daft Punk introduces us to one more time it’s erupting success was like
nothing in the Bands career before starting a journey to create an animated
music video for the single the process mutated into a monster so you’re not
going to make a video for each track I think that would be crazy to do that be crazy but this isn’t akira a lot of Westerners see animes boom starting at that 1988
monolith yet if you’re European it’s a little different 1978 were in France a
young Thomas and guy-manuel stare at his shimmering screen Japanese cartoons beam
into their eyes broadcast over public Airways free channels available cable
has not caught on transnational content makes up a sizable chunk of French TV
there’s little contest for animation here unlike in America anime could
thrive the first wave starts at toei animation ahead of the market they bring
over a variety of hits including Captain Harlock an anime that surpassed prior
shows popularity when we were child that was the captain
harlock to animation was really big in France and so we’ve been loving it since
we were five or six years old when we were kids so and this this feeling
didn’t go away with the years legendary anime director Leiji Matsumoto output
defined a lot of seventies anime especially in the sci-fi genre he’s a
bit eccentric not a similar to Daft Punk their dream from a young age was to work
with Matsumoto 20 years later to funky robots once musicians traveled around
the world knocked on Matsumoto’s door of a project in mind and a CD in hand how
could he say no discovery from the beginning was planned alongside an
animated musical tackling show business through intergalactic allegory Matsumoto
recounts their meeting as destiny having always wanted to work with musicians who
he saw as magicians however leji did not direct nor create
the movie this is a common misconception the story came from the minds of the
band and their longtime collaborator Cedric hervé leji is credited as the
visual supervisor ended help with some of the early character designs as well
as layouts not to mention directing a music video for the duo
a live-action one yeah I bet you didn’t see that one coming uh by the way
this video is going to be sort of like me jumping around laser beams of
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actually get some traction cool cool although leji’s biggest contribution was
his contacts talking to the producer of Captain Harlock Matsumoto gets toei on
board bringing with them a pile of veterans to expand the project including
dragonballs Kazuhisa TakeNouchi and Daisuke Nishio
as director and storyboard artist daft punk self financed interstella
knowing the label wouldn’t touch it but to quote Harlock something about freedom
I live freely under my own banner yeah that last one after 28 months
countless trips between Paris and Tokyo with enough emails to fill a drawer full
of floppy disks their childhood dream became reality all that wouldn’t have
been possible without spike Sugiyama who happened to be the only member of tOei’s
crew who spoke English while Daft Punk are no strangers to visually striking
music videos interstella four five blew away the competition in terms of
ambition and bold storytelling not a word of dialogue spoken each song tells
a narrative connected but also separate in a way it keeps the story universal
this was to be an international piece something Matsumoto encouraged and so did
the band went out with the child I watched a lot of films and read manga
with the hope that one day I would be able to make animation there actually
I’ve watched a lot of foreign films and my overpowering dream was that my own
work would be shown throughout the whole world this was really a dream however
they knew America among other english-speaking territories is the
biggest market for music and they’d never put a vocalist on a track in their
native tongue in fact rarely putting any vocals on any track until now many
European artists sing in English when trying to break through but at least
interstellas visuals can lead you where you need to be if you’re fluent or not
does that mean the robots wanted to be pop stars well no in their own words we
don’t want to be pop stars or rock stars whatever we wanted to make cool music
and make people dance a simple goal one where the duo vanish into a persona it’s
a performance to them like a comic book there’s has an origin there was an
accident in our studio we were working on our
sampler and at exactly 9 o 9 a.m. on September 9 1999 it exploded and when we
regained consciousness we discovered that we had both become robots the fact
they only appear in their own animated musical for a cameo says it all discovery
and interstella brought this visual identity to the
world tearing them into these ageless icons immortalized on MTV or in this
case midnight tooNami Midnight Run was an early preview which showed the first
four music videos starting with one more time and in order to keep viewers
invested in Daft Punk’s Space Odyssey toonami had the bots sit down to do an
interview as well a rare feat they talk about their solid taste and Cartoon
Network shows Powerpuff Girls is a pretty good if you know what im talking about and how animation impacted their music and if you can look at the way
they dress you can guess a little bit in there well they were doing here is a
cultivation of genres and the band breaking away from its house style not
completely but well they’re known for into a mixture of electronic disco funk
a sound of their own it’s still dance music and it calls back to the past but also
the future at the same time it’s less of a tribute to the music of 1975 to 1985
as an era and more about focusing on the time when we were zero to 10 years old
it’s all about reinterpreting the past through the lens of a computer to make
something new a remix same with the animation it resurrects that Leiji style
with the new facelift for five moves from cels with the character animation
digitized pushing what can be done with color and layering sometimes the designs
can come off too glossy the digital comps aren’t always the tightest
nor is its CGI or graphics but the ultimate floor may be preservation the
blu-ray upscales to a 1080i format but it’s still Pixley it’s not as sharp as a
film restoration would be however as AI upscaling gets better one day we may get
this true high-def version until then it’s best watched on a CRT minor issues
aside the marriage of its retro style and modern animation is a welcome one
interstellar may not be part of the lady verse yet you’d be hard-pressed to
notice it follows the feeling to a tee in the lady verse continuity isn’t
linear stories loop and repeat what stays static is the ironclad archetypes
destined to repeat the fight for indica lactic freedom even through shared
ancestry becoming a symbol or a myth in a larger-than-life space opera the
character design share much of Matsumoto’s language romantic heroes
ladies mystic girls or potato people the character designer Misaki Sato
reinterprets your initial sketches to have sharp thick lines deep shadows and
an age beyond its years the plot taking on its common aspects from star-crossed
lovers that end in tragedy dying in honor by sacrificing yourself
in the bushido way and losing one’s memories through mind manipulation
perhaps a dormant dream that becomes reality and on top of that I’m sure
there’s a little bit more cross on there too just a dash on the Daft Punk side we
see musicians as contract slaves losing individuality the power to make
decisions of your own sound a common musical story
Daniel Vanguard father to the band also a previous disco producer gave them advice
helping the duo through their contracts finalizing deals with labels when
signing with Virgin Records they were able to keep their masters even some of
the biggest musicians like Prince weren’t able to do that or have an easy
time removing themselves from those contracts the robots wanted freedom and
their own control to do what they want and that’s why they recorded in a home
studio using a mixture of old tech and new they could make as they please and
on the side you know maybe fund a whole anime to go with it
– just spit ball in there as we start the musical with one more time
you notice how the flow is the finest element here how its paced and edited
between each song each frame is in sync with the beat and it’s such a seamless
display of animation it’s polished the lip-sync is tight it’s daft punk’s first
vocal track this was untapped territory for the band and what they considered
the most difficult part of making this album the line between synthetic and
human romanthony sung the lyrics on one more time
he’s another house musician but they were robots respected enough to put on
that opener and closer using his voice as an electric tinged instrument
floating through space we are introduced to interstella invisible world building
the longer we stare the more we can pick up of its technology characters and law
there’s a ton of shorthand here used to ease the audience in the overall story is full of bravado
while it is simple enough that a child could understand that’s the point leji’s
work on TV was always enjoyed by families a crescendos don’t sign a
contract that does them dirty there’s no ambiguity
they are flat-out kidnapped and brainwashed maybe some musicians of an
era felt that getting a contract in poverty was a one choice situation no
matter what it said the musicians in this case our valiant bad guys are
gigantic yet the movie still captures an attention to detail little touches like
how the drummer’s last beat snaps as they’re kidnapped or the injection of
personality the guitarist gets by being the outlier brazen to fight his way out
through aerodynamics guitar solo which isn’t even really a guitar it was
programmed vignettes created by the duo a fake sampling technique fitting all
these on Rah’s together in a way which shouldn’t connect but does like the
change from aerodynamic to digital love the Bell Tolls the emergency button is
pressed suddenly we are sipped light-years away into a world of vocoder
love songs daydreaming fantasizing falling into a dream land full of pastel
colors romantic flying sequences before we are rudely interrupted by the call of
action it down to earth pilot Shep who is someone the audience can identify
with he’s our guy it fits that leji verse style a man who
works an average job and is called to war to fight for those who he must
protect it’s the kind of messaging that matsumoto would have grown up on the
lyrics by DJ sneak are about unspoken love which this short does a good job of
interpreting albeit in a literal way the sample is from George Duke I love you
more where George is saccharine and sweet that Punk take a grand approach
you like nothing else is real in that moment it’s full of dance and desire so
on the best shorts which is emphasized later and how it comes back into play
moreover this short shows what can be accomplished by a smaller production
certainly not on the big boys I’m at Merkel sure the production is is on twos
and fries with some exceptions but it does match that 4/4 beat what
keeps the whole thing moving is just the strength is adding and that ingenuity
that comes from the whole production going on to harder better faster
stronger its robotic voice is used as an anthem for removing the artistic culture
corporate izing them giving the song a harsher edge than expected on reflection
it’s one of the tightest pop tracks among a pretty tough competition that
only builds on its Pistons of driving samples forcing a reaction swaying to
this Rube Goldberg machine of a single the crescendos give the same performance
from the start without that life its soulless a reproduction for the sake of
promotion the samples repeat on nauseam as they cycle plus it’s one of the few
tracks with a real sample to begin with manipulating someone else’s work on top
of these binaural brainwave sounds it all comes back to the kind of concept
that the band is trying to emphasize there’s also a subtle reference to the
music video for music sounds better whether you which Thomas collaborated on
night vision the band is worked to exhaustion in the
cyberpunk hours four five fills the the song with a longing for freedom an
escape of the cycle to rebell the track itself has this ocean of mellow synths
that whisk in the breeze late-night stargazing next to a slow pulsing beat
at the end we’re introduced back to Shep ready to rescue and upon that rescuing I
noticed how interstellar uses tropes to its fullest creating something while
predictable at times and echoes to the past it executes its moments with
finesse and makes it feel authentic to that essence of yesteryear it’s also
just really cool this is certainly like a mythic anime tape back could be found
in the distant future where they’d they’d question where it really came
from but in a good way something about us there’s a payoff here
for digital love bringing an intimate dower experience a lover was not
destined to be but never forgotten as a driving fire in that sequence er like an
underwater synth bass right next to a wah pedal melody Shep rives in pain to
the tempo he transfers his memories to Stella the female bassist and this gives
him closure to his day dream before passing on the lyrics by the band are
some of the best on the album limited as they made be they tap into the vein of
something Universal unrequited love or failed relationships we’ve all
been kept up by the visceral feelings we don’t know how to interpret and the end
Shep gets an honorable burial his spirit moves on and because of that which lets
him help later on but I’m sure we’ll get to that part veridis quo unfolds our villian
as an ageless Alchemist who feeds on cosmic creativity profits Grammy Awards
you name of a Giorgio Moroder vibe it’s like a 80s horror film with its vibrant
purples and archaic gothic castles you’re almost falling into a are a cult
movie down to the castle crumbling as that villain is supposedly defeated we
have to short-circuit its hammering samples of texture turns soft into a
soothing synth akin to the ballad of Dorothy Parker but their identities and
memories are stored under the master tapes is no mistake owning your own
artistic output controlling an artistic identity that is something that punk
really believes in going into face to face we have taught Edwards on the
vocals very good the band say this song is about gaining consciousness back
within the narrative it is where the actual crescendos are in need to become
who they were once again suddenly it turns into like
an optimistic sci-fi as the humans help the crescendos and that’s amazing I mean
it would have been easy for this to turn into an area 51 story or sewing with Red
Scare elements but instead we get the best and the brightest coming together
to help a group whose music has touched them so if they are an alien or not and
that moves into the finale too long the final song and one what goes at length
the band of record it’s the one real true house song on the album and the
track seems to fray interstellar in terms of content the recap part is the
weakest of the movie and maybe goes a little too too lengthy for my taste too
long even but there’s a fun danceable energy here and romantically comes back
with passion sounding a little bit more human after all on the vocals the band
gets to have their full circle movement with Shep finally defeating the evil
saving them from complete and utter destruction where the band finally
it’s that full-circle moment performing with freedom and energy for the first
time since the beginning bringing life back to their music or because of the
actions of one pilot it’s a solemn ending although suddenly that monks
final piece alludes to the influence lady had on them
and moreover how they hope to influence a new generation of artists with what
they have created which is just what happened it changed music culture
inspiring the shape of pop to come more so than the reviews of the time would
think those rock boomers there they didn’t like disco very much huh
sorry I had to check us some of these sMI’s review sites like AV Club were a
satire or not it’s no wonder they deleted them light tempo jung-bae those
kind of future funk artists certainly took influence from the mixture here on
display with interstellar four or five perhaps
solidifying that concept of vaporwave or future funk with anime gifts that has
continued to use to this day it encouraged more transnational anime
music videos from Linkin Park – Madeon you could argue and there’s now even
this fan made VR game showing about the cult classic lives on within the
community it was a bold choice to make four or five knowing it would come out
years after the records hikers died down but since like the wall have we seen
such an like artistic endeavor although the movie didn’t break even which I
guess there’s no surprise it had a limited release and sure it wasn’t
groundbreaking it’s not the first transnational anime project or the first
French one a flat matter or even one where it takes an anime created to task
for a popular music video yet it could be the one that was remembered in the
long run Daft Punk never went anime again and this musical lived on through
late-night TV or glimpses on the music channel until it was spliced and
plastered all over the web with millions of views certainly at the beginning for
previews there were versions on that but now you can watch on YouTube at the
display and ease of your willing and surely the album hit big selling close
to 3 million copies of worldwide and the band would go on to even higher
successes in the future and interstella still holds the highest point in that
Punk’s video career with an already impeccable standard but no other project
has quite the two halves of the same experience that comes from interstellar
where both sides are in tandem I’ll end with the superimposed face of
Leiji Matsumoto on the DVD cover to push this project in the glorious land of
Nippon hey hey thanks for the patrons thanks for the support thanks for
everyone that has helped me big ups for Pad chenington who helped out with a
little sequence in the video that was cool
cheers bud it was a hard project I mean to think about it was a lot more than I
fought to chew off but I do have some announcements I’m gonna be working on a
series of videos in December which is going to push some ideas back but I will
be talking about madhouse the animation studio and their early years in a
similar way to I talked about Tori month so we’re gonna have madhouse month and
that’s what I’m gonna be prepping on from now on that funk is cool robots are
cool I’ll see you next time baby