I WANT TO EAT A NUT OF LAERMA!

UPDATES: MY JOB SITUATION AND THE JAPANESE POWERPUFF GIRLS ANIME...

I was told by the food store that, if they wanted me for a second interview, they’d call by Monday, so, on Monday... THE PHONE RANG!

A lot of times.

Mostly my brothers and sister.

No calls to me from the food store or anything, though. :(

Well, they said they’d keep my name on file if they needed anyone else.

Anyway, still needing a job, I went to the Employment Canada Job Bank, which I scour everytime I feel guilty about being 30, living at home, and “mooching” feverishly everyday, and guess who’s hiring?

Well, I’m not going to say as I don’t want to put my chances at landing a job there in jeopardy, but it’s a certain international furniture store chain, mainly dealing in utilitarian but stylish modular furniture you assemble yourself, where I can *catalogue* the many reasons I like that particular store, from the Swedish language bottles of Heinz ketchup and translations of Stephen King novels on the shelves in a certain annual publication to the abundance of Futura font. It’s also a store chain that features prominently in my dream anime I want to create someday, Swedish Defense Force SUPER TROUPER, which would be a vague parody of mecha shows like Gundam about a secretive international military organization called "International Keep Earth Alright", that has hidden bases located on the outskirts of the urban areas of most major cities in the world (where the land is cheaper), below certain large-surface furniture stores. And the yellow-shirted troops have to assemble their own mecha units, with that J-shaped screwdriver thingy, from parts contained in large, flat containers. And the mecha units have cool Swedish names that sound similar to English words but not quite, like Patrull and Skyddsängel and the aquatic Valross units. (And in situations like on Macross where they need giant robots and music to save the day, they’ll call upon their British allies, the Humanoid Mechanical Vanguard, whose international bases are located under large music shops.) Yeah, I’ve put waaaaayyyyyyy too much thought into this series which would be a licensing nightmare.

The downside to working at that store would be that one of the positions they’re seeking to fill starts at 5:30 a.m., and I’m not an early-riser (I’d probably just sleep in the afternoon) and I’m not sure how good the overnight bus service is in this city, considering I’d probably have to change buses.

I’m also applying to the Nepean location of a certain famous Canadian donut-and-coffee chain (no prizes for guessing which one) and a mall location of a place that sells replacement ink for printer cartridges, both within very easy walking distance of my house.



Well, it’s been almost a week since the news first hit the web and Craig McCracken still hasn’t crawled out of the woodwork to say "April Fool’s!," so, as absurd (but not in a bad way) as the announcement, at the Tokyo Anime Fair, of a Japanese Powerpuff Girls Z cartoon sounds, with the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I pretty much have come to the conclusion that this is not a hoax.

In the unlikely event that this is a hoax after all, it’s a very, very elaborate and expensive one as clips of the show have already surfaced on the Internet, on this Japanese Powerpuff Girls fansite: a rather lengthy clip of the Powerpuff Girls in action and the Powerpuff Girls’ transformation sequence (which looks tailor-made for showing on Cartoon Network, as it’s G-rated, not the PG-13 translucent shimmering nude transformations of Sailor Moon or the all-out creepy nude transformation sequence of Pretty Sammy/Magical Project S).

As far as mahou shoujo (magical girl) anime goes, the animation quality of Powerpuff Girls Z looks above-average, with plenty of motion and a relatively few number of "static shots". You can tell they’re putting that CN investment money to good use. (I’d imagine that the Powerpuff Girls Z anime will also be an “anchor” show for the Japanese national version of Cartoon Network, mainly known in Japan for the regular Powerpuff Girls cartoon and Tom %26 Jerry).

Also, there has already been some dream cast lists out there on the Internet, listing popular dub actors like Sherry Lynn, Melissa Fahn, and Rachel Hirschfield to play Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, but I think they’d be crazy not to use Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, and Elizabeth Daily (a.k.a. "E.G. Daily"), i.e. those actresses who voice the characters already.

I gotta admit, though, the pedigree of the Japanese crew, from Toei and Aniplex, is impressive: director Hiroyuki Kakudou (from Yu-Gi-Oh and Digimon Adventures), producers Hideo Katsumata (Fullmetal Alchemist), Hiromi Seki (Magical Doremi, which is coming to American television this fall), along with Cartoon Network’s Sam Register, and character designer Miho Shimogasa (a "key animator: from Sailor Moon and character designer for Cutie Honey F and Ultra Maniac). Momoko Akatsutsumi voices Blossom, Miyako Goutokuji voices Bubbles, and Kaoru Matsubara voices Buttercup.

Some of the above information I got from this page, which has translated information from a Japanese Powerpuff Girls site courtesy of Megan Yeager.
Arxane has also written about it.

Though it's not directly related to the announcement, I would also be remiss not to mention "Bleedman's Powerpuff Girls "doujinshi" (fan comic) that feature anime-ized versions of the Powerpuff Girls themselves (though they look different from the actual anime versions) as well as alternate versions of characters from several popular Cartoon Network shows (and a couple of Nickelodeon shows) including Samurai Jack as a phys ed teacher, a taller, "darker" version of Dexter from Dexter's Laboratory, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Invader Zim and others. I might have missed some of the characters, references, and in-jokes since some of these cartoons were never shown on television in Canada.

Also, this comic seems to have been produced in English, presumably by an English-speaking North American, so the word balloons are horizontal and the panels read, thankfully, left-to-right. If I'm reading a translated manga, I prefer that it be presented "unflipped", with the panels reading right-to-left, as I prefer looking at art the way it was drawn and not a mirror image of it, but the right-to-left panel orientation in comics created primarily for an English-speaking audience is just pretentious. And, unlike too many Japanese Powepuff Girls doujins, there's nothing disturbing, creepy, abhorrent, or downright "wrong" about it.

posted by Steve Brandon @ 5:08 PM