Rurouni Kenshin gets the Live Action treatment

One of my favorite animes ever is being made into a Live Action film.  I am pretty excited for it after watching the trailer.  Here's hoping they don't totally screw it up.

If you are curious, here is the intro to the anime series and a fan made AMV.

Great, now I have to go watch the whole series, OVA, and movies again.  Oh, wait - that IS great!

Harry Potter as Anime/Manga

Ok, this would be awesome.

via for bigger image

Hayao Miyazaki AMV Tribute (2001)

As any self-respecting anime fan will tell you, Hayao Miyazaki (wiki) consistently puts out some of the greatest movies ever made that a lot of people will never see. I count two of his movies in my personal top 10 of all movies and own most of his movies. Miyazaki has that rare, old-school Disney talent for crafting a story that is fantasy and real at the same time then creates a beautiful world to set it in. Most of his studios' work is still largely done by hand, which is amazing considering the extreme beauty and fluidity the animation in his films is known for. I know a lot of you have never heard of him, but his movies are extremely popular around the world and I highly, highly recommend you check him out. Good places to start are My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, or go for the most recent film, Howl's Moving Castle.

Here is a video that a fan made back in 2001 in tribute to Hayao. It contains scenes from many of his films up to that point and is one of the best AMVs I've ever seen.

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See you, space cowboy

Cowboy Bebop is one of those animes that everyone that is into anime has seen (and probably loves). Any decent review or discussion will eventually turn to the music and how much it adds to the show. For the last week or so I have really been listening to the limited edition soundtrack a lot as I do things around the house at night. I can't really explain why (other than it being awesome). The music is so tied to the show that just hearing a song can bring up the image of what is going on in the episode. I have most of the albums and singles that came out for the show but I constantly come back to the live disc in this set. I have what I consider a pretty decent anime soundtrack collection (about 140 albums/singles), but this just continues to rock my face every time I listen to it. My favorite of the live songs is Call Me, Call Me. from Episode 24, "Hard Luck Woman". It's depressing, something which I have found often makes for much better music.I couldn't find a good vid of the live version so here is a good AMV with the original track.

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