7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[Moh]

Expanding from above, this is from Kotaku:

Spoiler: show

Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki recently said that his studio's demise was "inevitable." Today, there are quotes from Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki that are causing people to freak out, believing that the beloved animation house has decided to stop making films. People, stop freaking out. For now.

Last night, Suzuki was profiled on MBS program Jounetsu Tairiku (情熱大陸). In one segment on the show, Suzuki discussed the future of Studio Ghibli, and made comments that are causing Japanese blogs and foreign sites to report that Studio Ghibli is closing down its production department.

The source for the story in English is a Ghibli fan Tumblr, which simply states that Toshio Suzuki "announces" the closure of Studio Ghibli. The Tumblr site has a series of images, featuring Suzuki and his comments. These comments, however, were not translated.

So, let's look at Suzuki's comments and translate them. These images are from Japanese blog Someone One One!!. Kotaku has yet to see the full Jounetsu episode to confirm.


"Still, these words are somewhat harsh..." (in yellow — I assume this is the show's announcer)

"We're thinking about disbanding the production department and.."

(Note: The language Suzuki uses here isn't definite.)


"...making a big change to the larger view of Studio Ghibli."


"'Restructure' is called saikouchiku in Japanese." (in yellow)

As pointed out on Excite News, Suzuki calls this "spring cleaning" or a "major cleaning" (大掃除 or ooshouji), using the restructuring to improve the environment for the next generation. Suzuki says this has been considered for a while.


"Obviously, Miyazaki's retiring was quite significant."


"After that, what should Ghibli do?"


"With that, continuing to endlessly create like this..."


"is not impossible, but..."


"once, right about now, we will take a short rest and think about what's next."

Just a note: the wording Suzuki uses ( 小休止 or "shoukyuushi") can mean "pause" or "a break" or a "breather." He does not use the more definite word "kyuushi" (休止), which means either "stop, pause or suspend."

Suzuki's wording makes it sound like the studio is considering reorganization and regrouping. It could mean that Studio Ghibli decides it won't make anime films anymore. Though it could mean they do keep making anime films. It could mean a lot of things!

Realize that, at the time of writing, no major Japanese newspaper is running this story. Nor did any morning TV shows. Had Studio Ghibli - a national treasure - definitively ceased production of films, it would be headline news around the country, as it would be important in both the entertainment and business worlds.

tl;dr: Apparently they're working on taking a break/restructuring.

[wotakubrandon]

Berryz teas with this indefinitely hiatus.

[Celedam]

The premise is simple: it’s Farscape, but with Kree instead of Scarrans, the Nova Corps instead of the Peacekeepers, and mocapping instead of Muppets.

http://www.geek.com/review/guardians-of-the-galaxy-review-marvels-own-farscape-1600854/

It's currently at 92% at Rotten Tomatoes. It was at 100% before the humorless snobs at places like The Village Voice and Salon.com chimed in.

I'm going to see it with my friends tomorrow. I grew up with Marvel and I loved Farscape, so... yeah.

We went. It was excellent. Almost the perfect summer blockbuster. We plan to see it again within the month.

Afterwards, after dinner, we were still in the mood so we re-watched The Avengers. The climactic battle makes so much more sense once you've looked at a map of New York City and understand the real geography involved (e.g., the Park Avenue Viaduct, Pershing Square, the MetLife Building). You can even tour the battlefield (so to speak) with Google Street View, and it looks exactly like the movie. Minus the screeching aliens and burning cars, of course.

[Starra]

Eh, I could never really get into Ghibli movies, so I'm not sad. I mean, I enjoyed them enough (the ones I saw) and they're well done, but I'm not much of a movie person.

[questorminator]

Alright, so I dropped by the mall to see the Rurouni Kenshin Kyoto Taika Hen premiere. Takeru Sato and Emi Takei look better in person. And Emi Takei was a lot taller than I expected. Wasn't able to finish the event because I have to go to work. Hopefilly this convinces Japanese studios to release more stuff here.

[Moh]

Pokémon ORAS stuff.

Horde battles!

Spoiler: show

There will be contests. If you max out the audience excitement, some of your mega Pokémon will evolve.
You can also feed them Pokéblocks, just like the original game. Cosplay Pikachu can actually battle in the field.
More mega Pokémon include: Mega Altaria, Mega Salamence, Mega Lopunny.
Starting November 21st, there will be an online, in-game distribution of a shiny Beldum holding a mega stone. So you'll be able to have a shiny mega Metagross.

Edit 8/12: The Korean website for Pokémon screwed up and revealed Mega Slowbro and Mega Audino. The page was taken down shortly after.

[esm]

Watched episode 1 of Outlander. I don't know anything about the books, but the series seems promising so far. The music and scenery are beautiful. Apparently it's supposed to get pretty gruesome later on...

[Nayoko-Kihara]

^ I was going to give up on the episode part way through, but the dance scene (gorgeous) and the traveling in the latter part pulled me back in. I'm going to give it a minimum of two more episodes before I decide to stop or go all the way.

It does seem like a nice show to balance viewing "Game of Thrones" with at the very least.

[Mirai]

I liked the first episode, it's the kinda thing that's up my alley. I probably won't read the books until after the first season like I did with True Blood and Game of Thrones

[esm]

After the second episode of Outlander, I don't think I'm liking Claire's character. I can already see how the fact that pretty much the entire story is told from one woman's perspective is a big part of the series, and a key part of her character is that she's a strong woman transported to a male-dominated society (not spoiler because the time-traveling bit is the main premise of the story), so feminism is a strong theme. Well, the reason I don't like Claire is because she seems awkwardly out of place and is stuck in nurse mode in the nice 18th Scottish backdrop they've put together, but I guess that's also part of the situation.

I'm hoping the story won't just be told from her perspective though. Like, how about they subtitle the Gaelic so we're not on confused mode with it for entire scenes just because Claire doesn't understand it. I like it when the setting of a story is like a separate character that you can experience through the perspectives of different characters (especially very different ones).

Speaking of which, I started watching Downton Abbey. Just finished the first season. I found the ending to be really powerful because the show just transports you into that society and time period.