nico m blog

Following on my post on the Buddha & Christ (depicted in a new manga as young flat-shares in Tokyo), I hear the great mangaka Tezuka Osamu will have his 8 Volume (English edition numbering) Buddha manga made into an anime film in 2010.

Here I take a quick look here at other ‘imported spiritual storytelling’ anime, there isn’t much.  My first candidate is “Ramayana - Rama Ouji Densetsu ( ラーマヤーナ ラーマ王子伝説 ) [रामायण]” - “The Prince of Light” - “The Prince of Light - The Legend of Ramayana” - “Warrior Prince, The Legend of Prince Rama” (1993) a sweet & accurate anime retelling of the great Hindu epic. Released in English, Hindi and Japanese there is some genuine Sanskrit chanting when appropriate, it was a ‘Nippon Ramayana Films’ production directed by Yugo Sako and Krishna Shah.

Here is part of the splendid review on beliefnet.com - the story of Yugo Sako:
“Religion and spirituality impacted director Sako since he was a child. Born in 1928 in central Japan, he was orphaned at the age of 3. Monks in a Zen Buddhist temple raised him to become a future priest. He has strong memories of religion classes for local children and was passionate about collecting cards about the life of Buddha that were used in the classes. “This was my initial contact with Buddha and India.”

In college, he majored in Buddhist Studies. He then practiced asceticism at the Heirinji Zen Temple but soon realized that the priesthood was not for him. He returned to secular life and eventually set up his own company, Tokyo Cine Vision Ltd, which made music albums and TV documentaries.

He first visited India in 1985 to film a documentary, “The Ramayan Relics,” about an archeological excavation near Ayodhya. He was smitten by the story of Prince Ram’s triumph over the forces of darkness, and as his research into the epic deepened, he realized it was much more than just a myth: It encompassed a whole philosophy of living and had historical underpinnings.

He read Valmiki’s Ramayana in Japanese and went on to study 10 different versions, all in Japanese. Although he was a documentary filmmaker, he felt only an animated format could capture the true magic and power of Ramayana. He says, “Because Ram is God, I felt it was best to depict him in animation, rather than by an actor.”

Meeting with academics, archaeologists and historians, Sako painstakingly researched the story of Ram, and spent months checking out costumes and architectural details. As a foreigner, he wanted to be extra vigilant in staying true to the epic. All the futuristic gizmos, flying vehicles, and even weapons of mass destruction depicted in the film are mentioned in the Ramayana.

Sako collaborated with Ram Mohan, an eminent animator in India, to design the key art. In 1990, he started work in Japan on the principal animation, using over 450 artists.”

Thanks again for that to beliefnet.com.

I can’t find a sales link anywhere, I bought my copy in EMI, Engineer Street, Bangalore. Search on eBay is what I would do.

Now about Tezuka’s Buddha - I doubt it can be made into a film, there is simply too much of the extraordinary detail that made Tezuka such a great inventor, originator, style-setter, story-arc teller, in Japan they simply call him “The God of Manga”.

It could be, should be, made into an old-style long-running anime TV series; funded by a rich Buddhist Organisation, or a Government or an NGO & thus unconstrained artistically & commercially.

The 8 volumes of “Buddha” (Hardback/Paperback) are available from Amazon UK.

There is a BBC Radio 4 series HUT 33. It is set in Bletchley Park 1941/2 (Our Darkest Hour etc) and Hut 33 is the most incompetent and argumentative hut trying to decode German encrypted message traffic.

The four main characters are male (of course), an upper-class Professor who’s a total shit and has posh German relatives, a Newcastle working-class man who hates the Prof because the Prof refused him a place at St Sebs because he didn’t know how to use a fish knife, a ‘child genius’ who plays the short-pants innocent-at-large & their cretinous boss who is so stupid it defies belief (he was demoted to third lieutenant after driving his tank company into the ocean).

I went with Tara last night to an evening recording session at Broadcasting House, Portland Square, the famous post-code, W1A 1AA. Two half-hour episodes - it was hilarious!

All the old jingoist wartime humour rejigged and fed to an admiring audience (which included an enthusiastic me) by expert old-style BBC radio actors, including one sexy young actress who played Polish Minka, the homicidal maniacal Hut 33 killer-machine-gun Secretary (ex Polish Resistance), in the worst Polish accent I have ever heard.

The two women actors were this homicidal Polish secretary & the Pub Landlady (where the main characters lodged) who of course was a nymphomaniac, allowing for much double entendre as per usual.

A sort of rip-off of Enigma the book combined with music-hall and vaudeville except made for Radio. John Le Carre - rise and weep!

It was SO British, crude and gross and just skating on the offensive obscene & racialist as so much British Humour does, sort of lavatory++ with code breaking, class warfare and European racism on top! In the cold light of day I’m still laughing but feeling slightly guilty about it.

Fun. Preceded by Laksa at a Singapore Noodle Restaurant in Rupert Court, off Shaftesbury Avenue, that’s what I call a good London Evening.

They said the episodes will go out in October of this year, but not exactly when.

BBC Link
Times Online
Save Bletchley Park
Wikipedia - HUT33

Looking at Broadcasting House:

It’s addictive. Officially. For me anyway. Facebook that is. So I’m going to post here instead and not even go on to FB until I’ve done my proper work.

I have many interests and simply have to focus down on them. The problem with Facebook for me is that it just encourages a sort of formless Pavlovian stimulus-response mechanism. I seem to communicate, but nothing serious gets done.

Of course that can be a lot of fun. And it keeps me in contact with far-flung-friends & relatives. But personally I need more and that will only come by doing some serious and considered writing.

Cyberspace - can’t live with it, can’t love without it - sad if it was true.

Mayo aka The Horse is a professional assassin who asks only 5 dollars for a killing. He is asked to kill the mother of a 12 year old prostitute, Shion, but leaves her alive out of pity. This event starts a chain of events which will shake the Asian economies to the core. [AnimeNewsNetwork].

Set in Malaysia in the boom times of the 80s, Strain is a violent & obsessive testament to one man’s strength of will & one young girls love [nico].

Dealing with issues of Blood, Inheritance, Family, Destiny, Incest, Organised Crime, Police Violence - Strain is a roller-coaster ride into the dark heart of a powerful Japanese Industrialist, determined to forge his future at any cost [nico].

(1970) Spider-Man (manga) : [Story, Art] - for kids.

(1985) Mai the Psychic Girl (manga) : [Art] - for girls.

(1986) Crying Freeman (manga) : [Art] - violence boys.

(1990) Sanctuary (manga) : [Art] - yakuza/politics/power.

(1996) Strain (manga) : [Art] - violence/love/adult.

I tend to add an RSS feed when I find an interesting site - it’s an easy way to keep up & is being particularly prolific & interesting on China recently.

China is so full of contradictions. A hugely repressive government (the standard ‘Western’ view) is contraindicated by the vast amount of social criticism & it seems to have relevance to us in the West is my point.

Ai Weiwei: “Gangsters in the Government”:

Ai Weiwei looks lovely - he looks like my deceased friend Lupo.

Chinas Middle Class: Gilded Age, Gilded Cage

“China’s sudden prosperity brings undreamed-of freedoms and new anxieties.” - Part of the National Geographic May 2009 China Issue.

Froogville: China and me (memories of a first encounter).

Continuing on a broader East/West China/Japan Axis:

Sadly: Cult author JG Ballard dies at 78:

A lighter note from Japan:

I told myself the hiatus in my posting was due to my web host not answering my emails, but in fact I’m quite uncomfortable & indecisive about what to write.

I realised that the Home Page only says things about me that I’m proud of. I’m not happy with that.

My nature is not comfortable with concealment. I don’t like people with fronts, least of all myself. So I better front up if this blog is going to mean anything.

Not the gory details. Just the broad brush strokes; my addictions; my failed terminated multiple marriages; my absence from my children; my irresponsible financial tendencies; nothing special there, true. But I needed to say it.

My son, in an discussion today conducted via Facebook messaging, wrote “hohoho, but you’re stll an old hippy”. Well it’s a privilege to be one. And to be here.

Love to you all - and now I can get on with my obsessions of anime, cyberspace, relational dynamics & just plain chat!

A good friend, someone whose judgement I trust, has been investigating regression hypnotherapy, LBL (the life between lives) and other matters hypnotic & spiritual.

The work begun by Dr Michael Newton and continued by others, mainly in the USA.

As an interested party, who may wish to undertake regression therapy myself …. here are some videos of interest, thank you Robert, I’m learning a lot!

These are the first three in a short Youtube video series …. more to come …. note not all these may be permanently available.

The first post, sounds like a birth knell ….. those nice people at 1stDNS got this all going & now I can upload my picture!