I love Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit to pieces. It’s a type of anime I wish was more prevalent — a strong story-driven piece with a mature main character, a production that can call to a broader audience. There is something appealing about that. While I do admire the tone and animation of Moribito, I’m not so taken in by those charms to avoid feeling some mild disappointment when thinking about it as a whole.
Time evaporates. Her hair streams, the cloth of her sleeves dance, and her encased sword waits on edge for the sweetness of release. Alter’s Momohime qualifies as a masterwork, a Michelangelo of Japanese cute girl figures, both in grace, and nudge/wink, the size of her large hands.
Being largely terrified of social gatherings, and thus the stereotypical nerd with little grasp of social protocol, I hermited away in panel rooms all weekend. In previous years I’d gotten better with it, but I’ve regressed somewhat. Still, this year I had a good time at the panels and was invited to become a panelist for a Japanese figures and toys discussion, which was fun.
I’ll start the Otakon 2010 posts with the easy post first, the loot post.
Sanya V. Litvyak flies the night skies, often alone, for the 501st aerial division. She soars between a ceiling of stars and a carpet of moonlit clouds, while tuning in the radio transmissions of the world.
There comes a point where a figure collector bumps against the space in their current dwelling. Right about now I’m wishing I took the ground floor apartment with the den instead of the second floor apartment minus the den, so then I could put off having to retire figures to their boxes where they will likely stay until I move. I could buy another case for them, but that would be ridiculous.
What I find amusing about both the 501 and 504 strike witch aerial divisions is those numbers are also designations for brands of Levi’s blue jeans. Given the flight junkie thing about this show, the squadron numbers, if not just some random numbers pulled out of their pants, are more likely related to the air force squadrons of one country or another tied to WWII history. For example the US Air Force has a 501st and 504th that were active during WWII. At least, that’s what a Wipikedia search indicates. The coincidence with the squadron numbers also being model numbers of Levi’s Jeans makes me smile though.
