French anime website, Catsuka recently featured the Light of Love anime video and its director, Jamie Vickers on its pages, giving a bit more insight into the origins of the video (which was in fact a pilot for a television show). From Google Translate:

Jamie Vickers is one of those rare leaders foreigners working in Japan in the background. I had already relayed his demo tape, which allowed to realize that he hosted for people like Koji Morimoto (on Dimension Bomb in Genius Party Beyond) or Masaaki Yuasa (on Kemonozume). And doing research on anything else, I came across a video clip passed unnoticed, he realized, design and animation in the (fire) Daisuke Nakayama Studio Realthing: Light of Love to Yameen and Lady Alma. We could already see the clip in his demo tape, with a new name – The Sound of Fire – and presented as a pilot.

The Light of Love anime video was in fact a slice of a pilot called “Sound of Fire” originally based on the song “Fire” from my album, Never Knows Best. The video was designed, directed and animated by Jamie and produced by Japanese anime studio, RealThing in the Shibuya Ward of Tokyo, Japan. The video’s executive producer was Yujiro Funato. And of course there was a cast of talented artists who have helped bring the video to life:

Production – Realthing
Executive Producer – Yujiro Funato
Producer / Creative support – Norifumi Fujita
Direction / Animation – Jamie Vickers
CGI Direction – Mayu Hirano
Animation / Color Design – Yuko Ueno

Thanks to Catsuka for featuring the video.

Check out Jamie’s 2010 animation reel directly below, and the Light of Love video follows.

Check out the Yameen anime video featuring Lady Alma and Mark de Clive-Lowe.

Check out the Yameen anime video featuring Lady Alma and Mark de Clive-Lowe.

Pic of ya boy.

Check out the Yameen anime video featuring Lady Alma and Mark de Clive-Lowe.

Here it is, ya’ll: the “Light of Love” anime video trailer featuring Yameen & Lady Alma. Mark de Clive-Lowe is on the remix, and we are GO!

Be sure to check for a few cameos in the video including Casual of Hieroglyphics and Bobbito’s Footworks Illadelph record store, formerly located in Philly during the mid-to-late 90′s.

Check out a higher quality version at Vimeo as well: http://vimeo.com/13042021

Animation fans — especially Japanese anime from the likes of Gainax, Studio 4C, and Madhouse — are definitely in for a treat.

» Download the song from iTunes

» Download the song from Amazon.com MP3

I just caught word Japanese producer, Nujabes died in a car crash on February 26, 2010. Because of the producer’s personal and private lifestyle, many did not find out until just this week.

This is a very unfortunate loss for hiphop music, and certainly for the Japanese hiphop community. Homie was only 36; an extremely prolific and much admired producer.

I first heard Nujabes when he produced tracks for the Samurai Champloo anime. Specifically, the show’s intro featuring Shing02, “Battle Cry”:

Rest in peace, Nujabes. I’m glad he has left a huge amount of work for all of us to enjoy until the end of time. Peace, homie.

• Shing02: Jun Seba aka Nujabes, Rest In Peace

I mad randomly stumbled upon this new 2008 “re-imaging” of the original 1995 Ghost in the Shell feature film which was re-released to theaters this past Summer.

One of my favorite (if not all-time favorite) anime directors, Mamoru Oshii released his latest film, The Sky Crawlers in 2008. To help promote that film, they also released this updated version of Oshii’s former, worldwide breakout hit, Ghost in the Shell, with fully re-recorded dialogue, a 6.1 surround sound mix, updated coloring, “new scenes” (which I’ll get to in a sec), some audio support from Skywalker Sound, and a new voice actor for “The Puppet Master” (changed from Iemasa Kayumi to Yoshiko Sakakibara).

Regarding the new scenes…The introduction of the film with Major Kusanagi jumping off the building was entirely re-done in CG. The title sequence, also, which inspired The Matrix films’ “green rain” title sequences were also entirely re-done. There’s a bit of continuity jarring as the movie begins in 3D CG and then jumps back to the traditional 2D. It is in no way a slick transition, as seen in contemporary anime, such as that of Tekkon Kinkreet or even Ghost in the Shell: Innocence.

I haven’t watched the 2.0 update in its entirety yet, but apparently there are a few more changes: all helicopters in the film, for some reason (aside from looking dope?) are now represented in 3D, and all computer terminals are now an orange-redish hue, replacing their former green hue. This is perhaps to distinguish itself from, quite possibly, The Matrix films and to also bridge Ghost in the Shell 1.0 to its sequel film, 2004′s “Innocence” which used those colors predominantly.

Here are a few screenshot differences taken from the Bluray versions of the original Ghost in the Shell and it’s 2.0 update:

Ghost in the Shell 1.0 / 2.0 comparison