It’s been a while since I really used my personal brand properly.
A few years ago I came up with the idea of “Lensbox Studios”, having grandiose plans of turning my one-man freelance operation into something a little larger, out-sourcing aspects of projects to those more capable in particular fields, leaving me to concentrate on what I knew I could handle. Sadly that never really happened and I continued to work on projects as I got them, often burning the midnight oil to get them done.
Once I moved to Johannesburg, the freelance side of my life ground to a halt and Lensbox Studios, for all intents and purposes, died, leaving me to use the lensbox.za.net domain for my own personal blog and one or two hosted projects, such as the Awakened Guardians guild, my father’s blog beginnings and hosting some images and files that some folks were linking to.
I’ve decided to re-invent the Lensbox again. This time I’ll keep it as my personal brand as opposed to my freelance work. If ever I start that up again, I will find another more suitable name for that side of my life.
For now, Lensbox will be representative of my views, both personal and professional, my photography and 2D/3D work, my writing and my personal hosted projects.
In the coming weeks I will be posting reviews of anime and movies I’ve watched, music I’ve heard and books I’ve read. I will add relevant hyperlink-age to other sites such as IMDB, Amazon, etc as I go, and you can expect a lot of Wikipedia links as well. I’ll add imagery where possible as well.
Here are some of the items you can expect to see in the coming weeks:
- Akira
- Black Jack
- Black Lagoon
- Bleach
- Burst Angel
- Burst Angel OVA
- Code Geass
- Cowboy Bepop
- Coyote Ragtime Show
- Elfen Lied
- Ergo Proxy
- Eureka Seven
- Fate/Stay Night
- Genshiken
- Ghost in the Shell (movies and series)
- Gun X Sword
- Gundam 00
- Hellsing
- Hellsing Ultimate OVA
- Heroic Age
- Kaze no Stigma
- Kekkaishi
- Macross Frontier
- Macross Plus
- Macross Zero
- Mai-HiMe
- Mai-Otome
- Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
- Mushishi
- Naruto – Shippuden Movie
- New Dominion Tank Police
- Ninja Scroll
- Paradise Kiss
- Pumpkin Scissors
- Read or Die
- Robotech – Shadow Chronicles
- School Rumble
- Scrapped Princess
- Serial Experiments Lain
- Shadow Skill
- Soul Eater
- Stellvia of the Universe
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
- The Third
- Trigun
- Umisho
- VanDread
- Vexille
Air Gear
From Amazon.com
Welcome to the world of Storm Riders where motor-powered inline skates called “Air Treks” take extreme sports to a whole new level. Those who dare to ride with these high tech devices risk life and limb in a struggle for fame, power and wings to take to the sky.
Enter Ikki Minami, the toughest fighter on the east side of town. He rules his school, takes on violent gangs single-handedly and lives with the Noyamanos; four sexy sisters with a surprising secret. And after a humiliating defeat to a terrifying gang of Storm Riders, the sisters welcome him to the world of Air Trek where his strength, speed and ambitions soar to brand new heights. Now with powerful new wings he must protect his friends, his school and his pride in fierce Air Trek battles known as “Parts Wars”. One mistake could cost him everything but each victory brings him one step closer to becoming the king of the sky.
Based on the manga by “Oh! great” (Ito Oogure), Air Gear (2006) elevates in-line skating to a high-tech extreme sport, much the way Eureka Seven pushes snowboarding. Minami “Ikki” Isuki is a tough-talking high school student who freeloads at the home of the four Noyamano sisters. After getting the wasabi beaten out of him by a gang of Storm Riders, Ikki discovers the world of air treks: motorized in-line skates that go at extraordinary speeds. Not surprisingly, he turns out to be a natural rider, quickly picking up skills and catching a brief vision of “the Road in the Sky.” But Ikki has to face rival gangs, beginners’ races, and getting a job to pay for his skates before he can aspire to the mystical aspects of the sport. Although the misfit hero, athletic challenges, and other elements in the series are standard-issue shonen (boys) anime, the computer-animated racing shots, skillful cutting and winning voice performances make Air Gear a lot of fun.
If you’re looking for a feel-good show to watch, you can’t go too wrong by watching Air Gear. It’s the standard ‘underdog rising to fame’ storyline that I’ve seen in so many anime shows lately, and it pulls it off well by mixing moments of triumph with comedic situations and consequences.
While I’ve never been an avid fan of anime set in the equivalent of near-modern day settings, I did enjoy the show for some of it’s culture references and for it’s stunning array of scenery (seeing as most races are outdoors). The characters are interesting (especially some of Ikki’s sidekicks) and the supernatural factor of the storyline and some of the character abilities is not over the top.
In general, Air Gear’s anime and manga have gained a lot of popularity, both in the east and the west, now having quite a large fan base, and though the show has often been criticized for not remaining true to the manga, and skipping parts out, it has been praised for its soundtrack.
The anime covers the first major part of the manga’s storyline and one wonders if there will be other seasons that cover the remaining story, as it seems unfair to leave it where it stands at present. That said, a greyed out ‘movie’ button on the TV Tokyo Japanese Air Gear website indicates that Air Gear the movie may be in the works…
More info over at Wikipedia.
