A Brief Look at TIFFCOM
by Adrian Lozano,
TIFFCOM 2010 is an event d with the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival held annually at Cool Japan” moniker; unlike Tokyo Anime Fair's semi-formal business days, there are no booth babes, promotional goodies or inflatable anime characters hanging from the rafters.
The anime (and anime-related) content being solicited at TIFFCOM to buyers spanned the entire history of anime; some were as recent as the pilot episode has been produced.
The first and second series of Vegetable Fairies: .hack//Quantum. King of Thorn was released theatrically in Japan back in May of 2010 tied to a hefty marketing push prior to its release but it fell off the radar within the first week and it was quite obvious why. The film itself is only remarkable in that it tries so hard to be “edgy” that it winds up being dull; otherwise it's a standard apocalypse story that mashes up some clichéd horror elements (the cast is slowly picked off one by one) together with a “dangerous virus outbreak” element that doesn't leave much of an impression.
Mazinkaizer SKL, while consisting of nothing new, was at least competently-made testosterone-fueled giant robot action. Mazinkaizer SKL eschews the classic fujoshi crowd.
Vegetable Fairies: N.Y. Salad is an animated series full of imaginative storytelling aimed at children ages 2-4. The character designs are based on Yoshitaka Amano's original illustrations, and the blend of 2D and 3D animation is simply amazing; it's hard to believe this production was done between 2007 and 2008. Vegetable Fairies follows a group of innocent and mischievous vegetable children as they explore their kitchen countertop surroundings.
While some pundits out there believe the OVA market is truly dead, franchise has never been a shining beacon of quality storytelling, this episode felt like just another bland installment in a series that somehow survived the 90's anime/game boom. Here's hoping the other episodes pick up the pace a little.
Koisento, on the other hand, is a “super science-fiction romantic comedy” directed by Satoshi Kon, Koisento could have easily been a feature length film; while the OVA as it exists is very good, it definitely leaves you wanting much, much more.
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