Japanese Animation
By Oli
At 10:41 PM · Sunday, 4 January · 2004
To Humour · Japan
Recently I’ve been watching some great animation. If you have a chance check these out:
PiNMeN
This is a series of short episodes about “workers from space” by Bak Ikeda. Their job is to make sure everything keeps working behind the scenes, and this usually involves a lot of self-sacrifice. The episodes are about 4 minutes each, and act as ‘filler’ programs between main anime・（アニメ） shows on Animax (PiNMeN description page, Japanese only). Some episodes have you guessing what role the Pinmen are performing, others show you their feelings about their job. It’s quirky and relies entirely on the generally monochromatic CG animation — there is no dialog. The official PiNMeN site has some great wallpaper, and the Animax store sells DVDs, toys, t-shirts and more (another PiNMeN product page).
Popee the Performer (Popee the ぱフォーマー)
Another series of between-show fillers. Again the animation style is CG and everything is communicated without dialog, but these are even stranger than PiNMeN. Popee is some kind of clown (wearing a red & white striped jumpsuit with rabbit ears) in a circus in the desert. The other two main characters are Kedamono・（獣） a blue wolf, and Papi a Spanish-influenced clown (and Popee’s father). Kedamono is especially interesting as his feelings are represented by expressions painted on a mask he wears. As his feelings change the mask falls off to reveal his new expression, which is hilarious when he goes through several changes quickly. AnimeFringe.com has a review in English by Dillon Font, who likens Kedamono’s masks to Noh・（能） masks. The official Popee site is basically just an online shop, although there is a low-rez preview (.ram format).
