And Now For Something Completely Different
Sep 07,2006
The best anime ever . . . from Thailand!?
Yes, yes, you may be surprised to know that Thailand has a huge underground art and music scene. You may perhaps be more surprised to find that the Thai underground has been heavily influenced by the Japanese underground of the 1990s, with people like Cornelius and members of both Buffalo Daughter and Cibo Matto defecting to Bangkok to produce and record. And perhaps the most surprising, Japan is now re-importing Thai culture back into its own underground.
Which brings me to today's topic, Wisut Ponnimit, a Thai manga/animation artist who got his start doing Dragon Ball drawings for his friends and will be releasing two DVDs of animated works soon. The man is an unmitigated genius--which I say not the least of which because I had the pleasure to do freelance translation for him a few years ago. The first time I met him he drew characatures of all 100 people in his Japanese audience live while a band played abstractly in the background. From there, he's released a couple of books and was commissioned by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto to do the cover of her novel "Nankurunai."
So the guy is kind of becoming a phenomenon out here.
You should first know that his animation is very . . . unique. Most of his art appears to have been lifted straight from a notebook sketch. However, if you can make it through independant animation (Spike and Mike baby!), I definitely recommend you check out his compilations. He also makes the music for each of his productions
You can see a preview for his DVDs here.
His animation is difficult to explain in words, but if pushed I'd say he's about 25% grotesque, 25% crass, and 100% adoreable in a strangely common but profoundly moving way.
To illustrate, my favorite story from his comics is about a young man whose girlfriend buys him a too-small shirt for Christmas. The majority of the comic deals with the man struggling to pull the shirt on over his head in a restroom stall while his girlfriend waits outside; the two trying their hardest to not make the event a defining moment of their relationship. But after her boyfriend asks for a pair of scissors she starts feeling doubts about the relationship and swears in her heart to break up with him if he cuts the shirt.
In the final panel the man emerges from the stall with the shirt fitting perfectly--and from the head he severed to pull on the shirt come the words "There's no way I would have cut the shirt you gave me."
So, if that intrigues you I definitely suggest you check out the DVDs!
Yes, yes, you may be surprised to know that Thailand has a huge underground art and music scene. You may perhaps be more surprised to find that the Thai underground has been heavily influenced by the Japanese underground of the 1990s, with people like Cornelius and members of both Buffalo Daughter and Cibo Matto defecting to Bangkok to produce and record. And perhaps the most surprising, Japan is now re-importing Thai culture back into its own underground.
Which brings me to today's topic, Wisut Ponnimit, a Thai manga/animation artist who got his start doing Dragon Ball drawings for his friends and will be releasing two DVDs of animated works soon. The man is an unmitigated genius--which I say not the least of which because I had the pleasure to do freelance translation for him a few years ago. The first time I met him he drew characatures of all 100 people in his Japanese audience live while a band played abstractly in the background. From there, he's released a couple of books and was commissioned by Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto to do the cover of her novel "Nankurunai."
So the guy is kind of becoming a phenomenon out here.
You should first know that his animation is very . . . unique. Most of his art appears to have been lifted straight from a notebook sketch. However, if you can make it through independant animation (Spike and Mike baby!), I definitely recommend you check out his compilations. He also makes the music for each of his productions
You can see a preview for his DVDs here.
His animation is difficult to explain in words, but if pushed I'd say he's about 25% grotesque, 25% crass, and 100% adoreable in a strangely common but profoundly moving way.
To illustrate, my favorite story from his comics is about a young man whose girlfriend buys him a too-small shirt for Christmas. The majority of the comic deals with the man struggling to pull the shirt on over his head in a restroom stall while his girlfriend waits outside; the two trying their hardest to not make the event a defining moment of their relationship. But after her boyfriend asks for a pair of scissors she starts feeling doubts about the relationship and swears in her heart to break up with him if he cuts the shirt.
In the final panel the man emerges from the stall with the shirt fitting perfectly--and from the head he severed to pull on the shirt come the words "There's no way I would have cut the shirt you gave me."
So, if that intrigues you I definitely suggest you check out the DVDs!
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