Wednesday, December 20, 2006

"I have a message from another time..."

In 1983, young Hideki Anno had just completed a masterpiece promo for the 22nd anime, comic, and Sci-Fi convention in Osaka, Japan. That work went on to be known as DAICON IV.

This and the prequel, DAICON III, were the first works done by a new and talented group of animators who would go on to become GAINAX.

The DAICON IV movie has been mentioned, parodied, or alluded to in a number of different ways over the past decade:
In the infamous Otaku no Video, DAICON IV is mentioned as a major event in anime history.
In eppisode five of FLCL, the main character does a rendition of the special movie, and even yells out, "DAICON V!"
In the new Japanese dramedy, Train Man (Densha Otoko), the big anime character created for the series is a direct parody of the main character of the DAICON film. The opening theme is also a modern remake of the film.

If you were to find an original lazerdisc of this video it will be worth a lot of money. Because so many copywrighted characters were featured in the film, the DAICON vendors had to sell a convention book with a free copy of the video included!

A daikon is a Japanese radish (that's the ship featured in the end of episode III and the beginning of IV).

If you haven't watched it yet, and I know a lot of you have, here is D-IV in all its glory:


And here is a copy of the opening from Densha Otoko, with a comparison PIP.

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5 Comments:

At Dec 21, 2006, 4:35:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I assume Video no Otaku has yet to be seen by many people here...
Or many people would think differently...

 
At Dec 21, 2006, 7:30:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just out of curiousity...
How many people here you do really think were around before 1983 and know DAICON IV...
Your expectations are quite high.
Although... you did inform me of another thing... I knew Densha Otoko as a movie... not a drama series...

 
At Dec 21, 2006, 10:16:00 AM, Blogger Pocky said...

Hey Kip! Thanks for posting that! I think DAICON IV looks really awesome and now I know that bunny charater is from Densha Otoko (I had seen figurines of her when I was in Tokyo).

 
At Dec 21, 2006, 4:17:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

@Pocky- You saw Mina or the other character.

@Kami- Brother, this gets a LOT of hits on YouTube; actually, if you are big into anime and haven't watched it yet, then you've been missing out!

Also, Densha is EVERYTHING!
Manga's due out soon.

 
At Dec 22, 2006, 5:41:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

yea i have that soundtrack from elo. it is fantastic.

 

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