I'm not quite back to normal operations just yet. Still getting situated for the moment I'm afraid. I've had to replace a few hydraulic turbines in my lower booster rocket intake. I am unable to achieve optimal flight vectors just yet, everything is being recalibrated since I've been reinstalled in this sector. I hope to be back to full capacity on Monday.

I just wanted to peek in for a moment. How are you all doing? Y'know, I've always loved the work of Osamu Tezuka- but holy hand grenades!I really love his work! It's like whenever I pick up a series I haven't read before- Wham! He clocks me with awesomeness.

I recently picked up Dororo. Purchased volumes one and two, and have been feasting upon them with my eyes like crazy. It's like, just when I think it's cool enough he's doing a crazy samurai story with ghosts, he throws in a giant fetus ghost monster that is the combined mass of seperate ghost children! Or- he'll have some crazy conjoined twin story in Black Jack!

Ooh, ooh! It's only sorta Tezuka related...but oh man is it awesome! If you haven't read it, you gotta check out the manga, Pluto by Naoki Urasawa. It's so very tasty. I've become addicted to it, just as much as I've been addicted to Tezuka's stuff in general. It's a reimagining of a classic Astro Boy story arc. However, it's drawn fairly realistically, and with such a great eye for detail. If I could compare it to anything, it'd kinda be like what The Dark Knight is to Batman. It's got such a wonderful story unfolding, and despite it's realism it's got so much of Tezuka's spirit flowing through it. There's quite a few references to Tezuka's work, hidden throughout the series. The cameo of Black Jack's feet made me laugh aloud on the train and made people look at me. It was just so unexpected, it made me happy.

However, you should be warned that in Pluto, Astro's not the main character. He's not in there all the time, but the story is so nicely done that it hardly matters.

Hmm, while I'm on a Tezuka fest I may as well give my thoughts on the Astro Boy movie. I enjoyed it. It wasn't perfect by any means, but I liked it. I'd definately watch it over the majority of Dreamworks animated stuff. The story was nice, and felt like something Tezuka would have done. There were even some fun Tezuka refrences in there ( aside from Tezuka himself appearing as a character) I liked the characters designs over all. The fact that it's not an 'anime' inspired design scheme shouldn't be a bother. Frankly, I'm glad they tried to come up with a different visual style. It kinda felt like, Astro Boy meets Futurama. I felt the main badbot could have been designed better. I liked the way Tenma was handled, and the differences in Astro's origin are the same sort of differences you'd find in any superhero adaptation. It could have been tweaked here and there, but overall I'd give it a 7 or an 8.

Heck, if you watched and liked Transformers 2, I don't think you have much room to bash Astro Boy for being a little different from it's previous incarnations. The only major gripe towards the movie would be how it was marketed. Or rather, the lack of marketing.. I mean, the only reason I knew it was coming out was because I kept track of it. I hardly saw anything to promote the film. Sure, McDonalds has Happy Meal toys, but in a world where Michael Bay's Transplosions 2 can be marketed on every M&M, burger, soda, etc A movie with an iconic character such as AstroBoy deserves a bit more than a paltry trailer an Happy Meal combo. Regardless of how good or bad it was, it had a story it was trying to convey.