The video site Nico Nico Douga (Japanese equivalent of YouTube, but does a little more), hosted a live stream earlier today featuring a bunch of new promotional material for the movie. They also received a phone call from Miura (!). According to Japanese site 2ch, Miura said that he's now seen the movie, and after it, thanked the director for it. Apparently there was also a short cartoon featuring the God Hand during the live stream. Unclear on the specifics of this. Will post more when I know more.
The stream will be available to premium members of Nico Nico Douga later next week. To be posted here: http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv75949877 Premium membership costs about $5/month. I registered one just to get access to the video.
A few other interesting things posted today by the Twitter duo:
-Movie director Toshiyuki Kubo praying to the God Hand: http://twitpic.com/89ct46
-Sign at the entrance to the Berserk Cafe in Shinjuku: http://twitpic.com/89cxfn
Update: Oh! The video is available now! Watching. It's 2 hours. Will post screenshots of anything interesting. Watch this post as it develops. Right now they're playing a variation of the A.I. song, much longer than we've heard so far. If they play Aria,
I will record it.
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1min: A.I.'s song plays along with the movie title.
3min: they cut to the long trailer
5min: japanese announcer addresses crowd and press going over the schedule for the event. Lots of flashes. Lots of press.
7min: they say they will bring out some of the cast, starting with Guts, also A.I.
they come out along with some guys in full armor. Announcer calls it: MIDDORANDO ARMA. (riiight, buddy)
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8min: I couldn't be more pleased with the guy they chose for Guts. Much deeper, more resonant voice than in the original anime.
9min: He's talking about playing Guts. They joke about how his hairstyle is somewhat similar.
12min: A.I. talks about Guts. No translation, obviously. She has a much more down-to-earth personality than these other marketing dweebs. It's refreshing.
14min: dudes in armor are looking agitated that they have to stand there for so long
16min: One of the armor dudes steps forward and opens his mask. Apparently it's a cast member, or someome important. Hard to tell. Everyone laughs at his jokes.
20min: they pose for a photo, and they bring out the DRAGON SLAYER.
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22min: It appears the significance of this event is that it's the premiere of their road show promotional tour for the movies. They're going to be doing a similar thing in cities across Japan.
25min: they're wrapping up with this crew. wonder what's next.
27min: A.I. about to perform song live. Will record.
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28min: Lyrics in the second verse, in English: "IF I HAD WIIIIINGS"
30min: climax of the song is just after the part where the current YouTube clip cuts out.
32min: Song concludes. They're taking a long break for press interviews.
38min: They've relocated to the cafe where they're doing interviews with the director, producer, and some other dude.
40min: Just realized, they're all drinking GUTS drink
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42min: They're taking questions from Nico Nico users now, and the first one was something about why they chose to begin the saga where they did. I can only tell this because theyre talking about "hen," the designator for arcs.
44min: Teasing some brief footage from the opening scene. A cannon ball strikes the side of a building, richochets off, hits where citizens are huddled together, debris fall, the walls shake, camera cuts to a shot of the Holy See insignia wobbling in place. Gotta say, pretty awesome.
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47min: Talking about how the camera is used. More brief footage shown, still around the Bazuso fight. This is a snippet of a long camera sweep around Guts. Doesn't look very natural. Very obviously a 3D model they're panning around, while Guts stays mostly stationary.
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51min: About 8 minutes worth of nothing so far. Just them talking, and me with no Japanese comprehension.
53min: They show the full sequence of Casca attacking Guts. It's interesting. She approaches him on horseback, Guts has to change his guard because he realizes she has her sword drawn in one hand, and in her other hand has the crossbow aimed at him. So he turns his blade so the flat end faces her to guard against the arrow. Neat touch.
62min: More snippets of footage. This time from Guts emerging from his tent after the first duel with Griffith.
's carving a totem head.
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64min: Griffith and Guts' second duel. Casca looks quite young, which is well done.
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69min: Director talking about how they used motion capturing for the main cast during action scenes.
74min: Casca argues with Guts after their first sortie against the Tudor army. "I'm not the same as I was before!" (conflating the dialogue between Guts/Casca/Griffith's scenes)
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76min: Producers talking about how they worked with Miura. Obviously can't hear specifics.
78min: Remember that scene with Griffith standing on top of the castle, sword raised, triumphant, and how we were trying to determine what scene it was from? Well, it's just a sort of montage as nobles reflect on the Hawks' recent successes. It transitions into this scene, a castle setting, as dialogue from nobles plays over it.:
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94min: They bring out the DS and lay it across the laps of the director/producers.
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106min: They're reviewing sketches or production cels, or at least, prototype cels of some sort. Interviewer guy is apparently a big Judo fan. Yells out: "JYUU-DOOOOOO?!" when they come across a folder labeled with his name.
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108min: Ah, those sketches just before are keyframes for what the 3D animators base their models around. Example, they show Griffith's hand holding something invisible. It's because the hand is stationary 2D art, but the Beherit itself is a 3D model.
1:47:40:
Miura on the phone. Yep. Actually, one of his assistants answered first. Then they went and got Miura.
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1:53:20 Miura really likes dramatic pauses during these questions. The interviewer doesnt seem to know how to handle it.
1:54:42 Miura apparently praises the director, because the guy bows several times in appreciation.
1:57:15 Miura talking about individual characters. Gotta say it's a thrill to hear him say the names of Guts, Casca, Griffith.
1:59:21 Now Miura is talking about the God Hand. Goosebumps over here, folks.
2:00:26 HOLY SHIT, PEOPLE!
The producer just whipped out a production print of a page from the upcoming episode. (IMAGE) (IMAGE) (IMAGE). Also. These things are HUGE.
2:01:01 Miura is still on the phone, just laughing at their surprised reactions.
2:02:15 They end the call. Miura's call was about 15 minutes.
2:04:10 Looks like they're wrapping up the show.
Here's a bit of Miura talking (9.7MB mp3): http://skullknight.net/images/miura-interview.mp3
Yep. It's over. No "God Hand Cartoon" or whatever the 2ch guys were talking about. It's possible that when Miura brought up the God Hand, he said something about this. But I don't know what was said... Thanks for tuning in, guys. The talk with Miura and the reveal of the Ep 326 page were easily the most exciting things. Hearing AI perform the full song was nice too. I'll have a low-quality MP3 of that up here soon.
. I don't expect a theater in NYC to have the print for viewing on Feb 4th, that'll be incredible if it happened. Do you have any contacts/ pals in the theater/ studio industry who can give us some clues about it?
