AUGUST 2005

August 4, 2005
Hello, this is Long Skirt.

Through a window opened in search to relief from the oppressive summer heat, an obscure menace no less menacing than that appearing in Blood+ said "Good evening" and burst forth into the production room.

By obscure menace, I'm talking about IT. Yes, IT.

You know, the black one that spreads its black wings and with wild fury charges at defenseless maidens.

The poor girl sobs away wiping tears and calling out for help in her weak, faltering voice, "Is there anyone who can kill IT?" when the hero finally arrives in the style of a typical Mexican action flick. It is Matty, directly from the production desk! He boldly steps into this reign of horror wearing a rather unlikely yukata-style pair of pants and manly holding in one hand the paper bag for cuts.

The obscure menace was quickly beaten to death and consigned to the garbage box designated for burnable material, but Snow White cannot stop to cry out in fear after being struck with the utter terror of seeing IT for the first time in her life.

Yes, I do recommend to close your windows, in these hot and insidious midsummer nights.

August 5, 2005
Hello, it's OO.

Well, Osaka sure was hot. And the MBS Anime Festival - Osaka Castle Experiment Midsummer Night's Dream - was even hotter with all the great enthusiasm. The excitement of 15,000 people coming together was unbelievable.

The problems that we were worried about didn't materialize and everything proceeded smoothly. What was expected to be a long three-and-a-half hours passed quickly. After the segment with Blood+ was over, I went around as just another spectator and what I saw was quite impressive. Personally, I enjoyed being able to chat with staff from Sunrise and Bones. There's usually not much opportunity to talk to people from other production companies after all. I'm just really grateful to all the people who put it all together. Thanks to everyone's efforts, I think it turned into a great event.

As for the role of MC for the event this year, Eri Kitamura, who plays the part of leading character Saya Otonashi. gave her debut performance. She was a little nervous, but she read through all the narration live without a hitch. She always comes through when it really counts. I hope you'll all be around to see more.

August 11, 2005
Hello, this is Long Skirt.

Let me make a correction to last week's entry. Matty did not kill IT with the bag of cuts. IT was dispatched using a proper piece of cardboard tightly rolled up for the specific purposes of beating IT and other similar things to death. Please excuse the error.

Now, moving on...

I am making phone calls everyday. I search and search desperately for material that you cannot find anywhere. I can't find it on the Internet, can't find it in libraries, bookshops, nor in any specialized technical books. The other day, I was on the phone with everyone, everywhere, from an Okinawa Cultural Resource Center to a construction firm that lays out graveyards. People thought I was some weirdo for wanting to know about some of the things I was asking. Even though someone would say at least once every five minutes or so, "You sure are a curious one to want to know about that," I would persist and keep asking them everything I wanted to know until I was successful in getting some particular information about something in particular. When this is realized in film footage, it will be the first time in the history of Japanese animation that "this particular something" will appear. Probably, perhaps, somehow...

August 12, 2005
Hi, this is OO.

Although the July 30th event is over, the wheels do not stop turning. New plans for the next event are already in the works. I think the next one is going to have a very busy program, and so I hope you all look forward to it.

Also, concurrently with the production of the main program, we're making a short version. We will be broadcasting promotional footage on television starting next month as well. And the show will finally air in Japan in October. Waves of excitement continue to spread from even before the broadcast, so be sure not to take your eyes off of Blood+ developments!

August 18, 2005
Hello, this is Long Skirt.
One of the more difficult jobs I had to do recently was to count all the windows, doors, seats and many other stuff like that.
I would use a magnifying glass to count every window of a train from a tiny picture in the corner of a page of a magazine, or from some strange DVD with the lazy melodies of a country folk song playing in the background. I would count and count with determined purpose, playing the DVD, not second by second, but stopping it over and over, one frame at a time.
While I was doing this, I would see a thirteenth window when there should only be twelve, or I would count a fourth step when there should only be three. My glazed, tearful eyes often stared off into blank space, but I did check everything in the end and it all worked out. (tears)

August 19, 2005
Hi, this is OO
We do the scenario reading for Blood+ on the Wednesday of every week. Sakurai, whom you all know from this website, also takes part in these meetings. For some reason, he always wears this tight sleeveless shirt only at these reading sessions. In his tight shirt exposing his dark, tanned skin from his holiday by the sea, Sakurai looks very much like me. I usually show up early and find myself waiting for the others, but inexplicably, it is no rare that Sakurai comes around the same time as well. That means the two of us are forced to wait together. In times like those, I'm always at a loss as to what to say to him. The words just don't come out.
He is a very cruel man.

August 25, 2005
Hello, this is Long Skirt.

Starting tomorrow night, we begin our summer training camp (it's work). This is basically like a long, hard meeting that goes on for 20 hours straight. It's kind of like a warrior's training.

Even though the company-owned lodge in Yatsugatake we're going to is supposed to be something of a resort, with this searing heat, my guess is that the cave crickets are likely to be growing plump and fat. I wonder what I would do if one of them crawled across my face in the night as I go to sleep. The thought terrifies me already.

But what's more terrifying than the cave crickets is the food we'll be having at this training camp. I mean, wouldn't you find the food prepared by me, who does no cooking whatsoever, or Snow White, who probably didn't do much of it either, terrifying as well?

No, really. I think this is going to be one of those serious warrior training camp-like things.

Oh, the sublime drama of it all.

August 26, 2005
Hello, everyone, this is OO.
Yesterday we had a production presentation for Blood+ at the Sony Building in Ginza.

This was basically for the benefit of the press and wasn't intended for the public, but the conference hall was overflowing with people and it was all a great success. Anyway, it was quite a spectacle; Mr. Takeda from Mainichi Broadcasting was there as well as all the representatives from each project. There were enough important people there to make you think that if an earthquake were to have hit that spot, it would've shaken the Japanese economy.

Among these faces was of course our president, Mr. Ishikawa. In the waiting room before his speech, he was excitedly wanting to check something with me...

"The correct reading of the director's name ideograms is "Fujisaku", not "Fujisaki", right?"
"...yes, that's right."
"I see. Gee, that name can be a pretty tricky one, huh?"

Er... surely it is... Anyway, Mr. Ishikawa was very careful and prudent that day.