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It starts as a frivolous outburst; rough around the edges but not lacking for enthusiasm. Lessons are learned and applied to rein in that energy, tighten up that delivery. Take care and do it to your own satisfaction. Lose direction though and all that may be satisfied is a vague obligation to a nebulous end.
The annals of amateur podcasting are a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. Secret Of The Sailor Madness was a bafflingly-titled outlet for a plucky pair to pour forth their giddy passions for animation of all descriptions. It was a great way of staying in touch, meeting new friends and surprising our own capacity for creative expression. Life demands much however; enthusiasm is admirable but without clarity of purpose it may find itself taking a back seat to those matters that need us and sustain us in immediate terms. We already have enough jobs without clocking in for another one.
Time and distance were needed, whether to regroup our lives as real world events laid siege and/or ruminate on the inner self to locate the fount of our love for the cartoons. I mean, we never fully stopped sure. Our joint venture running down what's good in the world of Japanese animation from week to week is still going grand after all, so there was ever a fire in us to converse at length on this. What would stoke that flame though?
My own travels this last while have taught me at least this: I enjoy many things and think it's fun and cool when a cartoon does them. Action movies, culinary odyssey, absurd comedy and more besides find unique expression in animation on their own terms. Yet why are their accomplishments often held up against, nay, regarded as lesser than their live-action equivalents? This is not a new phenomenon to be sure, however recent egregious examples have strained whatever goodwill remained in that premise.
The animation versus live-action dichotomy is a subject we've discussed before under the same title even. Rather than just mock the most infamous, wrongheaded applications we held a fascination for what informed the choice to go one way or the other, for what is gained or lost in the transformation process, a fascination that clearly persists. Disdain may have lit the match this time but it won't be the fuel source. With a more open & comprehensive view we intend to tug a little harder at the diaphanous veil separating dreams and reality to see what illuminating truths lay behind.
And perhaps it's also that troubling sense of unfinished business, of a conversation abruptly cut short or indeed never started, that has us back on the job again. We have much to talk about, and pray it won't be belaboured by remorse over losing our way. Promising leads have emerged, old contacts are being looked up and cases are being built. Wherever they are, whoever they may be, they will be brought in, DRAWN OR ALIVE.
