I just finished maintenance on Playmobil365.com. My tribute project celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Playmobil is 9 years old! Updates included link hygiene, comment culling, platform hardening, etc. The BIGGEST update was retrofitting categories to EVERY post. This was an old ambition and finally used some downtime to tackle. There are a couple of vignettes and now you can easily isolate the posts and photos related to those stories. All of this was done as early preparation for a 10-year anniversary project (details soon).
If you’ve never visited Playmobil365.com there are tons of tributes to classic video games (Pac-Man and Sid Meijer’s Pirates), 80s bands and artists like A-ha, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Paul Simon and Howard Jones, Disney animation, artists, imagineers and theme park attractions, football clubs like Southampton, Morecambe, and Metz, writers like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, Jeff Bridges via TRON and The Big Lebowski, places like London and Bermuda, and Hayao Miyazaki, Makoto Shinkai, and Haruki Murakami and FINALLY pop culture references like the nod to Garth Marenghi and Stanley Kubrick.
DM me if you can name the movie tribute to Miyazaki and Shinkai and the book title of the tribute to Murakami.
>>> BONUS: Sweet, sweet, sweet tyre pron.
Speaking of…
There have been some significant 20th and 50th Anniversaries the last few years- Naruto, Kingdom Hearts, NY Islanders, and Walt Disney World.
Category Archives: Naruto
My Favorite Anime
This is not ranked. I’ve also given an explanation why it made the list. There’s always a kind of sadness when you finish great anime (like a good book or video game) especially when whatever you pick up next doesn’t quite meet the same expectations. This happened to me after completing KH1 and KH3 (Square Enix).
Robotech: The Macross Saga – The start of my interest in anime. I still post about Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, Max Sterling, Miriya Parina, and Lynn Minmay. I remember a trip to Boston with my dad in search of a copy of the Art of Robotech. Why was it groundbreaking? Prior to Robotech I had never seen anyone die in a cartoon. The death of Roy Fokker should make a list like this (see also Bye-Bye Mars).
Related
Weekend 461.0
Naruto – Bear introduced me to the orange ninja. I was probably more interested in Naruto than he was towards the end. I love the filler episodes between story arches. I can’t believe it’s the 20th Anniversary of Naruto.
Related
The Orange Ninja (and other links)
Belle – This is from the same director as The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. The subject matter is very serious — child abuse, death of a parent, and social media addiction — but the intensity is diffused by a beautiful score. This was my first post-pandemic movie in a theater.
Your Lie in April – A beautiful series about love and loss and what we take for granted.
Related
Weekend 356.1 (Ending on a High ♫♫♫♫)
Weekend 357.0
5 Centimeters per Second – This was recommended by a friend. The context of the recommendation was a bit sad but everything in this film by Makoto Shinkai is perfect. I still check every train platform for what exists now only in memory.
Related
Christmas 2018 Sabbatical (Principle of Connectivity)
East of Eden – Kind of a quirky series. I watched this during the pandemic and it was a great escape from the daily news. There were some great scenes of NYC.
Related
Weekend 460.1
KH3 DLC Postscript
Clannad and Clannad After Story – I love the story of Naoyuki and Tomoya Okazaki (father and son) and The Road Home remains one of my favorite episodes in the series.
Related
Weekend 214.1
Weekend 223.1 (filaments and figments)
New England Spring Rain
Weekend 299.0 (Great Company)
Spirited Away – NO list is complete without a title from Hayao Miyazaki and No Face remains one of my favorite characters. The opening sequence at the abandoned amusement park is pleasure island meets the wardrobe. My other Miyazaki consideration was The Wind Rises.
Related
Weekend 172.0 (Aerotropolis Edition)
Weekend 272.0 (22.2 x 21.5 x 9.8 inches)
Christmas 2018 Sabbatical (Principle of Connectivity)
Weekend 461.0
The Tale of Princess Kaguya – I saw this with Bear at The Museum of Modern Art. My trips to Manhattan with Bear are always memorable.
Last Exile – I’m a sucker for anything with zeppelins (Fringe and Crimson Skies). The tech in this movie was very steampunk-like (reminiscent of Steamboy).
Related
Weekend 233.0 (Contrails)
D1496-RF
(1) Spurs should be just as worried as Saints about Hasenhuttl (Football365)
(2) NARUTO SHIPPUDEN meets @PLAYMOBILUSA (Action Figure Insider)
The Orange Ninja (and other links)
I was at NYCC yesterday with my brother and snapped this photo of the orange ninja. It’s his 15th anniversary.
(1) Naruto Manga Sequel Coming in 2015
(1a) Orange Ninja Factoid from Naruto: The Official Fanbook
“According to the neighborhood records, Naruto’s hobby is gardening. A little surprising, but possibly he sees himself as a seed that would be a flower…”