My Take:

In case this is your very first time visiting this site, I've raved about a revolution for a little over five years now. A revolution created in defiance of the status quo that we, the fans, have always seen as normal. A revolution for shaking up things and spitting in the eyes at those that say "it's not possible." There are many people that have taken the idea of the revolution and made it their own. My friends at Williams Street helped engineered the spirit of the revolution.

Here's a DVD that is powered by the revolution.

Terrence Walker is considered to be a "digital Disney" throughout the online sector. To those that have never heard of him, Mr. Walker has created an innovated anime-inspired short in 2000 called Understanding Chaos. The short thrusts you into the middle of a story about a soldier who is destined to prevent a war between Earth and Mars. The short was well-received in the CGI and computer-animation sector when it was released digitally. Otakus were lukewarm to the short, considering that they think anything made by a gaijin is utter crap. What's even more awe-inspiring is that Understanding Chaos is a short created by one man. From animation to post-production (including all the voices), Mr. Walker was the sole force behind the project.

After the success of Understanding Chaos, he made an even longer, more episodic production, Shadowskin. Armed with a greater knowledge of the medium as well as talented-yet-unknown voice artists at the mike, Shadowskin is definitely a project worth getting into that can be described as Solo meets Guyver meets The Fugitive. This series chronicles a person only known as Patient X. Patient X has escaped from Emerson/Cage Industries, a research lab experimenting with human genetics. All we know about Patient X is that he might be a former convict who might have done a heinous crime, and he has the ability to form a strange armor to protect himself from the latest weapons of destruction. Nathan Cage, ECI's co-founder, reluctantly asks a former colleague, Erica Suguyama, to help find a way to stop Patient X from going completely out of control. Meanwhile, all parties are being watched by a mysterious being known as Shadowdevil, who knows about the Shadowskin Project and the project's origins.

Forget the video gaminess of SD Gundam and the "too-3D-to-be-cel-shaded" feel of Spider-Man. These two shorts (Chaos is about 10 minutes while Shadowskin is a television-episode-sized 24 minutes) are prime examples of what cel-shaded animation should be, and to have one man behind the production of these two top-notch projects is not only astonishing but it's a testament of how far one can go with the right tools.

TOKYOPOP has released these two shorts nationally with their release Anime: Concept to Reality. Now, one would wonder why TOKYOPOP would release a short volume like this. The shorts are only the first half of the disc. The second half is something that a lot of creators of worlds would find inspiration. Terrence Walker guides viewers to a glimpse of the creative process with a pair of instructional segments, Concept to Reality, which basically goes into the creative process from story and character development to animation to post-production, and Deconstructing Shadowskin, which fragments a scene from the series piece by piece. For a lot of novice home animators (like a lot of you guys and gals) and those just curious enough about the production phase of an animation project to want to make one yourself (like me), the second half would be very enjoyable to them. The segment might bore the uninspired easily. I pity the uninspired. No drive to create anything whatsoever.

Anime: Concept to Reality is a production that TOKYOPOP should have pride in. Afterall, with the yearly Rising Stars of Manga contests as well as original manga titles coming soon (one of them, World of Hartz, is the brainchild of Terrence Walker himself), TOKYOPOP is continuing their commitment to bring the world great stories guided by the anime/manga spirit and to end the belief that these stories have to come from Japan only. Anime: Concept to Reality is a must-own for fans of great CGI animation as well as those who want to try their own animated experiments. Afterall, as Mr. Walker said himself, "If you can dream it, you can do it." Diehard otakus who wouldn't consider checking this project out, I think you should. Afterall, it's about time that you see that great anime isn't limited to the land of the rising sun.

Now, check out this interview with the creator of Anime: Concept to Reality, Terrence Walker.