Some Edits and Thoughts on Turning 100

I've made a few more additions to the links sections of this weblog. You'll see direct links for 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother and Animal Treasure Island, which jump back to my main website, DanielThomas.org. I've also added some animation reviews I've written over time. The Yasuo Otsuka documentary is included, of course, and I've also included links to reviews on the following films: Dream On, Silly Dreamer; Innocence (Ghost in the Shell 2); The Last Unicorn; and Ryan.

I'm not able to update my main site until Monday at the earliest, so the pages for 3000 Leagues and ATI are pretty much placeholders ("blog" entries from DanielThomas.org). Hopefully, I'll have that fixed for you.

So this is the 100th post of this website. It's a nice little achievement, and while I'd like to have reached that milestone sooner, I'm glad to be here. It gives me a chance to step back and take stock of things.

What surprises me the most about Conversations on Ghibli? The fact that we've only scratched the surface. Look at all the films and television shows on the Links, and ask yourself, how many of those have I really discussed? How many works did I really crack open and examine from six different angles? When I started this blog, I was afraid of running out of things to write about. I assumed that I would have said all that I wanted to say by now. Strange.

To a great extent, I've brought you along on my own journey of discovery. If it seems like I focus on the pre-Ghibli period, that's only because I'm just discovering them myself. If it was 2003, I'd be raving about all these Miyazaki movies I downloaded to my computer, and the joys of peer-to-peer.

In 2006, it's never been easier to discover Miyazaki and Takahata and their peers. Between the DVDs and the fansubs, we've got nearly everything covered. There are only a few notable exceptions, and hopefully everything will one day be available at your local retailer.

I can't say I'm happy with the traffic (you can see the site stats for yourself), but I always knew that this subject - Studio Ghibli and Japanese animation of the '60s and '70s - was still largely undiscovered in America. It's not something your typical teenage anime geek will be interested in, and the collapse of film studies and college film clubs have made it harder to advance the cause of world cinema. You have to educate a generation that has only been raised on Star Wars clones and brain-dead infantile culture. They've never watched a movie that's older than they are. For all lovers of the movies and animation, this remains a great challenge.

It's a challenge that I think we can overcome. If we have to enlighten every soul, one by one, then so be it. If we want to have any kind of future for ourselves and our careers, then we really have no choice. Unless, I suppose, you happen to be happy with the current state of animation, television, and the movies. You can watch all the reality television and Fox News you want.

So, to everyone, my heartfelt thanks for taking time away from your lives to visit this humble little site. I hope I've been able to enlighten you and provide you with a new source of creative inspiration.