ABOUT US

We are a die-hard group of guerilla filmmakers with the sole desire to create the first manga expressive, anime-themed, American Internet television series. You might also say, instead, that we are the First Original American Live-Action Anime. YIKES! WHAT THE HELL DOES ALL THAT MEAN!? Well, let's do some homework first (greeaat...)!

According to Wikipedia (we know we know...NOT a perfect reference...) defines live-action as existing in two ways: 1.) a work in which humans and cartoons co-exist, or 2.) a film or show adapted from comics - or as we have seen recently, from manga and/or anime (e.g. Death Note, Blood the Last Vampire, Speed Racer, Avatar the Last Airbender, etc.).

So where do we come in all of this and how is our fan work original? Quite simply...errr not really...our first show, "Tenshinma," is not based on a pre-established anime; in other words, it is "ORIGINAL" and DOES NOT come from any already finished manga or anime. So the next question that we so often get from critical...critics is, "Okay I understand how Tenshinma is 'original,' but how is 'Tenshinma' a live-action anime if it's not based on an anime?" Good question and before you critics out there start to tear apart fans that your are supposed to support, the answer is that 'Tenshinma' is based on "MANGA AND ANIME EXPRESSIONS." In other words, 'Tenshinma' will display various manga and anime communication techniques. For example, if someone gets really angry, we might CG an "anger cross" on their forehead or if someone gets really stressed or nervous, we might CG a "sweat drop."

So in a heaping mouthful, we are the "First Original American Live-Action Anime." Or if you want to play semantics, we are LIVE-ACTION because we have real actors, we are LIVE-ACTION ANIME because we use anime and anime's predecessor, manga, for its communicative expressions, we are ORIGINAL because we write the story for the show and do not base the show on a prior anime, and we are the FIRST ones to do this (since 2002 baby!). Hell, we're also American. Voila! See that wasn't so bad...okay maybe it was...

Let's see, besides being American, you should probably know that everything we have done for "Tenshinma" and "Crew Trek" has been done on a shoe-string budget. After barely saving up for the camera, it was jerry-riggin' hell for all of us! Yayyyy. :( But we like to turn frowns upside down here. :) ...that was easy. No but really, we have come a LONG WAY. From shoddy home-made green screens to slow hand-me-down computers, we have learned a lot about film-making and we feel that we can now, at the time of writing this paragraph in mid-2009, make just about any kind of film from our garage...literally! However, there is ONE group that we could not have done this without and that is our fans and anyone who has given an honest, positive and ENCOURAGING critique with the understanding that we don't work a 9-to-5 in the film industry. We work in other places and then still manage to squeeze an extra 40 to 50 hours a week into film production and training.

A little history: Our first project, "Tenshinma," was born a few years after Harry Hsu first predicted, back in 1995, that the US television and film culture would begin an accelerating integration with Japanese Anime, Manga and production techniques. In the ensuing years, Japanese animated films gradually worked their way into the heart of America. On October 29, 1999, Princess Mononoke was released in the U.S. Following that, the 2001 film, Spirited Away, became the first anime to win an academy award and then in 2004, Howl’s Moving Castle, an academy award nominated Japanese animated film, was dubbed into English by Pixar’s Peter Docter and then distributed in North America by Walt Disney Pictures. When asked, in 2005, what the American film industry might do when comic book remakes begin running dry, Harry Hsu predicted, “Some big name directors will eventually pick up live action anime projects like Dragon Ball Z, Speed Racer, Ghost In The Shell, etc.” We’ve come a long way – working on this concept from 2002 to the present, from a simple idea, to forming a team of talented hard workers, into the realm of production, and finally onto the web! Our team consists of everyday people like you – from office workers to students to…yes, pet hospital employees.

We thank all of our families, friends and fans for their support and we will continue to do our best!!! ^_^

-The Our Anime Life Inc. staff:
Harry Hsu
Owner / President

Daniel Deragon
Director of Visual Effects / Vice President

Brian Gilmore
Director of Operations

Christian Bossio
Director of Art

Aspasia Loehwing
Director of Public Relations