Evangelion:1.01 - You Are (Not) Alone

The new Evangelion series just came out today in Japan. I went out this evening and bought a copy, and just finished watching it, so here is the scoop.


Evangelion 1.01 is a remake of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion animated series. It's completely redrawn and has a new story, which at first look may seem very similar to the original; Shinji still fights and kills the same angels in similar ways, but the underlying story is completely different and get this: MAKES SENSE. That's right, Evangelion 1.01 has been made to be understood. (which is a big qualm the Japanese people have with the original)

Evangelion 1.01 is part 1 of 4 DVD sets. (1.0 - 2.0 - 3.0 - FINAL) The series has been truncated and a lot of the filler and needless humor has been removed. (Misato no longer has a comic scene where she forcefully takes the JSSDF's positron rifle / Shinji doesn't comically expose himself to Rei / No weird flash back that breaks up the destruction of Sachiel / etc.) Also, this series is far more graphic and areas of nudity and gore that were tamed for the original television series come unfettered. (Rei has nipples / When S2 Organs rupture, they spew blood / Angels violently scream when killed / etc.) Finally, action scenes have been intensified with all new storyboards and the general look has been pushed both stylistically and with the addition of 3D CGI compositing. There are no openings and the ending theme is not Fly Me To The Moon. Original action music is now peppered with intense Opera and crashing pianos.


Evangelion 1.01 includes Shinji's battle with the first three angels that appeared in the original series. The Seele Monoliths are back, but only 7 have appeared so far. (I believe only 7 will exist in this series as well; One for each eye) The "Plan zur komplementaritat der Menschheit" (Previously the Human Instrumentality Project) has been introduced. Kouryu has already been introduced...on the moon. Asuka has yet to appear, but she will. The ending preview introduces a never before seen character: a girl with brown pigtails named Khara. The role she plays in the series is unclear. (Her name means "Shit" in Arabic, heh) I don't want to say anymore in fear that I might give something away.


I'll be seeing the next installment in theaters shortly. If you have any questions, please comment.


Everyone will die. It will be glorious.

Warhawk Plane Designs

A while back the PlayStation G.A.P. has a contest for designing body art for the planes in Warhawk for the PS3. I had a little free time and came up with these:


A Dive bomber design


This design is inspired by one of my favorite books: Go Rin no Sho (Book of Five Rings) by Miyamoto Musashi

Videos from Osaka

Over the past couple months, I've had the great fortune of being in two televised programs for the city of Osaka, Japan. Here they are:



This video is from the Official City of Osaka DVD. You can see me giving two autographed pieces of my art to the Mayor. Later there is a shot of me working at my desk in Illustrator while a Maya playblast is playing on the other screen. (Since so many people of asked me about it, you can watch that playblast too here: General Takomura )This was during the grand opening of our campus in Osaka at the Asian Trade Center in Suminoeku.



In this video, you can't see much of me. Hahaha. However! You can see my lovely desk with all of my cool figurines. It's the desk where Don Marinelli is talking to Pittsburgh via Skype.

- Bennosuke

XO GameJam - Fruitix

On Friday, November 16th 2007, Myself, Ari Rubenstein, Luther Patenge and Elizabeth Barndollar were tasked with making a full, working game in 40 hours for the XO Laptop on the operating system Sugar. We did it, and we won 2nd place. Our reward was knowing that more than a dozen kids thought our game was one of the most fun! (And some rockin' X-Arcade arcade controllers) I'd say that's worth missing a little sleep. To play our game, right click and download the executable below:

A game where you gather fruit and avoid hungry primates. (Windows exe Download, 4 MB) ( XO Activity Bundle Download 2 MB)

The game was made for the XO Laptop which, for one reason or another (namely the screen type ;p), means the resolution for the game is large, so you may have to go to your highest screen resolution to fit it all. Luther and Ari are my fraternity brothers that I talked into helping me for the project. Elizabeth Barndoller is an incredibly nice girl who was put on our team by the XO Game Jam staff and was a huge help to us. Her website is www.elizabethbarndollar.com. Here are some pictures from the Game Jam:

We're in the center!



Me - Luther - Ari - Elizabeth



I love this game! I even had fun playing it during the presentation!



Ari and I didn't go home and barely got any sleep the whole weekend. Zonks!

I'd like to thank Yoshi and the whole XO Games team for having us! Their website can be found here: http://www.olpcgames.org/

Wheel Deliver Cover Art & Scion T-Shirt Design

There were two Pittsburgh contests I participated in during the Building Virtual Worlds bootcamp of my graduate program. I usually am doing a contest or a freelance job during major project work unless directly told not to or am under contract not to. There are a lot of reasons I do this. For one, it helps me learn how to multitask, but most importantly it gives me a feel for the art scene in the area and allows me to meet new people.

I happened to win both of these contests. The first was for a magazine cover design for a city-wide publication called "Wheel Deliver". The service is a directory of restaurants across the city that don't have their own delivery service. Instead, they have Wheel Deliver index their food, handle the ordering and deliver with their drivers around the city. Lots of businesses use the service. Here's my cover:

The second contest was for a mono-chromatic T-Shirt design for Scion. I heard about this one late from Fred Gallart, a friend from the ETC and CEO of Electric Owl Studios in Pittsburgh, so I had to whip this out in a little less than 48 hours. I did the original sketch on the back of the flier. Here's the back of that flier:

Pittsburgh is big on Pirates, and I wanted to have a high energy illustration that made the Scion look fun. ARRRRRRRRR! Here's my design: