Video Information

Information

  • Member: machina21
  • Studio: Dakrewkideye Studios
  • Title: Children of Daicon
  • Premiered: 2010-07-01
  • Categories:
  • Songs:
    • Electric Light Orchestra Prologue
    • Electric Light Orchestra Twilight
  • Anime:
  • Comments: Quite the monster this became at its peak...

    "Children" was conceived during a small Gainax binge I went on last year during the production of Spin On Simon. I had watched "Wings OF Honneamise" and the entire Gunbuster Saga in one giant marathon. I needed more Gainax cocaine and of course, all roads will lead to Daicon III and IV and like most people, I was completely blown away. Maybe even more than usual given the fact that I went to school to study animation. Something like Daicon would have made me and my classmates go ape shit in Animation history.

    Initial planning for "Children" began around Summer 2009 during the AX aftermath. I would do a few other videos during this time but, I would do a little bit here and there for "Children" as I kinda figured the project would be a big one. Production would not start until January 2010. During this time I was able to get the intro sequence with the text and stars complete but I would get distracted by some little known video games called "Assassin's Creed 2" and "Mass Effect 2". I went on a short video game hiatus before restarting in early February. "Children" quickly became quite the project as I was constantly struggling to figure out how to accomplish certain effects and completely change entire sequences around to make the video more feasible. Honestly, the only reason "Children" was even able to be done in time for the AX deadline was the fact that I'm unemployed, certainly not happy about that, but It allowed me the time I needed.

    Like how "Daicon" was a tribute to fandom of all sorts, "Children" would be a tribute to Gainax and things related to the studio's work or stuff that was referenced in "Daicon IV". I tried to use almost every work Gainax has created, although I was not able to get a copy of "Blazing Transfer Student" , "Ebichu Minds the House", "Modern Love's Silliness" ,"Shikabane Hime" or "Hanamaru Kindergarten" (I actually have a subbed copy of Ebichu, but like I said, it has subs and its crap quality). Hideaki Anno's live action movies "Love and Pop" and "Cutie Honey" make short appearances. I managed to get a copy of "Warning from Space", a Japanese Sci-Fi schlock film from the 50's that was referenced in "Daicon IV". The music videos for "Pieces of Sweet Stars" and "Ride on Shooting Star" are there as well. Probably the most obscure reference I managed to throw in was the short film "Return of Ultraman". A spoof of the Ultraman series that the members of Daicon Films did as well as the Daicon openings. Its a very very quick appearance, but its there.

    To further drive home the whole tribute theme, certain scenes are based on sequences, places or events from Daicon or Gainax shows. The most obvious of course is the intro text and part of the intro sequence where the little Girl flies into frame and disappears, both ripped straight from the opening sequence of "Daicon IV". The flying sword sequence was redone as just random Gainax characters flying all over the place (Can you name them all?). The nuclear explosion with sakura petals? Third Impact with a little extra added from Diebuster and Re: Cutie Honey. The rising city is a reference to Tokyo 3 rising from the ground. Of course the city itself is supposed to be Otaku land from "Otaku no Video". The sequence with the city lights going out and coming back on in the shape of the Daicon Bunny Girl is a reference to “WELCOME HOME” from the ending of "Gunbuster". There are a few other such things buried within the 4 or so minutes of this video, see if you can find them all.

    So, with all that said, here is "Children of Daicon", my tribute to those wonderfully depraved boys and girls over at Gainax. Hopefully in 20 years or so, I'll do another one of these things and maybe by some act of God and some awesome lawyers, DaiconIII/IV will be re-animated so we don't have to use god awful copies of the originals anymore. I hope you enjoy it and I hope that it is a worthy addition to the Org.


    * I was not aware of the Otakon AMV contest opening that is also heavily inspired by Daicon until well into making this. I was kinda dismayed since I kinda figured people would accuse me of stealing ideas. But I kinda just said "eff it" and went on and actually wanted to do an Earth zoom like in the video itself but time and tech constraints prevented that from happening.

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