Yesterday, the Starbucks we meet in had their new branding rolled out. I’d seen the new logo and packaging previously online, and wasn’t really too sure how well it would work in situ; after recent poor branding revisions by GAP and Waterstones, a rebrand by any big company makes me worry. But I was pleasantly surprised by how well it does work.

Starbucks products with the new branding

With the logo left on it owns with no text around it, it does gain more of a lease of life, and its simplicity really makes it pop off the packaging. I was initially worried as to how the lack of edges would work, but the way the white parts of the logo flow into the white packaging creates something bold but very attractive. The typography, freed from the logo, feels almost more prominent where used. And, of course, the reason for the branding – removing the important of “coffee”, something that hasn’t really been suited to the brand for a while now with their range of drinks and food – opens the prospects for an even more extensive product line.

Starbucks bags with the new branding

The mugs in the UK maybe a little different from the North American ones though. Instead of the strong green logo which drops off the bottom of the mug (as can be seen in the screenshot below, taken from the promotional video going around), the cups we drank from yesterday had a white logo physically embossed onto the central point of the mug, meaning the logo had a lovely tactile quality to it. As a big fan of chunky mugs for coffee, I was quite surprised by how nice it was to drink from the new bone-china cups. They are thinner rimmed, more like the traditional tea cup, but much wider in dimensions which make them feel a little better suited to coffee. I’m guessing this is part of their move to decentralise coffee from their menu as these new cups work perfectly for both coffee and tea.

Starbucks products with the new branding

Illustrated history of the Starbucks brand

This Sunday her new print, She Entwined, goes on sale.

(Found via NOTCOT.org)

For more of Yoko Tanji’s works, visit her portfolio website »

amenone

love

tone

hairy monster and me

Crescent Moon

For more of Gez Fry’s works, visit his Profile on Folio – Illustration Agency »

Poplin Firetrap

Ukiyo 2

Bar

Rebel Star 3

Hot Version

For more of Yoko Tanaka’s works, visit the Billy Shrine Fine Arts website »

Conqueror

Remnant

An Interracial Marriage

Arbitrator

An Interracial Couple

For more of Yoskay Yamamoto’s works, visit his website »

empty howl

streetlights

sunny day with a chance of the ran, rainy day with a chance of the sun

fox entertainment: family guy art show

let it fall

do you mind if i stay for a bit?

For more of Katogi Mari’s works, visit her website »

kimono

Escape

Birthday

picnic

Four Hands

Below I’ve throw just a few little tidbits of thoughts so far on each of these. Nothing overly planned out, really just initial reactions.

Senkou no Night Raid

Senkou no Night Raid

This was one of the first series of this season that really piqued my interested, but now, three episodes in, I’m still not feeling any warmth for it. The first episode was very so-so for me, and even with the improvement in the next two episodes, I’m still finding it very average. I love show, books, movies, whatever, that have a 1930s setting; it’s a decade I constantly find myself drawn to more than most. But so far, even that hasn’t kept me interested; it looks nice and everything, but that’s about it. And one of the main characters, Aoi Miyoshi … I don’t know. I just can’t bring myself to like him. So far he feels very one-dimensional, as do most of the other characters (we are told their past, their current situations, but not in a way that really draws emotion from the viewer. It’s put almost matter-of-factly), and almost anachronistic in the way he presented.

I’m also a little worried that over these past few episodes, the subject of the location for the series, Japanese-occupied Manchuria, is almost being glossed over a little. I’ve long been interested in this setting, an interest that was activated further when I recently read Haruki Murakami’s novel ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’. The novel has, especially from a Japanese point-of-view (but then Murakami is far from an apologist for past Japanese crimes. In fact, he’s usually the opposite) an honest view of what happened in this region during the 1930s, but so far ‘Senkou no Night Raid’ paints a very innocent picture of the whole thing. I do wonder if they are going to delve any further into what wasn’t a very nice period of history, and whether it will be a sanitized view of that world.

I know at only 13 episodes, the show doesn’t require a great lot of commitment, but I’ve been into anime for so long now that, whereas before I could sit through most things in order to tick off my list of ‘watched’, that’s not something I have any desire to do any longer. And with that, I do think this will be dropped. Why spend time on this when I have another 1930s-era show, Baccano! to watch, something that hasn’t let me down for a moment yet.

Saraiya Goyou /The House of Five Leaves

Saraiya Goyou / The House of Five Leaves

This is one of two shows airing during what, since it began with Honey & Clover back in 2005, has been my favourite anime slot, noitaminA. This is the star of the season for me so far, but then I’ve been on a Natsume Ono kick lately. The story centres around a shy, down-on-his-luck ronin who finds himself tangled up with a band of Robin Hood-esque kidnappers.

I know some people view Ono’s work as a bit “ugly”, but I can help but feel that draw me to it, that it’s part of the overwhelming charm this series so far has. It doesn’t ask anything of you; the plot isn’t mindbogglingly complex, but at the same time far from being bare. You can sit back and just let yourself fall into the story, a little like

I also love the OP and ED to this show; completely anachronistic to its settling, but fits in surprising well.

The manga is released in a few months time, though there are chapters up on Viz’s IKKI site at the moment. I haven’t read them for myself yet and will probably just wait until I get my hands on the physical release. Lord, I can’t count how much money I’ve spent lately on Viz’s Signature/IKKI releases.

Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei / The Tatami Galaxy

Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei / The Tatami Galaxy

This series is the kind of thing I love. Completely bizzare, funny, and with a gorgeous but simple 1960-ish style. It exudes character.

The main character is an unnamed university student and each episodes explores his time in various university clubs, time that he now calls ‘wasted’.

But as much as I enjoyed the first episode, I know it’s going to be hard to find the time when I’m in the mood and have the concentration to watch the series; the dialogue goes at a greater pace than anything I’ve ever watched before! And I thought the speed of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was difficult to follow at times! I can be a speed-reader when it’s called for, but doing it for 20 straight minutes is a little painful. And I also don’t know when to even expect subs for this as it must be a murder of a job to do (I’m in the UK so blocked from the legal streams of this and ‘The House of Five Leaves’).

Here’s hoping for some let-up on the dialogue-speed (Dialogue amount = no problem. Dialogue speed = big problem!) as this is something I really want to get into.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Arakawa Under the Bridge

I was already convinced to put this series in my ‘to watch’ list as it was based on a manga by Hikaru Nakamura. Not that I’ve actually read anything by her (yet). Just the plot synopsis of Saint Young Men brought her to my attention, and until I am able to get around to reading that, or the original Arakawa manga, I thought this would be a good chance to get accustomed to her work. The fact it’s from the same people as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei further convinced me; it’s without a doubt one of my favourite anime of the past few years.

So far, I’ve been really engaged by the first few episodes. The characters are interesting, the gag element consistently successful, and the weird factor just enough to be fun and not overdone. And the OP is probably one of the cutest things I’ve seen in a while.

And to End …

So three out of four isn’t bad. But at the same time, I hate to drop a series. Over the past few years I’ve been so selective that my ‘dropped’ list has remained quite short. But if it must be expanded, then it must.

And now I actually have sometime to delve into the pretty DVDs I have sitting at the other end of the room

Cardcaptor Sakura Omnibus 1

I’m not the biggest CLAMP fan.

In fact, I used to be a more vocal fan, especially before I’d read the fast majority of their manga. I have all of their manga released in English, plus more than a few pieces of merchandise; Tokyo Babylon is, without a doubt, my number one manga; Clover maybe unfinished and a bit wishy-washy with the lyrics, but it is a real example of how manga framing, graphic design, etc. can be done differently, and is just simply beautiful.

But there are more than a handful of their work that doesn’t get me that excited. It took until the last few episodes of the Kobato. anime to encourage anything mirroring enthusiasm from me (and even then it felt like a rehash of Wish. Though that may not be the case with the manga, which I’m waiting until the English release to read); Tsubasa was great to start off, but it has always been very uppy-downy in terms of quality throughout; xxxHOLiC has been the only work they’ve put out in the past number of years that still truly excites me.

Lately I have been more absorbed by other manga-ka, such as Naoki Urasawa and Fumi Yoshinaga, but I still have a soft spot for CLAMP. And now that several of the English licenses to their work have expired, only to be quickly bought up by Dark Horse, I can see myself double-dipping for more than a few of their titles.

Cardcaptor Sakura especially is a definite for me. I adore the series, even though I’m not the biggest shoujo fan. I have the second edition version of Tokyopop’s release, but the thought of a new edition with colour pages, a newer translation closer to the Japanese original, using remastered image files is exciting. Magic Knight Rayearth is another one I’ll definitely be picking up; it’s not anywhere near to being a favourite of mine, but it is enjoyable and Tokyopop’s second editions have a lot that could be improved upon. I’m not too sure whether or not to pick up Chobits; again, not a favourite, but I don’t feel the need to supplement my current volumes with a new edition as much as the other two.

But probably what excites me the greatest about these re-releases are the possibilities for the future. One of my favourite CLAMP titles, X, has never gotten the treatment in English that it deserved. Even at a time when the right-to-left format was taking over, it was still being published flipped. I’ve actually picked up quiet a few of the Japanese release to see the artwork as it’s meant to be. There is also the removal of honourifics and the like, things that nowadays are standard for translated manga. Dark Horse hasn’t said much about a re-release of the series other than that it’s not a possibility until CLAMP are able to go back and finish it (it has now been on hiatus for about eight years), but hopefully in the future, we’ll get a beautiful new edition to collect.