AniManga: Boku dake ga Inai Machi (Erased)

Boku dake ga Inai Machi, literally translates into "The Town Where Only I am Missing" and is most commonly referred to as Erased.

Erased, is a manga series written and illustrated Kei Sanbe serialized from June 2012 to March 2016. The story was converted into a twelve episode anime which ran January 2016 - March 2016. The story is about an average man named Satoru Fujinuma with an extraordinary ability. Satoru has the unique ability to travel through time. His ability works unconsciously and lacks control, but it does save lives.

Whenever a life-threatening accident occurs in Satoru's vicinity he is forced back in time to a point before the accident. Once sent back Satoru has a limited amount of time to solve the problem before he returns to the present. Whenever Satoru alters the past only he knows what changed from the timeline.

15 years before the series starts, several girls from Satoru's middle school disappeared and were murdered. The cases remained unsolved. When Satoru's mother gets killed, and the killer tries to frame Satoru, he realizes that the murderer is someone he knows. Aside from his mother, all the people close to Satoru get dragged into a murder case more than a decade old.

What follows is a hair-raising, suspense, thriller that will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. Satoru faces one tragedy after another while being sent back to middle school with all the memories of a twenty-eight-year-old. He has to find the killer and stop him from murdering his mother and several of his middle school classmates before he runs out of time.

The anime is an excellent adaption of the manga series and worth watching. 

AniManga: Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World)

 Shin Sekai Yori (From The New World) is a blend of science fiction, horror, and deep insight into the mind of humanity. The story takes place a thousand years in the future. It follows a group of kids who learn some forbidden knowledge about their utopian society.  Six children—Saki, Satoru, Maria, Mamoru, Shun, and Reiko—born and raised in a town, named  Kamisu's 66th district, learn about a plot to wage war against humanity and try to stop it.

In the not to distant future, science proves the existence of PK (Psychokinesis). Once people with PK started appearing around the globe there was a scramble by governments to weaponize the ability. Within 100 years people with PK over powered the humans and controlled society. After a few hundred more years, humans without PK waged war against the PK users. This resulted in all out nuclear warfare which almost destroyed the earth.

From the ashes humanity rebuilt. Top global minds decided that disabling PK users from being able to harm or kill other humans was the solution. They believed genetic modification was the only solution to protect mankind from violence ever occurring again. If someone with PK tried to hurt another human, they would suffer "The death of shame."  This would begin with symptoms of mild discomfort ending in death. In every case where a PK user kills someone the result is death by heart attack. 

With these new restrictions placed on on PK users mankind secretly decided  to develop a way to identify people with abilities from normal humans. Then they genetically cross-bred all PK user humans with the Naked Mole Rat and forced them into servitude. This knowledge and all information related to that part of human history was hidden away and stored as forbidden knowledge.

Since PK users couldn't hurt other users without suffering, they used these hybrid (Mole) humans to carry out their warfare and assassinations. They also created mutant cats that could hunt down children who couldn't control their abilities. Kids who couldn't control their PK were called Ogres and were the most feared. 

The story takes place two hundred years after the last ogre appeared. The hybrid humans learn what happened from a living library and once again wage war on the PK users. The result is one action packed anime that I highly recommend watching. 

Blood Art

There are many different ways to make art. Some people draw with pen, pencil and markers, while others use paints like acrylics, watercolors and oils. Vincent Castiglia uses a unique medium to make is art...he uses blood.

In an attempt to get closer to his art on a more spiritual level Vincent started using the very essence of life to create blood art. He mixes his own blood with water to create a range of rust color like effects other artists can only hope to achieve with paints. Vincent uses the blood with a technique that when it's applied to canvases achieves more color range and texture than the basic sepia tones used to make blood stains. 

He has invented a technique that allows complete control of this unusual iron rich pigment so that he can create any image he imagines. People who view his work see more than the visceral image on the canvas, they see into it, and through it to feel the art on a spiritual level. Some say his art effects the mind on a psychological level that probes the emotions. 

In 2010 several of his paintings were featured in the  film Savage County. He is one of the only artists allowed to have a exhibition at the prestigious H.R. Giger museum. As you know H.R Giger is one of my all time favorite artists and I see allot of his influence in Vincents work. 

Below I posted a few paintings from the blood painter Vincent Castiglia. If you want to see more of his unique art go to his website vincentcastigliaart.com.