It’s a new trailer for Japan’s new live-action Space Battleship Yamato movie (also known in the U.S. as Star Blazers) and I’m struck by two things: 1) That for a lot of people in Japan, this must be the equivalent of the Star Trek relaunch movie last year — a new take on a classic sci-fi tale that’s been informing their pop culture for literally decades — and 2) goddamn there’s a lot of long-haired hippies running that spaceship. You telling me there’s no regulation hair length in the future? Unsettling. (Via Japanator)
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.