01.01.2009 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
New Year's Resolution
Finally watch all of "Robotech." I need firm foundations before I can make informed commentary on Alto being such a weenie in "Macross Frontier." The whole "Robotech" series on DVD was mine for $74, so let the grand geek out begin!
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25.12.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
Ban Christmas?!
Merry Christmas to all! A friend over at Himote SNS, the hangout for guys out boycotting romance and dating in the 3D world, sent me this zinger. It's a rap about how much Christmas, the biggest day on couples' calendars in Japan, should be banned.
Ban Christmas Rap
I can't say I agree, but damn that is a cool way to make the point!
Tags: Otaku Nico Nico Himote 0 Comments
22.12.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
I hate America - the manga!
Tis the season to be jolly, and this one made me chuckle. The title is "America nante daikirai" (アメリカなんて大きらい), simply "I hate America." The English subtitle is "Do you like America?" I take it the artist Takanashi Midori does not. Her work was serialized in popular manga magazine "Morning" and released as two manga volumes in 2004.
A young Japanese girl comes to New York and her boyfriend get's killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. She takes up a camera and embarks on a journey to find the America he loved, and herself.
The story might have been a serious and moving one, but instead it deals in so many cultural cliches that I couldn't help by laugh. Let's do a run down:
Violent, indulgent Americans with guns? Check!
John Wayne as a role model? You bet.
Killin' Osama bin Laden? Can I get a hell yeah?
Do American's like maids? No - it's Hooter's baby!
And just for kicks, how about throw in some Amish. (There are Native Americans and blacks, also, but I think someone would shoot me if I post those images here.)
Maybe it's a little weird for an American to say this, but I enjoyed this despite all. It's wild to see what this author, and ostensibly her Japanese audience, see in America. The worst parts of the country as they are percieved are right there in vivid drawings, black and white as big as you please. It reminded me of "Moe USA," another manga dealing with Japanese perception of foreigners. Only "Moe USA" deals with non-Japanese visiting Akihabara and love Japanese otaku culture, where as "I hate America" shows how one young Japanese girl cannot bear the United States.
I wonder if anyone else has checked this out? Any thoughts?
Tags: Manga 10 Comments
21.12.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
ABCs of Akihabara? For me, N-O
Doing the rounds in Akihabara today and saw this advertisment. I wonder what sort of service it is, and why I've never heard of or seen it before!?
Tags: Akihabara 3 Comments
10.12.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
Cafe in Gotanda with Nakasone Teacher decor!?
There is a cafe called Sign Gotandar in Gotanda that is decorated up with images from the online neta Nakasone Teacher.
I am not sure what the deal is, but the food is all right and the images provide plenty to look at!
Tags: Otaku 0 Comments
10.12.2008 · by Adrian A. Lozano
NEW GOGO Curry Electric Town Akiba location
Thursday December 4th was the eve of the opening of a new GOGO Curry on the Electric Town side of Akihabara. Oh what a treat to no longer have to walk to the other side of the station to get my Healthy pork cutlet. On my way home from work I stopped by and there was a sign on the door telling me to come back at 11:55 the following day. Their grand opening special was that the first 555 people would get curry at a special price of 55yen. That's a deal, a steal, the sale of the century... unless you are Eva. So I was sold and planned a GOGO Curry lunch with a few of my fellow co-workers. Come lunch time on December 5th we rush down to GOGO jumped behind the only person going in and was told .........................
"You need to get in line, it's behind you."
In the end we ended up settling for Burger King.
02.12.2008 · by Adrian A. Lozano
Mazinger Z ... Zanta is coming to town!
Liberty on Chuo Dori has Mazinger Z out side the shop spreading yuletide cheer to all the good boys and girls around Akihabara! The Otaku Winter Wonder Land season is finally upon us.
Tags: Akihabara 1 Comment
23.11.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
Akihabara's Future: Morikawa Kaichiro
The New Japan Society for Future Research (新日本未来学会), a venerable organization founded in 1968, came off of hiatus to meet in the Dai-biru on November 23 and discuss Morikawa Kaichiro's theories of futurity and Akihabara.
"I was born in a generation when people didn't go to the moon," Morikawa said. "For me, the future is a thing of the past. ... Those without future put those hopes and dreams into science fiction anime, which then became just anime."
Morikawa (second from the right in this picture) placed the shift from worship of past to belief in future on the French Revolution, but then said that was derailed by wars and environmental and technological chaos after WWII. In accordance with his well known hypothesis from his book "Learning from Akihabara," Morikawa stated Akihabara was transformed into a city of otaku by youth who poured all their energies into hobbies rather than future.
From both architectural and social stances, he criticized the Redevelopment Zone of Akihabara as "a place like any other in the world" in contrast to Chuo-dori and "Japanese subculture, which is always in contrast to the mainstream culture adopted from foreign nations."
He drew an example from Bruno Taut, an architect who visited Japan between 1933 and 1936 and said offhandedly that Katsurarikyuu was "real" Japanese taste and Nikko was gaudy and "false." Before his visit, Nikko, where shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu is enshrined, was by far more beloved than the wabi/sabi of Katsura, but after Taut the government pushed Japan as home of subdued modern design.
Just so is the government picking up on Cool Japan to reassert gaudy pop-culture as the new Japan chic. Morikawa suggested that as Murakami Takashi pushes otaku as "Japan" overseas, it might be possible that in another five years Chuo-dori will be more supported than the Redevelopment Zone, which he sees as a remnant of unnecessary technology pushed on Japan by too much foreign influence.
Morikawa showed a composite image of the Dai-biru and UDX Building both plastered with drooling moe characters, rising sun designs and the words "welcome to Japan."
Patrick W. Galbraith, who was invited as a commentator, questioned whether Japan would ever be willing brand itself with a 50-foot-tall "Ichigo Marshmallow" image.
"When visitors come to Akihabara from overseas, they are expecting that kind of freedom, but what they get is police chasing cosplayers off the streets to make way for shoppers," he said. "It is a fact that JNTO surveys show Japan as a more anticipated tourist spot than Tokyo Disneyland, but it is also true that it now voted the most disappointing place in Japan."
He suggested that Japan doesn't seem to want to be considered a nation of otaku; for all the talk of otaku as a "revolutionary" social movement, they certainly aren't treated as such.
Indeed, Morikawa spoke of his advertisement for the otaku exhibit at the 2004 Venezia Biennale being banned in Ebisu - near the center of Tokyo.
Another commentator just thought all this pressure on Akihabara was unnecessary.
"Maybe Japan would be better off if it returned to its period of national isolation and ignored foreign pressure," said commentator Endo Satoshi, the former editor of doujinshi "Otona no Club" which ran Nakamori Akio's article "Otaku Kenkyuu" as a special to "Manga Burriko."
Morikawa seemed to agree.
"Otaku are escaping from mainstream society [imported foreign culture] and creating [Japanese] subculture," he said. "I think that in otaku lies one possible model for the future."
Tags: Akihabara Otaku Academic 0 Comments
23.11.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
Anime is culture!
It's my birthday today, joy of joys. But it just so happened that the massive Tsutaya video rental chain was having a half price event, so I went out to binge on some anime.
Low and behold - Shinkai Makoto DVDs bear the mark "Anime wa bunka da!" (anime is culture). I couldn't agree more, but the times sure have changed. We live in an age when anime is recognized as culture, when not so long ago it was a hidden corner next to the porno.
Now that is something to celebrate.
Tags: Anime 0 Comments
22.11.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
Two-dimensional marriage petition falls flat
One month ago , a young man named Takashita Taichi filed a petition against the Japanese government to force them to recognize 2-D marriage.
"We have no interest in 3-D marriage," he wrote. "If possible, we think we would like to become residents of the 2-D world. However, given the limits of modern science, that does not seem possible. At the very least, then, can't we at least get them to recognize marriage to 2-D characters? If this is possible, I plan to marry Asahina Mikuru."
The 2-D marriage petition comes out of criticism of young single men with "nijigen fechi," or a 2-D fetish. As Takashita sees it, however, such men are not alone - they are in love with anime.
Now, they want those bonds, and the "human right" to 2-D marriage recognized.
Takashita put his petition up on Shomei TV and quickly gathered 2,816 names of the planned 1,000,000. Many put in their wishes for marriage partners and the theoretical issue of 2-D character polygamy was broached.
Hopes were high, as Shomei TV has in the past successfully rallied the media against dangerous packaging of konyaku jelly.
However, a month later the petition is staganant.
"The neta [online topic] is over," wrote one 2channel commentator. But he conceded that he too still wants to marry Mikuru-chan.
17.11.2008 · by Adrian A. Lozano
Nekomimi is so last year make way for Tatamimimi in 2009!
Well I seriously don't think nekomimi 猫耳 is going anywhere in the near future, but I have to admit I like this poster of these two maids with Tatamimimi 畳耳. You would think these posters would be plastered around Akihabara, but I found this posted down the street from Bandai's main office in Kuramae. Even the tatami isn't immune to Moe 萌!!!!!!!!!!
Tags: Maids 0 Comments
13.11.2008 · by Adrian A. Lozano
Christmas spirit comes to Akiba early!
It's beginning to look allot like a Bousouzoku Christmas in Akihabara!
Here we have a group for friends that came to Akihabara to do something a little crazy before one of them flew back home the next day. Their fun was short lived because an off duty police officer on his way to work let them know that Cosplaying on Chuo Dori wasn't allowed. The officer was very polite, and the girls packed up and rode off. Later that night I ran back into the horse mask wearing Otaku over at the Fujisoft HUB. Very cool guy, even game me some Moe buttons just for being a fellow Otaku.
Tags: Akihabara 1 Comment
04.11.2008 · by Klopz™
Silent Hill Homecoming Wallpaper
Nothing much but for fans of Silent Hill nonetheless relevant:
Konami released an official wallpaper for Silent Hill Homecoming on their japanese site.
It looks, just as Akira Yamaoka announced, as if SH5 will be in the same vein as SH2 because THAT is PYRAMID HEAD if I ever saw him. (° 口 °;
SILENT HILL HOMECOMING
01.11.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
Anime golf goods - classic!
Club covers in a shop between Akihabara and the upscale Nihombashi area.
I guess the company president likes his anime and sentai - in addition to golf.
The characters are Kamen Rider, Tensai Bakabon, Astro Boy, Medama Oyaji and Ultraman.
That rocks my my socks off.
Tags: Anime 0 Comments
31.10.2008 · by Eva
Count and Fairy
As of October 31, anime Count and Fairy can be watched for free by fans on either PC or cell phone, according to the official website. The decision was apparently made as the program can only be viewed in three of Japan's eight broadcast regions.
As of today, the program will be made available at Yahoo! Douga for the PC, and Qlick!TV for cell phone users. Though only one episode will be available initially, both sites are to be updated weekly, and in time all 12 episodes will be available for free online viewing.
Though it seems unlikely that all other titles will follow suit, in the past year Gonzo, Media Blasters, ADV, and recently Toei have all made titles available for free online viewing via Crunchyroll. Indeed, things seem to be going in a positive direction, and it may just be a matter of time until most anime - if not all TV shows - can be viewed as streaming videos online.
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30.10.2008 · by Eva
Ride Miku Ride!
As the following video suggests, have we all seen the Murata Boy commercial? Murata was a bicycling robot developed by a company of the same name about 2 years ago. He was very very cool in that he both balanced and pedaled a bicycle, utilizing a veritable rainbow of technologies. The "was" part comes in earlier this year when his younger cousin did the same thing on a unicycle; he is still very cool nonetheless.
In the commercials which aired on Japanese TV around December of 2006, we see Murata Boy at work. But suppose you wanted to build your own future cyclist? Someone did exactly that, choosing Vocaloid Hatsune Miku as the pilot and building the whole thing from scratch. As comedic distraction, we can see some of the failed attempts - or, better yet, the decision to go from high tech to feasible tech, as the former was "impossible."
The finished product, including the paper hair and origami skirt, is simply awesome.
Tags: Figures Hobby 0 Comments
30.10.2008 · by Adrian A. Lozano
My lunch date with the Lonely Soldier Boy!
Yesterday I meet up with Takashi from Over-Drive for lunch in Akihabara and he just happed to bring along Beagle's 1/10 scale VR-052-F Stick Type Mospeada Ride Armor (機甲創世記モスピーダ 1/10 VR-052F モスピーダ). Toynami will also be releasing it worldwide under their Robotech Masterpiece Cyclone toy line. This is an early sample and show piece and is not the actual finished product toy but pretty dang close, I can't wait to see what the box art will look like.
29.10.2008 · by Eva
Eva Origami
Not me, but the animation! An origami master who redefines the term genius has created these instructional videos to assist the reader in creating their own EVA 01 and Ramiel paper arts... but let the beginner beware, this is pretty intense.
Please feel free to submit photos of your finished products to ... maybe we'll add them to the site.^^
Tags: Evangelion Anime 0 Comments
26.10.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
Aso in Akiba
Aso Taro, leader of the ruling LDP and Japan's new Prime Minister, made a trip to Akihabara during the Enta Matsuri on October 26 to appeal for support in his efforts to curb economic decline. Aso has been embattled since taking office because he refuses to dissolve the Diet and hold general elections, which the LDP might well lose.
Aside from his usual talk of turning the economy around and solidifying Japan's position as the leading "nation of pop-culture," Aso praised otaku for maintaining their happiness despite the grim social and economic clime.
"Every time I come to Akihabara, I see people smiling (nico nico)," he said. "It must be from watching all that Nico Nico Douga."
The public address came on the heels of a host of antics earlier in the month, including taking a common taxi directly from dealing with matters of state to talk to folk at a supermarket.
Tags: Akihabara Cool Japan 0 Comments
25.10.2008 · by Patrick W. Galbraith
Fujoshi documentary
As a preface, this is all in Japanese, but hopefully the topic is of interest enough to break out the old dictionary.
The documentary in question came out November 22, 2007 as "Fujoshi no saki ni aru mono" (Beyond Fujoshi) on Fuji TV, which has been making a name for itself with otaku and fujoshi coverage.
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For kicks, here's to Wada Akiko, a very scary TV talent.
One last shot, check out James Welker's site for a ton of useful historic info on shonen ai.
Tags: Fujoshi 0 Comments
