AltJapan

Haniwa Genjin Zenmetsu Da

Didja hear the news? The 1975 Takara-sponsored Go Nagai classic Steel Jeeg is getting a remake! It's supposed to be a direct sequel to the original series, set fifty years later. (I can only pray the original protagonist makes an appearance, still clad in his trademark leisure suit and gold chains, at age 70.) The Haniwa Genjin are back, Jeeg's head is now formed by a motorcycle (rather than the main character himself, as in the original), and he'll get some new weapons, including "space parts" and "sea parts." Mmm... parts. There's also unconfirmed rumors of cross-overs with Ga-Keen and the other "Magnemo" robots. Dare we hope for a remix of that savagely manly Isao Sasaki theme song? Probably not, but a freak can dream.

One caveat: Nagai isn't handling the mechanical design this time around. Word on the street is that it's being overseen by Toshiyuki Horii, whose last project was the 2005 series "Gunparade Orchestra." The show itself is being directed by Jun Kawagoe, who also helmed "Shin Getta Robo."

"Kotetsu Gami Jeeg" ("Steel God Jeeg") debuts on April 5th on Japan's WowWow channel... At 11:30pm, which should give you a sense of who the audience is: hikikomori shut-ins. And me.

If You've Got to Write... Write DIRTY

The USA Otackers are back... In their most important role. Banished (for one month, on account of getting bumped for coverage of director Akio Jissoji's untimely death), abused... But always invincible. Check it out in issue 108 of Figure Oh. This time around, Patrick and I drop some science about the upcoming live-action Diaclone -- I mean, Transformers movie. Yeah, it's got robots -- but where's Shoji "Chu-Kara no Sabu" Kawamori when you need him?

Manga Uranai

Japan is a nation obsessed with uranai (fortunetelling). There's the usual astrological and Tarot card and palm-reading sorts, of course. But there's also zoological fortunetelling, Moe fortunetelling, Gundam fortuntelling、No-Panty Mah-Jongg Fortunetelling With the Tables Turned.... The list goes on.

Now's your chance to try your hand at Shotaro Ishimori manga fortunetelling. What Ishimori manga character are you? Enter your birthday, hit the "uranai" button (bottom left) and see for yourself (it's all in Japanese, but you'll get the drift). I'm a Kikaider, most compatible with Kamen Riders and least compatible with Yellow Rangers and Cyborg 009s. I think I'm going to use this next time someone asks me my sign.

We Pledge Allegiance...

The Children's Television Workshop Toei and TV Asahi are proud to present the Gel Shocker Pledge from your favorite show, Kamen Rider. (Don't know what Gel Shocker is, you poor bastard? Read up right here.) Recite it daily, preferably while entering government buildings or passing through airport security.

1) Those who don't obey orders are to be killed.
2) Those who are defeated by the enemy are to be killed.
3) Those who make mistakes are to be killed.
4) Those who love peace are to be killed.
5) Those who value friendship are to be killed.
6) Those who are weak are to be killed.
7) Those who are late are to be killed.
8) Those who are sick or injured are to be killed.
9) For the sake of the organization, families and relatives are to be killed.

Best part: furigana for those too young to make out the kanji characters. Long live Japanese kids' programming. We can only pray the latest incarnation, the train-themed Kamen Rider Den-O, is as educational.

Gross National Cute

The power of cute compels you! Anyone who doubts the influence of the cute character in modern Japanese society need look no further than Tokyo's Shibaura Water Recyling Center, preferably from low earth orbit. Check out this satellite imagery of the government-owned facility: They've painted an enormous rendition of their mascot character atop one of their reactor tank reservoirs. Here's a link to the Google Maps interface queued up to the actual coordinates, which lets you zoom in and out and scroll around.

A lot of non-Japanese are really thrown for a loop by the juxtaposition of unabashedly cute imagery with otherwise straitlaced things like water-reclamation plants, but really, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Nearly every Japanese governmental agency sports its own cute mascot, as do the fire department, the metropolitan police, and even the individual branches of the military. Even the likes of prime ministers have been known to kick it with some cuddly homies (check out the Ministry of Justice's website, which sports a shot of former PM Koizumi posing with the official mascot characters for the concept of human rights. Who knew that human rights were so squeezably soft?)

Pro and armchair Japanologists have advanced all sorts of theories as to why the Japanese seem to willing to embrace what, at least to many Westerners, appears to be such an infantile approach to public relations. Some have proposed that the logographic nature of kanji characters somehow "primes the pump" for visual representations of ideas and concepts here. Others attribute the penchant for anthropomorphic character design to the animistic traditions of Japan's native religion of Shinto. Or is it due to the rise in popularity of anime and manga in the postwar era? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Forget the scholarly stuff for a second. The real reason you see this sort of thing in Japan is simple: because it's kinda cool to splash a cute character a hundred meters tall across the roof of your industrial facility. (I'm praying someone gets it in their head to paint those JSDF characters atop the Pentagon as a cross-cultural prank.)

Anyway, allow me take this opportunity to unabashedly shill Hiroko's and my upcoming book on this very topic. Hello, Please! Very Helpful Super Kawaii Characters From Japan is a discussion and photo collection of some of the more interesting creations we've encountered in our travels throughout Japan. As these official mascots and PR characters exist to convey information and promote concepts rather than as merchadise in and of themselves, we coined the term "working characters" to distinguish them from commercialized cousins such as Hello Kitty. In any event, Hello, Please! is being published by Chronicle Books. Watch for it to hit bookstores a bit later this year. And yes, it'll even have its own official mascot. Because, really, what book about anthropomorphic mascots would be complete without one?

(Thanks to Adamu of MutantFrog for posting about this amazingly lucky find in a random scan of Google Maps imagery!)

Cho-Ai-Kin

Tokyo being the nerve center of the Japanese pop-culture machine as well as the nation's capital and center of the Japanese financial world makes it the kind of place where you can find yourself face to face with former actors, former prime ministers, former members of the Science Patrol... The list goes on.

Take one day last summer, fer instance. I came home after a trip to the grocery store to find a frantic Hiroko at the door:

"Where were you? I tried calling!"

"Left my cell phone behind, sorry. What's up?"

"Umezu Kazuo just walked past the house and down the street!"

"What?!" (sound of groceries dropping to floor as I lunge for the vintage Umezz collection on our bookshelf and sprint out the door after him for a "sign," as the Japanese call autographs.)

The attempt played out unsuccessfully -- how I lost a guy who dresses in nothing but bright red striped shirts I'll never know, but I should've figured someone who writes stories with names like "A Girl Who Has A Human-faced Lump on Her Cheek" to be able to disappear like a character from one of his comics.

Anyway, just this past Monday Hiroko and I were jogging along the tamagawa josui trail. We spotted a camera crew set up ahead of us. The crew was between takes, and sitting in a chair in a grassy spot alongside the path was none other than Kinya Aikawa. Kinya Aikawa! The voice of Racer X in the Japanese version of "Speed Racer," co-star of Bunta Sugawara in many of the "Truck Yaro" films, and -- most importantly -- spokesman for Popy toy, for whom he filmed a legendary commercial in the late '70s, reminding kids to ask for their most famous product by name: "Chogokin are only made by Popy. See? (points to kanji on box) 'Chogokin' is spelled like this... Cho-go-kin. Remember, you don't read these kanji Cho-ai-kin. That would be me." Get it? GET IT? Aikawa Kinya... Cho-Ai-Kin... Because the kanji's got a dual reading of "go" and "ai"... Ah, whatever. Welcome to the world of kanji-based humor.

Unfotunately, this commercial is, like, the one clip in existence that hasn't been uploaded to YouTube, so you'll have to content yourself with imagining the still above is video. Try drinking a few nice, cold "Other Miscellaneous Alcoholic Beverages, Type 2" or something.

Comiketiquette Redux

Japan's legendary Comic Market ("Comiket") isn't only about unlicensed underground comics. It's also a chance for the cream of Tokyo's cosplaying crop to strut their stuff. Although free to walk around the show floor, the vast majority of the cosplayers congregated in a "photographer's ghetto" of sorts on the rooftop of the convention center. Let me emphasize just how bitterly cold it was up there that day. Most of the cosplayers withstood the wind and chill in little more than thin spandex outfits. What dedication! Still, I couldn't bring myself to prepare yet another run-down of freaks in costumes. Because I actually found myself far more intrigued by the freaks doing the shooting than the players themselves. Observe. (Click to see 'em huge.)

A passable "Noriko" from "Aim for the Top: Gunbuster"....

And her expensively-equipped fan. Digital SLR, external flash... That's easily $1000 worth of gear.

I'm not kidding about the expensive equipment. You should have seen some of the rigs these (amateur!) cameramen were hauling around, all purchased, no doubt, for the express purpose of shooting otaku girls in skin-tight anime outfits. Here's a dynamic duo...

...And their legions of admiring fans.

Smile for the camera, now:

What cosplay event would be complete without autograph-signing (and undoubtedly male) "dollers"?

This dude didn't just have the expensive single-lens reflex camera and external battery rig for his flash, but a customized backpack stuffed full of high-end lenses and other gear.

The hungry crowd closes in:

One more for the road. These two were last spotted boarding a Galaxy Express bound straight for Steve Harrison's house.

Japanamerica's Most Wanted

Author (and in the interest of full disclosure, friend) Roland Kelts' new book profiling the Japanese pop-cultural scene, Japanamerica, has hit the shelves. Rather than the usual guidebook, it's an intriguing sociological exploration of the roots of and the interrelationship between Japanese and American pop culture. Although a newcomer to the world of manga and anime -- he's by his own admission an outside observer rather than a fan or consumer -- Kelts tackles the "big picture" of hows and whys while simultaneously providing insight into the minutiae of daily life in the industry, particularly as seen through an extended discussion with Tekkon Kinkreet director Michael Arias.

Readers annoyed by the superficiality and outright invention of books such as Carey's Wrong About Japan will find themselves far more satisfied by the journalism here. Kelts conducted extensive interviews for his book, most notably (for readers of this blog, anyway) of Patrick Macias and myself, who are quoted throughout. Hungry for more info? A far more comprehensive review than I could ever hope to pen is up at Ain't it Cool News Anime.

Comiketiquette

Last weekend marked my very first foray to Comic Market (a.k.a. "Comiket"), the seventy-first (!) biannual convention for Japan's legions of amateur comic artists. For those unfamiliar with the scene, it's three days of what essentially amounts to copyright amnesty, allowing tens of thousands of amateurs (and the occasional moonlighting pro) to sell illustrated fan-fiction to massive crowds of manga-hungry fans. (In previous years, more than a quarter million of them.) It's a mob scene of aggressive pop-cultural appreciation, and here's this year's hot picks:

1) Yamato Tribute Illustration Book (Vols. 1-3)

An ultra-slick (for a Comiket release, anyway) full-color three voulme set of unofficial Yamato art ranging from dramatic renderings of space battles to Mori Yuki in bondage. Featuring the handiwork of a wide array of artists both part-time and pro, including mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi. Glossy, drool-inducing Space Cruiser eye-candy.

2) Mugen no Hiraiasu ("The Unlimted Hirai-ath")

I purchased this crudely-drawn amateur comic in the hopes of seeing Kelloggs characters "get it on" with one another, but the reality was even sweeter: page after page of Tony the Tiger beating the shit out of various anime characters with a nail-studded baseball bat. "There are only two ways to truly understand Tony's heart," explains the author in the preface. "By subsisting on nothing but Frosted Flakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, or by drawing a manga about him."

3) The Ghost Zock

A dojinshi drawn by a random guy, in the style of Matsumoto Reiji, as a parody of the WWII manga classic The Cockpit, featuring an obscure amphibious mecha from the first Mobile Suit Gundam series. (Got all that?) "Recommended for Children Thirty-Five and Up."

4) Hellbon: Volume 2

Hell...baby? A totally unofficial series of Hellboy side-stories drawn by a fanatical female fan in a super-deformed style. Volume One apparently sold out within minutes of the show opening.

5) Seisenshi TALIBAN ("Holy Warrior: Taliban")

The star: a doll made from Osama Bin Laden's head glued to a Space Sheriff Gaban figure. (Gaban... Taliban... Get it?) The plot: Cheered on by Adolf Hitler and (in an omen of things to come?) Mecha Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden (a.k.a. "Holy Warrior Taliban") fist-fights George Bush and former Prime Minister Koizumi, just like in real life.

Stay tuned fer freaky pix of cosplayin' chicks... And the men who love them.