Yokai/Damage
I can't believe I forgot to mention this awesome interview that Schultz of Hello Damage conducted with us about Yokai Attack! Check it out when you get a chance.
« October 2008 | Main | December 2008 »
I can't believe I forgot to mention this awesome interview that Schultz of Hello Damage conducted with us about Yokai Attack! Check it out when you get a chance.
Jumbo Machinder collector "Nekrodave" (who also contributed imagery to Yokai Attack!) found these specimens of Dangard Ace around the world. The original Japanese version is at top left. Witness Dangard's de-resolution as it was successively bootlegged in Italy (top middle), Peru (top right) and Argentina (bottom row). Aside from the official version, which came out in 1978, it's nearly impossible to date when these came out. One would assume the late Seventies and early Eighties.
By the time Dangard hit South America, he'd obviously seen better days, but it's still amazing to see the penetration of anime characters into the farthest reaches of the globe decades before the "Japan Cool" phenomenon.
Friend and toy freak Erik Sjoen tipped me off about this amazing Japanese-language blog full of custom Chogokin you always wanted but never actually existed. Scroll down to the second big chunk of text (labeled 改造合金) for links to crazy stuff like Getta Robo G's Texas Mac, obscure tokusatsu hero Big One, The Kagestar's Bellstar, the nude lower torso of Sukekiyo from Kon Ichikawa's 1976 film Inugamike no Ichizoku (okay, perhaps you never did want that one), Densenman, the complete casts of the shows Guyslugger and Rainbowman, Star Wars' K-3P0...
Originally published in 1967, the Kaiju Zukai Nyumon ("An Illustrated Introduction to Giant Monsters") is finally back on the shelves of Japanese bookstores. "Practically every man in his forties today -- including Crown Prince Naruhito, born in 1960 -- looked at this volume as a child," wrote Takashi Murakami of the book in the catalog for the "Little Boy" exhibition. Reissued after a decades-long hiatus by Shogakukan, stuffed full of amazing illustrations of the innards of kaiju from the Ultraman series, Kaiju Zukai Nyumon is a legend, a cornerstone of the otaku aesthetic, and an absolute pleasure to read.
Good news! The fine folks at Jap Inc., clothiers to legions of tokusatsu heroes/bad guys and owners of Kichijoji's finest metalhead hangout Bar Jap, have opened a new joint. The suspiciously familiarly logo-ed Rock Star Cafe can be found right outside Inokashira Park and also doubles as a rental gallery. Chances that "Chinese Democracy" is playing there this very second approach 100%.
Interesting article in yesterday's Nikkei Shimbun, Japan's equivalent of the Wall Street Journal. Entitled "Kuuru Jyapan no Yuuutsu" ("The Melancholy of Cool Japan"), it paints a bleak portrait of the domestic video game industry, noting that the top two video game companies worldwide (EA and Activision-Blizzard) are now foreign. Even more to the point is the domestic market's sluggish growth in spite of a near doubling of the size of the market abroad.
A shell fired from an M16 was discovered among the fragments of the ill-fated helicopter...
Recent Comments