AltJapan

Ishihara on Anime

Tokyo mayor Shintaro Ishihara gives a very "Japan That Can Say No" style spin on the anime phenomenon in this March interview from the Japanese news site Iza. It's a fascinating window into the mind of a man who appears to view anime as a zero-sum game, in which the popularity of one country's works comes only at the expense of others. My favorite part has to be where he backhands Western animation as "unrealistic," then holds up a show about a walking, talking, flying piece of bread as a paradigm of Japanese realism.

Shintaro Ishihara on Disney:

"I think the reason a show like 'Doraemon,' for example, becomes popular is because of its ability to soothe. Japanese anime has a charm that Disney animation lacks."

"I think Disney was shocked by Japanese anime. Japanese anime isn't unrealistic like Western style animation, nor do its characters feel made-up. Shows like 'Anpanman' are part of the fabric of our society. That kind of imagery, that personality of character, is something universal."

Shintaro Ishihara on his personal taste in manga:

"I don't think many young people know of him, but the manga of artist Ryuichi Yokoyama express the pathos and emotion of the Japanese. I'm happy to see Takashi Murakami becoming popular in America, but in fact the genius of Yokoyama blazed the trail for him."

Shintaro Ishihara on how anime will bring the Olympics to Japan:

"I'm thinking to use anime to energize our bid [to bring the Olympics to Tokyo]."

"The IOC is coming to Japan in April. I plan to charm them with things that connect us heart to heart, but this is actually the sort of thing Japanese find most difficult. Do you have any good ideas? Anything? Please?"

Prep the Jet Car

Growing up in the Eighties as I did, the film "Buckaroo Banzai" played at least as large of a role in shaping my personal "nerd aesthetic" as my steady diet of anime shows and Godzilla flicks. I can't even begin to estimate how many Cheetoh-fueled afternoons and nights my pals and I blew popping it in the VCR throughout junior and senior high.

I always associate the film with the suburban "rumpus rooms" in which it was inevitably screened, so it was with great amusement that I heard the film come up in a discussion with a group of late-thirty and fortysomething otaku pals in a Kabukicho dive last weekend.

Toire no Sadako san

Wipe your fears away with the latest twist on "J-Horror": toilet paper printed with the short tales of terror authored by Koji Suzuki of "Ring" fame. Entitled "Drop" and called "the scariest toilet paper in Japan," it's coming out in June. Who needs washlets when you've got Suzuki covering your backside?

The Sky is Crawling

The latest news from the anime industry, courtesy Itai News:

700 Animators Polled: Average Salary 1,100,000 yen / year (USD $11,000) for Those in Their Twenties; 2,140,000 yen / year ($22,000) for Those in Their Thirties

The most recent hard data on the sad state of the Japanese anime industry, this survey is but the latest confirmation of the unofficial complaints and rumors that have been swirling for the last few years. 

The data was released during a symposium on working conditions for Japanese animators held this week in Tokyo, the first of its kind, and only the latest sign of the mounting troubles facing Japan's legendary anime industry. Other tidbits included the fact that some 47% of animators work without any sort of employment contract in place and that 38% have never gotten an annual doctors' check-up, a standard employment perk at most Japanese companies.

"We cannot groom young talent under these conditions," explained one attendee. "The industry is heading for serious trouble." The symposium's official recommendations included a total re-evaluation of salaries across the board combined with the  establishment of a set salary structure for animators. Whether they can convince production companies to implement any of this is still a totally open question.

Comments from posters in the Itai News thread included "how are we gonna live like this!?" and "quit building anime museums and start giving that money to the animators!" One thing's for sure: salary hikes are nice, but the problems aren't going to be fixed until the real issues with the current state of domestic market flooding, subcontracting, and sponsorship are addressed.

Shift Perfectly!!

A prototype of the beautifully conceived, fully transforming, and totally expensive (nearly $500) resin-cast portrayal of the "Maneuver-Blade" from the anime Viper's Creed. Designed by series director Shinji Aramaki, the delicate, origami-like design is probably something only the legends at Studio Halfeye could have pulled off in three dimensions. They're transforming toy masters, famed in otaku circles for "cracking the code" of robot designs thought to be impossible to pull off in real life, like Getta Robo. 

The World According to Sonny Chiba

I don't know who made this ten minute montage of Chiba's best, but it's been making the rounds on Mixi. At least among my circle of freak friends.

El Festival de los Robots Revisited

Forget that life-sized Gundam that's being constructed way out in Odaiba. Spain is WAAAY ahead of the curve. According to this article by Erik Sjoen, in 1976 "the statue was built to encourage children to beg their parents to buy a second home in the countryside development." Ten meters tall, this is the kind of suburban sprawl I can get behind... even if those legs could use a new coat of paint! Read all about it at ToyboxDX.

Eat You, Eat Me

 After all the discussion on MutantFrog about "odori-gui," that Japanese penchant for consuming seafood so fresh it's still kicking, Aceface sent me a link that proves we only touched on one side of the equation. What of the phenomenon that a Sapporo zookeeper has dubbed "onore-gui," or self-eating!? Shades of Ouroboros! Or perhaps a literal reptilian version of "The Ring"? 

Nobody really knows for sure why this shimahebi, or four-lined rat snake, decided to swallow its tail, but the zookeeper has several theories. At fifteen, it's quite old for a snake of this species. And it's almost totally blind. 

Nanafushi

Spotted on the face of a jizo deep within Inokashira Park's Bentenzai Shrine, this juvenile nanafushi (stick insect) is barely the size of a pinky fingernail. By the end of the summer, though, it'll get this large. Shot by Hiroko, rockin' the macro.

Inogojira

2:13 pm, Inokashira Park. 

Someone call the Inokashirangers! Then again, maybe this is a better job for the Cerveza Rangers...