AltJapan

Pod People

I'd like to thank all the little people who made my first product endorsement a resounding success.

Tokusatsu Tengoku

 

When we walk into special effects master and director Tomoo Haraguchi's office, "Mighty Jack" is playing on the TV. Perhaps it never stopped playing here. Surrounded by the props from a hundred classic movies, it's easy to imagine Haraguchi simply willed time to stop in the Showa era. It's one of those moments that makes me happy I live in Japan.

While there are other collectors of vintage movie props in Japan, what sets Haraguchi apart is his skill at restoring them. He, as a rapper might say, "lives this shit." He grew up on Toho soundstages as a child, spent his teens working part-time as the bad guy monsters who the heroes trounce in every episode, and directs his own films today. He is a living repository of wisdom from the "golden age" of Japanese special effects -- called tokusatsu -- that made Godzilla and Ultraman and their countless rivals great.

Everything in his collection was essentially junk before he restored it to mint condition, damaged both in the original shooting process and by decades of neglect. If Haraguchi didn't study and and practice these techniques on his props, both the objects AND the knowledge would most certainly disappear. One of the most interesting pieces we encountered wasn't even a prop at all, but rather a test, a sheet of strangely mottled material that looked like a carpet sample from a death-metal singer's house. Haraguchi explained that it was a re-creation of Godzilla's skin, created by ripping up sponges by hand, gluing them to a special backing, and then coating the entire surface in liquid latex to create supple yet durable kaiju-epidermis. The technique is all but forgotten today, as its innovators have long since retired or passed away. He'd asked one of the original creators of the first Godzilla suits to make it for him so he could confirm how it was done.

I'd been in what I call "the vault" once before, when Hiroko and I interviewed Haraguchi-san for CNNGo, but Patrick took the experience full-on like a blast from a giant monster's radioactive breath. For his part Haraguchi obviously enjoyed watching our otaku meltdown immensely, pulling out ever-more-obscure props in a largely unsuccessful attempt to stump Patrick. And in a demented twist, he actually let us try on the a vintage Ultraman Ace TAC ("Terrible Monster Attacking Crew") jacket. The real deal. This wasn't cosplay. It was like take-your-kid-to-work day, and your dad just happened to be a Science Patrol member.

We concluded the evening in Haraguchi's home theater room, getting a running commentary from the man himself as we queued up scene after scene from the films the props had appeared in. Accompanied by his two Japanese bobtails who -- I am not making this up -- actually sat and watched right along with us. I don't mean sitting in the same room passed out cold, like normal cats. I mean like sitting there, watching the screen, transfixed.

Anywhere else but the Studio Where Time Stopped, this would have seemed really, seriously weird. But it quickly started to make perfect sense. Surrounded by alien rayguns and spacecraft and titanic monsters, is it any wonder cats turn otaku too?

How to Film Ultraman

Ever wonder how they filmd that crazy forced-perspective shot of Ultraman flying through the air during his big transformation? The answer is as simple as a tilt:

Forced perspective the analog way! That fist is as big as a human head.

These shots were taken last night, when Patrick Macias and I invaded the top-secret lair of a certain film prop builder / restorer. Stay tuned for pics and video soon!

Eggman Eggman

Pulled out the jammy, he thought it was a joke

The trigger I pulled, his face, the yolk

Speaking of egg on one's face, remember this classic bit from the golden era of foreign media panic-casting of the nuclear crisis in Japan? Good old Fox News weighed in with a report that Japan's nuclear power plants included not only Fukushima, but Tokai, Ongawa, Hamaoka, and... Shibuya Eggman! 

Perhaps nobody was as surprised by the revelation as Shibuya Eggman itself, which isn't powered by nuclear fission but rather ROCK 'N ROLL. It's a music club in a rather upscale section of town. How it made it onto Fox's list is anyone's guess.

Thanks to a geiger counter loaned to me by the fine folks at Safecast, I made the "dangerous" journey downtown, deep into darkest Shibuya, where I gingerly approached the complex to make my measurements. The result, I am happy to report, is that Shibuya Eggman is safe -- for one's body, at any rate. Can't speak to those eardrums, though.

On a serious note, 0.13 microsieverts/hr is pretty much par for the course in downtown Tokyo. As for a comparison, the average background radiation in America is 0.34 microsieverts/hr.

The J-Game Industry's Lost Dream

Earlier this week, gaming site Destructoid posted an editorial entitled East vs. West: How Japan Stopped Being Japan. In it, the author claims that the woes of the Japanese game industry are due to the fact that "Japan stopped dreaming," and that sequel-obsessed companies "feast off the corpses of previous franchise entries, hoping to get in a few more bucks without having to do a lot of work." He concludes that "This is why the West sits on top right now... Japan can't win this fight commercially."

Which is all fine and dandy, but how do JAPANESE feel about this take on their country's game industry? As usual, the anonymous blog site 2ch has its finger on the pulse... And that pulse seems pretty weak:

It's because Americans love guns, gore, and blood.

He's right. The current generation of developers are two or three generations distilled from the original innovators.

Totally. Because simply owning certain Japanese games will get you arrested abroad.

I blame Japan's youth for buying nothing but moé games.

Japan's obsession with educational qualifications is eating it from the inside out. Idiots with no ability are able to run companies just because they have diplomas.

He's right. The anime industry is the same way.

The real problem is that Japan as a culture hates games. There's no system for going pro like abroad, no reward for doing so. This is the worst possible environment for creating games.

Japan's Least Appetizing Souvenirs

Several years back, I covered the top questionable Japanese souvenirs found at rest-stops around the Tokyo metropolitan area. I am proud to announce the discovery of several new ones that manage to lower the bar even further. Allow me to introduce...

Monkey Ass Drops and Monkey Poop Chocolates

Steaming hot off the presses at better tourist traps throughout the Nikko area. What do they taste like? Beats the hell out of me, because I'm not putting anything called "monkey ass drops" in my mouth.

The Desk: Summer 2011

For some reason, I get a lot of requests to see my workspace. Here it is, in its most recent and cluttered incarnation. Not shown: Hiroko busting out the 100-ton hammer to get my ass back to work instead of posting stuff like this.

Kyushu Otaku

Another pic from recent adventures down south: a series of statues randomly spotted in a one-horse town about an hour outside of Kumamoto. Ultraman, Gundam, Inu Yasha, and Bruce Lee (I think?), rendered in what appeared to be sculpted fiberglas, miniature golf course style.

Size: six to seven feet each. Purpose? To get tourists to slow down and get out of their cars, apparently. Guess this means we can chalk up yet another giant-sized Gundam in the wilds of Japan!

Just a Friend

Summer in Japan means bugs (and other assorted crawlies). These were all spotted on a visit to Kyushu last week. And yes, I can catch dragonflies on my fingertips like Pokémon. It's just how I roll.