MARUI x KERA / May 08
Bringing you KERA Magazine's popular "Street Snap" corner, with snapshots of fashion from the streets of Harajuku.
Today's Fashion Theme: Gaudy Flashy it is!!
Boy's Knuckle
I'll be back where I ought to be, in Draft One, Shimorenjaku, for business/pleasure come next week and to rip shit up as per usual. Let me know if anything is going on, if you'd like to hook up, have a collectible card game battle, etc.
Podcast: Hot Tears of Shame - Episode Twenty-Six
Hot Tears of Shame: Episode #26
BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT! On the eve of the release of the Iron Man movie, Peerless Pat is granted yet another all-new, all-different interview with Stan “The Man” Lee! In this thrill-packed installment, Stan gets gregarious about the origins of The Incredible Hulk, ol’ Shell Head himself, and (would you believe) even Fin Fang Foom! And while pondering the past and future of the modern American comic book (no manga this time), the living legend also reveals the electrifying truth about his old army days and striking resemblance to J. Jonah Jameson! Special guest stars: Joseph Luster, the voice of Morgan Freeman, and SWEET-DADDY WISDOM!
Click here to download
© Hot Tears of Shame Production Committee/jaPRESS Entertainment
Hot Links
Stan Lee: The Otaku USA podcast interview
Chu Chin Chow
Fin Fang Foom
Spidey Meets the Spoiler
MARUI x KERA / May 08
Bringing you KERA Magazine's popular "Street Snap" corner, with snapshots of fashion from the streets of Harajuku.
"I like Visual-K and Metal :D
Finally going to do some serious gigs
I’m gonna SIIINNNGGG!!!! As much as a heavy metal band can anyway. LOL
Hope to cross over to the Visual-Kei scene too Yoroshiku!!"
Hey look around today, everything don't need to be the same
Ok. Another couple of months, another issue of OUSA…and here is sexy ISSUE 6 to smack you upside the head cha-la with hot fierce fighting. “Why duh Dragon Ball Z on da cover?” the dullards moan and groan. Well, it’s only the best selling anime in the USA and I knew that Daryl “Super Saiyan” Surat and Joseph “Broly Again” Luster were born to team up, power up, and destroy the world with their combined Toriyama-taunting prowess.
Also inside, Dave Merrill delivers THE Speed Racer retrospective of our times, while Masaya Honda and myself interview Tatsunoko honcho Ippei Kuri about inventing and directing Speed all those years ago. Question: Is anyone else out there likely to interview Ippei Kuri aside from OUSA? Answer: no! There’s also our legendary manga coverage overseen by Jason Thompson and Ed Chavez and contribs from the usual cast of characters including Clarissa Graffeo, Paul Thomas Chapman, Mike Dent, Shaenon Garrity, August Ragone, Dave Riley, and so on. And we also welcome all new contributors Gilles Poitras, (we got him at a fire sale) and zany Zac Bentz of Japanator.com. Also in this issue: maids, maids, maids, and the return of wildarmsheero and his all-moe, all the time hug pillows!
Don’t delay, buy it today!
1954: Kurama Tengu Vs. Godzilla
The Black-Masked Reformer meets the King of the Monsters.
Koakuma ageha - Ningen janakute ningyo ni naritaino
"We Want to Become Dolls, Not Humans" feature in the April issue of Koakuma ageha magazine.
Godzilla Just Horsing Around
1954: With co-stars Akira Takarada and Momoko Kochi...
1955: With Toho staff, getting ready for the big show...
MACIAS MONDO TOKYO show: SF Sat/19
'Mondo Tokyo' at Other Cinema in San Francisco, April Sat/19
Here's the national magazine editor of 'Otaku USA', Patrick Macias, with his outrageous subcultural survey, taking us on a breathlessly wild ride through Weird Tokyo. Macias has become the main agent for interpreting Japanese youth genres like anime, manga, and cult films, and his years of trans-Pacific travel have generated a veritable encyclopedia of bizarre fan-boy obsessions. Among the features of the feverish J-Pop imagination are the “maid cafes” of Akihabara, the action-figure fetish cults (both erotic and warrior), costume role-playing, and delinquent bikers, revealed in all their exotic detail through Macias’ anecdote-rich live narration. Consummating the program is a monstrous sample of old-school exploitation, the incredible last reel of 'Gamera, the Invincible', in glorious 16mm B/W, with live audio “enhancement” by Hans Grusel-san and the Anti-Ear. Free robot model-kits, and magazines, too!
Come in COSPLAY costume for a dollar off admission price.
SAT. 4/19: MACIAS' MONDO TOKYO + GAMERA (AMPLIFIED) +
April 19, 2008
08:30 PM - 10:30 PM
Other Cinema
992 Valencia Street at 21st
San Francisco
www.othercinema.com
Cost:
$8
STUDIO VOICE - Gravure Magic
The May issue of "Multi-Media Mix Magazine" STUDIO VOICE features a scintillating 40+ page feature on "Gravure Magic". Lots of photo (ahem) spreads, interviews with models, photographers, and a dizzying history of the genre since the '80s.
The mag also features my monthly "Paranoid States of America" column. This time, I'm on about RFID "Spy Chips" which, co-incidently, are going to be used shortly at an Ohio anime con to "track attendees."
MARUI X KERA / APRIL 15
Bringing you KERA Magazine's popular "Street Snap" corner, with snapshots of fashion from the streets of Harajuku.
Aoki Misako （From Chiba） Blood Type O, Nurse, Height 157cm
Today's Fashion Theme: Pink Heart Bag ♥
'Town of Evening Calm' Nominated for Eisner Awards
Fumiyo Kouno's manga Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms has been nominated for a pair of 2008 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards in the following categories.
Best Short Story
Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan
'Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms' was published by my company japRESS in association with Last Gasp. I also co-edited it. The jaPRESS has already begun on its next manga project.
Podcast: OTAKU USA - Episode #3
As the New York Comic Con looms on the event horizon, Peerless Pat of OTAKU USA magazine interviews Stan “The Man” Lee about ULTIMO, his upcoming manga collaboration with Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King) for Shueisha. The comics legend also waxes rhapsodic about the Japanese live-action Spider-Man, sumo wrestlers, and the lasting appeal of heroes in a world gone mad! Jolly Joseph Luster dons a long blond wig to read aloud from Thor #171 (written by Stan, natch) and confesses his love for the Black Cat, while the all-new, all-different OTAKU USA theme song arrives like you always knew it would courtesy of the sensational sounds of Marxy.
IF THIS BE PODCASTING...THEN SO BE IT!
HOT LINKS
OTAKU USA magazine
Marvel's Stan Lee, Shaman King's Takei to Join Forces
Stan Lee, Bones Confirmed to be Working on Hero Man
New York Comic Con
Thor #171
Iron Man villain Ultimo
The Merry Marvel Marching Society
Mata Ashita
See you tomorrow at the JAPAN: Games for OTAKU and EVERYBODY lecture/demo!
Terror of Mechagodzilla: Shinto Purification Ritual
With Tomoko Ai, 1975.
New Category: GODZILLA
With Kobayashi chan in front of Mt. Fuji for Destroy All Monsters...
Koakuma ageha - Mori DS Battle
The current issue of Koakuma ageha has a pair of styling suggestions on how to make your Nintendo DS Lite the "sweetest" with the help of possibly-affordable "love dot" and crown encrusted deco-cases and custom jackets. Just don't play it, or that Brain Age game, on "the job"!
Games for OTAKU and EVERYBODY: San Francisco 4/13
Sun/13, I'll be delivering a presentation in San Francisco sponsored by the Consulate General of Japan as part of the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival.
Lecture- "JAPAN: Games for OTAKU and EVERYBODY" by Mr. Patrick Macias
Together with anime, manga, J-pop and fashion, computer and video based gaming is another major aspect of contemporary Japanese pop culture. Popular writer, editor, and internationally recognized Japanese pop culture expert Patrick Macias, will give a power point presentation entitled "JAPAN: Games for OTAKU and EVERYBODY" In his presentation Mr. Macias will provide a broad overview of modern game-based culture in Japan beginning with a look at the uniquely Japanese cultural roots of gaming. He will discuss the emergence of otaku culture in the late 20th century and show how gaming in Japan has broken into new markets both domestically and internationally while still maintaining the public "Game Center" as a social gathering space.
WHEN: Sunday, April 13 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
WHERE: Kabuki Hotel, 1625 Post Street, Spring Room 'B' (across from the Imperial Ballroom)
ADMISSION: Free!
Seifuku to Grease Gun
Masaya Honda (Karas, Yatterman) sends over the hypnotic new Denki Groove song, Shonen Young, which he formally declares to be "the best music video ever." While I'm still hung up on Van Halen's Hot for Teacher for that honor, I have to admit, the Schoolgirl Inferno styling in this clip is flat-out superhuman.
MARUI X KERA / APRIL 08
Tokyo Fashion Now at LiveJ
Bringing you KERA Magazine's popular "Street Snap" corner, with snapshots of fashion from the streets of Harajuku.
Their connection: Telepathic waves
MARUIONE.JP
comic ageha: "Sayaka. Hostess. 23."
Sayaka Araki is 23 years old, works in a hostess club, and is Koakuma ageha's No. 1 ranked model. This manga, drawn by Momoka Kou (Oujisama to watashi) for the first issue of comic ageha, depicts her Secret Origin.
IN THE BEGINNING...Sayaka was never really meant for small town life. "I thought I was just a normal girl, but maybe I stood out." She had a nice boyfriend and a circle of pals had a thing for brand bags. It was an OK way to pass the time. But still, she gazed off into the horizon. "I wondered what Tokyo was like." After graduation, Sayaka tells her parents she is going to move to the big city and attend nail school there.
Soon after arriving in Tokyo, Sayaka goes down the rabbit hole. She gets harassed by one of those scout guys working the street and has her designer handbag stolen by someone wearing a baseball hat and a hoodie. From this point on, there is no more mention of ever going to nail school...
Instead, she breaks up with her old boyfriend and starts to feel bored. That's when one of her friends suggests working as a hostess in a Kabakura. "I think you'd be good at. You're not that busy now and you'd make lots of money."
"At first, I didn't feel right about it. It was like entering a different world." Her new boss tells Sayaka, "Why don't you call yourself Riko while you work here? Here is your personal assistant." His name is Yamashita, and he's gorgeous! "Let's work hard together!"
Although it takes Sayaka/Riko a while to master mixing cocktails, "Little by little, I tried my best. Every day I was busy and made new friends." Her boss tells her she's in the running for the coveted Number One spot at the club. "Even though I wasn't at the top yet, I finally felt some kind of fulfillment doing mizu shobai work."
Then one night in Kabuki-cho, Sayaka has her bag stolen by someone wearing a baseball hat and a hoodie *again*. But this time she bravely fights back and her assailant winds up getting arrested. The street people say, "Wow, you're so strong! You could have gotten stabbed!" and Sayaka knows she's leveled-up. "That was the moment I realized that to live and survive here, I have to be strong and protect myself."
"After drifting from store to store in Kabuki-cho with the name Riona, I took a break. I ended up working in Roppongi. Finally, I started seeing something new that I never saw before." A Wise Old Customer tells her, "It seems like you’ve been enjoying your job recently. It’s been fun to come here to see you."
It may not be on par with the climax of Watchmen, or even the Infinity Gauntlet, but it will have to do: "So many different people come here and I get to see into so many different worlds. This job is so fun! From this day on, I’m going to continue to wear a dress."
THE END
next issue: comic ageha
In Japans, there is comics for everyonez. Even for the readers of Koakuma ageha, Japan's magazine-shaped bible for the "little devil" look and lifestyle. Now take a deep breath, True Believer. We're going...inside!
Is Dis Some Japans Part 2: The Long & Winding Hole
The long and winding hole
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that hole before
It always leads me here
Lead me to your door.
Podcast: OTAKU USA - Episode #2
Issue six of Otaku USA ships to the printers and galaxies are soon thrown in collision! News of the JAM Project and Shoko Nakagawa’s upcoming appearances on American soil during summer con season causes an inter-dimensional crossover between EIC Patrick Macias and R5 Central’s Mike Dent. The legendary Tiger Mishima briefly chimes in from Okinawa, and a pair of furious JAM melodies (one unplugged) makes missiles appear from every possible orifice! All of which brings us to the wall-shaking question: Are we awake or do we dream?
HOT LINKS
R5 Central
Godman
Shoko Nakagawa (aka Shokotan) at Anime Expo press release
JAM Project at Otakon press release
Message From Space Color Photo Story
That's where all these scans are coming from. It's a crime there's no R1 DVD of this amazing film that turns 30 this year. But you can watch the Slasher Remix for free. There's also a fan edit using the R2 DVD and the English dub out there somewhere.
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Best picture of Kinji....EVER.
Vic Morrow as "General Garuda"
With Peggy Lee Brennan and Sonny Chiba.
The Science of Message From Space
The book explains how the Prayer Star (inexplicably designed to look like an 18th century schooner) delivers messages through space. Because Message From Space is a documentary.
Message From Space insignias
(Clockwise from upper left) Gavanas, Prince Hans, Emeraleda, Earth Defense Forces. What, no Toei delta brand?
Tetsuro Tamba as "The President of the Universe"
Ernest Noguchi (アーネスト・ノグチ).
It made a "BOT!" noise when Vic Morrow woke up hungover in the Toei Korova Milk Bar set.
Tetsuro Tamba with the US Occupational Forces...I mean, the Masters of the Universe in Message From Space!
Mikio Narita as "Emperor Rockseia the XII"
Smokin' "Krak" on account of the wild Batman style sound effects used in the book. Was Message From Space actually supposed to have been "campy"? Like Flash Gordon was two years later?
Creature and spaceship design by Shotaro Ishinomori
Welcome to the Message From Space Color Photo Story book, published by Bandai in 1978.
Age Age All Stars
Men's Knuckle Hyper Club Report @ Tokushima
Coming uyo inthe next uissue of OTAKU USA
Art by Yuji Kaida for the Toho Video LD, and...
All-new TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA review by August Ragone. His new book is awesome, and he's one of the first people I ever saw posting on the Internets, like back in 199X, probably to correct someone about something that needed correcting! Anyway, he's bringing his old school tokusatsu thing to OUSA in a big way and even I have to pause here for a sec and wonder, have we lost our damn fool minds with all this rubber monster business, or have we actually never felt better?
Well, the new TERROR DVD is coming out pretty soon and...
Men's Knuckle Comics
Alas, it's only a magazine ad for the Men's Knuckle official site, but still, a very Bizarre Adventure.
Podcast: OTAKU USA - Episode #1
The first-ever official OTAKU USA podcast explodes into space-time with a report on Bandai’s incredible TAMASHII NATION event in Akihabara (perhaps you've heard of it). EIC Patrick Macias and contributor Matt Alt also sing the praises of Aquarion director Shoji Kawamori and The Shazam play a cover of "Twilight" by ELO.
Note: The HOT TEARS of SHAME podcast RSS feed will be hosting the OTAKU USA podcast until we have enough time to get a separate site up and running for "the new thing".
HOT LINKS
Tamashii Nation Official Site
Matt Alt's report on Tamashii Nation via AltJapan
OTAKU USA website
PQ magazine
PQ is a free magazine for young women living in Tokyo published by the Creators Company Connection. The full name is Paradise ♥ Queen, but since you'll probably be picking up your copy in a conbini in Kabuki-cho at three in the morning, the odds are you 'aint no queen, nor anywhere near the dictionary definition of paradise. So let's just call this thing here PQ (pronounced ﾋﾟｰ♥ｷｭｰ) and try not to confuse it with that other magazine.
PQ takes its sparkly diamond design cues from Koakuma ageha and co. but is more of a reality-based and functional guide on how to survive far from home in a hostile environment. For example, this issue contains a big section on color contacts, exclusive beauty salons, "gorgeous" hairstyles, and dressing well for any occasion (see below).
After the the glossy opening section, full of deco nails and eye makeup tricks, PQ finally settles down to the nitty gritty. The "PQ Living" section shows off a variety of real estate options in Shinjuku and Takadanobaba while the "Kampai Work" ads offer employment opportunities for "Bunny Girls", "Floor Ladies", and "Companions".
PQ has it's own character mascot in the form of NyanQ (above). The mag promises you can download all sorts of cute cat-related apps at the official website, but all I found when I got there were a lot of jobs for "Models". Consequently, I am outraged, upset, and perhaps shall not PQ up the next issue!
The cat girl goes to a party ♥
Bringing you KERA Magazine's popular "Street Snap" corner, with snapshots of fashion from the streets of Harajuku.
Podcast: Hot Tears of Shame - Episode Twenty-Five
Podcast: Hot Tears of Shame -
Episode #25
Patrick Macias and W. David Marx chill out in Westwood during the J-WAVE USA conference at UCLA by eating "Cool Japan" for lunch. Just when the irony can't get any thicker, the ground cracks open and Paris Hilton and her gang of paparazzi emerge to rudely interrupt the recording process!
Click here to download
© Hot Tears of Shame Production Committee/jaPRESS Entertainment
Opening "album teaser" by Marxy
Podcast: Hot Tears of Shame - Episode Twenty-Four
"We were only licking books..."
Podcast: Hot Tears of Shame -
Episode #24
Manga: The Complete Guide author Jason Thompson follows up his epochal article for OTAKU USA by revealing his motives and methods for “Manga Tasting” and then rates our new issue! Thompson also talks about new projects on the horizon, how he manages to put together the magnificent manga reviews section for OTAKU USA magazine, and his cherished dream to one day consume "edible manga."
Click here to download
© Hot Tears of Shame Production Committee/jaPRESS Entertainment
