Warui

Matt Alt over in Tokyo chimes in from the frontlines:

Patrick,

Thought you might be interested to know that Tokyo University hosted a
massive gala Production IG love-fest on Monday night. Although
ostensibly held to promote the upcoming "Blood Plus," an animated
television series based loosely on the "Blood: The Last Vampire" OVA,
nary a snippet nor cel was shown of the production. Rather, the shindig
opened with a video montage of various IG projects broadcast at
ear-splitting volume, veered into an impromptu live cello rendition of
Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" (!), and finally settled into a
freewheeling discussion of the state of the anime industry and its role
in the global marketplace. On hand were Innocence director Mamoru
Oshii, IG president Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, Blood Plus director Junichi
Fujisaku, a TBS broadcasting executive, and a Tokyo University
professor. (And, dare I forget, co-emcee Chiaki "Go Go Yubari" Kuriyama
-- sporting an evening gown rather than her trademark schoolgirl
outfit and flying guillotine, alas.)

Oshii and his fellow panelists held forth as to the ascendence of the
sailor suit outfit as an icon of Japanese culture, the role of manga
and anime in expressing ideas and viewpoints considered untouchable by
"straight" media, war in the media age as a perverse form of "ultimate
entertainment," "Saving Private Ryan" as an example of the differences
between Japanese and American portrayals of war in fiction, and the
inevitable recognition of IG's influence on American directors such as
Quentin Tarantino. Only at the very end did Fujisaku unveil a handful
of black and white line drawings of the main characters of Blood Plus.

In keeping with the vibe at the April Tokyo Anime Fair, the unspoken
keywords were "anime is Japanese culture." Even the simple fact that
Tokyo University played host to the affair is yet another sign that
anime has officially moved out of the fringe. Once, anime studios had
to beg, borrow, and steal to convince sponsors to bankroll them. Now it
appears that the industry is smack-dab in the middle of the same
interconnected matrix of creative, business, scholarly, and
governmental interests that fueled the rise of "Japan, Inc." in the
postwar era. It seems that Japan's powers-that-be are doing everything
they can to position anime and other pop-cultural phenomena as Japan's
Next Big Thing. That, and cello renditions of Jimi Hendrix music.

-Matt

Comments

[Daniel Zelter]

Official English page at http://www.productionig.com/project.php?id=52 .

[Daniel Zelter]

So, Carl. I hear DH has Freeman now. Do you know if the movie's finally getting a release here? Cus it was supposed to come out last year, but it never happened. Mark told me that happens a lot. Also, is my Viz edition of the perfect collection worth more now, since Mark signed it?

[Daniel Zelter]

So, Carl. Can I maybe stop over and nibble on your balls a little?

[Daniel Zelter]

Man, do these spoofers suck...