FOR ALL BATTLES OF men's egg

Temptation! I always wanted to run around inside a pachinko parlor snapping pics like a total tourist. The catch is, the staff would probably tackle me into submission and put my face through the front of machine where it would be impaled on pins (as seen in the V-Cinema classic “Violent Pachinko Man”). And that’s not accounting for the customers…

In any event, my little-steel-ball-fueled dreams recently came true when I was ushered into a Kabuki-cho pachinko place first thing in the morning on a Top Secret Mission for NHK. While the staff was busy trying to get the Initial-D machines to all synch up, no one noticed that I’d just been bitten by the shutterbug….

Behold, you nerds! The playing field of the Neon Genesis Evangelion pachislot machine. I understand the scoring system makes only slightly more sense than episode 26...

Most pachinko lifers will probably just assume this is a Yamato-themed machine. By Steve Harrison, myself, and probably no one else would know (or care) that this is actually based on The Galaxy Railways. Dig those circular instrument panels and battleship cannons all the same.

Fujiko Mine from Lupin III milks yen from old men who know what the Japanese word for "pneumatic" is. I wonder how much that figure on the right would be if you tried to pawn it off in some back alley in Nakano.

It's 2006, and sadly, most anime has the consistency of powdered milk. But inside the p-parlor, it's still 198X, just after the worldwide nuclear war, and here is the macho Fist of the North Star slot machine to prove it.

When they make the pachinko machine tie-up, it officially tends to means the fad is finito. Witness Winter Sonata with Yon-sama. (Not pictured, but duly noted: "Matsuken Samba" pachinko.)

Remeber that scene in Jaws where they kept the shark at bay with the help of hundreds of tiny steel balls and dozens of chain smoking unemployed oyaji? Me either!

These are the rules. To break. Bilingual even for your dumb gaijin ass. Oh that Garfield and Friends!

Comments

[Daryl Surat]

A transcription of the deeply philosophical conversation between Garfield and Odie is in order, but unfortunately my computer lacks the ZOOM, ENHANCE feature as seen on computers in movies and the like.

However, I have every confidence that the laptop of TV's Patrick Macias is capable of such a feat.

[Carl Horn]

In the red darkness glinted innumerable rubies, and among the rubies moved the dim red spectres of men, as Aldous Huxley would say. Them are some beautiful machines. I've thought it might be nice to get some of them for a convention game room (as they often contain import Japanese consoles). Dragonfish, a fission-fusion-fission restaurant in downtown Portland, has a Lupin III pachinko game, but, unpardonably, it's not functional.

[Carl Horn]

By the way, it may sound crazy, and I know they're not his characters, but the figures in the Galaxy Railways game look like they were rendered by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. I suppose it's possible...

[Joseph Luster]

"Oh that Garfield and Friends!"

SURPRISES! AND PIES OF ALL SIZES!

[Flat Spin]

If you are interested in seeing a pachinko parlor that has closed, I have some photos here...
http://flatspin.blogspot.com/2006/06/lets-play-pachinko.html

[Steve Harrison]

I....I feel great shame...

That's...um...DaiYamato, not Galaxy Railways...

I'm sorry. SO SO sorry....

*ahem* So, has the digital age utterly given new life to Pachinko, or is it just more thick makeup over the aging face? I used to have a Pachinko machine years and years ago (1970s. an odd gift from my Grandmother) (remember the fad of buying a retired machine as pointless room decoration? I got mine to actually work and boy were the folks surprised) and actually enjoyed playing it...flipping the lever and watching the steel balls cascade was surprisingly soothing.

I think Carl is on to something, it would be rad to have a Pachinko room at a con, even better if it went 'all the way' with crappy lipstick prizes that could be exchanged for money....

[Steve Harrison]

And for what it's worth, that Fujiko figure (along with the Lupin and Zenigata ones) from the Lupin III Pachinko game are showing up on Yahoo Japan auctions....

Kinda dull, compared to some of the other AMAZING UFO catcher prize figures that have come out :)

[Matt Alt]

"I wonder how much longer Japan can support these machines."

If the numbers of pachinko parlors in the country is any indication, I'd say forever, plus or minus a few hundred thousand years. Unless, that is, hordes of anthropomorphic cats "take actions... hindering the shop from conducting its smooth operation." (I love "Mr. Pachinko Machine" kickin' it with Garfield in the upper left corner of that sign.)

[Patrick Macias]

Geoff just described why I love pachinko parlors so much.

[hillsy]

I ALMOST bid on a Gamera pachinko machine off of eBay. The machine itself was rather inexpensive, the shipping was almost a hunny though. I would have, too....if I didn't have to explain WHY there was a loud, flashing, reeking of smoke pachinko machine in our living room, to my wife.

[Patrick Macias]

I bought a pachinko machine off eBay for "someone special" a few years back. Bit of a mistake as it just gathers dust in the corner and makes a hell of a racket. Still, I reckon I could train myself as a "pachipuro" if I just devoted myself to hours-a-day contemplation of pin-placement...

[Eddie]

Where can I find the "V movie" Violent Pachinko Man?

[Patrick Macias]

Like most pachinko-themed V-cinema, I don't think it ever made it DVD. Your best bet is either yahoo.jp auctions or digging through those crunky old used tape bins.