An Eternal Thought in the Mind of Godzilla

J-POP in the USA lecture 5/3 in SF, CA

J-POP in the USA: Past and Present
Lecture by Patrick Macias

Over the last few years, Japanese pop exports such as anime, manga, and video games have had an enormous impact on people’s lives in the United States. But how did the current demand for Japanese cultural products develop, and where is it going? In this presentation, Patrick Macias will present an overview of the development of J-pop fandom in America, from fans of early anime like Astro Boy to the new breed of self-identified “otaku”.

Japanese pop culture represents an enormous opportunity for both teachers and students alike to share and learn from, and this presentation will also offer some ideas for using anime and manga in the classroom as an educational tool.

About the speaker: Patrick Macias is currently the Editor-in-Chief of OTAKU USA magazine, a bi-monthly newsstand publication about anime and manga. He is also the author of numerous books including TOKYOSCOPE: THE JAPANESE CULT FILM COMPANION, JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL INFERNO: TOKYO TEEN FASHION SUBCULTURE HANDBOOK, and OTAKU IN USA, published in Japan by Ohta Shuppan. Patrick has spoken about Japanese pop culture for UCLA’s J-Wave Conference, the Japan Society of Northern California, the Consulate General of Japan in San Francisco, and at Temple University Japan Campus.

Time and Date 1:30pm – 3:00pm Sunday, May 3
Location: San Francisco State University College of Humanities Room 133 (Humanities Auditorium)
General $5
Students $2
“Please have exact change. Please bring your student ID with you.”
NCJTA (Northern California Japanese Teachers’ Association) members, free 

Northern California Japanese Teachers’ Association official website: ncjta.org

Shotaro Ishinomori at 70 - Kamen Rider Coin Collection

Because you have lots of money, truly do worship the god Mammon, and need things to spend it on in the form of even more money: the Japanese branch of the Franklin Mint now brings you the Shotaro Ishinomori 70th Anniversary-of-his-Birth Commemorative Kamen Rider Coin Set.

 
Limited to 7,000 pieces, a blazing white display case contains 10 count'-em US half dollars emblazoned with the amazing likenesses of the righteous Showa Riders created by the guiding hand of the late Henshin Pimp himself.

With tax and shipping, the set will do you about $300 worth of damage. If that seems like too steep a price to pay, it is acceptable to beg like a dog for it for Kamen Rider Christmas.

Tamashii Nations 2009: Kaiju Hyohon

TAF - Best of Show - Cat Shit One: The Animated Series

 

Title: Cat Shit One -  the Animated Series
Production: Studio Anima

Director: Kazuya Sasahara
Original Manga (released in the USA as Apocalypse Meow): Motofumi Kobayashi
Format: 23 min. 12 episodes
Target Viewers: Survival game fans and military fans
Anticipated Customers: Clients who are looking to invest in imaging contents that are on a par with those by PIXAR

Plan Objective: The concept of this work is the development of real and fierce combat by cute and fluffy animals. In these days when people have become too used to seeing people die in movies, we wish to use cute animals as the characters to give viewers a stronger feeling of the misery of the wars that are taking place in this world.

Story: Packy, Botasky and Rats are special operations experts working in a private military company. Every day they are embroiled in combat somewhere around the world. In the first episode, they intend to come to the assistance of a hostage captured by guerrillas demanding the withdrawal of the US Army, but instead become surrounded by a large number of guerrillas.

TAF - "I like Luffy because he's Funny"

TAF - Daryl Surat Edition

 
Which figma from Good Smile is THE HOTT 1? Be it the Duke or bathing Billy Herrington?

TAF - Tim Eldred and Steve Harrison Edition

 

BECAUSE YOU DEMANDED IT...here's the goddamn Tohokushinsha booth, already! According to the exhibitor's guide, the ONLY thing the company was there to promote was a new anime called REDLINE (not Red Noah, sadly), so I guess they threw together this Drive-In Movie sized Yamato display at the last second just for us...Although as I tried to explain earlier, the name of the game was strictly "Yamato 2 pachinko, or get lost". They had a few of those glossy press kits up for grabs and I quickly stuffed a couple down my pants making "robble robble" noises while the Yuki booth bunnies distracted the shutterbugs.

There were  little meeting tables set up in front of the display, which is weird since here we see two guys who actually prefer to be standing! Man, Japan sure is wacky sometimes! The guy at left could be asking the suit, "What is this...Yamato? Is it dangerous?" or "Where's the toilet?" or maybe this is photographic evidence of the inevitable Pachinko Yamato 3 being laid out like a TAF Wansee Conference. Who can say for sure?

The only other thing I saw that made me think of you hot boys was this glass case featuring a few original Kazuo Komatsubara illustrations including some from 999 and my oddly titled JAL in-flight movie, "Captain Harlock in Arcadia" (above). Good thing you both weren't at the show because I think we would have smashed open the case and then fought over who gets the pic only to accidentally tear it to shreds like total retards.

But yeah, that's it!  Since you guys don't care about women wearing tight yellow female space navigator uniforms you may now exit the building! Unless Steve would like to wander over to the Bandai booth in a fugue stage and present a Byzantine business scheme inspired by his crackpot comments on other people's blogs while Tim might be tempted to stay at the Yamato booth asking questions about the availability of audio drama cassettes from 1983 until the cops hauled him away screaming in a straight-jacket. 'Aint pachinko grand? THE END (?!TheNish?!)

Be Forever Tokyo Anime Fair

Cosmo Wing

Ok, that's the official word on my lecture this Fri/13 at Temple University Japan Campus. I didn't choose that colour or the font for this flyer (which you have to click in order to make it a "biggie"), but being a massive fan of fantasy surrogates myself, I did indeed write my own copy. This event is free and open to the public so show up in your very best Dragonball club shirts and ask a bunch of questions I can't answer about Inu-Yasha.

Otaku Power - Trivia/Desire/Transformation

Laser Discs

Movie posters

Magazines

Trading cards

Guns

Strawberry melody

RE:VIEW MUSIC
Otaku star Shokotan offers a little fan service

By PATRICK MACIAS
Special to The Japan Times

Weekly ASCII - Akihabara Xmas Maids

MTRON MSD-PATA 3025-109-2

 
Who is that man, what is the unspeakable power he wields in his hands, and how did he ever manage to escape from Cyber City Oedo 808?  Turns out, he's just another A-boy carefully following the instructions in the 11/11 issue of Weekly ASCII magazine on how to “jack into the mainframe” using a canny combination of HMD, USB receiver, battery pack, wireless keyboard, fit-PC slim, flannel shirt, and bad jeans. Follow these instructions, and you too can trash talk Koreans @ 2chan while on the go, peruse the latest issue of Dengeki Moe-oh while actual women waltz by, and just generally help the Neo-Human Army to finally triumph over everyone you hated in high school.

The article also suggests using the set-up in what looks alarmingly like the crapper at the Akihabara UDX center or maybe on an idol stakeout or grassy knoll in conjunction with Google Maps. Either way, FUTURE WAR FOUR HAS ALREADY BEGUN!

Anime Weekend Atlanta

I don't know what else to say except that I'm going to be at Anime Weekend Atlanta from 9/19-9/20 and I'm currently going out of my mind getting ready. I'll be participating in at least 4 panels and lord knows what else will go down in that part of town.

I really think this is the best anime con in the US for so many reasons and I can't wait to hang with Dave Merrill, Carl Horn, the AWO kidz, Paul Thomas Chapman, Darius Washington and the staff of the Waffle House and Paschal's at the airport.

To the best of my knowledge, this is the line-up for the panels and such...

Fri/19, 3PM, Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno, Main Events, Grand Ballroom
Sat/20, 10AM, Mondo Otaku USA, Main Events, Grand Ballroom
Sat/20, 12PM, Anime Podcast Roundtable, Special Events, Kennesaw
Sat/20, 1PM, Message From Space, Special Events, Kennesaw

Handy Dandy Pocket Program here.

Zero thinks it's overpriced

anime-erotic-subculture-goes-mainstream#comments

Shofukucho locker key #10

MSNBC: Anime erotic subculture goes mainstream
More Americans drawn to the 'moral-free zone' of cute, sexual comics

With Lawrence Eng and Patrick 'moral-free' Macias.

Update: Ever been misquoted before?

man-arrested-for-threatening-japan-comike-with-grenade

man-arrested-for-threatening-japan-comike-with-grenade

"Ultimate, perfect bodies"

Only known photo, so far, of the Kano sisters at Otakon (taken from the ANN blog, go figure...).

Anime Expo® 2008 Report (DAY ONE)

The convention center!

Guests of Honor!

INDUSTRY insiders!

World premieres!

Cosplay! (釣りキチ三平 AKA Fishing Crazy Sanpei)

Subject: Moe

Again, via Yoshiki Takahashi

"These are some of the MOE games and shit from killer's (Tomohiro Kato's) apartment."

Doesn't look like much, but what does it take to turn a downtrodden member of Japan's "working poor", living in a company dorm and heavily in debt, into a cold-blooded killer in the streets of Akihabara?

Full story at zakzak.co.jp