This is the story of young astronaut soldiers (Patrick Macias & Matt Alt, actually) struggling for love…peace…and to trade in their worldly goods for chump change at Nakano Broadway.
They lived together, laughed together, and drank Old Crow together.
The heroic figure of the 1/350 scale SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO model kit will live in the hearts of people forever. Unless some gaijin assholes try to sell it first...
DISCUSSION TOPICS Can otaku content spread to the mainstream? Otaku subculture vs. mainstream anime and manga Divisions within the otaku community Moe and new models of creativity Otaku power, sexuality, and identification Ukiyo-e: 2010 is 1910 Japan as “the Other” Pachinko! Anime as nationalist propaganda machine Galgames and the end of the Japanese game industry
Nakano Broadway strives to always be lively and foreigner friendly.
NAKANO SHOP ONWERS ARE ALWAYS POSITIVE. This
Multilingual Information website shows their gratitude to foreign
shoppers. ‘Yokoso Nakano’ You are always welcome!!
That is...until a shop owner goes insane and accuses Matt Alt and "Patty Mac" of a crime they did not commit!!!
Attention all Laser Disc and Old Magazine Otaku! Here is the complete audio of my lecture last week as delivered at California State University at Monterey Bay. While some of this territory was covered before in my speech earlier this year at Temple University Japan Campus, there’s a lot of new stuff here (including sections on American fandom and Hating the Otaku Wave) in this one hour-long recording.
Disclaimer: this lecture is not really about The Drifting Classroom manga...
Yeah, so I was a guest on the Anime300o podcast last week, talking about something that is incredibly vital to man's continued survival on this planet: THE STATE OF THE ANIME INDUSTRY. Anyway, here's the pitch and the link...
Anime 3000 Panel - S02E01 - State of the Anime Industry
In the past six months, we’ve seen various anime companies fold under the weight of an economic recession as well as a decrease in demand from anime and manga consumers. This week we will discuss what role digital distribution has played in the success and failure of anime sales and print media. Will we witness a mainstreaming of anime in America, or will we see a decrease in hardcore anime fandom? Additionally, well forecast the future of the anime industry. Our panel this week includes Patrick Macias, Justin Sevakis and Michael Pinto.
According to Japanamerica author Roland Kelts, Patrick Macias
is “an American otaku and blogger extraordinaire.” More accurately, he
is the author of multiple books in both English and Japanese and
currently the Editor-in-Chief of Otaku USA. Mr. Macias was in Tokyo a few weeks back, and we met over a discount tonkatsu lunch to talk about the state of Japanese recession and the current yankii
cultural takeover. Luckily, a recording device captured our dialogue
(and my total inability to enunciate words or complete sentences).
Lost in a haze of bad Xanax and good jetlag, Pat and Matt break into Bandai HQ by way of a rickshaw in Asakusa. The B-club has airlifted a priceless toy robot over from the states to spice up a corporate event in Akihabara and the Otackers want a piece of the action! But a mysterious ticket stub hidden away in an old toy box quickly leads them astray on a newer and deadlier mission in darkest Kuramae.
Post-humans, put on yer thinking caps! Here’s the complete audio of my “Otaku Power – Trivia, Desire, and Transformation” lecture as delivered at Temple University Japan Campus on March 13, 2009. Thanks to the Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies and the TUJC anime club for inviting me over, making it happen, and for the hot slices afterwards.
Sorry you can’t see the pictures that make up the visual portion of the presentation, but above is the Keeper: a key image from Kaichiro Morikawa’s book “Learning from Akihabara – The Birth of a Personapolis” (Gentosha, 2003).
In sort of a thematic follow-up to an earlier HToS podcast, W. David Marx (aka Marxy) and Patrick "third person" Macias meet up in Swinging Akasaka and gab about how fabulous and awesome "Cool Japan" is for the all-new, all different Néojaponisme Podcast! Link here.
Conclusion: From otaku culture to 2chan and Harajuku fashion, everything is great
and could not possibly be better. For more information, check out the
JTB Sunrise Tours promotional materials (excerpted here).
Synopsis: The organized crime organization “Crime” appears to counter the international science and the special investigation squad! Organizing troops via an experimental process known as “young cyborg surgery", The League of Extraordinary Gaijin shock unit is born! Six foreigners living with the grief of losing their bodies hidden in the back of their mind, they continue to battle “Crime” and vow to fight to intensify further.
Setting:
Canal Cafe - Iidabashi, mon amour
Cafe Pause - Arcade Mania launch party
Cast of Characters:
Matt Alt (2:01) pledges his undying love to the makers of Nikka Whiskey and reveals the Legend of Snake Woman Island.
Ed Chavez (6:40) eats a melon soda shaved ice and lays out the conspiratorial link between studio GAINAX and Otaku USA magazine.
The OTACKERS storm Sony Music HQ to party once more with Shoko Nakagawa AKA Shokotan...and you are there (kind of)! Note for completists: No actual audio from the interview is used; only the hastily edited bits from waiting for the train, crouching in the darkness, and exiting burger cafes. You're going to gave to read the Japan Times like everyone else when the resulting article eventually drops.
Pat and Matt return to the Tokyo Super Festival toy and model show after two years only to find that a catastrophic war has nearly destroyed all civilization, leaving only ragged bands of weary survivors to fight over the remaining scraps of society. Meanwhile, orbiting in space is a capsule containing a single man, Hiroshi Miyauchi, who was bioengineered to be the ultimate warrior, but was exiled because he was simply too dangerous to be allowed on television anymore. As his craft returns to Earth to be greeted by feral packs of cosplaying youngsters, Superfest proves to be the final battleground between the forces of Shorinji Kempo and the Government of Darkness....but has Miyauchi returned as a savior or a destroyer?
The mad, mad quest for the mythical super galaxy known as Virgin Space continues as Otackers Pat and Matt storm the Tokyo Trader Vic’s in an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the South Pacific with no money whatsoever. On the authentic Polynesian menu: Crab Rangoon, Kazuo Umezu, the Perfect Burger, porn shop bingo with Denki Watanabe, “Love Letter From Hell” by Hayami Jun, stamina drinks, Pineapple Fried Rice, lousy coffee, mystery guests, and (*spoilers*) big fruity cocktails with little paper umbrellas in them!
* No jeans, T-shirts or sneakers
PLEASE REFRAIN FROM SMOKING CIGARS AND PIPES IN DINING ROOM.
There’s no escape for the guilty as OTAKU USA editor in chief Patrick Macias and contributing writer Matt Alt invade the 47th annual Shizuoka Hobby Show. Treachery and greed run rampant as the pair survey a host of new toy and model product, run wild in a “box art” galley, and have a fateful encounter with Bandai Collectors' Division Sub-Leader Adam Newman who lays out the B-Club’s big plans for the San Diego Comic Con. The battle for “The Shizz” finally reaches a fever pitch as the gang is nearly thrown off a speeding bullet train in a hail of glow-in-the-dark tracer BBs and empty aluminum cans leaving the survivors to wonder, "was it worth it?"
While bumming around Tokyo, OUSA editor in chief Patrick Macias and contributing writer Matt Alt make the pilgrimage to post-apocalyptic Akihabara to personally inspect the new Mandarake Complex super store. After completing a real-time report on all eight floors of anime-manga-everything, the pair do battle with pirates in a back alley black market and make for a mysterious coin locker in violent Kichijoji where valuable treasure inside is hid!
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!
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.
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".
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!
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