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The short version: A few years back, I bought a CD on a whim in LA's Chinatown for about 3 bucks. It features a startling 10 min. track entitled "Asian Dance Club Music Mix" which is built around a chorus of Chinese people singing Madonna's "Material Girl." And then it gets really weird. It makes about as much sense to share it as anything else, so here it is.
PRESENTED IN DIGITAL SOUND STEREO.
Happy birthday dead Showa Emperor dude...
The definitely amazing DVD box set of Sonny Chiba’s SHADOW WARRIORS (Kage no Gundan): THE COMPLETE SERIES is on sale now and such. I wrote the 12-page booklet of liner notes and the episode guide that comes with this 7-disc, 27 episode wonder. But even if I didn’t, I’d be completely comfortable with calling this one of the best things ever shown on television. In fact, considering all the female nudity and grindhouse splatter in every episode, it’s hard to believe this could have ever been shown on tee vee at all (typical episode title: "Intrusion! 24 Hours in the Woman's Bath")! Lotsa ninja magic, Japan Action Club superstars (Etsuko Shihomi, Yasuaki Kurata), rib-tickling comedy, and Sonny Chiba lording over all as Hattori Hanzo in between. Trust me on this one...
Cheapest price I could find was here, and no my brother, youz gots 2 buy your own!
The anime world was rocked down to its very foundations yesterday by the announcement that the US based ImaginAsian Entertainment had acquired the television and DVD rights to three series from the ‘80s era Tokyo Movie Shinsha (TMS) stable: Orguss, Cat’s Eye, and Remi: Nobody’s Boy.
Well, no, not really. Still, the question remains, "where can I buy the rights to a TMS anime for myself"?
The trail to the truth leads to the recent Tokyo Anime Fair where the TMS booth housed American comic book spinner racks full of literally thousands of glossy fliers for their old programs. Many looked like they had been routinely pulled out of storage boxes for film and TV sales conventions over the decades…which they probably had been only to be routinely ignored by representatives from foreign markets.
But this time, actual buyers - in addition to a few plainclothes otaku like myself who'd managed to sneak into Business Day at the Anime Fair – greedily snatched up handfuls of the sales sheets. For nuts like me, it’s probably all because issues related to uncorrected personality traits left over from childhood or maybe because Space Adventure Cobra, God Mazinger, and Star of the Giants are eternal signifiers of "otakool." But for the man with the plan, this must have looked like a turkey shoot. I don’t think the rights to the lesser stars in the TMS stable cost as much as say, the latest Production I.G. opus. And finally, even the dumbest yokel in the audience finally gets it: there's kind of a demand for Japanese animation abroad. In a pinch, anything will do.
And who knows? Maybe one of these ancient TMS productions could be the next Pokemon.
(click to view fliers)
Reporter Blues
Makoto-chan
Karate Master
The Rough and Ready Cowboy
And a pair of obscure shows directed by Osamu Dezaki called Lady Oscar and The Champion.
I guess nows the time to get them while the getting is good. Anyone want to go in half for The Happy Section Chief?
From Vol.3 of Yamato Fan Club Magazine (dated April 25th, 1978): "My Yamato" where readers send in pics of humongous space battleships they make with large numbers of friends! To the right is a snow yamato (no, its not actually the real deal on ice) made by some no-counts in Hokkaido. I guess nowadays, these dorks would either be into doujinshi or CG modeling. A shame, really.
From Vol.3 of the Space Cruiser Yamato Fan Club Magazine (dated April 25th, 1978), here are some lonely planet boys and girls looking for pen pals and voices from a distant star.
Entire scan, complete with mailing addresses so you can write these folks (although most are probably dead or in jail at this point) is here.
Has the gorgeous face of fandom really changed all that much since the last space war?
Japanese blog Relaxphoto delivers the first comprehensive review of my upcoming JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL INFERNO book, complete with scans of interior pages, breakdown of contents, and potential spoilers. Apparently, it's a "shocking book," but also "funny" and "accurate." The review is in Japanese, but the pics and stuff should convince you to flip-out and pre-order the sexy Thing Itself, which is due in early May.
Link to the review is here.
"Macdaniel's" from Episode 8 of Zeta Gundam
Customer: Char Aznable
Eerily Relevant Quote:
"It's McDaniels, not McDonald's
These rhymes are Darryl's, those burgers are RONALD'S"
- RUN DMC, "Son of Byford"
Podcast:
Hot Tears of Shame - The Way to Virgin Space
Episode Eighteen
The battle to end all battles kind of continues as Alphabet Drake plans to launch an asteroid containing four Moway Monsters to crash land on Planet Hertz. In order to combat this threat, The Office of Scientific Investigation ritually invokes the O.T.A.C.K.E.R.S. (“Old-school Tokusatsu Anime Candy-toys Kaiju Espy Robots & Spectreman”), an elite intergalactic unit of Super Beings from Mystery Frequency 109. The job is simple: infiltrate “Wonderfest” – Drake’s pet parallel dimension populated by shape changers with supernatural powers – and destroy the Moway Monsters in their larval forms. But first, they must overcome their own fears and twisted loyalties…
Special Guest Star: ¡El Cliones!
Click here to listen.
Weeks later, I'm pretty comfortable writing the whole recent Tokyo Anime Fair thing off as guilty of being excessively "corporate" and "boring." Still, there were some cheap laughs to be had, like the Edvard Munch-meets-Keroro Gunso suit above. Most of the gags will appear in the first issue of OTAKU USA in June.
In the meantime, here's the best thing I saw at the show...
NO, NOT HER! Dig that Toei Animation Racing Queen uniform she's wearing, designed to make old school Delta Branded Rudies Steve Harrison and Mike Toole weep.
As for the 999 art in the background, get ready for a whole lot of faux Superflat merchandising this year from Toei and co...
Lastly, I brought you girls back some Kawaii Jenny...
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