An Eternal Thought in the Mind of Godzilla

Buffalo Bobs - The Waterproof Suit

  
Behold a new item from famed host club / dandy clothiers Buffalo Bobs: water proof suits cut from miraculous Dupont Teflon fabric.  The marketing campaign cuts straight to the chase:  an investment of around US$460.00 will insure you against the rigors of a particularly messy Dom Perignon champagne call...or, like this model, you can just stand around and pour a bottle of bubbly on your shoulder should you feel in the mood. But how these duds will stand up to other fluids ubiquitous to night work (i.e. urine and vomit) remains unclear.

Wig Oil Mist

 

Japan for sale and everything must go. Dying department store in a mall up in Kita-ku wallpapered in fading red and white paper squares. Sale. Sale. Sale. And then no sale at all…A rush job retreat that leaves battered nude mannequins and antiquated cash registers behind. In the allies: boxes of plastic wrap and trash. Outside, a drunken old timer groans and chooses the place for an impromptu piss, tears from one generation to another. Anti-overtone radiation (EDLP) emitting from the Walmart-owned Seiyu nearby, but the place is only popular with a rag-tag bands of survivors after 12am. 

Meanwhile, on the train (“the doubutsu-sen”), restored to it’s former glory but and already fading again fast, our inappropriate foreign bodies aren’t blocking the door so much as just there inhabiting it. Occupying. Arriving at the his stop, an ancient salaryman can’t resist shooting a volley of “Sorry-Excuse-Me-Please” at us, the pitch suggesting an mix of intense sarcasm and linguistic unfamiliarity. But we’re the least of his problems now…

Podcast: Hot Tears of Shame x Episode Thirty Eight

Show notes and shitz tomorrow morning. I'm tired and hafta fold laundry... 

Download Hot Tears of Shame #38

© Hot Tears of Shame Production Committee/jaPRESS

I'm Rubbin' It

 

IKEA Shinmisato: Otaku and Gothic-Lolita showrooms

For reasons not interesting enough to go into here, I was bamboozled into a trip to IKEA in darkest suburban Saitama. Aside from minor cosmetic differences, the parade of zombified shoppers punctuated by screaming children initially made the experience about the same (i.e. miserable) as the one you're likely to get anywhere else in the world. That was until I came across the otaku model room, which I'm going to wager a guess is a Japan-only exclusive: 

Behold stylish manga 'n Godzilla design motifs and bookshelves filled with over-sized copies of GANTZ. Not pictured: magazine rack crowed with issues of Hobby Japan and display case stuffed with Bandai soft-vinyl kaiju. Unseen: a lifetime supply of Cup Nude.

Another highlight: inexplicable framed Boy's Love manga panels next to a headshot of a neo zeta-male deviant, possibly involved in an IT scheme of some sort...more acceptable than Tomohito Kato, yet no less dangerous...

 Compare and contrast with the secret garden-like Bohemia of the nearby showroom intended to win over picky Gothic Lolita and their long-suffering parents. Again, fake pictures are worth a thousand words, especially when they include framed portraits of yourself in the finest duds that Closet Child has to offer...

Here's looking forward to more IKEA versions of marginal Japanese consumer lifestyles. Are host showrooms, gal mama showrooms, and chronic pachinko addict showrooms far behind? For the sake of the Euro-Yen exchange rate, LET'S HOPE NOT.

HOTDOG59

Lancia Stratos

Jet lag brain falling out of head (meaning no way to touch the overtones now) just lying there inches away like the rotten core of a foam rubber puppet. Sideways on a fakebed shutter darkness all around. Summer heat sneaks in. Actual Harlock-like sound of tiny child playing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star on an ocarina. G.O.D. truck circles outside occasionally in a slow loop, demanding that citizens deposit their clackboxes and Gerotan Invasion souvenirs into the payloads. But everyone hides inside watching dubbed Van Damme movies  former idol Yuka Yuka’s latest endeavor “no!no!HAIR”, a demon show about laser-hair installation. Maybe it will all come back to me tomorrow: where I am and why I'm here.

Zen doughnuts

Government of Darkness spirit drone sending rain and storms over the Kanto region for reasons we cannot ever possibly know. Tokyo Gerotan dash for shelter in every dark and humid corner of the country. The overtones humming beyond the range of human hearing and sensory perception for the coming of Espionage Rejects…

…but first, jabbering, spun cab driver ranting about Hamas, Palestine, and the Same Old Shit puttering sad little car going down freeway. Insisting on eye contact in the rear view mirror leading to a near collision and outright missing the exit to International Terminal XO. Defeated post-everything airport vibe: no one checking on, no one actually going anywhere, no one buying Swarovski crystal, no real security threats anymore beyond what you’d find in a low end shaky blockbuster. Milling unsuccessful white men, speaking too loud into Bluetooth tech, sweaty palms greasing Android touch screens. People really feeling the pinch at Currency Exchange, voicing shock and anger that the dollar has suddenly become the Philipino peso.  Psycho-eyed guy with mohawk doing 100 Yard Stare down the concourse into the symbolic center of Ghost Fortress America: the Sunglasses Hut.

Introducing...Minari no Seishun

Keiichi Tanaka's gag manga series Minari no Seishun is now available in English as a digital download in the Android Market. My company jaPRESS handled the localization in association with Japanese content & entertainment agency Dopamin. 

As the synopsis puts it, "Artist Tanaka Keiichi is renowned for his raunchy take on Osamu Tezuka's classic manga style. Utilizing look-alike artwork identical to Tezuka's, 'Minari's Youthful Days' depicts the comedic adventures of a married high school girl and her friends in the form of a four panel gag strip."

You can purchase both the English and Japanese versions of  Minari no Seishun at the official site here.

2010 is 1980: Son of Godzilla

Just another normal day for nine-year-olds like me in the NoCal suburbs...

New 10-min Godzilla Pachinko Demo

Via http://twitter.com/SAGA_CHO