An Eternal Thought in the Mind of Godzilla

On the "HYPERSONIC music club Art Print"

My webcomic Hypersonic Music Club, which I write and Hiroyuki Takahashi draws,  is a thing now and we have several (!!!) anime industry and licensing people looking at taking it to the next level. But now is sort of a crucial time where we have to show traction / buzz / interest. If anyone wants something killer cool to hang on their wall, you could actually spend a few bucks on this and I will kiss you on the astral plane!

 HYPERSONIC music club Art Print 

VAL rocks the HYPERSONIC music club in this limited-edition high-quality print by artist Hiroyuki Takahashi. The artwork is 11” x 17” size and is printed on gloss cover paper stock. 

SUPPORT HYPERSONIC MUSIC CLUB!

Order here (worldwide shipping available)!

Anison and Harajuku Collide at "Heavy Pop" Club Event

Fun fact: I barely go out at all when I’m here in San Francisco. I like my Xbox and HDTV waaaaay too much. But when in Tokyo – which is where I spent most of June this summer – I’m continually running around, bugging people if they “know of any events”, and hightailing it to whatever weird scene or place makes itself available. Case in point: Heavy Pop Vol. 16, a head spinning mix of crazy outfits, Anison delights, packed with assorted jpop and techno highlights.

Heavy Pop, organized by Ray Ochiai, is a regular club party event with strong ties to the Harajuku scene. To wit: a typical Heavy Pop event will see lolitas getting down with cyber kids, goths, decora, and other varieties of fashion monsters. While the event was open to the public, my invitation to Heavy Pop Vol.  16 came from a girl named Merupan I’d met a few months earlier at a gallery opening where artist Hiroyuki Takahashi’s work was on display. Turned out Merupan was an Anison DJ and was going to be spinning at Heavy Pop while I was in town. I looked at the flier below and figured I had to go…

 

 

Some other friends and acquaintances were on the bill, including Raveman, he of dark wave duo Aural Vampire, and The Lady Spade who have performed at Anime Maturi and whom I’ve interviewed before. So I shotgunned a sugar free Red Bull and made for a tiny dark club called HELL’S BAR in Tokyo’s Sangenjaya ward. Below is my video report on what when down….

 My first impressions were: practically everyone seemed to know each other. Despite the various fashion and music tribes present at Heavy Pop, it was still a very tightly knit scene. This inclusive vibe is pretty rare. Subcultures can be extremely exclusive in Tokyo sometimes, and you’ll often know right away from glares and stares if you’ve strayed too far outside your boundaries, which tend to be even thicker than normal if you’re a wacky foreigner. But the denizens of Heavy Pop were totally open to whoever, or whatever, wandered in the door. 

 With a lot of mingling going on, the dancing and DJ-ing sometimes felt secondary to surreal socializing among the attendees and shop stall staff that filled the floor with spooky handmade goods for sale. The proceedings could be stop-start. Just as the music threatened to fully take over, the scene would switch to a fashion show, a live performance, a mini-birthday celebration complete with candles and cake. The vibe was slightly bittersweet throughout: the HELL’S BAR venue was set to close down for good after this event, even though Heavy Pop continues to be a thing, the vibe of something changing and coming to an end was palpable. The family feel reached its apex when everyone gathered together to take a group portrait to commemorate this installment of Heavy Pop. And hey, what do you know, I wound up in the picture as well…

So yeah, while Anison and otaku culture didn’t play a central part in the proceeding – aside from Merupan’s spirited DJ set – experiencing the underground eco-system of Heavy Pop was totally worth the trip. 

Links

HEAVY POP blog

HEAVY POP on facebook

Ray Ochiai on YouTube (tons of HEAVY POP related videos)

 

HEAVY POP Vol. 16 images courtesy of my Instagram account (follow me, follow me)

 

Kamono Natsumi

 

Merupan

 

DJ Merupan

 

ATG and Lotta from THE LADY SPADE 

 

Bazookistan

 

RELATED LINKS

FEATURE - Event Report - Anison Disco Inferno!

FEATURE - AniLOVE!! Club Event Report!

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Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News. He is also the editor of Otaku USA magazine. Check out his rather amazing Tumblr at japanesefashioninferno.tumblr.com.

Anison Disco event at Shibuya WOMB / アニソンディスコ @渋谷WOMB 6.28.14

Glowstick trails… anime themes at warp speed bpms… legions of cosplayers dancing and laughing in the dark… My heads-spinning summer of Anison (otaku-speak for “anime songs”) began last month in Tokyo with a visit to a club event called AniLOVE!!, which you can read about here.

 

And it was at AniLOVE!! that the gang there suggested that we check out another regular anison event that’s been active in Japan for nearly 4 years now… Anison Disco, a name which conjured up images of big afros, funky platform heels, and wide lapel shirts. While there was a giant mirror ball involved, it was a bit different from the Saturday Night Fever-like experience I was half expecting. For starters, Anison Disco is funny. Deliberately so. A pair of comedians from the famed Yoshimoto talent agency – most notably BAN BAN BAN Yamamoto who certainly cuts a striking figure in his tail swinging Frieza cosplay  - are the main organizers of the event, and are backed up on stage by a gaggle of up-and-coming aspiring comedians. You’ll probably get some sense of what Anison Disco’s agenda is simply by looking at the quite intriguing staff pic below… 

The Anison Disco event I went to was held on a Sunday afternoon at club WOMB in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward: a massive venue that’s a ground zero of sorts for music and DJ events of all genres (it is also home to “Asia’s largest mirror ball” according to some rumors / reports). I had seen the anison groove work its strange magic at the small club where AniLOVE!! was held… how would things turn out in a much bigger place? Watch the video below to find out!

 

First things first: the place was PACKED with attendees, as in “no place to move”. Most folks (both sexes equally represented, early to mid-20s seems about right) were in cosplay. Pretty much everyone had at least one glowstick to wave around wildly. All attention was centered on the stage where the Anison organizers held court, leading the wota dance moves, and putting on short “cosplay masquerade” skits based on whatever anime theme the DJ spun. People from the audience were welcome to jump on stage and do their thing as well, although groups of similar cosplayers tended to travel in packs, like the Madoka glowstick gang seen in the video, or the air swimmers from Free! in the pics below.

The result was controlled chaos; some degree of planning and professionalism was clearly at work behind the scenes. This was not a free-for-all: everyone was encouraged (in a very Japanese way) to follow the leaders, unify, and have fun together, resulting in a feeling not entirely dissimilar to the exercise portion of a particularly crazy morning kids show.

The one major goof in the Anison Disco experience was the near total lack of actual anime itself. As BANBANBAN Yamamoto explained to us, since this event was also being livestreamed to the internet, they opted to just spring for generic VJ visuals (other smaller Anison Disco events do include anime video though). Too bad… I can only image how much more crazier the event would have been with some opening and ending title sequences layered on top of the mayhem. Still, I emerged from WOMB sweaty and half-crazed by what I had experienced, wondering (as I am increasingly these days) why aren't more anime fans doing this kind of stuff outside of Japan. But no answers were to be found...my Anison summer still wasn’t over by a long shot…

Links: 

Anison Disco blog

Anison Disco on Twitter

 

Anison Disco images courtesy of my Instagram account (follow me, follow me)

 

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Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News. He is also the editor of Otaku USA magazine. Check out his rather amazing Tumblr at japanesefashioninferno.tumblr.com.

AniLOVE!! event in Tokyo / アニLOVEっ!!@池袋mismatch 6.13.14

Ok, so I spent last month running around being a maniac in Tokyo. Since time is valuable (it’s all we have, really...) I will spare you the dull details, like the flight, the hotel, the rain, the heat and just get to the good stuff. Expect more such reports in the days ahead as I sift through the wreckage of 30+ days and nights in the land of the rising FUN. And first up on the hit list is… AniLOVE!!

AniLOVE!! is all-night club event held monthly in Tokyo. Nope, I had never gone to an AniLOVE!! session, let alone been to the club where the event was held: a funky dark space called Ikebukuro mismash. All I knew before dipping in was that the DJs there spin nothing but anime theme songs and Vocaloid tracks. Cosplay dress code is (of course) preferred, but not mandatory … I found out about AniLOVE!! from friend, artist, and collaborator Hiroyuki Takahashi who routinely creates the characters on the AniLOVE!! fliers (see below) and seems about plugged into the Anison (anime song…) club scene as much as anyone I know.

I’d been to a few Anison events before in Japan, notably at club mogra in Akihabara which is pretty much purely dedicated to getting nerds to shake it to anime themes both old and new, idol music, and other otaku-friendly sounds. But I’d never seen anyone lose their mind there. By contrast, AniLOVE!! felt like a serious trip to the cutting edge of Japanese otaku culture. Although all the elements you would expect to find - even at a mediocre US con rave - were on display like DJs, anime freaks, cosplayers, and big screens playing anime footage – the dynamics were different enough to make me think that there’s something going on here. But before we go any further, watch my illuminating little video report! I shot it and edited it myself!

Although the clip is a little under the two minute mark, keep in mind that the level of manic energy stayed at exactly that frantic pace all-night long, from last train to dawn’s first light. When you get enough fans together in one place with enough music and enough glowsticks (I lost count at about a million), the anison groove is incredibly strong.

Traditionally, otaku culture can be a little segregated: cute cosplay girls occupy one side of the room, socially awkward guys habitate on the other, and rarely do the two meet in the middle (except for when the dudes bug the girls for photos). But at AniLOVE!!, both sexes appeared to freely mingled, socialized, boogied, and just plain got down on the same level without it being weird or anything. Good for everyone: the club, the event, the human race.

Most dance club events – even non-anime one – seem to have a vaguely pyramidal structure, with the DJ placed front and center where they are worshipped like a living god of sorts for the act of playing back pre-recorded music. Meanwhile, AniLOVE!! did things a little differently. They had the turntables, along with DJs (most of whom came in cosplay), placed off to the left of the stage. The main view was instead dominated by a big screen onto which non-stop anime videos were projected (usually opening titles). The stage was open: a free-zone. Anyone could jump on stage and act like a headless chicken, or create glowstick trails with their carefully memorized wota dances, or do whatever the heck they wanted. More places should do this! Why don't more places do this already?

Looking back, I can’t think of a single downside or bum note to the AniLOVE!! experience. They've got it all figured out. If someone outside of Japan could figure out a way to replicate this head spinning mix of anime, music, and people mingling with each other, they might actually find the makings of a bona fide global youth culture movement here. But for now a tiny underground club event somewhere in Tokyo has got the goods. Here are some links to help you follow the fun in real time:

AniLOVE!! homepage on tweetvite 

AniLOVE!! on Twitter

DJ Caeser (event organizer) on Twitter

Images (via my Instagram, follow me, etc)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BONUS! More AniLOVE!! flier art from Hiroyuki Takahashi 

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Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News. He is also the editor of Otaku USA magazine. Check out his rather amazing Tumblr at japanesefashioninferno.tumblr.com.

Flier for Rhythm&Animation 『リズアニ!!』

Art by Hiroyuki Takahashi

Secret Origins: Red Impulse

2020 Neo-Tokyo Olympic Stadium from AKIRA

『アキラ』の２０２０年東京オリンピックスタジアム

Opening ceremonies: direction by Sono Sion, design by Sebastian Masuda, performances by Godzilla, Valkilly, with a tribute to Hideo Murota.

Closing ceremonies: Robot Restaurant with a $130 million dollar budget. Everyone in the audience gets a free bento and Asahi tall boy, too.

Hatsune Miku Creators Interview (Polka Remix)

Here's some choice excerpts (i.e. the good stuff) from my interview with the creators of Hatsune Miku that went up yesterday on Crunchyroll News. I post them here because the site is region blocked to Japan. Go here to read the whole thing.

Hiroyuki Itoh is the CEO of Crypton Future Media, and is joking referred to as “the father of Hatsune Miku”.

Wataru Sasaki was the developer of Character Vocal Series 01: Hatsune Miku and continues to develop the VOCALOID software.

There’s been some talk from fans who really want to see a VOCALOID anime, while others think the characters are fine now without a continuing story. Where do you stand on the idea of expanding the characters and their world?

Wataru Sasaki: Anime is made by old men (“ojisan” is the word he uses - PM). I think that Miku fan’s imaginations and the people who think about Miku’s different songs and styles are way more creative than anime. I have so much expectation for the young generation and I want Miku to be a container for the energy of those people. We don’t need anime because I think the fan’s creativity is at a higher level than anime. I want to keep the fans aware of that fact.
 
What has surprised you the most about the Miku phenomenon?
 
Hiroyuki Itoh: It’s only been about ten years since people started using the internet. And I think we are still in the process of discovering what can be done with it. During the process of distributing the internet to people, many things and industries will be replaced by newer forms. For example: music, e-commerce, or social networking sites like Facebook. Maybe an older institution like the telephone will shift into a totally new industry sometime soon. I won’t say that Hatsune Miku may destroy the music industry, but…I am looking forward to making some kind of impact. I feel like we are involved with something very new. I want Miku to be some kind of symbol or icon for the changing of industries. For the sake of a bright future, I hope that Miku will be recognized for that. 
 
Sounds like the discovery of the atom…
 
Hiroyuki Itoh: Yeah, that’s right, just like the atom.
 
You told me before that “Understanding why Hatsune Miku is so popular among the youth all over the world will also give you understanding on the future of the entertainment business”. What do you think the future of the entertainment business looks like?
 
Hiroyuki Itoh: That’s a tough question. We should ask, “What is the entertainment business?” Is it the business of entertainment? Maybe the future of the entertainment business is no longer business. For example, right now, a lot of people are enjoying YouTube. The contents are made by users. The provider is not doing this as a business. The act of making contents itself is already entertainment. It’s just that there’s not so much money involved. But the consumers respond to the creator by replying with comments and clicking “like” buttons. Eventually the creator or provider might get some kind of reputation or value and can finally end up making business out of it. By leaving comments and interacting, consumers aren’t just consuming. They’re now shaping the entertainment business. That means, to consume entertainment is now equal to creating entertainment. So we need to redefine the meaning of what the entertainment business is. That is the future of the entertainment business. And Hatsune Miku is one of the experiments.
 
Wataru Sasaki: Right now, a lot of young people are consuming energy drinks and playing games on the internet. But who made the game they play? The game producer. But who ends up making money? Maybe the owner of the company. The more kids there are enjoying a game, spending their money on it, the more old guys, who have nothing to do with making their entertainment, wind up making money. I simply think that’s not cool. People that you don’t know, people that the game user has no relationship with; the more you spend your money, they gain your money. That’s a fact. This leads to a situation where it is harder and harder for creators to make a living. So, to create a good situation for creators and producers means to offer good entertainment that a lot of young people enjoy. That’s why redefining what “entertainment business” means is needed now. This is the part that we need to change the world about.

Happy 73rd birthday to Leiji Mastumoto!

Sale: Vice Fairy x One Piece parkas

Shibuya-kei  boy clothiers VICE FAIRY recently made some parka tie-up items with One Piece. I guess they need to make a new movie soon or something since these here parkas are now "more than half off" at fifty-two percent (i.e. 4,250 yen) at the rather amazing site known as craze.jp. The rhetorical question: who doesn't need the words VICE FAIRY boldly emblazoned on their chest in flamin' letters? 

The week in writing: updates at Otaku USA dot com

Links to my stories for the week of 1/3 at the Otaku USA magazine website.

TOKYO TERMINAL DIARY - Frontier Shooting Range

SECRETS OF THE OTAKU-VERSE: Episode Six! - Head behind the scenes

2011 is 1981: THE YEAR IN TV ANIME
Tiger-print bikinis, real robots, and sentient cigarette lighters

2010 is 1980: Animation 1980 (Roadshow magazine special edition)

Hot Tears of Shame TV - The Great Anime Cel Giveaway

Farewell to Yoshinobu Nishizaki, Tomino Dishes on The Nish

Yesterday, I edited the first review of the live-action Space Battleship Yamato movie for Otaku USA magazine.

Today, I woke to find that producer Yoshinobu Nishizaki - who was to Yamato what Gene Roddenberry was to Star Trek – had died at age 75, drowned in a boating accident.

I’ll be eulogizing Nishizaki, perhaps my favorite all-time anime industry personality; a man equal parts Walt Disney and Scarface, at longer length at the Otaku USA website.

But for now, here’s a quick and dirty English translation of some thoughts on the man by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who was (of course) creator of Mobile Suit Gundam and an original staff member on the 1974 Space Battleship Yamato anime. It perfectly captures the deeply conflicted feelings that Nishizaki can bring up: how he changed the anime industry, pissed people off, inspired others, and did it all HIS WAY. 

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If I have to say it, producer Nishizaki is the kind of person I hate. I also have to admit he can be a likeable person, too. But I personally prefer not to like him. 

Producer Nishizaki was the first person of his kind that I ever encountered in the anime industry. We (in the industry) were not used to meeting this type of person and everyone was stunned by his character. He was so pushy and he used his power to make the staff do whatever he wanted. Honestly, it scared us and we didn’t want him inside the world of anime. 

But at the same time, I also thought that the world of anime would never change unless there was a producer who had good sense for sales and marketing. Maybe the reason I felt that way was because I also knew about the world of TV commercials. 

Until that time, the anime world was just a gathering place for children. There weren’t so many people who were saying, “we have to take anime to the next level.” Which is what Nishizaki did…

I didn’t like the Yamato phenomenon when it became a hit. But at the same time I thought it was OK that people from outside the anime industry had come in. Instead of a creator, Nishizaki was more like a business person. The feeling of hate I had towards Yamato was more than just a reaction to his style of working. I felt like the times themselves had changed.

The anime industry started with Tezuka and his gang of manga-ka. We were offended by outsiders who used us for business. In that sense, you have to admit we were naïve. I had to accept the style of business that Nishizaki pursued. 

We witnessed the process of Yamato getting more and more popular through TV and on-air. We wanted the TV version of Yamato to be a hit like a blockbuster movie and we wanted to create an original movie version. I envied Yamato’s success and thought that anime had a lot of potential. But I didn’t want Yamato to be the ONLY hit anime. So when I started working on Mobile Suit Gundam, I always felt in the back of my mind that “we need to beat that guy up”. 

More than anything, I want everyone to copy and become like Nishizaki. 

- Yoshiyuki Tomino

(quotes taken from Nishizaki memorial thread via 2chan, exact source: unknown)

LUMINERV: limited-time Evangelion store

I was casing out the men’s floors at the LUMINE EST shopping center at Shinjuku station today for some fresh fly threads when I stumbled across the startling sight of the LUMINERV limited-time store lurking within.

A quadruple set of life-size Ayanami Rei figures heralded a mini-stop of Neon Genesis Evangleion goods. From 10/8 to 11/10, this space on the 5th floor is home to the LUMINERV store (full name – no, I am not making this up: “LUMINERV: We’ll Equally Evaluate the Fashion and the Animation Images”) where the faithful and the curious alike can snatch up Eva polo shirts, daily planners, watches, belts, NERV eco-bags, coffee mugs, and stuff like that.

Other Eva collaboration goods were strewn about inside of other stores on the 5th and 6th floors, such as T-shirts (from Beams), jackets (from goa MEN), backpacks (from Manhattan Portage), sneakers (from Chapter), and even glasses frames (from Zoff). The same deals are going down at the LUMINE MAN store in Shibuya. Full campaign details with participating brands here.

Unlike a lot of the other men's stores in the EST, there actually appeared to be some customer interest in the LUMINERV shop, thus insuring that a.) copyright holder khara will continue to milk this sucker for all it’s worth and b.) the sales staff were too distracted to do anything about a menacing & evil foreigner taking pictures and video. This gift, I give to you...

Legends of Anime Movie Programs: Fist of the North Star (1986)

Harlock & 999 Monchhichi sold in Asakusa Nakamise

I love Monchhichi Harlock's cholo hairnet. He needs laser-rapier or a glass of wine tho.

Would you believe: Monchhichi and the cast of Galaxy Express 999! Quick, someone take Leiji Matsumoto to the hot springs...Price is 2,520円-3,045円, about US thirty bucks. 

I've walked by that Monchhichi store in Asakusa beore, but I never went in...because Monchichi is "for girls". Although...the online store has a ton of other strange Monchhichi mash-ups including punk rocker and Chinese army solider. 

Link here