An Eternal Thought in the Mind of Godzilla

"Otaku in USA", new edition, new cover

Ok, so here is the cover of the new reprint of my 2006 book Otaku in USA. Goes on sale in Japan on July 10. This is a bunko paperback edition from publisher Takeshobo that, like many great Japanese technological advances is smaller, compact, and more efficient.

At first, we planned on updating the original cover by using a new picture of an American LUM cosplayer, but they all turned out to be flaky or demented. Artwork is lots easier to work with, so we commissioned a fancy new illustration by utomaru with design and layout by Yoshiki Takahashi.

Seven years is a long time in the otaku game (shit man, even three months is a lifetime for anime fans now…), but I guess the publisher figures that ribald tales about Kojiro Abe and co. (as translated by Tomo Machiyama) might still tickle a few funny bones out there. Either way, the book contains a new introduction by myself that tries to get things up to speed: the death of DVD, the rise of the streaming anime wars, and the new jack swing of stalking Japanese people via social media and the significance of otaku stoners.

Most of that lot are on the plate in greater detail for my next book for Japan, due “real soon”. In the meantime, got a spare 819 yen? Because here's the....

Amazon.jp page for 

オタク・イン・USA:愛と誤解のAnime輸入史 (ちくま文庫)[文庫]

Zoku Harenchi Gakuen

In a weird move that I never saw coming, Nippon Kyozai System - crafty purveyors of college entrance exams and study guides - has licensed a portion of my 2006 book Otaku in USA - Love and Misunderstanding, The History of adopted Anime in America for use in Hanazono University's entrance exam. No, it's not a movie deal, but I'll take what I can get.

They're raiding most of the opening introductory chapter, presented in English here, which is largely about high school, nerds, geeks, and being a dropout (although I now prefer the term "Space Runaway"). It was written on a strict diet of pizza toast and cola floats in a race car themed cafe in Nakano Broadway, so it sort of blows my mind that it will soon be mercilessly determining someone's fate in a classroom setting.

With Otaku in USA now in it's 4th printing, I'm currently working on the follow-up for the same publisher entitled 燃えろアメリカンオタク伝説. I'd like to think I'm halfway done, but it's probably more like one-third. Gah.

Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno Scans

Download here, thanks a lot.

Debu Papaya

The new Japanese book Karesen (AKA "Do You like Ojisan?") is the most fucked up shit I have seen in a long time. Tucked inside 141 pages is a wrinkle inducing celebration of ojisan culture of the "kindly old uncle" variety for the weird women, presumably of the fujoshi stripe, who can't get enough of the lonely old duffers.

I guess this is next logical step after the "Suit Danshi" and "Megane Danshi" craze, where photobooks were sold containing nothing but older men wearing suits and jackets radiating irresistible "intelligent" and "elite" vibes. But this book goes deeper by nearly doubling the age of the men involved profiling their lives like "hot" Ojisan like jazz pianist Kenji Tsuchiya (above)

...and running a helpful guide to easy-to-chew Ojisan food.

And if you, the savage foreigner need some help in clarifying just what exactly a smokin' hot ojisan is, the book concludes with a guide to "Ojisan of the World" and includes super-deformed tumbnails of Liam Neeson, Willem Defoe, and dreamy Morgan Freeman!

The influence of Shuji Terayama's "Miraculous Mandarin" on the notion of 'Street Theater' in Shibuya 200X

Marxy does a classically "Marxy" deep reading / review of Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno over at Neojaponisme. As such, this 2,000-word-plus enchilada (including footnotes) is the only write-up of our little book that actually matters.

Excerpt:

"Unlike other collections of Tokyo fashion history such as PARCO’s Street Fashion 1945-1995 or the more recent, less theoretical The Tokyo Look Book, Macias and Evers limit their focus to outcast/delinquent styles and ignore the media-dictated and ultimately middle-class consumer lifestyles like Nyutora, New Wave, American Casual, Ura-Harajuku-kei, Shibuya Casual, and the DC Boom. But Inferno’s narrow scope makes the point that the most extreme and interesting Japanese fashions have primarily originated amongst social rejects and not elite stylists....Essentially, most Japanese young people adopt magazine-derived styles to look good, whereas the Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno delinquent subcultures all intentionally want to look bad."

Pointed at a wall, pointed at a ceiling

Saraba Edward Seidensticker. My favorite of the ex-pat Japan writer-translator guys. His two-volume history of the sprawl, Low City, High City and Tokyo Rising, are out of print but essential reads. The dude loved the Taisho as much as we do the Showa, and he made me see the light. Long afternoons crawling across Asakusa looking for the scarlet gang...

Funky Mental Darkness

I've just been informed that JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL INFERNO has been nominated for the American Library Association's "Books for Reluctant Readers" program.

While pounding this book out, I never guessed that it might some day join the ranks of "Bunnicula" and "A Hero Ain't Nothin But a Sandwich", but there you go...

"The old man is nothing but a purse"

MY SEXY NEW BOOK JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL INFERNO - TOKYO TEEN FASHION SUBCULTURE HANDBOOK IS ON SALE NOW!!

BUY IT OR ELSE I WON'T TALK TO YOU ANYMORE....

AMAZON HAS IT CHEAP. IT WILL DESTROY YOUR HOME WORLD!

Never Cry Butterfly

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.

Belotica Irma

Donald Richie (no less) delivers the first-ever review of JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL INFERNO for the Japan Times. Link to the review is here.

Lolita 109-go

I was bumming around the magazines and books section of Tower Records in South Shinjuku the other day when I found three copies of my new book Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno: Tokyo Teen Fashion Subculture Handbook already on the shelves! The book won’t even be released in the US until May, so the question “what in blazes?” comes to mind.

Another jolt came from the price mark-up. You are looking at about twenty-six bucks in Tokyo damage versus around a probably-slightly-more reasonable eleven clams on Amazon US.

Yet no matter where you find it, or how much you pay for it, I hope you enjoy this encyclopedic mega-narrative about how the outlaw spirit of post-war Japanese youth was tamed and ultimately overtaken by the unscrupulous market forces of media-driven hypercapitalism.

Or you can just look at the crazy pictures of girls dressed up wacky like I do.

Techno Hair Presents

"Fierce Legend of American Otaku People"

The time has come to announce my next big writing project for the New Year and the follow up to my 2006 Japan-only book OTAKU IN USA. Mark your calendar for winter’07-spring’08, because this is the tentative publishing date in Japan for:

AMERICAN OTAKU PEOPLE RETSUDEN
「アメリカン・オタク・ピープル列伝」
("Fierce Legend of American Otaku People")

OTAKU IN USA covered 50 years worth of Japanese pop cultural history in America. This book aims to zero in on the lives and lifestyles of Americans that helped turn a handful of foreign cartoons and comic books into today’s invasion of anime and manga. Spliced between interviews and profiles of fans and professionals will be dialogues between co-author Matt Alt and myself about how Japanese pop culture (ala anime, manga, music, film, what have you) has changed countless lives in the USA, including our own, for the better and for the worse.

There’s already a short list of folks we plan on contacting for interviews and such, but WE NEED MORE PEOPLE. Consider this a casting call for any fan or pro who thinks they deserve truly Legendary Otaku Status.

It could be because you have a Naruto tattoo, legally changed your named to “Eva Unit 01,” or simply because you live in a room filled with approximately one million wall scrolls and plushies. This is solid gold. By contrast, just liking Japanese pop culture or being a part-time cosplayer isn’t enough. Your whole lifestyle has to have been irrevocably and dramatically altered in some way. On the other end of the spectrum, we are also looking for professionals, academics, heads of state, and really together people for whom anime, manga, and Japanese pop culture have provided an inspiration. Men, women, adults and children of all races and creeds are encouraged to reply (the only stipulation is that you have to be an American citizen). Either way, the more dramatic your tale of otakudom is, the better!

If you think you have what it takes to impress increasingly jaded Japanese people, or would like to recommend someone who does, by all means send an email to [email protected]. In return, you'll get a free copy of the book and a chance at noterirty and infamy in Japan. And if you’d also like to spread this casting call to other message boards, blogs, and websites, by all means don’t delay, do it today.

Baby Face, Team Popeye, and Akujo

Books! Books! We’ve got books, two of them to tell the truth. A pair of advance copies of my 2007 title from Chronicle Books, JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL INFERNO – TOKYO TEEN SUBCULTURE HANDBOOK. Sadly, it won’t be on sale until May 3rd (blame the biannual release schedule of the US publishing industry) but I can’t resist tooting my own **** until then.

This sucker is as glossy as Shiseido Aquair Deep Moist Shampooed hair, and easily has the highest production values of any book I’ve done to date. We’re talking full-color interior crowded with pictures loaned from legendary Gal magazine egg and lots of Mad Magazine style illustrations by Kazumi “Batty Cheese” Nonaka. Contents include the Real Deal about Lady Bikers, Girl Gangs, Gonguro, Hime Gals, Gothloli, and the truly fearful Kigurumin (girls who prance about in nothing but Pikachu pajamas). My lovely co-author is Izumi Evers. She did the graphic design and provided raw data about these human oddities inside as well.

For anyone thinking I’ve gone all soft and girly with this one, rest assured, it’s chock full of sex, crime, scandal, and ALL of the seven deadly sins are present with particular attention lavished upon “Greed.”

I think it will thrill you. I hope you will buy it when it comes out. At an absurd $11.53 from Amazon, it is certainly cheaper than an evening of compensated dating with a Kogal.

"Guntank wa mitai"

My book OTAKU IN USA got a four-star review in the evening edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

I ate a lot of meat and bought some shoes.

Tomorrow is an interview with Hanako magazine.

Friday marks the opening salvo of the Gothic&Lolita Wars. We begin filming inside Marui at an unspecified time.

Ima wa

オタク・イン・USA 愛と誤解のAnime輸入史

Amazon.co.jp ランキング: 本で26位

Kuchusen

Tomo and I will be on the TBS Radio show Stream live Tues/8, 2pm Tokyo time. We will be talking about OTAKU IN USA. The show, which will be in Japper-knees, will be archived as a podcast on the Stream site. In the meantime, all functional Espionage Rejects should tune into 954 kHz on your portable Overtone clackboxes...

Shunsuke Tsubaki

It is with much celebration that I can now tell that a publisher is *actually* interested in publishing a Pedro Edogawa novel should I *actually* write it. So I’m currently looking for a pro manga artist and a mecha designer who can produce some illustrations. Leads on the former, zip on the latter for now.

I’m going in with intention to write the definitive account of the Goka Jyu-pun Senso (“The Gorgeous Ten Minute War”), but have no idea where things will actually end up. Somewhere between fact, fiction, and fucked up, most likely. The cast will include all the usual weirdoes that pop up in my typical Taishomei posts: Youna, Yuka Yuka, and (of course) Col. Baldwin. I don’t think ESPY and Counter-ESPY will rate anything beyond a mention, though...

In the meantime, here’s a picture of a Kigurumer walking the mean streets of Kawasaki…

Fashion Note

The great hype machine for my next book OTAKU IN USA has been switched on and the Thing Itself is now available for pre-order at Amazon Japan. Should be hitting the Hon-yas by August. Awesome cover and interior design by Slasher.

Like Roy Wood's album Mustard and DVDs of Death Laid An Egg, the book will only be available in Japan and there are no plans (yet) for an English language edition.

Editor and translator Tomo Machiyama spins a pre-release yarn on his blog. Here's a kind-of translation:

"The new book OTAKU IN USA, written by Patrick Macias, edited and translated into Japanese by Tomohiro Machiyama, will go on sale in Japan in August 2006.

This book took three years to make and wound up becoming 300 pages. It covers everything from the premiere of the first Godzilla film all the way to the recent yaoi boom. One American otaku, Patrick Macias, writes about how Japanese pop culture has been imported to the West.

The contents include:

* Henry G. Saperstein who dreamed of making a "Godzilla Vs. Frankenstein" movie!
* Ultraseven dubbed into English... and as a comedy!
* Spectreman brings environmental awareness to the USA!
* Gatchaman is transformed into a space patrol that travels across the milky way!
* American dream of seeing Yuki Mori nude in the US version of Yamato!
* Super robots Raideen, Combattler, and Danguard Ace all fighting on the same team!
* Voltron worshipped by gangster rappers!
* Godzilla 1985 is turned into an epic-length Dr. Pepper commercial!
* American shocked by their first exposure to the power of MOE via Lynn Minmei on Robotech!
* Eight years ago in America, when you said anime, it meant "hentai" !
* Sailor Moon was bashed as pornography, but revived like a phoenix by fan power!
* The Yaoi boom arrives in America!
* Visual-kei means "bands that look like anime characters" !
* Americans know how to navigate the freeways of Tokyo thanks to video games!
* The fear against child porn among Americans who try to understand MOE!
* The Anime manic life of Fred Patten, the world's oldest living otaku!

And more more more more... because it's 300 pages long!"