Scenes from the Tokyo Game Show

Full pictorial article: http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/09/gallery-tgs-cosplay/

Masters of Horror - Pt. 3, Junji Ito

According to Google Analytics, I notice that traffic increases every time that I post scantily-clad women on these blogs, whether they are comic/anime women - such as Bomb Queen, or real-life bodacious women - such as Yaya Han or the ladies from the cosplay photo shoot. So with that knowledge in mind, I thus completely and intentionally ignore sexy women for this outing. In fact, I am going to post the exact opposite and continue on my series of The Masters of Horror. This time around concerns the all-time grand champion Mister Disturbo gross-out king Junji Ito. Most of his works have now been converted into television shows (one starring Miho Kanno) and movies in Japan but in truth, it's his manga that stands apart for just how completely sadistic and balls-out creepy they turn out to be. It would be of no surprise that Ito-san is probably the most normal looking bloke in Japan and favors cheesecake while listening to The Carpenters. Those people have dark dark secrets, let me tell you.

In his collection of short stories - Flesh Coloured Horror, I would guess that he rather dislikes cute girls, especially the cutesy-kawaiiiii! Japanese schoolgirls that are the fetish of many a salariman. When girls kill each other simply because one of them *thinks* killing each other would work to stem off their own deaths by disease, I would guess there is some little neuroses at work. In fact I would guess that he hates society as is, enough to show how it decays from some abstract and nameless horror that only by cannibalizing each other is there some form of escape. Another particular favorite has a girl's long black hair come to life and with a homicidal will of its own, go to extreme prejudice in order to maintain its own survival from say, a much-needed trim at the hair salon.

In his opus, Uzumaki, there is no escape from the doom of the Spiral, as each issue shows how a little village slowly descends into ultra-disgusting horror and madness. One week, people are turning into snail creatures, the next week, people are now eating those snail creatures, cuz... well, they're yummy, I guess. The next week, people who ate those snail creatures are being contorted into the spiraling shapes of those snail shells and on it goes. There is no way out, no redemption, no shelter from some rather barf-inducing concepts.

World Class Cosplayer: Yaya Han

Call Name: Yaya Han

Status: Cosplay superstar

Real Name: Yaya Han

Profession: Costume Designer, Model

Does: Resident Evil, Macross Plus, Clover, Blue Girl, X-Men, Dead or Alive, Final Fantasy, Ranma 1/2, Death Note, Darkstalkers, Urusei Yatsura, Chobits, Parasite Eve, Dirty Pair, Blue Submarine 6 and more

Possible movie plot lines - Alita

As most of you know, James Cameron took a stab at two CG-heavy sci-fi narratives at the same time - Avatar and Yukito Kishiro' Battle Angel Alita. Avatar won out as the first to come out as the script came along faster. This isn't exactly surprising considering the density of the Alita story. The main problem with scripting a 2 to 3 hour movie about her is that the origin story doesn't take a full 2 hours to plough through, so in other words there will have to be one or two extra story lines to fill it out. While this would be a fairly large departure from the actual manga, it's probably acceptable due to the fact that someone like Cameron actually cares about things like telling a story and that there is a good chance that Yukito Kishiro will have some input as to the actual story.

I would guess that the Motorball derby saga isn't going to be part of it as although it has the most spectacle (and admittedly, I would LOVE to see that on film), the whole saga was a diversion in her life to "get away from it all". I think Makaku the Sewer-Orphan is a likelihood as it leads into the Desty Nova/Tipharean plotline, and Zapan's Revenge is a continuation of it and possibly the climax. All of it takes place in the Scrapyard and contains the same characters from the beginning.

If there is a second movie, I would guess it would combine the Barjack/Den road warrior-ish plotline combined with the Secret of Tiphares. This is a lot to combine into one 3 hour flick, but very possible. The problem with all of this is that it leaves out the Motorball story which *barely* fits into the larger Tiphares plot, but has some of the coolest and exciting visuals ever committed to print. Realistically, it could set a new standard for science fiction hyper action. It would pale the highway chase of Matrix Reloaded, Speed Racer's headache inducing races, and any race car flick like Driven and Days of Thunder by light years. A possibility is that Motorball is a second movie and Barjack/Tiphares is the third to finish off a trilogy .

World Class Cosplayer: Omi Gibson

Call Name: Omi Gibson

Status: Cosplay superstar

Real Name: Unknown

Profession: OL in Japan

Most seen as: Metal Gear characters

Also does: Black Lagoon, Justice League, Silent Hill, Transporter, Kill Bill, G.I. Joe, Darkstalkers, Mirrors Edge, Candy Fruit, Mezzo Forte, Death Note, Rumble Roses, Snatcher, Resident Evil, Underworld, Blood+, Matrix, Ghost in the Shell, Tekken, and it goes on and on

Gantz - a walking tour

I'm a huge fan of Gantz - quite possible the most nihilist manga out there that is still running. As I mentioned in a previous post, it's now being published in Tankobon format (collected volumes). One of the big reasons I enjoy it so much is not the ultra-violence, the fan service S&M gear everyone is wearing, the borderline pornography or the lack of a socially-redeeming question - no, the reason I like it is that it's very much based in the real world of Tokyo's city streets. I used to live there, fully integrated into that society as a tax-paying, commuting, white-collar working individual. And after a hard night's heavy drinking (which was quite common), it thrilled me to see some of its neighborhoods rife with demons and blown apart with science fiction weaponry. Some of the neighborhoods and districts of Tokyo were explicitly known, others I've had to guess based on the visuals provided:

Ikebukuro - scene of the battle between the Gantz players and the Oni Aliens, where regular humans could finally see the bad guys and the common masses really started to freak out. Ikebukuro is not much more than a shopping district, sort of a lower class Shinjuku. It has its own red light district and similar to Shinjuku, is pretty much its own self-enclosed city.

Shinjuku West Gate - where Shion Izumi gunned down tons of innocent victims in a fucked-up effort to recruit new Gantz members. West Gate is Shinjuku's main shopping arcade, with connections to gay town 3-chome, the "Little Korea" Okubo and the hardcore red light district/Chinatown of Kabuki-cho. Shinjuku's East Gate is skyscraper-ville so its West Gate where all the action is. I tended to not stay there too long or else the place gave me massive headaches.

Gokuku-ji Temple - I'm *not sure* if this was the actual temple where the Gantz team fought the Kappa aliens and his dinosaur demons. The problem is that as far as massive Buddhist temples are concerned, Tokyo doesn't have that many. And from layout and architecture, Senso-ji in Asakusa, Zenpuku-ji in Azabu and Zojo-ji in Daimon don't match up. I am convinced that Oku Hiroya made this one up but used elements of Gokuku-ji to do it.

Minato-ku - this is another guess. But from every time the Gantz members are in the apartment with the big black ball, they look out the window and see Tokyo Tower pretty closeby. From the distance which looks like 2 or 3 km away, there really can only be a couple of places that make sense - Shimbashi, Kamiyacho, Shirogane, and Takanawa. But for sure it's in the harbor borough, which means that Gantz must have a pretty good income in order to pay for the lease.

Dotonbori River - this is in Osaka (and obviously where the Tokyo Gantz team encounters the Osaka team), which for those that don't know is a day's travel from Tokyo by shinkansen (bullet train). The scene where people like to jump off the bridge and into the river whenever the local baseball team wins the pennant (which has not been much) and home to some pretty awesome neon.

Does this sound like a tour-spiel? Yeah maybe, but you know what, check it all out for your Japan pilgrimmage. The place is cool and I miss it tons.

Yet more shots from Comiket

Final batch, and thx to Phil C from Odaiba...

An End to All Things - 20th Century Boys

Touted as the Japanese equivalent to the original Star Wars trilogy or the Lord of the Rings saga - a closer trilogy metaphor is the Matrix. A series of three movies are filmed in one go with a significant amount of praying done during the first movie's showing to see if the whole series will fly, box office-wise.

It is assumed that most Western audiences have never heard of it, as unless you were a big fan of the original manga by Naoki Urasawa the amount of time duration the live film had was relatively short. Part one was shown in August 2008, the second in January 2009. But as of August 2009 the series draws to a close.

Taking its title from the T-Rex song, story line-wise it's comparable to It by Stephen King. In part one, four young boys form a secret club complete with a mythical apocalyptic prophecy of the planet that they write themselves aside from the usual things like playing games, talking shit and viewing porn. Oh come on - for all those pre-adolescents who played D & D, who hasn't come up with the ultimate nightmare scenarios to pass the time? In part two, they eventually they grow up incredibly banal and meaningless lives as adults, such is the fate of most Japanese citizens. However, as one friend mysteriously commits suicide a doomsday cult starts to arise and events that were written in their silly book of prophecy begin to take shape. A masked demagogue with a very cool and creepy looking head dress named Friend starts to create more influence for himself as he saves (we think) Japan from the increasing amounts of horrors that start to occur, including saving the Pope from assassination. Friend's influence become so great that the naming of the days are in reference to himself (eg., 3rd year of the Friend Era). The remaining group try to figure out who he is and how to stop the prophecies from coming true. The third part firmly takes place in the Friend Era, with an Earth Defense Force in preparation for an alien invasion. The children of the original group now form the resistance to his rule of zealotry.

More shots from Comiket

Again, thanks to Phil C

Blue Submarine No.6 Live Version still underwater

Blue Submarine No.6 was one of my favourite anime from the the late 1990s solely because of the combination of high animation quality and pioneering underwater effects. It literally blew me away with its depiction of an ambient soundtrack, water echo, time delay and aqua-sound usage. The animation itself was one of the first hybrids of CG mixed with traditional cel productions. So-called live movies such as The Hunt for Red October and even the current G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra's conceptualizations of underwater warfare are still a joke in comparison.

As per typical serial OVA, Blue Submarine is a complex narrative with multiple story arcs going in different directions - but at its basis is a war between the naval forces of humanity against marine hybrid offshoot creations of the scientist Zorndyke. In some ways similar to Space Battleship Yamato (or Star Blazers to North Americans), the tale centers around the crew of a submarine (as per the series title) and its battle against Zorndyke's forces. At once a study in underwater/naval warfare but also an ecological study and a philosophical query as to the nature of humanity (is conflict necessary for the advancement of the species?), Blue Submarine No. 6 is one of the standout combat-related anime out there.

So with anything this high concept and high quality, it comes as no surprise that a live version is the in works. However, this one is going to be made in Japan, meaning its penetration overseas will be limited to anime festivals, foreign film festivals, and cult appreciation. The budget will be US$84 million and will be directed by Masahiko Ohkura.

Japan Wins @ World Cosplay Championships

In the "news that surprises no one" category, Japan takes first place the World Cosplay Summit. First there are several things one must consider - namely that Japan is the birthplace of cosplay, the event itself was held in Nagoya, and lastly, this is the first time that Japan actually WON. Yes, that's right, they have never won that event since the event has been held in 2003. Cartoonist Go Nagai was the judge.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/photospecials/graph/cosplay/

Ghost in the Shell live version

I was a big fan of Ghost in the Shell for several years and having lived in Tokyo during the Stand Alone Complex years it was a thrill to be on the cutting edge of all the promotional marketing being rammed through my eyes while walking through the backstreets of Shibuya. I felt like that simply because I was a casual fan of the storyline, I was being forced to watch the series to see how it developed.

Being a bigger fan of the manga than I was of the movie (and its sequel, Innocence) I was still taken aback and impressed by its transplantation of the setting to Kowloon, Hong Kong instead of.... well frankly the manga made it looked like a cross between Sapporo's Susukino district and the Minatomirai area of Yokohama with bits of Shinjuku thrown in.

So I wonder what the live version will look like, with Steven Spielberg having optioned the rights to it in 2008. It's obviously not on his next-to-be-made list, what with Tintin slated to arrive soon. But I can only guess what elements of the manga or anime he will take for the film. Will the characters remain Japanese? Will it take place in Japan? Or will the whole thing take place in America? With the global market now bigger than the American market, there may be a chance that it will still be a Japanese story. I remember that there was talk of making a live version of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira but having it take place in NYC instead of Neo-Tokyo, which would have been complete bullshit.

But nonetheless, if they keep to the ultra-cyber mysticism of the original storylines, they should maintain a compelling story - Minority Report being a good example.