Scenes from the Tokyo Game Show

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

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.

Giant Gundam statue - final day, Odaiba

Thx to Mike C, from Shiokaze Park, Odaiba. 18m tall, full scale. Today is the last day before it will be taken down and most probably, serve as a member of Japan's parliament.

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

Just snapped at Comiket

thanks to Phil C.

Recession Biting Japanese Anime Industry Hard

"Unlike some big screen animated features from the United States that rely almost completely on computer animation, in Japan, almost all features are drawn by hand -- a labor-intensive craft practiced by thousands of young artists each year."

"For the last six years, Nobuki Mitani, has been working as an "in-between" animator -- filling in the cells between "key" animations. It is one of the lowest paid positions in the animation hierarchy."

"Many of these entry-level jobs have been outsourced to the Philippines and South Korea in recent years.

Mitani, 27, said the hours are long, and the pay is low -- about $800 a month."

Full story: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/07/30/japan.animation.recession/index.html