Archive for the Tokyo Journal Category


Maria-sama ga Miteru Anniversary Exhibit Report by Bruce P.

January 11th, 2015

mgsmeventIt is my very great pleasure to welcome back Guest Reviewer, all-around amazing Okazu and Yuricon supporter and great friend Bruce P! This time he has made it to Asagaya Anime Street for the Maria-sama ga Miteru Anniversary Event and were are delighted to have him tell us all about it. Thank you Bruce, the floor is yours…

I was pleased that a trip to Japan I had planned for Christmas this year coincided with a Maria-sama ga Miteru special event in Tokyo, in Asagaya Anime Street, appropriately located close to the heart of Marimite country. The event was in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the anime, and was coupled with the release of the Blu-Ray edition of the complete series. I just had to see what it was all about.

Asagaya was a happy, bustling place when I arrived late afternoon on Christmas day. Shoppers were everywhere, as can be seen in this covered mall, which managed to contrive a Magritte Empire of Light kind of lighting effect. No doubt to make the experience more fun. And possibly to disorient you into more readily opening your wallet.

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However, for reasons probably related to storefront rental costs, Asagaya Anime Street is not located in this heavy cash flow area. It’s hidden away in a slightly sad and depressing site under the Chuo railway line elevated tracks. Definitely not prime real estate. To find it I had to work my way along and under the tracks, through tiny streets and alleys and girders, like Gene Hackman in The French Connection chasing the el train. Though he got to wreck a Pontiac. I had to walk.

But the walk was a great opportunity to take in the local sights, like this display of grimy, broken eggshells in front of a rice shop. Apparently all the surrealists were in town. An eye-catch for a rubbish disposal center.

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Finally, in the gloom under the tracks, there it was.

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Asagaya Anime Street consists of about 15 small shops selling anime related items of one sort or another. It actually seemed to be a worthwhile attempt to transform a deserted waste area under the tracks into a retail space, though the crowds were somewhat lacking. It took some effort to find, but of course that’s just what anime fans are willing to do.

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The Marimite event was in the GoFaLABO (Gallery of Fantastic Art Laboratory) Café and Gallery Space. Yes the place was small, and located in a relatively deserted spot under the tracks. And it rattled with every passing train. And the retail item shelves were mostly empty. But the thing is this – the event itself was downright fabulous. GoFaLABO consists of a small retail space with café counter, plus an event area containing five café tables. The event area was hung with about 60 beautiful framed copies of all the Marimite hanken illustrations used for the series. In addition, episodes of the series were being shown at one end of the space, which you could watch as you lingered over Marimite-themed tea and pastries, surrounded by all that gorgeous art. There were four people doing this when I entered, two guys at one table, and a guy and an exquisitely Lolita-outfitted girl at another. As I lingered myself, another guy dropped in and settled himself at a fourth table. Photography was not permitted inside the café, which was unfortunate, but not unexpected.

What surprised me most about the experience was that, when concentrated in one place and viewed as a whole, the official Marimite images demonstrated a striking, powerful, almost single-minded obsession with Yuri (Yuri in implication, Yuri in fact, and (mostly) Yuri in fan enticement) that was really not fully representative of the multi-faceted story itself. But I’m not complaining. The images were beautiful, they were Yuri, and there were 60 of them. More tea, please.

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Eventually I had to leave to head back to Ikebukuro. There were two extremely lovely Christmas/winter themed prints of Yumi and Sachiko for sale that I would have liked very much (one at least was new to this event), but they were only available for pre-order. I did purchase all the goods that were currently available, except for the Blu-Ray series: two lidded drinking cups, a coffee mug, and a calendar.

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I’m so glad I had the opportunity to experience the GoFaLABO Marimite event. It was superb, an emerald under the tracks. And with all those cups and mugs my dehydration worries are a thing of the past. If you have the opportunity to visit GoFaLABO in Asagaya Anime Street while the Marimite event is still taking place (through January 25th), please do so. If you’ve made it this far in this report, you’ll just love it.

Well, except maybe for Ana, you freakin’ tough Marine. Ganbatte, CO!

Erica here: Ganbatte seconded. And of course I’m insanely jealous.  I thank you again for the lovely calendar! 

Thank you once more for your time and effort on our behalf! I’m glad you enjoyed the show. 

In case any of you want a glimpse of the kinds of sweets they were selling, I’ve stolen borrowed two pictures from YNN Correspondent and friend Jackie S. to give you an idea. ^_^

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This event will have had  a number of Okazu readers visit. We should do a travel special. ^_^





Yuri Manga: Mamiya-san to Issho (間宮さんといっしょ)

November 13th, 2014

The subject of today’s review is not the manga itself so much, as how and why I bought it. ^_^

Those of you following me on Twitter and Facebook, saw a series of pictures I stealth shot while in the Toranoana and Comic Zin stores in Akihabara. They had something I had never ever seen before in Japan and I wanted to share it with you all.

For the first time ever, Toranoana in Akihabara had a real, multi-publisher “Yuri” section! Here are my crappy cell phone shots of this phenomenon.

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I’m not sure if you can really see what’s going on in these shots unless you are familiar with Japanese bookstores and the way they shelve books. Books are basically split by whether they are targeted to men or women, then by publisher and imprint. So if I’m looking for a Kodansha book, I look at the spine to see if it’s KDX, KC, or another imprint. You have to look at for the Rakuen Le Paradis comics in one place, the MangaTime KR comics in another, Comic Yuri Hime in a third, etc. Sometimes those aren’t even shelved in the same section of the store. Comic Yuri Hime might be in the women’s comics, they might be in the men’s. You don’t really know for sure until you look. I’ve seen them in both.

What you are seeing here is practically a miracle…books from different publishers, different imprints nestled side by side in a kind of “Yuri’ section I’d only ever dreamed of.  Dengeki side by side with Comic Yuri, next to Hakusensha’s Rakuen comics.  I was so busy trying to snap a few shots, I barely even looked at the shelves. ^_^

Later, we walked over to the Comic Zin store back up the street, and found that they also had a smaller, but also multi-publisher Yuri section, and a number of Yuri doujinshi. (I knew about the doujinshi, that was why I wanted to go to the store, but the books were a surprise.)

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The thing I thought, and shared on Twitter, was this – it was really nice to see them all together in one place. In Toranoana, it took up two or three shelf-widths, and the counter in front of them, so it felt substantial. In Zin it was one shelf width, but hey, it was there!

So, the point here is, because the Yuri books were shelved together, I was able to find a few things I’d never even heard of, from imprints I was unfamiliar with, or hadn’t seen any Yuri from before – which is the whole point of having Genre sections in a book store in the first place! ^_^

mamiyatoissho1I picked up the subject of today’s review because I’d never heard of the series or seen that imprint in the Yuri section before. Mamiya-san to Issho (間宮さんといっしょ) begins with a girl, Sasara, being asked out by a boy in her school. She says, sure, she’d go out with him, if he died for her. Not surprisingly, he bails instantly.

Her friends are jealous, because she receives so much attention, but Sasara is unimpressed.  Until she is asked up to the roof by the mysterious Mamiya Ryou, a beautiful female upperclassman. When Sasara states her requirements for love, Ryou agrees and leaves.

Sasara asks her classmates about this Mamiya Ryou, and is told that Mamiya Ryou is whereabouts unknown and presumed dead. Ryou confirms that dead it is, and asks Sasara if she’ll go out with her now? Sasara agrees.

The book immediately falls into a kind of talky chaos, that indicates to this reader that nothing had been sketched out beyond the premise. A classmate of Ryou’s who has some impulse-control issues first attacks Sasara for having the nerve to even ask about Ryou, but then becomes convinced that Sasara knows where Ryou is. She brings in her younger sister, who can see ghosts, to meet Sasara (and Ryou,) but Ryou convinces her not to say anything. And then the book, um, ends.

The relationship pretty much goes nowhere, because Ryou is dead and so is the plot. ^_^;

Ratings:

Art – 6 Trying to be better than it was, but not bad
Story – 4
Characters – 5
Yuri – 4
Service – 2

Overall – 6

SO, while it was really super cool to get a Yuri manga from Shounen Sunday, it wasn’t a terribly compelling one, beyond the plot idea. ^_^

But yay for Yuri sections!





‘My Margaret’ 50th Anniversary Manga Exhibition

October 26th, 2014

mm50Girl’s manga magazines Margaret and Bessatsu Margaret (Bestuma) magazines celebrated their 50th anniversary this year with the Watashi no Margaret: (My Margaret) exhibition at the Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills. Our intrepid team of Okazu reporters took in the exhibit on a fine Thursday afternoon in October.

Margaret has some strong ties to our community. It was – and is again – the home of Riyoko Ikeda’s works, including Oniisama E/Dear Brother and Berusaiyu no Bara/Rose of Versailles manga series. (It also was the home for the Maria-sama ga Miteru manga and early Yuri classic, Futtemo Harettemo.) In addition, fans of sports manga will remember that the first girl’s sport manga, Attack No. 1 and the popular tennis manga, Ace o Nerae!/Aim for the Ace! also ran in Margaret.

Ticket holders were herded into a waiting area, where we were able to get tantalizing glimpses of reproduction color art from the magazine. No photos were allowed, so of course, I snapped this quick picture while waiting.

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Before we were let free to wander the exhibit, there was a 4 minute video that was absolutely fantastic. Individual panels of various popular works from 50 years of the magazine, accompanied by dramatic music and fade-ins and outs of recognizable dialogue, was surprisingly moving. The finale was a collage of kiss scenes from dozens of the series and both my wife and I sniffled a bit. It was hard to not be overwhelmed by the shoujo-ness of it all. ^_^

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(These are the scenes from the video on the front and back cover of the exhibition catalog, which was lovely, but large. I did not get it, despite thinking about it very hard.)

The exhibit itself  was broken into not quite a dozen rooms, the first several focusing on a period of the magazines’ evolution from general “girl’s” magazine to manga magazines.

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These were followed by manga categories, like “Gag and Comedy”, “Horror” and “Sports” with original art from popular series of that kind. The “Sports” room had me riveted, with actual original pages from Attack. No. 1 and Ace o Nerae!, Swan and other famous series.

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Comedy and Gag manga were presented in a cheerily painted area with sound and vocal effects in large word balloons on the wall. Horror was, of course, black walls, splashes of blood-red  and scream effects. ^_^

The “Romance” room, was set up to look much like a reception area of a wedding hall, with banners of cloth hung in a canopy from the ceiling.

There was a focus spot on a series I was not at all familiar with – Hot Road – and we were allowed to take pictures of the motorcycles used in the live action movie of the series. Here is one of the watercolors. It’s an odd choice, since most of the art for this series is full of movement and large vistas, motorcycle noises and cityscapes. This was a cover of one of the manga volumes that manages to be none of that at all.

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This lead into a full room of original art from this series..and wow do I have a new appreciation for manga artists after this. Much of this, and the next rooms, which had original water colors for color pages were…amazing. You could just about point out the moment that screentones were introduced into manga art, and marvel at the early effects created by ink, cutting, splattering and the liberal use of whiteout. The water colors of the 70s and 80s were absolutely breathtaking in some cases. The painting and drafting skills of the artists were evident in these full-size original pages.

Towards the end, there are a few rooms focusing on other popular series, such as Hana Yori Dango and current favorite Ao Haru Ride/ Blue Spring Ride, which is getting a live action movie in the upcoming months.

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The end of the exhibit was focused on Riyoko Ikeda’s work. In a room patterned after, one supposes, wallpaper in Versailles, we are in suddenly in the presence of the original art from Berusaiyu no Bara/Rose of Versailles, the timeless tale of the female soldier and leader of soldiers during the French Revolution, Oscar Francois de Jarjeyes.

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It was wonderful. ^_^

You remember the painting of Oscar as a classical hero on a horse? That’s a real thing. In full color, beat to shit on paper that has been folded and mishandled for decades…there it was.  Along with (of course,) Takarazuka costumes from one of the first performances of the musical.

This lead into a wall of Ikeda’s art from Orpheus no Mado and a few original pieces of Oniisama E/Dear Brother. (Kaoru no Kimi with a guitar. Squee.)

Then we come around the corner for the ultimate photo op.

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This life-size sculpture comes with a wall of photos from every angle, and a couple of French flags you can hold and take a picture of yourselves in the same position. I declined to pose, but got a cute picture of a couple of girls doing so. ^_^

From there, you are herded into the gift shop, where naturally, you buy way too many things you neither need nor want, because they look so cool!

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(That is a Wada Shinji series on the bottom. It’s from Gin-iro no Kami no Arisa, which ran in Betsuma.)

When we had consumed goods to our satisfaction, we went up on the Sky Deck to check out Tokyo. Considering I took this on a cellphone, with the sun glare making it impossible to see the screen, this picture of the Skytree and Tokyo Tower came out damn good.

 

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I’m really very glad we managed to get to this exhibit. It was exceptional in every way.





Tokyo Journal 2014 – Lecturing and Manga

October 24th, 2014

talkingDid I mention that this trip to Tokyo was a whirlwind? It really was.

On the plane over to Japan from Seattle, I was working on a lecture to be presented at International Christian University in Mitaka. Many, many thanks to Professor Beverly Curran and her Persuasion and Language class for inviting me and being so receptive to my ideas.

I’ve uploaded the full-text of the lecture to The Yuricon Essays page: Persuasion and Opinion in Pop Culture Fandom – Are We the Cart or the Horse?

So, this was very interesting, thinking about blogging as a form of persuasive rhetoric and narrative storytelling, as well as “just” opinion.  I’m planning on getting video of the lecture up in the near future as well, but to be fair I just uploaded the video of my 2013 lecture at Kanagawa University, Weaving Our Stories Through Anime and Manga. ^_^

After a lovely time at ICU (where, as I mentioned in my Geek Girl Con report, I lost that Uranus ring I had just bought, boohoo…) the very next day, I had a sit down with Robert Newman of Crunchyroll Manga and was ableeto visit the CR Manga headquarters in Harajuku. We had a fantastic conversation, most of which was OTR, but I’ll tell you this – he said to expect some really great things coming up, and interesting changes in the digital manga landscape in future days. And I’ll broadly hint that there’s a chance you’ll see some series that will be of great interest to us coming your way.  Thanks to Robert, Saida-san, and Michelle for their hospitality and enthusiasm. I look forward to your future efforts. ^_^

There’s still more 2014 Tokyo adventures to come!





Takarazuka: Hakushaku no Reijou (伯爵令嬢)

October 23rd, 2014

posterOf all the things I did in Tokyo last week, perhaps most memorable was attending another Takarazuka show. But first, I absolutely *must* disclaimer this review. WARNING: If you love Takarazuka and take it very seriously, avoid this review like the plague. Thank you.

My beloved C.O., Ana Moreno invited me along on a fact-finding mission to Takarazuka. She and Nogami Takeshi-sensei were studying Takarazuka fans for an upcoming strip in their comic, Marine Corps Yumi. We were accompanied by Nogami-sensei’s friend Tachibana-san, who is a serious fan (but not too serious. In fact, Tachibana-san was absolutely adorable and very patient with us, as you will see) and Bruce. The 5 of us made an unconventional group as we took our seats.

The show we saw, Hakushaku no Reijou (伯爵令嬢), starred Snow Troupe top stars, Sagiri Seina, who is an up and coming young star and Saki Miyu, who was everything you could ever want in a top female lead. For a small taste (and the first problem we encountered) check out this commercial for the show.

One of the very first things I mentioned to Ana as we waited for Nogami-sensei and Tachibana-san, was the propensity for Takarazuka songs to overuse the word “love” in excessive ways. “Je t’aime!” I exclaimed, “Ai!” and “Love!” are whole songs that go on forever.”

The performance was held in the secondary theater, rather than the main Takarazuka Tokyo Theater. It was magnificently ugly .

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The ceiling was a thing of wonder. I tried to get a shot of the walls, but that didn’t work.

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So, we sit down and we learn that Hakushaku no Reijou is based on a twelve-volume manga from the 70s.

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Almost immediately, Ana and I realized we should never, ever sit next to each other. Every time the show wallowed in a shoujo manga trope, we punched each other. The punching started immediately. ^_^

In the West of France (punch), at an orphanage (punch), blonde-haired, be-ribboned Corinne (punch) who is in love with a blind boy, Richard (say it Frenchly with a soft “ch”, i.e, Ree-shard) (punch) meets the selfish landowner who wants to close the orphanage (punch). Corinne slaps him and he falls in love (punch and so on throughout the perfomance).

This was the first 5 minutes of the show! Then the evil landlord breaks into a song. “Je t’aime!” Alan sings, over and over, and I and Ana try not to look at each other as we laugh.

Alan tells Corinne that he’ll save the orphanage if she comes to Paris to be with him. She agrees, but on the steamer ship ride (from Western France to Paris) she is pushed overboard by a grifter named Jeanne, who has learned that Corinne is the true daughter of a Duke. The Takarazuka fairies of the waves were memorable and while Ana and I mimicked their dancing at intermission, Tachibana-san jumped in to be the waving sheets of water. She really was game. ^_^ Corinne wakes up with no memory, so Alan tells her she’s his fiancee’ and takes her to his home. Jeanne pretends to be Corinne and is now passing as the Duke’s daughter, but when he uncovers her perfidy she kills him by pushing him down a staircase (which, when it came forward on the stage, every one of us thought, “yup, there goes the Duke.”

Corinne has learned to take photos and is working for Alan. She’s saved on the street by Francois who is a redhead, so you know we can’t trust him. He falls for her, as well. Richard is also in Paris, sent there by Alan in return for Corinne, where he has had surgery to give him his sight back.

In the meantime, Jeanne sees Corinne and is recognized. They meet at the Seine at night and Jeanne (again) pushes Corinne into the water. (We all agreed later, that it would be in Corinne’s best interest to stay away from water, but she doesn’t.) The shock of falling into the water revives Corinne’s memory and she runs back to tell Alan that while she did like him and he was kind to her, their relationship is a lie and she hates him. So she leaves, and ends up at Francois’s place. He drugs and tries to rape her, but can’t bring himself to do it.

While Corinne is gone, Alan’s father runs an inflammatory news item in his paper. Alan rejects his father’s tabloid newspaper ways and vows to start a paper on his own, with substantial journalism. On the street, he is recognized by a bunch of toughs as the son of the man who prints BS about terrorists and is beaten and left to lay in the snow.

On the street one day, the Duchess runs into Corinne and recognizes her as her long-lost daughter, then recalls her husband’s dying message telling her to keep looking for Corinne. She confronts Jeanne who, predictably, kills her. Jeanne (and her accomplice in crime, Maurice I think) is now free to live openly, so she throws a party. Corinne shows up to take photos and the staff think she is the Duchess returned to life. Jeanne goes after Corinne. Alan comes to her rescue. Richard realizes that his true love is this photographer. Francois, who holds a grudge against Alan for being the cause of his father’s death, goes after Alan.

The fight ends up on a zeppelin. It was pretty good staging, but the moment the dirigible scenery came up, I could see where we were headed. Over the ocean, as Jeanne and Corinne fight, Alan and Francois do, as well. Jeanne plummets into the ocean, Alan defeats Francois, the zeppelin goes up in flames and I absolutely lost it. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. Ana and I were pounding on each other. Even Bruce laughed.

In the end, Francois, Alan and Corinne wash up on the beach, Francois returns to his honorable prostitute girlfriend, having forgiven Alan. Richard gives Alan the salute of a man who never was going to get the girl and the performance ends with everyone singing “Je t’aime!” over and over.

The revue portion was short and sweet and everyone sang “Je t’aime!” a bit more, and then my third live Takarazuka performance was finished.

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We saw some of the Takarazuka costumes for Rose of Versailles in the lobby.

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The next show they are doing is Lupin III:

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Over dinner, we all laughed at the many, many, many, shoujo manga tropes. Tachibana-san suggested that the dance moves for the review were supposed to be retro to fit with the play, which we all  thought explained that. And we also joked about the time period being sort of 18th, 19th or 20th century as needed. We agreed that the setting was “Paris of the mind.” Then we threw money at the Takarazuka shop, because one does.

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On the street, we had an encounter with the first spot in Tokyo destroyed by Godzilla. Ana gave her a phone to use while she was in town.

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P.S. – When I got back to the hotel, my wife showed me the present she had bought for me. ^_^ Squee.

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In the end, it was a fabulous day. Many, many thanks to Ana, Nogami-sensei, Tachibana-san and Bruce for an amazing day.

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My stomach actually ached that night from laughing so hard. Hakushaku no Reijou was brilliantly staged, well-acted and utterly hilarious in every way.