British Museum Features Manga

If anyone has ever doubted the artistic and cultural value of manga, then the time to throw away those doubts is NOW. The British Museum – no less – is holding an exhibit featuring the work of Hoshino Yukinobu, famed Japanese manga artist. His most famous character, Professor Munakata is the highlight of the exhibit, which also shows the best drawings of the artist.

In the most basic terms, manga refers to Japanese comics and cartoons in print form. This art has a long history, and has emerged to be one of the most popular forms these days. Its topics are not limited to a single genre but encompass a lot of subjects including romance, sports, action, adventure, business, and even sexuality.

Hoshino Yukinobu’s exhibit at the British Museum can be found in a room near the entrance. Visitors will not miss it as there is a larger-than-life picture of the famous Professor wearing a costume dating back to the 7th century.

Aside from the inherent cultural and artistic value of Hoshino Yukinobu’s work, why is the British Museum holding an exhibit for him? For Japanese culture lovers in the UK, you will be happy to know that the Museum is also holding an exhibit on ceramic figures (dogu) dating from ancient Japan. This exhibit will be open till 22 November.

Even if you are not (yet) a fan of Yukinobu’s work, you might want to drop by the Museum and check it out. There are also manga comic books available for your perusal – you never know, you just might find a new hobby!

Photo courtesy of The British Museum

Ponyo Meets Muted Success In America

Remember that post I wrote about a year ago about Gake no Ue no Ponyo? In English, this anime translates to Ponyo on the Cliff, and is considered to be one of the greatest works of the brilliant Hayao Mizayaki. When it was released in Japan, it was met with much acclaim. In fact, the film merely cemented Mizayaki’s reputation as a master of anime.

However, it seems that people across the ocean have yet to show their appreciation of Ponyo. The film was released in the US on Friday, August 14. The tale of a playful goldfish whose greatest desire is to be a little girl seems to be struggling to catch the attention of the American audience.

It has received a lot of positive reviews from critics, actually. More so, critics have been writing a lot about the director, who has lots of other excellent work under his belt: Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, to name a couple. Both of these films met great success all over the world, but only a lukewarm welcome in America.

That is precisely why there is a lot of speculation going around about how Ponyo is going to do in the US. To be fair, it has only been out for a couple of days. With all the hype that’s surrounding the film, more people might just go out and see it. The story is also quite interesting, being inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. Why don’t you go see it for yourself and let us know what you think of it?

The Ghibli Museum

If you find yourself in Japan and you want to visit a place that will offer you one of the best kawaii experiences, I suggest heading over to the Ghibli Museum. Located right smack in the middle of a residential area about 30 minutes from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, the Ghibli Museum provides a one of a kind experience. Its director, Hayao Miyazaki, expresses his sentiments about the museum and describes it as:

A museum that is interesting and which relaxes the soul
A museum where much can be discovered
A museum based on a clear and consistent philosophy
A museum where those seeking enjoyment can enjoy, those seeking to ponder can ponder, and those seeking to feel can feel
A museum that makes you feel more enriched when you leave than when you entered!

I have not have the chance to personally pay the Ghibli Museum a visit yet but from what I have heard and read, it is rife with kawaii – just like many other places in Japan. You will be in for a treat of cuteness at this place. They are open on all days of the week except for Tuesday, from 10:00 in the morning to 6:00 in the evening. They also have a café, dubbed the Straw Hat Café, which is open from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. However, if you want to enter the café, do so before 6:00 pm as that is the latest that they allow people to go in.

The Ghibli Museum is very popular and they only sell admission tickets in advance so if you are planning on a trip there, make sure you buy your tickets beforehand. Do visit their web site for more information.

Kawaii For The Holidays?

Christmas is only a little more than a month away. Have you gotten started on your Christmas shopping yet? I know some people who are finished with their lists. In fact, they finished months ago. But if you are like me, then you are probably the type who waits till the last minute to get gifts for everyone. Good thing for us, there is such a thing as online shopping. Whoever first thought of online shopping should be awarded some great prize! I mean, I do not even have to go anywhere to get gifts. They will be delivered right to my doorstep – or the recipient’s doorstep!

Speaking of online shopping, did you know that there are great places online where you could find kawaii items? If you do not know what I am talking about, then you should read my previous post about kawaii, or cute things (loose translation). Kawaii has been around for decades and I am sure that most everyone is aware of it although perhaps not by name.

Anyhow, I found a great article on online stores featuring kawaii items.

Sweet Kitty the Anime Store is located in Kent, Washington. You can visit the store in person at 18111 E. Valley HWY S. #103; otherwise, you can purchase items directly from the store at: SweetKittyAnime.com. The store specializes in Japanese items, and it carries brands from Harajuku Lovers to Hello Kitty. The store has the best selection of Sanrio products in Washington State. The owners love their customers and encourage visitors to come to the store. Below are some of the hot items that are in-demand.

ShopKawaii.com is the web store for both Kawaii Gifts and Kawaii Avenue since April of 2006. However, ShopKawaii.com is dedicated to our imported gifts. You can visit the stores personally at Kawaii Gifts, located at 5413-B Walnut St. Pittsburgh, PA 15232. Kawaii Avenue is located at 5413-A Walnut St. Pittsburgh, PA 15232.

Thanks to Katrina-Kasey Wheeler for these wonderful pieces of information.

Kawaii: All Things Cute

Disclaimer: For those who are averse to cuteness or anything related to it, I suggest NOT reading this post. Then again, the Japanese concept of cuteness is quite interesting so you might as well go ahead and read about it.

So, what is kawaii all about? It is the idea of being cute in all respects – from pop culture to entertainment to clothes to accessories. Even the big businesses in Japan make use of the concept of kawaii. It is actually a bit hard to exactly explain it but let me give you examples, which will concretize the idea.

Wikipedia gives a very good list:

• Pikachu, a character from Pokémon, adorns the side of three All Nippon Airways passenger jets.
• Asahi Bank used Miffy (Nijntje), a character from a Dutch series of children’s picture books, on some of its ATM and credit cards.
• Monkichi, a cute monkey character, can be found on the packaging for a line of condoms[4]
• All 47 prefectures have cute mascot characters
• The Japan Post “YÅ«-Pack” mascot is a stylized mailbox.[5]
• The Japan Post also uses other cute mascot characters, for example, on stamps.
• Some police forces in Japan have their own moe mascots, which sometimes adorn the front of koban (police boxes).
• Hello Kitty

They do have a propensity for mascots, don’t they? Anyhow, if you ask the Japanese what they think of kawaii, you might get various reactions. A good majority, however, will tell you that it stems from the inherent peaceful and calm nature of the Japanese culture. There are some skeptics, however, who think that it is a mentality that makes for non-assertiveness.

Whichever way they think, it cannot be denied that the concept of kawaii has spread to other countries and is in fact one of the most intriguing things about the Japanese culture.

Bleach The Movie: Memories Of Nobody

Anime and manga lovers rejoice – especially if you live near the DC area. On the 24th of October, the DC Anime Club and the Japan Information and Culture Center (JICC), Embassy of Japan are presenting Bleach The Movie: Memories Of Nobody. If you want to see this movie, you just have to go to the Japanese Information and Culture Center, Embassy of Japan at 6:30 pm of that day.

So what is the movie about? Active Anime describes it as:

In Karakura Town, there has been a sudden outbreak of unidentifiable spirits called “blanks” (vacant souls) while in the skies of Soul Society, the real world has been reflected. A mysterious female shinigami called Senna has appeared before Ichigo along with a man named Ganryu, leading a group called the “Dark Ones”.

If you are an anime fan and you have not heard of the DC Anime Club before, then it is about time that you did. They have been around since 2003 and their primary aim is to make use of anime and manga to make people aware of the Japanese culture. They hold a wide variety of activities including the following:

An Annual Art Show, an Annual Costume fundraising event, and visits local schools to do presentations on anime. The club also works with the Smithsonian Freer Gallery and DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival on their anime screenings, and has helped locally promote performances for Japanese bands such as Puffy Ami Yumi and Pine am.

20th Century Boys

Manga is something that many people outside of Japan have come to love and the 20th Century Boys is a manga series that has captured the interest of countless people. This manga was created by Naoki Urawasa and is, in fact, a science fiction mystery. 20th Century Boys has won many awards, including:

-2001 Kodansha Manga Award in the General category
-an Excellence Prize at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival
-the 2003 Shogakukan Manga Award in the General category.

At the end of this month, on August 30, manga fans in Japan will be treated to the movie version of 20th Century Boys. Considered to have a big budget, the movie is adapted from the original manga
series described previously. Lunapark reports:

“20th Century Boys” will come out as a three part trilogy and cost a reported $60 million to make. The film stars Toshiaki Karasawa, Toyokawa, Etsushi, Takako Tokiwa. The film also features a large cast of supporting actors that will total over 300 by the conclusion of the trilogy.

The movie itself deals with a doomsday scenario, with a group of men battling the devil himself to prevent the end of the world. More specifically, a group of boys in the 1960’s wrote the “Book of Prophecy,” envisioning a doomsday scenario with the boys fighting evil forces to save the world. Years later, their predictions start to come to fruition and those boys, who are now adults, band together to fight the mysterious cult figure known as “Friend.” The movie takes place over a 40 year period and has been filmed in many locations throughout the world.

Gake no Ue no Ponyo

Anime lovers will be thrilled to know that there is another big anime movie that has just been released. Gake no Ue no Ponyo, which is literally translated to English as Ponyo on the Cliff, is the brainchild of Hayao Mizayaki.

Hayao Mizayaki is not a stranger to anime fans. In fact, he is considered to be the king of Japanese anime. With his countless successful works, this is not a surprise. Just to name a few of his creations:

• Majo no Takkyubin (Kiki’s Delivery Service)
• Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)
• Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke)
• Howl no Ugoku Shiro (Howl’s Moving Castle)
• Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)

His latest, Gake no Ue no Ponyo, is no less than a hit as well. With more than 1.25 million people watching it on its opening weekend, the movie earned almost 1.6 billion yen!

So what is this about? The Japan Times narrates:

The title character, Ponyo (voice by Yuria Nara), is a girl fish with a human face who decides one day to leave her underwater home — and her school of smaller sisters — to see what lies on the surface. Riding on the back of a jellyfish, she is nearly trapped by a drift net, but escapes — with her head stuck in a glass jar. Sosuke (Hiroki Doi), a boy who lives on a house on a seaside cliff, spots Ponyo in the shallows and rescues her. He is delighted with his new pet — and Ponyo is delighted to be in the human world at last. She says her first words, to Sosuke’s astonishment — and begins a transformation from half-fish to human.

I’ll stop there in case you haven’t watched it yet. My question is: when will this be released in other countries?

U.S. Navy Goes Manga

Not everyone loves manga, the Japanese comics. I would say that it does have a considerable following outside of Japan. Needless to say, the Japanese people have a strong passion for manga. Perhaps that is why the U.S. Navy has decided to go with this art form in an attempt to allay the concerns of Japanese citizens with regard to the George Washington, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier.

The George Washington is to be stationed in Yokosuka and will arrive there in August. The online newspaper Japan Today reports:

The U.S. Navy in Japan said Wednesday it has produced a Japanese ‘‘manga’’ comic book describing the daily life of the crew of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George Washington which will arrive in Yokosuka in August. U.S. Naval Forces Japan, based in the city, plans to give away several thousand copies of the book to people in front of the base from noon Sunday in an apparent bid to dismiss safety concerns over the first nuclear-powered U.S. naval vessel to use a Japanese city as a homeport.

The book ‘‘Manga CVN73,’’ named after the carrier’s number in the U.S. Navy, depicts the hardships of a fictitious young U.S. sailor of Japanese descent engaging in various missions on the carrier and his experiences after the ship arrives in the port city in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. Two Japanese cartoonists Harumi Sato and Hiroshi Kazusa did the drawings.

Cmdr Dave Waterman, the chief of the naval force’s Public Affairs Office, told reporters that readers would learn from the comic book that the crew is professional and constantly trains so that damage control in any kind of event can be addressed.

Do you think this approach will work? I cannot say, but I do think that the use of manga is a marvelous idea.

Man dressed in schoolgirl uniform arrested

Hentai culture in Japan can sometimes go to the most extreme lengths and practices. Take for instance this recent report from one of Japan’s dailies.

A man in Saitama was arrestedby police when he was caught sneaking inside a high school. And what was this pervert wearing? a schoolgirl’s uniform.

The man, 39 year old Tetsunori Nanpei, was reported to have been witnessed exposing himself to passing students from within his car, while it was parked outside the school. Apparently not content with what he was doing, he decided to enter the school wearing the uniform. Fortunately, a number of students recognized him and immediately reported it to school officials. He was promptly nabbed by a teacher, who handed him to the police.

Nanpei admitted that he got the uniform from an online auction. The police reported that he was wearing makeup and a pink bra but with no other underwear.

A story that could’ve been taken straight out of hentai fiction, doesn’t it?