Back at the tail-end of October I attended the Sci-Fi London festival’s Oktoberfest special for, what else, their anime all-nighter. Five movies (well, four movies and one OAV series), nine hours, Red Bull and sweaty otaku :P

On the face of it, the line-up was exceptional. All movies I’ve wanted to see for a very long time and one which I’m a huge fan of, so I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, many turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, though I discovered one gem.

Sky Crawlers: The new Mamoru Oshii film was a ponderous affair, set in an alternate reality stuck in 1940s Americana. Teens that never grow old fight in a mysterious neverending war that seem designed to provide a permanent conflict that keeps the rest of the world peaceful. Or something. As with most Production IG/Oshii affairs it was beautifully animated with some wonderfully nostalgic character and mecha designs reminiscent of steampunk anime like Last Exile. It didn’t particularly grab me though, and I’m quite glad this was the first film shown. While it did pose some interesting existential questions, I think they would have been lost on me had this been on at 4am :P

Eve no Jikan: Hands down the best thing on the night and possibly the best anime I have seen all year. This was a superbly crafted, insightful and moving exploration of robotics and artificial intelligence, along the lines of Asimov. And it was very funny. Made up of six 15 minute episodes, the OAV series follows a high school boy who discovers his family’s house android has been spending time at a mysterious cafe, Eve no Jikan (Time of Eve). I cannot recommend this highly enough. Every episode is so beautifully animated, with wonderful characters and some fantastic details, both in the jokes and its references. But its the subtlety of how it makes its points and explores what are really quite complex issues in a light-hearted otaku way.

King of Thorn: Started off with an intriguing concept — a select few are chosen for cryogenic preservation in the face of a devastating world epidemic only to wake up in a nightmarish future — but 2/3 of the way through revealed a ‘magical’ explanation that just had me screaming “WTF??”. Seriously, what was wrong with sticking to just the sci-fi??? Ruined.

Eureka 7: Pocketful of Rainbows: Just bloody awful. This was the movie I was looking forward to most, as I have a soft spot for the flawed but enjoyable Eureka 7 series. This retelling of the story, however, got on my tits to the n-th degree. I don’t know where to start. Was it the recasting of Gekkostate as a bunch of misguided terrorists, the poor characterisation or the sidelining of Dominic/Anemone that irritated me the most? No, it was probably the RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF ROMANTIC CHEESE accompanied by overplaying of what I’d always thought of as a wonderfully touching score. Just don’t.

Evangelion 1.0: You are [Not] Alone: I’d already seen this, but on the big screen it really rocks. The Renewal of Evangelion movies are just awesome and a real visual treat. Even second time round (and for a movie that essentially retells exactly the same story I’ve seen a dozen times in the TV anime) it feels exhilarating. Made me excited to see Eva 2.0 again.

Does this look like a Zentradi to you?

I saw James Cameron’s Avatar at a midnight screening at the BFI IMAX last night. I’ve read a million reviews, generally positive but with a fair-bit of backbiting as well. Having now seen the thing, I can see all their points of view but agree with the vast majority: Avatar is a stunning cinema experience.

Seriously, you’re unlikely to have seen anything this visually arresting on the big screen, and certainly not in 3D. I really wasn’t sure what to expect, but the animation was immaculate, like the best Final Fantasy cut-scene improved to such an extent that you quickly accept it as the real world.

I actually hadn’t realised that there was any live-action in it all (which had me stupidly pondering for the first 10 minutes whether Sam Worthington was the real Sam Worthington or incredibly photo-realistic CG >_<). What’s remarkable is how good the CG is — to the point where it blends almost seamlessly with the live-action stuff. By the end, you fully believe that big blue alien really is in the room holding Sam Worthington in her hands.

It’s not all good of course. The story is incredibly stupid, but anyone walking into this to analyse the story is missing the point. Avatar is a cinematic experience, a thrill ride, a popcorn movie to lose yourself in for 160 minutes (and it never feels like it’s that long). What Cameron understands incredibly well is the language of cinema, or rather, Hollywood movies. He guides you using all the standard symbols and signifiers a modern multiplex audience knows inside out. Of course, one man’s signifier is another man’s cliché, but what that does is free your mind up to just accept the experience and go with it. You know what’s coming next — you’d be an idiot not to — but your Hollywood-trained mind is comfortable with that, which allows you to absorb the atmosphere and feast on the visuals.

Speaking of clichés, for anyone who watches their fair share of anime, Avatar is going to raise a few eyebrows. There are big echos of Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa and Laputa, complete with the environmental hokum (mind you, every vaguely futuristic/post-apocalyptic anime preaching the importance of the environment is going to remind you of these….). More interesting to me was the size difference between the humans and Nav’i, which more than reminded me of the Zentradi in Macross, particularly since the humans have to pilot mecha in order to match them in hand-to-hand combat.

Thinking about it, any film that has a big fuck off battle at the end with explosions and mecha suits fighting dragons was going to do it for me. But Avatar really impressed me with Cameron’s skill in presenting a coherent, flowing (if cliched) narrative and, above all, pulling off the finest animated visuals I’ve ever seen in a big-budget western animation. It really does raise the bar in terms of 3D movie graphics and cinematic experiences, in the same way the Lord of the Rings trilogy did. As such, there’s really no point watching this at home on DVD — you have to see it on a big screen in a cinema, and preferably in 3D and in IMAX. And with the movie industry worrying about falling audience attendance, a movie like this is a timely reminder of just what makes the cinema experience different.

(Yes, I know the show finished months ago. This is the first of a long series of draft posts I am finally finishing….)

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, or rather, the Boredom/Sighs of Suzumiya Haruhi if you’re going to be anal about it. The long-awaited second season of Haruhi got a lot of fan-flak for essentially running the same episode eight times in a twelve episode ’season’. But for what it’s worth I really enjoyed it and admire the balls of KyoAni to take such a piss-taking direction.

For one, they did actually re-animate every episode in the Endless Eight saga afresh, with every scene from a different angle and the lines re-recorded. A colossal waste of time and money some would say, but certainly something none of us is going to forget. And after watching the same thing eight times you really felt like you’d spent half your life watching the damn thing — that’s the kind of accurate empathy you can’t buy. And for what it’s worth, I really enjoyed the first episode of Endless Eight for its slice-of-lifeness and dumb otaku jokes (kakizaki anyone?).

You’ve also got to really admire the way KyoAni screw with our minds. Logical broadcast order? No way! We all greeted the announcement of a rescreening of the first season with cries of “WTF?? Are we ever going to see the second season??”, so to sneak new episodes under the radar by revealing that they were integrating new stuff in with the first season in ‘chronological order’… man, that’s genius. And the otaku went nuts over it when the surprise was revealed. Of course, Endless Eight reversed most of that good will, but hey, easy come….

It was still a joy to see the material from the light novels faithfully animated. As with the first season — and all KyoAni productions — it was impeccably animated, perfectly paced and with joyous OP and ED themes to match (though never coming close to the inimitable Hare Hare Yukai). Getting reacquainted with the characters was like visiting old school friends you hadn’t seen in years. I thoroughly enjoyed the sweet, down to earth endings to all the arcs, particularly Endless Eight. And there was a certain sense of completeness in everything coming back round to Episode 00 (or at least there would have been if there weren’t another two first season ep’s broadcast after :P).

Overall, I was very satisfied with the return of Haruhi, even if it wasn’t quite the second coming. But then fandom’s moved on in the years since the first season (particularly after the insanely good Haruhi-chan and Nyorōn Churuya-san). Suzumiya’s going to need to raise her game if Haruhi-ism is to rule the otaku world again. What she really needs is a movie. Oh.

I’ve been waiting a long time to see this live-action version of Yatterman, if only to find out what on earth the show is about. It’s one of those anime we overseas otaku hear about quite a lot but will never in a million years get to see through official means.

Here’s what I knew beforehand (mostly from playing Tatsunoko vs Capcom on the Wii ^^;). Yatterman is an extremely popular masked superhero anime from that factory of franchises, Tatsunoko Productions. There are two ‘Yatterman’ heroes: No.1, the boy, and No.2 the girl. There’s some kind of giant robot dog mecha (Yattarwan) they can call on.

They fight against the Doronbo gang, three idiotic villains in the shape of the scantily clad beauty Doronjo and her two ugly henchmen, one fat, one skinny. So far, so Pokemon (or indeed Nadia).

Curious then that Japan’s king of the extreme, Takeshi Miike, would choose to make a live-action version of such a generic series. There’s obviously something about it that’s weird to attract him, and very soon it becomes clear what that is — sex.

Now, we all know Japanese culture has this strange symbiosis between sexual imagery and mainstream (particularly children’s) media. It’s like if Benny Hill was an accepted Saturday morning TV show.

Miike’s Yatterman takes that to extremes. Doronjo is dressed to titilate, as much a Go Nagai-style S&M (anti)heroine as any of the cast of Cutie Honey. When Yatterman foils their plans she often ends up on the wrong side of an explosion, her clothes blown off, leaving her smitten henchman Boyacky leering on. The innuendo (if you can call it that) is taken further with Doronbo’s second mecha, ‘Virgin Roader’, which moans as it shoots off projectiles from its boob guns (I kid you not), accompanied by squeals of ‘OH YEAH!’. Later,Yattarwan, unable to control himself and complete with nosebleed, proceeds to make out with Virgin Roader, with unfortunate consequences…

It makes no sense, but it’s a lot of fun. The actual plot of is besides the point: this is a franchise designed to sell toys and merchandise. Pay attention and you’re likely to be bored to death. Instead, Miike takes the funnest concepts of the show — cool hero transformations, giant robot fights, slapstick comedy and sexual innuendo — and makes them look as damn good as possible. Even if you’ve no idea what on earth is happening, there’s no denying that Sho Sakurai (Nno.1) looks damn cool and the lovely Saki Fukuda (Nno.2) soooo cute. And Kyoko Fukuda (Doronjo) in tight-bound leather is just pure fanboy win :P

There are moments that remind you that you are undoubtedly watching a kid’s film — the random insert songs are particularly grating. But Miike has a lot of fun with this, taking pains to include every element to make the movie as faithful as possible to the source material while adding a knowing wink to it all. So, when Yatterwan takes off toward Ogypt, the true silliness of the team travelling while hanging off the sides — still in pose — is revealed. And we can all laugh at the imaginative ’surprise mecha of the week’ and the tongue-in-cheek ‘coming up next time on Yatterman’ trailer that follows the credits.

It’s quite a ride, often exciting, at times disturbing, sometimes sweet, occasionally dull. It’s like eating Haribo, ultimately pointless, but you really enjoy the sugar rush.

Love Exposure is a four hour cross-genre epic about an innocent misguided young panty photographer trying to relate to his father and win over his one true love.

It sounds pervy and completely batshit insane, and in some ways, it is. But its a film well worth seeing. Exciting (in both senses of the word), touching (in both senses of the word) and moving (in both senses of the word), Sion Sono’s opus combines contemporary Japanese perversity with romance, empathy and sensitivity, delivering comic moments, disturbing moments and downright perplexing moments.

SPOILER ALERT

Even though the plot is exactly the mix of Japanese weirdness and high-school romance I usually thrive on, the gargantuan running time made me more than a little reluctant. But I’m very glad I took the chance. Love Exposure is unexpectedly epic and truly surprising. I can’t remember the last time I saw a film where I really had no clue what was going to happen next.

The film follows Yu, a young boy from a good Catholic family. Things change when his mother dies and his grieving father gets ensnared by a crazy man-eater. When that goes sour, his Dad retreats further into religious obsession and the only way Yu can talk to him is through confession. Thus the poor boy is forced to carry out and confess to increasingly elaborate sins.

Yu ends up in a gang of idiotic, but well-meaning, punks but that’s not enough to provoke emotion from his father. Thus his life of small-time crime leads him to the master pervert, whose ninja training (!) enables him to become the best up-skirt photographer in the area. And that’s how he meets the love of his life — Yoko.

It might sound like I’ve just given most of the plot away, but this barely scratches the surface. In fact, it’s only after this — an hour into the film — that the opening titles kick in and the story really begins….

Yet this, and the two chapters following up are possibly the best (two hours) of set up I’ve seen in a movie. It’s a wonderful countdown to a ‘day of destiny’ that has you anticipating what the event will be, who this girl he’s been searching for will be, and how on earth it could work out given the crazy situation he finds himself in.

Propelled by a the youthful energy of its protagonists, you’re dragged into this familiar urban landscape, and constantly surprised by the switch in genre — one minute its a heartstring-tugging drama, next its a kung fu epic, then a pink movie, followed by a little Japanese B-horror.

After that it loses a bit of purpose, descending somewhat into an uncomfortable, though effective, portrayal of a Japanese cult (the motif comes up so much in Japanese conetemporary film, I do wonder if the threat is as serious as the movies make out. Or has the Tokyo gas attack of 1995 imprinted the fear onto Japanese citizens the same way the 9/11 bombings did on Americans?).

That break also sacrifices some of the films humour, plot consistency and, most disappointingly, the character development. Yoko in particular is introduced as a feisty streetfighting female, but then given little to do in the final third except act the damsel in (sort of) distress. And the rest of the characters ‘develop’ mostly by going mad.

Nevertheless, the film never loses the sweetness of teenage romance that forms the core melody of this rhapsody — even in its weirdest and most disturbing moments of cross-dressing, porn industry ‘live-events’ and child abuse.

At its heart, Love Exposure is a twisted tale of mistreated children, neglected or abused by their single parents. It’s a damning, and somewhat simplistic, account of how parents can really screw up their children’s lives. But, on the other hand, it also shows that even the most seemingly perverted youngster can have the purest motive at heart. And I’ve got to hand it to any film that really tries to explore the complex forest of neurosis that leads a Japanese pervert to be what he/she is — and accept that that’s okay.

There are only two types of people in the world, those who take chances and those who don’t. The trouble is, more often than not, those chances still land you in a stinking pile of shit.

That’s essentially the premise of Lalapipo, the title of which alludes the ‘lot of people’ in Tokyo. It’s a film about the dead-end lives of several Tokyoites stuck in the city’s sex industry — that weird underbelly of Japanese society that’s seemingly always in your face, but which people try not to talk about in everyday conversation.

It’s perfect subject matter then for Tetsuya Nakashima (of Kamikaze Girls and Memories of Matsuko fame), who excels at bringing out the weird, funny, but painful, reality of Japan’s hopeless. (As it happens, Nakashima was just the screenwriter on this one, but his fingerprints are all over this. There’s even a car-crash scene in which one of the main characters gets tossed in the air à la Momoko in Kamikaze Girls).

(SPOILERS AHEAD)Lalapipo is told episodically, focusing on six characters trying to make the best of what they have: a hikkikomori, unable to come to terms with the fact that he is fat and ugly, who imagines his penis as a fluorescent green puppet (I am not making this up); an amicable young woman coerced into working at a hostess bar, then a sex club and finally porn movies, under the (mis)guidance of her deceitful boyfriend; a sex industry scout, using his good looks and charm to try and make something of his otherwise crappy situation; a sexually frustrated housewife with a working as a mature porn actress; a wimp so repressed that he acts out by dressing up as a rubber-suited superhero; a chubby gothic loli who’s not as much of a victim as she seems.

If you were to track my attention while watching this film, it would look something like this:

I love characters that are so weird they are practically caricatures out of a manga, and was initially intrigued as to which of the side characters would next have their backstory revealed. Midway through though, I did start to wonder where on earth it was all going, how many stories we were going to have to sit through, and whether I would be permanently disturbed by the sheer hopelessness of it all.

But the final two segments save it. While it doesn’t all tie together in a nice happy ending (though in true Asian movie-style they all laugh at the end), it ends in bittersweet fashion. The pimp gets his comeuppance — just as he realises the true happiness of his situation — and a final fan letter details how one can find hope in hopelessness, beauty in the trash, a smattering of real, clean, sunlight in the artificial twinkling of the Tokyo skyline (or some other tortured metaphor).

And that’s essentially what I like about Tetsuya Nakashima movies. Caricatures or not, its grounded in reality that is God-awful, but which you somehow feel like you can cope with — after all, these losers do ;) I guess that’s why they all laugh at the end. There are certainly a ‘lalapipo’ in this world, and sometimes what gets us by is laughing at each others misery, and our own.

I finished up my PG Strike Gundam set over the weekend with the final touches to the PG Skygrasper and Aile Striker.

Full picture gallery on Flickr.

This kit has always seemed a bit of a cash-in (well, all gunpla is, but this even more so!). As soon as the PG Strike came out sans any of the Striker weapon packs, you just knew there would be a booster kit coming. And although it looks pretty sleek, I can’t imagine many fans were that bothered about the Skygrasper fighter jet to be honest (it’s a bit of a useless vehicle that acts mainly as a transport system for the Striker packs or a way to get Tolle Koenig killed :p).

Nevertheless, it does add value to the kit. As well as the Aile Striker pack most people would be buying it for, you get the Skygrasper and a pretty solid display base on which to mount the Skygrasper or PG Strike Gundam.

And the kit looks beautiful. It’s also fairly quick to put together. Though Perfect Grade, there aren’t actually that many bits to snap the Skygrasper together. The Aile Striker has a few more fiddly parts but no more than any MG model would be.

There are some decent decals to add, including custom markings for Mwu, Cagalli or Tolle, depending on which SEED pilot you fancy. And you can largely get away with not painting, but if you can be bothered some careful licks of paint to the piping on the back boosters and the cockpit consoles  – not to mention the-almost-impossible-to-paint scale figures of the pilots — would give you complete detail too (I for one, couldn’t be arsed :p).

The real joy came in combining it with my 1/60 PG Strike Gundam, which I completed a few months ago. As to be expected from an accessory kit, everything fits together perfectly and the finished Aile Strike Gundam looks really impressive and quite sturdy with some good poseability based on the frame’s incredible articulation.

If there’s one criticism of this kit, it’s that the landing wheels for the Skygrasper have to be removed rather than folding into the fighter itself. Maybe that would have been too much to ask, but this is meant to be Perfect Grade, right?

Next up: A nice and simple one…. BB Senshi Destiny Gundam.

Perfume are a three-member Japanese technopop group from Hiroshima. I’d never really heard of them until their name cropped up in a few Jpop blogs I follow about a month or so before my recent Japan trip.

As it happened, my trip coincided with the release of their new album, Triangle, and, in my usual easily-persuaded-by-advertising way, I picked it up on my last day. And as it turns out, I love it.

Well, technically I don’t love all of it. Like a lot of my recent Jpop CD’s about half the tracks I’m ambivalent too (and a couple are a bit meh), but the tracks I do like I absolutely *adore* (and, unsurprisingly, they happen to be the previously released singles from the album).

Take for example, the first proper track, Love the World, which is just about as perky as you can get. It’s been bringing a smile to my face all summer.

My second favourite is the penultimate track, One Room Disco, which has a fantastic video:

I love the way this starts off with a slightly menacing techno riff, but quickly gets into a more upbeat rhythm. This *always* cheers me up.

Having played Triangle pretty much non-stop for the last month, I sought out Perfume’s back catalogue too. I can’t say I’m as enamoured with the rest of it as Triangle. I was surprised that some of it is really pure bubblegum pop — clearly before their producer moved them to a more techno sound — and a lot of it isn’t quite as catchy as I’d hoped. But there are some absolute gems, like Perfect Star, Perfect Style from their Complete Best album (this live video really showing off their para para aspect):

It’s a funny thing technopop. I can honestly say I hate most techno music, but when infused with this level of bubblegum pop, not to mention the harmonic vocals of A-chan, Nocchi and Kashiyuka, it’s irresistable. Not to mention, the beat is really good for totally losing yourself in. Sometimes, after a really long, stressful day, putting this on on the way home really unwinds me.

So Perfume, you have another fan and I chalk this to another of my happy, serendipitous fandom discoveries. ^^

While in Japan, I was lucky enough to catch the second Renewal of Evangelion movie at the Human Trust Cinema in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Evangelion Shin Gekijōban: Ha (Renewal of Evangelion: Ha or Evangelion 2.0: You can (not) advance as it is alternately known) is the next in GAINAX’s remakes/reimaginings/cash-in rip-off’s of their popular, controversial anime series.

Despite my misgivings about reanimating and redoing an otaku favourite, I was really impressed by the first film (Evangelion 1.0: You are (not) alone). Yes, the story was exactly the same as the first six or so episodes of the series, but it had been a long time since I’d rewatched the TV anime and the newly animated footage was stunning. To see everything rendered in new, 21st Century colours and CG was a treat for the eyes, and the story still holds — in some ways it was even better without the filler fluff that comes with a TV series.

Yet, while the story was essentially the same, it did hint at big changes to the original plot — Kaworu, for example, made a few taster appearances.

This is carried on in the second film, which while going through essentially the same hoops as the original anime, takes a different route in getting there.

(SPOILER ALERT: If you really don’t want to know, stop reading here)

Let’s do the otaku thing and run through some of the major changes:

• New character: Horikita Maki. Gets the opening scene, dusting off an unknown angel in an prototype for the Eva mass-production model. Fans may have recoiled in horror at the idea of a new character inserted into their beloved story, but Maki fits in well, albein in a deux ex machina kind of way. She’s not actually in it that much, to be fair. She just pops up in the opening, drops in on Tokyo-3 (and Shinji) in typical harem-anime style (rooftop, boy, parachute; you can imagine the scene) and then crops up for the final battle at the end. All we know about her is she’s a mysterious SEELE test pilot, with a surprising amount of maturity (at least combat-wise). No doubt we’ll find out more about her in the final two movies (which really will be all new plot).
• Asuka Langley Soryu is now Asuka Langley Shinikami. She’s now a Captain and she gets an awesome introduction, launching out of a plane to take out an angel in mid-flight with a spray of bullets and gymnastics. That’s my Asuka!
• It’s Asuka, not Touji who pilots Eva-03 in the ill-fated test. This gives an emotional plot point even more weight. Fans would have had the bad feeling as soon as they saw she was the one prepping for it. From the trailer for Evangelion 3.0 she seems to have survived (as Touji did) but I did genuinely think she might have been killed off, which goes to show how out of the familiar-plot comfort zone Eva 2.0 got me.
• Kaworu continues his teaser appearances, culminating in him donning a plug-suit and boarding his own Eva model to confront the berserker Eva 01 at the film’s cliffhanger climax.

So my verdict on the film? I loved it. It was an absolute gripping joy from start to finish. The animation continues to be spectacular. All the lush of Eva 1.0 is there and then some with the fight scenes particularly fabulous and some stunning cut-scenes of everyday life around Tokyo-3 (one in particular, set to a short piece of OST, Yamashita, is just beautiful).

A big shout out has to go to Sagisa Shirou’s soundtrack too. Again, he’s outdone himself. The pieces are a mix of both the familiar TV series themes, some remixes and some fantastic new tracks (Yamashita being the pick of them). There’s also some disturbing choices of, actually quite beautiful, ‘kids’ songs mixed over the violent scenes in the movie’s climax (very akin to End of Evangelion). But the icing on the cake for me was Shirou’s ressurrection of the Kare Kano BGM for much of this film. Those tracks of strings and pianos are emotionally poignant, full of angst, loneliness, romance and hope — essentially all themes of Eva. I’d forgotten how much I love the Kare Kano OSTs and to hear Shirou bringing them to a new audience brought joy to my heart.

On a side note, watching a major anime film in a proper Japanese cinema was a joy. The spectacular animation looked beautiful on the big screen and the surround sound was wonderful. Plus, the Human Trust cinema is a properly comfortable one.

I was excited about testing my Japanese ability with a native, non-subtitled movie and largely, it didn’t let me down. Of course I didn’t understand everything — as soon as anyone went into technological/philosophical/theological jargon I had no chance, and I’m sure I lost some major elements of the plot toward the end. But in a way Eva was the perfect film to go and see, as I knew the characters and the vague direction that the plot was headed in. Plus, teenage hi-jinks are fairly easy to get the gist of no matter what the language :p

It was also nice to watch it with a Japanese audience. It was surprisingly full, despite the fact that it was mid-afternoon on a weekday and the film had been on release for two weeks. Plus, shock, horror, not all were otaku! I hadn’t heard wrong, Eva really is fairly well known and does have a (fairly) a wider appeal, audience-wise.

I highly recommend Eva 2.0, particularly if it makes it over to a cinema near you (Eva 1.0 is getting a UK release soon I believe, and I hope it gets a short run in the cinemas). I can’t wait to see what Eva 3.0 and 4.0 bring, but wait I shall have to, with the next not due until next year (Plus, we non-Japanese otaku have to wait for the DVD release to even get the fansubs >_<).

Gundam and I, Odaiba, July 2009

So, I’ve written all about my Japan trip. But given the nature of this blog, it’s the geeky things you want to hear about right? ^^

Otaku highlights include the 1/1 scale Gundam in Odaiba, seeing Evangelion 2.0 in a Shibuya cinema (review to come in a later post) and discovering the ‘Akihabara of Osaka’ Den Den Town.

Gundam Odaiba

Impressive. Most impressive. I can’t tell you how excited I was about seeing an actual life-sized Gundam. To measure yourself up against such a structure is beyond any fan’s dream. Not only that but on the hour, it moves!

To an orchestral score the mighty RX-78 Gundam moves its head from side to side and up and down as smoke bellows from its chest. If the cockpit had opened I might have wet myself ^^;

We were lucky in that the Tokyo rain (unforgiving for three days) let up with clear sunshine for the hour we visited Odaiba. Which is just as well, as the setting, overlooking Tokyo Bay with the skyscrapers in the background, is incredibly fitting.

The Gundam is free to visit. Take the Yurikomome line from Shimbashi to Odaiba and get off at the Daiba stop (just after the shopping centre). It’s well sign-posted and you can usually follow the crowds to the park where you’ll eventually see the Gundam poking over the trees. There’s a small merchandise store right next to the entrance and plenty of food stores around the outskirts. You can also queue up to get up close and personal with the Gundam’s feet.

A real symbol of Japan, I can’t believe they are going to take this down (but if so get there before the end of August and see it for yourself!).

A full set of pictures from Odaiba on Flickr.

Den Den Town

Den Den Town I can highly recommend for anyone torn between the sightseeing draws of Kansai and the otaku shopping draws of Akiba and Nakano in Tokyo.

Osaka doesnt have a lot of sights, but it is a good base for Kyoto, Nara, Himeji and others, and it is a great city for generally hanging out and shopping. And in Den Den Town it has pretty much everything you’d get in Akiba, only more concentrated in a smaller area. Photos available here.

All the major anime chains are here (Animate, Gamers, K-books etc.) with plenty of second hand stores,  a massive dedicated Osaka Gundam store and a decent official Cospa store for merchandise. There’s even a couple of branches of Volks for plamo fans. Of course, there aren’t quite as many small shops as Akiba, but after a while everyone gets tired of looking at gashopon ^^;

Den Den Town is very conveniently located in the centre of Osaka (get off at Nipponbashi on the subway) and easy to navigate, with two main streets serving up all you’d want and possibly some rarities you wouldn’t find in Tokyo.

Akihabara

I went to Akiba as well of course, but on a prime-time Sunday this time. Some pics available here.

It was indeed rammed with sweaty otaku (male and female) but I was disappointed by the lack of otaku hijinks. No major parades or demonstrations and only a handful of cosplayers and itasha.

On the plus side I did get to see native otaku in their natural habitat and even caught some kind of launch event for a new game in Melon books (a dating sim no doubt. There was a guy playing a violin, which gave me shades of Ef).

I never tire of going from shop to shop hearing all the anisong music I love, and seeing rooms full of familiar characters from all the series I love (this summer K-ON! was most definitely the word, with everything from K-ON! tea to K-ON! bread in a can on sale).

Anyway, on to the loot.

Haul

For one reason or another, my haul from this trip was relatively small compared to last time. I still spent a lot more than expected, but I guess lots more went on clothes, experiences and (particularly) food rather than stuff. A sign of growing up? Still, I did manage to have two full bags to lug to the airport ^^;

Of the stuff I did buy, I was pleased to find a Honey and Clover poster in Den Den Town (Honey and Clover merchandise is so rare).

There was a vintage cinema poster store in Den Den Town and I would have loved to have bought the old Totoro or Whisper of the Heart posters I saw but I wasn’t sure if they would survive. Mental note for next time: pick up a postal tube >_<

Other than that, I got my MG Exia. It came out a few days before I left Japan, but I was too slow to get the Ignition Mode. Still, I was lucky to get this one as it was the last one in Akiba and at least it saved me several thousand yen. I also picked up a couple of display bases, including a special Celestial Being one for the Exia.

I also found my Miyuki Lucky Star Figma figure for what I thought was the cheapest price, only to find it again later in, of all places, Animate, for even cheaper >_<

I didn’t get as much music as I expected but I did pick up the new Stereopony and Perfume albums and found my two favourite Brilliant Green albums (The Winter Album and Los Angeles) going cheap second hand.

In terms of books, I got the second Haruhi light novel for a bargain 200 yen second hand to aid my Nihongo reading practice. And along those lines, I also found a couple of good bilingual books (with CDs) teaching you to read contemporary Japanese short stories and essays by well-known writers like Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto.

In games, I treated myself to Taiko no Tatsujin for the Wii (brilliant. Almost as good as the arcade). Elsewhere, my only plushie was a dango from Clannad.

There was also the usual copies of Hobby Japan and Newtype, the latter coming with a particularly nice gashopon of new Evangelion character Makami Mari.

And, ahem, I also got a couple of life-sized futon covers of Yoko and Nia from Gurren Lagaan.

I couldn’t bring myself to buy an actual dakimakura, the official ones of which cost an astounding 9,960 yen (that’s £70! For a pillow case!). Was thinking about an oppai mouse pad as well, but to be honest, none of them really appealed (not particularly interested in the oppai of Ranka Lee) and 4,700 yen is a bit steep for a mouse mat.

And surprisingly (Mari aside) no gashopons bought this time, which believe me was a tough ask….