Moody's Photo Tag

Moody Minstral tagged me way back in February. Better late than never... Gulp! (His post is really sweet so make sure you check out the link)

Anyhoo, I'm supposed to go to my photo archive, look in the fourth folder, post the fourth photo in it, and talk about it. Then I tag four more folks.

I was really happy that the picture ended up being quite interesting and comic book related rather than something lame. What's even better is that this picture was taken during my honeymoon. Ironic that Moody, who is in Japan, tags me and its a picture from my first trip to Japan.

In December 2002, I snapped this shot during a quick stop at Osamu Tezuka World, in Kyoto Station (for a good blog post about it see here). It's a smallish attraction dedicated to the god of Japanese comics (yes they really call Mr. Tezuka the god of Japanse comics. In the states, godfather of manga might be a better translated title). The statue in the image is Princess Sapphire from the manga and anime series Princess Knight. It's a lovely little children's story set in a fantasy middle-age setting. It's one of the manga grand-master's more famous works after Astro Boy (Atomic Boy), Phoenix, and Black Jack although it has a much more spotty release history in the United States, sadly. I wasn't familiar with PK before I went to Japan, so it was nice to be introduced to her and to other Tezuka characters that aren't as famous in the US. Going to Osamu Tezuka World was kinda a booby prize for not being able to go to the The Osamu Tezuka Museum in Takarazuka which is outside of Osaka.

It's important to note that Osamu Tezuka's impact on Japanese comics and animation is incalculable. Everything goes back to him. All the norms in Japanese graphic-storytelling from big eyes and fantasy/sci-fi lead straight to him. In America, he's often called the Japanese Disney, which chaps my hide, because, one, he's his own institution and two, the analogy is not encompassing enough. Tezuka is more like the Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Harvey Kurtzman, Stan Lee, Tex Avery, Max Fleischer, Wally Wood, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster of Japan (and few more names too). I'm really happy that his entire legacy of characters and stories is finally being released in the states in total. FYI, BlackJack happens to be my favorite work by Osamu Tezuka.

Way back when when Mrs. Swinebread and I were planing our trip to Japan, I really wanted to see Kyoto because of its historical importance and landmarks. Unfortunately, at the time we went (December) three of the major attractions I wanted to see were closed, The Golden Temple, Nijo Castle, and Toei Movie Land. This was a hugh disappointment. I didn't even consider that such a thing might happen because in the states lots of folks have vacation during the Xmas season so most attractions are open. On the plus side, the temples and shrines that were open weren't very crowded and so we had a much more peaceful time than we could have exploring these national treasures. My wife has been to Kyoto three times now, and every time the The Golden Temple has been closed. I guess we'll have to go back again someday... maybe with Swinebread Jr!


-Swinebread

Trip to Japan Part VI

After the relaxed time my wife and had had the day before, we decided to make one last big excursion into Tokyo. Our destination… Ueno Park. It’s a popular area with museums and cherry trees among other things. After the hustle and bustle of the Ueno station, it’s a huge busy place, it was nice to walk into the wide open space of the park. As there are many things to see and do in Ueno Park we came with a specific goal of going to the Treasures of the Tokugawa exhibit (since closed) at the Tokyo National Museum. But wouldn’t you know it on the way there my SO spied a poster for The Great Robot Exhibition at the National Museum Nature and Science. We checked our watch, and figured we had enough time to for this as well.

My ticket for The Great Robot Exhibition

The exhibit was a showcase of current robots, past automatons, and futuristic designs from comics and film, basically it was a celebration of Japanese robots both real and imagined. After entering and walking by an impressive display of Gundam toys, we came into large room with many displays but what immediately caught my attention was a live presentation. Now the robot they were showing off wasn’t very impressive, the poor guy who built it, couldn’t get it to work, but the gal helping him threw me for a loop. See, she was crouching there and her ass was hanging out! Here was this huge family-like crowed with bright lights and a near full moon was on stage. This was rather surprising because Japanese folks tend to be very careful about covering themselves up. Standing where I was, there was a great view so it wasn’t surprising that a rather large group had developed. I managed to get a shot of the scene with my camera though I wasn’t allowed to use a flash and I had to zoom in, but you get the idea. The ass gal

After the butt shot I got back why I came and began exploring the various robots. The early clockwork automatons, called karakuri ningyo were very impressive. I was especially fond of the tea servers, as I had seen them before on the history channel. The other displays had both real and imaginary robots side by side. I got excited about one in particular, it was a model of Astro Boy (Atomic Boy) along with two pages of actual Astro Boy manga art by Osamu Tezuka himself. I was so into looking at the inked strokes and lines on the pages that I didn’t realize I’d placed my hand on the case and an attendant had to come over to and tell me to “not touch.” I was so into it in fact that I totally forgot to take picture. One of the things I do remember though was that the paper had turned yellow but the paint used for corrections was still very white. The strokes and line work were just perfect though, and if I had only seen this and nothing else it would have been completely worth it.

3 robots including Doremon

A robot suit for disabled folks

A robot for dancing

Mazenger Z


Here’s Asimo. You probably have seen him on the news. For this robot they had a big production where he performed all kinds of tasks for a family of four, like learning a dance and setting up a table for a meal. His movements were impressive, very smooth and near lifelike.



After the Great Robot Exhibit we headed over to the Tokyo National Museum, which I had been to on past trips to Japan to see their regular exhibitions. The Treasures of the Tokugawa exhibit was incredible with all manner of kimonos, mother of pearl furniture and gold treasures but alas no picture taking was allowed. I got quite overheated as I did with the Chōjū-giga exhibit but I still I was able to look over the heads of the crowds. Of course the armor (I’m always surprised how small they are) and swords were very remarkable as was the first Clock in Japan (a gift from the Portuguese), but what really affected me the most for some strange reason were two documents. The first was the one that officially established the Tokugawa government under Tokugawa Ieyasu and the second was the document that dissolved the Shogunate in 1868. That’s 264 years of Japanese history on two pieces of paper… …Amazing. We bought a book with photographs of the collection but we decided to give it to my in-laws instead as a thank you for everything they provided for us on this trip. Going to two very different, yet very Japanese exhibits made me think up a phrase that sums up modern Japanese culture in my mind: In Japan the Future is now, but the Past is present. I refer to this part of our trip as Shoguns and Robots.Tokyo National Museum
Ticket for Treasures of the Tokugawa

It was twilight when my SO and I left the Tokyo National Museum. We decided to check out Ameyoko a bazaar-like shopping district close to Ueno. We trotted around the seemingly endless market until we came to my wife’s favorite store Niki No Kashi. It’s candy shop that sells sweets in bulk but not in the orgy sizes like Costco. My wife discovered it many years ago when she worked in Tokyo. We grabbed all manner of goodies including a box of Apple Kit Kats. Then it happened, I stumbled across my favorite candy in the whole world… Tropifrutti. The German gummy candy maker HARIBO makes it. Unlike most of their products such as Happy-Cola and Goldbären, Tropifrutti is not sold in the states or least I’ve never seen it. I developed a taste for it when I was in Germany in the 1990s. Tropifrutti has wonderful soft texture that’s not too chewy and has an amazing combination of flavors (Banana, Pineapple, Strawberry, Tangerine, Passion Fruit, Mango, and Kiwi to name a few of them). I love this stuff so much I keep the empty bags just so I can smell ‘em to remind myself what Tropifrutti tastes like. It’s my Crack. I still have one bag left…
The outer edge of Ameyoko from Ueno Park

A street in Ameyoko



As it was nighttime, we took a train back to Omiya for a late dinner with an old girlfriend chum of my SO. We had a nice time and the restaurant staff had a great time as well watching me bump into things and hit my head because the place was so tiny. After our meal my wife and I took a taxi back to her parents house. I think I was finally starting to adjust to Japan-time, which was a shame because the next day was my last full day in the Land of the Rising Sun.

-Swinebread

Manga Thoughts

A few quick Manga notes

I bought this month’s Wired magazine as it has a couple of articles on Manga, the first is called “Japan Inc.” by Daniel Pink. The article gives a brief overview of Japanese comics (which any passing manga fan would know) and delves into the fact that unlike the United States, the comic industry is the core of the entire Japanese pop culture machine. That’s right, video games, movies, cartoons, books and even music to some extent all rely on a healthy comics environment. The trouble is that Manga readership is down in Japan. The numbers are still huge of course when compared to the US, but this flatline of readership can lead to big problems for Japan’s entertainment empire. But, in the Article, Pink talks about the one area of comics that’s growing and that’s dojinshi or non-professional comics. Fans with professional level skill make these dojinshi comics and usually use established “copyrighted” characters as their topics. Think about it. It would be like an American fan creating stories about Batman and Spiderman. Want a tale with Superman and Batman as lovers? Or how about Wonder Woman getting married to Howard the Duck and going domestic? That’s what dojinshi creators do and the Publishing companies don’t go after them because they don’t want to crush the creative spark that’s central to manga. They only thing I can think of that’s similar in the states is that Paramount says it won’t sue trekkies that make fan films. Fans films that don’t make money… in Japan dojinshi are actually bought and sold. Amazing.

The second article is titled “How Manga Conquered America.” It’s a nice little history lesson presented in the actual manga format. Yes, its worlds and pictures, but it’s also read right to left. So the reader has to follow the 10-page story just like a kid reading the latest issue of Fruits Basket. See the article educates the reader with the format along with the information. Most of the info in the article, again, is common knowledge to manga fans but for folks interested in this comic book phenomenon that has exploded in the US, it’s a great primer. The two most important facts that one can take away from the article are that there were several attempts to get manga into the States, all of which failed until publishers decided to skip the comic book store and go directly to the bookstore. The second fact is that Amime, adapted from manga, paved the way for the source comics to reach Americans. These comics were “cool” and they didn’t have the inherent geekyness of their American counterparts (whether that’s really true or not).

On another note, since I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket, I picked up an Osamu Tezuka manga titled “Apollo's Song.” It’s a nice companion piece to Tezuka’s Phoenix comics. A short blurb I found on the web

Plot Summary: Chikaishi Shogo is a young man who hates the concept of love, and has never known what it means to be truly loved. Due to a course of shock therapy he dreams that he's taken to various times and places by the goddess of love.

It can come off as a little preachy and strange, especially the WWII sequence, but if you read Apollo's Song with your heart and not your head, it’s clearly a great effort by the Godfather of Comics. Love is the main theme here but its explored in a way that fans of Buddha and Phoenix would gravitate to. I also like that fact that Tezuka again validates that science fiction is useful and even a necessary genre to explore what it means to be human.

To be honest it took me a while to get into some of Tezuka’s work, except for Black Jack, which I immediately devoured (and sadly is rarely published in English), because of the whole big eyes thing. For me, it tended to make the work look childish and it jarred with the seriousness of the topics Tezuka delt with. But as time has gone on, I’ve grown accustomed to it. One, because Tezuka was the originator and two, thanks to Stan Sakai’s Usgai Yojimbo, which has a high cuteness factor but a deep, layered storytelling style, I realized cute isn't so bad.

Japanese comics are on my mind because soon I’m a taking trip to Japan. It’s under unhappy circumstances, but my SO and I are going to make the best of it. It will be rushed, so my glorious plans to "meet and greet" people and see all kinds of manga related things will have to be on put on hold for another visit. Family first.

-Swinebread