Tokyo Blog

There’s a new Studio Ghibli movie coming out and it looks to be loosely based on the classic, British children’s book The Borrowers. This isn’t the first time a Ghibli movie has been based on children’s books written in the UK either; Howl’s Moving Castle was based on a book written by Diana Wynne Jones.

The title of the movie is going to be 借りぐらしのアリエッティ (Karigurashi no Arietty) which translates as Arietty the Borrower - the official website is here, for what it’s worth. It will be directed by Hiroaki Yonebayashi, and not by the great Hayao Miyazaki, although Miyazaki will be responsible for writing the script. Apparently, the idea for the movie has been discussed before a long time ago by Miyazaki and his team, but only now is it being put into production. Miyazaki stepping back from the directing duties is interesting, as he has already retired once before and looked to be trying to appoint individuals capable of carrying his legacy forward, most famous of which being his son, Goro Miyazaki who took directorial duties on the movie Gedo Senki - Tales from Earthsea (which was also loosely based on a series of books by American author, Ursula K. Le Guin). As he relinquishes control on Karigurashi no Arietty it will be interesting to see if he will be able to keep his hands off the drawings and animation all the way through production, without seizing control of at least one of these aspects as he has been alledged to have done on past features (where he was supposedly not going to be involved in either).

Finally, the story (in a nutshell) is going to be about a boy living in a house in Koganei, Tokyo (the real-life location of Studio Ghibli) who has a tiny girl called Arietty living under the floorboards of his house, and presumably she ‘borrows’ stuff.

This is happening in Kobe, but I thought it tied-in quite nicely with the recent Gundam statue in Odaiba. Basically, it’s a 1/1 scale version of the Tetsujin 28 robot from Japanese popular culture. It’s appeared in anime and live action shows here in Japan, it’s also known as Gigantor and Iron Man #28 overseas. This thing is part-way through construction in Kobe’s Wakamatsu Park, and when finished will stand 60 feet tall and weigh-in at a whopping 50 tons. Although this one doesn’t move, I think I like it better. Even so, how many giant robots does one country need?

This is almost too cool to even think about: Bandai Namco are building a LIFE-SIZE Gundam robot in Shiokaze park, Odaba to celebrate the 30th aniversary of the anime franchise! It stands at a huge 59 feet tall, emits light from various points on its body, moves its head, etc. They’re done working on the legs, and now the torso and arms are being added ready for the beginning of July. It will stand for two months before it’s taken down again, but then what are they going to do with it? The robot is the original RX-78-2 Gundam from the first anime series, aired in 1979.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company are now planning a live action Ninja Scroll to accompany their existing anime adaptation of the epic Akira. He’s looking to get SMAP (a J-Pop all boy singing group) to act in the movie, so it’s looking positive in the sense that he actually wants to cast Japanese actors in the roles of actual Japanese people - seems obvious to most of us I guess, but not to Hollywood’s casting agents it would seem judging by the recently released Dragonball Evolution movie. I’m semi-positive about this, but it still baffles me how they are going to match the provocative, ultra-violent, psychedelic qualities of the 90’s original. Time will tell I guess.

I’ve been playing a new incarnation of an old favourite recently, the last in the series from SNK actually. Samurai Shodown V Special is the best in the entire series. You’ve got most of the best characters, plus many new ones, with additional special moves and additional techniques. In this game, you can go into Rage mode, or you can exchange your anger for ‘concentration’ by meditating in order to, at a certain time, go into Concentration One mode, where all of your enemy’s moves take place in slow motion, whereas everything you do is normal speed. This enables you to land about 10 strikes on him while he’s still drawing his sword, as well as move behind your enemy and slay him before he has time to turn around. There are many more cool features, too many to list, and it’s a pixel-art masterpiece - every frame of every sprite. As icing, Yuki and SNK Playmore added Suicides and Fatalities. If you know how, you should play it (but not if you want to be productive at any time in the near future). Oh, and get the uncensored version. That way you can see people getting sliced in half, beheaded or spraying fountains of blood.

People who know their Samurai will know who this guy is. Famed for being a ferocious swordsman who fought with a long sword and an oar used for rowing, he most famously slayed Sasaki Kojiro in a duel of swords. Now, the studio behind the anime cutaways in Kill Bill vol.1 returns to tell the story, writing courtesy of Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell)! Can’t wait. Here’s the trailer for now.

Darling wa Gaikokujin (ダーリンは外国人), which roughly translates as My Darling is a Foreigner, is a manga series that deals with the author Saori Oguri’s life as a Japanese woman married to an American man living in Japan. The reason I’m writing about it is that I’ve been watching an animated version on the JR line trains just recently, and the animation style is really nice. The animation has been on the trains since last year. In the most recent installment the couple have a baby. Watch out for it if you’re on the Yamanote line in Tokyo anytime soon.

Uniqlo’s ever popular T-shirt project UT has been going for a while now, but as a recent addition to their plethora of usual outlets, they’ve added this dedicated UT store in Harajuku. It was opened last April, but this is the first time I’ve been there. With temperatures the way they are at the moment I wasn’t planning on buying any T-shirts, I just wanted to check out the store itself. The shop consists of a few racks of T’s and other items, surrounded by a wall of vending machines, above which you have the ticker-tape displays with lines of text making laps of the room as you shop. The vending machines contain the bulk of the T-shirt stock. You choose the one you want, and then out pops the T in the trademark tube-like plastic packaging. I get the feeling they will need an iron once you get the back to your house though. Generally I like the store, so I’ll be back in the spring to pick up some from the manga series.

I was in the popular convenience store AMPM today, when I saw the coolest soft drink idea ever. Final Fantasy potions! I didn’t have my camera so I couldn’t take a picture, but a quick search unearthed this advert now airing on TV. Power up!

Two weird videos from YouTube, possibly by the same animator, not sure. My friend Maya told me that the Shinbashi clip features sound from a Ramens sketch (The Ramens are a surreal Japanese comedy troupe). Takadanobaba!

This site isn’t exactly great, as the avatars you create here don’t look particularly manga at all. Still, it’s a good laugh making one of yourself and your friends. I found I couldn’t easily make myself, but I could do my friends no problem!

WARNING: Spoilers ahead.

Last night I finally got around to watching perhaps the only film by Hayao Miyazaki I haven’t seen: Lupin III, Castle of Cagliostro. Whilst I was watching it I found lots of similarities to the amazing PSX game by IGA and his team at KCET, ‘Castlevania: The Symphony of the Night’.

Both my heroes in their own right, Miyazaki and IGA seem to have cross-pollenated. Seeing as the anime film was made in 1979 and the castlevania game in 1997, it’s obvious who borrowed from who.

The first of the similarities I noticed was the Castle of Cagliostro itself. It looks almost identical to the castle in the opening sequence of the Castlevania game, especially the tall tower with the connecting bridge and the four turrets on it’s corners. I thought this was likely to be a coincidence, but then later the film culminated in a scene where a gold and silver ring had to be taken to a clock tower in order for a secret passageway to a hidden treasure to be revealed.

This exact scenario takes place in the Castlevania game also! Both clocks also feature a goat’s head and strike 13 when the rings are used to activate the mechanism. In both the film and the game the hands of the clock come into alignment when the rings are used (in the film the Count of Cagliostro is crushed between the hour and the minute hands).

Just an interesting little known fact, I thought. I Googled it, but couldn’t find any articles about it on the web. If anyone else knows of any other similarities, please put them in the thread.

Gake no Ue no Ponyo will be the eighth film by anime virtuoso Hayao Miyazaki for Studio Ghibli. Apparently, this time (and it’s obvious from the posters you see in Lawson’s combini), the animation style will be based on watercolours, a bit like the previous Ghibli offering ‘My Neighbours, the Yamadas’. It’s in production now, in fact, looking at the date, it should be in post-production at least - the film comes out in Cinemas across Japan on July 19th this year (2008).

It sounds pretty trite when I write it like this, but the film is about a Goldfish Princess called Ponyo who really wants to become a human, in chasing her goal she meets and befriends a young boy called Sousuke (who’s character is based on Hayao Miyazaki’s son Gorou when he was 5 years old - Gorou has since directed feature-length anime ‘Gedo Senki’ for Ghibli). I’m sure it will be a great film. Hayao Miyazaki doesn’t seem to be able to put a foot wrong, especially in the latter part of his career. So it looks like this year, I’ll get to experience a very important Japanese cultural event: A nationwide opening of a Miyazaki film at a cinema in Tokyo, with all the queues and crowds that normally come with it. Tanoshimini.

This is bound to be a total disappointment when it finally comes out in 2009, but Warner Brothers have made it official; They will make a live action version of Akira, and they’re going to adapt it from the original manga graphic novel, not from the anime. Actually they’re going to span the story over two films, but production starts right away. The reason I’m not as positive as I could be about this news is the appointment of a fledgeling filmmaker and a debuting screenwriter. The director will be Ruairi Robinson who’s most recent short film you can watch on YouTube or on his website. Personally, I wasn’t keen on the short film. I’m measuring it by the Chris Cunningham yardstick, so this may be a harsh review, but see for yourself. The other very worrying rumour that’s flying about, is that the film might be set in America in a so-called ‘New Manhattan’ instead of the infinitely cooler ‘Neo-Tokyo’. Say it aint so! I hope the film proves me wrong because it would be a great thing to see at the cinema in 2009.

As soon as my projects are out of the way, I’m off to the Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka. So, before I get there I’m watching all my old favourites from the Ghibli collection (I’ve got 13 of their films on an external HD I bought from home, along with the rest of my DVD collection). I bought a cool bed from Takeya for my apartment which you can incline - perfect for watching movies late night - and so I watched Laputa: Castle in the Sky again. I had forgotten just how good this film is, so I’m posting about it here so that anyone who’s into their Anime who hasn’t checked it out can get my recommendation. It’s now my favourite Miyazaki film of all time.