Big in Japan: A sneak peak at Studio Ghibli’s newest anime

by Matthew Firestone on

While a good number of Japanese anime flicks are certainly not everyone’s cup of green tea, one exception to this rule is anything produced by Studio Ghibli and written by Hayao Miyazaki.

While Ghibli and Miyazaki might not immediately ring any bells, these two powerhouse names in the world of anime were responsible for films such as the cult classic Princess Mononoke, the academy award winning Spirited Away, and the recent popular hit Howl’s Moving Castle.

More hardcore fans of Japanese anime also attribute a few other hits to Ghibli and Miyazaki, especially My Neighbour Totoro, Castle in the Sky and Nausica, which together illustrate a variety of themes ranging from Japanese nostalgia for country living to striking a delicate balance between environment and technology.

So, if you’ve seen any of these films, then keep on reading as today’s post offers a sneak peak at Studio Ghibli’s newest anime, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (???????????????, Gake no Ue no Ponyo).

(If you haven’t seen any of these films, head to Blockbuster ASAP and see what you’ve been missing!!)

Since October of 2006, Miyazaki has been tirelessly working on Studio Ghibli’s latest creation, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Despite the recent advances in computer graphics (CG) that distinguish modern anime, Ponyo retains the classic Ghibli-style hand-drawn animation, and more importantly, has that distinctive Miyazaki look and feel to it.

Ponyo opened on July 19 in theaters all across Japan, though its English-language release is still another nine months or so away. Ponyo will also do the rounds at several of the major cinematic events including the 65th annual Venice International Film Festival. However, the anime has already received praise from a number of critics including the Japan Times newspaper, which gave the film 4/5 stars, and compared it to the classic My Neighbor Totoro.

Indeed, Ponyo is much more innocent and child-like than the heavy-hitting cinematic onslaught that is Princess Mononoke, and it’s much, much more comprehensible than Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. However, while young kiddies should have no problem following the plot line, adults can still conjure up their inner child to enjoy Ponyo. From an artistic perspective, the movie is also incredibly rich and deep, especially the stunning watercolor backgrounds of various seascapes.

The plotline centers on a half-girl, half-fish creature named Ponyo, who washes up on the shores of a small Japanese fishing village. However, she is quickly rescued by a young boy named Sousoke, who lives in a house on a cliff by the sea (hence the lengthy English title).

Without giving away too much of the story, Ponyo and Sousuke end up falling in love, which drives Ponyo to flee from her somewhat demonic father in the hopes of becoming a full-fledged human child. In classic anime form, the imbalance brought upon on the world by Ponyo’s transformation highlights the tenuous balance between humankind and nature.

Again, if you’re living in Japan, and you understand basic Japanese (remember – this is a kid’s movie!), check out Ponyo as it’s certainly worth your hard-earned yen. If not, no worries as it’ll only be a few more months before Ponyo hits North American theaters under the Disney name.

** All images are trademarked screenshots of the film Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea by Studio Ghibili, and are depicted on this website for the purposes of critical commentary **

Big in Japan: Can’t win the guys? Try anime eyes!!

by Matthew Firestone on

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is certainly a good thing given that the human form comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes…

Indeed, first-timers in Japan quickly realize that Japanese standards of beauty are very, very different than those in the West. While individual tastes certainly vary, Japanese men – if you’ll permit me to broadly generalize for a moment – prize cuteness and innocence over sexiness and poise.

In fact, you don’t have to look very hard to find evidence of this statement. Don’t believe me? Just turn on any Japanese anime, and take a good look at the female protagonists. While their bodily dimensions are certainly not based in reality, their physical attributes are nevertheless striking, particularly those big watery eyes set against tiny faces.

Of course, no real woman could ever hope to mirror these graphical representations of idealized beauty…or could they?

On that note, allow me to introduce you to the newest fashion craze over here in Japan, namely contact lens that give you the much sought after ‘anime eyes.’

If you ask Japanese men to describe their perfect face, most will tell you that the answer lies in anime and manga.

While Westerners might find big eyes set against a small face to be comical, in Japan this image is a much sought after standard of beauty. In a country where cuteness is king, there is something irresistible about fluttering lashes, doughy eyes and an expression of childlike innocence.

Sadly, nature doesn’t always endow actual humans with anime traits, though you can still win over the guys by simply popping in some contacts and getting those anime eyes. Recently, a number of companies in Asia are starting to produce extra-wide contacts, which have thicker color bars to give the illusion that your irises are much larger than normal.

While initial reactions to these new contacts run the gamut from sheer horror to swelling envy, you have to admit that they’re a far better alternative to plastic surgery. And after all, Sailor Moon might not be everyone’s idealized image of female beauty, but on a number of fundamental levels, she is preferable to Paris Hilton.

But, why stop there? Color contacts are in amongst Tokyo’s famous Harajuku girls, so you why not try bizarre colors such as fluorescent purple, lime green and electric blue. Or, you can really spice things up with special effects lens – give into your feline side by flashing cat eyes, or show your Slytherin House pride with lizard eye slits.

Anime-inspired beauty and fashion might not be sweeping across the runways of Paris and Milan, but it’s all the rage in a fair number of spots in Japan and across Asia. So, if you’ve already got the platform shoes, the blue hair, the crazy pigtails and a good complement of kawaii (cute) accessories, why not round out the package with some anime eyes?

After all, 60 million Japanese men can’t be wrong! (^_^)

Big in Japan: Home to the best homegrown

by Matthew Firestone on

Let’s be ‘blunt’ for a moment…

While Gadling does not in any capacity promote the smoking of copious amounts of ganja, a good number of us know that sometimes you need a little toke of Mother Nature’s sweet, sweet herb to get you through day.

Of course, wrapping your salivating lips around a hand-blown glass water pipe packed to the brim with Pineapple Express is something of a difficult proposition in Japan, especially since there are some incredibly Draconian drug laws on the books here.

While a good number of people in North America and Europe tend to have a relaxed attitude towards smoking a bit of reefer from time to time, the Japanese are extremely averse to drugs of any kind.

Indeed, all of us resident foreigners here in Japan are used to hearing that drug use is something of ‘Western problem.’

Or so we were led to believe (^_^)

According to a recent report by the Associated Press (AP), it seems that a good number of Japanese have been tuning in and dropping out, thanks to the easy availability of marijuana seeds on the Internet for home cultivation.

Ah so! The plot begins to thicken…

According to a public report that was recently released by the Japanese National Police Agency, the number of marijuana cases in the first half of the year rose 12 percent from the same period last year to 1,202. If this rate of increase continues, the number of cases will reach an all-time high this year, passing the 2,288 recorded in 2006.

Compared to amphetamines and other synthetic stimulants such as ecstasy, marijuana police cases are still very, very low, especially in comparison to other countries. However, police are attributing the rise in marijuana toking to the increasing prevalence of Japanese homegrown.

In the immortal words of the rapper Styles P: ‘I don’t smoke the weed if it ain’t purple or blue.’

So what’s the loophole? Good question.

While Japanese law doesn’t exactly make for light reading, the gist is that people are prohibited from growing or possessing marijuana for recreational drug use, though seeds are excluded from the law. Capitalizing on this ambiguity, Japanese web sites are quick to state that they are selling marijuana seeds ‘only for research, food or collecting.’

Yummy. I loves me some pot seed brownies…

In a country consumed by fickle trends and fads, it seems that Japan as of recent may be suffering from a bit of reefer madness.

Last month, a government worker was arrested after police raided his personal marijuana greenhouse in western Japan. In May, customs officers at Tokyo Narita International Airport misplaced US$10,000 worth of hash after it had been slipped illegally into a random traveler’s luggage in a failed attempt to test the noses of the canine sniffers.

And…let’s not forget about all those Harajuku girls decked out from head to toe in hemp-based fabrics, which have a long history in Japan as traditional clothing.

In the immortal words of Jon Stewart, the enhancement smoker from the movie Half Baked: ‘Have you ever seen (Japan)….on weed?! That’s the way to see it. It’s just wacked.’

** All images courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project, and NOT from my non-existent personal collection of homegrown herb and associated paraphernalia **

Big in Japan: Notable quotables from Japan’s next prime minister

by Matthew Firestone on

Think that the politicians in your country make ridiculous statements?

The tabloids here in Japan are buzzing this week following the latest verbal gaffe by Taro Aso, the Secretary-General of the ruling party. Believed by many to be Japan’s next Prime Minster, Mr. Aso recently offended pretty much everybody by likening the main opposition party to a bunch of Nazis.

During talks with the opposition, an MP stated that the Japanese electorate was shifting its support away from the governing party. Apparently, this impending reality was a bit much for Mr. Aso to handle, who replied by saying that when people move away from the party of the government, regimes like the Nazis come to power.

Wow.

Needless to say, people aren’t very impressed at the moment with Mr. Aso, though it’s likely that this little scandal will blow over in good time. After all, this isn’t exactly the first ridiculous public statement made by the future Japanese Prime Minister.

What else has the colorful Mr. Aso said over the years?

Today’s somewhat politically leaning blog presents a concise little list of notable quotables.

Taro Aso (麻生太郎), the Secretary General of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, is quite the character. An academic by training who holds degrees from both Stanford and the London School of Economics, Mr. Aso has held a number of controversial jobs over the years. He once ran a diamond mining operation in Sierra Leone before the civil war forced him to flee, as well as a Japanese cement company that allegedly indulged in forced labor during WWII.

With that said, perhaps the following comments aren’t that shocking given his illustrious background.

– While serving as economics minister, Mr. Aso was quoted as saying he wanted to make Japan a country where “rich Jews” would like to live.

– Mr. Aso once praised Japan for having “one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race.”

– When asked once about compulsory Japanese language education during the colonization of Taiwan, Mr. Aso declared “our predecessors did a good thing.”

– When describing China, Mr. Aso was quick to declare that the country was “a neighbor with one billion people equipped with nuclear bombs that has expanded its military outlays by double digits for 17 years in a row. It is beginning to be a considerable threat.”

– When referring to a Japanese peace initiative on the Middle East, Mr. Aso proudly stated the following: “The Japanese are trusted because they have yellow faces and slanted eyes, and have never been involved in exploitation there, or been involved in fights or fired machine guns. Japan is doing what the Americans can’t do. It would probably be no good to have blue eyes and blond hair.”

Eek.

Well, I guess there is good reason why most Japanese people are happy to remain apathetic about their country’s politics. With election fever sweeping across the States, perhaps both sides of the American divide have reason enough to be confident in their candidates.

** All images courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project **

Big in Japan: How to take a bath without losing your honor

by Matthew Firestone on

As I’ve said before, summer is in full effect here in Tokyo, which means that the temperature is soaring and the humidity is saturating. And, if your glands are anywhere near as prolific as mine are, this means that you’re probably sweating through pretty much everything that you’re wearing.

The Japanese are renowned for their admirable attention to hygiene and cleanliness, which presents a bit of a problem if your BO starts to act up in the long summers. While successive applications of a strong deodorant are certainly good measures to take before stepping on the subway, there is a uniquely Japanese way to stay so fresh and so clean.

Scattered throughout Tokyo are a good number of sent? (????), which are public and communal bath houses that you can seek refuge in if your sweat starts stink. Of course, taking a bath in Japan is a bit different than your home country, though fortunately it’s not too difficult to scrub down without losing your honor.

On that note, today’s posting is a quick and dirty (er, clean) guide to taking a bath the Japanese way…

As you might imagine, the most difficult part of taking a bath in Japan is sometimes finding a sentō, especially if you don’t read or speak Japanese. Fortunately for lost foreigners, bath houses are usually marked by a curtain containing the kanji 湯 (yu, hot water), or the corresponding hiragana, ゆ.

Once inside, remove your shoes and place them in the locker before paying your admission fee. Public sentōs usually cost only a few dollars, though you might have to pay a bit more to rent a ‘modesty towel’ as well as some soap, shampoo and conditioner.

After paying, keep in mind that bath houses are divided into male and female quarters, so be sure to choose the right side. Again, if you can’t read or speak Japanese, a good indicator is the color of the curtain marking each entrance: blue is for guys, pink is for gals.

The next room you enter will be a changing room, where you should strip down completely. While spas in the West allow you to wear a bathing suit, in Japan the preferred costume is your birthday suit. If you’re feeling a bit shy, the previously mentioned modesty towel is usually big enough to cover your sensitive bits and pieces.

From here, it’s time to enter the bathing area, though don’t lose your honor by jumping straight into the pool. On the contrary, you need to scrub down everything (and I mean everything) at the line of shower stalls along the wall. The principle idea here is that you will be completely clean before entering the bath water, so when in doubt, keep scrubbing.

Once you’re sufficiently clean, and you’ve removed all of the soap (this is important!), you can now enter the bath water. Generally speaking, it’s considered bad form to dunk your head, enter the tub with your modesty towel or wash yourself vigorously in the bath. However, assuming you avoid these pitfalls, you can pretty much sprawl out and soak your cares away.

While you can stay as long as you’d like, a good hour or two is generally enough time to give yourself a good cleaning. On the way out, be sure to top up with a bottle of ice cold green tea, or if it’s a bit later in the day, a frothy pint of draft beer. And, while there is a good chance that you’ll start to sweat immediately upon leaving the onsen, at least you’ve washed away any potentially offending bacteria.

** All images courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project **