I was having a conversation with a young Japanese friend of mine the other day when we hit on the works of manga artist Naoki Urasawa. My friend’s face immediately lit up, and we spent the next hour or so talking about our favorite Urasawa …Read more »
Japan’s Edo Period marked the unification of the country, the moving of the capital from Kyoto to Edo (modern day Tokyo) and most importantly, the end of a long period of internal warfare. This all led to a new level of prosperity for the merchant …Read more »
Feast your eyes, Kuroko fans. The first visual for the upcoming Kuroko’s Basketball stage play, Kuroko’s Basketball The Encounter , has been revealed. And yeah, they kept the blue hair. Kuroko’s Basketball The Encounter , which premieres at Sunshine Gekijo in Tokyo in April and …Read more »
One of the Japanese guests at this year’s Sac-Anime convention in Sacramento was not a director or voice actor, but one DJ Hitomi, a anime song (anison) DJ who spun tracks at the con’s late night raves. After a few failed attempts to cross paths …Read more »
Starting today, theatergoers in Tokyo are in for some bicycle action, as the Yowamushi Pedal stage play opens for a three-day run at Tokyo Dome City Hall. The play, titled Yomamushi Pedal Irregular ~Two Peaks~ is based on the manga and anime of the same …Read more »
If you’re in Tokyo anytime from October 22 to January 11 and are a fan of Tokyo Ghoul , you might consider making your way over to amusement park Joypolis. Joypolis is going Ghoul crazy, adding a Tokyo Ghoul-themed escape game, plus other attractions including …Read more »
The Scarlett Johansson-starring live-action Ghost in the Shell film is still a few years off, but in the meantime, Japanese actors will be suiting up and hitting the stage in a play based on the Arise series. The play, which opens in Tokyo in November, …Read more »
Created by Eiji Tsuburaya, the man responsible for bringing the original Godzilla to life, Ultraman has become a Japanese sci-fi staple after the first entry of the series, Ultraman , aired in Japan in 1966. The weekly monster show was a spin-off of the highly popular …Read more »
You may recall that last year the Tokyo International Film Festival hosted a retrospective of works by Evangelion director Hideaki Anno (check out our coverage here ). The program was a hit, apparently, because this year the festival is doubling down on the anime thing. …Read more »
Black Butler , the manga about revenge, lost souls and demonic butlers has been adapted into three anime series, a live-action film, and since 2009 has been the subject of not one but three musicals. Now last year’s show, "Licorice that Burns in the Ground," …Read more »
Life is pretty good for American fast food junkies living in Tokyo. We’ve got McDonald’s, natch, Burger King, KFC and even Wendy’s, which relaunched recently after a Wendyless spell in the late naughts. But Taco Bell is one fast food franchise expats have been only …Read more »
It’s April in Japan, and that means cherry blossoms, baseball, and a Detective Conan film, which have been appearing yearly since 1997. This year’s film in the long-running series, known as Case Closed in America, is being promoted by two pop-up cafes in Tokyo and …Read more »
It's a strange, post-modern art project that shouldn't really work but somehow does: Bartkira , the project started in 2013 to redraw all of Akira with characters from The Simpsons . Ridiculous as the premise is, it's no small undertaking: the original Akira manga spans …Read more »
Shirobako 's Ema reacting to her paycheck. A newbie animator in Japan gets paid around 120 yen – that’s one, yes, one dollar – an hour. Kamimura (photo by Okki ) That’s the word from animator and character designer Sachiko Kamimura ( City Hunter , …Read more »
So somehow the promise of Evangelion , Attack on Titan and Resident Evil theme park rides hasn’t quite convinced you to get on that plane to Japan. Fine. Maybe you’re more of a One Piece person? In that case, we’ve got the place for you. …Read more »
Matt Schley
![[Interview] DJ Hitomi Breaks Down Borders with Anime Beats](https://otakuusamagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/hitomithumb.jpg)
Ryotaro Aoki
