Japan Fall 2015 - Love Live! Part 3: Kanda Myojin

The Japanese word seichi junrei translates to "sacred pilgrimage," but commonly refers to taking a trip to the real life locations found in anime, manga, or video games. The name comes from the fact that it takes a great deal of time and navigation to get to some of these out of the way towns which often require navigating through a maze of small, local trains to towns you never knew existed outside the city, not to mention a lot of time sitting and looking out at the countryside while you ponder how much you spent on train fare. Sometimes the places are so obscure, like the locations in Okayama prefecture which served as the basis for characters in the Tenchi Muyo! series, they require a car and some hiking to get to. My own trip to Toyosato elementary school, which was the model for the school used in K-On!, was quite a way from Tokyo and even required a trip aboard the bullet train.

Thankfully, Love Live! fans have it easy. The series is conveniently set near the otaku/electronics capital of  Akihabara and the neighborhoods surrounding the nearby Kanda Shrine, all easy to access from anywhere in Tokyo by regular train and are very affordable. Forget the sense of accomplishment: you won't miss the expensive train fares, having to navigate through never before seen train stations in a sparsely populated town, or spending hours sitting in a train looking at nothing. Trust me.

The school idols frequently visit Kanda Shrine, easily accessed from Ochanomizu station (NOT Kanda station, as I had to learn). It's a short five minute walk from the station to hill leading up to the shrine's main gate. It's simple to figure out with maps...or if you're like me you can always be on the look out for fellow fans and follow them inconspicuously. They won't mind and believe me, it works every time. Going to an event? you'll never need a map again if you look out for keychains and band t-shirts.

Kanda Shrine is a shrine first and a mecha for Love Live! fans second so you can actual see quite a bit of culture here, even if you did end up coming for to see your favorite member of muse. Wash your hands off to the side once you enter and make a small offering at the main shrine. The girls met up here during New Years with the members of A-rise.

Sit down for a little while and appreciate the architecture, take a break, then pull your shrine fortune from a box to see if you've gotten good luck. This gives you a good excuse to talk to one of the mikos (female shrine helpers) working at the temple. Nozomi was often seen tidying up the grounds of Kanda Myojin in the anime in her miko outfit and Kanda Shrine had some special Nozomi Ema (wish boards) and Omamori (good luck charms) available for sale. You can read more about Miko in this photo-heavy post and this informative article. 

An ema is a wooden plaque for wishes that you post at a shrine. Love Live's popularity has resulted in a sea of ema you can see posted all about the shrine adorned with messages and sometimes expertly drawn renditions of one's favorite member of muse. You can write a wish on the special Nozomi ema in the above picture, or get a plain one and decorate it however you want!

Instead of leaving the shrine through the main gate, head right past more ema boards to a stair case that leads down.

This appears everywhere in the anime, most notably in the race between Honoka and Nico that two friends tried to recreate right after I took my pictures. No fall included!

Once down the stairs, the main street to Akihabara's electric town district is a short walk away! Welcome back to civilization! Just kidding. You aren't that far out in the sticks.

Even if you aren't a fan of Love Live!, the shrine itself and the serene neighborhoods around it make for a nice getaway from the crowded concrete that densely overrides the Tokyo cityscape. Escape for an afternoon, enjoy a nice stroll around town, and if you really must get back to civilization Akihabara is literally right down the hill.

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Chris

Japan Fall 2015 - Love Live! Part 2: Minalinsky Birthday Cafe @ Akihabara Cure Maid Cafe

To continue in the series of Love Live! posts from my Fall 2015 Japan trip, we have a visit to the Kotori Minami...or rather, Minalinsky Birthday Cafe held at Cure Maid Cafe in Akihabara!

After I saw the Love Live! School Idol movie at a small theater in Shibuya, I took the train back to Akihabara to line up for the cafe with a friend. Kotori's birthday had just passed, and Cure Maid Cafe hosted a special menu as well some limited edition merchandise to go along with the event.

Cure Maid Cafe is of particular interest to Love Live! fans because it served as the model for the maid cafe which Koto...erm, "Minalinsky," the nickname she takes up while on the job, works for during the animated series. The inside of the cafe looks similar to how it does in the episode and the long maid dress Kotori wears is the same as what all the servers wear.

I went on the last day, so the line to get in to the cafe was long. Located on the sixth floor, customers had to wait along the dreary staircase on the side of the building leading up to the cafe. The wait was a brutal two hours long on an already cloudy, gloomy day, but it was worth it to finally arrive at the top of the staircase to pretty young women in maid dresses.

The atmosphere of Cure Maid Cafe was much different from what most people would expect--myself included--out of one of Akihabara's most popular tourist attractions. This place was much farther from the cutesy, moe-type maid cafe's that Akihabara is known for. Instead of mini-skirts, wide-eyed contact lens, and speakers blaring denpa songs for the maids to dance to, Cure Maid Cafe embraces a totally different outlook on the maid culture that is much more sophisticated. They serve tea, the muscat grape was delicious, and for the event they played all of Kotori's solo songs from the Love Live! series, albeit on a much lower volume. The maids are much more composed, calm, and seem very professional. While they won't infuse your food with super cute powers, ala this hilarious Tommy Lee Jones commercial,  they will be glad to pour your tea for you and make you an omelette that probably tastes just as good. While it's a different atmosphere the no-pictures policy is still enforced, but you can get an idea of how the inside looks from pictures on the internet, like the above one from their official site.

Kotori's favorite food is cheesecake and Cure Maid Cafe offered a special slice decorated with her signature bird face as part of their special menu. They also had omelettes and other desserts on the menu but this cheesecake was too cute to pass up. It was also delicious, especially with the muscat tea. Some of the voice actors also paid a visit to the cafe and left a signature board for them to frame. The post cards below it were presents for ordering items off the special Kotori menu.

Although it was a painful wait to get in, the entire experience was well worth the visit. Even if you find yourself in Akihabara looking for an alternative to a typical maid cafe with a more relaxed atmosphere, pay a visit to Cure Maid Cafe. Check out their official website for directions, a list of events, and the menu. It's located in the same building as a store with nothing but gachapon machines and isn't very hard to find. Cheers!
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Chris

Japan Fall 2015 - Love Live! Part 1: LaForet Harajuku Hybrid Mind Market

In a previous post I mentioned how enjoyable it was seeing Suiyoubi no Campanella's One-man concert at a time when they were not just at a pinnacle in their career, reaching a wider audience and gaining immense popularity, but more importantly because I was so engrossed in the band that the gig a lot more fun than if I had just went on a whim. It was timed perfectly, and so was another interest of mine during my fall trip: the idol anime Love Live!.

If it wasn't already apparent in my last post where I mention seeing the film not once but twice, I'm actually rather fond of the series even though it's a kind of guilty pleasure. This trip was timed perfectly to coincide with the film release, which gives a solid conclusion to the series and also meant that Love Live! fandom was in full swing just about everywhere you looked. There were plenty of things to do for die-hard Love Live! fans around Tokyo and since I did quite a few things related to the series, I decided to multiple posts about it. I went to LaForet Harajuku's Hybrid Mind Market shop dedicated to Love Live! Then, I went to the Kotori Minami birthday event at Cure Maid Cafe in Akihabara. I saw the film twice in two different theaters, and, finally, I was able to take a "pilgrimage" trip to the Kanda Myojin shrine near Akihabara, a real life shrine that appears frequently in the series and is frequently visited by eager fans.
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Hybrid Mind Market @ Harajuku LaForet

A friend of mine met up with me in Harajuku to go shopping for clothes and on the way we passed this huge billboard which stopped me in my tracks. I had to go!

In the basement of one of Harajuku's flagship stores, the LaForet buulding, is a shop called Hybrid Mind Market which frequently collaborates with the most popular animated series and sells a plethora of merchandise online and at their store in Harajuku. It's a little out of place seeing a store dedicated to anime in a neighborhood known more for clothing brands and street fashion but its worth the change of scenery. I just so happened to be here at the right time, too!

A staircase leading to the bottom floor let out to displays of many new and unreleased Love Live! figures on display in a well lit showcase.

From there was the shop which featured all kinds of apparel, stickers, and other merchandise to tie in with the film. Some of this was exclusive to the store. I picked up a T-shirt to wear to the movie the next day and a draw string bag with my favorite member Hanayo. Among the merchandise was this outfit from the movie and a banner with Umi's AIDORU written in kanji:

The shop then transitioned into an exhibit of more merchandise and close to life size cutouts, notably the street scene at the end of the film. There were also large collages for each member. You can see Hanayo's below.

Thanks for reading! See you in Part 2.
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Chris

Makoto Shinkai - Voices of a Distant Star (ほしのこえ)

I've seen all of Makoto Shinkai's films with the exception of his very first, even though I had heard about his work since I saw Voices of a Distant Star when it first came out on DVD in the US. I remember seeing it among the DVDs in the Anime section of a shop here a long time ago and being intrigued by the cover: a girl sitting in a cockpit and a mecha gracing a gorgeous and haunting scene. I was even more intrigued when I heard that Shinkai had done the entire film on his own using just his Mac computer...more than the plot, which I never knew much about, this morsel of information has stuck with me even until now. Still, I never did pick up the DVD back then for reasons I can't recall, but I was finally able to get a hold of a copy just last month and it arrived not too long ago (and given that ADV shut down and the film is out of print, it's the same pressing that I saw in the stores back then. Kinda neat).

Cover of the US release

First off, I thought it wouldn't hurt to note that the title itself is a little bit misleading. I love the ring to "Voices of a Distant Star" but it's just a little bit different from the Japanese "Hoshi no Koe," which omits "distant": it becomes something like "Voices of a star" or "Voices from a star," in case anyone every wondered. 

Shinkai has always excelled in the backgrounds department, blending the picturesque everyday environments of a small Japanese town's side walks, alleyways, train crossings, into the fabric of his sentimental narratives. Seeing him use these techniques had me recalling all of his future films and how far he has come since then in his utilization of backgrounds in his work. It's really something to see these early incarnations of what would become 5 Centimeters per Second, Garden of Words, and his other films. His character designs are decent but sometimes the movement was a bit choppy and the CGI may not have aged when juxtaposed with today's quality, but I found myself forgiving Shinkai for these given that the work was done by him alone and appeared more than a decade ago. In that respect, it must have been much more visually enticing when it originally debuted. 

A still from the film. 

Since this film, Shinkai has delved into similar thematic territory by combining his knack for sentimentality, alienation, and the distance between two hearts with science fiction, mecha, and the future in works like The Placed Promised in Our Early Days and The Children Who Chase Lost Voices, but this remains the best blend of the to even when standing up to the updated visuals and experience in storytelling he supposedly gained for these more recent projects. Perhaps it is because, like the two other great Makoto Shinkai films, it's extremely condensed and only runs for 25 minutes. Perhaps its not that Shinkai is, as I once felt, terrible at fantasy and much better equipped to do sentimental animated films as long as they left out the sci-fi, but that the director merely excels and delivering his ultimatum in a short span of time rather than dragging it out. This film is proof that Shinkai can have an intriguing film set among mecha, war, and the like; the aforementioned two I felt were very weak and dragged on way too long despite them and the rest of his work have a constantly fantastic visual agenda. Despite the dated animation, the story itself is one that still has the ability to resonate with audiences in a way similar to 5 Centimeters Per Second and Garden of Words, two of his best films. 

As an almost aside, one thought provoking part of seeing the film was actually not from the film itself but from an extra interview with Shinkai that was part of the bonus features. The director talked about his self-production of the film and how technology had now made it possible for animation, something usually done by a team(eg. multiple people), to be produced and created by just one person. Thus, Shinkai producing the film alone made the animation something extremely personal, perhaps the first of its kind. More than anything, he wanted animation to be the blood and tears of a single person, something created by a single individual, just like music, novels, or even manga. He was really doing something quite ahead of his time and this ideas were interesting to consider, especially nowadays when we take technology and all of what it lets us do for granted. I have personally never thought of animation from that kind of standpoint before: it is certainly a process mostly thought of as being worked on by many people especially when compared to other forms of expression. At the same time, music is often worked on by sound engineers and people in the record company after it's been passed around between quite a few band members and novels might be influenced by editors as well. Manga is certainly a product of things like editors and assistants and video games are a similarly gargantuan undertaking that usually conjures up images of a team. There are exceptions of course, mostly being things that are very amateur in nature, like self made, independent recordings by singer-songwriters or  dojinshi for manga. I still Shinkai had a unique vision but in the end I'm sure that it is simple practicality that will trump the process. I'm sure his recent films, both lengthier than this one and also utilizing much more advanced graphics and animation techniques, could not have been done alone even if he wanted it to be a personal project. The concept, though, is thought provoking.

If you're a Makoto Shinkai fan you owe it to yourself to see the film that started his career if you, like me, have yet to do so. Its thematic approach to love in time and space is stands the test of time even more than a decade after it was first released even if the animation does not age in a similar fashion. This definitely ranks it among his best films despite the fact that those works omit fantasy and science fiction. It serves as proof that Shinkai needs more time to further perfect his blending of the two genres. Furthermore,  it is also interesting the sense of it being "personal" animation and it being the undertaking of a one man is both inspirational and admirable. Although it is out of print in the US I'm sure it can be seen readily on the internet somewhere.

It's also important to note that his very first film, "She and Her Cat" is also included on the DVD (and can similarly be seen on the internet, I'm sure). It's also a "personal" project by Shinkai for which he won a few awards and attention, which I am sure is what caused him to pursue animation seriously in the first place. It's also worth a watch despite being about 5 minutes in length.

Lastly, TokyoPop released a manga of the same name available in English which is just as poignant as the film and drawn in a style that matches the melancholy quite well. It's a quick read at just one volume.

Shunji Iwai to direct The Murder Case of Hana and Alice, an animated prequel to his 2004 film

I just saw the live-action film adaption of the manga series Honey and Clover  which featured Aoi Yuu as the eccentric child prodigy art major Hagu Hamamoto. As far as looks go, Aoi was a bit off from the pale and foreign looking Hagu, but nevertheless nailed the frizzed hair, petite stature, and lent her own cuteness to the part. Hagu only has a few utterances peppered throughout the manga and Aoi pulled this off as well without her acting coming off as too trite.
Completely unrelated, but I also stumbled upon some beautiful shots of Aoi while looking through an image search of Honey and Clover and later found out she voiced White (Shiro) in the film adaption of Taiyo Matsumoto's Tekkon Kinkreet. Then, one thing led to another and I came upon the page for her and the announcement for her latest film...a prequel to Shunji Iwai's Hana and Alice.

At first I thought it was absurd, especially considering the original two actresses had been cast again in their own roles: both of them must have surely aged since the filming of the original, so why have them in a prequel where they should be younger? Ah...then I discovered a key word I had glossed over: animated. Yes, this is going to Shunji Iwai's first animated film. It's been announced just last month and the following is the first teaser of the film, due to be released in February.

On Wiki, it's important to note that the film,  is translated as The Case of Hana and Alice when the Japanese title clearly indicates this "case" is a murder case. I admit I do like the working English title but it leaves out quite a bit of important implications the Japanese original has. The Japanese also separates the title. It's literally "Hana and Alice (space) A murder case" (花とアリス 殺人事件).

For those who haven't seen the original film, Hana and Alice was a poignant portrayal of two school girls who fall in love with the same boy and are both equally trying to capture his heart. However, although marketed as a romance rivalry ala a typical shojo manga, the film's ending and, in retrospect, the title itself, reveal a more pervading theme that is much more rewarding: the coming of age of two young women and the friendship that blossoms between them as time elapses. It's a beautiful film, perhaps quite long, but if you're fond of the kind of bleak cinematography and portraits of mundane youth in Japan that Iwai is so fond of putting on display in his films it'll be a winner for you. How an animated adaption of a back story to the two will play out is anyone's guess. I felt like Hana and Alice was the last great film from Iwai, so I'm hoping this re-examination of one of his older works is an indication that he's back to making great films again.

~hideki~

A Challenge: 7 Days, 7 Films

I've been meaning to catch up on Japanese cinema, especially on films that have been sitting on my shelf un-watched for a really long time. There are a ton of great movies out there that I have or that I want to see but I just never seem to find time for. So what better time to knock out seven films off that list then see one everyday over spring break and write about my thoughts on them after?

Particularly, I think having to see films for classes in school and schoolwork in general has seriously cut the number of films I see for personal enjoyment, although some of the films I see for courses I am taking are pretty impressive as well as enjoyable.

Here are the seven films I plan to see, in no particular order:


1. Swallowtail butterfly

I purchased a lot of Shunji Iwai films before I left to Japan at the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013. A lot of them just piled up without me watching them for a number of reasons...but I think mostly it's because the films are quite long - this one is about 2 and a half hours. I admit that seeing All About Lily Chou-chou, as mindblowing as it was, took an extreme amount of dedication and discipline to sit down and watch. Of course, it ended up being one of my favorite films of all time so you know, maybe seeing another Iwai film that seems to be just as important and gets mentioned more often in film studies books would be worthwhile?

2. Swing Girls

Purchased this in Japan after hearing about it many times...for a joke of less than 1000yen for the collectors edition. Yeah, the same store stocked the REGULAR edition of Swing girls for a couple hundred yen more than the premium edition with a ton of extra stuff. Why? It was missing a keychain charm that came with it but had everything else in mint condition and I still doubt whatever charm it was that it was NOT worth that much. Perhaps the prices were switched and they forgot a 0? In any case, I love films about music and especially when those films turn out to be about school girls playing in bands (my favorite film of all time is Linda Linda Linda) so I couldn't resist.

3. Custom Made 20.30

Another film I got in Japan after hearing Kimura Kaela was in it. I searched high and low for the DVD and never found it until venturing into a book-off in Osaka that was selling an inexpensive copy. I don't know much about the plot except that it has some centrality to music which is, if you haven't guessed, a big plus for Japanese films.

4. Still Walking

I've seen only two Koreeda films but the last film I saw, Maborosi, left such a strong impact on me that I went researching more of his stuff. I really dig the look of his films, how they have that slight grain and less refined picture than most films even during their time, it gives them character instead of distracting from the feature like a defect. Always saw this film around but never really paid attention until now. I also have "after Life" from Koreeda on its way which I am also eager to see.

5. Tokyo Story

It's a classic, and I have no idea why I haven't seen it yet. Not much to say about this one since most cinema fiends, even non-fans of Japanese cinema, should know that this is considered one of the greatest films of all time and is especially important in the history of Japanese film.

6. Kamikaze Girls

Picked this one up recently because the Shojo Beat licensed films are getting scarce. My copy was thankfully safe and sound and complete with the preview for the novel. It looked like a really lame, gothic lolita themed film but I figured out that it was just marketed that way to appeal to the audience in the West. Thankfully, the film is looking to be pretty promising.

7. Children who Chase Lost Voices 

The one animated film that, as soon as I got it in the mail, did not watch it immediatley. Makoto Shinkai delves into serious fantasy in this one that I heard is sort of like him trying to make a tried and true Ghibli film. Sadly, I heard it doesn't quite live up to it. Certainly, just by the cover, you'll notice that Shinkai's style jives much better with sad, melancholy characters and dark urban backgrounds. But let's give this  a chance before declaring a verdict! As I also mentioned, I usually see animated stuff right after I get it but this was an exception and I did want at least one animated film on the list.

Wish me luck!
~hideki~