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An Interview with Yu Asakawa (New York Comic-Con 2012)
As you may know, I got a chance to talk to the lovely Yu Asakawa for Samurai Beat Radio at this year’s New York Comic-Con. Here’s the interview in full form and in HD too. Special thanks to my boss for subtitle help.
You can follow Yu-san at http://www.twitter.com/Julia320.
Also, here’s another pretty picture of her:
The rise of the bimajos continues…
(Note: Although I said no new entries this week, this is something that I wanted to put up after some delays and my relatives are safe.)
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Japan/NYC Love! The Journey to New York Comic-Con 2012 Begins!
It’s that crazy time of the year once again as the East Coast’s biggest pop culture convention, New York Comic-Con, returns to entertain various fandoms over the span of 4 days (October 11-14, 2012).
Earlier this year, NYCC announced that it would shut down New York Anime Festival and incorporate it into NYCC. Despite there being a shortage of anime-related content (especially fan panels), it hasn’t stopped NYCC from bringing over some very notable guests from Japan. Here are the big Japanese names that will be coming to New York.
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San Francisco Daisuki! Photos of Japantown and J-Pop Summit Festival 2012!
Hey, hope you guys didn’t miss me too much! Here are some photos of Japantown and J-Pop Summit Festival 2012 that I took while I was at the Bay Area. I can definitely say Japantown is truly an awesome area to be around and J-Pop Summit was a lot of fun. Cosplayers, Vocaloids, Japanese fashion, lolitas, musicians, food trucks, EVA ahoy!
JAPANTOWN, SAN FRANCISCO, CA
J-POP SUMMIT FESTIVAL 2012 (DAY 1)
J-POP SUMMIT FESTIVAL 2012 (DAY 2)
It pains me to say that New York has nothing like Japantown (I don’t know if St. Mark’s Place counts) and I can see why the Japanese prefer being on the West Coast than on the East Coast. Makes me want to move over to California if I didn’t get a sunburn like I did on the 2nd day of J-Pop Summit. Kylee, the main headliner for J-Pop Summit, was amazing on the 2nd day though.
Maybe I should be like Jim Morrison and break on through to the other side.
Hope everyone enjoys the photos! Wouldn’t it be nice to have more Japanese towns/festivals like this around our areas?
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Exploring Manga, Vocaloid is ALIVE!, Happy Tearjerkers, And More - Fun Links To Read
Here are some fun links to read for the weekend.
“What’s up with manga? A comics fan’s deep dive” - As someone who grew up reading American comics first, I found this article to be enlightening. Much like Christian, I learned a lot about what makes Japanese manga more unique than comics in the West. There is also a good point brought up about how manga remains popular in a society that’s very strict. The end question in the article is extremely important. Certain manga titles may not always appeal to someone who reads comics.
Is Hatsune Miku more ‘authentic’ than Lana Del Ray? - Umm, yeah. She is. I don’t know too much about Lana Del Ray, but I heard she was considered to be one of the worst musical guests to perform on Saturday Night Live. The lesson is that if you really want to be successful, you have to create an emotional bond with your audience members.
How Tearjerkers Make People Happier - While the article talks about tragedy movies, I think the same can be applied for anime and manga as well. There were many flashback scenes for certain characters that have moved me. Any tragic moments in manga that may have moved you positively?
Whose Digital Manga is it Anyway? Publishers vs. Scanlations - And the battle goes on and on…Is it really scanlators’ fault that the digital publishing push was delayed until now? I hate to say this, but piracy isn’t ever going to fully go away. The least people can do is limit it to a huge degree. Also, what about series that may never get licensed, but are scanlated? As another writer indicates, some scanlations happen when a manga series is not licensed in a certain country and/or if a manga series ends its run prematurely (i.e. VIZ Media ending Gintama). Things look to be really tense going forward for the manga industry….
Finally, check out Google Maps 8-Bit. So worth it!
Have a fun weekend!
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MIKU HATSUNE LOVES BACON-WRAPPED HOT DOGS
Isn’t the point of the character right now is to sell cars? Aren’t sales of the Toyota Corolla supposed to be pretty bad? No wonder Toyota can’t show any of this on U.S. national television….
I can say that they’re clearly targeting Asians with a flash mob they did at a Asian street fair and there was also a billboard advertisement in Flushing, NY (an area with a huge number of Chinese & Koreans living there). However, not ALL Asians are into the visual pop culture of Japan.
Is the idea to promote her first as a friendly virtual girl who wants to know more about American culture? Then, when the time comes, show her driving the Corolla? Why can’t they do commercials like how Old Spice did? Showcase the product and show off Miku’s personality at the same time.
The worst part of this campaign is that Toyota doesn’t exactly explain who and/or what Miku Hatsune really is. If you visit Toyota’s Miku page, there’s literally no “About Miku” section or anything like that. Yeah, she’s a virtual idol. But where’s the history behind her? If I were a non-Miku fan, why should I care about an idol that’s not real and looks too weird for me? Give me a good reason to care.
It will be nice to see Miku become mainstream in America, but I’m not sure if this is the right way to do it. What do you guys think?
