japanamerica

Anime discovers a rural outpost By ROLAND KELTS For the past few years, the beginning of July has found me on a flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles to attend Anime Expo (AX), the largest annual North American convention devoted to Japanese popular culture, and its related industry-only event, Project Anime (PA). Both continue to break attendance records. This year, AX tallied 100,420 unique attendees, while PA brought together 102 international anime convention organizers with studio executives and their staff from Japan. Aside from the personal encounters with the latest crop of cosplayers (anime and manga fans dressed in costume) and other fans, the events afford valuable opportunities to network with industry players and learn how the cultures and their media are changing. Among first-time participants this year was Progressive Animation Works (P.A. Works), an anime studio unusually based in rural Nanto, Toyama Prefecture. The president and two employees were on ...

Drawing on the past of Osamu Tezuka By ROLAND KELTS In 1977, American author and translator Frederik L. Schodt and three friends formed a manga translation group in Tokyo, with the then-quixotic dream of introducing Japanese comics to a global readership. Schodt had arrived in Japan in 1965, courtesy of a father in the United States Foreign Service. He returned in 1970 to attend university after a short stint in the U.S. At the time, manga were everywhere in Japan, he says, and a lot more fun to read than textbooks. Schodt became addicted to the gag-and-parody series published in boys’ magazines. But one day a friend loaned him a copy of Osamu Tezuka’s epic 12-volume “Phoenix” — and he was stunned. “It made me realize that the work of Japanese manga artists was sometimes approaching the best in literature and film,” he says. So he and his translation team went straight to Tezuka Productions to get permission for their debut project. To their surprise, the artist, already a c...

Godzilla Resurgence: Japan Reboots Its Most Iconic Monster After a twelve-year hiatus, Godzilla returns to theaters in Japan this July, and could be more relevant than ever. By Jonathan DeHart If the trailer released in April is anything to go by, Godzilla Resurgence (Shin Gojira), could set a new bar for the series. Set to a dramatic musical score and devoid of dialog, the minute and a half of footage teases viewers with scenes of epic destruction, as Godzilla looms above, swaying what appears to be the largest tail in the series’ history. Fleets of tanks, helicopters and battleships unleash a vicious onslaught of firepower against the gigantic, irradiated lizard – to no avail – as panicked military and government officials frantically formulate a game plan and terrified citizens flee for cover. As the 29th installment in the monster’s sprawling filmography is being met with widespread anticipation, it begs the question: What gives Godzilla so much staying power? “Godzi...

My conversation with Madeleine Brand.

For Japanese, Obama's Hiroshima visit is historic – but complicated Obama toured Hiroshima's Peace Museum Friday, a move strongly supported by survivors of the first atomic bomb. But his trip stirred up tough questions about how Japan treats its own history. By ROLAND KELTS, Contributor TOKYO — As Japanese parsed the meaning of President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima on Friday, virtually all agreed it was historic. But that is where the consensus ​ends. The controversy in the United States over whether he would apologize for the bombs dropped in August 1945 over Hiroshima and Nagasaki was answered unequivocally: He did not. But here in Japan, ​the event was being received with considerable skepticism, even as the city of 1.2 million prepared for Mr. Obama's tour of its Peace Memorial Museum – called "gut-wrenching" by Secretary of State John Kerry last month – and his speech near its cenotaph. ​Japan is acutely sensitive to its history as the only nation...

Viz’s 30 years pack a punch in the U.S. photo courtesy of Bjoern Eichstaedt By ROLAND KELTS This summer, Viz Media, LLC, North America’s first-ever distributor of Japanese popular culture, turns 30. Founded in 1986 by Seiji Horibuchi, who has since moved on to other projects, the company is now housed in the so-called Twitter building in downtown San Francisco, and boasts the largest library of Japanese media content outside of Japan. But don’t expect buses festooned with Viz banners circling through town. Viz plans to celebrate through events with and for fans, says Chief Marketing Officer Brad Woods. That means special offers at North American anime cons, starting with July’s Anime Expo in Los Angeles and Comic Con in San Diego, and rolling out through autumn 2016. “We’re not going to throw a ridiculous party,” Woods says. “We just want to thank the fan base. That’s what it comes down to. A high-five for the people involved who made us.”

Roland Kelts, May 10, 2016 at 7pm The 156th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium will be held on Tuesday,  May 10, 2016 at 7pm at Parsons The New School for Design, 2 West 13th Street, in the Bark Room (off the lobby). Free and open to the public. Roland Kelts on The Hybrid Roots of Manga: How the influx of American and other Western cultural artifacts after World War II evolved into a form of expression whose visual and narrative characteristics are today considered distinctively Japanese. Roland Kelts is the author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling Japanamerica . His articles, essays and fiction are published in The New Yorker, Time, The Wall Street Journal, Zoetrope: All Story, The New York Times, Newsweek Japan, Guernica, The Guardian  and The Japan Times , among others. He is also a frequent contributor to CNN, the BBC, NPR and NHK. He is a visiting scholar at Keio University and contributing editor of Monkey Business , Japan’s pre...

Authors: Hideo Furukawa, Mieko Kawakami, Rebecca Brown, Linh Dinh Editors: Ted Goossen, Roland Kelts, Motoyuki Shibata *All events are free and open to the public, unless otherwise noted. April 27 Wed, 6:30pm: New York University (7 East 12th Street, Room 321, New York, NY) April 28 Thur, 6pm: Kinokuniya Bookstore (1073 Ave of the Americas, New York, NY) *Brown and Dinh will not appear at this event April 29 Fri, 7pm: BookCourt (163 Court Street bet. Pacific & Dean Sts., Brooklyn, NY) April 30 Sat, 2pm: Asia Society (725 Park Avenue at 70th St.) : Monkey Business: Japan/America Writers’ Dialogue. Ticket $15 MONKEY FB

Anime biz sings the praises of shows By ROLAND KELTS The first time I attended AnimeJapan, the industry’s annual spring showcase in Odaiba, Tokyo, it was called the Tokyo International Anime Fair. Members of the public couldn’t enter during the first two days, amateur cosplay (costume play) was prohibited, and while there were some presentations, most of the offerings were brochures, catalogs and swag bags. It was primarily a trade show and almost everything was printed in Japanese. Not so at last month’s AnimeJapan 2016, where five stages kept the main halls booming with live music, variety shows, voice-acting demonstrations, panels and seminars. One stage hosted an anime career counseling center. Another presented a nearly nonstop lineup of mascots and singalongs for parents and kids under 12. An expanded Cosplayer’s World section replete with dressing rooms, stage sets and an outdoor platform encouraged fans to pose and preen, then eat anime-inspired cuisine at an adjac...

Artist and writer Satoshi Kitamura's illustrated account of the Monkey Business team in Manila.

Please join us if you are in New York!

As manga has gone global, so has its fandom and its businesses. I started out as an American kid who watched anime without knowing it was anime, got interested in manga as a teen, began writing professionally about it, became involved with publishing companies to adapt and help edit manga, and am now releasing my first book on the subject, Manga Art for Beginners . When I began writing about manga, it felt like literature’s best-kept secret in America. There were all these manga titles being brought over and sold in the manga section of bookstores, yet many people stayed away from reading manga because it was too“different” from what they’re used to (i.e., American comics). However, tides are changing.

Kinokuniya Bookstore, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 4/2: Tollywood, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo 4/1:

Screening/Talk @ Tollywood, 8 p.m.

Books Kinokuniya Event Culture Update: "Japanamerica" Next WHEN: April 2nd, Saturday 2016 TIME: 3:00 PM - PLACE: 6th floor, event space Books Kinokuniya Tokyo Event is free, no pre-registration necessary Ten years have gone by since the publication of the bestseller "Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the US", one of the most popular texts on contemporary Japanese culture. With this book as the centerpiece, we hope to have a discussion on popular texts before and after "Japanamerica" to paint a landscape of Japanese contemporary culture today. The speakers are writer Roland Kelts, the author of "Japanamerica", and Benjamin Boas, the author of "Nihon no kotowa Manga to Game de Manabimashita (Everything I Learned, I Learned from Manga and Games)", who are both Tokyo residents and know pop culture inside and out! Roland Kelts  is the author of the acclaimed bestseller, Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture...

In conversation with veteran anime producer, Kazuki Sunami.

From Cool Britannia to True Britannia By ROLAND KELTS In Japan, Western culture usually means American products: hot dogs, hamburgers, Starbucks and Krispy Kreme donuts, and recent boutique outlets like Blue Bottle Coffee and the Dominique Ansel bakery — not to mention the nearly 50,000 United States military personnel still stationed across the archipelago. The rest of the West, especially Europe, is often relegated to second-tier status. A bistro here, a trattoria there — a chain of quasi-pubs for ex-pats and tourists. While hipster Japanese may find European culture superior to American consumerism, its presence remains sparser. British entrepreneur Dan Chuter is out to change that, at least as it applies to his homeland. Against economic odds, Chuter believes that genuine British culture can find a home in 21st-century Japan.

Roland Kelts @Naka-Kon 2016

6 p.m. @ Sophia University. 

( JP announcement ) Seijo University Faculty of Arts and Literature Lecture Israel and Manga: A Public Conversation with Asaf Hanuka and Boaz Lavie Winners of the Foreign Ministry of Japan’s 9th International MANGA Award. Date: Thursday, February 25, 2016 Time: 13:30~15:30 Venue: Room 321, building 3 Admission: Free At this event, Asaf Hanuka and Boaz Lavie , winners of the Foreign Ministry of Japan’s 9th International MANGA Award, will speak about their award-winning graphic novel, The Divine (2015) and then will join writer and journalist Roland Kelts in a public conversation about their work as well as the current state of manga in Israel. After their conversation, Mr. Hanuka and Mr. Lavie will answer questions from the audience. This event is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Literature, Seijo University, with support from the Embassy of Israel in Japan and the Japan Foundation For further information, please contact: Dr. Ryuma Shineha, Faculty of Arts and Liter...

CG gains a ‘real’ foothold in anime By ROLAND KELTS Japanese audiences have long responded tepidly to the use of extensive computer graphics (CG) in anime. Even as CG has become the global standard for animation studios, anime fans prefer their homegrown artists to stick to labor-intensive 2-D illustration techniques and cel animation — or to at least create work that looks like they did. Case in point: Director and designer Shinji Aramaki’s “Appleseed” film franchise, based on the best-selling manga by Masamune Shirow (famous for “Ghost in the Shell”). The three-film series has grown increasingly digitally enhanced since its inception 12 years ago, with meticulous 3-D character and set designs and blockbuster visual effects. The second film, 2007’s “Ex Machina,” had double the budget of the first, was produced by Hong Kong-to-Hollywood director John Woo, and featured costume designs by Miuccia Prada. Yet both it and the more recent “Alpha” installment (2014), whil...

Honored to be a featured guest at Naka-Kon 2016 in Kansas City, March 11-13. Roland Kelts Convention Year:  2016 Roland Kelts is the author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling book "Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture has Invaded the US." He was born to an American father and a Japanese mother and grew up in both countries. He is a visiting scholar at Keio University in Tokyo and a steering committee member of the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a Tokyo-based think tank. As a journalist, essayist, and columnist, he writes for many publications, such as  The New Yorker ,  Time  magazine,  Newsweek Japan ,  The New York Times ,  The Guardian  and  The Japan Times . An authority on Japan’s contemporary literary and popular cultures, Roland imparts his unique perspective on Japanese pop culture to the rest of the world as a public speaker and media commentator on CNN, NPR,...

I will be appearing at two events in next month's Tokyo International Literary Festival, March 4 & 6. Copies of Monkey Business Issue 6 and Japanamerica will be available for signings at both. *MARCH 4 : 会期 : 3月4日 時間 : 18:00～20:00 会場 : 上智大学 12号館502教室 住所 : 　 入場料 : 無料 予約 : 不要 ※定員75名 出演者 : トレーシー・スレーター / ジェイク・エーデルスタイン / マーク・カウフマン / ローランド・ケルツ / 贄田 貴美 Four Storiesとは4人の作家の朗読を中心としたグローバル文芸イベント。書き手と読み手、そして関心のあるあらゆる人びとをつなぎ、物語に耳を傾け、対話を生み出すことが狙いです。(英語のみ) 主催: Four Stories/上智大学英語学科共同主催 お問い合せ先担当者: 贄田貴美、マーク・カウフマン / 8:00 - 16:00 [平日] Four Stories is an award-winning global literary series, bringing together writers, readers, intellectuals, friends and interested people to talk, laugh, hear stories, and trade tales about literature. This event will be in English 「文芸フェスイベント Monkey Business(英語版) presents スティーヴ・エリクソン 自作を語る 」 現代アメリカ最重要作家が自作を語ります!! *MARCH 6 : 会期 : 3月6日 時間 : 15:00(開場: 14:30) 会場 : HMV&BOOKS TOKYO 7F イベントスペース 住所 : HMV&BOOKS ...

Launches in Tokyo next month; NYC, Chicago and the rest of North America in April. 

Online streaming keeps anime afloat B y ROLAND KELTS Last week in California, I caught up with some of the chief purveyors of Japanese popular culture in the United States and elsewhere in the world. It became rapidly clear that 2016 won’t be at all like 2015 — or any other year before it. The rollout of streaming media is fast approaching an avalanche. Mainstream portals Hulu and Netflix are snapping up anime licenses in an effort to target an expanding niche of young and dedicated global fans. Crunchyroll, the pioneer and leader in the market, is exploring content coproduction deals with anime studios, as Japan’s notoriously byzantine production committees slowly disintegrate in the face of plunging domestic DVD sales. Anaheim, California-based Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA), the nonprofit organization behind Anime Expo, North America’s largest anime convention, is expanding, refocusing and rebranding. It plans to move beyond otaku/fan culture and e...

Beyond Japan's glittering cities lies a troubled farm sector By ROLAND KELTS I recently visited Aizuwakamatsu, a ­rural rice-farming region in northern Japan. The scenery was storybook Asia: precipitous hills, dense with greenery, dipping into narrow-cut rice paddies hedged by brooks and streams. At the onset of dusk one evening, our ­minivan rounded a hillside overlooking the Tadami River. A cluster of homes emerged through the mist, pastel green, pink and pale blue roofs huddled on a patch of land jutting from the shore. With the mountains mirrored in the water surrounding it, the village looked as though it were floating. One of the local guides told me that the coloured roofs were made of tin or aluminium, covering or entirely replacing the original thatchwork, an icon of traditional Japanese architecture. Upkeep had become too expensive, and the risk of fires or snow collapses too much for elderly inhabitants to bear. But what is really sad, she said, is that no one ...

In a Renewed Hotel Okura, Japanese Historians Still See a Loss By ROLAND KELTS  The old main wing of Hotel Okura in Tokyo, now demolished. The new main wing is scheduled to open in 2019. TOKYO — The outcry over the demolition last year of the 53-year-old Hotel Okura in Tokyo surprised no one more than Japanese historians and architectural specialists. Monocle, the global lifestyle magazine, had circulated a petition, savetheokura.com, to register the “outrage from admirers of its unique design.” Tomas Maier, the creative director of Bottega Veneta, an Italian luxury brand, filmed a video memorial and started a social media campaign, #MyMomentAtOkura. The hotel’s modernist postwar lobby artfully balanced elements of traditional Japan, like lacquered plum-blossom-shaped tables and chairs, with visions of what was then futuristic: a lighted world map displaying global time zones. It was frequented by United States presidents including President Obama, and other heads of ...