otakumag.com

Genre: Japanese Culture, Art, Manga and Film

review in one breath

The latest issue of Otaku Magazine is now available. This one is entitled "Play" and focuses on the themes of players and play in all its manifestations. I've been a fan of Otaku Mag since I first ran across it a year ago. Its dedication to Japan-inspired art and technology is thoroughly entertaining, and its glossy visual presentation sets a very high standard for underground publications.

This issue is being published as a limited release, so if you are interested in ordering it, I recommend you do so quickly. The issue is expected to sell out soon. For info on ordering and the new issue's contents, keep reading.

Space Amoeba
[Gezora, Ganime, Kameba: Kessen! Nankai no daikaiju]

aka "Yog Monster from Space"

Genre: Alien-Spawned Giant Seafood!

review in one breath

An unmanned space flight to Jupiter mysteriously changes route and crashes near a remote pacific Island, bringing with it a mind-controlling alien parasite. But before it can realize its plan to take over Earth, it will have to move up the food chain, starting with squid, crabs and turtles, all the size of skyscrapers and hell-bent on munching the local population. This is the last non-Godzilla film by the Grand-Daddy of Kaiju, director Ishiro Honda!

Under the Carp Burner
[Koinobori hatameku shita ni]

aka "Molester: Obscene Peeping"
[Chikan Waisetsu Nozoki]

Genre: Pinku-Erotic Social Commentary

review in one breath

In Under the Carp Banner renowned/notorious director Kazuhiro Sano creates an impressively explosive clash between Japan's contemporary social momentum and traditional sensibilities, all under the umbrella of an independent erotic (pink) film. While chocked full of sex scenes, this film clearly demonstrates Sano's highly valued contribution to the intellectual trajectory of independent Japanese film and easily justifies his place amongst the "Four Kings of Pink".

Bounty Hunter Vixens: Carnal Enchantment
[Jorou: Ensatsu Rataiken]

Genre: Ninja bOObies and Magical Swords!

review in one breath

After young little Iris watches a seductive buxom witch steal her beloved father's head (!), she picks up his kick-ass demon-killer sword and never looks back. Now, many years later, she is a BOUNTY HUNTER VIXEN, hell-bent on getting the bad guys (and gals). But when she again crosses paths with the shapely, head-pilfering sorceress and her horny zombie horde, it seems she may have finally met her match.... Until, that is, she befriends a hunky Shinto priest and his nubile sister. This is the EIGHTH in the Ninja Vixen series and proves yet once again that plot and quality are irrelevant as long as nekkid bOObies are involved.

Melancholia
[Merankoria]

Genre: DNA-fueled Doppelganger Slasher

review in one breath

Mirai's life suddenly seems headed into the crapper! First, her father throws himself in front of a train, then she has to move in with some increasingly strange relatives, then she starts seeing creepy things to the point of a nervous breakdown, and finally her best friends start showing up bloody red and DEAD. And then the real weirdness starts! This is a made-for-TV horror flick directed by Z-Grade maestro Ezura Takaaki.

Kahimi Karie

カヒミ・カリィ

Sophisticated Lolita Shibuya Sound

Kahimi Karie is an exemplar representative of the ultra-hip "Shibuya-kei", the unique blend of jazz, hip-rock and 60's kitsch prevalent in Tokyo's Shibuya/Harajuku district. Other Japanese bands in this genre include Pizzicato 5 and Fantastic Plastic Machine. Unlike these others, however, Kahimi's vocal style, which is simultaneously childish and seductive, sky-rocketed her to instant stardom, resulting in several gold-hit singles and several albums. Not only does she maintain her superstar status in certain contemporary sub-culture scenes, but soon youth and geeks throughout the globe will be mesmerized by her charms through her lyrical role in the latest Japanese (read international) video games.

Cibo Matto - Viva! La Woman

Nippon-esque Urban Trip-Hop

The band Cibo Matto was formed by Miho Hatori and Yuka Honda following their move from Japan to New York City. Their wholly unique and hypnotic trip-hop music is immediately addictive. Sophisticated beat and arrangements are intertwined with quirky yet eerily profound food-themed lyrics sung by Miho in her cutesy Japan-English girl's voice.

In the reign of the Emperor Engi, which began in the year 901 A.D., there lived a man whose name has ever since been celebrated on account of his beautiful writings, poetic and other. He was the Emperor's great favorite, and consequently he was the strong man of the day; his name was Sugawara Michizane. Needless to say, it was not very long before, with all these things in his favor, he was the head of the Government, living in luxury.

Things went well enough for a time; but the inevitable came at last. Not all the people agreed with Michizane's ideas or his politics. Secret enemies lurked at every corner. Among them was one particularly bad man named Tokihira, whose poisonous intrigues at Court were constant.

Tokihira held a Government position under Michizane, and hated him in his heart, thinking that if he could but arrange to get Michizane into the bad graces of the Emperor he himself might become leader of the Government.

Michizane was a man with whom little fault could be found, and so it came to pass that Tokihira was unable to find any cause for starting evil reports about him; but as time went on he became more determined to do evil in the end.

About the year 110 B.C. there lived a brave prince known in Japanese history as Yamato-dake no Mikoto. (1) He was a great warrior, as was his son, who is said to have been a husband to the Empress Jingo--I presume a second one, for it could not have been the Emperor who was assassinated before the Empress's conquest of Korea. However, that does not very much matter to my story, which is merely the legend attached to the miraculous sword known as the Kusanagi no Tsurugi (the grass-cutting sword), which is held as one of the three sacred treasures, and is handed down from father to son in the Imperial Family. The sword is kept at the Atsuta Shrine, in Owari Province.

Yamato-dake no Mikoto had been successful at all events in suppressing the revolutionists known as the Kumaso in Kyushu. Being a man of energy, and possessing a strong force of trained men, he resolved that he would suppress the revolutionists up on the north-eastern coasts.