Video Backlog: “Godzilla Vs Biollante”

Publisher: Echo Bridge Entertainment (Miramax, USA)
Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 105 minutes
Production Date: 1989
Currently in Print (as of writing): No

In the climax of the 1984 film "Godzilla" (released in the west as "Godzilla 1985"), everyone's favourite giant monster destroys Most of Tokyo and the nifty looking mecha the Super X, Godzilla is lured out to Oshima island and then into the volcanic Mount Mihara. In the aftermath of the destruction, many of Godzilla cells lie in the rubble. The Japanese government sends out a military team to collect these cells as they have an amazing regeneration properties and could be used to create an anti-nuclear bio-weapon. However they are not alone in thinking this. A US company called Bio Major has sent out a team to recover one of the cells. In the process of recovering a cell, the Japanese team discovers them and a fire fight breaks out. The Bio Major team manage to wipe out a Japanese army platoon whilst in the process of escaping down in the bowels of the Tokyo subway system with a cell. But just as they think they've got away with the cell, an agent from the middle eastern country Saradia shoots them dead and steals their cell.

The agent then smuggles the cell back to Saradia, where the government has set up a laboratory for Dr Genichiro Shiragami (played by Koji Takahashi) and his daughter Erika (Yasuko Sawaguchi). The government has hired them both to work on developing wheat crops that can grow in the desert. The Godzilla cells regenerative powers would help in this regard. But tragedy strikes when Bio Major bomb the lab, destroying the cell and all the their work, and killing Erika in the process.

Five years pass, and it seems that Godzilla is awaking from its slumber. Teenage schoolgirl Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka), an esper, has predicted his return as well as the other children in the Japanese government's physic program. Though some in the government are sceptical of their abilities, they duly prepare for Godzilla's return with the construction of the Super X2. The second part of the plan involves the Godziila cells. The government hope to produce Anti Nuclear Energy Bacteria in an attempt to kill Godzilla. But the only scientist who can create the bacteria is Dr Shiragami, who wants nothing to do with Godzilla cells after the death of his daughter. An earthquake triggered by an eruption on Mount Mihara changes his mind. The earthquake destroys the glasshouse containing a rose bush, resulting in the destruction of the plant. Dr Shiragami agrees to create the bacteria if he can have a Godzilla cell for a week. Unbeknownst to the Government, Dr Shiragami is crossing the Godzilla cell with the rose bush to create a plant which cannot die. The rose was originally creation of his using  his dead daughter's cells, so in effect it contains her spirit.

While Dr Shiragami is away, two Bio Major agents ransack the house looking for info on the Godzilla cells. The Saradian agent plans to take them out, but the rose bush, which has now mutated into some horrible monster, takes out one of the Bio Major agents, with the remaining agent barely escaping. The creature then breaks out of the house and grows into a monster rose plant in a local lake causing the military to block off the area. The remaining Bio Major agent refuses to give up and blackmails the Japanese government in order to obtain the Godzilla cell. He warns if they don't hand over their Godzilla cells, he'll set off an explosion on Mount Mihara which will free Godzilla. The government complies, but the Saradian agent intervenes again, killing the Bio Major agent in his truck, and in the process destroying the equipment that controls the bomb, and steals the cells. The bomb goes off and Godzilla is released from his molten lava tomb.

The self defence force attempt to thwart Godzilla from reaching the mainland but fail. During the evening, Godzilla arrives at the lake to battle the giant rose monster, now called Biollantie. A fierce battle ensues, but even though Biollante gets the upper hand at one point, Godzilla burns the plant monster to a crisp. It sends it's seed high into the air as it dies. Godzilla then heads off to recharge itself at a nearby nuclear reactor, but the self defence force makes a terrible error. They gamble that that he will land in Nagoya, but he instead ends up in Osaka where does terrible damage to the city and completely destroys the Super X2. I The only positive in the battle is that the army manages to inject the bacteria into Godzilla via bazooka missiles. The problem is that his body temperature is too low to make the bacteria active. n a last ditch effort to stop Godzilla from reaching Tokyo, Miki attempts to battle the monster using her psychic powers, but loses. As Godzilla head towards Yokohama, the self defence force plan another attack. This time they plan to use the secret Thunder Cloud System. In theory the lightning strikes on Godzilla should increase his body temperature. Luckily this turns out to be true, but even though the bacteria seems to be taking effect, it's still not enough to kill him or even stop him. But before he can take another step forward, Biollante resurrects itself, in an even meaner, more vicious form. A fight begins that Godzilla may lose.

After Godzilla's successful return to cinemas in 1984, Toho certainly took it's time releasing a sequel. In 1986, Toho held a public competition where budding script writers could send in their own script for the next Godzilla film. The wining script was by an American named Jim Bannon. In his script, Godzilla would fight a giant super computer and a tank-like robot. I think it would have been a great film to see. Somewhere along the line Toho thought otherwise. Jim's script was made into the much maligned "Gunhed" (sans Godzilla elements), and although the effects were great, plot-wise the movie was a bit of a mess. The runner up in the screenplay competition was a Japanese entry written by a dentist by the name of Shinichro Kobayashi. But in the end it seems only elements of his screenplay made it into the resulting film, "Godzilla Vs Biollante".

Godzilla's opponent in this film, the giant rose monster Biollante, is probably the most original monster seen in the long running series since Hedorah. The two versions of Biollante are quite amazing and look like a real menacing creature, and not like a guy in a suit as previous monsters have. Godzilla too has never looked so mean and threatening. He actually looks a like an actual monster and not like a man in a costume flaying about like some of the late 1960's and early 1970's Godzillas. It's a real far cry from the "defender of justice" Godzilla who batted away and roasted wave after wave of a seemingly unending supply of alien invaders and their monsters during the 1970's. The effects overall are spectacular. In particular the self defence forces have never looked so realistic in a Godzilla film. Models and stock footage are blended almost seamlessly to create rather realistic battles. The other element I liked in this film was the Anti Nuclear Energy Bacteria. It's a very clever and original device to kill Godzilla, though with just about everything the humans try to use to kill the beast, it fails.

For the most part, the plot and story are pretty good. For the first time the esper, Miki Saegusa, appears in the series. The character would make quite a few more appearances before the final film in this series, "Godzilla Vs Destroyah". Her telepathic duel with Godzilla was one of the highlights of the film and quite inventive and original. Some have complained that the movie contains too many characters, but I didn't have many problems with this. Some could have used a bit more development of their characters, but overall it didn't really over complicate the film or make the story hard to follow. One of the most disappointing elements of the film is the acting by the film’s foreign actors and their terrible English dialogue. Luckily you can watch the film in Japanese with English subtitles. However the worst aspect of the film hands down is the ending, which after being probably the most serious and well thought out Godzilla film in twenty years, turns it into complete cheese. The chase sequence with the Saradian agent was unnecessary too. It just seemed tacked on for no apparent reason other than to tie up a loose end which really didn’t need to be tied up.

Echo Bridge’s blu-ray is pretty damn good. The video is more than acceptable (some dark scenes are a bit murky) but the audio is only OK. It is better than anything we’ve seen before in an English language version of the film. The disc comes with two extras. The first is a fantastic one hour making of featurette which is sourced from the 1992 Japanese laserdisc box set of the film. Apart from behind the scenes footage and interviews, it includes several deleted special effects shots and an alternate ending. It’s rather interesting hearing that the effects drove and shaped the final script of the film. The second feature which is runs only a few minutes, also sourced from the laserdisc box set, shows off maquettes of the various concepts for Biollante.

Wrapping up, the plot is solid for the most part and the effects are pretty stellar for a Japanese film of the time and stands up and even surpass some of the effects in the last film in the millennium series; "Godzilla: Final Wars". I found it very disappointing that the follow up film to this movie, 1991's "Godzilla Vs King Ghidorah" ended up as corny and camp as the 1970's Godzilla films. It was a direction in the series I wished they hadn't taken. I hoped Toho would have done more Godzilla films in the same vein as this one. 8 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Nine series, four movies, two OVAs also waiting for second parts for three shows to be released before viewing them.

Video Backlog: “Sleep Tight My Baby, Cradled in the Sky”

Publisher: Hand to Mouse (Japan)
Format: Region Free DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles and Japanese Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Length: 50 minutes
Production Date: 2014
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

 A young couple head home from the hospital with their new baby girl on a quiet country road. On a bend in the road a truck suddenly loses control and has a head on collision with the couple’s car. Fast forward 19 years and the baby is now a grown woman named Orine Shionoha. After shopping at a convenience store late at night, Orine checks the receipt only to discover that it’s actually a hand written note which reads “Come quickly”. Confused and little frightened by what she has read, she hurries off into the night. She is soon surrounded by a number of men in suits with commination devices. Their leader, Yuri Aoshima, tells Orine that she knows she is on the run from the police. Yuri offers Orine the chance to work for her in exchange for plane tickets and cash for her and her boyfriend. Orine has no real option but to cooperate.

Orine’s job is to board a private company’s space station where an experiment has apparently gone awry. She is given no real briefing as to what she is about to encounter. Inside Orine is confronted by a male voice via the ship’s PA system. The voice tells her to take the elevator down to main section of the space station. There she must turn down a corridor where there will be a blue door. Inside the room will be her mother, Satomi Shionoha. This astonishes Orine as she has been told that her mother died in a car accident just after she was born. Sure enough as the door opens, Orine discovers her month in the room. Though she hasn’t aged a single day in 19 years, it certainly looks like her mother. Satomi explains that she has been in cryogenic hibernation and has been recently revive. Orine is rather sceptical of Satomi’s claims and doesn’t really believe it’s her mother.

Arriving back at the shuttle which brought her to the space station, Orine demands an explanation from Yuri as to what is going on. Yuri explains it isn’t her real mother, but a kind of clone/android hybrid of her mother and that Satomi is part of a computer system of the space station. One of the scientists working on a project for the company took over the space station and refuses to hand back control to the company. Yuri asks her to shut down the system so the company can regain control. Orine returns to her mother’s room as the pair “make up for lost time”, watching movies, play video games, eat and talk. Orine has conflicting thoughts about what she is about to do. If she switches off the space station’s system, it will end her “mother’s life”, even though she knows she isn’t her real mother.

This is self-produced and released film is a little bit on the weird side of things. It was animated by one man team Naoya Kurisu, who releases CG animation under the amusing name of Hand to Mouse (very appropriate for a poor CG artist). The pilot film included on the disc is from 2007, which means it took 7 years to complete the film. Oddly that pilot film includes a couple of scenes not present in the final film. Naoya has previously made a number of short CG films and was also commissioned to do a few TV commercials as well. This is his longest film to date and got a very limited three cinema release in Japan in April 2015. Prior to that, it received several film festival screenings across the world. Unsurprisingly this film has received little to no coverage on anime news websites. I feel that Naoya’s work is similar to Jun Awazu’s CG films (“Negadon: The Monster from Mars” and “Planzet”). Both are solo CG artists and both are generally ignored by anime fandom. Though Awazu’s films are far, far more popular than Naoya’s. While both mostly cover the sci-fi genre, Awazu’s films are far more commercial and accessible.

The promotional images for “Sleep Tight My Baby, Cradled in the Sky” invoke images of a family drama, especially with the image of a mother holding her baby. The film however veers from sci-fi drama to corporate conspiracy, to out and out horror. It’s a really strange film in terms of story and plot. At times the story doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The biggest question which remains unanswered in the film is why the corporation chose Orine’s mother and why the rouge scientist did what he did. I won’t spoil the plot in terms of what the corporation was experimenting on and why they were doing it, but the explanations in the film regarding the company's choice of Satomi or why she is connected to the space station’s computer system either don’t make a lot of sense or are not explained at all.

Like a lot of CG Japanese animation, yet again this film leaves a lot to be desired when compared to international productions. I completely understand that this film’s budget is far lower than western productions, however some scenes look pretty awkward. In particular some of Orine’s facial expressions are unintentionally hilarious and the scenes of her crying don’t work at all. Some of the character animation can be quite stiff or even static at times. Having said that, as per usual in these types of productions, the mecha scenes look fantastic. In fact the majority of the character animation is pretty good, despite the obvious low budget. Unlike a lot of his contemporaries, Naoya uses the CG environment to his advantage with quite interesting sweeps across landscapes and even a point of view of Satomi climbing back into the back of the car. Also for such a small production, there is quite a good voice cast for the film; Kikuko Inoue (Belldandy in “Oh! My Goddess”) providing the voice of Satomi, Atsuko Tanaka (the original Motoko Kusanagi in the “Ghost in the Shell” movies and TV series) voicing Yuri and Hiroaki Hirata (Sanji  in “One Piece” and Kotetsu T. Kaburagi  in “Tiger & Bunny”) voicing the rouge scientist.

Hand to Mouse seems to have been aiming this film towards the English speaking market. This is apparent in closing credits which are bilingual, the English website for the film and of course the English subtitles on the DVD. It’s unfortunate that English speaking anime fans haven’t even acknowledged the film at all, yet alone made any judgement on it. I only noticed the existence of the film and DVD in the last couple of months. There isn’t a large distributor or promotional push behind the film, so it’s not all that surprising that the film wallows in obscurity.

Of course the other major problem with the film is that it’s a bit mediocre. The story and plot aren’t bad at all. However it’s a bit clichéd. We have seen it all before. And to be honest, some parts of it are just a little bit laughable. But on balance and to be fair, it’s not a bad film at all. Maybe if Naoya worked on the story a bit more, had a couple more staff and a larger budget, it’d be a far better film. 6 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Nine series, five movies, two OVAs also waiting for second parts for three shows to be released before viewing them.

A Euphonium is Always a Penis

Over the last few years or so news websites seem to be scrambling to fill their sites with content. Apparently any loon who can slam their head down repeatedly on the keyboard in order to come up with the required one thousand words is fine to publish. Occasionally someone will publish something so daft it’s hard really hard not to mock the hell out of it. And so we come to Animation World Network's latest effort. I don’t usually visit their site as it mostly covers general western animation and special effects films. However they have recently run an article with the utterly click-bait title of “Who Are We Kidding: Subliminal Child-Porn Images in Japanese Manga and Anime”. Those looking for a nuanced, balanced, critical look at sexuality in Japanese animation and comics need not click through. We are told that the author, Kumi Kaoru, is an anime historian, but other than her translation work and a couple of essays on Hayao Miyazaki, there is no real evidence to show she really knows much about the history of Japanese animation.

While the title of her piece may seem unambiguous, it’s just baffling trying to figure out what she is attempting to say. The article’s title clearly suggests anime and manga are full of child porn images, but she then says “I am not implying that the anime Sound! Euphonium is child-porn. Quite the contrary, I appreciate it as a heart-warming story of teenage girls' love for music as well as their high ambition aimed at winning the national competition”. Seriously? In the preceding paragraphs she implies that the promotional images for “Sound! Euphonium” are full of subliminal sexual imagery;

“Let's take a closer look at the image on the right. We see a Japanese high school girl, barefoot, long slender bare legs and a seductive pose (in a classroom!) , giving up an up from under look, in the style of Marlene Dietrich from the 1930 film The Blue Angel. The brass horn euphonium appears cold and metallic against her warm-colored flesh, as if a phallic object is just being inserted between her young thighs. Yes, it’s quite easy to see that the girl's image has been decorated with many sexual and seductive hints within the anime adaptation, though in the original novel, she is a simple country girl in a suburb around Kyoto”.

No, apparently not child porn, but Kaoru can see sex everywhere in this show. But hey, not child porn. Putting aside the contradictions, it’s all a bit weird as “Sound! Euphonium” is a pretty chaste show. There’s barely a hint of romance and not a hint of nudity or anything resembling overt sexual imagery. Well, at least when viewed through the eyes of a normal human being. Kaoru on the other hand;

“In one particular example, I saw many bits and pieces of seductive elements in Sound! Euphonium illustrations produced by Kyoto Animation Studios (also called Kyo-Ani among anime fans), designed deliberately so that they would inspire subtle sexual fantasies in viewers. Look at the cover illustration of the original novel’s first volume (left) and that of the anime magazine “Animestyle” featuring the Sound! Euphonium anime (right).

The foreground figure in the illustration on the right has a baby-face with disproportionately seductive legs under the windswept short skirt. She is holding a large instrument in her hands as if to show the contrast between her flesh and the symbolic metallic "penis." The figure on the right holds an obedient kneeling pose, as if she is about to pet the tuba with her hands and mouth.

The girl on the left is put behind the foreground girl presumably because the contrabass cannot make an impression of the contrast between the metal and the flesh. The background girl's trumpet is half-hidden behind the kneeling girl’s head, apparently because it is a little too small to make contrast with her flesh.

Yes, this is the actual image from the article...

In other illustrations from the anime, artists have subtly inserted girls holding seductive poses, also showing short skirts flapping in the wind while keeping their undergarments unexposed, because they know veiling something invokes greater sexual thoughts than overtly exposing it. The girl’s forefinger points to her exposed lower region like a road marker leading to a tunnel, a baton also pointed between the legs. The girls’ breasts are also portrayed much larger than the usual Japanese high school girl, underscored with unnatural shadows to accentuate their size

These well planned and deliberate poses invoke thoughts of highly sexual images instantaneously in the viewers’ minds – within a second, the viewers find themselves watching ordinary poses with common objects, including musical instruments such as a tuba or a euphonium, while the sexual fantasies continue to settle into their subconscious minds”.

Because pleats in skirts are always vaginas and brass instruments are always penises. It’s all a conspiracy by Kyoto Animation to reel viewers with using this ingenious method of subliminal sexuality. Or maybe Kaoru is a bit of a fucking nut who likes to draw circles around the crotches of girls in promotional shots of anime series. You decide. But Kaoru won’t be having any criticism of her obsession with phallic brass instruments. She has irrefutable proof to back up her theory;

“If you would like to claim I should refrain from this analysis as it only shows my own personal fantasy, I recommend you do a Google search with a few keywords, such as ‘ユーフォニアム′(Euphonium), ‘エロ’(ero), and ‘同人’ (fanzine) in Japanese. That will produce for you an enormous pile of very stimulating imagery, further illustrating just how much of this content exists”.

So, did you get that? Erotic doujin of a title exists, therefore that title has subliminal sexual images in it. Of course the reality is that practically anything can be the subject of erotic doujin; local mascots, kids shows etc. I’ve even seen one featuring pieces of sushi having sex! Just because some fans draw characters having sex with one another, it doesn’t mean the original material it was based on has sexual elements (overt or subliminal) in it. It all becomes a bit clearer when Kaoru reveals the research material she used to come up with her brass instruments = dicks theory;

“Subliminal pornographic images cloaked behind an innocent exterior are not exclusive to Japan. Many studies, such as Wilson Bryan Key’s “Media Sexploitation” (1976) show how other media creators, including advertisement artists, especially in the U.S., have developed and used those techniques for decades”.

Oh fuck a duck, Wilson Bryan Key! The man who claimed Nabisco arranged the holes in Ritz crackers to spell the word sex. The man who interpreted a picture of a plate of clams on a menu as the portrayal of a sexual orgy which included various people and a donkey. That bloke. There is no scientific peer reviewed evidence with backs up ANY of Key’s claims. None. In modern times no one takes any of his work seriously and people in the advertising industry continually poke fun at the assertion their business uses any type of subliminal imagery. It’s a crock, a myth that the advertising industry uses such tactics and even more mythical is actual evidence that subliminal techniques actually work. It’s utterly laughable to cite his work as evidence for a bonkers theory about brass instruments representing penises in an anime that’s rather coy on the issue of sex.

Sorry, didn't have time to add the red circle and arrow

For the rest of the article, Kaoru obsessively worries about what the “gaijin” think of the sexuality in manga and anime citing a small number of critical articles over the years and even goes as far back to making a reference to Commodore Perry. Overall though, it is quite difficult to tell if she is criticising anime or not. I mean why title the article so provocatively, then claim anime isn’t child porn, yet than go on to suggest “Sound! Euphonium” is full of hidden suggestive sexual imagery? And then even more baffling is her praise for “Girls & Panzer” a couple of paragraphs later, whose promotional images can be interpreted as far more overtly sexual than “Sound! Euphonium”. And what about the tanks themselves in “Girls & Panzer”? The gun barrels aren't phallic? No, Kaoru seems to have a bee in her bonnet about Kyoto Animation shows with “K-On!” being criticised for having phallic guitars and their Key game adaptations (i.e. “Air”, “Kanon” and “Clannad”) coming under fire because the original versions of the games where erotic. It’s all a bit ironic seeing as Kyoto Animation employs a lot of female staff and the director, character designer and most of the screenwriters on “K-On!” were women.

The most disappointing thing about the article (apart from the confused, baffling scattershot approach) is that it fails to understand it’s subject. While Animation World Network claims that Kaoru is anime historian, she makes observations regarding the characters in “Sound! Euphonium” as having “[baby-faces] with disproportionately seductive legs under the windswept short skirt”, all the while ignoring the history of manga and anime. That description of “Sound! Euphonium” could also equally apply to “Sailor Moon” or any number of shoujo anime and manga from the 1990’s to present.

It is truly a wasted opportunity. Kaoru is just adding to mountains of essays which imply that anime and manga are nothing more than pedo bait, even if that wasn’t her intention (and I’m still not 100% sure what the intention of the article was). Instead she could have explained why youth, in particular stories about 14 year old high schoolers, are popular in anime and manga. She could have explained that this is not a new phenomena (see 1984’s “Cream Lemon”) or that corporate Japanese culture is kind of a shitty place to work and maybe salarymen dream of returning to their favourite time in life; early high school. Kaoru could have looked at why sexuality has become an important element of anime otaku culture, as well as the rise of moe and the reasons behind it. But she doesn’t. It’s a real shame because these topics don’t receive any real genuine critical debate or analysis, especially in English.

Worse yet is that in a recent tweet Kaoru has the fucking gall to criticise someone like Dan Kanemitsu for being a “good translator, but not a good powerful debater”. Fuck me, are you serious? First of all she’s criticising him based on a few lines from a BBC article he was interviewed for a year ago. Second, Kanemitsu is far more articulate and less contradictory and confusing than Kaoru will ever be.

Unfortunately at the end of her article Animation World Network has promised that there will be more “insightful” articles from Kaoru “on the dark side of the Japanese anime industry”. Oh goodie, I just can’t wait. I really don’t think Animation World Network gives a flying fuck if the content is factual or enlightening. Just as long as it gets the clicks.

Going to Japan: What Travel Sites Generally Don’t Mention

There are a lot of great websites you can go to for information for a Japanese holiday. Japan Guide and even the previously mentioned Shopping In Tokyo have a lot of useful stuff. However I found on my first trip that there was a lot of things I came across which I thought were quite essential to know that surprisingly weren’t even mentioned on travel websites. If you’re not going with a tour group (certainly they’ve never been my thing), the following might be helpful to know;

Keep Your Passport on You at All Times

It’s amazing that this is barely mentioned on most travel websites as it’s really important. Japanese law requires that foreign visitors must carry their passport at all times. It’s relatively rare that you’d be asked to show your passport, but it can happen. Police have the power stop, search and detain anyone. If you are caught without your passport, you’ll have to ring your hotel or get a friend to bring to your passport to the police station before they’ll let you go. Police can detain people for up to 23 days without charge, so it's also best not to act like a yahoo during your visit as well.

Very Few People Speak English With Any Great Skill
Though English has been taught in schools for decades, most Japanese don’t know how speak simple English sentences. Of course in touristy places and in most hotels and Japan Rail (JR) train stations you’re going to find people who speak English. However proficiency varies wildly, from being barely able to speak a few words to people who can converse at a very high level. If you do find yourself speaking to someone who doesn’t know a lot of English, simple, clear and short sentences are best.

Learning Some Basic Practical Japanese is a Good Idea

This segues into the previous point. It is rather useful to know some Japanese. Going to your local collage might be a good idea to get some of the basics and more importantly the pronunciation. However, a lot of those kind of evening courses aren’t geared around tourists (and it baffles me why they aren’t). I went to one course a couple years back and the teacher was hell bent on teaching us how to tell someone in Japanese about an appointment at a restaurant. Seeing as around 95% of the participants were going over there as tourists, why focus on something that is no real use to them? In most situations you won’t really have to speak to anyone or know much Japanese. However you will probably need to know how to ask for tickets, how to ask which platform a train is on etc. Think about what you’ll be doing over there and what you’ll need to say to people, then harass your teacher on how to say it. Amazingly a lot of basic level phrases aren’t in Japanese phrase books which is just baffling to me.

Dealing With the Barrage of Questions from Convenience Stores Clerks
And this also segues into the previous two points. Convenience stores are pretty much ubiquitous. Unlike their western counterparts they live up to their name, have a wide variety of food, services and merchandise. Due to fact there are several chains vying for the consumer’s yen, prices in convenience stores can be pretty cheap. You probably will be going into these places a fair bit for food and drinks. The problem for the uninitiated is the rapid fire questions convenience stores clerks will spring on you once you’re at the counter. Of course none of this is mentioned in any guidebooks or in my Japanese language course which I found odd. I found it extremely difficult to find examples of actual phrases used in these situations. The following are examples are probably the most common you'll be asked at the counter by staff (swiped from Maggie Sensei Japanese language blog);

Okimari no kata kara douzo! - If you are ready, please come to the cashier!
Fukuro wa irimas ka? - Do you need a bag?
Fukuro ni oire shimas ka?  - Would want it in a bag?
Atatame mas ka? - Do you want us to heat this up?
Ohashi wa irimas ka? - Would like chopsticks?
Supuun wa otsuke shimas ka? - Would like a spoon?
Touten no point caado wa mou omochi des ka? - Do you already have our point-card?

The clerks do fire off these phrases pretty quickly, so if you’re not up to speed with the Japanese language, just try to keep an ear out for the main words like “Fukuro” (bag), “Atatame” (to heat up), “Ohashi” (chopsticks) etc.

Having Train Station Names Written in Japanese is Good Idea
This is especially important if you’re travelling on private railways (i.e. non-JR lines) where most of the staff are unlikely to speak Japanese. The other reason for doing this is your pronunciation of station names might not be the correct way the locals say it. I usually use Hyperdia to plan out all of my rail trips and stick the name of the station I’m going to into Wikipedia to get the station name in kanji. I also get the name of the train line in Japanese and attempt to get the platform number. Especially on private railways, the names and destinations aren’t always Romanised or are in English. Several trains running on different lines can arrive and depart at the same platform at some stations and destinations on signboards may be in Japanese only, so be aware of that as well.

The Further You Go Out in the Suburbs and in Country Areas, the More Difficult it is To Get Where You Want To Go

Something to be aware of. While generally you can get around via public transport quite easily (mostly by train), surprisingly once you get deep into the suburbs of Tokyo or any other large city, you may find that the place you want to go to is more than 15 minutes by foot from the train station. It’s worse out in country areas where some tourist attractions are quite far from train stations or indeed any public transport. The only real options in these cases are bicycles (finding a bike rental place can be trickier than you imagine), car rental (requiring an international licence) or taxi (a little expensive and fraught with language difficulties). It’s always best to pre-plan trips that are a bit out of the way and find out how to get there so you're not stuck, unable to get to your final destination.

Rail Passes Are Generally a Waste of Money
Unless you are taking trips on Shinkansen (bullet trains) every second day or so, JR rail passes are a gigantic waste of cash. Sure, they do cover almost all JR lines, but it might just be cheaper to use cash. The best way to figure out if a pass is worth it is to check the cost of all your train trips you'l  be taking on Hyperdia and compare with the cost of the passes at your local travel agent. Another thing to be aware of with JR rail passes is the inconvenience of transferring between JR lines and private railways at the same station as the pass won’t be valid on non-JR lines. In that case you will have to use a travel card (i.e. IC cards like Suica and ICOCA), and there will probably be a transfer gate for those coming from the JR line, which means you might have to exit the station entirely or find the main gate in order to use the IC card to continue your journey.

The Options For Food (Price and Variety) Are Much Wider Than You Think

It’s quite common to hear people say that Japan is expensive. It’s not true, especially in terms of dining options. If you’re on a tight budget, premade convenience store bentos (lunches) are amazingly cheap and surprisingly tasty (an example of the range here at 7-Eleven). Generally you can get a meal for less than ¥500.The store can even heat it up for you if you don’t have a microwave at your accommodation. Restaurants are pretty cheap for the most part. The best way to research local eateries in the areas you are staying at is to use Tabelog. In most large cities there will be a wide range of restaurants too; Italian, French, Korean and Thai, from little pubs to Michelin stared restaurants. If you’re sick of Japanese food (or rice) and dining on the cheap, there’s always Family Restaurants like Saizeriya, Gusto, Jonathan's and Coco's. Yes most of these places are westernised, but do have some Japanese options. Most have picture menus or English translations on the menus as well. While they may not be gourmet meals, they are quite tasty and are good value for money. I’ve generally never been able to spend more than ¥1,000 at one of these places.

As I said before most of the basic stuff including important etiquette tips can be found on websites such as Japan Guide. I think the most important tip I can give to people planning the trip themselves rather than going on a tour is to plan as much as you can. Plot out all the places you want to go on Google Maps, then find out how long it takes to get (there using Hyperdia). This will save time and make travel hassle free as possible. Personally I’m not a person that does stuff on a whim. I really hate wandering around wasting time, especially on overseas holidays. I want to make the most of the limited time I have. Next time I’ll be taking a general look at shopping for anime merchandise.

Going to Japan: The Decision to Go

And now to something I promised a month ago; I really never thought too hard about overseas travel. Since I began work after high school and due to fact I was mostly in temporary work (though almost always employed), I felt that I didn’t really have the opportunity to go. I also felt I didn’t have the money to go, though in reality I probably did. To me it just felt like it was very expensive. I did have a couple of opportunities to travel once I got a permanent job, but passed them up. Travel to the USA, Europe and Japan did cross my mind very occasionally, but I never gave it any serious thought.

In September 2011, I went to the now sadly defunct Arc Cinema at National Film and Sound Archive to see a film screening from the Japanese embassy. On a table outside the theatre, the embassy has placed numerous flyers and pamphlets regarding travel to Japan. The one that caught my eye was a booklet to do with anime tourism. Inside the booklet was various spots and tourist attractions related to various anime and manga properties across the country. Many dealt with franchises that few westerners had ever heard about. While the booklet was rather interesting, I dismissed out of hand thought of going to Japan just to go anime related theme parks or museums.

Sometime after, possibly only a few months, I was searching online about Otome Road, the otaku area for women in Ikebukuro in Tokyo. I came across a website simply called “Shopping in Tokyo” by a Canadian woman named Xandria. What’s interesting about this site and how is differs from others is how it lays out everything to do with travelling to Japan; getting there, money, getting around, food, what to expect in terms of language difficulties etc. Though some of the information is most certainly aimed at Canadian anime fans, it has a lot of general information and tips that anyone can use. Although it hasn’t been updated for over five years, it pretty much covers everything you need to know or be aware of.

Looking though the website, I suddenly wondered if it was indeed feasible to travel overseas. Checking the flights on the Qantas website and a few hotel websites, my calculations seemed to indicate that I could do it all on a relatively small budget. Though I originally thought it would be silly to go only to anime related things over there, that’s what I pretty much did on my first trip. I was a bit conservative in terms of how much time I was going to spend over there; only a week and half in Tokyo (plus a day trip to Ustunomiya). Due to the fact I thought I wouldn't visit the country ever again, I crammed in as much stuff I wanted to see. As a result, nearly all of the first trip was anime related in one way or another.

But probably because I planned the trip well and despite my fears over being lost in a country where English is not spoken widely, I really enjoyed my time there. I enjoyed it so much I went back again five months later for a further two week trip. And again about a year and half later for even longer (though I wish I had extended it out to four weeks). It’s a country unlike any other really, with lots of natural beauty and the people are generally respectful of each other, it’s a consumer’s paradise, the food is wonderful (and plenty of options for those who don’t like Japanese food or get tired of it), getting around is relatively easy and holidays there can be quite cheap despite what you might think.

I think the problem with Japan is the preconceived notions people have about the place. People have asked me if Japan is a third world country (uh, no…), whether you need to know the language (no, but if you know a couple of phrases it helps) and other slightly weird questions. Certainly the country isn’t some bizarro world that I think the media sometimes portrays it to be. Not everything is cherry blossoms, shinkansen (bullet trains), geisha or whatever clichés you may come up with. Over the next couple of posts, I’ll be going over some of the things I learnt in my trips there and highlighting some of the things they don’t mention on travel websites. I also want to talk about shops as well as some of the places I’ve visited. Certainly I’m no expert in travel or Japan, but I thought it might be nice to have this info out there and just as a reference for myself for future trips.

Video Backlog: “WXIII Patlabor the movie 3” / “Minipato”

Publisher: Maiden Japan (USA)
Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 101 minutes, 13 minutes x 3 episodes (Minipato)
Production Date: 2001, 2002 (Minipato)
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Set in the year 2000, two years before the events of “Patlabor 2 the movie”, “WXIII Patlabor the movie 3” opens with a shot of a fishing boat out in Tokyo bay. The captain complains to a fellow fisherman over the radio about recent small hauls when a cargo plane flying overhead catches his attention.  Before it crashes into the sea, the contents of the plane spill out of it; very large fish and various other sea creatures fall into the ocean, some hitting the boat causing it to rock violently. Two months later Detectives Takashi Kusumi and his younger partner Schinichiro Hata, are called in on a Labor accident in the harbour. A number of Labors have been attacked and their pilots killed, with this being the fourth case. This time there isn’t much left of the Labor pilot. While leaving the car park near the crime scene, Hata notices a woman having trouble with her car and offers her a lift to the university.

At police headquarters, Kusumi goes over the current Labor case they are working on. Four Labors have been damaged, and several pilots have been killed or hurt. All have been Schaft Labors which leads to speculation the incidents may have been terrorist attacks. However the trail leads them to mysterious giant goby which have appeared in the bay. They’re in same area where the attacks have taken place. In fact the attacks started 10 days after the cargo plane crashed. The timing is too much of a coincidence and the detectives decide to check out the plane wreck. One of the recovered containers, being shipped to a company called Hermes Enterprises, has been ripped open as if a large animal attacked it. Meanwhile another Labor has been attacked. This time it is an undersea unmanned Labor, a Hishii Labor, not a Schaft Labor. The video from the Labor's camera shows a sea animal’s gills and its flipper. Kusumi and Hata investigate Hermes Enterprises and discover they are a dummy corporation.

After Kusumi discovers a lighter in Hata's car, Hata realises it belongs to the woman he gave a lift to. More than a little interested in her, he decides to return it to her. She tells him her name is Saeko Misaki, and she works as a professor at the university. The two start talking and end up seeing each other regularly. After finishing a date with Hata one night, Misaki takes her large suitcase out to one of the piers in Tokyo Bay. Later Hata sources some TV news footage of the plane crash. On the tape, there is a US military boat recovering the plane, and US military personnel on board the boat. A lip reader tells them that one of the men says in English, "Check", "Capsule", and "Baker's Dozen". She can't make out the whole conversation.

Whilst hitching a ride with fellow police officers, Hata and Kusumi are drawn into investigating a power outage at the Babylon Sector Storage Facility. They are unable to get in contact with any of the staff there, and the officers can see that none of the lights are on at the facility. The officers and Hata and Kusumi enter the building and investigate but nobody seems to be inside. The power returns and a large and quite bizarre monster appears and starts to attack the staff and police officers. Some are killed, but Hata and Kusumi manage to escape. While trying to pin down and eat Kusumi, the monster falls into the cowling of a Labor and into the bay and disappears under the water. The police later manage to obtain some genetic material from the creature, and Hata escorts one of the team from forensics to the Toto Medical Lab to have the tissue analysed. While waiting in the foyer he sees Saeko and discovers she works there. She invites him into her office for a coffee and is surprised to learn he is a police officer.

Kusumi discovers that the cargo plane previously stopped over at the Marshall Islands where US Military Facilities are located. He also manages to link Toto Medical Lab with Hermes Enterprises. The pieces are coming together, but soon Kusumi realises that Hata is seeing Saeko and that she along with others from Toto Medical Labs are key suspects Hata doesn't want to believe she could be involved in this, and sets out to prove him wrong. Unfortunately at every turn he takes, it seems that Kusumi was right. In fact she's in deeper than they ever suspected. Hata desperately tries to find her to ask her why she has done the things she did, but cannot find her wherever he looks.

“Minipato” is a collection three short “super deformed” films involving the characters from the Special Vehicles Unit 2 (SV2). In the first episode Captain Gotoh introduces the audience to the guns that the Patlabor units use, and discusses the ammunition and the impracticalities of them. Shige introduces the audience to the Ingram AV-98 Patlabor and discusses the history of robot anime and how Patlabor came to be. In the final episode Captain Shinobu reports on the main problem the SV2 faces; food. She tells the story of how the members of the SV2 became addicted to dried Goby. To solve Goby shortages, Gotoh practically turns the fishing and drying of Goby into an industry, and ends up marketing Goby over the internet.

“WXIII Patlabor the movie 3” is the much maligned third instalment of the “Patlabor” films. Originally conceived to be an OVA in 1994 as a side story not involving any of the characters from the original series despite being based on one of the manga stories, it eventually was announced as a film in 1997. The original studio producing it, Triangle Staff, went bankrupt and the film was eventually produced by Madhouse and made its debut at the Tokyo International Fantastic Film Festival on 10 December 2001, but wasn't released in cinemas until March 2002. Whereas the original films were written by Kazunori Ito and directed by Mamoru Oshii, this film is written by the relatively unknown Tori-Miki and directed by the underrated Takayama Fumihiko (of “Orguss 02” and "Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket" fame).

Fumihiko (with thanks to the music by Kenji Kawai) does his best Mamoru Oshii impersonation. Well, visually at least. There are no long Oshii-esque philosophical monologues from any of the characters in the film. Like the first two films, and indeed the Patlabor franchise as a whole, there isn’t much Labor (robot) action in the film at all, save the last 10 or so minutes of the film. In fact there isn’t a lot of action at all, save for the monster sequences. The SV2 appear for 10 minutes or less in the 101 minute runtime, so it’s not really a Patlabor film at all. What we have instead is a detective story with monster movie and military conspiracy tacked on. Not only does the movie delete most of the SV2 scenes from the manga story it was based on, it also removes the two original detectives (Matsui and his partner), and replaces them. Those detectives also appeared in the first two films. I don’t know why they did this as I think it caused confusion amongst some people who had seen those films.

Interestingly most of the monster sub-plot of this film seems very similar to the 1989 movie “Godzilla Vs Biollante”. Make of that what you will. Depending on if you are a fan of Patlabor or not, you may or may not enjoy this film. I think to a degree you could watch it without knowing anything at all about that franchise. As a suspense/detective film it works reasonably well. Fumihiko for the most part builds up the tension well and the film just looks fantastic. However some of the plot involving the monster is rather hard to swallow such as parts of the explanation of the monster’s behaviour comes off as forced. But the key to the film is the relationship between Hata and Saeko as well as Hata’s working relationship with his detective partner Kusumi. Those parts are particularly well written.

This release from Maiden Japan (Sentai Filmworks’ other video label) comes as a bit of a surprise. I really wasn’t expecting them to release “Minipato” on blu-ray as it’s never had anything but a DVD release in Japan. Unlike the main film which looks fantastic (and has a much better English translation in the subtitles than the old Pioneer version), it looks rather low resolution, and is presented in letterboxed 4:3, though so were the Japanese, US and Australian DVDs. “Minipato” is quite a treat for fans of the franchise with direction by a pre-Ghost the Shell Kenji Kamiyama and scripts by Mamoru Oshii. It’s dialogue heavy, but fun. The animation is essentially done with filmed paper puppets on sticks, then with animation matted over the top with CG effects. I don’t know if it works all the time, but it is an intriguing and amusing series of shorts. The limitations of the CG of the time are apparent unfortunately.

Unfortunately Maiden Japan’s BD lacks all of the extras all of the previous English language home video versions this film had. It’s a bare bones release. Summing up, the main feature has the misfortune of living up to expectations it can’t fulfill due to “Patlabor” being in its title. As a release in the franchise, it is a bit of a curio. If you forget it's a “Patlabor” movie, then it is a pretty interesting detective/suspense/monster film that mostly hits its mark. “Minipato” is hilarious but is for fans only. This disc gets 7 out of 10 from me.

Remaining Backlog: Four series, 11 movies, two OVAs also waiting for second parts for two shows to be released before viewing them.

Video Backlog: “Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary”

Publisher: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (Japan)
Format: Region Free Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English and Japanese Subtitles
Length: 93 minutes
Production Date: 2014
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

All is not well in the realm known as Sanctuary. Saint Sagittarius Aiolos has escaped the realm with a baby, the reincarnation of the Greek goddess Athena. Aiolos is being pursued by two other saints; Capricorn Shura and Gemini Saga. Both have been sent by the realm’s current pope as he has deemed Aiolos to be a traitor and sentenced him to death. The ensuing battle takes the trio across the galaxy. While Aiolos manages to kill one of his pursuers (Saga), he is struck down by Gemini and ends up crashing somewhere in the Himalayan mountain range. Sometime later a man named Mitsumasa Kido and his butler Tatsumi are exploring caves within the Himalayas and come across the golden cocoon which holds the baby Athena inside. Using the saint’s power named Cosmos, the dying Aiolos shows Mitsumasa what has happened and who the child is. Mitsumasa decides to adopt her and keep her safe.

16 years later and the baby has grown up to be Saori Kido, adopted granddaughter of the late Mitsumasa Kido. Saori has the ability to heal people, something which she finds a little worrying. She often wonders why she has these powers. While being driven to an appointment, Tatsumi explains to her that she is the reincarnation of the Greek goddess Athena and that her grandfather found and trained four Saints to protect her. The pleasant drive on the highway is interrupted by several explosions which Tatsumi attempts to avoid. Eventually he is forced into the guardrails where the car comes to halt. They are being attacked by two Saints sent by the Pope from the Sanctuary. Their aim is to assassinate Saori. Saori is captured by one of the Saints and is about to be killed when Saint Pegasus Seiya arrives and fends him off. Soon Saori’s other protector Saints, Cygnus Hyoga, Dragon Shiryu and Andromeda Shun, arrive to help protect her from the killers.

Later that night at the Kido mansion, the four Saints along with Tatsumi and Saori discuss what their next move should be. The Saints from Sanctuary haven’t made a move until now. The mansion comes under attack from Saint Leo Aiolia who proclaims he is there to retrieve the Sagittarius Cloth (the armour left by Aiolos 16 years ago) and kill Saori who he believes is the fake Athena, with the "real" one is currently ruling Sanctuary. To avoid further conflict, Tatsumi hands over the Sagittarius Cloth, but Saori’s powers (known as Cosmos, like the Saint’s powers) manifest themselves and become known to Aiolia. He begins to have doubts about the Athena currently ruling Sanctuary and asks Saori to journey to Sanctuary in order to prove she is the true Athena.

Afterwards Saori makes the decision to go to Sanctuary the defeat the Pope. Traveling through a dimensional portal to the realm of the Sanctuary, the group discover they must pass through twelve Zodiac Temples each with its own Saint guardian in order to arrive at palace where the current ruling Athena resides. This almost certainly means they well have to fight all twelve Saints in order to advance to the palace, unless they can convince each Saint otherwise. But tragedy strikes early with Saori being struck by a poisoned arrow. They have twelve hours in order to pass through all of the Zodiac Temples to reach the cure to save her from a certain death. Some of the Zodiac Saints become their allies, while others refuse to listen to reason. The group soon decide to split up and battle the remaining saints separately in order get though the Zodiac Temples faster.

This film came out a while back, but I left it on the backburner in my wish list of discs to buy. I eventually bought it a couple of weeks ago from a Book-Off after I accidentally came across in Ikebukuro when I managed to get lost trying to find Animate. This is another Toei Animation CG anime film based off another old anime/manga property. Now you may remember the last film to get this treatment was “Space Pirate Captain Harlock” in 2013 which, and let’s not mince words, sucked massive balls. It was a fucking awful film which was compounded by the fact there was no uncut English dub version and all uncut Japanese version had English subtitles which bafflingly changed some characters names, even though you could clearly hear the Japanese voice actors saying the correct name.

I’ll talk more about this film in a minute, but I should probably talk about the “Saint Seiya” franchise first. Based on the hugely successful manga (and anime) by Masami Kurumada, which ran from 1986 to 1990, it essentially created its own short-lived genre; boys in armour, which “Samurai Troopers (aka Ronin Warriors)” was the other major franchise of the genre. While still relatively unknown to western anime and manga fans, the anime version was a major hit in Spanish speaking countries as well as France. Unexplained in this film is that in the original anime and manga versions, all of the Saints took part in an organised competition to obtain their “Cloths”, i.e. battle amour, in order to defend Athena. Here it is explained that Saori’s grandfather somehow obtained the Saint’s Cloths and managed to recruit and train the Saints. The how and why of how this happened is of course glossed over. The Cloths in the original versions of the franchise are mostly kept in large metal boxes, which the characters often lug around on their backs when not in use. The movie sensibly transfers the Cloths and the boxes inside small dog tags (via interdimentional storage I guess) which hang around the character’s necks. The other big change from the anime and manga versions is moving Sanctuary from somewhere in Greece to somewhere on another planet or another dimension. It’s a little bit hard to figure out where it’s located.

Directed by Keiichi Sato, who’s most famous for directing the “Tiger & Bunny” TV series, the best thing you could say about the film is that it looks fantastic for the most part. The big action sequences look epic and very well rendered. The character animation is pretty handled fairly well. But it looks a bit too cartoonish I think, more so in the comic relief parts of the film. Seiya himself ends up being the clown of the Saints, and a lot of the time his humour doesn’t really work or falls flat. Actually you could probably say that about all the attempts at humour in the film. For example there’s a very bizarre sequence involving the saint Cancer Deathmask whose lair has singing masks embedded into the floor and pillars of his temple (trapped victims who dared to enter his temple). I was expecting a lot of fighting sequences in the film, but not a song and dance routine by one of the Saints. It’s truly one of the oddest scenes I’ve seen in an anime in quite a while. The biggest problem I had with the film is that by the half way mark it just becomes one giant slug fest. It’s all a bit tedious and in the end I sort of didn’t care what happened to any of them. If these action sequences where broken up a bit I probably wouldn’t have minded as much.

For all the action and spectacular sequences a number of times I felt the film was a bit flat and dull. It doesn’t help that a fair wack of the film looks like a cut scene from a game. However this is a problem that's shared in a lot of CG anime over the last decade or so. I will say the film is certainly a lot more fun and interesting than Toei’s god awful “Captain Harlock” film which for whatever reason has been widely distributed in the west over this film. Odd when you consider both franchises are virtually unknown outside anime fandom. I still haven’t been sold on CG anime yet. Everything I’ve seen so far, maybe the exception being “Knights of Sidonia”, just isn’t all that good. I think a lot of this has to do with story or script issues though, not the medium itself. At any rate, this film was decent. The story was a little clichéd, but stays true to the “Saint Seiya” story. The main draw here is the spectacular action sequences which really make the film. 6 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Five series, 12 movies, two OVAs also waiting for second parts for two shows to be released before viewing them.