Learning English is big business in Japan. I can understand learning English from your favorite movies and tv shows when the source material is English but I find it really funny that they would publish an English textbook based on Japanese material translated into English. But then again, it’s Gundam so someone is bound to buy these books. I suppose there are some people who wonder how they would say some of the famous scenes in English. Well, I scanned the book and found some of the translations amusing, but most of it was pretty non-native and just plain useless like “Let’s test the reaction time of your brand-new mobile suits.” I supposed this makes as much sense as me trying to learn Japanese from a Japanese translation of South Park.
Category: Anime
Pikachu is 10 years old! A big poster of Pikachu outside of TV Tokyo in Kamiyacho. It’s doesn’t look that big in the photo but it was pretty huge. Unfortunately, I only had my keitai when I took these photos. That’s why they’re crap. Actually, it’s the anime that’s celebrating the anniversary, the game is a bit older. Speaking of Pokémon, Game Freak, the company that created Pocket Monsters the game, has their office in Shimokitazawa and I used to live directly across the street from their old office and be able to look right into it, watching them program and stuff. Of course, that was years ago just about the time Pokémon was getting popular and I had no idea Game Freak was the original creators until after I moved away.
A while back an old friend sent me these Getta Robo figures and I’ve resisted opening them. But tonight, after my brain stopped working while trying to figure out how to fill out my tax return forms, I decided to take a break and unbox them. The figures are very small, unlike my Mazinger Daigokins and Getta Robo G figures, but are mostly die-cast with some bits of rubber plastic. More photos below.
I knew buying those Getta Robo figures was a bad idea. It’s now got me thinking about getting the Great Mazinger and Mazinger Z Daigokin 大合金. The Mazinger Z Daigokin is a magnificent solid die-cast figure that came out in limited editions a few years ago. It’s 40cm tall and weighs 2.5kgs. The Great Mazinger Daigokin came out 2 years ago and is bigger and weighs 3.5kgs. These things are solid and heavy! I saw the Mazinger Z years ago in Akiba and fell in love with it instantly. Now that I have a few figures and space to display them I’d like to get these 2 to decorate the house. I’m not planning to collect a million robot toys, I prefer to have a few choice items of quality and these Daigokin are just so friggin’ amazing, don’t you think? Unfortunately, they’re really expensive too. On auction sites, they’re going for around ¥60,000 each. Damn! Well, some people spend thousands of dollars on a watch or piece of jewelry. I think I’d rather have these cool Mazingers. I’m going to Akiba this sunday to see if I can find them.
Tons more photos here and the above photo (btw, these are not daigokin they are soft vinyl) borrowed from this discussion thread.
Look! Just in time for Xmas! I saw this first reported here and it’s been available for pre-order on Amazon since then. It goes on sale this Saturday and costs ¥349,800, a lot more expensive than on Amazon. It might be a different kit or maybe you get some additional part like a 1/12 size Amuro Rey figure. At any rate, if I had the money to throw away on this Gundam I would rather get that Mazinger Z instead.
Can you tell that I’m looking at YouTube more and more these days? Here’s a fun Yamato Parody I found.
And a parody of Star Blazers which was the English version of Yamato that I’m sure most of you were too young to have seen.
Oh my god! Someone buy me this for my birthday, please!! Spotted in a book store in Shimotakaido. If it’s still there when I get my bonus in December, it’s soo mine.
One of my friends gave me this awesome gift. It’s a talking keroro
Don’t know when I would wear it, but I bought this Gundam Necktie anyway. You can hardly tell that the designs are that of mobile suits zugokku and domu unless you look real close. It’s for those people who want to express their inner geek in a subtler way. More anime neckties here. Anyone find a Q-Taro one please let me know.
Eat Sazae-san and her family. These cakes were spotted at the Fuji Television souvenir shop in Tokyo Station. The family tree is useful since I always get mixed up about whether Wakame is Sazae-san’s sister or daughter or what. Tara is Sazae-san’s baby and Katsuo and Wakame are Sazae-san’s brother and sister which means that Wakame is Tara’s aunt even though she’s only 2 years older than him. Anyway, that question always comes up when talking about Sazae-san so if you want to seem like an expert on the show I suggest you get one of these and study up. Sazae-san’s last name is Fuguta フグ田 I didn’t know that one.
Today was the last day of the Giant Robot Exhibition at the Toei Animation Gallery. It would be my last chance to see that big Danguard Ace so I decided to make the trip out to Oizumi-Gakuen. There were some interesting drawings and posters I’d never seen before so I’m glad I made the trip. Toei Animation was not a big producer of RoboAnime compared to other studios like Nippon Sunrise, but they were the first studio to create the shows which defined the genre. Mazinger Z, Getta Robo, Grendizer etc. There were only a few other visitors, I overheard one guy saying he drove all the way from Yamanashi just to see the exhibit.
While house cleaning this afternoon, I found an old DVD-R with lots of anime opening movies on it and started watching them. I took this screengrab of my desktop after arranging them somewhat. Can you guess all the titles? These ones should be easy but I have many obscure ones from the ’70s that most people have never even heard of. I should be cramming for the JLPT test tomorrow but I’m not really the cram at the last minute type of guy.
Wonder Festival is the biannual figure show held in Tokyo’s Big Site. Anime figures were not a big thing in the days when I had more interest in anime but now it appears to be a growth industry. More than 40,000 people attended the show and it was the first time for me. Since I don’t watch alot of anime anymore I don’t really have much interest in figures although it was fun to see some of the craftmanship that went into many of the figures. The Getters above have been around for a while and I’ve seen them on Yahoo Auctions but not in real life. A lot smaller than I imagined.
Poseidon is the giant robot from the 1973 comic/anime Babel II バビル２世. Poseidon rises up from the ocean when summoned by the Japanese schoolboy Koichi, who is the reincarnation of the alien protector of earth. I said I wasn’t going to buy anymore figures but this one was just too wonderfully well proportioned, I could not resist. It’s going on the shelf with the Getta Robo G Team. This figure is part of the same Super Robot Densetsu series put out by Marmit a few years ago. Even though it was brand new and sealed there was a slight bit of mold on the soft vinyl which I have to wipe off delicately with a cloth. So far I’ve seen all of the figures from the series except for the Danguard Ace which I would probably get as well. If you happen to spot it let me know. More photos of Poseidon below.
After some of the most extremely frustrating auction experiences, which I won’t go into, I managed to procure a Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger Daigokin. Both brand new. If you’re in the market to buy any gokin make sure you see the items in person. I learned the hard way that the manufacturers of die-cast robot toys will ship their defective ones after they’ve run out of the good ones. The Great Mazinger has a few scratches here and there but that’s nothing compared to the Mazinger Z which has a bum paint job all over except for the left foot. It doesn’t look so bad from a distance but up close you can see bubbles and ripples as if it was painted badly, twice! Despite these defects the figures are magnificent and command attention in any room. They’re big suckers, and heavy too. 6 kilograms of solid die-cast-super-alloy-robot goodness. Beside putting a smile on my face they serve other practical purposes too. If a burglar breaks into my house I can use Great Maz to crush his skull. See the unboxing below.
Xmas has come early to my house in the form of Getta Robo G (Or Getter Robo, whichever you prefer). I found them at a hobby store in Shimokitazawa a while ago and have been brooding constantly over whether I should buy them or not. It’s not that they were expensive, it’s just that Japan is an anime otaku wonderland full of cool stuff to buy and once you start there is just no end to the collection of toys and books and dvds and figures. I have so much crap back in Canada and when I came to Japan I went cold turkey. I try not to accumulate too much stuff that doesn’t serve some kind of practical purpose. But these Getta Robo G figures were so beautiful and I couldn’t stop thinking about them. Getta Robo G is my favorite anime and I decided that I just had to have them (1) Getta Poseidon is slightly fatter so it came in a bigger box. Originally, I didn’t plan on opening them up but after a few minutes I broke down and took them out (2) And I’m so glad I did. They are so much better out of the box. You’ll never see this scenario with all 3 of them standing side by side in the anime because they are the same robot in different formation. Which is why calling them a team may be incorrect. But anyways. These figures are about 15″ tall and the proportions are the best ones I’ve ever seen of the Getta Team. They were manufactured by Marmit and are pretty old, I think. At the shop, I was told that they were found while cleaning out the store room and recently put for sale. They add some color to the interior of my house and now I’m thinking of putting up some shelves or buying a cabinet for them. I also got a Black Gaiking which I will blog about some other time. It’s still in the box. I’m not as experienced with taking photos of figures like Super Otaku Danny Choo but here are a few after the jump.
Can you name them all?
I found the original black & white Obake no QTaro opening from 1966 on YouTube. I’ve already watched it a hundred times. I love this song!
Some of you may be wondering what happened to the Q-Taros in the new place. As you can see they’ve found a home in the downstairs toilet.
I want to decorate my bare walls with these fabulous Go Nagai Prints being sold at the Tokyo Anime Centre Shop in the Akihabara Cross Field Building. The Great Mazinger/Mazinger Z/Grendizer print costs around ¥390,000 and I don’t remember how much the Devilman went for but if I had the disposable income now I would get them. If there is anyone out there who wants to buy them let me know and maybe I can procure them for you for a slight fee.
Other that these prints there was nothing worth seeing at the Tokyo Anime Centre. With such an official sounding name like that they should have more stuff. But almost any shop in Akiba has more interesting stuff then what they got here. Not worth the visit.
Machiko Soga was the voice of Q-Taro. She died suddenly yesterday at her home in Kunitachi at the age of 68. Q-Taro’s voice is one of the most recognizable in Japanese Anime. More so than Doraemon IMO. Here’s the sad news article.
Thinking about what J. suggested in his comment on the previous post, I did some searching about the Q-Taro ride and found one for sale on Yahoo! Auctions. The opening bid was ¥180,000. Well, I’m not an obsessed collector but it’s good to know I can buy one if I want to.
Digging through some old stuff, I found these white spongy 木霊 kodama keychains a friend gave me years ago. I had a few more but I gave them away. They were individually wrapped and after opening each one up for this photo I realized I should have kept them wrapped and sold them on Yahoo! Auctions or eBay. Kodama are “tree spirits” and these characters were depicted in the animated film もののけ姫 (Princess Mononoke). The tree spirits are actually just light refracted off of water droplets in moist air found in dense forests. Check out this site for a real photos of “kodama”
Collecting toys is not something I’m that interested in, but I just gotta have this set of Sazae-san figures which you can get when buying bottles of tea at Mini Stop. The figures are very small and they were on display at the counter. I did a search on google but couldn’t find any info about these figures.
