As mentioned in my previous post from Friday, the NEW PEOPLE center opened to the public on Saturday in San Francisco, accompanied by a street fair with 2-3 different stages hosting performances and signing/panel events. I spent most of my time stalking Yuichi Yokoyama, but took other pictures too. Here is my (photo-heavy) recap of the afternoon!
WELCOME TO NEW PEOPLE NEW PEOPLE is officially open! The inside of the store is sleek, clean, and full of interesting goods from Japan... or so I heard! From the opening until the late afternoon, there was a non-stop line to get in to the building and check out the shops. I heard from folks that waited that it took over an hour in the sun to get in :( I opted to skip this, and am planning to visit the shop leisurely tomorrow afternoon on my day off.
That said, the store was constantly hopping and looked pretty slick from the outside.
Right by the entrance to the building, they had set up a stage for conducting interviews. Over the course of the morning and afternoon they interviewed Yoshitaka Amano, cast members and the producer of the 20th Century Boys film adaptations, and various gothic-lolita designers featured on the 2nd floor of NEW PEOPLE. Here is the head lady who runs the "BABY The Stars Shine Bright" label:
The apparel component of NEW PEOPLE is a welcome addition for San Francisco teenagers-- they get access to a subset of Japanese fashions that other Americans won't get. I'm expecting to see more lace and parasols very soon in the Bay Area. That said, the fashion show I saw showed off a lot of gimmicky and sorta cheap looking outfits. Oh well.
I WOULDN'T HAVE GUESSED Down the way from the front of the NEW PEOPLE building were a bunch of tents/booths for local businesses, vendors, and the Asian Art Museum. On the other side of the main Peace Plaza area were local food vendors, selling shaved ice, onigiri, hot dogs and Beard Papa pastries.
ANONYMOUS was also out in force, giving out free hugs and dancing to a boombox.
4-chan people are not as fearsome (and younger) in person than expected.
This booth sold dozens of colorway block shirts, and offered custom color combos you could order and have sewn on demand.
Toto Washlet had a booth. The NEW PEOPLE folks said it's the first public building in the US with Toto toilets. The only other building in the US where I've seen the washlet in effect was at the Google offices. I wonder if they will catch on in the US?
Workers setting up the FRIEND banner for the 20th Century Boys film premiere event. The film is playing all week at Viz Cinema (in the basement of NEW PEOPLE), with the 2nd and 3rd films playing in subsequent weeks. Just read Volume 4 last night, holy shit the Friend logo is starting to terrify me when I see it. So good.
YUICHI YOKOYAMA LIVE PAINTING
I can't remember if I said this above, but the main highlight of the day was catching a live painting demonstration by geometric genius Yuichi Yokoyama (of Travel, New Engineering fame, duh). Apologies to the fainthearted or uninterested, here are like a million photos of Yokoyama at work: [In this one you see the small flashcards he used to pre-plan the mural elements]
I also shot a short video of Yokoyama putting finishing touches on the last of the "faces":
MTV IGGY & ROCK GIRLS In the Peace Plaza, MTV IGGY had a tent and were MC-ing the live acts and contents on the bandshell stage. MTV IGGY is a global news/music channel that (I believe) is predominantly online content and focuses on Asian and Asian-American artists. A cool dude I met through mutual friends named Woody Fu works for them, but I didn't see him around. Woody's is submitting a comic for Electric Ant #2, and also interviewed Jim Lee dressed up as Cyclops.
Girl rock group TsuShiMaMire played a long set, and got a good response from the crowd.
These same bands played a bigger show Sunday night at Yoshi's.
Merch table for the various bands.
All rock ladies, all the time.
A bunch of local girls got made-up and took part in a nerdy HARAJUKU KAWAII(???) fashion contest.
Hosted by MTV IGGY, the winner of the contest won a free round-trip flight to Tokyo courtesy of JAL. Pretty chill prize, no?
YUICHI YOKOYAMA SIGNED MY BOOK Last thing before I got my pale ass out of the sun, I had the chance to meet Yuichi Yokoyama and get him to sign the Disneyland autograph book. There was a very short line to meet Yokoyama (4 people including me?) which sorta confirmed the general anonymity he enjoys/suffers among most J-pop/manga fans. I talked to him for all of 20 seconds, mostly me showing him my PictureBox bag and gushing about his work inarticulately. As our small group made its way to the signing table, others noticed and started lining up to meet the man as well.
For folks without books/things to sign, Viz was handing out rad/creepy paper masks of Yokoyama's designs. These same designs were all over the inside of NEW PEOPLE and the main part of much of the advertisements, volunteer t-shirts and motif for the center. Very cool, but I wondered how it was hooked up? I assume Seiji (Viz's president) is buddies with him :)
Yokoyama was not into my brush pen and silver sharpie. It is red & blue all the way.
Signing my book! His sketch was right after the Yoshihiro Tatsumi and Frank Santoro sketches I got at TCAF earlier this year.
FOR LIAN.
I again shot a really short video of Yokoyama in action.
Finally, after getting back home I here "model" the Yokoyama mask. It conveniently covered up my sunburned face:
Other folks are probably writing more representative posts of like, the actual inside of NEW PEOPLE, and the other events I skipped (Amano happenings, gothic lolita fashion show). The first (and biggest) comes in from About.com's Deb Aoki (who was at NEW PEOPLE on Saturday from 8am to 1am). Check out her full write-up here.
UPDATE: Another great post, with lots of video tours, can be found over at ANIME VICE.
Doing my periodic digging around on Amazon, I came across some news that I haven't seen posted on any blogs or the Drawn & Quarterly site. That's right, SAME HAT EXCLUSIVE BREAKING NEWS:
Drawn & Quarterly will be publishing Red Kimono by Oji Suzuki on March 16, 2010! This is exciting news for gekiga fans and fits in well with their editorial direction of late; Suzuki was an original broham of the alternative manga scene, and part of the GARO 1-2-3 trio of cartoonists, alongside Shinichi Abe and Masuzou Furukawa (founder of Mandarake, according to the very knowledgeable Bill Randall.
Red Kimono was originally published in collected form in 1985 by Seirindo. Page # and ISBN for the English edition of Red Kimono are available on the Amazon listing.
Oji Suzuki was also noted as a contemporary of Yoshiharu Tsuge, and publishing works often in Garo in the 70s and 80s. Interestingly enough, three Suzuki manga have been published in France already by Le Seuil, details on "Le Kimono Rouge," "Vaste le ciel," and "Bleu Transparent" are here.
For some visual examples of Suzuki's work, check out these pages that Dirk at TCJ's Journalista! posted from a Suzuki manga here when showing off copies of old GARO issues he bought:
A little more information on Oji Suzuki can be found in the Portuguese blog, Ler BD. [English translation via Google here].
Tomorrow marks the opening of San Francisco's NEW PEOPLE experiment, a unique otaku-centric center in San Francisco's Japantown. After months of construction and planning, and what seems like a crazy flurry of finishing touches in the last few weeks specifically, NEW PEOPLE is opening its doors.
NEW PEOPLE is a shopping/community hang-out, planned and sparked by Viz's president Seiji Horiguchi, and was funded with Shogakukan yen. To commemorate the opening, they're throwing a hell of a launch party-- with a whole day of artist appearances, signings, music, and street fair with local vendors. MTV IGGY and other print/web/tv media will also be in effect to cover the opening. Here are the highlights for me:
Yuichi Yokoyama live painting event! Holy crap! The artist behind Travel, New Engineering, and other conceptual manga and paintings is making his inagurural American appearance for the NEW PEOPLE opening. He will be painting at the Buchanan Mall/Post intersection from 12:00 to 2:00pm, with a signing at the NEW PEOPLE store from 3:00 - 4:00pm. For other posts I've made about his work, follow the Yokoyama tag.
Here is a video from PictureBox/Comics Comics Mag blog of Yokoyama painting. I'm beyond stoked to potentially meet this guy and see him in action!
Signing with Yoshitaka Amano I think high school Ryan would be more pssssssyched for this one, but it's still a super interesting choice of artist and I'm looking forward to seeing his paintings at the NEW PEOPLE gallery, Superfrog (more on that below). Amano events this weekend: Panel Discussion welcoming Amano: 12:00PM Autograph Session: 4:00PM -5:00PM
Finally, here is a full rundown of what is actually in the NEW PEOPLE WORLD building, from their press releases:
BASEMENT: VIZ Cinema A 150 seat theater featuring contemporary and cult live action Japanse films, along with Viz anime and licensed films. The films premiering at the theater launch will be the 20th Century Boys live action adaptation trilogy. They are also planning to show the Death Note, L, and Nana flicks in the near future too.
1ST FLOOR: Coffee Shop & Food Just what every otaku needs: organic coffee and Japanese delicacies. Not sure if these are stands, or a space to hang out and chill. Could be a great spot for hosting drawing meet-ups, etc.
MEZZANINE: NEW PEOPLE: The Store Not sure what this exactly will feature, but it sounds like a curated collection of gadgets, trendy toys, shirts, manga, imported Japanese books, housewares, other stuff. Featured items on the site include signed copies of Travel by Yokoyama, and the new Cornelius CD. I had assumed this would be a Viz-only shop originally, but that definitely does not seem to be the case. Interesting.
2ND FLOOR: CLOTHES 6-7 different Japanese boutiques, with a focus on kawaii clothes and gothic-lolita. I guess we can expect to see even more San Francisco teenagers rocking arm-warmers, eye patches, and lace in the very near future.
3RD FLOOR: Superfrog Gallery Very cool, a small gallery featuring contemporary, pop/manga artists from Japan. The kick-off exhibit is new paintings [DEVA LOKA USA] by Yoshitaka Amano. I haven't heard any other artists on the list, but I am gonna try to find out this weekend. Who is in charge of the planning, I wonder? Yes, I'm thinking a Suehiro Maruo gallery showing next year to coincide with the release of Panorama Island.
I'm excited to see if this thing catches on and is viable after the initial opening. If done well and offering interesting shows/shopping, it could be a great place for otaku to hang out in San Francisco. In an interview with the SF Chronicle, Seiji from Viz said, "...If it works, we will bring it to other cities. New York, Paris, London. And I believe we will succeed. Because this generation of new people -- they are curious, they're experimental, they're open to the rest of the world, and to unfamiliar ideas. So doing this makes sense."
For a full listing of NEW PEOPLE happenings, check out this event guide here [PDF]. They also mentioned related events, like a Japan Girls Rock show at nearby Yoshi's, featuring Bacteria Vacuum, noodles, and TsuShiMaMiRe.
Maybe I'll see some of you Bay Area folks there tomorrow, and full report and pictures coming on Sunday for everyone else!
On Friday I re-posted details about the slowly-growing Same Hat Guide to Everything. The idea is that anybody and everybody in the Same Hat community can share their favorites shops, museums, and spots in one consolidated place.
I've been updating it today with a few favorite Tokyo bookstores, and thought a contest would be a fun idea in order to grow this sucker quickly!
Announcing the BUILD THE SHGTE contest! The idea is that I want to encourage folks to add stuff to the map this week. Adding an entry takes about 2 minutes, and step-by-step details on doing so are here. It can be anything that other Same Hat readers would be interested in, in any part of the world. Some examples: + A custom doll gallery in Akihabara that displays Suehiro Maruo's paintings. + Your local manga shop where you buy new books each week. + The Kyoto Manga Museum (and the train route to get there from Kyoto Station). + A club with a monthly gothic lolita cosplay night in Seoul. + The restaurant in Kichijoji where you spotted Demerin out eating soba and playing Gameboy.
The deadline to add entries is 11:59pm PST on Friday (August 14, 2009). How about these for "prizes"? THE "PARTICIPATION" PRIZE: Everyone who submits at least one new entry to the SGHTE will get a Junko Mizuno / Last Gasp sticker and some mail from me:
THE "SILVER MEDAL" PRIZE Everyone who submits two (or more) new entries to the SGHTE will be mailed the Junko sticker and a copy of my zine of Japanese self-introductions from when I lived in Saitama. Check it out here:
(Don't you want one??)
GRAND PRIZE The three people that made the most/best additions to the map (left up to my discretion!) will win all the stuff mentioned above (Junko Mizuno sticker, My Seat is Your Behind zine) plus... A LARGE HANAKUMA / LAST GASP STICKER! and... A SHINTARO KAGO POSTCARD!
After you've made additions to the Same Hat Guide to Everything, please leave your name and a quick list of what you added in the comments. Can't wait to see what everyone posts up on the map! If you have any questions, let me know!
Every couple weeks, I get a nice email from a reader or friend of friend heading to Japan looking for recommendations. I have a go-to list of cool places to see in Tokyo and Kansai, but those are just the picks of one dude. It's better to ask a big group of like-minded folks and post the information somewhere easily accessible.
Good news, this wisdom is captured in our collaborative Google Map, The Same Hat Guide to Everything. I hadn't updated it in a while and wasn't sure if newer readers were aware of it. Sounds like good timing for a post!
I'm summarizing a lot of the stuff I said when it was first launched, so you long-time readers please bear with me for a minute. Generally speaking, the SHGTE is an open and editable map, detailing any and all spots of interest to rabid Same Hat geeks around the world. It includes a lot of spots for folks heading to Japan for the first time, along with your local shops, museums, etc.
If you haven't used the Google Maps My Maps feature, it's basically a way to create custom maps by pinpointing specific spots (think: The Kazuo Umezu Makoto-chan house), insertings overlays (think: A scanned floorplan to the Nakano Broadway mall's shops) or drawing custom routes and shapes. You can choose the icon associated with each entry you add, and Google provides pre-made icons to denote shops, train stations, and shopping. Evan and I also whipped up a few Same Hat icons for Sentai toy shops and Umezu, Maruo and other hot spots.
With the SHGTE, the focus isn't on duplicating the work of others, but thinking about what your fellow readers would have in common with you and wanna know about; Basically what is the shit you'd send in an email to a friend going to that/your city for the first time?
I'm gonna spend some time adding things to the map; I just put the Gundam statue in Odaiba, and the NEW PEOPLE Japantown center in San Francisco on there. Here are some instructions for you to add things as well:
STEP 1: When you're viewing the Same Hat Guide to Everything, click on the [Edit] button on the left side to start adding stuff or making changes to other people's stuff on the map.
STEP 2: When you click [Edit], new little tools will show up at the top of the map frame, including a icon marker thingy, a line tool for drawing routes, and a blobby-looking tool for drawing areas and shapes. In this case, I know where Otafuku is on the block, and clicked the icon marker thingy there on the block in the East Village. STEP 3: Now that the placeholder is there, it's time to start the magic. I'm sharing as much detail as I have, which in this case is my experience there and a picture from Yelp. If I know the hours they were open or had specific recommendations on times to go or what to order, I should add them too.
Fresh news from the Umezz.com blog, the hip boutique BEAMS has released another set of shirts in their line of collaborations with Kazuo Umezu. Previously blogged shirts included Drifting Classroom, Orochi, and other designs-- along with the classic red & white stripe Umezu classic T.
The focus in this batch? Makoto-chan! Working with design firm, Otooto22, BEAMS has released three new shirt designs, in a number of colorways. Check 'em out:
Sorry for the lull in posts this week... Working on some stuff for the Electric Ant Zine Blog and other projects has been keeping me busy. But I do have a few things planned for Same Hat in the next week :)
NEXT UP: + 51 Reasons To Love Him - information about newly licensed Usamaru Furuya book and photos of my copies of his earlier manga, Lychee Hikari Club, Plastic Girl, and Palepoli.
+ All Hail, King Tezuka - addressing a perceived lack of R-E-S-P-E-C-T for Osamu Tezuka by English-language manga fans. Gonna highlight my favorite Tezuka panels (Lemme know yours in the comments and I'll include them too!)
+ 10 Capsule Reviews - housekeeping and rounding up all the comics I've been reading in the past few weeks.
Updated: SAME HAT stopped updating in 2013! For all new projects, please see Youth in Decline's sit and Instagram.
All fan translations of manga that you'll see in the archives are previously untranslated into English and range from comedy to horror to avant-absurd weirdness.
Same Hat is written & edited by Ryan. If you would like to contact me, please email: samehat @ gmail.com. Also, you can Ask me anything on the Same Hat Tumblr!
