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Japan

10:40 / 24.03.03

I've got this weird fascination with Japan, probably growing out watching "283 ideas from Japan" years ago (anyone remember this?)and my insane devotion to the works of William Gibson (all you swine who've read "Pattern Recognition" before me - how dare you!). I've just read this great book by Robert Twigger, an account of a guy who does the Akido training undertaken by the Tokyo Riot Police. Really brilliantly observed material on the weirdness of Japan and being a Westerner there, doing something completely maschoistic and mad. I think my fascination comes from the fact that they have a completely different culture combined with more sophisticatd technology than us (that makes them sound like a superior alien race, doesn't it?)

It's probably the country I'd most like to go to in the world but until my finacial situation changes hugely I can't see this happening, so I wondered if any of you lovely people could help me get there virtually. Does anyone know of any particular cool books, blogs, films etc that I should seek out to get nippioned up? Also, i'd be interested to hear peoples thoughts on why Japan is just so fucking cool in the first place? Or here some first hand accounts of visiting.

Be interested to know if we've got any Japanese posters - I know the they have a habit of appropriating Western pop culture, have they any interest in our comics, i wonder? I wonder if how the range of referencs in The Invisibles would go down?

21:44 / 24.03.03

Recommendations for Japanese music: the Boredoms Vision Creation Newsun, Melt Banana's Teeny Shiny and Ruin's Mandala 2000. I reckon they're right up your street. Loads more besides, but these are my favourites.

Have a check in the Film/TV forum for the old Japanese Children thread... still room for discussion there.

22:45 / 24.03.03

The Invisibles might provoke a bit of puzzlement, at least for the goals of the Invisibles themselves, but I don't know for sure. From the sounds of the posts in a thread on anime over in Films and TV, some of the anime series are pretty densely layered and one in particular has tons of kabbalah references.

Anime and manga are probably great windows into a subset of Jpapnese pop culture; do you have a good source for such?

06:52 / 25.03.03

Reflect - I will check them out - was planning to blow the rent on new music this week anyway, so I needed some recommendations. Thanks.

Izabelle - no, I don't but good thinking. I'll have a look at the anime threads in Film, TV. Would you recommend anything? I wanted to by the Akira reprints but they're absurdly over priced at £22 a fucking book - Wayyyyy too much money.

Oh, and if anyone else is interested I picked up "Speed Tribes" by Karl Taro Greenfield recently. Absolutely fucking ace study of Japanese youth and "deviancy", to use the lingo of 70's sociology. The depictions of the Oaktu were a big influence on William Gibson, in Idoru etc.

08:03 / 25.03.03

Neon Genesis Evangelion is the series which uses an extremely interesting mix of Kabalah, Judeo-Christian myth and non-canonical scripture. It's an interesting riff on the ideas, but they're window dressing to an extent, not essential to the thrust of the story. I'd still recommend it, however: they're slowly releasing the lot on DVD. It's a series that you have to watch in its entirety, so that could mean a lot of cash. If you're up for a marathon we could set a date in So'ton.

I'm waiting for Serial Experiments: Lain to arrive from Singapore, a well overdue E-bay order. I 've heard that it's got a lot of Gnostic influence. I guess the way this kind of thing specifically relates to an interest in Japan is that they seem to view Judeo-Christian mysticism as the esoteric tradition of the West. Our own culture is reflected back at us in new mutant forms, and sometimes the insights are fascinating.

I've got a lot more I could say on this subject, but I'm out of time... perhaps later this evening.

11:12 / 25.03.03

Manga wise, I reckon everyone in the world should start reading the new editions of Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind, which is just about the most incredible, moving, epic thing I've ever read, and I'm only on volume two.

It doesn't reflect all that well on my theory that Japanese culture tends to be morally ambivilent, in that it's got a really strong (but always beautifully done, never patronising) humanist, pacifist, environmentalist agenda .. but then maybe that's a deliberate reaction against it, I don't really know..

11:44 / 25.03.03

Novels, you might want to try Haruki Murakami who is quite interesting. I'm reading his 'Wind up Bird Chronicle' at the moment which I'd recommend.

Manga, worth picking up the 'Lone Wolf & Cub' books, only about £6 each and give an excellent insight into feudal Japan.

Films, I suppose I should mention Kurosawa's output as no-one else has yet. The recent anime of 'Metropolis' is worth seeing as well, as is stuff like 'Battle Royale' if you haven't seen it yet.