Korean Toys: Cross-Cultural Traffic: Toying with Brands, Borders and Bootlegs

Panel: (Left to Right) Eric Nakamura, Joshua Bernard, and Seho Kim

NEW YORK, May 28 — On a warm and humid night, the Korea Society (950 Third Avenue) had a special panel discussion about the early Korean toy industry. The panel complemented the recent Korea Society exhibit called Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood. I cover the gallery opening of that show in a past blog post.

Panelists:
Joshua Bernard, editor, CollectionDX.com
Eric Nakamura, publisher, Giant Robot Magazine
Seho Kim, creative director, The Korea Society

The panel covered the early years of the South Korean toy industry, which included the 60s, 70s, and 80s. The period was a time of growth for the Korean economy. However, the large Japanese and American toy corporations did not penetrate the Korean market until the 90s. This lead to the development of a domestic toy industry in South Korea.

The panel began with a power point presentation by Joshua Bernard, editor of CollectionDX.com.

In his presentation, Bernard covered a lot of different Korean toys and related merchandise. It was interesting to see some of the most bizarre toys ever conceived. In order to create new toys, Korean toy makers would use the head mold of one robot and attach it to the body mold of another robot. This lead to a very Postmodern Kitsch design sensibility.

After the presentation, the panel addressed several questions about the history and influence of Korean toy design. They also discussed the broader commercial Korean influence in cinema and television.

Eric Nakamura autographing issues of Giant Robot Magazine
At the end of the panel, I had an opportunity to talk to the panelists. I knew Eric Nakamura from my annual trips to Los Angeles. My trips to L.A. largely consisted of loitering at the Giant Robot HQ for several days. This time he came to New York. It was totally cool to hang out with Eric over here.

Related Links:

• The Korea Society
• CollectionDX.com
  
• Giant Robot Magazine

JACON 2008: The Horror That Dare Not Speak Its Name

KISSIMMEE, May 18 — It's been nearly a month since my last blog post due to a very busy work schedule. This time I'm blogging from the sunny state of Florida. I'm here for the local anime convention known as JACON.

This year's JACON was held at the Orlando Sun Resort by Lexington (aka The Ramada Orlando Celebration Resort and Convention Center). The hotel recently changed their name, which caused a bit of confusion.

After I got to my room, I dropped my stuff and went directly to the convention center. As I walked into the hallway, I ran into television's Daryl Surat [Anime World Order (AWO) and Otaku USA]. We quickly rounded up some other people including Gerald (AWO) and Paul "Gooberzilla" Chapman (Greatest Movie EVER Podcast and Otaku USA). The group went to watch the live-action Speed Racer movie at the local IMAX Theater. It was a good film despite Gooberzilla's opinion. (I might write a review for this blog.)


Odin: Photon Sailer Starlight Midnight Endurance Marathon
At midnight, Joey Snackpants Esquire and Gooberzilla hosted the "Odin: Photon Sailer Starlight Midnight Endurance Marathon". They proceeded to show the entire uncut Japanese version of Odin: Photon Sailer Starlight (オーディーン　光子帆船スターライト). Joey and Goob injected their comedic commentary to this mess of film. It was the most sadistic experiment ever.

I was surprised that the crowd was pretty big at the beginning. However, they did not last. They never do... The crowd was struggling, but they made it through an hour of the movie. At that point, Daryl announced, "there is still another hour and twenty minutes to this show." This absolutely frightened the crowd, and half of the audience left the panel.

The movie ended at 2:30 AM. I was dead tired. A few people withered away. The remaining thirty-something people got free "I survived the Odin Endurance Marathon" t-shirts.

On the second day, I ran into Charles Feldmeth from the New York Metro Anime club. We browsed the dealers’ room, but nothing really enticed me. I usually don't buy a lot of con merchandise. I hate con impulse shopping. I always regret it later.

We had lunch and attended a Japanese Music panel. The panel played a lot of sugary pop acts. It was too pop for my tastes. I decided to take a break and took a nap in my hotel room.


Gerald's 80s Giant Robot Panel
I rejoined Charles at the Pelican (the Panels building). We joined the entire AWO crew, Gooberzilla, and their friends for the "80s Giant Robot Panel". It was Gerald's panel. He ran the panel as an open discussion.

As Gerald talked about the scope of Giant Robot shows, he played opening sequences from different mech anime show such as Gundam (ガンダム), The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (超時空要塞マクロス), and Go Lion (百獣王ゴライオン). It was an interesting panel, but he ran out of time.

He was followed by the "Manga Influence on American Comics" panel. It was run by final_fury and his special lady friend. They were originally slated for a two-hour block, but Joey had to reduce it to an hour. They also ran out of time, but they still managed to have an entertaining and informative panel.

We all went to grab a quick dinner and attended a private recording of the Snacktime Online Podcast with Joey Snackpants Esquire, Daryl, and Gooberzilla. You can listen to the podcast at The SNACKTIME ONLINE Podcast.


Max Pointing at Television's Daryl Surat (Panel of Doom)
After the podcast recording, we proceeded to "Panel of Doom". It was Daryl's one-man show of horror. It was pretty awesome. All I can say is "Once you watch it, you can't unwatch it!" I am legally prohibited from describing the panel. You have to see it for yourself.

The panel ended at about 2:30 AM. I called it a night.

On Sunday, I roamed the dealer room again. Some items were marked down, but they were still kinda high compared to other cons. I didn't get anything.

In summary, I had a good time at JACON. Joey and his crew put on a good show.

Related Links:

• JACON
  
• The SNACKTIME ONLINE Podcast
  
• Orlando Sun Resort by Lexington (aka The Ramada Orlando Celebration Resort and Convention Center)
  
• Wikipedia: Odin: Photon Sailer Starlight

New York Comic Con 2008

NEW YORK, April 19 — Where can you find legions of Imperial Storm Troopers, Bleach Shinigami, Naruto geeks, video game first person shooter dorks, black Spider-man shirts, and middle aged men? The answer is the New York Comic Convention 2008 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This is probably one of the largest pop culture conventions in New York City.

After getting my badge, I examined the convention schedule. The convention schedule could be divided into four distinct parts: American comics, Manga, mainstream entertainment (movies and television), and kids entertainment (mostly scheduled for Sunday). Based on my unscientific observations of buying patterns and t-shirts, most fans can be categorized into one of these four main categories.

I took a quick browse through the dealer’s room and the artist alley. They had a health mix of toys, statues, comics, and DVDs. I usually don’t buy anything at convention because I hate impulse shopping. I always feel wretched after spending several hundred dollars on con merchandise.

In the Artist Alley, some notable artists were Peter Laird (creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Jim Lee (artist, X-Men and Batman), and Mark Texeira (artist, Ghost Rider).

On to the panels, my first panel for this convention was the Del Rey Manga panel. They were marketing their latest acquisitions such as Wolverine Manga, X-Men Manga, Gakuen Prince, Sayonara Zetsubo-Sensei: The Power of Negative Thinking, and Me and the Devil Blues. The panel was lead by Associate Publisher Dallas Middaugh. I knew Dallas from several past Manga events in New York City, and he has always been very cool. Therefore, I wanted to support his work and attend his panel.

At the panel, I met up with some old friends from the Metro-Anime club, the local New York anime club. They seemed to be excited about the panel and Del Rey’s new titles. It was a good panel.

After I talked Dallas, I looked over to see a Ninja Consultant. Erin, the otaku hipster of the Ninja Consultants podcast, walked into the room. She was working the convention as traditional press and was planning to cover the next event, the Yen Press panel. It's always cool to run into the Ninja Consultants. I briefly greeted her and went to get some food.

The panels weren't too crowded. It was easy to move from panel to panel.

After a short break, I attend a few more panels until I lost my cell phone. I was at the Venture Brothers panel, and I freaked out. I got up and looked around. It was gone. I left the panel just before they started. I retraced my steps, but I couldn’t track it down.

I eventually made my way to the security office on the fourth floor of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. I talked to the head of security. They didn’t have it. So, I left my contact information with the security office. As I walked out of the security office, I ran into Ron Perlman (actor; Hellboy, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Blade II). All the convention volunteers were buzzing around him like flies. I don't think they knew his real name. They just kept addressing him as "Hellboy".

I wasn’t in the mood to fight through teenaged fan boys. I just returned to the panel rooms. Yikes... What happened? The popular panels were being swamped by convention attendees. I didn’t stand a chance against the hordes of fan boys, geeks, and dorks. Where did all these people come from? Damn… Resistance was futile, and I left the convention early.

On the whole, the convention seemed to be well run. Some of the event organization could have been better (especially the panels). There was no system of control. It was just a mad rush to get into any good events. I didn't want to be caught in that madness. I didn't want to slap the Camel clutch on a thirteen-year-old girl just to get into a Starship Troopers 3 panel.

Related Links:

• New York Comic Convention 2008, Official Website
  
• Reed Exhibition
  
• Jacob K. Javits Convention Center

The Pillows Invade New York

NEW YORK, March 21 — The Pillows EFF-ING rocked. They were just eff-ing metal. The Pillows, a hit Japanese rock band, played to a sold out crowd at the Blender Theater (127 East 23rd Street).

Due to the popularity of the FLCL anime series, the Pillows have established a strong international fan base. The entire FLCL soundtrack is filled with many of their signature hits such as "Little Busters", "Monster", and "Ride on Shooting Star". It became an effective marketing vehicle for spreading their highly infectious sound.

For tonight's show, they played a mix of old and new songs. Their new songs were awesome, but their FLCL songs were the biggest hit. When the Pillows played a FLCL song, the New York audience would explode, and they would start jumping to the music. I could feel the whole place shaking as the audience rocked out.

My favorite moments included their live renditions of "Little Busters", "Come Down", and "Crazy Sunshine".

If you ever get the chance to see the Pillows in concert, you must see them. It was the best j-rock show that I've seen in a few years. I, Dessler, command you.

Related Links:

• The Pillows, Official Website
  
• MySpace: The Pillows
  
• Blender Theater

Japan Nite 2008: A Nipponese Sonic Explosion

SCANDAL
NEW YORK, March 16 — The Knitting Factory (74 Leonard Street) was ground zero for the Japanese music atom bomb called Japan Nite. Japan Nite, a one-night Japanese rock festival, unleashed four hours of hard Japanese rock on a New York City crowd.

Performers included: SCANDAL, The Emeralds, Petty Booka, Ketchup Mania, Detroit7, and THE BEACHES.

The night started with the candy rock sound of the all girl band, SCANDAL. SCANDAL wore Japanese school girl uniforms as they got the rocked the small stage. They got the audience excited and literal hopping in waves. They sang pop candy hits like "Space Ranger" and "Playboy". It was a great start to the Japan Nite Festival.

The next act was completely metal. The Emeralds took the stage with rock attitude. The Emeralds are a stripped down three man punk explosion. They were completely filled with raw energy and a loud sound. They took the audience to another level of rock nirvana. The audience was completely lost in the aggressive rawness of songs like "Talk about Love". Akio’s drumming was awesome. Osuke was entertaining, and Kazuya was metal. They were definitely one of the best acts on the Japan Nite ticket.


Petty Booka
The third act was a little unusual. After a high spirited punk rock session, two incredibly cute Japanese girls walked on to the stage with ukuleles. They were Petty Booka. They wore matching western styled dresses and cowboy hats.

The audience looked a little puzzled. The girls began to sing country and bluegrass tunes while playing ukulele. The audience was stunned. They didn’t know how to react to two Japanese girls singing classic country and blue grass songs. Judging from the colorful Mohawk haircuts in the audience, they were probably not expecting a Japanese country act. Some people went to the bar in the back of the Knitting Factory. A couple of audience members tried to imitate a country ho-down with little success. I thought Petty Booka was a very cute and very cool musical act even though they seemed a little out of place.

Ketchup Mania, a veteran Japanese ska-punk band, was the next act to take the stage. Ketchup Mania rocked hard, and the rockers rejoined the audience. Their music is a mix of ska-punk attitude and pop sensibility. It was clearly evident that they had a strong New York fan base. I noticed audience members singing along with their signature hits like "Real Yaayo". Hiro’s vocals were amazing.


Ketchup Mania
During Ketchup Mania’s set, a mosh pit began to form, and it took up the entire floor. I’m usually a big support of kicking ass in a mosh, but it was ridiculously stupid. The Knitting Factory is a small place. The audience floor is tiny, and the mosh pushed all the non-mosh audience members against the walls. In a larger rock-only venue, mosh pit rules the floor and let the weak at heart beware. However, Japan Nite was an eclectic musical event with a mixed audience of punks, rockers, pop fans, and weeaboos. There was no place for moshing.

After Ketch Mania’s amazing set, they were followed by Detroit7. Detroit7, another veteran Japanese punk band, tore through the place with no-frills punk music. Their music is simple garage punk at its finest. The shoeless Tomomi Nabana was intense in her vocals and guitar work. The band was electrified, and the audience responded with their own energy. They definitely rocked the venue with a killer set. Detroit7 preformed hits like "Beautiful Song" and "Shot My Right Temple". They were definitely one of the major highlights of the Japan Nite line-up.


Detroit7
THE BEACHES closed the night with their unique reggae sound. They provide the hard rocking Japan Nite with a soft landing. They jammed until midnight, and the audience was exhausted.

Overall, Japan Nite was an awesome mix of Japanese rock, pop, punk, ska, and country. Japanese music rarely gets any exposure in an American music market that is saturated with Anglo-American acts. It was an awesome night of live music.

Related Links:

• The Knitting Factory
  
• Japan Nite 2008