水木しげる (Shigeru Mizuki), the author of “Ge-Ge-Ge-No-Kitaro” (an anime about monsters that I like), has died today.
Shigeru Mizuki (1922 Mar 8 – 2015 Nov 30) with two of his most famous characters.
I wrote a post about his interesting life story on his 88th birthday (Click here to read it).
(The voice actor for the anime of one of Mr. Mizuki’s most famous characters died almost six years ago. (Click here to read a post I wrote about him.)
永井一郎 (Ichiro Nagai), the Japanese voice actor who was the voice of Namihei Isono on the long-running Japanese cartoon 「サザエさん」 (“Sazae-san“), as well as Yoda in the Japanese-dubbed version of “Star Wars” and many other well-known characters has died yesterday at the age of 82.
Sazae-san’s father, Namihei Isono. Mr. Nagai was the “voice” of this character for 45 years.
永井一郎 (Ichiro Nagai), 1931 May 10th – 2014 January 27th, R.I.P.
It seems that an upcoming episode of the American TV show “The Simpsons” will have the characters in the worlds of Japan’s Studio Ghibli!
Studio Ghibli is the creators of the excellent Japanese anime movies such as “My Neighbor Totoro”, “Spirited Away”, etc.
I would like to see that Simpsons episode!
Here’s a preview for it:
How many characters / movies from Studio Ghibli can you spot?
Once again, Pepsi Japan is offering special collectors’ edition bottles and cans.
Starting last October 23rd (2012), Pepsi Japan started selling 「エナジーコーラ」 (“Energy Cola”) for a limited time in cans with an image of fire and Darth Vader from the Star Wars movies.
Energy Cola contains five ingredients that are meant to boost energy:
Royal jelly, argenine, asian ginseng, guarana extract and caffeine.
And in late November (2012), they began offering their NEX cola in bottles with images from the Japanese マンガ (manga comics) called “One Piece“.
Which would you choose?
People around the world can name American presidents, American movie actors, American pop music artists, American companies, and American fictional characters.
They’re world famous.
It’s been that way for at least a few generations now.
But before I came to Japan, there was no internet back then and Japanese food and pop culture wasn’t popular around the world like it’s become in recent years.
Back then, I wouldn’t have been able to name a single Japanese prime minister.
The only Japanese actor I knew back then was Pat Morita (from “Karate Kid“)…and he was actually a Japanese-American.
The only Japanese musicians I knew were Yoko Ono and the Japanese heavy metal band Loudness.
Of course, I would have been able to name a number of Japanese companies such as Sony, Toshiba, Toyota, Honda, etc.
As for Japanese fictional characters, I knew Ultraman and Godzilla.
I’ve now been living in Japan for most of my life…so, I probably know more about Japan than I know about America anymore.
How about you? How familiar are you with Japan and Japanese culture?
What famous Japanese people do you know?
Japanese characters?
How about Japanese food / dishes?
Actors / actresses?
Bands / musicians?
How about Japanese words?
Japanese cities?
Or any other things you know about Japan?
In Japan, Pepsi-Cola offers many different flavors and other campaigns.
Click here to look at all of the different posts I’ve written about the various flavors and other gimmicks Pepsi has offered in Japan.
And Gundam is popular in Japan. There is a life-size Gundam robot, Gundam cafe, Gundam cell-phones and many other Gundam-related campaigns in Japan.
Click here to see the posts I’ve written related to Gundam.
Of course, Gundam and Pepsi have teamed up.
Click here to see a post I’ve written about it.
Well, they’ve teamed up again.
Currently Pepsi-Cola in Japan is selling their cola in cans decorated with Gundam characters.
Here are the cans:
I have written a number of posts about interesting people. Most of whose stories are related to Japan in some way.
Maybe you haven’t seen many of them…so I decided to put links to all of them on a new page that I titled “Who’s Who?“.
Please check them out and leave comments to let me know what you think.
The new page is here.
Have you ever heard of the Japanese heavy metal band “Animetal“?
The Japanese band "Animetal".
They were an extra band made just for fun by members of other established Japanese metal bands. Animetal played heavy metal versions of Japanese anime theme songs.
The artwork of the cover of Animetal's first album (released in the mid-90's).
Animetal disbanded about five years ago…but this year, Marty Friedman (who was the lead guitarist of the American heavy metal band Megadeth but quit that famous band so that he could live in Tokyo with his Japanese wife) helped organize the formation of “Animetal USA“.
"Animetal USA"
Animetal USA consists of Mike Vescera (formally the lead vocalist of the Japanese band “Loudness” for a short time), Chris Impellitteri (of the band “Impellitteri”), Rudy Sarzo (from “Quiet Riot”) and Scott Travis (of “Judas Priest”).
Just like the original “Animetal”, this band sings heavy metal versions of Japanese anime theme songs…but, unlike the Japanese band, only some of their songs are in Japanese—the rest are in English.
They will be releasing their debut album on 2011 October 12 and on October 15, they will perform at this year’s Loudpark Heavy Metal Festival in Saitama, Japan.
The cover artwork for Animetal USA's debut album...due for release on 2011/10/12.
Here is the official video for “Animetal USA“‘s first single…the theme song of the anime 「宇宙戦艦ヤマト」 (“Space Battleship Yamato“):
Have you ever heard of the Japanese アニメ (cartoon) called 「妖怪人間べム」 (“Monster Man Bemu”)?
It’s basically about three kind 妖怪 (monsters) who want to be human. They learn that they can become human if they protect humans from other evil monsters.
The three kind monsters, 「べム」 (“Bemu”), 「ベラ」 (“Bera”), and 「べロ」 (“Bero”) are frightening-looking monsters but they are able to assume a humanoid form…but even so, they still look like monsters.
And for that reason, they aren’t accepted by most humans. Most people judge them by their physical appearance rather than their character. That is an underlying theme of this series.
This series originally aired on TV in Japan in the late-60’s…before my wife and I were born but we’ve seen re-runs of it.
A well-known line from this show is 「早く人間になりたい！」 (“I want to be a human soon!”)…it can even be heard in the show’s opening theme song.
Here is a YouTube clip of this show’s opening and closing theme songs:
KISS has announced that they will release an album of all new songs sometime next year (2012) titled “Monster“.
KISS...still the hottest band in the world!
Ever since I was a kid I’ve always liked monsters.
When I watched the Disney cartoon “Peter Pan” as a child, for example, I didn’t care for Peter Pan or any of his friends. They were too “regular”.
Unlike Peter Pan with his pansy outfit and little knife, Captain Hook had a sword and a sharp hook instead of a hand.
(Admittedly though, Peter Pan could fly, which would be fun and Hook didn’t dress much better than Peter Pan.)
Captain Hook was the first movie character that frightened me…and even at that young age I enjoyed being frightened a bit.
Who cares about a practical prosthetic when you can have one that puts the fear of god in people?!
When I was a bit older, I saw Star Wars for the first time. I was only seven years old when the first movie in the series was released, so I was a bit too young to fully understand the story. But I still enjoyed it a lot. Especially when “Darth Vader” made his entrance!
Luke Skywalker was the hero…but Darth Vader stole every scene in was in.
The "Dark Side"
And of course I’ve always like the “traditional” monsters…Frankenstein’s Monster, The Werewolf, and Dracula.
And when I came to Japan, I learned about 妖怪 (Japanese monsters).
"Ge-ge-ge Kitaro" is Japanese cartoon inspired by traditional Japanese monster and ghost stories.
Even my favorite superhero character has always been “The Incredible Hulk“. He’s anger-incarnate. A huge pissed-off monster! The coolest of the superheroes.
Hulk will smash even Superman
Even the music I listen to reflects my interest in monsters.
I like heavy metal music. There’s a reason that the soundtracks to many horror movies are full of heavy metal music…heavy metal is to music as horror is to movies.
If you’re not interested in heavy metal, you may not know that that genre of music is further divided into sub-genres.
The sub-genre of metal music that I like the most is “Shock Rock“. It’s just as visual as it is musical. Shock Rock artist—such as KISS, W.A.S.P., Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie and Lordi—often look like monsters.
Alice Cooper
Anyways, as I mentioned at the top of this post, KISS will be releasing a new album soon. The last time they they released a new album was about two years ago…it was titled “Sonic Boom“.
As I mentioned, KISS‘s new album will be titled “Monster“. It’s an excellent album title…I can’t believe they haven’t used it before!
So far only five song titles have been confirmed by the band. They are: “Hell Or Hallelujah”, “Born To Be A Sinner”, “Out Of This World”, “Are You Ready?”, and “Wall Of Sound”.
I’m looking forward to getting this album.
Tokyo Five 
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