I Want To Be A Human Soon

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:

Happy birthday 水木しげるさん！

Today is the 88th birthday of 水木しげる (Shigeru Mizuki).

Mr. Shigeru Mizuki
(born 1922 March 8)

He is an anime artist that I like.

His most famous work is the 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (“Ge-ge-ge-no-Kitarou“) anime series.

This series is about a group of 妖怪 (ghouls) led by Kitaro who protect humans from other, less-kind ghouls who want to hurt them.

It’s a fun series.

And Mr. Shigeru Mizuki, the artist, is a person with an interesting life story.

When he was a child he enjoyed drawing and listening to an old neighbor lady’s ghost stories.

And when he was a young man, both he and his brother were drafted by the Japanese Army to fight in World War 2.
The army sent him to help defend their base in New Guinea.

While he was there, he lost his left arm (the arm he used to draw his art with) in the Allied bombings.
Unbelievably, he taught himself to draw using his other hand.

While he was in the base hospital recovering from his injuries, he met and became close to some of the local tribes-people.
The chief of the tribe offered him some land and a position in their tribe if he married the chief’s daughter.
He decided that the offer sounded good and told an officer in the army that he wanted to stay on the island after being discharged.
The army officer told he that he could stay there…but he should first return to Japan to say goodbye to his parents. He decided to follow that advice.

But upon returning to Japan, he decided that he couldn’t go back to New Guinea because his parents were ill and had no one else to care for them since Mr. Mizuki’s brother was convicted of war crimes by the Allies and executed.
So he stayed in Japan and cared for his parents…and he became a popular anime artist.

I wrote another post about 水木しげる (Shigeru Mizuki) and the 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (“Ge-ge-ge-no-Kitarou“) anime…click here.

Voice of 目玉おやじ R.I.P.

I’ve mentioned before that I like the Japanese manga and anime titled 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (“Gegege-no-Kitarou“).

It’s about a group of 妖怪 (ghouls) who help humans.

I have a few of the manga, I watch the anime on TV sometimes, and my family and I went to see both of the live-action movies at the theater.

I also like the artist, 水木しげる (Shigeru Mizuki). His life story is fascinating.
I wrote a bit about him and the 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (“Gegege-no-Kitarou“) on another post.
Click here read it.

Anyways, 田の中勇 (Isamu Tanonaka), the 政友 (“Seiyuu“)…”voice actor”…who did the voice of one of this show’s main characters–「目玉おやじ」 (“Medama-oyaji“) died last Wednesday.
He was 77 years old.

田の中勇 (Isamu Tanonaka), R.I.P.

I wrote a post last September about the death of the artist of another popular Japanese manga…Click here to read it.

うちの３姉妹

Do you know the words “manga” and “anime“?

Maybe they have become commons words in Western countries…but before I came to Japan in 1990, I had never heard either of those two terms before.

They are both Japanese words.
マンガ (Manga) is the word to describe Japanese comic books. アニメ (Anime) is a Japanese word that comes from the English word “animation”…it’s the word for Japanese cartoons.

Are you a manga and/or anime fan? (You don’t call yourself an オタク (otaku)*, do you??)

*(オタク (otaku) is another Japanese word that, it seems, is being used in Western countries that was never used in America when I lived there. オタク (Otaku) are compulsive fans.)

I’m not really a fan of manga or anime. I know some of them because I have three kids.

Sometimes I watch 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (Ge-ge-ge-no-Kitarou), 「ちびまる子ちゃん」 (Chibi-Maruko-chan), 「サザエさん」 (Sazae-san), 「あたしンち」 (Atashinchi), or 「クレヨンしんちゃん」 (Crayon-Shin-chan).
And sometimes I might read one of those series in manga.

I watch those anime series because they’re all funny and show average life in Japan.
I can relate.
(Well, 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (Ge-ge-ge-no-Kitarou) is about 妖怪 (ghosts)).

I occasionally read a manga in order to practice reading Japanese.

One manga that I like to read is called 「ダーリンは外国人」 (“My Darling Is A Foreigner“).
It’s written by a Japanese woman whose husband is an American. They live in Tokyo and the manga is a chronicle of their life in an international marriage.
I can relate to this comic, too.

Another one I like to read is called うちの３姉妹 (“Our Three Daughters“).
(うちの３姉妹 isn’t so easy to translate accurately! Something like “Our Family’s Three Sisters” is closer…but that sounds odd in English. Anyways, it means “Our Three Daughters”.)

The author of this one is a mother of three girls close in age…like my daughters are.
Her daughters are younger than mine…but I remember when my kids acted like hers do.
I can relate to this one, as well.

浮世絵

I like 浮世絵 (ukiyoe: Japanese woodblock prints).

Have you ever seen 浮世絵 (ukiyoe)?
It’s a traditional style of Japanese “painting“. Instead of using a brush, the picture is carved into woodblocks which are used like a printing press to make the picture.
But the whole picture isn’t carved into one block…different parts of the picture are carved into different blocks. So the picture is printed in layers.

It must have been alot of work!

I have seen a number of 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) exhibits at museums over the years.

As with many people, my favorite artists are 北斎 (Hokusai) and 広重 (Hiroshige).

One of the most famous (if not the most famous) 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) works is 神奈川沖波裏 (“The Great Wave Off Of Kanagawa“) by 北斎 (Hokusai):

I like that picture alot, too. But my personal favorites are the 妖怪 (monsters):

浮世絵 (ukiyoe) subjects aren’t usually 妖怪 (monsters) though. Common themes of 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) are 相撲 (sumo), 歌舞伎 (kabuki), 芸者 (geisha) and 自然 (nature).

Anyways, this month, the 江戸東京博物館 (Edo-Tokyo Museum) in Tokyo is having a couple of special exhibits.

One is the 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) collection from The Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston of America, and the other is a 「浅草今昔」 (“Asakusa: Then And Now“) exhibit.

I went to see them yesterday. It was pretty crowded in the museum because it was a Saturday, but it was enjoyable. As I said, I like 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) and I also like 下町 (traditional downtown areas of Japan) like 浅草 (Asakusa).

The 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) in the exhibit from the Boston Museum were items that were from three American’s personal collections.

It was interesting to see the types of art that Americans like to collect compared to the types of 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) that a Japanese person might choose.
Americans seem to like the very colorful, almost flashy pieces…but Japanese tastes tend to be more simple. I’ve lived in Japan for awhile now…I guess my style is more Japanese now.
It’s just an observation. Not to say one culture is better than another…just interesting to compare.

Inside the museum, there are places that it’s indicated that it’s OK to take a photo…but the 浮世絵 (ukiyoe) and 浅草今昔 (Asakusa: Then And Now) areas were marked 「撮影禁止」, which means “No Photography Allowed”, so I couldn’t take any photos of those exhibits.

But there was a traditional Japanese dance show at the museum that I was able to take a few videos of.

I took eight short video of this group, and uploaded them to My YouTube Page. They’re pretty good, click here to visit my YouTube page and you can see all of my videos.

Here’s one video of them:

After the museum, we walked to 浅草 (Asakusa), and visited a Japanese Garden there.

There was a man at the Japanese garden playing a 三味線 (Shamisen) which is a traditional Japanese instrument.
I took this video of him: