July 27, 2017
The bosozoku squat
In chapter 1 of Fox & Wolf, after giving him a thrashing, Yuki squats next to Jirou "bosozoku biker style, forearms resting on her knees, feet flat on the ground."
Courtesy of Dan Szpara, here's a veteran bosozoku (暴走族) biker dude showing how it's done.
As Szpara points out, the bosozoku have become a cliché, so in many cases the "acting out" just turns into "acting." Still, a few have kept the faith. Kyra Sacdalan describes the true believers as
As with the yakuza, the police in Japan have carte blanche to crack down as hard as necessary to maintain (the appearance of) public order. So these "wild ones" have to be careful about where and how they rebel.
But Harley-Davidson riders? "They appear to have an attitude which is carefree, cordial, and genuinely passionate."
Courtesy of Dan Szpara, here's a veteran bosozoku (暴走族) biker dude showing how it's done.
As Szpara points out, the bosozoku have become a cliché, so in many cases the "acting out" just turns into "acting." Still, a few have kept the faith. Kyra Sacdalan describes the true believers as
a gang, now a lifestyle, still notorious amongst police enforcement. So much so that certain colors and stylings of their flamboyant West Side Story meets Lost Boys uniform are illegal in Japan.
As with the yakuza, the police in Japan have carte blanche to crack down as hard as necessary to maintain (the appearance of) public order. So these "wild ones" have to be careful about where and how they rebel.
But Harley-Davidson riders? "They appear to have an attitude which is carefree, cordial, and genuinely passionate."
Labels: books, ebooks, fox and wolf, japanese culture, peaks island press, yakuza
August 12, 2013
The Wolf Children
Mamoru Hosoda started out his career working for franchise productions (Digimon, One Piece). With The Girl who Leapt through Time (2006), Summer Wars (2009), and now The Wolf Children (2012), he's proved himself one of the best and most original anime directors in the business.
The Wolf Children deserves a place alongside Miyazaki's "quiet fantasies" such as My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Whisper of the Heart. Like Miyazaki, Hosodo embraces the sentimental while avoiding the maudlin, communicating a deep sense of poignancy and loss that Miyazaki rarely achieves.
This is less the loss that comes from melodramatic tragedy (the father dies early on, in what is more of a preface to the rest of the movie) than the inevitable loss that comes from simply living a life to its fullest.
Hosoda has masterfully fused two fundamental concepts of Japanese aesthetics: wabi-sabi, the beauty of the old. Not that of antiques in a museum but objects allowed to age and wear in their natural settings. And awa're, "an awareness of impermanence or transience of things, and a gentle sadness at their passing."
This is a story about family, community, and coming-of-age in rural Japan, a part of Japanese society that is itself inexorably aging and wearing away. As he did in Summer Wars, Hosoda has taken a genre fantasy and moved it to the Japanese countryside (which, to much of his audience, is no less fantastical a setting).
The rural drama in Japan has become a genre of its own (a common variation is the island drama).
The best-known example outside Japan is probably Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro. A lesser-known Yoji Yamada classic is Harukanaru Yama no Yobigoe ("The Call of the Distant Mountains"). A wanted man on the run (Ken Takakura) is taken in by a widowed farmer's wife (Chieko Baisho) in Northern Japan.
In Home: Itoshi no Zashiki Warashi, struggling businessman Yutaka Mizutani gets transferred to the sticks. The traditional old house (similar to the one in The Wolf Children) he rents for his family turns out to be haunted by a zashiki warashi, the ghost of a child who brings good fortune to those who treat it well.
Like the zashiki warashi in Home, it's pretty much impossible not to read scads of metaphors into The Wolf Children. There's the obvious (little kids are wild animals), but Hosoda is tackling a much bigger theme: how the maladaptive adapt to societal norms. Or in some cases, how they simply choose not to.
Rarely has the truism that children grow up to pick their own paths in life been stated so unpretentiously and in such a heartfelt manner.
Thankfully, though, Hosoda doesn't let the "message" get in the way of taking the story literally either.
I saw The Wolf Children on TV Japan. It's been licensed by Funimation and is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
The Wolf Children deserves a place alongside Miyazaki's "quiet fantasies" such as My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Whisper of the Heart. Like Miyazaki, Hosodo embraces the sentimental while avoiding the maudlin, communicating a deep sense of poignancy and loss that Miyazaki rarely achieves.
This is less the loss that comes from melodramatic tragedy (the father dies early on, in what is more of a preface to the rest of the movie) than the inevitable loss that comes from simply living a life to its fullest.
Hosoda has masterfully fused two fundamental concepts of Japanese aesthetics: wabi-sabi, the beauty of the old. Not that of antiques in a museum but objects allowed to age and wear in their natural settings. And awa're, "an awareness of impermanence or transience of things, and a gentle sadness at their passing."
This is a story about family, community, and coming-of-age in rural Japan, a part of Japanese society that is itself inexorably aging and wearing away. As he did in Summer Wars, Hosoda has taken a genre fantasy and moved it to the Japanese countryside (which, to much of his audience, is no less fantastical a setting).
The rural drama in Japan has become a genre of its own (a common variation is the island drama).
The best-known example outside Japan is probably Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro. A lesser-known Yoji Yamada classic is Harukanaru Yama no Yobigoe ("The Call of the Distant Mountains"). A wanted man on the run (Ken Takakura) is taken in by a widowed farmer's wife (Chieko Baisho) in Northern Japan.
In Home: Itoshi no Zashiki Warashi, struggling businessman Yutaka Mizutani gets transferred to the sticks. The traditional old house (similar to the one in The Wolf Children) he rents for his family turns out to be haunted by a zashiki warashi, the ghost of a child who brings good fortune to those who treat it well.
Like the zashiki warashi in Home, it's pretty much impossible not to read scads of metaphors into The Wolf Children. There's the obvious (little kids are wild animals), but Hosoda is tackling a much bigger theme: how the maladaptive adapt to societal norms. Or in some cases, how they simply choose not to.
Rarely has the truism that children grow up to pick their own paths in life been stated so unpretentiously and in such a heartfelt manner.
Thankfully, though, Hosoda doesn't let the "message" get in the way of taking the story literally either.
I saw The Wolf Children on TV Japan. It's been licensed by Funimation and is available on DVD and Blu-ray.
Labels: anime reviews, fantasy, fox and wolf, funimation, hosoda, miyazaki, movie reviews, movies about japan, science fiction, tv japan
January 14, 2013
The shoe locker network
In chapter 15 of Fox & Wolf, Ami leaves a note for Yuki in her shoe locker.
Street shoes aren't worn inside Japanese schools. Instead, students don school slippers in the front foyer (genkan). Consequently, school foyers are equipped with rows of cubbyhole shoe lockers.
Because nobody goes home without his shoes, leaving a note in a student's locker (this is Japan, so they're not locked) is the "Pony Express of the secondary school communication network."
No high school romance is complete without a shoe locker communique. Here is a perfect illustration of that dynamic at play (click to enlarge).
Street shoes aren't worn inside Japanese schools. Instead, students don school slippers in the front foyer (genkan). Consequently, school foyers are equipped with rows of cubbyhole shoe lockers.
Because nobody goes home without his shoes, leaving a note in a student's locker (this is Japan, so they're not locked) is the "Pony Express of the secondary school communication network."
No high school romance is complete without a shoe locker communique. Here is a perfect illustration of that dynamic at play (click to enlarge).
Labels: fox and wolf, japanese culture
January 07, 2013
The Wolf Children
I was finishing the final draft of Fox & Wolf when I read this review of Mamoru Hosoda's Okami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki ("The wolf children Ame and Yuki"). The similarities in the genre and even names caught my attention.
Yuki and Ami are fairly common names, though Ame is not. Hosoda's Yuki was born on a snowy day. My Yuki has a snow-white coat. Ami means "beautiful madder" (she's a red fox). Ame means "rain."
My Yuki was raised in the wilds of Hokkaido by her werewolf aunt. I imagine something along the lines of the short-lived 2001 CBS/SyFy fantasy series Wolf Lake, about a mountain town run by its werewolf inhabitants.
Yuki's mother and father also meet at college, though my Yuki's mother is the wolf, and her father is from an aristocratic family.
The plots are worlds apart. However, "as Yuki grows from pint-sized hellion to school-age girl, she decides she wants a more normal life" does describe my Yuki's character arc (though it's hardly a unique one).
In a sense, Okami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki explains what Ami's mom was trying to avoid by denying her daughter's fox nature. As a result, Ami doesn't confront the realities of her were-self until she runs into Yuki in high school.
Okami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki has been licensed by Funimation (no release date yet). Fox & Wolf is available now!
Hosoda previous two films, Summer Wars and The Girl who Leapt through Time, are also highly recommended.
Yuki and Ami are fairly common names, though Ame is not. Hosoda's Yuki was born on a snowy day. My Yuki has a snow-white coat. Ami means "beautiful madder" (she's a red fox). Ame means "rain."
My Yuki was raised in the wilds of Hokkaido by her werewolf aunt. I imagine something along the lines of the short-lived 2001 CBS/SyFy fantasy series Wolf Lake, about a mountain town run by its werewolf inhabitants.
Yuki's mother and father also meet at college, though my Yuki's mother is the wolf, and her father is from an aristocratic family.
The plots are worlds apart. However, "as Yuki grows from pint-sized hellion to school-age girl, she decides she wants a more normal life" does describe my Yuki's character arc (though it's hardly a unique one).
In a sense, Okami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki explains what Ami's mom was trying to avoid by denying her daughter's fox nature. As a result, Ami doesn't confront the realities of her were-self until she runs into Yuki in high school.
Okami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki has been licensed by Funimation (no release date yet). Fox & Wolf is available now!
Hosoda previous two films, Summer Wars and The Girl who Leapt through Time, are also highly recommended.
Labels: fantasy, fox and wolf, funimation, hosoda, japan, japanese movie reviews, science fiction