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Back in August, Decultureshock roving contributors Cassie and Chris had the rather enviable opportunity to interview the man himself, Shoji Kawamori, at Otakon. But this was no normal interview, it was a guerrilla interview, literally conducted on the run in a hallway at the con!
The following is what he had to say on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from Pandora to Lady M.
Originally written by Renato on September 2, 2015
We’ve all thought about it, some of us more vocally than others, and on Thursday last week, the mysterious Mr. K from Arcadia — previously Yamato — took some time to publish a long blog post on the topic of why Arcadia’s products are so highly priced.
The really high quality transforming Macross toys have never been cheap. No, not even the Takatoku 1/55. But Arcadia’s recent offerings have finally broken the 30,000 yen barrier. Some of us in the forums felt that Arcadia had gone insane. Well, this here is a unique opportunity to peek at what actually goes into producing a Valkyrie toy and give a bit more context to the figures.
The original article by Mr. K is here:
http://ameblo.jp/arcadiaac/entry-12066413053.html
What follows is a translation of the entire text, which you can read after the jump.
(All photos are official Arcadia promo images, except for the Lupin III toy photo which is just the normal state of Renato’s living room table 😛 )
Photo courtesy of entertainmentstation.jp
In case you’re wondering, the title of this episode refers to the series of Macross nooks we found while visiting Macross The Art (pictured above).
Similarly, this episode is a series of reports and discoveries the likes of which have never been covered by a single podcast ever before!
We visit Macross the Art, uncover long-lost VF-0 lineart, hear a live audio commentary by Shoji Kawamori himself and learn all about the making of the notorious SDFM episode “Phantasm”.
But that’s just the beginning! We then meet conductor Kenichi Shimura and experience Yoko Kanno’s BGM work on Macross Frontier performed by a full orchestra. After that, it’s time to talk to the scenario writer of Macross, Kenichi Matsuzaki about the Supervision Army and hear mechanical designer Kazutaka Miyatake discuss his new personal best work.
It’s more deculture than ever before, so throw on some headphones, kickback, and enjoy.
These shots were instrumental in the making of “Phantasm”.
Ikebukuro Marui Department Store has just opened an exhibit celebrating Patlabor’s 30th Anniversary. The exhibit is scheduled to run until December 24, however the SpeakerPODcast Crew dropped by on Friday night to check it out before the weekend crowds hit (the crowds today are apparently pretty crazy).
The exhibit covers all major entries in the Patlabor franchise with the exception of 2014’s live action “The Next Generation”. While much of the display includes art that has been available in various books before, this is the first time many of the originals have been displayed. It was also nice to see the designs from 2016’s 8-minute “Patlabor Reboot” short getting some attention – the only time they’ve been seen anywhere outside the booklet that came with the bluray set.
Unfortunately, with the exception of a new key visual illustration, there was was no news on the much teased “Patlabor EZY”, although the exhibit booklet lists it as coming in “2020?” so hopefully information will start to drop sometime next year.
In the meantime, enjoy the pics!
For an all-too-brief 9-day period between November 12-20, Seibu Ikebukuro Department Store hosted an exhibit of the works of Kazuhiro Fujita. Known primarily outside of Japan for Ushio & Tora, which received an all-new tv anime adaptation in 2015-2016, Fujita is celebrating his 30th anniversary as a manga artist and a new animated adaptation of Karakuri Circus started airing on Japanese tv in October.
Fortunately photographs were permitted at the exhibit however even on the second last day, the crowds were large enough to make actually taking them difficult in many cases. The lighting didn’t particularly help all that much either. Having said that, the following gallery are the pics that we did manage to get. It focuses more on the Ushio & Tora section of the exhibit with a smattering of pics from the other sections, including the wall-sized mural that Kazuhiro Fujita painted just for the exhibit. Enjoy!