There’s a fantastic discussion going on in the JNC forums right now about J-tin appearances in anime. We never knew there were so many animated nostalgics and are blown away by what readers have uncovered.
One of the hidden gems has been JT191’s choice of Crayon Shin-Chan: The Adult Empire Strikes Back. Not only does it have a massive car chase, but heaps of references to kyusha culture. And thanks to that, we have a new JNC Contest below. (more…)
Yesterday at Odaiba there was a car show that featured the odd combination of American muscle cars and itasha. Itasha is the latest Japanese fad, in which fans of anime and manga plaster their cars with large images of their favorite characters.
The term “itasha” means literally “painful car,” painful for both the wallet and the ego because the itasha know full well that real car guys look upon their rides with disdain. It can also be a pun for “Italian car” although itasha fans often use BMWs or otherwise desireable 180SXs, Soarers and Evos as a canvas.
I didn’t go to the show, but got the above photo from Mooneyes, which says (thankfully) there were many empty spaces and the show was kind of a dud.
Recently in our forum there’s been an ongoing discussion about the Wangan Midnight movie from back in the days of VHS. The story of the Devil Z has also been retold in anime and its original manga form. Now it appears that a new big screen version is in the works! (more…)
We’ve had a streak of poorlycustomized Z-Cars recently, but here’s a radically modified one that still turns out to be pretty durned cool. Anyone that liked the original Transformers remembers Prowl, Autobot Military Strategist, Optimus Prime’s second-in-command, and all-around badass. His alternate form was not only a Datsun Fairlady Z, but a hard-core highway patrol version in a Japanese police paint scheme. (more…)
The new Speed Racer live-action seizure movie opened this weekend to poor reviews. Therefore, we thought it would be nice to see some of the original Japanese anime about a boy and his car. We can all relate to that, right?
The Japanese version is called Mach GoGoGo but the Japanese pronounce it “Mahha GoGo” (note that one Go is not pronounced). It follows protagonist Goh Mifune, named by the creators after Toshiro Mifune, the star of films like Seven Samurai. The “M” logo on Speed’s helmet is actually that of Mifune Motors, the family business.
According to this article, neither creator Tatsuo Yoshida or director Tsuyoshi Sasakawa were car enthusiasts or even owned a drivers license. But that’s ok. The anime was always an allegory of Japan’s rapid post-war modernization anyway. It debuted in 1967 and after some quick dubbing sessions, soon became a worldwide hit.
For many of us Westerners, it was our first contact with anime and its catchy theme song and vivid colors were seared into our childhood memories, much like this remake sears retinas. Or, at least we imagine it would. We haven’t actually seen it, but considering the reviews and the critic-confirmed discontinuity with the original, we plan to skip it like the Mach 5 over a rival with its Auto Jacks.
In Japan, the 60s manga and anime series known here as Speed Racer is so popular that it’s even spawned a chain of service stations and used car lots. Everything is Speed Racer themed, including the in-store service computer menus.
Except it’s not really Speed Racer per se; the proper Japanese title is Mach GoGoGo, a pun on the word usually following “ready” and “set” and the number 5, which is pronounced “go” in Japanese. That’s why Speed’s car is called the Mach 5. Even Speed’s Japanese name is Goh Mifune.
Follow the jump to see more pics of the Mach 5 service stations. (more…)
Seriously, Hollywood? Were the millions you made peddling dumbed-down versions of Speed Racer and Transformers not enough? You even managed to dumb down Knight Rider, which had the intelligence of a baked potato to begin with. Do you really need another mountain of gold scraped from the treasured memories of our youth to fill the vaults of your McStudio? Please, Hollywood, no more. We’re begging you. For the love of wrinkly mutant babies, just let us hang on to this one unsullied shred of our childhood.
Readers, in case you haven’t heard, the latest casualty in the remake rampage is Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo’s groundbreaking series about a delinquent biker gang in post-WW3 Neo-Tokyo. If Akira was a car, it’d already be a classic, according to most states’ 25-year threshold. But hell, those who’ve seen it know it was a classic on the day it was born.
Publication started in 1982 in Young Magazine, the Japanese manga weekly also responsible reigniting our passion for hachirokus and Fairlady Zs with Initial-D and Wangan Midnight. It was widely acclaimed as one of the best manga of all time. Likewise, the 1988 anime adaptation cost $10 million for its revolutionary artwork, a record sum at the time, and is credited with introducing Japanimation to the western world.
We’ve watched it at least three times and we still don’t fully understand what the heck is going on. All we know is that it takes place in a dystopian 2030, after Tokyo has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb. And it contains layers of subplots involving terrorists, government conspiracies, nightmarish children that look 87 years old, a hallucinotastic trip with creepy anthropomorphic toys, and killer motorcycle chases. In other words, Totally. F’in. Cool.
In fact, the bikes ridden by main characters Kaneda and Tetsuo have become so iconic that fans have created a slew of real-life replicas. If only Akira’s transformation into live action were to stop there. But no, Warner Brothers is strip-mining this specimen of storytelling perfection and putting Leonardo “King of the World” DiCaprio and some other guy we’ve never heard of in the leading roles. Also, they’re moving the whole setting to Manhattan. At this point, why not just call it something else? Because they want to extinguish our souls, that’s why.
Back in June we mentioned that a Speed Racer-inspired movie was in the works. Now, thanks to Jalopnik, we have the first screenshots from the upcoming film. To call the Wachowski Brothers’ take on the anime classic “live action” would be a stretch, given all the apparent computer animation going on. Let’s hope it’s a little bit more comprehensible than the brothers’ Matrix trilogy and a little bit less of a nostalgia exploiting money-grab than the VW commercial. The movie is scheduled to open May 9, 2008.
Akio Asakura was just another high school senior who couldn’t graduate due to one too many a late night cruising in his Z31 300ZX 2+2. That is, until one fateful day when he stumbled upon a lightly scuffed 240Z with a turbocharged L28 and full race suspension and roll cage. Despite the junkyard owner’s strict instructions to scrap it, as the car was cursed and had killed its previous owner, he sold it to the lad anyway. Now Akio prowls the legendary Bayshore Route hunting down Porsches and Skyline GT-Rs in what other midnight racers call “The Devil Z.” Nostalgic power, baby!
Sadly, none of this is true. It’s all a petrol-powered figment of Michiharu Kusunoki’s imagination, but that doens’t make it any less real for fans of the manga Wangan Midnight. Now the series has been transformed from ink and paper into all it’s full-color animated glory by OB Planning, the same production company and legion of Korean animators who adapted Initial-D and instantly made “hachiroku” part of the American lexicon.
Wangan Midnight seems to have learned from the missed shifts of its predecessor, with computer-generated cars seamlessly integrated into backgrounds drawn in the more traditional method of paintbrush, making for some truly breathtaking angles of a dark blue 240Z in motion. Thankfully, the accompanying engine sounds are so beautifully recorded that they make up for the aural assault of J-pop R&B so cheesy it should come with a warning for the lactose intolerant.
The first episode aired June 8th on the Japanese satellite network Animax, but the enterprising among you will surely have no problem finding the fansubbed version that’s been circulating the web faster than a blast around the Wangan.
Okay, at first we weren’t going to mention this, seeing as how the Duper Wachowski Bros. turned one of the best films of all time, The Matrix, into one of the most inexplicable franchises of all time. But what the hell. It’s old, it’s Japanese, it’s vehicular.
We speak of the Speed Racer live action film by the Wachowskis that’s due out in 2008, based on, of course, the 1966 anime of the same name or, if you prefer, Mach Go Go Go! in Japanese. It was imported into the US in 1967 and is one of the earliest examples of the craft to gain worldwide success.
Apparently, there is a person named Emile Hirsch, and has been cast as Speed. Gothy Christina Ricci will play Trixie, Lost’s Matthew Fox is Racer X, John Goodman plays Pops, and Susan Sarandon will aim for another Oscar for her heart-wrenching performance as Speed’s Mom. No word yet on whether Nicholas Cage or George W. Bush will be cast as Chim-Chim.
Of course, we all know the real star of the show will be the Mach 5, Speed’s pimped out race whip that cast the principle of weight reduction to the wind with its plethora of gadgets. It’s been updated with a longer nose and more blingy wheels, but it’s still all business. The identity of the base car that donated its chassis for the making of the Mach 5 is unknown as of now. Datsun 280ZX, perhaps?
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