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.
Here’s another car-based manga to add to your library in addition to Initial-D, Wangan Midnight and Garage Restore 251. It’s Arthur Garage, a series published in Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine.
From what we can gather based on extremely limited Japanese skills, it follows the exploits of Asao “Arthur” Harada, a used car dealer that has fallen on hard times. His business is failing, he owes money to the yakuza, and his wife has just left him. Still, he presses on with his love for used cars, missing the Nissan Gloria he once owned. (more…)
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…)
DMP’s Project X: Datsun Fairlady Z, tells the story of the iconic Japanese sports car in graphic form. Unlike Wangan Midnight, this is non-fiction and has characters like Mr. K and Yoshihiko Matsuo. The description goes like this.
In 1960s America, the Japanese automobile was seen as a “second-class” inferior. In spite of it all, men dared to dream of building a world beating Japanese sports car. Through the innovative zeal of Yutaka Katayama (now reverently known as “Mr. K”) and the genius of designer Yoshihiko Matsuo, this dream became reality in the form of the legendary sports car, the Nissan Fairlady Z. Known as the Datsun 240z in America, this automobile was an unprecedented success and is still beloved today. The dramatic story of these men who refused to be beaten by the hardships they encountered will inspire all who read it.
It’s been around for a while but we’re not really hip to the whole manga scene. At least now we can sleep better knowing that the Z-car is among other hallowed cultural landmarks covered in the Project X series such as, um, 7-11 and Cup Noodle.
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.
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.
Our Aussie friends at grandJDM bring us news of a new movie about rallying coming out in Japan. SS, an abbreviation for Special Stage, is based on a manga of the same title, and while Sho Aikawa is the leading name on the credits, we all know the real stars are the cars.
The protago-mobile will be an AWD Mitsubishi Starion, and according to the official website, supporting roles will include a GDB Subaru Impreza WRX STi, R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R, Techart Porsche Cayman, Ford Focus RS (that would be a hotted-up European Focus, not the Hertz fleet darling we get here), and the manga-biquitous Toyota AE86.
The trailer promises all manner of nighttime mountain racing and what appears to be the requisite underdog story. Check out the an English article here. The film opens January 12, 2008. We eagerly await the inevitable Tomica versions.
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.
