Welcome to the first issue of The OQ, the weekly OTAQUEST newsletter! (we are not counting our Best of 2020 special)
Remember that dialog box on our website that you entered your email into? Yeah, probably not. We haven’t done anything with it since forever, but that all changes today. This is your recap of the week’s most important Japanese pop and subculture news, delivered every Thursday. Hopefully, it’s also a little funny.
Welcome aboard.
1
You just got DMCA’d, son.
Last Friday morning, several high-profile One Piece and Dragon Ball creators woke up to copyright strikes on their Twitter accounts.
These included Artur of the Library of Ohara One Piece fan site and Fenyon, a popular Dragon Ball illustrator. What made Fenyon’s strikes doubly confusing was the fact that he has worked with Shueisha in the past to produce official Dragon Ball imagery: this spoke to how wide-ranging and indiscriminate these strikes were, prompting worldwide fan backlash.
Fast forward to Sunday evening, however, and it turns out that these strikes may have been hoaxes. Artur, at least, believes that it was a targeted attack by another content creator who has a history of harassment.
The real story here, though, is how fragile and easy to abuse Twitter’s copyright system is.
2
New year, new anime.
Now that 2021 is officially underway, there’s a bunch of new anime to check out. Many of our initial reviews are also up now.
VladLove, Mamoru Oshii’s first animated work in over a decade, got ahead of the pack by airing its first episode for free on YouTube almost three weeks ago. Chris Cimi called it ‘the hidden gem of 2021’ and praised the ‘endearing animation and... level of care only made possible with the involvement of an actual master.’
BEASTARS and Re:Zero are also back, finally continuing their respective stories after a long wait. In this sense, both initial episodes are in the same boat: stuck with bridging the gap between two separate but connected stories. According to Alicia Haddick, Re:Zerowas particularly bad: ‘As an episode, Re:Zero episode 39 is a strong one… It just doesn’t work as a season premiere.’ Ouch.
Finally, there’s also Cells at Work, which is in a unique situation as two different anime with two different concepts are airing at the same time. Alicia says that ‘Each show’s content enhances the message of the other… Whereas the concept and each anime are strong on their own, together they thrive.’ Nice.
3
Ghost of crowdfunding.
Ghost of Tsushima fans loved the game’s setting so much that they were willing to contribute to restoring one of it’s real-life inspirations.
One of the tori gates at Watatsumi Shrine has seen better days since being damaged during a recent typhoon on the island of Tsushima, causing it to look a far cry from how it appears in the game.
The shrine turned to the crowdfunding website Campfire to see if it couldn’t raise the necessary funds for its restoration, and was pleasantly surprised to see that Ghost of Tsushima players were more than happy to help out. It ended up raising 542% of its initial goal, gathering a whopping 27 million yen.
Now that’s a feel good story.
4
Not even Gintoki can escape Tanjiro.
The final Gintama movie finally ended Mugen Train’s domination at the Japanese box office, but even it had to pay tribute to Demon Slayer.
Distributed to those who attended screenings of Gintama: The Final were special illustrations of Kimetsu no Yaiba characters penned by original creator Hideaki Sorachi: this was mostly done as a joke, but does speak to how overwhelming the influence of Koyoharu Gotouge’s series has been.
In spite of the newly-declared State of Emergency, Gintama: The Final also managed to do quite well: earning 531,350,320 yen from 384,220 tickets in its opening weekend. This was 145% of the first film’s opening weekend and 102% of the second, therefore constituting the franchise’s biggest opening yet.
5
Taking fried chicken too far?
Family Mart’s ‘Famichiki’ brand of fried chicken is already notorious enough, but the convenience store chain might have gone too far with the new ‘Famichiki Burger.’
The deal is that you buy a regular piece of Famichiki for ¥120, then purchase the buns separately for an additional ¥82. Those buns also come with tartar sauce to give it a bit of a kick, although it must be said that the chicken is already delicious enough.
Is this taking Famichiki too far? Japanese people don’t seem to think so. When Corey Prasek tried to track one down, he was forced to visit three different Family Mart locations before giving up. They were sold out at every single one.\
6
If you’re still stuck inside, there’s movies to watch.
The Japan Society recently announced a bunch of films for streaming as part of their special 21st Century Japan initiative, including some that we have recommended before.
Part of the collection includes Sakuran by the visually distinct Mika Ninagawa, the Oscar-shortlistedConfessions by Tetsuya Nakashima, and Sion Sono’s latest, Red Post on Escher Street. Yukiko Mishima’s highly-anticipated Shape of Red will also be shown.
Less obvious choices include Still the Water by Naomi Kawase, Air Doll by Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Blanks by Kohki Hasei. Alicia has the full lowdown here.
For now, however, it is worth noting that this is available in the US only, so if you live elsewhere, you might be out of luck.
7
Hajime Isayama wants you to read Blue Lock.
The Attack on Titan author recently recommended Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yuusuke Nomura’s sports series in a special insert in volume 33. As it turns out, this praise is quite apt.
‘In Blue Lock, author Kaneshiro takes a hammer blow to the traditional notion of Japanese collectivism in an attempt to create the “world’s greatest egotist striker”,’ Jacob Parker-Dalton writes, ‘Attack on Titan is exploring these same ideas… If Blue Lock turns the mirror on Japanese football and, indeed, the society which it inhabits, then Titan is doing the same for shonen manga.’ Food for thought.
Unfortunately, the series has not yet been licensed in English. One hopes, however, that such high praise from such an esteemed author speeds the process along a bit.
8
Mune ga doki doki?
Detective Conan is asking fans to vote on what they think it's best OP and EDs are as part of the series’ ongoing 25th anniversary celebrations.
For Jacob, the best OP is ‘undoubtedly “Nazo” by Miho Komatsu. Used in the show from 7 April 1997 to 13 April 1998, it captures the old school appeal of classic Conan while also actually being about the themes of the show (mysteries, suspects, etc.).’ How about the ED? ‘probably “Kimi ga Inai Natsu” by DEEN.’
The other story here is the fact that all 52 openings and 62 endings have been uploaded in one place online for the very first time. They are region-locked to Japan, however, so you’ll have to get your VPN on.
9
Gucci gang, Gucci gang, Gucci gang…
When you think of Gucci, you don’t tend to think of a time traveling space cat. Nevertheless, the brand is crossing over with Doraemon to celebrate the New Year.
Adorning several different pieces of the Gucci catalog, it must be said that Fujiko F. Fujio’s iconic creation doesn’t look exactly out of place. In fact, he looks pretty cool, combining the worlds of Japanese kids entertainment and high fashion.
It ain’t cheap, though: the cheapest item is ¥69,000 (around $670 USD). Ouch.
10
A muted 10th anniversary.
A special exhibition has been announced to celebrate Silver Spoon’s 10th anniversary, but one hopes that this is the beginning of a larger project.
Hiromu Arakawa teased a new manga in Weekly Shonen Sunday when she ended Silver Spoon over a year ago, but there has yet to be any further news on that. As a result, this 10th anniversary exhibition is the first piece of content that Arakawa fans have gotten in a good while, so forgive us if we’re a little desperate.
The exhibition will display over 150 pieces of Silver Spoon art from the original manga when it opens this March. Let’s hope things surrounding COVID-19 have calmed down by then so we can go check it out.
See you next week!
The OTAQUEST team.
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