You know, I was sat here worried I’d never get the chance to see the new Evangelion movie, but it’s finally happening! And so soon, too!
I may not have been around when the series first burst onto the scene, and everyone here at OTAQUEST kept on telling me how good it was, so I just had to check it out. I watched it all in a week, thanks to my friend Carley’s guide! I couldn’t get enough! I’ll definitely be hopping down to the cinema as soon as I can to see it.
If you want to talk about Evangelion or any other anime you’ve been watching, don’t forget to join our Discord! We talk about more than just anime, manga, and games, too.
I am Ura, your Eva-piloting tour guide in this amazing journey into Japanese pop, geek, and sub culture.
Thank you for joining us.
1
Evangelion Finally Hits Theaters (in Japan)
Fingers crossed, the Evangelion movie franchise will finally come to an end this month as Evangelion 3.0+1.0 finally hits the Japanese box office on 8 March 2021. Having been delayed twice already, the decision to announce a release date less than two weeks away is a bold decision that hopefully signals confidence from Studio Khara that the movie will finally come out this time.
Evangelion is easily the most exciting thing to look forward to in terms of new anime this month. After a release date was announced just 10 days before the movie’s planned for 8 March, we barely have time to get excited before the movie comes out. And there’ll be a 12-minute preview of the movie this weekend, if that’s not enough.
But that’s not the only thing coming to Japanese theaters this month, with a number of exciting releases coming out alongside Evangelion. Alongside some major success stories from the past month like I Fell in Love Like a Flower Bouquet and the continued success of Demon Slayer, Japanese theaters are slowly recovering from the impact of COVID-19.
As Alicia Haddick explained in the first of her articles examining the Japanese box office, ‘The first few months of the year in Japanese theaters, even in normal times, are pretty quiet when it comes to new releases... However, that doesn’t mean the box office isn’t hiding its own share of success stories and failures in these turbulent times.’
2
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan on Netflix
The Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan OVAs offer something incredibly special in the wait for the inevitable adaptation of Stone Ocean: a completely different JoJo experience, centering on a character we know and love, but using him in entirely different ways.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is back, but not in the format we’re used to. And we have to thank Netflix for that!
Rather than adapting the mainline series, however, these OVAs are adapting a series of manga one-shots spun off from Part 4 of the series and centered on the character of Kishibe Rohan, a manga artist who travels around the world to get inspiration from people's lives. He does this, using his stand.
The OVA adaptation, released periodically from 2017 until 2020 and compiled together for a worldwide release by Netflix, does justice to this unique story within the world of JoJo. As Jacob Parker-Dalton notes, ‘One of my only criticisms of the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan OVAs is that there aren’t more of them, which isn’t exactly a bad problem to have.’
3
The Househusband Makes His Nest This April
The Way of the Househusband (known as Gokushufudo in Japan) is one of the most hilarious manga series that I have read in quite some time.
We’re fans of The Way of the Househusband here at OTAQUEST, so the news it was getting an anime adaptation left us excited. Seeing the results... we’re not so sure anymore.
‘I think they were going for the opportunity to mimic the design of the manga with The Way of the Househusband anime adaptation. I don’t think it looks good in any matter, but I don’t think it looks as bad as, say, EX-ARM.’ (Chris Cimi)
We’ll have to see if it looks better in the context of a full anime when it releases on 8 April
4
COVID-19 Infects One of Japan’s Longest-Running Manga
‘Japan’s favorite fictional salaryman Kosaku Shima has contracted COVID-19.‘
You may not have heard of Kosaku Shima, but people in Japan sure have. The manga series featuring the character has been diligently running in Weekly Morning for over 40 years and has never been afraid to incorporate real-life events into its stories. This time, COVID-19 has entered the world of Consultant Kosaku Shima, and our salaryman protagonist has got the bug.
This caused some celebrities to worry about the fictional character’s health. As Jacob made clear in his reporting, ‘Media personality Shoko Nakagawa tweeted out on 25 February that she was worried about him. “I hope that he recovers with no side effects,” she said, also praising author Kenshi’s ability to always “read the signs of the times and depict them” in his manga.’
We hope for the same thing!
5
Final Fantasy VII Remake Is Back!
In a relatively uneventful Playstation State of Play, it was announced that Final Fantasy VII Remake would be coming to PS5 with bonus content in the form of Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade.
It always felt like Final Fantasy VII Remake coming to PS5 was a matter of when, not if, but it’s nice to see it confirmed alongside a few surprises that expand the world of the remake.
Final Fantasy VII Remake was announced as part of Sony’s State of Play online event, which is set to feature a new story centered on Yuffie, alongside a visually beefed-up version of the original game. Square Enix coupled the announcement with two surprising mobile game announcements: Ever Crisis, a title bringing together the original Final Fantasy VII story and its spin-off experiences into a playable chapter-based mobile game. The other game, The First Soldier, well... that’s a Battle Royale. Yep.
Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade hits PS5 this June, with the mobile titles coming soon. We’re intrigued about those mobile titles, at the very least, although the jury is still out on those.
6
Tokyo Ghoul Spooks up Ikebukuro
‘Whether you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Tokyo Ghoul fan or would just want to spend an hour looking at cool art, we can’t imagine the officially titled “Sui Ishida Exhibition: Tokyo Ghoul > Jack Jeanne” disappointing anyone who walked in.’
There’s a Tokyo Ghoul exhibition going on in Ikebukuro right now, and our very own Chris Cimi ventured to check out the event for himself.
This exhibit showcased art from throughout the Tokyo Ghoul franchise’s history that, according to Cimi, was impressive enough to look at that veterans and newcomers would come away impressed by what was on display. And the photographs only support this point!
It helps that Sui Ishida works with digital art for the series. ‘Ishida does 99% of their work digitally, so much of the color pieces you’re seeing are high-resolution prints, though original pages of older hand-drawn one-shots were also on display.’
Even at a steep 2000 yen entry fee, it looks worth a visit if you happen to live in Tokyo at the moment. It runs until 13 March!
7
Trans Women Are Women, Even in Anime
‘I’m not sure the anime fandom has ever rallied around what a character represents in quite the way many fans rushed to celebrate Hoshikawa Lily’s trans identity upon its exploration in Zombieland Saga episode 8... It’s just a shame the promotional material for Zombieland Saga is unable to offer Hoshikawa Lily the same level of respect fans share for her.‘
Hoshikawa Lily from Zombieland Saga was a rare positive piece of trans representation in anime, and was rightly celebrated by fans all over the world as such.
However, as Alicia Haddick pointed out, some of the Japanese promotional material for the series isn’t as respectful of Lily’s transgender identity than the English promotional content can often be. ‘In celebration of the announcement of season 2, Animage ran a cover feature about the anime, featuring an introduction to the series, long interviews, and coverage of the live concert where the news was broken. Such an in-depth feature is typically created with a level of production approval given the content featured in the magazine. In this magazine, Lily is referred to as male.’
Hopefully this is something that can be rectified going forward, as it shouldn’t be happening and disrespects Lily’s gender.
8
More Classic Anime Comes to Vinyl
‘Maybe now that the Roujin Z Soundtrack is coming to vinyl, like the record-wax its music will be pressed onto, the series will come back in vogue.’
We like to hype up the classics here at OTAQUEST just as much as we wish to remain on the cutting-edge of Japanese pop culture. This means talking about Roujin Z just as much as we talk about One Piece, and sharing the wonderful news that the anime’s soundtrack is being released on vinyl.
Our writer Chris Cimi sure is excited. ‘One nice thing about being an old-head who would get excited about purchasing a Roujin Z soundtrack on vinyl is that you probably can afford to buy a Roujin Z soundtrack on vinyl.’
Made in tandem with Toyo Kasei’s ‘ANIME SONGS on Vinyl 2021’ initiative, the red-splashed red wax disc will set you back 4,400 yen when it releases on 24 April.
9
Visit Club Cyberia Online in This Present Day, Present Time
‘Top Japanese DJ WASEI “JJ” CHIKADA has started a weekly series of Club Cyberia Wired music streaming shows, inspired by the ever-enduring Serial Experiments Lain.’
Speaking of older anime (we’re talking about a few of those this week!), we love Serial Experiments Lain and love to discuss any cool projects that come from it. With the series going open-source, it’s easier than ever for people to make derivative content on the series, and in a sign of the times, popular Japanese DJ and actual DJ in the anime WASEI “JJ” CHIKADA has made a weekly online DJ streaming show with music sets inspired by and integrated Serial Experiments Lain.
As Alicia Haddick pointed out, ‘In 2021, the line between reality and the internet is as hard-to-discern as ever, as we’ve been forced to rely on the web as a vital area of communication. Also, the series is now open source, making it open season to create works derived from the series, paving the way for Club Cyberia Wired.’
Nightclubs are a difficult prospect in the age of COVID, and we’re now using the internet more than ever. The prophecy of Lain is becoming more accurate by the day. What embodies Serial Experiments Lain more than this? It helps the music is good too. Check it out on YouTube!
10
How Pokémon Shaped the Staff at OTAQUEST
‘Some members of our wonderful OTAQUEST team are a little too young to remember the first wave of Pokemania. For those of us with a gray hair or two, the 25th anniversary of the franchise has us feeling a little strange... It’s no overstatement: Pokémon absolutely defined many of our young lives.’
Pokémon is 25 years old now, and the hot takes are coming out. Ura-chan told you to be excited for Pokémon content coming to OTAQUEST, and the staff here at the site shared their own favorite memories of a franchise that changed the world as we know it.
Everyone here at the site was impacted in different ways, whether it be Carley wearing Pokémon shirts to school, Jeremy sharing his memories of Pokémania, James discussing the anime and the memes, or Alicia discussing her love for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.
Pokémon shaped us all here at OTAQUEST, and alongside sharing the latest goings on in Japanese pop culture and expanding the common understanding of otaku, we want to discuss why we’re all invested in Japanese pop culture in all its forms. And who didn’t have Pokémon as a gateway drug?
Video Corner
‘Pokemon has reached its 25th anniversary and the latest Pokemon Presents presentation was all about honoring the fourth generation of the games, Diamond and Pearl, originally releasing in 2006. This included both the fan-requested remake and also Pokemon Legends: Arceus, a Breath of the Wild-style open-world game set in historical Sinnoh. But honestly, while Legends might be great, all this presentation seemed to be telling me is that it was time for yet another replay of Platinum. Because Sinnoh is a great world to explore just as it is.’
See you next week!
Ura and the OTAQUEST team.
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