WELL HELLO EVERYONE! Welcome to your official (as official as this can be) Thanksgiving edition of Headlinin'. We're a day late this week since we were returning from a conference in Nashville, which reminds me...
We hit the Pinewood Social on Friday night for an Alumni Reunion! Thanks/shout outs to Sarah (Third Impact '14) and Andrew (Animated Spring '17) for coming by for a discussion of desserts, magical onsens, and the intricacies of Nashville beer. <3 If you're a tour alum, we'll be doing a lot more of these in the months to come because we like to travel and see you guys. Come through! :D
We start this week with the **biggest entertainment news **in Japan's year...
KOUHAKU UTAGASSEN LINEUP ANNOUNCED!
In Japan, one of the year's most watched programs is broadcast live on New Year's Eve, on public television. It's called the **Year-End Song Festival, **or "Kohaku Uta Gassen." The concept, for the uninitiated: two "teams" of musical artists, the "Red" team (Ladies) and the "White" team (Gents) compete to see who can give the best performances during a four-hour year end live show. While called a "competition," it's pretty friendly in nature and is more or less a chance to see a bunch of famous artists singing in one place at the same time. Nevertheless, getting an invite to this is a big deal in the music world, and you're guaranteed to have a lot of people watching since the new year in Japan is like Christmas in the USA: Nothing is open and everyone is home with their family, so all you can do is be social with your relatives or watch TV. I'm sure some of us can relate on Thanksgiving week, right? ^_~
NHK announced the lineup last week [NHK]. Some of the big names making repeat appearances (with YouTube links when available*): Shiina Ringo, AKB 48, Hirai Ken, Hoshino Gen, and Perfume. Getting their first invites to the competition this year: K-Pop sensation TWICE, rock outfit SHISHAMO, boy band Hey! Say! JUMP!, and alt-rock outfit/band with awesome name Elephant Kashimashi. The buzziest addition by far is TWICE, who will be the first K-Pop group to hit Kohaku since 2011 [All K-Pop/Mantan Web/Every K-Pop blog on the internet]; that year, KARA, TVXQ (also known as DBSK/Tohoshinki/so many names omg) and Girls Generation all performed.
Now I'm happy for the performers and the announcements as usual, but the real reason I'm pumped for Kohaku this year? The host: **Uchimura Teruyoshi, **also known as Ucchan.
This man, my friends, is a national treasure. He got his start as part of manzai (japanese vaudeville-esque comedy) duo Ucchan Nacchan. You may have seen him online as part of the Warau Inu series of variety shows, which most famously produced the song Yatta! that took the internet by storm in 2001. Uchimura was not one of the people who donned leaf underwear and sung, but he WAS a part of some of the show's funniest sketches, including a series of skits about an actor so into himself that he creates a film in which he plays every part, sings the theme song, and tries to incorporate every film genre into a six minute short:
Seriously, skip to the 4 minutes in and listen to the song. MAGIC. I want him to sing like that at Kohaku. Please god, oh please. Evan needs this. If he doesn't sing, can we at least get him to dress in one of his old costumes from Warau Inu? Maybe this one?
I know NHK can be kind of pushy about formality, but I really hope they let Ucchan kick back and get his silly on. Back in politics...
POLITICS AND ANIME DO NOT MIX (USUALLY)
While our politicians are busy harassing women and finally (FINALLY) getting in trouble for it, in Japan harassing women [Japan Times] is still totally okay! Anime fans, however? That'll get you in trouble.
LDP Politician/Neighbor who spies at you through his window Yamamoto Ichita apologized for saying that liking Anime leads you to a life of crime [Anime News Network] last week on his blog. His apology, which was written in a less formal/more friendly tone, stated that as a representative of "the party supporting Cool Japan", to criticize fans was a "complete mistake." No word on whether anime fan, LDP veteran and ex-Prime Minister Taro Aso sent him a bunch of mean texts on LINE about his comments. And if he did, man oh man, I wish I could see those...
SHARKS IN OHIO: SAMEZU CREATOR GOING TO OHAYOCON!
Speaking of LINE stickers: one of my favorite graphic designers and character designers is coming to America! From Arimura Moha's Twitter:
Samezu creator Arimura Moha will be making his first US appearance in Columbus, Ohio at Ohayocon in January. For those not in the know: Arimura has been doing character work for years now, but really caught fire when his series of silly sharks doing silly things, Samezu, got a lot of attention online. He's also doing a series of comics about what demon dog Kereberos would be like if he were a cute puppy. It's hilarious.
I'm hoping that more graphic designers doing this sort of thing in Japan get more attention in the states. We certainly tried to help when ChibiTora designer and awesome person Kagezi joined us at Anime Expo last year.
I had the opportunity to meet Arimura-sensei this summer and he is a really fantastic, humorous creator who clearly loves doing the work he does. I have a humble request for somoene in Ohio: someone please, please help this dude get some Buckeye Ice Cream. Please.
Okay guys, that's all for us! Enjoy your turkey week!
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Happy Monday and welcome to Headlinin’! Before I get to the news, I want to give a shoutout to the Kanto to Kansai 2015 alums. We decided to have a get together in Vegas this weekend, and it was a blast in so many ways (those buffets are no joke, friends).
SKATING!
We also watched the NHK Figure Skating Competition , where life truly imitated art when the Japan team duo of Ryuichi Kihara and Miu Suzaki performed their pair skate routine to music from the skating anime YURI!!! on ICE. As a fan of the show myself, I assume I was not the only one who was extremely excited by this development. And for the record, I did not squeal or make funny noises. Nope, not me. I'm a professional. If you want to watch the routine (before YouTube yanks it down), head here.
The Osaka event was missing the presence of recent Olympic medalist and Captain of the SS Dreamboat Yuzuru Hanyu, who was out after injuring his ankle in practice before the event. He's currently undergoing rehabilitation for four weeks (or maybe longer), and hopefully he'll make a full recovery with the PyeongChang games less than three months away. Without Hanyu, Japan did not take any medals in the Men's, Women's, or Pairs competitions. However, US Skater and fourth-place finisher Jason Brown shared the world's most adorable get well message when the NHK cameras panned to him, which he later shared on twitter:
The competition wasn't the same without Yuzuru tonight, but wishing him the most speedy recovery!! ゆずる選手がいない大会はいつもと雰囲気が違った。。。早く良くなりますようにお祈りしています。❤️✨ pic.twitter.com/44DI9ACvup
— Jason Brown (@jasonbskates) November 10, 2017
It was cool to see everyone so friendly at the competition despite the Olympics looming. As a bonus, here's a pic of the selfie the three winners shared on the podium:
Their love is more precious than fine diamonds.
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Hi everyone! It’s Monday, the sun is out (in Southern California at least), we’re three days away from the next tour on our schedule – it’s a good week here at PacSet.
Oh, and we launched a new website. Welcome to PacSet 3.0, guys!
We’re also starting a new blog this week, and every Monday, I’ll be here to talk about the news in Japan. The column is called…
ARE YOU EXCITED?!?!? NO?!?! Okay… you do you, I guess.
Besides, Japanese news can’t be as chaotic as the news here in the states, right? I mean, we have Trump… what could possibly
Japan’s Democratic Party Disbands
...crap.
So this is the kind of topic that requires more space than this silly column could ever, ever occupy, so here's a cliff-notes version of what this means: Japan's major opposition party, which was formed by a handful of parties last year (one of which actually had control of Parliament between 2009 and 2012), just folded and their members went to two different parties to give them a chance at dethroning the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (which is not at all liberal! Fun!). Many of their members have joined ascendant Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike in her new party, the "Kibou no Tou" or "Party of Hope." Which is a great name, especially considering the alternatives. I mean, nothing else has the right ring. "Party of Happiness" sounds like a rejected title for a Teen movie, this guy already has the name "Smile Party" locked down, and "Party of A Lukewarm Rejection of Most Progressive Policies But Hey We Aren't The LDP Because They Smell" was far too verbose.
Like I said, there's not enough space here to really break this into it's pieces, but there is a good write up at the NY Times about Koike and why she matters here . A quick summary: The Party of Hope is a bit centrist, but it's still arguing for revisions to Japan's constitution, particularly Article 9, aka the "Japan won't have an army again" rule that ended up in the post-WWII constitution - which is why a whole bunch of former Democratic Party people said "hell with this noise" and founded their own opposition party while others joined the Party of Hope. More about how that's going here. Regardless, depending on how all of this goes, I apologize in advance if the October 23 edition of Headlinin' is just a picture of flames. Actually, I'll be in Beppu. It'll be a nice picture of an onsen bath or something.
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