imagine-nation

Main Feature: Game Arcade in Japan 2011
These are hard times for Japan's videogame arcades. The number across Japan has fallen from more than 40,000 at the peak to less than 20,000 in 2009 in the face of economic stagnation and the spread of cheap, high-spec domestic and mobile consoles and software. This edition of Imagine-nation reports from the All Nippon Amusement Machine Operators' Union's 2011 Amusement Expo on February 19th, both reviewing the latest trends in the struggling game arcades and imagining how they might be in the future. The latest attractions include 3D arcade machines with no 3D glasses, an arcade version of the love simulation game Loveplus, already much loved in its mobile incarnation, and award-winning gambling games. Industry giant Sega bucked the trend by opening two new arcades in Akihabara last year and plans two more in the same area this year. Why is Sega moving in now? What are the strategies to attract more customers? Which are the most popular machines? Here's the latest inside info on this still high potential industry.

Creator's interview: Keiko Sootome, Japanese Illustrator
Keiko Sootome is known for her surrealistic illustrations in vivid primary colors. Her unique, unforgettable works depict tense, weak-looking people in extraordinary detail but there is nothing weak about their impact or the sales of the books she illustrates. She also does magazines, advertisement and CD jackets. This versatile illustrator is now acting on stage, a TV personality and a columnist, too.

Main Feature: A Popular Animation "Showa Monogatari" 
This time we feature Showa Monogatari, a ground-breaking animated film that targets the over-sixties! The story takes place in Tokyo in the Olympic year, 1964, just as the economy is booming. Its protagonist, Kohei, is a fifth grade primary schoolboy who loves baseball and manga and lives in Kamata in southwestern Tokyo with his father, who runs a small workshop. It is a very ordinary, 6-member household but the ultra-realistic, high-definition detail is fantastic. The creators took four and a half years to make this film, visiting genuine Kamata workshops that still use machines more than 45-years old and getting permission from the makers to use all sorts of items that were popular in those days. Every scene is a work of loving reproduction. Initially a cinema release, the TV serial also started in early April. We join TV director Masahiro Murakami on visits to an old factory and public bathhouse, asking him what was most important to him in making the film, why he chose this particular era, why he is targeting older viewers, and also why he chose to do this as a cartoon rather than using real actors. Showa Monogatari is a work that could change the future of Japanese animation, a must-see portrait of an old-style family for the baby-boom generation and above.

Creator's interview: Kaichi Sato,Japanese Animation art Director 
Exciting animator Kaichi Sato has won diverse awards on Japan's independent film scene. In fact, he has never failed to win a prize so far! His works feature radical sets and images but are always richly entertaining as well. Sato wants to be unique and his films often have a rather un-Japanese, slightly Western flavor. We interview a top Japanese animator now enjoying high acclaim around the globe.

Main Feature: Japanese Manga artists - Motohiro Kato -
The popular Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuryo mystery manga still appearing in the bi-monthly E-no magazine won the Kodansha Manga Award in 2009 and has sold 3 million volumes so far. Q.E.D. is now in its record 14th year for a bi-monthly magazine manga and a spin-off, C.M.B., in Monthly Shonen Magazine has become a hit as well. Motohiro Kato has been authoring the two serials simultaneously for the past 6 years. This week, we focus on the man behind these extraordinary mystery manga. The protagonists of Q.E.D. Shoumei Shuryo are Sou Touma, a prodigy who graduated from a top US university at the age of 15, and Kana Mizuhara, a kind high-school girl who uses her extraordinary athleticism to aid people in distress. The two solve all kinds of mystery, from trivia to murders, using such mathematic propositions as the Dedekind Cut or Euler's Formula and their own erudition in subjects ranging from astronomy to history, music or literature. Our manga-loving reporter, Sawa, asks the author everything from how and when he comes up with his extraordinary twists to tips on how to write a good mystery and whether he starts with the story or the clever twists. She also joins Kato as he hunts around for a good location.

Creator's interview: Goichi (51) Suda, Japanese Game Designer 
Japanese game designer Goichi(51)Suda, alias Suda51 and CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture Inc., produced the Twilight Syndrome adventure game software for PlayStation before setting up his own company in 1998. His distinctive world view has attracted a large following abroad through such products as the multiple-personality, action-adventure game, Killer7.

Main Feature: "School Magazines"
Manga are always popular with primary school children and there are plenty of high-quality options, perhaps because Japanese children start out on manga reading so young. Readers often stay with their favorite works even after they grow up! This week's Imagine-nation considers the recipe for success in these multi-layered kids' manga that never fail to please! Many of the best-known series are carried in the "school magazines" of the SHOGAKUKAN publishing house, which go back to 1922. There is one for each grade of primary school starting from the Shogaku 1-Nensei for first years. Their serials include DoRaEMON and HAMTARO, both now popular on TV, too, and one of the most popular manga today, Happy Kappy, the TV version of which began in Japan this April and could well be set follow the royal road of DoRaEMON itself. "Our reporter Gow visits the editors of the Shogaku 1-Nensei to discover the secrets of their success, special techniques of children's manga and also how it all began, besides dropping in at a production studio as well. This is the program for learning about the manga we loved as kids.

Creator's interview: Gaku Kinoshita (Japanese Animation Director&Illustrator)
Japanese animation director and illustrator Gaku Kinoshita left Japan for London to study animation in 1997 and released his self-produced short animation "For Your Blossom" in 2004. This sentimental film about a robot that wonders about the meaning of existence has now been screened in more than 30 countries around the world. Kinoshita moved back to Japan in 2008, still as a freelance filmmaker. We ask him about his inspiration for his works with their characteristic, warm hand-written lines and delightful world view.

Main Feature: "ARMORED CORE"
Here's a special report on the Armored Core series of combat robot action video games software for PlayStation. It has been popular since the word go in 1997 and now runs to 18 titles, including remakes. Each player manipulates a mercenary humanoid combat robot, an Armored Core or AC, on a mission in a world where gigantic corporations rule. Players design their own AC by combining parts - hundreds millions of variations are possible - and use them in within an extremely wide range of sophisticated parameters to fight against each other. We report on the game creators at work on the newest edition, Armored Core V, which hits the shelves soon. This includes online play where multiple players can cooperate to expand their territories. The creators are talking of a shift from speed to power and say the new game makes upsets more likely. There are new actions and operating methods as well. Our reporter, Isabell, tries it out and tells us about the new software.

Creator's interview: Taijin Takeuchi, Japanese Animation Director
Japanese animation director Taijin Takeuchi, born in Aichi in 1984, specializes in stop-motion animated photos of 3-D objects. He uploaded "A wolf loves pork" to a video-sharing site while still at Kyushu University and his wolf-chases-pig video became a global sensation with over a million hits in 10 days! Takeuchi says he loves the weird and surreal and regards stop-motion animation like vitamin pills. We report on his much-anticipated latest work and view some of his older works as well.

Main Feature: "Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL"
Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, the latest in the popular Japanese TV series screened in more than 80 countries and regions of the world, was launched in April this year. The story started out as a manga by Kazuki Takahashi, was serialized in Shonen Jump from 1996, and a real card game was then developed on that basis. Various contests were organized and the boys, especially, loved it. Set in the near future, the story's hero, Yuma Tsukumo, is a first year junior high school boy who loves card duels with his friends but is not very good at them. He faces various challenges and rivals but will he ever master the game? The Yu-Gi-Oh! story is built around the old trading card games that started out as board games and the TV cartoon brings out all the excitement and tension of the genre. More than 22.5 billion Yu-Gi-Oh! cards have been sold so far around the world. We report on this new style of manga, animation and card game and introduce the highlights of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.

Creator's interview: Aya Shiroi, Japanese Animation Director
Japanese animation director Aya Shiroi had a work accepted at the 1995 Cinanima International Animation Festival in the Netherlands while still at the Tokyo University of the Arts and carried on doing animations for, children, TV commercials and music videos after graduation from the school. She produced a cartoon version of Yasushi Akimoto's "Zo no Senaka" in 2007, a novel about a 48-year-old office worker with a terminal lung cancer who has only 6 months to live. In her version, the story was transferred to a family of elephants and many older viewers loved it. We meet one of the most promising woman animators in Japan today.

Main Feature: "Appleseed XIII"
Masamune Shirow, widely respected by fellow creators at home and abroad, made his major debut with the science fiction manga Appleseed which, unusually for a Japanese cartoon strip, went directly into paperback without prior magazine serialization. It isn't only the content which surprises. A new TV cartoon series, Appleseed XIII (read Appleseed Thirteen), starting in June 2011, is being broadcast in 3D computer graphics! The full media mix is being launched simultaneously with Blu-ray and DVD sales, net distribution, cinema release and more. Appleseed XIII is not a sequel to the first two films but a series of thirteen completely new stories. The biggest, most unprecedented surprise of all for both people in the business and fans is that all thirteen stories were made, one at each, in thirteen different computer graphic studios. Each studio company has its own flavor and it was quite a challenge to bring it altogether as a coherent work! We spent a long time on site before the official release and this is the behind the scenes look you simply have to see.

Creator's interview: Yuichi Ito, Japanese Animation Director
An animator who mainly works in clay or computer graphics, Ito was the man behind such TV works as the Knyacki clay animation broadcast from 1995 and has made music videos for such leading Japanese singers as Utada Hikaru and Ken Hirai. His clay characters are a familiar sight on TV commercials as well. His characters are warm and the works sparkle with originality. We introduce a first-rank animator.

Main Feature: "The Little Battlers"
The global distribution industry is revolutionized in 2050 by the development of a new, 80% shock absorbent material called strengthened corrugated cardboard (SCC) which is later applied by a toy maker to battlefields for a mini-robot fighting game named Little Battler Experience (LBX). The robots are the Little Battlers and that is also the name of the latest video game from Level-5 Inc. which has grown to rival Japan's top makers in only ten years. Its best-selling titles already include DRAGON QUEST VIII: The Journey of the Cursed King, Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel, and NINOKUNI: Sorcer of the Darkness. The Little Battlers' aggressive media-mix sales strategy for the video game release in June included at TV cartoon from March, a manga serial in a magazine, plastic models and a card game. The video game for PlayStation Portable terminals has its own unique plastic model usually not for sale. It's all very typical of Level-5 Inc. CEO/President Akihiro Hino. We bring you the lowdown on the video game, visit TV animation studio at OLM Inc. now making the TV cartoon and talk with Hino about both himself and his company.

Creator's interview: Miho Yata, Japanese Animation Director
37-year-old Japanese animation director Miho Yata created AMIMATION. A graduate of Shirayuri Women's University's department of children's culture, she studied under Oscar nominee animation director Koji Yamamura, who has won more than 60 awards at international animation festivals, and made her first AMIMATION - an animation with knitted (ami in Japanese) items - in 1999. AMIMATION became a registered trademark in 2007. Yata also produces optical toys and stop-motion animation films, and organizes workshops for making small wool mascots with simple knitting machines. We report on this energetic amimator.

Main Feature: Japanese popular Animation "Golden Kids" 
The Golden Kids series of children's novels first hit the shelves in July 2008 and the four volumes published so far have achieved combined sales of 200,000 copies. They are written by manga author Yoichi Takahashi of Flash Kicker football manga and animation fame. Most new cartoons take the TV, movie or video route but the Golden Kids animation was launched simultaneously in Japan, North America, Europe, Australia and elsewhere in January through the iTunes App Store. There is dubbing in Japanese or English and subtitling in Portuguese or Spanish. It's in fact the sort of epoch-making development we have come to expect from Takahashi. The story centers on FC Golden Kids, a boys' football team based in the Koganedai area. They lose and lose but captain and goalkeeper Goal Kitagawa believes in his team and knows they'll be winners one day. It's all about never giving up and the dream begins from a single victory - all typical of Takahashi and Japanese children's cartoons in general, and for many football kids who grew up with his works, the dream has expanded already. Some are now world-famous players! Here's an in-depth report from the production site, including interviews with Yoichi Takahashi, the director and animators, too.

Creator's interview: Maya Matsumura, Japanese Animation Director 
Maya Matsumura is known for her distinctive characters and colorful world view. A graduate of the Osaka University of Arts, she worked part time for a couple of years to make Kapporopitta - Let's Have a Meal Together, the story of a boy who hates to eat and a monster who is always hungry. The two eventually share a happy meal together. Kapporopitta won high praise from her peers and various awards at home and abroad. As a professional director, she also produced the animated children's food education program, Maho Shokudo Charapontan. Recipes from Maho Shokudo were published in a magazine and are actually being served. We interview this rising animation creator.

Main Feature: A Popular Japanese Game - El Shaddai
This week, we feature El Shaddai, an action video game that attracted plenty of attention at E3 - the world's largest video game trade show - in Los Angeles in June last year and the Tokyo Game Show last September. The 3D game software for PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 consoles was inspired by the Book of Enoch, which is held to be canonical by some Christian churches. The mystic story takes place on Earth, in Heaven and in the world of the dead. The player is Enoch, described in Genesis as a great-grandfather of Noah and in the game a priest and clerk of Heaven. Enoch has a mission to capture seven fallen angels in order to prevent a great flood from killing mankind. The game went on sale in Japan in April and surprised both the industry and fans with its unusual sales strategy. In Akihabara, a jeans shop was opened for a limited run in collaboration with Japanese denim maker Edwin, which sells jeans similar to those worn by characters in the game. The El Shaddai café there also became an extremely popular meeting spot. The new PR approach drew the attention of women and casual buyers before the product hit the shelves and paid big dividends in sales. It went on sale in August in the United States and Europe. The game comes from Ignition Entertainment Ltd., which was established in the UK in 2002 and opened its Japan branch in 2004. How did this newcomer to the game scene score such a big hit? Where did the energy come from? Why did the game make such big waves? And what was the initial creative strategy? Join us for the answers! It may even next be turned into a Hollywood movie. We delve into the secrets of a game that is thrilling users of all ages around the world.

Creator's interview: Makoto Kobayashi, Japanese Mechanic Designer
Makoto Kobayashi creates both 2- and 3-dimensional works. Kobayashi became widely known as the designer and builder of "full-scratch" (everything made himself) models that he published in Hobby Japan magazine in the mid-1980s. His mechanical suits and other machines for the 1985 serial TV animation Mobile Suit Z Gundam and 1986 serial Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ were loved by fans of both animation and mechanical design. Kobayashi has since described various popular new models that develop the world of Mobile Suit Gundam in a magazine for plastic model builders. We discover the multi-faceted creative world of Makoto Kobayashi.