Summer Comiket 2015 at Tōkyō Big Sight – C88 夏コミックマーケット

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Morgan Magnin

Good start for #Zyuohger today ^o^ #動物戦隊ジュウオウジャー #ジュウオウジャー

Summer Comiket 2015 at Tōkyō Big Sight – C88 夏コミックマーケット

Posted on August 19, 2015 by Morgan Magnin

We went to the 2015 Summer Comiket. And we survived! Summer in Japan is extremely hot and so many people always come to attend Comiket that it it is always a physical adventure to go there. It feels however very energetic to see so many artists and attendees. One of the major strengths of Comiket is its ability to bring together professional artists who find there a way to express their art different from the usual anime/manga industry, semi-professionals and those who have a different job but like to express themselves through manga.

The Comiket has become such a massive event that nowadays, all TV Channels prepare a TV report there. I was amused to see that, on Fuji TV, it was Jason Atsugiri (who became famous for his stand-up sketch “Why Japanese people?”) who was the anchorman for this report. At Comiket, he seemed to be as popular as cosplayers! Maybe this is a sign that Comiket will continue to open itself to foreigners. It has been for years that some foreign artists come to Comiket to share their creations. This Summer, there was also a booth dedicated to “Euromanga”, i.e., French “bande-dessinée” and manga translated in Japanese. Creation is now taking one step further towards being global!

Pikachu outbreak in Yokohama Minato Mirai – 「踊る？ピカチュウ大量発生チュウ！」横浜みなとみらいでダンスイベント開催

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Morgan Magnin

Following the success of their precious outbreak in Yokohama, thousands of Pikachu are back!
During 9 days, on various spots covering the whole Minato Mirai area, different families of Pikachu entertain the audience with various dances and events. Even under the heavy August sun, they give energetic performances, which make you love the characters even more.
There are many different performances, each of them featuring different kinds of Pikachu (for example, sailors, breakdancers or Hawaiian dancers) and paying a tribute to a wide range of musics.
This makes you feel like in a gigantic theme park… except that the whole city is the park! Lots of visitors wear Pikachu hats (distributed for free by the staff) or various goods (like the trendy Pikachu tails), whatever their age. It sounds rather magic, and all for free. It is in fact a perfect occasion to discover Yokohama area and motivate you to come again to explore it in more details.

The Art of Gundam 2015 exhibition at Roppongi Hills in Tōkyō

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Morgan Magnin

This summer, a wide exhibition dedicated to Gundam – especially the first series and the corresponding trilogy of movies – takes place in Roppongi Hills. The event aims at showing the preliminary works that led to the first Gundam (especially Gunboy), the first mecha and conceptual arts and Yoshiyuki Tomino’s creative process when it comes to storyboard and key animation. The whole is very interesting for every Gundam fan, especial if you like its old flavor. Among the audience, I saw merely adults in their thirties and fourties, i.e., those who grew up while watching Gundam.
To me, the three main spots of this exhibition are the following: first, the mini-movie making you feel as if you were on the bridge of the White Base (great immersion feeling!); second, the 1/1 remaining of the old Gundam; finally, the gorgeous handmade artworks that were first created for CD/DVD covers.