Elite Yankee Saburo エリートヤンキー三郎 is an 11 episode TV drama (and movie) based on a comedy manga by Shuji Abe about an awkward and nerdy boy who enters high school. He is unfortunately saddled with the legacy of his two older brothers, who were well known delinquents, and consequently is misunderstood and labeled as an “elite yankee.” The late night TV drama was shown on TV Tokyo in 2007 and the 2008 movie was directed by Yudai Yamaguchi.
Earlier this summer, there was one anime movie that was released we highly recommend to all otaku. Musashi: The Dream of the Last Samurai (宮本武蔵-双剣に馳せる夢-) was released 13th May 2009. Scripted by Mamoru Oshii the man who made anime like Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor and Sky Crawlers, it gained much attention in both Japan and also overseas and the anime was shown at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in Korea and the Locarno International Film Festival in Switzerland.
Art-School are a talented 4 piece J-rock/Jpop band formed in 2002 and comprising of Riki Kinoshita (Vocal/Guitar) Hiroyuki Suzuki (Drums), Todaka Masafumi (Guitar) and Takeshi Uno (Bass).
The band’s first mini-album was SONIC DEAD KIDS and they played at the 2002 Fuji Rock Festival. The same year they also got a contract with Toshiba-Emi and released the single Diva. Follow up albums full of jangly guitars, indie pop and punk anthems include Flora, Missing, Paradise Lost, Requiem for Innocence and Love/Hate.
Ninja Hattori Kun 忍者ハットリくん is a manga series from 1964 – 1966 by Fujiko Fujio藤子不二雄 which was later adapted into a live action TV series (1966 to 1967), TV anime series (1981-1987) anime film (1983) a NES video game (1986) and eventually a movie ＮＩＮ×ＮＩＮ 忍者ハットリくん ＴＨＥ ＭＯＶＩＥ (2004) starring ShingoKatori 香取 慎吾, Rena Tanaka, Gori and Yuri Chinen.
The story of Hattori-kun revolves around 10-year old Ken’ichi Mitsoba who befriends a little ninja named Kanzo Hattori. Hattori becomes part of the Mitsoba family along with his brother Shinzou and his ninja dog, Shishi-Manu. Hattori helps Ken’ichi with his problems especially against Kemumaki, a Koga Ninja and his ninja cat Kagechiyo. Read more...
Tokyo, Bollywood, 1960s – put them all together and you get the 1966 movie Love in Tokyo ラブ・イン・東京 featuring Joy Mukherjee, Asha Parekh, Mehmood, Pran, Shubha Khote, Dhumal, Master Shahid, Lalita Pawar, Asit Sen, Mohan Choti, Madan Puri, Ulhas and Tarun Bose.
The videos has some great shots of Tokyo from the swinging 60s. More on the movie here.
