Sakamoto Ryoma

Sakamoto Ryoma a low ranking samurai is credited with unifying Japan, modernizing the country and even regarded as the father of the Japanese Navy. In recent years in part to an NHK Taiga drama he’s had a revival of interest. According to the Japan Times “Ryōma has inspired at least seven television drama series, six novels, seven manga and five films.” Here’s a selection of posters, signs and of course a couple of 3D mascots which take on his likeness. Read more about the fascinating man here.

Hakusyon Daimaou

Hakusyon stands outside the Incubator Bank of Japan but perhaps not for very much longer. Known in the west from the cartoon ‘The Genie Family’ or ‘Bob in a Bottle’, the show starred ‘Hakusyon Daimaou‘. His name literally means “Sneeze Satan.” The friendly Arabian genie would grant wishes to anyone who sneezes near his bottle but was sent back if they sneezed again. His daughter Akubi on the other hand would grant wishes for those that yawned and Hakusyon’s wife gave wishes for a hiccup.

Incubator Bank wasn’t as successful as the long running animation and filed for bankruptcy protection on September the 10th 2010. The Japan Times reports that;

Mr. Kimura, former chairman of the bank, and Mr. Tatsuya Nishino, the bank’s president, were arrested in July on suspicion of obstructing an audit of the bank by the Finance Services Agency, and were indicted in August.

As of Sept. 10, 126,779 people had deposits totaling ¥582 billion at the bank. Of the depositors, 3,423 people or 2.7 percent, who have a total of some ¥1.1 billion at the bank, will not get full refunds because they deposisted more than ¥10 million.

I wonder what will happen to the mascots now, maybe they should give them to those people that don’t get the full refund.

Astro Boy outside an antique toy shop in Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku

Astro Boy in the Tokyo Anime Center in Akihabara, Tokyo

Also in the Tokyo Anime Center

Old Atom Toys at the Tin Toy Museum in Yokohama

Astro Art at the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum

Astro Boy through the ages

Astro Boy

Atom, or Astro Boy as he is known in the West, takes the front cover of Idle Idol, so we thought it was about time we had a look at the different designs of this iconic character.

The hugely popular robot-boy was created by manga artist, producer, animator and licensed physician Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka, often called “the father of manga,” introduced Atom in 1951 with a manga called Captain Atom. Astro Boy looks like a human child who is about ten years old, but he’s really a robot with special powers. His powers include incredible strength, an amazingly powerful computer brain, rocket-boots, magnified hearing, the ability to send light beams from his eyes, enhanced sight, the ability to shoot lasers from his finger tips, the ability to sense whether someone is good or evil and a machine gun hidden in his bum. In the manga, Astro Boy was created by the lonely Doctor Tenma who wanted to create a replica of his dead son. The Doctor became annoyed with his creation for not growing up like a normal boy, and so gave him to the Robot Circus. Later, kind Professor Ochanomizu discovered him. The Professor called on Astro Boy to solve problems and to help bring peace between humans and robots.

The character has remained an icon recognisable to today’s youth as much as those who grew up with the early manga. However the studio was worried his popularity was waning with the young. Tezuka studios collaborated with artist Lily Franky and created a fish faced fat Astro Boy which has drawn complaints from fans. If you want to see a very cool fat Astro Boy check out Youngsun Kim’s wonderful painting. In 2009 a CGI Atom was released, the slightly more Caucasian looking Astro Boy was the result of much discussion and compromise between Tezuka Productions and Imagi Animation Studios who animated the movie.

There is much fan inspired Astro Boy art and commercial products which develop or change his iconic image. I’ve seen a cute baby faced Astro, a scary fur suit Atom, graffiti Astro and a lovely knitted toy.

A number of people have noted the similarities of Astro Boy to Big Boy. Here’s an illustration which combines both characters. What do you think, do Astro Boy and Big Boy look similar?

Japanese Robots

The Japanese love robots, they pioneer in the creation of them, Testuwan Atomu was the first to create a cartoon character robot with Atomu (Astro Boy) old people have robot pets for companions and luckily for me they have loads of robot figures everywhere.

The huge and very cool Gundam was located in Odaiba last year to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Gundam anime. Unfortunatly it was taken down but you can see many smaller versions outside model shops in and various other places around Japan. Mobile Suit Gundam was produced by Sunrise, a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Holdings. The second picture on the right was taken inside the Namco offices in Shinagawa while the left photo was snapped outside the Bandai offices in Asakusa. Bandai make the intricate and popular model kits.

The next two photos show a pair of awesome robots outside a home ware shop in Asakusa on Kappabashi. Kappabashi is famous for all the kitchen ware shops. This particularly one sold loads of pots and pans which is what they are both made from.

Another homemade robot shown is the cardboard box robot outside an off licence (liquor store). Presumably made from the boxes the booze comes in. The symbol on his chest is the kanji for alcohol.

The final robot is Tetsujin 28-go which is sometimes called “Iron man #28″ or Gigantor. The manga revolved around a huge robot and his controller, a 12-year-old boy named Shotaro Kaneda. The three-stories-tall robot was created during World War II but by the time he was completed (after 27 failed attempts), the war had ended. He ends up being used by the young boy to fight evil robots, criminals and mad scientists. I’ve spotted loads of these blue bots all over Japan. He was also recently used in some NTT commercials and there’s a huge one in Kobe which was recently finished.

Space Battleship Yamato

Tokyo International Anime Fair

I went to the 2010 Tokyo International Anime Fair (TAF2010) on Sunday and found many Idle Idols. The event was held in Tokyo Big site in Odaiba.

The first character is a large inflated Mameshiba. Be sure to watch the videos, where he teaches you interesting facts. Pacman, Kuchipatchi (from Tamogotchi) and Totoro also float above the many booths. An unusual Optimus Prime from a new animated series stands beside a Transformers booth. The yellow robot is called Omotchama from the anime Yatterman. The female dressed in yellow is Yuki Mori from the anime Space Battleship Yamato. The anime will soon be released as a live action movie staring Meisa Kuroki as Yuki. Finally Monkey from an animated version of ‘Journey to the West’.

Doraemon

If you’ve ever visited Japan you will have seen him, the unmistakable grinning robotic cat. Doraemon is from the 22nd century, he came to present day earth to help the young Nobita, a young boy who is always getting picked on by bullies and shouted at by his teachers and parents. Doraemon was sent by Nobita’s great-great grandson to help him improve his life and thereby help his descendants improve their status. Doraemon has a special fourth dimensional pocket where he stores various tools and gadgets to help the young boy, including a takekoputa (flying machine) and a dokodemo door (a door to another place). Although he always means well, the friendly robot cat often makes things worse for Nobita, since the boy always tries to solve his problems too hastily, which causes his plans to backfire and the special gadgets he uses to work unexpectedly.

Doraemon’s ears were bitten off by a robotic mouse from the future and he has since developed a fear of mice. Despite the lack of ears he can still hear perfectly well. In March 2008, Japan’s Foreign Ministry appointed Doraemon as the nation’s first ‘anime ambassador’. Time magazine nominated the cat as an Asian Hero.

The Doraemon-man/woman (I’m not sure) was found near Harajuku station with the usual cosplayers who hang out there on Sunday. The unusal green and yellow Doraemon was painted on a retro game shop just outside Kamakura and the socks were spotted at the International Anime Fair.

For an awesome Idle Idol Jon Christall has a great shot here and for some tasty looking Doraemon bento check out mymealbox’s mouth watering photo.