A sequel to my dearly departed 8-year-old blog, Ä Canuck in Emperor Akihito's Court"(http://haruhiko.blogspot.com). Back home in Canada but still have those ties to Japan after 17 years' residency there.
Been a while but with all of the translation, Mr. Moriya's return and yesterday being another outing with The Anime King, there wasn't much time for blogging. As for my Skype student, he had a good business trip to Australia for the better part of a week; his fluency certainly showed it. And he didn't have to contend with hay fever over there....something that is plaguing Japan right now as it usually does this time of year.
It was a 3-week absence for The Anime King since he had his own business trip to conduct in Chicago. He was rather disappointed in the food selection although he did say the famed Deep-Dish Pizza was the one highlight. Still, he was grateful to be back in Toronto.
Our Sunday started off with a visit to Eggsmart. I actually went for a new item on the menu which was this plate of Hash Browns using Montreal corned beef and very roughly chopped onion and potatoes. I guess I could say it was a very raw version of the breakfast staple. Nothing like the stuff at Sunset Grill. It was quite good, though, and very filling. And I'm always appreciative for bottomless cups of coffee.
Had our first period of anime involving a couple of movies and some eps from the Precure franchise and then the usual bawdy episode of "Ixion". We took a brief break by heading to the nearest Second Cup. I went for the Poppy Seed Lemon Cake with a thick slap of icing on top. It was actually surprisingly light despite the appearance. The King and I spoke a bit about any future trips over to Japan. I can't see myself heading over there any earlier than Spring 2014; gotta save up the money. The Anime Bishop called up suddenly and said he would be joining us for dinner.
Came back to hear some soundtrack stuff before we watched the 2000anime of "Blood: The Last Vampire". It had that gritty animation style which reminded me of "Akira", but the voice acting was pretty subpar...frankly, almost as if this had been a high school project. So it was somewhat surprising to hear that Saya was voiced by actress Yuki Kudo from movies like "Memoirs of a Geisha". It was too bad since I think it could've come off quite well.
The Bishop arrived just in the last few minutes of "Blood". And then we were off to a place called Hot Spicy Spicy. We hadn't been there in perhaps 18 months. My first time to the place was just shortly after my exodus home. It's a larger version of the down-to-earth Chinese eateries over downtown, and the portions are quite generous. I had the Mushu Pork on Rice; nothing surpremely spectacular but it fit the bill quite nicely. The conversation between the King and the Bishop went a bit deep into electronics, not my strong suit at all so I was able to focus on dinner. However, we were able to connect a bit more when it came to headphones.
The Bishop ordered a side dish of dumplings. They were quite big so I had one of them. As soon as I took a bite, the package just shot a phaser of meat juice about a metre away. Gotta say that it's been a while I've something like that. But the Japanese gyoza aren't quite as large as these dumplings were. The three of us are still thinking about getting that big get-together of the Court for dinner sometime in the next number of weeks, but with a number of the group now fully-grounded family men, it could be difficult.
Found out from the exiled Anime Chamberlain this past weekend that an anime series that I had watched last summer, "Madoka Magica", has its movie version scheduled for showing right here in Toronto at the Cineplex at Fairview Mall next week. May explain the strange increase in pageviews for my posting on it.
I'd be interested in not only watching it for the bizarre clash of animation styles and just to be able to understand it via the miracle of subtitles (saw the series that The King had lent me via USB without any, and my Japanese isn't too good on the esoteric stuff), but also to see who comes on out to watch this anime.
I will reiterate..."Madoka Magica" ain't your Precure franchise, despite the cute girls.
Met up with the Anime King yesterday for the first time this year. He'd spent the past month traveling through Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam before getting back last Saturday. He was in remarkably alert shape on Sunday considering the long voyage back home. We did the usual brunch/lunch thing at a Chinese restaurant that we'd gone to before....had the Chicken A La King with Rice; it's been a while since I had that....pretty good. The sauce was good and rich. Then, it was off to the Second Cup down on Finch for coffee. I got some nice anime goodies and that CD by the late Miki Matsubara that I'd requested.
The King took tons of photos from his trip. He spent Xmas and New Year's in Tokyo; some of the shots were of my old haunts like Asakusa, Nakano and Akihabara. Seeing them was like just being there yesterday. He also took that pilgrimage all the way to the small town of Oaraiin Ibaraki Prefecture since it is the place where the anime"Girls and Panzers" is based. The town has embraced its inner tank since the city basically had an exhibit set up in the main train station paying tribute to the show. There was even a map of Oarai pointing out which areas were animatized. The King remarked that outside of the show, there was pretty much nothing else to see there. He did have dinner at a sleepy anglerfish restaurant....the anglerfish dance is a bit of a rallying point in the series.
The anime of the day was focused on the Precure franchise since the current series will be finishing up this Sunday. It was the one that I got started on, thanks to The King. It'll be kinda sad to see the girls go, although I've already started watching some of the earlier entries such as the very first one in 2003 and the one immediately preceding the current series, "Suite Precure". You always remember your first.
Before the King got back home on Saturday, I'd sent out a summons of sorts to see which of the Anime Court would be available for dinner on Sunday, since we hadn't gotten together as a group over the Holidays (outside of The Anime Bishop and I getting together at Kinton Ramen back on Boxing Day). Well, I was happy to hear that both him and The Iconoclast were able to show up. The two of them came over to The King's house and after a bit of chit-chat, we all made our way up to Wild Wings in Markham. Kinda engorged ourselves on the chicken while the Ravens-Patriots game was playing on the screens, although I was the only one who had the least bit interest. It was good to have the group together again.
It really is feeling like a Toronto Winter again. The temps will be plummeting tonight and then we will only have a high of -12 C tomorrow and then the possibility of 5 cm of snow later on this week. Plus, the Leafs are back in town. Strike? What strike?
Well, the mall Santas are out in force, the Xmas songs are blaring out, and I've started my shopping and sending out of cards. Must be the Yuletide, right? Someone forgot to tell the weather. Toronto didn't just break a temperature record.....the Big Smoke obliterated it like a phaser on full power. We got up to 16 C! Mind you, the temps are slowly but inexorably sliding now, but hey for December, this is practically Summer! Not really Xmas-y weather at all, but the joggers and, I suspect, most Torontonians are not complaining one iota.
Anyways, a couple of days ago, it was another anime and foodie outing with The Anime King. It's probably gonna be the final one for the year since most likely the 16th will be the dinner outing with the Anime Court, and then the King heads out for Japan and Vietnam for a vacation. We started out with a bit of brunch (breakfast for him) at Eggsmart. I'd already had my bacon and eggs back home, so I settled with the Fish n' Chips Platter. Not too bad...fish was a tad dry, though.
Back at the King's basement palace, we went through the latest of the "Yamato 2199" reboot. The first of the four episodes was basically a remake of the original contemplative episode following the ship's first major battle with the Gamelan gun base on Pluto. The crew made their final communications with family back on Earth, there was a celebratory party, and there was even a full reprise of the secondary theme song, "Bright Red Scarf". But unlike the original, there was quite a bit of fanservice, anime's version of cheesecake via the drunken nurse, Captain Okita actually widened his eyes, and there may be a love triangle of sorts forming amongst Kodai, Yuki and the ace female pilot, Yamamoto.
However, the highlight of the presentation was a show that The King has been raving about for the past few weeks: "Girls and Panzer". Over the past year I've been back in Canada, I've seen high school kids duking it out over supermarket lunches, a high school girl becoming the high priestess of a ghost-ridden temple, a family of orphaned teens involved in a mind-warping thriller with penguins, and teenage girls who become space pirates. "Girls and Panzer"is another one of those "Only in Japan"fantasies in which high school girls can choose to join tank crews in the same way that students can join the volleyball club or the band. This anime is the equivalent of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup: the anime otaku and the military otaku have found their Valhalla.
The video above is the opening scene from the pilot episode. I have to say that I was pretty impressed with the animation, and the details in the tanks. There is love in those studio hard drives. And the music brings back memories from just about every World War II epic made in the 60s: "Kelly's Heroes", "The Dirty Dozen" and even the TV sitcom, "Hogan's Heroes". Plus, there's the fact that the show has (at least) 22 characters....mind you, the five core girls are the ones that get the most characterization, but the fact that everyone gets seen at all in every half-hour is still something to be commended. And finally, I never thought I would ever hear a Donald Sutherland character get a shoutout in an episode.
Of course, all that viewing of tank battles can earn quite an appetite, so the King and I decided to drive out to Scarberia for dinner. We came across a modern strip mall underneath a condo around McNicoll and Midland where Toronto's only attempt at a Maid Cafe rose and fell several years ago. The restaurant there, Tasty Tasty, specializes in Szechuan BBQ, and came highly recommended by the King's brother.
We went with the large bowl of a soup called Fish with Salty Vegetables. Very savoury fare, and went well with the rice. However, the soup itself was much more on the sour side...quite a bit of vinegar in there. But it definitely made for a fine dish.
Of course, there was also our more conventional choice of Stir-Fried Bok Choyand Garlic. No less delicious, though. Both dishes were great on a much cooler night. Both the King and I were thinking about having the year-ender with the rest of the guys at Tasty Tasty, but there are plenty of other choices out there.
Dinner tonight was teppanyaki. We don't have it all that much anymore since it is rather rich in beef and oil, but once in a while, we like to overindulge. I was half-joking that we were taking a risk if the main ingredient had come from XL Foods (for those who haven't been watching Canadian news, this is an Alberta-based company which recently had to recall literally tons of beef because of the scare of E Coli). As it turned out, no problems. But the digestive pattern I'm starting to pick up on whenever I have teppanyaki is that my stomach starts a bit of a rumba when all that beef and veggie hit the hydrochloric acid. Nothing to send me to the toilet....immediately. In any case, I was still happy to have had one of my favourite dishes.
Kinda feels a bit weird on the TV tonight. Now that the San Francisco Giants have won the National League pennant and there is no football until later in the week, there were no big-league North American sports going on at all. Usually, there would be some NHL games going on that the sports channels would be showing, but we all know where professional ice hockey has gone, don't we? Just soccer on the ol' telly.
The Blue Jays have seen John Farrell take off for Boston for good. Nice guy perhaps but no manager....at least not yet. Basically his 2-year stint here was probably more of a rough-and-tumble internship with the Jays and the rest of Toronto paying for it. Now, we all wait for the next shoe to drop and see who decides to take on the job next. Should be fun. I kinda feel like one of the villagers in "The Magnificent Seven" hoping to see a Yul Brynner or Steve McQueen ride into town.
I think I know when an anime has reached a certain level of success here and abroad when even little 10-second pieces of it get featured and liked on YouTube. The latest one seems to be the one I've been enjoying myself, "Joshiraku", the just-wrapped anime featuring 5 zany rakugo girls. One very enterprising fellow with obviously a lot of time on his hands even successfully had one of the girls, the ever-blue Kukuru Anrakutei, do a Julie Andrews imitation.
Fairly lazy Tuesday, but then again having a bowl of Sapporo Ichiban will do that to you. It's been a wet one outside for most of the day so I've stayed resolutely inside. I had a small translation assignment from yesterday which I've completed and gone over, so it's ready to hand in to the boss tonight. He said that there's probably another big assignment coming in from tomorrow, but I hope he isn't in too much of a hurry. Would like to head on out on Wednesday just for the sake of getting out. Again, may want to try Kinton downtown.
Finished off the final stage of the Haruhi Suzumiya experience last night. There was the original 2006 anime, "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" which blended the usual comedy and drama inside a high school. Then, came the straight drama of "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" of 2010 which threatened to tug at the heartstrings. Well, over the past number of days via YouTube, I got to get through the 25 vignettes of 2009's "The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya", which takes it all the way to the other end of the spectrum. Basically, this was the original anime as if it had been filtered through Looney Tunes and "The Simpsons"...just zany comedy. What makes the comedy even more special is that it stars all of the original voice actors from the anime and movie. So, a fan can get to see an even more frustrated Kyon, a not-so-with-it Haruhi and an Internet porn-viewing Nagato.
Still weaning myself off of "Joshiraku" but it's not easy.
It was another alternate Sunday, so it was once again time for The Anime King and I to get together for a day of noshing and anime. So, more new restaurants to look at...The King just seems to have an inexhaustible supply of places that he knows....probably even more than his knowledge of anime.
We hit a place nearby his home called Congee Wong on Finch. Probably a direct rival to Congee Queen, it was good to know that the restaurant was already open just beyond 10:30 a.m.
First up was a fried rice dish that looked a lot whiter than what I was used to in similar dishes. But it had that flavor of oil and smokiness with the only source of meat some shredded cooked scallops. The shreds of egg white further lent to its brightness. The flavor contrasted nicely with the very fluffy nature of the rice....another thing that rather distinguished this version of fried rice.
The second dish was a huge pile of chili radish cake cubes sauteed with vegetables. Man, with the rice, the cubes filled me up to the brim...almost to clogging point. Also very delicious but not particularly super spicy despite the addition of chili.
A couple of trips for coffee, and several hours' worth of anime later, we were both still feeling fairly stuffed, so we opted not to have too much food for dinner. We ended up going to a place up in Markham called Taipei Station. It was the first time for the both of us. The restaurant was apparently celebrating its 1st anniversary in business, and although we were the only ones in the place at first, by dessert, it was almost full. Interesting interior....with the upholstered booths, Taipei Station reminded me more of an open karaoke bar.
Kinda like at a karaoke bar, the food was more limited to smaller dishes. The King and I shared some Beef Cubes and Rice at first. Both the rice and the beef were quite spicy with soy and garlic. I was certainly glad that I also ordered a tall glass of Strawberry-Mango Milk.
The Popcorn Chicken was a plate of smaller chunks of chicken nuggets. The taste and texture of the chicken inside was not that much different from anything similar I've tasted, but the outer coating was something else. Pretty darn spicy there...maybe the cooks were using sansho since my tongue was starting to go numb. I really would've loved to have had rice with it, but apparently that's only available with this chicken up to 2:30 p.m. only.
The dessert was Mango Shaved Ice, a fairly large mountain of very thinly shaved feathers. It was very refreshing, especially after having two very spicy dishes. Because the fronds were so thin, they immediately burst apart once they hit our numb tongues.
Not too bad in terms of price. With tax and tip, I paid only $12.
Now, the anime....wow! A lot of new stuff. Apparently, the late-night anime follows the same scheduling as TV dramas in Japan. Each program gets about 13 episodes before it wraps up. That was true with "Joshiraku" and the original season of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya".
Well, "Joshiraku"is now part of history (although the King and I are hoping that a second run will be not be too far off in the future). We looked at 3 new shows that are just 3 weeks into their initial runs.
One was "Chuu-ni Byo demo Koi ga Shitai"(Even If I Have Grade 8 Syndrome, I Wanna Fall In Love). It's another one of those high school rom-coms with a hapless freshman who wants a fresh new start in his late adolescence after going through a phase of goofy eccentricity (the titular Grade 8 Syndrome) a couple of years previously. However, he and his family end up living under an apartment with two sisters, one of whom is very much in thrall to the syndrome, and for some reason, seems to have an attachment to him.
The show is made by Kyoto Animation, the same company that took care of "Haruhi Suzumiya", so there are some fairly obvious similarities between the two in terms of characters and plot. The clash between the two main characters propel a lot of the humour, and there were a few laugh-out-loud moments.
The second one was apparently derived from the Ixion computer game, but the anime version has an extra subtitle, that of "Dimension Transfer" which was created out of the blue from the Japanese abbreviation of DT which really stands for "unlaid guy". There are dollops of crotch humour, and even one more hidden-meaning abbreviation for one of the bad guys, with the initials of ED which stand for "erectile dysfunction". A game otaku ends up entering the game world and reluctantly hitching up with a group consisting of a bratty princess, a pretty transvestite and a hulky warrior.
The third anime was "Kamisama Hajimemashita"(Kamisama Kiss). This reminded me of a mix between "I Dream of Jeannie" and a screwball comedy in which a high school student ends up homeless due to her father running away but with the aid of a mystery man ends up not only becoming a reluctant priestess of a spooky temple but getting hooked up with a handsome but self-absorbed fox spirit. All of the three were fun to watch but I think this one has the best theme songs by Hanae.
So it looks like it'll be students and comedy going into Xmas.
Been a couple of quiet days. I had a bit of translation work...nothing big, just a couple of articles, and didn't need to use. I was given a heads-up from the boss about a potential Trados assignment next week, though, so I can start practicing my hyperventilation on Sunday night.
Fall is starting to get to its titular stage. The leaves are falling off the trees in large numbers due to some of the showers and wind we've had. Still, I think there's still a good chance to enjoy the Colours before the trees go totally bare. One of the big weather forecasters down south are expecting a cold snowy Winter for us here....in other words, a normal one unlike the very cold Spring that greeted us instead of Winter last year.
Major League Baseball has taken another step forward in concluding its year by having the New York Yankees swept out of Detroit, 4 games to nothing. Unlike here in Toronto, I think the fans in The Big Apple eat professional sports underachievers. Certain players with the name of Alex may want to consider wearing battle armour when getting home. There was a small vested interest from Japan since Ichiro Suzuki was in the pinstripes, but even with all of his hits, it wasn't nearly enough to make a dent in the Tigers juggernaut. As for ice hockey, well, that brief glimmer of hope burnt into ash quickly yesterday when both sides walked away from the negotiating table muttering and sputtering. Those fans going through major withdrawal during November and December may get some solace from the street hockey-playing kids outside the house.
Finished up "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" yesterday. Since the original broadcast had the episodes shown in disorder, the final episode on the USB was actually shown in the middle of the original run, and it looked so. Just the gang doing some mundane stuff in "Someday in the Rain"; in fact, there was one endless scene which looked like security-cam footage of Yuki Nagato reading quietly in the SOS Brigade's room. Just a few more episodes before I finish up with "Joshiraku". The Anime King tells me that there are some more winners in the new crop of anime; I'm sure I'll see some of those on Sunday when I make my biweekly meeting with him.
It was another Sunday of foodie-ism and anime with The Anime King back on the Thanksgiving Monday. The anime menu consisted of a couple of episodes of "Smile Precure"and the final episode of the zany "Joshiraku"...certainly hope that the producers will think about another series for that last one.
However, the theme for this entry is connected with the anime that I'm currently watching. The 2006 series of "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" has been fun and is keeping me on my toes in terms of the overall story arc. Mind you, the chronological Episode 7 was far more of the goofy comedy that Episode 0 had been. I caught Ep 7 this afternoon, and I found it a bit of a nice respite considering what I'd seen on Monday.
Over at the King's house, he showed me a Season 2 episode which was vital to watch before he showed me the movie "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya". Then it was on to the main feature. Over the months, The King had been telling me about the glory of watching this movie. After first watching Episode 0, aka "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina", I was rather wondering if The King had been exaggerating about how good this movie was.
But I have to say that "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya"was about as far away from "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina" as "The Quatermass Experiment"was from any episode of "The Big Bang Theory". Although I have read differing opinions on the movie since I'd watched it, I have to say that it did deserve the accolades it has gotten as a masterpiece of the genre and the clear anime winner for 2010.
The plot itself wasn't original. The idea of the protagonist (in this case, Kyon) waking up in an alternate world where all of his friends have gone has been in a lot of Hollywood flicks from "It's A Wonderful Life" to at least a couple of episodes in the "Star Trek"franchise. But the director told the story well. There was a definite upgrade and improved fluidity to the animation compared to the TV series which hadn't been any slouch either. Camera angles and movements seemed to emulate those used in live-action pictures which added to the upgrade. And the director and writers made a very bold move by making "Disappearance" absolutely dramatic. Film versions of anime TV have always tended to bring over the basic patterns of drama interspersed with goofy comedy, but this film almost completely eschewed any opportunities to inject (with the very tiny exception of Mikuru being dressed in a Santa suit) any humour into the proceedings. Any of the verbal sparring matches between Kyon and Haruhi were kept as such.
The other bold move was to yank out the title character who had been the heart of the series for most of the movie. This would've been insanity in other productions, but in this case, the ploy worked because the other half of the power duo, Kyon (the soul of the series), was taking on the burden of carrying the movie. This was a Kyon story, as he (and we) discover over the span of 2 hours and 45 minutes that all that has happened is due to him and his feelings about the SOS Brigade. It's truly a large arc as the initially grumpy Kyon comes to the realization that he needs and appreciates the motley group of friends that he's had for several months.
But at the same time, it's a Yuki Nagato story as well. The emotionless artificial humanoid interface has been the brains (and at least in one TV episode, the brawn) of the operation, and at least to me, her arc was even more interesting to watch at points as her story starts to resemble that of Pinocchio....after he gets turned into a real boy.....while Kyon becomes George Bailey and Marty McFly. As I eventually discovered her role in the story, there was definitely a feeling of pathos surrounding her, and seeing the subtle emotions that surface on her face in her completely humanized form made her the most deserving of our sympathy. Both arcs finally converge at the end of the movie as both Kyon and Yuki still get something new from each other. And I was left wondering at the end of the movie, if Kyon's romantic directions have gotten further muddled and even though she reverted back to her old self, whether Yuki may have evolved a little.
"The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya"left a lot of philosophical questions for me to mull over which is often a sign of a good movie.
Well, the latest NHK morning serial drama has wrapped up after its 6-month run. "Ume-chan Sensei" finished its time on Japan TV last night all happy and stuff. It didn't have nearly the scope and sturm und drang of its predecessor, "Carnation"; the story spanned a mere 16 years or so for this one as compared to the latter's near-century. And despite some of the tensions that have to pop up in a serial, it only took a mere episode of 15 minutes to get everything back into balance for the most part. Just like its setting in the immediate postwar era, "Ume-chan Sensei" was more of a gentle slice-of-life and day-in-the-life series with the oft-thrown in batch of comedy. Went down smooth. According to the teaser for the next serial which will premiere here on Sunday night, it looks like the new serial will be set in the present-day.
Just went through the fourth episode of "Haruhi Suzumiya". It's the one where all of the cards have been laid on the table by the three time travelers investigating Haruhi, with Kyon as the representative of the viewers. I mentioned in my last entry on the anime that Haruhi reminds me a bit of Lucy Van Pelt. Well, after watching this episode, I'm starting to think that the "Peanuts"analogy can be further expanded. Kyon strikes me as a far more competent Charlie Brown just because he's the male protagonist who has to watch all that is going on with a skeptical and cynical eye, Mikuru is the much put-upon Linus of the anime, while Nagato seems to be a Snoopy/Marcie hybrid. The newest guy is Koizumi....well, he seems to be the most well-adjusted fellow of the SOS Brigade, so I guess he wouldn't have a Peanuts equivalent. Franklin, perhaps?
Glad that I did read the summary about the series online. I would've been absolutely lost with the series without it.
It had been 3 weeks since meeting up with The Anime King....last Sunday was a family dinner outing. Of course, the day was bracketed with another tour of restaurants but I'll leave that to the next entry. In the middle was the usual stopover to the King's place for a few hours of anime viewing and soundtrack listening. He let me listen to his Precure soundtrack which he had enthusiastically bought the week before. For the past number of months, we've been viewing the latest series in the Precure Odyssey....basically a 9-year set of Sunday morning anime in which specially selected junior high school girls become magical heroines. Currently, it's the Smile Precure series which has fairy tales as its overarching theme....five girls who live in a conventional Japanese suburban neighborhood and all of whom are good buddies. The King also showed me for the first time the first couple of episodes from the preceding series, Suite Precure, which has a distinctly different feel. For one thing, the two protagonists there start off yelling at each other and continue to do so for most of the program. And the town they live in is somewhat more fantastical in appearance.
The clip here is pretty much self-explanatory. One of the heroines has a bad case of entomophobia.
The other anime that has been getting some good play in the basement of my good buddy has been "Joshiraku". Just imagine combining five female rakugo storytellers with the mind of a Japanese-speaking Robin Williams, and that will get you closer to understanding the madness that takes up the 30 minutes. Ability in comprehending the Japanese language will need to be at an advanced level, although the ladies often riff on pop culture on both sides of the Pacific. It also helps that the show is serviced by a couple of head-invadingly catchy theme songs.
I've also been continue to borrow anime from the King as well. After "Mawaru Penguindrum", "Usagi Drops","Madoka Magica"and "Ben-To", I've just started on "Haruhi Suzumiya". I'm admittedly getting into this very late into the game since the anime came on the scene back in 2006. And I've been hearing raves about the movie for its cinematography and the drama. So you can imagine, my surprise when I saw Episode 0 and first saw the homemade movie directed by the main character and starring the timid beauty, Mikuru. I've also got to admit that Haruhi strikes me as being one of the crabbier and more self-absorbed characters I've seen in this medium....kinda like the J-version of Lucy Van Pelt. The series starts off like any other high school-based anime but I just left off where the bookworm Nagato gives her surprising news about herself. I told The King this and he just told me to put on my seat belt.
Finally got that chance to head over to Fan Expo 2012 yesterday. I'd heard on CP24 that it's become the 3rd-largest event of its kind in North America...and I can believe it. It wasn't too bad in the morning, although there was a minor annoyance when I tried to get into the South Building entrance and staff told me I had to go through the North Building to redeem my e-ticket. Coulda told me that online, man. But by the afternoon, it felt like old times on the Tokyo subway line during rush hour. The weather was very cooperative, though.
Truly a Canadian sci-fi convention.
The first area I passed through was the enormous food court....just one of three. The organizers were ready for the hungry hordes. Doing cosplay and waiting for autographs can make a fellow rather peckish. I got to the Expo at about 11, so things weren't too busy as of yet....I decided (and rightfully so) to grab a bite to eat before things got nuts there. I ended up not with a HOT dog, but a Tepid Dog. I chowed it down but was worried for about an hour whether I would end up with some sort of gastrointestinal distress. But it seems like my GI tract was up to the challenge. The food was mostly of the basement-friendly variety but I did see an Edo Sushi stand at Food Court 2. Actually, by chance, I ran into an old acquaintance from the Japanese Consulate just before I entered JET. Apparently, he's still working there as one of the veteran advisors.
Artists' Row
This was only my 2nd sci-fi convention that I'd ever attended. The first one was back a couple of years ago when I went to a "Star Wars"-based gala at Makuhari Messe in Chiba-ken. It was a bit more loosey-goosey over there...Anthony (C-3PO) Daniels was more than happy to walk around the area with his video cam while the adoring crowds surrounded him with cellphone cameras. Fan Expo was definitely a tighter affair....everyone knew where they were to be placed depending on their category: sci-fi, anime, horror, etc.
Yep, she's the one....Sailor Moon!
All of the various organizations, artists and celebs make a convention interesting and informative, but ultimately, what makes it fun are the visitors. I think it was worth my $33 just to see all of the folks who let their inner geek out and play dress up. Every convention just needs to have a Sailor Moon attend. I saw my share of Starfleet officers, Sailor Scouts and Doctors Who walking up and down the aisles.
Christopher Lloyd in profile
Director John Carpenter
John Barrowman
Yup, there were celebs in force out there. Arguably, two of the most famous were Stan Lee and Christopher Lloyd. As at any other convention, you gotta shuck out the bling to get their autographs and even more for a personalized photo with the star. And of course, as at any other convention, people will try to get that photo for free with the wonders of cellphone technology. The convention crew was pretty good-natured about trying to discourage people from taking random shots, although there was the one crew Nazi. Still, I could get Doc Brown on the DeLorean later in the afternoon.
The strictness of the no-photo policy varied greatly though, depending on where you were. For example, I could get a very clear one of director John Carpenter without getting tackled by a crew member. But when it came to Stan Lee, his area was triple-teamed by security...there was absolutely no way he was gonna get paparazzi'ed.
And there's John Barrowman from "Doctor Who"and "Torchwood". I also saw LeVar Burton, Jamie Bamber and Nana Visitor but just couldn't get a shot of those folks. The lines were long and many in this area. Going back to that "Star Wars" convention in Chiba, there was the same setup for the celebs there, too. It was weird seeing a huge snake-like line for the guy who had played Darth Maul, while Peter (Chewbacca) Mayhew was all by his lonesome a couple of tables down....he was just reading a book. No chance of that at FanExpo. The love was spread out pretty equally.
Gotta Dance!
Dang, Sylvester McCoy, you've been regenerating, have you?
"This isn't the droid I am looking for."
Yup, plenty of stuff to do besides playing video games, gawking at celebs and perusing comic books. There has to be some sort of physical activity. Just put aside any inhibitions....and pride...at the door and dance away all that pizza, pop and pretzels.
The "Doctor Who" group was very well-represented at the Expo; they were out in the main foyer, along with the Ontario Ghostbusters (Who ya gonna call, eh?). The members are probably getting fairly chuffed about the premiere of the new season next week. I saw a number of "Star Trek"paraphernalia here and there but there didn't seem to be any central Trekkie booth. May be time to get that next "Star Trek"movie off and running fast.
The Dancer and her family showed up at around 1 p.m. They have a much more logical way of navigating through the convention; just go up and down the rows. I've always been more for the randomized method of ambling to wherever strikes my fancy. The kids were looking for stuff for Halloween, and so one of them got her elf ears while both kids got ocarinas.
My four hours at FanExpo was fun and raucous. I could be enticed to wear a costume next time around, even in the summer heat. Maybe I will shuck out the big bucks for that autograph. I can only imagine what the San Diego ComiCon is like. But now I think I will aim for Anime North next year.
This morning, I had my first physical in several years. Yup, I'm probably hearing a lot of "tsk, tsk"right now, but hey, I'm not a huge fan of those. So sue me. But my parents' doctor was pretty cool about it....did all the standard parts of the examination, including the one with the rubber glove (it and I are having cocktails on Friday). Not surprisingly, the doc just told me that I need to lose about 15 kg. Yup, I have gained quite a bit since I got back from Japan...most likely due to the two Ribfests and the biweekly anime-and-foodie outings with The Anime King. Then, Dad and I drove a bit West where a neighbourhood medical centre took care of the X-ray that I'd requested for my left shoulder. Yup, it still aches. I'm hoping that it isn't more serious than tendonitis when the doc finds out in a few days. Still have to give my blood and urine samples tomorrow, so no brekkie for me.
Speaking of The Anime King, I had my all-day with him yesterday. Went over to this place out in the North called Myeongdong, in the same strip mall where that branch of Wild Wings was where we downed a bucket of chicken wings a few weeks earlier.
Apparently, even the Koreans from back home rave about this place, so that was a fine incentive for us to try it out. And this time, it wasn't just The King and I. Another old friend of ours from way back, The Anime Knight, joined us. It's nice to have one more added into the conversational mix.
The menu is actually limited to just a handful of items. Myeongdong specializes in shabu shabu, and two-thirds of the menu was devoted to that. However, we did go for one of the few other a la carte items which were these huge dumplings. I mean, if they were frozen, they would be weapons. Luckily, piping hot, they were simply delicious instead. All that was needed was just a pinch of complementary kimchi and soy sauce, and they were good to go. We also had bowls of noodle soup which were spicy but the dumplings were the winners here.
Afterwards, the three of us went to one of our regular post-meal haunts, the Second Cup on Steeles. I treated for the drinks there. And it was another hour or hour and a half of reminiscing and computer talk.
The Anime Knight went back home afterwards, but The King and I went down into the basement as usual to view the various offerings. We continued with the rebooted "Yamato"saga. I have to say that although the story is along the same lines as the original 1974 presentation, the graphics are entertaining enough to keep me watching. We ran through the 4 episodes that came with his latest shipment, before we viewed the one-hour documentary on the onstage show with cast and crew when the episodes were actually shown at an Osaka movie theatre earlier in the year. Just saw that long line snake down the staircase. Heck, even Isao Sasaki, the singer of the iconic theme song, made a surprise appearance and performance. Probably not a dry eye in the place.
Then, it was an hour of appreciative listening to soundtrack stuff before heading out to a neighbourhood Thai joint for dinner before coming back to watch "Joshiraku"and the latest episode of "Smile Precure". "Joshiraku"is just one seemingly stream-of-consciousness Japanese screwball comedy anime spearheaded by five female rakugo performers that spares no sacred cows in Japan or beyond.
Nominally it was the weekend tribute to Ontario's 1st Lieutenant-Governor, but personally, I would peg it as the Anime King weekend.
Sunday was the usual meeting day for The King and I. Neglected to take a picture of the restaurant we went to, but it was a Scarberian place that specialized in inexpensive dumplings (I hesitate to use the word 'cheap' due to the wrong connotations which may be evoked). $5 for a steamer of 15 scrumptious jiaoxu which even contained some soup along the lines of sho ron po. Made them taste even better.
The second dish at this place was a Hot and Sour Soup with the added benefit of udon noodles inside. Huzzah...an idea whose time has come. I've always loved this stuff, especially during the Winter. I've even made a batch of Hot and Sour over the years. The vinegar is the key. Again, this big bowl for 2 is just $5. Brings back memories of $5 Thursdays at Pizza Hut.
Of course, after lunch was the usual stopover at that Second Cup on Steeles. I've been following The King's lead and getting a Paradiso Coffee with a Lemon Tart. Good combo.
I see Second Cup as the happy medium between Starbucks and Tim Hortons. The various Starbucks branches in Tokyo were friendly and warm but I always saw a bit of corporatization in their interior design. Timmies is of course a fine place to go to for the donuts and the Chili Combo, but it's a bit too fast food to savor that coffee for a long time unless it's late at night. Second Cup just has the right sort of atmosphere to enjoy friends while downing that joe.
The anime for that day consisted of a couple of the special movies for "Smile Precure"that pop once or twice a year. The anime series has gone on for nearly a decade and involves different teams of warrior teens every year or every other year. Each of the movies starred every team that has ever existed on Sunday morning television, and by the last movie under this format, there were 21 girls with their own powers along with several cute familiars. Hard to get everyone to talk in merely 90 minutes.
There was also a new anime that The King kindly showed me called "Joshiraku" which has five young female rakugo comics just riffin' on all sorts of nonsensical discussion. No holds barred, no political correctness there.
We took another eating break and so The King and I drove into Markham where we went to a Wild Wings branch. It was a deserted place so space and service were no problem. Ended up having a basket each of spicy and honey-garlic wings with fries and gravy on the side. Yup, we do our protein and carbs hard. If there's one thing I've appreciated since returning from my Japan odyssey, it's been regular access to chicken wings.
Got through Hump Day with a full day at the school. Again, nice 3 groups of young folk, although I think a few didn't quite know what to make of me with my oddball approach to teaching. And again, I cannot change my stripes on that matter. But at the end of my final class, I even got a few rounds of applause although I think the last few minutes had everyone getting into a bit of good-natured raucousness over the topic of coffee.
I have to head down again later today since the regular monthly meeting is on. If it weren't for the fact that I get paid for attending it, I would be sorely tempted to just skip it since I was rather unimpressed with the last one....even considering the free Tim Hortons donuts.
Had my weekly talk with The Anime King a few hours ago. We'll be making our usual meet-up on Sunday for anime and food. Since it'll be a long weekend coming up, we could be looking at some major hours in front of the screen watching "Moretsu Pirates"and "Smile Precure".
Saw the NHK Evening News at 9 at 8 a.m. this morning as I always do. The first 15 minutes of the broadcast were totally devoted to the former No. 51 of the Seattle Mariners, Ichiro Suzuki. His press conference before last night's game had him misting up a fair bit....otokonaki as we would say in Japanese. Cry like a Man! In any case, NHK gave a list of his accomplishments and they were many. It'll be an interesting remainder to the New York Yankees' season.
On a totally wacky other side to competition, I've started watching the latest anime that The Anime King had lent me. Called "Ben-To", just imagine "Fight Club" mixed with the nightly ritual in Japanese cities of buying that bento at the neighbourhood supermarket. The King suggested that I watch this wackiness as a counterpoint to the deadly serious "Madoka Magica".
Yup, each episode is 23 minutes of brawling-for-box lunches insanity. But the Tyler Durden in this anime just happens to be a cool-as-spring water high school girl called Sen Yarizui who operates the school's "Half-Priced Food Lovers' Club". The Ed Norton is an initially hapless schoolboy named Yo Sato and I guess the Meat Loaf role would be covered by the shy but gabby girl named Hana Oshiroi. Like "Fight Club", there are rules to be learned about the nightly battle for bento although none of them refer to NOT talking about the bento battles, and everyone's got a seemingly cool nickname like "The Wizard" or "The Ice Witch". Plus there's more sexual innuendo in one episode than in a very special episode of "Three's Company".
Ach, I was such a huge devourer of bento back in Japan. My personal favourite was karaagebento (Japanese-style deep-fried chicken). About as healthy as a Big Mac set (I got plenty of those, too), I was downing those about 3-4 times a week for lunch or dinner.
This was the Breaded Chicken with Tartar Sauce bento that I often got at the supermarket near my old school. It isn't karaage, though, because the chicken is breaded not battered. You might think that having tartar sauce on chicken is pretty weird, but in Japan, it's actually quite common. It cost 398 yen. Never bothered reading the caloric amount.
And this behemoth is the tonkatsu bento that I got from my neighbourhood supermarket. I always got the hire tonkatsu since hire pork is a bit leaner than the rosu....not that it would matter all that much. The one that I got here came with the thick tonkatsu sauce and mustard, but there was another one I liked which came with a tangy onion sauce. The stuff on the lower righthand corner which my chopsticks are lying on is konnyaku jelly. And up in the upper lefthand corner are sweetened soybeans. Good eatin'!
Let's get the foodie part out of the way. The Anime King and I hit Bamiyan across from East York Marketplace for the 2nd time for a nice round of hearty fare. It was a whole lot crowded during the dinner hour than when we had gone there for the first time at around opening time. Still, I got a goodly amount of Tandoori Chicken with a ton of rice, naan and salad. Yup, I paid for my sins later that night.
Earlier in the day, The King took me to Yogi Noodle in one of the Chinese malls in Scarborough....the one with Foody Mart. Had a good bowl of Shrimp Dumpling Soup with a glass of Soybean Milk.
In the middle of the day, we also went to our usual Second Cup for coffee and dessert. Our server suggested the Milky Way Cake. I didn't realize that this was a cake based on the famously sweet chocolate bar. I got hit with a major wedge of diabetic killer cake. Gonna have to be careful next time. At about the time we were in the coffee shop, the thunderstorm that just deluged Toronto hit us. When we got out to the car, it was on the "shore" of a major lake that had formed in the parking lot. The King was wearing his sandals so he was OK with the wading, but I had to wait several metres away while his car swam back up to shore.
As for the anime segment, nothing new. We had a good discussion on "Madoka Magica"now that I've seen all of it. Basically, I see it as "Sailor Moon"with "Dark Knight"atmosphere. Of course, we caught ourselves up on "Smile Precure"...they had the trilogy of those extra-special episodes where all the characters are super-serious as they try to rescue one of their own and finally have the big showdown with all of the monsters. "Bodacious Space Pirates"is another keeper that has been growing on me with every episode. The King told me that the project had started out as a low-budget bottom-dwelling member of the totem pole but the right people took the right interest in it, and it's now getting its due. Even I would be tempted to buy the set if I ever get back to Japan again. I know I can always get it via Amazon but there's something about buying it in the home country.
Nice comfortable summer day, but of course that will not last long. Toronto will start heading into the 3H weather pattern from tomorrow with the supposed climax being this Friday when any resemblance between the city and a furnace will be purely coincidental.
In any case, I have been continuing my ironic education in the latest anime, thanks to my good friend, The Anime King. I say ironic since I'm only learning about the genre in any significant amounts here in Toronto, compared with learning next to bupkiss during my entire 17 years in Japan. The King didn't seem too surprised at all. He remarked that anime is still considered a subgenre for geeks and weirdos by the majority of Japanese society so that it would've been difficult for me to knowingly pierce through the barrier.
In the past 7 months I've been back home, The King has lent me a couple of flash drives to peruse. So I've gone through the entire run of the existential sci-fi "Mawaru Penguindrum"and the down-to-earth "Usagi Drops". Currently I'm going through the dark, angst-ridden "Madoka Magica".
I'll be honest. Despite my long residence in Japan, my still-horribly lacking Japanese language was made clear by trying to decipher what these girls/witches were talking about. I needed Cliff Notes and I got them via Wikipedia. OK, anime mini-skirted junior high school students get a wish answered in return for a metamorphosis into witches...check. But that is the mere backbone of the plot which seems to absorb elements of "Evangelion", "Star Wars" and "Highlander". I've had to squint my eyes and ears (yep, ears too) at the screen to get what has been going on. But I've liked the contrast in drawing styles. Whereas the characters are drawn in the usual style of huge eyes and small bodies, the nightmarish scenes are drawn in a very garish but artistic way. And the determination of each individual witch's power based on the original girl's wish is a clever idea.
I'm currently going onto Episode 10, so I'm in the homestretch now. Should be interesting talking with the King on Sunday. Definitely not a "Sailor Moon"episode.
Sunday was another outing with The Anime King. As the title says, we had the usual grabfest of food and anime. We first went for a brunch of sorts at a branch of Asian Legend at Leslie and Finch which is an upscale looking restaurant specializing in Northern Chinese cuisine.
Pretty heavy on the carbs and protein as we had warm soy milk soup and deep-fried bread. Nothing different about the soy milk; just different containers. I've always liked the Chinese version since it's sweetened as compared to the Japanese variety which comes out as bland as its cousin, tofu. As for the bread, it made for some good dunkin'.
Deceptively heavy
Then, there was the Green Onion Egg Pancake which was a good mite denser than the usual omelette. I'd say it was closer to Japanese tamagoyaki than the French egg dish. With the soup, bread and egg, the two of us were quite stuffed by the end...and there wasn't the slightest bit of meat in the meal.
"Farewell, Mother Earth..."
Of course, the highlight of the day was watching The King's latest dearly acquired Blu-Ray....the reboot of the Space Cruiser Yamato series, "Yamato 2199". Ahhhh....the days of running home after junior high school to catch the latest episode of "Star Blazers"and wondering if the ship would fire off the dreaded Wave Motion Gun.
The campaigning for the new version in Japan has been interesting: selected theatres all over the country have been showing double episodes which end up in DVDs for purchase a couple of months later, completely bypassing the television. I guess the production company can make some more money that way, but I just wonder if it had been too difficult getting sponsors for any television broadcast.
But then again, The King surmised that this new series has been marketed for that very niche of niches: old-time Yamato fans (that would be me). However, I was slightly more optimistic in that there are some younger types out there who may have thought the original series a tad too primitive in design but would potentially accept a Yamato that was battle-ready for the 21st-century. Let there be no doubt, though. This is a reboot. It starts all over again with the Iscandar Mission. The characters look glossier and cuddlier than their relatively rough-hewn counterparts in 1974, and there are actually more women on the ship now (how Yuki Mori managed to survive one year on a space boat of randy men with her modesty intact is beyond me)....including a seemingly tsundere accountant. But the basic story hasn't changed and the music from the original series has returned, except for your typical modern J-ballad at the end. The rousing Yamato March, though, has been added only as an extra on the Blu-Ray and isn't part of the episode which I find odd. Overall, though, I'm gonna be looking forward to those regular visits to the King's basement.
Dinner was at Casa Manila, a Phillipine restaurant just across from the Westin Prince Hotel near Don Mills & York Mills. Our timing getting there was excellent since as soon as we got in, the skies just opened up on Toronto for the next hour. The King and some of the Anime Court like going there for the famed dessert of halo-halo which I was also introduced to.
Yup, we both had a meal that a dietitian would despise. First off, we shared some deep-fried pork. Pretty darn fatty.
Then, there was the Garlic Chicken which I liked even better. The sauce was the key point here. The garlic infused the meat completely but the taste wasn't overpowering at all. I felt less guilty eating this.
And finally, there was the halo-halo, the raison d'etre for the visit to Casa Manila. You can't see it here but there was a small island of shaved ice floating in an ocean of condensed milk while covered in all sorts of toppings such as purple taro potato, sweet beans and fruits. It made for a fine counterpoint to the previous meat dishes.
The restaurant was quite empty for most of our time there, and it was heavily air-conditioned. At one point, I wondered about the wisdom of ordering halo-halo when it felt so frosty inside. Still, I enjoyed it and will wait to have it again during a much hotter day.
Next week, though, it will get foodie-crazy. My brother's family is coming over for dinner on the 30th. Then, The Anime Court has its annual trip to the big RibFest at Centennial Park on Canada Day, followed by my visit to my brother's place for BBQ. And then on the holiday Monday, I see The Dancer and her husband for lunch down at Brookfield Place.
This is the opening that has been set aside on the Blu-Ray. All you Yamato fans...try not to get that lump in your throat.
