“Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder’s writeup about Tonoharu: Part One on Boing Boing, the book has made it into Amazon.com’s Top Ten Bestselling Graphic Novels today!”

Here’s the link to the review:  http://www.boingboing.net/2010/08/27/tonoharu-excellent-g.html

Here’s a quote from the review:

“Published in 2008, and a winner of the prestigious Xeric Award, Tonoharu is a story of isolation, frustration, and mystery, with just the right amount of black humor to keep it from being depressing.”

For fans awaiting the next installment, Tonoharu:  Part 2 is due out in December.

Recently he interviewed two members of the cast of “The Last Airbender” movie during their promotional visit to Tokyo, asking them for their views on the “racebending” controversy surrounding their film. He also covered an insect show now running at a Tokyo museum, reviewed the manga “Otomen,” and weighed in on a couple of other movies now playing in Japan. Here are some excerpts:

“Last Airbender”

In the United States, some fans of the anime-style cartoon on which the movie is based have protested against the casting of Jackson Rathbone and Nicola Peltz, who are white, in roles the fans saw as Asian.

Asked to comment on that, Rathbone said: “I originally was a finalist for Prince Zuko [a Fire Nation role that went to Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel]. Almost a year later, I was brought back in for the character of Sokka…I think what they were really looking for was the qualities that people represent, not so much focusing on race…All these characters [in the cartoon] have so many different features, you can’t really say that they are one race…It’s a shame that people really focus on the race thing and they don’t understand that it’s a story for everyone.”

“And there are over 120 different types of people in the film,” Peltz added.

“In terms of a big-budget film, it’s the most ethnically diverse cast there’s ever been,” Rathbone agreed.

Read the rest of the interview here.

“Insects festival”

Open your window on a hot summer day and you may hear a sound that caught the ear of haiku poet Matsuo Basho in the 17th century: the voices of cicadas, seeping into the rocks. Of course, Japan today is a lot more urbanized than it was in Basho’s time, and cicadas are more likely to sing against a background of asphalt and cement. Yet year after year, the buzzing bugs never fail to show up, even in the heart of Tokyo.

Visitors to Insects Festival, an exhibition now running at the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku, Tokyo, are reminded of such persistence right away with a display of six-legged critters that live in three different Tokyo zones: mountains, fields and downtown areas.

While city-dwellers often resent sharing space with the likes of cockroaches and ants, the emphasis of this show is on seasonal outdoor insects whose diverse shapes, bright colors and occasional songs actually enhance city life…

Read the rest of the article here, or visit the exhibition’s site here.

“Otomen”

Anyone writing a graduate thesis on the presentation of gender in Japanese pop culture will find abundant material in the manga series Otomen. Readers looking for laughs will also find what they seek in Otomen, but rather less abundantly.

The main characters are a trio of high school students, with the focus on Asuka (a boy who has a name more common for girls), who is in love with Ryo (a girl who has a name more common for boys). Their would-be romance is complicated by the constant presence of their friend Juta, who tries to play cupid, but is more often a third wheel.

Asuka is the captain of the school kendo team, and is admired by everyone as a “real man.” But he is secretly an “otomen,” a boy who is into girly things, such as cute stuffed animals and delicate pastries. He is at least as skilled at cooking and sewing as he is at sports, but he keeps that side of himself hidden. Ryo is Asuka’s mirror image in that she has been raised by her socially inept father to follow in his footsteps as a martial arts champion, but she strives to put up a feminine front at school. Juta has a secret, too, as he is actually a best-selling manga artist who is using the couple as a model for his stories…

Read the full review here.

Also playing…

You can read Tom’s review of “Inception” here, and his review of “Zombieland” here.

A quick book recommendation from current Hiroshima-ken JET Gail Cetnar Meadows…

Now and then I read a book that’s so good I want to tell everyone I meet about it, and I’ve recently finished one such book. For those interested in learning more about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, I highly recommend a graphic novel written by atomic bomb survivor Keiji Nakazawa. Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima is a 10-volume graphic novel loosely based on Nakazawa’s experiences and those of other Hiroshima residents who survived the bomb. The book taught me a lot about what happened in Hiroshima in the year’s following World War II — things beyond what I learned visiting Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Museum or listening to the accounts of hibakusha. For those who are interested, I’ve written a piece on the Wide Island View talking a little more about it and encouraging others to check it out.

Do you work in bankruptcy or restructuring?  Now you can join the JET Alumni Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group on LinkedIn.

Additionally, if anyone would like to take a stab at translating the cartoon into Japanese for JetWit’s Japanese fans out there, feel free to post in the comments section of this post.  Some cultural explanation might be helpful as well, given that Japanese bankruptcy laws are very different than the U.S.

Is this another example of ‘gaitsu‘–Japan being affected by foreign pressure?

Column is here:  http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/20100319TDY11101.htm

Do you work in bankruptcy or restructuring?  Now you can join the JET Alumni Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group on LinkedIn.

Additionally, if anyone would like to take a stab at translating the cartoon into Japanese for JetWit’s Japanese fans out there, feel free to post in the comments section of this post.  Some cultural explanation might be helpful as well, given that Japanese bankruptcy laws are very different than the U.S.

Here is his latest manga review, of Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga:

With its shrinking population, chronically depressed birthrate and rising average age, Japan is fated for major social changes in the fairly near future. How that will play out remains to be seen, but Fumi Yoshinaga’s manga series Ooku: The Inner Chamber is an example of how popular art can tap into real-world social anxieties.

Ooku is set in an alternate-history Japan that also faces a demographic crisis, but of a different type. In the 1630s, a mysterious epidemic called Redface Pox kills 75 percent of Japan’s men, while leaving women physically unharmed.

The disease lingers, the gender imbalance never rights itself, and Japanese society comes to resemble a colony of bees or ants, in which the large female majority does every kind of work while the male minority are seen as delicate creatures valued only for their “seed.”

With women forced to share the limited supply of men, the institution of marriage largely disappears, as only a rich woman can keep a husband all to herself. The wealthiest and most powerful woman of all is the shogun, who keeps a crowded male harem in the innermost chambers–the Ooku–of Edo Castle…

Read the rest of the review here.

Do you work in bankruptcy or restructuring?  Now you can join the JET Alumni Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group on LinkedIn.

Additionally, if anyone would like to take a stab at translating the cartoon into Japanese for JetWit’s Japanese fans out there, feel free to post in the comments section of this post.  Some cultural explanation might be helpful as well, given that Japanese bankruptcy laws are very different than the U.S.

http://www.fantopro.com/blog/2009/12/book-review-japanamerica.html

Just in time for the holidays, in case you’re looking for that special gift for that special JET friend or Friend of JET!

Do you work in bankruptcy or restructuring?  Now you can join the JET Alumni Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group on LinkedIn.

Additionally, if anyone would like to take a stab at translating the cartoon into Japanese for JetWit’s Japanese fans out there, feel free to post in the comments section of this post.  Some cultural explanation might be helpful as well, given that Japanese bankruptcy laws are very different than the U.S.

In the first, he talks about the connection between manga and anime and traditional Japanese line-based aesthetics–or what Takashi Murakami now calls “Superflat”:

And in the second video, he discusses the fundamental differences between American visual iconography and Japanese sensibilities, with a reference to Pokemon in America and McDonald’s in Japan:

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend and that you’re all enjoying autumn. Let’s take a peek at what our favorite JET bloggers have been posting lately.

JET alum Suzanne Kamata (Tokushima-ken, 1988-90) at Gaijin Mama shares a decidedly Japanese first in twenty one years of living in Japan, as well as an eye opening take on a day with a wheelchair in Japan.

Kevin Kajitani (Kyogo-ken, 2006-07) over at iSpeakJapanese has moved to Japan – check out the first video from his new home here.

JET alum Lars Martinson finishes up his series on the beauty of East Asian calligraphy. Check out part one and part two.

Here’s another delicious recipe derived from a productive bout of insomnia from Elizabeth White (Toyama-ken, 1995-98), adventure writer.

Just in time for the holidays – JET alum Chen Reichert has new holiday cards at botodesigns.

Do you work in bankruptcy or restructuring?  Now you can join the JET Alumni Restructuring & Bankruptcy Group on LinkedIn.

(Click image above to see larger version.)

Additionally, if anyone would like to take a stab at translating the cartoon into Japanese for JetWit’s Japanese fans out there, feel free to post in the comments section of this post.  Some cultural explanation might be helpful as well, given that Japanese bankruptcy laws are very different than the U.S.

Here’s a radio interview Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, did in Tokyo this past weekend with Tyler Brule, founder and editor of the UK-based Monocle magazine, about manga in Japan and overseas, and Japanamerica:

http://www.monocle.com/The-Monocle-Weekly

The Japanamerica segment is introduced at 1:00 and starts at 22:00

Just received a

A small but determined group of us in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA are attempting to jump-start the JETAA – New York sub-chapter here. We’re located kind of in the middle of a rough triangle composed of New York, Washington DC, and Detroit (all of which are at 200-400 miles away), and would like to restart the subchapter to establish a local JETAA presence, form ties with the Japanese community, and spread awareness of the JET Programme.

In the last couple of weeks, we’ve gotten official permission from JETAANY and established affiliations with the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and the Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh, and we’re currently in the process of choosing officers and getting the word out. (We’ll be putting up a website in the near future, too.) At the moment, we know we’ll be hosting a Nihongo Dake dinner (date/time/location TBA) and quarterly events/meetups.

Like other JETAA chapters, we’re open to all JET alums, prospective applicants, and any friends of the JET Programme. We’re based in western PA, but people in neighboring areas who are also too far from their regional JETAA chapters to participate actively (eastern Ohio, West Virginia, etc.) are welcome to join us.

Any interested parties can send an e-mail to pittsburghrep [/at/] jetaany [/dot/] org.

Smitha Prasadh (Tokushima-ken, 2005-07)

Note: JetWit just checked out Smitha’s website (http://skprasadh.com) and realized that Smitha also does sugoi design work (graphic and web), illustrations and photography.

Roland Kelts (Osaka-shi, 1998-99), author of Japanamerica, was interviewed by Japan Society of New York at the New York Anime Festival 2009 which was held September 25-27 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.  Let’s go to the video tape:

Part 1 of the interview:

Part 2 of the interview:

James Kennedy (Nara-ken, 2004-06), author of The Order of Odd-Fish, is seeking art submissions from JET alumni for his Chicago gallery show in Spring 2010.

To get a sense of James’ aesthetic and sensibilities (or if you just like reading extremely funny and dramatic stories), by all means read The Order of Odd-Fish.  Or watch clips of his over-the-top “speech” to the American Librarians Association as well as his audience-gripping reading performed at the JET Alumni Author Showcase last March.

In JetWit’s humble opinion, if James Kennedy is putting an event together, you will benefit greatly on many levels and attain new levels of happiness by participating in it in any way you can.  Keep reading and you’ll understand.

Exciting news!

For about a year now I’ve been receiving stupendous fan art for my novel “The Order of Odd-Fish.” Artists like these deserve broader recognition. So this spring I’m planning a gallery show / extravaganza of “Odd-Fish” art in Chicago!

Are you an artist? Do you want to make something for the show? Everyone’s invited. Learn more here:

http://jameskennedy.com/2009/11/03/call-for-submissions-odd-fish-art-show/

I’m working with award-winning Chicago theater group Collaboraction to pull this off. It won’t be just an art show — we’re going to convert their space into Eldritch City and throw a Dome of Doom costumed dance party! We’re going to be bringing schools in for performances and writing workshops as well.

Will there be troupes of foppish dancing cockroaches? Will you be able to venture into the very maw of the All-Devouring Mother itself? You’ll have to come and see!

The opening will be sometime in late March or early April, to celebrate the debut of the “Odd-Fish” paperback. The deadline for submission of art is March 1.

I’ve already received lots of great art! Check out Max Pitchkites’ marvelous cut-paper illustrations — he’s doing one for every chapter:

http://jameskennedy.com/2009/10/29/the-odd-fish-art-of-max-pitchkites/

Feel free to pass this on to whomever you think might be interested in doing art for the show. And don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions!

Click here to read more about the show:

http://www.facebook.com/l/c93ba;tinyurl.com/yl5tjlk

Thanks,

James