Thursday, December 01, 2005
Aeria gloris, aeria gloris
Earlier in the evening I met Dai Sato, the head screenwriter of anime series like Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop and latest obsession, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. He was accompanied by Hiroki Azuma, an anime critic/philosopher who wrote a book called Dobutsuka-suru Postmodern (Animalizing Postmodernity) which I should probably seek and read. He mentioned it often. Douglas McGray, whose Japanese pop culture-related articles appeared in NY Times Magazine, Wired, TIME Asia and several others, moderated the talk.
Here are the highlights! I'd go into detail but I got approximately four hours of sleep the past day and I aim to make it up somewhat by sleeping... now!
- Evangelion was mentioned often. Everyone agreed any discourse about otaku culture can't escape Evangelion. Azuma said something akin to "no anime can compare to Evangelion." Dai Sato didn't object. It's interesting I'm not the only one with Eva constantly in mind.
- A black/latino musician guy asked Dai Sato about Yoko Kanno. Everyone agreed: we all love Yoko Kanno.
- Dai Sato is the most generous, hospitable, patient anime screenwriter alive. I GOT TO TALK TO HIM AND GET HIS PICTURE AND AUUUGHHHHH
- Earler in the month Toshiya Ueno, another scholarly type interested in the otaku phenomenon, came ot my Japan Mass Culture class and gave an outrageously complicated whirlwind talk. After class we chat for a bit and he told me to tell his friend Dai Sato "hi." So I told Dai Sato "hi" for Toshiya Ueno and Dai Sato almost fell on the floor from surprise. In that Japanese way.
- I thanked him for the A- I got on my paper about The Man With 21 Faces incident. Basically, it's this crime that happened in mid-80s Japan when a "mystery man" kidnapped the president of the Glico food corporation. It began a bizarre and theatrical crime, inspired by a villain from a Edogawa Rampo story - the Man With 20 Faces. Dai Sato updated that caper with the Laughing Man story in Stand Alone Complex. He asked if I had the paper with me and I didn't. He looked disappointed then said to post it online.
- Then I told him how insightful and fantastic the Tachikoma Escapes, The Director's Dream episode was and that it's a favorite among me and my friends. He was very flattered. I wanted to go into how the Tachikoma and the girl and how the movie theater reflected the world and international culture exchange and idea and thought and Motoko's tears and Batou's lame pass but... I didn't want to overwhelm him. Especially with stuff he wrote.
- Dai Sato signed my Stand Alone Complex tin. In Japanese, in English and... the date. Hanae said that was important. She also took our picture. For now though, the tin:
He also said his work with Stand Alone Complex' third season was complete and it's up to the rest of the team now. "Look forward to an announcement next year."
Oh man. The only thing that could make this any better would be--
YES!!!
*falls over in that Japanese way*
# posted by magusart @ 1:34 AM 
