Today on Boing Boing tv, a sneak peek inside TOKYOLOGY, a new documentary exploring contemporary Japanese pop-culture hosted by Carrie Ann Inaba. Oh, what adventures await: sneak behind the scenes at a Japanese Rock TV show that pretends it’s shot in Los Angeles, cruise Harajuku, go clubbing with goth girls in Shinjuku, shop for shoes with Lolitas, experience the madness of the Tokyo Anime Fair, visit a video game company, browse the streets of Akihabara, and meet anime creator Yoshitoshi Abe.
DVDs are available in retail stores and online, tokyology.tv has details. (Special thanks to Tokyology co-producers Felix and Julian Mack of Nightjar.)
As much as I enjoy this stuff (moving to Japan in a year-and not Tokyo btw) I have to agree with #4/Loci:
Same thing every time. Open with a shot of Shibuya Crossing. Maybe throw in a bit about capsule hotels, Akihabara, salarymen, otaku & hentai next? Perhaps balance it with some Zen and you have every Western fluff piece on Japan covered. Especially since they never leave Tokyo.
Disclosure: GF is from Japan and we always make fun of the clichéd representations of Japanese culture we see in things like this.
Nobody can mix kitsch and depravity like the Japanese!
this would have been mildly interesting 10 yrs ago and interesting 20 yrs ago.
what you going to do next…london’s punks?
there is nothing about japanese culture/sub-culture that we haven’t seen a million times before.
ahh look at the little lolli goth, she’s sooo cute (sorry, kawaii!!!)
Carrie Ann Inaba could narrate how it’s made and I would still get excited.
Don’t go to that Alcatraz ER place. Fun for 30 minutes, but the worst food of my life and subsequent week-long stomach cramps.
This pop culture doc on Tokyo looks great! Can’t wait to get my hands on it.