Roland Kelts - The Japan Times

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

May 16, 2015

Anime oasis of the Midwest flourishes

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CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Apr 18, 2015

At last, Japan gets it

The Japanese entertainment industry is finally growing up, says Shin Unozawa, and he should know. Unozawa joined Bandai Entertainment back in 1981, and serves as chair of the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA), co-hosts of the Tokyo Game Show.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Mar 27, 2015

AnimeJapan 2015 sees the big picture

For most in Japan, April marks the start of the new working year. But for the anime and manga industries, it all begins in March.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Feb 27, 2015

'The Anime Encyclopedia' goes full digital

"The Anime Encyclopedia, 3rd Revised Edition: A Century of Japanese Animation" will be released March 3.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Jan 30, 2015

In less than a year, Tonko House earns an Oscar nomination

They had plum jobs at one of the best companies in the world. Their successes were the envy of their peers. But last summer, two peak-career professionals quit their lucrative day jobs to found a start-up. With no income or investment, they built their own studio, mostly by hand, and started working...

CULTURE / Music

Jan 13, 2015

Lantis looks to woo a dedicated fan base with anisong tour

Fans breach the language barrier at overseas expos of Japanese pop culture as soon as the music starts. Legions of non-Japanese, most of whose knowledge of the language is limited to basic greetings and exclamations, burst into karaoke-style singalongs, mimicking dance moves and waving glow sticks. This...

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Dec 26, 2014

Sanrio's 'Nutcracker' offers visual experience in 3-D

For anyone raised in the West, the year-end holidays in Japan can be a jarring experience, at least for the uninitiated. Decorated trees, illuminated boulevards and carols in convenience stores coincide with Colonel Sanders statuettes remade into Santa Claus and mini-skirted chorus girls in reindeer...

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Nov 28, 2014

Cool Japan sets its sights on Southeast Asia

A full year and a half has passed since the Japanese government gave its final approval for the Cool Japan Fund — a 20-year, public-private entity aimed at spreading Japan's cultural appeal overseas — the official soft-power push that some bureaucrats and academics had been advocating for...

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Oct 24, 2014

Disney's 'Big Hero 6' animates a bridging of cultures

This week's Tokyo International Film Festival is hot on animation, featuring screenings of the collected works of Hideaki Anno, creator of the epic franchise, "Neon Genesis Evangelion," and 3-D shorts directed by Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, producer of "Donkey Kong" and "Super Mario Bros." But the festival's...

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Sep 26, 2014

New markets may save Japan's manga exports

The North American manga business took a beating last decade. After peaking around 2005-06, the lethal storm of oversaturated shelves, a collapsing U.S. financial industry and the bankruptcy of major American bookstore chain, Borders, left publishers and distributors in a panic. Downsizing, restructuring...

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Aug 22, 2014

Haruki Murakami's Cool Japan

I was in New York last week to host a launch event for the English translation of Haruki Murakami's latest novel, "Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage." My good friend and Murakami translator Ted Goossen, professor at York University in Toronto, joined me, as did pianist Eunbi Kim, whose...

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Jul 25, 2014

Anime enjoys summer homes in Los Angeles

For more than two decades, post-production, audio and creative studio Bang Zoom! Entertainment in Burbank, California, has been delivering the anime fix abroad. Founder and CEO Eric P. Sherman talks about how it all began.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Jun 13, 2014

Forget Cool Japan — cute is this summer's hot global export

Summer is always high season for fans of Japanese pop culture. School's out, weather's amenable and festivals, conventions and expos shift into top gear in Japan and across the globe.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

May 9, 2014

Manga becomes a major draw at Toronto Comic Arts Festival

The 11th annual Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) kicks off May 10. As its title suggests, it's less a fan-focused pop convention than a platform for comics and graphic novels as art, and for the artists who create them. It has also emerged as a great friend to manga over the past few years.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Apr 11, 2014

Anime industry reunified at expo, satellite events

AnimeJapan 2014, the rebranded and reunified annual industry trade show, exceeded organizers' expectations last month, hosting 110,000 producers, publishers, journalists, cosplayers and public visitors. What a relief.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Mar 13, 2014

Sebastian Masuda's mission to take Harajuku art global

New York is not a city one automatically associates with the Japanese concept of kawaii — lovably, irresistibly, dependably cute. But if Sebastian Masuda, the so-called "king of kawaii," has his way, the mean streets of "Goodfellas" may one day emanate a candy-colored glow.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Feb 13, 2014

The symbiotic relationship between anime and games

Japan excels at making you play. From its flower arrangements to tea ceremonies to karaoke, nothing much happens until you get into the game, and a big part of Japan's appeal to non-natives is its invitation to engage.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Jan 9, 2014

Anime/manga experts hopeful for year ahead

Aside from Hayao Miyazaki's sudden departure from filmmaking in September, the anime world saw some potentially hopeful developments in 2013.

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Dec 10, 2013

Shueisha manga push hard into the global market

One week before Thanksgiving on Nov. 28, readers of The New York Times were greeted by a spiky-haired, wild-eyed manga character named Monkey D. Luffy, his fists clenched and chest bare, charging forward as if the newsprint could barely contain him. Behind him in massive text screamed the words: "Hey...

CULTURE / CULTURE SMASH

Nov 12, 2013

Has anime lost its cachet in America?

I had been invited to host a Q&A with renowned "Gundam" creator and sci-fi novelist Yoshiyuki Tomino at The New York Anime Festival. But when my handler and I arrived at the designated room, we found it empty and dark. "Over here," a staffer called from across the hall. "Too many people."

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