Getting Psyched for Skate Canada

The Constructivist family's heading on a field trip to Ontario for Skate Canada in a couple of days. Of course the main attraction for us is Daisuke Takahashi, a true artist of the ice. Check out the various styles he's a master of (or in the process of mastering):



Love the Cowboy Bebop meets spaghetti western vibe of his free skate (even if it was a sloppy performance):




Of course Dai-chan's main competition is going to be Patrick Chan, but Kevin Van Der Perren came in 2nd behind Michael Brezina and ahead of Takahiko Kozuka at Skate America just last week, so with an up-and-comer like Adam Rippon also in the field and Denis Ten coming off a respectable performance at Skate America, as well, just about anything can happen.  Dai-chan had better bring along a real grizzled veteran's gunslinging attitude to Mississauga!

J-Skate Fans Pwn J-Golf Fans

OMG! LOL! Mao Asada's fans rule!



At least Ryo Ishikawa makes 2 appearances here....

[Update 1 (6:36 am): Not exactly an inspired performance by Mao-chan in Moscow this weekend:



But check out the little girl shouting "Mao-chan, gambatte!" ("go for it, Mao-chan!") at the start and "sugoi" ("wow! amazing!") at the end of this home video of her free skate. Cho kawaii!]

[Update 2 (11/9/09, 4:11 am): And now I find out it's not even Ryo-kun but instead Ryota Ito in the video....]

HIMEKA Watch: YouTube Edition

If you aren't yet a fan of French Canadian anime songstress HIMEKA (Catherine St-Onge), you will be after checking out the following clips from youtube!

Here's her victory performance at the Animax Anison Grand Prix contest, with English subtitles of the judges' reactions and the award presentation:



Here's how she got there in the 1st and 2nd rounds:



The Full Metal Archivist was blown away by her singing, her gestures, even her breathing techniques, but how did authentic Japanese otaku react to her performance?



No subtitles necessary, eh?



Here's her song for the opening of Valkryia Chronicles:



Bonus points for true otaku wannabees--check out the differences in her style of singing the same song in this promotional video:



Now HIMEKA's getting the full-on Jero treatment, from TBS:



From a morning news program:



We think this was the same show Jero appeared on last year:



Let's check out with her debut single, a cover of "Sayonara Solitaire":



What a voice!

Jero + Utada = HIMEKA?

A Mostly Harmless regular pointed me to an article by Junko Hirabayashi about Catherine St-Onge, a Canadian singer who's made it big in Japan performing "anison," or animated songs, in Japanese. Sounds like Quebec's answer to Jero!

Sony Music Japan International, which signed up St-Onge after she won the singing contest, calls her the only "genuine" Western anison singer who debuted in Japan.

"I believe this is the first case a non-Japanese singer wannabe who has no Japanese background survived under the same conditions Japanese competitors did," said Sony Music's Yuichi Nakanishi.

Will she be the next Hikaru Utada? Only time will tell! Gambare, HIMEKA-san!

The Politics of Miyazaki

Daniel Thomas MacInnes of Conversations on Ghibli has done the animation world a great service in posting and commenting on a Japanese documentary on Hayao Miyazaki's North American promotion tour for Princess Mononoke at the end of the last millennium. But as good as his focus on the business marketing context of the Ghibli-Disney relationship's beginning is, it's his penultimate paragraph that's the most significant part of his piece, for it touches on something the Full Metal Archivist was picking up on throughout the documentary:

Still, as an artist and dedicated Ghibl Freak, I am endlessly annoyed by all these stupid questions from the suits, the expectation that Miyazaki dumb his work down to the level of...I dunno, the average George W. Bush voter. Why does everything in this country be dumbed down to the lowest common denominator? Why does everybody have to be so mindless, so sloven, so stupid? Thank God there will be no President Sarah Palin in 2009. But in this swamp, that possibility is always lurking nearby, just like November snow in Minnesota.

In fact, Thomas shouldn't have backed off on his self-described "rant" or chalked it up to his health or mood in his final paragraph. Pay attention to Miyazaki's emotional response to the questions asked by most American film critics: he's angry and tense, not just nervous or anxious. The assumptions behind the questions are pissing him off, and because of that, his answers are quite revealing. But the conception of politics Miyazaki is drawing on is much broader than only electioneering and lowest-common denominator media culture, ranging from the interaction between creative artists, their works, and their audiences (particularly children) to the politics and pedagogies of form. No time to elaborate on this now, but will be happy to in comments.

BTW, the FMA fears Ponyo will be his last film. Here's the theme song:



For more on the characters and themes (in Japanese), head over here. MacInnes is the source for those of us limited to English.

Happy Birthday to Me!

The Full Metal Alchemist's birthday gift to me was the fan-subbed live-action version of the hit anime Nodame Cantabile. (Think Bad News Bears meets classical music. It's one of those funny-but-moving J-dramas I've already written about here.)

Just for you all, here are some opening and closing songs from the anime:



And here's the anime-style ending song from the special episode that takes place after the series we watched ends.



For the series itself, though, I recommend veoh.com--the episodes only get chopped down into 2- or 3-clip sequences.

Oh, and by the way, it's inspired a dance for all the kids out there: