Jason S. Yadao – Page 18

Celebrating Dave Thorne: The “Zoo” keeper’s legacy (part 1 of 2)

This post has been in the works for a little over a year now.

It’s funny sometimes how the universe works. The first saved draft recorded in the system has the time-stamp “24 July, 2012 @ 21:31.” Worked on it for a few days, got busy, dropped it. I picked it up again on Sept. 9 before Mini Con at McCully-Moiliili Library, then got busy and dropped it again.

The first time stamp on this latest revival of this post? “24 July, 2013 @ 18:25.” Almost exactly a year to the day that I began trying to write it. I swear I never planned it this way — I just wanted to have something to contribute to the discussion as members of the local and global cartooning community prepare for a celebration of Dave Thorne’s life on Saturday. (If you’d like to come pay your respects and join in the celebration, it’ll be from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Bay View Golf Park, 45-285 Kaneohe Bay Drive, with visitation from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. and a short service at 10:30 a.m.) It’s just been a matter of finding the right words and digging out the best pictures that’s taken this long.

It’s hard to believe it’s already been that long since Dave died — July 22, 2012, to be exact, at the age of 82. I only knew him personally for the last year and a half of that time; of that, I only spoke to him in person on four different days, all of them in 2011. You don’t need a calculator to figure out that my time spent with him was a very small sliver of his life in the grand scheme of things. It was only during his hospitalization that I began learning that he was so much more than the man who drew “Thorney’s Zoo” for our paper, that his sphere of influence expanded to encompass not only local cartoonists like Audra Furuichi, Jon Murakami and Dave Swann and isle ex-pats like Deb Aoki and Stan Sakai, but also artists around the world — Phil Yeh and Greg Evans are the ones that immediately pop to mind, although I’m sure there are many others. Mark Evanier — whose work with Groo the Wanderer I’ve absolutely adored since high school, by the way — blogged about Dave’s death. Scott Shaw wrote a remembrance piece that appeared in the program book this year at Comic-Con International in San Diego. If you’re on Facebook, I’d highly recommend checking out the Dave Thorne Tribute Page … you could spend hours browsing that seeing how much of an impact he made on people’s lives.

And, of course, he did a lot of work over the years. This mini-exhibit at a drawing workshop he hosted at McCully-Moiliili Library shows as much.

Yet from the first time I met him, at the Kahala cartoon art mural jam in March 2011, it was like I knew him for forever. Warm greeting. Firm handshake. And, of course, drawing. Always drawing, always eager to share with others the joy of drawing.

Continue reading “Celebrating Dave Thorne: The “Zoo” keeper’s legacy (part 1 of 2)”

Taku Taku Matsuri hangs out “help wanted” sign

Nestled between Kawaii Kon and Oni-Con Hawaii on this year’s “major and majorly cool events that local anime and manga fans ought to attend this year” calendar is the inaugural edition of Taku Taku Matsuri, being held Aug. 25 at Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha-Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu (1239 Olomea St.). If there was a checklist of things that you’d want at a summer festival celebrating otaku-ism, this event would pretty much hit all the highlights on that list: food, games, artists and vendors selling all sorts of cultural swag, photo shoots, live music, and the Cosplay Chess Brigade and Yu x Me Maid Cafe and Host Club holding court.

Any event of this scale, though, is going to need volunteers to help it run smoothly. To that end, Taku Taku Matsuri is putting out the call for volunteers for both night-before setup on Aug. 24 and day-of event staffing. You’ll need to be over the age of 18 before Aug. 25 and, if you’re interested in working on the day of the event, attend at least one training session. And that’s why I’m bringing this up now — the first two training opportunities are happening on Sunday. Here’s the full list of training days and times:

Sunday: 10 a.m.-noon and 1-3 p.m.
Aug. 3: 1-3 p.m.
Aug. 18: 10 a.m.-noon, 1-3 p.m. and 4-6 p.m.

Interested? Email taku2matsuri@yahoo.com for the appropriate forms.

Also, a reminder for those of you who may not have seen the last Ota-cool Incoming! calendar: The Mini Mini Taku Taku Water Gun Fight is still on for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Ala Moana Beach Park … and now, because any good water gun fight can work up quite the appetite, there’s going to be a potluck as well. You bring the food; they’ll supply the water and juice. I’m not sure at this point which part of the park they’ll be setting up shop, but I’ll update this post with that info if/when I hear back from people in the know about such things.

Update 7/27: Meet at the tennis courts at 10 a.m.! There also will be watermelon smashing! And a Taku Taku Matsuri prize raffle at 4 p.m.! Exclamation points!

Hadouken, y’all: Oni-Con Hawaii lands Ryu voice actor

We’re more than halfway in the news cycle for the new kid on the local anime convention block, Oni-Con Hawaii — a little over five months since they formally announced they were a thing, about 3-1/2 months before the inaugural edition kicks off at the Hawai’i Convention Center.

The news has dripped out since then. It took 1-1/2 months from their initial announcement to announce their dates (Nov. 1-3, for the record). We’ve also learned that Nobuo Uematsu and his band, Earthbound Papas, are guests, as is Atelier Pierrot designer Yuko Ashizawa. Cosplay Chess Hawaii and Yu x Me Maid Cafe & Host Club are hosting events. Registration for general attendees, vendor booths and The Alley (the show’s Artist Alley) opened, as did volunteer recruiting efforts for Team O.H.A.Y.O. (that’s the Oni-Con Hawaii All Y’all Ohana, a reflection of the con’s Texas-Hawaii roots, pardner).

And that’s been pretty much it … until late Thursday night, when a pair of guest announcements made its way to Oni-Con Hawaii’s Facebook page.

Making (as far as I can tell) his first appearance at any U.S. anime convention will be Japanese voice actor Hiroki Takahashi, the voice of Ryu in the newer Capcom fighters (Street Fighter IV, Street Fighter X Tekken, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Marvel vs. Capcom 3). Fangirls have swooned over him as the voice of Eiji Kikumaru in The Prince of Tennis and Japan in Hetalia: Axis Powers; his other major roles include Kenji Harima in School Rumble and Hisoka in Hunter X Hunter.

Joining Takahashi will be Sana, the visual kei musician who will be making his second visit to Hawaii in two years following his appearance at HEXXP last year. As I’ve mentioned before, he continues to be the guitarist for Kain, former guitarist for Mask and someone who still doesn’t have much English-language material written about him. I did record that joint panel he did with Kazuki Yao (though lord knows when I’ll actually get around to doing a transcript of that); here’s a picture of him as proof.

More news likely will come as we barrel ahead toward November. Preregistration rates currently stand at $45 for a three-day pass; if you’re an active member of the military and have the ID to prove it, you can snag a pass for $30. Visit www.oniconhawaii.com.

“Tomo-e-Ame” part 3 + Ota-Cool Incoming: The return!

As I promised a few days ago, it’s time now to delve into the most substantive part of Tomo-e-Ame, this year’s MangaBento exhibit: the 2-D artwork posted around the gallery. Missed my earlier posts? Here’s part 1, featuring the gallery layout, and part 2, with the 3-D pieces.

This, however, is where things get a little tricky. If you delve into the actual gallery hosted on Flickr and look at the captions (which I must admit is a more difficult task ever since the site was redesigned a few months ago), you may have noticed that the information I have is either vague or nonexistent. If you or anyone you know has any additional information on those pieces, please let me know! I’d love to give credit where credit’s due.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=124984

You have through Saturday to see the exhibit in person at the Honolulu Museum of Art School, 1111 Victoria St.. I’d definitely recommend stopping by if you have a chance. If you can’t make it, though? There are more art events in store in coming weeks. Which brings us to the return of …

Ota-cool incoming!

The eagle-eyed readers among you may have noticed that the last Cel Shaded Report, along with Ota-Cool Incoming!, came almost a month ago. Truth be told, there really hasn’t been all that much over the past month or so to talk about, and it just seemed like I’d be forcing myself to ramble about that not-much-of-anything every week. And that wouldn’t be fun for any of us.

So the Cel Shaded Report is in semi-retirement — maybe it’ll come back someday; we’ll see how I feel — but the Ota-Cool Incoming! calendar has been refilled with a fresh batch of upcoming events, plenty to keep local anime and manga fans busy in coming weeks.

Anime Manga Society at UH-Manoa: Meetings during Summer Session 1 are Fridays through Aug. 9 in Kuykendall Hall, room 306. Screenings TBA. 5:30 to 7 p.m.

MangaBento: This group of anime- and manga-inspired artists usually meets every second and fourth Sunday of the month at the Honolulu Museum of Art School (1111 Victoria St., room 200). Visit www.manga-bento.com. Next meeting: 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Pen & Ink Works: Time for a summer Sketch Meet! This one, at Kaimuki Library (1041 Koko Head Ave.), will feature a short tutorial by the Hachi Maru Hachi artists, and copies of the local manga anthology also will be available for sale. A portion of the sales will benefit the Friends of the Kaimuki Public Library, so buy multiple copies. Because, y’know, we love libraries around these parts. Paper and pencils will be provided; parental supervision is advised for children under 12. Visit peninkworks.wordpress.com. 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

Dave Thorne Celebration of Life: Remembering the life and work of the “father of Hawaii cartooning” with a gathering at Bay View Golf Course (45-285 Kaneohe Bay Drive). I’ve been monitoring the buzz on the Dave Thorne Tribute Page (Facebook login required), and it looks like a fair number of cartoonists worldwide will be attending. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. July 27.

Mini Mini Taku Taku Water Gun Fight!!!: Somehow my mind wants to read this as “Mini Mini Taku Taku Water Gun Water Gun Fight!!! Fight!!!” My mind also works in really weird ways sometimes, because that revised name is also unnecessarily long. In any case, it’s a water gun fight at Ala Moana Beach Park, brought to you by the people who are organizing Taku Taku Matsuri in August (see Future Attractions). It’s also scheduled for a six-hour block of time. Better bring lots of waterproof sunscreen. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 27.

’90s Anime Art Exhibit: The Loading Zone (47 N. Hotel St.) in the Chinatown art district is hosting this artistic tribute to the days of Evangelion, Escaflowne, Sailor Moon, Cowboy Bebop and countless other series that I’ve loved that now officially qualify as “vintage” anime. Sigh. Tomo-e-Ame participating artists Julie Feied and Dennis Imoto will have work in this exhibit, as will artist Chanel Tanaka. From 7 to 11 p.m. Aug. 2, as part of First Friday, there will be music by VJ Christian Berg, a dance performance by Blank Canvas, a fashion show presented by Visual Kei Dark Castle at 9 p.m., and Aloha Beer Company specialty beer on tap. From 7 p.m. to midnight Aug. 9, you can meet the artists and enjoy an improv show by Mr. Aaron Presents from 8 to 10 p.m. and a cosplay contest at 10 p.m. Both events will feature caricatures by Andy Lee and an art workshop; cover at each event is $5. And if you can’t make either event, the exhibit itself will be up Aug. 2-26. Gallery hours are 3 to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, or by appointment. Visit www.facebook.com/events/205760262908791 (no Facebook login required).

Aiea Library Anime Club: No meeting this month, but next month librarian Diane Masaki will be screening episodes of Hetalia at the library, 99-143 Moanalua Road. Stockpile your supplies of celebratory pasta until then. For more information or to RSVP, call 483-7333 or e-mail aiealibraryanimeclub@yahoo.com. 3 p.m. Aug. 3.

Kawaii Kon Beach Day: Watermelon smashing! Sand-castle building contests! Watermelon smashing! The Cosplay Runway! Watermelon smashing! A game of Capture the Flag! And did I mention the watermelon smashing? Indulge your inner Gallagher and have some fun in the sun at Magic Island Beach Park. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 3.

Summer Smash 2013: It’s the island’s biggest Airsoft shoot-em-up event of the summer, presented by Impact Games and Ash Bash Productions at Hawaii All-Star Field off Nimitz Highway (someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that’s the patch of land just after the entrance to the Disabled American Veterans Hall). So how did this make it into Ota-cool Incoming!? Kawaii Kon will be there, preregistering attendees for the 2014 convention (preregister at Summer Smash, get an exclusive patch!) and hosting a cosplay contest, to boot. (I’m kinda hoping one team shows up as Social Welfare Agency Special Ops Section 2. Just because.) For more information on the event and where to register, visit www.facebook.com/events/357207584390708/ (no Facebook login required). Aug. 4.

Future Attractions

Taku Taku Matsuri: A summer festival with an anime/manga slant at Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha-Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu. Aug. 25.

Oni-Con Hawaii: With guest Yuko Ashizawa, a fashion designer with Atelier Pierrot. Also featuring the Cosplay Chess Brigade and Yu x Me Maid Cafe & Host Club. Preregistration open now; $45 for a three-day pass. Hawai’i Convention Center, Nov. 1-3.

Kawaii Kon 2014: Guests include voice actors Michael Sinterniklaas and Stephanie Sheh and professional cosplayer Leah Rose. Preregistration open now; $37 for a three-day pass for children ages 5-12, $42 general admission. Hawai’i Convention Center, April 4-6, 2014.

MangaBento’s “Tomo-e-Ame”: The second handful

You remember the drill from last time — this week we’re looking at MangaBento’s Tomo-e-Ame exhibit; part 1 is here — so let’s jump right back into things with a look at some of the 3-D pieces in the exhibit. They’re certainly outnumbered by pieces done in 2-D media, but they have their charms.

Here’s the Flickr gallery. Watch for part 3 … mmmmm, probably around Friday morning at the latest.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=124984

MangaBento’s “Tomo-e-Ame”: The first handful

It’s summertime, which means it’s time for what’s become an annual ritual of sorts for me: visiting the Honolulu Museum of Art School and its second-floor gallery to chronicle MangaBento’s exhibit and share what this group of anime- and manga-inspired artists created with the Intarwebz at large.

This year’s exhibit, Tomo-e-Ame: Friends-Drawing-Candy, is up through the end of this week at the art school, located at 1111 Victoria St., just around the corner from the museum proper. In case you can’t make it out there by then, though, no worries — your friendly neighborhood anime/manga blogger is here to showcase all the exhibit highlights. And just like last year’s roundup, it’ll be presented in three parts. Part one, featuring the gallery layout itself, is in this post; parts 2 and 3, spotlighting the 3-D and 2-D pieces, respectively, will arrive later this week.

So! Let’s get Flickr-ing! To start the slideshow, just press the “play” button in the middle of the frame below. Pause and restart using the button on the lower left. If you want a larger view, click on the icon on the lower right; in that full-screen view, you can also see the captions I’ve written for each picture (using the “Show Info” link) or slow down the automatic scrolling (using the “Options” link). Finally, if you’re viewing this blog on an iOS device (iPad/iPod Touch) and can’t view Flash plug-ins, or if you just want to skip all the slideshow fiddling and go straight to the gallery, here’s the direct gallery link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumiyoshi/sets/72157634422614006/with/9099046928/

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=124984

A star is scorned: The driving pulse of “Skip Beat!”

Today’s profile: Skip Beat! vols. 1-3
Author: Yoshiki Nakamura
Publisher: Viz
Suggested age rating: Teen 13+
Availability: In print & readily available

It’s been a while since I last participated in the monthly blogger celebration of manga creators and/or series known as the Manga Movable Feast. A looooooooooong while. So long, in fact, that I can’t remember offhand the last post I contributed to an MMF. (For the record, it was this post from the “thankful” MMF back in November.)

So why come back now for this month’s Skip Beat! MMF, hosted by Laura over at Heart of Manga? Part of it was because I was curious if I could still turn around one of these kinds of posts seven months since the last one. Part of it was because I’m a bit sad to see the low participation in this month’s MMF — owing, perhaps, to the shifting priorities of many of us longtime manga bloggers (myself included).

But the main reason is that I’ve been curious for a long time about whether Skip Beat! is worth the sizable investment. Let’s face it: Once a manga series goes past 20 volumes with no signs of stopping any time soon these days, you either start worrying that (a) it’s going to go on forever (see: 67 volumes of One Piece, 61 volumes of Naruto, 56 volumes of Bleach) or (b) sales are going to drop as the series meanders along, to the point that the publisher pulls the plug, leaving you with a really long story with no resolution whatsoever unless you learn Japanese (I don’t think tag-team in partner Wilma J. has forgiven anyone yet for leaving Initial D stalled at 32 volumes). The U.S. just got volume 31 of Skip Beat!; Japan is up to volume 32 and a handful of chapters beyond that as Yoshiki Nakamura and her team of assistants continue to plug away in the pages of Hana to Yume.

It’s certainly proven popular enough — volumes 18 through 31 have all landed on the New York Times manga bestseller list within a week of their releases, and Viz has seen fit to re-release earlier volumes in its 3-in-1 VizBig format. (Omnibus 5, containing volumes 13-15, is due out next week, in fact.) So cancellation isn’t really a concern. But with that many volumes, that first taste you get of it had better be good enough to justify future purchases.

After reading what Laura’s characterized as the series’ first arc — volumes 1-3 — it’s safe to say that I’ll probably end up buying the rest of the series. (Those screams of despair you may be hearing now are coming from my wallet.) What really makes this series fun in these first volumes is the main character.

Meet Kyoko Mogami.

… no, no, not that Kyoko. This Kyoko.

Or perhaps more specifically, this Kyoko.

How Kyoko goes from a sweetly smiling fast-food clerk to the living embodiment of that classic saying about hell and fury and scorned women happens over the course of one chapter. For most of her 16 years of life, she’s been eager to please others, even if it means sacrificing her own well-being. And the person she adores and wants to please the most is her friend since childhood, Sho Fuwa. She spent a lot of time at his parents’ inn growing up, learning many of their methods of serving guests in the process. When he rejected his destiny to take over the inn, moved to Tokyo to pursue a career in show biz and asked her to come with him, she happily accepted. Sure, it would eventually mean juggling two jobs to pay for a luxury apartment that he rarely visits, and he becomes increasingly distant to her as he becomes more and more famous, but who cares — he’s a prince, she’s that plain girl in tatters whom he’ll eventually sweep up and turn into a princess, and they’ll live happily ever after, right?

Wrong. Ohhhhhhh so very wrong.

When Kyoko catches Sho talking about how he’s just using her as a maid and never really liked her and sees him ogling his hot female manager, to boot … well, that’s when the fun begins. Anyone who’s ever sacrificed so much of themselves for someone, only to see that someone betray them in the end, will feel a sense of delicious satisfaction in seeing Kyoko’s demonic rage explode against Sho. From that point on, she’s hell-bent on gaining her pound of revenge-filled flesh. And to do that, she gets a physical and emotional makeover — goodbye long black hair, hello short, sassy dyed ‘do — and decides to break into show business herself to become an even bigger star than he is, decisively proving in the process that he gave up something pretty special when he betrayed her trust.

Passion can only carry one so far in the competitive entertainment industry, though. For every subsequent step forward that she takes in these first three volumes, there’s always some corresponding event that knocks her back a bit. She has the dogged determination to land a tryout at the prestigious L.M.E. talent agency and manages to impress the judging panel without a lick of experience … yet she still can’t get in on her first try. The agency president likes her enough to create a new agency division just for her and people like her … but that Love Me Division is also the most lightly regarded in the whole organization. Her drive to succeed is enough to elevate her standing in the minds of some of the more important players within the agency … yet her victories are rather small when compared to her ultimate goals, and helping others succeed more than she does, to boot. And then there’s the matter of Sho’s rival, Ren Tsuruga, whom Kyoko is conditioned to hate out of principle … but who is also represented by L.M.E. and shows her some flashes of kindness, to boot.

Yet to characterize these developments as an endless hamster wheel for Kyoko to run would ignore the greatest asset Skip Beat! has: the way the story slowly, organically nurtures growth in its main characters. We readers are going to root for Kyoko regardless of what happens — that’s a given, especially after the events of that first chapter. She’ll also have her comically explosive demon-summoning moments from time to time. But we also see her quietly shift her focus a bit from straight-up “RAAAAAWR I WANT REVENGE ON SHO RAAAAAAAGE” to “Hmm, I want to try hard, get better at this acting thing, be the best person I can be at this … oh yeah, and RAAAAAWR I WANT REVENGE ON SHO RAAAAAAAGE.” It makes her character that much more compelling. And while Sho and Ren seem like mere foils for her at the moment, I get the sense that they’ll get their time to shine, their characters more fully fleshed out, over the course of the series.

Seems like it’ll be a fun ride. I, for one, can’t wait to take more of it.

The Cel Shaded Report, 6/14: Bento box weekend

To get the obvious first thought out of your mind right away: No, Bento Rakugo is not, as I first thought when the offer came in from my freshly minted Otaku Ohana Anonymous Director of Forced Social Interaction, a new place in town where you can pick up a plastic box with some teriyaki chicken, assorted tsukemono and rice with a nice dusting of furikake and an ume stuck in the middle.

What Bento Rakugo is, though, is a nifty local troupe that shares humorous stories in the style of traditional Japanese rakugo. In rakugo, a single storyteller sits on a pillow before an audience and creates a compact narrative world — sometimes with multiple characters — with just a few intonation shifts and a paper fan and a cloth as props.

Here’s what it looked like at Waipahu Library on Wednesday.

It’s a show that can appeal to audiences young and old, people who may wander into the room just curious about what’s going on and friendly neighborhood anime/manga blogger trying to huddle incognito in the back alike. If the format holds for future performances, artistic director/group co-founder/emcee Yasu Ishida will introduce the concept of rakugo and perform some magic tricks, then the storytellers will go up and perform three to four stories, all within the span of an hour that passes way too quickly. They’re a bit like long-form jokes building up to a big punch line, but the storytelling aspect adds so much more depth to it.

Here’s what it looks like in action with one of the Bento Rakugo players who also showed up at the Waipahu performance, Serina Dunham.

Love her voice. I feel like she could be a great anime voice actor, in the vein of, say, Hilary Haag. But I digress.

Bento Rakugo has two more performances this weekend on Oahu — 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Aiea Library (99-143 Moanalua Road) and 3 p.m. Sunday at Kaneohe Library (45-829 Kamehameha Highway). Then it’s the neighbor islands’ turn — Molokai Library on Monday, Mountain View and Kona libraries on Hawaii island on June 26, Lanai Library on June 27, and Keaau and Naalehu libraries on Hawaii island on July 17. Check with those libraries for times. And if you want to learn more about the group, visit bentorakugo.wix.com/home.

By sheer coincidence, this weekend is a big one for another group with “bento” as part of its name: MangaBento.

Sunday — which also happens to be Father’s Day, so best wishes to all you dads out there — is opening day for the anime/manga artist collective’s annual exhibit, Tomo-E-Ame: Friends-Drawings-Candy. I’ve seen some of the setup pictures that the group’s been posting to its Facebook page, and the display area looks very similar to previous years. (You can find my recap of last year’s Nakamaboko exhibit here, here and here.) I, for one, can’t wait to see the new artwork and share it with you in my annual series of Flickr galleries

The group will be hosting an opening reception from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Art School’s mezzanine gallery … and as those of you who are veterans of the opening reception circuit know, such events mean there will be food. In this case, your servers will be coming from Yu x Me: Maid Cafe and Host Club, cosplaying as characters from Adventure Time. And they will be serving, among other delectables, bacon-wrapped meat “cupcakes” with a mashed potato “frosting.” If that doesn’t say “perfect food item to share with Dad on Father’s Day afternoon,” I don’t know what does.

If you can’t make it to the reception, you have through July 14 to see the exhibit. As I mentioned in last week’s Cel Shaded Report, you can visit Tomo-E-Ame as a free complement to the Lethal Beauty: Samurai Weapons and Armor exhibit over in the Honolulu Museum of Art. For more information, visit www.manga-bento.com.

Ota-cool incoming!

Anime Manga Society at UH-Manoa: Meetings during Summer Session 1 (through June 28) in Kuykendall Hall, room 306. Screenings TBA. Fridays, 5:30 to 7 p.m.

Aiea Library Anime Club: This month, librarian Diane Masaki is screening Summer Wars at the library, 99-143 Moanalua Road. For more information or to RSVP, call 483-7333 or e-mail aiealibraryanimeclub@yahoo.com. 3 p.m. Saturday.

Comic Jam Hawaii: This group of collaborative cartoon artists is on the road again for its second meeting in June, heading to Aiea Library (99-143 Moanalua Road) to put their own spin on the young adult summer reading program theme, “Beneath the Surface.” They’re taking July off, so this will be your last chance to jam with a bunch of talented artists for a while. Visit www.facebook.com/groups/ComicJamHawaii (Facebook login required). Next meeting: 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 22.

Friends of the Library of Hawaii 66th Annual Book Sale: Every summer for about a week, the McKinley High School cafeteria turns into an oasis for fans of classic media like books, CDs, DVDs, videotapes … you know, all that stuff that people say the digital age is steamrolling over. Cherish the classics and support the Friends, I say. FLH members get two days’ worth of preview sales, June 20 and 21; Hawaii State Federal Credit Union members can join in on the preview sale fun on June 21; for the rest of us, the sale runs June 22-30. Visit www.friendsofthelibraryofhawaii.org/index.php/fundraising/annual-booksale and start planning your trip.

Future attractions

Dave Thorne Celebration of Life: Remembering the life and work of the “father of Hawaii cartooning” with a gathering at Bay View Golf Course (45-285 Kaneohe Bay Drive). July 27, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Taku Taku Matsuri: A summer festival with an anime/manga slant at Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha-Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu. Aug. 25.

Oni-Con Hawaii: Featuring guests Yuko Ashizawa, a fashion designer with Atelier Pierrot, and the return of Nobuo Uematsu and the Earthbound Papas in concert. Also featuring the Cosplay Chess Brigade and Yu x Me Maid Cafe & Host Club. Preregistration open now; $40 for a three-day pass. Artist Alley applications also being accepted (it’s $110 per table, which includes two three-day passes). Hawai’i Convention Center, Nov. 1-3.

Kawaii Kon 2014: Guests include voice actors Michael Sinterniklaas and Stephanie Sheh. Preregistration open now; $37 for a three-day pass for children ages 5-12, $42 general admission. Hawai’i Convention Center, April 4-6, 2014.

The Cel Shaded Report, 6/6: Summer of samurai

There was a time, back in the “before your tag-team partners in fandom existed and/or were aware of such things” days, when there were local theaters with names like Toyo and Nippon that regularly screened Japanese movies for eager matinee audiences.

The Toyo Theatre, sadly, has been demolished, replaced by a rather nondescript credit union complex. The Nippon, well, info on that one’s harder to come by; I think it used to be on the corner of Beretania and Keeaumoku streets, where a gas station sits now, but don’t quote me on that. The point is that we’ve reached that point in the modern day where we can look back on that time — usually with a sepia-tone filter, perhaps with a song like Kyu Sakamoto’s “Ue o Muite Arukou (Sukiyaki)” playing in your mind as a “HEY! NOSTALGIA~!” cue a la From Up on Poppy Hill — with a wistful longing for that bygone era.

It’s with that in mind that the Honolulu Museum of Art, in conjunction with its incoming exhibit Lethal Beauty: Samurai Weapons and Armor, will be hosting “The Sword and the Screen: A Summer Samurai Film Festival” later this month, spotlighting films by noted directors Akira Kurosawa, Kihachi Okamoto and Masaki Kobayashi at the Doris Duke Theatre. And to sweeten the deal for local anime fans, Kawaii Kon — in its second collaboration with the art museum, on the heels of the successful two-night run of the Madoka Magica movies in February — will be screening select episodes of Samurai 7 before most of these movies for the price of absolutely free.

Now, you’re going to have to pay to see the movies themselves. You’ll also have to pick up the DVDs or Blu-rays or find some (legal!) streaming sites to finish up the rest of Samurai 7, but you could conceivably catch almost the entire first half of the series on the big screen for free. Of course, if you really want to score some extra good karma points, you’ll pay to stick around and catch the classic samurai movie that will screen afterward. (Plus you get $2 off the ticket, so you can see what normally would be a $10 movie for the museum member price, $8. Good times.)

Episodes 1 and 2: Sat., June 22, 2:30 p.m. (before Samurai Rebellion at 4 p.m.) and 6 p.m. (before Kill! at 7:30 p.m.)

Episodes 3 and 4: Sun., June 23, 2:30 p.m. (before The Hidden Fortress at 4 p.m.) and 6 p.m. (before Harakiri at 7:30 p.m.)

Episodes 5 and 6: Tues., June 25, 6 p.m. (before Samurai Rebellion at 7:30 p.m.)

Episodes 7 and 8: Wed., June 26, 6 p.m. (before Yojimbo at 7:30 p.m.)

Episodes 9 and 10: Thurs., June 27, 6 p.m. (before Kill! at 7:30 p.m.)

Episodes 11 and 12: Tues., July 2, 6 p.m. (before The Hidden Fortress at 7:30 p.m.) and Wed., July 3, 6 p.m. (before Sword of Doom at 7:30 p.m.)

If your schedule only allows for early afternoon screenings and you don’t need to see the anime, you can catch 1 p.m. showings of Kill! (June 25), Sword of Doom (June 26), Yojimbo (July 2) and Harakiri (July 3) There’s also the classic Kurosawa film that inspired Samurai 7 in the first place, The Seven Samurai, which will kick off the film festival at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 21, with an opening reception from 6 to 7:30 p.m. (Seven Samurai tickets are $15 general admission, $12 museum members; food from Nippon Bento also will be available for purchase in the lobby.)

All of this, as I mentioned earlier, is linked to an exhibit running in the museum proper of pieces that include full suits of armor, helmets, warrior hats, face masks, long and short swords, daggers and rifles — 63 works from 30 master craftsmen in total, ranging from the 13th through the 20th centuries. The exhibit just opened on Thursday and runs through Aug. 18; general admission is $10 adults, $5 children ages 4-17 through June 30 (after that, children up to age 17 get free admission). And hey, if you’re in the area between June 16 and July 14, why not head around the corner to check out the MangaBento exhibit at the art school? (Details on that in Ota-cool Incoming! below.)

The Doris Duke Theatre is at 901 Kinau St.; the art museum at 900 S. Beretania St. For more information on the films and exhibits, visit www.honolulumuseum.org.

Ota-cool incoming!

(“***” indicates entries added this week.)

Visual Kei Dark Castle presents “A Tribute to Malice Mizer”: Celebrate the music and the style of the ’90s visual kei band fronted at one time by Gackt. Dress up in your best Malice Mizer-inspired or goth-lolita outfit, and you could win a $50 certificate to Tea Farm Cafe. Cover is $5 for those 21 and older; $10 for those 18 to 21. Loft Gallery & Lounge in Chinatown, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday.

Tomo-E-Ame: Friends-Drawings-Candy: MangaBento’s 2013 exhibit at the Honolulu Museum of Art School (1111 Victoria St., room 200); final art submissions (in any media) will be accepted Sunday in the art school’s mezzanine gallery. Opening reception is on June 16, and the exhibit itself runs through July 14.

Anime Manga Society at UH-Manoa: Meetings during Summer Session 1 (through June 28) in Kuykendall Hall, room 306. Screenings TBA. Fridays, 5:30 to 7 p.m.

***Friends of the Library of Hawaii 66th Annual Book Sale: Every summer for about a week, the McKinley High School cafeteria turns into an oasis for fans of classic media like books, CDs, DVDs, videotapes … you know, all that stuff that people say the digital age is steamrolling over. Cherish the classics and support the Friends, I say. FLH members get two days’ worth of preview sales, June 20 and 21; Hawaii State Federal Credit Union members can join in on the preview sale fun on June 21; for the rest of us, the sale runs June 22-30. Visit www.friendsofthelibraryofhawaii.org/index.php/fundraising/annual-booksale and start planning your trip.

Future attractions

***Dave Thorne Celebration of Life: Remembering the life and work of the “father of Hawaii cartooning” with a gathering at Bay View Golf Course (45-285 Kaneohe Bay Drive). July 27, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Taku Taku Matsuri: A summer festival with an anime/manga slant at Hawaii Kotohira Jinsha-Hawaii Dazaifu Tenmangu. Aug. 25.

IMG_2494

To put a bow on the event that I highlighted in my last post, the wedding of tag-team partner in fandom Wilma Jandoc and Zarli Win: It happened. Ohhhhhh, did it ever happen, in a simple yet elegant ceremony Sunday morning at the Honolulu Country Club. And IMG_2494 — the file name my trusty camera assigned to this picture and, as I’ve been telling pretty much anyone who’d listen to me over the past 24 hours or so, my absolute favorite of the whole bunch — serves as testament to that.

This, dear readers, is true love.

That picture, along with a bunch of other highlights, are included in this handy-dandy Flickr slideshow that I’ve embedded below. Click through to find commentary on each picture. (Or should I say, please read the commentary. I spent many hours Sunday afternoon and evening writing captions for those 34 photos. *sniffle*)

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=124984

As always, thank you for your continued readership of Otaku Ohana. Regular programming will resume shortly.

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