An Cafе

Канон, Юки и Теруки в Китае (поездка с господином Такамаса Сакураи на мероприятие "pop-culture troop", Ноябрь 2010)





Сам текст статьи:
Since December 2007, I have been advocating, and practicing for myself, a pop-cultural form of cultural diplomacy using aspects of Japanese anime and fashion. I have visited over 65 cities in 20 different countries (as of March 2010), giving lectures, screening anime and organizing fashion shows.

My journeys thus far have primarily been in relation to my publications: “Anime Bunka Gaiko” (Chikuma Shincho), “Sekai Kawaii Kakumei” (PHP Shincho), “Nihon ha Anime de Saikyo suru” (Asuki Shincho), “Garapagos-ka no Susume” (Koudansha), “’Suteru’ de Shigoto ha Umakuiku” (Diamond-sha).

When I first began advocating “anime cultural diplomacy” my overseas travels were predominately solo journeys. The interesting thing that I discovered on these journeys was just how much Japan was adored by the world through the vehicle that is anime. The world waits for Japan in great anticipation!



In Beijing. From left: Yuki, Kanon, Teruki.

Just like Luffy’s travels in “One Piece,” in which his circle of friends grows one by one along the way, so too did the number of my companions over the course of my journeys. An example being the frequent overseas visits I made in 2010 with artists of a Japanese visual kei rock band. That band of course being, Antic Cafe (or, An Cafe, as they are commonly known).

It was in 2009, when I was producing and touring the world with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ “Kawaii ambassadors,” that I discovered just how popular An Cafe really is. In Brazil, Japanese visual kei rock bands are extremely popular, to the extent that if an An Cafe member was to just murmur an “a,” screams of “Kyaa! An Cafe!!!” would resonate through the meeting hall.

I travelled around with An Cafe bassist (and hard-core otaku), Kanon, to the Japan Expo in Paris, Otakon in Baltimore and the New York Anime Festival in New York. My role being Kanon’s servant! No matter which convention it was, each time we were met by hundreds of predominately female fans, referred to as “Cafekko.”

The time of the Japanese otaku has finally come! That’s how it was being broadcast by one of the overseas radio stations.

In November, Kanon, Teruki and Yuki of An Cafe took part in a “pop-culture troop”: a group that visited China as a part of a Sino-Japanese youth exchange project which I was leading. Popular visual kei rock artists on a state project!? The unique combination of these elements became the kick-off report for my new serialization, “J Pop Culture (Japanese popular culture) Observations” which finally began this week.