Specials

In today's episode, Toshio Maeda a manga artist famous for his erotic works such as Urotsukidoji and La Blue Girl that are known all over the world, is taking us to Fewture Shop, a figure shop located in Akihabara that showcases many original models. Fewture Shop is situated in Akihabara, at the 7th floor of the Radio Kaikan building. It is a building well-known by manga and anime lovers, including tourists who come there to buy figures, DVDs or anime related goods. Inside you will find figures that are popular among foreigners such as the Grendizer and the Getter Robo G. Some figures are also exclusively available in this shop. Some figures have been made by Takeya Takayuki, the designer of Garo series.

In this summer special mangaka episode, we introduce a young and talented mangaka, Shoichi Haga. He is taking us to Cork's office, where he works and to one of his favorite cafe, the Mame-Hico cafe in Shibuya. Cork is a mangaka and writer agency situated close to Meiji Jingumae station and was founded by Mr. Sadoshima who was originally working at Kodansha. Shoichi Haga has always loved drawing since he was a child. One day, during his senior year in college, he sent a copy of his manga "Inchiki-kun" to a publishing company which was then selected for the Newcomer Prize category. It allowed him to work with a dedicated editor. This how Shoichi started his mangaka career. Shoichi Haga introduces us the first project he created with his editor, "Keshigomu life", and the manga he is working on right now, "Dam no Hi" which depicts the lives and feelings of dam builders. He also has his own app available in Japanese and English where people can share their opinion on his work after reading it. The second place he is introducing is a cafe called Mame-Hico in Shibuya. It is a very special place where he sometimes do workshops with customers. The owner puts a lot of care in everything, form the interior decoration to the coffee preparation. Shoichi's favorite dish at Mame-Hico is the katsu-sando, a fried pork sanwich and the Mame-Pico drink.

In today's summer special manga episode 3, Kenji Ōiwa, a famous mangaka known for Assassin's creed IV, Goth,Welcome the the N.H.K will introduce us the JR's Chūō line during rush hour time. Then we'll go visit his atelier in Nakano where he'll show us how he works. The Chūō line, is one of the East Japan Railways company lines, abbreviated as (East) JR lines. The Chūō line stops at some of the busiest stations in the world, such as Shinjuku and Tokyo. In this episode, Kenji Ōiwa will take the Chūō line to go to Shinjuku, where hundreds of thousands of people commute every day. You will see how the train is packed early in the morning and how crazy Shinjuku station looks like at the busiest hours of the day. After a little glimpse of Shinjuku's station, we head back to Nakano ward where Kenji Ōiwa has his atelier. It is a small place that is just enough for one person. He has an assistant working from home with who he exchanges files. Although Kenji Ōiwa thinks working as a mangaka is tough, he decided to work in this sector as he has always loved to draw illustrations with manga characters.

Our first Summer Special episode features film director Noboru Iguchi, famous in the horror, gore & splatter genres with titles such as The Machine Girl, Robo Geisha or Dead Sushi. Together we will first head to the Toshimaen amusement park, where Iguchi often used to go as a child; its haunted house takes a particular place in his heart, as he states the darkness and hand-crafted aspect of the house’s characters and decor were a trigger that led to where he is today. Our next stop will be in Ikebukuro, one of Tokyo’s city centers, to the Shin-Bungeiza, an old movie theater that has been recently renewed. Iguchi used to often go there when he was young, as he already started to experiment with film-making in high school, making indie films with an 8mm camera. We will learn more about Iguchi’s career, that took a turn in the adult industry, before shifting back to indie films, then grew to feature films, specialized in horror. He is now also producing an idol group, whom he also cast in two of his films. Our last stop will be at Iguchi’s office, where we’ll ask about his vision and his perspectives towards the current state of the film industry in Japan.

The second episode of our summer special series features Yoshihiro Nishimura, film director and effects artist on many horror films, including Tokyo Gore Police. We will hear his thoughts about his work and on the Japanese film industry. At night, Nishimura will invite a group of young directors, where they will discuss their latest projects and perspectives.