I was afraid that I had already missed ANOTHER, which I had been intrigued by after doing some research the night before. It’s a mystery series based on a novel by Ayatsuji Yukito and felt different, more daring then most animes, serious but not in a emotionally overcharged, melodramatic way, obviously influenced by the Japanese horror and mystery genre. Luckily enough there had been a change in the programme and they screened it that evening instead. After I had watched it I was filled with a whole new enthusiasm for the mystery genre, regretting not having given it much attention until now.
When I finally had gotten inside it was almost time for the 1st cosplay programme, but after the long standing I was yearning to just sit down in a dark room and watch beautiful colours and shapes projected on a screen – in short, watch a movie. And thus I had my 1st encounter with Polymanga’s… well, cinema. They showed the 1st two episodes of BLUE EXORCIST and played it from a DVD…!!! (It might have been a blue ray since the quality of the image wasn’t so bad after all. But the sound was only stereo, “only” meaning that it wasn’t surround sound, which feels very awkward in a huge theatre). Thinking about it later I realized they probably hadn’t much of an other option. Since these TV series are made for TV, just as the name tells, and not for cinema. There just isn’t any 35mm copy! I was relieved to realize at later screenings of feature films that the sound was much better and cinema experience was much more enjoyable. But you still knew from the menu you saw at the beginning that it was played from some sort of disc.
The screenings at Polymanga usually go for about 1h. In the case of a TV series that’s about enough time for 2 episodes. Well, when the 2nd episode just started a technical problem happened – well, they did play it from a DVD (maybe also from a hard-drive)! And it took them about 10 to 15 min to fix the problem.
And I also got to know to the Polymanga audience. They are the kind of people that don’t mute their cell phones – and ANSWER it! And continue talking for as long as they please! That’s probably an example of feeling to much like home in the movie theatre! And this happened twice during that screening! Generally they didn’t seem to mind so much about being quiet. For example it occurred in several later screenings that suddenly a team of cosplayers costumed as army or swat came bursting in, made a fuss and stomped outside again. I asked myself if those were taking the festival seriously. What had they come here for? Had they really come to read mangas or see animes and find out more about them? What seemed to be more important to them was to have a swell time with their pals, brag around and mark their presence. It made me think about european young anime fans. Was anime maybe just a means to create a unity among a group of young people? It probably could be replaced by anything else.
Well, the whole festival had a feeling of a luna park about it, the sort that you see in Pinocchio, where no adults are allowed and no rules apply… and where, as you probably know, they all turn into donkeys in the end.
I have to say that there always were others who also were enervated by such disturbances. Some rose their voice a bit when it got too much. But no one felt in the position of taking any action. A problem might be the lacking presence of Polymanga staff members or other authority persons, especially around the cinema.
At that point I couldn’t help but have an impression of Polymanga being a result of modern pop culture used to fast-living consumption and reminded me of kids playing music from their cell phones in the bus, usually never listening to one song to the end but skipping to the next, and the next, and the next… I hope the younger generations won’t forget the true enjoyment of a good screening.
Just as before with the audience, I asked myself if the organization was taking the festival seriously. How professional were they regarding themselves? I understand that most are just temporary helpers, but it’s just a pity when you feel like the festival could improve several times with just some adjustments.
2nd day – close to heaven!
The 1st day I hadn’t hadn’t gotten the chance to speak or hear any Japanese, so on the 2nd day I definitely wanted to make it to the interview with Masashi Terajima, who’s 1st interview I had missed the day before due to all the waiting in the queue. He was this year’s star guest at Polymanga and the author of UNDEAD. In the programme they had announced an interview “spécial”. It turned out to be a “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”-quiz show. Sort of fun, but not very informative and sometimes a bit embarrassing for Terajima, for example when he had to perform a wheel. Later when I was taking a nicotin break outside I recognized Katsuki Dai, his Japanese publisher who had also come to Lausanne and been on the stage with Terajima. This time I had the courage to chat him up. We talked about all kinds of interesting issues and I learned some new things. Thank you for taking your time, Katsuki-san!
Interview “spécial” with Masashi Terajima
His publishing company SHOGAKUKAN is responsible for such titles as IKIGAMI, DETECTIVE CONAN, POKEMON, INUYASHA, DORAEMON and weekly magazines such as SHONEN SUNDAY. He was surprised himself when Terajima was invited to Polymanga since UNDEAD is
a minor title in Japan. But this probably also thanks to Éditions Delcourt, who have decided to publish it in Europe. He confirmed what I had heard before that the manga industry in Japan is not very aware of the oversea market. Some titles actually are made specially to appeal to a foreign audience, but those are the exceptions. But then it’s hard to guess in advance what will be successful, e.g. he had thought that FULLMETALL ALCHEMIST would have a much bigger success in Europe then it actually did. These miscalculations are another thing I’ve heard of. What they probably don’t understand is that what makes mangas and animes so attractive in Europe is the exotic Japanese culture in it. Over here they often don’t get so excited about mangas with a more European touch because they’re done out of a Japanese perspective and for people living in Europe it might just be this weird undefinable mixture of European architecture, fantastic story and Japanese characters. He also confirmed that there really is a rather big economical crises effecting the manga and anime industry. You really feel that when you’re listening regularly to the Ghibli Hasemamire Podcast (especially the one from 2..11.2011, in Japanese). They even go as far as to suggest that there probably won’t BE any animes in Japan in couple of years. Not meaning that there won’t be any animes at all but they might all be outsourced to other Asian countries (Singapur, Thailand, Philippines). Katsuki told how more animes are running in late night programmes. As I’ve heard in the 103rd issue of Anime World Order podcast in which they go into the whole depth of Anime industry in Japan and mainly in the USA, the companies sometimes even have to pay the broadcasters for these shifts. As a result they hugely rely on DVD sales, in contradiction to what they suppose in the Anime World Order podcast. And probably merchandise sales which are a rather huge factor in Japan but not so much in Europe. Maybe another reason why publishers and distributors have got such a hard time overseas because merchandise is at the same time advertisement FOR the series or movie. And the reason why some series are so popular in Japan is that they have all the toy robots and dolls and so on which built up a certain euphoric expectation towards the series. The overseas license for the toys are usually held by other companies then those selling the DVDs, so they don’t interact so much. Maybe we just really have a lousy situation in Europe since we hardly have any big promotions around newly released series (because they usually already are running in the USA or wherever) and the excitement around a new release of course also makes you want to see what it is like. Another factor is the pricing. They should be in a range that you could follow a show or a book as a fan without having to sell all you’re other belongings. But usually it’s all just so expensive! No wonder people start looking for other options on the web to find their admired mangas and animes! Even Katsuki said that he thought the book of UNDEAD was expensive with 13.- CHF – but that’s actually quite the average or rather on the cheap side for a book in Switzerland, isn’t it. But when you look at DVD prices in Japan you might be surprised that they’re not even a lot cheaper. And other than most DVD packages of U.S. series which include a whole season in Japan they split them up into many more DVDs and sell them individually – but almost for the same price!
Masashi Terajima (right) and me
In the end he told me to come to Terajima’s signature session later. So I did. What a hadn’t thought of though is that all the mangas they were selling at Polymanga were in French! I had the brilliant idea to draw a (lousy) portrait of Terajima that he could sign instead of a book I would have difficulties reading in French anyway. But I was told that he would only sign books – so now I’ve got a French UNDEAD with Terajima’s dedication! At least I could take a picture with him and exchanged some words in Japanese. And I gave him the drawing I had made as a gift since I didn’t know what I was going to use it for otherwise. Fortunately enough I had another chance to talk to him for a bit longer later that evening at the apéro for the guests and staff thanks to Olivier from my master course, who was invited as a artist to the Arting Spirit competition. Terajima and me were both surprised when we found out that he grew up in Chiba where I also have lived for several years. So we might have lived not so far from another for some years! After having reached a more personal level in our conversation I could ask him a few things about his work. As I’ve mentioned before UNDEAD is a minor work in Japan and all his work is done by himself, which is amazing considering that he will have to turn out 32 pages each month! He’s comment to this was that it’s not really tough compared to mangaka with weekly mangas who have to get done 16 pages! EACH WEEK! But those usually have assistants helping them. Still he stressed the importance of not just being a good manga drawer but a quick one, too.
In a fashion shop on the 1st floor of Beaulieu building where all the shops were placed I met another guy from Chiba… what is this thing about Chiba!!! Takino Tatsuki is a fashion designer working in France but was born and grew up in Japan since one of his parents is Japanese. He moved to France when he was about 16 (so exactly the same as me!!! What a coincidence). He reuses Japanese traditional clothes (really nice fabric!) and redesigns them to new clothes inspired by traditional Japanese clothing. His grandparents were already working in the kimono business so it sort of runs in the family. I went ahead and got myself a pair of trousers which I’m sure to fit well with my geta and jikatabi. So looking forward to try them out as soon as we get a more summerly weather here!
Me standing next to Takino Tatsuki
All in all it was a fun day with wonderful new encounters and lots of opportunities to dust off my Japanese! Maybe I just had needed a day to feel more comfortable and be more outgoing. Or it took only one day to numb myself against all the not so pleasant aspects.
Ranking
For the last part of this entry let’s give some prices so I can mention some more titles:
Most popular cosplay characters: Apart from all kids dressed in school uniforms I saw lot’s of One Piece and Naruto characters and there were also quite a few Death Note cosplays, not to mention all the game orientated cosplays which I won’t write about because I don’t really know much about this section. But most noticeably were all the girls with blue hair! I wouldn’t have thought that Hatsune Miku is such a popular and well established character! But she and the other Vocaloid characters are a real phenomenon anyway! How could they become so popular without a TV show or movie or anything!
To my surprise I also saw many cosplays that didn’t have anything to do with animes such as characters from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. As Olivier explained cosplays are not restricted to animes anymore but to any fictional characters. But personally I still prefer the real anime cosplays somehow.
Most hilarious movie: WAZA NO TABIBITO. The overlapping movements of the main characters breast are just over the top and the whole story and action is so exaggerated that it comes close to a parody.
Most popular: ONE PIECE – STRONG WORLD. The theatre was packed and the laughter was loud. What I really enjoyed about One Piece is how it’s humor comes jumping out of the most unexpected corners and gives a comic touch to even more serious or otherwise boring scenes.
Most emotional: COLORFUL. Almost to emotional in a sort of educative way. It’s nice how it deals with issues like suicide, prostitution and bullying, but the message of the movie is often just communicated too obviously, too directly and thus awkwardly.
Visually most outstanding: NISEMONOGATARI. I watched the programme twice because it’s so exciting to see what they do with the medium film and animation! Ways of composition and editing as I’ve never seen before!
Jotha W. 