Big in Japan: Comics

After more years than I care to mention, I've become interested in comics again.

Not the ones with muscle-bound basket cases prowling the rooftops of New York City, but ones like these, Showa period comic books with dainty female protagonists all tied up.

The two on the left are from the Showa Period

I suppose the term "comic" book is as much a misnomer when referring to Japanese manga or gekiga as it is in the West when referring to Spider-man or Superman. They're not really "funny" books, another term that was used in the old days, back when humor actually was the objective.

After I had already tossed out all those comics that today might be worth some serious cash, they came out with more sophisticated mags called "graphic novels". And, as I understand it, that's sort of the difference between manga and gekiga, with the latter being more akin to a graphic novel.

Anyway, I'm no expert on this stuff, I just like looking at purdy pictures.

While I would really like to find some of these Showa era mags, that might prove to be a challenge. I'll have to ask around. In the meantime, I'm planning on heading into Akihabara tomorrow because I keep hearing how the otaku are muscling in on the traditional territory of the electronics geeks.

So that's probably as good a place to start as any.

There's a big chain of secondhand bookstores called Book Off. Somehow I doubt they'll have any of this good stuff from the Showa Period. There's another outfit called Mandarake and I'm pretty sure they deal in this kind of thing but I don't know if they'll have anything in stock. And their prices are quite high.

Oops, just noticed, this one's a DVD

I guess I should see what's available online but I really prefer to go to these shops in person. Just like with regular SM magazines, it's a lot more fun and it gets me out of the house. Which reminds me, I've heard that a really good shop that had tons of old SM mags called SNS went belly-up. Shit.

Comics are still big in Japan. They're sold all over the place and every now and then you'll see a middle-aged salary man flipping through one on the train. Not the ones you see here, though. Almost forgot: they've got these comics aimed at women, too, and I hear tell some of them can be quite naughty.

It makes you wonder what the future holds. I think the Japanese publishing industry is really trying to get their heads around the new digital paradigm. On the one hand, I can see how an iPad-type device would work pretty well for manga and gekiga.  On the other, if everything goes digital, there won't be any old musty bookstores to browse through.

That was one of my great joys as a kid and it would be a shame if it went away.

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Oh, the Joys of Film

I've been shooting with all sorts of film lately. I'm talking about stills, not the single roll of movie film (super 8mm) I recently shot.

On the old blog, I had an interview with one of Japan's preeminent bondage photographers, Sugiura Norio. When I asked him why he'd switched from film to digital, he explained that digital was so much easier than film. At the time I hadn't begun shooting film so the profundity of his comment was lost on me.

Not anymore.

Nomoto Miho and Nagaike Takeshi

Back in 1995, a company called Kaioh published a bondage photo book featuring nude model and actress Nomoto Miho. The book's title was Rope -- Miho Nomoto Photo Album. It appears the book is now out of print and available only secondhand.

The cameraman was Garo Aida, a very experienced and prolific photographer of the naked female body.

Nomoto was born too late (1974) to have been involved in the pink movie business. It looks like she first came on the scene around the same year her book came out. And while her photos were most certainly shot on film, I'm not sure the same can be said for many of her movies. Video had already gotten a firm death grip on the industry by then.

The Naked Seven 40 Years On

I wasn't quite old enough to see Sengoku Rokku Nayate no Onnatachi (aka The Naked Seven) when it first came out towards the end of 1972.  They weren't much on checking IDs back in those days but it wouldn't have mattered because the film didn't make it to arthouse theaters in the US until later.

Sengoku Rokku Nayate no Onnatachi, Nikkatsu, 1972

I can't remember the year I saw it but I think I read somewhere that it arrived on US shores maybe around 1974 (don't quote me on that). I know where I was living at the time but I don't remember the name of the theater. I just know that I saw the ad in the paper and figured that, since this was a Japanese adult flick, it just might have some bondage in it.

I was right, but just barely.

Wakamatsu Koji, RIP

Pink film producer and director, Wakamatsu Koji, died in a Tokyo hospital on Wednesday, Oct. 17 after having been struck by a taxi five days before. He was 76.

Wakamatsu began his work in film in 1963 with Nikkatsu but later went independent, producing and directing his own low-budget films that often mixed sex, violence and politics.

Wakamatsu's filmography is a long one; he directed over 100 films, among them such titles as 100 Years of Torture, A History (1975), Japanese Torture (1978) and Women's Torture Violence (1978).

Women's Torture Violence, 1978, Shintoho

Filming 100 Years of Torture

Wakamatsu had just received the Filmmaker of the Year award at the Busan International Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter recently conducted an interview with Wakamatsu, possibly his last interview prior to his death.

Wakamatsu Koji: 1936-2012.

Natsuki Yoko Is a Beautiful Target

 I first came across Natsuki Yoko in the 1995 Toei/V-Cinema film XX Beautiful Target (Utsukushiki Hyoteki), one of the best non-SM SM films I think I have ever seen.

Natsuki plays a coroner or a forensic pathologist (or whatever it's called) who is out to capture a deranged, sadistic murderer since the fellow seems to have taken a personal interest in her and the police haven't been successful in rounding him up.

A Man Walks into a Bar, Two Legends Emerge

There's a neat little interview with director Suzuki Norifumi (who apparently has also been credited as Noribumi) on YouTube and it has English subtitles.

Norifumi, according to Wikipedia, is either 78 or 79 years old at the time of this writing. He spent most of his career at Toei and directed a series of popular sukeban (delinquent girl/girl boss) films which starred such actresses as Ike Reiko and Sugimoto Miki.