Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

152 SESSION II
upon bishojo or nymphs came to be called moe, soon
supplanting Otaku visions of a cataclysmic kin mirai
[near future]. The storefronts of Akihabara where appliances
once gleamed, long since became Otaku shrines are now
lined with moe nymph signs bewitching and eroding
the modernist cityscape. Victory banners hailing the
Otaku conquest of the area, these nymph icons clearly
signify that persona and tastes are replacing state and
mega corporations as determinants pf the urban fabric.
Net-based interest communities are restructuring real
places. In a reversal on the received wisdom that
cyberspace is replicating the city, here the city has begun
to mimic cyberspace.
Gal Games
Video games started in Japan in 1978 with Taito’s Space
Invaders. By the early 1980’s, amusement companies
like Namco and Nintendo were filling arcades with
made-in-Japan games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.
While coin-op culture was spreading across the world, a
new kind of game was emerging in Japan. In 1982, Koei
Company released Danchi Tsuma no Yuwaku [Seduction
of the Condominium Wife] for the PC8001 home
computer. This game, a mixture of text-based erotic
adventure and crude graphics owing to the computer’s
eight-color palette, was an instant hit. Koei became a
major software company, and the bold new era of Bishojo
games, or Galge [Gal games] had begun. In 1994,
Konami Company was about to close down when fans
set up a fund to produce a platonic romantic simulation
for the PC engine called Tokimeki Memorial. With no
sex at all, it became the next best-selling Bishojo game
and put Konami on the map. In 1999, an independent
software development house Visual Art’s/Key published
an adult game called Kanon for the Windows PC. In the
game, the player meets five girls in a snowy small town
and experiences tragic love affairs with them. Naturally,
Kanon was a sex game, which initially attracted male
consumers. But like the readers of girls’ comics, these
men found themselves identifying with the protagonists
over the emotional trials and tribulations of pure
love. Kanon was then released for the PlayStation minus
the explicit sex. It sold even better than the dirty PC
version did. Finally, Kanon Anime version was
broadcasted on network television. And as floppy discs
gave way to CD-ROMs, and crude home computers
gave way to a succession of Windows OS, the Bishojo
games evolved into a mix of gorgeously detailed
illustrations, full-blown animation and dazzling
computer graphics. Modern games often employ all
free techniques.
The visuals of Bishojo games strengthened the links between
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows
Anime, Manga and the electronics culture of Akihabara
ward. A new Otaku industry was created where a small
crew consisting of an illustrator, a scriptwriter, and a
programmer could churn out a product that could sell
as many as 30,000 copies. With some 500 new Bishojo
titles debuting annually, this genre is estimated to account
for 25% of all software sales in Japan.
Pachinko Parlors
Even if an Otaku may not be interested in gambling, he
probably still won’t be able to resist dropping in on a
pachinko parlor. Pictures of girls drawn in Anime style
seduces from countless banners and posters. Many of
the pachinko machines lined up in rows exhibit design
schemes which are based on Anime like Gatchaman
[Battle of the Planets], Lupin III, Mobile Suit Gundam
and Space Battleship Yamato. Animation plays in a small
video monitor installed in the center of each machine.
The sounds of the machines in action include memorable
lines of dialogue spoken by the original Anime voice
actors. Thus, Otaku can gamble while watching a favorite
Anime at the same time.
Cosplay
In the 1990’s, Cosplay was about wearing China dresses,
nurse outfits and other uniforms, which are sexually
appealing to men. Nowadays, Cosplay, an abridgment
of two words: costume and player, is a fun activity for
popular culture fans to disguise themselves with a look-alike
costumes of and role-play as their favorite Anime
characters. Fans, boys and girls alike, dress up as
characters from a two-dimensional world. Their costumes
are creative and outrageous: from enamels, leathers to
velvet dresses. Girls may dress up in boys’ costumes;
guys in girls’. Blue wigs are worn for Rei Ayanami from
Evangelion, yellow hair for Sailor Moon. These fans make
their own costumes, or buy them through internet. Most
cosplayers have never even sewn before in their lives, but
somehow developed the skills out of love and desire.
Cosplayers express their devotion to the Anime character
that they love or desire by imitating the character’s
physical appearance.
Cosplay started as a sideshow at the largest and most
famous convention for all Anime and Manga lovers, the
Comiket [Comic Market] which is held twice a year, in
August and December. The first few cosplayers appeared
there around mid-1980’s as it was the only place that
fans dressed up in public. Now, Comiket is the cosplayer’s
own Paris Collection fashion show. Cosplay started
to grow rapidly in the 1990’s to the point where cosplayers
began to attend smaller dojinshi events. Visual J-rock