io9
art
Posts Tagged “
Japan
”
art
tezuka osamu
See The Lost Japanese Space Puppet Anime Classic
When Osamu Tezuka, the father of manga, died in 1989, nobody had a full archive of his works—at least not in English. But his genius was certainly recognized. Back in 1965, Stanley Kubrick even asked him to art direct 2001: A Space Odyssey. (Tezuka, a known workaholic, turned down the opportunity because he couldn't leave his studio for too long.) What was so important that he couldn't leave his studio for Kubrick? More »
god's puzzle
Your Build-Your-Own-Universe-Kit, Coming Soon
The trailer just came out for God's Puzzle, the new Takashi Miike film about identical twins who help a mysterious girl create a new universe. It looks as zany as you'd expect, but the visuals are also gorgeous. (As much as you can tell from the super low-res version Toei released. Sorry about picture quality.)
mangobot
Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism. If you've noticed an unusually large number of utilitarian humanoids hailing from Japan in the last few years, then you probably won't be surprised to hear about the country's official robot initiative. Right now, Japan is in the midst of executing a grand plan to make robots an integrated part of everyday life. To compensate for the shortage of young workers willing to do menial tasks, the Japan Robot Association, the government, and several technology institutions drafted a formal plan to create a society in which robots live side by side with humans by the year 2010. Since 2010 is just a couple years away, I called up a roboticist at the forefront of this movement to find out how it's going.
More »
Japan Gears Up to Become a Full-On Robot Nation
Welcome back to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism. If you've noticed an unusually large number of utilitarian humanoids hailing from Japan in the last few years, then you probably won't be surprised to hear about the country's official robot initiative. Right now, Japan is in the midst of executing a grand plan to make robots an integrated part of everyday life. To compensate for the shortage of young workers willing to do menial tasks, the Japan Robot Association, the government, and several technology institutions drafted a formal plan to create a society in which robots live side by side with humans by the year 2010. Since 2010 is just a couple years away, I called up a roboticist at the forefront of this movement to find out how it's going.
More »
9:00 AM on Fri Apr 4 2008
By LISA KATAYAMA
4,403 views,
36 comments
Latest by Klebert L. Hall: @FunkyJ: That site is... misleading. For one thing, the data are several years old. For another, the UK is down to 25 frigates - I don't know what the heck the site is counting as 'naval vessels', but the US certainly more »
mangobot
Will A Videogame Help Me Reverse My Aging Process?
I've been trying to figure out ways that I can defy age. I'm turning 30 this year, which means I will have a harder time remembering things, filtering information, and staying in shape. Since I'm not Ray Kurzweil and I can't afford plastic surgery, I'm banking on Brain Age 2, Nintendo's cognitive training software, to keep me away from wrinkles and Alzheimer's. Every day before I go to bed, I do a round of math problems (they give me the numbers; I have to find the sign that will make sense out of them), I play a song a virtual piano with my stylus (yesterday it was The Blue Bells of Scotland), and I count the change from my imaginary purchase. The primary goal is to beat yesterday's me—if I can do that on a fairly consistent basis, maybe that means I'm reversing the aging process, at least cognitively. More »
9:00 AM on Fri Mar 21 2008
By LISA KATAYAMA
1,428 views,
18 comments
Latest by Cantonkid: I found that my gf was actually better at Brain Age than I was. She was able to reduce her brain age to the lowest score in just under a month, where as I did not even come close...she is more »
dystopia
In Tokyo, retail stores are turning into enormous metal caves. Here's one, installed by artist Kimihiko Okada on the ground floor of the Diesel store in Aoyama. Okada took a giant sheet of metal just millimeters thin and molded it into stalactite shapes. It looks like what you'd imagine nature might become 100 years from now when we all live in domes and are trying to recreate the natural world from industrial waste. More pretty caves below.
More »
The Sheet Metal Retail Caves of Tokyo
In Tokyo, retail stores are turning into enormous metal caves. Here's one, installed by artist Kimihiko Okada on the ground floor of the Diesel store in Aoyama. Okada took a giant sheet of metal just millimeters thin and molded it into stalactite shapes. It looks like what you'd imagine nature might become 100 years from now when we all live in domes and are trying to recreate the natural world from industrial waste. More pretty caves below.
More »
design
Office Of The Future Will Have Even Less Privacy
Japanese design team Nendo created this crazy-looking office space in Tokyo by putting giant U-shaped cut-out partitions all throughout the room. It kinda looks like a giant unknown entity was draping a sheet between his hands — and it totally re-imagines the traditional office space structures of cubicles and conference rooms. You have to step over the lowest point in the drape to get from one section of the office to another. Spaces that need some privacy — like conference rooms — were partitioned by soundproof plastic curtains. These kind of remind me of Ernesto Neto's bouncy white humanoid blobs. Images by Daici Ano [Nendo main page via Dezeen]
toys
'Alien' Figures Have More Details Than Actual Humans
Hot Toys is a Hong Kong based production house, and they put out large-scale figures that are extremely detailed down to the smallest level. They not only put out 13" figures based on Marlon Brando's Jor-El from Superman, and Brandon Routh's Clark Kent from Superman Returns, but they're releasing 1/6th scale figures of Kane and Captain Dallas from Alien later this year. Check out the detailed geekery in the gallery below. More »
mangobot
Human Music Machine Cornelius Deciphers His Alternate Reality Videos
Welcome to MangoBot, a biweekly column about Asian futurism by TokyoMango blogger Lisa Katayama. Keigo Oyamada, aka Cornelius, is a sound artist best known for his perfectly timed synchronization of beats, robot noises, and trippy music videos showing everything from spinning cows to lips that grow exponentially to little kids with butterflies. He's teamed up with video director Koichiro Tsujikawa and CG artist Munechika Inudo (think Dead or Alive 3) to create some intricately detailed videos that could only come from the finest futurist brains in Japan. Keep reading for two iconic music videos from his latest album, Sensuous, and a translation of the live commentary he gave me at his Tokyo studio last week. More »
9:00 AM on Fri Feb 22 2008
By LISA KATAYAMA
1,063 views,
4 comments
Latest by dubqnp: Cornelius makes some great music & videos. I liked how he mentioned Der Lauf der Dinge (The Way Things Go) - I remember seeing that when i was a teen. more »
art
When extraterrestrial visitors finally announce themselves and want to try drinking tea, you won't want to take them to a boring rickety old traditional teahouse. Luckily, Japanese artist Kengo Kuma has created this glowing, alien-ship-like teahouse for a museum in Frankfurt.
More »
Japanese Artist Makes an Inflatable Tea House for Aliens
When extraterrestrial visitors finally announce themselves and want to try drinking tea, you won't want to take them to a boring rickety old traditional teahouse. Luckily, Japanese artist Kengo Kuma has created this glowing, alien-ship-like teahouse for a museum in Frankfurt.
More »
triviagasm
The Mach 5 Could Kick K.I.T.T.'s Ass
While folks are still reeling from the two-hour jolt of pain that was Knight Rider last night, you might as well start pinning your hopes on the upcoming Speed Racer movie if you want a quality story about a boy and his car. Although the Mach 5 is being upgraded with a lot of CGI elements, you'll have to pry that original steering wheel with all the alphabet-buttons on it from our cold, dead memories. Put your mental pistons to work and find out more about the car and the show in our Speed Racer homage below. More »
batman: gotham knight
A Video Peek Into Batman Gone Anime
The animated Batman DVD will look amazing, judging from the clips you can see in this promo reel. Batman: Gotham Knight will come out when Batman: The Dark Knight hits the big screen. Click through for details. More »
onigocco
Japanese Smiley-Bots Will Kill You For Your Name
In the movie Onigocco or The Chasing World, a Japanese teenager gets flipped into an parallel world where everyone who has the last name Sato is being ruthlessly hunted down. Of course, that just happens to be his last name. While trying to evade the smiling cyborgs, he encounters alternate versions of his girlfriend and school buddies, and finds himself protecting them and trying to escape from the clutches of the King of Japan. Check out the trailer below, and find out more. More »
future war
Since late last year, the Japanese military has been working on projects aimed at "realizing" Gundam, the mobile armor suit that is both combat exoskeleton and A.I. in several popular anime and manga series. Just yesterday, the Defense Ministry of Techinical Research and Development Institute in Japan rolled out these new tanks, whose high-tech specs don't make it sentient armor exactly but certainly fit the bill of "smart tank." Want to see a strangely incongruous image of one of these tanks crunching its way out of a festive-looking tent in the suburbs?
More »
Japanese Military Continues Its Quest to Make Gundam Real
Since late last year, the Japanese military has been working on projects aimed at "realizing" Gundam, the mobile armor suit that is both combat exoskeleton and A.I. in several popular anime and manga series. Just yesterday, the Defense Ministry of Techinical Research and Development Institute in Japan rolled out these new tanks, whose high-tech specs don't make it sentient armor exactly but certainly fit the bill of "smart tank." Want to see a strangely incongruous image of one of these tanks crunching its way out of a festive-looking tent in the suburbs?
More »
cthulhutech
You take a shambling horror from a Lovecraft story, pop a couple of shoulder cannons on it and a replace a few tentacles with laser beams, and you've got yourself a whole new kind of horror: CthulhuTech.
More »
Cthulhu + Mechas = CthulhuTech
You take a shambling horror from a Lovecraft story, pop a couple of shoulder cannons on it and a replace a few tentacles with laser beams, and you've got yourself a whole new kind of horror: CthulhuTech.
More »
Ultraman Usurper Banished
A Thai businessman who was claiming to be the co-creator of Ultraman has been ordered to cease and desist all Ultraman activities (how cool does that sound?) and to pay 10.7 million Thai baht to Japanese Tsuburaya Productions, rightful owners of the Ultraman legacy. For more than 10 years Sompote Saengduenchai has been saying that he owner the rights to all Ultraman business outside of Japan, and that he helped invent the character. Looks like he got smacked down without the help of the Science Patrol. Now can someone just please give us a badass Ultraman movie or televsion series? It's not asking too much. [Variety]
A Thai businessman who was claiming to be the co-creator of Ultraman has been ordered to cease and desist all Ultraman activities (how cool does that sound?) and to pay 10.7 million Thai baht to Japanese Tsuburaya Productions, rightful owners of the Ultraman legacy. For more than 10 years Sompote Saengduenchai has been saying that he owner the rights to all Ultraman business outside of Japan, and that he helped invent the character. Looks like he got smacked down without the help of the Science Patrol. Now can someone just please give us a badass Ultraman movie or televsion series? It's not asking too much. [Variety]
robots
This week, at a media art festival in Tokyo, these twelve miniature paper robots are preparing to kick some pulpy ass. Birdman (the guy in the ring, on the left) is the likely winner because he's been around for a long time and he can fly.
More »
Japanese Paper Robots Prepare for Battle
This week, at a media art festival in Tokyo, these twelve miniature paper robots are preparing to kick some pulpy ass. Birdman (the guy in the ring, on the left) is the likely winner because he's been around for a long time and he can fly.
More »
architecture
A Japanese architecture firm is in the process of creating the first house under its environmentally-conscious Aluminum Project, which will use aluminum walls both to save resources and to provide thermal radiation. Since aluminum is strong but light and easy to manufacture into flexible sections, it's highly efficient in constructing designery spaces.
More »
Japanese Aluminum House Radiates Heat
A Japanese architecture firm is in the process of creating the first house under its environmentally-conscious Aluminum Project, which will use aluminum walls both to save resources and to provide thermal radiation. Since aluminum is strong but light and easy to manufacture into flexible sections, it's highly efficient in constructing designery spaces.
More »
