It’s been quiet here at Let’s Anime World HQ. Actually that’s
a lie. It’s been really busy, which is why there haven’t been any new Let’s Anime
columns for a bit. What have we been up to?
Well, we went to Tokyo last
month, and that’ll take up a bit of your column-writing time right there.
What did we do? We
went to Asakusa, to Ekoda to see a band belt out the theme to “Battle Fever J”
and “Spiderman”, to Nakano Broadway, to Akihabara, to funky Shimokitazawa and theme-park
consumerist Odaiba. We also went to Oizumi Gakuen, home of Toei Animation and
their Toei Gallery.
How you get there: take the train to Oizumi Gakuen, hang a
right out of the station, and head up the street past the Galaxy Express
lampposts. After a few blocks and a lot
of sweating (it’s summer) turn left onto Toei Street. When you see the big studios on your left, look to your right and there it is.
Get your pass from the guard at the booth and you’re in!
The Toei Gallery is not a studio tour; if you’re interested
in the nuts and bolts of how Japanese cartoons are produced you might be better
off visiting the Suginami Animation Museum. However, if you’re
interested in the hundreds and hundreds of characters and properties Toei has
brought to life via animation, then the Gallery is where you ought to be.
UFO'S ARE REAL!
There’s a large room filled with chronologically-arranged
displays of all of Toei’s films and television series, from KEN THE WOLF BOY
right through to their 70s UFO ‘documentary’ to GALAXY EXPRESS, FIST OF THE
NORTH STAR, SAINT SEIYA, SAILOR MOON and
PRETTY CURE. Also there’s a huge Danguard
Ace statue.
Above you, cutouts of super robots and super robot pilots
are watching.
Television sets screen an endless loop of TV opening credits, giant PRETTY CURE cutouts enchant the little girl patrons, and there's a general overwhelming sense of truly being in the belly of the Toei beast. One case displays maquettes of anime characters, built to
assist the artists with a 3D model. It’s fascinating to see the proportions and
stylistic exaggerations of 1960s anime brought to three-dimensional life.
Another room features merchandise based on Toei
characters. Arale from Dr. Slump is
encased in a glass pillar, Captain Harlock’s Cosmo-Gun rests on a shelf, and
hundreds of thousands of yen worth of DVD
box sets are trapped behind glass.
HI YO YO LEMME OUTTA HERE
Garage-kit renditions of popular and obscure Toei characters
inhabit one exhibit, from the heavy hitters right on down to monsters from
30,000 MILES BENEATH THE SEA and the evil
doll from the final episode of the 1968 CYBORG 009 series.
On your way out of the building, peek through the door into
the office and you can see even more Toei-branded merchandise, including this
CANDY CANDY poster.
Is it worth the hike?
It definitely is for anyone who grew up watching Toei’s animation on
television as a child, as I did. Not only do you get to see your childhood TV
heroes brought to gigantic life, but to see them in pop-culture context next to
the fifty other super robot shows and the Manga Matsuri festival screenings and
the theatrical feature films is a revelatory experience. Also, some of the
exhibits are charmingly translated.
And when you get back to the station, enjoy a soft drink
from the vending machine painted to resemble the friendly conductor from GALAXY
EXPRESS 999!
-Dave Merrill
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