toco toco

In today's episode, Toshio Maeda a manga artist famous for his erotic works such as Urotsukidoji and La Blue Girl that are known all over the world, is taking us to Fewture Shop, a figure shop located in Akihabara that showcases many original models. Fewture Shop is situated in Akihabara, at the 7th floor of the Radio Kaikan building. It is a building well-known by manga and anime lovers, including tourists who come there to buy figures, DVDs or anime related goods. Inside you will find figures that are popular among foreigners such as the Grendizer and the Getter Robo G. Some figures are also exclusively available in this shop. Some figures have been made by Takeya Takayuki, the designer of Garo series.

In this summer special mangaka episode, we introduce a young and talented mangaka, Shoichi Haga. He is taking us to Cork's office, where he works and to one of his favorite cafe, the Mame-Hico cafe in Shibuya. Cork is a mangaka and writer agency situated close to Meiji Jingumae station and was founded by Mr. Sadoshima who was originally working at Kodansha. Shoichi Haga has always loved drawing since he was a child. One day, during his senior year in college, he sent a copy of his manga "Inchiki-kun" to a publishing company which was then selected for the Newcomer Prize category. It allowed him to work with a dedicated editor. This how Shoichi started his mangaka career. Shoichi Haga introduces us the first project he created with his editor, "Keshigomu life", and the manga he is working on right now, "Dam no Hi" which depicts the lives and feelings of dam builders. He also has his own app available in Japanese and English where people can share their opinion on his work after reading it. The second place he is introducing is a cafe called Mame-Hico in Shibuya. It is a very special place where he sometimes do workshops with customers. The owner puts a lot of care in everything, form the interior decoration to the coffee preparation. Shoichi's favorite dish at Mame-Hico is the katsu-sando, a fried pork sanwich and the Mame-Pico drink.

In today's summer special manga episode 3, Kenji Ōiwa, a famous mangaka known for Assassin's creed IV, Goth,Welcome the the N.H.K will introduce us the JR's Chūō line during rush hour time. Then we'll go visit his atelier in Nakano where he'll show us how he works. The Chūō line, is one of the East Japan Railways company lines, abbreviated as (East) JR lines. The Chūō line stops at some of the busiest stations in the world, such as Shinjuku and Tokyo. In this episode, Kenji Ōiwa will take the Chūō line to go to Shinjuku, where hundreds of thousands of people commute every day. You will see how the train is packed early in the morning and how crazy Shinjuku station looks like at the busiest hours of the day. After a little glimpse of Shinjuku's station, we head back to Nakano ward where Kenji Ōiwa has his atelier. It is a small place that is just enough for one person. He has an assistant working from home with who he exchanges files. Although Kenji Ōiwa thinks working as a mangaka is tough, he decided to work in this sector as he has always loved to draw illustrations with manga characters.

Digital artist, Yusuke Shigeta is taking us to the Yokosuka art museum in Kanagawa prefecture. An exhibition was held during the 2014 summer holidays called "KiRaKiRa ZaWaZaWa HaRaHaRa" where parents could enjoy art with their children. It showcased Yusuke Shigeta's art pieces and four other contemporary artists' work. Yusuke Shigeta is originally a video creator who makes animation and computer graphics. His work is a video installation that uses the whole space of a room. The video is a pixel animation displayed from a projector set on the ceiling. This animation, "Gaso no Mori" (Pixel Forest) is inspired by ten fairytales that you can see by holding a white book opened while wandering in the room. His other art piece is called "Gaso Sansui" (Pixel Scenery) and is inspired by the series of paintings of Ogawa Usen, "Shunkashuutou".

The tea ceremony master, Soryo Matsumura is taking us to the Sankeien Garden in Yokohama, and to his own teahouse "Shuhally". The Sankeien Garden(三渓園) is an artificial garden built about 100 years ago by Hara Sankei. In this episode, we discover the Rinshunkaku built by the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu's son about 350 years ago and other traditional Japanese teahouses such as Kinmokutsu and Shunsoro. Soryo Matsumura also invites us to his teahouse "Shuhally" situated at the 5th floor of a regular condominium in Yokohama.

Michihito Fujii, a film director from Babel Label is taking us to the Akagi Shrine which is one of the most elevated spots in Kagurazaka. Kagurazaka is a very inspiring city for artists and has an atmosphere very similar to Kyoto. The Akagi shrine is a very elegant shrine with walls made of glass that has been rebuilt recently. Flea markets or second-hand markets are held on weekends at the Akagi shrine. Michihito Fujii also invites us to the Babel Bar in Shinjuku, next to the Shinjuku Gyoen park. The Babel Bar has been created by the Babel Label production company, so that creators can gather and talk about cinema.

In today’s episode, we spend a day with SUDA51, a world renowned video game creator famous for No More Heroes, killer7 or Lollipop Chainsaw, games produced by his studio, Grasshopper Manufacture. Our first stop is the Jingu Batting Dome, a batting center located in the heart of Tokyo, that SUDA51 visits from time to time. The batting center setting is featured in The Silver Case, SUDA51’s first game with Grasshopper Manufacture, where it is used as a secret meeting place between two detectives. We will then visit Grasshopper Manufacture, SUDA51’s workplace where he will tell us more about his work, and the philosophy behind his studio. For a brief lunch break, we will head to Megumi-ya, a close-by soba noodles restaurant. Megumi-ya, compared to other traditional noodles restaurants, is themed around the rock universe and plays rock music - which is quite unusual for this type of restaurant. Later in the afternoon, SUDA51 will take a few of his colleagues for drinks to Kawakami, a restaurant nearby, where Kazuki Morishita, president of the Gung Ho group, who acquired Grasshopper Manufacture, is a regular. Our night will end in Shinjuku Golden-Gai, famous for its narrow streets and bars, we will head to the bar plastic model (bpm), where SUDA51 is a regular. The bpm was featured in No More Heroes, and its bartender, Mr. Sekine often plays music from the game, among other of his records from the eighties.

In a new Game Creator special, we spend a day with Ishiwatari Daisuke, creator of the world-renowned versus fighting game series “Guilty Gear”. We will first explore Ishiwatari’s work environment, where he not only directs the Guilty Gear games, but also composes the music, writes the scenario and also handles game and character design. During our time at the office, we will also meet with Toshimichi Mori, Ishiwatari’s “comrade-in-arms” and rival, who produces the BlazBlue series. Both will share their visions on game creation and their work. In the second part of the episode, we head over to the Minato Mirai area, to follow Ishiwatari during his favorite pastime, walking. During his long walks, he finds the time to clear his ideas and think of new additions to make to his games. In front of the vistas from the Yamashita and Minato no Mieru Oka parks, Ishiwatari is reminded of his childhood spent in South Africa, and how this scenery is different from the overly urban Tokyo.

In this last episode of our Game Creator special series, we spend a day with Keiichiro Toyama, creator of the Gravity Rush series, the SIREN series and Silent Hill. We will follow Toyama from his commute to work, passing through the traditional Matsubara shopping street, before heading to his work place in Sony Interactive Entertainment’s offices in Shinagawa. Toyama will tell us about his work style, currently extremely busy as the Gravity Rush 2 release is scheduled for early December. At dusk, we will follow Toyama with two of the game’s producers for drinks at an izakaya, where they will discuss their past projects and experiences. At night, we will follow Toyama back to his neighborhood in the Yokohama for a last drink at Cinema Novecento, Japan’s smallest movie theater, that showcases old works on film and also has a bar area.

toco toco’s new season starts with Mangaka & Illustrator legend Hisashi Eguchi. Our glimpse into Eguchi’s universe starts at Jimbocho, home of Shuheisha, one of Japan’s top publishing companies. We will follow Eguchi through the streets and places that made the memories of the start of his career, which now extends to almost forty years. One train ride later, we will head to Kichijoji, Eguchi’s long-time home and current place of work, where we will discover more about his works and find some hints behind his peculiar style. The night will take us to Sasanoha, a small authentic restaurant in the back alleys of Harmonica Yokocho, where Eguchi meets with fellow mangaka, illustrators and editors.

This episode features Soichi Terada, composer, arranger and one of Japan's house music pioneers. Under the beat of his music, we will learn more about his career, which was marked by music creation for the Ape Escape game or encounters with the iconic DJ Larry Levan. We will head first to Wakasu Park, on the outlines of Tokyo, a place Terada used to visit during his pursuit of inspiration, before heading to Koenji, where Terada did countless performances under his alter-ego project Omodaka.

Yoshiro Kimura is a game creator now turned indie, known for his work on moon, Chulip, Rule of Rose and more recently Dandy Dungeon and Million Onion Hotel. In this episode, Kimura will tell us about his career, a lifelong journey marked by many twists, companies and travels overseas. We will follow him to some of his favorite places in the city, including Mikado, a retro game center that still showcases many games from Kimura’s childhood.