Kingu Kongu.

NOTE to anyone who clicks on this entry. It used to have some YouTubes about Kong but they had gone defunct. The NEW Blogger interface decided to delete them thus making this post look silly. Then I reverted to the OLD and I clicked "fix" and some of them were repaired. The NEW did not have this option. Sigh...

Anyone who knows me well, knows I love my giant Gorillas. King Kong is a personal favourite and I often cite it as my all time numero uno movie. I remember watching the cartoon as a kid and always giggling at the "10 times as big as a man" line in the theme. I don't know for sure if that makes it into the Japanese theme, but it sure is catchy!

Here's the pilot episode:



This version doesn't have the Japanese lyrics added but it does have an added bonus. Halfway through is a tv show I don't ever recall watching but I do remember hearing about it: 001/7親指トム (ゼロゼロななぶんのいちおやゆびトム = zero zero nana bun no ichi/aya-yubi Tom) = Tom of T.H.U.M.B.

Here's a full episode in English. I can see why I don't recall this. It's dreadful! What's with the WC Fields voice and the Asian sidekick? I do like his name though...Swinging Jack!



I'd always thought this was just another rank Rankin-Bass production and I just discovered that it was originally produced in Japan!. Way too much more information can be found here if you're truly interested. I do find it intriguing that this show was so popular in Japan that the characters got loaned out to Toho who proceeded to use them in the Godzilla vs King Kong series!

Kuma Gorou!

クマ・ゴロー is better known to us as ヨギ・ベア (Yogi Bear) who was named after famous ヤンキースのスター(Yankee's Star) ヨギ・ベラ（Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra）and made his debut on the ハックルベリー・ハウンド・ショー(The Huckleberry Hound Show). As everyone knows, he steals picnic baskets from patrons of ジェリーストーン国立公園 (Jellystone National Park) and platonically chums around with his little buddy, ブーブー (Boo Boo) while evading スミスさん (Ranger Smith).

I'm rather impressed by the Japanese rendition of the theme song, Yogi does indeed sound smarter than the average bear.



I can't get the Huckleberry Hound theme to work on my pc, so I sent it over to Mark Evanier to see if he has better luck. I scammed the Yogi idea from him in the first place.

Shazzan!

I've been saving these for a while now and I'll post a few of them. Here is 大魔王シャザーン (大 dai = large, 魔 ma = demon, evil spirit, 王 ou = king) or Shazzan in Japanese.

According to the Wiki Page, their flying camel, Kaboobie, is referred to only as ブービー which is pronounced Boobie!

Bon Voyage.

'Twas 25 years ago that the fourth Star Trek movie, The Voyage Home, was first presented. I believe I saw it in the company of Alex and maybe BigBob or Edge and we giggled our way through it. Easily the most amusing of the ST movies it was crammed full of in-jokes and, thanks to the direction of Leonard Nimoy, none of them fell flat. I watched the first 6 movies a few weeks ago and still haven't gotten around to the Next Generation of flicks. I'd watch this movie once more but I'm a little weary from a Sayonara party and a busy weekend.

Instead, I'll showcase some photos from the Pamphlet that I managed to pick up. It's the only one of the first 6 that I've been able to locate and it's glorious!

Consider yourself notarized as a true Trekker if you get the following reference...

Ball Four.

I'm back after a self-induced hiatus (laziness, coupled with a stupid camera problem, deleting a bunch of photos.) Hopefully I'll be back with a vengeance and play catch up this week.

Tonight I saw a bizarre movie, not the one I intended to see, but bizarre nonetheless. I wanted to see エイリアンvsニンジャ (AvN or Alien vs Ninja) and went to our local Repertory Cinema (Cine la Vita) to find out the times. Okay, a show at 6:30 and 20:20. I had stuff to do so I opted for the later, cheaper show. Little did I know that 6:30 was the LAST show for that movie and instead I saw another movie's premiere.



Here's a peek at what AvN looks like.

The above and following are part of upstart-film company Sushi Typhoon's releases which are 1/4 Tarantino, 1/4 Rodriguez, 1/4 Miike, 1/4 Iguchi & 1/4 Nishimura (I was never good with fractions.) They toured around the world in October and have now come to town.

I sufficed with tonight's presentation, デッドボール (Dead Ball--lots of pics here) and based on the poster, it looked pretty dumb...cute babes, lots of blood & baseball. I went in expecting little and was pleasantly surprised. My first surprise was that it had English Subtitles and they were really well done. Relatively few spelling errors and captured a lot of American humour, especially with the frequent use of the F-word. Directed with aplomb by Yudai Yumaguchi, I liked the lead dude, Tak Sakaguchi who could make a lit cigarette magically appear, pitch a killer ball and in a Tex Avery moment, punch out the Warden through a telephone! Check out the above link for more details. It's good silly fun!

Some of the other movies up for grabs are Yakuza Weapon and Helldriver which will premiere in a week.

I'm a little disappointed that we won't be getting Mutant Girl Squad. It looks like a bit of a giggle!

eBeans, The Magical Fruit!

Wandering into the basement of e-Beans, I came across several empty stores which won't be open for another two weeks. One of two stores that were open is Saad (expensive leather goods) complete with a cigar-store Indian.

There's also a few used clothing stores (Hanjira & Don Don Down) selling fairly cheap garb which is the best place to buy either Japlish or WTF slogons on clothes.

There's not much else of interest here so I ventured upstairs. The third floor is home to yet another Maruzen Books (yawn) and if you go up two more floors, you'll find the massive bookstore, Junkudo on the 5th to 7th. It's no different except that there is now a separate section for kids books with one with NO kids! There's also a mysterious looking massage parlour (Green Oasis) ensconced within.

On the eighth floor, my Otaku shop has returned and I picked up a mystery-bag. More on that in a separate post.

Coolest part of the entire renovation is the addition of a rooftop patio upon the 4th floor! This weekend, they offer complementary Miso soup with mussels and round the clock bands and/or clowns! It's adorned with more giraffes, a teepee and several gardens and gazebos. I heard a cool jug band (Hotch Potch) with washboard and kazoos and a pretty good jazz singer.

There's also a stage for fashion or singers on the first floor and on the 10 floor there is another patio. There was an old lady on stage singing but she wasn't supposed to be doing so. It was a little creepy. There's a nice view from the tenth, I must say.

I'll leave you now with a send off by Monchichi!

Hill eBeans!

Today was the grand reopening of Sendai's most eclectic Department Store complex, eBeans. It was severely damaged in the quake and has undergone a facelift nip & tuck so that the front-most part has lost 6 floors!

I wandered through the front four floors and the back ten floors today and though the back ten has barely changed, the front four have undergone a major revamp.

Let me show you a few pictures of the second floor, some of which are rather odd.

Gone are all the trendy fashion stores selling overpriced garb for young gals and in their place are trendy boutiques selling overpriced items from Ghibli, Monchichi and Miffy! The first floor and basement have been earmarked for fashion but all but two stores won't be open until December 3rd.

Mysteriously, a menagerie of metallic monsters has menaced the main mezzanine!

Apart from an Italian Tomato and a few cafes, there few places to dine so I had Takoyaki (Octopus balls) for lunch!

There were several walls featuring art from birds to cats to 3D Gorillas!

That's about it for the second floor. It's time for bed but hopefully I can return to showcase more of eBeans, the magical fruit!