Categories
Games Web

Yoshiro Kimura

This month’s Toco Toco episode is about game creator Yoshiro Kimura, who shares an interesting career trajectory — leading up to the mobile game he released recently, Million Onion Hotel.

Categories
Art Web

Taxi Talk

The latest entry in the excellent New Territories web series (produced in part by Anne Ferrero) is “Epilogue: Taxi Talk,” a short film that sees a taxi driver recount a tale from the past.

Categories
Music

Le coeur qui jazze

This video by Les 5-4-3-2-1 is so my jam. Via this post on Patrick’s Tokyo’s Coolest Sound blog.

Categories
Music Web

Soichi Terada (Toco Toco)

It’s as if Toco Toco could read my mind. Earlier this year I discovered and fell in absolute love with the music of Soichi Terada (through the music of Shinichiro Yokota) — his Sounds from the Far East compilation is the record I’ve listened to the most this year (and I’m listening to it right now as I write this). Imagine my very pleasant surprise when I find that the latest episode of Toco Toco — my favorite documentary web series — is all about him. Thank you, Anne.

Categories
Design Web

New Territories Part II

In other Anne Ferrero news, the other video series that she’s involved in, New Territories, released a second episode a few weeks ago, and it’s another visual treat.

Categories
Art Games

Yoshitaka Amano

Although not part of Anne Ferrero’s Toco Toco series, this wonderful short documentary on Yoshitaka Amano that she helped produce for Mana Books is very much Toco Toco-like, and a great look at the man and what inspires him.

Categories
Art Manga Web

Hisashi Eguchi

After taking a break during the summer, Toco Toco is back with a new monthly schedule, and the first episode of this new season covers illustrator and manga creator Hisashi Eguchi.

Categories
Books

Nicholas Hogg’s Tokyo

Although it was released a couple of years ago, I just came across Nicholas Hogg’s Tokyo novel, which appears to be quite good — I think I’ll pick it up. On the promotional site for the book, there’s also a great short video by Samuel Cockeday, a mesmerizing time-lapse of the city.

Categories
Film Web

Toco Toco Summer Special

The summer may be pretty much at its end, but we at least got two new episodes of Toco Toco TV this week, part of its promised “Summer Special” block, as we await the start of the next season. They both focus on filmmakers, Noboru Iguchi and Yoshihiro Nishimura, working in the indie horror genre, and are both fascinating in how frank each creator is about the difficulties of making indie films in Japan these days, with budgets for non-mainstream fare hard to come by and a fraction of what they used to be. It was also quite nostalgic for me to see Iguchi walking around Ikebukuro, the part of Tokyo where I lived for over 13 years.

Categories
Advertisements Music

Everyday Washing Machines

Using Perfume to sell Panasonic washing machines (the track used, “Everyday,” is coming out as a b-side single soon). Via Tokyo’s Coolest Sound.