Länktips Köpa japanska plattor/anime i Stockholm? Besök då New Nippon Shop eller kolla in deras nätbutik
New Nippon Productions promotes japanese popular culture and artists in Sweden. Their nice New Nippon Shop sells cool japanese music and anime films, and they can be visited in their shop
in Stockholm or at their website		 Visit New Nippon Shop website - www.newnipponshop.net

Or, visit their Shop in Stockholm, Valhallavägen 22. Open :
Mon-Fri 12-19.00, Sat 12-18.00

Japan: Alternative Rock, J-Pop and Anime

Already the most innovative country in the world regarding the new breed of Horror film and Crime Thrillers that developed
during the 1990's, influenced Asia and at last also kids in US and Europe. Yes, besides computer games, Japan is also The
No.1 in animated film with it's very special Anime genre and also Huge in Asia (and elsewhere) with it's J-Pop bands/artists.
But, as i'm a big fan of alternative Non-Mainstream film and music, on this side i will mention mostly a few of my favourite
indie rock bands and some of the the more daringly dark, controversial, violent and maybe even iconoclastic anime films.
But also some other stuff i like. And, as always Youtube is a great way to experience videoclips of these artists

Follow link to
Japan - side 1

Japan - side 2

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Music - Some Cool Alternative Rock/Pop - A Selected Few

For bigger pictures and more information; follow picture-links to the left

 
Yum! Yum! Orange
 Charming japanese ska punk-rock/pop




Yum! Yum! Orange

A really, really cool and nice band and my favourite among the many japanese ska-punkrock-pop bands. They're are a joy to see, a tight group with good musicians that play fast and radiates FUN. Also, in front, cute
and charismatic singer Kumi. A live concert DVD from the Final gig of their Japan tour 2005 has been released


Clover - This one makes you happy.
A Great CD single from 2006 with Kumi on the
sleeve. Nice, an adrenaline rush, fast and fun
There may be a music club in Tokyo for every genre that's ever existed. Innovative Japan's like a sponge sucking up every music style and then
they reconstruct it and doing their own thing out of it in an uniquely japanese and charming way. Other popular and cool japanese ska-punk-
rock bands are : Gollbetty, Witchery Skank and Skull Candy
  Judy and Mary - Yuki Isoya Japan's Greatest Power Pop band - Ever


The collected videoclips of their 21 singles.
A mighty great group led by very fine singer Yuki Isoya. They ruled the 90's, but disbanded in 2001. My fave Daydream, their 3d single, a classic pop song with beautiful guitars that
goes on and on and on...aaah nice

Judy And Mary All Clips: JAM Complete Video Collection

Musik DVD: Epic Records, production: 2001

Group: Judy And Mary; Singer: Yuki Isoya
DVD language: japanese, japanese edition, region 2 NTSC
A Great Song! Judy and Mary - Daydream On Youtube - Daydream (if the video's still there that is)



A collection of visually colorful and stunning videosingles from Yuki's girly-sweet pop post-JAM career

The Yuki Isoya Video Collection

Music DVD, production: 2005

Artist: Yuki Isoya
DVD language: japanese, japanese edition, region 2 NTSC
  Barnabys A very fine all girl indie-rock trio

Barnabys

A charming but obscure rockgroup with Ai, Shoko and Miyoko who can be heard in the mightily catchy Sukimami maitai in the opening of anime master Yasuomi Umetsu's TV serie Mezzo DSA (see more below and link at the left) and at the ending too in Mitsu.
Today, the group's disbanded
A Great Song! ..... and with that out of this world outro! On Youtube - Sukimami maitai


The enjoyable TV series that followed Umetsu's controversial Kite and Mezzo Forte. See more about these in the anime section below.
Barnabys made the VERY catchy opening and end music to the episodes to this fun anime

Mezzo: DSA (Complete 3 disc Collection)

Direction: Yasuomi Umetsu, production: 2003

Voices: Tomoki Kotani etc.
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 1 NTSC
  Detroit 7 A great rock group


Great group! Drummer Miyoko from Barnabys
in 2005. They've toured all over the world to great critical acclaim

Detroit 7

A powerful rock-power pop group influenced by the Detroit Sound and legendary influental US bands like Iggy & the Stooges and MC5.
Fronted by gravel voiced singer/guitarist Tomomi Nabana, they made their debut record in 2003
  The Enigmatic and Ethereal Chara A very talented singer/songwriter and actress

 


The CD with the beautiful title song from the near-cinematic masterpiece, Shunji Iwaii's Swallowtail Butterfly

Swallowtail Butterfly (3" CD-single)

Musik CD: Epic/Sony Records, production: 1996

Group: Yentown Band w. Chara, Takeshi Kobayashi, Shunji Iwai
Music CD Single - Japanese Epic/Sony edition

 

Caramel Milk: The Best of Chara
A great collection CD album with 14 of this
unique and talented artist's songs
1996 - 2000 and almost all with text and music
written by Chara (see link to the left)

Caramel Milk (CD)

Music CD: Epic Records, production: 2000

Artist: Chara
Music CD Album - Japanese Epic edition


Sugar Hunter: The Best Love Songs of Chara

Another, and even greater collection of her
stuff and something of a definitive résumé of
her career (see link to the left)

The Best Love Songs of Chara (DVD + 2 CD)

Music CD and DVD: Epic Records, production: 2007

Artist: Chara
Music CD album and DVD - Japanese edition, region 2 PAL
     

Yeah.....and naturally there's lots and lots of more great alternative rock bands from Japan that should be mentioned here as:

The 5, 6, 7, 8's - Guitar Wolf - Ketchup Mania - Go! Go! 7188 - The Killers - 54 Nude Honeys - Anadorei (with Pussy
Carnival Holocaust) - Lulu's Marble - Belters - Pebbles etc. etc. And sweet cutey singer Chieko Kawabe (Be Your Girl)

Anime - Some Dark and Disturbing favourites of mine, but some normal too - A selected few only

For bigger pictures and more information; follow picture-links to the left

The Dark One's
A violent, beautiful darkly poetic anime
masterpiece about the escaped Diclonius
mutant Lucy.
Splatter-action-horror, beautiful sad drama
and love story. Haunting Gregorian chant
intro Lilium and a super catchy end pop
song Be Your Girl from Chieko Kawabe

Elfen Lied - very recommended!

Direction: Mamoru Kanbe, production: 2005

Voices: Chihiro Suzuki, Sanae Kobayashi
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 1
US ADV Films 18A rating 3 disc Collection edition
Listen to her
On Youtube - Be Your Girl
 with Chieko Kawabe (if the video's still there that is)



Anime genius Umetsu's controversial sex
/violence masterpiece. Beautiful and stylish
AnimeFilm Noir.
Furiously dark with a fascinating pulse and
pace. Underrated due to extreme sex scenes

A Kite (Warning! This anime may bite you)

Direction/script: Yasuomi Umetsu, production: 1998

Voices:
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 1
US Kitty Media 18up rated uncut edition



Another controversial Umetsu sex /violence
masterpiece. Also beautiful and stylish, but
not as dark as Kite, more of an ultraviolence
action-comedy. Also underrated due to some
hardcore hentai sex scenes

Mezzo Forte

Direction/script: Yasuomi Umetsu, production: 2001

Voices:
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 1
US Kitty Media 18up rated uncut edition

 

Violent and dark - at almost an nihilistic level.
People recently deceased wake up in a state
of Limbo and has to obey the mystic black
sphere- Gantz. An inspired opening, but then
....i don'tknow really?

 

Gantz

Direction: Ichiro Itano, production: 2004

Voices: Daisuke Namikawa etc.
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 1
ADV Films edition
 
 

 

Some almost normal one's


Umetsu's long awaited follow up to Kite.
Young teenage girl Monaka, she's the killer
Angel of Death, and her father's an astronaut turned to a monster from radiation, who's then crashed to the earth.....Sounds crazy doesn't it?An enjoyable failure though

Kite - Liberator

Direction: Yasuomi Umetsu, production: 2008

Voices: Marina Inoue etc.
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 1
US Anime Works edition



The enjoyable TV series that followed
Umetsu's controversial A Kite and Mezzo
Forte.Barnabys made the VERY catchy
opening and end music to the episodes
to this fun anime

Mezzo: DSA

Direction: Yasuomi Umetsu, production: 2003

Voices: Tomoki Kotani etc.
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 1
US ADV Films 3 disc Collection edition

 

Very cool and dark vampire-horror action
about The Hellsing Anti-Vampire Forces
versus the Undead. Fast and fun!

 Hellsing

Direction: Yasunori Urata, production: 2002

Voices: Fumiko Orikasa, George Nakata, Yoshiko Sakakibara
DVD language: japanese with subs, region 2 PAL
Swedish Escapi edition
 
 

 

Some sweet one's - The Genius Master Hayao Miyazaki and a couple of others

 

3 poetiska och lågmält finstämda berättelser som
länkas ihop. Från hyllade Makoto och titeln skall
vara hastigheten på ett fallande körsbärs-
blomsblad

5 Centimeters Per Second

Direction: Shinkai Makoto, production: 2007

Voices:
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 3
Hong Kong Asia Video edition



Great teenage anime drama about girl Makoto
who can leap through time. Based on a very
popular story from Tsutsui Yasutaka, filmed
at least once earlier in 1983
Original title: Toki o kakeru shojo

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Direction: Mamoru Hosoda, production: 2006

Voices:
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 3
Hong Kong edition

 


After the catastrophe there's pollution and wars
among the small kingdoms/states. The princess
Nausicaa tries to make things better

Titel: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
(Kazenotani no Nausicaa)

Direction: Hayao Miyazaki, production: 1984
Cast: Animated movie from Studio Ghibli
 DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 3
Hong Kong IVL 2 disc edition

 


One of my many Miyazaki favourites, a Sci-Fi
action-fantasy adventure about a floating castle
in the sky, created by an ancient civilization.

Laputa, Castle in the Sky (Tenku no shiro Laputa)

Direction: Hayao Miyazaki, production: 1986

Cast: Animated movie from Studio Ghibli
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 3
Hong Kong IVL 2 disc edition

 

Absolutely a masterpiece when 2 small girls find
a huge furry creature in an even more huge tree.
Gorgeous and peaceful from a lush japanese
countryside. Magic!

Titel: My Neighbor Totoro

Direction: Hayao Miyazaki, production: 1988

Cast: Animated movie from Studio Ghibli
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 3
Hong Kong IVL 2 disc edition

 

Kiki the teenage witch gets a job in a bakery, in
a town that slightly resembles swedish capital
Stockholm. She delivers bread on her flying
broomstick. Resourceful Kiki calms my soul

Titel: Kiki's Delivery Service (Majo no takyubin)

Direction: Hayao Miyazaki, production: 1989

Cast: Animated movie from Studio Ghibli
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 3
Hong Kong IVL 2 disc edition

 

Ha, ha, love this. May be the least liked one
from the master? Very unusual about italian
anti-fascist battle-pilot Marco's, Red Pig
adventures with femme fatale's and sky pirates
in the 1920's. Very unusual

Porco-Rosso (Kurenai no buta)

Direction: Hayao Miyazaki, production: 1992

Cast: Animated movie from Studio Ghibli
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 3
Hong Kong IVL 2 disc edition



A mighty fantasy adventure from japanese
mythic times, when man and gods lived in co-
existence. Darkly critical of man's destructive
powers over nature. A great film!

Princess Mononoke

Direction: Hayao Miyazaki, production: 1997

Cast: Animated movie from Studio Ghibli
DVD language: japanese with english subs, region 3
Hong Kong IVL 2 disc edition

 

Six 3-D animated short films with the beauty and
the then animated celebrity Fei Fei. I think she
participated at the inauguration of the soccer
world cup in Japan 2002, if i remember correctly

Titel: Fei Fei Cybervenus

Studio: Takatoshi Oki/Blue Moon, production: 2001-2002

Cast: Fei Fei
DVD language. japanese with english or swedish subs, region 2
SVE Escapi Media-PAL

 

Some cool short features with heroine Yuki Terai.
In Lazy Gui she's on a spaceship about to explode,
as a nightclub singer in a cool jazzy number and a
short but athmospheric thing from WW2
DTS, 5.1, making of

Titel: Yuki Terai - Secrets

Kenichi Kutsugi/Frog Entertainment, production: 2000-2002

Cast: Yuki Terai
DVD language. japanese with english or swedish subs, region 2
SVE Escapi Media-PAL
     
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