Butt Bat Girl
March 6, 2015 7:09 AM   Subscribe

When Manga, public art and slapstick comedy collide

"While seemingly 90 percent of anime and manga are set in Tokyo, a lot of the creative individuals behind Japan’s biggest animation and comic hits grew up in other parts of the country. Many accomplished artists and authors hail from Niigata, and while Inuyasha and Ranma 1/2 creator Rumiko Takahashi is probably the most famous among English-speaking fans, the prefecture can also claim Shinji Mizushima as one of its native sons.

Mizushima is best known for his baseball saga Dokaben, which was so popular its protagonist has been immortalized with bronze statue in Niigata City. It was already a bit of a local landmark, but these days it’s getting a fresh batch of attention as the site of a series of trick photography shots of the power-hitting catcher sending young women flying with a swing of his bat."
posted by Megami (7 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- loup



 
It looks like a pudgy plastic US soldier to me.
Also, this is odd.
posted by Mezentian at 7:27 AM on March 6, 2015


This is awesome. It's one those reassuring things in humanity when the humor of a situation can be shared across language and nationality. Well, at least a type of sense of humor.
posted by Atreides at 7:37 AM on March 6, 2015


Incidentally, a nice lookbook of Niigata street fashion.

Dokaben's anime adaptation is old and sub-par, but if you wanna watch a baseball anime worth your time, I'd suggest Mitsuru Adachi's Cross Game.
posted by procrastinator at 7:50 AM on March 6, 2015 [1 favorite]


Previously, hadoukening and vadering. Also people doing Kiki's delivery service.
posted by sukeban at 8:03 AM on March 6, 2015 [3 favorites]


I wonder if there's any cultural influence here from popular Flash games like Nanaca Crash (Flash, use at own risk) or the baseball-bat minigame from Smash Bros. The Japanese have raised the simple mechanic of power/angle ballistics to its own genre.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:04 AM on March 6, 2015


These are fun; just the sort of thing made much more accessible by digital photography.
posted by TedW at 8:37 AM on March 6, 2015


But still possible with older cameras.
posted by TedW at 8:39 AM on March 6, 2015


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