#go misawa

[c-40]

A-T-3 105 Algorithm & Blues Pt.3

いち、に、さん、し

Image by Walter Velez from when Japanese cars were entering the American market

'According to DJ Chintam—the co-author of Wamono A To Z records guide, and co-curator of last year’s Japanese jazz funk and rare groove comp—the concept of wamono didn’t exist before the mid-’90s: “Playing Japanese music in DJ sets was almost taboo,” he once told Resident Advisor. But the UK rare groove scene, which sent evangelists hunting after obscure funk, soul, and disco, prompted him to start scouring for domestic records at the turn of the century' - Pitchfork. These are the same diggers that went out hunting for Northern Soul records, they same that compiled the compilations of the late 1980s and 1990s (A-T-3 079 A-T-3 080 A-T-3 081)

My Truth

My personal interest in Japan is, I assume, similar to many people growing up in the UK in the 1980s. Japanese cartoons on TV like Battle Of The Planets and Ulysses 31 (I bought a bootleg of the soundtrack it in the early 2000s), sci-fi characters like Godzilla and Ultraman, and arcade games from Space Invaders to Out Run to Street Fighter II (Red Bull’s excellent Diggin The Carts web series is worth a shout). Japanese arcade games were a massive influence on me, not just the graphics but the cabinet artwork, the sound and gameplay too like BurgerTime, Bomberman, or Bubble Bobble. They felt like a small window into Japan

My experience of Japan and music when I was young, like many others in the UK, suffers from multiple personality disorder. I was born when Biddu/Carl Douglas's Kung Fu Fighting reached number 1 on the UK singles chart. Growing up there was the music in anime (although we just called them cartoons) and video games, period dramas that often use oriental folk music or a pastiche of (as I've said I became aware of Ryuichi Sakamoto through his film music), then their was the imitation of Japanese culture by western pop acts like Turning Japanese by The Vapours and Japanese Boy by Aneka, this was when advertising and the presence of Japanese imports on shop shelves and in showrooms began calling for attention to Japan. By the time I was a teenager I was listening to John Peel who would play bands like Shonen Knife and Pizzicato Five

Throughout the 80s there was a fashion for ‘Japanisme’ on record sleeves. Sheffield design studio Designers Republic began incorporation elements of Japanese graphics into their artwork for the group Pop Will Eat Itself, this developed into one of the styles tDR are known for, in the 1990 tDR created an imaginary Japanese corporation called Pho-Ku. In their way tDR were trying to subvert marketing slogans, Japanese iconography and characters were incorporated into the designs not only for their own charm but as symbols of what is sometimes called hyper-capitalism. From the late 1980s I'd pick up bits of Japanese artwork wherever I could, this might be reproductions of high art or ephemera. In 1991 Akira got a theatrical release in the UK, as an art student I was watching Tetsuo: The Iron Man and it's sequel. I enjoyed Anime and manga (I think Ranma ½ was the first series I got into) and I'm a fan of Superflat

The video for Madonna' released's single Rain (written with Shep Pettibone) was released in 1993, and appeared to have sleek and minimal contemporary Japanese aesthetic to it which I loved. Ryuichi Sakamoto plays the video director in it. This aesthetic is made explicit in Chris Cunningham's 1997 techno orientalist Ghost In The Shell inspired video for the Bjork single All Is Full Of Love

I remember seeing all the CDs on display in Japanese shops and knowing there was gold hidden in there. I will buy anything that looks interesting. YMO, Ryo Kawasaki, Logic System were probably the first older Japanese artists I went looking for

Interest in 'City Pop' and Japanese ambient music in America is written about as if it has happened over night but, it's nothing new, it goes all the way back Ue o Muite Arukō (or Sukiyaki) a Japanese record sung by Kyu Sakamoto that American veterans took to number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1963. Slick Rick takes the melody and incorporates it into the Doug E Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew classic La Di Da Di

Tracks like YMO's Firecracker was popular with Black American audiences, Bboys were into Riot In Lagos, and in Planet Rock G.L.O.B.E, Pow Wow, and Mr Biggs get the house to repeat "ich me sun chi" [ichi ni san shi]. Bambaataa's love of Kraftwerk is well documented so this is probably definitely lifted from Numbers by Kraftwerk

My attraction to Japanese culture was the science fiction and fantasy. Wu-Tang: An American Saga tells the story of RZA and Ghostface Killah's love of martial arts movies and RZA's genius move to sample those films and their sound effects, and boo-yaa the rest as they say is history with Japanese samples and references cropping up in hip hop, R&B, jungle and all their derivatives until the end of time. Wu-Tang were the first hip hop act to go all in, it wasn't subtle was it, in many ways you could compare Wu-Tang to UK synth pop like Japan, Wang Chung, the rock group Asia and other 1980s groups that referenced elements of Japanese culture. Over the last decade or so anime and manga have become mainstream in the US and rock and pop acts are also paying attention to Japanese culture

Tamao Koike - Automne Dans Un Miroir produced by YMO, slower and translated into French b side of Kagami No Naka No Jugatsu which is also great

Go Misawa- Jigoku Kara no Shisma and some nice anime soundtrack popular with hip hop producers. It's from the anime Devilman

Go Misawa - 悪魔人間 (デビルマン) - 不動明

[creepermilktea]

That 100+ follower special event on twitter(X) where I let my followers request 9 characters they want me to draw.

Special thanks to people that have supported me and people that participated in requesting characters!

[aspenragus]

Daiya is such a unique brand of manga that was born during the era where Sports Manga was blowing up but somehow fell into the group of fandom that tapered off after the story was concluded. I guess it has something to do with the abrupt ending? It's such a shame tho I wish people gave the manga a chance

[irieora]

happy misawa day!! 💛✨

[cj-marj]

Why are there so many time-travel fix-it AUs for a baseball story? 😭

[elemental-daddy-neos]

Okay now that I've gotten the name change out of the way, guess what! I'm returning to my roots! I decided to start rewatching GX from episode 1, and the way I'm doing it is dub first, then rewatch the episode in the sub right after to compare and contrast. It was a lot of fun, so I'm gonna be writing down all my thoughts as they come in and sharing them here! Check them out below if you are interested, fair warning I will never be nice to Syrus <3

First up: episode one dubbed

Now, once more with feeling! Episode one sub thoughts

...And that wraps up the first episode! Hopefully you guys find this entertaining. Yes I know I'm mentally ill about this show, that won't be changing anytime soon.

Just for the fun of it, if anyone wants them, here are all the screenshots I took while watching the show by themselves

[bluggluglfgh]

so i found my lost fountain pen

[joearlikelikeswrestling]

[number-1-kuaidul-fanboy]

Ya know... Misawa had his character derailed out of nowhere and was needlessly bullied by the main cast (mostly Sho) in GX's second season but when he came back in season 3, all of that suddenly... just stopped. He wasn't featured as much, but he was back to normal and he wasn't bullied anymore.

...maybe that means there's hope for Manabu, who's going through something similar in Go Rush's second season?

[aberooski]

Every thought I've had about OUAD 2 so far:

1. OUAD 2 will take place a few months after OUAD and will follow Chazz, Atticus, Alexis, and Jay, Sy, and Hassleberry as they take a trip to visit the Crystal Kingdom where Atticus and Alexis live (otherwise knows as the Northern Kingdom in OUAD as it's located to the north of the Golden Kingdom, the central kingdom of the lands)

2. Keeping with the Once Upon A .... theme for the title, it won't just be Once Upon A Duelist 2. My main thought is Once Upon A Winter OUAW or something along those lines because the story will take place during the wintertime and the Crystal Kingdom is in fact a snow kingdom.

3. Chazz and Atticus are officially a couple

4. I want to include more of the ensemble cast, my thought is that Bastion and Jesse are residents of the Crystal Kingdom and will have some kind of significance within the story

5. I don't like him but I also want a Zane cameo because the fact that he canonically exists in OUAD and because Syrus is a fairy, he has to be one too is hilarious to me and I need to see it.

6. Hassleberry is in trouble with fairy society for actually killing Jagger in OUAD, despite how evil he and Slade were when they were still alive. They also view him as more of an enigma than they already did due to his animalistic side that he was born with and how weak his magical abilities are because despite his weak magical powers, he was able to not only access extremely powerful ancient magicks on his own during the final battle of OUAD, he did it while in his berserked state and not even in control of himself. Just like Jaden thought, everyone underestimated the power of the gold fairy.

7. Jaden is intrigued by how Jesse, a regular human, can see and communicate with the spirits. Jaden can but even as a magical being it's uncommon, and Chazz can but only because Jaden blessed him with the power. So how is it that Jesse can see spirits too? Eventually as he's observing Jesse to try and figure that out, he starts to develop a crush on the kind human boy......

8. Not sure what the greater conflict of the story will be. Maybe some kind of conspiracy or some sort of other issue that is uncovered and runs deep within the Crystal Kingdom. I still have to figure that out and who the main antagonist will be. That will influence a lot of the story since it'll need to be built around that.

9. Loved a comment @chazz-is-a-zelda-fan made about OUAD 2 continuing the trend of killing off disliked characters, wouldn't mind finding a way to sneak and Adrian death in there somewhere 😌 thanks for putting that thought in my head friend 💜 I'm all kinds of down for killing off that bitch somehow lol

10. I had originally had a thought about Adrian wanting revenge for Slade and Jagger's destruction of the Kingdom of the East, but I'm not sure timeline wise if that would work I mean they destroyed it a little over 20 years ago and Adrian isn't much older than they are in canon so he couldn't have actually been there to see it but I suppose it could still work if that event more or less destroyed his family and set him up for a real crap life. Also Slade and Jagger are dead now and nobody still alive had anything to do with it except the trio was involved in the battle to stop them back then, which they did. So it wouldn't make sense still unless I got real creative I guess 🤨 or maybe it does and I'm just underthinking it. But Adrian I think would be more of a minor antagonist rather than the main antagonist of the whole fic.

11. Going back to conspiracy, and I did almost say cult.... potential SoL inclusion??? Or a Darkness cult???? Nightshroud???? Absolutely no thoughts about that just a potential concept but maybe something like that for the main conflict???? I really don't know yet 😭

It'll probably be a while before I get to start actually writing any of this but the thoughts are real y'all.

[posthumanwanderings]

Hiroyuki Misawa: Jet de GO! (PS1) - Let’s Take Off

[yaboiwormy]

Hey idk if this is the best way to get this out there but if you lived on Misawa Air Base in Japan between the years of 2012 and 2016 and the name “Toadstool Hill” means anything to you can you please hit me up?

[oso-mj]

going about my day while thinking about misawa and my fondness grows each second

[joearlikelikeswrestling]

[redbullgivesyouwingedkuriboh]

hi. if you’re reading this that means it’s my 21st birthday. I had this idea and had to write it down immediately (it’s may 29th. see y’all in just under 6 months) so. yeah. enjoy. happy 21st birthday to me!

The GX Cast In: What they would order for their first legal drink at a bar

DISCLAIMER: blair is excluded from this one cause I can’t fathom her being an adult rn. all characters are considered to be of legal drinking age for the purposes of this post. I do not condone underage drinking. drink responsibly and always call for help if you or a friend are displaying symptoms of alcohol poisoning.

Jaden Yuki: I have determined that Jaden doesn’t like whiskey, but if it’s mixed in something he might be okay with it. a rum and coke would be his go-to. on the rocks, he can’t drink warm liquor.

Chazz Princeton: straight vodka. i have a working theory that the more trauma someone has the better they take shots. (this is not a healthy theory, to be sure, but Chazz certainly qualifies as an observable subject.) he will spit out any food that contains the tiniest amount of carrot but pounds vodka like a champ. he’s definitely tried to do the whole lime and salt thing but found he prefers the burn. I just want him to be okay :(

Dr. Crowler: wayyyyyy back in the day, a very hot, very gay bartender gave him a shot of raspberry schnapps on the house because he “looks like a raspberry schnapps kinda guy”. keeps a bottle of it in his office for feeling nostalgic. atticus has gotten into it more than once, with zero evidence left behind.

Syrus Truesdale: the fruitiest goddamn cocktail you’ve ever seen. there’s a bendy straw and a paper umbrella. probably served out of a pineapple. he does not want to so much as SENSE the alcohol

Alexis Rhodes: whiskey sour. asks for the lemon on the side and squeezes the juice directly into her mouth.

Atticus Rhodes: margaritas, plural. unironically sings “gimme one margarita ima open my legs” the entire time and has to be physically restrained in order to stop him.

Zane Truesdale: he can’t drink, he has a heart condition. however: him and atticus buy cheap wine from the liquor store on oct 31 and sit somewhere outside as the clock ticks over to midnight, making the switch from atticus’s birthday to zane’s. they toast. life is good. zane has palpatations immediately and never drinks again.

Aster Phoenix: wine aunt energy. exclusively drinks wine, but alternates between white and red. his palate changes depending on what he ate. for his twenty first birthday, he probably had steak (s2 fishing incident had me rolling on the ground laughing), which pairs well with cabernet (I think that’s a red) so he’d get red wine.

Yubel: technically has always been legal drinking age? regardless, the strongest whiskey you can find. Jaden dislikes whiskey, though, so has only ever gotten him to take one shot of it. collects the little shooter bottles. it’s really cute to see them all lined up.

Jesse Anderson: fruity cocktail for a fruity bitch. he’d order a sex on the beach, but it would go something like, “I’d like a, ah… ha, alrighty then. A s-sex on the… you know what I mean!”, followed up by Chazz saying, “oh my god he’d like a sex on the beach. jesus.”

Jim Crocodile Cook: not much of a drinker, but he’d also love the fruity cocktails. he would order a strawberry daiquiri. frozen. he’d also do a shot for the hell of it, probably of cheap vodka, and spend the rest of the evening wondering how everyone else is handling that stuff so well.

Axel Brodie: straight fucking gin. no additives, no garnish, no nothing. just axel and a shot glass. somehow never shows signs of being tipsy.

Adrian Gecko: beer. he thinks it makes him look relatable. unironically a beer drinker. probably PBA.

Bastion Misawa: he orders a shot of “your finest whiskey, barkeep”. sniffs it first. takes a little sip. “oh, goodness. no thank you.”

[fang-revives]

Syb's Shibata Match Recs

Since there's renewed interest in The Wrestler because of his amazing match with Bryan Danielson, I thought now might be a great time to drop some match recs for him! All of these have links you can watch right now. I also recommend this article about his time on the Japanese Indies/MMA, this summary video of his return arc to NJPW, and this fanvid, which captures his vibe so well (cw: it includes the headbutt spots from Shibata vs. Okada).

Katsuyori Shibata & KENTA vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Go Shiozaki Of the "Takeover" matches where Shibata and KENTA tagged, this is the one I recommend most often! It's a gritty, hard hitting slugfest, with lots of crazy spots. And as a benefit you get to see two of the all-time greats, Misawa in his late prime and Shiozaki as he's starting to rise as NOAH's future ace. Both Shibata and KENTA are in peak form here.

Katsuyori Shibata & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Atsushi Sawada & Shinichi Suzukawa I feel like it's only fair to give some context on Shibata's MMA period. Here he is tagging in a "shoot style" wrestling match with one of the all time MMA greats, Sakuraba. I love this match because it feels like it encapsulates 2 things about Shibata: 1. he's a much better pro wrestler than he his MMA fighter. 2. he's (especially in this period) a loaded canon ready to fight at the drop of a hat. I love how excited he is in this. I hate that he jumps so hard he bonks himself immediately on the head. Dumbass (affectionate).

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shinsuke Nakamura I watched quite a few matches from Shibata's "prodigal son returns" arc in NJPW, and this one was the standout to me. Maybe some of the Tanahashi matches are more narratively punchy, but this was my first exposure to Nakamura in peak form, and boy is that a powerful thing.

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazuchika Okada (! INJURY WARNING !) The fact that I'm recommending this match knowing what happened to Shibata after... okay, seriously, this is one of the greatest wrestling matches I have ever seen in my life. The intensity and the way the story builds up to it. God. It's tragic to a high degree that Shibata's best work ended up so fraught like this. I wish there were 0 unprotected headbutts in this match, because it would still be one of the best matches I've ever seen. If you can stomach the implications of this being the match that almost killed him (it took me a long time to watch it) -- it really is That Good.

Katsuyori Shibata vs. Ren Narita Shibata's comeback story really ended here, it feels like. After years of gruelling recovery while he trained the next generation at the LA Dojo, he was finally able to go in the ring at Wrestle Kingdom, against his protege Ren Narita (in identical dress!). Rumor has it that Shibata went off-script and personally pissed off NJPW by changing this from a grappling rules match to a regular wrestling match -- I dunno if that's true, but for sure The Wrestler was back after this match :)

There are other Shibata matches and moments I've known and loved, but this is a good summary of his back-catalogue. Thanks for reading and enjoy!