Andrez Bergen is senior editor of Impact magazine in the UK. He’s a long-term writer on Japanese pop culture, music, anime, movies and weird stuff who has covered the space since 2001. Andrez also runs Tokyo-based IF? Records, makes music as Little Nobody, writes a personal blog called JapaneseCultureGoNow!, and can be found on Twitter @andreziffy
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- 大奥: The Lady Shogun and Her Men
- November 24th, 2010Category: Arts & Entertainment
- One of my books when I was a kid was Stan Lee’s 1977 tome, The Superhero Women - which included a short tale of his, illustrated by John Romita, that previously appeared in Savage Tales #1 (1971). ‘The Fury of the Femizons’ featured a gynecocentric warrior society. ... » Continue Reading
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- Cure Moonlight!
- October 18th, 2010Category: Arts & Entertainment
- 2010 been an absolutely dire year for televised anime over here in Japan, with most of the more innovative studios (Madhouse, Production I.G, Gonzo, Studio 4°C) seemingly in hibernation over the past twelve months – or at the very least keeping their claws sheathed. ... » Continue Reading
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- Chanko-Nabe: Sumo Food
- October 6th, 2010Category: Food & Dining
- Sumo is one of Japan’s more internationally famous sports, probably because the spectacle of two exceptionally fat men - in a nation of exceptionally skinny people - wrestling one another, clad only in loin-cloths shaped like sexy G-strings is, well, hilarious. What mo ... » Continue Reading
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- Much Ado About Macross
- October 4th, 2010Category: Arts & Entertainment
- Today I picked up the flier for Macross Frontier ~Sayonara no Tsubasa~. I always hate it when they put those fancy squiggly things like "~" in titles, as it just looks twee, but aside from that inconsequential complaint the movie will hit screens across Japan from 26 ... » Continue Reading
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- Love Exposure vs. Battle Royale
- September 17th, 2010Category: Culture
- Why had I not heard about this movie? Not Battle Royale (バトル・ロワイアル) - I picked up that DVD a few years ago (in Australia) and it remains one of my favourites. I'm talking about Love Exposure (愛のむきだし), a 4-hour 2008 romp directed by poet/filmmaker Sion Sono that I wa ... » Continue Reading
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- Yurakucho Yakitori Alley, Tokyo
- August 31st, 2010Category: Travel
- Chiyoda Ward: home to over 36,000 businesses employing over 888,000 people, at least according to the stats I just found elsewhere on the Internet. I could be wrong, but at least it should give you the gist of this central location in Tokyo. It's the nesting place of ... » Continue Reading
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- Double-O-Tokyo
- August 26th, 2010Category: Travel
- Today was a scorcher, but I finally accomplished something I've been planning to undertake for way too long - yet always for some odd reason placed on the back-burner. It was at the tail-end of primary school that I discovered that Sean Connery was a far better Bond ... » Continue Reading
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- Battleship Mikasa
- August 20th, 2010Category: Culture
- Yesterday I went to Mikasa Park - and much as that may sound like the Japanese equivalent of a song penned by Jimmy Webb, it is in fact a stately space by the seaside in Yokosuka, located right next the U.S. naval base there. A previous resident of Yokosuka was Willi ... » Continue Reading
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- Smoking ’em while you’ve got ’em
- August 9th, 2010Category: Work Tips
- Yesterday, I got to be a gaijin extra in a TV drama for NHK (the Japanese equivalent of the BBC, or Australia's ABC). It’s not like I was a wet-behind-the-ears extra — earlier this year I worked for 4 days on Watashi wa Kani ni Naritai, which focuses on the same time ... » Continue Reading
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- Bon Odori
- August 3rd, 2010Category: Culture
- And now for something relatively different. Compulsorily celebrated in early to mid-August in most regions of Japan, Obon week is one of the country’s three major holiday seasons. Which is probably why it plays havoc with domestic and international travel, and raise ... » Continue Reading
