Andrez Bergen

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

  • ‘Star Trek’ in Japan
    March 17th, 2010By Category: Arts & Entertainment
    It’s official: Midway through 2009, one in seven citizens of Japan had heard of Star Trek. I know this, because I finished personally quizzing 60-odd people round then for an article that popped up in the late lamented Geek Monthly to coincide with the late May releas ... » Continue Reading
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  • Tokyo Big Site and Odaiba
    March 10th, 2010By Category: Travel
    Located in Koto-Ku on land reclaimed from Tokyo Bay, situated right next to the Odaiba area and Rainbow Bridge - ostensibly one of Tokyo’s most famous romantic viewing points - is the Tokyo International Exhibition Center, a massive structure more lovingly referred ... » Continue Reading
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    Japan Licca-chan Dolls
    March 3rd, 2010By Category: Uncategorized
    Licca Kayama, better known as Licca-chan (リカちゃん), is the Japanese equivalent of Barbie – though these days far more popular here than her American predecessor. She was introduced to Japan in 1967 (the same year that the only James Bond film set in Japan, You Only Live ... » Continue Reading
  • Tin Toys Museum, Yokohama
    February 24th, 2010By Category: Uncategorized
    When I was five-years-old, I bought a toy robot with the money my Nan gave me for my birthday: a made-in-Japan, wind-up tin carouser whose major identifying feature was a big ‘W’ emblazoned across his chest. Just occasionally I still wonder what that ‘W’ really mea ... » Continue Reading
  • Tokyo Tower vs. Tokyo Sky Tree
    February 22nd, 2010By Category: Uncategorized
    It seemed somehow fitting when, in late May 2008 at the 12th Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival (SICAF 2008), a charming, quirky little anime feature titled Tokyo Marble Chocolate was awarded the Grand Prize in the Feature Film Category. After all, ... » Continue Reading
  • The Asahi Building
    February 17th, 2010By Category: Uncategorized
    You can't complain about the location - on the banks of the Sumida River, a short walk from Sensoji, Tokyo's biggest temple district, and the hugely popular Asakusa tourist area; you may even see a geisha or two, if you're exceptionally provident. And the product ... » Continue Reading
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    Japanese Sci-fi: Space Battleship Yamato 2010
    February 12th, 2010By Category: Uncategorized
    Remember Uchū Senkan Yamato (宇宙戦艦ヤマト) anyone? Most people probably won't since the series was first screened - under the lacklustre ulterior title of Star Blazers - in the US and Australia in 1979. In the Western version there was deviously reduced violence, toned-d ... » Continue Reading
  • Hot Pink Sake for Valentines Day in Japan!
    February 10th, 2010By Category: Culture
    Feeling a romantic inclination for this week's Valentine's Day? Ditch the hand-made chockies or Cadbury Roses, and real flowers? ...pfft. Wine and dine your loved one with a pink-coloured nigorizake. While regular sake is clear or vaguely amber in hue, nigorizake ... » Continue Reading

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