Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Had dinner with the creator and artist of Black Rock Shooter – Huke. He doesn’t make himself available to the public, hence the mosaic. He went from a fan to a budding pro. We had dinner as part of a year end chill out celebration. It seems like everyone does this. He’s getting ready for Komiket which is in a few days where he sells a ton of his new book. We ate at an awesome Chinese place in Matsudo which is outside of Tokyo center. The almond jello might be the greatest thing ever. The food is excellent, but this is a crown jewel. Even that strawberry which doesn’t look good, was good.This is what his toy looks like. It’s more of a statue and it’s long sold out. You know how the kaiju figures, or any new indie toy sells 1000 at the most? This does Uglydoll type numbers. That’s his booklet, it’s not a comic, but it’s a compilation of images.
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That’s Goodsmile Junko and Aki. We’re at an all pork place. It even has a huge Buta lantern, which means, pig! It’s pork everything including a hotpot that you cook and season with umeboshi, their special. It’s a simple broth and you eat a little at at time. On this day the free dish they give you was spare ribs! Notice Aki is smoking at dinner. You can still do this. This isn’t pork, it’s egg and yuba on top. This is really good with a tiny spot of soy sauce. So my diet is not happening. I mentioned ramen at the dinner above, and Aki starts of obsess. The dinner above gets truncated quickly because he wants ramen, something he doesn’t get to eat often. So we go get ramen in Shibuya after looking up a place that has high ratings on a ramen website. The broth is thick as ever, and he loves this. It’s a tonkotsu and vegetable brother. Tenkaippin is busy at midnight! We ordered the green onion ramen.
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I can’t say this place is cool, but they do have some deals. A pineapple is 2.98. You can get socks cheap. A Hotwheel might be .97 cents. I bought a DeLorean so I can add a flux capacitor to it and hopefully time travel back a few minutes. I wouldn’t suggest coming here on a XMas eve, and in the end, this place offers almost everything, but not anything. It’s huge, but lacks a creative edge. After all, it’s Wallmart. What’s amazing on X Mas eve is that at 1:30AM, below, the line is massive. You’re waiting near 1 hr to check out. That’s not the end of the line on the right, and on the left, that’s where the checkout begins.
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Avatar. See it in 3D from the front row. It’s weird how the 3d is so prominent in the previews, then in the movie it sort of goes away. That’s Mr Jean looking like he’s about to go skiing. Check out the movie, it’s worth it, even though I went in with terrible expectations. Those characters are strange looking, and seem too cartoony to be respected in a high budget movie, but in the end, it still works.
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This is what a WIP painting can look like if you’re Mr Jean. It’s a 3 panel piece, and it’s pushing his style far along. It was allegedly finished a few days ago, but it’s growing and growing as time passes. Mr Jean is playing the piano at right. Coldplay and the Transformers soundtrack song. This is low budget music making, but I guess it works. David Choe dons the buckethead look. That’s a bad pic of this band of dudes called Camp Freddy who played the Roxy. Although they are this mega rockstar club band featuring Travis Barker, Dave Navarro, and a ton of other stars who get together and jam and play covers, I can’t say it’s my thing, and being backstage in a tiny room with a ton of these dudes was an uncomfortable as it can get. But for a little while, I saw them play Spoonman by Soundgarden fronted by a woman who goes by Queen V. I would link a youtube video, but in the end, my memory of it was better than the video. Chester from Linkin Park sang a couple of songs, Smashing P and Janes Addiction. He’s sort of a Zelig and seems able to adapt his voice well. There’s plenty of video online of the many guest singers and players. Watch it at your own risk.
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