8th July, 2008:
Japan Or: How I Learned To Be The Dragon Warrior?
I always wanted to get a website. I don't know why. It's not like I'm going to write my journals or share my pictures. Even if I did want to do so, I had the Hi5 and now Facebook which are much easier and more accessible to me and people than a website. But anyhow, here it is. My website: MMahfouz.com. Anyway, when I first got my website less than a year ago, I planned to begin it with an objective review of tamer hosny's muzak but after some thoughts, I decided to back off and not to start my website with negativity even though this negativity is the product of my love towards all Arts. Don't get me wrong, negativity is good. It pushes us further, it makes us progress if you will but then, there are other ways to progress.
On the first of July 2008, I saw Speed Racer with my best friend. Of course, I found it totally genius, but my friend, an Egyptian, hated the Movie, and as a result... me. Six days later, on the seventh of July, 2008, I saw Kung Fu Panda. An average cartoon with a touch of genius in it. The same genius as Speed Racer; the comical scenes. According to my father, a Movie critic, Movie critics always found a slight flaw in Movies based on comics, like Batman, Superman, Spiderman, etc... They never thought they captured the real spirit of the comic. I agree. You never saw a "KAPOW" or a "BOOM" in any of those Movies, live action and animation alike. They are just too... real. You could actually believe there's a batman wandering the streets of your city at night! But yet again, not all heard about Manga or Anime. Not all got to see the face of a guy turn tiny when he's done something wrong while his sister or friend shouted at him with a mouth as wide as a volcano and black marks and signs all over the screen symbolizing embarrassment or anger or fear or whatever only to be followed with a white cloud coming out a person's mouth standing for a sigh.
In Speed Racer, which is, as I expected, taken from a Manga, you got to see the dad lifting someone in the air and spinning him with extraordinary speeds, the houses at the very first which give the sensation of being unreal, those coloured stripes on the screen when the young charge on the bad guys together with many other effects throughout the Movie. In Kung Fu Panda, similar stripes were used in the opening sequence and other parts of the Movie but were way less than Speed Racer. Some may be mesmerized by those effects, even I was. But the truth is Manga and Anime has already embraced those a long time ago that even Games with manga cartoons were made!
Of course, if just one of them was released at a time, it could pass us by with few comments but to see both in the same year, let alone the same week, is worthy of attention. I know, I know... Two points make a line, three points make a pattern. Sure, I couldn't agree more but with those releases, lines are pretty enough even though I could provide a third point! Lost In Translation, being seen a couple of days before Kung Fu Panda (and therefore a couple of days after Speed Racer!!) tells of a famous celebrity who goes to Japan and experiences it's culture starting from serious artistic Manga and Video Games Mania, to just plain Japanese fun as in karaoke. So even though the middle one was released five years ago, three Movies in one week is pretty enough for an article, a much professional and artistic than this one.
Anyway, my question is: If these Movies were related to any other culture would you (me!) be so interested? My answer is "I don't know but probably no!" So what's up with the whole Japanese culture? What's so good about it? Why can we say "For you have been mesmerized" about it? My answer is "Final Fantasy". Yes, Final Fantasy. Japan: The Final Fantasy. The homeland of Akira, Manga, Animes, Video Games, Final Fantasy (best games ever made and best series ever!), Sony, Nintendo, and just about every progress notable enough at the moment on our beloved Earth: Artificial Intelligence and Biotechnology. If I wasn't an Egyptian, I would have wanted to be Japanese. Not a German genius, a Swedish musician, a passionate French, a Brazilian footballer, or even an Egyptian pharaoh/God. Don't get me wrong, I love Egypt and I love being an Egyptian... It's just the commercialism of our country, probably the second top after the USA, that bothers me. But fear nothing, for the Japanese culture is invading the world just as the Chinese products. As I have previously predicted, video Games were to top all other industries, and indeed they already did. Maybe soon enough people would learn to let go of Winning Eleven & Need For Speed and learn to love the Art of Final Fantasy and other Squaresoft/Square Enix. Maybe soon enough Anime would be the national cartoon to be broadcasted on as many channels as possible on Nile Sat and national television. Maybe soon enough I'm going to say "To hell with Music and Movies. Yahoo to Games, Manga and Anime!" Maybe soon enough we would be able to buy all the Manga we want in Egypt. Manga is even available right now at Virgin Megastores (nothing intersting though!) but let's just hope the supreme stupidity of the USA won't hit another nuclear weapon on Japan. Soon enough my child. But please, not too late... Oh, and if you are here for the naked pictures, you really need to go see a psychiatrist. [Gallery]