Japan-o-Vasion

First Edition- Japan For Sale!

Ah the mall, America’s home away from home. Everything seems familiar and friendly at the mall. No matter if it’s Rhode Island or Alaska, the same stores, the same names, the same great prices…hey I paid 30 dollars for that shirt! What do you mean they have it half off here?! Anyways a new commodity has appeared in our happy money munching malls. Japan. Straight up people you can buy Japan at your local shopping hubs. Personally I am from Erie Pennsylvania. I live only moments from my local mall, called the Millcreek Mall and wonder at how we can even call it a mall when we don’t even have a food court. Ponder that one awhile! But as I cruise my showcase lined boulevards of commerce I notice a new trend. Trigun and Inuyasha at Hot Topic, Pokemon and Duel Masters at KB Toys, Cowboy Bebop, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and more manga then you can shake a stick at has somehow managed to integrate itself into our favorite pastime of shopping! My head spins at the possibilities and I love it! The game stores are crowded with fan boys (and girls! I like video games as much as the next button punching player! Girls can play video games too!!) sporting DBZ and Cowboy Bebop tees while waving about their newest copy of Final Fantasy (add in your favorite number here….isn’t it suppose to be the final fantasy, not the franchise fantasy?) In my local bookstores there’s Anime Club, discussions, and even manga dates. Yes people my friend met her boyfriend at the manga section of our local Media Play and some of their dates do consist of manga shopping. And even our punks, yes are beautiful spiky haired black clad punks and Goths, are sucked in to the maelstrom of the Japan Invasion. I look around Hot Topic and watch the very punk rock manager squeeze and cuddle an Inuyasha plushy while one of her employees folds a Trigun tee. I even fell in love with a baby blue Inuyasha tee and bought it on the spot. I drooled over the Inuyasha patches and key chains, cried when I couldn’t afford the Sesshomaru action figure (oh my beautiful Fluffy-kun!). I wander into Waldens books and find my fellow otaku wander among the five bookcase of manga. We strike up conversations, exchange e-mails, show each other our anime bling (my happens to be a human form Inuyasha key chain) and then one asks me what I have playing on my CD player. I smile brightly and chirp “Gackt of course!” I lent them my headphones and they bobbed their head grooving out with Gackt. One boy even asks me if I can tell him where to find more Jpop and Jrock music. Another fan is born. Anime’s theme songs are just as big a buy as the anime itself, making it an influential element to the packaging equation. It’s a wonderful feeling to see this new tide of integration in our society, even if it is at a base market level but that’s still amazing. Look around the world with burning, wide eyes and you’ll see Japan for sale all around yourself. In art, entertainment, architecture, business, and all aspects of life that we wouldn’t even recognize. Finally, after years of imperialism isn’t it nice to see another exquisite culture being accepted with open arms? Look around lovelies, enjoy your little taste of Tokyo in your favorite shopping mall and bookstore. Until later, your favorite Voodoo doll, Mysse.