JQ Magazine: Nippon in New York – ‘Hans Zimmer Live,’ PHANTOM SIITA, ‘Gundam’ Premiere
By JQ magazine editor Justin Tedaldi (CIR Kobe-shi, 2001-02). Justin has written about Japanese arts and entertainment for JETAA since 2005. For more of his articles, click here.
Stay warm this winter with some hot local events, from live showcases that will transport you to another time and place, a clutch of new anime screenings, and a live J-idol performance you won’t want to miss.
This month’s highlights include:
© Sunrise Studio
Feb. 5, 6, 9
Various theaters
Various prices
Anime Expo Cinema Nights presents Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Caught up in a world of dreams, lost in the cruelty of reality. What should have been an easy bounty turns into biological war after a terrorist gets hold of a deadly virus. Drawn in by the pretty price on the mastermind's head, Spike and the Bebop crew are ready to collect a much-needed reward. Unfortunately, the gang's about to find themselves in more trouble than money when the terrorist threatens to unleash the virus on Halloween– effectively killing everyone on Mars. With little time and leads that seem more dreamy than helpful, they'll have to use their own bag of tricks to stop a dangerous plot.
Courtesy of Wecallitexperiences.com
Feb 5-7, March 29
We Call It Ballet: Sleeping Beauty in a Dazzling Light Show
Gerald W. Lynch Theater, 524 West 59th Street
$45-$65
Experience Sleeping Beauty like never before in this dance and light show. Enjoy a unique fusion of classical ballet and modern technology, where local dancers literally light up the stage with glittering routines and glow-in-the-dark costumes. The timeless tale of the cursed princess awakened by her true love’s kiss comes to life on stage, as pirouettes and gravity-defying leaps cast a kaleidoscope of colours across the space. It’s a beautiful production you won’t want to miss!
© Frank Embacher
Thursday, Feb. 6, 7:30 p.m.
Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Avenue (Brooklyn)
From $274
Last call! Due to overwhelming demand for the sold-out Hans Zimmer Live 2024 North American fall tour, the award-winning film composer has added an additional show in Brooklyn. This performance is the last opportunity for NYC-area fans to see Hans Zimmer Live before he begins working on a brand-new live production. Hans Zimmer Live showcases the multiple Academy Award® and Grammy winning composer’s groundbreaking audio and visual show featuring a selection of the composer’s scores, brought to life by Zimmer and his 18-piece live band and full orchestra. The newly arranged concert suites include music from Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, The Lion King, The Last Samurai and Dune, for which Zimmer received his second Academy Award®.
© 1983 Kadokawa Corp.
Feb. 7-14
Obayashi ’80s: The Onomichi Trilogy & Kadokawa Years
Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
$16, $12 members
These six teenage symphonies of Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) are wound in a melancholy nostalgia for a period indelibly lost to time—that inexpressible gap between adolescence and adulthood. Braiding visually expressive fantasias with striking formal experimentation and pop-art boldness, Obayashi’s idiosyncratic cinematic language produced some of Japan’s most beloved seishun eiga in the 1980s. Captivating generations of filmgoers with his earnest portraits of young love and vanished worldviews, Obayashi’s films were further bolstered by Kadokawa’s innovative tactics of popularizing dreamy pop idols like Hiroko Yakushimaru and Tomoyo Harada. With a career overshadowed abroad by the oddball eccentricity of his electric 1977 debut House, the 1980s would prove to be the high-water mark of Obayashi’s popularity, epitomized by his endearing Onomichi trilogy—set in the filmmaker’s hometown of Onomichi, the site of Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story. Framed in 35mm viewfinders, against wildly ingenious chroma-key composites and characterized by his unflagging optimism for the youth of Japan, Obayashi’s youth passages are caught up in the ages of transition, demonstrably attuned to the extraordinary nature of ordinary adolescence. Curated by Alexander Fee.
© Hata Satoshi
Saturday, Feb. 8, 7:00 p.m.
PHANTOM SIITA “Moth to a flame Tour” – 1st World Tour
Palladium Times Square, 1515 Broadway
From $86.60
The retro horror-inspired J-pop group PHANTOM SIITA — composed of Mona, Miu, Rinka, Hisui, and Moka — has announced their first ever world tour, dubbed “Moth to a flame,” which will include 15 stops across Asia, North America, Europe, and the United Kingdom. The five-member idol unit made the announcement at their major solo concert “Haine,” held at the prestigious Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. “Our first world tour ‘Moth to a flame’ has been announced. While this is a venture into the unknown for us, we hope to reach everyone around the world who always supports us,” says the girl group in a press statement. “We’re excited to showcase our ‘retro horror’ style to you all.”
Roger Kisby
Feb. 17-18
City Winery, 25 Eleventh Avenue
$75-$325
With his signature beard and African headgear, Billy F Gibbons is instantly recognizable. He’s best known as the centerpiece and one third of ZZ Top, the band that came together in 1969 and has stayed part of the American musical landscape ever since – the longest running major rock band still composed of its original members. Billy and bandmates Dusty Hill and Frank Beard were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, most appropriately by Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, a longtime friend of Billy’s. A musician’s musician, Billy F Gibbons is a wellspring of what he likes to refer to as the “three T’s”: tone, taste and tenacity. His transcendent creativity in a broad variety of artistic and intellectual endeavors with his three solo albums to date has stood him in good stead over the years underscoring his undisputed status as music’s most highly regarded Renaissance man. Joining Gibbons for these intimate performances are Chris “Whipper” Layton and Mike 'The Drifter' Flanigin of the BFGs.
Yuja Wang by Julia Wesely, Víkingur Ólafsson by Markus Jans
Wednesday, Feb. 19, 8:00 p.m.
Yuja Wang, Piano & Víkingur Ólafsson, Piano
Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue
$118-$295
Two of today’s most exciting pianists join forces for a wide-ranging program of works for two pianos and piano four hands. Individually, Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson constantly surpass even the loftiest expectations, earning worldwide renown while exploring some of the piano repertoire’s most formidable works. With this new collaboration, they unlock a world of programmatic possibilities. Experience Rachmaninoff’s own two-piano arrangement of his Symphonic Dances; the breathtaking Fantasie by Schubert; Thomas Adès’s arrangement of one of Nancarrow’s “impossible” studies for player piano; and exhilarating works by innovators such as Cage, Berio, John Adams, and Arvo Pärt.
©SOTSU・SUNRISE.
Thursday, Feb. 20, 7:00 p.m.
Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-
Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
$32 members, $40 nonmembers
GKIDS, Bandai Namco Filmworks and Japan Society present the North American Premiere of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning-! Be the first to see the first-ever collaboration between studio khara, the studio behind the EVANGELION series, and SUNRISE, the home of Gundam. Screening includes limited edition giveaways for all participants, photo ops and figure displays.
Amate Yuzuriha is a high-school student living peacefully in a space colony floating in outer space. When she meets a war refugee named Nyaan, Amate is drawn into the illegal mobile suit dueling sport known as Clan Battle. Under the entry name “Machu,” she throws herself into fierce battle day after day, piloting the GQuuuuuuX. Then an unidentified Gundam mobile suit pursued by both the space force and the police appears before her, along with its pilot, a boy named Shuji. Now their world is about to enter a new era.
Directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki (FLCL), with a screenplay co-written by legendary screenwriter Yoji Enokido (Revolutionary Girl Utena) and acclaimed filmmaker Hideaki Anno (Evangelion series), Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX -Beginning- is a stunning visual feast that will captivate fans, both old and new.
Courtesy of Publictheater.org
Feb. 20-March 23
The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street
$65-$93
Entrenched in an elite sumo training facility in Tokyo, six men practice, eat, love, play, and ultimately fight. Step into the sacred world of sumo wrestling, with the New York premiere of Lisa Sanaye Dring’s mesmerizing new drama, SUMO. Akio arrives as an angry, ambitious 18-year-old with a lot to learn. Expecting validation, dominance, and fame, and desperate to move up the ranks, he slams headlong into his fellow wrestlers. With sponsorship money at stake, their bodies on the line, and their futures at risk, the wrestlers struggle to carve themselves—and one another—into the men they dream of being. SUMO is a thrilling new play set in an elite and rarely explored world. Obie Award winner Ralph B. Peña directs this powerhouse drama. SUMO features live taiko drumming by Shih-Wei Wu.
M3 Recordings
Saturday, Feb. 22, 7:00 p.m.
Elsewhere - Zone One, 599 Johnson Avenue (Brooklyn)
From $34.36
Ollie Wride is an English singer/songwriter fusing innovative elements of modern alternativepop with the nostalgic hallmarks of synth-pop. The artist found a platform to hone his unique blend of songwriting and showmanship working with San Francisco based producer FM-84, penning some of synth-wave’s most popular tracks including "Running in The Night" and "Never Stop", leading to a pair of North American sold out tours in 2018 and 2019.
Following this popular collaboration, provided an opportunity for Wride to explore a more personal approach utilising his melodic sensibilities and character driven lyrics, quickly attracting a new audience with the release of his debut solo album, Thanks in Advance on NRW Records. Widely praised by fans, the album became their fastest selling debut record to date, charting on Billboards Top 10 Electronic charts as well as iTunes' Electronic charts. It also enjoyed critical accolades; NewRetroWave named the debut record number one on their list of the Top 10 Albums of 2019. Culminating in 2 sold out headline shows either side of the pandemic in London at Camden Assembly in 2019 and Lafayette in 2021. This month sees the release of The Pressure Point, Wride’s highly anticipated second album with renowned producers and writers including: Chris Zane (St. Lucia, Passion Pit) Arcades (BTS, Big Hit) James F. Reynolds (Sigrid, Dua Lipa) and Adam Sinclair (RJ Thompson).
Courtesy of Japansociety.org
Thursday, Feb. 27, 7:00 p.m.
Author Talk and Signing: Meet Real-Life Biri Gal Sayaka Kobayashi
Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street
$20-$25
Struggling with poor academic performance throughout high school, Sayaka Kobayashi dedicated herself to an intense study regimen for a year and a half, and after tremendous struggle, she succeeded in securing admission to the prestigious Keio University. Her story became the best-selling book The Story of a Gal at the Bottom of her School Year who Raised her Standard Score by 40 Points in One Year and Got Accepted into Keio University and the popular film Flying Colors / Biri Gal.
Since her Keio success, Kobayashi further earned a Master’s Degree in Cognitive Science from Columbia University, and she has recently written the book How I Fell in Love with Learning, a guide which explores the essential elements for effective learning. As part of her talk at Japan Society, she’ll discuss her new book. Attendees of Japan Society’s Sayaka Kobayashi talk and signing will be able to purchase copies of How I Fell in Love with Learning at the event or bring books from home for a signing session following the author’s talk. (Please note How I Fell in Love with Learning is only available in Japanese.)
For more JQ articles, click here.