NDK 2021: Friday Panels (Day 1)

6pm Japanese Commercials: Ads that Changed Japan with Dr. Freedman

-Panel Description: Japanese commercials. How can they be both so weird and influential? Dr. Alisa Freedman discusses the advertisements that changed Japan.

-Notes: Tommy Lee Jones is really popular in Japanese Commercials and there is even a long running gag with him being Alien Jones. The band Arashi (one of the best Japanese bands) was in a public service campaign to get people back to Japan after the disaster. There have been other public service campaigns to address texting and walking. Dr. Freedman’s examples had Edo styled characters being jumped by ninja since they were not paying attention & another where someone walked into a canal. She also talked about how Japan is behind in addressing mental health. (As someone that works with international students, this is actually true of most countries). One of my favorite quotes from her was “Commercials bring out the feels as well as making us laugh.” (I totally get this because every time I see those animal rescue commercials I want to cry or kick the butt of the person responsible for making the animal suffer.) Through cultural literacy some of the things we can learn about are history, acting styles, why certain people are popular in Japan. I would also recommend watching the long long man commercials which she also showed during this presentation. The long long man commercials are also interesting as a visual in queer imagery. If you ever get to see one of her panels I would highly recommend her. She is as full of information as she is energy. You can also see how much she loves the subject with how excited she gets.

8pm Major Attaway’s Magical Cabaret

-Panel Description: Join Major as he sings his favorite songs in this magical, live performance! This cabaret was created with the love of the fans in mind, and formulated during his time of playing the Genie on Broadway! Be sure to show up early to get a great seat and be ready to be entertained!

-Notes: The performance was a mixture of a local instrumental group and Attaway. He performed Disney songs ranging from Oliver and Company to Monoa. To break up the performance a little he mixed in some personal stories about his time on Broadway and some of the people he has gotten to learn from. I wasn’t really feeling his performance. I think it was because to me the songs he picked were to ‘good’ songs and I found myself getting bored really quickly. At the same time my mom loved his show and even went back for a second performance during the con.

10:30pm Bob After Dark Presents: Yokai & You

-Panel Description: Join paranormal investigator/researcher Bob Anderson, host of the podcast Bob After Dark, as he discusses strange cases of the Japanese Yokai, and the popular ghost tropes of Japan.

-Notes:

The Shirime is a type of yokai that has an eye in its butt (yes I said it, in its butt).

The Yuki-Onna is a winter ‘ghost’ that heralds death in the snow (also linked to when people just freeze to death).

Kappas are good wrestlers. They like cucumbers and this could be why cucumbers are a common offering at their shrines.

Tanuki have powers that come from their genitals….(I laughed for a long time at how he presented this). They are worshiped as gods. They like drinking and gambling.

Nekomata have powers and temperaments based on how well they were treated in life.

Kasha are the “original Grumpy Cat.” They steal bodies and have a relation to lightning. They can also control and summon fire.

Tengu usually have features of both humans and birds. They are normally depicted with a magical fan.

Kuchisake Onna are the slit mouth woman.

I really did like the panel but from my past experience he was lumping these beings with ghosts, where most of the time they are considered more of demons. Still it was a good panel and he went through many different creatures really fast to give a good sampling of Japanese folklore. I would just recommend doing more of your own research instead of just taking his interpretation. He seemed to go off on different tracks then what my own research has shown. I may actually do my own version of this panel for the blog with resources for you to look into….I think I now have post ideas for October.

 

 Top Picture From: https://ndkdenver.org/

All panel descriptions come directly from the NDK Program and are their words not mine. All notes are mine that I take while the panel is in progress (it’s like to class for me and yes you really can learn things at cons).

Yokai Pictures

Picture 1 from: https://hyakumonogatari.com/2012/08/19/shirime-eyeball-butt/

Picture 2 from: https://gods-and-demons.fandom.com/wiki/Yuki-onna

Picture 3 from: https://moviesandmania.com/2014/06/08/kappa-folklore/

Picture 4 from: https://www.ebay.com/itm/373123586373 (yes you can buy them on ebay. This one was going for $130)

Picture 5 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nekomata

Picture 6 from: https://nightmaresyrup.tumblr.com/post/631673525250424832/a-yokai-a-day-10-kasha%E7%81%AB%E8%BB%8A

Picture 7 from: http://www.kyotoursjapan.com/blog/2017/11/13/tengu-in-the-hills-of-kyoto

Picture 8 from: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fresources.finalsite.net%2Fimages%2Fv1573020540%2Fseisencom%2Ffvpgwqqaaqi5cwdbxcob%2FIMG_4542.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.seisen.com%2Fstudent-life%2Fseisen-post%2Ffeatures%2F~board%2Fseisen-post%2Fpost%2Furban-legend-of-the-slit-mouthed-woman&tbnid=W5oISsOZ19tGkM&vet=12ahUKEwik_N-uoZn1AhXZA50JHWfiCDsQMygAegQIARB_..i&docid=Kjv4Z0PHMsGiWM&w=1031&h=1303&q=Kuchisake%20Onna&ved=2ahUKEwik_N-uoZn1AhXZA50JHWfiCDsQMygAegQIARB_