CDs

Has anyone else other than me ever noticed that in general, American CDs have pretty plain covers with boring packaging? Most of the time, they just look lazy. I was looking at my small (but expensive) collection of visual-kei CDs, and I realized that those CDs are much better looking than any American CD I've ever bought. It looks like the Japanese really go out of their way to make sure that their products look extra nice. They booklets that come with the CDs are always printed on beautiful paper, too.

Japanese albums generally cost between $28-45, but I think that they're worth it. They really take their time to put a lot of care into their products! When an album is first released, you can get them on pre-sale and they'll come with really fun promo gifts! They almost always come with a poster. But I've seen cellphone accessories, stickers, and other cutesy stuff, too. Even for the rock bands. It's not just albums that have fun promo items, either. In Japan, the success of an album is based very strongly on the sales of their singles. Singles are usually about $20.

Here are some examples of some of my CDs. First photo is of my beloved collection. #1-6 are Japanese, #7-8 are American, #9-10 is a comparison of sizes.




1. Gackt - Love Letter (outer CD sleeve, custom CD case made of material like an ancient love letter, a really fat booklet)
2. Gackt - The Sixth Day (outer CD sleeve, 3/8" thick CD case, two CD booklets)


3. Malice Mizer - Bara no Seidou (outer CD sleeve, 3/8" thick CD case, thick booklet)
4. 12012 - Play Dolls (5/8" thick case, 2 CDs, sticker, booklet)


5. Dir en grey - Vulgar (1/2" case, one thick booklet, one small booklet)


6. Dir en grey - Withering to Death (1/2" case, one REALLY thick booklet)


7. HIM - Razorblade Romance (3/8" thick CD case, thin booklet)


8. Blaqk Audio - Cex Cells (3/8" thick CD case, thin booklet)


9. 12012: 5/8", Dir en grey: 1/2", HIM: 3/8".
10. 12012: 10 pages, Dir en grey: 20 pages, HIM: 4 pages.

Not design related, just a fun FYI

In my earlier blog, I made a reference to Novala Takemoto. I just wanted to write a little about who he is, and what he does.

Novala Takemoto is a Japanese author and fashion designer. I have read translated interviews, and one of the cutest things Novala has said was that he claims to have the spirt of a young maiden! And yes, he is heterosexual. Like myself, Novala promotes the popular lolita lifestyle. He is perhaps most famous for his book Shimotsuma Monogatari (English title: Kamikaze Girls), which became a movie in 2002, starring Kyoko Fukada and Anna Tsuchiya. Novala also modeled his clothing line, Pour Lolita, which he designed for Baby, The Stars Shine Bright and can be seen in The Gothic & Lolita Bible.

In October 2006, I attended the Pacific Media Expo (PMX) at the LAX Hilton Hotel. PMX held a Lolita Tea Party--which I didn't attend because seats were too expensive for me at the time--so Novala was one of their guests of honor. He was to attend the tea party and to hold a panel discussion. I actually attended the Expo for the Olivia concert, but I did bump into and take a picture with Novala! I was waiting for something that I can't remember right now, but I saw Novala standing about five feet away from me and the only thing I could think was "OH. MY. GOD. THAT CAN'T BE HIM." About twenty feet away from me was this huge line of lolitas waiting for the panel to start, and they had no idea he was right there. So I quickly went up to him and asked if I could take a picture with him. He said yes, and this was the result!


After me, the lolitas finally took notice. I'm proud to say that I was the first and one of maybe 10 or less girls who got to snap a picture with him :)


(L-R) Kyoko Fukada, Novala Takemoto, Anna Tsuchiya.


Novala in a BTSSB spread.

Hello, Kitty!

I never really thought too much about Hello Kitty, except for the times when I saw something really adorable and really wanted it. But I was on my way to campus today, and I noticed that the car to the right of me had these white blobs on their windows. (No doubt, the parental units gave their child free range to embellish their back windows.) They were the backing of the stickers, but I instantly knew that it was Hello Kitty's silhouette. So I started to think about her and how much of an impact she's made since her arrival in 1974.

I learned that Hello Kitty is more than just a Sanrio character from Japan. In Asia, Hello Kitty is likely the equivalent to the combination of Mickey Mouse and Barbie. She's unbelievably cute, and super stylish through her many personas. She sells everything in the world, too. You can literally find Hello Kitty wherever you look; she's in clothes, jewelry, furniture, bedding, accessories, toys and plushies, purses, school supplies, DVD's, make-up, wedding dresses, electronics, cookware, cars, credit cards, guitars, sewing machines, motorcycles, lunchboxes, and the list can just go on! But she's more than a money-making mogul. I bet you didn't know that Hello Kitty is Japan's tourism ambassador. Also, in Bangkok, when officers are late to work or park in the wrong parking space, they are forced to wear bright pink Hello Kitty armbands with hearts on them for several days as punishment. They thought that even these minor offenses should never be ignored and that this would be an effective way to limit such behavior of their police forces. Even celebrities like Mariah Carey and Dakota Fanning have love and endorsed her in the past. She's even got contracts with Tokidoki and Bathing Ape's Baby Milo to produce even more absurdly cute creations.

But when I think about it, she's just a 2D cat with a head too big for her body and no mouth. Her earlier incarnations were rather plain, with just a red bow on her ear and blue overalls over a red shirt. Basically, she was just another character to add to the world of Sanrio. I doubt that the group of designers who created her would have ever dreamed that she would become this big. After all, she was just a tool to sell a few items. Yet somehow, she grew and grew into this marketing phenomena. I'm not sure what happened along the way, and why Hello Kitty is still the most popular character after 34 years, but what those designers at Sanrio really hit the jackpot when creating one of the most recognizable characters of our time. I can only hope that one day I'll be part of a team that can achieve something this successful. This little cat sure is something, isn't she? Oh, and she has a theme park, too.


(Top-Bottom, L-R) The two mugs and three cellphone accessories are from the Novala Takemoto Hello Kitty Pour Lolita collection--my personal favorite and available only in Japan. The stickers really do make my phone and flashdrive much cuter!


(Top-Bottom, L-R) A spinning pen holder with scissors, a ruler, and other misc. items, a really old address book, a notebook, a pack of stickers, and two really old jewelry boxes from the 90's.


(Top-Bottom, L-R) A pen holder, Y2K special edition Hello Kitty astronaut from McDonald's Hong Kong, VHS's, and Dear Daniel from the same McDonald's campagin.

I'm positive I have some really old items lying around or packed away somewhere, but this was probably a good amount of items to display.

Threadless

I was surfing the web for that "Pandamonium" tshirt and after about two seconds, I found it on the site Threadless (www.threadless.com) and I looked at all the other shirts. They're really cool! Some are cute, some are funny, some are werid, and some are morbid, but you get the picture. They're all designed by artists and there's a wide array of clothing to choose from, all of which should satisfy your need for a fun new shirt with spiffy original art!

Check it out when you have time!


The above art belongs to Ross Zeitz.

Name fail.

I'm stuck with "gosuroridoll" as my url because the other two I wanted were already taken! Ahhhh... it's okay.