During the 70s, 80s and 90s, Japanese businessmen came home late every night to an already sleeping family, a cold dinner and a variety of television programming aimed at their libido. Times are changing, as are the habits of families. Often father comes home earlier and is spending more time with his family, but now it is the younger generations who are staying out later and later. Often these 20 and 30 somethings are a bit more sophisticated than their fathers. They aren't satisfied with topless women, baseball replays and news, especially since many of the late returners are business
women. Shows like Vermillion Pleasure Night and Grasshoppa! are there to satisfy those needs.
Often limited-run projects, these shows gravitate toward quick-tongued comedy and racy visual effects that would leave Pokemon in the throes of seizure, without (fortunately) sacrificing crowd-drawing plotlines. Creating cult-like followings even from the less "geekier" crowds who normally wouldn't consider themselves anime or slapstick humor fans, these shows are well worth your time, even if you are just a casual follower of Japanese programming, or a complete newbie on the subject.
Grasshoppa! is a DVD magazine of short films featuring the directing talents of Japanese powerhouses such as Kazuto Ishii who did the wildly famous flicks Shark-Skinned Man And Peach-Assed Woman (Samehada Otoko to Momojiri Onna), and Party 7; and Hajime Ishimine, extremely popular for his hip CMs (commercials), just to name two. But this DVD is more than just short films, it is a collection of ideas, of lucid, flowing dreams that spring forth from the very fountainhead of the director/writer/animator's soul. It is a capture, on film, of that which most of us forget by morning. It is both frightening, and wonderful.
Consisting of four separate volumes, each of the DVD collections consists of short films, montage "documentary" shorts, and animated shorts (one of which is pure CG).
By far my favorite short is the animation series Trava: Fist Planet. A far, far future story in which two aliens (the future of mankind?) are sent to the planet Fable to mark Area 78. The fee they will receive for fulfilling their contract is extremely lucrative, so why is it they have a bad feeling about a simple job? If that weren't bad enough, they pick up a young lady, Mikuru, whom they find in the vicinity of the planet, in cyrosleep. It's a wacky and slick SF adventure of hot girls, hot mecha and hotter gags. On the edge of Japanese animation, it utilizes fast and dirty techniques to create a semi-herky jerky feel that is fun to rewind again and again to catch sight gags, throw-away lines and just the beauty of the animation itself.
One show I'm not so fond of, and in fact find frustrating, is Frog River, the story of a hapless 4th year college student who can't stop thinking about the girl of his dreams, Mizuno. So deep is his obsession with the pretty girl, that he doesn't ignore the warning signs of those around him who would use and abuse him. The fact that I have a tooth-grinding love-hate festival going on with the main character tells me one thing: it's done well. Why else would it garner such a reaction? Admittedly, I usually watch it all the way through for the other characters who are so well written as to put me into fits of laughter. It should be noted that this short is quite well-received by my Japanese coworkers, and I can understand why as the main character seems somehow quintesentially Japanese in his manners and reactions. An excellent look at modern Japanese youths.
Studio 4 degrees Celsius, a production company whose members include those who have worked on anime greats such as Spriggan, MEMORIES, and Vampire Hunter D, brings a series of one-shot anime shorts such as Doctor Dan Petry's "why UFO's fly zig-zag" (a kooky and gut-splitting montage animation clip), a Heavy Metal-esque sci-fi fantasy dubbed "End of the World in which two girls have to save Earth from an alternate reality, and "Comedy" a dark story about a little girl who hires a mysterious swordsman with the power to destroy armies.
There are several other segments including guest artist work (which can take form in either animation or short movie work); CG animation; and the documentary style "montage" films entitled "Windows" following the lives of artists such as A Bathing Ape, Skate Thing, Wiz Entertainment and other currently hot designers in Japan.
In the end, Grasshoppa! is simply the sweetest collection of short indies films you'll find on anywhere in the PacRim. Shot in 4:3 format, with optional English subtitles, each disc is about 90 minutes long.
