Otakus Wanted: HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR

OGI Hiroaki (ASAGAWA); Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

My Sunshine,

Written by

Jude Thaddeus L. Bautista

Asagawa addressed his team with conviction they’d never seen before, “Once in its period of rapid growth, our company, due to the needs of the nation, implemented several big projects: dams tunnels and so on. But nowadays there’s a reduction in new projects. Business in private sector sees competition to keep costs down. So I asked myself isn’t there a blue ocean strategy we might’ve missed somewhere?

…There was. There is. The manga and anime world. In other words we’ll get an order from the fantasy world. In the fantasy world various buildings get built and destroyed over and over. Our company must race to conquer that new frontier.

OGI Hiroaki (ASAGAWA) inspires his team; Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

Thus we undertook the development of a certain device. Namely, the Fantasy World Communication Device. It allows us to receive orders from the manga and anime world. The gadget of your dreams. Then it was completed and now we received our first order. A request from the director of Photon Power Laboratory: Dr Gennusuke Yumi. The design and estimate for Mazinger Z’s underground hangar!

The dialogue above is from PROJECT DREAMS – HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR 前田建設ファンタジー営業部.Just to be absolutely clear this is a live action film, with real actors and is set in MAEDA Corporation, Tokyo. MAEDA is an actual engineering firm that has established itself in designing the biggest and most complex projects in Japan, even in Hong Kong and China.

HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR is one of 27 films Filipinos can watch on line for free as part of the JFF Plus: Online Festival. Log on to this site and register: https://watch.jff.jpf.go.jp

Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of this workplace comedy on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

Just a small note regarding viewing on devices: “To watch the films on a Windows PC, you can only watch using Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer. To watch the films on a Mac computer, you can access via the Safari browser. Mobile platforms (Android and iOS) can use any web browser to enjoy the films.” From the JFM Official facebook page.

Filipinos can watch for free the JFF Plus: Online Festival. Log on to this site and register: https://watch.jff.jpf.go.jp

This screening is part of the JFF Plus: Online Festival, made possible by festival partners: JTI International, Philippines, Film Development Council of the Philippines, the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines and SM Cinema.

Japan Foundation Manila Director Ben Suzuki; Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

SM Drive In Cinema

The JFF Plus Film Festival is one of the most beloved international film events in the country. For the first time, they will have a drive in component. Japan Foundation Director Ben Suzuki said, “The film festival itself will be online. But for Japan Foundation this will be the first time to make the film showing outside (as drive in). We want to make it as safe as possible. Maybe people have been staying at home for too long and would want to get out. We provide a very safe environment where you can go out and enjoy a movie.”

TAKASUGI Mahiro (DOI); Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

The venue will be in SM MOA Drive In Cinema, which has already gained a reputation for providing a unique experience. The sea breeze from Manila Bay adds to the special atmosphere. They also have a lot of personnel to guide cinema goers park their cars, along with security.

2nd from left: JFM Director Ben Suzuki, from left: (incoming) Assistant Director Nataru Abe, Prog. Coordinator Kanami Namiki and Current Assistant Director Tamoko Nakamura. Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

This is Suzuki’s second term as director, “I was also director under Arroyo administration. I have organized many events. I love Filipino people. We always cooperate together. When I was here for my first term in 2008, SM MOA opened. That time we also had a big concert here. SM has always been there for us when we organize events for Filipinos and Japanese living here.”

The Japan Foundation will hold the Japan Fiesta in January and the Nihongo Fiesta on February with online components. For more of their upcoming events log on to:

www.jfmo.org and Official Facebook www.facebook.com/jfmanila

(10) Filipinos can watch for free the JFF Plus: Online Festival. Log on to this site and register: https://watch.jff.jpf.go.jp

Otaku Culture

HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR is not an animation piece but a live action movie. Its more about a team of engineers designing Mazinger Z’s hangar in real life. In the process of doing so get caught up with a passion for the famous Japanese animation series. Mazinger Z was aired in 1972 and was a pioneering cartoon that started a whole genre of hits from Japan.

This included VOLTES V (FIVE), DAIMOS, the Mazinger Z sequel GRANDIZER and many more. The unifying theme among them would be giant robots operated / invented and controlled by humans battling giant aliens or giant robots under the control of an alien race.

Mazinger Z’s influence was so strong it stretched beyond Japan going into Hollywood. Most recent example would be PACIFIC RIM (a Blockbuster movie based on a Japanese anime) as noted by director Guillermo Del Toro, crediting Mazinger Z’s influence several times. Mazinger Z is popular in Latin America and Spain, to this day.

Otaku (オタク) in Japanese slang is ‘nerd’ or ‘geek’. According to Wikiwand: “it’s a more derogatory term; seeing an “otaku” as a person unable to relate to reality… It is typically used to refer to a fan of anime/manga but can also refer to Japanese video games or Japanese culture in general.

Mazinger Z has been Otaku material since the 70s as well, their merchandising has expanded to toys from the beginning. These days Otaku is more accepted, more mainstream. Fans showoff their merch as a point of pride, how devoted they are to that character.

Ogie Alcasid shows the rare Hover Pilder (toy) flown by Kojie Kabuto in Mazinger Z from his vast collection. From My Toy Collection | Ogie Alcasid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd3lkvhusfc

Pinoy Celeb Fans

In the Philippines there is a huge following for Mazinger Z and Voltes V, since it came out in the late 1970s to mid-eighties and subsequent cartoons from the genre. Voltes V was created several years later in the same vein as Mazinger Z of a robot battling an alien race. Voltes V became an even bigger hit here in the Philippines.

Celebrity fans of both include singer Ogie Alcasid, comedian Michael V (aka Bitoy) and The Dawn front man Jett Pangan. All are self-confessed Otakus.

My Toy Collection | Ogie Alcasid

In fact one of the most popular Filipino rock bands of all time: THE ERASERHEADS based their debut album Ultraelectromagneticpop! On one of Voltes V’s main weapons: ultraelectromagnetic tops.

Ogie showed off his rare Mazinger Z and Voltes V figures in a video. One of them is the Hover Pilder, the craft Koji Kabuto pilots and merges into Mazinger Z. May 2020, Ogie very generously donated his vast toy collection to Angel Locsin, Anne Curtis and Bea Alonzo’s fund raising efforts: SHOP & SHARE which also encourages support for josephfeeding.org

Pilot Koji Kabuto in the Hover Pilder; Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

It was extremely generous of Ogie; a conservative estimate of the collection (which also includes vintage STAR WARS and MARVEL figures etc) could easily fetch P8 Million pesos or more. Shop & Share donated proceeds to acquire free COVID testing kits for front liners and the less fortunate. While Joseph Feeding Mission Outreach Foundation (JFM) aims to continuously feed the hungry, those who are in need.

Michael V explains the history of Japanese Robot Romance history in Philippine TV. #BitoyStory 24: “VOLTES V” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfzTKuQXmlw

#BitoyStory 24: “VOLTES V”

Challenge of Fiction to Reality

HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR is an example of how the term Otaku expands to almost every facet of Japanese culture. It can come to mean obsession with engineering, the sciences, construction, excavation even specifically, pedology (formation, chemistry, morphology, and classification of soil). All of these knowledge and expertise will be called on in the story.

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There are countless challenges to bringing a fictional hangar to reality even from a design standpoint. One of the earliest problems: how to create a platform that holds a body of water and open up as a gate for Mazinger Z? You would have to take into account, the weight and physics of large volumes of water involved.

A large pool opens up to let Mazinger Z exit; Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

What they were doing is actually harnessing one of the strongest forces that brings technology forward. This is because before you can make anything to reality you have to be able to think about it or dream of it first. Captain Kirk from STAR TREK (in the 1960s) used a flip top device to communicate with his ship from another planet decades before the first cellphone (in 1980s). Two thousand years before, Icarus in Greek Mythology flew with wings made of wax. Which no doubt inspired the Wright brothers first flight in 1903.

Showcase of Japanese Expertise

The main characters in ‘HOW TO BUILD…’ is a PR team from the Maeda Corporation. They are tasked to create the design and even build a website where they can showcase that design. There’s a real website you can go to see their work: http://www.maeda.co.jp/fantasy/index.html

From left: OGI Hiroaki (ASAGAWA), KAMIJI Yusuke (BESSHO), TAKASUGI Mahiro (DOI), KISHII Yukino (EMOTO) and HONDA Chikara (CHIKADA). Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

Maeda is one of the biggest and known construction companies in Japan. Some of their projects include the Takokura Dam, Seikan Tunnel and Tokyo Bay Aqua Line. Some of which can be seen in the movie. They also constructed the Hong Kong International Airport and Kap Shui Mun Bridge.

Hirose No. 1 tunnel is one of several landmark projects constructed by the Maeda Corp. Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

SO it’s not impossible for a team from Maeda to come up with a real world design for such a fantastic project. Although it is such a huge or impossible undertaking that expertise from other fields had to be tapped. Hitachi Corp another big conglomerate which has automotive systems, construction machinery, defense systems, were consulted. The hangar has a lot of machinery or moving parts that had to be designed.

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Kurimoto Iron Works, is another company with expertise in forging and metal processing and construction materials. Engineers, scientists and experts from all three (EXISTING real world) companies came together for a common goal.

Because of their website, people got caught up in the passion of defending Japan from a fictional alien enemy. Everyone felt the urgency of the call to help make the design. As viewers you can’t help but ask, if the whole world was united for one goal what can be achieved? Ultimate what if…?

(23) From left: OGI Hiroaki (ASAGAWA), HONDA Chikara (CHIKADA), KAMIJI Yusuke (BESSHO), KISHII Yukino (EMOTO) and TAKASUGI Mahiro (DOI). Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

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From left: JFM Prog. Coordinator Kanami Namiki, Current Assistant Director Tamoko Nakamura and (incoming) Assistant Director Nataru Abe. Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

(26) From left: OGI Hiroaki (ASAGAWA) and TAKASUGI Mahiro (DOI); Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

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KISHII Yukino (EMOTO); Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

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(32) Nagashima Dam is one of several landmark projects constructed by the Maeda Corp. Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

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(38) From left: ROKKAKU Seiji (FUWA) and TAKASUGI Mahiro (DOI). Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

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(41) From left: KAMIJI Yusuke (BESSHO), TAKASUGI Mahiro (DOI), OGI Hiroaki (ASAGAWA), KISHII Yukino (EMOTO) and HONDA Chikara (CHIKADA). Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

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From left: OGI Hiroaki (ASAGAWA) and TAKASUGI Mahiro (DOI); Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

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(49) KAMIJI Yusuke (BESSHO); Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

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(52) Ogie Alcasid shows his Mazinger Z Hangar from his collection. From My Toy Collection | Ogie Alcasid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd3lkvhusfc

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From left: KAMIJI Yusuke (BESSHO), OGI Hiroaki (ASAGAWA), TAKASUGI Mahiro (DOI), HONDA Chikara (CHIKADA) and KISHII Yukino (EMOTO). Catch the 3-Days Special Screening of HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR on November 20 and 22, 6:00 pm at the SM CINEMA Drive- in at the Mall of Asia complex, Pasay City. Tickets are available at Php100 each via SM Tickets’ portal: https://smtickets.com/sm-drive-in-cinema.

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