Interest

British Food Journalist Describes Becoming Anime Character

The Guardian newspaper website has published an article by the British travel and dining journalist Michael Booth, about how his book Sushi and Beyond (Japanese title: Eikoku Ikke, Nihon o Taberu, or "British Family, Eat Japan) was turned into a television anime, now running on NHK World.

The original book followed Booth, his wife Lissen, and two sons Ansger and Emil, on their 100-day trip to Japan as they tried a wide variety of Japanese foods. Booth was inspired to make the trip by Shizuo Tsuji's book, Japanese Cooking, A Simple Art.

In the Guardian article, Booth comments, 'I never intended for the book even to be read by Japanese people but, coincidentally, the translation is also being turned into a manga.' In the article, he and his family return to Japan, where Booth visits the Fanworks animation studio (Gakkatsu!, Medamayaki no Kimi Itsu Tsubusu?, Ganbare! Lulu Lolo - Tiny Twin Bears) in Shibuya, Tokyo, where the anime is being made. Its director, Rareko (Chi-Sui Maru, Gakkatsu!, Medamayaki no Kimi Itsu Tsubusu?) greets him. 'Ah, I was expecting someone really fat, like Michael Moore.'

Booth is anxious about the show's English dub (to be recorded in Los Angeles); he also learns that his sons will be voiced in the anime by women ('unlikely to go down well back home'). He also ends up explaining the '70s cartoon Hong Kong Phooey to the Japanese staff, who have never heard of it.

Booth describes the Sushi and Beyond series:

'Though the Flash animation is rudimentary, in the South Park manner, the colouring is spectacular and surprisingly sophisticated, and the characters are hilarious. I love it. My avatar is perhaps a little thicker round the waist than I am these days, but he is more handsome. It's a tradeoff I am happy to accept. My wife is channelling Daphne from Scooby Doo, while my children are cute but fairly generic anime... While in reality we might have received directions from an elderly lady, in Rarecho's version of events we are guided by a Godzilla-sized Gothic Lolita.

Booth also visits the Kyoto Manga Museum. He quotes a museum researcher, Yu Ito: “Manga was just a subculture until a few years ago... These days the government supports manga like other artforms, but that all really started around the year 2000, when foreigners began to read manga.”

At a press conference, a woman journalist expresses her disappointment that Booth is not much fatter.

The book Sushi and Beyond was published in 2009, and Akishobo published part of the book in Japan as Eikoku Ikke, Nihon o Taberu in 2013. Akishobo published the rest, along with a newly written epilogue for Japanese readers, in the sequel Eikoku Ikke, Masumasu Nihon o Taberu in 2014. The books have over 100 thousand copies in print in Japan.

Thanks to Jonathan Clements for the news tip.