"Lolita is a form of aestheticism"

[Taro Toporific]

[rippoff]

I don't understand why this article was posted.

What's the joke?

[Bongo]

[Andocrates]

The article was posted because it's about Japan, duh. It's in the media forum.

What I can't understand is why you come here and bitch after 3 posts. Bitching is reserved for 2 bottles and higher.

[Taro Toporific]

I don't understand why this article was posted.

What's the joke?

The guy says that Lolita "is as much a way of living as a fashion statement"...Riiiiiight.

[rippoff]

Sorry, didn't mean to supercede the rights to comment I have accrued at this point. In the future I will stick to more benign comments until I have written a whole lot of them, and then make a sudden swerve into the negative.

But, to clarify, I wasn't bitching. I honestly just didn't understand. It didn't seem to fit in with the trend of shocking articles that tend to go up on the front page.

I mean, the article describes a well liked author, film based on his work... and, uh... that was about it.

Hence my confusion.

If it was an intended commentary on the pedophillic undertones of the Lolita thing, well, it was a kind of weak commentary because it doesn't really address anything there.

And, I personally didn't have much of a problem with the statement that Lolita is "as much a way of living as a fashion statement." Certainly he isn't the first participant in this sort of thing who has claimed it extends deeper than the clothing one wears. I am thinking here of certain members of punk scenes, new and old, or maybe the newer role, 'metrosexual'. Is it so shocking that he claimed the movement was about more than clothing? His books, which somehow interface the culture (not very familiar) seem to be pretty succuessful, and they aren't... you know, clothing. They're books.

Hence my confusion.

I promise I wasn't trying to be snarky or negative. I just didn't (and don't) get the shock.

[Bongo]

The article was posted because it's about Japan, duh. It's in the media forum.

What I can't understand is why you come here and bitch after 3 posts. Bitching is reserved for 2 bottles and higher.

Yeah, but the guy wasn't bitching! He was asking a simple question and while maybe a little naive, did not deserve to get chewed out like that!

[rippoff]

Well, I went ahead and read the article as it was posted in the Asahi Shinbun. I think some of what Novala says in the artcile defends his assertion that Lolita is an aesthetic, or a way of life, or more than just a fashion.

Posted on fckedgaijin, we have,

"In Japan the word ``Lolita'' conjures up images of girls decked out in outlandishly frilly garb, but he says it is as much a way of living as a fashion statement."

But, Novala continues,

"`Lolita is a form of aestheticism. I think Lolita is a condition in which two conflicting elements co-exist without contradiction, for example, something grotesque as well as cute,' he says."

Well, he at least explains what he means and does come up with a fairly interesting aesthetic that transcends just fashion. But a way of life?

The article continues,

"On a recent Sunday, about 300 fans flocked to get their idol's autograph at a bookstore at PARCO shopping center in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward at an event to mark the release of the book.

"Many fans, mostly teenage girls and women in their 20s and 30s, were decked out in Lolita fashion like characters in his books

"`I feel a bit ashamed to wear a dress like this at my age. But I was encouraged by his book. I realized it's OK to stick to what I like,' said 32-year-old office worker Fusako Hirano from Ibaraki Prefecture."

And continues,

"Takemoto says: `We are a minority in this society, but I want to tell my readers to live a life based on their own value judgments. My essays were sort of love letters to them. Now I write novels, but my message hasn't changed.'"

I feel perfectly comfortable with the idea that Lolita-ism could represent more than fashion to some people after reading what he has to say.

Hence my confusion.

[Taro Toporific]

It didn't seem to fit in with the trend of shocking articles that tend to go up on the front page ...
...I feel perfectly comfortable with the idea that Lolita-ism could represent more than fashion to some people after reading what he has to say.

Novala is patting a stuffed Bambi and isn't being ironic ... that's about as far as Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" as Uranus.

[rippoff]

It didn't seem to fit in with the trend of shocking articles that tend to go up on the front page ...
...I feel perfectly comfortable with the idea that Lolita-ism could represent more than fashion to some people after reading what he has to say.

Novala is patting a stuffed Bambi and isn't being ironic ... that's about as far as Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" as Uranus.

Woah! Who says the whole Lolita thing needs to have something to do with Nabakov? Should I start assuming that 'pi-za' and 'pizza' are the same thing? 'amerika' and 'America'? 'Calpis' and ... well, you get the idea...

Lolita (or, I guess 'rorita', to be fair) is just a word. But there is no reason what it has come to represent to what looks like a good number of people can't be, as Novala describes, more than just a fashion, is there?

Even if he is petting Bambi without irony.

I don't think, at this point, I am wrong in assuming that the article was posted as an expression of shock at its discovery (by all means, tell me if I am wrong). But, again, judging from what I read I think it makes a degree of sense.

Maybe we have different understandings of the term itself.

What is Lolita/rorita to you?

[rippoff]

Novala is patting a stuffed Bambi and isn't being ironic ...

As far as the unironical deer petting, well, I would have to say that fits in pretty well with the whole 'grotesque but cute' thing he talked about.

Wouldn't that be an example of Novala putting his aesthetic into use?

[Taro Toporific]

... that's about as far as Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" as Uranus.

Woah! Who says the whole Lolita thing needs to have something to do with Nabakov? Should I start assuming that 'pi-za' and 'pizza' are the same thing? 'amerika' and 'America'? 'Calpis' and ... well, you get the idea...

Ok, sounds good. Mo' betta would be:
rolita is to Lolita-con is to Nabokov's Lolita....
as goths are to Gothic is to the Visigoths.

What's more interesting is a pathically vapid fashion is trying to transform into an serious aesthetic...like Thoughts without Ideas.

[rippoff]

What's more interesting is a pathically vapid fashion is trying to transform into an serious aesthetic...like Thoughts without Ideas.

I don't know. I mean, it seems like you could start a lot of interesting things that way. If you meant to criticize the author, I don't think he is necessarily being vapid or trying hard to construct something out of nothing. He just seems to be writing the books he wants to write to inspire people around him. And people seem moved.

But, I think you are being too selfish with the term 'aethetic'. I mean, I don't think he has wrought a very pretentious idea here. And if he is happy, and he is making other people happy, why not just let them have their fun?

I mean, it certainly doesn't seem like what's going on here is somehow out of the norm. I mean, yeah, you can argue that people do the whole Lolita dress thing for shallow reasons... participating in a group movement where no one even considers why they are doing it. But, at its center these people, consciously or not, are engaging their culture's (by this I mean Japanese culture's) take on costume and uniform, and are taking part in a tradition with a longish history of rebellion through costume.

People are making a statement here and I think it is at least semi-interesting. You have these girls who are participating in the whole shock-costume thing that has been around in Japan for at least a few decades, but there is an adjustment, a rebellion made against that too. They are rebelling by by adopting even stricter and more societally proper outfits (well, more proper in some societies)...

Maybe I am just talking out of my behind here, but it seems to me that these people have found something kind of interesting. I mean, it is social protest. I don't think any one is necessarily going out of their way to be too ideological about the whole thing.

I guess I just don't understand your shock. There have been tons of these kinds of movements in the states as well.

[djgizmoe]

Wow, amazingly this thread mutated from "those Japanese pervs and their lolita complexes" to a more pointed discussion on the whole "lolicon / gosu-loli" fashion phenomonon. And I agree with both rippoff and Taro on this one. If Takemoto were seriously suggesting that lolita fashion was anything BUT an aesthetic based on cuteness with a touch of the grotesque / morbid, then he WOULD be being pretentious. I don't know whether or not I would categorize lolita fashion as a social protest; I suppose in a very general sense all "alternative" fashion trends are, but in this case (and in the case of Takemoto's personal experience) the attraction to the style precluded any rebellion against society - that is to say, a lot of people don't get into it because they wanted to give a big "f*ck you" to 'normal' Japanese society. On the other hand, Takemoto's books, probably influenced just as much by jibes that he was a "fag" than by his fashion sense, do seem like straightforward social protest (can't talk out of my ass too much on this one, as I haven't read the book nor seen the new flick).
And as rippoff mentions, there is certainly nothing uniquely Japanese about this fashion craze. Case in point, Hot Topic : http://www.hottopic.com/
However, the whole goth / lolita thing in the States seems a lot more linked to dark music and comics, while it's counterpart in Japan seems much more strictly bound to fashion. Kinda like all the visual-kei bands that look The Cure or Skinny Puppy but sound like SMAP (or GLAY, blech)...Except for Buck Tick, they kick ass...

[shonan_naif]

...
rolita is to Lolita-con is to Nabokov's Lolita....
as goths are to Gothic is to the Visigoths.

That's an absolutely brilliant statement. It works on so many levels.

Shonan Naif

[Mulboyne]

Just spotted this while I was looking for another film.
Japan Times review of "Shimotsuma Monogatari"

Tetsuya Nakashima's "Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls)," based on a novel by Novala Takemoto, has cheeky fun with its two fashionista heroines, who occupy opposite ends of the sexual role-playing scale. But Nakashima, an in-demand TV commercial director who made the 1998 family comedy "Natsu Jikan no Otonotachi Happy Go Lucky," goes beyond cleverly designed, cartoony sight gags to uncover his heroines' psychic underpinnings, from their messed-up childhoods to their philosophies of life...Having seen "Shimotsuma Monogatari" and the similarly frothy but smartly entertaining "Cutie Honey," I'm wondering if we're on the verge of a trend. Instead of vengeful spirits in videotapes (a la "The Ring"), maybe the next big thing from Japan to assault the world will be quirky loner girls with devastating punches -- and a thing for pink.

Midnight Eye review

It's an enjoyable ride, but with its glib, gag-laden plotting unfolding and backtracking down an ever-expanding maze of narrative side alleys and cul-de-sacs, there may be just as many finding themselves scratching their heads halfway through and wondering where the whole thing is going as those revelling in this gaudy fantasy world.

Film website Here. DVD out on Nov 26th - no subtitles.

[Mulboyne]

Kaiju Shakedown: NO SYMPATHY FOR KAMIKAZE GIRLS EITHER

You wouldn't know it, but Viz's live action flick KAMIKAZE GIRLS opens today in select theaters.

This is a big deal: up until now, most US distributors have only picked up Asian genre movies for theatrical release. Horror, action, and highbrow exotica gets snatched right up while superior comedies and romances are left to gather dust. For the past two years at the New York Asian Film Festival I've watched the horror movies (in particular) and the action movies attract a smaller and smaller audience while the comedies and romances do big business. Our audience awards for the past three years have gone to comedies and romances exclusively: PING PONG from Japan, PLEASE TEACH ME ENGLISH from Korea and THE TASTE OF TEA from Japan. (None of which have US distribution)

Every year all of us at Subway think: man! Some savvy distributor is going to snag an Asian comedy one day and the first one to do it will probably clean up.

Manga/Anime company Viz snagged KAMIKAZE GIRLS (a flick we showed at the festival this year and that was the runner-up for the Audience Award - playing to two packed, and very happy, houses) and vowed to give it a theatrical release. With tie-ins to the anime and manga fan community, this movie seemed like a shoo-in for a long roll-out with plenty of teenage kids and diehard fans flocking to see it.

Doesn't look like it's going to happen. Critics are already harshing on the movie ("saccharine", "too long", "fluff", and most incomprehensibly "could find an audience in the West as a latenight attraction at gay fests.").

But don't blame the critics, Viz doesn't even mention the movie on its website, either on the front page or on their "New Releases" page (although there is this four week old press release buried in their newsroom - which I guess matches the fact that the official site for the movie hasn't been updated in 4 weeks either), I couldn't find a mention on the Anime News Network except for this press release from back in June.

It doesn't instill a lot of confidence in the quality of the movie that almost every quote Viz has pulled for the movie comes from a website, either.

Let's hope that the fans turn out in force and do what Viz hasn't been able to so far: stir up interest and generate support for this worthy flick.

Anna Tsuchiya was recently voted "Best Leathernist 2005"

[Mulboyne]

....Welcome to the world of novelist Novala Takemoto

Mainichi: Novelist Novala Takemoto arrested for cannabis possession

Japanese novelist Novala Takemoto was arrested for violating the Cannabis Control Law after being stopped by an officer in Tokyo's Kabukicho district, police said Monday. The 39-year-old, known as the author of "Shimotsuma Monogatari" (Kamikaze Girls), which was adapted into a film of the same title, was arrested for possession of cannabis. When questioned by police, he reportedly admitted having used the drug. Investigators said Takemoto was found in possession of cannabis on a street in the Kabukicho district of Tokyo's Shinjuku-ku on Sunday evening. An officer reportedly found the cannabis after spotting Takemoto walking alone and stopping him to question him.

[Greji]

Mainichi: Novelist Novala Takemoto arrested for cannabis possession

This certainly has a odd ring to it! I don't know about ya'll, but this sounds
a bit strange to me!

Policeman: Why there's a guy walking alone in Kabukicho, I think
I'll question him. Pardon me sir, do you have any marijuana?

Takemoto: Yes, I do.

Policeman: May I see it?

Takemoto: Of course! Here it is!

Policeman: Well I'll be. That is Marijuana. Do you mind if I arrest you?

Takemoto: Of course not, you're only doing your job!


hmmm....

[American Oyaji]

Kaiju Shakedown: NO SYMPATHY FOR KAMIKAZE GIRLS EITHER

I was in a hotel earlier this year and this movie was playing on the Asian TV channel. I did not finish it because I had to go to sleep, but I remembered the name so I could order it later from Amazon. It's pretty good.

This certainly has a odd ring to it! I don't know about ya'll, but this sounds
a bit strange to me!

Yeah. I bet someone found out he was famous and tried to shake him down, he didn't flinch so they ratted him out.

[angelhalo55]

hes just saying that he likes cute stuff and thats his inspration for his work

[prolly]

nvm

[Iraira]

Lolita fashion finds a niche in the U.S.
San Francisco will see an exciting new addition to its fashion boutiques this fall with the addition of a line of clothing from Japanese designer h.NAOTO.

NEW PEOPLE, San Francisco's premiere destination for all things Japanese, has just hosted an event to celebrate the debut of the fashion line, which was previously only available for purchase in Japan.

Many of h.NAOTO's designs fall into the category of "gothic lolita," which is a term that may be commonplace in Japan, but is still considered a niche in the United States.
While lolita fashion still remains a niche in the United States, women who participate in it are passionate about it. With the debut of h.NAOTO's fashion line in America, however, it's clear that Japanese designers are aware of the demand for their products overseas, and perhaps this means more opportunities in the future for the movement to grow and gain popularity and recognition.

http://geekout.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/21/lolita-fashion-finds-a-niche-in-the-u-s/?hpt=hp_c2