Continuing on the Japanese kick.

Welcome to Ko-Gal central:


The ko-gal phenomenon was definitely one of the major events of Nineties Japan. Because of their scary, energetic, and unusual look, people couldn’t help but chase after them. Ko-gals challenged themselves to tan their skin to be as dark as possible, bleached their hair to be as white as an old woman’s, and wore platform boots with heels taller than skyscrapers.
Their extremity (cho) was something that got everyone’s attention. It’s always the same case at any point in history. People simply love extraordinary manners, like an underage girl’s sensational wild sex behavior, right, oyaji-san (old man)?

But now I realize from reading the Japanese magazine Egg that I understood only a fraction of the ko-gal phenomenon. Egg runs their own regular and irregular stable of “Egg models”, who were hunted down around the Shibuya 109 area in every issue.

Of all the cultures in the world, the Japanese just confuse me. SO polite on the one hand yet with some of the weirdest perversions anywhere. Check out some of these gems below, from a list of bizarre manga published in Japan.

1) Tatakae! Dainippon Teikoku (The Japanese Imperial, Go!) by Shintaro Kago. This story is an alternate history of WWII by one of the artists who appeared in Secret Comics Japan. The Japanese army have perfected a technique that turns human beings into giants, but for some reason they can only enlarge females. Patriot girls dedicate themselves to their great emperor and become giant weapons against the inhuman Allies. The girls are customized for each purpose. Some girls are made into tanks and some girls are made into battleships. Their guns are their asses and their bullets are their hard constipated shits.

2) This is the Art! by Jun Hayami. This collection of short stories is the most notorious nightmare in Japanese comics history. We see a pretty and innocent teenage girl's happy and healthy daily life, such as talking and laughing with her friend, writing a poem to her platonic boyfriend, and practicing cheerleading, all rendered in beautiful and romantic shojo manga style. Suddenly though the story is interrupted by a picture of her face being crushed by a dropping concrete block. We realize that all that had come before was her memory flashback in the moment that she was raped and killed by a psycho killer. Another story is about sissy narcissist boy who loves himself. He cuts his belly and put his penis in the slit in order to fuck himself! Readers thought Jun Hayami must be mentally ill until the reclusive artist was discovered two years ago.

3) The World is Mine by Hideki Arai. It's Clockwork Orange meets Natural Born Killers. The hero is Mon, a monster of free will. For no reason and with no emotion, he kills people. He doesn't talk much, so no one knows what's on his mind. His sidekick is Toshi, who's always expressing his hatred against humankind. Toshi and Mon start their killing spree in Hokkaido, the north end of Japan, and kill their way to Tokyo. Japanese police hunt desperately for them, but no one can stop them on their way to the capital. Meanwhile, as if following them, is Higumadon, a Godzilla-like gigantic red bear from Hokkaido. It stomps everything in its way. Finally Toshi-Mon blackmails the prime minister into doing a striptease broadcast on national television. This story sounds really stupid and meaningless, but The World is Mine is meticulously rendered in detailed super-realism. The art is elaborate, bullets tear off an innocent pedestrian's head, eyeballs pop out, brain splatters. Toshi mercilessly stabs a mother who tries to protect her baby and stomps the little one to death. To get through this comic is a challenge to your humanity.

To summarize: This is something that's one of my own personal crusades- to popularize the dreadful as well as the culturally superior as something that deserves to be preserved as a signpost for a particular time and flavor. I did three cds collecting the worst of... songs. So this list is pretty amusing.

(following from Yahoo news)


NEW YORK - Starship may have built this city on rock and roll, but Blender magazine is tearing it down, naming the band's "We Built This City" as the worst song ever.

Some tunes on the "50 Worst Songs Ever!" list were selected for their melodies, others "are wretchedly performed" and "quite a few don't make sense whatsoever," the magazine said.

The list, which appears in the May issue, includes songs by New Kids on the Block, Meat Loaf, The Doors, Lionel Richie (news), Hammer and The Beach Boys, among others.

Blender describes 1985's "We Built This City" as "the truly horrible sound of a band taking the corporate dollar while sneering at those who take the corporate dollar."

Starship lead singer Grace Slick (news) says, "This is not me," when the magazine reminds her of the tune. "Now you're an actor. It's the same as Meryl Streep (news) playing Joan of Arc."


Rounding out the top 10: "Achy Breaky Heart," Billy Ray Cyrus (news); "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" Wang Chung; "Rollin'," Limp Bizkit; "Ice Ice Baby," Vanilla Ice; "The Heart of Rock & Roll," Huey Lewis and the News; "Don't Worry Be Happy," Bobby McFerrin (news); "Party All the Time," Eddie Murphy (news); "American Life," Madonna; and "Ebony and Ivory," Paul McCartney (news) and Stevie Wonder (news).


Other songs on the list: Toby Keith (news)'s "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" (No. 22); Whitney Houston (news)'s "Greatest Love of All" (No. 30); Ricky Martin (news)'s "She Bangs" (No. 39); Billy Joel (news)'s "We Didn't Start the Fire" (No. 41); Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence" (No. 42); The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (No. 48); and Celine Dion (news)'s "My Heart Will Go On" (No. 50).


Blender and VH1's TV special "50 Most Awesomely Bad Songs ... Ever" airs May 12.