Manga, Fashion, Art and Movies: New People Center Opens

It's been a long time coming, but the new epicenter of Japanese pop culture is opening this weekend at the New People Center, smack in the middle of San Francisco's Japantown. With four floors of film, food, fashion, art and fun, the New People Center opens its doors to the public on Saturday, August 15, 2009 with the J-Pop Summit Festival

Beginning with a ceremonial ribbon cutting at 11:00 am and the traditional Kagami-wari (crackin' open of a sake barrel), the rest of the day is chock-full of events celebrating a very unconventional, loud, stylish, artistic, very now brand of Japanese pop culture.

For manga fans, there are three events especially worth checking out:

• Yoshitaka Amano Exhibit and Autograph Session at SuperFrog Gallery, 3rd Floor
  
  Yoshitaka Amano (the acclaimed illustrator of Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D, and the upcoming Shinjuku) is also known for his fine art works. He'll be debuting a new collection of paintings called Deva Loka, "named for the ancient Indian land of God. As an ode to his childhood love for American comics, culture and automobiles, Amano’s latest breathtaking and vibrant pieces are boldly coated with auto paint and metallic glitter."

  Amano-sensei will be appearing at panel discussion at the main J-Pop Summit stage at 12:00 noon, with an autograph session to follow between 4:00 - 5:00 pm at the SuperFrog Gallery.

• Live Painting Demo by Yuichi Yokoyama on Post Street, in front of New People Center
  
  The avant-cool creator of the kinetic Eisner Award-nominated New Engineering and critically acclaimed Travel graphic novels makes a rare U.S. appearance to show off his unique take on manga.

  Yokoyama-sensei will be painting from 12:00 noon - 2:00 pm at the J-Pop Summit Artist Booth on Post Street, near Buchanan Street. He'll also be appearing at NEW PEOPLE The Store on the Mezzanine level of the New People Center from 3:00 - 4:00 for an autograph session.

• West Coast Premiere of 20th Century Boys Movie at the VIZ Cinema, Basement Level
  
  See the first installment of this manga movie trilogy and see some of the stars of this live-action film based on Naoki Urasawa's time-traveling, sci-fi thriller.

  The special premiere showing will be at 5:00 pm. Advanced sale tickets for this show and other showings of this movie and the two other parts of this movie series will be on sale online after Friday, August 14, 2009.

There's much more in store at the J-Pop Summit, including Harajuku Girl fashion makeovers, a couple of rockin' sets by Japanese girl bands TsuShiMaMiRe, noodles and Red Bacteria Vaccum, a Gothic and Lolita fashion show featuring the latest in couture from Baby The Stars Shine Bright and Black Peace Now, two of the fashion houses with new shops in New People Center, and much more. There's also a Japanese Girls Rock Explosion concert planned at nearby Yoshi's Nightclub. You can download a PDF version of Saturday's schedule of events, plus a handy map of Post Street and Japantown Plaza.

New People Center is the brainchild of Seiji Horibuchi, CEO of VIZ Pictures and the founder of New People and the J-Pop Center Project. In an article posted on SF Gate, the online home of the San Francisco Chronicle, reporter Jeff Yang interviewed Horibuchi-san, who had this to say about why New People Center is a concept whose time has come:

"There is something unique about J-pop -- it has a 'cuteness' and 'coolness' that can't be found anywhere else," he says. "But it goes beyond the superficial visual aspect of things; there's an inspirational, intuitive side to our pop culture that even Japanese people are not able to explain. And what I realized is that anime and manga are just the beginning; that there is a bigger story we have to tell."

And Horibuchi feels like this center could be only the first of many, if this venture succeeds as he hopes it will:

"We'll know in six months if this will be a success," he says. "But if it works, we will bring it to other cities. New York, Paris, London. And I believe we will succeed. Because this generation of new people -- they are curious, they're experimental, they're open to the rest of the world, and to unfamiliar ideas. So doing this makes sense."

This is one of the many things that make me happy that I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I'll be sure to be on the scene to take photos and see what there is to see. Stick around for more news and tidbits from this weekend's fun!

In the meantime, keep up with upcoming events at New People Center at their official website, NewPeopleWorld.com

UPDATE: Here's my report from the opening day at New People, and a photo gallery featuring the events, the special guests and the shops.