[article] J-cool factor struggles to woo NYC

[nmskalmn]

J-cool factor struggles to woo NYC

By WAYNE GABEL
Special to The Japan Times

For someone who stands to gain from the hot topic of Japan's "Gross National Cool," Taeko Baba ought to be the last to pop the phenomenon's bubble.

But get the Manhattan-based events organizer behind the New York-Tokyo Music Festival 2006 (Sept. 30 in New York City) on the subject and she starts popping away.

"Japanese media people will go to an animation convention and look at all the Americans there and think: 'Oh, anime and J-pop are so hot.' But that's because they haven't looked beyond the doors of the convention center," says Baba, who's been promoting Japanese film, music, video games and robotics in the United States since the mid-1990s.

"To make Japanese artists heroes in the U.S., we have to get big-name American artists to say good things about them," she says. "When you put together a panel discussion and an American artist says, 'I'm a really big fan of this Japanese creator,' people think, 'Oh, he's really great.' "

Making that happen is Baba's job. She's president of New York-Tokyo, a media production and marketing firm whose mission is "to provide exposure of techno-cool, eye-popping entertainment and production from Japan to the U.S. general public."

Her latest effort to that end is the New York-Tokyo Music Festival 2006, to be held at the 5,000-capacity Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. The free, one-day event features Yokohama-based reggae stars Mighty Crown, Shibuya-spawned "samurai jazz warriors" P'ez and Tokyo breakbeat duo Hifana. Computer games, animation and a Uniqlo exhibition will also feature.

Baba's interest in animation, kindled when she "lost everything" and began to identify with cartoon heroines in a similar predicament, led to a speaking invitation at the NYC-based Japan Society that she fulfilled dressed, cosplay-style, as a cartoon character. She soon graduated to staging 2001's New York-Tokyo Anime Festival. Emboldened, she organized 2002's New York-Tokyo Music Festival, a 3 1/2-day event that featured symposiums and concerts by J-pop stars including Kumi Koda.

Unfortunately, she realized she didn't know how to recruit sponsors. "Eventually, I had about 40 artists from Japan and the U.S. because word got out about this girl who was doing great things in New York," she says. "Normally, two or three are enough for this kind of event, which everyone knew would lose money."

Everyone except Baba, that is. It took her years to recoup the $ 70,000 she lost. Undaunted, she staged 2003's New York-Tokyo Film Festival and 2004's eNerGy Anime & Game Festival.

After a setback last year, when her second eNerGy fell through due to double-booking, she's back with a music fest whose lineup includes Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli. But as hip as Japanese pop culture is purported to be, Baba again had trouble attracting Japanese performers.

"Most are very busy," she says. "Others have no interest in making it here. Some are just scared -- they know they won't be accepted by Americans. They never say it clearly, but you can tell. But I understand. They're making a good living. They don't need America. Why should they struggle to be accepted by a small number of people?"

www.newyork-tokyo.com.

There's also an interview with Hifana

Read it: J-cool factor struggles to woo NYC

[sexysaucestar]

Interesting article; I hadn't heard of New York-Toyko before nore had I heard of the festival o_o I kind of wish I had decided to go to NYC this weekend instead of last x_x;; Oh well! Thanks for the article.

[AyuGAME]

interesting thx for sharing with us

[mi|kshake]

That was a very interesting article. Thanks!

mi|kshake~