Sunday, March 15, 2009

"Twilight" Comes to Japan...and My Living Room

I was up in Tokyo last weekend with some friends and our kids and on our way back from Tokyo Tower decided to stop at a book store in Roppongi. I've seen the Twilight book split into two with the picture that lines up, but last Saturday I found New Moon along with the 11 Manga-style books with illustrations; they are not Manga though. I knew they existed, but hadn't found them. So I took about 15 minutes looking for them, and when I couldn't find them I asked at the register, "Twilight wa doko desu ka?" As you'll see, they're split into 11 smaller books, not four thick ones so they fit in bags and/or read on the trains.

Well ask and yee shall find! I bought the first book of 11 for Shari's daughter per her request. Shari sent me the first book for Christmas, and after a couple of days I finished that and within 10 days finished all four...and then Midnight Sun too. I was hooked. Before that I had never heard of the series, Kristen Stewart or Robert Pattinson. Each book has one or two illustrations....Keanna and Sydney were beyond borrowed time so I didn't take pictures of all drawings inside every book. Each book costs ¥1000, so a little more than $10 USD because of the exchange rate. I emailed my friend Mayumi to ask her to translate the covers for me. Mayumi married Dave, another submariner and Bob's roommate during Prototype. I met Dave in winter of 2000 and Mayumi in 2006 right after Sydney was born. Anyway, getting back to it, she was kind enough to take the time and email me back. Domo arigatou gozaimasu Mayumi-san, and Dave for assisting!

We get maybe eight or nine Japanese channels with our cable (not digital), and while flipping through tonight I saw what I assumed was coverage of the premiere in Tokyo from February 28th. I was wrong, it was the "Twilight" trailer! It made me wonder if the movie will be dubbed over or subtitled in Japanese when it opens here on April 4th. It arrived on base for us Americans to see it in January. We were in Singapore on February 28th, otherwise I would have taken the 1-hour train ride up to Tokyo and braved the rain to go to the Japan premiere.





The One I Loved is a Vampire & The Blood that Tastes Sorrow
















The Dark Vampire Clan & The Fang that Whispers is Fascinating
















The Moon of Wolf & The Fallen Angel that Laments
















The Red Mark & A Cold Kiss for Myself
















Twilight is the Time for an Evil Demon & A Bride of a Vampire
















God of Dawn

















13 comments:

Shari said...

Absolutely cool!

Dollars to Yen said...

I still don't get it.

KK said...

Thats so cool!

newsjunkie said...

I don't get it either. I LOVE to read, I always have a pile of books waiting to be read, and I have a pretty eclectic taste in what I enjoy reading. But I borrowed these books from a friend and just could not get into them at all! That's SO rare for me. I can almost always finish a book even if I don't like it but these I had to put down. I was SO glad I didn't buy them, which is what I usually do!

newsjunkie said...

Oh but I do think the Japanese versions are interesting and it would be cool to own them. :)

Anonymous said...

That is so cool! I have the books from America and heard about the Japan ones, but now I get to see them. Lucky you that you can buy them. Can you read them? Thank you for taking the time to share them with us Twilight junkies!!!

Anna

Katie said...

Thanks Anna! No, I can't read the books in Japanese, but it was great to find all 11 of them together! I loved looking through the illustrations, each book had two or three.

Anonymous said...

hello!!

is there is a midnight sun japanese manga??

that's so coOl a manga of twilight!!

wish we could buy them in english version..8)

Katie said...

No, no Midnight Sun! It's just the 11 books. I have to admit I was excited to see what the illustrations would look like. Next time I'm able to find them I'm going to look in all of them!

Judy said...

When are you going to post again?? I find your blog so interesting!

Katie said...

Soon Judy, promise! I've got a one going up tonight and hopefully a couple more this week.

Dollars to Yen said...

Have you fallen down a well? Where are your new posts?

Unknown said...

I am going to take one of your pics to the Daiei book store, and get a couple of these books for my niece, who wants the manga version. So, these ARE the Twilight books in 10 vs. 4? Please email me at: cputaansuu2@gmail.com. Thanks so much for all your wonderful posts. I am looking forward to some of these events. We'll do them this year... too awesome, thanks! -Caroline