The T-Files


Sat, 21 Aug 2004

Hello Kitty

Mikey poster
Kitty Ex

Ingo's last weekend in Tokyo was marked by three pop cultural highlights. We started with a screening at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Ebisu of Wah! Mikey returns, a collection of twenty episodes (about three minutes each) of TV Tokyo's popular and hilarious puppet comedy series that also made (unlike myself) to this year's Berlin film festival. Next was an exhibition celebrating the goddess of character goods herself, Hello Kitty, who is having her 30th anniversary. Kitty Ex is actually split into two parts, one at the Laforet Department Store in Harajuku and one at the Mori Art Museum in Roppongi Hills, where we went. On the way down from the fifty-second floor we stopped by another exhibition showcasing the making, artwork, and background of Steam Boy, a recently released animation movie set against a Jules-Verne-type late 19th century London.