HYPER JAPAN Announces Music Guests

HYPER JAPAN, the UK’s biggest Japanese culture event, returns to London from 23-25 November – and we’re more excited about it than ever before! Not only will it be the first time our sister company JPU Records has exhibited there (go visit them for all your Japanese music needs! They’re at V21, check this map to locate them), but it will also be the first time the likes of THE MICRO HEAD 4N’S, NINJAMAN JAPAN and Tomoca have appeared in the country! Then there’s also the attendance of the man widely credited for  creating J-rock… the mighty Tomoyasu Hotei (responsible for that Kill Bill theme tune).

THE MICRO HEAD 4N’S should already be familiar to hardened followers of visual kei as it largely consist of former members of D’espairsRay and FANATIC CRISIS. They’ve just announced a European tour for next year, but see them first on Friday 23 November.  Ricky, ZERO and SHUN. will be attending to give a special talk on visual kei. Listen to a sample of their music here.

NINJAMAN JAPAN are the ALL CAPITALS, all ninja rock squad that are every bit as mad as their name suggests. Highly influenced by super sentai (think Power Rangers) and hair metal, this group of flamboyant nutcases will be taking over the main stage of HYPER JAPAN for a live performance on Saturday. Not familiar with their stuff? Get familiarised.
They’re planned to be on stage between 7:10-7:40pm.

Tomoca defines herself as wa-pop over J-pop, because ‘wa is the classical word for Japan’ according to this here press release we’re reading from. But then, looking at her all done up in her kimono probably already gave away the idea that Tomoca borrows heavily from traditional Japan. What the image doesn’t capture is how she marries this with modern pop. Find out how well the combination works for yourself with her performance on Sunday afternoon.

And then there’s Tomoyasu Hotei. We could talk endlessly about him and his guitar work, but instead, we’ll leave you with this live performance. And if this impresses you, you’ll most definitely need to get tickets to his London show at the Camden Roundhouse on 18 December. Click here for details.

Hyper Japan Announces Musical Guest for Feb 2012: Natsuko Aso

The UK’s biggest Japanese pop culture event, Hyper Japan, is returning to London for a third year, and bringing with it the 21 year old actress and J-pop star Natsuko Aso!

She shot to fame as Negima!‘s grumpy, anti-social tech-freak Chisame Hasegawa in the series’ live action adaptation (she also provided opening and ending themes for the show), and soon appeared in several other Japanese TV shows, including a cameo in the country’s superhero series Kamen Rider W.

Outside of Japan Natsuko Aso’s probably best known for her work in anime, including songs in Yasuhiro Imagawa’s (Gundam G, Giant Robo) Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen, and the accompanying anime series to the card trading craze that took over Japan this year, Cardfight!! Vanguard – a collaboration between Yu-Gi-Oh and Duel Master‘s creators.

She will be appearing at Hyper Japan on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 February 2012. Last year Japan’s premier cello-vocalist Kanon Wakeshima performed her debut UK show at the event. Tickets for Hyper Japan, taking place at Earls Court’s Brompton Hall, are on sale now for all three days of the event, as well as tickets to the 2012 Sushi Awards, and the 2012 Sake Awards, and are available by clicking here.

Japan Underground will be at the event with our shop selling CDs, DVDs and more. See you there!