Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

First of all, I wasn't that impressed by some of the posters: they were crowded, the color combinations weren't as impressive as I'd hoped they be, and I didn't seem to be as blown away as I should be given the comments about how fantastic the posters were.   It was especially annoying to be told how much I should love them, when I didn't, really. 

There were a couple posters where I felt that way, read the movie description/tidbits about the movie/poster on the bottom and took another look and changed my mind.   (There was one line about a sword that looked both threatening and protective given how it was being held behind the woman's neck.   I thought it was just going to be a yakuza vengeance/execution film, but the description of how he held the sword and the movie synopsis made me take another look and I enjoyed the poster much more after knowing that he was her guardian.   Like I said, it happened one or two more times, but this one stood out in my mind most.)

In addition, it feels like this was written in English by people whose first language was Japanese.   If so, the editing was poor.   If it was, in fact, translated, it needed to be translated properly.   I stumbled over sentences like: "The first Ninja movie that aimed at realist was The Ninja series."  No.   The series wasn't the first movie; the first movie in that series was the first movie.  It's not a massive mistake, and from my experience, it's a mistake someone who knows English as a second language would make.   It's also sprinkled throughout the book, in a really weird way.   Let me explain: half, or slightly more, of the sentences are fine.   The others aren't.   So I'm on the fence about how this was screwed up: mistranslation?   ESL speakers with little or no editing?   I just don't know.  I do know that the way I didn't really connect with the posters knocked down one star, and the amount of times I went 'huh?' due to funky grammar knocked down one more star.   (Given that the two people who introduce each genre have Japanese names, I'm guessing they speak, and write, far better in Japanese.   I wasn't going to say anything lest I be called racist, but at least one of them mentions being in a scene in one of the movies.   Add to this the fact that the gentlemen who wrote the introduction is named Chuck Stephens and writes in perfect English, I'm guessing that the other two are natives of Japan given that they both have weird sentence structures at some point in their writing.)

And it's a shame.   Because despite not really enjoying many of these posters, there are a lot of interesting factoids provided in two places: the genre introductions, and the synopsis/facts about the movie under the poster on each page where a poster is featured.   There is also a two page introduction that had me captivated despite the briefness with which it went over a love affair with movie posters.  Then there are genre introductions.   For each one, two of the co-authors, Tetsuya Masuda and Kairakutei Black, write something about the genre in general and particular movies that are highlights in that genre.   It lets the reader get a sense of time, of cultural impact - such as the differences between period pieces and horror pieces in Japan, other Asian countries, and the West - as well as why some of the movies were featured in this book due to their particular historical impact.   The other pages feature the posters themselves.   Below, or next to the posters, are more features: title of the movie, director, star, as well as taglines - which are translated, and tidbits about the movie/series/novel it was based on/stars.   Most of the posters are full page with the information below, although a couple are longer, with less width, and have the information next to the posters. 

Be warned: this goes over erotic fiction, and has nudity.   Not appropriate for kids, even those who love Japanese movies.  

In addition, it uses the term Japanamation, and when I first said this out loud to someone when I was speaking about anime, I got a lecture on how 'Jap' was a slur and it didn't matter if I added 'animation' to the back of it.   I said I wasn't aware - I was much younger - and even now that I was, getting mad at me wouldn't do anything: it was a term that was used.   They just got madder, yelled at me for real now, and told me never to use that term again.  I went pale, and haven't used it again.   (Anime is so much shorter anyway.)  Although it is slightly gratifying to see that although I-can't-remember-who-know went on a shit-fit about me using the term, Japanamation is not something that should be laid on my shoulders. 

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