sentrosix

I'm a Canadian who lived in Japan for several years and married a Japanese woman and now have a half Japanese daughter. I also happen to be a filmmaker who made a documentary about Japanese video arcades.

Here's the trailer if you're interested.

https://youtu.be/F6XSGmnPI4o

I appreciate your desire to create and want to share your vision with the world even if it means spending 10 years in isolation, I'm always trying to expand my experience and understanding of Japanese culture and your unique perspective mixed with videogames is extra interesting to me so I wish you the best of luck and I'm excited to see your finished product!

If you could start the whole process over would you have just jumped right into game design? What games inspire you?

Great questions and thanks for the interest in the film. I'm glad it connects with people. It took way longer than originally planned... but in the end I wouldn't change a thing.

1) It was extremely difficult to obtain permission. The first time I went to film in Japan I had ZERO permission and filmed completely gorilla style.

Once we had a budget I was able to connect with Taito and Sega and get permission but they had to have representatives with me at all times. There were positives and negatives about that. The positives being they would allow us to film inside claw machine games for example or get access to places like HEY prior to it opening for the day. They also let us bring lighting equipment which made a huge difference.

The negatives being once customers were in the arcades they were much more specific about what was acceptable to film and how we could move around within the arcades.

Really, the only reason we were able to get permission at all is because I had created that first trailer and was able to show that the product I would create wouldn't have negative connotations. Even after getting permission it was a back and forth conversation in regards to how I was able to use the interview footage we acquired from both Taito and Sega.

2) I love GameCenter CX, my girlfriend and I watch it and enjoy it. It's fun seeing a middle-aged man battle through these ridiculous games, I kind of feel like it's Japans version of AVGN. Japans response to the film has been amazing, they are excited to see a foreigner investigate and explore a world that perhaps they take for granted or only a small piece of the population really 'gets'.

3) In Tokyo my favorite Taito arcade has to be HEY, it has a ton of different sections with lots of the classics. The lighting is super subdued and coloured... it's almost always busy..

I am also a fan of Safari in Ikebukuro, mostly because at the time I was there it was filled with high-level players including Umehara. It had a great late-night scene.

Oh man... I can't choose just one.. I love Akihabara leisure land, it's probably the busiest arcade i've seen... when there's a tournament on it's just JAMMED... so many people playing games, I love it and the Manager is awesome, one of the original organizers of Togeki.

For DDR, Aaron brought me to the leisure land in Odaiba which was awesome, such a big, bright and new arcade. It had more of a inclusive feel, very friendly staff and customers. In the same mall there is this amazing retro arcade that is filled with cocktail style Donkey Kong and Space Invader cabinets as well as old mechanical pachinko games, I highly recommend it.

I could keep going... and I haven't even mentioned Ebi-cen which is one of the most interesting arcades that appear in the film, small indie-operated where tons of top players go.

Outside of Tokyo, I really enjoy the Taito station in Fukuoka. It feels more regional with palm trees out front and just a different layout than most arcades.

Finally, I'll save the best for last. There is a chain of arcades called 'Warehouse' the only one i've had the chance of visiting personally is in Kawasaki, 20 - 30 min. outside of Tokyo. It is INCREDIBLE. It is more like a haunted house than an arcade. Amazing 'set design'. It literally feels like you've entered the game Silent Hill or something... If you get the chance go there. You will not regret it.

And just because this post isn't long enough... Nagoya has some amazing arcades and arcade tournament organizers as well as Kyoto. A-Cho in Kyoto is very cool, the staff (who will appear in the special edition) are the best.

In order of what I miss most:

• Ramen
• Arcades
• Kaiten Zushi (Cheap Sushi)
• Coco's Ichiban Curry

Ok so most of that was food... but I also miss readily available access to Japanese Manga and Karaoke... not having arcades in Canada was really the biggest inspiration for this film. It was such a great feeling to be able to go downtown and spend some quality gaming time with friends, making new friends and experiencing some of the amazing games that exist only in Japanese arcades. (Card-based games like Lord of Vermillion)

heh, I figured you'd probably ask. The error is when we say that Ebi-cen's notebook that they keep scores in is 20 years old. It's not. Sadly it's only about 5 years old? (Can't recall the exact age) But that doesn't have quite the same zing... so i'm not sad that I got it wrong.

We ran two successful IndieGoGo campaigns. The first was a learning experience. I am actually acquaintances with the creators of IndieGame: The Movie so having seen their success on Kickstarter I followed in their footsteps and raised enough money to head to Japan with a crew. I had already begun filming on my own the previous summer so I had a trailer which can be seen on that campaign website still: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/100-yen-the-japanese-arcade-experience--122

From there we accomplished a lot with contacts online and once we captured all the footage we realized we had a million things left to do and people to hire and no money left.. so we ran a second campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/100-yen-the-japanese-arcade-experience--123

You can really see the huge jump in quality (in my opinion) alongside non-copyrighted music... etc. Basically it started to become a real movie! It was exciting!