I had some interesting - unique I might even say? - interests as a pre-teen into a teenager.
Around 1987, I finally saved enough money to get a Nintento and sell off my old Atari. I believe it was around Christmas of 1989, my father purchased a video game called Nobunaga's Ambition. I wasn't sure what to think of it and even referred to it as "Noriega's Ambition", my own joke about the ongoing invasion of Panama at the time.
What...the hell...is this?
I had no idea what this was. I even suggested to my Dad to take it back. And what a shame it would have been if he did. My Dad decided to give it a go and I could see it was closer to an RPG - not my favorite. I preferred games like Castlevania, Galaga, Life Force and Dodgeball (one of the most violent and underrated games of all time). But maybe my Dad knew something I didn't? I know he didn't buy the game randomly and sure enough, somehow, it peaked my interest and I gave it a try.
Suddenly, I found myself interested in the
Senogku period of Japan. But that wasn't all. I had already taken martial arts as a kid and of my favorite films of all time is Big Trouble In Little China.
Also my favorite piece of art at our local art gallery was this giant buddha statue. It simultaneously freakrd me out and fascinated me.
My dad later became a Buddhist.
This led me to read a lot of books about this era and even realized that my fascination with this era of japanese history didn't come just from here but as far back as watching the original Shogun tv-miniseries with my Mom. I still need to watch the new version.
My friend Chuck would come over a lot (he practically lived with us) and we'd often play Nobunaga's Ambition late into the night. This led to jokes we still share to this day.
This music lives rent free in my head forever.
Also, this music. Also also, ninjas.
And while I can't find other images, believe me, they still exist in the lexicon between Chuck and I, over 30 years later. Things like Hairless Plague, Be On My Team, Slice the Bread, Slice the Butter, Slice the Honey, Slice the Meatloaf and "coooooooook---kiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeee!" are hilarious to us but mean nothing to you. And all came from this game.
Additional bonus to this led me to ace my test about Japanese history in my World History class. Who says Video Games cam't be educational?
Oda Nobunaga would agree with this.
Not long after the game became meta with my friends, we decided to look into other aspects of Japanese culture - and at the time, Anime was starting to become popular. Another friend of ours started us off with a bang, Urotsukodoji. If you don't know this one, proceed with caution and prepare for tentacles. Lots of tentacles. And sex. And violence.
Following this, came Akira.
This one is a lot more interesting in terms of plot, however, the ending is a bit oddball (it wasn't until years later I discoverd this was part of a comic series and the movie only encompassed the beginning).
Fun fact: the guy who voiced Leonardo in the early 90s cartoon of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also did the original english dub of one of the main characters. Still funny to hear.
There were various others I can remember, Vampire Princess Miyu, 8x8, Golgo 13: The Professional (how this became an NES game is beyond me), Vampire Hunter D, Project A-Ko (probably one of the funniest), and a few others. However, my favorite from this era is Ninja Scroll.
While this one is not perfect as it does suffer from some minor goofiness, the overall story is engaging, emotional and at times, humorous.
It also has one of the best fighting exchanges I've ever heard:
Jubei: I know the way now, so leave me alone, alright?
Tessai: Not quite the right direction. The way to Hell is right here.
(Tessai beats on Jubei)
Jubei: It hurts! Makes us even, doesn't it? Let's just call it quits!
Tessai: Not until you have paid your debt.
(Tessai beats on Jubei some more)
Jubei: That's not very smart. First of all, don't you think if we keep this up it's almost certain one of us is going to die?
Tessai: One of us. Yes.
(Tessai has beaten Jubei down, but notices that Jubei's katana is being dragged back to Jubei somehow.)
Jubei: There's no reason we should kill each other. (Jubei's katana flies into Jubie's hand - see image above)
Jubei: That's the only sensible answer. isn't it?
Fucking legendary.
As we watched these movies, we decided to form our own club - we called it "The Sushi Society."
However, the legacy of the Sushi Society is not just us gathering to watch Anime - we tried our hand at sketch comedy as we were also Monty Python fans as well. This led to what I can only call "The Video". I honestly do not know where it is today, but for quite some time, it contained our idea of several oddball comedy sketches performed by some of our friends as well as my brother.
Not The Sushi Society.
I suppose I could go into descriptions of these but I'll just highlight a few:
"The Men's Liberation Show"
"All Sport Commercial" "John Elway Old Spice Commercial"
"Abieve's Cooking Show"
"Pete's Ravioli Cooking Show"
"Not Appearing In This Film"
"Mike Fork: An Anthology"
And generally, just us being stupid. At one point, we tried to incorporate another friend of ours and even tried to write a comedy movie script which never panned out.
In the end, the legacy of The Sushi Society was really just a gathering of friends, being stupid and making inside jokes no one will ever understand. All from one Nintendo game that almost got returned.
I'm still a fan of Anime with Castlevania being one of my favorites as well as Blue Eye Samurai.
Also, imagine my surprise when Netflix produced a series about the Samurai and feudal Japan.
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