Japanese pop culture expert Patrick Macias takes you on a illustrated tour of astonishing people, places, and things found inside Tokyo's underground art, music, fashion, and otaku scenes.
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DJ and Anison ("Anime Song") remix artist BoyPanda at 2.5D studios in November, 2012.
PandaBoy was one of the first artists I stumbled across who was helping to create a new sound, and a new club scene, with his amazing remixes of anime theme songs.
I don't remember if I heard his astonishing remix of the Madoka Magica theme on YouTube or Soundcloud first, but the concept of otaku culture crossing over into dance music on its own terms was something of a revelation.
So too were the livestreams that were then coming out of Tokyo, like Akihabara Mogra, Dommune, and 2.5D, which made it possible to follow these scene in real-time.
2.5D used to have their studio space upstairs at the Shibuya PARCO department store (now closed for renovation as of fall 2016), so it was easy to pop in and watch a DJ like PandaBoy at work without having to stay up all night and wait for 4am for him to take the stage.
Not sure exactly what he is up to lately, but he seems to have transitioned into doing official remixes for anime songs (which sadly don't show up on his Soundcloud page because they are "official releases").
You can partially relive those thrilling days of yesteryear at
https://soundcloud.com/pandaboy
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