I found this story via Kotaku, the clip below is of a man in Tokyo who is a manga street performer. Rikimaru Toho reads manga aloud to passerby in the same way musicians perform in subway stations in NYC (you can ever hear trains in the background). My reaction went from “hey, that’s cool” to “uh, he looks a little unbalanced” and I’m settling near “I could see myself doing that if I ever became unhinged”. It’s nice to have options.

The annotation (from “A Public Space“):

In this short clip from Japan, the Manga Man reads from Slam Dunk, Takehiko Inoue’s hit manga series about competing high school basketball teams. The scene depicts a crucial moment in the story when the hero, a newbie, manages to steal the ball from a veteran captain. Toho starts with streams of onomatopoeia, evoking mayhem on the court. At around the :50 mark, the hero says: “Heh-heh. I got the ball!” At around :57, the crowd roars: “Amazing! He finally got it! He got the ball away from the captain!” And at 1:05, a young female fan featured in closeup gushes: “He’s so awesome. And now everyone understands how great he really is. Yes!”

EDIT: found this second clip from robpongi.

Tags: manga, unemployment

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