Twilight - The Japanese Connection

A few weeks ago I said I'd be doing another post similar to what I did for Space Age Love Song. Well here it is but this time we're looking at Electric Light Orchestra's song Twilight from their album "Time". Compared to some of ELO's other hits this song isn't as popular as songs like "Evil Woman" but in Japan it has a huge connection with the Otaku Culture.

Before we go any further a quick explanation of Japanese Anime/Otaku Culture is needed: Otaku are the equivalent of what might be considered Geeks/Nerds in western culture but they are people who are very knowledgeable on a certain subject which in this case would be Anime. Originally Otaku was considered a derogatory term but in recent years it's been looked at in a more positive light.

DaiCon was the name of a group of then amateur animators who would later go on to form a company named Gainax famous for hit titles such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Otaku No Video, Mahoromatic and many more.This opening sequence was made for a Science Fiction Convention known as Nihon SF Taikai in 1983 and is the second of two animations produced by Daicon with Daicon III being produced in 1981. These opening sequences are well known for featuring high quality animation for amateurs at the time, as well as various characters from both American and Japanese pop culture and the music they're set to which in the case of DaiCon IV features three songs from ELO and Twilight being the most well known piece, the other two being the intro of the album "Time" and "Hold On Tight".

Because of the issue of using licensed characters and music without permission of the respective parties, the DaiCon Animations were never officially released or marketed outside of Japan aside from some rare Laserdiscs that were packaged with an official artbook and both of these can fetch upwards of thousands of dollars on auction sites but thanks to video sharing sites like Youtube and homages in Japanese Anime, DaiCon lives on. When attempted to market DaiCon in the US, Playboy saw the Bunny Outfit and didn't want that used in any anime thus preventing DaiCon from entering the US.

In recent years many homages have been made to DaiCon IV, one in particular was used as the theme song for a Japanese Drama Show, Densha Otoko (better translated as Train Man). This opening sequence can be viewed below.

Thus this ends another posting of a Song made popular thanks to Animated but this time from the land of the rising sun.

Links of Interest:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAICON_III_and_IV_Opening_Animations
http://www.cjas.org/~leng/daild.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Densha_Otoko_%28TV_series%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_%28Electric_Light_Orchestra_song%29