The Old School Otaku Lounge

I don't believe Nishizaki had a boat yet circa 1978, or if he did it was more a launch or other small craft. The big boat didn't come until after the huge money post- Be Forever Yamato. I may well be wrong but the impression I have is he didn't go 'excessive' until the '80s.

all I know about Nishizaki's boat is Noboru Ishiguro telling us that while they were working on the first Yamato TV series, he called them from his yacht to inform everyone that Yuki shall be the only woman on board the Yamato, no matter what they'd shown previously.

I'm aware of his yacht, but im also aware of his large collection of weaponry he got which got him busted. So when I read stuff like that I just imagine him making phone calls about yamato while having somalian pirates moving firearms on his boat at the same time. There could be some half truth to that.

DKop wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 2:17 pm I'm aware of his yacht, but im also aware of his large collection of weaponry he got which got him busted. So when I read stuff like that I just imagine him making phone calls about yamato while having somalian pirates moving firearms on his boat at the same time. There could be some half truth to that.

I can't believe I forgot the Ishiguro quote Dave references, then I think back to Nishizaki's music industry days and yeah, mia culpa.

But the guns, no, no, it wasn't like that at all. Nishzaki had a couple of M-16s (with grenade launchers!) and a Glock. When he was arrested he had some small caliber Chinese semi-auto with a couple of rounds in the magazine, this was under the cushion of a chair. Speculation was that was for a 'suicide by cop' standoff which luckily didn't happen. I believe the phrase best used is 'Cocaine is a hell of a drug'

This is the kind of deep cut info that I have longed for. Read all about it. https://ourstarblazers.com/vault/386a/

Keep in mind the tone of the writing. Japan is different. Hype is ever present. Given where he took that yacht, I don't think it's so terrible he took some self defense. And I don't think of a couple of M-16s, even with grenade launchers, is exactly "ready to start a war".

Now if he had a couple of M2 .50 cal machine guns with a bunch of cans of ammo, that would have been a different story.

I think at Nishizaki worst, he's a meak Tony Montana of the anime industry, based on what i'm seeing. Making an exploitation documentary on this man life would be a phenomenal piece of cinema to see. Or just recut Scarface and replace Al Pachino with The Nish, solid film.

I mean his weaponry doesn't really rival some of what rednecks have in the south, but hey a man's gotta protect what what the banks don't know he's got in his estate.

DKop wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2019 2:49 pm I think at Nishizaki worst, he's a meak Tony Montana of the anime industry, based on what i'm seeing. Making an exploitation documentary on this man life would be a phenomenal piece of cinema to see. Or just recut Scarface and replace Al Pachino with The Nish, solid film.

I mean his weaponry doesn't really rival some of what rednecks have in the south, but hey a man's gotta protect what what the banks don't know he's got in his estate.

Full disclosure: On the whole I consider Nishizaki a pretty admirable man. I do compare him to Gene Roddenberry, a talented person who went off the rails late in life.

I might make sad jokes about his drug use (I blame NYC for that mainly, and the '80s) but I do not see him sitting next to a mountain of coke surrounded by guns. He sailed near some really bad areas (Cambodia is a pirate haven for example) and, really, some self protection is a damn good idea. Frankly to my eyes, a pair of M=16s aren't nearly enough. I would prefer something in .30 cal, maybe the M-14. Something that can punch a hole thru a wheelhouse and ventilate the helmsman. I digress.

Nishizaki went out of control, no question about it. But it was more a self-destructive binge and not an outtake from a Yakuza film.

WHY he did that, I have no idea? Death wish? The thrill of danger? Who knows.

It's interesting in the linked article it mentions Nishizaki buying his big cruiser after the Yamato movie, as I speculated. His previous yacht was either too small or Ishiguro got his timeline mixed up, or he just jumped on the 'Nishizaki is teh evvvil' bandwagon with Matsumoto.

I gotta wonder if Tim Eldred might ever translate that The Man who made Space Battleship Yamato ~ The Madness of Yoshinobu Nishizaki book or some sort of english adaptation will come out about that. I'd love to give that a read. I enjoy biography books (since I still got Console Wars to read after 5 freaking years of having it).

I'd still would want a Nish movie where he buries his face in a mountain of cocaine on his yacht while working on Yamato script writing. That would be damn entertaining to see

I dunno man, 5.56/.223 caliber bullets do pack a punch, its gonna hurt/kill either way. Come on, we see how Golgo 13 uses an M-16, you really wanna mess with that?

I would LOVE to read a translation of that Nishizaki biography.

Apparently Helen McCarthy's new Matsumoto book dishes a little dirt on Matsumoto's views on a few topics and I hope we get his take on his struggle with Nishizaki with regards to Yamato. From what I gathered talking to and listening to Ishiguro, he seemed to regard Nishizaki as a demanding boss, occasionally asking for unreasonable things, but if there was any dislike towards the man himself I didn't pick up on it. Nishizaki was certainly a larger than life figure, always wanting his next production to be bigger and better than his last, his failures were almost as gigantic as his successes, and he certainly seemed to be embodying that big-deal producer lifestyle.

It's my understanding that one of the weapons violations he was charged with involved vintage WWII artillery shells, which apparently he came into the possession of due to his involvement with WWII historical researchers. I can easily see where a lot of artifacts from that period cross the line between "antique curiosity" and "dangerous explosive," and I can also see how Nishizaki would easily say to himself "surely those rules are for irresponsible fools, not mature and responsible collectors such as myself."

Say, is this comic artist the same Kay Reynolds who worked with Ardith Carlton on Robotech Art I?

SteveH wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2019 3:26 pm Full disclosure: On the whole I consider Nishizaki a pretty admirable man. I do compare him to Gene Roddenberry, a talented person who went off the rails late in life.

I might make sad jokes about his drug use (I blame NYC for that mainly, and the '80s) but I do not see him sitting next to a mountain of coke surrounded by guns. He sailed near some really bad areas (Cambodia is a pirate haven for example) and, really, some self protection is a damn good idea. Frankly to my eyes, a pair of M=16s aren't nearly enough. I would prefer something in .30 cal, maybe the M-14. Something that can punch a hole thru a wheelhouse and ventilate the helmsman. I digress.

Cambodia? Can I ask a source for that? That place in the 80s and 90s moved between "hell on earth" of the Red Khmer to "no-go zone" during the Vietnamese occupation.