Warning : The following post contains nudity/adult content.

One of the first art exhibitions that I visited during my one short week in Tokyo is renowned Japanese illustrator Sorayama Hajime’s ‘Light, Reflection, Transparency’ held at the Creative Museum Tokyo ( Mar 13th – May 31st 2026 ), a short walk from Tokyo station.

I’ve been follow Sorayama’s work for almost 30 years but this is actually the first ever solo exhibition of his that I’ve ever had the chance to visit in person, so I was quite excited.

The exhibition pulls no punches and straight as the visitor is ushered into the first room they are awed by spectacular, larger than life pieces of his art work. While it has been conveyed to me that some of these are enlarged versions of his work ( which kinda tracks because Sorayama’s primary medium is air-brush and they are usually more suited for desktop sized pieces of work as far as I know ) and not the original, the visceral impact of seeing his pieces in such massive format is still magnificent.

(above) After the main paintings gallery, there are also sculptural showcases of his shiny chromy robots. (below) A detailed replicate of the artist’s workspace, dressed with lots of interesting art work, toys and trinkets.

In conjunction with the exhibition there is also a new art book ‘Sorayama – The Gynoids Sublime’ which will be widely released on June 19th. I’ll be reviewing it in the coming weeks, in the meantime you can pre-order a copy of the book here.

This is actually the first of two Sorayama exhibitions that I got to see, the other is the joint exhibition with his fellow erotic/adult art illustrators Katsuya Terada and Rockin’ Jellybean called Ex Machina Galactica which I will also be writing about soon. Stay tuned !

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It’s been a pretty hectic 2 weeks of travel, first to my hometown of Singapore and then Tokyo, before finally returning to Vancouver yesterday. This time round it is a much shorter trip because I’m still busy working on the VFX for an upcoming film and could ill afford to take an extended vacation.

That said, I did managed to line up my limited time in Tokyo with many cool art exhibitions and also got to meet up with some old and new friends. I did not of course forget to pick up quite a few new art books along the way and will be posting reviews in the coming weeks, as well as write-ups on my visits to the art exhibitions.

It’s going to take about a week or so to shake off my usual jet-lag, but I’m looking forward to edit all the photos I’ve taken on the trip, so stay tuned for more to come soon. In the meantime, check out some highlights of my trip in these twitter posts below –

Finally back in Vancouver after my Tokyo trip. Super beat and jet-lagged but still gotta head back to work tomorrow ?
Anyway, I gotta a good number of photos to edit and art book reviews to get to, so look out for them in the coming week/s. pic.twitter.com/8C5vsOlHe6

— blauereiter (@blauereiter) May 24, 2026

Achievement unlocked – pilgrimage to Otomo’s ‘Procession Spin’ bas-relief sculpture at Ginza station ( near exit B1 of Hibiya line ). Took like a hundred pictures from every hoomanly possible angle. Not even kidding ? pic.twitter.com/s77QarKrjD

— blauereiter (@blauereiter) May 22, 2026

Some of the amazing art on display at the Otomo figure/model kit meet-up I attended earlier today. Thank you @nemuridino again for inviting me ! ?? pic.twitter.com/z3EUKRZG7F

— blauereiter (@blauereiter) May 21, 2026

Accidentally Square Enix

Was just exploring the area around my hotel located in Shinjuku and stumbled upon the legendary game studio. ? pic.twitter.com/4DZYvRUFHu

— blauereiter (@blauereiter) May 19, 2026

Tekkon Kinkreet director Michael Arias was kind enough to meet me for a coffee in Kichijoji and shared some work in progress pictures of his upcoming ‘Sunny’ stop-motion animation film based on Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga. It looks AMAZING. Fans are going to go wild. pic.twitter.com/OvNjDFI28v

— blauereiter (@blauereiter) May 21, 2026

Just visited the Sorayama Hajime exhibition in Tokyo and I’m positively stunned by just how massive some of his paintings are. I always assumed they were like desktop sized. ? pic.twitter.com/jO5gq3o7xU

— blauereiter (@blauereiter) May 19, 2026

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Some pictures of the 4K UHD release for Hiroyuki Okiura’s explosive directorial debut Jin-roh : The Wolf Brigade (人狼 / 1999). It ranks very high up on my list of favorite Japanese animated films, trailing only behind absolute masterpieces like AKIRA, Ghost In The Shell & Princess Mononoke ).

This fairly bare-bones set comes in a cardboard slipcase, and the contents include just the jewel case for the 2 discs ( 1 4K UHD disc + 1 SD blu-ray disc ), plus a small booklet that gives some background information on the film as well as select BG art and settei pieces ( character design sheets ).

Unlike the Patlabor 2 : The Movie 4K UHD that was also released around the same time, the set does not include the storyboard book, although it was for the much older DVD box-set. Sadly, the price doesn’t seem to be any much lower even though they left out the storyboard book.

I do have to say that I love the stylish cover art design for this release a whole lot more than the one for Patlabor 2, the latter which looks positively drab.

(above & below) Some select character design sheets included in the small booklet. These settei drawings and art work are covered in much more detail in 2 of the published art books Jin-roh Maniaxx as well as Jin-roh – Behind The Screen. Sadly, both books are out of print and are more difficult to come by these days. The same is true for the excellent storyboard book.

(above) Some of the moody background art paintings by art director Hiromasa Ogura. They can also be found in the 2 art books I mentioned above as well as the artist’s own art book ‘Of Light And Darkness’.

And now let’s talk a little about the video quality of the 4K UHD presentation; as a disclaimer I am not a professional physical media reviewer and can only offer my layman take, but the image quality are certainly a marked improvement from the prior SD blu-ray version of the film.

Because of the inherently muted color palette of the film, the improvement isn’t a very noticeable one in terms of the vibrancy or saturation of the images, but the fidelity of the cel drawings and background art paintings do see an overall improvement in terms of sharpness and in the latter tonal range.

I would go on to say that casual viewers who are not big fans of the film will likely not see a very big difference between the existing SD version compared to the new re-mastered 4K UHD presentation, but discerning fans who want the very best edition with top image quality would appreciate it. Recommended.

“Jin-roh : The Wolf Brigade 4K UHD 人狼 4Kリマスターセット details :

– 2 discs ( 4K UHD + SD blu-ray )
– 4K film scan re-master
– With English and Japanese subtitles

  
Buy From Amazon.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | CDJapan

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Kow Yokoyama(横山宏) is a Japanese artist/sculptor and creator of the science fiction series Maschinen Krieger ( formerly called SF3D when published in the magazine Hobby Japan ). His mecha designs bear a unique and distinctively biomorphic look and have over the years garnered a cult following by mecha and model kit fans.

This hardcover volume is a beautifully illustrated, full colored comic ( the B.D. in the titles denotes Bande dessinée / バンドデシネ – the French/Belgian term given to hardcover, high quality comics ) showcasing his Maschinen Krieger mecha.

Kow Yokoyama is very active in the toy/model kit scene and has many books and publications featuring his Maschinen Krieger mecha, but sadly most of them are out of print and harder to track down unless through Amazon marketplace sellers.

I would also highly recommend his excellent sketchbook that I previously reviewed way back in 2012.

“Ma.K B.D. – Kow Yokoyama Manga Art Book details :

– Dimensions – 21 x 29.7 cm ( A4 size )
– Hardcover, 110 pages
– Full color, in Japanese

Buy From Amazon.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK

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One of my most hotly anticipated animated film releases of this year has got to be Wildwood by renowned stop-motion animation studio LAIKA. The studio’s unceasing dedication to artistic as well as technical excellence and innovation can clearly be felt in all their films, and it is one of the biggest reasons why I am such a big fan of the studio.

Wildwood won’t be released until November this year, but here’s the official trailer and some splendid making of featurettes that will surely whet your appetite. Check them out below –

While we’re talking about LAIKA, I will be re-miss not to mention the excellent art book ‘LAIKA: The Magic Behind a Stop-Motion Dream Factory‘, an in-depth volume that explores stunning work of the studio over the past 2 decades. Check out my review for the book here.

I will also be picking up the art book for Wildwood when it is released in October, so look out for my review then.

“LAIKA: The Magic Behind a Stop-Motion Dream Factory″ book details :

– Dimensions – 9.3 x 0.95 x 11.22 inches
– Hard cover
– 240 pages, full color

Buy From Amazon CA | Amazon JP | Amazon UK | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Amazon DE | Amazon ES

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