japanesefashioninferno:INTERVIEW: Wild Style! Inside Japan�s Heisei Retro Trend with Bisuko Ezaki!The Menherachan artist talks about his favorite fashion, characters, music and more from the 1990s-2000sFull Interview at TokyoScope Blog!Bisuko Ezaki�is a Japanese artist�best known for his original manga creation...
INTERVIEW: Wild Style! Inside Japan�s Heisei Retro Trend with Bisuko Ezaki!
The Menherachan artist talks about his favorite fashion, characters, music and more from the 1990s-2000s
Full Interview at TokyoScope Blog!
Bisuko Ezaki�is a Japanese artist�best known for his original manga creation known as��Menherachan�, who reached a global audience in 2018 via a Refinery29 YouTube video called��The Dark Side of Harajuku Style You Haven�t Seen Yet�.
Since then, Bisuko has dived headfirst into the growing �Heisei Retro trend� in Japan, and has been looking back for inspiration at the colorful styles and extreme youth cultures active in Tokyo from the 1990s to the 2000s�(i.e., Japan�s Heisei Era).
In addition to cosplaying as a Heisei-era Gyaru-o (male gyaru), Bisuko has started chronicling his retro obsessions and activities on�Twitter.
It seemed like a good time to check in and ask him about what Japanese youth culture was like then, and the challenges it faces now.
TokyoScope: I noticed recently that you�ve been posting a lot of images from Japan in the 1990s and during Heisei era on your�Instagram�and�Twitter�accounts recently, such as�retro fashion,�pages from old magazines, and�even yourself in cosplay. Can you explain your current interest in this time period?
Bisuko Ezaki: In Japan, when the era changed from the�Heisei era (1989 � 2019)�to the�Reiwa era (2019 � present), the term �Heisei Retro� emerged as a new concept. At the end of the Heisei era, there was a renewed focus on Japanese trends and culture from the 1990s to the 2000s, which helped create a new nostalgic trend. Now, with the�Y2K boom, this older era continues to capture people�s attention.
Recently, there have been many events such as revivals of old manga and anime, the release of new merchandise for classic characters, and caf� events. This has led many people in their late 20s and 30s, including myself, to once again indulge in the things we loved when we were teenagers.
Of course, I enjoy these things simply because they are nostalgic. But you could also say, �we haven�t changed at all since the Heisei era.�
How do you think Shibuya and Harajuku have changed for young people since the Heisei era? What is your impression of these places now?
I don�t think Harajuku and Shibuya are as influential now as they used to be. This is because each town has lost its �unique character� that existed in the Heisei era. Now every town is no different from the others.
There are no iconic figures representing these neighborhoods, so I believe that nurturing such individuals is the current challenge.
Full Interview at TokyoScope Blog!
