I have been dreaming about this for years now, and now finally, someone took the effort to upload the Shakotan Boogie anime to Youtube! You may wonder why this is such a big deal, so let me explain to you what Shakotan Boogie is, why I have yearned for this and why it is great to have it on Youtube!
What is Shakotan Boogie?
Shakotan Boogie (シャコタン★ブギ) started as a Manga in Weekly Young Magazine in 1986 and remained serialized until 1996. It’s a manga about two boys, Hajime Yamamoto and Koji Watanabe, who are into zokusha and the whole subculture around it. This is closely related to the Bosozoku, but they aren’t the same.
The two boys are car-crazy and they drive around in a blue and white Toyota Soarer Z10 on SSR Mk Is. This car has become so iconic that it became the stereotypical Soarer for many people who are into zokusha. Similar to what the panda-Trueno is for Initial D fans.
If you are unfamiliar with zokusha, these are heavily modified cars that generally mimic race cars from the 1970s and early 1980s. These cars are then modified with big over fenders, wings, spoilers and wide wheels. I have done quite a lot of posts about zokusha in the past and you can find more information here.
Why am I so excited about this?
First of all, it is difficult to obtain original Shakotan Boogie VHS cassettes from Yahoo Auctions. These tapes are rare and most of the time overpriced. Even though I have a VCR somewhere in my attic, I don’t have anything to connect to. My VCR has composite and S-video out, but I only have screens that require HDMI input. And I have no idea what the quality of these tapes would be.
I could obtain some bootleg SVCDs or DVDs, but these are in a different region and are in Japanese without subtitles. It would be very difficult to watch and follow for a non-native speaker.
Why are you so happy it’s on Youtube?
I’m so happy someone uploaded it to Youtube, because all videos uploaded over the past few years automatically had a transcript created. This means Youtube has tried to transcribe the Japanese language in the video. If you enable captions on a Japanese language video, you can select to have the (automatic) Japanese transcript translated by Google Translate.
It’s not the best transcript as it makes mistakes. Also, the translation isn’t the best translation you can get and it doesn’t capture cultural aspects in these captions. But at least it’s understandable for non-native Japanese speakers. And the cultural aspects, I can understand them myself!
Shakotan Boogie video
And finally, here’s the video:
The video looks a bit blurry and this is because it has been captured from old VHS tapes. Enjoy almost 3 hours of Shakotan Boogie!
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