THE BRICKS IN JAPAN !

The Bricks in Japan !
Subspecies video review
By Brian Lotti

Every once in a while I get to see a video that really gets me psyched to get out and push around and see the world differently. A few years ago Blueprint’s, “Make Friends with the Color Blue” presented a host of cool new approaches to bank, block, and city-street skating. The Blueprint video was fresh and gave me license to think about things differently. Skating weird banks and juicing flips tricks and nosebluntslides, and stringing cool lines through unlikely urban-mall zones. Seemed like the Blueprint guys could all get down wherever they were; their collective approach to skating was fresh and sincere. Blueprint made England look like place filled with all kinds of cool nook-n-cranny spots that I wanted to get down on.

Daisuke Takahashi’s new “Subspecies” video is another fresh take on skating, with a particularly Japanese approach and perspective. The majority of this video features Japanese skaters street-skating in the Tokyo area. There is a lot of night-skating as Tokyo is too busy and too policed to get a lot of solid skating done in the day. Similar to the Blueprint gang, these Japanese skaters dig deep and make the most of their native urban terrain. This video features a lot of really cool spots and creative terrain. Gou Miyagi’s wildly imaginative approach to rail and street skating will get even the most jaded skater to perk up a little and reach for his board and the front door. Japan is quietly keeping it real and this video is a treat that will get you hyped to skate and think about your neighborhood in fresh ways. Long live the land of the Rising Sun !

“Subspecies” is a great name for this video because skaters in Japan are certainly a kind of “Subspecies” from mainstream Japanese society there ( Daisukes cleverly references the mood and world of the post-apocalyptic film “Blade Runner”). Also, Japanese skateboard culture falls a little to the left of the mainstream US skate spotlight. This video clearly makes the case that the Japanese skate scene is original and authentic. The music has a cool vibe and drive, and the editing and clips of Japanese street life give us a great feel for Japan. What a mad pursuit! Skateboarding unleashed in the streets of Tokyo! It all makes so much sense in this video and I now look forward to seeing more great skating to come from Japan.

All of us regular folks can order the “Subspecies” DVD through the US skateboard DVD site, Unicron.net. Cool beans like skate shop owners should hit up Kevin Marks at Overboardenterprises.com for the wholesale deal. This video is going to be really great for the skateshop TV ! Play this thing on repeat for days and guys will be psyched to hit the loading dock behind the store. “Subspecies” DVD directed by Daisuke Takahashi, released by studio sk4. Get it while it’s hot !

Editor's note: Daisuke was kind enough to hook the Berrics up with an extra copy of Subspecies, and we want to share it with you. The first person to answer the trivia question below will win our extra copy. Email your answers to news@theberrics.com.

Q: Who is a new team mate of Gou Miyagi's that is Japanese but lives in Los Angeles ?