Little Tokyo

My husband and I attempted to get into a "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" book signing with the author/artist, Bryan Lee O'Malley, at the Giant Robot 2 store in Los Angeles, but there was no guarantee of getting in with what looked like about a 2-hour wait, so I decided to just take pictures of the crowd instead.
Event poster!


The back of Bryan Lee O'Malley's head!


Giant Robot 2 sign!


The Power of Love!


Cute Lolita!


Chihuahua!



After our attempt to get into the signing, the Tokyo Japanese Outlet across the street caught my eye and, once inside, I was in kawaii heaven. The store had everything from bento boxes to Hello Kitty chopsticks to paper fans to Japanese cosmetics and more. This is the perfect place to get odd little gifts for your friends.

Happy Sponges!


These plastic gentlemen are judging you harshly...very harshly.


Lucky cats!


Mmm...candy.


I ended up buying the following:

Strawberry Pocky - $2.49


Iwaku erasers - $.50 each


Strawberry-scented ice cream bubbles (pink) - $1.99


Happy fun time!

Scott Pilgrim & Edgar Wright

I started reading the "Scott Pilgrim" graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley last week at the hubby's recommendation and I'm through book 4 of 6. Love it. It's funny, clever, full of great characters and silly drama, and the art style is cute-as-all-get-out. So now I'm even more excited to see the film version, which is opening tonight. Supposedly I'm not the target audience, but it stars Michael Cera and many other actors I love, so it would have to suck pretty badly to disappoint me.



The movie, "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," is directed by Edgar Wright, who also directed the kick-ass British movies "Hot Fuzz" and "Shaun of the Dead." I recently discovered a British series he also directed called "Spaced" (starring Simon Pegg of the aformentioned "Fuzz" and "Shaun"), which displays his usual hilarious timing and quick cuts between reality and fantasy. The series has a great cast, video game inspired fight scenes, geeky pop culture references and satirical plotlines, and it revolves around of couple of misanthropic, sporadically employed boy/girl friends who share an apartment together. At only 14 episodes, it's not a big viewing commitment and you can see them all for free here on Hulu. Below, a cartoon of the cast of "Spaced."