Latest news with #Kamiya
The Mainichi
06-05-2025
- General
- The Mainichi
1,300-yr-old salt-making method resumes in Japan's Ishikawa Pref. after disasters in 2024
SUZU, Ishikawa -- Salt production using the "agehama" method, which had been practiced in the northern Noto Peninsula's Okunoto area for some 1,300 years, resumed in this central Japan city April 25 after the region was struck by a massive earthquake and torrential downpours last year. The labor-intensive agehama-style process involves scattering seawater over sand fields to evaporate in the sunlight, then mixing the resultant salt crystals with more seawater, and filtering and boiling the solution until a thick layer of salt crystals forms. This traditional production method has been resumed at the roadside station "Suzu Enden Mura" (Suzu salt farm) in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, at the tip of the peninsula on the Sea of Japan. Kenji Kamiya, 65-year-old chief of the roadside station, commented, "I want to express my gratitude for the support from various people that has allowed us to restart." The salt farm, which was damaged not only by the Noto Peninsula earthquake on New Year's Day 2024 but also by heavy rains in September of the same year, has taken a step toward recovery with the help of volunteers and others. A Shinto ritual was performed April 25, the first day of the work, during which a priest purified the salt fields and the cauldron used for salt making by sprinkling salt and sacred sake. In spring 2024, salt production was resumed after cracks in the field ground caused by the Jan. 1 quake were repaired. However, the torrential rain in September caused earth and sand from nearby mountains to flow into the salt fields and the salt-making hut, once again halting production. Last year's salt production at the farm dropped to about 2 metric tons, roughly one-third of the pre-disaster level. Kamiya reflected on his feelings of despair at the time, saying, "The salt fields were buried in soil, and we couldn't even distinguish their shape. I couldn't envision being able to make salt again." Despite this, seeing university student volunteers repeatedly visit on their school holidays to help restore the salt farm since immediately after the disaster reignited Kamiya's determination to rebuild. "Salt making is all we have," he thought. The roadside station's building finally had its water supply restored in February of this year, and operations partially resumed in March. The restoration work at the salt fields continued until April, but they managed to hold the Shinto ritual on April 25. This season's salt making will continue until early October. Kamiya aims to produce about 4 tons. "Salt making has continued despite numerous challenges," he said. "We have a responsibility to pass it on to future generations. Our revival will be the greatest repayment to those who supported us."
Time of India
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Kamiya Jani (Sunday Brunch with Curly Tales)
Sunday Brunch with Curly Tales is a fun, candid podcast hosted by Kamiya Jani, the founder of Curly Tales. Launched in 2019, the podcast quickly became popular for its unique format—unscripted, intimate conversations with celebrities over a delicious brunch. Each episode offers a peek into the stars' personal lives, passions, and upcoming projects, and of course food. Kamiya's Sindhi roots and her passion for food and storytelling resonated with audiences, leading to over 100 episodes, and expansion into markets like the Middle East. In 2022, she won the Food Influencer of the Year award at the Influencex Awards, and in 2024, she received the National Creators Award for Best Travel Creator.
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Kaiju No 8: Mission Recon review – the fury and rawness of battle as monsters keep coming
Kaiju, as Japanophiles will know, are Godzilla-style giant monsters that double up as A-bomb and/or natural disaster metaphors, and Naoya Matsumoto's YA spin is a smart addition to the outsized genre. This film is an omnibus recap of the 2024 TV anime's first season, directed by Tomomi Kamiya and Shigeyuki Miya, and tacking on a new 20-minute episode. Taking place in a high-school-style training academy for anti-kaiju troops, it plays like Pacific Rim meets Starship Troopers meets The Incredible Hulk. Kafka (voiced by Masaya Fukunishi) wants to join the Defense Force like his childhood buddy Mina (Asami Seto), who has become the kaiju-reaping star of the outfit. But having flunked the entrance exam, he is stuck as part of the cleanup crews who dispose of city blocks' worth of gore after the battles – and is normally assigned intestine detail to boot. After newbie faeces-mopper Reno (Wataru Kato) encourages him to reapply and they both scrape through, Kafka is invaded by a parasite that allows him to transform into a hench skull-headed kaiju; an alter ego he must, of course, conceal from his new colleagues. From the power fixation (they are assigned special suits that augment them in proportion to their natural abilities) to the petty rivalries between recruits, there is little that is new here for connoisseurs of the likes of My Hero Academia. But it is underpinned by a pressing social anxiety, with thirtysomething 'old dude' Kafka desperately playing catch-up to join the warrior elite; his specialist knowledge of kaiju anatomy swings things in his favour. And Kamiya and Miya execute it all with an addictive punky relish, starting with a bestiary – from human-headed spider-demons to wyverns and proliferating fungal colonies – unfailingly eviscerated with maximum overkill. Though the character work is at times rudimentary, Kamiya and Miya keep things interesting by mixing up animation styles: sophisticated 3D urban fly-bys (the studio is Ghost in the Shell's Production IG), kaomoji-style cutaways for extreme emotional reactions (there are many), and an almost expressionist rawness in the fury of battle that meshes with Yûta Bandoh's strident score and the odd LOL proclamation from Kafka: 'I'm gonna try punching it as hard as I can!' After 90 minutes of this fast-forward kaiju-trouncing, the bonus episode – about deputy captain Hoshina's day off – is soothing, if sentimental, respite. Kaiju No 8: Mission Recon is in UK cinemas from 16 April.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Devil May Cry and Bayonetta veteran Hideki Kamiya is still leaning on Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami's wisdom at new studio Clovers: "I have always made decisions based on his teachings"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Following his departure from Platinum Games, Hideki Kamiya announced his new studio, 'Clovers,' back in December at The Game Awards 2024, alongside the news that the studio would be teaming up with Capcom to release a follow-up to the cult classic Okami. During Kamiya's original tenure at Capcom, he worked closely with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami at Capcom Production Studio 4, which resulted in him directing Resident Evil 2 and the original version of Resident Evil 4 – which turned into Devil May Cry. Despite the two not having been under the same roof since Mikami finished work on Vanquish in 2010, Kamiya still uses the Resident Evil creator as a source of inspiration years later. Speaking to Game*Spark (translated by Automaton Media), Kamiya says that Mikami's teachings from his time at Capcom directly impact how he teaches his staff today. "I don't tell the staff, 'This is what Mikami-san would say,' every step of the way," he says. "But in the course of developing games up to now, I have always made decisions based on his teachings, and I have shared them with the production team. "Back then, we used to call what Mikami taught us the 'spirit of the 4th.'" Kamiya says, adding, "The reason I left PlatinumGames was because the company's way of thinking was gradually shifting towards a modern model of game development that doesn't place importance on the creators' individuality," presumably referencing Platinum's shift to live-service titles like Babylon's Fall (with Kamiya's Project G.G. allegedly being turned into a live-service title during development). Kamiya felt so strongly about this that he didn't care if leaving Platinum marked the end of his creating games, saying, "even if it meant the end of my career as a creator, I couldn't allow myself to kill my soul in order to work in an environment that I didn't agree with." The Mikami-led Capcom Production Studio 4 was a bastion of creativity at Capcom, giving us the likes of Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, and Killer 7, and this is something that has followed Kamiya throughout his career. Clover Studio – despite only sticking around for three years – made the wild trio of Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and God Hand. The name Clover Studio was an abbreviation of 'creativity lover,' with Kamiya taking that one step (or three steps) further with Clovers, which the director says stands for "Creativity," "Challenge," "Craftsmanship," and "our 4th C…" on the Clovers being happy to leave Platinum Games in the past, Kamiya recently said he would love to take another crack at making the canceled Microsoft collab, Scalebound.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Okami 2: 7 Small Details We Now Know About The Mysterious Sequel To A PS2 Cult Classic
Okami 2 was one of the most surprising game reveals ever, as evidenced by the fact that host Geoff Keighley almost broke into tears when talking about it at The Game Awards 2024. But there's still a ton we don't know about the sequel to the beloved PlayStation 2 cult hit, including its official title. That's starting to change now, however, as director Hideki Kamiya and the rest of the team in charge of development open up about the highly anticipated project. In a new interview with IGN, Kamiya and others laid out what fans of the 2006 game can expect from this follow-up two decades later. The original Okami let players control the goddess of the sun, Amaterasu, in the form of a white wolf with magical ink abilities who sets out to free a vibrant, painterly countryside from demonic curses. It was inspired by The Legend of Zelda but looked and played unlike anything else at the time. Despite critical acclaim and a 2010 successor for the DS called Okamiden, Capcom eventually abandoned the franchise, seemingly due to poor sales. So why return to the beautiful world of Okami all these years later, especially when big publishers appear more focused than ever on blockbuster games that sell millions of copies? We learned the answer to 'why now?' and some other important questions in IGN's profile of the upcoming game: Capcom wanted to bring Okami back but was waiting until Kamiya was available again (he worked at Platinum Games until 2023) The team is using the RE Engine that all major Capcom games have been adopting in order to realize 'Kamiya-san's artistic dreams for this project' The sequel will be a direct continuation of the first game's story, which Kamiya said he always felt was left unfinished (that's Amaterasu in the reveal teaser) Despite being announced last December, the Okami sequel has only just begun development In talking about updating the control scheme of the original game, Kamiya said he wants 'people of all ages to be able to enjoy it,' even if they aren't hardcore gamers Okami has sold better than many people think: across ports and the HD remaster, the sales are currently at 4.6 million Kamiya isn't the only veteran of the original game working on it. Kiyohiko Sakata heads up Capcom partner studio Heart Machine Games, which handled the HD port Kamiya and the rest of those involved in Okami 2 didn't go into much more detail beyond that, either because they're waiting to reveal it later or, since it's still so early in development, they don't actually know themselves. It remains unclear just how big of a budget and launch the game will have, but one thing Capcom has proven in recent years is that even smaller releases, at least relative to a Monster Hunter Wilds or Resident Evil 7, can still deliver something exceptionally special. That's how I felt about 2024's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, a gorgeous action strategy game with a streamlined focus on its core mechanics. While some may have a desire for Okami to now be realized in a sprawling open world full of characters to meet and secrets to discover, akin to how Zelda has evolved in recent years, I'd love to see the sequel stay more focused and not become too burdened with modern AAA expectations and bloat. It might also be the only way we see Okami 2 come out a few years from now, rather than being made to wait over half a decade for a sequel many of us have already been dreaming of across multiple console generations. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
