I had the incredible honor of attending an installment of the Japanese Consulate General’s 2009 Spring Conferment of Decoration for one of the most amazing people i know: Fred Schodt.

Writer, translator, interpreter, intellectual, and all around cool guy, Fred was awarded this prestigious award (“Order of the Rising Sun”) by the Japanese government for awesomeness. He was instrumental in introducing manga and overall Japanese pop culture to the states. Of his many achievements, he and his posse, back in the day, had the balls to approach Tezuka about translating his works. And things blossomed from there.

We brought Fred on board for some work during the Tezuka exhibition two years ago, and it was one of the best things that happened to me/us. Getting to know him, and his fantastic wife Fia, goes down in record as one of my career highlights. (I basically aspire to be like this charming, lovely couple. Their bohemian-without-the-baggage live-and-let-live attitudes are the best)

The evening was superbly pleasant and chill, not weighed down with formalities. The tone was festive and moving. Jared Cook, Steven Okazaki, Takayuki Matsutani (pres of Tezuka Productions), Seiji Horibuchi (pres of VIZ), and many others were there. Watch this vid of Fred and some bandmates busting out a sweet song. The cheery guy in the middle is the president of Tezuka Productions! I just love when the guy busts out his fiddle (?!). And the Consul General is dancing too! Sigh. Happiness.

Fia, Fred, dorky me, and Ryan:

Consul General, Fred’s nephew, Fred’s “honorary son,” Fia, and Fred:

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 7:49 pm and is filed under comics, culture, events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.