Fuse "Blade Runner" with a Playboy cartoon and the result points in the direction of Masamune Shirow's animation. Imagine a dystopian sci-fi world, in which a strong female character both kicks ass and busts juicily out of her hi-tech body suit. Muscled sexuality flies everywhere as she defeats all t

Catastrophe, Dystopic, Sexy, Spiritual, Technology, Urban, Voluminous

Courageous dancing is no anomaly in Japan, but the particular kind of bravada that H*Art*Chaos brings to the Western dance world is definitely a new import. Sakiko Oshima formed her all-woman dance company in 1989 with the intention to overturn traditional concepts of female bodies and their modes of

Agitated, Athleticism, Body politic/identity dance, Euro-surreal expressionism, Kinetic, Sexy, Visceral

Out of the cross-dressed history of Japanese Kabuki and Noh theater comes Takarazuka Revue, a butch/femme drag show of mammoth proportions. The 86-year-old revue renders Western musicals in an all-girl extravaganza of romance and chivalry. In 1914 Ichizo Kobayashi, a Hankyu railway magnate, founded

Charming, Ebullient, Grand, Sexy

"Now Japan is a very small, flat, unified world. Everything is very small and very much the same. There are no Others. It tends to be relaxing but it can also be dull. You can't meet with the New or the Strange." Ryu Murakami's words might seem bleak to a Western audience. But to better understan

Anxiety, Dark, Dreamy, Eclectic, Lyrical, Postmodern fiction, Sexy