A lot of kids go through a bug phase, when dragonflies, fireflies and butterflies seem absolutely fascinating. But the Japanese carry bug love to heights unknown to the underage ant farmers of my native Ohio, a love that puzzled me when I first came here, since about the only bugs I normally encountered in Tokyo were cockroaches, spiders and mosquitoes.
But once I ventured to the countryside, I discovered that giant stag beetles, and other armor-plated, oversize insects Japanese kids obsess about, actually exist outside a pet-shop case. The creative inspiration for everything from samurai armor to tokusatsu (special-effects TV show) monsters suddenly became clear.
Based on Aozora Daichi's popular gag manga in "Morning" magazine, Sakichi Sato's comedy "Konchu Tantei Yoshida Yoshimi" (Insect Detective Yoshimi Yoshida) kids this bug obsession, while enthusiastically embracing it. In particular, the closeups of its various insect "characters," with their gorgeous color and detail, wouldn't be out of place in a Discovery Channel documentary. Also, when the bugs "talk," their mandibles really move in a semblance of speech, minus computer-generated assists. Creepy, but funny.