Culture
DECODER – an atlas of pop culture •
The Italian pizza chef who’s taking on the world with Pokémon
The Disney comic “Metropolis”, the second season of the anime “Dorohedoro” and an interview with Nicola Matarazzo, a contestant on “Pokémon Champion of Champions”
Three weekly recommendations to explore comics, audiovisual media and games, and to find your way around the vast universe of pop culture and the stories that are shaping the contemporary imagination. Today: the Disney comic “Metopolis”, the second season of the anime “Dorohedoro” and the video game “Pokémon Champions”
In the vast world of pop culture, what unfolds before those approaching it for the first time is a veritable universe in which to lose oneself amongst dozens of comics, films, TV series, anime, collectible cards, video games, board games and role-playing games. So here is a new weekly instalment of DECODER, the column in "Il Foglio" edited by Gianluca De Angelis, designed as a guide to help you find your way around this ever-expanding world. Every week, three recommendations, three gateways, three points of reference to point you in the right direction through this multiverse of diverse languages that today say so much about our own world.
In the world of comics, this week we recommend a comic that film buffs will particularly enjoy: “Metopolis”, a Disney adaptation of Fritz Lang’s 1927 German silent film masterpiece “Metropolis”. A work that leans more towards reinterpretation than simple translation, successfully tackling the extremely difficult task of transforming a story that is carved into the very foundations of the Seventh Art into a tale suitable for all ages, set in a world populated by characters beloved by children and adults alike.
In the world of audiovisual media, “Dorohedoro” is described as an experimental and visionary anime: now in its second season, it is available on Netflix and Crunchyroll. The manga by Q Hayashida on which this anime is based was a hit in print, and it proves to be an excellent production in its animated form too: standing out for its animation and for the style that captures its endless visual stimuli. This is thanks to the splendid work of Studio MAPPA, now a byword for Japanese animation.
Finally, a tip from the gaming world: the competitive Pokémon platform “Pokémon Champions” – a cross-platform arena available on Switch and mobile devices – will henceforth be the venue for all official Pokémon competitions, including the highly anticipated World Championships to be held in August in San Francisco, alongside the first major convention and fan event, PokémonXP, to celebrate this important 30th anniversary in style. We spoke to Nicola Matarazzo, an acrobatic pizza chef and the Italian representative at the “Champion of Champions” competition, held in London on 28 July, which brought together eight prominent figures from different walks of life under the Pokémon banner to compete in a no-holds-barred Pokémon-themed contest.
Three works to help you navigate the world of entertainment and pop culture, a world shaped by imagination, nostalgia and collective desires. DECODER is here to try to decode the present, including through its new popular myths, piecing together, week after week and feature after feature, a vast map that charts, more than ever before, the infinite nuances and directions of our present. See you next week for another trio of unmissable titles.