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Demystify kami japanese1/17/2024 ![]() ![]() Wine is presented as a sort of mysterious but not impenetrable secret society (think Da Vinci Code), with its own history, geography, rituals language and traditions. ![]() The Nippon TV series is pretty much a soap opera and you know how addictive those are!īut I think the real factor is that Kami no Shizuku presents a different idea of wine. One reason is that it is a good story and that it always important. I’ve been trying to decide how to explain Kami no Shizuku and why I think it has had such a profound effect on wine is Asia and soon, perhaps, around the world. The rising sales of these iconic wines has been good for these particular producers, but I think the bigger effect has been to draw millions of Asian consumers into the market and help them to develop a personal sense of wine. Kami no Shizuku has set off a wine boom in Asia, where, much as with Sideways, enthusiasts rush to taste the fine wines (mainly from France, mostly Burgundies and Bordeaux) that are featured in each storyline. Read the story panels from right to left on each page the way the Japanese do.) Don’t worry if it appears to be in Japanese - the English shows up once the story begins. (Note: click on the images to move to the next page. You can get a feel for the phenomenon by reading this English translation of some of the graphic novel volumes. Kami no Shizuku is “arguably the most influential wine publication for the past 20 years,” according to Decanter. The Kiyabashis were ranked number 50 in Decanter magazine’s July 2009 “Power List” of the wine industry’s individuals of influence. The Nippon television series that I’ve been watching on DVD premiered in January 2009 and reached millions more. The on-going comic book series, written by Shin and Yuko Kibayashi, first appeared in 2004 and has sold more than half a million copies in Japan alone. The reason you may not have heard about it is that this wine-quake is centered in Tokyo, not New York, Los Angeles or London. The Kami no Shizuku effect seems to be several orders of magnitude larger. Sideways had a big effect on the wine world. No wonder wine tourists come to the Santa Barbara area to drink the same wines, eat the same foods and visit the same wineries as the film characters Miles and Jack (played by actors Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church). It also romanticized wine in a way that cannot have hurt wine sales overall. The 2004 film Sideways, for example, is said to have set off the Pinot Noir boom in the United States and brought to an end a previous Merlot bubble. It is hard for us to accept that something as sacred as wine could be influenced by popular culture.īut we know that it happens. Wine enthusiasts like to think of wine as a very serious subject, all vintages and terroir and malolactic fermentation and so on. Maybe it will change how you think about wine, too. Have you heard of it? No? Then read on because Kami no Shizuku seems to be changing how millions of people are thinking about wine. I’ve spent the last two weeks watching a nine-part Japanese television miniseries that is based upon a 20+ volume Japanese manga (graphic novel) called Kami no Shizuku (Drops of God). ![]()
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