ザ・レジデンツ
The Residents in Japan: Intro
The following text is an archived version of my original forum posts about The Residents in Japan. I've done more research since making those posts, so I'll try to add additional context if I get something horribly wrong.
Random Context and History
The Residents are really only "popular" among the English speaking world. Although not all albums require knowing English to enjoy them, a lot of the "smarter" stuff they do is in English and typically some sort of commentary on Western and American culture. But somehow The Residents managed to find a following in Japan. Wave Records initially handled the Japanese releases of Residents albums, although I'm not entirely sure how that relationship started. The Residents' popularity in Japan spiked after the release of The Big Bubble, which was hugely successful in Japan, to the point that Wave Records actually got The Residents to perform live in Japan, kicking off their 13th Anniversary Tour. After this, The Residents' popularity definitely fell in Japan, whether it was because the Mole Trilogy was never developed further, interest in "New Wave" music started to fall by then, or of financial problems with Wave Records.
This basically means that most albums prior to the 13th Anniversary Tour were officially released in Japan. Afterwards, The Residents relevance in Japan faded, although with the internet it is much easier to import or digitally buy the music so a Japanese record label taking care of things seems redundant. I have found a Japanese label now printing Residents CDs called "Bomba (ボンバ) Records", though. And another one called "Bird Song". It's pretty hard to keep track of who is releasing what these days. It's also difficult to find which albums were originally released in Japan by Wave, mainly because Wave does not seem to exist any more. And the information that's around doesn't really mention The Residents at all, although the official Rz website confirms that Wave released The Big Bubble in Japan (with a lyrics sheet! If anyone has this Japanese version of The Big Bubble, please share a scan of this supposed sheet!). Another interesting thing the Rz website mentions about Wave is that they "even had a Residents sculpture installed in the lobby of their Tokyo record store." I have found no other information on this sculpture at all on the internet, but it's probably the thing about Wave that intrigues me the most. Does this sculpture still exist somewhere? Where is it? Are there any photographs of it at all?
The 13th Anniversary Shows were mainly played in the now closed PARCO Theater (formerly known as Seibu Theater) in Shibuya, although the Rz website mentions one show in Kyoto with no information on where this show was played. Shibuya's PARCO Theater hosted other interesting acts, such as The Ramones and apparently even a performance of The Rocky Horror Show, among more traditional Japanese music acts and plays.
Anyway, despite being world-famous rock stars, The Residents don't have that strong of a following in Japan anymore. Sure, they definitely have fans all across the world and Japan is no exception, but most likely there is no J. Edgar Sakimoto in Tokyo about to spend one hundred thousand quankeroonies trying to get a Ultimate Box Set.
As we'll see later... The Residents were popular enough to warrant a bunch of shows at the Blue Note in Tokyo. After much more research it's clear that what I mention about their popularity falling in Japan after the 13th Anniversary is inaccurate.What are The Residents called in Japan?
I remember when I was in Japan earlier this year I caught a cartoon on TV while getting ready for the day. A character in that show that sort of stuck out to me was this weird baby with a giant red eyeball for a head. Obviously it reminded me of The Residents and I remember calling the character "The Resident" at the time, and then I forgot about the whole thing.
What are The Residents called in Japan? The Residents are simply called... "The Residents" in Japan. Why would they be called anything else? :)
But in Japanese, their name is written out as 「ザ・レジデンツ」 ("Za Rejidentsu") or more commonly just 「レジデンツ」 ("Rejidentsu"). Generally the "The" in their name is dropped except when put on albums and such. Even the Japanese Wikipedia article drops the "the" and simply calls them レジデンツ.
I don't think we English-speaking people have a real name for the eyeballs. I personally go for "The Eyeball-Headed Residents" when talking about the guys in the eyeball masks, but that's a mouthful! One thing I've noticed when browsing Japanese websites about The Residents is that they actually have a specific name they call the eyeball guys! I've seen people just mention "the eyeballs", but I've seen many people refer to the eyeball-headed residents (...that'll catch on eventually!) as 「目玉親父」or 「目玉おやじ」 ("Medama Oyaji"). If you stick that into Google translate, you'll see that it literally translates to "Eyeball Father", which is kind of weird. I wouldn't consider any of The Residents my father... what's going on?!
Well, Medama Oyaji is actually the name of a character from a very popular long-running manga/anime series called "GeGeGe no Kitaro"! Apparently an official localization named him as "Daddy Eyeball", which kind of makes more sense than "Eyeball Father". The franchise is so popular that when Japanese people see The Residents, they immediately think, "Oh! It's just like Medama Oyaji!"