How COMET is Carving Out a Creative Hub for Gen Z in Tokyo
Courtesy of Comet
In Tokyo, five 2001-born talents are spearheading the new cultural scene of the city. From launching their own culture magazine to organizing pop-ups that feature their creative works, COMET, the Tokyo-based creative crew, is taking the city’s youth cultural scene by storm. At the basic core of the group’s creative endeavors is their desire to reflect Tokyo’s exciting cultural sphere. “We aim to present the unique Japanese and Tokyo culture which is not just an imitation of foreign culture or easily swayed by fleeting trends,” says COMET. Like the fuzzy celestial body, the group represents an approaching youthquake calamity. The crew’s appearance in the Tokyo scene embodies a new disruption in the city’s young creative scene by creating a platform for still undiscovered Gen Z tastemakers to be seen.
Who is COMET?
“COMET is like a mirror that represents ourselves. It is a place where the things we like, the things we think are cool, and the things in our heads take shape,” says RIN, the manager of the COMET group. Artist YAMEPI©︎, graphic designer and editor TAKERU, photographer KOSEI, artist JUJIRO, and manager RIN make up this creative collective. With so many different tastes, inspirations, and interests coming from each of them, COMET is a group that includes many moving parts and yet still manages to create something collectively cohesive and visually dynamic.
“Each member is involved in different creative activities, but at the core, we all share the same interests in street culture, fashion, and toys,” says COMET. “So most of the time when we discuss things, we usually end up on the same page.” The different moving parts and the respective creative sensibilities of COMET are what “allows me to see things that I wouldn’t be able to accomplish on my own. It’s a group where each of the crew members acts as a bridge between scenes in each field,” says JUJIRO.
Courtesy of Comet
COMET MAGAZINE, A New Tokyo Youth Culture Magazine
The collective’s own culture magazine called COMET MAGAZINE successfully brings together the young creatives in Tokyo today by building an exciting community where they can all come together and grow. Freshly launched this year, COMET MAGAZINE has published two issues so far, the first issue being Spring 2024 and subsequently its Summer 2024 issue. “COMET MAGAZINE aims to be a magazine that collects interesting bits and pieces from various corners of Tokyo and spotlights on these spaces and communities to allow the readers to also experience the interesting activation taking place in this city,” says COMET.
For the first issue of their publication, the magazine featured interviews with upcoming talents across different fields from a gyaru fashionista to a vintage clothing owner. Aside from featuring their member YAMEPI©︎ as an illustrator known for his signature ‘BOYS’ characters, this TOKYO issue also highlighted young rapper Kohjiya, HYSTERIC BOOTLEG (produced by Hysteric Glamour Tokyo) fashion designer Syunki, gyaru fashionista Dome Natsu, JIN, the owner of second-hand clothing store PATMARKET in Harajuku, along with PUMP management model and DJ Karikomi Lucia and the Car Service founder Kei Hashimoto. In the beauty section, hair and makeup artist TAKERU from FLEURI and nail artist Tomonyan, both no strangers to Tokyo’s beauty world, were also highlighted. “We want to involve all Tokyo-based artists, designers, and younger generations who are engaged in creative activities and together create a magazine and a community where we can all grow,” says COMET.
The vibrant layout of COMET MAGAZINE also powerfully and dynamically presents Tokyo’s energetic youth culture. For its front cover, the magazine always features an eye-catching red comet star logo in cartoonish flavor along with an icon from one of YAMEPI©︎’s ‘BOYS’ characters. Whether it be the two-page spread featuring YAMEPI©︎ and TAKERU’s fascinating collection of the silver accessory brand JUSTIN DAVIS or the fun street-style snap pages for COMET STREET SNAP, the visual presentation of COMET MAGAZINE perfectly encapsulates the colorful snapshot into Tokyo’s vivid and innovative culture scenes — much like the loud photography style of Kyoichi Tsuzuki’s 2008 photographic series Happy Victims and the colorful street-style snapshot layout from FRUiTS magazine back in 1997!
Why COMET Spotlights On Tokyo
Among the many independent magazines flooding in Tokyo today, COMET MAGAZINE has established itself as a catalyst that is sparking the cultural zeitgeist. “We feel that right now there are fewer and fewer interesting magazines in Tokyo and that most features and interviews are often done just for PR purposes, purely driven by money and ‘sontaku’ (Japanese term when unspoken consideration is made for others, usually people in power),” says COMET.
As a result, the group focuses on creating their magazine platform as “a place where the younger generation can express themselves in their own words and young creators can work together to revitalize youth culture.” Seeing the many yet undiscovered parts of Tokyo, “we want to spread the word to the world that there are so many cool, new people and things in Japan,” says KOSEI.
For YAMEPI©︎ and TAKERU, the twin brothers who grew up in Tokyo, reflecting their roots as Tokyo natives in the works that they create is important. Known for his use of bold lines and muted pastel colors that give a cartoonish feel to his signature ‘BOYS’ characters, YAMEPI©︎, for example, wants his art to feel approachable to the community that had shaped him both artistically and personally. Instead of presenting his work as high art, YAMEPI©︎’s ‘BOYS’ characters reflect the current Tokyo youth’s street fashion through punk and skate culture iconography.
The character which has appeared on both past two issues of COMET MAGAZINE’s cover perfectly captures the youthful, rebellious, and funky flavor of the collective’s independent publication brand. Altogether, the love for this city of Tokyo is what fuels COMET to continue spotlighting the youth culture scene in Tokyo. “We are a crew that will propel the future of Tokyo. We will lead the Tokyo scene so that it will one day become the center of the world,” says YAMEPI©︎.
courtesy of Comet
As the crew continues to develop in the future, establishing COMET as a synonymous symbol of Tokyo’s youth culture that can influence the next generation is what the group is collectively envisioning. “I want to develop each member’s unique characteristics and establish ourselves as a group that can influence the next generation,” says TAKERU. Like the many tastemakers who have preceded and led Japan’s iconic cultural movements, “I would be happy if COMET could become like the cultures and people that have influenced us so far,” says RIN. “We want to maintain our stance of continuing to share what we like and what we think is cool. I think there’s no point in changing that.”
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These quirky little creatures say more than words ever could.