, more commonly known by his stagename , (born January 13, 1971) is a Japanese comedic

performer The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perform ...

and former

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

. Dai Okazaki is a relative of

Takashi Okazaki (born March 18, 1974) is a Japanese people, Japanese Mangaka, manga artist, visual designer and graphic designer, most notable for writing and illustrating the manga series ''Afro Samurai''. Early life Okazaki was born in Kanagawa Prefecture and ...

, the creator of ''

Afro Samurai is a Japanese ''seinen'' ''dōjinshi'' manga series written and illustrated by manga artist Takashi Okazaki. It was originally serialized irregularly in the avant-garde ''dōjinshi'' manga magazine ''Nou Nou Hau'' from November 1998 to Septe ...

''.

Career

Dai Okazaki was one out of four people to debut in the line up of '' Nou Nou Hau'' issue 0, with his brother

, Ryoji Shibasaki and Mai Shibasaki in November 1998. At the time, Dai Okazaki was a ''

dōjinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of ''doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created by ...

. In issue 2 of March 1999, Dai Okazaki contacted Meywa Denki for a long period of time to interview him in the "Nou Hau Talk" section of the magazine. Later on that year, Dai Okazaki was asked to go on the famous show ''Takeshi no Dare Demo Picasso'', and then went under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

"Smelly", taken from an old nickname of

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

's. The third issue of ''Nou Nou Hau'' was released at the same time as when Dai Okazaki became famous on ''Takeshi no Dare Demo Picasso'' in May 1999 and featured a picture of him on it, which made the magazine increase in sales. Also, in issue 3, Dai Okazaki started a ''Smelly'' manga series, which was said to be very different from the live performances. In October 1999, issue 4 of ''Nou Nou Hau'', Dai started the serialized manga in that issue. In 2000, Dai Okazaki played at the Hakone Open-Air Museum and Rotterdam Film Festival, and in 2001 appeared on a promotional video for Takkyu Ishino, and played at PostPet exercise. At the ''Nou Nou Hau'' exhibition "Show Yavay!!!," Dai Okazaki played a live performance in 2002. In 2003, Dai also played at the opening ceremony for Mori Art Museum in 2003 and at the program exhibition for the Kirishima Open-Air Museum. As well as just performing in Japan, Dai also performed in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council * Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

, and

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

. In 2005, Dai Okazaki collaborated again with Tōhō Rikimaru, who previously appeared on Geisai 7 by

Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts media (such as painting and sculpture) as well as commercial (such as fashion, merchandise, and animation) and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts as well as co ae ...

. Smelly was also quoted and interviewed in the Michael Jackson article "Big in Japan" by Bryan Walsh in 2007.

Works

Smelly started doing work in the ''Nou Nou Hau'' magazine, as previously mentioned, and created two

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is use ...

serializations, ''Smelly'' and ''Bijutsu Techō''. Smelly later went on to participate in ''Takeshi no Dare Demo Picasso'' which made him famous later on. Smelly is also famous for creating the promotion video , where he sings "Ikkyū-san" along with "

September September is the ninth month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars, the third of four months to have a length of 30 days, and the fourth of five months to have a length of fewer than 31 days. September in the Northern H ...

" by

Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million r ...

, with psychedelic imagery parodying " Let's Groove," also by Earth, Wind & Fire. Smelly's work combines art, music, theater, and comedy all in one and has also stated that he gets much of his influence from Michael Jackson and that he would gladly pay $400 for a ticket to one of his shows. Smelly has also released some merchandise, such as "Smelly's book" and "Smelly's puzzle box". Smelly also wrote volume 5 of entitled "Dancing All Night" which appeared as a part of the serial in a monthly flyer for the Japanese club "UNIT". Dai produced and designed his own personal website named "handicappers" on biglobe.ne.jp from 1998 to 2003. Dai Okazaki lost domain name and the website now appears as a broken link.

References

External links

Official page at Kugelblitz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smelly Manga artists Japanese comedians Outsider musicians Living people 1971 births