What’s Toshiaki Toyoda up to these days? Hint: Don’t get excited

Posted by kevin at 5:22am on Sunday, June 15, 2008 EDT

Toshiaki Toyoda posing with his band Twin Tail On August 24, 2005 Japanese movie and PV director Toshiaki Toyoda (Blue Spring, 9 Souls) was arrested for having 5 packets (about 3.9g) of stimulants in his home. The incident almost derailed the release of “Hanging Garden” (Kuchu Teien) and he eventually received a 3-year suspended sentence for possession. The lack of new film projects after the incident coupled with an obvious language barrier has led to rumors in the west that he’s being blackballed by the Japanese movie industry. Now, I have no idea if that’s the case and I wouldn’t even begin to speculate on something like that here, but I did come across a bit of news involving him today for anyone that’s been worried he might have dropped off the face of the planet. Apparently he’s the producer for an instrumental rock band called Twin Tail. They’ve been together since ‘05 and will be releasing their first album on July 7, 2008 entitled “Subete ha Yurusarete Iru”. The band consists of only a violinist, a drummer, a bassist, and a video guy (Toyoda). Their live shows have a huge screen with lots of funky visuals which he’s responsible for creating. Check out a clip below to experience the weirdness.