I recently came across the first posters for the annual Imabari Onmaku Festival. It looks like they hired a real graphic designer this time around - the poster really makes me want to go! (Unfortunately, I will be unable to do so. Just like last year, I’ll be at the Nametoko English Camp. What is up with the scheduling? Sigh.) Anyway, here’s a translation of the explanation for this year’s theme and poster from the Onmaku website.
〜テーマ〜
「POWER」
街頭ポスターには欠かせない、人を引きつける魅力『力強さ・美しさ』をコンセプトに制作しました。
テーマにあげた「POWER」を一目でイメージでき、祭りの臨場感を感じてもらうことを念頭に、全体の基本色を情熱の赤とし、おんまくの最後を飾る大玉花火をバックに、伝統芸能・ダンスバリサイ・木山音頭の個々のエネルギーが満ちあふれる様を、ポスターの主役であるPOWERみなぎる少女の躍動感を合わせて表現しました。
このポスターから、市民の強く熱い気持ちを感じてもらえれば幸いです。
(onmaku.jp)
-Theme-
“POWER”
Don’t miss the new posters in the street, which pull people in with the attractive “striking and beautiful” concept we came up with.
With your own eyes, you can easily envision the meaning of the theme “POWER” and recognize the festive feeling in the air. The color scheme is based heavily on a passionate red. We’ve chosen the final fireworks volley of the Onmaku festival as a background, over which we layered images of traditional cultural performances, the Dance Barisai*, and people overflowing with the energy of the Kiyama workmen’s songs. The leading lady on the poster is a girl bursting with POWER, whom we’ve presented in the midst of exemplary lively movement.
If, from this poster, you can experience the strong, warm feelings of the townspeople, we are quite pleased.
* “Bari” is probably from “Imabari.” It’s used frequently here. (The radio station is Baribari FM, for instance.) Put together with “sai” probably makes it akin to “Imabari Dance Festival” in shorthand.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who noticed the posters, either. Here’s a Japanese fellow in the area, who blogs in English about it. If you’re up for it, why not leave him a comment or message of encouragement? It’s always nice to build others up. Here’s a quote from his entry.
The fireworks of Imabari “ONMAKU Festival” are famous, and, in the program, many sightseers come from each place.
ONMAKU means “as hard as possible” “intensely” “very hard”.
The fireworks of ONMAKU hark back to the musical of a very beautiful night sky.
Surely the scene of the force and the fascination will make you who came feel happy.
I also snagged the video introduction to the festival from the official site. I re-encoded it as a flash video, for your convenience, and have uploaded it here. You can watch it below. Sorry, the quality is limited by the source video, and the entire thing is in Japanese. But it’s great practice, and fairly easy to understand everyone who speaks. (Ok, maybe minus the old guy at times. Maybe.)
Is anybody going to Onmaku this year? Take pictures and videos for me! I need to experience it vicariously at least. Sigh. 
) Ha ha. “See, you love it, it’s Spanish!” Nice. I am incredibly skeptical about all three of the dolls’ languages. Not one of them sounds accurately pronounced. Then again, they are just prototypes. By the way, does anyone else get the feeling that they took this movie way more seriously than they should have? 
