Superflat Japan
It is interesting how he relates modern Japan to anime and games with the ‘superflat’ concept. He combines the idea of a ‘geek’ and ‘art’ together in some of his pieces. In his explanations of his pieces, I was intrigued by his specific word uses. One of the cases was when he was describing his lifesize model sculptures of some anime type characters. One of the sculptures was of a robotic female that transforms into an airplane. As he described this sculpture, he mentioned that this piece’s concept was “Japanese geek sexuality”.
The way he portrays Japan seems to be extremely complex yet simple. The vibrant use of colors on the same simple concepts continues to shine in his artwork. They are very much concepts of modern day Japan in my opinion: strange through the combination of scary and cute (Japan is known for many strange behaviors and cute concepts), erotic (his sculptures do seem to represent many of the erotic aspects that Japan is well known for), vibrant (modern day Tokyo).
The superflat Japan that is depicted by Murakami Takashi is an interesting concept. This concept was especially apparent in one of his more simple painting known as ‘Time Bokan’. It is an illustration of a black skull surrounded by a red background. The background signified pain, sorrow, perhaps death. He explained that it was the mushroom cloud from an atomic bomb and I was able to immediately realize the true meaning in the piece. The result of an atomic bomb is literally a flat world. All things in the area are knocked down, destroyed, and massacred. Japan is the only country to experience the ‘flattening’ of an atomic bomb. He uses this imagery and creates a piece to relate with his concept of a superflat-ness.
jpn400 
I think your take on Murakami’s ‘superflatness’ is two-fold: on one side, the superflat art works symbolize a surface-heavy, two-dimensional culture; however, on the other side, the superflatness of, say “Time Bokan,” establishes a literal superflat that is only known to post-war Japan. This sheds light on a question of identity and if the superflat “Time Bokan” is perhaps a genuine Japanese art work, whereas Murakami’s other works’ inspiration is pulled from the west. To me I can categorize his works based on what his motives were — if they are derived from a westernized mindset, or if they are inspired by the Japan Murakami grew up in.
I think Murakami’s way of translating the pop culture of Japan into artworks is very clever, especially how he uses gaming and anime into interesting figures. How the statues look and how the facial descriptions are a little silly and cute at the same time.
I didn’t see superflat that way. It is actually an interesting way to view it. I did not really find his artwork to be scary. I thought it was basically all cutenes with a touch of strange thrown in.