After the success of the first J-Pop Summit last year, the folks at New People and San Francisco’s Japantown decided to make this colorful, artistic celebration an annual affair. On Saturday, September 18 (and several days leading up to this event), Japantown became the epicenter of J-pop culture fun, inviting bands, artists and designers from Japan and the Bay Area.

Over 35,000 people gathered for the festivities, which took up two blocks of Japantown. Bay Area Asia-philes got to experience a different side of Japanese culture: one that’s flashy, fashionable, avant-garde, irreverent, energetic, fun and very now — instead of typical Japanese traditional fare like folk dancing and taiko drumming.

The normally serene Peace Plaza in Japantown reverberated with rock, rap, trance and soul sounds thanks to “Girls Rock Explosion 2010,” a gathering of femme-fronted bands, including high-energy rockers from Osaka Jinny Oops and soulful party grooves from Tokyo’s own Soulit. Both bands are touring the USA, so be sure to check them out if they come to a town near you.

Fashion fans got a taste of edgy Gothic elegance from the Black Peace Now clothing brand. On the other side of the spectrum was a candy-colored, super cute style from straight from the streets of Harajuku, courtesy of 6 % Doki Doki. 6 % Doki Doki designer Sebastian Masuda, along with fashion muses/”shop girls” Yuka and Vani put on a high-energy fashion show, featuring a few local models sporting 6% Doki Doki — and loving it.

As for art, there was plenty of that too. Character designer Mori Chack signed his famous Gloomy Bear goods galore for a long line of fans. Gloomy Bear is a cute pink bear that acts more like a vicious grizzly than a cuddly teddy, so he’s often seen mauling his little boy companion, the pitiful Pitty. As Chack explained it, “if you’ve ever owned a cat or dog, they’ve probably bit or scratched you. But if they were big like a bear, you’d probably be seriously hurt, or dead!” So cute as he is, Gloomy Bear has a message for everyone: respect nature, or that kawaii (cute) critter you’re wanting to hug might just end up being kowai (scary) too.

Fresh from his 10th appearance at Burning Man, avant-garde visual/performance artist Ken Hamazaki blew a few minds with his two performance pieces, “Hagata Man” and “Grateful Red” Ceremony. “Hagata Man” consisted of Hamazaki setting himself up as a head on a platter on a table in the middle of Post Street, where he’d “bite” foam disks to create “limited edition” art objects on demand.

Bay Area graffiti artist Estria was on hand too, creating a multi-paneled mural from start-to-finish during the festival. The finished piece was due to be sold via silent auction to benefit Japantown charities. If you’re in the Bay Area, don’t miss the 4th Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle in West Oakland on Sunday, October 3, 2010.

A Vocaloid virtual idol Hatsune Miku put on a “live” concert experience for a sold out crowd at VIZ Cinema. In fact, several fans showed up to J-Pop Summit dressed as their favorite Vocaloid virtual idols. Missed out? Not to worry — the folks at VIZ Cinema are trying to arrange encore performances soon. To learn about the Vocaloid phenomenon, click here.

The film Detroit Metal City premiered at the summit, which created a ton of buzz in Japantown. Detroit Metal City is a live-action version of Kiminori Wakasugi’s raunchy heavy metal comedy, which stars Kenichi Matsuyama as a heavy metal rock god who is actually an emo dweeb who dreams of singing twee pop songs. If you need another reason to check out this film, I’ve got three words for you: “Gene. Simmons. cameo.” Yes, the KISS frontman makes a memorable appearance as Jack Il Dark, the god of death metal in this flick…and that alone makes it worth the price of admission.

All this –  plus the cool crafts, a cosplay contest, a Pocky-eating contest and video game demos — provided a diverse sampling of contemporary Japanese pop culture fun!

–Deb Aoki