Danny Choo

Danny Choo (born 1972 [http://www.intertrend.com/imprint/imprint2007/] Imprint 2007 list of speakers] ) is a blogger, the founder of Mirai Inc., and an internet celebrity best known for his exploits as a "Star Wars" Imperial stormtrooper exploring and dancing in the streets of Tokyo. He has performed speaking engagements as an expert on the blogosphere and otaku in North America and Europe, and has been featured on television reports.http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/whatsupwithjapan/64870/Tokyo-Trooper-Staring-Fetish-and-More.html] [http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2008/09/14/lah.jimmy.storm.trooper.cnn] Tokyo's dancing stormtrooper - A fashion mogul's son dances through Tokyo, Japan, as a Star Wars stormtrooper.] As of August 2008, Dannychoo.com is ranked among the top 10,000 most visited websites in the world, [http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/dannychoo.com] Alexa traffic page for Dannychoo.com] with over 20,000,000 page views per month.

Career

Danny Choo was born in 1972 in London, England, where he spent time as a shoe designer working for his father Jimmy Choo before deciding to study Japanese and Korean at London University. After graduating from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, Danny joined Japan Airlines as a computer engineer for just over a year. After being employed by Nature Japan, he relocated to Japan in 1999.

Since then, he has remained in the Internet industry, serving as Website Manager on the management team at Amazon Japan (Tokyo and Seattle), and as CGM (Consumer Generated Media) Product Manager at Microsoft for Live.com.

In 2007, Danny incorporated his own company named Mirai Inc., which "focuses on delivering CGM SEO solutions and platforms to Japanese enterprises".

Dannychoo.com

Danny Choo hosts a popular blog devoted to Japanese popular culture focusing on anime, manga-based figurines, photographs, videos of Japanese "idols", Gundam, Otaku, related events, and conventions. The blog features content in both English and Japanese.

The site has been online since August 2000, but its popularity surged in early 2006, the time that the first Stormtrooper video was uploaded to YouTube. Another significant increase in traffic occurred in 2007, when the first Tokyo Dance Trooper video was uploaded. Pushing its traffic rank from around 40,000th, to almost 5000th in the world as of March 2008. Page views for July 2007 was over 10 million served to over 50,000 unique users per day.

peaking engagements

On September 13, 2007, Choo was a panelist at Imprint 2007 at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in Los Angeles, California.

On May 8, 2008, Choo was a guest speaker at the 13th Trend Day 2008 in Hamburg, Germany as "an active member of and expert on Japan's Otaku scene". [http://www.trendbuero.de/index.php?f_categoryId=454] 13th Trend Day 2008 list of speakers]

tormtrooper Videos

Origins

On July 24, 2005, Danny Choo purchased an Imperial stormtrooper costume on eBay and blogged of his intention to wear it in the streets of Tokyo. [ [http://www.dannychoo.com/blog_entry/eng/102/Stormtrooper+Armor/] Stormtrooper Armor] Over the next year, he posted pictures and video clips of himself wearing the costume in public and visiting businesses in Tokyo. On September 24, 2006, he uploaded a video of himself wandering the streets of Tokyo in the costume to YouTube, which has been viewed more than 11,000 times. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EokF1I7HvKE] Stormtrooper in Akihabara] A second video, filmed in Yokohama, reached a similar audience.

Tokyo Dance Trooper

On June 30, 2007, dannychoo.com and kirainet.com co-produced a video called Tokyo Dance Trooper, in which the stormtrooper dances in an intersection in the town of Akihabara in Tokyo during a red light, as well as in a subway car and on a sidewalk. The video has been viewed almost 1,000,000 times. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bygdRMCwC6s] Tokyo Dance Trooper] A blog entry about the video became the most popular entry on the Official Star Wars blog, [ [http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2007/07/02/stormtrooper-dances-in-tokyo-streets/] Original Tokyo Dance Trooper video on Star Wars blog] and Lucasfilm mailed Danny Choo to tell him that they enjoyed the video. Danny Choo was later invited to a "YouTube Mix" in Omotesandō, Tokyo, where he met YouTube co-founder Steve Chen. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7X9MQi7uOU] Tokyo Dance Trooper in Shibuya]

The following month, a second co-production featuring Darth Vader as a second dancer was uploaded, which has been viewed over 500,000 times. [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywH7KfBK8fw] Dance Vader] In October, a third video was filmed in Shibuya, Tokyo, featuring dance scenes at popular landmarks Hachikō Crossing, Shibuya 109, and Center Gai, as well as footage of the Dance Trooper at the YouTube Mix in Tokyo. The video was posted on the Official Star Wars blog [ [http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/index.php/2007/11/01/tokyo-dance-trooper-in-shibuya/] Tokyo Dance Trooper in Shibuya on Star Wars blog] and has been viewed almost 1,200,000 times. More recent videos have brought the total views for the nine videos on the Tokyo Dance Trooper series to over 3 million views. [ [http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=1D507D60A040A645] Official playlist for the videos in the Tokyo Dance Trooper series]

Popularity

The popularity of Star Wars and the breadth of memorable characters has made the franchise a popular target for parodies in television and film, as well as fan videos. Although YouTube videos featuring dancing stormtroopers preceded Danny Choo's videos by at least a year, the most popular videos have been viewed between 30,000 and 80,000 times, despite appearing in "Related Videos" and searches for Danny Choo's videos.

Tokyo Dance Trooper videos are notable for being filmed in highly public locations, such as busy Tokyo intersections, as well as the spontaneous reactions of passersby. People appearing in the videos sometimes dance with the Dance Trooper, take pictures, or shake his hand. While a dancing stormtrooper would be an unusual sight in any urban setting, creating and wearing highly accurate costumes depicting characters from Japanese popular culture has become a significant subculture in Japan, known as cosplay. This may partially explain the willingness of passersby to participate in the video, and the overall popularity of the videos.

Television appearances

In July 2008, Danny Choo appeared as the Tokyo Dance Trooper in two CNN reports about the Japanese launch of the iPhone. [ [http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/07/10/lah.lok.iphone.release.japan.cnn] Dancing Storm Trooper on a CNN report about the iPhone launch in Japan on July 10, 2008] [ [http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/07/11/lah.japan.iphone.cnn] Danny Choo as "Storm Trooper" discussing the iPhone on a CNN report on July 11, 2008]

On July 30, 2008, Danny Choo was featured on G4's "Attack of the Show!" in a feature called "What's Up With Japan?". The segment discussed his appearances on Japanese television, his Tokyo Dance Trooper videos on YouTube, and showed clips of his appearance on CNN at the iPhone 3G launch.

On September 14, 2008, CNN featured a report about Danny Choo. The feature highlights his career, his website, and his other title as the "son of Jimmy Choo". Reported by Kyung Lah, this broadcast is notable in that it is the first to officially note that shoe designer Jimmy Choo is Danny Choo's famous father. [http://www.dannychoo.com/adp/eng/1572/dannychoo.com+on+CNN.html] dannychoo.com on CNN] The video was the most popular on CNN.com on September 15.

References

External links

* [http://www.dannychoo.com DannyChoo.com]
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/tokyostormtrooper Danny Choo's YouTube page]
* [http://starwarsblog.starwars.com/ The Official Star Wars.com Blog]