It is safe to say that those of us running skate publications have a high affinity for Rob Taro’s work. His renown Timescan series, which started in 2019, takes a something-out-of-nothing sensibility learned from a childhood in small-town New Jersey, and takes it into the often claustrophobic, high-bust street spots of Japan. Rob’s videos and parts are full of lines connecting opposite sides of the street, mountainous banks with obtuse runways, and cutty nuggets of marble that stick out to only those with a discerning eye for the skateable.
Today, we are happy to join the ranks alongside many of our colleagues, and present to you …a Rob Taro part. Hilandar Tokyo is a new video by Yoji Mizusawa that is entirely filmed in Tokyo, a scene whose younger generation — as Rob recounted to Free in 2023 — has set their eyes more towards contest skating than the breed of street videos Taro and his crew were first inspired by. But it’s not tough to imagine a timeline where those prodigies growing up under the microscope of demanding skate-coach parents reach their later teen years, say “fuck this,” and start scraping up office plazas out of spite ;) Maybe?
Until then, it’s nice we have videos like Hilandar Tokyo to show the way.
DVDs are available via Theories of Atlantis.
Filmed & Edited by: Yoji Mizusawa
Additional Filming: Katsumi Minami
Motion Graphics: Tomoyuki Kujirai
Designed by: Masashi Furukawa
Music by: stim