Hogoz (pronounced “hoe-goes”), a unique online comedy by J-Powers, begins Monday, September 20, 2010. Each Monday through Friday, a new scene—less than one minute in length—will appear online. The upcoming web series is billed as South Park meets Manzanar. This series takes place in a war-time concentration camp for Japanese American kids and others who have been labeled as troublemakers. Formerly a ramshackle boarding school on Navajo land, Hogoz embraces the ups and downs of teenagers behind barbed wire. While the subject of the forced removal and unjust imprisonment of U.S. citizens during World War II has been treated dramatically, this is the first time it is expressed with satiric humor. Another unique feature is that the series plays like a live-action comic strip—that is, the live actors perform in front of hand-drawn backgrounds. You can see a preview below.

Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, a historian who played a pivotal role in the Redress movement through her research at the National Archives, has said of the series, “Hogoz has captured the many different classes of Nikkei [Japanese Americans]—the confused, the resigned, the superpatriot, the supine/docile, the angry, those who felt betrayed by their own government.” Hogoz also will be uniquely notable for having the greatest number of Asian Americans in a current popular entertainment show. Eleven members of the cast are Asian American actors ranging in age from 14 to 24 including Lawrence Kao of Kaba Modern (ABDC Season 1). These young artists imbue the series with a fresh, funny, and authentic voice. Also, there are experienced and some well-known non-Asian actors portraying the camp’s adult personnel. “After decades of grousing about the injustice of having spent three years in U.S.-style concentration camps,” observes Herzig-Yoshinaga, “I must admit it was a refreshing new experience to find myself laughing over the antics, language, and some of the events that inmates face and how they dealt with them. There are some great lines of humor in the [series].”

The story and characters of Hogoz are fictional creations of J-Powers (a.k.a. John Powers) who writes, produces, and directs the series. J-Powers is a Los Angeles-based creative artist whose education and experience is in theater, film, and video.

Hozog web series preview

Meet the cast of Hozog