Once upon a time, shining idols beloved of Japan's youth sacrificed their lives protecting fellow Asians from neo-imperialist attacks.  As Matthew Penney writes in this week's Japan Focus (complete with translated frames from the comic book), in 1967 Tezuka Osamu's Astroboy died trying to protect North Vietnamese villagers from American bombing raids.

   Nowadays, Japan's shiny idols run naked and drunken through Tokyo parks, then apologize abjectly to the media the next morning.    Astroboy magically revived for the next issue of the comic book; presumably, so will our SMAPster, once the rituals of self-abnegation have all been properly carried out.