Search results
61 results, page 1 of 2


Iwane: Sword of Serenity (居眠り磐音, Katsuhide Motoki, 2019)
The contradictions of the samurai code conspire against one noble-hearted young man in Katsuhide Motoki’s adaptation of the long running series of historical novels by Saeki Yasuhide, Iwane:…


The Softhearted Samurai: Katsura “Tauemon” Takamori (Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin)
Anime showcases many samurai characters who are cool and bad-ass. But from time to time, I would prefer a different take on the samurai character. Tauemon from Sakuna:…
![Featured image for Bushido (2024) review [Camera Japan Festival]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240930/1727702624.90962.131910.jpg)
![Background image for Bushido (2024) review [Camera Japan Festival]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240930/1727702624.90962.131910.jpg)
Bushido (2024) review [Camera Japan Festival]
Kazuya Shiraishi proves that the frame of the samurai and the Edo society can still be utilized to deliver refreshing narratives.
The Pass – Last Days of the Samurai / 峠 最後のサムライ / Tōge saigo no samurai (2020)
Obscure Japanese Film #123 Koji Yakusho This Shochiku production stars Koji Yakusho, well-known for his leading roles in international hit...
Japanese Book Guide : 27 Books You Ought to Read about Japan
Here’s a collection of books to help expand your knowledge about Japan. I’ve referred to these books for my various writing projects. This list skews toward history because…


Anime Like Meiji Gekken – 1874
Once a samurai until the warrior caste was disbanded, Shizuma Origasa began working as a rickshaw puller after the samurai rebellion in his home province of
Blade of the Immortal, Golden Kamuy, ONIHEI, Rurouni Kenshin, Shigurui: Death Frenzy
Mystery of the Samurai Sword
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,
Murder by Matchlight
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,


Goblin Slayer II Episode #09
Let’s begin this episode with the introduction of a certain party led by the Samurai Captain whose accomplishments in fighting the demon lord and various monsters became legendary…


Samurai Champloo Is One of a Kind.
Loved Samurai Champloo since forever. I've been enamored by the adventures of Jin, Mugen, and Fuu ever since I first watched it, so I’m happy I could rewatch…


Dragon Ball’s Unofficial Side Story
In the year 1990, there was a anime feature as a collaborative release with three different entries on the bill. So called entries being pink: water thieves rain…


25 Gifts Anime Gave The LGBT Community
Uncensored/Bonus Content Version Of This Video: https://www.patreon.com/KrisPNatz As we count down the days to Christmas let's open some GIFTS a few days early with these 25 anime, movies, characters,…


SPY x FAMILY Season 2 Episode 9: Favorites
SPY x FAMILY Season 2 Episode 9: Yor, with a renewed sense of purpose, faced off against the samurai assassination. But she had no weapons...


Top Manga Sold in the US: September 2023
A million thanks to the amazing folks over at ICv2 and Publishers Weekly that we get to see these charts on a monthly basis so be sure to…
My Hero Academia, One-Punch Man, BLUE LOCK, Chainsaw Man, Dragon Ball


Beginner's Guide to Musashi & Vagabond
Today's Beginner's Guide to Musashi & Vagabond is a bit outside the norm for me, since it covers the 1939 Musashi novel, 1950s Samurai Trilogy, and Vagabond manga.…


Many Ways to be a Warrior: Illness, martial arts, and seeing myself in Kojirō Sasaki
By watching how Record of Ragnarok told the origins of Kojirō Sasaki, I reminisced about my time wrestling. The samurai would lose his matches; but Kojirō uses his…
Castle Skull
detective fiction, 推理小説、games, mystery, murder, locked room, Japanese, translations,


A-Yokai-A-Day: The Old Tanuki Disguised as a Samurai’s Wife
Tonight's story features a tanuki, a yokai that is beloved by almost everyone. I have to wonder what the tanuki was thinking when it decided to do what…


Hagakure: the Art of the Samurai
The Hagakure appears obsessed with seppuku when you read through it. In the book, Yamamoto Tsunetomo collected myriad accounts of samurai from Saga domain along with various proverbs…
Dororo: A Novel - Part 7 Chapter 3 - The Tale of the Hidden Treasure on the Cruel Cape
Dororo: A Novel Tsuji Masaki …


The Samurai and the Prisoner Novel
Advance to reach heaven. Retreat to know hell. This precept forms the basis of Honobu Yonezawa's Naoki award-winning novel, The Samurai and the Prisoner.
![Featured image for An Interview with Junji Sakamoto, Director of Okiku and the World せかいのおきく [New York Asian Film Festival 2023]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20230731/1690819721.65813.100857.jpg)
![Background image for An Interview with Junji Sakamoto, Director of Okiku and the World せかいのおきく [New York Asian Film Festival 2023]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20230731/1690819721.65813.100857.jpg)
An Interview with Junji Sakamoto, Director of Okiku and the World せかいのおきく [New York Asian Film Festival 2023]
Okiku and the World せかいのおきく (2023), directed by Junji Sakamoto, is an absolutely heart-warming and moving story of love set during the end of the samurai period. Its beautiful…
![Featured image for Okiku and the World せかいのおきく (2023) Director: Junji Sakamoto [New York Asian Film Festival 2023]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20230716/1689522521.64932.99781.jpg)
![Background image for Okiku and the World せかいのおきく (2023) Director: Junji Sakamoto [New York Asian Film Festival 2023]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20230716/1689522521.64932.99781.jpg)
Okiku and the World せかいのおきく (2023) Director: Junji Sakamoto [New York Asian Film Festival 2023]
Okiku and the World せかいのおきく (2023), directed by Junji Sakamoto, is an absolutely heart-warming and moving story of love set during the end of the samurai period. Its beautiful…


Hell’s Paradise Episode 5: Favorites
Hell’s Paradise Episode 5: Sagiri learned that even the butterfly’s scales are dangerous – they had poisoned her. Genji wanted her to leave.
Jigokuraku – 05
「侍と女」 (Samurai to Onna) "The Samurai and the Woman" The more Jigokuraku indulges the thoughtful side of its personality, the more I suspect I'm going to like it.


My Journal, Page 47, 13 April 2023 – Yakuza Meets the Samurai Age? – Like a Dragon Ishin!
In Like a Dragon Ishin, Ryoma Sakamoto is a low-ranked samurai living in Tosa, a town in the Bakumatsu era where the caste system is preventing the population…


Orient (Volume 1) – My Dream is…
Musashi and Kojiro dreamed of becoming samurai and freeing the world from evil demons. However, by the time they had grown up, the demons were revered as gods…


What Seppuku Represents
Anyone who knows anything about Japan has heard of seppuku or seen it in a samurai film. Seppuku was a ritualized form of suicide and a judicial sentence…


Momo Kyun Sword (Episode 6) – A Star is Born! We’re the Celestial Maiden Squad!
The Celestial Maiden Squad suddenly become idols and even have to put on a concert, leaving Momoko and her friends to hunt for the peach fragments alone. What…
Bamnol - The Debt (2021) [Short Film Review]
Bamnol - The Debt My granddaughter works hard! All you do is get drunk everyday! It has been roughly two months since my The Monk and T...


How Yakuza and Real-World History Collide in Like a Dragon: Ishin!
Richard Eisenbeis talked with game directors Hiroyuki Sakamoto and Yasuaki Uehara about what it was like to combine Like a Dragon's Yakuza-centric stories with the historical events surrounding…
The Monk and The Samurai (2022) [Short Film Review]
The Monk and The Samurai The lives of two men, a monk and a samurai suffer unbearable loss. Heroic to the end their tales intertwine as...


A-Yokai-A-Day: The Samurai’s Shiryō from Sendai
The creature in tonight's story is referred to as a shiryō. This is essentially identical to the term bōrei, which we've seen several times so far this month.…
![Featured image for The Pass: Last Days Of The Samurai (2022) review [Fantasia Film Festival]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220810/1660170540.41650.71763.jpg)
![Background image for The Pass: Last Days Of The Samurai (2022) review [Fantasia Film Festival]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220810/1660170540.41650.71763.jpg)
The Pass: Last Days Of The Samurai (2022) review [Fantasia Film Festival]
A very engaging samurai narrative that does not only offer an intriguing glance at one of the most important crossroads of Japanese history, but also a melodramatic exploration…
![Featured image for The Pass: Last Days Of The Samurai (2022) review [Fantasia Film Festival]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220809/1660011540.41549.71643.jpg)
![Background image for The Pass: Last Days Of The Samurai (2022) review [Fantasia Film Festival]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220809/1660011540.41549.71643.jpg)
The Pass: Last Days Of The Samurai (2022) review [Fantasia Film Festival]
A very engaging samurai narrative that does not only offer an intriguing glance at one of the most important crossroads of Japanese history, but also a melodramatic exploration…


First Impression: Shine On! Bakumatsu Bad Boys
After having watched his family get cut down by a mask-wearing samurai, Ichibanboshi, the Samurai Killer wanted by authorities, is seeking revenge for his family. However, after encountering…


Bankara – Meiji Japan’s Anti-Fashion Movement
As the era of the samurai ended and Japan rushed towards modernization, a rough-scrabble fashion movement called the Bankara rose in opposition.


The Thief in Black (黒の盗賊, Umetsugu Inoue, 1964)
Twins separated at birth kick back against the samurai corruption and growing Tokugawa authoritarianism i Umetsugu Inoue’s politically charged jidaigeki.


Reader’s Corner: Stitch and the Samurai, Kaiju No. 8, and Lily’s Miracle
A Late-Start Tamer’s Laid-Back Life, Vol. 1 Yuto starts the VRMMO RPG Law of Justice Online looking forward to playing as a Tamer, but due to his randomly-acquired…


Samurai Cultivator: the Birth of Modern Apple Cultivation in Japan
Apples, such as the delectable fuji, are ubiquitous in Japan. Yet cultivation of the fruit began relatively recently - during the waning days of the samurai.


Queer Echoes: Koike Chikyoku, Unlikely Warrior Artist
The story of a little-know artist-turned-warrior during the waning days of the samurai -- who just might have been a queer woman.


A Forgotten Samurai Energy Drink
Hundreds of years before Red Bull, the samurai of the house of Date were drinking a powdered concoction said to replenish a warrior's energy.


The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai (峠 最後のサムライ, Takashi Koizumi, 2021)
Holding fast to samurai ideals a progressive retainer realises his era is at an end in Takashi Koizumi’s homage to classic samurai cinema
Spiraken Manga Review Ep 430: Stitch & The Samurai
In this episode, Xan reviews a manga that shows what would happen if a certain Disney character appeared in a different time and place. So sit back and…


Destiny’s Son (斬る, Kenji Misumi, 1962)
A wandering son finds himself in the middle of intrigue on learning the sad secrets of his birth in Kenji Misumi’s elliptical, elegiac tale of death and the…


Review: Stitch and the Samurai, Volume 2
Summary Have you ever watched the movie Lilo and Stitch and wondered to yourself, “Man, what would happen if Stitch crash landed in feudal Japan instead of modern…


Reader’s Corner: Springtime Window, Boys Run the Riot, and A Sign of Affection
A Sign of Affection, Vol. 2 Volume one of A Sign of Affection was a manga I had on pre-order a full year before it released, and I…


The Samurai Flamenco Study – PT 2
Hello everyone! Welcome to Part 2 of a super serious Samurai Flamenco study. I was joined by the wonderful Irina from DrunkenAnimeBlog for this brilliant discussion. Please follow…
The Samurai Flamenco Study pt1
The Samurai Flamenco incident was one of the most significant of our generation, yet many dismiss it as fiction. We set the record straight. The post The Samurai Flamenco…
323 – One Shot 33 – My Broken Mariko
Morgana is away this week so the boys take advantage by having a lengthy discussion about professional wrestling and why New Japan Academy is strange! For our main…