A collection of orphans attempt to support themselves as tour guides to the ancient capital of Nara in HIroshi Shimizu’s empathetic drama.
May 28, 2024 • Subscribe
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Children of the Beehive: What Happened Next (その後の蜂の巣の子供たち, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1951)
In an interesting piece of meta docufiction, Hiroshi Shimizu revisits the Beehive a few years later to find out how the orphans live now.


Sachiko (さち子) – Lamp
Appears on their album 「Yume」. Sachiko Lyrics by Sakakibara Kaori Composed by Someya Taiyo Performed by Lamp The horizon at the end of summer and the sweet salt wind My newly shorn hair brushes pas…


Dancing Girl (踊子, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1957)
The arrival of a free-spirited younger sister creates chaos in the live of a chorus dancer and her violinist husband in Hiroshi Shimizu’s elegantly lensed melodrama.


Sayon’s Bell (サヨンの鐘, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1943)
An indigenous woman becomes a martyr for the Japanese empire after drowning in a river while carrying the possessions of a Japanese policeman in an unabashed propaganda effort…
Kodomo no me / 子供の眼 / (‘Eyes of a Child’, 1955)
Obscure Japanese Film #162 Hideko Takamine Kiyoko (Hideko Takamine) is a young woman living in Tokyo with her older brother, Shunji (Hiros...


まとめる
Bringing things together - How to Japanese - February 2024


Sound in the Mist (霧の音, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1956)
A botanist continues to visit the same mountain lodge each Harvest Moon in search of lost love in a late melodrama from Hiroshi Shimizu


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 11 (#しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 11. Fushihara, Yuurei-chan, & Myaako celebrate New Years with Satsuki and Lily.


Gift of Fire (太陽の子, Hiroshi Kurosaki, 2020)
A conflicted scientist struggles to reconcile himself to the implications of his work while researching an atomic bomb in Kurosaki’s contemplative wartime drama


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 04 (Sisters of Sorts #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 04. Yuurei-chan gets jealous of Myaako, but the two become friends in adversity.


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost (Series Review #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews the anime Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost, better named Shachiku-san Wants to be Healed by a Little Girl Ghost


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 10 (Christmas #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 10. Yuurei-chan & Myaako learn about Christmas and Santa-san.


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 12 (Finale #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 12. The oni mikogami Miko-chan warns Fushihara of impending misfortune.
Mabataki (まばたき)
Mabataki (まばたき) is a collection of short stories by Battan, creator of Run Away With Me, Girl. This is another manga I picked up while in Japan (I…
Onna Tomodachi to Kekkonshitemita, Volume 1 (女ともだちと結婚してみた。)
If you are a regular reader here, you probably know how much I like Usui Shio’s recent work in Comic Yuri Hime. I’ve been really happy with Kaketa…
Onna Tomodachi to Kekkonshitemita, Volume 2 (女ともだちと結婚してみた。)
People are complex systems. Relationships are complex systems made up of complex systems. Even with clear boundaries, even when sex is not an issue, relationships get messy when…


Mother (おかあさん, Mikio Naruse, 1952)
A teenage girl struggles to understand her self-sacrificing mother in Mikio Naruse’s subversive take on the hahamono


Goto-san (ゴトーさん, Hiroshi Gokan, 2020)
A young man’s peaceful dropout existence is disrupted by potential romance, a deadly virus, and economic instability in Gokan’s deceptively quirky drama


52ヘルツのクジラたち
52ヘルツのクジラたち is a bestselling novel by Sonoko Machida that won the 2021 Japan Booksellers’ Award Grand Prize. In March 2024, the story was adapted into a feature film…


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 09 (Autumn Activities! #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 09. Yuurei-chan & Myaako go shopping. Tsukimi and Halloween arrive.


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 02 (Too Adorable! #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 02. Yuurei-chan comes to Fushiharai's home. Fushihara's kohai gets freaked out.


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 07 (Summer Activities #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 07. Fushihara celebrates Yuurei-chan, then takes her and Myaako to a festival.
●EXHIBITION● OTOMO KATSUHIRO O SODATETA MANGA TACHI TEN (大友克洋を育てたマンガたち展)
Katsuhiro Otomo, Akira, Bibliography, Otomo, Animation, Manga, Steamboy, Japanimation,


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 03 (Enter the Kitten! #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 03. Fushihara and Yuurei-chan adopt an abandoned kitten, who has a humanoid form


Image of a Mother (母のおもかげ, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1959)
A little boy’s difficulties in accepting his new stepmother express an anxiety about the changing nature of the family in Hiroshi Shimizu’s familial melodrama.


Record of a Woman Doctor (女医の記録, Hiroshi Shimizu, 1941)
A doctor gains a new perspective on life after being sent to a remote rural village in Hiroshi Shimizu’s gentle social drama.


Manga Kodomo Bunko (まんがこども文庫) March ED (3月の歌) - Little By Little, Spring Arrived (ちょびっとちょびっと春がきた)
Sung by (歌): Kumiko Ōsugi (大杉久美子) Lyrics (作詞): Hachirō Satō (サトウハチロー) Composition (作曲): Masaharu Kikuchi (菊地雅春) Arrangement (編曲): Akihiro Komori (小森昭宏) Very special thanks to PopKorn Kat for transferring and scanning this…


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 06 (Adorable Yet Sad #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 06.Myaako tells a story about her brush. Yuurei-chan dreams of her mom.


となりのメタラーさん
Author & Artist: マミタ (Mamita)Released April 2020 by Tokuma Shoten Publishing’s Chara ComicsGenre: Romance, Drama


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 08 (Tsundere Little Maid Ghost #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 08. Fushihara meets her next door neighbor, Satsuki, and her ghost maid Lily.


The Wind Blows Twice (風ふたゝび, Shiro Toyoda, 1952)
Following the failure of her marriage, a young woman finds herself caught between two suitors in Shiro Toyoda’s gentle romantic melodrama.


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 05 (Children’s Day and Getting Lost #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 05. Myaako & Yuurei chan experience Children's Day. Yuurei-chan gets lost.


Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 01 (A Healing Little Girl Ghost! #しゃちされたい)
AstroNerdBoy reviews Miss Shachiku and the Little Baby Ghost 01. Yuurei-chan is a ghost girl who doesn't want to see a "corporate slave" die.
Model-chan to Jimi Mane-san, Volume 2 (モデルちゃんと地味マネさん)
In Volume 1, we met Okabe-san, a new manager for top model Yuria-san. Yuri appears cool and remotes but that may well be because she’s so beautiful no…


We Couldn’t Become Adults ボクたちはみんな大人になれなかった (2021) Director: Yoshihiro Mori
We Couldn’t Become Adults ボクたちはみんな大人になれなかった (2021), by director Yoshihiro Mori, is a well-acted and well-shot drama about a 40-something man in contemporary Japan looking back at his life (v…


Amiko (こちらあみ子, Yusuke Morii, 2022)
An unusual little girl retreats into a fantasy world in an attempt to deal with her grief and loneliness in Yusuke Morii’s quirky dramedy.


Tomodachi (ともだち, Yukihiro Sawada, 1974)
A little girl suffering from asthma caused by industrial pollution is rejected by her classmates in Yukihiro Sawada’s environmentally conscious educational film


Ito (いとみち, Satoko Yokohama, 2021)
A shy young woman with a talent for Tsugaru shamisen grows in confidence after getting a job at a maid cafe in Satoko Yokohama’s warmhearted drama


Our House わたしたちの家 (2018) Dir: Yui Kiyohara
Our House わたしたちの家 (2018), by director Yui Kiyohara, is a good mood piece about a house that connects two sets of female characters together even though they never really meet.


Album review: 新世界の弟子たち (New World Disciples) by desert sand feels warm at night
More vaporwave! desert sand (never capitalized, so I don’t know what to do with it at the beginning of a sentence — whatever, I’m not following the rules…
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![Background image for Just Remembering (ちょっと思い出しただけ, Daigo Matsui, 2021) [Fantasia 2022]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220723/1658536740.40271.70023.jpg)
Just Remembering (ちょっと思い出しただけ, Daigo Matsui, 2021) [Fantasia 2022]
Former lovers are confronted by reminders of their failed romance amid the loneliness of the coronavirus pandemic in Daigo Matsui’s melancholy drama.


Miss Oyu (お遊さま, Kenji Mizoguchi, 1951)
Oppressive social codes and repressed desire provoke a tragic love triangle in Mizoguchi’s adaptation of the story by Tanizaki.


飲ませられる or 飲まれさせる? #learnjapanese
Learn Japanese with Me - https://bit.ly/4drmyU2


あとになってわかったこと
Collector's Mindset - How to Japanese - February 2025


Here Because of You (君たちがいて僕がいた, Ryuichi Takamori, 1964)
Post-war teens take on injustice in the form of a problematic parent at their school in Ryuichi Takamori’s cheerful youth movie.
![Featured image for What to Do With the Dead Kaiju? (大怪獣のあとしまつ, Satoshi Miki, 2022) [Fantasia 2022]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220805/1659659340.41307.71209.jpg)
![Background image for What to Do With the Dead Kaiju? (大怪獣のあとしまつ, Satoshi Miki, 2022) [Fantasia 2022]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20220805/1659659340.41307.71209.jpg)
What to Do With the Dead Kaiju? (大怪獣のあとしまつ, Satoshi Miki, 2022) [Fantasia 2022]
A fallen kaiju presents a new problem for the governing authorities in Satoshi Miki’s satirical comedy.
The Great Villains / 大悪党 / Dai akuto (1968)
Obscure Japanese Film #111 Mako Midori and Kei Sato Yoshiko (Mako Midori) is a naïve country girl now living in Tokyo as a student. As she...


Three Stories of Love 恋人たち (2015) Director: Ryosuke Hashiguchi
Three Stories of Love 恋人たち (2015), a solid drama about three different people breaking out from isolation and loneliness from director Ryosuke Hashiguchi
Buddha and Beastars
NJPW just came back with the New Japan Cup, and I have been really enjoying this… AEW...
Buddha and Beastars
NJPW just came back with the New Japan Cup, and I have been really enjoying this… AEW has been around all this time, but seeing these new wrestlers…