Obscure Japanese Film #125 Mari Sono and Makoto Fujita Suzuki (Makoto Fujita) is a low-level manager at a travel agency who drives a mod...
Aug 8, 2024 • Subscribe
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Bonds of Love (愛のきずな, Takashi Tsuboshima, 1969)
Trapped in a loveless marriage and unsatisfying career, a salaryman’s attempt to escape through an affair proves more complicated than he bargained for in Takashi Tsuboshima’s noirish d…


Kizuna: Bonds of Love – Boys Love Classic Review
When Futekiya announced back in September of 2021 that this Boys Love classic manga would be coming to their subscription service to say I was excited was an…


Love Nonetheless (愛なのに, Hideo Jojo, 2022)
A lovelorn bookseller is drawn into a world of romantic confusion by a high school girl with a hopeless crush and and his own requited love in Jojo’s…
Bonds of Allele #01 — 30 Minute Ad For Kizuna Ai
"Should we look up what VTubing is like? No? Okay." Impressions: And we round out the terribleness of Monday with this fiasco. You'd think a show being…


Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna (Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning)
This manga is centered around a high school boy named Ayumi who’s the solitary logical type, but beyond that it changes quite a lot over the course of…
Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた)
Suzuki Yufuko’s Ai ni Airashi Itoshi Anata (愛に愛らし愛しいあなた) was not at all what I expected it to be. No, scratch that. It was exactly everything I expected it…
While Yet a Wife / 妻の日の愛のかたみに / Tsuma no hi no ai no katamini (1965)
Obscure Japanese Film #141 Ayako Wakao Chieko (Ayako Wakao) and Kitahara (Eiji Funakoshi) are country schoolteachers who get married and a...


My Sorry Life (愛のくだらない, Kozue Nomoto, 2020)
A self-absorbed TV producer gets a wake up call when her boyfriend announces he’s pregnant in Kozue Nomoto’s ironic dramedy


Seasonal First Impressions: KIZUNA NO ALLELE Asks, Can 3 Million Kizuna AI Fans Be Wrong?
It’s time for the once-a-season rite of me being really annoying about an idol anime. This one’s about VTubers!


Seven Weeks (野のなななのか, Nobuhiko Obayashi, 2014)
“A death is a history” in Obayashi’s intensely moving tale of the interconnectedness of all things, love, death, war, and memory.


Just Only Love 愛がなんだ (2019) Dir: Rikiya Imaizumi
Just Only Love 愛がなんだ 「Ai ga Nanda」 Running Time: 123 mins. Release Date: April 19th, 2019 Director: Rikiya Imaizumi Writer: Rikiya Imaizumi, Kaori Sawai (Screenplay), Mitsuyo Kakuta (Original No…


Spiral No Kizuna
I knew the existence of Spiral No Kizuna a long time ago but had no reason or motivation to go watch it. I mean, the synopsis sounded intriguing…
Chua Tek Ming~*Anime Power*~ !LiVe FoR AnImE, aNiMe FoR LiFe!
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[Information] Magic Knight Rayearth OST 4 ~ Atarashii Kizuna (New Bonds)
This is the fourth Original Soundtrack, it includes songs you can hear through the second season of the anime.


This Week in Anime - The Corp-orification of Kizuna Ai
Kizuna Ai broke ground for the VTuber space when she debuted in 2016, earning worldwide recognition. As the VTuber-sphere expanded beyond her, the idol's virtual footprint shrank. The…


An Outlaw (ならず者, Teruo Ishii, 1964)
Ken Takakura stars as a China-based hitman dragged into local intrigue when a job goes awry in an early crime thriller from Teruo Ishii.
Dekisokonai no Hime-tachi, Volume 3 (できそこないの姫君たち)
In Volume 1, otaku and class loner Kurokawa Kaede is thrown together with school princess, Fujishiro Nanaki. In time-honored fashion, Fujishiro gives a radical makeover to the girl…


Street of Love and Hope (愛と希望の街, Nagisa Oshima, 1959)
A young man’s pigeon selling scam eventually ruins his cross-class friendship with a wealthy young woman in Oshima’s biting sociopolitical drama
Kizuna AI Face Reveal & Everything You Should Know
Psssst!! Check out each and every instance where Kizuna AI revealed her face! Spoiler alert: She's adorable!


Love at Least 生きてるだけで、愛 (2018) Director: Kosai Sekine
Love at Least offers a nuanced depiction of living with depression with three great performances from its lead cast. Love at Least 生きてるだけで、愛 (2018) Director: Kosai Sekine
Ai sureba koso / 愛すればこそ / (‘Only If You Love’, 1955)
Obscure Japanese Film #166 Isuzu Yamada This omnibus film comprised of three stories was an independent venture co-produced by two compani...


What She Likes (彼女が好きなものは, Shogo Kusano, 2021)
A young guy struggling with his sexuality bonds with a young woman embarrassed beyond belief by her love for BL in Shogo Kusano’s high school drama
Yuri Manga: Dekisokonai no Hime-tachi, Volume 2 (できそこないの姫君たち)
Last spring I took a look at a pleasant “opposites attract” school life Yuri romance by Ajiichi. In Volume 1, we met otaku Kurokawa Kaede and fashionable Fujishiro…
The Time of Reckoning / 不信のとき / Fushin no toki (1968)
Obscure Japanese Film #128 Jiro Tamiya and Ayako Wakao Asai (Jiro Tamiya) is an artist who designs advertising posters for a printing comp...


Kizuna AI, Uruha Rushia, and the Search for Authenticity
A confluence of events has me thinking a lot about how people connect to Virtual Youtubers. Just recently, we’ve had both the final concert from pioneer Kizuna AI—who…
Dekisokonai Hime-tachi, Volume 4 (できそこないの姫君たち)
Fujishiro Nanaki, having been ostracized by her group of fashionable and popular girls, has found acceptance with the “nerd” group, Kurokawa’s friends Izumi and Iroha. Together th…


Kizuna no Allele – Episode 1
How did you make vtubers so bland? You can literally be a three-headed cat in this biz. Go wild. Be weird. Be queer. Not whatever this is.


First Impression: Kizuna no Allele
The episode opens with back-to-back VTubers: the first one is dark-haired, with lots of neon lights backing her and a short song on offer; the second, sports short…


Love’s Whirlpool 愛の渦 Director: Daisuke Miura (2014)
Love’s Whirlpool 愛の渦 Director: Daisuke Miura (2014) is a strong drama unafraid to look to look fully at the desire for sex and how it affects different people.


How to Subtly Flirt in Japanese No. 2 好きな人いる?
Learn Japanese with Me - https://bit.ly/4drmyU2
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Remain In Twilight (くれなずめ, Daigo Matsui, 2021) [Fantasia 2021]
A group of high school friends is forced to confront unresolved grief while rehearing for a wedding in Daigo Matsui’s moving metaphysical drama


A look at Kizuna no Allele
Not a “currently watching” this time as it usually would be for a running anime, no, and for a reason. I just remembered that I’d planned to check…


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
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It Must Be Love 愛の茶番 Director: Junko Emoto [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024]
It Must Be Love 愛の茶番, by director Junko Emoto, has actors give fun improvisational performances as egotistic characters driven crazy by love in a film-meets-theatre experiment. [Osaka Asian…


AI no Idenshi / The Gene of AI by Yamada Kyuuri
Apparently, according to the anime friend I met at CONvergence, The Gene of AI / Ai no Idenshi is one of this season’s new anime on Crunchyroll. As…


The Sound of Grass 草の響き Dir: Hisashi Saito (2021)
The Sound of Grass is a slow and solid showcase of the struggle of dealing with mental problems. Based on a story by Yasushi Sato. 草の響き Dir: Hisashi…


Jeans Blues: No Future (ジーンズブルース 明日なき無頼派, Sadao Nakajima, 1974)
Nihilistic lovers on the run make a break for the sea only to find their pathway blocked in Sadao Nakajima’s anarchic love tragedy.
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![Background image for Where Love Goes 愛のゆくえ (2023) Director: Fuka Miyajima [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20230315/1678890011.55462.88231.jpg)
Where Love Goes 愛のゆくえ (2023) Director: Fuka Miyajima [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023]
Where Love Goes 愛のゆくえ, from director Fuka Miyajima, is a rich story about love that takes a girl from Hokkaido to Tokyo and back, by way of magical realism.…


Tune of the Week(ish): Demon Slayer’s Kizuna no Kiseki
My girlfriened didn’t care for this opening, but I thought it was amazing! The Tune of the Week is the opening theme for the third season of Demon…


Anime Taste Testing: Koroshi Ai/Love of Kill
I probably shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.
Love yourself ~君が嫌いな君が好き~ - KAT-TUN (2010) Themesong to Yamato...
Love yourself ~君が嫌いな君が好き~ - KAT-TUN (2010) Themesong to Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (2010), which I bought Linda for Mother’s Day earlier this month. (She’s a “horror onna” kind of…
Shigoto no Nochi Dakishimete (仕事の後は抱きしめて)
Aota Yui is a young woman with a dream – she wants to be a chef. To get there, she needs to be accepted by the restaurant’s Taisho.…


Exploring Chobits: Love, AI, Comedy
An Analysis of the themes of Chobits, it's characters, love, AI, and why it means something to the lives we may live in the future.


Endless Desire (果しなき欲望, Shohei Imamura, 1958)
A gang returning to dig up the stolen morphine they buried at the end of the war is slowly torn apart by their greed in Shomei Imamura’s darkly…


I Live in Fear (生きものの記録, Akira Kurosawa, 1955)
An elderly man’s nuclear paranoia threatens to tear his family apart in Kurosawa’s post-war social drama.


The Gene of AI (AI no Idenshi): Episodes 1 and 2 Reviews
Human technology is exponential in the way it increases. That’s why, in the not-so-distant future, androids with human levels of intelligence and emotions make up about 10% of…


The Colors Within (きみの色, Naoko Yamada, 2024)
“If I could see my own colour, what kind of colour would it be?” the heroine of Naoko Yamada’s The Colors Within (きみの色, Kimi no Iro) asks herself.…


Moonlight Whispers (月光の囁き, Akihiko Shiota, 1999)
A pair of teenagers find themselves in an accidentally sado-masochistic relationship without the ability to understand what exists between them in Shiota’s unconventional teen romance.
AI no Idenshi – 03
「心の在処」 (Kokoro no arika) "Where the Heart Is" The homage here is not exactly subtle.


AI no Idenshi – 04
I don't think AI no Idenshi is so much interested in offering answers as it is in prompting the audience to think about the questions in a different…
AI no Idenshi – 08
「告白」 (Kokuhaku) "Confession" Some anime succeed largely because they don’t try too hard, and this is one of them.