Obscure Japanese Film #174 Yumeji Tsukioka 28-year-old Setsuko (Yumeji Tsukioka), a former member of the aristocracy, has come down in t...
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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.…


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Is empathy a virtue?
Let’s move away from what I’ve been writing about recently in regards to making efforts to improve oneself and instead look at something else. It’s something that I’ve…


Saga Saga (緑のざわめき-Saga Saga-, Aimi Natsuto, 2023)
Three women contending with a legacy of patriarchal failure and male violence circle around each other in the picturesque hot springs resort of Ureshino in Aimi Natsuto’s etherial…
Kimi no tame ni Sekai ha Aru (きみのために世界はある)
As you may remember, I’m a huge fan of Usui Shio’s series Kaketa Tsuki to Donuts. So when a collection of Usui-sensei’s work came out from Ichijinsha, I…


The Blue Danube (きまじめ楽隊のぼんやり戦争, Akira Ikeda, 2021)
An earnest soldier begins to question everything he’s been told thanks to musical intervention and a curious young man in Akira Ikeda’s absurdist anti-war drama


Shiver 戦慄せしめよ (2022) Director: Toshiaki Toyoda
Shiver 戦慄せしめよ, by director Toshiaki Toyoda, is a music film that presents performances by Koshiro Hino and the taiko drumming group KODO in a visually dazzling way. Shiver 戦慄せしめよ (2022)…


The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty (憲兵とバラバラ死美人, Kyotaro Namiki, 1957)
A top investigator finds himself swimming against the tide when investigating the discovery of woman’s torso at the barracks in Kyotaro Namiki’s ghostly procedural.
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...


ka no you ni かのように - Meaning in Japanese
What ka no you ni かのように means in Japanese. Grammar and examples.
いろいろ December 2023
I ran out of space over at the newsletter this month, so I thought I’d share the いろいろ section on the blog instead. Podcast link at the bottom!…


Pick of the Week: Sleep Is for the Weak
SEAN: There's a lot of stuff I'm interested in this week: new titles that run in odd shoujo magazine Asuka and odd magazine in general Harta; any number…
Bonds of Love / 愛のきずな / Ai no kizuna (1969)
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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.…
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美術館
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A Look At – For Elise -エリーゼのために-
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The 4 Paragons of Human Virtue (Copypasta)
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Those Who Sneer Like the Mountain Fiend / 山魔の如き嗤うもの
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Watashi no Kobushi wo Uketomete, Volume 3 ( 私の拳をうけとめて)
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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 Sound of Grass 草の響き Dir: Hisashi Saito (2021)
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Those Who Cast a Curse Like the Headless / 首無の如き祟るもの
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The Virtue of Vengeance: Clare’s Vendetta Against Priscilla
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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.


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Goukaku Tame no! Yasashi Sankaku Kakei Nyuumon ( 合格のための! やさしい三角関係入門)
Mayuki is determined to get into the school of her choice to be close to the girl she likes, her old sempai on the basketball team, Akira. But…


The Nighthawk’s First Love (よだかの片想い, Yuka Yasukawa, 2021)
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Ghost in the Well (1957) review
Toshikazu Kono hits all the right emotional notes to deliver a satisfying tragic love story.


The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭 Kotonoha no Niwa) is a 2013 Japanese...
The Garden of Words (言の葉の庭 Kotonoha no Niwa) is a 2013 Japanese anime film produced by CoMix Wave Films and directed by Makoto Shinkai. Garden of Words [Blu-ray]


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During the Rains (つゆのあとさき, Shinpei Yamazaki, 2024)
A collection of women discover that the real pandemic is misogyny in Shinpei Yamazaki’s covid-era indie drama.
てへぺろ [Tehepero](๑≧౪≦)てへぺろ
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『戦国魔神ゴーショーグン 時の異邦人(エトランゼ)』のあとがき
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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…


Get ’em All (「みな殺しの歌」より 拳銃よさらば, Eizo Sugawa, 1960)
A recently released young man is forced onto a nihilistic path of meaningless violence when his bank robber brother is killed in a hit and run in Eizo…


The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (夏へのトンネル、さよならの出口, Tomohisa Taguchi, 2022)
A pair of teenagers search for a way out of their mutual anxieties while exploring a mysterious tunnel in Tomohisa Taguchi’s animated sci-fi romance.
Holiday Review #12: TO STRIP THE FLESH
Yet again, if you want trans (particularly transmasc) representation in comics, manga remains the best place to find it and this year brough...
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Yet again, if you want trans (particularly transmasc) representation in comics, manga remains the best place to find it and this year brough...
The 11 Cats (11ぴきのねこ) and Other Tales (1976, 1980)
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Okiku and the World (せかいのおきく, Junji Sakamoto, 2023)
A samurai’s daughter falls for a lowly manure man in a city on the brink of change in Junji Sakamoto’s touching dramedy.


The Light of Spring (ひかりのどけき, Fumito Fujikawa, 2022)
Pushed to breaking point by the pressures of the contemporary society amid the coronavirus pandemic, an ordinary family undergoes a trial separation in Fumito Fumikawa’s neorealist drama
Dekisokonai no Hime-tachi, Volume 3 (できそこないの姫君たち)
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Like a Savage (野蛮人のように, Toru Kawashima, 1985)
A blocked writer is dragged into intrigue while searching for “adventure in the night” in Toru Kawashima zeitgeisty drama.
Malevolent Spirits #20 — Flesh Wounds
Sure, I guess losing a chunk of your abdomen doesn't count for much. Impressions: This episode is pretty similar to the other 'big' action one this season…


STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS ARE FOR THE WEAK
Greetings, and a happy International Women’s Day to everyone! I kept going from one idea to another for today’s post. I’d either write on Kiki’s Delivery Service (because…