A jidaigeki-obsessed high schooler sets out to make her own summer samurai movie in Soshi Matsumoto’s charming sci-fi infected teen rom-com
Jun 12, 2021 • Subscribe
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The End of Summer Film – It’s a Summer Film!
I’m only a touch late regarding talking about JFF Theater films. They’ve only been up for over a month, with two of them leaving streaming by the end…
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In Shimura Takako’s Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 7 (おとなになっても) a lot happens. We left Akari and Ayano having been carefully not seeing one another for some time, as…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 1 (おとなになっても)
Shimura Takako’s work with gender and sexual minorities has been very influential and popular among western manga readers, and series like Sweet Blue Flowers and Wandering Son end…
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In Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 6, Shimura Takako has done something I’ve not seen before in a manga and I think I like it. ^_^ The main plot…
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Akari and Ayano have moved in together. This fact fills this book with all sorts of tensions, both positive and negative. Sure, they have been through ” a…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 3 (おとなになっても)
Akari is ready to move on. She’s ready to reclaim her old career in the salon and stop running away from her life. She’s putting Ayano and her…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 5 (おとなになっても)
Previous volumes of Shimura Takako’s adult life drama have centered on three adults whose life has been thrown into turmoil by unexpected emotions. Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 5…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 9 (おとなになっても)
I am currently reading two Japanese series about adults in complicated relationships. Both series are, in equal part, compelling and interesting and annoying as heck. Today we’re looking…
Otona ni Nattemo, Volume 4 (おとなになっても)
In previous volumes of Otona ni Nattemo, we met Akari and Ayano, who met in a bar and spent the night together, Ayano’s husband Wataru, who has wondered…
The Warped Forest (あさっての森, Shunichiro Miki, 2011)
Three trios in search of happiness find themselves transported to other worlds in Shunichiro Miki’s surreal quasi-sequel to Funky Forest
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“A highly entertaining film that offers a nostalgic and touching dive into youthful passion and romantic feelings and lighthearted celebration of indie-filmmaking and often-forgotten beauty o…
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Between all these virtual cons at unreasonable hours (but reasonable US hours), a few new shows which exist on the periphery coming into the fray and delayed simulcasts…
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Struggling Man (私はいったい、何と闘っているのか, Toshio Lee, 2021)
A dejected middle-aged man experiences a crisis of masculinity when his home and work lives come under threat in Toshio Lee’s warmhearted comedy.
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 2 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
In Volume 1, we met Ohsawa Aya, a fashionable girl in most ways – except for her retro taste in music. When she walks into a shabby CD…
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta, Volume 1 (気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Aya is a high school student who loves music of the 90s-00s. She’s content to sit and listen to the Foo Fighters in her ear buds, but when…
All Under the Moon (月はどっちに出ている, Yoichi Sai, 1993)
Citizens of post-Bubble Tokyo struggle to reorient themselves amid changing realities in Yoichi Sai’s lighthearted comedy.
It’s All My Fault (ぜんぶ、ボクのせい, Yusaku Matsumoto, 2022)
A young orphan and a homeless drifter attempt to overcome the legacy of parental rejection in Yusaku Matsumoto’s sensitive coming-of-age drama.
Woman of Design (その場所に女ありて, Hideo Suzuki, 1962)
Post-war women find themselves constrained by a relentlessly patriarchal society in Hideo Suzuki’s workplace melodrama
Sensei, Would You Sit Beside Me? (先生、私の隣に座っていただけませんか?, Takahiro Horie, 2021)
A mangaka and her cheating husband become locked in a cat and mouse game of ambiguous revenge in Takahiro Horie’s deliciously cynical anti-rom-com
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A Look At – For Elise -エリーゼのために-
Hioki is an incompetent, shiftless salaryman, stuck grinding in a thankless job at his company. He has a crush on coworker Chitose, but keeps his feelings to himself.…
Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta Drama CD, Special Edition (ドラマCD 気になってる人が男じゃなかった)
Last week, I was able to review the upcoming Yen Press release of Sumiko Arai’s popular manga The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All.…
I Never Shot Anyone (一度も撃ってません, Junji Sakamoto, 2020)
An unsuccessful writer staves off a sense of existential despair living by night in Junji Sakamoto’s darkly comic tale of late life ennui
It’s a Lucky Box Summer on OKazu!
Doing a seasonal clean up of stuff that has accumulated, breaking down some of Bruce’s collection (we’re about half way through the boxes!) and goods from Yuri exhibits…
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On the 20th February the world learned that Manga and anime legend Leiji Matsumoto had died aged 85 on the 13th Feburary some 7 days prior. A titan…
Genjitsu Touhishitetara Boroboro ni Natta Hanashi Manga (現実逃避してたらボロボロになった話)
Who could have imagined in 2016, when we all first discovered Nagata Kabi-sensei’s honest and touching diary of her struggles with mental health, that we’d be tuning back…
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A Mother’s Touch (桜色の風が咲く, Junpei Matsumoto, 2022)
A young man begins to ponder the meaning of his life while losing both his sight and hearing in Junpei Matsumoto’s heartwarming biopic.
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (ドロステのはてで僕ら, Junta Yamaguchi, 2020)
A diffident cafe owner faces an existential dilemma when trapped in a time loop with himself from two minutes previously in Yamaguchi’s meticulously plotted farce
Summer 2020.
I’m a little late posting this, considering how Fire Force has already aired its first episode for season 2 and then there was also postponed shows to consider…
Summer 2020 – a slow start indeed.
With the relatively small number of shows airing this season, and the even smaller number I’m planning on checking out, premieres are popping up only at extended intervals… …
A Liquid Top Ten (2020, Film Edition)
Much like my previous, similar post to this one, I want this list to change whenever I come back to it :) Also like my last post, there’s…
Yomu in Japan: Summer Break (Matsumoto City Edition)
After the Chuo Alps, we went straight to Matsumoto City.It’s one of the bigger cities in the prefecture. I believe Matsumoto City also has the liveliest night life…
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You know how you feel after you’ve had a fever, when the fever breaks and you’re soaked in sweat? You don’t feel “good,” per se, but you feel…
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In my review of Volume 10, I said, “I’m ready for something to lighten up.” Welp, Volume 11 of Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana ( 付き合ってあげてもいいかな) by Tamifull is not…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 12 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
Yesterday I said that I was reviewing two series this week that focused on complicated relationships. The first was Volume 9 of Otona ni Nattemo, by Shimura Takako…
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When we first met Miwa, she was unsure of herself. And when we met Saeko she seemed very confident. As we’ve got to know them, we’ve come to…
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“The characters and the art have grown, Tamifull’s narrative skills are excellent here. We’ve been with them through a lot…and we’re still here as they enter the next…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 7 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
When I reviewed Volume 6 I said of that volume that it was like a fever finally breaking. “You don’t feel “good,” per se, but you feel better,…
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Life is complex – humans are complex systems and relationships are complex systems made up of other complex systems interacting. Things are always complicated in Tamifull’s Tsukiatte Ag…
Tsukiatte Agetemo Iikana, Volume 5 (付き合ってあげてもいいかな)
As a reviewer, I understand that spoilers are sometimes unavoidable in order to make a review make sense. As a reader, I don’t particularly mind spoilers…until I do.…
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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…