An unserious man begins to grow up while chasing love in Hawaii in a cheerful if ultimately downbeat musical celebration of the centenary of Japanese migration to Hawaii.
Mar 1, 2023 • Subscribe
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Oni to Yoake Yuzikiyo (鬼と夜明け 夕月夜)
While shopping in random bookstores in Japan at the end of last year I kept seeing book,s with girls in school uniforms wielding swords. I did that thing…
Anata no Yoru ga Aketera (あなたの夜が明けたら)
Anata no Yoru ga Aketera (あなたの夜が明けたら), translated on the cover as After Sunrise, Haru Harukawa Collection is a collection of shorts by, obviously Harukawa Haru. Some of these…
The Demon (鬼畜, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1978)
When his mistress abandons their three children on his doorstep, a resentful father and his enraged wife take drastic action to be free of them in Yoshitaro Nomura’s…
The New Morning of Billy the Kid (ビリィ★ザ★キッドの新しい夜明け, Naoto Yamakawa, 1986)
A collection of pop culture icons attempt to safeguard a cafe bar/live house from an assault by savage gangsters in Yamakawa’s anarchic post-modern satire
Tokyo Bay (東京湾, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1962)
Two old war buddies find themselves on opposite sides of the law in Nomura’s sprawling journey through the post-war underworld
Writhing Tongue (震える舌, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1980)
A married couple are faced with psychological torment when their little girl contracts tetanus in Yoshitaro Nomura’s harrowing medical drama
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Dejected youngsters flounder amid the ruins of the salaryman dream in Hana Matsumoto’s youthful drama.
Village of Eight Gravestones (八つ墓村, Yoshitaro Nomura, 1977)
A young man is called to the country to inherit a cursed fortune in Yoshitaro Nomura’s eerie adaptation of the Seishi Yokomizo mystery.
Two Wives (妻二人, Yasuzo Masumura, 1967)
A conflicted social climber becomes disillusioned with his comfortable life on reencountering his uni girlfriend in Yasuzo Masumura’s dark mystery drama.
The Dawning Sky (明け行く空, Torajiro Saito, 1929)
A female pastor is unexpectedly reunited with the child she was forced to abandon in Torajiro Saito’s tearjerking familial melodrama.
The Mannequin House Murders / 人形館の殺人
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Uyanotsuki, Volume 1 ( 雨夜の月)
Saki loves piano. Or does she? She loves taking lessons with her teacher, she’s sure of that. But her teacher is leaving… In Uyanotsuki, Volume 1 ( 雨夜の月),…
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A directionless young man regains a sense of purpose after reuniting with a childhood father figure in Lik Ho’s sporting drama
Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫, Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)
A young man from an exiled clan tries to make peace between the natural world and the industrial in Hayao Miyazaki’s landmark 1997 animation
Just the Two of Us (二人ノ世界, Keita Fujimoto, 2020)
A man paralysed from the neck down and the blind woman who cares for him find themselves struggling against the prejudices of an ableist society in Keita Fujimoto’s…
Death Within the Evil Eye / 魔眼の匣の殺人
It’s difficult to succeed genius. Chrono Cross isn’t as good as Chrono Trigger , Bioshock 2 isn’t as good as Bioshock , and National Treas...
![Featured image for Episode #72 (S10E1) – Princess Mononoke [ もののけ姫] (1997)](https://cdn.aniblogtracker.com/live/20240131/1706688971.78398.116105.jpg)
Episode #72 (S10E1) – Princess Mononoke [ もののけ姫] (1997)
We kick off Season 10 with one of the most internationally renowned animated films of all time. Derick McDuff of the Underrated network returns to discuss Studio Ghibli’s…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 2 ( 雨夜の月)
In Volume 1, we met Saki, a high school student who plays piano, and her classmate (and piano teacher’s daughter), Kanon, who is hard of hearing. Kanon is…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 3 ( 雨夜の月)
2022 has been an absolute celebration of amazing Yuri manga licenses and releases. Almost everything I wanted to have been licensed has been. Of the two remaining that…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 5 (雨夜の月)
In my fevered anticipation for The Moon on a Rainy Night, Volume 1 coming from Kodansha next week, I was thrilled to have the newest volume of the…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 4 ( 雨夜の月)
Well, wow. A whole lot of story happened in this volume. First, Saki finds Kanon’s former best friend – the one Kanon feel betrayed her – and learns…
Amayo no Tsuki, Volume 6 (雨夜の月)
Do you remember Morinaga Milk’s series Girl Friends? It was an incredibly popular and influential Yuri manga in the early 2010s, so more than a decade ago. The…
Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie Over the Rainbow
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Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie – Over the Rainbow
This is one of those movies that has such an absurdly long title that I just didn’t add a caption to it. To make fun of a cliché,…
The Sands of Kurobe (黒部の太陽, Kei Kumai, 1968)
Kei Kumai directs a three-hour epic devoted to the sometimes brutal construction of the Kurobe Dam.
Prison Boss (獄中の顔役, Yasuo Furuhata, 1968)
A noble-hearted gangster finds himself at odds with an increasingly corrupt society in Furuhata’s manly yakuza drama
Kinuyo’s First Love (絹代の初恋, Hiromasa Nomura, 1940)
The changing social mores of the 1930s are played out in the fortunes of two sisters unwittingly falling for the same man in Hiromasa Nomura’s romantic drama.
The Black Umbrella Mystery / 体育館の殺人
The Black Umbrella Mystery is a story with the soul of Ellery Queen and the body of an anime protagonist. There are a few Japanese…
The Seven Great Detectives / 7人の名探偵
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The Labyrinth House Murders / 迷路館の殺人
The shin-honkaku movement has always been a bit meta. It’s right there in the name: it means “new orthodox,” as it’s a revival of the origi...
Love Live! Sunshine!! The School Idol Movie: Over the Rainbow (Movie)
“Love Live! Sunshine!!” finally gets to end on a good note.
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The Rest of Our Lives (ラストターン 福山健二71歳、二度目の青春, Shinji Kuma, 2023)
A pair of elderly men struggle to find meaning in their lives in the face of well-meaning infantilism and health anxiety in Shinji Kuma’s warmhearted ageing drama.
A Son (二十歳の息子, Ryuichi Shimada, 2022)
Documentarian Ryuichi Shimada follows a social worker who decides to adopt a 20-year-old man recently released from juvenile detention.
The Town of Headcounts (人数の町, Shinji Araki, 2020)
A disaffected young man gets a fresh start in a utopian community but quickly becomes disillusioned in Shinji Araki’s slick dystopian thriller
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A hotel maid is dragged into conspiracy after murdering her bedridden husband in Eizo Sugawa’s incredibly dark post-war noir.
Otona no Yuricon 2020 (大人のユリコン2020)
After a prolonged trip across the ocean, a long-awaited doujinshi has finally arrived at my home. And, like clockwork, the Melonbooks website is down for maintenance, so I…
Seven Samurai (七人の侍, Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
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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
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This is still a very flawed series, and this second season of the show suffers from some unique issues compared to its first, but it sure isn't afraid…
The Hidden Fortress (隠し砦の三悪人, Akira Kurosawa, 1958)
A fugitive princess offers a new hope for a peaceful and prosperous socitey in Akira Kurosawa’s Sengoku-era epic.
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In the final episode of the season, Kota of the Against Japanism podcast brings his extensive knowledge of Japanese politics and the Japanese left-wing to bear in this…