Welcome to The Avocado’s weekly discussion of Japanese pop culture! Ribon (りぼん) magazine is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, and I’m in love with the celebration video they created.

Ribon is a shoujo magazine that tends to publish series aimed at a younger readership with a variety of genres (everything from slice-of-life to fantasy). Generally, stories tend to focus on young girls. The most famous series published in the magazine is probably the classic Chibi Maruko-chan, but some other titles you might be familiar with include Kodomo no Omocha, Marmalade Boy, Good Morning Call, Phantom Thief Jeanne, and Full Moon o Sagashite. For more recent series, this is the magazine that published Acro Trip and is currently running Honey Lemon Soda! So as you can see, they’ve had a lot of successful series, and they’re still one of the biggest shoujo magazines. What I really love about the video is how it highlights the artistic style of the magazine, while also showing the evolution of that style over the years. It’s a great way to see the magazine’s point of view!

And, as always…

What have you been watching/reading/playing/eating/listening to lately?

Happy Wednesday! 👹