Aggretsuko is a ten-episode anime series, produced by Fanworks for mascot company Sanrio, that premiered on Netflix a couple of weeks ago. It follows the life of Retsuko, a meek red panda who works in the accounting department of a … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (May 2nd, 2018)

Hey there, Austin Akihabara Freaks! It’s time for your weekly Japanese pop culture thread. This week, we’re spotlighting Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online, a light novel series written by Keiichi Sigsawa, spun off from the original SAO series. … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (April 25th, 2018)

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku is a josei webmanga series about a fujoshi and an otaku who are childhood friends, work at the same company, and start dating each other. Comedic hijinks ensue. An anime series based on the … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (April 18th, 2018)

Lupin III has been a mainstay of Japanese pop culture, beginning as a manga series written and illustrated by Monkey Punch back in the late sixties, before burgeoning into a cross-media franchise that has spawned several anime series, including the … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (April 11th, 2018)

Hello, and welcome to the Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread! This week, we’re spotlighting Magical Girl Ore, a new anime series that started airing a couple of weeks ago, based on a manga of the same name. It tells the … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (April 4th, 2018)

Sword Gai: The Animation, the fourth and final series* in Netflix’s March anime deluge, premiered last week, and by all appearances, it’s a shitshow. It might be good for a laugh (or future Rabbiting), though. So instead let’s talk about … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (March 28th, 2018)

ジェニーハイ (Genie High) is a J-rock supergroup composed of members from Wild Bomb, Tricot, Gesu no Kiwami Otome, and indigo La End. Their debut single,「片目で異常に恋してる」, which Google Translate tells me means “I Fall in Love Abnormally with One Eye,” was … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (March 21st, 2018)

A.I.C.O. -Incarnation- is a science-fiction anime series produced by Studio Bones that premiered on Netflix last week. It tells the story of Aiko Tachibana, a high school student who lost her family in a biological experiment gone awry. I’ve watched … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (March 14th, 2018)

A new original anime series from Production I.G., the famed studio behind Ghost in the Shell and Psycho-Pass, premiered on Netflix last week. It’s called B: The Beginning, and it’s very much in the vein of the aforementioned two works. … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (March 7th, 2018)

Split End is an indie rock band from Nara, Japan. They released their second EP, Night, earlier this month. Here’s the music video for “Siren,” one of the songs from that EP. What have you been watching/reading/eating/playing/listening to lately? Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (February 28th, 2018)

Darling in the FRANXX is an anime series about kids who love to buttfuck teenagers raised in near-isolation from the outside world to pilot giant anthropomorphic mechs called FRANXX in a seemingly never-ending fight against a race of monsters called … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (February 21st, 2018)

Japanese all-woman pop-rock band Scandal released their eighth album, Honey, today. They’ve somehow maintained their popularity from their days as a highly manufactured teenage musical unit handpicked from Osaka vocal and dance school CALESS and given guitars and drums they … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (February 14th, 2018)

It seems that every anime season has one utterly trashy series that is somehow worth watching. Past series of this nature have included Keijo!!!!!!!! and Love Tyrant. This season’s surprisingly good trash is Citrus, based on a yuri manga about … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (February 7th, 2018)