Carole & Tuesday is the new anime series from Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo mastermind Shinichirō Watanabe. Set in a future where humans have colonized Mars, it tells the story of two girls from very different backgrounds who meet and … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (April 10th, 2019)

The spring anime season is now upon us, and more so than past seasons, it looks to be chock-full of sequels and remakes, like Bungo Stray Dogs 3.a(featured in the header image), Attack on Titan 3 Part 2, and a … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (April 3rd, 2019)

Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka is a Japanese seinen manga series about a group of magical girls that must resume the fight against a violent race of beasts called the Disas three years after an earlier, bloody war with them. An … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (March 27th, 2019)

Girly Air Force is a light novel series about an invasion by a mysterious group of combatants known as the Zai and the technology used to repel their assault: a force of female android air force pilots known as Anima, … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (March 20th, 2019)

Run with the Wind is a novel by Shion Miura about a group of Kansei University students who train to run the Hakone Ekiden, a 200 km relay marathon held annually in January. It has been adapted into a live-action … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (March 13th, 2019)

Hi folks. Apologies for the delay in getting this thread up. The Price of Smiles is a currently airing anime series about the young princess of a kingdom known as Soleil. Orphaned at a young age, she’s thrust into a … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (March 6th, 2019)

The Promised Neverland is a manga series about a group of children who live a happy, comfortable existence in an orphanage, albeit cut off from the outside world. Everything seems fine until they discover that there’s more to their existence … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (February 27th, 2019)

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime is exactly what its title says: it’s a light novel series about an office worker who is killed in a stabbing incident and gets reincarnated in a fantasy world as a slime, … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (February 20th, 2019)

The Quintessential Quintuplets is a shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Negi Haruba. It tells the story of an ordinary high school student who has to tutor five badly-behaved identical quintuplets from a rich, prestigious family. The manga has … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (February 13th, 2019)

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is a 1980’s manga series written and illustrated by famed animation director Hayao Miyazaki. It is set in a dystopian, post-apocalyptic future where most of Earth’s formerly habitable land is corrupted, and warring … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (February 6th, 2019)

Hey folks! Welcome to the final Japanese pop culture thread for the month of January. I apologize for the delay in getting it up. Today, I’m spotlighting Kingdom Hearts III, the long-awaited conclusion (?) to the Kingdom Hearts trilogy (?), … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 30th, 2019)

Boogiepop and Others is a light novel in the Boogiepop series about a series of mysterious disappearances at a Japanese high school. The teachers say the missing kids are just runaways, but the students suspect something more sinister and supernatural. … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 23rd, 2019)

Welcome to this week’s Japanese pop culture thread! Today I’m spotlighting Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, a romantic comedy manga series about two high-performing high school student council members who are too proud to confess their love for one another. The … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 16th, 2019)

The new winter anime season has begun, and it’s time to take a look at what’s available to watch. From what I can tell, it’s a relatively sparse season, though it does feature two series about female air force pilots … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 9th, 2019)

Happy new year! Welcome to the first weekly Japanese pop culture thread of 2019! I’m going to do a full run-down of the winter anime I’m interested in next week, so for now, let me ask you: what were your … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 2nd, 2019)

Hi Score Girl is a romantic comedy manga series by Rensuke Oshikiri that ran for eight years and ended its run this September. It tells the story of Haruo Yamaguchi, a slacker and obsessed gamer who gets caught in a … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (December 26th, 2018)

Granblue Fantasy began life as a mobile game: a turn-based RPG for Android and iOS released in 2014. The game quickly ballooned in popularity and has since become a full-blown franchise. An anime series based on the property aired last … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (December 19th, 2018)