Hey folks! Welcome to this week’s Japanese pop culture thread. Rilakkuma and Kaoru is a stop-motion animation series that debuted on Netflix last month. It follows the daily life of Kaoru, an office worker living in Japan, and Rilakkuma, a … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (May 8th, 2019)

It’s the first day of May, and it’s beautiful and sunny outside, so what better time is there to talk about the night-time urban fantasy manga series Midnight Occult Civil Servants? Everyone knows that government jobs are super-exciting, but they … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (May 1st, 2019)

Sarazanmai is the latest work from the twisted mind of Penguindrum creator Kunihiko Ikuhara. This anime series is a magical boy story that tells the tale of three delinquent middle-schoolers who get transformed into kappas. The series is currently available … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (April 24th, 2019)

Fruits Basket is a shōjo manga series about an orphan girl who goes to live with some of her male classmates, only to discover that they’re possessed by animals of the Chinese zodiac. It is one of the best-selling manga … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (April 17th, 2019)

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)