Hero Mama League is an upcoming crossover Super Sentai movie being released this Sunday in honour of Mother’s Day. It follows heroines from Ninpu Sentai Hurricaneger, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, and Mahou Sentai Magiranger as they try to balance crimefighting and parenthood. Here’s … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (May 9th, 2018)

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)

Kakegurui is a serialized manga about a school for children of the elite, where the social hierarchy is determined by the results of gambling games. It was adapted into an anime series by Studio MAPPA last year, and after months … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 31st, 2018)

Based on Go Nagai’s Devilman manga and directed by Masaaki Yuasa, DEVILMAN crybaby premiered on Netflix earlier this month. It tells the story of a high schooler who attends a bacchanalian party that transforms him into a half-man/half-devil. He then … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 24th, 2018)

Welcome to another edition of the Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread! This week, we’re spotlighting A Place Further Than The Universe, the story of a teenage girl who recruits three friends to go with her on a journey to Antarctica … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 17th, 2018)

One of the new series airing this winter is Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, based on the manga of the same name. It’s about a stuck-up, aloof transfer student who has a secret ramen obsession. It’s also surprisingly educational. As … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 10th, 2018)

The winter 2018 anime season is nearly upon us, and this one is shaping up to have quite a few interesting series. Here’s what I’m planning on checking out, time-permitting: Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens. [Pictured in the header.] This crime drama … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (January 3rd, 2018)

If you’re reading this, then the weekly Japanese pop culture thread went up as scheduled. If you’re not reading this, then how are you reading this??? Happy holidays! Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (December 27th, 2017)

Heya nerds! It’s time for your weekly Japanese pop culture thread. This week I’d like to draw your attention to the three-episode YouTube series, Anime Crimes Division, starring Internet personality and voice actor SungWon Cho (a.k.a. ProZD). The series is … Continue reading Weekly Japanese Pop Culture Thread (December 20th, 2017)