Category: Japanese

  • Tetsuya Nakashima’s Rolling Bomber Special

    This parody short film titled Rolling Bomber Special by Tetsuya Nakashima came to my mind recently, which formed part of 2001’s SMAP Short Films collection. This 20-year-old upload by Kurea could’ve been the link I saw when I was in uni and this “clip” became viral. So many old clips gone from the internet, so many viral memories.

    According to its Namu page, it’s the third in the film series, and because the name of the Super Sentai group is “Freshman,” it’s supposed to be a pun on Flashman.

    Stunningly hilarious as it was then. Would love a higher resolution popping up.

    Cosplaying as Zarray, the Army of Evil would be hilarious.

  • Two Decades with Linda Linda!

    Like a rat/mouse, I want to be beautiful ♫ too, you guys. I love you so much.

    The last couple of weeks (?) [about a month and a half ago?], the Linda Linda Linda movie team has been hyping the twentieth anniversary of the movie, which includes a gorgeous 4K restoration which some lucky people might have gotten the chance to watch on a big screen. The re-release, of course, included a very much luckier event with the cast (ALL THE CAST) and director Nobuhiro Yamashita in Japan, where even Kenichi Matsuyama recreated his love confession to Doona.

    The class of Actors to Watch [2][2] from almost 15 years ago aged well.

    To celebrate even more, because this is a pan-East-Asia geek event, Marie Claire Korea included a photoshoot with the Linda Linda girls.

    Paranmaum desu.

  • Gonta-kun and Gorori for Brutus for NHK’s 100th Anniversary

    Celebrating 100 years of broadcast, NHK has decided to dust off some of its educational mascots for this nostalgic photoshoot for the September edition of Brutus magazine. Featuring Latin America and Peru’s favorite Gonta-kun (of Dekirukana fame) alongside GORORI from Tsukutte Asobo (つくってあそぼ).

    Gonta-kun hasn’t aged one bit, I must admit. And Ei Takami’s passing back in May 2023 was felt throughout millennial Peruvian twitter who mourned Noppo-san, a key character in our formative years. RIP, Noppo-san.

    Also, you guys- one of the most popular posts on the site is the Okaasan to Issho (おかあさんといっしょ) post I did so long ago, I thought I would update you all that NHK (and Japan in general) has decided to finally enter the digital era, and have set up a bunch of NHK content channel, though I have to be honest, I tried looking up all the content I watched during the special events for the 65th anniversary of Okaasan to Issho and couldn’t find the same clips. I’m pretty sure there was a Poyoyon (ぼよよん) special clip with all the available hosts of the show’s history, and I’m sure I saw a good quality clip of the Power Up song.

    Now a general search only gives you a non-official clip of Kinra Kira Pon (きんらきらぽん) on TikTok, which feeds you into this version of the SUPURAPPI (スプラッピ スプラッパ) song for the anniversary. Archive accordingly.

  • Demon Slayer 1980s–1990s Retro Edition by GlitchVerse

    I stumbled upon this re-imagined look for Demon Slayer in the ornate style of 1980’s and 1990’s anime, and it’s a dream. I enjoy Demon Slayer fine, but younger generations really have no idea what beauty they missed from old anime. Producers should really really look into making OVAs in this style.

    [for some reason, I’m unable to embed?]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bbVo7sDQ4w

    According to GlitchVerse comment, the song used in the video was done with AI and it’s titled Endless Struggle; featured on their channel. It is not mentioned what tools they used for generating the graphics.

  • YAMMag Mononoke Happened

    This is likely the last post of 2024, breaking a dry spell of the last few years with a record 20 posts since 2018 when I posted 38 times.

    This last post of 2024 is dedicated to Kenji Nakamura’s Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain (劇場版「モノノ怪 唐傘」), which crowfunded a while ago and has recently fulfilled orders. What an adventurous journey! We got a special credit for YAM Magazine!

    It is an honor that we get to put our name in one of the team’s favorite series.

    Let’s all look forward to what 2025 may bring!

    I hope you all had an incredible 2024, and that you all were able to achieve what you set out to do (or close to achievement, anyway).

  • Koreeda’s Putting an Asura Team Together

    Promotion season has just started for this dream collaboration that all quality J-Film fandom had wished for— a Koreeda series starring Rie Miyazawa, Machiko Ono, Yu Aoi and Suzu Hirose. Loads of crossover fandoms. Even if expectations are too high and are not fully met, it will still be good.

    Specially good for Yu-chan and Suzu-chan fans who have been wanting a collaboration since we saw Suzu-chan in Shunji Iwai-verse.

    Yu-chan fans are also being fed well with a quick comeback since Yu-chan became a mom and did her quick appearance on NHK’s asadora. Netflix’s Asura (阿修羅のごとく) re-adaptation is also a milestone for Yu-chan because longtime fans know Like Asura is one of Yu-chan’s favorite projects.

    The +30min press conference is super fun, and YouTube auto captioning Japanese to English immediate translation is decent enough, even though translate features in browsers don’t seem to be doing well translating Yu’s name for some odd reason.

    Netflix only has a 1min clip of the opening (of the show?). I would love love love the name of the song featured, though. I wasn’t able to find any info on that other than it being by Takeshi Yoshida (吉田武史) and Katsura Uehara (上原桂). The show is supposed to be available in early January 2025 (though Netflix has been known to make stuff disappear in different regions).

    I’m really really excited about this project.

  • Shin-chan vs. Earwig – FIGHT!

    If twenty years ago you had told me that Crayon Shin-chan was gonna have a smoother transition from 2D to 3D than Studio Ghibli, I would’ve asked you what you were smoking. Yet here we are. lol

    The plot for Shin Jigen! Crayon Shin-chan the Movie wasn’t even all that bad, and gets quite meaningful by the end! What a wild world we live in.

  • The Film Library Is Shaping Up~

    Buying physical media has been a chore lately, you gotta keep an eye out so you make sure you don’t miss your delivery because, for some reason, people cannot just leave your package any longer.

    Plus, distributors are doing physical media less and less. The whole of the Indian Cinema industry has decided to phase out physical media in favor of going all in on OTT and VOD. Even enormous hits like RRR are left with no physical release, even in the West. Even Disney is letting Sony handle its physical media, which seems like the end of an era. Then there’s the whole thing about editing and disappearing media from libraries.

    So these are some of the most recent -and not so recent- films that have been added to the physical library. I wish I had more disposable income because there are a bunch of titles (and upgrades) that had been added to the wishlist.

    These on top of some Bluray upgrades like Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying, brand new Criterion’s for Los Otros and Laberinto del Fauno. Some random BR UK release for Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

    Also, this post makes it so that this year is the most I’ve blogged since 2020. I’m coming for you 2019. Four posts in Feb’24 is the most continuous blogging since Aug’18.

  • Looks like someone’s a Yu Aoi fan – NINA’s Love Like This

    Having debuted back in 2022 under the name Song Soowoo (송수우) with the edgy-sounding song Love Me or Hate Me [MV], Song is back under the name NINA (니나) [almost impossible to look up without running into other Ninas] with the music video for Love Like This, directed by Jonah George.

    Alt link available at Super Sound Bugs!

    Which, if you’ve seen the Bugs thumbnail on YouTube, looks Yu Aoi-inspired. I say Yu Aoi-inspired, because it’s mostly Yuki Tanada’s One Million Yen Girl and heavily references Shunji Iwai’s Hana & Alice for obvious shots. However, it also heavily references Iwai’s 1995 Asian hit Love Letter which has inspired a whole generation of filmmakers [1][2] and idols.

  • The Clown Who’s Not Watching TV

    That’s me. People will ask me if I’m watching which and what show, and I would usually say that I really don’t have time to watch much television. However, the past week I’ve been catching up with my “to watch” list and inundated.

    I watched one single episode of Prime India’s Jubilee, which I’m looking forward to finishing. And I just binged through Apple’s Pachinko. I’m usually hit or miss with Kogonada (After Yang was excellent), but my only complaint about Pachinko is that I really wish American series would do their just one off series and not make me wait for two or three seasons.

    I’ve also just started Nicole Kidman’s Nine Perfect Strangers (after going through Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things with Kathryn Hahn). Going though Showtime’s The Good Lord Bird, and have been catching Demon Slayer episodes, as well as rewatching shows like Cowboy Bebop and Orange Days (went through Tiger & Dragon, as well as Quartet a while back). Picking up old school Trigun, and planning to finally go through Emily Blunt’s The English and FINALLY trying to get through McQueen’s Small Axe.

    Not even counting that I really wanted to watch that Prime The Underground Railroad series.