#hiroaki yoshida

[puyopuyo]

STAGE7 Album: GAME OVER Year: 1994

[billlaotian]

[awsmdog-blog]

Hiroaki Yoshida and Tatsuya Kiuchi - Street Hoop/ Dunk Dream - Yo! What's Up?

[winntersnow]

Im addicted

[stuff-diary]

The Dangers in My Heart

TV Shows/Dramas watched in 2023

The Dangers in My Heart (Season 1, 2023, Japan)

Director: Hiroaki Akagi

Writer: Jukki Hanada (based on the manga by Norio Sakurai)

Mini-review:

I didn't even know this anime existed until a few days ago, so imagine my surprise when I started watching and realized it might just be one of the best of the season. I'm sure some people will be put off by the initial premise, but luckily, the synopsis is nothing but a façade that's quickly deconstructed. Once that's done, we're left with one of the sweetest romcoms I've seen. It's also one of the awkwardest ones, and I mean that in the best of ways. The romance is a classic slowburn, and it's bolstered by some flawless character development. In fact, I was surprised by how good the overall writing is. The show just understands what being a teenager is like. For example, the comedy is built from the perfect mixture of awkwardness, silliness and horniness. I swear I heard some of the same jokes in my classroom when I was the same age as these characters. I imagine some people will dislike the level of horniness the humor reaches at some points, but I think it's incredibly realistic, so it didn't bother me at all. Anyway, I'm glad they already announced a second season, cause those final moments left me feeling all warm inside and I need more of these characters.

[historyhermann]

"The Demon Girl Next Door": A Comedic Anime Worth Watching

What if one day you woke up and were a demon? Yuko experiences this dilemma in The Demon Girl Next Door. She tries to get a hold of her new form and is tasked with defeating the local magical girl... but not everything is as it seems.

Reprinted from The Geekiary, my History Hermann WordPress blog (it will be published there on Dec. 20), and Wayback Machine. This was the thirty-ninth article I wrote for The Geekiary. This post was originally published on May 18, 2022.

The Demon Girl Next Door is a supernatural and magical girl anime directed by Hiroaki Sakurai. It is based on Izumo Itō's manga parody series, is also known as "Street Corner Demon", and is filled with comedic moments from beginning to end.

As a warning, this recommendation discusses some spoilers for the first 19 episodes of The Demon Girl Next Door.

Yuko begins transforming into her crisis management form

The Demon Girl Next Door, builds off the usual story, where someone wakes up and is different from who they were when they went to sleep. One day, Yuko Yoshida (voiced by Konomi Kohara) comes to the frightening realization that she has a tail and horns. She learns that she is the descendant of a demon cursed to live in poverty by an opposing clan.

In order to restore the clan's honor, her mother, Seiko Yoshida tasks her with defeating the local magical girl of the town, Momo Chiyoda. This is easier said than done. Yuko is assisted by her ancestor, Lilith, who is trapped in a totem, and occasionally by her sister, Ryoko Yoshida.

However, Yuko is beset with a dilemma after Momo (voiced by Akari Kito) saves her from certain death. This is made even worse when she realizes that Momo attends the same high school as her! Luckily, she is helped by her school friends Anri Sata (voiced by Sayaka Senbongi) and Sion Ogura (voiced by Ayaka Suwa). Some call her "Shamiko" or by her full name "Shadow Master Yuko."

Sion is into the occult as much as Yoshiko Tsushima in Love Live!! Sunshine! who believes she is a "fallen angel" named "Yohane" and Rie Maruyama in Cue! who calls itself a demon from hell named "Ellis."

The series shares many similarities with The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!, where a powerful demon named Jahy lives in a ratty apartment and tries to gain all of the mana crystals to restore her powers. Yuko also lives on the edge of poverty with her sister Ryoko (voiced by Hitomi Ohwada) and mother, Seiko Yoshida (voiced by Sayaka Ohara).

Similar to the aforementioned series, in The Demon Girl Next Door Yuko becomes friends with Momo and her friend from another town, Mikan Hinatsuki (voiced by Tomoyo Takayanagi). In a unique twist, Mikan has been afflicted by a "guardian spirit" that attacks whenever Mikan's heart is racing, resulting in those around her to experience calamities. This is akin to the misfortune that the magical girl faces when she uses the mana crystals in The Great Jahy.

Later in the series, it is comically revealed that Yuko and Ryoko's father, Joshua (voiced by Hideyuki Umezu) was sealed inside a cardboard citrus box by another magical girl. It turns out that the family uses this box every day to cook their meals on a hibachi!

That magical girl is named Sakura Chiyoda (voiced by Hisako Kanemoto) and the stepsister of Momo. She disappeared ten years ago after she manipulated a sacred seal to ensure she stayed in good health. It later becomes Momo, Mikan, and Yuko's mission to find her. And she does appear in one of the show's most recent episodes. Mikan, on the other hand, has a familiar named Ugallu.

In another parallel with The Great Jahy, for some time Yuko begins working at a cafe run by a demon tapir named Shirosawa (voiced by Takashi Matsuyama) which has a chef and waitress named Lico (voiced by Ayassa Ito). Although Yuko goes there to garner information about Sakura, she becomes poisoned by the food, which makes her a work zombie, until she is saved by her more-than-a-friend Momo.

Mikan (left) gives Yuko (middle) a lemon while Momo (right) watches Yuko, and Yuko's ancestor sits on a nearby table

On the one hand, the series has plot lines focused on mindscapes, reminding me of scenes in The Owl House, Steven Universe, and Inside Job where characters travel inside the minds of other characters, either on purpose or by accident.

In fact, Sakura, another magical girl, helps Yuko out of her nightmare in the fifth and sixth episodes of the show's most recent season, appearing as a mirage of sorts. The audience also learns that Sakura sacrifices herself so that Yuko could live; a noble sacrifice.

This series also features main characters with cool magical transformations. This is coupled with comedy, which is integral to the show.

This is not an off-the-wall comedy like the hilarious three-season slice-of-life yuri comedy, YuruYuri, for which the protagonist complains about her lack of presence, even resulting in her becoming translucent at times. Neither is it like romantic comedies such as the currently airing Kaguya-sama: Love Is War and Love After Domination, or a recently-ended isekei comedy with transgender themes, Life with an Ordinary Guy Who Reincarnated into a Total Fantasy Knockout.

Instead, there is situational comedy either based around interactions between Yuko, her family and school friends, and family, or with her magical girl friends, Mikan and Momo. As a person who loves to eat sliced oranges as a snack, I have to give props to Mikan, whose family owns a fruit company, for constantly, and somehow, finding fruit. She slices up oranges and lemons and chomps on them when they hang out or brings fruit to eat while she is on the go. Are there any other characters who do this? I can't even think of one.

Even more hilarious is the fact that Mikan's hair color fits directly with her love of citrus, as it has the same color as an orange-dyed orange. It also connects with her bubbly, excitable personality and her orange-themed magical transformation.

The same can be said for Momo whose hair color is pink, a color often associated with "innocence and uncomplicated childhood", who has incredible strength and can quickly transform.

Unlike some other series, Momo has no interest in remaining a magical girl, feeling that having such power is too much responsibility for her. Yuko attempts to take advantage of this and recruit Momo as her "vassal." While Momo turns this down, she remains on friendly terms and there are hints in the season 2 introduction that she may go down that route in the future. All the while Yuko continues to declare "don't think this means you won" after Momo "defeats" Yuko in some way.

This is series is not unique in flipping generally understood values, like magical girls seen as "good" and demons as "bad." In fact, the 2017 supernatural slice-of-life and comedy anime, Gabriel DropOut, has angels act like demons, and demons act like angels. Helluva Boss has the demons act like jerks but be relatable and care about each other, while the angels are utter jerks who only care about themselves.

It is even a bit funny that Yuko's magical girl-esque transformation is called "crisis management". It gives her a somewhat scantily clad uniform akin to the lead in The Great Jahy, but it only slightly improves her abilities. This is different than Jahy, as it only helps her a little bit. Due to this, however, Momo helps train her on how to hone her abilities and improve herself. Instead of magical girls and demons fighting one another, they are both on the same side, working together for common goals.

Image from the Season 2 opening of the two protagonists, Momo and Yuko

In the process, the series plays on the common magical girl elements, often associated with female interests like romance, femininity, and child-rearing, with cute appearances of characters resembling idol singers or princesses. When they are in their transformations, Momo, Yuko, and Mikan clearly transform into versions of themselves that seem more mature and prettier, with magical powers. However, Momo and Yuko have items that allow them to use their powers outside of their transformations.

Most powerfully, and apart from any other character in the series, Yuko has the ability to enter other people's minds. She does it often with a wand that sometimes transforms into silly items like a pen, a super-heavy trident, or anything else that does not help her in the slightest. She is also very expressive, with her demon tail telling as much about her emotions as the cat ears of Blake Belladonna in RWBY say about what she is thinking from minute to minute.

Yuko's demon features are often exploited by other characters, who hold her back by her tail, making it hard for her to move, or hold her horns like handles. This is even more painful than someone grabbing onto her tail.

I further found it funny that Yuko's younger sister, Ryoko, is more skilled with technology than her. In fact, she is just as skilled with technology as the underclassman angel Tapris in Gabriel DropOut.

At the same time, her ancestor, Lilith (voiced by Minami Takahashi), can be bought out of her totem into small forms which are like dolls. Hilariously, Momo can easily control her movements, angering Lilith, who is trapped inside the totem. She can only leave to occupy Yuko's body from time to time, which slightly changes Yuko's personality and even her tail in the process. Similar to many characters, she has a weakness for alcohol, which makes it easy to subdue her.

Although there is a goal for magical girls to have romance that leads to marriage, it is unlikely this would happen in The Demon Girl Next Door. No notable male characters appear in the series.  Although Yuko and Momo seem to have some feelings for each other, it is unlikely that Yuko and Momo would marry one another.

In later episodes, they will likely become even closer. After all, in the most recent episode, she became Yuko's vassal (temporarily) and came over the the "dark side", nicknamed "Darkness Peach" by Mikan, to save her from a nightmare. In an unexpected twist, she becomes a dual-class holder whose physical class is light while her spiritual class is light. They both agree to work together to protect the city.

Rather, these characters could be shown ambiguously together and walking off into the sunset akin to the end of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times. It is even less likely that there would any possible marriage, like that hinted between office worker, Kobayashi, and a dragon girl, Tohru, in the final episode of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid.

All in all, The Demon Girl Next Door is a must-see, especially for those interested in demons, magical girls, and supernatural comedies.

The series is currently streaming on HIDIVE. The next episode will air on May 26, 2022.

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[vgmthatmademe]

Bad Dudes Stage Type 2 Azusa Hara, Hiroaki Yoshida (arr. Masaaki Iwasaki, Shogo Sakai, Takafumi Miura, Yuji Suzuki, Yusuke Takahama, Junichi Uchida) Data East 1989

[motorsportverso]

Resultados do Super GT Okayama

GT500

1-36-Sho Tsuboi\Kenta Yamashita-Toyota GR Supra GT500-au Tom's -82 Laps

2-39-Yuki Sekiguchi\Yuichi Nakayama-Toyota GR Supra GT500-Denso Kebelco Sard

3-100-Naoki Yamamoto\Tadasuki Makino-Honda Civic Type R GT500-Stanley

4-38-Hiroaki Ishiura\Toshiki Oky-Toyota GR Supra GT500-Keeper Cerumo

5-23-Katsumassa Chiyo\Ronnie Quintarelli-Nissan Z GT500-Motul Autech Z

6-3-Mitsunori Takaboshi\Atsushi Miyake-Nissan Z GT500-Niterra Motul Z

7-37-Ukyo Sashara\Giuliano Alesi-Toyota GR Supra GT500-au Tom's

8-8-Tamoki Nojiri\Nobuharu Matsushita-Honda Civic Type R GT500-ARTA Mugen

9-16-Hiroki Otsu\Ren Sato-Honda Civic Type R GT500-ARTA Mugen

10-64-Takuya Izawa\Riki Okusa-Honda Civic Type R GT500-Modulo +1 Lap

GT300

1-2-Yuui Tsutsumi\Hibini Taira-Toyota GR86 GT300-Muta Racing-77 Laps

2-65-Naoya Gamou\Takura Shinohara-Mercedes-AMG GT3-LEON PYRAMID AMG

3-7-Seiji Aara\Niklas Krutten-BMW M4 GT3-BMW Team Studie

4-52-Hiroki Yoshida\Seita Nonaka-Toyota GR Supra GT300-Green Brave

5-31-Kazuto Kotaka\Jin Nakamura-Lexus LC 500 h-APR- +1 Lap

6-96-Morio Nitta\Shinichi Takagi-Lexus RC F GT3-K-tunes +1 Lap

7-87-Kosuke Matsuura\Natsu Sakaguchi-Lamborghini Huracan GT3-Metalive +1 Lap

8-88-Takashi Kogure\Yuya Motojima-Lamborghini Huracan GT3-JLOC +1 Lap

9-4-Nobutero Taniguchi\Tatsuya Kataoka-Mercedes AMG GT3-GOODSMILE Hatsune +1 Lap

10-6-Yoshiaki Katayama\Roberto Hermi-Ferrari 296 GT3-Uni Robo Bluegrass +1 Lap

[poetwriterme]

Ekphrastic Reading September 14 at Moonlit Sea Prints Gallery in Easthampton Massachusetts

The Easthampton Art Walk will feature works by several galleries, but Moonlit Sea Prints in Eastworks will sponsor a reading in conjunction with their Japanese Woodblock Print Show “Stories With Shotei.” The Moonlit Sea Prints Gallery features prints by many Japanese artists, including Hiroaki Takahashi (Shotei,) Kiyoharu (Ginnosuke)Yokouchi, and Hiroshi Yoshida. The Moonlit Sea Prints Gallery…

[movies-to-add-to-your-tbw]

Title: A Whisker Away

Rating: NR

Director: Junichi Sato, Tomotaka Shibayama

Cast: Mirai Shida, Natsuki Hanae, Koichi Yamadera, Hiroaki Ogi, Minako Kotobuki, Kensho Ono, Susumu Chiba, Ayako Kawasumi, Sayaka Ohara, Daisuke Namikawa, Eri Kitamura, Shin-ichiro Miki, Rei Sakuma, Oolongta Yoshida, Fukushi Ochiai, Saki Yonemoto

Release year: 2020

Genres: fantasy, romance, drama

Blurb: Miyo “Muge” Sasaki is a peculiar second-year junior high student who has fallen in love with her classmate, Kento Hinode. Muge resolutely pursues Kento every day, but he takes no notice of her. Nevertheless, while carrying a secret she can tell no one, Muge continues to pursue Kento. Muge discovers a magic mask that allows her to transform into a cat named Tarō. The magic lets Muge get close to Kento...but eventually, it may also make her unable to transform back into a human.

[moegaze]

[snesgsts]

(1993) Death Brade

shortlooped chip samples. im wondering if the authors were aiming for a retro sound or if it’s just coincidental. 

overall, it’s very... adequate. 

yeah.

aside from the panning, “Endless Fight Against Yourself" is prolly my fav track here

[underratedgamesoundtrackcorner]

Vapor Trail - Bloody Road

[figureskatingfanblog]

The Japan Open will be held, but with only with Japanese skaters. Instead of a three-team regional format, it will be held as two-team pro/am/junior mixed team competition.

The skaters slated to compete are:

Ladies

Wakaba Higuchi Marin Honda Tomoe Kawabata Chisato Uramatsu Yuhana Yokoi Hana Yoshida

Men

Ryuju Hino Lucas Tsuyoshi Honda Hiroaki Sato Sota Yamamoto

[stuff-diary]

The Dangers in My Heart (Season 2)

TV Shows/Dramas watched in 2024

The Dangers in My Heart (Season 2, 2024, Japan)

Director: Hiroaki Akagi

Writer: Jukki Hanada (based on the manga by Norio Sakurai)

Mini-review:

Now this is how you make a second season: it takes everything that made the first one so charming and then elevates it to the next level. Few shows capture the awkwardness and cringiness of being 13/14 like The Dangers in My Heart. The humor and the character writing are just so realistic, even if it gets a bit over-the-top at times (and that's part of its charm too!). This season also ramps up the angstiness, especially during the last few episodes, and it all leads up to a gorgeous finale. I know the manga is still ongoing, but if the anime ends here, at least it went out in style and cemented itself as one of the best anime romcoms of all time. Still, I really do hope we get more seasons.