#yuko ito

[saint-miroir]

An(other) Aitakute... Your Smiles in My Heart telephone card, featuring an illustration of China Ninomiya and Asako Ninomiya, illustrated by game character designer Yuko Ito (signed, “Itochin”).

[storekn1fe]

do you like horror? do you like yuri? do you like combining the two? then join team horror animanga for the 2024 @yuriolympics !!!

the yuri olympics are an event where yuri enjoyers create works for their fave ships! and if you aren't into horror, you can join another team, or even create one yourself! and if you don't want to make anything but still want to participate, you can join as a voter!

you can sign up here! make sure to join the discord as well!

[crazyasianlove]

Futsugou na Kioku (Sub. Esp) [2024]

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Título: Futsugou na Kioku (Recuerdos Inconvenientes) País: Japón Género: thriller, Sci-Fi Duración: 117 min. Fecha de estreno: 27 de septiembre, 2024 Dirección: Ishikawa Kei Guion: Brad Wright

SINOPSIS

Ambientada en el año 220 D.C., los avances en la ciencia y la tecnología han progresado hasta el punto en que la humanidad ha empezado a colonizar el espacio. A primera vista, Naoki y Mayumi, que viven en una lujosa residencia flotante en el espacio, parecen la pareja perfecta que todo el mundo admira. Naoki, científico, está profundamente absorto en su investigación, mientras que Mayumi está apasionadamente inversa en su hobby de alfarería. En su sofisticada vida en el espacio, disfrutan una aparente vida pacífica e ideal. Sin embargo, Naoki ha convertido a Mayumi en un androide en un intento desesperado de recapturar la felicidad de los días en que ella más lo amaba. Conducido por su obsesión con la perfección, Naoki altera constantemente a su esposa, intentando controlarla para que se adapte a su "ideal". Hasta que, con el tiempo, Mayumi empieza a darse cuenta de la situación en la que se encuentra.

REPARTO

Ito Hideaki como Naoki Araki Yuko como Mayumi Mizuma Ron como el doctor Ogasawara Jeab-Lalana Kongtoranin como Jeab

Tráiler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRFdlSlEL1U

[highsummonermercar]

More mainstream pop artists took a switch to R&B during this time including the now retired singer and dancer, Namie Amuro. After much criticism for dabbling in R&B in the 90s, songs from her Style, Queen to Hip-Pop and PLAY albums started gaining interest; notably Put ‘Em Up, So Crazy, Girl Talk, HELLO and Pink Key. Along with Amuro, ero-kawaii artist Koda Kumi became a trendsetter after her Best~First Things~ got popular. She had R&B tracks that heightened like 秘密 (Secret), this is not a love song and No Way from some of her best albums, Kingdom, TRICK and UNIVERSE. The versatility in J-R&B songs showcased to many in the industry that it was impactful  and interest from artists such as Ishida Yuko’s Missin’ U,  SATOMI’s Baby Doll, MISIA’s ANY LOVE, YA-KYIM’s someday, Leah Dizon’s Softly, May J.’s Why Why Why and Yuna Ito’s Losin in the mid  2000’s to early 2010s. Even R&B was pouring into idol songs like Morning Musume’s Do It Now and Goto Maki’s Tear Drops. Along with these tracks, there were many other standout albums that were heavily influenced such as Hiromi’s Rainbow, Kato Miliyah’s Heaven, AI’s The Last Ai, Jasmine’s Gold, LISA’s Gratitude, BENI’s Jewel and Thelma Aoyama’s Diary.

Japanese R&B – The State of It All

[fleurbeaufermo-za]

The erogurofication of my sketches

[mondstalgia]

'were we happy as a married couple?" - "yes, we were." hideaki ito as 'naoki' & araki yuko as 'mayumi' in futsugona kioku (2024)

[zlatakleos]

This kinda reminds me of two specific panels from Tomie (the series as a whole), I see the Junji Ito inspiration!!

Something i did inspired by Yuko Tatsuhima!

Drawn with my glass fountain pen.

Shes one of my favorite artists along with Sui Ishida ad Junji Ito :)

[wlwcatalogue]

Some WLW (?) Jdrama & Kdrama recommendations!

Jdramas and Kdramas have a (not-entirely-unearned) reputation for being very straight, but here are a few which are either canonically F/F or which prominently feature a female-female pair-- please enjoy! For those who enjoy following series in real time, Chaser Game W and She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat S2 are both airing this January 2024 :)

As with my post on anime with yuri subtext, since subtext is so subjective, this list only includes series which I’ve actually watched, and so is by no means intended to be comprehensive. Also, it doesn't include any webseries, since those probably deserve a post of their own.

At-a-glance list:

Miss Sherlock (8 episodes, 2018) (subtext)

Night Light (20 episodes, 2016) (subtext)

Tokusatsu Gagaga (7 episodes, 2019) (subtext)

Painter of the Wind (20 episodes, 2008) (canon?)

She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat (10 15-minute episodes and counting, 2022~) (canon)

Sono Toki, Heart wa Nusumareta (5 episodes, 1992) (canon)

Chaser Game W (10? 30-minute episodes, 2024) (canon)

Doctor X (7 seasons and counting, 2012~) (subtext)

Bonus: SKY Castle (20 episodes, 2018) (subtext)

Summaries under the cut!

1. Miss Sherlock / ミス・シャーロック (8 episodes, 2018) (subtext) – MyDramaList | AsianWiki

The elevator pitch for this show is simple: it’s Sherlock Holmes, but where Holmes and Watson – here named “Sherlock” and Tachibana Wato, and played by Takeuchi Yuko and Kanjiya Shihori, respectively – are both female, and the cases are all set in modern Tokyo. As with other adaptations, mystery-solving and the budding relationship between the two leads takes centre stage, but Miss Sherlock manages to carve out an identity all its own.

There’s a calm beauty to its visuals, which favour sunlight and urban greenery, and the show’s focus on former doctor Wato as she tries out new jobs and goes to therapy means that there’s a surprisingly high number of slice-of-life scenes. It’s also subtly more female-focused than the source material; Sherlock’s gossipy but good-natured landlady Ms. Hatano (Ito Ran) is as much a member of the household as Sherlock and Wato, and the cases often revolve around female characters. But more than anything, it’s just really fun to watch Sherlock and Wato’s relationship bloom as they snip and snipe and are utterly unable to stay out of each other’s space (literally – the body language and blocking is *chef’s kiss*). Their relationship is the heart of the show – watch this one until the end, you won’t regret it!

(CW: psychological abuse, manipulation, and genre-typical murder, violence, and gore)

2. Night Light / 불야성 (20 episodes, 2016) (subtext) - MyDramaList | AsianWiki

(Note: spoilers for the mid-season twist, but it’s impossible to allude to a good portion of the F/F subtext without doing so, and I think knowing the twist ahead of time doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.)

Night Light is a rather odd show. It’s simple enough on the face of it, a story about  successful but ruthless CEO Seo Yi-kyung (an icy Lee Yo-won) who tries to mold the younger Lee Se-jin (a puppy-eyed Uee) in her own ambitious image, only for her protege to develop the conscience she never had and move to stop her dastardly plans… but upon watching it’s a totally different creature,  thanks to the alchemic reactions of some delightfully contradictory acting choices (Uee’s performance convinces viewers less of Se-jin’s supposed latent desire for power and money, and more of a deep love and devotion for the CEO) and the unintentionally (?) inneundo-laden script (“If I like something once, I never forget it– whether it’s a dress… or a person,” declares the CEO less than ten minutes into the first episode while gazing intently at Se-jin).

Honestly, it’s a wonder this series ever got made, but you certainly won’t see me complaining! The first part is full of boss/subordinate goodness; Se-jin is unable to resist the CEO’s magnetic pull despite her hot-and-cold behaviour, while the CEO cannot bring herself to push Se-jin away completely. And then, when Se-jin makes her mind up to stop the CEO, it morphs into a corporate take on a (subtextual) lovers-on-opposite-sides situation, where it is precisely Se-jin’s feelings for the CEO that motivate her to stop her. In short, it’s a workplace GL fan’s dream.

Note: If you do watch it, skip the corporate politicking cutscenes with the old men, you’ll thank me later. Also, there’s a prominent male character who is the CEO’s ex and who works closely with Se-jin in the second half, but don’t worry, all the M/F romance is in the past (and doesn’t get much screentime)– he and Se-jin aren’t interested in each other at all.

3. Tokusatsu Gagaga / トクサツガガガ (7 episodes, 2019) (subtext) - MyDramaList | AsianWiki

Nakamura Kano (Koshiba Fuka) lives and breathes tokusatsu shows (think Power Rangers, if you’re not familiar), but keeps it a secret from her work colleagues to avoid being shunned or laughed at. And yet she yearns for connection, so when she sees a woman on the subway bearing a keychain from her favourite show (Yoshida Hisami, played by Kurashina Kana), she is determined to find her again.

Although ostensibly about being a tokusatsu fan as an adult, this show is rife with queer subtext, and not in the usual way. It deals with the difficulties of staying in the closet (regarding being an adult tokusatsu fan), the desire to connect with other queer people adult tokusatsu fans and how one might do so through hints and signals, parental disapproval arising from gendered and social expectations (that tokusatsu shows are for boys, and magical girl shows for girls), intersectionality and finding comradeship with other minorities people who are excluded due to their interests, and even generational gaps wherein younger queers fans may underestimate the obstacles that still exist. Although all that might sound a bit stressful, it isn’t actually! Difficult incidents are handled with sympathy and a dash of wry humour, and the show never loses sight of the fact that it – above all else – is a story about finding queer community in the face of a heteronormative hostile world, told with warmth and the nuance of lived experience.

4. Painter of the Wind / 바람의 화원 (20 episodes, 2008) (canon?) - MyDramaList | AsianWiki

Adapting the novel of the same name by Lee Jung-myung, Painter of the Wind takes as its protagonist a gender-bent version of real-life Joseon-era painter Shin Yun-bok (Moon Geun-young), whose paintings are used to weave a tale of artistry, political intrigue, and romance, and more than anything else to offer modern-day viewers a glimpse of everyday life in 18th-century Korea.

While it may sound like Dickinson’s boring cousin, apart from having a common preoccupation with reframing historical works, another similarity the two shows share is that Painter of the Wind is also very gay. Starting from the first episode, Yun-bok meets and becomes fascinated by the courtesan Jung-hyang (Moon Chae-won), who despite her initial aloofness is drawn to Yun-bok’s intellect and sensitive demeanour. It’s a real meeting of the minds, their witty repartee in early episodes reminiscent of Twelfth Night’s Viola and Olivia, and their relationship isn’t siloed off from the main plot either: Yun-bok’s infatuation quickly starts causing issues with her academic career, and the two eventually have to contend with Jung-hyang’s precarious position as a courtesan as well.

Unfortunately, all this is undermined in the back half of the show, which tries to gaslight viewers into thinking that Yun-bok’s feelings for Jung-hyang were purely platonic all along and that she totally has romantic feelings for her much older male mentor— but hey, at least it’s an open ending. Despite everything, though, I can’t think of another serious historical TV show which features such a prominent F/F narrative for its main character, even nearly two decades later. (Let me know if you have any others! And no, Gentleman Jack doesn’t count, it’s not exactly traditional in style!)

(CW: period-typical sexism)

5. She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat / 作りたい女と食べたい女 (10 15-minute episodes and counting, 2022~) (canon) - MyDramaList

Based on Yuzaki Sakaomi’s manga of the same name, this simple but sweet show follows home-cooking extraordinaire Nomoto Yuki (Higa Manami), who yearns to cook large-scale dishes but doesn’t eat enough to justify making them. Luckily for her, her neighbour Kasuga Totoko (Nishino Emi) has a massive appetite!

It’s always lovely to see more grounded stories about working women, especially when they’re as cute as this one. Though it touches upon some slightly more serious issues, such as with regard to gendered expectations surrounding food and cooking, it’s primarily a feel-good slice-of-life show about two women getting to know each other by cooking and eating delicious food together.

Side note: if you’ve started it and think the show doesn’t look cosy enough, stick it out for a few more episodes, the production values improve after the first part! Also, the series was renewed for a second season with double the episode count (for a total of 20 episodes) which will start airing on January 29th this year, so this is the perfect time to jump in!

6. Sono Toki, Heart wa Nusumareta / その時、ハートは盗まれた (5 episodes, 1992) (canon) - MyDramaList

Sono Heart, as it’s nicknamed, starts off as a typical heteronormative high school romance: bumbling protagonist Shiina Hiroko (Isshiki Sae) is desperate to get closer to her crush Katase Masato (Kimura Takuya), star of the school basketball team and all-round nice dude. However, a spanner in the works comes slouching along in the form of female classmate Aso Saki (Uchida Yuki, in her debut role), a mischievous, short-haired personification of trouble who Katase turns out to have feelings for. One day, Hiroko gets into a fight with Saki, and they end up having to stay together after school as punishment. But that afternoon gives them the opportunity to bond over a heart-to-heart conversation, and things seem to improve… until, just before leaving, Saki kisses Hiroko. And then everything changes.

Or rather, everything changes eventually. What’s great about this show is that it doesn’t take shortcuts: Hiroko doesn’t instantly fall in love with Saki. Instead, what you get is a surprisingly layered portrait of a high school girl whose coming to terms with queerness is merely a natural extension of reckoning with her burgeoning sexuality. And, because Saki is self-destructive in her depression and makes a game of belittling, worrying, and infuriating anyone who cares about her, it’s really a story about what it means to love another person rather than a romantic ideal. A word of warning, though: Katase is actually quite a large character, as he and Hiroko end up becoming friends. Also, the ending is very abrupt and inconclusive, though rest assured that it doesn’t try to roll back Hiroko’s feelings, or pair either girl off with a guy.

(CW: self-harm, attempted suicide, bullying, homophobia, underage drinking)

7. Chaser Game W: Power Harassment Boss Is My Ex-Girlfriend / チェイサーゲームW: パワハラ上司は私の元カノ (10? 30-minute episodes, 2024) (canon) - MyDramaList | AsianWiki

Probably jumping the gun here as only two episodes have aired as of writing, but I feel honour-bound to recommend this as it’d probably appeal to a lot of people, if only they knew about it! Chaser Game W is a standalone spin-off of Chaser Game, itself an adaptation of a manga of the same name by Matsuyama Hiroshi and Matsushima Yukitarou, but you don’t need to know anything going in.

Protagonist Harumoto Itsuki (former Keyakizaka46 captain Sugai Yuuka) has been assigned a new job: her company has been asked by a Chinese conglomerate to develop a game adaptation of a GL manhua, and she’s been tapped as the project leader. However, what appears to be an exciting prospect soon becomes a terrifying one, as the person sent by the client to supervise turns out to be her ex-girlfriend from university (Lin Dongyu, played by Japanese actress Nakamura Yurika), who is now married to a Chinese man (played by a Japanese actor) and has a child, but remains hell-bent on exacting revenge on Itsuki for their bad breakup. This is a romantic (melo)drama rather than a psychological thriller, though, so you won’t be watching Itsuki getting terrorised the entire time. While she is understandably upset by her ex’s current behaviour, Itsuki can’t forget about their happy days together, and Dongyu herself veers between being a sneering bully and craving Itsuki’s affection.

Do note that the show isn’t without its flaws: it’s very Japanese about the Chinese thing, which is to say it’s filled with comments which range from somewhat offensive to borderline racist, and the script will probably give you a headache if you know even the slightest thing about game development. Your mileage might vary on the ex too, as she can be really quite nasty to Itsuki and her teammates. But if you can overlook those issues, this is a rare prize indeed: a TV drama focusing on a canonical F/F pair, who are specifically exes, and in a workplace setting.

(CW: bullying)

8. Doctor X / ドクターX (7 seasons and counting, 2012~) (subtext) - MyDramaList | AsianWiki

To be very honest, I was in two minds about including Doctor X on this list. It is, with a few notable exceptions, misogynistic and reductive in its depictions of women (especially in the first two seasons), gives too much screentime to objectively awful and subjectively annoying men, doesn’t respect the work done by medical personnel apart from surgeons, and on the technical front is formulaic, repetitive, and often lazy in its writing and presentation. Unfortunately, the dynamic between the genius surgeon protagonist Daimon Michiko (Yonekura Ryoko) and her anaesthesiologist wife partner friend Jounouchi Hiromi (Uchida Yuki) is almost unparalleled in its excellence.

The premise of the series is basic indeed: Daimon Michiko is a freelance surgeon with a healthy disrespect of rules and authority and, unluckily for her detractors, a cast-iron guarantee that she will succeed in any surgery, no matter how difficult. She’s initially portrayed as a lone wolf who’s dismissive of the entire hospital system and anyone who’s part of it— but her interest is piqued by the anaesthesiologist Jounouchi, who is skilled beyond her peers and chafes against the idiocy of her colleagues. For all its flaws, the first season – which is more serious and edgy in tone compared to the others, and isn’t an ensemble cast like the post-S3 seasons – is a fantastic depiction of two people being perfectly matched in skill, intellect, and outlook, and how they come together despite one being standoffish (Jounouchi) and the other not being used to reaching out to or even respecting other people (Daimon).

The seasons after that sadly ditch the emphasis on Jounouchi being Daimon’s professional equal, but in exchange offer up another rare and unexpected gift: two women in their late thirties / early forties who are partners both at work and in private. Jounouchi is Daimon’s designated anaesthesiologist, assisting with nearly every surgery, and she spends so much time at Daimon’s agency-office-slash-house you’d think she’d moved in. Also, after a point they just start being wonderfully dorky and comfortable with each other, while still being consummate professionals in the operating theatre. Although the show is very much focused on Daimon Michiko as its sole protagonist, Jounouchi is undoubtedly the character most significant to her – even more than Daimon’s father figure, the head of the freelance agency – and this is highlighted in the story from time to time. They are very, very good. I just wish the series was better.

Note: If you’re curious, I would recommend watching the very first episode in full– by the end you should know if you’re invested enough to continue, otherwise drop it and live in the happy knowledge that you dodged a bullet. If you aren’t so lucky, I’d advise skipping the surgery segments when they start to bore, and in general to skip liberally. Also, season 4 is not worth watching as a whole, except for the last two episodes, which absolutely should not be missed. Sigh. I can’t speak to seasons 6 and 7, due to having paused mid-S6.

Side note: If you’ve watched Doctor X already and liked it (or at least like Daimon and Jounouchi), but haven’t tried Miss Sherlock yet, definitely give that a go because there seems to be a big overlap in the fandoms. Maybe it’s because they both feature a genius protagonist, have the two largest female characters being work partners, and domestic vibes…?

(CW: sexism, genre-typical gore)

Bonus: SKY Castle / SKY 캐슬 (20 episodes, 2018) (subtext) - MyDramaList | AsianWiki

(Note: slight spoilers for the early episodes, but it’s necessary in order to give a more accurate recommendation regarding the F/F subtext, especially as the show is not primarily focused on any one relationship.)

This one’s a bonus because unlike the others on this list, there’s no close relationship between two female characters which could be interpreted in a romantic light. That’s not too surprising as the show is all about the women of a several super-wealthy families trying to get their children into the top Korean universities (equivalent to the Ivy League) whilst supporting their husbands in the rat race: a decidedly heteronormative premise, albeit one that’s executed in an award-winning manner.

So why am I listing it? Well, it’s because somehow, in this series about heteronormative and highly gendered nuclear families, it features possibly the most erotically-charged dynamic I have seen, even taking season 1 of Killing Eve into account. (Though it takes some time to get there, so if you try it out, please watch at least the first four episodes before making a decision!)

That honour goes to the problematic gem that is the relationship between the main character Han Seo-jin (Yum Jung-ah), who is willing to do whatever it takes to get her daughter into Seoul’s top medical school, and star tutor Kim Joo-young (Kim Seo-hyung), who is known for her 100% success rate. It starts off with a mild push-and-pull, when Han Seo-jin wants Coach Kim to take on her daughter, but is wary of the shady rumours surrounding her; the tutor stands firm, and Han eventually has to swallow her pride and accept the risks. Where it really comes into its own, though, is when Coach Kim starts to pose a legitimate threat to everything Han cares for: her daughter, her marriage (or rather, what her husband can give her), her position in the world. It becomes increasingly clear that Han should just walk away, and indeed she tries to do so many a time, only to bend in the end because the coach is key to fulfilling her dearest wish– and so to Han, for all she rages and resents and fears, Coach Kim is nothing less than temptation itself. This is the beating core of the show, and even as the plotting disintegrates and falls into melodrama in the second half, their scenes together still crackle with delicious tension every time. Watch it.

(CW: suicide, psychological abuse, child abuse, bullying, murder)

[bluebellofbakerstreet]

Number 55 in a series

Others in this series: Basil Rathbone (Fox), Martin Freeman,  Jude Law,  Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams,  Jonny Lee Miller, Vinette Robinson, Jeremy Brett, David Burke, Andrew Scott, Nigel Bruce (Fox), Robert Downey, Jr., Jon Michael Hill, Two Violets, Mark Gatiss, Basil Rathbone (Universal), Nigel Bruce (Universal), Rupert Graves, Evelyn Ankers, Louise Brealey, Lucy Liu, Edward Hardwicke, Christopher Plummer, James Mason, Una Stubbs, Gayle Hunnicut, Hugh Laurie. Robert Sean Leonard, Yasmine Akram, Ronald Howard, Martin Freeman (TAB), Benedict Cumberbatch (TAB), Howard Marion-Crawford, Archie Duncan/Richard Larke, Peter Cushing, Nigel Stock, William Gillette, Edward Fielding/Burford Hampden, Kay Fielding, Rosalie Williams, Andrei Panin, Ingeborga Dapkunayte, Igor Petrenko, Rosalyn Landor, Gareth David-Lloyd, Ben Syder, Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Jared Harris, George Zucco/Ida Lupino. Yuko Takeuchi, Shihori Kanjiya, Tomoya Nakamura, Kenichi Takito, Ran Ito

@randomnessoffiction

[anketsu]

SERIE DEL GIORNO 👉 Creamy Mami (L'Incantevole Creamy)

Oggi vi porto un classico del Majokko anni 80 di Kazunori Ito e Yuko Kitagawa.

Anche voi lo guardavate in tv la domenica mattina?

⭐️ Hola qui è Anketsu che vi scrive e come ogni Lunedì sulla mia pagina trovate una nuova serie consigliata, questa rubrica è pensata per esplorare a 360° il mondo nerd portando l'attenzione su serie sempre diverse ed interessanti ⭐️

Voi avete già sentito parlare della serie del giorno? Se si fatemi sapere cosa ne pensate 🤙

🔻🔹️🔻🔹️🔻🔹️🔻🔹️🔻🔹️

Seguimi

➡️ @anketsu

➡️ #Anketsu

Il mio Sito Web

➡️ www.Anketsu.com

🔺️🔹️🔺️🔹️🔺️🔹️🔺️🔹️🔺️🔹️

[ojamajodoremi-polls]

Welcome to the Favorite Classmate Tournament!

This is gonna be a big one. Due to the number of classmates and the fact i couldn't evenly distribute it in a number of pairs and sides that made sense for the brackets (maybe there's a way and I'm just bad at math), every side initially includes 3 pairs and 1 trio each, and finals will be a poll between 3 contenders and y'all will have to live with that, I did my best.

As always, pairs/trios and their order in the bracket were randomly generated.

Complete list of polls under the cut, they'll be linked as soon as they're posted. Polls will be open for a week. May your fave win!

Side A

Yuji Sagawa vs Masato Rinno

Natsumi Sato vs Jun Sato

Minto Wada vs Naomi Okuyama

Kazuya Yoshida vs Hajime Kikuchi vs Michiaki Watabe

Side B

Mutsumi Kudo vs Itoko Hamada

Manabu Takagi vs Kota Amano

Hiroko Kine vs Miho Maruyama

Ichiro Hirano vs Kenta Iizuka vs Marina Koizumi

Side C

Koji Ito vs Kotaro Okajima

Tamaki Reika vs Yuko Koyama

Yoko Manda vs Kayoko Nagato

Shino Hanada vs Nobuaki Yamauchi vs Keiko Yamamoto

Side D

Yukari Umeno vs Masayoshi Nakajima

Takeshi Hasebe vs Maki Higuchi

Noriko Kano vs Nanako Okada

Junji Manda vs Sachiko Ijuuin vs Goji Nakata

Side E

Sora Miyamae vs Masaharu Miyamoto

Masaru Yada vs Takuro Hagiwara

Yutaka Ota vs Dai Morikawa

Kotake Tetsutya vs Kanae Iida vs Ryota Hayashi

Side F

Susumu Yanagida vs Aya Matsushita

Nobuko Yokokawa vs Kenji Ogura

Shiori Nakayama vs Kaori Shimakura

Takao Kimura vs Toyokazu Sugiyama vs Shouta Taniyama

[batslime]

I’ll never understand people who only see European realism as “real art”. You are so limited by realism. Caravaggio made some work that really imposed emotion on people but nothing he’s made has made me feel a fraction of the dread as Yuko Tatsushima’s I Can’t Be A Bride Anymore still makes me feel as a grown woman. I feel like many people have seen the cropped version of just the face but the full image is even worse to me. Realism cannot capture the awful way that painting makes me feel. That image makes me feel the way I think many people see Junji Ito’s art. It makes me want to get away from the window.

[saint-miroir]

A look at the main cast of Aitakute... ~Your Smiles My Heart~, taken from the Oroshitate no Diary book that came with the game's introduction disc. Illustrated by Yuko Ito, signed "Itochin".

[dear-indies]

Hello Cat and Mouse! Could you please recommend some of your favorite female full Japanese fcs under 30? If possible it'd be helpful to have fcs who have easily accessible screencaps for icon making! :) Thank you!

Karen Fukuhara (1992) Japanese.

Kutsuna Shioli (1992) Japanese.

Araki Yuko (1993) Japanese.

Arimura Kasumi (1993) Japanese.

Rena Nounen (1993) Japanese.

Lyrica Okano (1994) Japanese.

Ito Sairi (1994) Japanese.

Tsuchiya Tao (1995) Japanese.

Kawaguchi Haruna (1995) Japanese.

Miyoshi Ayaka (1996) Japanese.

Nakajo Ayami (1997) Japanese.

Tsunematsu Yuri (1998) Japanese.

Hirose Suzu (1998) Japanese.

Hashimoto Kanna (1999) Japanese.

Hamabe Minami (2000) Japanese.

Hey anon! I'm not sure if these have screencaps but they're all famous and have been in popular media so they should? If not you should have no problem making and/or requesting because they have great source material!

[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.

[celticbotanart]

I've been obsessed with Wagakki Band's "Akatsuki no Ito" lately, it's such a beautiful song. I remember being teary-eyed when I listened to it for the first time, even though it had no subtitles for the lyrics. The way she sings is so unique, I don't know how to explain; also very traditional. Looking for a lyrics translation afterwards, me becoming emotional only made more sense <3 The title "Akatsuki no Ito" means "Thread of Dawn".

The most popular version is the live performance of Homura + Akatsuki no Ito one, which was the one I heard for the first time too, but I'll share a different version here, featuring the audience and people on the big screen singing together. I'm not sure what is the context for that, if it was a fanclub thing, or something else, but still sounds so cool!! people singing together like that always gives me chills in the best way possible!

"We sing to far away, into the sky Across the ocean and over the rainbow Hoping to reach you Overflowing emotion bursts out Place of dreams, that I shall wake up someday Hoping to be filled with smile and laughter Just spin one moment after another"

(Vocalist Yuko Suzuhana recites a poem before she starts to sing the lyrics above, but I couldn't find a translation for it, because it's a different poem from the original version of the song - still super badass!)

And then there's this orchestra arrangement version, Yuko still sings it, while playing the piano. It's such a gorgeous version! Makes me instantly think it should belong to a Ghibli movie, sounds a lot like a Joe Hisaishi's composition: