“Sakamoto Shop” Last week, I hosted a kimono event, but afterward, I became unwell and ended up taking a full week off from updating both my blog and social media. Fortunately, it wasn’t COVID, and I’m relieved about that. Now, with only five days left until the St. Louis Anime Fest, I’d like to continue […]

A Kimono Night in St. Louis It’s a little late to write about this, but recently I was invited to a concert in St. Louis by **Hiroya Tsukamoto**, a guitarist and composer originally from Kyoto who studied at Berklee College of Music and is now based in the United States. He is known for his […]

September 15, 2025 Since summer is now coming to an end, today I would like to talk about Summer Time Rendering. Last year, I visited Wakayama with a friend, without knowing at the time that it was the model for the anime. Now, as I write this blog, I find myself recalling both the anime […]

September 12, 2025A world where good and evil are reversed The anime Tougen Anki has quickly become one of the most talked-about series of 2025. Yesterday I introduced My Hero Academia with its very American-style heroes. Today, I’d like to shift focus back to Japan and explore Tougen Anki—a parallel-world reinterpretation of the beloved folktale […]

September 12, 2025 Story 　　 Yesterday was Patriot Day in the United States. So today, I’d like to introduce an anime that feels particularly American: My Hero Academia (hereafter “HeroAca”). HeroAca is set in a society where about 80% of the population is born with supernatural abilities called “Quirks.” In this world, a boy born […]

Cursed Spirits Born from Negative Emotions Jujutsu Kaisen, created by Gege Akutami and serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, is a dark fantasy battle story depicting the fight of sorcerers who exorcise “Cursed Spirits” — beings born from negative human emotions such as hatred, fear, and sorrow. The story begins with Yuji Itadori, a high school […]

2025.09.09 On a previous day, I wrote about Catholic exorcists. Today, I would like to introduce a Japanese anime with exorcism themes: Blue Exorcist (Ao no Futsumashi, or Exorcist). In my earlier post on The Summer Hikaru Died, I also touched on the Japanese concepts of purification (harai) and defilement (kegare). Blue Exorcist, too, portrays […]

September 8, 2025 Synopsis This past weekend, I went to see The Conjuring: Last Rites. I have long been an admirer of director James Wan’s films and have seen all of them, so I went without hesitation to watch this final chapter of the Conjuring series. Ed and Lorraine Warren were real figures, and it […]

For Day 3, I would like to introduce a title that many of you may already know: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. This hit anime series, produced by Ufotable, is based on the manga by Gotōge Koyoharu.Interestingly, Gotōge-sensei is a woman, though she chose a pen name that conceals her gender to avoid bias and […]

Thanks to your warm support, I was selected as a finalist for the Blue Mannequin Challenge—and ultimately received the top award. Right after I committed to the challenge, my 94 years old grandmother in Japan suddenly collapsed, and I had to return home on short notice. My production time was effectively cut in half. Even […]