One new anime I started watching is Sweetness and Lightning, an adorable show about a single father named Kouhei who is caring for his young daughter Tsumugi after the death of his wife. Since they eat mostly pre-packaged bento lunches every night, he yearns to give a proper meal to his daughter, and is suddenly aided by his student Kotori, whose mother runs a small restaurant. It’s a heartwarming show about a father’s quest to get delicious food for his daughter, and also a “food anime” that celebrates cooking and eating, two of our favorite things. I like the show because it accurately portrays what it’s like to raise a girl in Japan. We had the exact same challenges getting our daughter to eat her vegetables, and she somehow managed to kick me in the head every every night while sleeping. I recommend Sweetness and Lightning a lot.
Finding time to meet that special someone can be a challenge in our busy, bustling world , and in overworked Japan the difficulty of finding a partner to marry is seen as a serious social problem, contributing to the declining birthrate and the possible extinction of the Japanese race over the next millennium, according to current projections. To combat this trend, municipal governments as well as private companies offer 婚活 konkatsu or “marriage activities” to help people find someone to love, hosting 合コン gokon or “group dating party” events, essentially a structured way for single people to meet and interact. Now a smart company has organized the first Pokemon Go-based matchmaking events, cleverly called Pokemon Go-kon. At the events, male and female participants meet in a park and engage in several structured social events, then are later paired up to hunt Pokemon together.
We’ve got great news for fans of yuri stories today: Flowers, one of the most beautiful games exploring lesbian relationship by girls, is now available for download from J-List and JAST USA. (The Steam version is also available.) If you preordered the gorgeous Limited Edition, which comes with acrylic figures of the characters in the game along with art cards and more, we’re duplicating them now! The translation has been totally reworked and updated and the game is great!
