I continue to work through the new anime series Japan has prepared for us this season. One show I’ve had my eye on a while is the Netsuzou Trap yuri anime, based on a popular manga series. If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, you know that I’m a big fan of the drama created when girls love other girls, and I’m happy with the new wave of mainstream yuri anime stories — which include the excellent Scum’s Wish and an upcoming Citrus anime — that have been cropping up lately. Netsuzou Trap is the story of Yuma, a shy girl who recently started dating a boy named Takeda. Whenever she tries to get close to him, though, her childhood friend Hotaru starts kissing and touching her, seemingly trying to steal Yuma for herself. While not quite up to the delicious criss-crossing relationships and writing quality of Scum’s Wish, Netsuzou Trap a fun show for those who like drama about girls and guys and jealousy. The anime uses a 10 minute episode format which I like: it’s far longer than the super-short 3-minute episodes some shows opt for without the risk of a full-length series that might not get traction with fans. So, are you going to give the Netsuzou Trap yuri anime a try?
There’s one welcome aspect about living outside the U.S.: I have zero awareness of Duck Dynasty or Jersey Shore, and I literally had to Google how to spell “Kardashian” since I don’t really know who they are, outside of occasional memes on the Internet. I also know almost nothing about American Idol, the often-maligned American singing competition show. Japan has a music show, too: NHK’s Nodo Jiman (literally “Proud of my Throat”), and every week it’s broadcast from a different city in one of Japan’s 47 prefectures. It features normal folks who get up and sing songs, having fun on stage before the bell rings letting them know if they passed (allowing them to move onto the national singing finals) or failed. The show is arguably the longest running in the world, shown on TV weekly since 1953, but in the same format on radio since 1946. Like much of NHK’s programming, the show is a force of calm, and though earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides might threaten our lives, we know that Japan will endure as long as next week’s episode of Nodo Jiman is on.
(If you like singing in Japanese, there’s an international version of the show called Nodo Jiman Za! World in which foreigners from around the world can get a chance to become famous on Japanese TV. You might even win a record contract like San Francisco-born Chris Hart did!)
Some great news: the new anime magazines for the month have come in, including Megami Magazine and Nyantype. These magazines are our favorites because they have all the best anime posters for fans, with fresh new images to have in your room or anywhere else. Want detailed views of the internal posters? We’ve got a blog post for you!
