*taps mic*
Is this on? Are doing this? F’real f’real?
Aight, then.
I admit, I am more than a little stunned that it’s been almost a month since Cait and I put this mutual project on pause so she could focus on her side project, the birth of her first child. Despite replying to my complaints of boredom with an invitation to clean her basement and a GIF of a woman vacuuming a housefire, she’s in good spirits and very excited.1 We actually got together for tacos in Parkdale last week, lest you’re concerned she hasn’t been kept abreast of the latest developments in the saga of Roman Reigns and The Bloodline.
So what is this going to be, then? A work in progress, clearly. In the spirit of the pod, it’ll probably be one part diary, one part commentary and criticism when the news of the day warrants it, and one part media diary in the spirit of the updates you came to know and love, with a link or two of something interesting I’ve come across.2
As mentioned on the show more than once, one of the best parts about my job is that I work in logistics, which is managing the flow of product both in and out of Major Canadian Retailer. What that ultimately means is that I open the boxes of product when we get the deliveries, and the marquee items in those boxes are always the new manga arrivals. The manga explosion of the last three years has been staggering to me, not only as a book retailer but as a weeb, coming from the 90s when anime was the motor driving otaku culture, and English manga was limited to a handful of offerings from indie Western comics publishers. How the two media feed into and drive each other’s success is a rabbit hole for another instalment, but the volume of titles we carry today dwarfs what we did even five years ago. With that many titles coming through the doors, not every one of them is going to be top shelf, and one of our favourite bits at work is to make note of the more absurd titles that get licensed and released. Even if the title itself doesn’t turn heads, we’ll (I’ll) always size up the premise of every new Volume 1 that gets unpacked. One recent arrival was Oshi no Ko, which is, succinctly, about a murdered gynaecologist reborn in the body of his favourite idol’s newborn son.
I’d like to see Marvel try that.
Oshi no Ko debuted as an anime this season and ginned up a bit of controversy last week when a recent episode seemed to draw inspiration from the circumstances surrounding the death of Japanese pro wrestler and reality television cast member Hana Kimura. We talked about Kimura’s passing when it happened in 2020, but to sum up: while appearing on the once-beloved Netflix reality show Terrace House, Kimura got into a verbal altercation with another cast member regarding the accidental destruction of an expensive wrestling outfit she’d had custom made for a major event. At the end of the argument, Kimura slapped the brim of the other castmember’s cap, knocking it off his head.
While innocuous by Western standards, the incident enraged Japanese viewers, who harassed Kimura online, frequently targeting her status as a hafu (“half”) Indonesian and Japanese citizen. The torrent of harassment and abuse ultimately drove Kimura to take her own life. She was 22.
Episode 6 of Oshi no Ko details the story of the aspiring actress Akane, who struggles to make an impression as a cast member on a reality show. Like Kimura, Akane gets into a dust-up with another cast member, at the behest of the show’s producers. Like Kimura, Akane is subject to relentless harassment online from viewers. Like Kimura, Akane falls into depression and attempts to take her own life.
But this is fiction. In this story, Akane climbs to the top of a bridge and is saved at the last moment by our protagonist Aqua, the aforementioned reincarnated gynaecologist. Hana Kimura died alone. I know this because I was awake and online as she made what would be her final posts and people tried to alert her colleagues and family that something was wrong. The next morning it was confirmed she was gone.
I don’t know why Kimura’s passing still grieves me so much. The unfulfilled potential, surely3; how young she was; that I seemed to watch it unfold in real time; that it exposed what was once one of my favourite shows for the craven display of manipulation I should have always known it was. Probably all of the above.
I do know that, even if the intentions of the creators were noble, she deserves better than to have the details of her life and the tragedy of her death excavated for cheap melodrama in a shitty anime.
So, safe to say, I have not been watching Oshi no Ko. Well what have I been watching?
- Snowfall: I don’t know how I missed this one, but the most consistent man at work told me it was about the rise of the crack trade in California during the 80s, that John Singleton produced it, that lead Damson Idris gave a “Cranston-level performance that no one talks about,” and that it had six seasons, but somehow it slipped my attention. After a quick binge of the first season, I’m taking it slow, but it’s getting better every episode and the menace slowly seeping into the edges of Idris’s performance is terrifying. (D+/Star)
- Primo: A recent addition to the rotation, an autobiographical sitcom from writer and ringer.com alumnus Shea Serrano about a Mexican American teenager in San Antonio coming of age with his single mother and his five uncles. The whole season dropped on Freevee in America and while the first episodes were a little unsteady, by the fourth episode I was in love with it and had to tear myself away from the binge to finish this newsletter. (Freevee in the US; the high seas in Canada).
- Platonic: Another entry in the ‘chill hang’ department, Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne bring their buddy vibes to this series about two friends who were close in their irresponsible 20s reconnecting in their 40s. While the laughs aren’t as conistent as Primo, Byrne and Rogen carry, and the imminent arrival of Ted McGinley in a supporting role following all his scene-stealing in Shrinking has me prepared to declare 2023 the McGinleyssaince. (Apple)
- Honkai Star Rail: I’ll probably have more to say about this next issue, but mobile gaming has been all quivery for the latest offering from miHoYo, the studio behind the surprise smash Genshin Impact. This time they trade open-world fantasy for turn-based science fiction and the results are…unclear so far. But I’ve been compelled to keep playing and will probably jump on it when it gets ported to the Playstation. (iOS/Android)
- CAIT’S PICK! The Super Mario Brothers Movie: “It was fun, and I’m sure it was only 90 minutes. The movie is wildly uncomplicated, Lumalee steals the whole bloody movie. I will be quoting them for the rest of my life.”
READS!
In The New Yorker, a great piece about the legacy of the late Leiji Matsumoto, a creator who’s work still resonates4 and says something in contrast with the anime and manga of today.
If I’m going to return to a relatively online life for the sake of this project, handwringing about AI will likely feature more than I would like. So anything that punctures the hype balloon, even a bit, is appreciated. (Vice)
Finally, a very dumb story via Twitter about a member of an amateur American idol group who was driven to apologize for using a “racist accent” when all she did was say English loanwords with the proper Japanese pronunciation. To quote the Exec Producer, I hate it here.
The show is still on Twitter! I’m on Twitter and Instagram! Should we be on TikTok? Let me know!
The goal is to get into a maybe a biweekly rhythm here, but I’m open to all the feedback, so you can always let me know on the socials or email at geekdownpod@gmail.com
Til next time, friends!
jf
With a clean basement that did not require my assiatnce.
In a move lifted from my friend and soon-to-be official co-author Jessica Doyle.
Kimura was a rapidly rising star in Japan’s STARDOM promotion, which had been acquired by entertainment behemoth Bushiroad in 2019, making it the official joshi counterpart to New Japan, the country’s largest promotion.
Did I mention Honkai Star Rail features a space train? Thank Matsumoto for that.