250 – Tokyo Tarareba Girls part 1

We’re joined by the awesome Morgana “Manga Maven” Santilli as we jump into a full Retrospective on Akiko Higashimura’s Tokyo Tarareba Girls!!! How will we feel about Higashimura’s meta-commentary about women in their 30s needing love and marriage to find happiness?

Make sure to follow Morgana on Twitter and check out her website!

Stream the episode above or [Direct Download]

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If you have any thoughts on the episode, manga suggestions, or anything else please comment below!

Timestamps:

• 00:00:00 – Intro Song: “TOKYO GIRL” by Perfume from Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Opening, Introductions
• 00:01:18 – Morgana catches us up on her new life as a freelance writer
• 00:05:46 – Whatchu Been Reading: Transition Song: Dragon Ball Z OST “Prologue”, Seamus reports on his visit to the Manga Exhibition at The British Museum
• 00:14:50 – Morgana enjoyed more Satoko and Nada and Asumiko Nakamura’s Classmates
• 00:17:35 – Morgana picked up POPOCOMI went she went to the Toronto Comic Art Festival
• 00:22:43 – News: Kodansha will be putting out a Katsuhiro Otomo Complete Works Collection
• 00:25:21 – Katsuhiro Otomo’s next movie is Orbital Era
• 00:26:33 – Akira will be getting a 4K remaster and Katsuhiro Otomo is working on a new Akira anime project
• 00:32:10 – Dark Horse Comics is finally releasing the 5th omnibus for Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service
• 00:36:03 – VIZ Media will be releasing KAITO’s Blue Flag and Inio Asano’s Downfall
• 00:38:19 – Dragon Head is now available digitally from Kodansha
• 00:41:07 – The success of digital sales helped Saint Young Men get a physical release
• 00:41:52 – Serial Experiments Lain will be open source for the next 9 years
• 00:44:28 – Next Episode Preview and Rundown: Retrospective on Tokyo Tarareba Girls, we will continue our comprehensive review of Akiko Higashimura’s horror comedy manga(covers volumes 4-5)
• 00:44:56 – Main Segment Retrospective: Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Transition Song: Opening from Tokyo Tarareba Girls, comprehensive review of Akiko Higashimura’s manga
• 00:46:51 – We recap the events of volume 1
• 00:49:17 – We discuss Higashimura’s anti-romance themes
• 00:53:16 – Darfox and Morgana talk about how they each related to Tokyo Tarareba Girls differently as a man and a woman
• 00:56:51 – Morgana shares moments from the book that hit her hard
• 00:58:31 – Seamus points out the brilliance of using baseball as a metaphor for the girls missing their chance at love
• 01:00:24 – dakazu thinks the imaginary Codfish Milt and Liver are the comedic stars
• 01:01:39 – We praise Higashimura’s use of visual analogies to better represent the internal state of the girls
• 01:03:35 – We recap the events of volume 2
• 01:06:55 – Morgana talks about how the men are taking advantage of the girls
• 01:09:34 – Seamus notes that Key fits into a character type often found in Japanese novels
• 01:10:48 – Kaori perspective as the woman who was with an unsuccessful man was something Darfox hadn’t experienced before
• 01:14:05 – We explain Higashimura’s use of boxing as the girls act like sandbags for the men
• 01:15:32 – We love the analogy of conveyor belt sushi
• 01:18:02 – We comment on how the bonus Valentine’s Day story is more like an extra episode for a television drama
• 01:22:20 – Morgana really doesn’t like Key
• 01:24:00 – We recap the events of volume 3
• 01:26:53 – We don’t trust Mr. Okuda
• 01:28:53 – We think Yoshio is a manipulative scumbag
• 01:31:33 – We explore the meta-commentary made by Higashimura about media for women through a manga for women
• 01:34:22 – Seamus comments that Rinko’s concern about career or marriage make sense for a woman in modern Japanese society
• 01:38:21 – dakazu points out more visual analogies through roller coasters and talk shows
• 01:39:18 – Darfox compares Tokyo Tarareba Girls as a story about Shoko from Princess Jellyfish
• 01:44:13 – Seamus predicts Mr. Okuda will be like Trent from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• 01:46:00 – The lack of different body type representation in the series concerned dakazu
• 01:49:07 – We comment on the hilariously bad advice given in the bonus story Tarare-Bar
• 01:50:46 – We make some predictions about what will happen next
• 01:53:16 – News: Vertical has licensed Shuzo Oshimi’s A Trail of Blood
• 00:55:23– Next Week’s Topic: Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Social Media Rundown, Sign Off Song: “wish men” by sunbrain from Beet the Vandel Buster