Independence Concert Hall: Found Futures and Doki Doki Rewind Time

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The dream of the 3D concert is a unique aspect of VTuber culture, and I’m glad that there exist organizations that help make the goal feasible for creators who aren’t part of big companies. One such group is Fantastic Reality, and this past July 4 weekend, they helped produce two in-person concerts: Found Futures and Doki Doki Rewind Time. 

Found Futures

Taking place on July 2, Found Futures was an eclectic mix of indies who ranged from decently well known to top names in the scene, with a welcome diversity of music genres. There was even a bit of opera!

Among the participants were former members of the now-defunct Vshojo: kson, Henya, Matara Kan, and Zentreya. All of them might be better known for their charming banter than their singing ability but clearly strived to put on a good show (with the notable exception of Zentreya, who uses text-to-speech and doesn’t really sing, per se). Matara was also joined for one song by Densetsu.exe (albeit not using their main 3D models).

LilyPichu (whose fame predates VTubing by a number of years), performed three original songs with her signature gentle voice and a quiet confidence that elevated both her and the other talents. I recall first learning about her as an amateur voice actor gaining notoriety, and now she’s a veteran of her space! What a world we live in.

But personally speaking, the most notable acts of the night were Emiliya Fell (along with her half-IRL, half-VTuber band Virtual Signal) and Kou Mariya. Emiliya is one of the organizers of Fantastic Reality, and I admire the initiative she has taken to create this platform. I also have to shout out her song choice of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” from Tears for Fears, because there’s a tendency in VTubing for covers and karaoke choices to be post-2000s fare or stuff that has gotten popular online in recent years.

As for Mariya, she is literally another identity of Emiliya Fell—a fact she herself revealed last year, and I am inclined to believe was referenced when Emiliya sang a refrain of “Maaariya” in one of her songs. She had previously talked about having issues with retaining the rights to Mariya after V4Mirai, but things have since been resolved, and now she is simultaneously both personas. In other words, in another parallel with the world of pro wrestling, VTubing now has its own version of the time Mankind, Cactus Jack, and Dude Love all fought in the same Royal Rumble.

Doki Doki Rewind Time

In contrast to Found Futures, Doki Doki Rewind Time had a much clearer identity upfront: a “retro music” concert helmed by the two Dokis, Dokibird and Chibidoki, the former of whom was also celebrating her birthday. The two marquee names are not exactly renowned for their singing skills, so the concert was mostly about good vibes with cool people and just enjoying these “older” sounds. 

The fact that songs I perceive as relatively new were part of a nostalgic throwback did make me feel quite old: “Sk8r Boy,” “Pen Pineapple Apple Pen,” “A Thousand Miles,” “Caramell Dansen,” etc. Despite my now acute awareness of the passage of time, I can forgive it for being a great experience overall.

Among the guests were some of the biggest Indie names, many of whom had legacies that went well past their current identities. If I were to look at things objectively, the most significant appearance was that of Shachi: an artist and singer who had never been featured in a live concert as we currently know her. 

While technically not a VTuber, she was at least given a visual presence in the form of a punk-rock orca with a spiked collar. Shachi sang two duets with Dokibird, with her vocals on “Thnks fr th Mmrs” being especially moving to listen to. She and Dokibird have both talked about being long-time friends, and I think it’s wonderful that they finally got to perform together.

If we’re going by my personal biases, however, I was most excited to see Doki and Dooby perform together! While they had already been on stage together at Fantome Thief’s Revenge, this felt extra special as a duet. Their cover of “99 Red Balloons” was a nice choice, and fit their voices well. 

When the concert reached its encore, Doki appeared on stage with Dooby, Shachi, and the rest of the Sloppy Sisters (Mint Fantôme, Snuffy, Limealicious). Seeing all of them in one place felt special in a way that’s hard to fully describe, but it felt like both a reunion and the sign of a newer age. I only wish that Nimi Nightmare, who was part of the pre-show, could have joined them here as well.   

Miscellaneous

What follows are some other thoughts and observations:

Apparently, there was a pre-show for Found Futures that wasn’t streamed. As a fan of Michi Mochievee, I wish I could have seen it.

I don’t know if something happened, but the models seemed to be missing some of the typical shading/rendering one usually sees from these models, and that’s something I’ve only ever seen happen at hololive Gen 5’s Twinkle 4 You concert a few years back. The one who seemed to end up looking best under these circumstances was Dooby, and I have to wonder if she just took a different approach compared to everyone else when designing her 3D model.

The mix of live and virtual for the band accompaniment was cool to behold, and it gave a lot of positive energy to both concerts. I already knew about Starlight Daryl from her work composing songs, but to hear her shred on the guitar was really awesome too. I heard she had some serious health scares not long after, so I wish her well in healing as well as continuing to bridge this gap between 2D and 3D.

See You Again

Both concerts are still up until this Friday, so anyone interested has a couple more days to check them out.

Also, a lot of the talents in the Fantastic Reality concerts are set to be part of a number of upcoming concerts, including Skyline Serenade in August in New York City. I look forward to what they have in store.

Pain and Pleasure: The Phase Con Concerts

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I don’t always know what to make of Phase Connect. It has a (not entirely unearned) reputation for being unhinged both in terms of its talents and its audience, yet it appears to be the most stable and enduring of all North America–based VTuber companies. I think Phase’s aura may be one that straddles the line between underdog success story and big player, and each of the girls conveys this in a different way that appeals to their viewers. And over the past five years, I’ve become a fan of quite a few of them myself, charmed by each in different ways.

One gateway has actually been their 3D concert; I attended one at Anime NYC 2024, and it was a nice (if at times confusing) introduction to all the performers. So while I didn’t attend the inaugural Phase Con, I did buy streaming tickets for all three of its concerts: Grand Passage, Fifth Orbit (a Gen-1 5th anniversary celebration), and Bon Voyage. Notably, these concerts featured the 3D debuts of Phase Connect’s first-generation Japanese members and the entirety of its second generation. 

First things first, I have a couple small complaints to get out of the way. First, Kaneko Lumi’s solo performance was cut from the stream, presumably because of rights/permissions issues. Given that she’s the best singer among Invaders Wish, I wish I could have seen it! Second, I wish there was a package deal for the concerts so I didn’t have to pay three separate processing fees. Otherwise, the tickets were pretty affordable overall, and I was glad to support the talents overall.

Those inconveniences aside, I enjoyed the concerts. There’s a nice balance where it feels polished without being too perfect, and I think it matches well with the general Phase Connect vibe. I also liked the way each girl played to their fanbase while also being accessible to curious newcomers. As with so many VTubers, there was a spectrum, from dedicated performers to those who strived to live up to the spotlight despite it being unfamiliar territory. 

Fujikura Uruka, for example, is one of the music-specialized heavy hitters in Phase. Whether it was singing “Mephisto” from Oshi no Ko solo or delivering a compelling cover of “Jane Doe” from Chainsaw Man with Lumi and Amanogawa Shiina, Uruka’s low vocals are a joy to listen to. But while her voice was an obvious strong suit, I also got a kick out of the way she moves on stage. Uruka went from big swinging limbs and bouncy steps to smooth body rolls, and looked good doing it all.

Then there’s Dizzy Dokuro. I truly mean this with no ill intent, but I am a fan of how hard she tries to make up for her lack of vocal ability with effort and planning, despite the emotional and physical toll she inflicts on herself. “The Real Folk Blues” from Cowboy Bebop was definitely an unexpected choice, and her sultry moves matched the tone of the song. Her duet on “Brave Heart” from Digimon Adventure has also put Chisaka Airi on my radar, and I definitely would enjoy seeing them together again. 

Unlike Uruka and Dizzy, I only got into Amanogawa Shiina relatively recently. My gateway was actually her banana outfit; between this and the hot dog Shiori Novella from hololive, and I might be a sucker for silly costumes. With Shiina’s performances, I felt like this was a girl who can really dazzle an audience both on stage and on stream. The entirety of Phase Origins JP (Nasa, Michiru, and Iori) also ended up catching my attention. My exposure to them before this was fairly sparse, but I like their designs overall and thought their performances were really cute. 

As an aside, one thing I find interesting is that someone’s first 3D model doesn’t have to be their first design. This was the case with Dizzy and her nurse uniform, but Shiina was also wearing a later outfit as well.

I think the most iconic moment of all was the first song for the Bon Voyage concert:a group performance of “Pippa the Ripper,” originally (and reluctantly) by Pipkin Pippa. A lot of VTubers eventually become embarrassed about their early songs and creative output, but unlike, say Calliope Mori and the way people cover it out of a pure sense of admiration, things are a little more complicated in this case. It simultaneously acts as a badge of shame for Pippa, a fan-favorite tune, an opportunity to troll Pippa, and an anthem of sorts for Phase as a whole. Starting off with just Uruka and Lumi, more and more of the talents kept joining in as Pippa’s voice could be heard loudly protesting until she ended up on screen and heavily conflicted and ready to fight everyone. The whole thing was really Phase Connect in a nutshell.

I don’t know if I’ll ever attend Phase Con itself, or what the future holds for them. Nevertheless, it’s been a blast seeing each person getting their 3D and then shining on stage. And for those who still want to watch, the concerts are still available to view on SPWN for a couple more days.

Thoughts on mekPark, the Newest hololive Experiment

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As one of the biggest names in VTubing, hololive has done a great deal of growing and expansion in recent years, and part of that process has involved experimentation. Some things have worked out after some bumps (such as the musical performance–focused DEV_IS branch), while others have been canceled or downsized for better (the holoEarth metaverse) or worse (Holostars). One of the latest projects goes in a new direction: a kind of preliminary branch called mekPark, where the talents are not technically part of hololive proper but have a visible and public path to there. 

Recently, the two inaugural groups announced for mekPark back in May—Unit A (aka ACHRORA) and the still unnamed Unit B—finally all debuted. Given that, I wanted to give my thoughts on the endeavor thus far. 

The Perils of Being at the Top

The size and fame of current-day hololive can be a double-edged sword. As with so many forms of entertainment, there is something charming and special when the stakes are lower, things are less polished, and there’s fewer expectations overall. A lot of moments become beloved memories because things aren’t perfect, and what’s missing in “refinement” is made up for in entertainers and audiences willing to bridge that gap and give some grace. I will sometimes watch the first and second hololive fes concerts, and they feel like they come from an entirely different era in a good way. 

I think there’s a magic in such times that can be hard to re-capture once something becomes too big and professional, and some talents even try to fight against this. Gawr Gura was especially good at maintaining that amateur feel, and Gigi Murin revels in purposely allowing “scuff” into her streams as opportunities for laughs.

Returning to Basics

I find mekPark to be an attempt to re-create the relatively humbler roots of hololive and VTubers, albeit in a way that’s relatively safe for its company, Cover Corp. None of the girls involved have full models, which can feel unfair to them, but it also means that they can’t rely too heavily on the magic of more thoroughly rigged and animated VTuber models. Essentially, mekPark seems to be a relatively low-risk space to try new ideas and technologies, while also a way to put the focus on the talents’ personal qualities. In many ways, it reminds me of the developmental programs found in pro wrestling, whether it’s the Young Lions of New Japan Pro-Wrestling or WWE NXT. They’re given fewer resources and are allowed to do less, but they ideally learn the ropes. 

Nijisanji has something similar called the Virtual Talent Academy, but one key difference seems to be that mekPark places a far greater focus on group cohesion. ACHRORA and Unit B are explicitly presented as small teams, with one channel shared by the same members of a unit, and I suspect this is because hololive has noticed how much they benefit from making sure genmates have rapport and that they feel they’re in this together. Both Advent and Justice from the English branch have mentioned actually spending time together in real life (including in Japan!) prior to their debuts.

The mekPark Girls

As for the mekPark units themselves, there’s a very clear difference in philosophy behind each one. Unit B (which actually debuted first) is made up entirely of people who have backgrounds in music and performance, but very little in streaming. Neon is a singer with a personality that’s extroverted in a way that extends to her offline life (sort of like Matara Kan). Lyra is a singer-songwriter with a passion for composing. Mira is classically trained in piano, and has been playing since she was very little on account of her parents both being pianists too. 

In contrast, the ACHRORA girls clearly have experience as streamers because they convey a sense of ease that’s almost impossible to have if you’ve never done it before. Sayana has a unique voice that comes across as honed without being forced. Rirara banters with chat and her fellow unit members very smoothly. Hinami’s gentle voice (reminiscent of voice actor Hayami Saori), silly sense of humor, and debut preparation have all stood out.

Essentially, Unit B and ACHRORA represent the two paths that hololive talents tend towards, where you’re basically either a musical performer who streams sometimes (e.g. Hoshimachi Suisei) or you’re a steamer who does musical performance on the side (e.g. Inugami Korone). Both are valid paths, but in the context of mekPark, it’s going to be interesting to see how the two sides develop in comparison to each other. A music-forward approach has greater potential to appeal across language barriers, but we’ve also seen that making a human connection through activities like chatting and gaming can be crucial for getting more people to tune into you in the first place, like with AZKi and GeoGeussr. At the same time, having a less “broadcast-ready” voice can come across as more natural.

Closing Thoughts

As mekPark continues to move forward, a couple questions come to mind. First, can something as big as hololive really evoke that smaller feel it seems to be aiming for? Second, if one or more talents are faltering and floundering in some way, what will happen, especially if cutting them might be the best solution? While I really believe all six girls (and presumably their less visible managers) are doing great so far, I have to wonder about bad or awkward scenarios.

For now, I’m still optimistic, and I hope that remains the case.

A Spirit for Revenge, the Sculpted Physique of a Pollo: Rooster Fighter

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Rooster Fighter is an anime and manga whose title is both self-explanatory and woefully inadequate for capturing its full scope. The rooster indeed fights, but he also does so much more.

Cut from the same cloth as classic manly action series like Fist of the North Star and Golgo 13, the simple twist of Rooster Fighter is that its gruff and grizzled hero is the literal cock of the walk. Keiji is a chicken seemingly without peer, and the very fact of his existence could be enough to carry a comedy series. However, as tongue-in-cheek as it can be, Rooster Fighter plays itself mostly straight, and the result is a surprisingly good overarching story that continuously escalates and delivers shock and awe in the best ways. 

My initial impression just from promotional material was that this chicken is much larger than normal, a la Chicken Boo. I was wrong; he’s a normal-sized bird. So what does this small Rooster Fighter fight? Why, giant house-sized Demons of course. How does he fight them? With talons, but also a super cock-a-doodle-doo beam (or kokkekoko in Japanese). Why is he fighting Demons? Because one of them kidnapped his little sister. Of course.

The series is somehow able to hit every trope you can think of while also feeling oddly fresh and exciting. For example, Keiji slowly gathers a crew (whether he wants to or not), and they pretty much slot in perfectly with Kenshiro’s group. You have the kid sidekick, the girl who’s more about gadgets and intelligence, and so on…yet while they certainly give Keiji the biggest spotlight, the rest of the team is shown accomplishing feats and making up for his oversights and shortcomings. On top of that, every twist is legitimately surprising, possibly because “standard character detail or story development” takes on an added wrinkle when you follow it with “and also they’re all chickens.” For instance, the hen can communicate with humans using a smartphone???!

Rooster Fighter is a ridiculous work, but the most ridiculous thing of all is how legitimately good it is. If you turned everyone into humans and kept everything largely the same, you would still end up with a well above average battle series. Making everyone a bunch of cluckers elevates it beyond satire and irony into the realm of hyper sincerity, where most series wish they could be.

Cooked Like Hot Dogs: Ogiue Maniax Status Update for July 2026

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This month, I feel incredibly fortunate to have a good life, and I wish to have a country that could provide good fortune to others, now more than ever. I don’t know how long it would take, but I hope we can someday live in a place where all the xenophobia, sexism, racism, and continuous trampling of the poor are no longer systemically baked into everything. I want people to love and thrive and not be so punished for things beyond their control.

Thank you to my Patreon members below for their generosity!

General:

Ko Ransom

Diogo Prado

Alex

Dsy

Sue Hopkins fans:

Serxeid

Hato Kenjirou fans:

Elizabeth

Yajima Mirei fans:

Machi-Kurada

Blog Highlights from June

20 Years Late to the Party: Thoughts on Pokémon Champions and VGC Double Battles

Competitive Pokémon used to be one of my biggest loves in life, so revisiting it through Pokémon Champions has been a time.

Does a Noble Cause Embiggen the Smallest Man?—Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe

My review of the second Gundam Hathaway movie. My review title is a little tongue-in-cheek, but I promise that it’s not a big joke.

Dooby3d’s Big Ears

Happy Birthday to Dooby.

Kio Shimoku

Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights June 2026

Kio hits some interesting topics this month…

Closing

There are a lot of VTuber concerts this month, including from hololive, so I get the feeling I’m going to be writing a lot about them. I don’t intend to make July nothing but those, but no guarantees!

Also, I watched the first episode of F.D Signifier’s Goon World, which is about the sheer unavoidable volume of pornographic material that people encounter these days, and the myriad complexities that come out of living in that world. It’s a topic I’ve been thinking a lot about myself in recent years (especially with how the internet encourages parasocial interactions), and I’m glad someone like F.D is tackling such a difficult topic.

Kio Shimoku Twitter Highlights June 2026

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This month, Kio comments a bunch on his titles for the Monthly Afternoon 40th Anniversary exhibit. 

Also, it turns out that he drew a short comic about how he became a fan of futanari.

Manga author panpanya drew the final web bonus for Rakuen, which involves exploring a store based on all the different Rakuen titles. Kio comments “Heh-heh-heh, what a suspicious store this. How wonderful…”

The Afternoon 40th Anniversary exhibit has Genshiken acrylic panels for sale, featuring panels from the original manga.

The Afternoon exhibit highlights Kio’s Yonensei, to which Kio responds that he can feel his blood pressure rising.

https://twitter.com/kimirito/status/2064583194926801264

To celebrate the 500th issue of Young Comic, the magazine interviewed various creators about their fetishes, and Kio drew a short informational comic about his fondness for futanari. Kio comments that the preview thumbnail makes it look like he’s calling himself a futanari. 

(I’ll probably write a summary of Kio’s entry and post it to the blog in the near future.)

Anniversary exhibit entries for Genshiken Nidaime and Hashikko Ensemble. Kio thinks the color is strange on the Hashikko Ensemble cover.

Kimi Rito (author of The History of Hentai) comments that Kio’s love of futanari was conveyed quite yell, to which Kio responds with hearts.

Kio comments further that it was supposed to be futanari but he wandered off topic some. Nevertheless, it was a fun gig.

Exhibit entry for Gonensei.

https://twitter.com/kioshimoku1/status/2067627453183594622

Kio went to the exhibit for Parasyte. He still finds it to be a most bizarre and interesting work.

Having watched the World Cup match between Japan and the Netherlands, Kio says that getting a tie score demonstrates that the Japan team isn’t just for show, and that they have what it takes to win.

Watching Ueda Ayase play is also apparently quite the rollercoaster.

Kio started trying out “hard light layers” for color illustrations, and it’s working surprisingly well.

Dooby3d’s Big Ears

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Dooby3D is one of my favorite VTubers. As an independent creator, she had a lot of say in her own design, and something I find really charming and noteworthy about her look is her large ears.

In a field where it’s more common to find animal ears (like those of a cat girl or dog girl) on top of the head or elf-like knife ears on the side, it’s actually quite rare to have two honkin’ huge ones like hers that are both cute and comedic. They tie into Dooby’s lore by hinting at a jerboa’s rabbit-like ears, but the more human appearance straddles the line between realistic and cartoonish. Heck, I have relatives with ears almost that big. 

There’s a lot more to Dooby than just her looks (like her laid-back attitude and her creativity with 3D and 2D anime) but I just wanted to highlight this small but effective element of her design.

Happy birthday to Dooby! I never tire of her antics.

Four hololive Dancers, Four Twists

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Todoroki Hajime of hololive held her 3D birthday concert in June, and one of the biggest moments was a group performance of the song “Kokkara” featuring her, Hakos Baelz, Isaki Riona, and Mizumiya Su. As expected, they all showcase why all four of them are almost inarguably the best dancers in hololive, but one thing that really stood out to me is how they were given opportunities to show off their unique dance personalities.

While the most clear example of unique expression is when they each perform by themselves, one thing that really caught my attention is how they each move during the chorus. There’s this pivot/twist move that they do, and if you look closely, you can see that they each perform it differently. I don’t know enough to actually fully make sense of their individual approaches, but to me it looks like:

Hajime has her hands in different positions every time, with weight on one leg and both knees bent. It reminds me of a C-walk, but also feels like she’s drilling down with her body.

Bae also has her weight on one leg, but the other is more extended, she’s bent lower at the waist, and her arms are out like she’s doing the classic Twist. To me, it comes across almost like a sit spin in figure skating and has a clearly different silhouette from Hajime’s.

Riona does more of a shuffle in place with less of a clear twisting motion and more hip movement, and she ends with a very pronounced kick to the side. Her hands are also moving in vertical circles, like wheels.

Su seems to shift her weight back and forth between each leg, though I might be getting fooled by the fact that her left leg is really crossing over her right as she pivots. It gives the impression that Sue is very light on her feet, even compared to the others. 

Additionally, in the first chorus, the four backup dancers do the choreography as well, and they also each have their own take on the move!

Incidentally, Hajime gave their names during the concert, but given her particular speech quirks, I couldn’t fully decipher them. I think they’re Hajime’s personal crew from her backup dancer days, so I think it’d be cool if someone could figure out who each of them were in other performances, including but not limited to the birthday concert.

An Adjacent Internet Experience: Cosmic Princess Kaguya

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For a couple months, the yuri film Cosmic Princess Kaguya seemed to be all over my social media timelines. It was a big enough hit for Japan to screen it in theaters after its Netflix release, multiple VTubers mentioned it or did watchalongs, and there’s still a lot of ongoing buzz. Before sitting down to watch it, I only knew two things: 1) It’s inspired by the Japanese folk tale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter 2) The movie includes covers of Vocaloid music remixed in a way to invite a bit of debate and disagreement. 

In a near-future science fiction twist on the original folk tale, a high school girl named Iroha discovers a baby inside of a utility pole instead of bamboo. The child, who quickly grows into a teenage girl, calls herself Kaguya and claims to be from the moon, and says she decided to leave to find more excitement. Life together isn’t easy, especially for Iroha as she studiously tries to get into a good college while working part-time, but a contest to see who will perform on stage with Iroha’s favorite virtual idol has them launch Kaguya’s VTuber career. 

Cosmic Princess Kaguya comes across to me as Summer Wars if it was made for a younger generation than Hosoda’s film. Both works center around a vast virtual world where people can interact through their avatars, but whereas Summer Wars shows how old-fashioned modes of communication and relationship-building still have an important place in an increasingly online world, Cosmic Princess Kaguya feels firmly planted in a kind of late Millennial to late Gen Z mindset—or late Heisei, if we’re going by Japanese terms. Between the Vocaloid music, the VTubers and metaverse stuff, and even the inclusion of a game that’s basically Fortnite + League of Legends, it feels very much like the film is aiming for a “digital natives” generation, to use a somewhat outdated term.

Cosmic Princess Kaguya has multiple false finishes, intentionally emphasizing the arbitrary nature of endings, when stories are “supposed” to be done, and who even gets to decide when things are over. While I appreciate this playing around with narrative structure, I do think it’s hurt by an overall structure that drags in multiple places. Perhaps it’s because I’m not a really devout yuri fan, but there are scenes where it just seems like Iroha and Kaguya are interacting just so that viewers can bask in their presence together, but it makes the narrative hang in place instead of inching forward. The aforementioned combined “battle royale and arena battle” game does feel like it was devised by people who understand both genres, but its inclusion in the middle feels excessive. The inclusion of Vocaloid stuff also just seems to be there, as if it’s assumed it’s the best and coolest music ever, whether or not it fits. In other words, I feel that Cosmic Princess Kaguya targets a certain audience, and I feel like I’m just ever so slightly out of that range. 

There is one moment in the film that sticks with me, and it’s a kind of reference to the history of digital media in Japan. At one point, a character explains that the moon is the world of dreams and separate from Earth, but that the gap is inadvertently bridged by the digital and virtual world as a halfway point between dreams and reality. On the moon, a depiction of a character is done with dither graphics, a technique used in 1980s and 90s dating sims to work around the limited palettes of that era’s computers. In doing this, Cosmic Princess Kaguya makes a reference to some of the earliest attempts to portray anime characters using computer graphics, and implies that this is the closest the film can get to visually representing the inhabitants of the moon as they truly are.

I find Cosmic Princess Kaguya to be a pretty good film that revels a little too much in what it’s offering. There’s a solid story in there in terms of the big picture, but it loves to indulge in its portrayal of its virtual world and the simple existence of its main characters to a degree that bogs the whole thing down. Both cohesive narrative continuity and plot contrivances somehow exist in an elegant but awkward dance, and I think how much you like this film comes down to how much you resonate with the internet culture that is represented within.

Crunchy, Juicy, Menchi: Hinoya Curry

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As part of a trip to Japan earlier this year, I ended up eating a lot of curry, both Japanese-style and otherwise. Some were places I had scouted out, but others I just happened to find by happenstance. One such instance happened on an evening walk back to my hotel, where I got lost. While trying to find my bearings, I ended up in front of the original Hinoya Curry. A sign proudly boasted that it previously won an award for best curry in the Kanda area of Tokyo. Given that the area has some pretty stiff competition, I changed my dinner plans and went in there instead.

The decor was unpretentious and inviting. There were seats at a counter where the chef prepared curry, as well as a counter facing a wall, and a few tables for groups. The menu was full of items that sounded interesting (like the raw egg curry and the beef tendon curry), but I decided to go with what seemed to be a signature item of theirs: menchi katsu curry, or minced-meat cutlet curry. 

The sauce was rich in flavor, spiced well but not extremely spicy. It sat on the rice well, and was neither super thin nor super thick. I bet if I had just gotten a plain curry, I would’ve been pretty satisfied, but then the menchi katsu elevated it to something superb. 

The cutlet was enormous. While sometimes portion sizes in Japan can feel a little small even when ordering large sizes, that was not the case here. It was a middle ground between a pork or chicken katsu and a hamburg steak, and as someone who loves both and can sometimes feel conflicted over which one to get, the menchi katsu was just a wonderful thing to have, with its satisfying combination of tender meatiness and crispy breading that borders on fried fish batter. 

Hinoya Curry has stores throughout Japan now, and they’ve also expanded overseas with locations in Malaysia, China, and even San Francisco. Next time I’m in the bay area, I might just decide to check it out again and see how the American branch stacks up.