2024-08-04 (Sunday)

Pho Thin, despite being highly recommended, doesn’t even compare to the most basic of American pho shops. Of course, it might just be a different style that I’m not familiar with. The bowl used flat noodles instead of vermicelli, was covered in scallions/chives, and had only a few pieces of lean beef. The chili oil appeared to disagree with my stomach, too. Unlike American shops, there wasn’t the usual basil, jalapeños, or bean sprouts. I really wish I hadn’t gone here.

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The Rakuen le Paradis exhibition was alright. I really wish they had had art from Harumi Chihiro, but she was not featured. In fact, she wasn’t in the last two issues of the magazine, either; I hope she’s simply taking a break, instead of retiring, because I really did like her stories.

2024-08-10 (Saturday)

Something that I wasn’t expecting while watching Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie was that I wouldn’t be able to make heads or tails of Kero-chan’s accent.

2024-08-11 (Sunday)

It’s interesting comparing Sahara Mizu’s My Girl from many years ago with her current series 「ハネチンとブッキーのお子さま診療録」. Both are about single fathers, but they take quite different perspectives. My Girl kinda presents an “idealized” child who is maybe almost unrealistically mature at times in service of the story, which is mostly about trying to move on after her mother/his lover’s death. The newer series, on the other hand, feels more down to earth; it’s mostly about the day-to-day troubles of raising a child, especially when it comes to medical matters.

I think My Girl makes more of an impact on me emotionally (unsurprisingly), but Hanechin is also quite interesting as a slice-of-life story.

2024-08-19 (Monday)

Okazu published an interview with the manager of Yuri Cafe anchor/ANCHOR rainbow port tokyo, a manga café that I frequent.