Make Believe Melodies’ Favorite 2018 Japanese Albums: #50 – #41

Make Believe Melodies’ Favorite 2018 Japanese Albums: #50 – #41

ByPatrick St. Michel

Another 12 months down, and that means it is time to have some fun and go extra-long for year-end content. Japanese music generally felt either too focused on celebrating the fading days of the Heisei era or on crowning new J-pop superstars for the next generation — or giving us truly left-field viral hits like…

Backwards And Backwards But Done Well: Upusen’s Signal

Backwards And Backwards But Done Well: Upusen’s Signal

ByPatrick St. Michel

Is everything just going to be a loop backwards from now on? This isn’t about Upusen’s Signal specifically, though it does factor into the larger trend. Maybe it’s just Japan’s current obsession with all things ’90s — this movie is literally “do you remember gyaru fashion and Tamagothchi?” — or the Western world’s love of…