#tokyo-noir

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US news
fromwww.npr.org
1 day ago

'London Falling': A teenage imposter, an aging gangster and a body in the Thames

Zac Brettler, a young man living a double life, died after jumping from a luxury apartment, raising questions about his death and identity.
#anime
fromIndieWire
1 week ago
Fashion & style

Now Is the Perfect Time to Dive Into the Wacky World of 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'

Television
fromIndieWire
2 days ago

5 Anime Series to Check Out This Spring

The anime industry experiences a crowded debut season with numerous shows launching simultaneously, making it challenging to discern standout series.
fromIndieWire
1 week ago
Fashion & style

Now Is the Perfect Time to Dive Into the Wacky World of 'JoJo's Bizarre Adventure'

Arts
fromColossal
3 days ago

Yamamoto Masao's Otherworldly Portraits Introduce Us to Expressive Owls

Yamamoto Masao's photographs evoke emotional connections between image and memory, focusing on owls and their diminishing habitats.
Books
fromThe New Yorker
4 days ago

The Sci-Fi Novelist Who Disappeared for Decades

Cameron Reed's science fiction explores cognitive estrangement, revealing alien worlds that reflect and challenge our own societal norms and moral dilemmas.
London music
fromElite Traveler
6 days ago

How Japan's Listening Bar Culture Conquered the World

Listening bars are immersive spaces that enhance music appreciation, originating from Japan and gaining global popularity in the 2010s.
Independent films
fromInverse
1 week ago

Kiyoshi Kurosawa Just Released An Eerie Psychological Thriller Like No Other

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Chime explores modern terrors through a ringing sound that incites violence, reflecting societal issues and psychological pressures.
#tokyo
fromEsquire
1 week ago

My Life as a Black Sex Worker in Tokyo

From a young age, I was a very sexual person. I knew I wanted to have a lot of sex, and I also figured that to do that, I would need to meet women who felt the same. I never considered making sex my career. Or at least not until one day in Tokyo, when I was with a friend who got a call about a job.
Careers
East Bay food
fromTravel + Leisure
1 week ago

This Japanese City Invites You to Savor Its Food, Neon Lights, and Lively Spirit-Here's What Makes It the 'Kitchen of Japan'

Osaka offers a vibrant atmosphere with delicious food, friendly locals, and easy access to nearby cities, making it ideal for first-time visitors.
Writing
fromPolygon.com
1 week ago

This new crime thriller brings a haunting, video game-inspired edge to NYC noir

The novel is inspired by horror and mystery, set in 1990s New York, following a Polish immigrant's dark journey.
Books
fromAnOther
1 week ago

Mieko Kawakami's New Novel Exposes the Tokyo Underworld of the 90s

Sisters in Yellow portrays a teenage girl's descent into the Japanese underworld after her mother disappears, exploring themes of loneliness and class struggle.
#ghost-in-the-shell
Coffee
fromenglish.elpais.com
2 weeks ago

Smaller pizzas, a wooden Starbucks logo and tatami in Zara: The demands of the Japanese market

Adapting global brands to Japanese culture is essential for success in the market.
fromwww.archdaily.com
2 weeks ago

Monologue Cafe / SOSOKKI ANAC

Monologue A Walker in Time's Soliloquy originates from a speculative narrative imagining that the Earth has undergone a reset. The project begins with a simple question: if an ancient civilization once existed before this reset, and a monastery had been built within that forgotten world, what architectural form might it have taken?
Renovation
Skiing
fromHarper's Magazine
3 weeks ago

Tokyo Adrift, by Matthew Sherrill

Sumo wrestling represents profound Japanese cultural identity and nationalist sentiment, particularly as foreign dominance and anti-immigrant politics reshape contemporary Japan.
#takashi-murakami
fromJuxtapoz
1 month ago
Arts

Juxtapoz Magazine - Takashi Murakami: Hark Back to Ukiyo-e: Tracing Superflat to Japonisme's Genesis @ Perrotin, Los Angeles

fromJuxtapoz
1 month ago
Arts

Juxtapoz Magazine - Takashi Murakami: Hark Back to Ukiyo-e: Tracing Superflat to Japonisme's Genesis @ Perrotin, Los Angeles

Photography
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

A young girl is knocked over at Tokyo crossing what's behind Japan's bumping' trend?

Japan experiences a growing phenomenon of deliberate shoving incidents in public spaces, attributed to gender dynamics and modern life stress, with perpetrators of both sexes targeting unsuspecting victims.
Berlin
fromTravel + Leisure
3 weeks ago

The 9 Best Museums in Tokyo-With Ancient History, Stunning Architecture, and Dazzling Immersive Exhibits

Tokyo contains nine exceptional museums ranging from prestigious national institutions to specialized collections, with the National Art Center standing out for its architectural design and diverse rotating exhibitions.
NYC food
fromTime Out New York
3 weeks ago

A Japanese convenience store is opening on the LES for a limited time

A Tokyo-style convenience store pop-up on the Lower East Side transforms into a secret dance party with DJ Rebecca Black and -196 Vodka Seltzer cocktails on March 27.
#psychological-thriller
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago
Books

The best recent crime and thrillers review roundup

Killing Me Softly and Whidbey explore complex themes of trauma, morality, and systemic failures in healthcare and society.
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago
Books

Hooked by Asako Yuzuki review follow-up to global hit Butter

Hooked explores toxic female friendship and societal pressure on unmarried women in Japan through a psychological thriller featuring obsession, stalking, and blackmail between two 30-year-old women.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

The best recent crime and thrillers review roundup

Killing Me Softly and Whidbey explore complex themes of trauma, morality, and systemic failures in healthcare and society.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
3 weeks ago

Hooked by Asako Yuzuki review follow-up to global hit Butter

Hooked explores toxic female friendship and societal pressure on unmarried women in Japan through a psychological thriller featuring obsession, stalking, and blackmail between two 30-year-old women.
Django
fromThe Verge
3 weeks ago

A live-action Samurai Champloo is in the works

Creator involvement is essential for successful live-action adaptations of anime, as demonstrated by lessons learned from the canceled Cowboy Bebop Netflix series.
Travel
fromenglish.elpais.com
4 weeks ago

Jimbocho: Books, cafes and guitars in the coolest neighborhood in Tokyo (and the world)

Jimbocho, Tokyo's historic bookstore district with over 180 shops, combines literary heritage with contemporary appeal, attracting both trend-seekers and independent explorers through its diverse book culture and related businesses.
fromThe New Yorker
3 weeks ago

Mitski Shares Her Cultural Essentials

I think, even though she's world famous with millions of fans, I still think she's underrated, because yes, she's the greatest singer in the world, but also, she doesn't get enough credit for her songwriting. She's written amazing songs over many years consistently and she's really innovated in recorded music and I don't know, I just think she's a genius and people don't realize that she is a genius.
Music
Writing
fromThe Atlantic
3 weeks ago

Raymond Chandler and the Case of the Split Infinitive

Raymond Chandler clashed with The Atlantic's copy editor Margaret Mutch over her correction of a split infinitive, arguing that deliberate rule-breaking in language creates authentic, living prose.
Arts
fromFuncheap
3 weeks ago

Film: Oshin, Oshin The Soul of the Cherry Blossoms (SF Main Library)

Katsuta Shinpyō bridged Japanese ukiyo-e traditions and contemporary art, establishing creative bases in San Francisco and Japan while mastering traditional painting techniques.
Television
fromInverse
3 weeks ago

A New Anime Adaptation Could Make Up For Netflix's Biggest Mistake

Live-action anime adaptations are improving through streaming platforms, though Shinichirō Watanabe's previous Cowboy Bebop adaptation failed to capture the original's essence despite his involvement.
Independent films
fromwww.theguardian.com
4 weeks ago

Which are more like life, novels or films?

Films display character thoughts primarily through facial expressions and actions, making them more mysterious and potentially more realistic than novels, which explicitly describe inner thoughts.
fromDefector
1 month ago

Yoko Tawada Is A Genius In Any Language | Defector

The best argument I can make for why I like reading fiction in translation is because it facilitates the psychedelic experience of encountering someone else's subjectivity twice over. The translator must act as a prismatic filter, faithfully attempting the impossible task of replicating someone else's experiences and ideas. To read in translation is to read two stories in harmony with each other: The one the author wants to tell and the one the translator has brought into your linguistic world.
Writing
Books
fromDefector
1 month ago

Don DeLillo's Funniest Novel Is A 1980 Hockey Sex Romp He Won't Acknowledge | Defector

Don DeLillo evolved from a 1970s chronicler of American unease into a major novelist whose 1980s-90s trilogy epitomized postmodern American literature and presaged national decline.
fromABC7 Los Angeles
1 month ago

How the Japanese locations in 'Rental Family' became more characters in the film

"I wanted it to feel how people have been living through, walking through (the city)," she said. "It's a massive city, Tokyo is, so just kind of find the right place for people around the world and have that experience."
Film
fromVulture
1 month ago

Girls Who Love Boys Who Love Boys

We can now look back on November 28, 2025, as the start of a mass-psychosis event. In an era of neo-puritanical television slop, a fresh, horny breeze swept in from Canada: Heated Rivalry, a six-episode series about two professional hockey rivals turned lovers, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, stirred something deep in the American psyche. Ordinary taxpaying adult women, many of them my friends, suddenly lost control of their faculties over "the gay hockey show."
Television
fromLondon On The Inside
1 month ago

A Tokyo-Inspired Izakaya Has Opened in the City

The restaurant group behind Goodman, Beast, Pinna, Chelsea Grill and Wild Tavern, has added a Japanese izakaya to its roster with the opening of Wild Izakaya in the City. Inspired by the establishments found all over Tokyo, Wild Izakaya features an open kitchen with counter seating, larger tables for groups, classic Japanese films on a projector, and a drinks list including Japanese beers, sake and cocktails.
Food & drink
#visual-art
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

The best recent crime and thrillers review roundup

Obnoxious jewellery dealer Rodney Manderson has been killed outside the Bowery auction rooms, stabbed through the eye with the Victorian hatpin that his boss, Rose Bowery, has brandished in front of the nation on Bargain Hunt. As she discussed the pin's virtues as a deadly weapon as well as its millinerial uses, the fiercely loyal Rilke decides while feeling grateful to have skipped lunch and trying not to think of jelly to remove it before calling the police.
LGBT
Television
fromKotaku
1 month ago

A New Evangelion Series Is Coming Written By Nier's Director

A new Neon Genesis Evangelion series was announced for the 30th anniversary, with Yoko Taro writing and Kazuya Tsurumaki and Toru Yatabe directing.
Design
fromDesign Milk
2 months ago

F5: Nimrod Weis Talks Skateboarding, Japan, Safety Signs + More

Nimrod Weis is a multidisciplinary maker creating interactive public artworks that blend technology, music, textiles, and design to spark imagination and reframe urban spaces.
Video games
fromGameSpot
2 months ago

Code Vein II Tells A Time-Traveling Story That Will Tug On Your Heartstrings

Code Vein II refines anime-style souls-like combat with improved systems, an innovative summon mechanic, and a standalone, emotionally resonant time-travel story.
#cyberpunk
LGBT
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The place that stayed with me: I was cautious in showing my queerness, until a night spent dancing at a Tokyo gay bar

A gay man navigates internalised homophobia shaped by faith and family while negotiating identity, public affection norms, and intimacy during travel.
Photography
fromHarper's Magazine
1 month ago

Unreal City, by Hari Kunzru, Matthew Sherrill

Psychogeography reads urban spaces as layered, historically charged environments where architecture, mysticism, and power shape experience and social control.
Film
from48 hills
2 months ago

Screen Grabs: Noir City sings the blues - 48 hills

Noir City returns to Oakland's Grand Lake Theater with 24 music-themed noir and musician films over a ten-day run (Fri/16–Sun/25).
fromInverse
2 months ago

The Anime-Inspired 'Code Vein 2' Might Do Just Enough To Sidestep Soulslike Fatigue

It's been six long years since the release of , and while the vampiric anime Soulslike had some fresh ideas, the genre has changed significantly since then thanks to FromSoftware's . We've also seen games like, Final Fantasy Origin, and Remnant 2 bring something innovative to Soulslikes, but at the same time, the genre has experienced a flood of derivative titles, and fatigue is starting to set in.
Video games
Design
fromwww.cntraveler.com
2 months ago

I Traveled to Tokyo Just to Buy StationeryHere's How to Shop for It

An enduring passion for stationery transforms everyday office supplies into aesthetic discoveries, culminating in immersive shopping pilgrimages to global stationery hubs like Tokyo's Ito-ya.
Books
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

The best recent crime and thrillers review roundup

Two contemporary novels probe suburban domesticity, revealing secrets, manipulation, and moral ambiguity through slow-burn suspense and darkly comic plotting.
Travel
fromFortune
1 month ago

How Japan replaced France as the country young Americans obsessively romanticize-they're longing for civility | Fortune

Gen Z travelers increasingly choose Japan for perceived everyday civility, punctuality, cleanliness, and cultural appeal driven by anime and long-standing soft power.
Film
fromConde Nast Traveler
2 months ago

'Rental Family' Director Hikari Finding Peace on Set Amid the Bustle of Tokyo

A Japanese director's film follows an American actor in Tokyo recruited to play stand-in roles, exploring identity, belonging, and moral dilemmas.
Photography
fromAnOther
2 months ago

Photos Capturing the Culture, Landscapes and People of Asia

Asia is presented through multiple native, migrant, and passerby gazes, revealing overlapping pasts, presents, and imagined futures via photographic perspectives.
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

People ought to know': Blue Boy Trial brings Japan's trans history up to date

The original legal case concerned a doctor who was prosecuted for performing gender reassignment surgery on transgender women, amid law enforcement frustrations that female-presenting transgender sex workers could not be prosecuted for their profession due to their being legally male. The doctor was found guilty of violating Japan's eugenics laws, which prohibited surgeries resulting in sterilisation if they were deemed inessential.
LGBT
Video games
fromGameSpot
2 months ago

Yakuza Dark Ties - Combat, Bro Time, Shirtless Gameplay

Mine and Kanda brawl through Kamurocho, using new Like a Dragon Gaiden mechanics, showcasing Beast Mode, tattoos, photo-booth antics, and a meeting with Chairman Daigo.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Sham review Takashi Miike revisits infamous murder teacher' trial in unflinching courtroom drama

Takashi Miike's Sham adapts a 2003 Fukuoka child-abuse case into a courtroom drama that ultimately vindicates the accused teacher while employing sensationalist, horror-tinged tropes.
Arts
fromArtnet News
1 month ago

Streetwear Legend NIGO Lands a Major Museum Retrospective

NIGO's three-decade career, from founding A Bathing Ape to Kenzo artistic director, is showcased in a London retrospective of 700+ personal objects including ceramics.
Film
fromCN Traveller
2 months ago

On Location: Chasing Marty Supreme from the Lower East Side to Tokyo and back again

Timothée Chalamet stars as Marty, a 1950s Lower Manhattan table tennis hustler who travels worldwide pursuing fame, inspired loosely by real player Marty Reisman.
#noir
Film
fromKqed
2 months ago

Music and All That Jazz at This Year's Noir City Film Festival | KQED

Noir City Oakland programs jazz-inflected film noir screenings with live performances, highlighting unexpected noir entries and relocated shows at the Grand Lake.
Arts
fromThe New Yorker
2 months ago

Adrian Tomine's "Post-Vacation"

A winter subway scene features a suntanned rider back from a beach getaway, provoking envy, perceived gloating, and a wry, apologetic recognition.
Film
fromPortland Mercury
2 months ago

Watch Miyazaki Movies on the Biggest Screen in Portland and a Fly-On-The-Wall Documentary About Classism at a Ski Resort

Independent theaters sustain January cultural life by screening restored Studio Ghibli and Takahata films, themed events, and unique experiences like food-paired Spirited Away showings.
Film
fromwww.theguardian.com
1 month ago

Grim reapers: what has fertilised the rich new wave of neo-rural noir?

European neo-rural cinema depicts collisions between tradition and modernity in the countryside and portrays nature, not locals, as the primary source of threat.
fromwww.esquire.com
2 months ago

9 Most Anticipated Anime of 2026

One Piece's Monkey D. Luffy joined the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade floats, the latest Demon Slayer film earned $780 million at the worldwide box office in 2025, and the animated musical KPop Demon Hunters (though not technically anime) became the most-watched original Netflix movie of all time. As someone who had no one to talk to growing up during the days of Naruto and Dragon Ball Z, it's tough to even process that the genre has reached mainstream status around the globe.
Film
Film
fromVulture
2 months ago

With Zi, Kogonada Strikes Back

Kogonada returns to formalist filmmaking with Zi, a delicate Hong Kong travelogue about a violinist's disorientation, visions, and tenuous personal connections.
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

Rental Family review Brendan Fraser seeks meaning in pointless Japanese role-play drama

Fraser plays Phillip, a hapless unemployed actor from the US who a few years previously came to Tokyo to do a goofy TV ad for toothpaste and, having no friends or family back home, simply stayed on. He lucks into a weird new source of income: working for a rental family, based on firms in Japan which really do offer bespoke therapeutic role-play services, such as errant spouses, deceased
Film
Film
fromOregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
1 month ago

FilmWatch Weekly: German stunner 'Sound of Falling,' Japanese anime 'Scarlet,' and more * Oregon ArtsWatch

Four generations of girls in one farmhouse reveal recurring female suffering, mortality, and moments of beauty across a century of German history.
fromInverse
2 months ago

How One Awesome Time Loop Sci-Fi Thriller Just Stole Its Mojo Back From Tom Cruise

It's a simple but effective premise: Your hero dies. He awakens, only to relive his last day. He dies again. Over and over, this cycle happens until our hero has conquered the time-loop he's stuck in, having become stronger, faster, and wiser in the thousands of times that he's been resurrected. It's the video game conceit, as a thrilling alien invasion story.
Film
Film
fromSFGATE
2 months ago

New Bay Area film reimagines retail thieves as Robin Hoods

Boots Riley's I Love Boosters is a maximalist, surrealist film about a Bay Area crew of clothing-store robbers led by Keke Palmer, premiering at SXSW.
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