Link to thread

And I'd just like to add, when I first started watching shows from Japan or China, I was confused because there were so many actors that did not look like what I'd previously seen from Hollywood. I was like, "hmm, they must have had plastic surgery," because I just assumed that idk the Hollywood Gaze was truthful? And to me that is wild, to have so much influence over the conceptualization of an entire group of people, that's wild. And I think its a great example of how media, without other sources of exposure, can perpetuate biases and racism that stem from people in power.

The rest of Matsuzaki's thread discusses other examples of media that he believes is made in the same spirit of representation, which you can find in the link to the Twitter thread. And if there's anyone who is like, wait so what is a more diverse Japan through film/tv, the following list is a place to start. I do want to say I agree that there's more work to be done for better representation. Some of the stories in this list also emphasize this sentiment:

Mixed race and people who are not Japanese:

Bungaku Shojo (2014) - Not relevant to the story, but the main actor is mixed race

Born With It (2014) - a short film about a kid who is mixed race

Itaike ni Koishite (2021) - a tv show featuring a black main character in an ensemble cast

Whole (2019) - a short film about two mixed race individuals in Japan

LGBTQ+:

30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii - gay

Close-Knit (2017) - transgender main character

Followers (2020) - lesbian and gay supporting characters if I remember correctly?

Futari Monologue (2017) - two girls who like each other

His - Koisuru Tsumori Nante Nakatta (2019) - gay

Joshi-teki Seikatsu (2018) - transgender main character

Kieta Hatsukoi (2021) - bisexual lead(s)

Koi Desu: Yankee-kun to Hakujou Garu (2021) - gay minor character

Koisenu Futari (2022) - asexual main characters

Life: Senjou no Bokura (2020) - gay protagonists

Love My Life (2006) - lesbian and gay characters, some of which are protagonists

No Gender! The Queer Life of an Intersex Manga Artist (2018) - A documentary! The subs for this seem to misgender one of the individuals, but I'm not entirely sure.

Ossan's Love (2018) - Bisexual and gay men, all the leads are queer

Ototo no Otto (2018) - Gay lead and minor character

Raise de wa Chanto Shimasu (2020) - they're a mixed bag of representation. Some things are like, oh wow that's awesome, and some aspects are like, hmm that could have been done better. But imma just mention it anyway. Transgender, asexual, bisexual (with a preference for men, but she might consider herself straight), lesbian. This also includes BDSM and sex work, and is sex work and BDSM positive.

Shinya Shokudo (2009) - transgender and gay reoccurring characters (it's kind of like an episodic storyline with characters going in and out)

Until Rainbow Dawn (2018) - many colors of the rainbow, but features two lesbian protagonists

Disability:

1 Litre of Tears (2005) - Based on a true story of a girl who had spinocerebellar degeneration

Koi Desu: Yankee-kun to Hakujou Garu (2021) - While the cast is mostly not blind, many of the characters, including the protagonist is blind, so we got mixed wins here. One of the characters is Hamada Yutaro, and he is actually a blind comedian in real life. He isn't in the main narrative, but he appears in each episode to help give context to various aspects of being visually impaired and tells jokes.

hello again my extended virtual family. 

apologies about the lateness of this blog, I have an entirely valid excuse. 

an incident happened in my life that I didn’t feel ready to talk about. but i realise now that the only way i can treat the wounds is by sharing. 

so here it is.  

so a while ago now amber (forever third wheel I’m sure you remember her) and I went to ASDA. the priority was a family sized bag of quavers, because stop judging me that’s why, on the way back to the car, laboured with my skips and many other edibles a large gust of wind and rain blew in my general direction and... wow, this is hard... and my skips... blew away.

I know. if you turn back now I will understand. 

seeing that my quavers where making a break for freedom my animal instinct started to chase after them. 

I don’t know if you know, but quavers are the dicks of the crisp world. not so light that they fly up into the air, not so heavy that they come to a solid landing. what I’m basically telling you is that I ran the whole length of ASDA car park with these yellow packeted demons coming to a halt, only to restart there escapade whenever i got within reaching distance. 

here’s a picture of the incident; 

many things crossed my mind that night. this car park is so full of people, why isn't amber helping me, is it healthy to get a stitch so quick, they weren't that expensive should I just buy another packet, all of that and more. 

now, if you have survived this tale of horror, you are braver than I. but there is more. 

I caught the crisps. i turned round. and i realised... 

I had the entire walk back to the car to do. past all the people, past all the shopping trolleys silently judging me. only to be met with an amber that was laughing so hard we had to sit in the car for a minuet. 

luckily it was raining so no one could see my tears. 

I don’t even like quavers. 

But now that I have shared I feel better! thank you for staying with me during that difficult rendition. 

here’s something you’ll all be tired of reading about, the solar eclipse! *hold for sighs of exasperation.* 

i know, it sucked right? but it did get me thinking what it must have been like for the first humans to ever see a solar eclipse. cause nowadays when we see a solar eclipse we’re like; 

“i cant see the fucking eclipse because there is cloud actually EVERYFUCKINGWHERE” 

but that wasn’t always the case! 

imagine a day in theremightstillbedinosaursidontknowimbadathistoryBC. the sun is shining in the blue sky because this story is set literally anywhere except Scotland, and the homosomethingorothers are prancing about blindly killing things and inventing the wheel. which right now is just a rock someone is sitting on. 

then! one of them looks up at the sun, squinting in the light. he burns his eyes and has to take a little rest. 

THEN! another one learns from that guys mistake (lets call him Ben) and he shades his eyes with his hand and looks. here, in front of the sun, is a small black line, and its creeping, inch by inch, over the only thing that gives them heat and light. 

Ben falls to his knees. he is so stricken by fear and grief that he feels an odd sensation. his mouth wants to form the mindless cries he emits into something more. 

there is a crowd gathering, watching this man struggling with this growing feeling within his throat. he raises his eyes from the ground, sweat dripping off his forehead. and opens his mouth to speak; 

I'm aware that title is like the lonely fat girl mantra, but its a big deal! 

its actually part of the contract you sign to gain weight and have a cat; 

"I must plague the internet with constant updates and when my cat has a birthday I must make him/her a cake of fish." 

signed Cara fucking McKinley because all and more of those things happened!

thank you Cara, here is your cat and a membership to the gym so you have something to cry about while you eat this Chinese.  

the cake was tuna and kippers if you where curious. 

and also in case you some how haven't been in my company in the last year and have missed it, here is my cat. 

this is him fucking with you. you know why? because he's a shit. 

my living room carpet is literally lined with towels, planks of wood and specially designed plastic to stop him from scratching at the carpet. because no matter how many times you tell him he is dishonouring the family and our agreement to our landlord he just refuses to listen. 

but unfortunately he is also adorable. so I can only hate him for so long before I'm back to being slightly too attached. 

once when he was a kitten I thought he might miss his mum so I licked his head. and I mean like a good solid couple of licks so that he thought his cat mum was giving him a bath. 

I regret nothing. 

here is more cat! 

this was a traumatic day. 

my girlfriend was away so Amber (my flatmate and the forever third wheel) decided to make a living room fort. 

beautiful is it not? the structure! the craftsmanship! the elegant design! 

all was for naught! 

first of all it was repeatedly destroyed by Sargent Dexter fun police! 

(the cats name is Dexter for a little context) I'm convinced that's the exact face the snake had after he chatted to Eve! those eyes are filled with blood lust for the fort! 

and then as you saw earlier not only did it take hours to convince him the fort wasn't some sort of blanket monster. they then both fell asleep, leaving me to watch Rupaul's drag race alone.

my "oh no she betta don't"s and "can I get an amen"s had to all be hushed! 

oh, yes, I have a flatmate called Amber. I kinda just brushed past that. we knew each other for a week and then decided to live together. 

she didn't realise how messy I am and our only fall out was over the dishwasher. but other than that our surprisingly quick move in turned out well and now we frequently nap and do popcorn runs together. 

so yeah, you have now met the entire penthouse family! 

we don't actually live in a penthouse, we actually live next to a gypsy collony but hey ho. 

an update on my acting career! 

it is still only just existing! however as you saw I made a film and I have also finished writing my first play. I wrote a part for myself in it so its gonna be a real shame when I don't get cast. 

especially because i'll be the one casting it. 

you cant trust anyone nowadays. 

it has been advised to me that i make you tube videos like this blog but except in video form. pessimistic reviews of things or ned talk translating. i think its a terrible idea because at least here i can pretend I only have three chins. 

but what do you think?

i aim to please after all. 

on that note i will leave you with a closing statement. 

the dress is clearly white and gold. 

hello again avid readers. 

from the last post I have had many comments from many people about my pessimistic view on myself. well...two comments from two people, but that was more people than i thought had read it in the first place so i better address it. 

don't worry about my pessimism, I'm actually quite a happy person. I just like to spend more time sitting on the couch in my pants playing Xbox and eating popcorn off my belly than going to the gym than doing something about my mono-brow. 

so, now that I have addressed that burning issue and calmed nerves the world over, i feel like i should explain the title of this blog. 

yup, slightly tubby lesbian actor has a girlfriend, tall skinny model singer dancer. she's real I swear. we've been together for like three and a half years but i forgot to mention her before. 

this is her; 

dat hair! dem eyes!

here's a picture of us together;  

its not a very good picture of me, I think I'm pulling a face. 

last night we were chatting about scuba diving and it got me wondering what a shark feels like i mean...it wont feel like a fish but surely it doesn't feel like a dolphin. if anyone has the answer, i am more than interested. 

anyway, i know your dying to be updated on my pending success in the acting world. 

well...I'm still tubby. but i did make a short film! oh how i want to show you it but alas i don't do computer good and i haven't yet managed to export it in a way that doesn't ruin it and turn me into a puddle of self pity on the floor. i will try to deliver at a later date. because i know you'll all be on the edge of your seat, waiting to view this master piece. 

i will end this post in a story from my week. 

i was walking down Leith walk in Edinburgh on my way to cosmos (which is a buffet full of food from all around the world because why wouldnt i make it harder for me to fit into my jeans?) and a group of small youths came running past me shouting profanities in their not yet broken voices when one of them spots a revolving glass door at the entrance of a very important looking office building. 

i can only imagine what went through his head but i think it was something along the lines of: 

"aw fuckin right! am gonnie spin in that bastart till ma fuckin chest hair grows in!" 

for those of you that don't speak Ned here's a translation; 

"hark, a revolving door, what a lark it will be to spin around as though on a merry go round. my chums will surely think highly of me." 

so off he goes to the revolving door, the rest of his gang in tow. and i honestly could not tell how how this happened, but the second he touched the door one of the glass panels shattered into a thousand glass pieces. his friends were gone before i could blink, but alas, the young idiot was trapped in the glass door. his only way out was to enter the office building which was full of burly suited men all closing in on him. i couldn't hear what was said so I can only guess it was something like; 

"here mate am fuckin sorry! a wiz just wantin a spin an the fucker went n smashed!" 

or; 

"dreadfully sorry about the door, i was only hoping for a bit of frivolity when low, the door smashed!" 

the men had phones in hands when the boy realised he could squeeze through a gap in the door and was off. 

the moral of the story? 

don't reproduce if you cant pass more than two brain cells on to your children.