Season 6, Episode 5 - This Is Not a Place of Honor (Patreon)

This week we return to the medieval Japanese world of SD Sengokuden and discover that watching all of Gundam in release order is more complicated than we thought. Plus, in the research Thom uncovers a hidden reference encoded in the episode titles!

The Idol Industry

• Books:
  
  Brian Ashcraft with Shoko Ueda, Japanese Schoolgirl Confidential: How Teenage Girls Made a Nation Cool. 2nd ed. Tuttle, 2014.
  
  The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture. Edited by Yoshio Sugimoto. Cambridge UP, 2009.
  
  Patrick W. Galbraith. Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan. Duke UP 2019.
  
  Christine R. Yano. Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song. Harvard UP, 2002.
  
  Women, Media, and Consumption in Japan. Edited by Lise Skov and Brian Moeran. U. of Hawaii Press, 1995.
  
  Hiroshi Aoyagi, Pop Idols and the Asian Identity, from Japan Pop! Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture. Edited by Timothy J. Craig. M.E. Sharpe, 2000.
  
  Idols and Celebrity in Japanese Media Culture. Edited by  Patrick W. Galbraith and Jason G. Karlin. Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

• The Gundam.info page that suggests 'asking your father or grandfather' about the meaning of  天地真理.
• Wikipedia page for Amachi Mari / 天地真理 (Japanese).
• You can find a live recording of Amachi Mari performing Mizuiro no Koi here.
• You can watch a clip of Sylvie Vartan singing in Cherchez l'idole here.

• Articles:
  
  When Idols Shone Brightly: Development of Japan, the Idol Nation, and the Trajectory of Idols. A 2016 article for Japan Foreign Policy Forum by Sakai Masayoshi. English language history of idols in Japan, archived here.
  
  Japan's elderly can't live off happy memories. 2015 article by Mark Schreiber for Japan Times that discusses Amachi Mari's financial difficulties. English language, available here. Seems to be based on this Japanese language article from Daily Shincho.
  
  Show biz exploits 'volunteerism' image in packaging of latest teen idol. 2006 article by Hidetsugu Enami for Japan Times. English language and archived here.

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