Hikikomori

In April of 2018, the writer Elif Batuman had an article published in The New Yorker, titled "Japan's Rent-a-Family Industry". It explored a cultural phenomenon in Japan, that of agencies where one could hire an actor to perform in a social interaction that would be otherwise awkward or impossible.

It became such a popular and celebrated article that it would win the National Magazine Award for that year.

Unfortunately, it was also based entirely on bullshit.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• New Yorker: Japan's Rent-a-Family Industry
• The New Republic: How the New Yorker Fell into the "Weird Japan" Trap
• Wall Street Journal: New Yorker Re-Examines Article on Japanese Family Rental Service
• AFAR: What it's Like to Rent a Friend in Tokyo
• Wikipedia: Elif Batuman
• Wikipedia: Rental Family Service

The Glico-Morinaga Case began in 1984, when the CEO of the Glico Corporation was kidnapped, naked from his home during a bath. While that kidnapping resolved itself fairly rapidly, what followed was a campaign of fear across Japan, as a mysterious organisation began threatening to poison the public's food.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Singularity Hub: New Japanese Pop Idol Shocks Fans
• UPI: Candy Tycoon kidnapped naked from bath
• Atlas Obscura: The 1980's Crime Ring that Poisoned Japan's Candy and Never Got Caught
• The Glico website
• Wikipedia: Aimi Eguchi
• Wikipedia: The Glico-Morinaga Case

Content Warning: Murder.

In the months after the Osaka Dog-Lover Serial Murders ended, but before the perpetrator of that case was caught, a completely separate but weirdly similar case occurred in Saitama. Gen Sekine, a fairly successful dog breeder and utter psychopath, decided that the best way to dig himself out of financial trouble was to kill his way out.

Today's guest is Cassie! You can find her via her Twitter. Also be sure to check out her Vtuber persona, Sleep Panda Mei, who streams on Twitch!

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Independent - Dog breeder suspected of killing clients
• S. A. Ozbourne - The pet shop owner who killed and disposed of his customers
• Japan Times - Couple handed death sentence over poisoning of four
• Fuji TV - Kazama's son confesses his mother's crimes
• Wikipedia - Gen Sekine

Content Warning: Murder

We return to murder with the serial murders that took place in Osaka in 1992. Over a period of 4 months, the ultimate fail-son Yoshinori Ueda used a chemical used to euthanise dogs to subdue and murder 5 people.

Today's guest is Cassie! You can find her via her Twitter. Also be sure to check out her Vtuber persona, Sleep Panda Mei, who streams on Twitch!

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Japan Times: Death sentence upheld for Ueda
• United Press International article
• Wikipedia: Yoshinori Ueda
• YouTube: Archives of Pain

Today we explore the working class industrial art movement called "Dekotora", where truckers decorated their vehicles in outrageous and totally bitchin' styles. We also visit a modern day comparison to Dekotora, the phenomenon of "Itasha", or "painful cars"...

If you want to see a gallery of the vehicles we're talking about today, check out this unlocked Patreon Post with all the relevent pics.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• CNN: Dekotora, the Kitchsy World of Japan's Pimped Up Trucks
• Wikipedia: Torakku Yarou
• Wikipedia: Dekotora
• SoraNews24: Dekotora NFTs
• The Itasha Sub-Reddit

The last couple of episodes were pretty rough, right? Here's something with relatively few problematic elements, Hatsune Miku, the Vocaloid sensation!

Today's guest is Mike! You can find him on Twitter at his handle @tokkan!

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• VOCALOID Fandom
• W Magazine
• CLASH - Meet Hatsune Miku
• Nippon.com
• Miku Expo
• Crunchyroll - Politician uses Miku for campaign
• Unseen Japan - The Hatsune Miku Affair
• Wikipedia - Hatsune Miku

Content Warning: Sexual Assault, Violence, Necrophilia, Cannibalism.

We continue our exploration of Issei Sagawa's life after his 1981 murder of Renée Hartevelt. While you might think that Sagawa would never see the light of day again for his horrific crimes, he was set free, and he spent the rest of his life being a horrible little shit.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Pink Eiga
• Wikipedia - Pink Film
• Murderpedia - Issei Sagawa
• Vice - Japanese Cannibal Who Got Away With Eating and Raping a Dutch Woman Is Dead
• YouTube - Vice documentary on Issei Sagawa
• All That's Interesting - Issei Sagawa
• Wikipedia - Issei Sagawa

Content Warning: Sex, Violence, Necrophilia, Cannibalism.

Issei Sagawa was a highly-educated, intelligent and repressed man. His sexual fetish, unfortunately, was cannibalism, and years of fantasizing and planning led to his 1981 murder of Renée Hartevelt in Paris.

After his arrest, however, the story just gets weirder.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. You can also stream the album on Spotify or YouTube Music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Pink Eiga
• Wikipedia - Pink Film
• Murderpedia - Issei Sagawa
• Vice - Japanese Cannibal Who Got Away With Eating and Raping a Dutch Woman Is Dead
• YouTube - Vice documentary on Issei Sagawa
• All That's Interesting - Issei Sagawa
• Wikipedia - Issei Sagawa

In the north of Japan's central island there is a small, non-descript place called Shingo Village. The only thing about it that sets it apart from the hundreds of other tiny villages in the area is that it purports to be the true final resting place of Jesus Christ. Tug on this string and a whole bunch of ancient aliens stuff comes tumbling out.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

Check my new album, Ruined Numbers, for sale on Bandcamp! It's an album of acoustic arrangements of Final Fantasy music. Enjoy!

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• Smithsonian Magazine
• Japan Today
• Japan Times
• Le Monde
• BBC News
• The Association for the Study of the Takenouchi Documents

Content Warning: Natural Disaster and Genocide.

On the 1st September, 1923, a megathrust earthquake hit the Kanto Plain, resulting in a catastrophic loss of life. While one would think that tornados made of fire would offer the most horror from this event, the behaviour of the Kanto populace, police and government in the aftermath would be far more disturbing.

Today's guest is Hannah Lane! You can find her via her Instagram page, and she is also the co-host of our horror movie review podcast that we do together, Not Another Film podcast.

You can also find me on Twitter @sequencepod, or you can listen to my other podcasts Final Fanservice and Not Another Film on any big podcast app.

Sources:

• The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923
• Smithsonian Magazine
• Britannica
• The Great Kantō Earthquake and the Chimera of National Reconstruction in Japan - J. Charles Schencking (2013)
• Wikipedia - Great Kanto Earthquake
• Wikipedia - The Kanto Massacre