Metal Forge
· 5 min read
Japan's Guitar Factory
LOVEBITES and HANABIE didn't emerge from bedroom YouTube sessions. They came out of a system. The West hasn't noticed yet.
Read more
Not Another
Boring PM
Blog.
Product management through the lens of pop punk, anime and game dev. Building cooler products with more energy and less corporate nonsense.
Break the rules — Build cooler products — Have fun doing it
Latest
Signal
What's moving in anime, metal, J-pop and punk right now. One sharp take. No recap.
YOASOBI headline the Hollywood Bowl on August 16 — the anchor of an 8-date North American arena run. A J-pop duo closing a 20,000-cap iconic venue as a solo bill.
HANABIE just headlined 21 North American dates — first Japanese band at this scale since X Japan, first all-female Japanese band ever.
Summer Sonic 25 goes three days for the first time — headlined by L'Arc-en-Ciel and Ado. First majority-Japanese headline tier in the festival's history.
More Posts
Open Mic
The Unnamed Headliner
· 5 min read
Ten hours of Coachella 2026 and one artist was in every set. His name wasn't on the lineup.
Open Mic
Tax on the System
· 4 min read
Writing a pop-punk song to understand yourself is an unusually honest personality test.
Anime Arc
No Cuts. Eleven Years. Then the Oscar.
· 7 min read
Hayao Miyazaki spent eleven years locked out of the American market rather than let anyone touch his films. Then the Oscar came.
Open Mic
Shigesato Itoi Spent Twelve Years on MOTHER 3. Then He Said: Never Again.
· 7 min read
The ad copywriter who made three games and stopped. Why that restraint matters.
J-Pop Drop
The Product Wasn't the Voice. It Was the Permission.
· 7 min read
In August 2009, 25,000 people sang along to a projection at Saitama Super Arena. Crypton Future Media had bet on something two years earlier that nobody else in the synthesizer business understood.
J-Pop Drop
Kenshi Yonezu Spent Three Years Building an Audience Who Didn't Know His Name
· 7 min read
Before 'Lemon' hit 85 weeks at number one, Kenshi Yonezu uploaded 30 songs to NicoNico as Hachi: no face, no label, no real name. The anonymity wasn't a gimmick. It was the work.