I think the overriding message of Utakoi is, “You know – maybe people just aren’t meant to get together.” Utakoi took a slightly different tack this week, offering the same series of events from two different perspectives, and fancifully imagining that two poems in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu referenced that […] Read more

This episode of Utakoi is notable for it’s interesting narrative choices… I don’t think there’s too much disagreement that The Tale of Genji is the most famous book in the history of the Japanese language, and one of the most important in any.  It’s widely agreed to be the world’s […] Read more

The bittersweet tale of Sei Shounogon and Fujiwara no Yukinari concludes with one of Utakoi’s most powerful episodes yet. For a time I thought this episode might focus on Fujiwara (another one!) no Kinto (Fukuyama Jun), the friend to Yukinari and Sanekata who we’d met only briefly.  But while he’s […] Read more

For the first time we have an episode squarely focused on someone who, by his own admission, sucks at poetry. This was in many ways one of the most low-key episodes of Utakoi so far, and possibly the snarkiest.  That seems fitting somehow as Sei Shounagon is a writer who […] Read more

If you love something, set it free… Fujiwara no Sanekata Kaku to daniEyawa ibuki noSashimoguSashimo shiraji naMoyuru omoi o How can I tell herHow fierce my love for her is?Will she understandThat the love I feel for herBurns like ibuki mugwort?   Anyone who watched Chihayafuru knows that poem well, […] Read more

So long Narihira and team: it’s mid-Heian now, and time for a new cast of characters. Utakoi kicks off its mid-Heian arc with a return to squarely romantic themes, and the two-chapter format that opened the series.  The two stories featured are fairly low-key and both feature poems that broach […] Read more

Well, that was silly. I’m going to guess that this episode was made up of omakes from Sugita Kei’s Utakoi manga – it sure felt that way. If not, it seems as if Kenichi Kasai just decided to throw caution to the wind and get as far away from traditional […] Read more

Even more than the last episode, this week’s Utakoi was about the art of poetry and those who love it. Fittingly there were four poems explored in this episode – though only two were actually part of the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu itself. Continuing last week’s tale of Yoshiko – by […] Read more

The first three episodes of Uta Koi spoke to different faces of love, and so does the fourth in its own way – the love of poetry. Fuku kara niAki no kusaki noShiorurebaMube yama kaze oArashi to iuran The mountain wind in autumn timeIs well called ‘hurricane’;It hurries canes and […] Read more