#16 Why "I Love Binge Eating" is Japan's Hottest New Comic

The Headlines, This Week in History, and Much More

Jun 16, 2024

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Our longer true crime content is migrating to a separate home. Details soon. The Kyote will continue as a fun, free, five-minute newsletter making sense of the week in Japan. Cool? Let’s get into it!

THE QUIZ

A picture that Japanese people will recognize instantly. Do you?

Question: what’s going on here?

Image of a girl riding a bicycle through mud; a quiz to see if you recognize what event it shows

Answer at the foot of the mail.

THE HEADLINES

1. $1 = ¥157

[🥹]

2. Near-complete Tokyo condo building demolished for spoiling Mt Fuji view

[Must be one hell of an influential person living in that neighborhood...]

3. Gion Festival is Not the Super Bowl

[VIP Boxes with alcohol service make a mockery of religious event] (Japanese)

THE HASHTAGS

Going viral this week in Japan:

Why "I Love Binge Eating" is Japan's Hottest New Comic

Image: Young Animal

A new manga named I LOVE DOKAGUI, MOCHIZUKI-SAN is currently enjoying a feast of attention.

So, what exactly is the dokagui of the title? Binge eating.

You may think disordered eating might limit the story’s appeal — wrong! Such is I LOVE DOKAGUI’s popularity that the site where it appears, Young Animal, has been repeatedly slowed to a crawl, while excerpts from the first and second installments gobbled up a combined 25m views on X/Twitter.

Creator Maruyono Kamome describes the wildly-successful concept as follows:

Mikoto Mochizuki, a 21 year old office worker, enjoys the devilish pleasure that can only be obtained by skyrocketing her blood sugar★

With the exception of a few gigantic tourists, Japan seldom sees the kind of freeform wobblers in stretch pants so prevalent in other parts of the world — so, is this story of someone blowing off stress by pigging out capitalizing on some kind of taboo-busting appeal?

Maybe.

After all, Japan has seen several “food fighters” (as competitive eaters are known) parlay displays of gluttony on primetime variety shows into ongoing Z-list celebrity careers.

But a big eater boom is in the soup elsewhere too: British Youtuber BeardMeatsFood averages millions of views on his videos detailing his attempts at various restaurant food challenges across the globe.

All in all, it’s probably just a case of the classic formula of relatable person with one bizarre but undeniable talent = attention.

This week, I Love Dokagui’s Chapter 3 added more sauce to the mix with a lurch into out-and-out horror territory, as main character Mikoto’s mortal fear of the Japanese tradition that is the yearly health check (and enforced fasting period from 9pm the night before) spurred her into a complete psychotic break.

Read the first 3 installments here (Free; Japanese only)

THE TEAM

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THE HISTORY

Happenings from this week in Japanese history:

How To Gain Literary Immortality (In One Simple Step)

1948: Novelist Dazai Osamu and his lover Tomie do what despondent lovers do in Japan, and double suicide themselves — choosing the novelty method of leaping into a swollen river (their bodies weren’t found for 5 days…) Dazai's No Longer Human becomes both literally true and a perennial favorite for angsty youth on the order of Catcher in the Rye.

Hagerty and MacArthur trapped by protestors. Image: Wikipedia

How to Stand Up to the USA (For An Hour or Two)

1960: Top highlight from a decent year of civil disobedience in Japan: US Press Secretary James Hagerty plus Ambassador to Japan Douglas MacArthur II (nephew of the famous general) are trapped in their car by protesters in Tokyo and have to be rescued by a Marine helicopter. Hagerty was in town to recce a visit by President Eisenhower, subsequently cancelled; Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi resigns to make up for the grave discourtesy.

How to Commit a Pilot Error (And Kill Some People)

1996: The pilots of Garuda Indonesia Flight 865 abort takeoff from Fukuoka Airport when already exceeding V₁(i.e. the speed at which takeoff can be aborted) — inevitably the DC-10 aircraft cannot stop in time, ploughs through a ditch, a fence and a road and catches fire. 3 people are killed. Whoops.

THE LINKS

Good stuff you should read:

Patrick St. Michel on J-Pop band Mrs. GREEN APPLE's music video in which the vocalist dresses up as Christopher Columbus and civilizes an island full of monkeys (!)
Japan’s cooking knives are rightly prized around the globe. The whetstones used to sharpen them are just as beautiful, refined — and expensive. Check out collector Jonathon Gwee’s Instagram.
Hiroko Yoda on the loquat (biwa) tree, a traditional a symbol of misfortune, but actually a lovely urban source of fruit.

THE ANSWER