Character history
Born in San Francisco, California, Rei Shimura was raised in the United States by her Japanese father and (Caucasian) American mother before emigrating to Tokyo. While in Japan, she worked in a succession of jobs, ranging from columnist for the Gaijin Times to antiques dealer.
Rei Shimura is described as appearing more Japanese than Caucasian, and she is often mistaken to be of full Japanese ancestry when in the United States. In Japan, she is regarded as a foreigner despite her fluent Japanese and she still has difficulty with the written language.
Rei Shimura's mother is a member of the influential Howard family, but in The Pearl Diver Massey indicates that only one member of this family, Kendall Howard, reaches out to Rei when she moves to Washington D.C. All of her father's family live in Japan, and Rei has a close relationship with her cousin, Tom Shimura, and her aunt, Norie.
Pearl Sydenstricker Buck was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for The Good Earth a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, Buck won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China" and for her "masterpieces", two memoir-biographies of her missionary parents. She was the first American woman to win that prize.
The Good Earth is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in a Chinese village in the early 20th century. It is the first book in her House of Earth trilogy, continued in Sons (1932) and A House Divided (1935). It was the best-selling novel in the United States in both 1931 and 1932, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1932, and was influential in Buck's winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Buck, who grew up in China as the daughter of American missionaries, wrote the book while living in China and drew on her first-hand observation of Chinese village life. The realistic and sympathetic depiction of the farmer Wang Lung and his wife O-Lan helped prepare Americans of the 1930s to consider Chinese as allies in the coming war with Japan.
Dear Brother is a Japanese manga series by Riyoko Ikeda. It was adapted into an anime series that aired on the channel NHK-BS2 from July 14, 1991 to May 31, 1992.
Tender Is the Night is the fourth and final novel completed by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in French Riviera during the twilight of the Jazz Age, the 1934 novel chronicles the rise and fall of Dick Diver, a promising young psychiatrist, and his wife, Nicole, who is one of his patients. The story mirrors events in the lives of the author and his wife Zelda Fitzgerald as Dick starts his descent into alcoholism and Nicole descends into mental illness.
Cleo Virginia Andrews, better known as V. C. Andrews or Virginia C. Andrews, was an American novelist.
Naomi is a novel by Japanese author Jun'ichirō Tanizaki (1886–1965). Writing of the novel began in 1924, and from March to June, Osaka's Morning News published the first several chapters of the serial. Four months later, the periodical Female started to publish the remaining chapters. The novel was first published in book form, by Kaizosha, in 1925.
The Sound of Waves is a 1954 novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. It is a coming-of-age story of the protagonist Shinji and his romance with Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the wealthy ship owner Terukichi. For this book, Mishima was awarded the Shincho Prize from Shinchosha Publishing in 1954. It has been adapted for film five times.
Sujata Massey is an American mystery author and historical fiction novelist. Her books are published in English in the US and Canada, the United Kingdom and India, and Australia/New Zealand. Massey’s novels are also available in different languages and formats in Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain and Thailand.
Phoebe Louise Adams Gloeckner, is an American cartoonist, illustrator, painter, and novelist.
Sky Girls is a Japanese anime franchise produced by Konami and animated by J.C.Staff. A 30-minute OVA episode was released on August 25, 2006 and a television series adaptation aired on Chiba TV from July 5, 2007, to December 27, 2007.
Girl with a Pearl Earring is a 1999 historical novel written by Tracy Chevalier. Set in 17th-century Delft, Holland, the novel was inspired by local painter Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. Chevalier presents a fictional account of Vermeer, the model and the painting. The novel was adapted into a 2003 film of the same name and a 2008 play. In May 2020, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a new dramatisation of the novel.
Wandering Son is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Takako Shimura. It was originally serialized in Comic Beam from the December 2002 to August 2013 issue, and published in 15 tankōbon volumes by Enterbrain from July 2003 to August 2013. The series is licensed in English by Fantagraphics Books, which released the first volume in North America in July 2011. A 12-episode anime adaptation produced by AIC Classic and directed by Ei Aoki aired in Japan between January and March 2011. Eleven episodes aired on television, with episodes 10 and 11 edited into a single episode, and were released individually on their respective BD/DVD volumes.
Sweet Blue Flowers is a Japanese yuri manga series written and illustrated by Takako Shimura. It was serialized between November 2004 and July 2013 in Ohta Publishing's manga magazine Manga Erotics F, with its chapters collected in eight tankōbon volumes. The story focuses on Fumi Manjōme, a lesbian high school girl, and her close childhood friend Akira Okudaira, who tries to keep her friends happy through difficult times.
Shimura is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include:
When the Emperor was Divine is a historical fiction novel written by American author Julie Otsuka about a Japanese American family sent to an internment camp in the Utah desert during World War II. The novel, loosely based on the wartime experiences of Otsuka's mother's family, is written through the perspective of four family members, detailing their eviction from California and their time in camp. It is Otsuka's debut novel, and was published in the United States in 2002 by Alfred A. Knopf.
Winter of the World is a historical novel written by the Welsh-born author Ken Follett, published in 2012. It is the second book in the Century Trilogy. Revolving about a family saga that covers the interrelated experiences of American, Russian, German and British families during the 20th century. The novel follows the second generation of those families, born to the main characters of the first novel, Fall of Giants, and is followed by a further generation of those families in the third and final book in the series, Edge of Eternity.
Maria Firmina dos Reis was a Brazilian author. She is considered Brazil's first black female novelist. In 1859, she published her first book Úrsula, which is considered the first Brazilian abolitionist novel. The book tells the story of a love triangle, in which the system of slavery is put into question.
Revenge of the Pearl Queen is a 1956 Japanese thriller film directed by Toshio Shimura and starring Michiko Maeda. This film was one of the earliest Japanese films featuring nudity.
The Saga of Tanya the Evil, known in Japan as Yōjo Senki, is a Japanese light novel series written by Carlo Zen and illustrated by Shinobu Shinotsuki. It began serialization online in 2010, on the user-generated novel publishing website Arcadia. Enterbrain acquired the series in October 2013 and has published twelve volumes by February 2020. A manga adaptation with art by Chika Tōjō began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Comp Ace magazine from April 2016.
Buddy Daddies is an original Japanese anime television series animated by P.A. Works and produced by Aniplex and Nitroplus. It is directed by Yoshiyuki Asai and written by Vio Shimokura of Nitroplus and Yūko Kakihara, with Katsutoshi Kitagawa of Round Table composing the music. Katsumi Enami provided the original character designs, and Souichirou Sako is adapting the designs for animation while also serving as chief animation director along with Sanae Satō. It premiered on January 7, 2023, on Tokyo MX and other networks.
