Behold the cover of this week's Young Champion! Yes, those are indeed aprons with a heart-shaped hole in the front, worn over a black dress with a heart-shaped hole in the front, severely undercutting the efficacy of both apron and dress in favor of heart-shaped decorative function.

I hereby declare maidophilia's Baroque period open!

Also, I snicker because I remember when NATSUKAWA Jun was trying to position herself as more of a "sexy" idol than a "cute" one.

Meanwhile, in the music industry, tomorrow will see the official release of OOTSUKA Ai's latest single フレンジャー, "Furenjaa". That title evoked mixed emotions in me when I first saw it, because I parsed it as "flenjer", which sounds like "flenser", and flensing is gruesome stuff. On the other hand, I learnt the word "flenser" from Judy Blume's Blubber, so it took me back a little.

Actually, though, the preferred English spelling is "Frienger". This makes the meaning much clearer: "friend" + "ranger". "Ranger" in Japanese kind of corresponds to "Super-" or "-Man/-Woman" in English: a morpheme that can be used to form superhero names and/or titles. (This is thanks to a series of old television shows which we in the western world were also exposed to, albeit through a glass darkly, in the form of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.)

So, to summarize, the song positions her as a superhero whose powers are eating, drinking, and being a good friend. I don't mean to be dramatic, but I think this is going to break J-pop in half.