Think 2-across is ムネ, because 胸が痛む and 胸が騒ぐ and 胸が膨らませる are all expressions (though that third one’s not in Jisho)
I guess 1-down is サムライ? Only word that really fits. I guess “The Seven Samurai” and “The Last Samurai” are both movie titles?
18-across ウンモ, because クラゲ can be written 水母, and ウンモ is 雲母.
7-across キャスト (a pun. katakana is used both for casting a fishing line and the actors in a play, movie, etc.)
11-down オモチャ? (Omocha no cha-cha-cha is a classic kids song in Japanese. fits with キャスト)
12-across becomes モモ (seems vaguely familiar, that sentence that’s just one long string of も?)
31-down ガシツ
32-across シカク (it’s a word-association game - 触覚>視覚、三角>四角、暗殺>刺客, all of those are read as しかく), so I guess クッキー was correct for 39 down.
35-down カイカ (ditto - 桜の>開花、文明>開化、段階の下>階下)
Which makes 27-across チガイ… I don’t get it.
Thanks for making that answer grid, @Heiopei. Any chance you could include the super secret magic word down the side?
お留守になる means “fail to be attentive to” (for example, studies), so it’s ルス
27-across クスダマ
This one stumped me for a while. I knew exactly what it meant - it’s those balls that pop open at ceremonies with ribbons and confetti and a banner saying おめでとう - but I had no idea what it’s called, and typing “those balls that pop open at ceremonies with ribbons and confetti and a banner saying おめでとう” into Google surpringly failed to generate any useful results.
Interestingly, the English Wikipedia article for Kusudama says it’s an origami model - the Japanese article for くす玉 talks all about the celebratory ball, and only mentions “oh, it’s also an origami model” as an afterthought and a “see also”.
35-down ダメ
36-across メイ
23-down ホラー
24-across ラシ
16-across モノホシ something, something. There seem to be several words that’ll fit here.
Makes 28-down シシ, which I don’t really get. The clue is clear, but nothing in the dictionary seems to match.
31-down: パズルに夢中で勉強が、の場合は上に「お」がつく - I read this as “When you’re too absorbed in the puzzle to study, this will have 「お」 attached”. Which is to say 留守, which becomes お留守 when you’re neglecting your studies.
What interpretation results in ルビ being the answer?
Oh I see. When you put お留守 I thought you were quoting the clue, so I wondered if you were reading a different clue. I suppose I read that wrong, I read 上に as “attached above” (I forgot that it also has the “before” definition) so I figured ルビ fit.
21-across モクゲキ
29-across コヨミ
30-across ヤスリ
32-across シコ
34-across ギキ
25-down クク (I can see how that makes sense)
29-down コゲチャ
32-down ショキ
33-down スギ
38-down キリキリマイ
I’m seriously tapped out on the rest. I can’t see anything that makes sense for 5-down (if 5 and 6 across are correct) nor 7-across (if 26-down is correct).