Andrew and I often criticize shonen for ruining story pacing and suspense. I’ve wrote one article about the problems of anime/manga storytelling. Andrew, recently, wrote critiques of One Piece and Bleach. We often discuss what Bleach and other shows could do to tighten the storytelling and build suspense. The pull-back almost all shonen do, just…
Category: Anime
Musings III: On the Use of Premodern Japanese in Anime
Hard but hardly useful? As a master student of Japanese Studies, I am obliged to concern myself not only with modern popular culture and anime but also with the subject of Premodern Japanese. To be precise, I’m learning to read texts from the Edo period and older which use bungo, or premodern grammar. I’m also…
Idealizing the Country Side and Impulsive Artists: Barakamon
Barakamon is one of those stories that resonates and repulses me. I grew up in rural America and have a dislike for cities. I also dabble in art – drawing, painting, and writing – so a story about a city-slicker professional artist who goes country appeals to me. However, most of these types of stories…
Goku vs. Superman: The Cultural Perspective
People debate who would win in a duel: Goku or Superman? Although entertaining, this question is the old oranges and apples argument. Goku and Superman are different types of heroes. Each reflects a different set of values and cultural views, and both types of hero are important. The Man of Steel Superman is the ultimate…
Musings II: Magical Girls, or, Empowerment VS Sexism
Magical Girls puzzle me; they make me feel intrigued and desperate at the same time. That is not just because of my, admittedly, relatively limited experience with shōjo (‘[for] girls’) anime genres – until recently, I preferred adventure fantasy, which is sadly, but undoubtedly, shōnen (‘[for] boys’) material of the most popular order. No, Magical…
Arpeggio of Blue Steel
It is common to refer to ships as female. Now what would happen if warships and submarines were equipped with sentient artificial intelligence? Arpeggio of Blue Steel is one of the more unique anime I’ve watched. The Fog is a fleet of sentient warships and submarines equipped with technology that is centuries ahead of anything…