A recurring theme on this blog is that Japan is a land haunted by all sorts of weird ghosts and goblins. From gigantic blood sucking skeletons to flying heads in flaming ox-cart wheels, Japan’s rogues gallery is one of the most unique in the world. Even its more plausible boogeymen have an eerie quality to…
Author: Andrew Kincaid
Andrew Kincaid is a writer and a history buff. He has been enamored with history for as long as he can remember. As a kid, he would often go to the library, check out huge stacks of books, and spend hours delving into the dusty past.
Japan’s Strangest, Most Fearsome Spirit–The Wanyudo
Japan is a land chock full of weird ghosts and monsters. Some are harmless, if off-putting, creatures, while others are creatures straight out of your worst nightmare. Today’s beast is two parts weird and one part terrifying, even more so because of its tendency to haunt residential areas of major cities, most notably Kyoto. Legend…
Bleach–A Critique
I wrote a critique of the anime One Piece a couple of weeks ago. I was pretty critical of it, and of Shonen in general, during that article. In the interest of fairness, I decided to cast the same critical eye on an anime that I actually enjoyed. After all, it is easy to take…
One Piece: A Critique of the Anime
I am not normally the anime guy here on JapanPowered, as long time readers know. My brother normally takes on the analysis of anime/manga. My preference leans more toward history and folklore, with a little dabbling in the social sciences. This probably is in part due to my love/hate relationship with anime. While I enjoy…
Kidnapping, Extortion, and Cyanide-laced Candy: The Strange Case of the Monster With 21 Faces
The anime and manga Ghost in the Shell is highly regarded as one of the finest ever produced. The show (I will focus on the anime because it is what I am personally familiar with) focuses on the exploits of Section 9, an elite cyber crime unit that is part of Japan’s public security apparatus….
Nurikabe–The Ghostly Wall Yokai
Japan is a land haunted by many strange monsters and ghosts. Known collectively as Yokai (and Yurei. The two words are often used interchangeably, but for our purposes we will say that Yurei refer to human ghosts and Yokai to magical creatures of all sorts), these beings can range from the mischievous to the malevolent…