Shigurui: Death Frenzy is deathly serious, but I wasn’t expecting reach-into-your-stomach-and-pull-out-your-own-intestines serious. In one of the opening scenes a Daiymo’s advisor pleads with the lord not to hold a competition with real swords. To illustrate his point of what will happen to these promising young swordsman he reaches into his own seppuku wound and pulls…
Author: Chris Kincaid
Selling Dreams
Host clubs are a common element to Japanese night life. Host clubs are bars ladies go to hire a guy for an evening of drinking, conversation, flirting, and (on rare occasions) more. Hosts are guys aged between 18 – mid 20. They are expected to be “hot” with silver jewelry, tans, and charm. Basically they…
Takeshi’s Castle
Someone HAD to have been hurt on this game show. Takeshi’s Castle was a Japanese game show that ran between 1986 and 1989. A volunteer “army” of 100 and 142 people (commanded by Commander Tani) plow through a series of obstacles in an effort to defeat Count Takeshi and his army. The contestants sported costumes,…
Anime Annoyances: Humor
Anime humor itself isn’t annoying (often weird, but not annoying). It is the when and what that makes anime humor annoying. Anime has the bad habit of interjecting humor during serious scenes and having characters that are more annoying than funny. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is especially prone to injecting humor during serious scenes. Several times…
There is Personality in the Blood
Ever wonder what is up with all the blood types in celebrity bios and anime? Well, apparently in Japan blood type affects personality. The idea started with Furukawa Takeji and his paper “The Study of Temperament Through Blood Type” published in the scholarly journal Psychological Research. Since then, blood type is used as shorthand for…