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…
Category: Culture
Dance in the Vampire Bund
Dance in the Vampire Bund often left me feeling…uncomfortable. Funimation ended up releasing an edited version for the American anime audience. If the version I watched was edited, the full version would leave me feeling very uncomfortable. Vampire Bund opens with Akira, the stereotypical highschool student, suffering from amnesia. The world is in an uproar:…
Chan, Kun, Senpai? Japanese Honorifics
I am often confused about all the –kuns, –chans, and other name attachments in subtitles. These are called honorifics. They are roughly the same as our own Mister, Miss, Madam, and Sir. Although for the Japanese they tell a lot more about the relationships between people. Honorifics are gender neutral, but some are used more…
Anime Annoyances 2: Fan Service and High School
Far too many anime series take place in high school. Couple that with frequent fan service and I am left squirming uncomfortably. Fan service is when an anime “gives fans what they want.” Fan service can include long, full shots of robots in mecha (mmmm look at that tall, pulsing steel tower of a robot…just…
Eden of the East
What does nudity have to do with terrorism and politics? Quite a bit it seems. Eden of the East opens with a naked man who calls himself Akira Takizawa in front of the White House just as Saki Morimi gets in trouble with the Secret Service for tossing a coin onto the White House lawn….
Parted Roads: The Ending of Samurai Champloo
The ending of Samurai Champloo is a mix of emotions. The journey is over. Trials are completed. Fuu, Jin, and Mugen part down their separate roads. It is a happy yet also sad ending. Despite everything they faced, and the friendship they forged with each other, they walk away without even a glance. That is…