Too Many Losing Heroines!, also known as Makeine takes a different perspective on the usual romantic-comedy story. In a normal shonen romantic-comedy (Notice that young men, the main audience of shonen, also enjoy romance), the male protagonist is the one involved in the romance triangles, squares, and dodecahedrons in the case of harem stories. When…
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Misses its Potential
Trigger is an animation studio known for its frenetic action scenes with the likes of Kill la Kill and Darling in the Franxx. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners doesn’t disappoint…when it has action scenes anyway. The anime is based on the video game of the same name, which I haven’t played. The story follows a street kid named…
Osamu Tezuka’s Ayako
Osamu Tezuka is considered the godfather of manga. He popularized the format with his storytelling, using film techniques as a part of his approach. His art style mixes the style of early Disney with Japan’s native ukiyo-e style. This lends the impression that Tezuka’s work is “childish.” His three-volume story Ayako contradicts this perspective. As…
The Art of Love and War | Kaguya-sama: Love is War
Kaguya-sama: Love is War is a romantic comedy that I’ve already covered in a few other articles. However, the story deserves a deeper look. Beneath its comedy is a male-aimed romantic message that shows how romantic notions are for men too. Akasaka Aka approaches the romance with using the “slow boil” method as we will…
2024: Another Spin Around Our Star
This next year, 2025, will mark my 14th year of blogging about anime, the anime community, Japanese history, and all the other meanders I make here. JP began as a video game blog called Gamemories about a year before I changed over to blogging about anime. Some fragments of that blog still float around if…
Public Writing and Self Censorship
As JP has increased in views and approaches the 7 million total-views milestone, I’ve become even more aware of how what I write can influence people. Of course, JP doesn’t have the reach of various other blogs, websites, and YouTube channels. However, whenever your make anything public, you expose yourself to a variety of personalities….