Where do the lies end and the truth begins? This theme unifies the first season of Oshi no Ko. The story stares into the dark side of entertainment industry, deep into the abyss of pop idols, acting, and online personalities. Oshi no Ko‘s beautiful and bright artwork contrasts against the story’s dark story. This article…
Call of the Night: FLCL with Vampires. The Rituals Boys Need to Become Men
Call of the Night, like most anime, explores the emotional tangle of growing up, only with vampires. Ko is a high school drop out who struggles with school and fitting into society. He drops out of both, even to the point of avoiding the daylight hours. During his nocturnal roaming, he stumbles across the vampire…
Pachi-slot and Japan’s 20+Year Casino Fight
In 2019, pachinko made ￥21 trillion. That was 3.7% of Japan’s GDP for that year (Higuchi, 2020). Historically, pachinko, when combined with Japan’s lottery and legal sports betting, makes more money than Japan’s car industry (McMahon, 2014). Officially, pachinko isn’t considered gambling. Rather, Japan’s government sees it as an amusement or a skill-based game. Pachinko…
Bushido Explained by Alexander Bennett
Bushido Explained offers a good primer to how samurai thought across Japan’s different time periods. As the subtitle of the book states, it is a new interpretation for beginners. Bennett offers a broad, top view of samurai thought using diagrams and clear prose. While I wanted more details at times, Bennett sticks to offering a…
The Kyoto Animation Fire and Mental Health Pleas
In 2019, Shinji Aoba broke into Kyoto Animation studio (also known as KyoAni), sprayed gasoline, and ignited it. He escaped to the nearby train station before collapsing from the burns he also sustained. Witnesses reported (BBC, 2019): “A person with singed hair was lying down and there were bloody footprints,” a 59-year-old woman living nearby…
How to Not Sound Like A Weeb
How does a weeb sound? That depends on vocal cord size, lung capacity, language, and–okay, the question deals with the words and references people use. First, what is a weeb? I’ve written an article that defines what a weeb is and how to not be one. But to summarize, weeb is short for the slang…