Manga has a vast amount of onomatopoeia. They go beyond simple sound effects, representing emotions like anger and actions like staring. Manga artists fold sound words into their panel designs and story. Japanese sound words divide into three families (Inose, n.d.): Giseigo mimic the sounds of people and animals. Giongo imitate other sounds, like water,…
Remember Death All Year Long
The man who would be a warrior considers it is the most basic intention to keep death always in mind, day and night, from the time he first picks up his chopsticks in celebrating his morning meal on New Year’s Day to the evening of the last day of the year. -Daidoji Yuzan Remembering death…
How Can I Invest in Anime and Manga?
So, you want to learn how to invest your money in anime and manga and other Japanese companies? Why would you want to? If you live in the US, investing in these companies isn’t as easy as popping onto a stock trading platform and clicking buy. In fact, most publicly traded anime, manga, and Japanese…
Search Engine Changes and You
Microsoft and Google work to fold their Large Language Models, better known as ChatGPT (Bing version) and Bard respectively, into their search engines. What does this mean? For users, answers can become more immediate. For writers, less traffic. People don’t click beyond the first page of search results in most cases. Considering this well-known behavior,…
Tomo-chan is a Girl! Offers Interesting Relationship Dynamics
Tomo-chan is a Girl! offers interesting character dynamics and avoids many of the pitfalls of using the “dense” character tropes. In this story, the characters’ inability to see the feelings of the other is intentional on the part of the characters, coming from their own awareness of their conflicting feelings. Tomo is a tomboy with…
Otaku USA, the physical anime and manga magazine
Physical magazines have increasingly been going extinct. As far as I know, Otaku USA is the last-standing physical magazine that covers anime and manga in the US. At my library, the children’s department uses the magazine to help their manga ordering. The magazine reviews manga, anime, and video games as they release here in the…