Manga is increasingly being translated by large-language models (LLMs), or artificial intelligence as most people call LLMs. The Ancient Magus’ Bride manga, for example, used Mantra Engine for part of its English translation (Schley, 2023). LLMs are software programmed to teach itself patterns in inputs and then use those patterns to generate new patterns based…
Please Put Them On, Takamine-san: Ecchi on the Path to Censorship
If I was in Texas, I would (possibly) be going to prison for watching Please Put Them On, Takamine-san. In my quest to expand my exposure to stories I normally avoid, I gave this ecchi a watch. Okay, a half watch. I worked on writing projects and did other things as I half-watched it. This…
Rock Is a Lady’s Modesty: Music as a Sexual Identity
Rock is a Lady’s Modesty sits in the girl-band category and within the yuri genre. Categories can span different genres. Girl-band stories can fit in the yuri genre, shojo genre, and other genres, for example. Rock is a Lady’s Modesty has overt lesbian tones to it, but with a twist. In order to discuss the…
Takopi’s Original Sin
If you haven’t seen Takopi’s Original Sin, stop reading this and go watch this anime–unless you struggle with mental health and suicidal thoughts. Takopi’s Original Sin is a rough watch with beautifully ugly, deceptively difficult animation. It has 6 episodes on Crunchyroll. I will have to spoil the story to discuss the many layers…
The Too-Perfect Saint: Tossed Aside by My Fiancé and Sold to Another Kingdom
I grew up reading high and dark fantasy, such as The Wheel of Time, Conan the Barbarian, Shannara, and so on. As a 1980s-1990s kid/teen, I consumed cheesy sword-and-sandal films like Ator: The Fighting Eagle, hair-metal music videos like Dio’s Holy Diver, Choose Your Own Adventure books, and other fantasy. I never got into Dungeons…
Aim for a Calm Mind
Calmness of behavior, composure of mind, should not be disturbed by passion of any kind. –Nitobe Inazo A calm mind appears to be impossible. Everywhere we turn something is trying to disturb us in some way. News tries to make us feel unsafe. Advertisements and social media try to make us feel FOMO. Work and…